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International Hospital

Archive for category: E-News

E-News

SARS-CoV-2 virus

Study highlights risk of new SARS-CoV-2 mutations emerging during chronic infection

, 4 March 2021/in Corona News, E-News /by panglobal

SARS-CoV-2 virus

SARS-CoV-2 mutations similar to those in the B1.1.7 UK variant could arise in cases of chronic infection, where treatment over an extended period can provide the virus multiple opportunities to evolve, say scientists.

Given that both vaccines and therapeutics are aimed at the spike protein, which we saw mutate in our patient, our study raises the worrying possibility that the virus could mutate to outwit our vaccines

Writing in Nature, a team led by Cambridge researchers report how they were able to observe SARS-CoV-2 mutating in the case of an immune-compromised patient treated with convalescent plasma. In particular, they saw the emergence of a key mutation also seen in the new variant that led to the UK being forced once again into strict lockdown, though there is no suggestion that the variant originated from this patient.

Using a synthetic version of the virus Spike protein created in the lab, the team showed that specific changes to its genetic code – the mutation seen in the B1.1.7 variant – made the virus twice as infectious on cells as the more common strain.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a betacoronavirus. Its RNA – its genetic code – is comprised of a series of nucleotides. As the virus replicates itself, this code can be mis-transcribed, leading to errors, known as mutations. Coronaviruses have a relatively modest mutation rate at around 23 nucleotide substitutions per year.

Of particular concern are mutations that might change the structure of the ‘spike protein’, which sits on the surface of the virus, giving it its characteristic crown-like shape. The virus uses this protein to attach to the ACE2 receptor on the surface of the host’s cells, allowing it entry into the cells where it hijacks their machinery to allow it to replicate and spread throughout the body. Most of the current vaccines in use or being trialled target the spike protein and there is concern that mutations may affect the efficacy of these vaccines.

UK researchers within the Cambridge-led COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium have identified a particular variant of the virus that includes important changes that appear to make it more infectious: the ΔH69/ΔV70 amino acid deletion in part of the spike protein is one of the key changes in this variant.

Although the ΔH69/ΔV70 deletion has been detected multiple times, until now, scientists had not seen them emerge within an individual. However, in a study published today in Nature, Cambridge researchers document how these mutations appeared in a COVID-19 patient admitted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Reference:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03291-y

https://interhospi.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/03/Covid2.jpg 957 1701 panglobal https://interhospi.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/06/Component-6-–-1.png panglobal2021-03-04 08:29:532021-03-04 08:29:53Study highlights risk of new SARS-CoV-2 mutations emerging during chronic infection
cell

Hidden genes could be key in development of new antibiotics

, 4 March 2021/in E-News /by panglobal

cell

A study from the Centre for Phage Technology, part of Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Texas A&M AgriLife Research, shows how the “hidden” genes in bacteriophages – types of viruses that infect and destroy bacteria – may be key to the development of a new class of antibiotics for human health.

The study has been published in Nature Communications and Current Science Daily, as well as featured in a recent Nature Research Microbiology Community blog post.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose an increasing threat to human health, creating an urgent need for the development of novel antibiotics.

“There has been an increased interest in bacteriophages and their potential as antibacterial agents to fight pathogenic bacteria,” said Centre for Phage Technology director Ryland Young, Ph.D., who supervised the study research. “This is in large part due to the ability of the ‘lysis genes’ of the phage to cause a cellular breakdown in the bacterial host.”

The need for new and more effective antibiotics has increased interest in bacteriophages as possible agents to fight pathogenic bacteria.

Most phages can cause their host cell to rupture, a process called lysis. They also release new “progeny” phage virions that are genetically and structurally identical to the parent virus.

“Small phages, such as the ones this study focuses on, make a single protein which causes host lysis,” Young said. “Basically, the virus produces a ‘protein antibiotic’ that causes lysis in the same way antibiotics like penicillin do – by disrupting the multistage process of cell wall biosynthesis. When the infected cell tries to divide, it blows up because it can’t create the new cell wall between the daughter cells.”

He said these small lysis proteins can be the model for a completely new class of antibiotics.

The study focuses on characterizing the lysis genes of leviviruses, bacteriophages containing small single-stranded RNA genomes with only three to four genes. Tens of thousands of leviviruses have been discovered. Among the known levivirus genes is Sgl, which stands for ‘single gene lysis.’ Sgl encodes a protein that induces the cellular breakdown of bacteria.

“We wanted to discover these ‘hidden’ lysis genes in single-stranded RNA phages, as well as understand how their structure and evolution could benefit development of new, more effective antibiotics,” said Karthik Chamakura, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate at the centre and the study’s first author. “We also wanted to investigate how certain molecular targets within bacteria could be identified and exploited for antibiotic development.”

