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Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) have immunomodulatory and tissue-regenerative properties and have shown promising results in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) of multiple causes, including COVID-19. We conducted a randomised (1:1), placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trial to assess the efficacy and safety of one bone marrow-derived MSC infusion in twenty patients with moderate to severe ARDS caused by COVID-19. The primary endpoint (increase in PaO2/FiO2 ratio from baseline to day 7, MSC 83.3 versus placebo 57.6) was not statistically significant, although a clinical improvement at day 7 in the WHO scale was observed in MSC patients (5, 50% vs 0, 0%, p = 0.033). Median time to discontinuation of supplemental oxygen was also shorter in the experimental arm (14 versus 23 days, p= 0.007), resulting in a shorter hospital stay (17.5 versus 28 days, p= 0.042). No significant differences were observed for other efficacy or safety secondary endpoints. No infusion or treatment-related serious adverse events occurred during the one-year follow-up. This study did not meet the primary endpoint of PaO2/FiO2 increase by day 7, although it suggests that MSC are safe in COVID-19 ARDS and may accelerate patients’ clinical recovery and hospital discharge. Larger studies are warranted to elucidate their role in ARDS and other inflammatory lung disorders.

Malnutrition is the most common comorbidity during the continuum of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) and negatively impacts clinical outcomes, response to therapy, quality of life, and costs. The intensive conditioning regimen administered before transplant causes inflammatory damages to the gastrointestinal system, which themselves contribute to trigger graft versus host disease (GvHD) in the allogeneic setting. GvHD and other post-transplant complications such as infections adversely affect food intake and gut absorption of nutrients. Consequently, patients exhibit signs of malnutrition such as weight loss and muscle wasting, thus triggering a “vicious circle” that favours additional complications. Among HSCT centres, there is marked variability in nutritional care, from screening for malnutrition to nutritional intervention. The present paper, elaborated by the Cellular Therapy and Immunobiology Working Party and the Nurses Group of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, aims at defining a roadmap that identifies the main nutritional critical issues in the field of HSCT. This document will be propaedeutic to the development of clinical algorithms to counteract risk factors of malnutrition, based on scientific evidence and shared among HSCT centres, and thus maximize transplant outcomes.

Introduction:

Nomenclatural type definitions are one of the most important concepts in biological nomenclature. Being physical objects that can be re-studied by other researchers, types permanently link taxonomy (an artificial agreement to classify biological diversity) with nomenclature (an artificial agreement to name biological diversity). Two proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), allowing DNA sequences alone (of any region and extent) to serve as types of taxon names for voucherless fungi (mainly putative taxa from environmental DNA sequences), have been submitted to be voted on at the 11thInternational Mycological Congress (Puerto Rico, July 2018). We consider various genetic processes affecting the distribution of alleles among taxa and find that alleles may not consistently and uniquely represent the species within which they are contained. Should the proposals be accepted, the meaning of nomenclatural types would change in a fundamental way from physical objects as sources of data to the data themselves. Such changes are conducive to irreproducible science, the potential typification on artefactual data, and massive creation of names with low information content, ultimately causing nomenclatural instability and unnecessary work for future researchers that would stall future explorations of fungal diversity. We conclude that the acceptance of DNA sequences alone as types of names of taxa, under the terms used in the current proposals, is unnecessary and would not solve the problem of naming putative taxa known only from DNA sequences in a scientifically defensible way. As an alternative, we highlight the use of formulas for naming putative taxa (candidate taxa) that do not require any modification of the ICN.

