Mini-review: The market growth of diagnostic and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies; SARS CoV-2 an example

BACKGROUND: The emergence of novel viruses poses severe challenges to global public health highlighting the crucial necessity for new antivirals. MAIN BODY: Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are immunoglobulins that bind with a single epitope. Mouse mAbs are generated by classic hybridoma technology and are mainly used for immunodiagnostics. For immunotherapy, it is critical to use monoclonal antibodies in the human form to minimize adverse reactions. They have been successfully used to treat numerous illnesses, accordingly, an increasing number of mAbs, with high potency against emerging viruses is the target of every biopharmaceutical company. The diagnostic and therapeutic mAbs market grows rapidly into a multi-billion-dollar business. Biopharmaceuticals are innovative resolutions which revolutionized the treatment of significant chronic diseases and malignancies. Currently, a variety of therapeutic options that include antiviral medications, monoclonal antibodies, and immunomodulatory agents are available in the management of COVID-19. SHORT CONCLUSION: The invasion of mAbs in new medical sectors will increase the market magnitude as it is expected to generate revenue of about 300 billion $ by 2025. In the current mini-review, the applications of monoclonal antibodies in immune-diagnosis and immunotherapy will be demonstrated, particularly for COVID-19 infection and will focus mainly on monoclonal antibodies in the market.

Novel protein candidates for serodiagnosis of African animal trypanosomosis: Evaluation of the diagnostic potential of lysophospholipase and glycerol kinase from Trypanosoma brucei

African trypanosomosis, a parasitic disease caused by protozoan parasites transmitted by tsetse flies, affects both humans and animals in sub-Saharan Africa. While the human form (HAT) is now limited to foci, the animal form (AAT) is widespread and affects the majority of sub-Saharan African countries, and constitutes a real obstacle to the development of animal breeding. The control of AAT is hampered by a lack of standardized and easy-to used diagnosis tools. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic potential of TbLysoPLA and TbGK proteins from Trypanosoma brucei brucei for AAT serodiagnosis in indirect ELISA using experimental and field sera, individually, in combination, and associated with the BiP C-terminal domain (C25) from T. congolense. These novel proteins were characterized in silico, and their sequence analysis showed strong identities with their orthologs in other trypanosomes (more than 60% for TbLysoPLA and more than 82% for TbGK). TbLysoPLA displays a low homology with cattle (<35%) and Piroplasma (<15%). However, TbGK shares more than 58% with cattle and between 45–55% with Piroplasma. We could identify seven predicted epitopes on TbLysoPLA sequence and 14 potential epitopes on TbGK. Both proteins were recombinantly expressed in Escherichia coli. Their diagnostic potential was evaluated by ELISA with sera from cattle experimentally infected with T. congolense and with T.b. brucei, sera from cattle naturally infected with T. congolense, T. vivax and T.b. brucei. Both proteins used separately had poor diagnostic performance. However, used together with the BiP protein, they showed 60% of sensitivity and between 87–96% of specificity, comparable to reference ELISA tests. In conclusion, we showed that the performance of the protein combinations is much better than the proteins tested individually for the diagnosis of AAT.

Additive Alternatives

<p>As an island nation, beach and coastline activities play a significant role in daily life in New Zealand. In promoting independent and productive lives for amputees, the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service (NZALS) encourages accessing these environments. However, carbon fibre foot prosthetics can be easily compromised by these conditions, as a result of abrasion and corrosion caused by sand and saltwater. To deliver on their mission statement 2017-2021 the NZALS seeks solutions to this issue (NZALS, 2016). In response this research project explores the possibility of offering a range of customised lifestyle-specific prosthetics that can be interchanged easily with a carbon-fibre prosthetic, to accommodate different recreational activities and thereby offer greater choice and independence for their patients. The project focuses on a case study for low-cost durable coastline prosthetic produced through Additive Manufacturing (AM) with Nylon PA-12 using design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) principles to facilitate a product that has a human form and dynamic three-dimensionality. This will be supported by the development of a quick-release coupling system allowing amputees to easily switch between prosthetic foot types for different uses. This incorporates height adjustment, ease of customising foot and fairing combinations and improved usability. This project has been undertaken in collaboration with the NZALS and uses a two-part design research methodology. Research ‘for’ design has been conducted by summarising, collating, and/or synthesising existing research. This was done through literature reviews, product autopsies and context scenarios. This was followed by a research ‘through’ design approach. The methods used are body storming which enabled research on how the foot functions in the scenario, analogue and digital sketching, CAD modelling, and rapid prototyping through AM. The project provides future reference points for the NZALS to improve and expand their product offerings and to facilitate their goal of remote service provision.</p>

