Bisphosphonate Functionalized Gadolinium Oxide Nanoparticles Allow Long-Term MRI/CT Multimodal Imaging of Calcium Phosphate Bone Cement

Direct in vivo monitoring of bioconstructs using noninvasive imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) is not possible for many materials. Calcium phosphate–based composites (CPCs) that are applicable to bone regeneration are an example where the materials have poor MRI and CT contrast; hence, they are challenging to detect in vivo. In this study, a CPC construct is designed with gadolinium-oxide nanoparticles incorporated to act as an MRI/CT multimodal contrast agent. The gadolinium(III) oxide nanoparticles are synthesized via the polyol method and surface functionalized with a bisphosphonate (BP) derivative to give a construct (gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs)-BP) with strong affinity toward calcium phosphate. The CPC-GBCAs-BP functional material is longitudinally monitored after in vivo implantation in a condyle defect rat model. The synthetic method developed produces nanoparticles that are stable in aqueous solution (hydrodynamic diameter 70 nm) with significant T1and T2relaxivity demonstrated in both clinical 3 T and preclinical 11.7 T MRI systems. The combination of GBCAs-BP nanoparticles with CPC gives an injectable material with handling properties that are suitable for clinical applications. The BP functionalization prolongs the residence of the contrast agent within the CPC to allow long-term follow-up imaging studies. The useful contrast agent properties combined with biological compatibility indicate further investigation of the novel bone substitute hybrid material toward clinical application

Chelator free gallium-68 radiolabelling of silica coated iron oxide nanorods via surface interactions

The commercial availability of combined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/positron emission tomography (PET) scanners for clinical use has increased demand for easily prepared agents which offer signal or contrast in both modalities. Herein we describe a new class of silica coated iron–oxide nanorods (NRs) coated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and/or a tetraazamacrocyclic chelator (DO3A). Studies of the coated NRs validate their composition and confirm their properties as in vivo T₂ MRI contrast agents. Radiolabelling studies with the positron emitting radioisotope gallium-68 (t1/2 = 68 min) demonstrate that, in the presence of the silica coating, the macrocyclic chelator was not required for preparation of highly stable radiometal-NR constructs. In vivo PET-CT and MR imaging studies show the expected high liver uptake of gallium-68 radiolabelled nanorods with no significant release of gallium-68 metal ions, validating our innovation to provide a novel simple method for labelling of iron oxide NRs with a radiometal in the absence of a chelating unit that can be used for high sensitivity liver imaging

Review of journal of cardiovascular magnetic resonance 2010

There were 75 articles published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (JCMR) in 2010, which is a 34% increase in the number of articles since 2009. The quality of the submissions continues to increase, and the editors were delighted with the recent announcement of the JCMR Impact Factor of 4.33 which showed a 90% increase since last year. Our acceptance rate is approximately 30%, but has been falling as the number of articles being submitted has been increasing. In accordance with Open-Access publishing, the JCMR articles go on-line as they are accepted with no collating of the articles into sections or special thematic issues. Last year for the first time, the Editors summarized the papers for the readership into broad areas of interest or theme, which we felt would be useful to practitioners of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) so that you could review areas of interest from the previous year in a single article in relation to each other and other recent JCMR articles [1]. This experiment proved very popular with a very high rate of downloading, and therefore we intend to continue this review annually. The papers are presented in themes and comparison is drawn with previously published JCMR papers to identify the continuity of thought and publication in the journal. We hope that you find the open-access system increases wider reading and citation of your papers, and that you will continue to send your quality manuscripts to JCMR for publication

Uncharted waters: rare and unclassified cardiomyopathies characterized on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has undergone considerable technology advances in recent years, so that it is now entering into mainstream cardiac imaging practice. In particular, CMR is proving to be a valuable imaging tool in the detection, morphological assessment and functional assessment of cardiomyopathies. Although our understanding of this broad group of heart disorders continues to expand, it is an evolving group of entities, with the rarer cardiomyopathies remaining poorly understood or even unclassified. In this review, we describe the clinical and pathophysiological aspects of several of the rare/unclassified cardiomyopathies and their appearance on CMR

Safety, immunogenicity, and reactogenicity of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccines given as fourth-dose boosters following two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 and a third dose of BNT162b2 (COV-BOOST): a multicentre, blinded, phase 2, randomised trial

