Mortality from hepatitis B virus (HBV)–related acute‐on‐chronic liver failure (ACLF) is high due to limited treatment options. Preclinical and clinical investigations have proved that treatment with ...mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) is beneficial for recovery from liver injury. We hypothesized that the outcome of HBV‐related ACLF would be improved by MSC treatment. From 2010 to 2013, 110 patients with HBV‐related ACLF were enrolled in this open‐label, nonblinded randomized controlled study. The control group (n = 54) was treated with standard medical therapy (SMT) only. The experimental group (n = 56) was infused weekly for 4 weeks with 1.0 to 10 × 105 cells/kg allogeneic bone marrow–derived MSCs and then followed for 24 weeks. The cumulated survival rate of the MSC group was 73.2% (95% confidence interval 61.6%‐84.8%) versus 55.6% (95% confidence interval 42.3%‐68.9%) for the SMT group (P = 0.03). There were no infusion‐related side effects, but fever was more frequent in MSC compared to SMT patients during weeks 5‐24 of follow‐up. No carcinoma occurred in any trial patient in either group. Compared with the control group, allogeneic bone marrow–derived MSC treatment markedly improved clinical laboratory measurements, including serum total bilirubin and Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease scores. The incidence of severe infection in the MSC group was much lower than that in the SMT group (16.1% versus 33.3%, P = 0.04). Mortality from multiple organ failure and severe infection was higher in the SMT group than in the MSC group (37.0% versus 17.9%, P = 0.02). Conclusion: Peripheral infusion of allogeneic bone marrow–derived MSCs is safe and convenient for patients with HBV‐related ACLF and significantly increases the 24‐week survival rate by improving liver function and decreasing the incidence of severe infections. (Hepatology 2017;66:209–219).
The emergence of new applications, such as in artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and biotechnology, has driven the evolution of stress sensing technology. For these emerging ...applications, stretchability, remoteness, stress distribution, a multimodal nature, and biocompatibility are important performance characteristics of stress sensors. Mechanoluminescence (ML)‐based stress sensing has attracted widespread attention because of its characteristics of remoteness and having a distributed response to mechanical stimuli as well as its great potential for stretchability, biocompatibility, and self‐powering. In the past few decades, great progress has been made in the discovery of ML materials, analysis of mechanisms, design of devices, and exploration of applications. One can find that with this progress, the focus of ML research has shifted from the phenomenon in the earliest stage to materials and recently toward devices. At the present stage, while showing great prospects for advanced stress sensing applications, ML‐based sensing still faces major challenges in material optimization, device design, and system integration.
Mechanoluminescence‐based stress sensing exhibits many advantages, including remoteness, spatial distribution, stretchability, biocompatibility, and self‐powering. With great potential in wearable device, biomechanics, and engineering structure diagnosis applications, it is reasonable to believe that mechanoluminescence‐based stress sensing may rebrighten the prospects of stress sensing.
Carbon coating layers have been found to improve the catalytic performance of transition metals, which is usually explained as an outcome of electronic synergistic effect. Herein we reveal that the ...defective graphitic carbon, with a unique interlayer gap of 0.342 nm, can be a highly selective natural molecular sieve. It allows efficient diffusion of hydrogen molecules or radicals both along the in‐plane and out‐of‐plane direction, but sterically hinders the diffusion of molecules with larger kinetic diameter (e.g., CO and O2) along the in‐plane direction. As a result, poisonous species lager than 0.342 nm are sieved out, even when their adsorption on the metal is thermodynamically strong; at the same time, the interaction between H2 and the metal is not affected. This natural molecular sieve provides a very chance for constructing robust metal catalysts for hydrogen‐relevant processes, which are more tolerant to chemical or electrochemical oxidation or CO‐relevant poisoning.
With interlayer gap of 0.342 nm, graphite armor serves as a natural molecule sieve screening out bulky adversative molecules like O2 or CO but allowing H2 to diffuse along both the out‐of‐plane and in‐plane direction. This creates perfect chance for fabricating robust HOR electrocatalysts.
Aims
An ongoing outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus (CoV) disease (COVID‐19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) CoV‐2, has been spreading in multiple countries. One of the reasons for ...the rapid spread is that the virus can be transmitted from infected individuals without symptoms. Revealing the pathological features of early‐phase COVID‐19 pneumonia is important for understanding of its pathogenesis. The aim of this study was to explore the pulmonary pathology of early‐phase COVID‐19 pneumonia in a patient with a benign lung lesion.
