Parasitism of a US traveler by a nymphal Amblyomma tapirellum Dunn, 1933 (Ixodida: Ixodidae) and review of exotic tick interceptions on humans in the United States.

A resident of Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States removed an engorged nymphal tick after returning from travel to Costa Rica. The tick was identified by cox1 barcoding as Amblyomma tapirellum  Dunn, 1933, a Central American species whose immature stages are undescribed. This species is associated with wet, tropical forests, and most host records come from Baird's tapirs (Tapirus bairdii), though feeding on other mammalian orders and on humans has been observed.

De-escalated adjuvant radiotherapy versus standard adjuvant treatment for human papillomavirus-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (MC1675): a phase 3, open-label, randomised controlled trial.

Background: Standard adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (60-66 Gy) following surgery for HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma has excellent oncological control but high treatment morbidity. We aimed to compare toxicity of a 30-36 Gy regimen of de-escalated adjuvant radiotherapy and standard of care treatment.

Methods: We did this phase 3, open-label, randomised controlled trial in two academic sites in the USA.

Response to biologics along a gradient of T2 involvement in patients with severe asthma: a data-driven biomarker clustering approach.

Background: Asthma with low levels of T2-biomarkers is poorly understood.

Objective: To characterize severe asthma phenotypes and compare pre- to post-biologic change in asthma outcomes along a gradient of T2-involvement.

Methods: This was a registry-based, cohort study including data from 24 countries.

Biophysical Characterization of Protein-Protein Interactions in Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections.

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) encodes multifunctional viral proteins that form interactions with each other and with host proteins during different stages of the viral replication cycle to facilitate viral replication and pathogenesis. Biochemical and biophysical characterization of protein-protein interactions is important for validation and for providing insights into the regulatory mechanisms used by viral proteins during RSV infections. In this chapter, we describe a process that can be used to validate direct protein-protein interactions by in vitro pulldown assay and biophysical characterization using size-exclusion chromatography-multiangle light scattering (SEC-MALS) and hydrogen-deuterium exchange-mass spectrometry (HDX-MS).

Knowledge and Structure-Based Drug Design of 15-PGDH Inhibitors.

PGE2 plays important roles in immune cell function and in potentiating tissue regeneration. 15-PGDH is the key enzyme involved in inactivation of PGE2 and its inhibition therefore provides valuable therapeutic opportunity. We have solved the first cocrystal structure of 15-PGDH bound to small molecule inhibitors, enabling us to efficiently investigate and understand the key functionalities required for potency.