Purpose
To assess the management and safety of epidural or general anesthesia for Cesarean delivery in parturients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and their newborns, and to evaluate the ...standardized procedures for protecting medical staff.
Methods
We retrospectively reviewed the cases of parturients diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection disease (COVID-19). Their epidemiologic history, chest computed tomography scans, laboratory measurements, and SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid positivity were evaluated. We also recorded the patients’ demographic and clinical characteristics, anesthesia and surgery-related data, maternal and neonatal complications, as well as the health status of the involved medical staff.
Results
The clinical characteristics of 17 pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 were similar to those previously reported in non-pregnant adult patients. All of the 17 patients underwent Cesarean delivery with anesthesia performed according to standardized anesthesia/surgery procedures. Fourteen of the patients underwent continuous epidural anesthesia with 12 experiencing significant intraoperative hypotension. Three patients received general anesthesia with tracheal intubation because emergency surgery was needed. Three of the parturients are still recovering from their Cesarean delivery and are receiving in-hospital treatment for COVID-19. Three neonates were born prematurely. There were no deaths or serious neonatal asphyxia events. All neonatal SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid tests were negative. No medical staff were infected throughout the patient care period.
Conclusions
Both epidural and general anesthesia were safely used for Cesarean delivery in the parturients with COVID-19. Nevertheless, the incidence of hypotension during epidural anesthesia appeared excessive. Proper patient transfer, medical staff access procedures, and effective biosafety precautions are important to protect medical staff from COVID-19.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the main malignancies that seriously threaten human health. Considering the high mortality and morbidity associated with this disease, even surgical resection and ...chemotherapy may not be sufficient in certain cases. This study aimed to explore the molecular mechanisms of miR-138-5p in regulating CRC progression. Quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and western blot were performed to assess the levels of mRNA and proteins, including miR-138-5p, leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 (LGR5), SP1, β-catenin, cyclin D1, and c-myc. The bioactivities of LoVo and HCT116 cells were assessed via MTT assay, flow cytometry, and transwell assay. StarBase was used to identify the downstream targets of genes. Double luciferase reporter and RIP assays revealed the direct binding of miR-138-5p to SP1 and of SP1 to LGR5. Our results illustrated that miR-138-5p was downregulated in CRC and its knockdown accelerated CRC progression. Conversely, SP1 was upregulated in CRC and its knockdown inhibited CRC progression. SP1 is also targeted by miR-138-5p and binds to LGR5. This study showed that miR-138-5p inhibits LoVo and HCT116 cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Overall, miR-138-5p regulates CRC progression and promotes apoptosis via the SP1/LGR5 axis. This study indicates that miR-138-5p is involved in regulating CRC progression.
Long non-coding (lncRNA) MALAT1 can be increased by hypoxia or ischemic limbs. Also, downregulation of MALAT1 contributes to reduction of cardiomyocyte apoptosis. However, the functional involvement ...of MALAT1 in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury has not been defined. This study investigated the functional involvement of lncRNA-MALAT1 in cardioprotective effects of fentanyl. HL-1, a cardiac muscle cell line from the AT-1 mouse atrial cardiomyocyte tumor lineage was pre-treated with fentanyl and generated cell model of hypoxia-reoxygenation (H/R). Relative expression of MALAT1, miR-145, and Bnip3 mRNA in cells was determined by quantitative real-time PCR. Cardiomyocyte H/R injury was indicated by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and cell apoptosis. The results showed that fentanyl abrogates expression of responsive gene for H/R and induces downregulation of MALAT1 and Bnip3 and upregulation of miR-145. We found that miR-145/Bnip3 pathway was negatively regulated by MALAT1 in H/R-HL-1 cell with or without fentanyl treatment. Moreover, both MALAT1 overexpression and miR-145 knockdown reverse cardioprotective effects of fentanyl, as indicated by increase in LDH release and cell apoptosis. The reversal effect of MALAT1 for fentanyl is confirmed in cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) mice. In summary, lncRNA-MALAT1 is sensitive to H/R injury and abrogates cardioprotective effects of Fentanyl by negatively regulating miR-145/Bnip3 pathway.