Background Some high-income countries have deployed fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines, but the clinical need, effectiveness, timing, and dose of a fourth dose remain uncertain. We aimed to investigate the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of fourth-dose boosters against COVID-19.Methods The COV-BOOST trial is a multicentre, blinded, phase 2, randomised controlled trial of seven COVID-19 vaccines given as third-dose boosters at 18 sites in the UK. This sub-study enrolled participants who had received BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) as their third dose in COV-BOOST and randomly assigned them (1:1) to receive a fourth dose of either BNT162b2 (30 µg in 0·30 mL; full dose) or mRNA-1273 (Moderna; 50 µg in 0·25 mL; half dose) via intramuscular injection into the upper arm. The computer-generated randomisation list was created by the study statisticians with random block sizes of two or four. Participants and all study staff not delivering the vaccines were masked to treatment allocation. The coprimary outcomes were safety and reactogenicity, and immunogenicity (antispike protein IgG titres by ELISA and cellular immune response by ELISpot). We compared immunogenicity at 28 days after the third dose versus 14 days after the fourth dose and at day 0 versus day 14 relative to the fourth dose. Safety and reactogenicity were assessed in the per-protocol population, which comprised all participants who received a fourth-dose booster regardless of their SARS-CoV-2 serostatus. Immunogenicity was primarily analysed in a modified intention-to-treat population comprising seronegative participants who had received a fourth-dose booster and had available endpoint data. This trial is registered with ISRCTN, 73765130, and is ongoing.Findings Between Jan 11 and Jan 25, 2022, 166 participants were screened, randomly assigned, and received either full-dose BNT162b2 (n=83) or half-dose mRNA-1273 (n=83) as a fourth dose. The median age of these participants was 70·1 years (IQR 51·6–77·5) and 86 (52%) of 166 participants were female and 80 (48%) were male. The median interval between the third and fourth doses was 208·5 days (IQR 203·3–214·8). Pain was the most common local solicited adverse event and fatigue was the most common systemic solicited adverse event after BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 booster doses. None of three serious adverse events reported after a fourth dose with BNT162b2 were related to the study vaccine. In the BNT162b2 group, geometric mean anti-spike protein IgG concentration at day 28 after the third dose was 23 325 ELISA laboratory units (ELU)/mL (95% CI 20 030–27 162), which increased to 37 460 ELU/mL (31 996–43 857) at day 14 after the fourth dose, representing a significant fold change (geometric mean 1·59, 95% CI 1·41–1·78). There was a significant increase in geometric mean anti-spike protein IgG concentration from 28 days after the third dose (25 317 ELU/mL, 95% CI 20 996–30 528) to 14 days after a fourth dose of mRNA-1273 (54 936 ELU/mL, 46 826–64 452), with a geometric mean fold change of 2·19 (1·90–2·52). The fold changes in anti-spike protein IgG titres from before (day 0) to after (day 14) the fourth dose were 12·19 (95% CI 10·37–14·32) and 15·90 (12·92–19·58) in the BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 groups, respectively. T-cell responses were also boosted after the fourth dose (eg, the fold changes for the wild-type variant from before to after the fourth dose were 7·32 [95% CI 3·24–16·54] in the BNT162b2 group and 6·22 [3·90–9·92] in the mRNA-1273 group).Interpretation Fourth-dose COVID-19 mRNA booster vaccines are well tolerated and boost cellular and humoral immunity. Peak responses after the fourth dose were similar to, and possibly better than, peak responses after the third dose

A turning point in the development of phytoplankton in the Vistula Lagoon (Southern Baltic Sea) at the beginning of the 21st century

Phytoplankton community structure was studied from 2002 to 2016 in the Vistula Lagoon (southern Baltic Sea) in the context of the 2010 shift in its population, as well as the reason for this shift and its environmental impact. This evident shift was indicated by Multidimensional Scaling at the Bray Curtis similarity level of 31%. Before 2010, the primary components of phytoplankton were Cyanobacteria (up to 98% of the biomass, October 2007) and Chlorophyta (40%, July 2002). After 2010, the contribution of Cyanobacteria considerably decreased, and the proportions of other phyla increased. The total phytoplankton biomass positively correlated with phosphorus, and Cyanobacteria biomass with silica. Evident changes were also observed in the seasonal dynamics of phytoplankton. Before 2010, the highest values of biomass occurred in autumn, and were related to high biomass of Cyanobacteria. Higher biomass has been recently reached in spring, during the dominance of Ochrophyta associated with Chlorophyta, Charophyta, and Cryptophyta. Generalised additive models showed a significant decreasing trend of the total phytoplankton biomass, Cyanobacteria, Chlorophyta, and flagellates, suggesting a decrease in eutrophication. This trend is concurrent with a considerable increase in the ratio of zooplankton to phytoplankton biomass since 2010. The increased ratio, however, did not result from elevated zooplankton biomass, but from the drop in phytoplankton biomass. Therefore, the most probable reason for the decrease in phytoplankton biomass was the simultaneous decrease in the concentration of all nutrients. The potential additional impact of filtration by a new alien bivalve Rangia cuneata G. B. Sowerby I, 1832 is also discussed

