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Bradley King,1 Jana McHugh,2 Katie Snape3 1Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St. George’s, University of London, London, UK; 2Department of Oncogenomics, Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK; 3Department of Clinical Genetics, St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UKCorrespondence: Katie SnapeDepartment of Clinical Genetics, Basement, Jenner Wing, St George’s Hospital, London, SW17 0QT, UKTel +44 2087255333Email ksnape@sgul.ac.ukAbstract: BRCA2 is the most commonly implicated DNA damage repair gene associated with inherited prostate cancer. BRCA2 deficient prostate cancer typically presents at a younger age, is more poorly differentiated, and is associated with worse survival outcomes than non-BRCA2 associated prostate cancer. Despite these unfavourable prognostic implications, poly-ADP ribose polymerase inhibitors and platinum-based chemotherapy have been identified as potent targeted therapeutic agents towards BRCA1/2 deficient cancer cells. This review article explores the literature surrounding BRCA2-related prostate cancer through a familial clinical scenario. The investigation, diagnosis and management of BRCA2 deficient prostate cancer will be explored, alongside the implications of the identification of a germline pathogenic BRCA2 variant within a family, cascade screening and prostate cancer surveillance in unaffected male BRCA2 carriers. A greater understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of DNA damage repair gene deficient prostate cancer, coupled with new treatment paradigms and widened access to both somatic and germline genetic analysis for prostate cancer patients and their families will hopefully enable the robust implementation of high quality evidence-based clinical pathways for both the management and identification of BRCA2 deficient prostate cancer and improved screening, early detection and prevention strategies for individuals at increased genetic risk of prostate cancer.Keywords: prostate cancer, BRCA, genomics, PARP inhibitors, clinical management

Many of the Greek constellations catalogued in Claudius Ptolemy's mid-second century Almagest originated in Mesopotamia. Yet numerous other Greek constellations and asterisms do not correspond to Mesopotamian prototypes, and simultaneously display bizarre or incongruous features. This is especially apparent in Pegasus, a winged Horse severed at the navel; Crater, the "Wine-Bowl" stationed upon the back of Hydra, the "Water-Snake"; Cancer, a "Crab" that carries a "Manger" and "Donkeys" upon its shell; and Argo, the "Swift" Ship that sails backwards through the night sky without a prow. Because the aforementioned star-figures cannot be traced to Mesopotamian originals most historians of astronomy have assumed they are either indigenous Greek inventions or the creations of seafaring civilization that had direct contact with Greece. This article presents seminal research that offers a more elegant possibility, namely, that the origin of the aforementioned constellations and asterisms was indeed Mesopotamia, and can be traced to arcane precepts that informed the astronomers of that land. Cuneiform texts confirm that Mesopotamian astronomers were literally "writers" who envisioned the starry sky as "heavenly writing" that divulged inviolable truth through the medium of wordplay. In Mesopotamia the Pegasus Square was known as the "Field," and puns encrypted in its cuneiform spellings divulged that the Field be "changed into" a "flying horse severed at the navel"; wordplay in Hydra's cuneiform title disclosed that a "wine-bowl" be "placed upon the back of the "water-snake"; double entendre in Cancer's cuneiform appellative imparted that a "manger" and "two donkeys" be "placed between the shoulders of the crab"; and punning in the Mesopotamian prototype for Argo divulged that these stars were a "divine ship named "Swift" which had its "prow cut off" and sailed "backward" through the southern sky. Circumstantial evidence implies that the Mesopotamian perception of the stars as a divine "text" that divulged enlightenment via puns had been transmitted directly to the Hellenic world at the inception of Greek alphabetic writing in the mid-eighth century BC. And it was this Mesopotamian celestial wisdom that inspired Greek astronomer-poets to reconfigure the preceding star-figures into the irrational images described by the puns.

Background: Transient positivity for hepatitis B core antibody (Anti‐HBc) following intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and subcutaneous immunoglobulin exposure is a well‐described phenomenon. The aim of this study was to retrospectively review Hepatitis B viral screening practices in IVIG recipients in a hematology specific cohort at a single center. Methods: Electronic databases were analyzed to identify all hematology patients who received IVIG from September 2022 to March 2022 at a single Irish center (n = 43). The proportion of patients that had a baseline anti‐HBc tested prior to IVIG receipt was assessed as well as the proportion of patients that developed a transiently positive anti‐HBc following IVIG exposure. Data were also collected relating to signal cut‐off ratios in patients with detectable anti‐HBc post‐IVIG. Results: 58.1% of patients had at least one serological hepatitis B viral test sent prior to IVIG exposure. Anti‐HBc was the least common serological investigation performed prior to IVIG exposure (21% of recipients). A positive or equivocal "low level antibody" was identified in 15% of recipients and this was proven to be transient in all cases. Conclusion: The minority of hematology patients had a baseline anti‐HBc assessed prior to IVIG exposure. All patients in this study had the potential to require further immunosuppressive therapies, which could be limited by a misleading anti‐HBc result. We therefore advocate for baseline anti‐HBc testing to be performed prior to IVIG exposure in hematology patients and for cautious interpretation of anti‐HBc results taking into account signal cut‐off ratios post‐IVIG exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moiré superlattices in twistronic heterostructures are a powerful tool for materials engineering. In marginally twisted (small misalignment angle, θ) bilayers of nearly lattice-matched two-dimensional (2D) crystals moiré patterns take the form of domains of commensurate stacking, separated by a network of domain walls (NoDW) with strain hot spots at the NoDW nodes. Here, we show that, for type-II transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers MoX2/WX2 (X=S, Se), the hydrostatic strain component in these hot spots creates quantum dots for electrons and holes. We investigate the electron/hole states bound by such objects, discussing their manifestations via the intralayer intraband infrared transitions. The electron/hole confinement, which is strongest for θ < 0.5°, leads to a red-shift of their recombination line producing single-photon emitters (SPE) broadly tuneable around 1 eV by misalignment angle. These self-organized dots can form in bilayers with both aligned and inverted MoX2 and WX2 unit cells, emitting photons with different polarizations. We also find that the hot spots of strain reduce the intralayer MoX2 A-exciton energy, enabling selective population of the quantum dot states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]