Due to the limited effects of conventional antibiotics on the increasing emergence of drug-resistant bacteria and fungi, novel antimicrobial agents were urgently needed to alleviate this phenomenon. ...Nowadays, antimicrobial peptides are believed to be a promising candidate for a new generation of antimicrobial drugs. Antimicrobial peptide polybia-MPII (MPII) was first isolated from the venom of the social wasp
Polybia paulista
with a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. In the present study, the counterparts and mimics of cationic amino acids of Lys, such as Arg, His, Orn, Dab and Dap were employed to substitute Lys in the sequence of MPII. The effects of the incorporation of these amino acids on its antimicrobial activity, hemolytic activity, cytotoxicity, enzyme stability and therapeutic potential were explored. Our results showed that although the incorporation of Arg could improve its antimicrobial activity, there is no improvement in enzyme stability. The incorporation of His makes MPII exert its antimicrobial activity in a pH-dependent manner. Notably, incorporating Dap could effectively decrease its hemolytic activity and cytotoxicity and enhance its enzyme stability against trypsin. In conclusion, this study would provide an effective strategy to improve the bioavailability and metabolic stability of AMPs while decrease their hemolytic activity and cytotoxicity.
Studies investigating the relationship between maternal passive smoking and the risk of preterm birth have reached inconsistent conclusions. A birth cohort study that included 10,095 nonsmoking women ...who delivered a singleton live birth was carried out in Lanzhou, China, between 2010 and 2012. Exposure to passive smoking during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of very preterm birth (<32 completed weeks of gestation; odds ratio = 1.98, 95% confidence interval: 1.41, 2.76) but not moderate preterm birth (32-36 completed weeks of gestation; odds ratio = 0.98, 95% confidence interval: 0.81, 1.19). Risk of very preterm birth increased with the duration of exposure (P for trend = 0.0014). There was no variability in exposures by trimester. The associations were consistent for both medically indicated and spontaneous preterm births. Overall, our findings support a positive association between passive smoking and the risk of very preterm birth.
Based on the magnetic resonance coupling principle, in this paper a wireless energy transfer system is designed and implemented for the power supply of micro-implantable medical sensors. The entire ...system is composed of the in vitro part, including the energy transmitting circuit and resonant transmitter coils, and in vivo part, including the micro resonant receiver coils and signal shaping chip which includes the rectifier module and LDO voltage regulator module. Transmitter and receiver coils are wound by Litz wire, and the diameter of the receiver coils is just 1.9 cm. The energy transfer efficiency of the four-coil system is greatly improved compared to the conventional two-coil system. When the distance between the transmitter coils and the receiver coils is 1.5 cm, the transfer efficiency is 85% at the frequency of 742 kHz. The power transfer efficiency can be optimized by adding magnetic enhanced resonators. The receiving voltage signal is converted to a stable output voltage of 3.3 V and a current of 10 mA at the distance of 2 cm. In addition, the output current varies with changes in the distance. The whole implanted part is packaged with PDMS of excellent biocompatibility and the volume of it is about 1 cm(3).
Modern endometritis therapeutics may require an extremely precise and controlled drug release system. Poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) microspheres loaded with two different drugs like amoxicillin ...and vancomycin were prepared and their efficacy in management of endometritis in murine model was examined. Such biological nanocarriers are need of the hour since they are biodegradable, cytocompatible, hemocompatible and easily formulated. The sizes of the drug loaded PLGA microspheres ranged from 65-100 nm. The electron microscopy images depicted them as uniform spherical structures. The zeta potential and polydispersity index were calculated and the in vitro release investigation indicated steady drug release over a period of 50 h at effective dosage. The drug loaded nanocarriers were found with be cytocompatible and hemolysis test elaborated that they met with hemolysis rate safety requirements. The murine models were induced with endometritis by intravaginal administration of bovine uterine isolates. The mice were sacrificed and histopathogical examination of the endometrial slides stained with haematoxylin and eosin revealed that the drug loaded PLGA nanospheres helped in reducing acute endometritis in mice in a very short time. This study thereby demonstrated well described synthesis approach of drug loaded PLGA nanospheres which may be further be transferred to preclinical laboratory studies.
