Background and Aim
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has attracted increasing worldwide attention. While diabetes is known to aggravate COVID‐19 severity, it is not known whether nondiabetic ...patients with metabolic dysfunction are also more prone to more severe disease. The association of metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) with COVID‐19 severity in nondiabetic patients was investigated here.
Methods
The study cohort comprised 65 patients with (i.e. cases) and 65 patients without MAFLD (i.e. controls). Each case was randomly matched with one control by sex (1:1) and age (±5 years). The association between the presence of MAFLD (as exposure) and COVID‐19 severity (as the outcome) was assessed by binary logistic regression analysis.
Results
In nondiabetic patients with COVID‐19, the presence of MAFLD was associated with a four‐fold increased risk of severe COVID‐19; the risk increased with increasing numbers of metabolic risk factors. The association with COVID‐19 severity persisted after adjusting for age, sex, and coexisting morbid conditions.
Conclusion
Health‐care professionals caring for nondiabetic patients with COVID‐19 should be cognizant of the increased likelihood of severe COVID‐19 in patients with MAFLD.
Dissipative self-assembly is common in biological systems, where it serves to maintain a far-from-equilibrium functional state through fuel consumption. Synthetic dissipative systems have been ...prepared that can mimic some of the properties of biological systems, but they often show poor mechanical performance. Here, we report a shear-induced transient hydrogel that is highly stretchable. The system is constructed by adding Cu(II) into the aqueous solution of a pseudopolyrotaxane, which is itself formed by threading molecular tubes on polyethylene glycol chains. Vigorous shaking transforms the solution into a gel, which gradually relaxes back to the sol state over time. This cycle can be repeated at least five times. A mechanism is proposed that relies on a shear-induced transition from intrachain to interchain coordination and subsequent thermal relaxation. The far-from-equilibrium hydrogel is highly stretchable, which is probably due to 'frictional' sliding of the molecular tubes on the polyethylene glycol chains. On shaking, the hydrogel undergoes fast self-healing.
The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has attracted increasing worldwide attention. While metabolic‐associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) affects a quarter of world population, its ...impact on COVID‐19 severity has not been characterized. We identified 55 MAFLD patients with COVID‐19, who were 1:1 matched by age, sex and obesity status to non‐aged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2)‐infected patients without MAFLD. Our results demonstrate that in patients aged less than 60 years with COVID‐19, MAFLD is associated with an approximately fourfold increase (adjusted odds ratio 4.07, 95% confidence interval 1.20‐13.79, P = .02) in the probability for severe disease, after adjusting for confounders. Healthcare professionals caring for patients with COVID‐19 need to be aware that there is a positive association between MAFLD and severe illness with COVID‐19.
It is challenging to remove polar organic micropollutants from water through adsorption‐mediated processes. Macrocycle‐crosslinked polymers were recently shown to be effective adsorbents for nonpolar ...or charged organic micropollutants through specific host–guest binding, but are rarely used for the treatment of neutral and polar organic micropollutants. This is due to the challenge of recognizing polar molecules in water by macrocyclic hosts. In this research, we report two amide naphthotube‐crosslinked polymers which can effectively and rapidly adsorb a wide scope of polar organic micropollutants from water through biomimetic molecular recognition. Amide naphthotubes possess hydrogen bonding sites in their deep hydrophobic cavities and can effectively bind polar organic micropollutants in water through the hydrophobic effects and shielded hydrogen bonds. The cross‐linked polymers containing amide naphthotubes are even able to remove a complex mixture of organic micropollutants from water and the used materials can be easily regenerated through washing with MeOH or EtOH. This research provides a solution for the treatment of polar organic micropollutants by using biomimetic molecular recognition in water.
The cross‐linked polymers containing the biomimetic macrocyclic hosts, amide naphthotubes, are able to effectively and rapidly adsorb polar organic micropollutants from water by employing host–guest binding. The polymers can be readily regenerated through washing with MeOH or EtOH at room temperature.
Selective recognition of neutral hydrophilic molecules in water is a challenge for supramolecular chemistry but commonplace in nature. By mimicking the binding pocket of natural receptors, ...endo-functionalized molecular tubes are proposed to meet this challenge. We found that two molecular tubes with inwardly directed hydrogen-bond donors recognize highly hydrophilic solvent molecules in water with high selectivity. In the complexes, hydrogen bonding occurs in the deep and hydrophobic cavity. The cooperative action between hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic effects accounts for the high affinity and selectivity. The molecular receptor is fluorescent and can detect concentrations of 1,4-dioxanea known carcinogen and persistent environmental contaminantin water at a limit of 119 ppb. The method simplifies the analytic procedure for this highly hydrophilic molecule.
Circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-6, a well-known inflammatory cytokine, are often elevated in coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Elevated IL-6 levels are also observed in patients with ...metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). Our study aimed to describe the association between circulating IL-6 levels and MAFLD at hospital admission with risk of severe COVID-19.
A total of 167 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 from three Chinese hospitals were enrolled. Circulating levels of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interferon (IFN)-γ were measured at admission. All patients were screened for fatty liver by computed tomography. Forty-six patients were diagnosed as MAFLD.
Patients with MAFLD (n = 46) had higher serum IL-6 levels (median 7.1 interquartile range, 4.3-20.0 vs. 4.8 2.6-11.6 pg/mL,
= 0.030) compared to their counterparts without MAFLD (n = 121). After adjustment for age and sex, patients with MAFLD had a ~2.6-fold higher risk of having severe COVID-19 than those without MAFLD. After adjustment for age, sex and metabolic co-morbidities, increased serum IL-6 levels remained associated with higher risk of severe COVID-19, especially among infected patients with MAFLD (adjusted-odds ratio 1.14, 95% CI 1.05-1.23;
= 0.002). There was a significant interaction effect between serum IL-6 levels and MAFLD for risk of severe COVID-19 (
for interaction = 0.008).
Patients with MAFLD and elevated serum IL-6 levels at admission are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
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