BC HEALTH
Saved by @Alex1Powell

There are two issues with the English variant, as it is now referred. One issue is "what it could do" and the other issue is "what it could represent". They are both important and we know just enough to make hyphoteses that can drive to experiments. I'll try and explain 1/

 Let's start with the latter: what does it represent? Mutations happen all the time and variants have been recorded in the thousands. The website below shows several 1000s different variants recorded in different countries. Why is this SO special? 2/

https://t.co/5MLzlcnJRh
The most special aspect of this variant is that the number of changes it shows is a large disconnect from its parental line as if this lineage made a big sudden jump rather than the usual slow progress to which we are used. 3/
There are a few (certainly not many) scenarios that are compatible with this jump and one of them is the one in which the virus has tried to escape its way out from an organism that had a static and relatively weak immune response.

4/
Such an organism is an immunosuppressed patient who tries to fight the infection with injections of donated plasma from a recovered patient. Someone who cannot produce antibodies and can be helped with plasmapheresis from a donor who could. 5/
In that organism, you would witness evolutionary pressure. The virus that is sensitive to the antibodies being injected would die: a random mutant who can escape that immune response would survive just enough to try and replicate. 6/
What kind of virus could survive that scenario? Well, one that 1) can go undetected by that antibody mix; 2) can replicate fast enough to outnumber the antibody chase. or 3) a mix of 1 and 2. The B.1.1.7 shows both features, on paper, hence the hypothesis of how it was born. 7/
Now, let's go back to point number 1. What can it do? Well, now that the hypothesis of its creation is clear, it should also be clear what it could do. It could lead to reinfections and it could spread much faster than the parental line. 8/
Data on the prevalence of this new strain clearly show it has outnumbered the parental strain in the wild, alarmingly quickly. In evolutionary terms, it means it has higher fitness than its competitors (viruses compete with each other not just with us). 9/
https://t.co/eTDTCvbYOh
This has happened 1) everywhere in the country 2) in a period in which other strains were circulating and competing and 3) in a period of relative lockdown. Very different from what happened in the summer with the Spanish variant. 10/
So, the working hypothesis is that this strain is much faster than the parental line and can spread more easily. Is it more virulent too? We will know in the next weeks, but for now, the only answer possible is "we don't know". No point making public predictions. 11/
Can it lead to reinfections? In principle, it could. Remember we said it may have evolved escaping antibodies against the old virus. However, if this strain were to re-infect a normal, non-immunocompromised person, it would be met with the usual adaptive response 12/
New antibodies would form and it would be treated just like another virus (assuming virulence did not change).
13/
Can escape vaccines? Well. Vaccines were all designed to elicit the very same antibody mix this virus has learned to escape so yes, in principle it could. However, it is unlikely that they would be completely ineffective. 14/
A possible scenario is that efficacy will be lower than the 95% we have learned to celebrate. This scenario opens new outlooks on how we should select future vaccines: not simply looking at efficiency in the trial but taking into account the real world 15/
Lower efficiency, coupled with an increase in R would make the target of herd immunity very difficult to reach. 16/
So, we must continue the effort at vaccinating the world being aware that this shot will not be the end of it. We are entering a flu-like scenario, in which we will need a yearly jab. 17/
Finally, a note on what "it could happen". This episode shows this virus has a good capacity to evolve. Evolution rate, not mutation rate is what really matters at the end of the day. Stop worrying about "mutations" and start learning about evolution.
https://t.co/T7IXQn5RQy 18/
Also, we must stop giving from granted some convenient beliefs, like the one that this virus is lethal almost only for the elderlies. Yes, it is now, but that should not be a laissez-passer for everyone. 19/
IMO this should be seen as the last nail in the coffin for exoteric declarations saying we should try to reach herd-immunity. We shall not. We shall avoid giving the virus every chance to mutate into something that will hit the fan. 20/END

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(Cyriac) Abby Philips
(Cyriac) Abby Philips
@drabbyphilips
1/
Remember woman who tuk multiple @SriSriTattva products 4 range of problems frm diabetes 2 gas 2 liver disease & developed liver failure, listed for liver transplant?
Here is original thread:
https://t.co/PXxI1Slyv2
23 samples, Analysis results
#MedTwitter #livertwitter


2/
Before I go into results, I must say this was overwhelming. There was SO MUCH the lab identified, impossible to put everything here. So I made a summary. At the end of this thread, I have linked a full analysis described in Excel format. Some results were VERY concerning

3/
How did we analyse?
Here R links 2 methods
They R high end, done under strict protocols
Frm Ministry of Forest, Environment, Climate / NABL approvd Lab
ICP-OES https://t.co/O1CLhqVQAu
GC MSMS https://t.co/zRJoXyWQIr
FTIR https://t.co/goAembQ08p
Here is list V analysed 👇


4/
Sample names written on top (each column).
First 5 samples: C what we identified in #Ayurveda #medicines
Antibiotics
Steroids (anabolic/synthetic)
#NARCOTICS - LSD, Morphine
Blood thinners (possible reason Y bleeding tests were off the roof in the patient)
Heavy metals!


5/
Next 5 samples (total 10 now)
Mercury is clear winner. Almost all samples
See controlled substances - Butyrolactones https://t.co/CPz0FwPEOm, methylamine https://t.co/OZnXY7U9UQ
Alcohols, industrial solvents
Rare metals - cobalt, lithium
Again lots of blood thinners
#Ayush
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Matthias Deutsch
Matthias Deutsch
@Ma_Deutsch
No-regret #hydrogen:
Charting early steps for H₂ infrastructure in Europe.