Additive Alternatives

<p>As an island nation, beach and coastline activities play a significant role in daily life in New Zealand. In promoting independent and productive lives for amputees, the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service (NZALS) encourages accessing these environments. However, carbon fibre foot prosthetics can be easily compromised by these conditions, as a result of abrasion and corrosion caused by sand and saltwater. To deliver on their mission statement 2017-2021 the NZALS seeks solutions to this issue (NZALS, 2016). In response this research project explores the possibility of offering a range of customised lifestyle-specific prosthetics that can be interchanged easily with a carbon-fibre prosthetic, to accommodate different recreational activities and thereby offer greater choice and independence for their patients. The project focuses on a case study for low-cost durable coastline prosthetic produced through Additive Manufacturing (AM) with Nylon PA-12 using design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) principles to facilitate a product that has a human form and dynamic three-dimensionality. This will be supported by the development of a quick-release coupling system allowing amputees to easily switch between prosthetic foot types for different uses. This incorporates height adjustment, ease of customising foot and fairing combinations and improved usability. This project has been undertaken in collaboration with the NZALS and uses a two-part design research methodology. Research ‘for’ design has been conducted by summarising, collating, and/or synthesising existing research. This was done through literature reviews, product autopsies and context scenarios. This was followed by a research ‘through’ design approach. The methods used are body storming which enabled research on how the foot functions in the scenario, analogue and digital sketching, CAD modelling, and rapid prototyping through AM. The project provides future reference points for the NZALS to improve and expand their product offerings and to facilitate their goal of remote service provision.</p>

The optics of dispossession: urban precarity as political art

How are conditions of urban dispossession sustained and perpetuated by the way peoples on the margins of the world economy are imagined and brought to public visibility? With a focus on the works of European artists, this article explores the image-making projects whereby ghettos, shanty communities and favelas are represented as iconic lifeworlds of the poor. Competing representations of urban poverty are manufactured for public attention by aesthetic, symbolic and affective means, ranging from a romance of despair or humanitarian compassion to a nostalgic longing for premodern signs of a deprived but simpler life. In contrast to the racialised human form, which is central to iconographies of the North American Black ghetto, the shanty-town inhabitants and city builders of the Global South are typically rendered visually absent: a tropology of people’s disempowerment and dispossession. Although often encoded by a critique of intensifying inequalities, the globalised traffic in urban poverty-art relies on an image-making process that is grounded in a detachment from social life. The representations of urban dispossession tend to produce a repertoire of free-floating emblems and signs that can be variously deployed, assembled, appropriated and discarded. Such visual templates are globally consumed as works of art that can alter urban imaginaries, encourage tourism and local economic development as much as neoliberal subjectification. After analysing a range of such artistic endeavours, this article concludes by focusing attention on how an image-maker’s commitment to humanising optics of urban dispossession can transform non-representational art to become a practice of truth.

Data driven design: An investigation into the fit between the individuality of people and the uniformity of mass manufactured items

<p>Due to the economic advantage of mass manufacturing technology humans have designed a world of products built for the average body size and shape. This conformity of diverse body shapes to fixed 3 dimensional forms raises the question for this research; how can 3D scanning and additive manufacturing (AM) create a personal fit between an individual’s body and a product? This question challenges a tool driven standardised approach to manufacture by exploring the interface between a person and a mass produced product, in this case a motorcycle rider and a motorcycle. By taking advantage of digital data and the tool-less build process of 3D printing, every object produced can be different, tailoring it to the customer’s individual aesthetic or physical fit. This investigation into the space between the motorcycle and the human has produced a custom 3D printed seat designed for and inspired by the unique physicality of the individual rider. The following methods are employed. 3D scanning is used to obtain the geometry of the human form and motorcycle, 3D modelling and 3D printing to generate and evaluate ideas and concepts, and a pressure measurement system to evaluate the riders comfort and fit. This new relationship between body and object, rarely seen in mass produced products, questions the way we design and make products with consideration towards digital personalisation and manufacturing efficiency.</p>