Image Compressive Sensing based on deep network has achieved a great breakthrough. However, there is still limited information on the details of the recovered structure. This paper proposes a ...Dual-domain Update and Double-group Optimization Network to solve the above-mentioned problem. Specifically, the Dual-domain Update Module establishes a new idea of iterative update by designing a pixel-feature domain, which effectively utilizes the richer information in the multi-dimension feature domain. Double-group Optimization Module adopts the method of grouping denoising to reasonably utilize local information to improve the details of the recovered information. In addition, by introducing the Inter-feature Iterative Recurrent Network to better retain and update the detailed information, the network has a more impressive reconstruction effect and appearance effect. Experimental results show that the network outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods and has better visual effects.
Background: The relationship between air borne particulate matter ≤10 m (PM10) exposure and pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) is inconclusive. Few studies have been conducted, and fewer were ...conducted in areas with high levels of PM10. Methods: To examine the association between PM10 and PIH by different exposure time windows during pregnancy, we analyzed data from a birth cohort study conducted in Lanzhou, China including 8 745 pregnant women with available information on air pollution during pregnancy. A total of 333 PIH cases (127 gestational hypertension (GH) and 206 preeclampsia (PE)) were identified. PM10 daily average concentrations of each subject were calculated according to the distance between home work addresses and monitor stations using an inverse-distance weighting approach. Results: Average PM10 concentration over the duration of entire pregnancy was significantly associated with PIH (OR = 1.12, 95%CI: 1.02, 1.23 per 10 g m−3 increase), PE (OR = 1.16, 95%CI: 1.03, 1.30 per 10 g m−3 increase), late onset PE (OR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.32 per10 g m−3 increase), and severe PE (OR = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.48 per 10 g m−3 increase). Average PM10 during the first 12 gestational weeks was associated with the risk of GH (OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.21 per 10 g m−3 increase), and PM10 exposure before 20 gestational weeks was associated with the risk of severe PE (OR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.30 per 10 g m−3 increase). Conclusions: We found that high level exposure to ambient PM10 during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of PIH, GH and PE and that the strength of the association varied by timing of exposure during pregnancy.
Postoperative adhesion is a common complication of abdominal surgery, which always has many adverse effects in patients. At present, there is still a lack of effective treatment measures and ...materials to prevent adhesion in the clinics. Herein, we report the potential use of J-1-ADP hydrogel formed by natural antimicrobial peptide jelleine-1 (J-1) self-assembling in adenosine diphosphate (ADP) sodium solution to prevent postsurgery adhesion formation. J-1-ADP hydrogel was found to have good antimicrobial activity against the bacteria and fungi tested and can be used to prevent tissue infection, which was thought to be one of the incitements of adhesion. Due to ADP being a platelet-activating factor, J-1-ADP hydrogel showed significant hemostatic activity in vitro verified by whole blood coagulation, plasma coagulation, platelet activation, and platelet adhesion assays. Further, it showed potent hemostatic activity in a mouse liver hemorrhage model. Bleeding was believed to be a cause of the formation of postsurgery adhesion. J-1-ADP hydrogel had a significant antiadhesion effect in a rat side wall defect–cecum abrasion model. In addition, it had good biocompatibility and degradation properties. So the present study may provide an alternative strategy for designing antimicrobial peptide hydrogel material to prevent postoperative adhesion formation in the clinic.
Wireless magnetic resonant energy transfer system shows more superiority in energy transfer efficiency and relative position parameters than that of inductive coupling system. It has been recognized ...as the best power supply method for implantable medical devices. The dimension and performance of the resonant coil is the key point that has great effect on the transfer efficiency and implantable applications. In this paper, high Q flexible planar and roll Litz coil is designed and implemented for the wireless energy transfer system. L and Q for 3D Litz coil is calculated and compared by theoretical model. The roll-Litz coil shows better performance in L and Q with smaller size comparing with the planar-Litz coil. Wireless energy transfer system based on two and four resonant coils is build up. The experimental results show that the energy transfer efficiency is improved by using the high Q 3D Litz coils. What’s more the roll-Litz four coil system shows priority in higher transfer efficiency with smaller size comparing with planar-Litz coil system. The efficiency of four-coil transfer system based on roll-Litz coils gets 48 % higher than the two-coil system with 1.0 cm transfer distance, and 10 % higher than the four-coil transfer system based on planar-Litz coils with 1.5 cm transfer distance.
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