key: cord-0072024-88sntgsn
authors: Catherino, William H.
title: From the Editor-in-Chief
date: 2021-01-11
journal: F S Sci
DOI: 10.1016/j.xfss.2021.01.003
sha: e2fc6e1a4ccbda339f1f3eae70383c5c82d7f72e
doc_id: 72024
cord_uid: 88sntgsn

nan

To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or distinction than that connected with advances in science -Isaac Newton This volume, Volume 3, was developed from a medical miracle born of scientific inquiry. Vaccination as a concept was started by purposefully infecting individuals as a means of inducing immunity (understandably controversial even in the early 1700s). The finding that protein extracted from a cowpox vesicle could induce immunity without inducing infection led to advances resulting in countless lives saved.

Although vaccines are commonplace today, de novo creation of these vaccines took up to a decade before they were ready for mass use. Vaccines were not meant to address an outbreak of a novel virus. The continued challenge of our 30-year effort to create an HIV vaccine demonstrates the difficulty of using a vaccine to control an outbreak of a novel pathogen.

Well, SARS-CoV-2 is not HIV. Humans have proven to recover from and develop immunity to SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that immunity is possible. Furthermore, we have made substantial scientific progress in the past 30 years.

Notably, Dr. Karik o and her colleagues initiated a novel line of scientific inquiry in the early 1990s. Instead of testing protein antigens that have sufficient immunogenicity and induce minimal side effects, what would happen if we used lipid micelles to transfer engineered RNA for these proteins directly into the subject's cells? It is controversial, to be sure. Isn't that similar to a viral infection? Is the transfer of nucleic acids safe? Is the genome safe?

While the debate over this novel therapy continues, scientists continue to transfer nucleic acids into cells as we have done for decades. While we can certainly alter the genome, simply adding RNA or DNA alone is insufficient. We perform experiments every day in which we expect cells to use the nucleic acid code to create a protein that we can detect, while finding no alteration in the cell genome. The critical addition made by Dr. Karik o and her colleagues is the finding that adding modified nucleosides to the tail of the mRNA stimulates Th1 polarization and cellular immunity and prolongs the survival of mRNA for continued translation (1, 2) .

While the technology of transfection is not particularly new, the clinical implications of transferring modified mRNA are profound. Multiple cell-surface proteins can be quickly sequenced, and RNA can be constructed and rapidly transferred into pathogen-naïve individuals. This means that vaccine development and testing can occur in months rather than years, and it also means that vaccines can be used to address an outbreak of a novel virus. It means more lives saved. It means a rapid intervention for a wide variety of infectious agents, including, perhaps, the common cold. We can and should take great pride in our scientists. Playing our part in quietly advancing science, we have another group of fantastic articles for your consideration. Who knows? Maybe one or more of these manuscripts will be the start of our own medical miracle.

Ito and colleagues demonstrated the ability of ureaplasma to invade sperm and the impact of infection on fertilization and embryo development.

Mashiach and colleagues demonstrated that human umbilical cord perivascular cells prevented chemotherapyinduced male infertility in mice. Rajput and colleagues analyzed human egg, zygote, and embryo expression of ACE2 receptor and TMPRSS2, which are necessary for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Embryo Biology García-Jim enez and colleagues evaluated the impact of laser-assisted hatching techniques. Logsdon and colleagues characterized the fatty acid composition of commercial albumin preparations and their impact on embryo implantation.

Pollard and colleagues determined the impact of telapristone on mouse endometrium and pregnancy. Eskew and colleagues correlated the effect of the vaginal microbiome on reproductive outcomes with prophylactic antibiotic exposure. Gerber and colleagues identified a novel marker for endometrial receptivity.

Leppert and colleagues summarized the proceedings of the Basic Science of Uterine Fibroids Meeting, held on February 28, 2020. Chappell and colleagues determined the effect of hyperandrogenemia on mitochondrial structure in an obese polycystic ovary syndrome model. Thank you again for supporting science and its role in improving care for our current and future patients. You can discuss this article with its authors and other readers at https://www.fertstertdialog.com/posts/xfss-d-21-00003

Cutting edge: innate immune system discriminates between RNA containing bacterial versus eukaryotic structural features that prime for high-level IL-12 secretion by dendritic cells

In vitro transcription of long RNA containing modified nucleosides

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF