Unusual Presentation of Peripartum Cardiomyopathy-A Case Series

A rare condition called Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (PPCM) causes a pregnant woman’s heart to weaken and expand. It occurs in the last month of pregnancy or within five months of delivery. The presented paper was a series of three cases with unusual presentations of PPCM. Cases 1 and 2 demonstrated unique PPCM presentations that included abrupt cardiogenic shock and failure symptoms and signs. The postpartum period’s typical PPCM appearance is illustrated by case 3. The index patients (cases 1 and 2) had low systemic blood pressures, acute respiratory distress, and reduced cardiac output that was indicative of cardiogenic shock. An early echocardiogram was ordered as a result, and the results were suggestive of heart failure. Their varying clinical manifestations posed a significant diagnostic problem due to the heterogeneity. Even though they are uncommon, such catastrophic presentations including acute respiratory distress and low-output cardiac failure can happen. In these unusual cases, rapid pharmacological and mechanical support is required. In order to provide patients with the finest and most efficient care possible, it is crucial to understand the aetiology, clinical signs and symptoms, management, and prognosis of PPCM. Thus, physicians need to be familiar with different presentations of PPCM and always consider it with a high index of suspicion to expedite treatment for a potentially lethal condition to get a better outcome.

Pharmacological consideration of COVID-19 infection and vaccines in pregnancy

COVID-19 is a pandemic of the 21st century that recorded 234 809 103 confirmed cases and more than 4 800 375 deaths. Many studies report the effect of COVID-19 in the overall population; nevertheless, there is information scarceness related to pharmacological management and pregnancy and fetal outcomes during the epidemic. Pregnancy is a state of change in immune physiology and anatomy modulation in preference to immune suppression. Additionally, manifold interactions with the health care system during pregnancy increases the chance of infection, and managing, pregnant population poses a more significant challenge. This review will summarize the available data on pharmacological considerations and vaccines in pregnancy and their adverse effects on fetal outcomes. Several drug choices include but are not limited to antivirals and antimalarial and combinations, corticosteroids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and antipyretics. Approved vaccines for pregnancy include Pfizer/BioNTech and mRNA-1273 Moderna/National Institutes of Health. COVID-19 treatment approaches vary across different countries; the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and country regulators advise managing adverse effects on pregnancy and fetal outcome. But the efficacy of these drugs is questionable. There is no adequate literature to demonstrate the safety of these drugs in pregnant and lactating women. Hence, well-conducted studies that assess the safety of anti-COVID-19 medications and vaccines in pregnancy and lactating women are needed.

Site-specific biosynthetic incorporation of a fluorescent tag into proteins via cysteine-tRNA(Cys)

Site-specific incorporation of biophysical probes into proteins during translation can permit structure/function studies on selected proteins in heterogeneous environments. We report here a procedure for incorporating a fluorescent tag into proteins via Escherichia coli Cys-tRNA(Cys) during in vitro protein synthesis. Naturally occurring Cys-tRNA(Cys) is an attractive vehicle for fluorophore incorporation since it can be readily prepared in quantity and reacted with commercially available fluorophores. Moreover, proteins can often be constructed with a single Cys so that fluorophore incorporation results in a tag at a unique site.