Clinical progress in MSC-based therapies for the management of severe COVID-19

Considering the high impact that severe Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases still pose on public health and their complex pharmacological management, the search for new therapeutic alternatives is essential. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) could be promising candidates as they present important immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties that can combat the acute severe respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and the cytokine storm occurring in COVID-19, two processes that are mainly driven by an immunological misbalance. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the intricate inflammatory process derived from the immune dysregulation that occurs in COVID-19, discussing the potential that the cytokines and growth factors that constitute the MSC-derived secretome present to treat the disease. Moreover, we revise the latest clinical progress made in the field, discussing the most important findings of the clinical trials conducted to date, which follow 2 different approaches: MSC-based cell therapy or the administration of the secretome by itself, as a cell-free therapy.     

Effects of storm frequency on dune vegetation

In the Gulf of Mexico, barrier islands absorb the majority of wind and wave action from storms, which modifies their dune morphology and vegetation dynamics. Storm frequency is predicted to increase as a result of climate change, yet the effects of this change on coastal ecosystems remain poorly understood. Using estimates of plant growth in storm and nonstorm years from long‐term census data describing the dynamics of dune vegetation on St. George Island, FL, we built a first‐order model that predicts how dune communities will respond to a change in storm frequency. It predicts that an increasing frequency of storms will result in a change in the vegetation across the dunes. The fore‐ and interdune communities are predicted to become more similar to one another through the dominance of a small number of common storm‐resilient species. Alternatively, the backdune community is predicted to become more distinct through an increase in rare species that represent primary succession. Finally, the model predicts that many species will not respond to an increase in the number of storms per year in the same manner in which they respond to current storm frequency. This model is beneficial both for the development of more complex approaches to predicting effects of climate change and for informing preventative management techniques.     

Control of Culex quinquefasciatus in a storm drain system in Florida using attractive toxic sugar baits

Attractive toxic sugar baits (ATSBs) were used to control mosquitoes in the storm drains of a residential area on the outskirts of St Augustine, Florida. The drainage system was newly constructed and no mosquitoes were breeding inside it. The area covered by the storm drains was divided in half; 10 drains served as control drains and 16 drains served as experimental drains. The baits, which consisted of a mixture of brown sugar, fruit juice, green dye marker and boric acid, were presented at the entrances of the treated drains and exit traps were positioned over the drain openings and the connecting tubes leading to retention ponds. Similar baits with orange dye and without toxin were presented at the entrances of control drains. A total of 220 pupae of Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) were released in each control and toxin‐treated drain, and the numbers of recovered mosquitoes were examined to determine the effectiveness of ATSBs in the storm drain system. An average of 178.2 mosquitoes exited each drain in the control area; 87.0% of these had fed on the baits and were stained orange, whereas 13.0% were unstained. In the toxin‐treated drains, 83.7% of hatched females and 86.6% of hatched males were controlled by the baits.     

塔克拉玛干沙尘暴源区空气细菌群落多样性

【目的】采集新疆塔克拉玛干沙漠腹地和周围沙尘暴源区空气样品,对不同样点沙尘暴发生前期、中期、后期空气细菌进行群落结构解析。阐明新疆沙尘暴源区空气细菌种属特征和群落多样性动态变化规律。【方法】基于Illumina HiSeq测序平台,利用双末端测序方法,构建16S rRNA小片段文库进行测序。【结果】塔克拉玛干沙尘暴源区空气细菌主要分为4门37个属,Proteobacteria占67.6%、Bacteroidetes占17.6%、Actinobacteria占11.7%、Firmicutes占2.9%;在属水平上,新疆沙尘暴源区有8个不同优势属,非度量多维尺度分析表明,不同样点在不同时期的细菌群落组成差异极显著;典范对应分析表明,环境因子对沙尘暴源区空气细菌多样性的影响大小为:海拔纬度经度湿度气压温度,且差异不显著。【结论】新疆沙尘暴源区空气细菌群落多样性和丰富度高;不同样点沙尘暴前期、中期、后期的空气细菌群落组成差异极显著;沙尘暴对5个源区固有细菌群落影响差异极显著。     

Annual global mean temperature explains reproductive success in a marine vertebrate from 1955 to 2010

The salient feature of anthropogenic climate change over the last century has been the rise in global mean temperature. However, global mean temperature is not used as an explanatory variable in studies of population‐level response to climate change, perhaps because the signal‐to‐noise ratio of this gross measure makes its effect difficult to detect in any but the longest of datasets. Using a population of Leach's storm‐petrels breeding in the Bay of Fundy, we tested whether local, regional, or global temperature measures are the best index of reproductive success in the face of climate change in species that travel widely between and within seasons. With a 56‐year dataset, we found that annual global mean temperature (AGMT) was the single most important predictor of hatching success, more so than regional sea surface temperatures (breeding season or winter) and local air temperatures at the nesting colony. Storm‐petrel reproductive success showed a quadratic response to rising temperatures, in that hatching success increased up to some critical temperature, and then declined when AGMT exceeded that temperature. The year at which AGMT began to consistently exceed that critical temperature was 1988. Importantly, in this population of known‐age individuals, the impact of changing climate was greatest on inexperienced breeders: reproductive success of inexperienced birds increased more rapidly as temperatures rose and declined more rapidly after the tipping point than did reproductive success of experienced individuals. The generality of our finding that AGMT is the best predictor of reproductive success in this system may hinge on two things. First, an integrative global measure may be best for species in which individuals move across an enormous spatial range, especially within seasons. Second, the length of our dataset and our capacity to account for individual‐ and age‐based variation in reproductive success increase our ability to detect a noisy signal.     

Genetic variants in post myocardial infarction patients presenting with electrical storm of unstable ventricular tachycardia

Electrical storm (ES) is a life threatening clinical situation. Though a few clinical pointers exist, the occurrence of ES in a patient with remote myocardial infarction (MI) is generally unpredictable. Genetic markers for this entity have not been studied. In the present study, we carried out genetic screening in patients with remote myocardial infarction presenting with ES by next generation sequencing and identified 25 rare variants in 19 genes predominantly in RYR2, SCN5A, KCNJ11, KCNE1 and KCNH2, CACNA1B, CACNA1C, CACNA1D and desmosomal genes - DSP and DSG2 that could potentially be implicated in electrical storm. These genes have been previously reported to be associated with inherited syndromes of Sudden Cardiac Death. The present study suggests that the genetic architecture in patients with remote MI and ES of unstable ventricular tachycardia may be similar to that of Ion channelopathies. Identification of these variants may identify post MI patients who are predisposed to develop electrical storm and help in risk stratification.     

Performance of the tree‐killing bark beetles Ips typographus and Pityogenes chalcographus in non‐indigenous lodgepole pine and their historical host Norway spruce

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Successful catheter ablation of persistent electrical storm late post myocardial infarction by targeting purkinje arborization triggers

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