The first catalogue of corticioid fungi from the Biosphere Reserve of Arganeraie and surrounding areas, in the South-Western Morocco, is presented. The study covered 24 localities, and 494 samples were analyzed. The more representative substrataArgania spinosa,Tetraclinis articulata, several species ofEuphorbia,Phillyrea, andPistacia, as well asQuercus rotundifolia, among others were sampled. The catalogue includes 68 species, 26 of them new to Morocco. They belong to 40 genera, beingPeniophoraandTomentellathe best represented, meanwhile 65% of the genera are represented by only one species. The presence of the following Mediterranean and/ or Macaronesican taxa is remarkable:Acanthophysium dextrinoideocerussatum,Aphanobasidium canariense,Asterostroma gaillardii,Corticium meridioroseum,Hyphoderma macaronesicum,Hyphoderma multicystidiumvar.disporum,Hyphodermella rosae,Peniophora meridionalis, andVuilleminia megalospora. The patterns of species richness by substrate and locality were calculated.

This study explores species limits of a group of Clavariaspecies with taxonomic and nomenclatural problems and discusses the phylogeny and circumscription of the genus. The nuc 28S rDNA (28S) and internal transcribed spacer region phylogenies resolve species relationships, and the ITS is shown to be an adequate barcode marker for Clavaria. Yellow, clamped species of Clavariaare distributed in two clades, (i) C. flavostellifera, sister to C. incarnataand C. asterosporain ITS analyses, characterized by producing ornamented spores, and (ii) C. argillacea-C. citrinorubra-C. flavipes-C. sphagnicola, with smooth spores. Clavaria flavostelliferais described as new species based on morphological and molecular characters. Molecular evidence that supports C. sphagnicolaas distinct from C. argillaceais provided. The usefulness of spore ornamentation as a taxonomic character is discussed; it is present only in some taxa and then only on spores trapped in the hymenium. Descriptions of C. argillacea, C. flavipesand C. sphagnicolaare provided, along with color photographs and a key to yellow species of Clavariawith clamped basidia. Camarophyllopsisand Clavicoronaare recovered within a paraphyletic Clavariain our 28S phylogeny. Clampless contextual hyphae and narrow, slightly thick-walled mycelial hyphae are proposed as synapomorphies of Camarophyllopsisand Clavaria.

Little is known of wood-inhabiting aphyllophoroid fungi in some Mexican territories. The State of Aguascalientes is an example: there have been few records of these fungi until now. The main objective of this study is to provide a preliminary inventory of the wood-inhabiting aphyllophoroid species of the state. The fieldwork was carried out by sampling the principal plant communities during the main period of basidiomata production in 2011. A preliminary list of 81 species is presented, 55 of these recorded for the first time in the state. Additionally, a non-metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis was conducted to explore the fungal communities. Based on the vegetation, 3 significantly differentiated aphyllophoroid community groups were identified: temperate forests, scrublands and deciduous tropical forest. The highest species richness was found in oak forests.

Two new species of Hydnum, characterized by slender Hydnum rufescens-like basidiomes and ovoid to broadly ellipsoid basidiospores, are described from the Iberian Peninsula based on morphological and ITS molecular data. Hydnum ovoideisporumis distinguished by pilei with deep orange tones and strong preference for calcareous soil. It is widespread in the Iberian-Mediterranean area. Hydnum vesterholtiiis characterized by its ocher to light ocher pileus, and nearly all the collections were made in the Pyrenees. Both ovoid-spored species are monophyletic well supported groups in the maximum parsimony and Bayesian ITS phylogenies, while the remainder of the samples assigned to H. rufescenss.l. and having globose basidiospores split into six well supported clades. The need to typify the name Hydnum rufescensis discussed, and a provisional key is given for the European taxa of Hydnum.

Type specimens of Peniophora aluticolorBres. & Torrend, an orphaned species described from Madeira, have been examined and the combination Phanerochaete aluticolor(Bres. & Torrend) Melo, J. Cardoso, M. Dueñas, Salcedo & Telleria is proposed. It can be separated from the related and the Mediterranean-distributed Ph. martellianaby smaller spores and thick-walled cystidia and subicular hyphae.

