Background
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection has made widespread impact recently. We aim to ...investigate the clinical characteristics of COVID‐19 children with different severities and allergic status.
Methods
Data extracted from the electronic medical records, including demographics, clinical manifestations, comorbidities, laboratory and immunological results, and radiological images of 182 hospitalized COVID‐19 children, were summarized and analyzed.
Results
The median age was 6 years, ranging from 3 days to 15 years, and there were more boys (male‐female ratio about 2:1) within the studied 182 patients. Most of the children were infected by family members. Fever (43.4%) and dry cough (44.5%) were common symptoms, and gastrointestinal manifestations accounted for 11.0%, including diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, and vomiting. 71.4% had abnormal chest computed tomography (CT) scan images, and typical signs of pneumonia were ground‐glass opacity and local patchy shadowing on admission. Laboratory results were mostly within normal ranges, and only a small ratio of lymphopenia (3.9%) and eosinopenia (29.5%) were observed. The majority (97.8%) of infected children were not severe, and 24 (13.2%) of them had asymptomatic infections. Compared to children without pneumonia (manifested as asymptomatic and acute upper respiratory infection), children with pneumonia were associated with higher percentages of the comorbidity history, symptoms of fever and cough, and increased levels of serum procalcitonin, alkaline phosphatase, and serum interleukins (IL)‐2, IL‐4, IL‐6, IL‐10, and TNF‐α. There were no differences in treatments, duration of hospitalization, time from first positive to first negative nucleic acid testing, and outcomes between children with mild pneumonia and without pneumonia. All the hospitalized COVID‐19 children had recovered except one death due to intussusception and sepsis. In 43 allergic children with COVID‐19, allergic rhinitis (83.7%) was the major disease, followed by drug allergy, atopic dermatitis, food allergy, and asthma. Demographics and clinical features were not significantly different between allergic and nonallergic groups. Allergic patients showed less increase in acute phase reactants, procalcitonin, D‐dimer, and aspartate aminotransferase levels compared with all patients. Immunological profiles including circulating T, B, and NK lymphocyte subsets, total immunoglobulin and complement levels, and serum cytokines did not show any difference in allergic and pneumonia groups. Neither eosinophil counts nor serum total immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels showed a significant correlation with other immunological measures, such as other immunoglobulins, complements, lymphocyte subset numbers, and serum cytokine levels.
Conclusion
Pediatric COVID‐19 patients tended to have a mild clinical course. Patients with pneumonia had higher proportion of fever and cough and increased inflammatory biomarkers than those without pneumonia. There was no difference between allergic and nonallergic COVID‐19 children in disease incidence, clinical features, and laboratory and immunological findings. Allergy was not a risk factor for developing and severity of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection and hardly influenced the disease course of COVID‐19 in children.
There is no difference between allergic and nonallergic children in clinical features and laboratory/immunological findings, and allergy is not a risk factor for COVID‐19. The majority (97.8%) of infected children were not severe, and 24 (13.2%) of them had asymptomatic infections. Laboratory results were mostly within normal ranges, and only a small ratio of lymphopenia (3.9%) and eosinopenia (29.5%) was observed. Higher proportion of patients with pneumonia have fever, cough, comorbidities, and increased inflammatory biomarkers (procalcitonin, alkaline phosphatase and serum interleukins (IL)‐2, IL‐4, IL‐6, IL‐10, and TNF‐α) than those without pneumonia. Abbreviations: AD, atopic dermatitis; AR, allergic rhinitis; AST, aspartate aminotransferase, AURI, acute upper respiratory infection; COVID‐19, coronavirus disease 2019; DA, drug allergy; FA, food allergy; PCT, procalcitonin; SARS‐CoV‐2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; TNF, tumor necrosis factor.
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis plays a critical role in memory and emotion processing, and this process is dynamically regulated by neural circuit activity. However, it remains unknown whether ...manipulation of neural circuit activity can achieve sufficient neurogenic effects to modulate behavior. Here we report that chronic patterned optogenetic stimulation of supramammillary nucleus (SuM) neurons in the mouse hypothalamus robustly promotes neurogenesis at multiple stages, leading to increased production of neural stem cells and behaviorally relevant adult-born neurons (ABNs) with enhanced maturity. Functionally, selective manipulation of the activity of these SuM-promoted ABNs modulates memory retrieval and anxiety-like behaviors. Furthermore, we show that SuM neurons are highly responsive to environmental novelty (EN) and are required for EN-induced enhancement of neurogenesis. Moreover, SuM is required for ABN activity-dependent behavioral modulation under a novel environment. Our study identifies a key hypothalamic circuit that couples novelty signals to the production and maturation of ABNs, and highlights the activity-dependent contribution of circuit-modified ABNs in behavioral regulation.
