Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely

Karyology of eight bamboo species endemic to Southern India

Species belonging to the genus Ochlandra Thwaites, the reed bamboos, play a significant role in sustaining the ecology of forests and the livelihood of rural communities in the Western Ghats. Karyology of this predominantly endemic genus of the region is poorly understood. Of the ten species belonging to the genus, chromosomal information is known for only two species. We studied mitotic and/or meiotic chromosomes of eight species, using squash and smear techniques. We report chromosome number (2n) of six species for the first time and two additional 2n reports of a previously studied species, O. travancorica (Bedd.) Gamble. The species and their chromosome numbers are: O. keralensis M. Kumar, Remesh & Sequiera and O. spirostylis M. Kumar, K. K. Seethal. & Sequiera (2n = 48), O. ebracteata Raizada & Chatterji (2n = 64), O. beddomei Gamble and O. setigera Gamble (n = 36, 2n = 72), O. scriptoria (Dennst.) C. E. C. Fisch. (2n = 72), O. wightii (Munro) C. E. C. Fisch. (n = 36, 2n = 60, 72) and O. travancorica (n = 24, 2n = 48, 72, 96). The basic chromosome number of the genus is x = 12. The somatic chromosomes of all studied Ochlandra species are small in size, with a length ranging from 0.45 to 2.50 µm. The present study has provided new perceptions on speciation, evolution and taxonomy of the genus and indicates that the taxonomic muddle in O. travancorica is due to intraspecific genetic variability as evident by chromosomal numerical variation and polyploidy