A Rapid Bead-Based Assay For Screening Of SARS-CoV-2 Neutralising Antibodies

Quantitative determination of neutralizing antibodies against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is paramount in immunodiagnostics, vaccine efficacy testing, and immune response profiling among the vaccinated population. Cost-effective, rapid, easy-to-perform assays are essential to support the vaccine development process and immunosurveillance studies. Here, we describe a bead-based screening assay for S1-neutralization using recombinant fluorescent proteins of hACE2 and SARS-CoV2-S1, immobilized on solid beads employing nanobodies /metal-affinity tags. Nanobody-mediated capture of SARS-CoV-2 - Spike (S1) on agarose beads served as the trap for soluble recombinant ACE2-GFPSpark, inhibited by neutralizing antibody. The first approach demonstrates single-color fluorescent imaging of ACE2-GFPspark binding to His-tagged S1-Receptor Binding Domain (RBD-His) immobilized beads. The second approach is dual-color imaging of soluble ACE2-GFPSpark to S1-Orange Fluorescent Protein (S1-OFPSpark) beads. Both methods showed a good correlation with the gold standard pseudovirion assay and can be adapted to any fluorescent platforms for screening. Life-time imaging of the ACE2-GFPSpark confirmed the interaction of ACE2 and S1-OFPSpark on beads. The self-renewable source of secreted recombinant proteins from stable cells and its direct use without necessitating purification renders the platform a cost-effective and rapid one than the popular pseudovirion assay and live virus-based assays. Any laboratory with minimum expertise can rapidly perform this bead assay for neutralizing antibody detection using stable engineered cells.

Establishing the Cephalometric Values for Tetragon Analysis in Patients with Class I Occlusion: A Cephalometric Study.

OBJECTIVES: Proper application of the cephalometric norms for tetragon analysis for better understanding, diagnosis, and management of dentofacial deformities in the ethnic population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 204 subjects, inclusive of males (102) and females (102), were selected randomly from the outpatient department of Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, in the age group ranging from 18 to 25 years, fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Assessment of each lateral cephalogram was done using tetragon analysis to evaluate the cephalometric values for individuals with class I occlusion using the FACAD(®) 3.4.0.3 A software. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found for all parameters between the ethnic population and the Caucasian norms. Four out of 14 parameters were found to be significantly different between male and female in the ethnic population. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that the local ethnic population have more prognathic maxillary and mandibular jaws, converging tendency of the jaw bases (resulting in reduced lower anterior facial height and horizontal growth pattern) as indicated by the analysis done in the tetragon and the trigon, and increased proclination of the upper and lower incisors.

Health-related quality of life in women exposed to wood smoke while cooking.

Using the abbreviated World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-Bref) questionnaire, we evaluated the effect of exposure to smoke from wood combustion while cooking on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in 85 women using wood and 85 women using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as cooking fuel in India. Age, years of cooking and hours spent daily in the kitchen were similar between women in the two groups. WHOQOL-Bref transformed scores in psychological, social relationships and environment domains were significantly lower in women in using wood than in those using LPG, suggesting that HRQL was impaired across domains among these women.

A comprehensive review on SAR of curcumin.

Curcumin, a natural diaryl heptanoid continues to be used as an alternative medicinal agent in many parts of South East Asia for treatment of many ailments. It can be usually obtained from substituted aryl aldehydes and acetylacetone and this route enables synthesis of a diverse set of curcumin analogues. Numerous analogues have been synthesized and tested by several researchers to investigate their activity against known biological targets and to improve upon the pharmacological and ADME profile by modifying substitutions on aromatic rings, ß-diketone moiety and two flanking double bonds conjugated to the ß-diketone moiety. Successful synthesis of such derivatives with modifications has resulted in the development of potential anticancer candidates that target various stages in cancer cell growth and development. Based on the evidences in modifications of these three functional elements, we have attempted to summarize the structure activity relationship of molecules which can be further utilized by researchers in medicinal chemistry in exploring the structure of curcumin.