On the 24 th November 2021 the sequence of a new SARS CoV-2 viral isolate Omicron-B.1.1.529 was announced, containing far more mutations in Spike (S) than previously reported variants. Neutralization titres of Omicron by sera from vaccinees and convalescent subjects infected with early pandemic as well as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta are substantially reduced or fail to neutralize. Titres against Omicron are boosted by third vaccine doses and are high in cases both vaccinated and infected by Delta. Mutations in Omicron knock out or substantially reduce neutralization by most of a large panel of potent monoclonal antibodies and antibodies under commercial development. Omicron S has structural changes from earlier viruses, combining mutations conferring tight binding to ACE2 to unleash evolution driven by immune escape, leading to a large number of mutations in the ACE2 binding site which rebalance receptor affinity to that of early pandemic viruses.

Parkin is an E3 ubiquitin ligase involved in the ubiquitination of proteins that are important in the survival of dopamine neurons in Parkinson's disease (PD). We show that parkin is S-nitrosylated in vitro, as well as in vivo in a mouse model of PD and in brains of patients with PD and diffuse Lewy body disease. Moreover, S-nitrosylation inhibits parkin's ubiquitin E3 ligase activity and its protective function. The inhibition of parkin's ubiquitin E3 ligase activity by S-nitrosylation could contribute to the degenerative process in these disorders by impairing the ubiquitination of parkin substrates.

Background Increased understanding of whether individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 are protected from future SARS-CoV-2 infection is an urgent requirement. We aimed to investigate whether antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were associated with a decreased risk of symptomatic and asymptomatic reinfection. Methods A large, multicentre, prospective cohort study was done, with participants recruited from publicly funded hospitals in all regions of England. All health-care workers, support staff, and administrative staff working at hospitals who could remain engaged in follow-up for 12 months were eligible to join The SARS-CoV-2 Immunity and Reinfection Evaluation study. Participants were excluded if they had no PCR tests after enrolment, enrolled after Dec 31, 2020, or had insufficient PCR and antibody data for cohort assignment. Participants attended regular SARS-CoV-2 PCR and antibody testing (every 2–4 weeks) and completed questionnaires every 2 weeks on symptoms and exposures. At enrolment, participants were assigned to either the positive cohort (antibody positive, or previous positive PCR or antibody test) or negative cohort (antibody negative, no previous positive PCR or antibody test). The primary outcome was a reinfection in the positive cohort or a primary infection in the negative cohort, determined by PCR tests. Potential reinfections were clinically reviewed and classified according to case definitions (confirmed, probable, or possible) and symptom-status, depending on the hierarchy of evidence. Primary infections in the negative cohort were defined as a first positive PCR test and seroconversions were excluded when not associated with a positive PCR test. A proportional hazards frailty model using a Poisson distribution was used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) to compare infection rates in the two cohorts. Findings From June 18, 2020, to Dec 31, 2020, 30 625 participants were enrolled into the study. 51 participants withdrew from the study, 4913 were excluded, and 25 661 participants (with linked data on antibody and PCR testing) were included in the analysis. Data were extracted from all sources on Feb 5, 2021, and include data up to and including Jan 11, 2021. 155 infections were detected in the baseline positive cohort of 8278 participants, collectively contributing 2 047 113 person-days of follow-up. This compares with 1704 new PCR positive infections in the negative cohort of 17 383 participants, contributing 2 971 436 person-days of follow-up. The incidence density was 7·6 reinfections per 100 000 person-days in the positive cohort, compared with 57·3 primary infections per 100 000 person-days in the negative cohort, between June, 2020, and January, 2021. The adjusted IRR was 0·159 for all reinfections (95% CI 0·13–0·19) compared with PCR-confirmed primary infections. The median interval between primary infection and reinfection was more than 200 days. Interpretation A previous histo...

␣-synucleinopathy ͉ mass spectrometry ͉ proteolysis ͉ Lewy body P arkinson's disease (PD) is a common progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons of substantia nigra and the presence of the fibrillar cytoplasmic aggregates of ␣-synuclein (␣-Syn) in multiple brain regions (1, 2). Mutations in the ␣-Syn gene (3-7) and the abnormal aggregation of ␣-Syn are implicated in the pathogenesis of PD, and other related diseases are classified as ␣-synucleinopathies (1, 8-10). ␣-Syn is a highly conserved protein of 140 amino acids that is predominantly expressed in neurons, particularly in presynaptic terminals (11), and may have a role in synaptic plasticity and modulation of dopaminergic neurotransmission (11).Although the bulk of previous studies focused on the aggregation and the biology of the full-length ␣-Syn (␣-SynFL) (12, 13), the conspicuous presence of lower molecular mass ␣-Syn species in ␣-Syn aggregates (14, 15), and the enhanced in vitro fibril assembly of recombinant C-terminally truncated ␣-Syn (16, 17) suggests that the low-molecular mass ␣-Syn species may be of pathogenic significance. However, because postpathogenic and͞or postmortem processes could potentially generate a variety of ␣-Syn species, the significance of low-molecular mass ␣-Syn species to the development of ␣-synucleinopathy is uncertain.Herein, we demonstrate that C-terminally truncated lowmolecular mass ␣-Syn species (␣-Syn⌬C) with aggregationpromoting properties are normally generated in vivo. The expression of familial PD (FPD)-linked mutant human (Hu) ␣-Syn is associated with the higher cellular accumulation of ␣-Syn⌬C. Moreover, human cases with ␣-Syn lesions show preferential accumulation of ␣-Syn⌬C in aggregates and higher relative levels of soluble ␣-Syn⌬C. Our findings show that ␣-Syn⌬Cs are not an artifact of postpathologic processes and are likely to participate in the disease-linked aggregation of ␣-Syn. Materials and MethodsAdditional details are provided in Supporting Materials and Methods, which is published as supporting information on the PNAS web site.