Student politics, teaching politics, black politics: an interview with Ansel Wong

Ansel Wong is the quiet man of British black politics, rarely in the limelight and never seeking political office. And yet his ‘career’ here – from Black Power firebrand to managing a multimillion budget as head of the Greater London Council’s Ethnic Minority Unit in the 1980s – spells out some of the most important developments in black educational and cultural projects. In this interview, he discusses his identification with Pan-Africanism, his involvement in student politics, his role in the establishment of youth projects and supplementary schools in the late 1960s and 1970s, and his involvement in black radical politics in London in the same period, all of which took place against the background of revolutionary ferment in the Third World and the world of ideas, and were not without their own internal class and ethnic conflicts

Single-dose BNT162b2 vaccine protects against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection

The BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) is being utilised internationally for mass COVID-19 vaccination. Evidence of single-dose protection against symptomatic disease has encouraged some countries to opt for delayed booster doses of BNT162b2, but the effect of this strategy on rates of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection remains unknown. We previously demonstrated frequent pauci- and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst healthcare workers (HCWs) during the UK’s first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, using a comprehensive PCR-based HCW screening programme (Rivett et al., 2020; Jones et al., 2020). Here, we evaluate the effect of first-dose BNT162b2 vaccination on test positivity rates and find a fourfold reduction in asymptomatic infection amongst HCWs ≥12 days post-vaccination. These data provide real-world evidence of short-term protection against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection following a single dose of BNT162b2 vaccine, suggesting that mass first-dose vaccination will reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, as well as the burden of COVID-19 disease

Multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the UK (C-MORE): a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study

Introduction: The multiorgan impact of moderate to severe coronavirus infections in the post-acute phase is still poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities after hospitalisation with COVID-19, evaluate their determinants, and explore associations with patient-related outcome measures. Methods: In a prospective, UK-wide, multicentre MRI follow-up study (C-MORE), adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital following COVID-19 who were included in Tier 2 of the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) and contemporary controls with no evidence of previous COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody negative) underwent multiorgan MRI (lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys) with quantitative and qualitative assessment of images and clinical adjudication when relevant. Individuals with end-stage renal failure or contraindications to MRI were excluded. Participants also underwent detailed recording of symptoms, and physiological and biochemical tests. The primary outcome was the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities (two or more organs) relative to controls, with further adjustments for potential confounders. The C-MORE study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04510025. Findings: Of 2710 participants in Tier 2 of PHOSP-COVID, 531 were recruited across 13 UK-wide C-MORE sites. After exclusions, 259 C-MORE patients (mean age 57 years [SD 12]; 158 [61%] male and 101 [39%] female) who were discharged from hospital with PCR-confirmed or clinically diagnosed COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Nov 1, 2021, and 52 non-COVID-19 controls from the community (mean age 49 years [SD 14]; 30 [58%] male and 22 [42%] female) were included in the analysis. Patients were assessed at a median of 5·0 months (IQR 4·2–6·3) after hospital discharge. Compared with non-COVID-19 controls, patients were older, living with more obesity, and had more comorbidities. Multiorgan abnormalities on MRI were more frequent in patients than in controls (157 [61%] of 259 vs 14 [27%] of 52; p<0·0001) and independently associated with COVID-19 status (odds ratio [OR] 2·9 [95% CI 1·5–5·8]; padjusted=0·0023) after adjusting for relevant confounders. Compared with controls, patients were more likely to have MRI evidence of lung abnormalities (p=0·0001; parenchymal abnormalities), brain abnormalities (p<0·0001; more white matter hyperintensities and regional brain volume reduction), and kidney abnormalities (p=0·014; lower medullary T1 and loss of corticomedullary differentiation), whereas cardiac and liver MRI abnormalities were similar between patients and controls. Patients with multiorgan abnormalities were older (difference in mean age 7 years [95% CI 4–10]; mean age of 59·8 years [SD 11·7] with multiorgan abnormalities vs mean age of 52·8 years [11·9] without multiorgan abnormalities; p<0·0001), more likely to have three or more comorbidities (OR 2·47 [1·32–4·82]; padjusted=0·0059), and more likely to have a more severe acute infection (acute CRP >5mg/L, OR 3·55 [1·23–11·88]; padjusted=0·025) than those without multiorgan abnormalities. Presence of lung MRI abnormalities was associated with a two-fold higher risk of chest tightness, and multiorgan MRI abnormalities were associated with severe and very severe persistent physical and mental health impairment (PHOSP-COVID symptom clusters) after hospitalisation. Interpretation: After hospitalisation for COVID-19, people are at risk of multiorgan abnormalities in the medium term. Our findings emphasise the need for proactive multidisciplinary care pathways, with the potential for imaging to guide surveillance frequency and therapeutic stratification

