The long-term physical and mental sequelae of COVID-19 are a growing public health concern, yet there is considerable uncertainty about their prevalence, persistence and predictors. We conducted a ...comprehensive, up-to-date meta-analysis of survivors' health consequences and sequelae for COVID-19. PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library were searched through Sep 30th, 2021. Observational studies that reported the prevalence of sequelae of COVID-19 were included. Two reviewers independently undertook the data extraction and quality assessment. Of the 36,625 records identified, a total of 151 studies were included involving 1,285,407 participants from thirty-two countries. At least one sequelae symptom occurred in 50.1% (95% CI 45.4-54.8) of COVID-19 survivors for up to 12 months after infection. The most common investigation findings included abnormalities on lung CT (56.9%, 95% CI 46.2-67.3) and abnormal pulmonary function tests (45.6%, 95% CI 36.3-55.0), followed by generalized symptoms, such as fatigue (28.7%, 95% CI 21.0-37.0), psychiatric symptoms (19.7%, 95% CI 16.1-23.6) mainly depression (18.3%, 95% CI 13.3-23.8) and PTSD (17.9%, 95% CI 11.6-25.3), and neurological symptoms (18.7%, 95% CI 16.2-21.4), such as cognitive deficits (19.7%, 95% CI 8.8-33.4) and memory impairment (17.5%, 95% CI 8.1-29.6). Subgroup analysis showed that participants with a higher risk of long-term sequelae were older, mostly male, living in a high-income country, with more severe status at acute infection. Individuals with severe infection suffered more from PTSD, sleep disturbance, cognitive deficits, concentration impairment, and gustatory dysfunction. Survivors with mild infection had high burden of anxiety and memory impairment after recovery. Our findings suggest that after recovery from acute COVID-19, half of survivors still have a high burden of either physical or mental sequelae up to at least 12 months. It is important to provide urgent and appropriate prevention and intervention management to preclude persistent or emerging long-term sequelae and to promote the physical and psychiatric wellbeing of COVID-19 survivors.
In conjunction with the classical functions of regulating intestinal, bone, and kidney calcium and phosphorus absorption, as well as bone mineralization of vitamin D, the population-based association ...between low vitamin D status and increased cancer risk is now generally accepted. Inflammation is causally related to oncogenesis. It is widely thought that vitamin D plays an important role in the modulation of the inflammation system by regulating the production of inflammatory cytokines and immune cells, which are crucial for the pathogenesis of many immune-related diseases. Mechanistic studies have shown that vitamin D influences inflammatory processes involved in cancer progression, including cytokines, prostaglandins, MAP kinase phosphatase 5 (MKP5), the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway, and immune cells. Multiple studies have shown that vitamin D has the potential to inhibit tumor development by interfering with the inflammation system. The present review summarizes recent studies of the mechanisms of vitamin D on regulating the inflammation system, which contributes to its potential for cancer prevention and therapy. This review helps answer whether inflammation mediates a causal relationship between vitamin D and tumorigenesis.
COVID-19 is an infectious disease characterized by multiple respiratory and extrapulmonary manifestations, including gastrointestinal symptoms. Although recent studies have linked gut microbiota to ...infectious diseases such as influenza, little is known about the role of the gut microbiota in COVID-19 pathophysiology.
To better understand the host-gut microbiota interactions in COVID-19, we characterized the gut microbial community and gut barrier function using metagenomic and metaproteomic approaches in 63 COVID-19 patients and 8 non-infected controls. Both immunohematological parameters and transcriptional profiles were measured to reflect the immune response in COVID-19 patients.
Altered gut microbial composition was observed in COVID-19 patients, which was characterized by decreased commensal species and increased opportunistic pathogenic species. Severe illness was associated with higher abundance of four microbial species (i.e., Burkholderia contaminans, Bacteroides nordii, Bifidobacterium longum, and Blautia sp. CAG 257), six microbial pathways (e.g., glycolysis and fermentation), and 10 virulence genes. These severity-related microbial features were further associated with host immune response. For example, the abundance of Bu. contaminans was associated with higher levels of inflammation biomarkers and lower levels of immune cells. Furthermore, human-origin proteins identified from both blood and fecal samples suggested gut barrier dysfunction in COVID-19 patients. The circulating levels of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein increased in patients with severe illness and were associated with circulating inflammation biomarkers and immune cells. Besides, proteins of disease-related bacteria (e.g., B. longum) were detectable in blood samples from patients.