Nucleus accumbens (NAc) is involved in behaviors that depend on heightened wakefulness, but its impact on arousal remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that NAc dopamine D1 receptor (D1R)-expressing ...neurons are essential for behavioral arousal. Using in vivo fiber photometry in mice, we find arousal-dependent increases in population activity of NAc D1R neurons. Optogenetic activation of NAc D1R neurons induces immediate transitions from non-rapid eye movement sleep to wakefulness, and chemogenetic stimulation prolongs arousal, with decreased food intake. Patch-clamp, tracing, immunohistochemistry, and electron microscopy reveal that NAc D1R neurons project to the midbrain and lateral hypothalamus, and might disinhibit midbrain dopamine neurons and lateral hypothalamus orexin neurons. Photoactivation of terminals in the midbrain and lateral hypothalamus is sufficient to induce wakefulness. Silencing of NAc D1R neurons suppresses arousal, with increased nest-building behaviors. Collectively, our data indicate that NAc D1R neuron circuits are essential for the induction and maintenance of wakefulness.
A simple core-shell two-dimensional photonic crystal is studied where the triangular lattice symmetry and the C
point group symmetry give rich physics in accidental touching points of photonic bands. ...We systematically evaluate different types of accidental nodal points at the Brillouin zone center for transverse-magnetic harmonic modes when the geometry and permittivity of the core-shell material are continuously tuned. The accidental nodal points can have different dispersions and topological properties (i.e., Berry phases). These accidental nodal points can be the critical states lying between a topological phase and a normal phase of the photonic crystal. They are thus very important for the study of topological photonic states. We show that, without breaking time-reversal symmetry, by tuning the geometry of the core-shell material, a phase transition into the photonic quantum spin Hall insulator can be achieved. Here the "spin" is defined as the orbital angular momentum of a photon. We study the topological phase transition as well as the properties of the edge and bulk states and their application potentials in optics.
Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure from rewarding or enjoyable activities and is a core symptom of depression in humans. Here, we describe a protocol for the measurement of anhedonia ...in mice, in which anhedonia is measured by a sucrose preference test (SPT) based on a two-bottle choice paradigm. A reduction in the sucrose preference ratio in experimental relative to control mice is indicative of anhedonia. To date, inconsistent and variable results have been reported following the use of the SPT by different groups, probably due to the use of different protocols and equipment. In this protocol, we describe how to set up a clearly defined apparatus for SPT and provide a detailed protocol to ensure greater consistency when carrying out SPT. This optimized protocol is highly sensitive, reliable, and adaptable for evaluation of chronic stress-related anhedonia, as well as morphine-induced dependence. The whole SPT, including adaptation, baseline measurement, and testing, takes 8 d.
A numerical approach was proposed for the optimization of shape contour of recessed surface texture under unidirectional sliding. The approach was developed based on a Genetic Algorithm to improve ...the tribological performance. Results indicated either bullet or fish shape to be the preferable texture shape contours. Analyses on the hydrodynamic pressure distribution suggested that the increase in hydrodynamic upthrust of the obtained textures being the major reason for their superior tribological behaviors. Experimental tests confirmed that textures of the bullet and fish shapes have lower friction coefficient than those of circular shape, which may verify the simulation results.
•A numerical model to optimize the recessed texture shape has been developed.•Textures of bullet shape are identified to have superior tribological performance.•Hydrodynamic pressure increase is responsible for the tribology improvement.•Experimental tests are conducted to verify the simulation results.