Seed yields in canola (Brassica napus cv. Karoo) depend on the distance of plants from honey bee apiaries

This research examined the benefits of placing hives of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) in canola (Brassica napus L.) at a density of approximately 1 hive/ha. We tested three main hypotheses. First, deploying honey bees increases the yield of seed. Second, that the benefits of honey bee pollination decline the further plants are from an apiary. Third, poorly pollinated plants should channel more resources into larger seeds, whereas plants benefiting from insect pollination should produce more but smaller seeds. The experiment confirmed all three hypotheses. Yields of seed increased by more than 20% or by 400 kg/ha, whereas the yield declined in plots located more than 200 m from the apiary. There are several explanations for the increased yield, including an enhanced production of fertile pods and, therefore, more seed, partucularly small seed

Phytoplankton indicator taxa for reference conditions in lowland Northern and Central European lakes

Phytoplankton data from 606 lakes was used to characterise indicator taxa of near pristine reference conditions in clearwater and humic lowland lakes in Northern and Central Europe. Reference lakes were selected based on low pressure from catchment land-use, low population density and absence of point sources. Reference lakes had low phytoplankton biomass and taxa richness compared to non-reference lakes. In the North European low alkalinitry lakes the reference communities had high biomass proportions of chrysophytes and low proportions of cyanobacteria; in the Central European high alkalinity lakes the biomass was distributed more evenly among algal groups. Indicator Species Analysis and Similarity Analysis listed 5-29 taxa for reference conditions. Indicator taxa differed especially between the low alkalinity North European and high alkalinity Central European lakess but there were also country-specific differences. Most common indicator taxa for the Northern reference lakes were chrysophytes (e.g. Bitrichia, Dinobryon). In the Central European reference lakes diatoms (e.g. Cyclotella) were more characteristic. Despite the differences there was a general finding that taxa present in reference lakes were often also present in non-reference lakes, but typically in lower biomass proportions. Another characteristic of the reference communities is the absence of many taxa typically found in non-reference lakes.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

1472-P: Dual Pancreatic Adrenergic and Dopaminergic Signaling as a Therapeutic Mechanism for Treatment of Dysglycemia by Bromocriptine

Dopaminergic agonism effectively treats dysglycemia, with dopaminergic agonist bromocriptine approved as a type 2 diabetes therapy. Though bromocriptine’s actions have been mainly attributed to stimulation of dopamine D2 receptors (D2R) in the brain, we previously showed that bromocriptine also targets metabolically-relevant peripheral tissues including the endocrine pancreas. Here, we employ bromocriptine as a tool to elucidate roles of dopaminergic and adrenergic signaling in regulation of pancreatic hormone secretion. Using bromocriptine, we demonstrate a new mechanism for metabolic actions in pancreatic α-cells and β-cells via D2R and adrenergic α2A receptor (α2A-AR) signaling. In β-cells, bromocriptine acts jointly on D2R and α2A-AR to reduce glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) , while in α-cells, bromocriptine acts via D2R to reduce glucagon secretion. Bromocriptine reduces cAMP in β-cells via concurrent actions on D2R and α2A-AR, further emphasizing shared roles of adrenergic and dopaminergic receptor agonism in GSIS regulation. At the receptor level, α2A-AR activation by bromocriptine leads to receptor recruitment of an ensemble of G proteins driven mainly via G protein signaling with no β-arrestin2 recruitment. In contrast, D2R recruits both G proteins and β-arrestin2 upon bromocriptine stimulation, demonstrating signaling unique to each receptor. Docking studies also reveal that bromocriptine binding to α2A-AR is distinct from bromocriptine-bound D2R, providing a structural basis for bromocriptine’s dual actions on β-cell α2A-AR and D2R. Together, joint dopaminergic and adrenergic receptor actions on α-cell and β-cell hormone release provide a new therapeutic mechanism to improve dysglycemia in diabetes. Disclosure S. Bertera: None. L. Friggeri: None. R. Logan: None. R. Free: None. R. Bottino: Employee; Imagine Pharma. Funding Department of Defense (PR141292) , National Institutes of Health (R01DK124219, R01DK097160, RDA046138) , the John F. and Nancy A. Emmerling Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (ZIA-NS002263) , Veterans Affairs VA-ORD-BLR&amp;D (I01BX002678) , the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB1423, project number 421152132) . </jats:sec