Methods and results
We analysed the pathological changes in lung tissue from a 55‐year‐old female patient with early‐phase SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. In this case, right lower lobectomy was performed for a benign pulmonary nodule. Detailed clinical, laboratory and radiological data were also examined. This patient was confirmed to have preoperative SARS‐CoV‐2 infection by the use of real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and RNA in‐situ hybridisation on surgically removed lung tissues. Histologically, COVID‐19 pneumonia was characterised by exudative inflammation. The closer to the visceral pleura, the more severe the exudation of monocytes and lymphocytes. Perivascular inflammatory infiltration, intra‐alveolar multinucleated giant cells, pneumocyte hyperplasia and intracytoplasmic viral‐like inclusion bodies were seen. However, fibrinous exudate and hyaline membrane formation, which were typical pulmonary features of SARS pneumonia, were not evident in this case. Immunohistochemical staining results showed an abnormal accumulation of CD4+ helper T lymphocytes and CD163+ M2 macrophages in the lung tissue.
Conclusion
The results highlighted the pulmonary pathological changes of early‐phase SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, and suggested a role of immune dysfunction in the pathogenesis of COVID‐19 pneumonia.
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a major cause of harm in healthcare systems around the world. This study aimed to explore the factors that influence the risk of medication and ...provide medication risk evaluation model for adults in Shanxi province, China.
The data was obtained from the provincial questionnaire from May to December 2022, relying on the random distribution of questionnaires and online questionnaires by four hospitals in Shanxi Province. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to explore the factors affecting the KAP score of residents. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the independent risk factors, and the nomogram was verified by receiver operating characteristic curve, calibration and decision curve analysis.
A total of 3,388 questionnaires were collected, including 3,272 valid questionnaires. The average scores of drugs KAP were 63.2 ± 23.04, 33.05 ± 9.60, 23.67 ± 6.75 and 33.16 ± 10.87, respectively. On the evaluation criteria of the questionnaire, knowledge was scored "fair", attitude and practice were scored "good". Sex, monthly income, place of residence, insurance status, education level, and employment were regarded as independent risk factors for medication and a nomogram was established by them.
Males, low-income, and low-educated people are important factors affecting the risk of medication. The application of the model can help residents understand the risk of their own medication behavior and reduce the harm of medication.
Abstract
Discovery of pulsars is one of the main goals for large radio telescopes. The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), that incorporates an L-band 19-beam receiver with ...a system temperature of about 20 K, is the most sensitive radio telescope utilized for discovering pulsars. We designed the
snapshot
observation mode for a FAST key science project, the Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot (GPPS) survey, in which every four nearby pointings can observe
a cover
of a sky patch of 0.1575 square degrees through beam-switching of the L-band 19-beam receiver. The integration time for each pointing is 300 seconds so that the GPPS observations for a cover can be made in 21 minutes. The goal of the GPPS survey is to discover pulsars within the Galactic latitude of ± 10° from the Galactic plane, and the highest priority is given to the inner Galaxy within ± 5°. Up to now, the GPPS survey has discovered 201 pulsars, including currently the faintest pulsars which cannot be detected by other telescopes, pulsars with extremely high dispersion measures (DMs) which challenge the currently widely used models for the Galactic electron density distribution, pulsars coincident with supernova remnants, 40 millisecond pulsars, 16 binary pulsars, some nulling and mode-changing pulsars and rotating radio transients (RRATs). The follow-up observations for confirmation of new pulsars have polarization-signals recorded for polarization profiles of the pulsars. Re-detection of previously known pulsars in the survey data also leads to significant improvements in parameters for 64 pulsars. The GPPS survey discoveries are published and will be updated at
http://zmtt.bao.ac.cn/GPPS/
.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressively debilitating neurodegenerative condition that leads to motor and cognitive dysfunction. At present, clinical treatment can only improve symptoms, but ...cannot effectively protect dopaminergic neurons. Several reports have demonstrated that human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hucMSCs) afford neuroprotection, while their application is limited because of their uncontrollable differentiation and other reasons. Stem cells communicate with cells through secreted exosomes (Exos), the present study aimed to explore whether Exos secreted by hucMSCs could function instead of hucMSCs. hucMSCs were successfully isolated and characterized, and shown to contribute to 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-stimulated SH-SY5Y cell proliferation; hucMSC-derived Exos were also involved in this process. The Exos were purified and identified, and then labeled with PKH 26, it was found that the Exos could be efficiently taken up by SH-SY5Y cells after 12 h of incubation. Pretreatment with Exos promoted 6-OHDA-stimulated SH-SY5Y cells to proliferate and inhibited apoptosis by inducing autophagy. Furthermore, Exos reached the substantia nigra through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in vivo, relieved apomorphine-induced asymmetric rotation, reduced substantia nigra dopaminergic neuron loss and apoptosis, and upregulated the level of dopamine in the striatum. These results demonstrate that hucMSCs-Exos have a treatment capability for PD and can traverse the BBB, indicating their potential for the effective treatment of PD.
