Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@social.cleverlibre.org

"Due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has seen a worrying drop in immunization rates over the past few years, creating pockets of under-immunized communities at heightened risk of polio infection and paralysis. Children missing polio vaccinations creates opportunities for polio to re-emerge and spread – as seen in 2022 when WPV1 originating in Pakistan was detected in paralyzed children in Malawi and Mozambique."

https://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/2023/03/17/why-is-polio-making-a-comeback-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/

'We here demonstrate that mitochondrial DNA stress upregulates the immunoproteasome and MHC class I antigen presentation pathway via cGAS/STING/type I interferon signaling resulting in cell autonomous activation of CD8+ T cells.'
Wang et al @embojournal
#Immunology

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embj.2022110597

'Thus, our results suggest that a heterochronic shift, involving enhanced Hox13 expression and BMP-signalling may have caused the reduction of the finfold size during the evolutionary transition from fish fins to tetrapod limbs.'

https://academic.oup.com/evolut/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/evolut/qpad043/7073948?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Tools:

"This article presents an overview of the database with the most recent additions to Rat Genome Database's genome, variant and quantitative phenotype data."

https://academic.oup.com/genetics/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/genetics/iyad042/7080056?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Interesting #preprint from the Papavasiliou group at DKFZ/Heidelberg.

"Here, we have employed site-directed RNA editing to specifically alter MHC-presented tumor epitopes at the transcript level, with no modification to the genomic DNA, to modulate their antigenicity and recognition by cognate T-cell receptors (TCR). We demonstrate that RNA editing can be employed as a precision tool to specifically modulate antigenicity through the formation of RNA editing derived neoepitopes, which we have termed "editopes"'.

#Immunology #immunotherapy

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.16.532918v1?med=mas

'Talvez este enigma não tenha solução. O ministro de um Governo que se afirma de esquerda, e que tem maioria absoluta, pensa que o país se situa demasiado à esquerda e propõe que se combata essa ideologia, ou seja (nas suas palavras), que se combatam esses “preconceitos”.

https://www.publico.pt/2023/03/19/politica/opiniao/costa-silva-rui-nabeiro-terra-infinito-2043004

"Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the ATG5 gene, which encodes for a protein required for the cellular recycling process of autophagy, has been associated with higher risk for developing severe asthma. However, the exact role for ATG5 during allergic inflammation and whether other autophagy proteins are involved remains elusive."

#Immunology #allergy #asthma #Preprint #autophagy

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.16.533006v1

A reflection on leaving academia by Brooke Morriswood at @TIR_scienceblog
This is one of my favorite blogs, with thoughtful pieces on topics like how to write a paper, so I'll be watching this space to see what Brooke does next.

"After 24 years in academia – 8 years as an undergraduate and postgraduate, 8 years as a postdoc, and 8 years as a group leader – I’m leaving. It’s a decision and a choice helped by the realisation that a change was coming regardless of what direction I went in."

https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/03/19/changing-lanes/#more-3029

"The intense political debate, now in its fourth year, has at times turned scientists into lobbyists, competing for policymakers’ time and favor. Dr. Relman is just one of several researchers and like-minded thinkers who has successfully worked the corridors of power in Washington to force journalists, policymakers and skeptical Democrats to take the lab leak idea seriously."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/19/us/politics/covid-origins-lab-leak-politics.html