COVID-19 and macular edema: a necessarily blindness?

Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology -     

Safety profile of the adjuvanted recombinant zoster vaccine: Pooled analysis of two large randomised phase 3 trials

Background

The ZOE-50 (NCT01165177) and ZOE-70 (NCT01165229) phase 3 clinical trials showed that the adjuvanted recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) was ≥90% efficacious in preventing herpes zoster in adults. Here we present a comprehensive overview of the safety data from these studies.

Ebola Virus RNA Stability in Human Blood and Urine in West Africa’s Environmental Conditions

We evaluated RNA stability of Ebola virus in EDTA blood and urine samples collected from infected patients and stored in West Africa’s environmental conditions. In blood, RNA was stable for at least 18 days when initial cycle threshold values were <30, but in urine, RNA degradation occurred more quickly.     

Respiratory muscle dysfunction in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy

Sleep and Breathing -     

Antimicrobial activities of novel bipyridine compounds produced by a new strain of Saccharothrix isolated from Saharan soil

The actinobacterium strain ABH26 closely related to Saccharothrix xinjiangensis, isolated from an Algerian Saharan soil sample, exhibited highly antagonist activity against Gram-positive bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi. Its ability to produce antimicrobial compounds was investigated using several solid culture media. The highest antimicrobial activity was obtained on Bennett medium. The antibiotics secreted by strain ABH26 on Bennett medium were extracted by methanol and purified by reverse-phase HPLC using a C18 column. The chemical structures of the compounds were determined after spectroscopic (¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ¹H-¹H COSY and ¹H-¹³C HMBC spectra), and spectrometric (mass spectrum) analyses. Two new cyanogriside antibiotics named cyanogriside I (1) and cyanogriside J (2), were characterized along with three known caerulomycins, caerulomycin A (3), caerulomycin F (4) and caerulomycinonitrile (5). This is the first report of cyanogrisides and caerulomycins production by a member of the Saccharothrix genus. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of these antibiotics were determined against pathogenic microorganisms.     

Radiosynthesis of (E)-N-(2-[11C]methoxybenzyl)-3-phenyl-acrylamidine, a novel subnanomolar NR2B subtype-selective NMDA receptor antagonist.

Recently, a novel series of amidines has been described, exhibiting high NR2B-subtype selective N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist activity with nanomolar or subnanomolar affinity. Within the styrylamidine subclass, (E)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl)-3-phenyl-acrylamidine (1), displayed the highest affinity (Ki=0.7 nM versus [(3)H]ifenprodil) and was considered an appropriate candidate for isotopic labelling with carbon-11 (T(1/2): 20.38 min) at its methoxy group for imaging of NMDA receptors with PET. Derivative 1 has been labelled from the corresponding nor-analogue using [(11)C]methyl triflate and the following experimental conditions : (1) trapping at -10 degrees C of [(11)C]methyl triflate in 300 microL of acetone containing 0.6-0.8 mg of precursor 5 (2.4-3.2 micromol) and 5 microL of a 3M solution of NaOH in water (about 5 eq.); (2) concentration to dryness of the reaction mixture (at 110 degrees C, using a helium stream for 1-2 min); (3) taking up the residue with 0.5 mL of the HPLC mobile phase and (4) purification using semi-preparative HPLC (SymmetryPrep) C-18, Waters, 300 x 7.8 mm). Typically, starting from a 1.5 Ci (55.5 GBq) [(11)C]CO(2) production batch, 120-240 m Ci (4.44-8.88 GBq) of [(11)C]-1 (20-40% decay-corrected radiochemical yield, n=5) was obtained within a total synthesis time of 25-30 min. Specific radioactivities ranged from 0.8 to 1.2 Ci/micromol (29.6-44.4 GBq/micromol) at the end of radiosynthesis. No attempts were made to further optimise these reactions, as sufficient material was obtained to allow for preliminary pharmacological characterisation.