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The disease caused by the SARS-Cov 2 virus has spread to most areas of the world with high rates of infection and deaths. Facing the complicated developments of the epidemic, clinical medical staff (CMS) are at risk of suffering psychological pressure. This study aimed to investigate the situation of anxiety, depression, and related factors affecting CMS during the COVID-19 pandemic at Dong Da General Hospital and Dong Anh General Hospital in Hanoi. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to July 2020 using self—administered questionnaires amongst 341 CMS. The participants’ anxiety levels were assessed using the standardized General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) toolkit and levels of depression expression were assessed based on the standardized Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) toolkit. Of the CMS who completed the questionnaire, 33.1% had an anxiety disorder and 23.2% exhibited mild to very severe depression. The factors associated with anxiety and depression were department of work, shortage of human resources, and discrimination from the community that directly affects the family of the CMS. The study results highlight the need for a training session to equip CMS with the skills required to cope with psychological stress in all circumstances in general and during the pandemic in particular. This training is especially important for those working in at-risk departments which are susceptible to infection.

The recent COVID‐19 pandemic revealed an urgent need to develop robust cell culture platforms which can react rapidly to respond to this kind of global health issue. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) stable pools can be a vital alternative to quickly provide gram amounts of recombinant proteins required for early‐phase clinical assays. In this study, we analyze early process development data of recombinant trimeric spike protein Cumate‐inducible manufacturing platform utilizing CHO stable pool as a preferred production host across three different stirred‐tank bioreactor scales (0.75, 1, and 10 L). The impact of cell passage number as an indicator of cell age, methionine sulfoximine (MSX) concentration as a selection pressure, and cell seeding density was investigated using stable pools expressing three variants of concern. Multivariate data analysis with principal component analysis and batch‐wise unfolding technique was applied to evaluate the effect of critical process parameters on production variability and a random forest (RF) model was developed to forecast protein production. In order to further improve process understanding, the RF model was analyzed with Shapley value dependency plots so as to determine what ranges of variables were most associated with increased protein production. Increasing longevity, controlling lactate build‐up, and altering pH deadband are considered promising approaches to improve overall culture outcomes. The results also demonstrated that these pools are in general stable expressing similar level of spike proteins up to cell passage 11 (~31 cell generations). This enables to expand enough cells required to seed large volume of 200–2000 L bioreactor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein expression from stably transfected Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) clones is an established but time‐consuming method for manufacturing therapeutic recombinant proteins. The use of faster, alternative approaches, such as non‐clonal stable pools, has been restricted due to lower productivity and longstanding regulatory guidelines. Recently, the performance of stable pools has improved dramatically, making them a viable option for quickly producing drug substance for GLP‐toxicology and early‐phase clinical trials in scenarios such as pandemics that demand rapid production timelines. Compared to stable CHO clones which can take several months to generate and characterize, stable pool development can be completed in only a few weeks. Here, we compared the productivity and product quality of trimeric SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein ectodomains produced from stable CHO pools or clones. Using a set of biophysical and biochemical assays we show that product quality is very similar and that CHO pools demonstrate sufficient productivity to generate vaccine candidates for early clinical trials. Based on these data, we propose that regulatory guidelines should be updated to permit production of early clinical trial material from CHO pools to enable more rapid and cost‐effective clinical evaluation of potentially life‐saving vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This implementation research examines the feasibility of training health care workers at grassroot level in Vietnam to perform visual inspection with acetic acid as a regular screening service for cervical cancer at commune health stations (CHSs). Employing a two-phase design, the study trained 36 nurses working at CHSs to do VIA screening method in the first phase. In the second phase, evaluation on the capacity of those trained to do VIA method as well as client's satisfaction with VIA services performed in CHSs setting was done among 380 clients. Results indicated that within a short time, CHS nurses can be trained to perform VIA correctly (80.6% felt confident to perform VIA and 75% was able to perform test efficiently). All clients showed high level of satisfaction with VIA services provided at CHS setting. This implementation research provided evidences that VIA screening services performed by local midwives/nurses at grassroots level can be an optimal solution to deal with both the raising burden of cervical cancer and the current concern of shortage of well-trained doctors in low resource setting areas. It also gave some important lessons for health care managers on how to sufficiently integrate cervical cancer screening in low resource settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology scale-up and transfer are a fundamental and critical part of process development in biomanufacturing. Important bioreactor hydrodynamic characteristics such as working volume, overhead gas flow rate, volumetric power input (P/V), impeller type, agitation regimen, sparging aeration strategy, sparger type, and k L a must be selected based on key performance indicators (KPI) to ensure a smooth and seamless process scale-up and transfer. Finding suitable operational setpoints and developing an efficient feeding regimen to ensure process efficacy and consistency are instrumental. In this investigation, process development of a cumate inducible Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) stable pool expressing trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in 1.8 L benchtop stirred-tank bioreactors is detailed. Various dissolved oxygen levels and aeration air caps were studied to determine their impact on cell growth and metabolism, culture longevity, and endpoint product titers. Once hydrodynamic conditions were tuned to an optimal zone, various feeding strategies were explored to increase culture performance. Dynamic feedings such as feeding based on current culture volume, viable cell density (VCD), oxygen uptake rate (OUR), and bio-capacitance signals were tested and compared to standard bolus addition. Increases in integral of viable cell concentration (IVCC) (1.25-fold) and protein yield (2.52-fold), as well as greater culture longevity (extension of 5 days) were observed in dynamic feeding strategies when compared to periodic bolus feeding. Our study emphasizes the benefits of designing feeding strategies around metabolically relevant signals such as OUR and bio-capacitance signals., (© 2024 His Majesty the King in Right of Canada and The Author(s). Biotechnology Progress published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development.)