The current advances of CRISPR/Cas-based systems for the detection of COVID-19

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) still poses a serious threat to every human on the planet nearly 1.5 years after its beginning. Unfortunately, the current diagnostic methods, although highly sensitive and specific, still suffer from many shortcomings. Faster and easy-to-operate diagnostic systems are undoubtedly sorely needed. The CRISPR/Cas platform has gained much attention in recent years in a wide range of biomedical sciences. Besides its treatment potential and drug and vaccine development, it can be used for disease diagnosis. Thus, the CRISPR/Cas-based system holds great promise for providing a rapid and easily deployable COVID-19 detection and is on par with the conventional diagnostic approaches in terms of sensitivity and specificity. In this review article, we discuss the latest advances of CRISPR/Cas technology as a fast and reliable severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection method

Eosinophils in the tumor microenvironment: implications for cancer immunotherapy

Abstract Despite being an integral part of the immune response in the tumor microenvironment (TME), few studies have mechanistically elucidated eosinophil functions in cancer outcomes. Eosinophils are a minor population of granulocytes that are mostly explored in asthma and allergic disorders. Their influence on primary and metastatic tumors, however, has recently come to light. Eosinophils’ diverse armamentarium of mediators and receptors allows them to participate in innate and adaptive immunity, such as type 1 and type 2 immunity, and shape TME and tumor outcomes. Based on TME cells and cytokines, activated eosinophils drive other immune cells to ultimately promote or suppress tumor growth. Discovering exactly what conditions determine the pro-tumorigenic or anti-tumorigenic role of eosinophils allows us to take advantage of these signals and devise novel strategies to target cancer cells. Here, we first revisit eosinophil biology and differentiation as recognizing eosinophil mediators is crucial to their function in homeostatic and pathological conditions as well as tumor outcome. The bulk of our paper discusses eosinophil interactions with tumor cells, immune cells—including T cells, plasma cells, natural killer (NK) cells—and gut microbiota. Eosinophil mediators, such as IL-5, IL-33, granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), and CCL11 also determine eosinophil behavior toward tumor cells. We then examine the implications of these findings for cancer immunotherapy approaches, including immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. Eosinophils synergize with CAR T cells and ICB therapy to augment immunotherapies

The influence of thermal treatment on the release behavior of diclofenac sodium from acrylic matrices

The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of thermal treating on the release rate of diclofenac sodium from Eudragit RS and Eudragit RL matrices. Eudragit RS and RL are nonswelling polymers that have a low glass transition (Tg) temperature. The matrices were thermally treated at different temperatures (40, 50, 60, and 70 degrees C) for different periods of times (2, 5, and 24 h). The results showed that thermal treating at temperatures less than the Tg of the polymer has no effect on the release of the drug, whereas heat-treating at temperatures higher than the Tg decreases the release rate of diclofenac sodium from matrices. It was shown that the duration of heat treatment was also an important factor in controlling the release rate of diclofenac sodium from Eudragit matrices. The results showed that an increase in the duration of heat treatment from 2 h to 24 h resulted in a reduction in the release rate of the drug. Scanning electron microscopy of the cross section of the tablet before and after heat treating showed that the tablets were deformed and fused into a continuous and homogeneous structure after heat treating. Thermally treated tablets demonstrated fewer surface defects than did nonthermally treated tablets. These structural changes in the tablet compacts resulted in a matrix structure that decreased the release rate of the diclofenac sodium from Eudragit matrice

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Meets Severe Combined Immunodeficiency

Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is classified as a primary immunodeficiency, which is characterized by impaired T-lymphocytes differentiation. IL2RG, IL7Ralpha, JAK3, ADA, RAG1/RAG2, and DCLE1C (Artemis) are the most defective genes in SCID. The most recent SCID therapies are based on gene therapy (GT) of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), which are faced with many challenges. The new studies in the field of stem cells have made great progress in overcoming the challenges ahead. In 2006, Yamanaka et al. achieved "reprogramming" technology by introducing four transcription factors known as Yamanaka factors, which generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from somatic cells. It is possible to apply iPSC-derived HSC for transplantation in patients with abnormality or loss of function in specific cells or damaged tissue, such as T-cells and NK-cells in the context of SCID. The iPSC-based HSC transplantation in SCID and other hereditary disorders needs gene correction before transplantation. Furthermore, iPSC technology has been introduced as a promising tool in cellular-molecular disease modeling and drug discovery. In this article, we review iPSC-based GT and modeling for SCID disease and novel approaches of iPSC application in SCID