Safety of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in patients with well-controlled myasthenia gravis.

INTRODUCTION/AIMS: Data on safety and tolerability of the vaccines against severe acute respiratory virus coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2, or coronavirus disease-2019 [COVID-19]) in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) are currently limited. In this study we investigated the safety of mRNA-based two-dose vaccination in a cohort of patients with MG. METHODS: This investigation was a prospective observational study of messenger RNA (mRNA)-based vaccines administered to patients with MG with stable disease. Local and systemic reactogenicity after injection was monitored for each dose administered. The patients were categorized and clinically assessed following the recommendations of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America. RESULTS: Thirty-six males and 55 females (mean age at first vaccine dose, 58.8 years; standard deviation, = 17.1 years) received vaccines. Seventy-two patients (79.1%) were taking one or more immunosuppressant(s). The most frequent adverse effects were injection-site pain, fatigue, myalgia, chills, fever, and headache. Local and systemic reactions were transient; 58.2% of the patients developed one or more reaction(s). There were no anaphylactic reactions. None of the patients had a myasthenic crisis, and two developed a mild deterioration compared with their Quantitative Myasthenia Gravis baseline score. The clinical outcome scores showed no exacerbation of MG symptoms. Patients over 65 years of age developed fewer adverse effects. COVID-19 vaccination did not induce clinical exacerbation in stable patients with MG, regardless of their age, sex, history of myasthenic crisis, or whether they were taking immunosuppressants. DISCUSSION: Our data are consistent with the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine being well tolerated in patients with well-controlled MG. The findings may contribute to decisions in vaccination campaigns in the future.

Different factors limit early- and late-season windows of opportunity for monarch development.

Seasonal windows of opportunity are intervals within a year that provide improved prospects for growth, survival, or reproduction. However, few studies have sufficient temporal resolution to examine how multiple factors combine to constrain the seasonal timing and extent of developmental opportunities. Here, we document seasonal changes in milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis)-monarch (Danaus plexippus) interactions with high resolution throughout the last three breeding seasons prior to a precipitous single-year decline in the western monarch population. Our results show early- and late-season windows of opportunity for monarch recruitment that were constrained by different combinations of factors. Early-season windows of opportunity were characterized by high egg densities and low survival on a select subset of host plants, consistent with the hypothesis that early-spring migrant female monarchs select earlier-emerging plants to balance a seasonal trade-off between increasing host plant quantity and decreasing host plant quality. Late-season windows of opportunity were coincident with the initiation of host plant senescence, and caterpillar success was negatively correlated with heatwave exposure, consistent with the hypothesis that late-season windows were constrained by plant defense traits and thermal stress. Throughout this study, climatic and microclimatic variations played a foundational role in the timing and success of monarch developmental windows by affecting bottom-up, top-down, and abiotic limitations. More exposed microclimates were associated with higher developmental success during cooler conditions, and more shaded microclimates were associated with higher developmental success during warmer conditions, suggesting that habitat heterogeneity could buffer the effects of climatic variation. Together, these findings show an important dimension of seasonal change in milkweed-monarch interactions and illustrate how different biotic and abiotic factors can limit the developmental success of monarchs across the breeding season. These results also suggest the potential for seasonal sequences of favorable or unfavorable conditions across the breeding range to strongly affect monarch population dynamics.

Determination of HPLC-UV Fingerprints of Spanish Paprika (Capsicum annuum L.) for Its Classification by Linear Discriminant Analysis.

The development of a simple HPLC-UV method towards the evaluation of Spanish paprika's phenolic profile and their discrimination based on the former is reported herein. The approach is based on C18 reversed-phase chromatography to generate characteristic fingerprints, in combination with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to achieve their classification. To this aim, chromatographic conditions were optimized so as to achieve the separation of major phenolic compounds already identified in paprika. Paprika samples were subjected to a sample extraction stage by sonication and centrifugation; extracting procedure and conditions were optimized to maximize the generation of enough discriminant fingerprints. Finally, chromatograms were baseline corrected, compressed employing fast Fourier transform (FFT), and then analyzed by means of principal component analysis (PCA) and LDA to carry out the classification of paprika samples. Under the developed procedure, a total of 96 paprika samples were analyzed, achieving a classification rate of 100% for the test subset (n = 25).

Characterization and classification of Spanish paprika (Capsicum annuum L.) by liquid chromatography coupled to electrochemical detection with screen-printed carbon-based nanomaterials electrodes.

Screen-printed electrodes based on graphite, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, and graphene were tested as amperometric detectors for the determination of phenolic compounds by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The chromatographic performance as well as the obtained sensitivity, detection and quantification limits suggest that carbon nanofibers modified screen-printed electrode (SPCE-CNF) is the amperometric sensor that provides the best analytical performance. Upon this confirmation, chromatographic data obtained using SPCE-CNF were exploited by means of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to successfully characterize and classify 96 Spanish paprika (Capsicum annuum L.) samples with different origin and type: from La Vera (including sweet, bittersweet and spicy types) and from Murcia (including sweet and spicy types).

Isolation and prominent aboriginal maternal legacy in the present-day population of La Gomera (Canary Islands).

The present-day population structure of La Gomera is outstanding in its high aboriginal heritage, the greatest in the Canary Islands. This was earlier confirmed by both mitochondrial DNA and autosomal analyses, although genetic drift due to the fifteenth century European colonization could not be excluded as the main factor responsible. The present mtDNA study of aboriginal remains and extant samples from the six municipal districts of the island indeed demonstrates that the pre-Hispanic colonization of La Gomera by North African people involved a strong founder event, shown by the high frequency of the indigenous Canarian U6b1a lineage in the aboriginal samples (65%). This value is even greater than that observed in the extant population (44%), which in turn is the highest of all the seven Canary Islands. In contrast to previous results obtained for the aboriginal populations of Tenerife and La Palma, haplogroups related to secondary waves of migration were not detected in La Gomera aborigines, indicating that isolation also had an important role in shaping the current population. The rugged relief of La Gomera divided into several distinct valleys probably promoted subsequent aboriginal intra-insular differentiation that has continued after the European colonization, as seen in the present-day population structure observed on the island.