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Background Comorbidities including ischemic heart disease (IHD) worsen outcomes after SARS‐CoV‐2 infections. High lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] concentrations are a strong risk factor for IHD and possibly for thromboembolic events. We therefore evaluated whether SARS‐CoV‐2 infections modify the risk of high Lp(a) concentrations for IHD or thromboembolic events during the first 8.5 months follow‐up of the pandemic. Method Cohort study using data from the UK Biobank during the SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic. Baseline Lp(a) was compared between SARS‐CoV‐2 positive patients and the population controls. UK Biobank received ethical approval from the North West Multi‐Centre Research Ethics Committee (REC reference: 11/NW/0382). All participants gave written informed consent before enrolment in the study, which was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Results SARS‐CoV‐2 positive patients had Lp(a) concentrations similar to the population controls. The risk for IHD increased with higher Lp(a) concentrations in both, the population controls (n = 435,104) and SARS‐CoV‐2 positive patients (n = 6,937). The causality of the findings was supported by a genetic risk score for Lp(a). A SARS‐CoV‐2 infection modified the association with a steeper increase in risk for infected patients (interaction P‐value = 0.03). Although SARS‐CoV‐2 positive patients had a 5‐times higher frequency of thromboembolic events compared to the population controls (1.53% vs. 0.31%), the risk was not influenced by Lp(a). Conclusions SARS‐CoV‐2 infections enforce the association between high Lp(a) and IHD but the risk for thromboembolic events is not influenced by Lp(a). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Few data exist on health-related quality of life (QoL) in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC) receiving first-line chemotherapy (Awad L ZE, Mesbah M Boston, MA. Applying survival data methodology to analyze quality of life data, in Mesbah M, Cole BF, Ting Lee M-L (eds): Statistical Methods for Quality of Life Studies: Design, Measurements and Analysis. Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002). The QOLIXANE study is a prospective, noninterventional, multicenter substudy of the Platform for Outcome, Quality of Life and Translational Research on Pancreatic Cancer (PARAGON) registry, which evaluated QoL in patients with mPC receiving first-line gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel chemotherapy in real-life setting. QoL was prospectively measured via EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaires at baseline and every month thereafter. Therapy and efficacy parameters were prospectively collected. Main objectives were the rate of patients without deterioration of Global Health Status/QoL (GHS/QoL) at 3 and 6 months. Six hundred patients were enrolled in 95 German study sites. Median progression-free survival was 5.9 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.2-6.3). Median overall survival (OS) was 8.9 months (95% CI, 7.9-10.2), while median time to deterioration of GHS/QoL was 4.7 months (95% CI, 4.0-5.6). With a baseline GHS/QoL score of 46 (SD, 22.8), baseline QoL of the patients was severely impaired, in most cases due to loss in role functioning and fatigue. In the Kaplan-Meier analysis, 61% and 41% of patients had maintained GHS/QoL after 3 and 6 months, respectively. However, in the QoL response analysis, 35% and 19% of patients had maintained (improved or stable) GHS/QoL after 3 and 6 months, respectively, while 14% and 9% had deteriorated GHS/QoL with the remaining patients being nonevaluable. In the Cox regression analysis, GHS/QoL scores strongly predicted survival with a hazard ratio of 0.86 (P < .0001). Patients with mPC have poor QoL at baseline that deteriorates within a median of 4.7 months. Treatment with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel is associated with maintained QoL in relevant proportions of patients. However, overall, results remain poor, reflecting the aggressive nature of the disease.

The enhancement of standard dense phase carbon dioxide (DPCD) pasteurization by additional mechanical effects was assessed in this work. These effects were induced during pasteurization by the sudden depressurization in a narrow minitube. The high flow velocities, moderate pressures (40–80 bar) and low temperatures (25–45 °C) lead to intense degasification and shear stress. The inactivation of the test microorganism Escherichia coli DH5α (E. coli DH5α) was determined before and after depressurization in the minitube, representing entirely chemical DPCD via dissolved CO2 and total inactivation comprising the effects of dissolved CO2 and mechanical effects, respectively. Compared to conventional DPCD pasteurization, which is mostly attributed to chemical effects, the additional mechanical effects increased the inactivation efficiency considerably.

Continuous gas-solid processes are applied in many industries with particulate products, e.g. for granulation or coating. In this contribution, the residence time behavior in a continuously operated prismatic spouted bed was determined by applying an impulse of magnetizable tracer particles. Experiments were performed with the original configuration and with separation plates including mouse holes of varying size between the different chambers of the ProCell 25 apparatus. It is shown that the shape of the residence time distribution is influenced by the separation plates. In order to quantify the backmixing between the chambers, discontinuous experiments were performed, and the bed mass distribution and the distribution of the tracer were measured and compared to the initial conditions.

The selective detachment of undifferentiated human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from a thermal release coating, fabricated from a tailored poly(di(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (PDEGMA) homopolymer layer on gold, is reported. By exploiting the mild, thermally triggered release of iPS cell colonies in the absence of any releasing reagent, pluripotent iPS cells are shown to be selectively separated from spontaneously differentiated cells. The maintained pluripotency and high cell viability of detached and reseeded iPS cell colonies were confirmed and suggest the feasibility of a generally applicable platform approach for cell separation and purification in the context of iPS cell culture, differentiation of pathologically altered cells and normal cells, as well as isolation of different cell types derived from certain tissues, for example, from biopsies.

Journal of internal medicine 290(1), 190-202 (2021). doi:10.1111/joim.13242, Published by Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford [u.a.]

International audience; As a growing public health concern, the worldwide spread of antimicrobial resistance urges the development of new therapies. Antibacterial photodynamic therapy (a‐PDT) may be an alternative to conventional antibiotic therapy. Herein we report the synthesis and characterization of seven original reactive oxygen species (ROS)‐producing ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes. These are part of a collection of 17 derivatives varying in terms of the nature of the substituent(s), molecular symmetry, electrical charge, and counterions. They were characterized by considering 1) their physical properties (absorption coefficient at irradiation wavelength, 1O2 generation quantum yield, luminescence) and 2) their antibacterial activity in a series of photodynamic assays using Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria of clinical relevance. The results unveiled some structure–activity relationships: one derivative that combines multiple beneficial features for a‐PDT was effective against all the bacteria considered, regardless of their Gram status, species, or antibiotic resistance profile. This systematic study could guide the design of next‐generation ruthenium‐based complexes for enhanced antibacterial photodynamic strategies.

Der vorliegende Ubersichtsartikel berichtet uber Fortschritte in der molekularen Modellierung und Simulation mittels massiv-paralleler Hoch- und Hochstleistungsrechner (HPC). Im SkaSim-Projekt arbeiteten dazu Partner aus der HPC-Community mit Anwendern aus Wissenschaft und Industrie zusammen. Ziel dabei war es mittels HPC-Methoden die Vorhersage von thermodynamischen Stoffdaten in Bezug auf Effizienz, Qualitat und Zuverlassigkeit weiter zu optimieren. In diesem Zusammenhang wurden verschiedene Themen bearbeitet: Atomistische Simulation der homogenen Gasblasenbildung, Oberflachenspannung klassischer Fluide und ionischer Flussigkeiten, multikriterielle Optimierung molekularer Modelle, Weiterentwicklung der Simulationscodes ls1 mardyn und ms2, atomistische Simulation von Gastrennprozessen, molekulare Membran-Strukturgeneratoren, Transportwiderstande und gemischtypenspezifische Bewertung pradiktiver Stoffdatenmodelle.