Anxiety is common in patients suffering from chronic pain. Here, we report anxiety-like behaviors in mouse models of chronic pain and reveal that nNOS-expressing neurons in ventromedial prefrontal ...cortex (vmPFC) are essential for pain-induced anxiety but not algesia, using optogenetic and chemogenetic strategies. Additionally, we determined that excitatory projections from the posterior subregion of paraventricular thalamic nucleus (pPVT) provide a neuronal input that drives the activation of vmPFC nNOS-expressing neurons in our chronic pain models. Our results suggest that the pain signal becomes an anxiety signal after activation of vmPFC nNOS-expressing neurons, which causes subsequent release of nitric oxide (NO). Finally, we show that the downstream molecular mechanisms of NO likely involve enhanced glutamate transmission in vmPFC CaMKIIα-expressing neurons through S-nitrosylation-induced AMPAR trafficking. Overall, our data suggest that pPVT excitatory neurons drive chronic pain-induced anxiety through activation of vmPFC nNOS-expressing neurons, resulting in NO-mediated AMPAR trafficking in vmPFC pyramidal neurons.
There has been an important change in the clinical characteristics and immune profile of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) patients during the pandemic thanks to the extensive vaccination programs. ...Here, we highlight recent studies on COVID‐19, from the clinical and immunological characteristics to the protective and risk factors for severity and mortality of COVID‐19. The efficacy of the COVID‐19 vaccines and potential allergic reactions after administration are also discussed. The occurrence of new variants of concerns such as Omicron BA.2, BA.4, and BA.5 and the global administration of COVID‐19 vaccines have changed the clinical scenario of COVID‐19. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS‐C) may cause severe and heterogeneous disease but with a lower mortality rate. Perturbations in immunity of T cells, B cells, and mast cells, as well as autoantibodies and metabolic reprogramming may contribute to the long‐term symptoms of COVID‐19. There is conflicting evidence about whether atopic diseases, such as allergic asthma and rhinitis, are associated with a lower susceptibility and better outcomes of COVID‐19. At the beginning of pandemic, the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) developed guidelines that provided timely information for the management of allergic diseases and preventive measures to reduce transmission in the allergic clinics. The global distribution of COVID‐19 vaccines and emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) variants with reduced pathogenic potential dramatically decreased the morbidity, severity, and mortality of COVID‐19. Nevertheless, breakthrough infection remains a challenge for disease control. Hypersensitivity reactions (HSR) to COVID‐19 vaccines are low compared to other vaccines, and these were addressed in EAACI statements that provided indications for the management of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis to COVID‐19 vaccines. We have gained a depth knowledge and experience in the over 2 years since the start of the pandemic, and yet a full eradication of SARS‐CoV‐2 is not on the horizon. Novel strategies are warranted to prevent severe disease in high‐risk groups, the development of MIS‐C and long COVID‐19.
Altitudinal diversity of terrestrial plants has been widely studied, whereas little is known for the patterns of aquatic plants. Here, we used a standardised field dataset to quantify the altitudinal ...patterns in the diversity and structure of aquatic plant assemblages, as well as the relationships between diversity indices and environmental variables.
Large‐scale field investigations were carried out in 128 sites ranging from 2,280 to 5,020 m above sea level across the southern part of Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau, China. In total, 102 species of aquatic plants were recorded, belonging to 67 genera, 31 families. Five taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional indices were calculated for each collection site. We firstly examined altitudinal patterns of these diversity indices, then quantified the variations of indices across water areas, water flow, and soil matrix, respectively. We also explored the relationships between diversity indices and environmental variables using redundancy and variance partitioning analysis, to detect the ecological variables that drove the diversity.
The results showed that taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of aquatic plants decreased with increasing altitude. Net relatedness index of aquatic plants showed a hump pattern along the altitude gradient, with a peak around 3,800 m above sea level. There was no obvious trend in the net functional relatedness index of aquatic plants with altitude. Annual mean temperature was the most important variable associated with the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity. Water area and water flow were significantly associated with functional structure, but not phylogenetic structure. Soil matrix also correlated with aquatic plant diversity.
A large‐scale altitudinal gradient can influence aquatic plant diversity. Environmental filtering and niche convergence might have played dominant roles in the increasing and decreasing stages of phylogenetic structure of aquatic plant assemblages, respectively, along the altitudinal gradient. Phylogenetic and functional structure of aquatic plant assemblages showed different patterns along the altitudinal gradient, and the environmental variables better explained the change of functional structure than did the phylogenetic variables.
This is the first comprehensive study on the species, phylogeny, and function of aquatic plant assemblages along a large‐scale altitudinal gradient. We found an altitudinal decline in the diversity of aquatic plants and different patterns in the phylogenetic and functional structures of aquatic plant assemblages. These findings indicate that functional traits have high phenotypic plasticity and are more affected by environments than phylogenetic relationships which are mainly shaped by evolutionary processes.
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