Our results suggest that the dysbiosis of the gut microbiome and the dysfunction of the gut barrier might play a role in the pathophysiology of COVID-19 by affecting host immune homeostasis.
Aim: The etiology of hypertension is various and complex, involving both genetic and behavioral factors. The relationship between psychosocial stress and hypertension has been hypothesized. More and ...more people experience increased anxiety, depression, and chronic psychosocial stress brought on by globalization, cultural changes, socioeconomic changes, and stress at the work place. Although a plethora of studies have investigated the interaction between psychosocial stress and hypertension, this relationship is still contentious. The objective of this study is twofold. First, a review of recent advancements in our understanding of the relationship between psychosocial stress and hypertension. Second, a meta-analysis aiming to assess the relationship between chronic psychosocial stress and blood pressure.
Methods: We systematically searched and identified relevant studies from five databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), CQVIP, and the Wanfang Database until April 2016. Eleven studies encompassing 5696 participants were included in the final analysis.
Results: Data showed that psychosocial stress was associated with an increased risk of hypertension (OR = 2.40, 95% CI = 1.65-3.49), and hypertensive patients had a higher incidence of psychosocial stress compared to normotension patients (OR = 2.69, 95% CI = 2.32-3.11). Based on our meta-analysis, chronic psychosocial stress may be a risk factor for hypertension.
Conclusion: The few cohort and case-control studies on the association between psychosocial stress and hypertension employed variable definition of stressors and the responses, making the meta-analysis difficult. Although we found an association between chronic psychosocial stress and hypertension, more studies are needed to confirm this relationship.
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•This review provides a comprehensive overview of fluorescent chemosensors for copper(II) ion.•Three main types, namely, “on-off”, “off-on” and ratiometric fluorescence chemosensors ...for copper(II) ion are discussed systemically.•Cu2+-promoted reaction based chemosensors are summarized briefly.
Among the transition metal ions, copper is the third most abundant essential trace metal element in human body, and is also required by many living organisms for normal physiological processes, while excessive levels of Cu2+ are highly toxic to organisms and generate enormous quantities of pollution to our living environment. It is an essential and key issue to devise more sensitive and selective fluorescent chemosensors to efficiently evaluate the Cu2+ levels in environmental and biological systems. This review summarizes the important advances in fluorescent chemosensors for Cu2+, mainly made in the recent five years. Three types of chemosensors, namely ‘on-off’, ‘off-on’ and ‘ratiometric’, are categorized according to fluorescence signal changes, and each type is further classified into several sections according to the molecular structure features and/or recognition mechanisms. Additionally, the Cu2+-promoted reaction based chemosensors are also discussed by the different reactions like hydrolysis, oxidation and reduction. The molecular structures, recognition mechanism and applications of the fluorescent chemosensors are emphatically discussed, and the future perspective is overviewed briefly.
Through the labile coordination sites of a robust phosphonate‐stabilized titanium–oxo cluster, 14 O‐donor ligands have been successfully introduced without changing the cluster core. The increasing ...electron‐withdrawing effect of the organic species allows the gradual reduction of the bandgaps of the {Ti6} complexes. Transition‐metal ions are then incorporated by the use of bifunctional O/N‐donor ligands, organizing these {Ti6} clusters into polymeric structures. The coordination environments of the applied metal ions show significant influence on their visible‐light adsorption. Both the above structural functionalizations also tune the photocatalytic H2 production activities of these clusters. This work provides a systematic bandgap engineering study of titanium–oxo clusters, which is important not only for their future photocatalytic applications, also for the better understanding of the structure–property relationships.
Organized titanium clusters: The labile coordination sites of a robust {Ti6} cluster have been used to functionalize the surface of the {Ti6} cluster with organic species and transition‐metal ions (see picture). A bandgap engineering study indicates that both the electron‐withdrawing effect of the organic ligands and the coordination environments of the incorporated metal ions tune the bandgap structures of the titanium–oxo clusters.