Is the fiṭra mutable? A reformist conception of human perfection in Shāh Walī Allāh's Ḥujjat Allāh al-Bāligha

This article examines the question of whether the created human nature, or fiṭra, is portrayed as mutable in Shāh Walī Allāh's (d. 1762) Ḥujjat Allāh al-Bāligha. I argue that Walī Allāh uses the fiṭra — or the perfection of four qualities that make for human flourishing — to anchor a unified concept of human perfection that can fit different ages without essentially changing. Walī Allāh accomplishes this by affirming the particularity of divine laws and the efficacy of local customs in realising the eternal demands of the human form. More specifically, he posits that established practices can become second nature to a community, enter the divine system of requital, and thus help a people develop the necessary qualities through highly contingent means, all without violating the Qur'anic and traditional claim that the original nature itself never changes. With recourse to some of his other works and potential influences, I conclude that Walī Allāh's conception of the fiṭra accommodates traditional theological assertions regarding the singularity of human perfection, on the one hand, and the possibility of reformed norms, on the other.

Data driven design: An investigation into the fit between the individuality of people and the uniformity of mass manufactured items

<p>Due to the economic advantage of mass manufacturing technology humans have designed a world of products built for the average body size and shape. This conformity of diverse body shapes to fixed 3 dimensional forms raises the question for this research; how can 3D scanning and additive manufacturing (AM) create a personal fit between an individual’s body and a product? This question challenges a tool driven standardised approach to manufacture by exploring the interface between a person and a mass produced product, in this case a motorcycle rider and a motorcycle. By taking advantage of digital data and the tool-less build process of 3D printing, every object produced can be different, tailoring it to the customer’s individual aesthetic or physical fit. This investigation into the space between the motorcycle and the human has produced a custom 3D printed seat designed for and inspired by the unique physicality of the individual rider. The following methods are employed. 3D scanning is used to obtain the geometry of the human form and motorcycle, 3D modelling and 3D printing to generate and evaluate ideas and concepts, and a pressure measurement system to evaluate the riders comfort and fit. This new relationship between body and object, rarely seen in mass produced products, questions the way we design and make products with consideration towards digital personalisation and manufacturing efficiency.</p>

Selfish learning is more important than fair-minded conditional cooperation in public-goods games

Why does human cooperation often unravel in economic experiments despite a promising start? Previous studies have interpreted the decline as the reaction of disappointed cooperators retaliating in response to lesser cooperators (conditional cooperation). This interpretation has been considered evidence of a uniquely human form of cooperation, motivated by altruistic concerns for fairness and requiring special evolutionary explanations. However, experiments have typically shown individuals information about both their personal payoff and information about the decisions of their groupmates (social information). Showing both confounds explanations based on conditional cooperation with explanations based on individuals learning how to better play the game. Here we experimentally decouple these two forms of information, and thus these two learning processes, in public goods games involving 616 Swiss university participants. We find that payoff information leads to a greater decline, supporting a payoff-based learning hypothesis. In contrast, social information has small or negligible effect, contradicting the conditional cooperation hypothesis. We also find widespread evidence of both confusion and selfish motives, suggesting that human cooperation is maybe not so unique after all.

Posterior Torso and Buttocks Contour Enhancement

The harmonious contour and movement of the dorsal human form--male and female, youthful through senescent--has been observed, critiqued, and physically and surgically sculpted throughout human existence with the goal of producing a more functional, balanced and beautiful body. This chapter will explore variations and pendulum swings of desirable/beautiful/athletic posterior contours and how the cosmetic units of the upper back, bra roll, axilla, waist, low back, upper buttocks, vertical and horizontal buttocks folds, lateral hips and banana rolls are both independent and interdependent. The evaluation of the topography of the posterior torso and buttocks, at rest and in movement, will be reviewed, Invasive and non-invasive technologies, utilized alone and bundled together for sculpting and refining optimal outcomes with reduced risks will be discussed. Improving the elasticity and tightness of the tissues and enveloping skin will be considered.