👉Summary of conclusions of a new study by @AgoraEW @AFRY_global @Ma_Deutsch @gnievchenko (1/17)
https://t.co/YA50FA57Em


The idea behind this study is that future hydrogen demand is highly uncertain and we don’t want to spend tens of billions of euros to repurpose a network which won’t be needed. For instance, hydrogen in ground transport is a hotly debated topic https://t.co/RlnqDYVzpr (2/17)

Similar things can be said about heat. 40% of today’s industrial natural gas use in the EU goes to heat below 100°C and therefore is within range of electric heat pumps – whose performance factors far exceed 100%. (3/17)


Even for higher temperatures, a range of power-to-heat (PtH) options can be more energy-efficient than hydrogen and should be considered first. Available PtH technologies can cover all temperature levels needed in industrial production (e.g. electric arc furnace: 3500°C). (4/17)


In our view, hydrogen use for feedstock and chemical reactions is the only inescapable source of industrial hydrogen demand in Europe that does not lend itself to electrification. Examples include ammonia, steel, and petrochemical industries. (5/17)
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NotTheMacAnon
NotTheMacAnon
@NotTheMacAnon1
Transduction is the process by which foreign DNA is introduced into a cell by a virus or viral vector.

Viral vectors are tools commonly used by molecular biologists to deliver genetic material into cells.

Viruses have evolved?

specialized molecular mechanisms

to efficiently

transport their genomes

inside the cells they infect.

Delivery of genes, or other genetic material, by a vector is termed transduction and the infected cells are described as transduced.

A transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another.
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Dylan Burnette
Dylan Burnette
@MAG2ART
Sarcomeres in cardiac myocytes (heart muscle cells) are mechanically coupled to focal adhesions through dorsal stress fiber-like structures. #cardiotwitter #CellBiology
1/13
A thread based on Figure 1

A mature adult cardiac myocyte is packed with sarcomeres, whose contractile forces are coupled to the extracellular environment. With sarcomeres so close to the plasma membrane, how can we study the nature of this coupling?
2/13


Short answer: find a model system where the sarcomeres are not so close to what the cardiac myocyte is attached to. Enter, iPS cell-derived cardiac myocytes. These are “immature” in culture as they resemble fetal or neonatal cardiac myocytes.
3/13


Our previous work on iPS cardiac myocytes reported that sarcomere containing myofibrils assembled on the top surface of the myocyte.
https://t.co/xIBCu3hG1W
4/13


The sarcomeres seemed to be connected to focal adhesions on the bottom of the cell by thin actin bundles that resembled the dorsal stress fibers (DSF) commonly found in non-muscle cells. This movie steps through a Z stack of a myocyte starting at the bottom of the cell.
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Southern Anti-Racist | Abolition Now
Southern Anti-Racist |...
@antiracistsouth
While #Tulane school of medicine is rightfully being exposed for its contemporary racism towards faculty, staff, students (and patients) due to the racist firing of Dr. Princess Dennar, it’s important to call out the deeply anti-Black history of this school, specifically... 1/

The way #Tulane became a private institution (originally was a public university) at the end of Reconstruction to avoid having to desegregate. The school charter says it was founded for “white men” only... but there’s more (much more) to this story... 2/

cw: medical racism

Tulane’s school of medicine rose to national prominence for its collection of human “specimens” in their anatomy museum “rivaled only by Harvard”. How did it acquire these “specimens” you might ask?

The collection was “curated” by a Dr. Edward Souchon... 3/

Dr. Souchon was mentored by the late James Marion Sims, the “father of modern gynecology”, who himself had started collecting body parts, organs, and skeletal remains from enslaved Black people during slavery. Souchon continued “curating” his own collection in horrific ways. 4/

The Souchon Collection grew over several decades, eventually touring the state as a traveling “public health” exhibit- nearly all of the body parts stolen, harvested and illicitly acquired from formerly enslaved and poor Black people via Charity Hospital. 5/
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From today, we will memorize the names of 27 Nakshatras in Vedic Jyotish to never forget in life.

I will write 4 names. Repeat them in SAME sequence twice in morning, noon, evening. Each day, revise new names + recall all previously learnt names.

Pls RT if you are in.

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Today's Nakshatras are:-

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Repeat these names TWICE now, tomorrow morning, noon and evening. Like this tweet if you have revised 8 times as told.

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Today's Nakshatras are:-

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7. Punarvasu - पुनर्वसु

8. Pushya - पुष्य

First recall previously learnt Nakshatras twice. Then recite these TWICE now, tomorrow morning, noon & evening in SAME order. Like this tweet only after doing so.

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Today's Nakshatras are:-

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12. Uttaraphalguni - उत्तराफाल्गुनी

Purva means that comes before (P se Purva, P se pehele), and Uttara comes later.

Read next tweet too.

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Purva, Uttara prefixes come in other Nakshatras too. Purva= pehele wala. Remember.

First recall previously learnt 8 Nakshatras twice. Then recite those in Tweet #4 TWICE now, tomorrow morning, noon & evening in SAME order. Like this tweet if you have read Tweets #4 & 5, both.
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