Design of epitope based vaccine against shrimp white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) by targeting the envelope proteins: An immunoinformatic approach

The shrimp white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) causes significant damage to aquaculture production worldwide but a vaccine, eliciting the immunogenicity of shrimps against WSSV has yet to be developed. Thus, a programmed immunoinformatics study was conducted to find out the potential immunogens based on genome-wide screening of WSSV envelope proteins. The measurements of the phylogenetic and evolutionary distances found the common geographical routes of three countries, where the proteins from other six countries were clustered together. Among all the four major envelope proteins i.e., VP19, VP24, VP26, and VP28; AAO69663.1 from VP26 showed the highest antigenicity and thus selected for further studies. The properties of the secondary and tertiary structure including the modelled 3D protein revealed that the protein had all the properties required for a protective immunogen. The peptide regions ranging from 99 to 115 and 98 to 106, representing the sequences “VTAPRTDPAGTGAENSN” and “TVTAPRTDP” were found to be most effective regions for B-cell linear and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL), respectively. The CTL epitope also showed a strong and stable interaction with the MHC class I and class II molecules, reported to be found in fish. Therefore, the present epitope could be used as a potential vaccine candidate against WSSV

Measures, Gaps, and Mitigation Strategies in Bangladesh’s COVID-19 Response

AbstractThe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread rapidly from China to most other countries around the world in early 2020 killing millions of people. To prevent virus spread, world governments implemented a variety of response measures. This paper’s objectives were to discuss the country’s adopted measures to combat the virus through June 2020, identify gaps in the measures’ effectiveness, and offer possible mitigations to those gaps. The measures taken included screening device deployment across international air and land ports, flight suspensions and closures from COVID-19 affected countries, and declaration and extension of a national public holiday (equivalent to lockdowns in other countries). Identified gaps were test kit, PPE, ICU beds, and ventilator shortages, limited public awareness, and insufficient coordination and collaboration among national and international partners. Proper and timely risk mapping, preparedness, communication, coordination, and collaboration among governments and organizations, and public awareness and engagement would have provided sufficient COVID-19 mitigation in Bangladesh. </jats:p

New estimates of the size and trend of the world population of the spoon-billed sandpiper using three independent statistical models

