Recombination shapes the 2022 monkeypox (mpox) outbreak.

Monkeypox (Mpox) is a global health emergency. Yeh et al. analyze tandem repeats and linkage disequilibrium in monkeypox virus (MPXV) sequences from the 2022 pandemic to determine the virus evolution, showing that these are useful tools to monitor and track phylogenetic dynamics and recombination of MPXV.

Potential Role of Neutrophil Extracellular Traps in Cardio-Oncology.

Cardiovascular toxicity has emerged as the leading cause of death in patients undergoing cancer treatment. Thus, cardio-oncology (CO) care must also focus on the prevention and management of related cardiovascular (CV) complications caused by cancer therapy. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs)-entities with released DNA, proteases, proinflammatory and prooxidative substances from blasted neutrophils-play an important role in cancer proliferation, propagation metastasis, and incident CV events (acute coronary syndrome, thromboembolic events, and heart failure). Although NETs have been shown to be involved in cancer progression and incident CV events, little is known about their relationship with cardio-oncology, especially on cancer treatment-related cardiovascular toxicity (CTRCT). This review aims to explore the evidence of the impact of NETs on cancer, CV events, and CTRCT, and the possible solutions based on the mechanism of NETs activation and NETs released toxic substances.

Viral transmission and evolution dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in shipboard quarantine.

OBJECTIVE: To examine transmission and evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in shipboard quarantine of the Diamond Princess cruise ship. METHODS: We obtained the full SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences of 28 samples from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data database. The samples were collected between 10 and 25 February 2020 and came for individuals who had been tested for SARS-CoV-2 during the quarantine on the cruise ship. These samples were later sequenced in either Japan or the United States of America. We analysed evolution dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 using computational tools of phylogenetics, natural selection pressure and genetic linkage. FINDINGS: The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the cruise most likely originated from either a single person infected with a virus variant identical to the WIV04 isolates, or simultaneously with another primary case infected with a virus containing the 11083G > T mutation. We identified a total of 24 new viral mutations across 64.2% (18/28) of samples, and the virus evolved into at least five subgroups. Increased positive selection of SARS-CoV-2 were statistically significant during the quarantine (Tajima's D: -2.03, P < 0.01; Fu and Li's D: -2.66, P < 0.01; and Zeng's E: -2.37, P < 0.01). Linkage disequilibrium analysis confirmed that ribonucleic acid (RNA) recombination with the11083G > T mutation also contributed to the increase of mutations among the viral progeny. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that the 11083G > T mutation of SARS-CoV-2 spread during shipboard quarantine and arose through de novo RNA recombination under positive selection pressure.