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Organized screening for breast cancer (BC) was suspended in most countries of the world during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Com-puted tomography (CT) scans of the chest, frequently performed in patients with severe forms of COVID-19, may detect asymptomatic breast abnormalities. A 72-year-old patient, with a severe form of COVID-19 underwent a diagnostic CT scan. This led to the unexpected discovery, at an early stage, of a 12 mm, high grade, Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positive BC, with a high proliferation index. After responding to chemotherapy, she was managed with conser-vative breast surgery with sentinel lymph node biopsy. Delayed management of BC can be responsible for poor outcomes. Patients with severe forms of COVID-19 are also at risk for developing BC due to common risk factors. Thirty percent of incidental breast lesions discovered on CT scans are undiagnosed BC. Careful study of the mammary glands on CT scan of patients with COVID-19 may allow early diagnosis of a malignant tumor in a high-risk population for BC and deprived of routine screening mammography.

Current in vitro models of developmental blood formation lack spatiotemporal coherence and weakly replicate the hematopoietic microenvironment. Developmentally-appropriate models can enhance understanding of infant acute myeloid leukemia (infAML), which putatively originates in utero and has 50% age-unique genetic events, suggesting unique biology. The commonest genetic abnormality unique to infants involves homeobox gene MNX1, whose leukemogenic mechanisms remain unknown. Recently, 3D self-organising embryonic stem cell (SC)-based gastruloids have shown promise in recapitulating embryonic events with time/space precision. Herein, we report a hemogenic gastruloid (haemGx) system that captures multi-wave blood formation, progenitor specification from hemogenic endothelium (HE), and approximates generation of hematopoietic SC precursors. Enforced MNX1 expression in haemGx promotes HE formation, perturbs endothelial-to-hemogenic transition, and critically achieves transformation, generating myeloid colonies which display MNX1 AML signatures. By combining functional assays with single-cell transcriptomics, we establish the haemGx as a new model of normal and leukemic embryonic hematopoiesis amenable to mechanistic exploration.

Platinum compounds cytotoxicity is strictly related to their ability to be converted into active mono- and di-aquated species and consequently to the replacement of labile ligands by water molecules. This activation process makes the platinum center prone to nucleophilic substitution by DNA purines. In the present work, quantum mechanical density functional theory (DFT) computations and experimental investigations were carried out in order to shed light on the relationship between the internalization, aquation, and DNA binding of two isostructural anionic theranostic complexes previously reported by our group, NBu