All paramyxoviruses, which include the mumps virus, measles virus, Nipah virus, Newcastle disease virus, and Sendai virus, have non-segmented single-stranded negative-sense RNA genomes. These RNA ...genomes are enwrapped throughout the viral life cycle by nucleoproteins, forming helical nucleocapsids. In addition to these helical structures, recombinant paramyxovirus nucleocapsids may occur in other assembly forms such as rings, clam-shaped structures, and double-headed nucleocapsids; the latter two are composed of two single-stranded helices packed in a back-to-back pattern. In all of these assemblies, the neighboring nucleoprotein protomers adopt the same domain-swapping mode via the N-terminal arm, C-terminal arm, and recently disclosed N-hole. An intrinsically disordered region in the C-terminal domain of the nucleoproteins, called the N-tail, plays an unexpected role in regulating the transition among the different assembly forms that occurs with other viral proteins, especially phosphoprotein. These structures, together with the helical nucleocapsids, significantly enrich the structural diversity of the paramyxovirus nucleocapsids and help explain the functions of these diverse assemblies, including RNA genome protection, transcription, and replication, as well as encapsulation.
Neurotransmitters are released through nascent fusion pores, which ordinarily dilate after bilayer fusion, preventing consistent biochemical studies. We used lipid bilayer nanodiscs as fusion ...partners; their rigid protein framework prevents dilation and reveals properties of the fusion pore induced by SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor). We found that although only one SNARE per nanodisc is required for maximum rates of bilayer fusion, efficient release of content on the physiologically relevant time scale of synaptic transmission apparently requires three or more SNARE complexes (SNAREpins) and the native transmembrane domain of vesicle-associated membrane protein 2 (VAMP2). We suggest that several SNAREpins simultaneously zippering their SNARE transmembrane helices within the freshly fused bilayers provide a radial force that prevents the nascent pore from resealing during synchronous neurotransmitter release.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common motor neuron disorder, characterized by the selective degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons. The common clinical symptoms of ALS are ...caused by the degeneration and dysfunction of motor neurons. With the progression of our understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease, an increasing number of extramotor phenotypes have been linked to ALS. It has long been believed that sensory neurons localized in the dorsal root ganglia are not involved in ALS. In addition, sensory nerve injury can clearly be considered as an important basis that does not support the diagnosis of ALS. However, accumulating evidence has revealed abnormalities in sensory neurons in both ALS patients and mouse models. This review summarizes the discoveries related to sensory nerve disturbance in ALS, which may provide insightful information that will help us better diagnose and understand the disease.
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Arrestins recognize different receptor phosphorylation patterns and convert this information to selective arrestin functions to expand the functional diversity of the G protein-coupled receptor ...(GPCR) superfamilies. However, the principles governing arrestin-phospho-receptor interactions, as well as the contribution of each single phospho-interaction to selective arrestin structural and functional states, are undefined. Here, we determined the crystal structures of arrestin2 in complex with four different phosphopeptides derived from the vasopressin receptor-2 (V2R) C-tail. A comparison of these four crystal structures with previously solved Arrestin2 structures demonstrated that a single phospho-interaction change results in measurable conformational changes at remote sites in the complex. This conformational bias introduced by specific phosphorylation patterns was further inspected by FRET and
H NMR spectrum analysis facilitated via genetic code expansion. Moreover, an interdependent phospho-binding mechanism of phospho-receptor-arrestin interactions between different phospho-interaction sites was unexpectedly revealed. Taken together, our results provide evidence showing that phospho-interaction changes at different arrestin sites can elicit changes in affinity and structural states at remote sites, which correlate with selective arrestin functions.
Air pollution forecasting can provide reliable information about the future pollution situation, which is useful for an efficient operation of air pollution control and helps to plan for prevention. ...Dynamics of air pollution are usually reflected by various factors, such as the temperature, humidity, wind direction, wind speed, snowfall, rainfall, and so on, which increase the difficulty in understanding the change of air pollutant concentration. In this paper, a short-term forecasting model based on deep learning is proposed for PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">2.5~\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula>) concentration, and the convolutional-based bidirectional gated recurrent unit (CBGRU) method is presented, which combines 1D convnets (convolutional neural networks) and bidirectional GRU (gated recurrent unit) neural networks. The case is carried out by using the Beijing PM2.5 data set in UCI Machine Learning Repository. Comparing the prediction results with the traditional ones, it is proved that the error of the CBGRU model is lower and the prediction performance is better.
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