The interferons (IFNs) are a primary defense against pathogens because of the strong antiviral activities they induce. IFNs can be classified into three groups: type I, type II and type III, ...according to their genetic, structural, and functional characteristics and their receptors on the cell surface. The type I IFNs are the largest group and include IFN-α, IFN-β, IFN-ε, IFN-ω, IFN-κ, IFN-δ, IFN-τ and IFN-ζ. The use of IFNs for the treatment of viral infectious diseases on their antiviral activity may become an important therapeutic option, for example, IFN-α is well known for the successful treatment of hepatitis B and C virus infections, and interest is increasing in the antiviral efficacy of other novel IFN classes and their potential applications. Therefore, in this review, we summarize the recent progress in the study of the biological activities of all the type I IFN classes and their potential applications in the treatment of infections with immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis viruses, and influenza viruses.
Perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) are strong candidates for next-generation display and lighting technologies due to their high color purity and low-cost solution-processed fabrication. ...However, PeLEDs are not superior to commercial organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in efficiency, as some key parameters affecting their efficiency, such as the charge carrier transport and light outcoupling efficiency, are usually overlooked and not well optimized. Here, ultrahigh-efficiency green PeLEDs are reported with quantum efficiencies surpassing a milestone of 30% by regulating the charge carrier transport and near-field light distribution to reduce electron leakage and achieve a high light outcoupling efficiency of 41.82%. Ni
Mg
O
films are applied with a high refractive index and increased hole carrier mobility as the hole injection layer to balance the charge carrier injection and insert the polyethylene glycol layer between the hole transport layer and the perovskite emissive layer to block the electron leakage and reduce the photon loss. Therefore, with the modified structure, the state-of-the-art green PeLEDs achieve a world record external quantum efficiency of 30.84% (average = 29.05 ± 0.77%) at a luminance of 6514 cd m
. This study provides an interesting idea to construct super high-efficiency PeLEDs by balancing the electron-hole recombination and enhancing the light outcoupling.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating psychiatric illness. However, there is currently no objective laboratory-based diagnostic tests for this disorder. Although, perturbations in ...multiple neurotransmitter systems have been implicated in MDD, the biochemical changes underlying the disorder remain unclear, and a comprehensive global evaluation of neurotransmitters in MDD has not yet been performed. Here, using a GC-MS coupled with LC-MS/MS-based targeted metabolomics approach, we simultaneously quantified the levels of 19 plasma metabolites involved in GABAergic, catecholaminergic, and serotonergic neurotransmitter systems in 50 first-episode, antidepressant drug-naïve MDD subjects and 50 healthy controls to identify potential metabolite biomarkers for MDD (training set). Moreover, an independent sample cohort comprising 49 MDD patients, 30 bipolar disorder (BD) patients and 40 healthy controls (testing set) was further used to validate diagnostic generalizability and specificity of these candidate biomarkers. Among the 19 plasma neurotransmitter metabolites examined, nine were significantly changed in MDD subjects. These metabolites were mainly involved in GABAergic, catecholaminergic and serotonergic systems. The GABAergic and catecholaminergic had better diagnostic value than serotonergic pathway. A panel of four candidate plasma metabolite biomarkers (GABA, dopamine, tyramine, kynurenine) could distinguish MDD subjects from health controls with an AUC of 0.968 and 0.953 in the training and testing set, respectively. Furthermore, this panel distinguished MDD subjects from BD subjects with high accuracy. This study is the first to globally evaluate multiple neurotransmitters in MDD plasma. The altered plasma neurotransmitter metabolite profile has potential differential diagnostic value for MDD.
PDF