Neuro-oncological ventral antigen 1 (Nova1) is a neuron-specific RNA-binding protein in human paraneoplastic opsoclonus-myoclonus ataxia accompanying with malignant tumors, but its role in ...hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains elusive. In this study, we found that overexpressed intratumoral Nova1 was associated with poor survival rate and increased recurrence rate of HCC, especially early recurrence, and was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival rate and tumor recurrence. HCC cell lines over-expressing Nova1 exhibited greater potentials in cell proliferation, invasion and migration, while knockdown of Nova1 had the opposite effects. All these findings indicate that Nova1 may act as a prognostic marker for poor outcome and high recurrence in HCC.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is one of the most important industrial oxidants. In principle, photocatalytic H2O2 synthesis from oxygen and H2O using sunlight could provide a cleaner alternative route to ...the current anthraquinone process. Recently, conjugated organic materials have been studied as photocatalysts for solar fuels synthesis because they offer synthetic tunability over a large chemical space. Here, we used high-throughput experiments to discover a linear conjugated polymer, poly(3-4-ethynylphenyl)ethynyl)pyridine (DE7), which exhibits efficient photocatalytic H2O2 production from H2O and O2 under visible light illumination for periods of up to 10 h or so. The apparent quantum yield was 8.7% at 420 nm. Mechanistic investigations showed that the H2O2 was produced via the photoinduced stepwise reduction of O2. At longer photolysis times, however, this catalyst decomposed, suggesting a need to focus the photostability of organic photocatalysts, as well as the initial catalytic production rates.
Emerging infectious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Zika virus disease, present a major threat to public health
. Despite intense research efforts, how, when and where ...new diseases appear are still a source of considerable uncertainty. A severe respiratory disease was recently reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. As of 25 January 2020, at least 1,975 cases had been reported since the first patient was hospitalized on 12 December 2019. Epidemiological investigations have suggested that the outbreak was associated with a seafood market in Wuhan. Here we study a single patient who was a worker at the market and who was admitted to the Central Hospital of Wuhan on 26 December 2019 while experiencing a severe respiratory syndrome that included fever, dizziness and a cough. Metagenomic RNA sequencing
of a sample of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from the patient identified a new RNA virus strain from the family Coronaviridae, which is designated here 'WH-Human 1' coronavirus (and has also been referred to as '2019-nCoV'). Phylogenetic analysis of the complete viral genome (29,903 nucleotides) revealed that the virus was most closely related (89.1% nucleotide similarity) to a group of SARS-like coronaviruses (genus Betacoronavirus, subgenus Sarbecovirus) that had previously been found in bats in China
. This outbreak highlights the ongoing ability of viral spill-over from animals to cause severe disease in humans.
Photocatalysis is a promising yet challenging approach for the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons to valuable oxygenated chemicals with O2 under mild conditions. In this work, we report an ...atomically precise material model to address this challenge. The key to our solution is the rational incorporation of Fe species into polyoxotitanium cluster to form a heterometallic Ti4Fe1 cocrystal. This newly designed cocrystal cluster, which well governs the energy and charge transfer as evidenced by spectroscopic characterizations and theoretical calculations, enables the synergistic process involving C(sp3)−H bond activation by photogenerated holes and further reactions by singlet oxygen (1O2). Remarkably, the cocrystal Ti4Fe1 cluster achieves efficient and selective oxidation of hydrocarbons (C5 to C16) into aldehydes and ketones with a conversion rate up to 12 860 μmol g−1 h−1, 5 times higher than that of Fe‐doped Ti3Fe1 cluster. This work provides insights into photocatalyst design at atomic level enabling synergistic catalysis.
A heterometallic cocrystal Ti4Fe1 cluster is prepared by incorporating Fe species into a polyoxotitanium cluster. The cocrystal Ti4Fe1 cluster enables both C(sp3)−H bond activation by photogenerated holes and further reactions by singlet oxygen. As a result Ti4Fe1 has higher activity and selectivity in the photocatalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons than the Fe‐doped Ti3Fe1 cluster.
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