Terumo (Belgium)

Calculating the collection efficiency (CE) of CD34+ cells in leukocytapheresis (LVL) is critical to understanding the performance of cell collection. Traditional CE values are typically based on both pre- and post-apheresis calculations of the pooled cells (CE1), or they may be based only on the pre-procedure pool calculation (CE2) and total blood volume (TBV) processed. However, determining the actual CD34+ concentration in peripheral blood (PB) during LVL is more problematic. New crude CE (CruCE) takes into account the recruitment and extraction of CD34+ cells during LVL. This study aims to retrospectively compare traditional (CE2, CE1) and CruCE and to assess the variables that influence new CruCE-including donor characteristics, procedure characteristics, and device setting parameters-in both large-volume LVL and non-LVL. Data from adult donors who underwent autologous and allogeneic collections of PB stem cells between January 2020 and April 2023 were retrospectively included. Our series comprises 123 autologous and 37 allogeneic LVL procedures. The median of CD34+ CE2, CE1, and CruCE was 51%, 65%, and 74% in autologous donors and 58%, 69%, and 76% in allogeneic donors. In multivariate analysis, TBV processed and prior CD34+ cell count in PB showed a positive and a negative correlation with CruCE in autologous and allogeneic settings, respectively. In conclusion, CruCE may be closer to actual CE in comparison to CE2 and CE1. LVL and low CD34+/μL prior to the procedure may enhance CD34+ cell CE.

Blood establishments face environmental, financial, demographic and societal challenges that may impair sustainable blood supply to patients. This study presents the technologies (devices and software) assembled in a global ecosystem implemented by the Blood and Tissue Bank of Aragón (BTBA), Spain, over the last decade to overcome these challenges. Descriptive yearly activity data (2013-2023) of BTBA were retrospectively collected to evaluate the impact of different technologies on blood processing efficiency, focusing on the production of blood components (red blood cell concentrates [RCCs], platelet concentrates [PCs]) and plasma. Operator satisfaction about the technologies introduced in daily routine work was also monitored. Between 2013 and 2023, the annual production decreased by 16.0% for RCCs and increased by 13.3% for PCs. From 2020, all PCs were treated with pathogen reduction technology, and no inventory stock-out was reported. The lowest PC expiry rate (0.2%) was observed after the implementation of the software for blood processing and PC stock management. The deployment of this software also improved plasma recovery: on average, an extra plasma volume of 9 mL was collected per donation in 2023 compared to 2015. A survey confirmed staff satisfaction. The progressive implementation of automated and software-based solutions was key to increasing efficiencies in BTBA. This enabled the optimization of blood processing by maximizing productivity, enhancing traceability, reducing overproduction and wastage and increasing the yield of recovered plasma, while ensuring blood product safety and staff satisfaction.

The original article [1] contains an incorrect version of Fig. 3. The corrected version can be viewed ahead in this Correction article. (Figure presented.) Overview of the ShEx schemas and the relations between them. All shapes, properties, and items are available from within Wikidata.

Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is an efficient and established therapy to treat acute and chronic graft vs host disease (GVHD). Using an "off-line" method, the first step (mononuclear cell [MNC] collection) is decisive, as long as a high MNC yield and purity in the collected product is desirable. Two "off-line" devices were compared: the COBE Spectra and the Spectra Optia (Terumo BCT), using both continuous and intermittent protocols. Twelve patients with GvHD (7 acute/5 chronic) were enrolled between June 2014 and May 2015 and were alternatively assigned for each procedure to either the COBE Spectra or the Spectra Optia cell separator. Patients characteristics and procedure/product parameters were analyzed. Two hundred procedures (100 per device) were included. The Spectra Optia system showed higher total nucleated cells and MNC collection efficiencies (18.6(10.2-29.7) vs 7.9(4.1-14.8)% and 43.6(20.3-59.5) vs 23.3(11.4-37.1)%, P < .001) and monocyte and lymphocyte collection efficiencies (55.2(17.7-83.2) vs 22.8(9-38.9)% and 38.3(26.7-53.4) vs 22.2(9-38.9)%, respectively, P < .001). Absolute platelet loss (PL) and PL per liter of blood processed were significantly lower in the Spectra Optia group (22.9(18.3-28.1) vs 33.6(26.5-41.1)%, P < .001 and 3.7(3.1-4.5) vs 4.3(3.5-4.2)%, P = .01, respectively). However, granulocyte contamination was higher (4.5(1.3-36) vs 1.2(0.4-5.7)%, P < .001) and a higher product haematocrit was obtained with the Spectra Optia (1(0.5-1.6) vs 0.3(0.2-0.5)%, P < .001), without an impact on irradiation time. In our study, Spectra Optia proved to be safe and effective in collecting MNC with high yield and purity for ECP in GvHD.

WikiPathways (wikipathways.org) captures the collective knowledge represented in biological pathways. By providing a database in a curated, machine readable way, omics data analysis and visualization is enabled. WikiPathways and other pathway databases are used to analyze experimental data by research groups in many fields. Due to the open and collaborative nature of the WikiPathways platform, our content keeps growing and is getting more accurate, making WikiPathways a reliable and rich pathway database. Previously, however, the focus was primarily on genes and proteins, leaving many metabolites with only limited annotation. Recent curation efforts focused on improving the annotation of metabolism and metabolic pathways by associating unmapped metabolites with database identifiers and providing more detailed interaction knowledge. Here, we report the outcomes of the continued growth and curation efforts, such as a doubling of the number of annotated metabolite nodes in WikiPathways. Furthermore, we introduce an OpenAPI documentation of our web services and the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) annotation of resources to increase the interoperability of the knowledge encoded in these pathways and experimental omics data. New search options, monthly downloads, more links to metabolite databases, and new portals make pathway knowledge more effortlessly accessible to individual researchers and research communities.

Abstract With the advancement of genome sequencing technologies, new genomes are being sequenced daily. While these sequences are deposited in publicly available data warehouses, their functional and genomic annotations (beyond genes which are predicted automatically) mostly reside in the text of primary publications. Professional curators are hard at work extracting those annotations from the literature for the most studied organisms and depositing them in structured databases. However, the resources don’t exist to fund the comprehensive curation of the thousands of newly sequenced organisms in this manner. Here, we describe WikiGenomes (wikigenomes.org), a web application that facilitates the consumption and curation of genomic data by the entire scientific community. WikiGenomes is based on Wikidata, an openly editable knowledge graph with the goal of aggregating published knowledge into a free and open database. WikiGenomes empowers the individual genomic researcher to contribute their expertise to the curation effort and integrates the knowledge into Wikidata, enabling it to be accessed by anyone without restriction.