Cytofluorographic and molecular identification of a CD8-positive, TCR-α/β-negative intraocular T cell lymphoma: a case report and review of the literature

Abstract Introduction Cytofluorographic and molecular techniques are effective adjuncts in diagnosing intraocular lymphoma. Primary intraocular lymphoma is an uncommon entity predominantly of B cell origin and rarely with a T cell phenotype. The aim of the present paper is to report a case of a CD8-positive, TCR-α/β-negative intraocular T cell lymphoma and review the literature. Case presentation T cell neoplasia was detected based on flow cytometric demonstration of an abnormal T cell population and polymerase chain reactions for immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor rearrangements demonstrating evidence of monoclonality. Flow cytometry revealed a T cell population aberrantly expressing T-cell lineage markers. This T cell population expressed CD2, bright CD3, CD8, bright CD7, CD38, CD69, and variable CD25. T-cell receptor γ gene rearrangement studies demonstrated evidence of T-cell gene rearrangement confirming that the T cells were monoclonal. Conclusion We herein report the rare case of a TCR α/β-negative CD8+ intraocular T-cell lymphoma suggestive of gamma/delta origin diagnosed by flow cytometry and polymerase chain reaction.</p

An Evaluation of Point-of-Care HbA1c, HbA1c Home Kits, and Glucose Management Indicator: Potential Solutions for Telehealth Glycemic Assessments

During the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer in-person clinic visits resulted in fewer point-of-care (POC) HbA1c measurements. In this sub-study, we assessed the performance of alternative glycemic measures that can be obtained remotely, such as HbA1c home kits and Glucose Management Indicator (GMI) values from Dexcom Clarity. Home kit HbA1c (n = 99), GMI, (n = 88), and POC HbA1c (n = 32) were collected from youth with T1D (age 9.7 &plusmn; 4.6 years). Bland&ndash;Altman analyses and Lin&rsquo;s concordance correlation coefficient (&#120588;c) were used to characterize the agreement between paired HbA1c measures. Both the HbA1c home kit and GMI showed a slight positive bias (mean difference 0.18% and 0.34%, respectively) and strong concordance with POC HbA1c (&#120588;c = 0.982 [0.965, 0.991] and 0.823 [0.686, 0.904], respectively). GMI showed a slight positive bias (mean difference 0.28%) and fair concordance (&#120588;c = 0.750 [0.658, 0.820]) to the HbA1c home kit. In conclusion, the strong concordance of GMI and home kits to POC A1c measures suggest their utility in telehealth visits assessments. Although these are not candidates for replacement, these measures can facilitate telehealth visits, particularly in the context of other POC HbA1c measurements from an individual

The complete mitochondrial genome of the strawberry aphid Chaetosiphon fragaefolii Cockerell, 1901 (Hemiptera: Aphididae) from California, USA

The aphid Chaetosiphon fragaefolii Cockerell, 1901 is an agricultural pest and known vector of strawberry viruses. To better understand its biology and systematics, we performed a genomic analysis on C. fragaefolii collected from Quinalt strawberry plants from Pacific Grove, Monterey county, California, USA using Oxford Nanopore and Illumina sequencing. The resulting data were used to assemble the aphids complete mitogenome. The mitogenome of C. fragaefolii is 16,108 bp in length and contains 2 rRNA, 13 protein-coding, and 22 tRNA genes (GenBank accession number LC590896). The mitogenome is similar in content and organization to other Aphididae. Phylogenetic analysis of the C. fragaefolii mitogenome resolved it in a fully supported clade in the tribe Macrosiphini. Analysis of the cox1 barcode sequence of C. fragaefolii from California found exact and nearly identical sequences to C. fragaefolii and Chaetosiphon thomasi Hille Ris Lambers, 1953, suggesting the two species are conspecific

Treatment of severe COVID-19 with convalescent plasma in Bronx, NYC

Convalescent plasma with severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies (CCP) may hold promise as a treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We compared the mortality and clinical outcome of patients with COVID-19 who received 200 mL of CCP with a spike protein IgG titer ≥ 1:2430 (median 1:47,385) within 72 hours of admission with propensity score–matched controls cared for at a medical center in the Bronx, between April 13 and May 4, 2020. Matching criteria for controls were age, sex, body mass index, race, ethnicity, comorbidities, week of admission, oxygen requirement, D-dimer, lymphocyte counts, corticosteroid use, and anticoagulation use. There was no difference in mortality or oxygenation between CCP recipients and controls at day 28. When stratified by age, compared with matched controls, CCP recipients less than 65 years had 4-fold lower risk of mortality and 4-fold lower risk of deterioration in oxygenation or mortality at day 28. For CCP recipients, pretransfusion spike protein IgG, IgM, and IgA titers were associated with mortality at day 28 in univariate analyses. No adverse effects of CCP were observed. Our results suggest CCP may be beneficial for hospitalized patients less than 65 years, but data from controlled trials are needed to validate this finding and establish the effect of aging on CCP efficacy

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.