Chinese Hamster Ovary [CHO] cells are the workhorse for production of modern biopharmaceuticals, with total sales of CHO-produced proteins exceeding 100 Billion US Dollars/year today. CHO cells are however immortalised cells with a high propensity for genetic change. Judging from published culture records, CHO cell populations have undergone hundreds of population doublings since their origin in the late 1950s. Different cell populations were established and named during the first two decades after their generation, such as CHO-Pro-, CHO-K1, CHO-DG44, CHO-S, CHO-DUK, CHO-DXB-11, CHO-LA, etc. to indicate origin and certain phenotypic features. These names are commonly used in scientific publications still today. This article tries to raise questions about the relevance of such names. We argue that their use creates a false sense of identity. To substantiate this claim, we discuss the long (and poorly recorded) history of CHO cells as well as their highly complex genetics. Finally, we suggest an alternative naming system for CHO cells which provides more relevant information to the performance of these cells. Implementation of such a system should improve interpretation and comparability between laboratories. This, in turn will help scientific communities and industrial users to attain the full potential of CHO cells.

The list of possible differential diagnoses for complaints of back and neck pain is enormously long. Many proposed diagnostic workups trying to avoid the challenge of considering all possible etiologies by early commitment to a specific area of the spine (i.e., neck or lower back). Others limit the differential diagnoses by pursuing a rational but limited goal, like ruling out conditions that may result in disability or death in the setting of an emergency department. We have briefly described a long list of medical conditions, each of which may present as back or neck pain, and whose prevalence ranges from common to very rare. We then showed that they all can be assigned to one of 7 groups according to judicious history taking, physical examination and simple imaging and laboratory tests: (1) pain that radiates from the cranium, chest or abdomen; (2) pain with signs of infection; (3) pain with signs of nerve root compression; (4) pain with signs of cord or cauda compression; (5) mechanical pain; (6) rheumatic pain; (7) pain with other characteristics, with or without local tenderness. Further referral to diagnostic tests and specialist consultations after initial assignment to one of these seven categories would save the patient time and unnecessary tests. We believe that this review and the proposed diagnostic algorithm may be valuable for medical education and for application in the primary care setting for the purpose of conducting a diagnostic workup of any type of back or neck pain in all patient groups and may be possibly used for development of diagnostic software and machine learning.

Background: We aimed to investigate the relationship between sex hormone levels (estradiol (E2), total testosterone (TTest)) and anthropometric measurements, biochemical parameters, and body fat distribution of boys with obesity and gynecomastia, and the effects of all these variables, especially sex hormones, on fatty liver. Methods: This prospective study included 79 pubertal boys with obesity and gynecomastia between 10 and 18 years of age. The cases were divided into two groups as with (n = 48) or without (n = 31) fatty liver determined by ultrasonography (USG). Results: While E2 levels and age, body weight (BW), height, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference, and fat mass of the patients were showing a statistically significant positive correlation, E2 levels had a negative correlation with high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (p<0.05). While age, BW, height, WC, and hip circumference of the patients were showing a statistically significant positive correlation with TTest, HDL-C levels, percent of body fat (PBF) (%) and percent of trunk fat (PTF) (%) had a statistically negative correlation with TTest (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in terms of sex hormone levels between the two groups with and without fatty liver (p>0.05). Conclusion: The main results of this study reveal that as the PBF and PTF increase, the TTest levels of the patients decrease and as the fat mass increases, the E2 levels increase significantly. The role of sex hormones in the pathogenesis of the fatty liver has not been clarified.

