Human mini-lungs in lab to help develop new treatments for Covid

by Argus News

New York, Sep 1: The US researchers have grown mini human lungs in lab dishes using adult stem cells, featuring all types of cells that make up the human organ, allowing for testing of new treatments for respiratory diseases, including Covid-19.

Attempts to grow adult human lungs have historically failed because not all of the cell types survived.

The first adult human "lung-in-a-dish" models, described in the journal eLife, are also known as lung organoids and represent all cell types.

The SARS-CoV-2 infection of the lung organoids replicates real-world patient lung infections, and reveals the specialised roles various cell types play in infected lungs, said the team at the University of California-San Diego.

"This human disease model will now allow us to test drug efficacy and toxicity, and reject ineffective compounds early in the process, at 'Phase 0', before human clinical trials begin," said Pradipta Ghosh, Professor, at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

The stem cell scientists reproducibly developed three lung organoid lines from adult stem cells derived from human lungs that had been surgically removed due to lung cancer. With a special cocktail of growth factors, they were able to maintain cells that make up both the upper and lower airways of human lungs, including specialized alveolar cells known as AT2.

By infecting the lung organoids with SARS-CoV-2, the team discovered that the upper airway cells are critical for the virus to establish infection, while the lower airway cells are important for the immune response. Both cell types contribute to the overzealous immune response, sometimes called a cytokine storm that has been observed in severe cases of Covid-19.

A computational team validated the new lung organoids by comparing their gene expression patterns -- which genes are "on" or "off" -- to patterns reported in the lungs of patients who succumbed to the disease, and to those that they previously uncovered from databases of viral pandemic patient data.

Whether infected or not with SARS-CoV-2, the lung organoids behaved similar to real-world lungs. In head-to-head comparisons using the same yardstick (gene expression patterns), the researchers showed that their adult lung organoids replicated Covid-19 better than any other current lab model.

Other models, for example foetal lung-derived organoids and models that rely only on upper airway cells, allowed robust viral infection, but failed to mount an immune response.

"Our lung organoids are now ready to use to explore the uncharted territory of Covid-19, including post-Covid complications, such as lung fibrosis," said Soumita Das, PhD, associate professor of pathology at UC San Diego.

"We have already begun to test drugs for their ability to control viral infection -- from entry to replication to spread -- the runaway immune response that is so often fatal, and lung fibrosis," she added.

(IANS)

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Shivraj Win Budhni By Over 1 Lakh Votes, Kamal Nath Secures Victory From Chhindwara By 36k Votes

by Pabitra Mohan Senapaty

Bhopal, Dec 3: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday secured a landslide victory from Budhni Assembly constituency in Sehore district.

Chouhan defeated Congress candidate and TV actor Vikram (Sharma) Mastal by 1.04 lakh votes.

Chouhan garnered 1,64,951 votes (70.7 per cent vote share) while Mastal trailed far behind with a mere 59,977 votes — creating a victory margin of 1,04,974 votes.

Beside Budhni, the BJP has also won other three seats – Sehore, Astha, and Pichhore in the home district of Chouhan.

BJP candidates Sudesh Rai won Sehore seat by 37,851 votes, Gopal Singh won Astha seat by 7,903 votes, and Karan Singh Verma won Ichhawar seat by 16,346 votes.

On the BJP’s clean sweep in Madhya Pradesh along with neighboring Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, Chouhan said gave credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership for the results.

However, Chouhan also mentioned that he never felt the atmosphere of anti-incumbency against his government during the election campaign.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the hearts of the people of Madhya Pradesh. The work done by the double-engine government, and MP government’s Ladli scheme, has helped uplift people and improve their lives. All of us have worked hard together,” he added.

Madhya Pradesh Congress P:resident Kamal Nath, who led the party’s campaign, secured victory from his bastion Chhindwara by 36,594 votes, defeating BJP's Vivek Bunty Sahu.

The veteran Congress leader congratulated the BJP on its victory.