Zbiorowiska pierwotniaków w estuarium Wisły (Morze Bałtyckie)

Protozoan communities (heterotrophic nanoflagellates, dinoflagellates, and ciliates) were studied along the Vistula River estuary (southern Baltic Sea) in June 2005. Protozoan biomass ranged from 64.1 to 162 μgC l-1 close to the river mouth and decreased to 20.7 μgC l-1 at the most offshore station. The negative correlation between distance from the mouth and protozoan biomass was highly statistically significant. Within the estuary, the majority of the biomass was contributed by heterotrophic dinoflagellates and Ebria tripartita (71% on average), whereas heterotrophic nanoflagellates and ciliates contributed 22% and 7% of the protozoan biomass, respectively. At the offshore station, the contribution of heterotrophic dinoflagellates decreased to typical value of 25%. The study confirmed elevated significance of heterotrophic dinoflagellates and E. tripartita in the Gulf of Gdańsk. Correlation analysis revealed that all groups of protozoa were significantly and positively related to phytoplankton biomass or primary production, but only heterotrophic ciliates were related to bacterial secondary production.Zbiorowiska pierwotniaków (heterotroficzne wiciowce, bruzdnice i orzęski) badano wzdłuż estuarium rzeki Wisły (Bałtyk Południowy). Badania przeprowadzono po wiosennym zakwicie fitoplanktonu, pobierając próby z wód powierzchniowych. Biomasa pierwotniaków wynosiła 64,1-162 μgC l-1 blisko ujścia rzeki i stopniowo spadała do 20,7 μgC l-1 na najbardziej wysuniętym w morze stanowisku (64,3 mil morskich od ujścia rzeki). Zaobserwowana zależność pomiędzy odległością od ujścia a biomasą pierwotniaków była wysoce istotna statystycznie. W obrębie estuarium większość biomasy zbiorowiska pierwotniaków (średnio 71%) stanowiły heterotroficzne bruzdnice (razem z Ebria tripartita), podczas gdy heterotroficzne wiciowce i orzęski osiągały odpowiednio 22% i 7% całkowitej biomasy pierwotniaków. Na najbardziej wysuniętym w morze stanowisku udział heterotroficznych bruzdnic do biomasy spadał do 25%, co jest wartością typową, ponieważ w wodach morskich trzy wymienione grupy pierwotniaków zwykle wykazują porównywalną biomasę. Badania potwierdziły szczególnie duże znaczenie heterotroficznych bruzdnic i Ebria tripartita w Zatoce Gdańskiej i wykazały, że ma to związek z napływem wód wnoszonych przez Wisłę. Analiza statystyczna wykazała, że wszystkie grupy pierwotniaków były powiązane z biomasą fitoplanktonu lub wielkością produkcji pierwotnej, podczas gdy tylko heterotroficzne orzęski wykazały istotną korelację z wielkością produkcji wtórnej bakterioplanktonu

Bacterial community structure influenced by Coscinodiscus sp in the Vistula river plume

The Gulf of Gdansk is influenced by freshwater inflow from the River Vistula and by a wind-driven current along the coast. Bacterial communities from five stations along a salinity gradient were sampled during one day and analysed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), catalysed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridisation (CARD-FISH) and 16S rRNA gene libraries. On the day of sampling, we observed a probable current-driven seawater influx into the inner part of the gulf that separated the gulf into distinct water bodies. Members of the diatom Coscinodisrus sp. dominated one of these water bodies and influenced the bacterial community. The coexistence of typically freshwater and marine bacterioplankton populations in the Vistula river plume suggested an integration of some freshwater populations into the Baltic Sea bacterioplankton