Abstract Aims: Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is the main treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), which can be performed under general anesthesia or conscious analgesia. The use of general anesthesia may improve contact force (CF) and mapping system accuracy compared to conscious sedation, but its influence on catheter swing and ablation index (AI) during PVI has not previously been investigated. Methods: The study population included 20 patients with Af who first underwent PVI procedure:10 patients adopted general anesthesia (GA) and 10 patients adopted conscious sedation (CS). We retrospectively analyzed the difference of catheter swing, CF, AI and distance between ablation points during PVI in two groups. Results: The swing of catheter was significantly higher in the CS group than in the GA group. On the contrary, CF increased in GA group. The AI and the distance between ablation points has no difference between the groups. In addition, GA was associated with lower pulmonary vein reconnection, total ablation points and supplemental ablation points. Conclusion: GA reduced catheter swing and improves CF during PVI compared with CS.

Background: The bioactive constituents from Zingiber officinale have shown a positive effect against neurodegenerative diseases like alzheimer’s disease (AD) that manifests as progressive memory loss and cognitive impairment. By coupling enormous available photochemical data and advanced computational technologies, the possible molecular mechanism of action of these bioactive compounds was deciphered by evaluating phytochemicals, target fishing, and network biological analysis. Experimental Methods: As a result, 175 bioactive compounds and 264 human target proteins were identified. The gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis and molecular docking were used to predict the basis of vital bioactive compounds and biomolecular mechanisms involved in the treatment of AD. Results: The systematic topological analysis of the bioactive compound-target protein network resulted in identifying nine essential bioactive compounds (10-Gingerdione, 1-dehydro-[8]-gingerdione, perillene, farnesol, isovanillin, zingiberone, gingerdione, gingerenon-B, isoeugenol-methyl-ether), which are found active against the top 10 target human proteins (APP, AKT1, CHRM1, PRKCD, TTR, SRC, S1PR3, MAPK3, EP300 and RELA). Amongst selected bioactive compounds, 10-Gingerdione and 1-dehydro-[8]-gingerdione exhibited significant anti-neurological property against AD targeting amyloid precursor protein with a binding affinity of -6.0 and -5.6, respectively. Conclusion: This study suggests that 10-Gingerdione and 1-dehydro-[8]-gingerdione strongly modulates anti-neurological activity and are associated with pathological features like amyloid-β plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau protein are found to be critically regulated by these two target proteins. This comprehensive analysis provides a clue for further investigation of these natural compound’s inhibitory activity in drug discovery for AD treatment.

The existence of accessory pathways connecting right atrial appendage (RAA) and right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) is well established. We present a case where an accessory pathway of this type mimicked parahisian pathway. Ultimately, preprocedural computed tomography (CT) was helpful in planning the procedure and accomplishing successful ablation after a failed attempt.

Key points Laryngoscopy is performed to diagnose and treat diseases of the hypopharynx and larynx Adequate exposure is essential for the procedure and can be limited by a short neck, limited neck extension and other patient factors When standard laryngoscopy biopsy forceps cannot access an area of the pharynx, then flexible pulmonary or gastric biopsy forceps can be used The flexible biopsy forceps can be loaded down a cut intubating bougie to access difficult areas This correspondence explains how to perform this technique and outlines the efficacy

