Biobanking in everyday clinical practice in psychiatry-The Munich Mental Health Biobank.

Translational research on complex, multifactorial mental health disorders, such as bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and substance use disorders requires databases with large-scale, harmonized, and integrated real-world and research data. The Munich Mental Health Biobank (MMHB) is a mental health-specific biobank that was established in 2019 to collect, store, connect, and supply such high-quality phenotypic data and biosamples from patients and study participants, including healthy controls, recruited at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (DPP) and the Institute of Psychiatric Phenomics and Genomics (IPPG), University Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich, Germany. Participants are asked to complete a questionnaire that assesses sociodemographic and cross-diagnostic clinical information, provide blood samples, and grant access to their existing medical records. The generated data and biosamples are available to both academic and industry researchers. In this manuscript, we outline the workflow and infrastructure of the MMHB, describe the clinical characteristics and representativeness of the sample collected so far, and reveal future plans for expansion and application. As of 31 October 2021, the MMHB contains a continuously growing set of data from 578 patients and 104 healthy controls (46.37% women; median age, 38.31 years). The five most common mental health diagnoses in the MMHB are recurrent depressive disorder (38.78%; ICD-10: F33), alcohol-related disorders (19.88%; ICD-10: F10), schizophrenia (19.69%; ICD-10: F20), depressive episode (15.94%; ICD-10: F32), and personality disorders (13.78%; ICD-10: F60). Compared with the average patient treated at the recruiting hospitals, MMHB participants have significantly more mental health-related contacts, less severe symptoms, and a higher level of functioning. The distribution of diagnoses is also markedly different in MMHB participants compared with individuals who did not participate in the biobank. After establishing the necessary infrastructure and initiating recruitment, the major tasks for the next phase of the MMHB project are to improve the pace of participant enrollment, diversify the sociodemographic and diagnostic characteristics of the sample, and improve the utilization of real-world data generated in routine clinical practice.

Evaluation of the automated cartridge-based ARIES SARS-CoV-2 Assay (RUO) against automated Cepheid Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 PCR as gold standard.

INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the automated cartridge-based PCR approach ARIES SARS-CoV-2 Assay targeting the ORF-sequence and the N-gene of SARS-CoV-2. METHODS: In line with the suggestions by Rabenau and colleagues, the automated ARIES SARS-CoV-2 Assay was challenged with strongly positive samples, weakly positive samples and negative samples. Further, intra-assay and inter-assay precision as well as the limit-of-detection (lod) were defined with quantified target RNA and DNA. The Cepheid Xpert Xpress SARS-Cov-2 Assay was used as gold standard. RESULTS: Concordance between the ARIES assay and the Cepheid assay was 100% for strongly positive samples and for negative samples, respectively. For weakly positive samples as confirmed applying the Cepheid assay, a relevant minority of 4 out of 15 samples (26.7%) went undetected by the ARIES assay. Intra- and inter-assay precision were satisfactory, while the lod was in the 103 DNA copies/reaction-range, in the 103 virus copies/reaction-range, or in the 103-104 free RNA copies/reaction-range in our hands. CONCLUSIONS: The automated ARIES assay shows comparable test characteristics as the Cepheid assay focusing on strongly positive and negative samples but a slightly reduced sensitivity with weakly positive samples. Decisions on diagnostic use should include considerations on the lod.

3D CT analysis of combined cup and stem anteversion in cases of cup navigation in hip arthroplasty.

Navigation of the cup in total hip arthroplasty is well analyzed and shows accurate results, reducing cup outliers of Lewinnek's "safe zone." With regard to the combined anteversion of cup and stem, however, a "new" safe zone with a range of 25° to 50° has been published. The aim of this study was to analyze total anteversion (cup and stem) by postoperative 3D computed tomography in isolated cup navigation cases. In 46 patients, the mean combined anteversion was 34.4° (range, 16.3°-57.3°, SD ± 9.3°) with 10 outliers. The mean cup anteversion was 19.5° (range, 11°-27°, SD ± 3.7°). Regarding Lewinnek's "safe zone" (cup only), we observed 5 outliers. An improvement of technique of stem implantation or navigation may reduce outliers of combined anteversion.

Selective downregulation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase alpha in leukocytes during pregnancy.

PROBLEM: During pregnancy, it is crucially important that the mother's immune system tolerates the developing embryo. Although a number of mechanisms of immunological tolerance have been described, little is known about intracellular signaling events, causing a decrease in the mother's leukocyte activity. METHOD OF STUDY: We investigated the expression and activity of phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3K) in maternal blood cells of healthy volunteers by Reverse Transcription PCR and Western blotting. RESULTS: Our data reveal a selective downregulation of the p110alpha catalytic isoform. This correlated with a slight decrease in PI3K activity as judged by the levels of phosphorylated Akt. CONCLUSION As PI3K are involved in signal transduction of various leukocyte receptors, this downregulation may comprise a means of holding immune functions at bay.