Important pharmacogenetic information for drugs prescribed during the SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19)

In December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus-2 pandemic began, causing the coronavirus disease 2019. A vast variety of drugs is being used off-label as potential therapies. Many of the repurposed drugs have clinical pharmacogenetic guidelines available with therapeutic recommendations when prescribed as indicated on the drug label. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive summary of pharmacogenetic biomarkers available for these drugs, which may help to prescribe them more safelyM.N.-G. is co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Youth European Initiative; grant number PEJ-2018-TL/BMD-1108

Genetic Sharing with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Diabetes Reveals Novel Bone Mineral Density Loci.

Bone Mineral Density (BMD) is a highly heritable trait, but genome-wide association studies have identified few genetic risk factors. Epidemiological studies suggest associations between BMD and several traits and diseases, but the nature of the suggestive comorbidity is still unknown. We used a novel genetic pleiotropy-informed conditional False Discovery Rate (FDR) method to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with BMD by leveraging cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated disorders and metabolic traits. By conditioning on SNPs associated with the CVD-related phenotypes, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, triglycerides and waist hip ratio, we identified 65 novel independent BMD loci (26 with femoral neck BMD and 47 with lumbar spine BMD) at conditional FDR < 0.01. Many of the loci were confirmed in genetic expression studies. Genes validated at the mRNA levels were characteristic for the osteoblast/osteocyte lineage, Wnt signaling pathway and bone metabolism. The results provide new insight into genetic mechanisms of variability in BMD, and a better understanding of the genetic underpinnings of clinical comorbidity

Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU

The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on 10^3 pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype

27Al quadrupole interaction in zeolites loaded with probe molecules - a quantum-chemical study of trends in electric field gradients and chemical bonds in clusters

The electric field gradient (EFG) has been calculated in zeolite clusters at the aluminium site surrounded by four SiO4 tetrahedra. Density functional theory (DFT) with the 6-31G * * basis set has been employed. Formation of a Bronsted acid site by protonation of one oxygen atom of the AlO4 tetrahedron perturbs the coordination of aluminium, i.e., the corresponding Al-O bond is considerably weaker than in the unprotonated case. This leads to a large EFG, and the calculated quadrupole coupling constant (QCC) for Al-27 is 18.2 MHz. Different probe molecules were adsorbed on the Bronsted site. The hydrogen bond formed between the acid proton and the probe molecule weakens the zeolitic O-H bond. For conservation of the overall bond order of the oxygen atom, its bonds to the neighboring tetrahedral atoms (Si, Al) become stronger. As a consequence, the perturbation of the AlO4 tetrahedron and the EFG at the aluminium position decrease depending on the strength of the hydrogen bond. Perturbation of an oxygen atom of the AlO4 tetrahedron by accepting a hydrogen bond from the base molecule also affects the corresponding Al-O bond order. A linear correlation is found between the calculated QCC constants for Al-27 and the Al-O bond orders of the oxygen atoms which are perturbed by protonation or by hydrogen bonds. A geometrical shear strain parameter and a simple electrostatic point charge model are less successful at predicting the trends in EFG which clearly shows the importance of the chemical bonds. Published by Elsevier Science B.

27Al quadrupole interaction in zeolites loaded with probe molecules - a quantum-chemical study of trends in electric field gradients and chemical bonds in clusters

The electric field gradient (EFG) has been calculated in zeolite clusters at the aluminium site surrounded by four SiO4 tetrahedra. Density functional theory (DFT) with the 6-31G * * basis set has been employed. Formation of a Bronsted acid site by protonation of one oxygen atom of the AlO4 tetrahedron perturbs the coordination of aluminium, i.e., the corresponding Al-O bond is considerably weaker than in the unprotonated case. This leads to a large EFG, and the calculated quadrupole coupling constant (QCC) for Al-27 is 18.2 MHz. Different probe molecules were adsorbed on the Bronsted site. The hydrogen bond formed between the acid proton and the probe molecule weakens the zeolitic O-H bond. For conservation of the overall bond order of the oxygen atom, its bonds to the neighboring tetrahedral atoms (Si, Al) become stronger. As a consequence, the perturbation of the AlO4 tetrahedron and the EFG at the aluminium position decrease depending on the strength of the hydrogen bond. Perturbation of an oxygen atom of the AlO4 tetrahedron by accepting a hydrogen bond from the base molecule also affects the corresponding Al-O bond order. A linear correlation is found between the calculated QCC constants for Al-27 and the Al-O bond orders of the oxygen atoms which are perturbed by protonation or by hydrogen bonds. A geometrical shear strain parameter and a simple electrostatic point charge model are less successful at predicting the trends in EFG which clearly shows the importance of the chemical bonds. Published by Elsevier Science B.

Limits on neutrino oscillations in the Fermilab narrow band beam

A search for neutrino oscillations was made using the Fermilab narrow-band neutrino beam and the 15 ft. bubble chamber. No positive signal for neutrino oscillations was observed. Limits were obtained for mixing angles and neutrino mass differences for nu/sub ..mu../ ..-->.. nu/sub e/, nu/sub ..mu../ ..-->.. nu/sub tau/, nu/sub e/ ..-->.. nu/sub e/. 5 refs