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"We accept the decision of Madhya Pradesh voters in this contest of democracy. We, being the opposition party, will stick to our duty. I congratulate the BJP and hope that they will live up to the people’s support they got," he said at a press conference.

IANS

Gehlot’s OSD Launches Scathing Attack Against Outgoing Cm For Cong'S Debacle In Rajasthan

by Pabitra Mohan Senapaty

Jaipur, Dec 3: Lokesh Sharma, the OSD to Ashok Gehlot, on Sunday launched a scathing attack against the outgoing Chief Minister by holding him solely responsible for Congress' debacle in the Assembly elections, the results of which were announced on Sunday.

The BJP swept the polls by winning 115 seats in the 199-member Assembly to oust the Congress, which was reduced to just 69 seats.

“I am hurt by the results, but not surprised. Congress could have undoubtedly changed the customs in #Rajasthan, but Ashok Gehlot ji never wanted any change. This is not the defeat of Congress, but of Ashok Gehlot ji.

“The party fought the elections under Gehlot's leadership, giving him a free hand and according to him, he himself was contesting on every seat. Neither his experience, nor magic worked. Congress did not win with the help of his plans, nor did the immense ‘pink' campaign work.

"Despite being a three-time CM, Gehlot brought the party down. Till date, he has only taken from the party, but has never been able to help the Congress retain power in the state,” Sharma said.

And Sharma didn't stop here as he went on to use phrases like “cheating with the high command", "not allowing correct feedback to reach the top", "not allowing anyone to become an alternative", "continuously taking wrong decisions out of narcissism", "being surrounded by immature and selfish people", "ignoring all feedback and surveys", "allotting tickets to his favourite candidates", etc. to target the outgoing Chief Ministers.

“The results which came out today were certain. I myself had told this to the Chief Minister earlier, I had warned him many times, but he did not listen... In fact, he didn't like any person who told the truth,” Sharma said.

It needs to be mentioned here that Sharma wanted to contest the polls from Bikaner, but Gehlot had emphasised that state Education Minister B.D. Kalla should seek renomination from the seat.

Sharma had also asked for a ticket from Bhilwara, but was denied.

"I traveled continuously for six months, met people, organised dialogue programmes with thousands of youth, covered about 127 Assembly constituencies and submitted ground reports to the CM.

"I put all the details on the table so that decisions could be made by taking corrective steps on time... I myself had expressed my desire to contest the elections, first from Bikaner and then on the request of the CM from Bhilwara, the seat where we were losing for 20 years.

"But he was in no mood for an experiment. And for B.D. Kalla ji, I had told six months ago that he would lose the elections by more than 20,000 votes, and that's what happened," said Sharma.

5th T20I: Shreyas Iyer's Fifty Helps India Reach 160/8 Against Australia

by Pabitra Mohan Senapaty

Bengaluru, Dec 3: Shreyas Iyer struck a 37-ball 53 to help India post a modest 160/8 against Australia in the fifth and final T20I of the bilateral series at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium here on Sunday.

While Shreyas Iyer struck five boundaries and two maximums, Jitesh Sharma hammered a 16-ball 24 and Axar Patel blasted a 21-ball 31 studded with two fours and one six as India recovered from an early collapse to post a modest title.

Having already sealed the series 3-1 in the fourth match at Raipur, India made a decent start of 33 before opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was sent back by Jason Behrendorff for 21 in the fourth over.

Fellow opener Ruturaj Gaikwad (10) was out in the next over, caught by Behrendorff off Ben Dwarshuis as India slumped to 33 for two after Australia skipper Matthew Wade won the toss and elected to bowl first in the inconsequential match.

Skipper Suryakumar Yadav could manage only five runs while Rinku Singh, the hero of India's victory in the fourth match, failed for once, getting out for six runs, caught by Tim David off Tanveer Sangha.

Shreyas and Jitesh added 42 runs for the fifth wicket while he and Axar Patel raised 46 runs for the sixth wicket partnership as India reached 143/6 in the 19th over.