Background Genetic predisposition to life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias such as in congenital long-QT syndrome (LQTS) and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) represent treatable causes of sudden cardiac death in young adults and children. Recently, mutations in calmodulin (CALM1, CALM2) have been associated with severe forms of LQTS and CPVT, with life-threatening arrhythmias occurring very early in life. Additional mutation-positive cases are needed to discern genotype-phenotype correlations associated with calmodulin mutations. Methods and Results We employed conventional and next-generation sequencing approaches including exome analysis in genotype-negative LQTS probands. We identified five novel de novo missense mutations in CALM2 in three subjects with LQTS (p.N98S, p.N98I, p.D134H) and two subjects with clinical features of both LQTS and CPVT (p.D132E, p.Q136P). Age of onset of major symptoms (syncope or cardiac arrest) ranged from 1–9 years. Three of five probands had cardiac arrest and one of these subjects did not survive. Although all probands had LQTS, two subjects also exhibited electrocardiographic features consistent with CPVT. The clinical severity among subjects in this series was generally less than that originally reported for CALM1 and CALM2 associated with recurrent cardiac arrest during infancy. Four of five probands responded to β-blocker therapy whereas one subject with mutation p.Q136P died suddenly during exertion despite this treatment. Mutations affect conserved residues located within calcium binding loops III (p.N98S, p.N98I) or IV (p.D132E, p.D134H, p.Q136P) and caused reduced calcium binding affinity. Conclusions CALM2 mutations can be associated with LQTS and with overlapping features of LQTS and CPVT.

Synchronized generation of single bubbles and an underwater discharge in the bubbles was performed using pulsed injection of feed gas with a piezoelectric valve. The differences in the discharge appearance and the after-effect on the bubble were systematically studied with different kinds of gases. In molecular gases such as N 2 and O 2 , surface discharge along the inner bubble surface predominated and the disturbance caused wrinkles on the bubble surface, while in rare gases, such as He, Ne and Ar, a large hump formed on the smooth surface due to a rather volumetric discharge. When the input power was increased, the discharge sometimes caused the collapse of a single bubble, producing smaller bubbles. It was observed by emission spectra that excited species of OH, H and O radicals were produced in the discharge plasma. The emission intensity ratio of the H α line to the OH band was larger in He and Ne gases than in other gases, suggesting differences in the dissociation channels.

Calmodulin is a ubiquitous Ca2+ sensor molecule encoded by three distinct calmodulin genes, CALM1-3. Recently, mutations in CALM1-3 have been reported to be associated with severe early-onset long-QT syndrome (LQTS). However, the underlying mechanism through which heterozygous calmodulin mutations lead to severe LQTS remains unknown, particularly in human cardiomyocytes. We aimed to establish an LQTS disease model associated with a CALM2 mutation (LQT15) using human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and to assess mutant allele-specific ablation by genome editing for the treatment of LQT15. We generated LQT15-hiPSCs from a 12-year-old boy with LQTS carrying a CALM2-N98S mutation and differentiated these hiPSCs into cardiomyocytes (LQT15-hiPSC-CMs). Action potentials (APs) and L-type Ca2+ channel (LTCC) currents in hiPSC-CMs were analyzed by the patch-clamp technique and compared with those of healthy controls. Furthermore, we performed mutant allele-specific knockout using a CRISPR-Cas9 system and analyzed electrophysiological properties. Electrophysiological analyses revealed that LQT15-hiPSC-CMs exhibited significantly lower beating rates, prolonged AP durations, and impaired inactivation of LTCC currents compared with control cells, consistent with clinical phenotypes. Notably, ablation of the mutant allele rescued the electrophysiological abnormalities of LQT15-hiPSC-CMs, indicating that the mutant allele caused dominant-negative suppression of LTCC inactivation, resulting in prolonged AP duration. We successfully recapitulated the disease phenotypes of LQT15 and revealed that inactivation of LTCC currents was impaired in CALM2-N98S hiPSC model. Additionally, allele-specific ablation using the latest genome-editing technology provided important insights into a promising therapeutic approach for inherited cardiac diseases.

To investigate susceptibility to and factors associated with rubella infection among pregnant mothers and to estimate the burden of congenital rubella infection (CRI) in Vietnam where rubella-containing vaccine (RCV) is not included in the routine immunization programme, we conducted a prospective cohort study

This study has been done to know what kind of factors in plasmas and processes on cells induce plasma gene transfection. We evaluated the contribution weight of three groups of the effects and processes, i.e. electrical, chemical and biochemical ones, inducing gene transfection. First, the laser produced plasma (LPP) was employed to estimate the contribution of the chemical factors. Second, liposomes were fabricated and employed to evaluate the effects of plasma irradiation on membrane under the condition without biochemical reaction. Third, the clathrin-dependent endocytosis, one of the biochemical processes was suppressed. It becomes clear that chemical factors (radicals and reactive oxygen/nitrogen species) do not work by itself alone and electrical factors (electrical current, charge and field) are essential to plasma gene transfection. It turned out the clathrin-dependent endocytosis is the process of the transfection against the 60% in all the transfected cells. The endocytosis and electrical poration are dominant in plasma gene transfection, and neither permeation through ion channels nor chemical poration is dominant processes. The simultaneous achievement of high transfection efficiency and high cell survivability is attributed to the optimization of the contribution weight among three groups of processes by controlling the weight of electrical and chemical factors.