Reference:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19860-0

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blood-brain barrier

Critical flaw found in lab models of the human blood-brain barrier

, 4 March 2021/in E-News /by panglobal

blood-brain barrier

Cells used to study the human blood-brain barrier in the lab aren’t what they seem, throwing nearly a decade’s worth of research into question, a new study from scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Weill Cornell Medicine suggests.

The team also discovered a possible way to correct the error, raising hopes of creating a more accurate model of the human blood-brain barrier for studying certain neurological diseases and developing drugs that can cross it.

The study was published online Feb. 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“The blood-brain barrier is difficult to study in humans and there are many differences between the human and animal blood-brain barrier. So it’s very helpful to have a model of the human blood-brain barrier in a dish,” says co-study leader Dritan Agalliu, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology and cell biology (in neurology) at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The in vitro human blood-brain barrier model, developed in 2012, is made by coaxing differentiated adult cells, such as skin cells, into stem cells that behave like embryonic stem cells. These induced pluripotent stem cells can then be transformed into mature cells of almost any type – including a type of endothelial cell that lines the blood vessels of the brain and spinal cord and forms a unique barrier that normally restricts the entry of potentially dangerous substances, antibodies, and immune cells from the bloodstream into the brain.

Agalliu previously noticed that these induced human “brain microvascular endothelial cells,” produced using the published approach in 2012, did not behave like normal endothelial cells in the human brain. “This raised my suspicion that the protocol for making the barrier’s endothelial cells may have generated cells of the wrong identity,” says Agalliu.

“At the same time the Weill Cornell Medicine team had similar suspicions, so we teamed up to reproduce the protocol and perform bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing of these cells.”

Their analysis revealed that the supposed human brain endothelial cells were missing several key proteins found in natural endothelial cells and had more in common with a completely different type of cell (epithelial) that is normally not found in the brain.

The team also identified three genes that, when activated within induced pluripotent cells, lead to the creation of cells that behave more like bona fide endothelial cells. More work is still needed, Agalliu says, to create endothelial cells that produce a reliable model of the human blood-brain barrier. His team is working to address this problem.

Reference:

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2016950118

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Beckman Coulter assists expansion of national network of HIV testing in Uganda

, 26 February 2021/in E-News /by Beckman Coulter Inc

By Samuel Boova, Director Alliance Development, High Burden HIV Global Markets, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences Despite significant progress in its prevention and treatment, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a serious public health threat across the globe. The United Nations programme UNAIDS has led the global effort to address the HIV/AIDS crisis and has set out […]

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https://interhospi.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/02/1_E-NEWS_BECKMAN_COULTER.jpg 1080 868 Beckman Coulter Inc https://interhospi.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/06/Component-6-–-1.png Beckman Coulter Inc2021-02-26 12:33:372021-02-28 23:54:06Beckman Coulter assists expansion of national network of HIV testing in Uganda

Point of Care testing shown to reduce unnecessary hospital visits

, 26 February 2021/in E-News /by 3wmedia

The Oxford Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) has recently published a study exploring the use of point-of-care (PoC) testing within a busy GP group practice in the United Kingdom, using HORIBA Medical’s novel Microsemi CRP PoC haematology analyser.

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Hologic acquires SOMATEX, a leader in biopsy site markers and localization technologies

, 26 February 2021/in E-News /by HOLOGIC NV

The MedTech company Hologic, with a primary focus on women’s health, has acquired SOMATEX Medical Technologies, a leader in biopsy site markers and localization technologies, for approximately $64 million. The company was previously owned by E-Med Solutions, Berlin, a group of investors led by German private equity company Westlake Partners.

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Proton therapy effective prostate cancer treatment

, 26 August 2020/in E-News /by 3wmedia

Proton therapy, a type of external beam radiation therapy, is a safe and effective treatment for prostate cancer, according to two new studies.
In the first study, researchers at the University of Florida in Jacksonville, Fla., prospectively studied 211 men with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk prostate cancer. The men were treated with proton therapy, a specialised type of external beam radiation therapy that uses protons instead of X-rays. After a two year follow-up, the research team led by Nancy Mendenhall, MD, of the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute, reported that the treatment was effective and that the gastrointestinal and genitourinary side effects were generally minimal.
‘This study is important because it will help set normal tissue guidelines in future trials,’ Dr. Mendenhall, said.
In the second study, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif., and the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group in Philadelphia performed a case-matched analysis comparing high-dose external beam radiation therapy using a combination of photons (X-rays) and protons with brachytherapy (radioactive seed implants).
Over three years, 196 patients received the external beam treatments. Their data was compared to 203 men of similar stages who received brachytherapy over the same time period. Researchers then compared the biochemical failure rates (a statistical measure of whether the cancer relapses) and determined that men who received the proton/photon therapy had the same rate of recurrence as the men who received brachytherapy.
‘For men with prostate cancer, brachytherapy and external beam radiation therapy using photons and protons are both highly effective treatments with similar relapse rates,’ John J. Coen, MD, a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said. ‘Based on this data, it is our belief that men with prostate cancer can reasonably choose either treatment for localised prostate cancer based on their own concerns about quality of life without fearing they are compromising their chance for a cure.’ EurekAlert