Background: Few Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) have evaluated oral immunotherapy effects on quality of life (QoL). We previously reported that probiotic peanut oral immunotherapy (PPOIT) significantly improved QoL compared with placebo, with improvement linked to achieving sustained unresponsiveness (SU). Objective: We examined whether PPOIT-induced QoL improvement is maintained at 4 years post-treatment. Methods: Subjects in the PPOIT-001 RCT (n=57) completed Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire-Parent Form (FAQLQ-PF) and Food Allergy Independent Measure (FAIM) at pre-treatment, end-of-treatment, and 3-months, 12-months and 4-years post-treatment. Paired group t-test analyses were conducted separately for PPOIT and Placebo groups at each time point. Repeated-measures mixed ANOVAs were used to examine overall changes from pre-treatment to 4-years post-treatment, controlling for potential confounders. Results: N=38 (19 Placebo/19 PPOIT) completed FAQLQ at ALL time-points. PPOIT-treated subjects had significantly improved FAQLQ compared with placebo at 3-months, 12-months and 4-years post-treatment. FAQLQ and FAIM scores improved significantly for PPOIT group from pre-treatment to 4-years post-treatment (both p=0.001). Multivariate analysis (controlling for age, sex, SU) confirmed findings, with a very large effect size [partial eta squared=0.56]. A ‘large’ amount of peanut ingestion predicted greater improvement in FAQLQ score, compared with avoidance, small or moderate ingestion. No changes from baseline in FAQLQ or FAIM were shown for placebo. Conclusions: PPOIT induced substantial improvement in FAQLQ that persisted to 4-years post-treatment. Greatest benefit was observed in subjects ingesting large amounts of peanut. This is the first study demonstrating long-lasting improvement in QoL with a food allergy treatment.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is a cornerstone of heart failure with reduced left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and a wide QRS duration. Implantation of a CRT device is usually scheduled in the compensated phase of heart failure. We report a case of a successful semi-urgent implantation of a CRT device assisted with Impella at the decompensated phase of severe heart failure dependent on inotropic agents. Both mechanical resynchronization by CRT and LV unloading by Impella might contribute to a decrease in LV end-diastolic pressure and early recovery from acute pulmonary edema.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is a rare disease that mainly involves the lung and the abdomen with an intermediate clinical course but a recurrence rate between 15-30%. Radical surgery represents the golden standard of treatment, while chemotherapy and radiotherapy are considered for unresectable lesions. The identification of ALK translocations in IMT opened the option for the use of target therapies1. Indeed, the ALK inhibitors have changed the treatment approach for aggressive lesions, improving the prognosis. Intraluminal upper way IMT is extremely rare and represents a medical challenge. We reported an endotracheal IMT case presenting a before unknown TRAF3-ALK fusion transcript.

Objective: To understand the impacts of bariatric surgery on quality of life (QOL) in reproductive age women both with and without PCOS. Design: A cohort study assessing QOL prior to and a 3,6 and 12 month follow up appointments post bariatric surgery. Setting: Women completed questionnaires at clinic appointments or surveys posted to them for completion. Population or Sample: Sample taken from the RHAMS study (Reproductive Health after Metabolic Surgery). Methods: The BOSS42 Bariatric & Obesity-Specific Survey was used to assess QOL. Main Outcome Measures: QOL improvements were assessed over time and differences between the two groups compared. Secondary outcomes included assessment of hirsutism, irregular or absent periods, and Sex Hormone Binding Globulin levels pre- and post-surgery. Results: Bariatric surgery was shown to have significant QOL benefits for both groups. Resolution rates of irregular or absent periods was significant across both groups. Resolution of hirsutism was significant in women with PCOS after weight loss. Weight was significantly negatively correlated with QOL. Conclusions: Bariatric surgery results in significant physical and psychological health benefits for all women with obesity, and for women with PCOS, may alleviate a significant amount of disease related burden related to hyperandrogenism, sub-fertility, and metabolic disturbance. These results indicate the significance and breadth of benefits bariatric surgery can have for women both with and without PCOS. Funding This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Keywords: ‘bariatric surgery’ ‘PCOS’ ‘quality of life’ MESH* terms - Fertility*, Reproduction*, Women’s Health

Data mining is characterized as a process of transforming data information into a human-comprehensible code format such as rules, formula, algorithm, and so on. Bioinformatics is developed to solve a biological problem by using data mining technique. Identifying biomedical domain entities is a difficult task and the enhanced model is used to classify the entities from biomedical literature full text articles in PubMed database. The enhanced model 3 stages namely pre-processing, identification of the entities using dictionary-based approach and verification, validation with benchmarking databases. The model, Disgenet and Pubtator are considered as the dictionary which is a benchmarking database. This approach defines entities using the en_ner_bionlp13cg_md model from spacy package. Experimental purposes, 99 full text articles related to Alzheimer’s disease are considered which are downloaded from NCBI. Finally, demonstrated that our enhanced model for dictionary based approach outperforms in aspects of accuracy, precision and retrieval value. The model achieved 82% accuracy overall. Compared to state-of -art method, model obtained the better accuracy. These results suggested that the enhanced model is obtained high performance for extracting biomedical entities from PubMed articles. The improvement mostly due to the dictionary because Disgenet and Pubtator are considered the dictionary.

