Notes

BRICS carbon neutrality focus on: Calculating the outcome involving electricity generation through alternative energy sources and also globalization.
Global randomised controlled trials of the anti-IL-6 receptor antibody tocilizumab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 have shown conflicting results but potential decreases in time to discharge and burden on intensive care. Tocilizumab reduced progression to mechanical ventilation and death in a trial population enriched for racial and ethnic minorities. We aimed to investigate whether tocilizumab treatment could prevent COVID-19 progression in the first multicentre randomised controlled trial of tocilizumab done entirely in a lower-middle-income country.

COVINTOC is an open-label, multicentre, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial done at 12 public and private hospitals across India. Adults (aged ≥18 years) admitted to hospital with moderate to severe COVID-19 (Indian Ministry of Health grading) confirmed by positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR result were randomly assigned (11 block randomisation) to receive tocilizumab 6 mg/kg plus standard care (the tocilizumab group) or standard care alone (the standa is not supported. However, post-hoc evidence from this study suggests tocilizumab might still be effective in patients with severe COVID-19 and so should be investigated further in future studies.

Medanta Institute of Education and Research, Roche India, Cipla India, and Action COVID-19 India.
Medanta Institute of Education and Research, Roche India, Cipla India, and Action COVID-19 India.Since the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, the etiologic agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the viral genome has acquired numerous mutations with the potential to increase transmission. One year after its emergence, we now further analyze emergent SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences in an effort to understand the evolution of this virus.
Conflicting results between bacterial mutagenicity tests (the Ames test) and mammalian carcinogenicity tests might be due to species differences in metabolism, genome structure, and DNA repair systems. Mutagenicity assays using human cells are thought to be an advantage as follow-up studies for positive results in Ames tests. In this collaborative study, a thymidine kinase gene mutation study (TK6 assay) using human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells, established in OECD TG490, was used to examine 10 chemicals that have conflicting results in mutagenicity studies (a positive Ames test and a negative result in rodent carcinogenicity studies).

Two of 10 test substances were negative in the overall judgment (20% effective as a follow-up test). Three of these eight positive substances were negative after the short-term treatment and positive after the 24 h treatment, despite identical treatment conditions without S9. A toxicoproteomic analysis of TK6 cells treated with 4-nitroanthranilic acid was thus used to aid the interpretation of the test results. This analysis using differentially expressed proteins after the 24 h treatment indicated that in vitro specific oxidative stress is involved in false positive response in the TK6 assay.

The usefulness of the TK6 assay, by current methods that have not been combined with new technologies such as proteomics, was found to be limited as a follow-up test, although it still may help to reduce some false positive results (20%) in Ames tests. Thus, the combination analysis with toxicoproteomics may be useful for interpreting false positive results raised by 24 h specific reactions in the assay, resulting in the more reduction (> 20%) of false positives in Ames test.
 20%) of false positives in Ames test.
Aging is one of major causes triggering neurophysiological changes in many brain substructures, including the hippocampus, which has a major role in learning and memory. Thioredoxin (Trx) is a class of small redox proteins. Among the Trx family, Trx2 plays an important role in the regulation of mitochondrial membrane potential and is controlled by TrxR2. MV1035 Hitherto, age-dependent alterations in Trx2 and TrxR2 in aged hippocampi have been poorly investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine changes in Trx2 and TrxR2 in mouse and rat hippocampi by age and to compare their differences between mice and rats.

Trx2 and TrxR2 levels using Western blots in mice were the highest at young age and gradually reduced with time, showing that no significant differences in the levels were found between the two subfields. In rats, however, their expression levels were the lowest at young age and gradually increased with time. Nevertheless, there were no differences in cellular distribution and morphology in their hippocampi when it was observed by cresyl violet staining. In addition, both Trx2 and TrxR2 immunoreactivities in the CA1-3 fields were mainly shown in pyramidal cells (principal cells), showing that their immunoreactivities were altered like changes in their protein levels.

Our current findings suggest that Trx2 and TrxR2 expressions in the brain may be different according to brain regions, age and species. Therefore, further studies are needed to examine the reasons of the differences of Trx2 and TrxR2 expressions in the hippocampus between mice and rats.
Our current findings suggest that Trx2 and TrxR2 expressions in the brain may be different according to brain regions, age and species. Therefore, further studies are needed to examine the reasons of the differences of Trx2 and TrxR2 expressions in the hippocampus between mice and rats.
Morphology, being one of the key factors influencing productivity of filamentous fungi, is of great interest during bioprocess development. With increasing demand of high-throughput phenotyping technologies for fungi due to the emergence of novel time-efficient genetic engineering technologies, workflows for automated liquid handling combined with high-throughput morphology analysis have to be developed.

In this study, a protocol allowing for 48 parallel microbioreactor cultivations of Aspergillus carbonarius with non-invasive online signals of backscatter and dissolved oxygen was established. To handle the increased cultivation throughput, the utilized microbioreactor is integrated into a liquid handling platform. During cultivation of filamentous fungi, cell suspensions result in either viscous broths or form pellets with varying size throughout the process. Therefore, tailor-made liquid handling parameters such as aspiration/dispense height, velocity and mixing steps were optimized and validated. Development and utilization of a novel injection station enabled a workflow, where biomass samples are automatically transferred into a flow through chamber fixed under a light microscope.
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