A single formal estimate of the size of the world population of the Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper Calidris pygmaea has been published. This used a Lincoln-Petersen method, which combined a global mark-resighting analysis with a scan survey to estimate the proportion of birds with individual marks observed at a post-breeding moult and migration stopover site in Jiangsu Province, China. We report nine further repetitions of this procedure, which we call Method A, giving ten world population estimates in all, during the 6-year period 2014–2019. Four of these estimates use scan surveys from Jiangsu in the post-breeding adult moult period and six are from the non-breeding season (November–February) at three widely-separated sites in Bangladesh, Myanmar and South China. The weighted mean world population size at the end of the breeding season, based upon all ten surveys, was 490 mature individuals (95% C.L. 360–620) and 773 individuals of all ages (95% C.L. 569–978), which is similar to the single previous Method A estimate (420 mature individuals), but considerably more precise. We also report results from two independent but low-precision methods: one based upon published non-breeding season counts and the non-breeding season localities of satellite-tagged birds (Method B) and the other based upon mark-recapture analysis of birds marked as unfledged chicks and recaptured as migrating juveniles (Method C). These two methods gave estimates within the range 471 to 922 mature individuals, depending upon assumptions. The trend of Method A population size estimates with time during the short study period was a decline at a mean rate of 8% per year, but this did not differ significantly from zero (no change). The precision of this estimate of population trend was low, but its rate is of similar magnitude to the 9% per year decline during 2009–2016, derived from surveys of the local population at the most important known non-breeding season site in Myanmar. Hence, although the rapid population decline indicated by surveys of breeding populations observed prior to 2009 (mean 26% decline per year) has probably slowed as a result of conservation efforts, our results indicate that the species should continue to be listed as Critically Endangered.We thank the students of Nanjing Normal University who have helped in the ringing of Spoon-billed Sandpipers and other shorebirds in Jiangsu Province, China: Zhao Fangzheng, Ge Xiaohui, Hu Dongfang, Liu Wei, Zhang Yi, Chen Peng, Tai Deyun, Wu Yuhao, Xu Xue, Yao Wenjia, Wang Hao, Qian Nven; We thank the researchers from the Jiangsu Academy of Forestry: Ding Jingjing, Wang Xuan. We are grateful to the China Bird Banding Center, which supports the banding programme in China. Data collection was partly supported by The Biodiversity Investigation and Assessment program (2019–2023) of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China. Research and conservation work by BirdsRussia in Chukotka and Kamchatka was supported by RSPB, NABU, MHS, WWT, Chukotka administration and many other funding sources. The work of E. Lappo was partly supported by Basic Research Program (budgetary funds), project No.0148-2019-0007. Russian authors are thankful to all BirdsRussia team members, including numerous volunteers from abroad, who helped with nest searching and supported the catching and individual marking of birds. Svetlana and Roman Belogorodtsevy and other people of Meinypil’gyno are thanked for their help during our fieldwork. Richard Hearn, Kane Brides and Pyae-Phyo Aung made valuable contributions to the fieldwork. We thank all the surveyors and photographers who have undertaken surveys or sent in records of marked birds and Vivian Fu, Ding Li Yong and Paul Insua-Cao for detailed advice on past survey locations. We thank Nicola Crockford and Christoph Zöckler for advice and comments. We are grateful to Paul Howey of Microwave Telemetry Inc. for developing the miniature satellite tags used in this study and responding to our requests for variations of the design. We thank the (Animal Welfare) Ethics Advisory Committee of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for scrutinising our application to attach satellite tags to Spoon-billed Sandpipers

Oncogenic Signaling Pathways in The Cancer Genome Atlas.

Genetic alterations in signaling pathways that control cell-cycle progression, apoptosis, and cell growth are common hallmarks of cancer, but the extent, mechanisms, and co-occurrence of alterations in these pathways differ between individual tumors and tumor types. Using mutations, copy-number changes, mRNA expression, gene fusions and DNA methylation in 9,125 tumors profiled by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we analyzed the mechanisms and patterns of somatic alterations in ten canonical pathways: cell cycle, Hippo, Myc, Notch, Nrf2, PI-3-Kinase/Akt, RTK-RAS, TGFβ signaling, p53 and β-catenin/Wnt. We charted the detailed landscape of pathway alterations in 33 cancer types, stratified into 64 subtypes, and identified patterns of co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity. Eighty-nine percent of tumors had at least one driver alteration in these pathways, and 57% percent of tumors had at least one alteration potentially targetable by currently available drugs. Thirty percent of tumors had multiple targetable alterations, indicating opportunities for combination therapy

Oncogenic Signaling Pathways in The Cancer Genome Atlas.

Genetic alterations in signaling pathways that control cell-cycle progression, apoptosis, and cell growth are common hallmarks of cancer, but the extent, mechanisms, and co-occurrence of alterations in these pathways differ between individual tumors and tumor types. Using mutations, copy-number changes, mRNA expression, gene fusions and DNA methylation in 9,125 tumors profiled by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we analyzed the mechanisms and patterns of somatic alterations in ten canonical pathways: cell cycle, Hippo, Myc, Notch, Nrf2, PI-3-Kinase/Akt, RTK-RAS, TGFβ signaling, p53 and β-catenin/Wnt. We charted the detailed landscape of pathway alterations in 33 cancer types, stratified into 64 subtypes, and identified patterns of co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity. Eighty-nine percent of tumors had at least one driver alteration in these pathways, and 57% percent of tumors had at least one alteration potentially targetable by currently available drugs. Thirty percent of tumors had multiple targetable alterations, indicating opportunities for combination therapy