Provided are methods for clinical treatment of pregnancy-associated atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome (p-aHUS), including postpartum aHUS, using an anti-C5 antibody, or antigen binding fragment thereof, such as ravulizumab (ULTOMIRIS®).

A method of predicting whether an MDS patient has a good or poor prognosis uses a general purpose computer configured as a classifier and mass-spectrometry data obtained from a blood-based sample. The classifier assigns a classification label of either Early or Late (or the equivalent) to the patient's sample. Patients classified as Early are predicted to have a poor prognosis or worse survival whereas those patients classified as Late are predicted to have a relatively better prognosis and longer survival time. The groupings demonstrated a large effect size between groups in Kaplan-Meier analysis of survival. Most importantly, while the classifications generated were correlated with other prognostic factors, such as IPSS score and genetic category, multivariate and subgroup analysis showed that they had significant independent prognostic power complementary to the existing prognostic factors.

The invention provides methods for identifying a patient as likely to have an onset of massive hemorrhage. In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for identifying a patient as likely to have an onset of massive hemorrhage, the method comprising measuring at least one of first coagulation characteristic parameter reflective of a clotting time in a sample of blood of the patient, a second coagulation characteristic parameter reflective of clot formation in a sample of blood of the patient using the viscoelastic assay to obtain a second result; a third coagulation characteristic parameter reflective of clot strength in a sample of blood of the patient using the viscoelastic assay to obtain a third result; and a fourth coagulation characteristic parameter reflective of clot lysis in a sample of blood of the patient using the viscoelastic assay to obtain a fourth result; wherein, a positive for at least one of the first result, second result, third result and fourth result identifies the patient as likely to have an onset of massive hemorrhage.

Introduced here is an approach to improving the automatic identification of hematological diseases using computer-implemented models that are trained to rapidly distinguish between different collections of immunophenotypes that represent different disease types or disease states. Understanding the different patterns of immunophenotype collections contained in a given sample may permit a proposed diagnosis for a given hematological disease to be produced for the corresponding patient. For example, the proposed diagnoses may be output by a classification model based on the distribution of immunophenotypes across the given sample.

A microfluidic system for measuring cell adhesion includes a gas impermeable housing including at least one microchannel defining at least one cell adhesion region, the at least one cell adhesion region being provided with at least one capturing agent that adheres a cell of interest to a surface of the at least one microchannel when a fluid sample containing cells is passed through the at least one microchannel, and an imaging system for measuring the adherence of cells of interest adhered by the at least one capturing agent to the surface of the at least one microchannel when the fluid sample is passed therethrough.

Provided are methods of treating a disease or condition characterized by a deficiency of or a defect in an iron transporter using a small molecule. For example, the method may increase transepithelial iron transport, or it may increase iron release. Additionally, the small molecule may be hinokitiol, or it may be selected from the group consisting of amphotericin B, calcimycin, nonactin, deferiprone, purpurogallin, and maltol. Also provided is a method of identifying a compound capable of treating a disease or condition characterized by a deficiency of or a defect in an iron transporter.

Provided are methods for treating diseases, disorders, and conditions associated with undesirable cellular proliferation in subjects in need thereof. In some embodiments, the methods include administering to a subject in need thereof a therapeutically effective amount of a composition comprising, consisting essentially of, or consisting of a chemotherapeutic agent and a short chain ceramide. Also provided are methods for increasing total ceramide levels in cells, for increasing long chain ceramide to a very long chain ceramide ratios in cells, methods for enhancing apoptosis of cells, for prognosing subjects with diseases, disorders, and conditions associated with undesirable cellular proliferation with respect to treatments, for increasing sensitivities of drug-resistant tumor and/or cancer cells to chemotherapeutics, and compositions that have one or more short chain ceramides and one or more chemotherapeutically active agents.

The present invention relates generally to the field of disorders of complement activation. More specifically, the present invention provides methods and compositions useful for diagnosing and treating atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome and other disorders of the alternative pathway of complement activation. In one embodiment, a method comprises the steps of (a) incubating or contacting serum obtained from a patient suspected of having atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) with a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein (GPI-AP) deficient cell line; and (b) performing a cell viability assay on the cells from step (a). In a specific embodiment, the method further comprises the step of diagnosing the patient as having aHUS based on a statistically significant increased difference of non-viable cells from the patient serum as compared to a control.

Disclosed are nanoparticle compositions comprising nanoparticles prepared from denatured, cross-linked albumin and a therapeutic agent for treating a neutrophil-mediated inflammation, and methods of treating neutrophil-mediated inflammation using the compositions.

Provided herein are deoxygenated sickle hemoglobin (HbS), at concentrations far below the threshold for nucleation and rapid polymerization, that form small temporally stable assemblies of multiple α2β2 tetramers. Also provided are methods for making and detecting the small temporally stable assemblies and methods for identifying compounds that alter the structure of the small temporally stable assemblies.