An effective Healthcare Service Ecosystem must emphasize the notion of well-being co-creation which entails a dynamic interplay of actors, in face of the challenges, with their ability to use the available resource pools, at the different system levels. An appropriate response, largely avoiding any crisis, depends on a society's resilience and the related response of actors in the reconfiguration of resources. Originally considered luxury and for the fortunate few who could afford the learning curve, Hospitalization-at-Home (HaH) recently approached a new normal with a positive impact to health outcomes. Nowadays, hospitals have had to reconfigure their health services to reduce the workload of caregivers during the COVID-19 outbreak. We show an example of how HaH can be a viable re-configuration of Healthcare Service Ecosystems and a use case for capability reconfiguration. Our use case can be a lesson for the adaptation of technology for patient empowerment allowing patients to interact with their care ecosystem while at their home.
Since the discovery of SARS-CoV-2, several antigens have been proposed to be
part of COVID-19 vaccines. The receptor binding domain (RBD) of Spike protein is
one of the promising candidates to develop effective vaccines since it can
induce potent neutralizing antibodies. We previously reported the production of
RBD in Pichia pastoris and showed it is structurally
identical to the protein produced in mammalian HEK-293T cells. In this work we
designed an RBD multimer construct with the purpose of increasing RBD
immunogenicity. We produced multimeric particles by a transpeptidation reaction
between the RBD expressed in P. pastoris and Lumazine
Synthase from Brucella abortus (BLS), which is a
highly immunogenic and very stable decameric protein of 170 kDa. We vaccinated
mice with two doses 30 days apart, and then we measured humoral immune response.
When the number of RBD copies coupled to BLS was high (6-7 RBD molecules per BLS
decamer, in average), the immune response was significantly better than that
elicited by RBD alone or even by RBD-BLS comprising low number of RBD copies
(1-2 RBD molecules per BLS decamer). Remarkably, the construct with high number
of RBD copies induced high IgG titers with high neutralizing capacity.
Furthermore, a superior immune response was observed when Al(OH)3 adjuvant was
added to this formulation, exhibiting a higher titer of neutralizing antibodies.
Altogether our results suggest that RBD covalent coupled to BLS forming a
multimer-particle shows an advantageous architecture to the antigen-presentation
to the immune system which enhances immune responses. This new antigen should be
considered a potent candidate for a protein-based vaccine.
1Logistics and scientific activities carried out in Antarctic stations entail the risk of contamination by fuels. 2 Among remediation strategies, biostimulation of chronically contaminated Antarctic soils significantly 3 improves the efficiency of hydrocarbons (HCs) removal. The aim of this study was to evaluate the 4 performance of different nutrient formulations as biostimulation agents, in order to improve the 5 elimination of diesel fuel from Antarctic soils, in both oxic and anoxic conditions. A field test was 6 performed in microcosms (15 kg of soil each) as experimental systems. Each microcosm was prepared by 7 triplicate, sampled every 10 days over a 50-days period and sampled again one year later. Changes in 8 bacterial communities, and qualitative and quantitative HCs analysis were determined. Our results 9 showed that, during the early stages of the process, a multi-component commercial product like OSEII ® 10 (containing nutrients, enzymes and surfactants) determines a rapid elimination of HCs with changes in the 11 structure of the bacterial soil community, whereas a more cost-effective slow-release fertilizer like 12 Nitrofoska ® would be efficient in a long-term bioremediation process. 13 14
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