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Diagnosing non-periodic arrhythmias at the point of care in a single heartbeat

, 26 August 2020/in E-News /by 3wmedia

Thanks to a new study from Columbia Engineering School, USA it may now be possible to diagnose non-periodic arrhythmias noninvasively and at low cost within a single heartbeat.

Non-periodic arrhythmias include atrial and ventricular fibrillation, which are associated with severely abnormal heart rhythm that can in some cases be life-threatening. Using Electromechanical Wave Imaging (EWI), the researchers sent unfocused ultrasound waves through the closed chest and into the heart. They were able to capture fast-frame-rate images that enabled them, for the first time, to map transient events such as the electromechanical activation that occurs over a few tens of milliseconds while also imaging the entire heart within a single beat. This means that physicians won

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Radiation exposure from CT scans in childhood could triple the risk of leukaemia and brain cancer

, 26 August 2020/in E-News /by 3wmedia

Children and young adults scanned multiple times by computed tomography (CT) have a small increased risk of leukaemia and brain tumours in the decade following their first scan.
The findings from a study of more than 175,000 children and young adults was led by researchers at Newcastle University and at the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, USA.
The researchers emphasise that when a child suffers a major head injury or develops a life-threatening illness, the benefits of clinically appropriate CT scans should outweigh future cancer risks.
Lead author Dr Mark Pearce, Reader in Lifecourse Epidemiology at Newcastle University said: ‘CT scans are accurate and fast so they should be used when their immediate benefits outweigh the long-term risks. However, now we have shown that CT scans increase the risk of cancer, we must ensure that when they are used they are fully justified from a clinical perspective.’
The study represents the culmination of almost two decades of research in this area at Newcastle University, and is jointly funded by the UK Department of Health and NCI/NIH.
CT imaging is a vital and commonly used diagnostic technique and it is used more frequently in countries such as the USA and Japan. However, CT scans deliver a dose of ionising radiation to the body part being scanned and to nearby tissues. Even at relatively low doses, ionising radiation can break the chemical bonds in DNA, causing damage to genes that may increase a person

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Use of dedicated pediatric imaging departments for pediatric CT reduces radiation dose

, 26 August 2020/in E-News /by 3wmedia

The use of a dedicated pediatric imaging department (with dedicated pediatric computed tomography (CT) technologists) for pediatric CT scans significantly reduces the radiation dose delivered to the patient, according to a study.
When performed and monitored properly, the benefits of CT scans outweigh the potential long-term risk of radiation. To minimise the potential adverse effects of radiation exposure to pediatric patients, it is necessary to reduce the dose of radiation delivered to these patients while preserving the diagnostic quality of the images produced.
‘There are many strategies for reducing radiation dose. The use of protocols with adjusted exposure parameters for pediatric patients on the basis of child size, organ system scanned and the size of the region scanned is most notable. However, compliance with these protocols can be challenging for technologists, particularly when scanning a combination of adult and pediatric patients,’ said Heather L. Borders, MD, lead author of the study.
A retrospective review of abdominal and pelvic CT console dose and exposure parameter data on 495 patients from a combined pediatric and adult radiology department and subsequently 244 patients from a dedicated pediatric radiology department was performed. Patients were divided into 1 of 8 weight categories for analysis.
A statistically significant decrease in the estimated effective dose for abdominal and pelvic CT studies was observed in all but one of the weight categories at the pediatric radiology department compared with the pediatric and adult radiology department.
‘Imaging pediatric patients in a dedicated pediatric imaging department with dedicated pediatric CT technologists may result in greater compliance with pediatric protocols and significantly reduced patient dose,’ said Borders.
‘Conversely, greater scrutiny of compliance with pediatric dose-adjusted CT protocols may be necessary for departments that scan both children and adults,’ she said. EurekAlert

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4 March 2021

Study highlights risk of new SARS-CoV-2 mutations emerging during chronic infection

4 March 2021

Hidden genes could be key in development of new antibiotics

4 March 2021

Critical flaw found in lab models of the human blood-brain barrier

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