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Since the first recognized case of COVID-19, more than 100 million people have been infected worldwide. Global efforts in drug and vaccine development to fight the disease have yielded vaccines and drug candidates to cure COVID-19. However, the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants threatens the continued efficacy of these treatments. In order to address this, we interrogate the evolutionary history of the entire SARS-CoV-2 proteome to identify evolutionarily conserved functional sites that can inform the search for treatments with broader coverage across the coronavirus family.

Combining coronavirus family sequence information with the mutations observed in the current COVID-19 outbreak, we systematically and comprehensively define evolutionarily stable sites that may provide useful drug and vaccine targets and which are less likely to be compromised by the emergence of new virus strains. Several experimentally-validated effective drugs interact with these proposed target sites. In addition, the same evolutionary information can prioritize cross reactive antigens that are useful in directing multi-epitope vaccine strategies to illicit broadly neutralizing immune responses to the betacoronavirus family. Although the results are focused on SARS-CoV-2, these approaches stem from evolutionary principles that are agnostic to the organism or infective agent.

The results of this work are made interactively available at http//cov.lichtargelab.org.

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.Eggplant is rich in anthocyanins, which are thought to be highly beneficial for human health. It has been reported that BICs (blue light inhibitors of Cryptochromes) act as negative regulators in light signal transduction, but little is known about their role in anthocyanin biosynthesis. check details In this study, yeast one-hybrid analysis showed that SmBICs could bind to the promoter of SmCHS, indicating that they could directly participate in eggplant anthocyanin biosynthesis. In SmBICs-silenced eggplants, more anthocyanins were accumulated, while SmBIC1-OE and SmBIC2-OE Arabidopsis and eggplants synthesized less anthocyanin. qRT-PCR also revealed that the anthocyanin structural genes, which were downregulated in SmBIC1-OE and SmBIC2-OE lines, were upregulated in SmBICs-silenced eggplants. In addition, transcriptome analysis further confirmed that differentially expressed genes of SmBICs-OE plants were enriched mainly in the pathways related to anthocyanin biosynthesis, and the key transcription factors and structural genes for anthocyanin biosynthesis, such as SmMYB1, SmTT8, SmHY5, SmCHS, SmCHI, SmDFR and SmANS, were suppressed significantly. Finally, BiFC and blue light-dependent degradation assay suggested that SmBICs interacted with photo-excited SmCRY2 to inhibit its photoreaction, thereby inhibiting the expression of genes related to anthocyanin biosynthesis and reducing anthocyanin accumulation. Collectively, our study suggests that SmBICs repress anthocyanin biosynthesis by inhibiting photoactivation of SmCRY2. This study provides a new working model for anthocyanin biosynthesis in eggplant.

Increasingly, individuals with atrial fibrillation (AF) use wearable devices (hereafter wearables) that measure pulse rate and detect arrhythmia. The associations of wearables with health outcomes and health care use are unknown.

To characterize patients with AF who use wearables and compare pulse rate and health care use between individuals who use wearables and those who do not.

This retrospective, propensity-matched cohort study included 90 days of follow-up of patients in a tertiary care, academic health system. Included patients were adults with at least 1 AF-specific International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code from 2017 through 2019. Electronic medical records were reviewed to identify 125 individuals who used wearables and had adequate pulse-rate follow-up who were then matched using propensity scores 4 to 1 with 500 individuals who did not use wearables. Data were analyzed from June 2020 through February 2021.

Using commerciallles by patients with AF, prospective, randomized, long-term evaluation of the associations of wearable technology with health outcomes and health care use is needed.

This study found that follow-up health care use among individuals with AF was increased among those who used wearables compared with those with similar pulse rates who did not use wearables. Given the increasing use of wearables by patients with AF, prospective, randomized, long-term evaluation of the associations of wearable technology with health outcomes and health care use is needed.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is an advisable option for refractory or relapsed peripheral T-cell lymphoma (R/R-PTCL), but whether allogeneic HSCT or autologous HSCT is more beneficial is unknown.

To compare the effectiveness and safety of allogeneic HSCT vs autologous HSCT in patients with R/R-PTCL.

A systematic search of the PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Wanfang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases with the search items refractory or relapsed peripheral T-cell lymphoma, ASCT/autologous stem-cell transplantation, allo-HSCT/allogeneic stem-cell transplantation, therapeutic effect, and treatment was conducted for articles published from January 12, 2001, to October 1, 2020.

After duplicate and irrelevant publications were discarded, 329 were ineligible according to the inclusion (clinical trials or retrospective studies with >10 samples) and exclusion criteria (articles without overall survival [OS], progression-free survival [PFS],% (95% CI, 2%-23%) were observed.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, OS and PFS were similar in the allogeneic HSCT and autologous HSCT groups; however, allogeneic HSCT was associated with specific survival benefits among patients with R/R-PTCL.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, OS and PFS were similar in the allogeneic HSCT and autologous HSCT groups; however, allogeneic HSCT was associated with specific survival benefits among patients with R/R-PTCL.