Retinal Vascular Occlusion after COVID-19 Vaccination : More Coincidence than Causal Relationship? Data from a Retrospective Multicentre Study

Background: To investigate whether vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is associated with the onset of retinal vascular occlusive disease (RVOD). Methods: In this multicentre study, data from patients with central and branch retinal vein occlusion (CRVO and BRVO), central and branch retinal artery occlusion (CRAO and BRAO), and anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy (AION) were retrospectively collected during a 2-month index period (1 June–31 July 2021) according to a defined protocol. The relation to any previous vaccination was documented for the consecutive case series. Numbers of RVOD and COVID-19 vaccination were investigated in a case-by-case analysis. A case– control study using age- and sex-matched controls from the general population (study participants from the Gutenberg Health Study) and an adjusted conditional logistic regression analysis was conducted. Results: Four hundred and twenty-one subjects presenting during the index period (61 days) were enrolled: one hundred and twenty-one patients with CRVO, seventy-five with BRVO, fifty-six with CRAO, sixty-five with BRAO, and one hundred and four with AION. Three hundred and thirty-two (78.9%) patients had been vaccinated before the onset of RVOD. The vaccines given were BNT162b2/BioNTech/Pfizer (n = 221), followed by ChadOx1/AstraZeneca (n = 57), mRNA1273/Moderna (n = 21), and Ad26.COV2.S/Johnson & Johnson (n = 11; unknown n = 22). Our case–control analysis integrating population-based data from the GHS yielded no evidence of an increased risk after COVID-19 vaccination (OR = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.60–1.45, p = 0.75) in connection with a vaccination within a 4-week window. Conclusions: To date, there has been no evidence of any association between SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and a higher RVOD risk

Engineering Micromechanics of Soft Porous Crystals for Negative Gas Adsorption

Framework materials at the molecular level, such as metal-organic frameworks (MOF), were recently found to exhibit exotic and counterintuitive micromechanical properties. Stimulated by host-guest interactions, these so-called soft porous crystals can display counterintuitive adsorption phenomena such as negative gas adsorption (NGA). NGA materials are bistable frameworks where the occurrence of a metastable overloaded state leads to pressure amplification upon a sudden framework contraction. How can we control activation barriers and energetics via functionalization of the molecular building blocks that dictate the frameworks’ 30 mechanical response? In this work we tune the elastic and inelastic properties of building blocks at the 31 molecular level and analyze the mechanical response of the resulting frameworks. From a set of 11 frameworks, we demonstrate that widening of the backbone increases elasticity, while elongation of the building blocks results in a decrease in critical yield stress of buckling. We further functionalize the backbone by incorporation of sp3 hybridized carbon atoms to soften the molecular building blocks, or stiffen them with sp2 and sp carbons. Computational modeling shows how these modifications of the building blocks tune the 36 activation barriers within the energy landscape of the guest-free bistable frameworks. Only frameworks with free energy barriers in the range of 800 to 1100 kJ mol–1 37 per unit cell, and moderate yield stress of 0.6 to 38 1.2 nN for single ligand buckling, exhibit adsorption-induced contraction and negative gas adsorption. Advanced experimental in situ methodologies give detailed insights into the structural transitions and the adsorption behavior. The new framework DUT-160 shows the highest magnitude of NGA ever observed for nitrogen adsorption at 77 K. Our computational and experimental analysis of the energetics and mechanical response functions of porous frameworks is an important step towards tuning activation barriers in dynamic framework materials and provides critical design principles for molecular building blocks leading to pressure amplifying materials<br /

CCDC 2003150: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Simon Krause, Jack D. Evans, Volodymyr Bon, Irena Senkovska, Sebastian Ehrling, Paul Iacomi, Daniel D. Többens, Dirk Wallacher, Manfred S. Weiss, Bin Zheng, Pascal G. Yot, Guillaume Maurin, Philip L. Llewellyn, François-Xavier Coudert, Stefan Kaskel|2020|ChemRxiv|||doi:10.26434/chemrxiv.12619064,Related Article: Simon Krause, Jack D. Evans, Volodymyr Bon, Irena Senkovska, Sebastian Ehrling, Paul Iacomi, Daniel M. Többens, Dirk Wallacher, Manfred S. Weiss, Bin Zheng, Pascal G. Yot, Guillaume Maurin, Philip L. Llewellyn, François-Xavier Coudert, Stefan Kaskel|2020|Chemical Science|11|9468|doi:10.1039/D0SC03727C

CCDC 2003155: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Simon Krause, Jack D. Evans, Volodymyr Bon, Irena Senkovska, Sebastian Ehrling, Paul Iacomi, Daniel D. Többens, Dirk Wallacher, Manfred S. Weiss, Bin Zheng, Pascal G. Yot, Guillaume Maurin, Philip L. Llewellyn, François-Xavier Coudert, Stefan Kaskel|2020|ChemRxiv|||doi:10.26434/chemrxiv.12619064,Related Article: Simon Krause, Jack D. Evans, Volodymyr Bon, Irena Senkovska, Sebastian Ehrling, Paul Iacomi, Daniel M. Többens, Dirk Wallacher, Manfred S. Weiss, Bin Zheng, Pascal G. Yot, Guillaume Maurin, Philip L. Llewellyn, François-Xavier Coudert, Stefan Kaskel|2020|Chemical Science|11|9468|doi:10.1039/D0SC03727C

CCDC 2003152: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Simon Krause, Jack D. Evans, Volodymyr Bon, Irena Senkovska, Sebastian Ehrling, Paul Iacomi, Daniel D. Többens, Dirk Wallacher, Manfred S. Weiss, Bin Zheng, Pascal G. Yot, Guillaume Maurin, Philip L. Llewellyn, François-Xavier Coudert, Stefan Kaskel|2020|ChemRxiv|||doi:10.26434/chemrxiv.12619064,Related Article: Simon Krause, Jack D. Evans, Volodymyr Bon, Irena Senkovska, Sebastian Ehrling, Paul Iacomi, Daniel M. Többens, Dirk Wallacher, Manfred S. Weiss, Bin Zheng, Pascal G. Yot, Guillaume Maurin, Philip L. Llewellyn, François-Xavier Coudert, Stefan Kaskel|2020|Chemical Science|11|9468|doi:10.1039/D0SC03727C