Adeno-Associated Virus-Mediated Gene Therapy

Choice of vector is the most critical step in gene therapy. Adeno-associated viruses (AAV); third generation vectors, are getting much attention of scientists to be used as vehicles due to their non-pathogenicity, excellent safety profile, low immune responses, great efficiency to transduce non-dividing cells, large capacity to transfer genetic material and long-term expression of genetic payload. AAVs have multiple serotypes and each serotype shows tropism for a specific cell. Different serotypes are used to target liver, lungs, muscles, retina, heart, CNS, kidneys, etc. Furthermore, AAV based gene therapies have tremendous marketing applications that can be perfectly incorporated in the anticipated sites of the host target genome resulting in life long expression of transgenes. Some therapeutic products use AAV vectors that are used to treat lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD) and it is injected intramuscularly, to treat mutated retinal pigment epithelium RPE65 (RPE65) that is introduced to subretinal space, an intravenous infusion to treat spinal muscular atrophy and rAAV2-CFTR vector is introduced into nasal epithelial cells to treat cystic fibrosis. AAV therapies and other such interdisciplinary methodologies can create the miracles for the generation of precision gene therapies for the treatment of most serious and sometimes fatal disorders.

Rubella Virus Infections: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Scientific Literature from 2000 to 2021

Rubella virus (RuV) generally causes a mild infection, but it can sometimes lead to systemic abnormalities. This study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of over two decades of RuV research. Medical studies published from 2000 to 2021 were analyzed to gain insights into and identify research trends and outputs in RuV. R and VOSviewer were used to conduct a bibliometric investigation to determine the globally indexed RuV research output. The Dimensions database was searched with RuV selected as the subject, and 2500 published documents from the preceding two decades were reviewed. The number of publications on RuV has increased since 2003, reaching its peak in 2020. There were 12,072 authors and 16,769 author appearances; 88 publications were single-authored and 11,984 were multi-authored. The United States was the most influential contributor to RuV research, in terms of publications and author numbers. The number of RuV-related articles has continued to increase over the past few years due to the significant rubella burden in low-income nations. This study will aid in formulating plans and policies to control and prevent RuV infections.

Bibliometric Analysis of Publications on the Omicron Variant from 2020 to 2022 in the Scopus Database Using R and VOSviewer

Human respiratory infections caused by coronaviruses can range from mild to deadly. Although there are numerous studies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), few have been published on its Omicron variant. In order to remedy this deficiency, this study undertook a bibliometric analysis of the publishing patterns of studies on the Omicron variant and identified hotspots. Automated transportation, environmental protection, improved healthcare, innovation in banking, and smart homes are just a few areas where machine learning has found use in tackling complicated problems. The sophisticated Scopus database was queried for papers with the term "Omicron" in the title published between January 2020 and June 2022. Microsoft Excel 365, VOSviewer, Bibliometrix, and Biblioshiny from R were used for a statistical analysis of the publications. Over the study period, 1917 relevant publications were found in the Scopus database. Viruses was the most popular in publications for Omicron variant research, with 150 papers published, while Cell was the most cited source. The bibliometric analysis determined the most productive nations, with USA leading the list with the highest number of publications (344) and the highest level of international collaboration on the Omicron variant. This study highlights scientific advances and scholarly collaboration trends and serves as a model for demonstrating global trends in Omicron variant research. It can aid policymakers and medical researchers to fully grasp the current status of research on the Omicron variant. It also provides normative data on the Omicron variant for visualization, study, and application.

Semiconducting eutectic materials for photocatalysis and photoelectrochemistry applications: A perspective

The world of semiconductors has drastically improved the lifestyle due to its versatile applications. The demand for new efficient semiconductors is increasing day by day, giving birth to the idea...

Controlling transport properties at LaFeO3/SrTiO3interfaces by defect engineering

The formation of conductive LaFeO₃/SrTiO₃interfaces is first time reported by pulsed laser deposition via controlling the defects of SrTiO₃, which are closely related to the surface of substrate. It is found that the interfaces grown on SrTiO₃substrates without terraces exhibit the two dimensional electron gas. Moreover, the conductive interfaces show a resistance upturn at low temperatures which is strongly diminished by light irradiation. These interfaces favor the persistent photoconductivity, and the enormous value of relative change in resistance, about 60 185.8%, is also obtained at 20 K. The experimental results provide fundamental insights into controlling the defects at conductive interfaces of oxides and paving a way for complex-oxides based optoelectronic devices.

Clinical Profile and Prognosis of Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis

Introduction

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is an acute cerebrovascular disease diagnosed nowadays more frequently. Magnetic resonance venogram (MRV) is the modality of choice for accurate diagnosis. Young females in their childbearing age are prone to develop CVST. Clinical presentation is mainly with headache, focal neurologic deficits, and seizures. Around one third of the patients have altered sensorium at presentation. Prognosis of CVST is good if diagnosed and treated early. Long-term deficits may remain in one quarter of patients. The aim of our study was to do clinical profiling and prognosis of CVST patients.

Materials and methods

This is a descriptive study conducted at the department of Neurology, Sheikh Zayed Medical College/Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan. Study duration was one year. Patients fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. Patients confirmed to have CVST on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/MRV were included in final analysis. Ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Board. 

Results

Thirty three out of 54 patients were included in the final analysis. Out of them, 29 (87.8%) were females and four (12.1%) were males. The mean age at the time of presentation was 31.36 ± 9.61. Of the 29 females, only three were pregnant and 26 were in the postpartum period at the time of presentation. Twelve (41.4%) females were primigravida. Focal deficits were present in 30 (90.9%) patients; headache was present in 26 (78.8%) patients; seizures were present in 24 (72.7%) patients on presentation; and anemia was present in 20 (60.6%) patients.

Conclusion

CVST is an important cause of intracranial hypertension, seizures, and stroke in young people. Clinical presentation is extremely variable, and a high index of suspicion is needed. Magnetic resonance imaging brain with MRV is the current diagnostic modality of choice. Medical management with anticoagulants and supportive measures has excellent clinical outcomes.

The Frustration-induced Ferroelectricity of a Manganite Tricolor Superlattice with Artificially Broken Symmetry

In this paper, [(La_0.9Sr_0.1MnO₃)_n/(Pa_0.9Ca_0.1MnO₃)_n/(La_0.9Sb_0.1MnO₃)_n]_m superlattices films have been deposited on (001) Nb:SrTiO₃ substrates by a laser molecular-beam epitaxy technology. Expected ferroelectricity arise at well-defined tricolor superlattice at low temperature, composed of transition metal manganite, which is absent in the single-phase compounds. Furthermore, the ferroelectric properties of the superlattices are enhanced by increasing the periodicity m, which may be attributed to the accumulation of the polarization induced by the frustration. As for the magnetic hysteresis loop characteristics of the multilayer structures, the saturation magnetization and magnetic coercivity of films present definitely a strong periodic dependence. It also indicates that the frustration may exist in the tricolor superlattice. Our results further verify the previous theoretical research of generating multiferroics experimentally paving a way for designing or developing the novel magnetoelectric devices based on manganite ferromagnets.