We investigate the existence and the multiplicity of weak solutions for fourth-order problems involving the Leray-Lions type operators in variable exponent spaces. The proofs of our main results use variational methods and combine three critical theorems of Bonanno and Marano (Appl. Anal. 89 (2010), 1-10).

In the present paper we propose a new approach for the generalized Riemann hypothesis in theoretical framework of the Dirichlet $L$-series. The Dirichlet’s lambda function is used as the testing function to prove the generalized Riemann hypothesis. The obtained results can be also applied to consider the other classes of the Dirichlet $L$-series.

This paper is concerned with a predator-prey model with stage structure for the predator, with a cross-diffusion term modeling the effect that mature predators move toward the direction of gradient of prey. It is first shown that the corresponding Neumann initial-boundary value problem in an $n$-dimensional bounded smooth domain possesses a unique global classical solution which is uniformly-in-time bounded for the weak cross-diffusion. It is further shown that, in the presence of cross-diffusion, the models admit threshold-type dynamics in terms of the cross-diffusion coefficient; that is, the homogenous steady state keeps stability for weak attractive prey-taxis, while the stationary patterns will occur for strong attractive prey-taxis. This implies that such cross diffusion does contribute to the rich dynamics of predator-prey model with stage structure for predators.

There is a growing concern about the reinfection of recovered patients with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Various researches have shown that the Reinfection of COVID-19 is probable, but its risk and probability vary considerably. Positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) retest results are not necessarily defined as reinfections, as several factors may be responsible for this re-positivity in the laboratory. Therefore, the utilization of tests with higher sensitivity and further clinical examinations can help distinguish true reinfection. This review is focused on the latest findings of COVID-19 reinfection in recovering patients.

During SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, oncologists manage patients at higher risk of having a severe course of this infection. This raises new questions about their correct management, as well as the difficulty of distinguishing tumor/treatments complications from those related to Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We report a case of an 11 year-old boy undergoing treatment for T cell lymphoblastic lymphoma who experienced a prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infection. Oncological therapy was continued without significant changes compared to the initially planned treatment. No relevant complications occurred. COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CP) was administered, resulting in a positive antibody titer after 24 days.

In human beings and mammals, disorder of the intestinal microbiota was closely with some metabolic and inflammatory diseases. To date, there were few studies focusing on the relationship between intestinal microbiota composition and disease occurrence in fish. Recently, an acute infectious disease of northern sheatfish ( Silurus soldatovi) emerged in a fish farm in Tianjin, China. Two dominant bacterial strains named S1 and S2 were isolated from the diseased fish and identified as Aeromonas veronii and Vibrio cholerae respectively,  according to their physiological and biochemical characteristics and genotype. Then, 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing was conducted to compare the intestinal microbiota community of diseased fish with that of healthy fish. The microbial composition analysis showed that the dominant phylum in both diseased and healthy fish were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Fusobacteria. At genus level, the differences in bacterial community compositions between diseased and healthy fish were mainly reflected by the changes in the relative abundances of bacterium, Aeromonas, and Vibrio. This was consist with the result of LEfSe analysis. PICRUSt function prediction indicated that the changes in the function of intestinal microbiota of diseased northern sheatfish were mainly reflected by different enrichment of some KEGG pathways such as “membrane transport”, “cellular processes and signaling”, “cell motility”, “signal transduction”, “infectious diseases”, “replication and repair”, “translation”, “nucleotide metabolism”, “folding, sorting and degradation”, and “cell growth and death”. The presented results indicated that the disease occurrence in the northern sheatfish associated with the bacterial infection was closely related to the changes in the composition and function of its intestinal microbiota.