A novel high-yield, convenient synthetic method for the complex [Ni(COD)₂] has been developed based upon the use of dibutylmagnesium as reducing agent. The cationic complexes [Ni(η³-CH₂C(R)CH₂)(dippe)][BPh₄] (R = Me 1a or H 1b; dippe = Prⁱ₂PCH₂CH₂PPrⁱ₂) were obtained by reaction of [Ni(COD)₂] with BrCH₂C(R)&z.dbd6;CH₂ in diethyl ether, followed by treatment with dippe and NaBPh₄ in methanol. [Ni(2-MeInd)(dippe)][BPh₄] 2 (2-MeInd = 2-methylindenyl) and [Ni(C₅Me₅)(dippe)][BPh₄] 3 were respectively prepared by reaction of either [Ni(2-MeInd)Br(PPh₃)] or [Ni(C₅Me₅)Br(PPh₃)] with dippe and NaBPh₄ in methanol. The crystal structures of 1a, 2 and 3 were determined. All of the compounds show pseudo-square planar “two legged” piano stool structures. The methylallyl ligand in 1a shows η³ coordination as expected, whereas in 2 the occurrence of an allyl–ene distortion in the 2-methylindenyl ligand leads to an intermediate η³/η⁵ coordination mode. An intermediate allyl–ene/diene distortion is present in the C₅Me₅ ligand in 3, although in this case a symmetrical η⁵ coordination is observed. All compounds were also characterised in solution by NMR spectroscopy.

The reaction of [RuCl2(dippe)2] [dippe 4;= 4;1,2-bis(diisopropylphosphino)ethane] with NaBPh4 in MeOH afforded the red-brown five-co-ordinate complex [RuCl(dippe)2][BPh4] 1. In analogous fashion, the complex cis-[OsCl2(dippe)2] 2, prepared by reaction of [NH4]2[OsCl6] with dippe in refluxing 2-methoxyethanol, yielded the corresponding five-co-ordinate species [OsCl(dippe)2][BPh4] 3 upon treatment with NaBPh4 in MeOH. Both complexes 1 and 3 react with PhSH furnishing the five-co-ordinate benzenethiolato derivatives [Ru(SPh)(dippe)2][BPh4] 4 and [Os(SPh)(dippe)2][BPh4] 5 respectively. The crystal structure of 4 has been determined, and shows that the complex cation adopts a distorted trigonal-bipyramidal geometry. With the exception of 4, which is rigid on the NMR time-scale, the other five-co-ordinate complexes are stereochemically non-rigid, and in some instances undergo dynamic processes in solution which have been ascribed to interactions with the solvent. Whereas complexes 1 and 5 do not react with H2, addition of H2 to 3 yields the dihydrogen complex trans-[OsCl(H2)(dippe)2][BPh4] 6. The reaction of 4 with H2 afforded the known five-co-ordinate hydride complex [RuH(dippe)2][BPh4], formed presumably by elimination of HSPh from an unstable thiolate–dihydrogen (or dihydride) complex, namely [Ru(SPh)(H2)(dippe)2][BPh4].

The pseudotetrahedral, formally 5-coordinate complex Niη3-CH2CCH3CH2SbPh33BAr′4 Ar′ 3,5-C6H3CF32 as well as the 4-coordinate derivative Niη3-CH2CCH3CH2AsPh32BAr′4 act as extremely efficient catalysts for the oligomerization of styrene.

The pseudotetrahedral, formally 5-coordinate complex [Ni(η3-CH₂C(CH₃)CH₂)(SbPh₃)₃][BAr'₄] (Ar' = 3,5-C₆H₃(CF₃)₂) as well as the 4-coordinate derivative [Ni(η3-CH₂C(CH₃)CH₂)(AsPh₃)₂][BAr'₄] act as extremely efficient catalysts for the oligomerization of styrene.

Background:Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) is a well-known complication of the advanced phase of Myeloproliferative Diseases (MPD) such as Polycythemia Vera (PV), Essential Thrombocytopenia (ET) and Myelofibrosis (MF). Although initially attributed to increased pulmonary vascular resistance (group 1 PH of the WHO classification), this entity was classified in 2009 in group 5 PH (unknown mechanism and miscellaneous PH). Our aim was to describe the prevalence and possible causes of PH in a series of patients with MF.