Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality

Diversidad de Microalgas Asociadas a Zonas Costeras: Estudio Caso La Guajira, Caribe

La diversidad de microalgas en el país es poco explorada y está amenazada por diversos tensores de origen humano. La mayoría de estudios de la diversidad de microalgas se fundamenta en técnicas dependientes de cultivo. Ecosistemas como manglares, el océano y ambientes salinos revelan una alta diversidad de microalgas. Se reportó que las ordenes Synechococcus, Oscillatoria y Halomicronema fueron las cianobacterias predominantes en la desembocadura del Río Ranchería (La Guajira) mediante secuenciación masiva. En campos de arroz de Fonseca (La Guajira) se aislaron las siguientes cianobacterias: Anabaena sp, Aphanocapsa sp, Chlorella sp, Chrococcus sp, Gloeocapsa sp, Golenkinia sp, Microcystis sp, Oedogonium sp, Oscillatoria amphibia, Oscillatoria limosa, Pseudoanabaena sp, Scenedesmus obliquus, Scenedesmus quadricauda y Spirogyra sp. Estas cianobacterias podrían promover el rendimiento y la productividad de cultivos de interés comercial en la zona.The diversity of microalgae in the country is little explored and is threatened by diverse tensors of human origin. Most studies of microalgae diversity are based on culturedependent techniques. Ecosystems such as mangroves, the ocean and saline environments reveal a high diversity of microalgae. It was reported that the orders Synechococcus, Oscillatoria and Halomicronema were the predominant cyanobacteria at the mouth of the Rio Ranchería (La Guajira) by means of massive sequencing. In rice fields of Fonseca (La Guajira) were isolated the following cyanobacteria: Gloeocapsa sp, Chlorella sp, Scenedesmus quadricauda, Scenedesmus obliquus, Anabaena sp, Chrococcus sp, Aphanocapsa sp, Microcystis sp, Pseudoanabaena sp, Golenkinia sp, Oscillatoria limosa, Oscillatoria amphibia, Spirogyra sp and Oedogonium sp. These cyanobacteria could promote the yield and productivity of crops of commercial interest in the area.Fil: Hernández Benítez, Ruth Elena. Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje; ColombiaFil: Liñan Montero, Katerine Yaneth. Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje; ColombiaFil: Cabrera Rodríguez, Álvaro. Universidad de La Guajira; ColombiaFil: Rojas Ortega, Janeth. Universidad de La Guajira; ColombiaFil: Araujo Vidal, Daldo Ricardo. Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje; ColombiaFil: Figueroa Galvis, Ingrid Paola. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Antonio Nariño; ColombiaFil: Vanegas, Javier. Universidad Antonio Nariño; Colombi

Religious affiliation and the intention to choose psychiatry as a specialty among physicians in training from 11 Latin American countries

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado.The worldwide scarcity of psychiatrists makes the identification of the factors associated with the intention to choose this specialty an important issue. This study aims to evaluate the association between religious affiliation and the intention to choose psychiatry as a specialty among medical students from 11 Latin American countries. We conducted a cross-sectional, multi-country study that included first- and fifth-year students of 63 medical schools in 11 Latin-American countries between 2011 and 2012. The main outcome and measures were the intention to pursue psychiatry as a specialty over other specialties (yes/no) and religious affiliation (without: atheist/agnostic; with: any religion). A total of 8308 participants were included; 53.6% were women, and the average age was 20.4 (SD = 2.9) years. About 36% were fifth-year students, and 11.8% were not affiliated with any religion. Only 2.6% had the intention to choose psychiatry; the highest proportion of students with the intention to choose psychiatry was among students in Chile (8.1%) and the lowest among students in Mexico (1.1%). After adjusting for demographic, family, academic as well as personal and professional projection variable, we found that those who had no religious affiliation were more likely to report the intention to become a psychiatrist [OR: 2.92 (95%CI: 2.14-4.00)]. There is a strong positive association between not having a religious affiliation and the intention to become a psychiatrist. The possible factors that influence this phenomenon must be evaluated in greater depth, ideally through longitudinal research.Revisión por pare

A global metagenomic map of urban microbiomes and antimicrobial resistance

We present a global atlas of 4,728 metagenomic samples from mass-transit systems in 60 cities over 3 years, representing the first systematic, worldwide catalog of the urban microbial ecosystem. This atlas provides an annotated, geospatial profile of microbial strains, functional characteristics, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) markers, and genetic elements, including 10,928 viruses, 1,302 bacteria, 2 archaea, and 838,532 CRISPR arrays not found in reference databases. We identified 4,246 known species of urban microorganisms and a consistent set of 31 species found in 97% of samples that were distinct from human commensal organisms. Profiles of AMR genes varied widely in type and density across cities. Cities showed distinct microbial taxonomic signatures that were driven by climate and geographic differences. These results constitute a high-resolution global metagenomic atlas that enables discovery of organisms and genes, highlights potential public health and forensic applications, and provides a culture-independent view of AMR burden in cities.Funding: the Tri-I Program in Computational Biology and Medicine (CBM) funded by NIH grant 1T32GM083937; GitHub; Philip Blood and the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), supported by NSF grant number ACI-1548562 and NSF award number ACI-1445606; NASA (NNX14AH50G, NNX17AB26G), the NIH (R01AI151059, R25EB020393, R21AI129851, R35GM138152, U01DA053941); STARR Foundation (I13- 0052); LLS (MCL7001-18, LLS 9238-16, LLS-MCL7001-18); the NSF (1840275); the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1151054); the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (G-2015-13964); Swiss National Science Foundation grant number 407540_167331; NIH award number UL1TR000457; the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute under contract number DE-AC02-05CH11231; the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, supported by the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy; Stockholm Health Authority grant SLL 20160933; the Institut Pasteur Korea; an NRF Korea grant (NRF-2014K1A4A7A01074645, 2017M3A9G6068246); the CONICYT Fondecyt Iniciación grants 11140666 and 11160905; Keio University Funds for Individual Research; funds from the Yamagata prefectural government and the city of Tsuruoka; JSPS KAKENHI grant number 20K10436; the bilateral AT-UA collaboration fund (WTZ:UA 02/2019; Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, UA:M/84-2019, M/126-2020); Kyiv Academic Univeristy; Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine project numbers 0118U100290 and 0120U101734; Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2013–2017; the CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya; the CRG-Novartis-Africa mobility program 2016; research funds from National Cheng Kung University and the Ministry of Science and Technology; Taiwan (MOST grant number 106-2321-B-006-016); we thank all the volunteers who made sampling NYC possible, Minciencias (project no. 639677758300), CNPq (EDN - 309973/2015-5), the Open Research Fund of Key Laboratory of Advanced Theory and Application in Statistics and Data Science – MOE, ECNU, the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong through project 11215017, National Key RD Project of China (2018YFE0201603), and Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (2017SHZDZX01) (L.S.