Glycosylation of high-affinity thrombin receptors appears necessary for thrombin binding.

Monosaccharide binding competition, lectin affinity chromatography, and glycosylation inhibitors have been used to determine if glycosylation plays a role in thrombin-receptor interactions. Mannose appeared to specifically inhibit thrombin binding to mouse embryo (ME) and hamster fibroblasts. Concanavalin A bound to antibody-purified receptor fractions, and was used as an affinity ligand to purify receptor fractions that retained thrombin binding activity. Cells treated with tunicamycin (6.25 ng/ml) for 24 h lost approximately 35% of their high-affinity thrombin binding sites, yet binding of receptor monoclonal antibody TR-9 was not affected, indicating that the receptor was present in the membrane, but unable to bind thrombin. Thus thrombin receptor glycosylation may be directly involved in thrombin binding.     

The problematic cemented Devonian brachiopod Schuchertellopsis durbutensis Maillieux, 1939

The Devonian cemented brachiopod Schuchertellopsis durbutensis has proved difficult to classify and its possible taxonomic relationships are unknown. Morphologically Schuchertellopsis resembles more closely members of the Orthotetidina than the Davidsoniidina. Examination of the shell structure, a key diagnostic feature of the Orthotetidina, shows that Schuchertellopsis has the cross laminar secondary shell typical of all orthotetidines. However, the presence of both pseudopunctate and incipient an extropunctate fabric within the ventral valve is unique amongst orthotetidine brachiopods and is thought to represent a phase of shell fabric experimentation. Schuchertellopsis probably fits most comfortably within the Schuchertellidae, and is the earliest representative of that family.     

Identification of Medically Actionable Secondary Findings in the 1000 Genomes

The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) recommends that clinical sequencing laboratories return secondary findings in 56 genes associated with medically actionable conditions. Our goal was to apply a systematic, stringent approach consistent with clinical standards to estimate the prevalence of pathogenic variants associated with such conditions using a diverse sequencing reference sample. Candidate variants in the 56 ACMG genes were selected from Phase 1 of the 1000 Genomes dataset, which contains sequencing information on 1,092 unrelated individuals from across the world. These variants were filtered using the Human Gene Mutation Database (HGMD) Professional version and defined parameters, appraised through literature review, and examined by a clinical laboratory specialist and expert physician. Over 70,000 genetic variants were extracted from the 56 genes, and filtering identified 237 variants annotated as disease causing by HGMD Professional. Literature review and expert evaluation determined that 7 of these variants were pathogenic or likely pathogenic. Furthermore, 5 additional truncating variants not listed as disease causing in HGMD Professional were identified as likely pathogenic. These 12 secondary findings are associated with diseases that could inform medical follow-up, including cancer predisposition syndromes, cardiac conditions, and familial hypercholesterolemia. The majority of the identified medically actionable findings were in individuals from the European (5/379) and Americas (4/181) ancestry groups, with fewer findings in Asian (2/286) and African (1/246) ancestry groups. Our results suggest that medically relevant secondary findings can be identified in approximately 1% (12/1092) of individuals in a diverse reference sample. As clinical sequencing laboratories continue to implement the ACMG recommendations, our results highlight that at least a small number of potentially important secondary findings can be selected for return. Our results also confirm that understudied populations will not reap proportionate benefits of genomic medicine, highlighting the need for continued research efforts on genetic diseases in these populations.     

Drug2ways: Reasoning over causal paths in biological networks for drug discovery

Elucidating the causal mechanisms responsible for disease can reveal potential therapeutic targets for pharmacological intervention and, accordingly, guide drug repositioning and discovery. In essence, the topology of a network can reveal the impact a drug candidate may have on a given biological state, leading the way for enhanced disease characterization and the design of advanced therapies. Network-based approaches, in particular, are highly suited for these purposes as they hold the capacity to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying disease. Here, we present drug2ways, a novel methodology that leverages multimodal causal networks for predicting drug candidates. Drug2ways implements an efficient algorithm which reasons over causal paths in large-scale biological networks to propose drug candidates for a given disease. We validate our approach using clinical trial information and demonstrate how drug2ways can be used for multiple applications to identify: i) single-target drug candidates, ii) candidates with polypharmacological properties that can optimize multiple targets, and iii) candidates for combination therapy. Finally, we make drug2ways available to the scientific community as a Python package that enables conducting these applications on multiple standard network formats.     

The value of decreasing the duration of the infectious period of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection

Finding medications or vaccines that may decrease the infectious period of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) could potentially reduce transmission in the broader population. We developed a computational model of the U.S. simulating the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and the potential clinical and economic impact of reducing the infectious period duration. Simulation experiments found that reducing the average infectious period duration could avert a median of 442,852 [treating 25% of symptomatic cases, reducing by 0.5 days, reproductive number (R₀) 3.5, and starting treatment when 15% of the population has been exposed] to 44.4 million SARS-CoV-2 cases (treating 75% of all infected cases, reducing by 3.5 days, R₀ 2.0). With R₀ 2.5, reducing the average infectious period duration by 0.5 days for 25% of symptomatic cases averted 1.4 million cases and 99,398 hospitalizations; increasing to 75% of symptomatic cases averted 2.8 million cases. At $500/person, treating 25% of symptomatic cases saved $209.5 billion (societal perspective). Further reducing the average infectious period duration by 3.5 days averted 7.4 million cases (treating 25% of symptomatic cases). Expanding treatment to 75% of all infected cases, including asymptomatic infections (R₀ 2.5), averted 35.9 million cases and 4 million hospitalizations, saving $48.8 billion (societal perspective and starting treatment after 5% of the population has been exposed). Our study quantifies the potential effects of reducing the SARS-CoV-2 infectious period duration.     

Pre-exposure affects the olfactory response of Drosophila melanogaster to menthol

A modification of the trap assay (Woodard et al., 1989) was used to evaluate the response of Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen) to food media containing menthol. Dose-response curves for flies to mentholic foods were produced for flies that had been pre-exposed to menthol, during development and adult life, and flies that had not been exposed to menthol before the assay. Mentholic food media were less attractive to Drosophila than plain food medium. Rearing flies on a medium containing menthol reduced their aversion to some concentrations of menthol. The rearing effect was not simply due to lowered general activity levels resulting from developing in a medium containing menthol. There was a threshold concentration of menthol in the rearing medium below which we found no induced behavioural change.