In the COVID–19 pandemic, billions are wearing face masks, in both health care settings and in public. Which type of mask we should wear in what situation, is therefore important. There are three basic types: cotton, surgical, and respirators (e.g. N95 and similar). All are essentially air filters worn on the face. Here we show that the underlying physics of air filtration ensures particles with diameters ≥ 1 to 3 µm are efficiently filtered out by all three types. However, for particles in the submicrometre range the efficiency depends on the material properties of the masks. For good quality cotton and surgical masks it is in the range 30 to 60%, while it is above 95% for respirators. So air filtration is relatively well understood, however, we have almost no direct evidence on the relative role played by aerosols of differing sizes in disease transmission. Without this data, selecting the correct mask will inevitably involve some guess work. If the virus concentration is assumed independent of aerosol size, then most virus will be in aerosols & 1µm and we expect both surgical masks and multi-layered cotton masks to be effective at reducing the risk of airborne transmission in most settings.

Sars-Cov-2 is a pandemic virus that manifests itself with respiratory distress as well as leading to symptoms and signs associated with the gastrointestinal tract. It is especially manifested by the disturbed immune status, which is also referred to as cytokine storm. Probiotics are living microorganisms that have been shown to have beneficial effects on human immunity. The immune modulation effects of some single strain probiotic bacteria are more evident. Cytokine storm can be controlled through these immune modulating effects of strain specific probiotic bacteria.

PCI(Percutaneous coronary intervention) may lead to the occlusion of the artery of sinoatrial node, and it is rare that the occlusion of the sinoatrial node artery simultaneously causes sick sinus syndrome and atrial tachycardia. A clinical case has been encountered and the report is as follows.

Objectives: Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a serious condition that results from insufficient resolution of thromboemboli in the pulmonary arteries. Some of symptomatic patients with chronic thromboembolic disease have normal hemodynamic at rest. The aim of this study is to assess the outcome of pulmonary thromboendaterectomy (PEA) in symptomatic patients with chronic thromboembolic disease (CTED) in the absence of PH as currently defined (mean PAP>25 mmHg). Methods: Here we report 4 symptomatic chronic thromboembolic patients with normal hemodynamic at rest (mean.PAP<=25) who underwent PEA between September 2015 and September 2017. The main outcome measures were Functional New York Heart Association [NYHA] class, 6 Minute Walk Distance, hemodynamic measures in right heart catheterization, morbidity and mortality. There were significant improvement in function class (p2.6+-0.54 vs. 1+-0.2, p=0.00), mean PAP (23.3+-0.5 mmHg vs. post 18.6+-1.5 mmHg, p=0.02), 6MWD (378.2+-68.7m vs. post 432.9+-44.5m, p= 0.01 ), and pulmonary vascular resistance (215.33+-91dynes • sec 1 • cm 5 vs 101+-32dynes • sec 1 • cm 5, p= 0.1 ). Six month after surgery after exercise under right heart catheterization (RHC) mean PAP decreased significantly (37+-7.7 mmHg vs. post 28+-3.2 mmHg, p=0.06). Conclusions: In these 4 CTED patients performing PEA could improve function class and hemodynamic. Considering improvement hemodynamic in this group of patients after PEA, definition of CTEPH may need to be revised

Hunting can fundamentally alter wildlife population dynamics, but the consequences of hunting on pathogen transmission and evolution remain poorly understood. Here we present a study that leverages a unique landscape-scale experiment coupled with pathogen transmission tracing, network simulation and phylodynamics to provide insights into how hunting shapes viral dynamics in puma (Puma concolor). We show that removing hunting pressure enhances the role of males in transmission, increases the viral population growth rate and the role of evolutionary forces on the pathogen (higher purifying and diversifying selection) compared with when hunting was reinstated. Changes in transmission could be linked to short term social changes as male population increases. These findings are supported through comparison with a region with stable hunting management over the same time period. This study shows that routine wildlife management can have profound impacts on pathogen transmission and evolution not previously considered.

A document by Marcela Valverde. Click on the document to view its contents.