Category: Technology

Technology

Evaluation of glycan structure of reference mAb (humanized IgG Type 1) in NIST, U.S.A.

NIST in the U.S. offers humanized IgG Type 1 mAb as a reference mAb. NS0 cells are used to manufacture this mAb. NS0 cell is a model cell line derived from non-secretory mouse myeloma, which is commercially used in biomedical research and the production of therapeutic proteins.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31591262/

The status of glycan addition is reported by comprehensively following the results of 103 evaluations conducted at 73 institutions around the world. It is likely to be useful as glycan modification information of reference mAb of IgG Type 1.

Technology

Priority of vaccine administration for the new coronavirus (COVID-19): Should over-60s still be prioritized?

A group from The University of Colorado Boulder etc.  has simulated on the priority of vaccine administration for the new coronavirus (COVID-19).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7743091/

Five age groups of vaccination were assumed, and simulated changing the combination of the following parameters: vaccine rollout speeds to the population (0.05% to 1%/day), infection rates (1.15, 1.5), vaccine efficacy (90%), and also the case that the effectiveness of the vaccine decreases with age (60 years old = 90% – > 80 years old = 50%).
The results vary depending on the conditions, and the best choice replaced between the case that prioritizes the over-60s and the one that prioritizes 20 ~ 59 year-olds. However, since the prerequisites are always changing in reality, overall, it would be a better choice to prioritize the over-60s .

Service, Technology

Demonstration of ultra-high recognition method of cells combining Deep Learning and lectin microarray

A group from the National Institute of Child Health and Development demonstrated that deep learning can be combined with glycan profiling data from lectin microarrays to recognize cell differences with ultra-high accuracy.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352320420300742?via%3Dihub

The lectin microarray used was LecChip Ver1.0 of GlycoTechnica. The lectin microarray has 45 kinds of carefully selected natural lectins and has been widely used worldwide as a de facto standard for lectin arrays since its launch in 2007.
Deep Learning, as you know, is now used in various fields as one of methods of AI, and in this research, Google’s TensorFlow was used as the backend, and Keras was used as wrapper software. The layer configuration of this deep Leaning had an input layer of 45 (the same number of lectins) and an output layer of 5 (to discriminate five cells), and hidden layer from 1 to 5. There were five types of cells evaluated (Pluripotent stem cell, Mesenchymal stromal cell, Endometrial and ovarian cancer cell, Cervical cancer cell, Endometrial cell), and a total of 1,577 samples were used for the evaluation.
The results were astonishing as follows, and showed a high recognition accuracy of 97.4% overall.

 

 

Deep Learning software used in this paper is sold under the soft name “SA/DL Easy” from Mx. “SA/DL Easy” does not require any knowledge of programming such as Python, you can build neural networks and run deep learning just by clicking a mouse using a one-dimensional array dataset (such as glycan profiling data of lectin microarrays used in the above paper) as an input. “SA/DL Easy” is a quite user-friendly software to use Deep Learning. If you are interested in this software, please contact Mx.

Technology

U.S. Department of State releases a FACT Sheet on origin of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)

On December 15, 2020, Blog Admin uploaded an article saying that the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is likely an artificial product, citing “The 2nd Yan Report”.

On January 15, 2021, the U.S. Department of State released a FACT Sheet titled Activity at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
https://www.state.gov/fact-sheet-activity-at-the-wuhan-institute-of-virology/

In this article, the U.S. Department of State avoids saying that SARS-CoV-2 originated in WIV, but it does show three FACTs in WIV as follows.

  1. In the fall of 2019, there were several researchers who showed similar pathology to COVID-19 were in WIV.
  2. Since 2016, WIV has been studying bat coronaviruses including “RatG13” (96.2% similar to SARS-CoV-2).
  3. Secret Chinese biological weapons researches were being conducted on WIV
Technology

Ct-value of RT-PCR in the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)

A group of Albert Einstein College of Medicine has reported on the correlation between Ct-values and hospital mortality in RT-PCR for the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) from a retrospective statistical analysis.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/authors?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0244777

This is the result of a retrospective study on 1,044 patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
The Ct-value of RT-PCR is divided into quartiles for statistical analysis.
Q1:     Ct =<22.9
Q2:　23.0 <Ct <27.3
Q3:　27.4 <Ct <32.8
Q4:　Ct=>32.9

As a result, it has been shown that hospital mortality and Ct-values are inversely correlated.
In other words, the lower the Ct-value, the higher the hospital mortality, and the higher the Ct-value, the lower the hospital mortality.

So, it turns out that the higher the amount of exposed viruses or the proliferation, the higher the hospital mortality.

Technology

Small molecule compounds that inhibit COVID-19 infection (Protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), Verteporfin): Inhibiting the binding of SARS-CoV-2 to ACE2

A group of Fudan Univ. has shown in vitro that the FDA-approved drugs (Protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), Verteporfin) effectively inhibit the infection of SARS-CoV-2.
This is because these compounds bind to ACE2, inhibiting the binding of SARS-CoV-2 to ACE2.

Clinical trials in vivo are expected.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095927320307283?via%3Dihub

Technology

Fc-fusion ivermectin-containing nanoparticle drug that can be administered orally for the new coronavirus (COVID-19)

Ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, has been known to have antiviral effects, too. The mechanism of action is thought to be because inhibiting nuclear transport proteins such as an importin prevents the transport of viral proteins into the nucleus.
Ivermectin itself is toxic, and EC50 is 1 to 10 mM. When ivermectin is administered to the human body with 150 µg/kg of dose, the concentration in plasma is only 9 to 75 ng/mL, and the concentration is too low to be effective.
Therefore, the following group has verified the effect of a therapeutic agent (Fc-fusion ivermectin-containing nanoparticles that can be administered orally: T-Fc-IVM-NPs) that enables intestinal absorption of T-Fc-IVM-NPs via interaction between FcRn receptors expressed on gut epithelial cells and Fc on ivermectin-containing nanoparticles.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsptsci.0c00179

At this stage, although it was an in vitro experiment using HEK293 infected with the new novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), it is said that the expression of ACE2 and the expression of S-protein were suppressed by administering T-Fc-IVM-NPs. In addition, this method can be expected to be effective against other viruses.

It’s good, isn’t it?

Nature, Technology

Conditions of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) can be mimicked by a SARS-CoV-2 protein cocktail (S, N, P-protein)

A group of La Paz University Essential, Spain has suggested a treatment based on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms that can be completely mimicked by a protein cocktail of SARS-CoV-2.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33283062/

In patients with COVID-19, inflammation and cytokine storms are induced, and il-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α are known to be highly expressed. This early stage can be explained by excessive activation of monocytes and macrophages. In the later stages of COVID-19, adaptive immunity plays a critical role, and in severe patients, lymphocytes are significantly reduced.

Blood cells obtained from healthy people was incubated with SARS-CoV-2 S-protein, N-protein and P-protein cocktails and developed a phenotype that mimics the COVID-19 condition. For example, in monocytes, HLA-DR, the signal path for antigen presentation, was reduced, and PD-L1, a immune checkpoint ligand, was highly expressed.
From these results, it was suggested that the use of inhibitors (antibodies) for immune checkpoint molecules could lead to effective treatment. Actually, a clinical trial using camrelizumab (PD-1 antibody) is in progress.

Expect progress.