An epidemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) began in December 2019 and triggered a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). We aimed to find risk factors for the progression ...of COVID-19 to help reducing the risk of critical illness and death for clinical help.
The data of COVID-19 patients until March 20, 2020 were retrieved from four databases. We statistically analyzed the risk factors of critical/mortal and non-critical COVID-19 patients with meta-analysis.
Thirteen studies were included in Meta-analysis, including a total number of 3027 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Male, older than 65, and smoking were risk factors for disease progression in patients with COVID-19 (male: OR = 1.76, 95% CI (1.41, 2.18), P < 0.00001; age over 65 years old: OR =6.06, 95% CI(3.98, 9.22), P < 0.00001; current smoking: OR =2.51, 95% CI(1.39, 3.32), P = 0.0006). The proportion of underlying diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease were statistically significant higher in critical/mortal patients compared to the non-critical patients (diabetes: OR=3.68, 95% CI (2.68, 5.03), P < 0.00001; hypertension: OR = 2.72, 95% CI (1.60,4.64), P = 0.0002; cardiovascular disease: OR = 5.19, 95% CI(3.25, 8.29), P < 0.00001; respiratory disease: OR = 5.15, 95% CI(2.51, 10.57), P < 0.00001). Clinical manifestations such as fever, shortness of breath or dyspnea were associated with the progression of disease fever: 0R = 0.56, 95% CI (0.38, 0.82), P = 0.003;shortness of breath or dyspnea: 0R=4.16, 95% CI (3.13, 5.53), P < 0.00001. Laboratory examination such as aspartate amino transferase(AST) > 40U/L, creatinine(Cr) ≥ 133mol/L, hypersensitive cardiac troponin I(hs-cTnI) > 28pg/mL, procalcitonin(PCT) > 0.5ng/mL, lactatede hydrogenase(LDH) > 245U/L, and D-dimer > 0.5mg/L predicted the deterioration of disease while white blood cells(WBC)<4 × 109/L meant a better clinical statusAST > 40U/L:OR=4.00, 95% CI (2.46, 6.52), P < 0.00001; Cr ≥ 133μmol/L: OR = 5.30, 95% CI (2.19, 12.83), P = 0.0002; hs-cTnI > 28 pg/mL: OR = 43.24, 95% CI (9.92, 188.49), P < 0.00001; PCT > 0.5 ng/mL: OR = 43.24, 95% CI (9.92, 188.49), P < 0.00001;LDH > 245U/L: OR = 43.24, 95% CI (9.92, 188.49), P < 0.00001; D-dimer > 0.5mg/L: OR = 43.24, 95% CI (9.92, 188.49), P < 0.00001; WBC < 4 × 109/L: OR = 0.30, 95% CI (0.17, 0.51), P < 0.00001.
Male, aged over 65, smoking patients might face a greater risk of developing into the critical or mortal condition and the comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory diseases could also greatly affect the prognosis of the COVID-19. Clinical manifestation such as fever, shortness of breath or dyspnea and laboratory examination such as WBC, AST, Cr, PCT, LDH, hs-cTnI and D-dimer could imply the progression of COVID-19.
This newly inaugurated research database for 12-lead electrocardiogram signals was created under the auspices of Chapman University and Shaoxing People's Hospital (Shaoxing Hospital Zhejiang ...University School of Medicine) and aims to enable the scientific community in conducting new studies on arrhythmia and other cardiovascular conditions. Certain types of arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, have a pronounced negative impact on public health, quality of life, and medical expenditures. As a non-invasive test, long term ECG monitoring is a major and vital diagnostic tool for detecting these conditions. This practice, however, generates large amounts of data, the analysis of which requires considerable time and effort by human experts. Advancement of modern machine learning and statistical tools can be trained on high quality, large data to achieve exceptional levels of automated diagnostic accuracy. Thus, we collected and disseminated this novel database that contains 12-lead ECGs of 10,646 patients with a 500 Hz sampling rate that features 11 common rhythms and 67 additional cardiovascular conditions, all labeled by professional experts. The dataset consists of 10-second, 12-dimension ECGs and labels for rhythms and other conditions for each subject. The dataset can be used to design, compare, and fine-tune new and classical statistical and machine learning techniques in studies focused on arrhythmia and other cardiovascular conditions.
Arrhythmia constitutes a problem with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat, and an early diagnosis is essential for the timely inception of successful treatment. We have jointly optimized the entire ...multi-stage arrhythmia classification scheme based on 12-lead surface ECGs that attains the accuracy performance level of professional cardiologists. The new approach is comprised of a three-step noise reduction stage, a novel feature extraction method and an optimal classification model with finely tuned hyperparameters. We carried out an exhaustive study comparing thousands of competing classification algorithms that were trained on our proprietary, large and expertly labeled dataset consisting of 12-lead ECGs from 40,258 patients with four arrhythmia classes: atrial fibrillation, general supraventricular tachycardia, sinus bradycardia and sinus rhythm including sinus irregularity rhythm. Our results show that the optimal approach consisted of Low Band Pass filter, Robust LOESS, Non Local Means smoothing, a proprietary feature extraction method based on percentiles of the empirical distribution of ratios of interval lengths and magnitudes of peaks and valleys, and Extreme Gradient Boosting Tree classifier, achieved an F
-Score of 0.988 on patients without additional cardiac conditions. The same noise reduction and feature extraction methods combined with Gradient Boosting Tree classifier achieved an F
-Score of 0.97 on patients with additional cardiac conditions. Our method achieved the highest classification accuracy (average 10-fold cross-validation F
-Score of 0.992) using an external validation data, MIT-BIH arrhythmia database. The proposed optimal multi-stage arrhythmia classification approach can dramatically benefit automatic ECG data analysis by providing cardiologist level accuracy and robust compatibility with various ECG data sources.
Purpose
The pro-aging miRNA, miR-34a, is hyperactivated in the cardiac myocardial tissues of patients and mice with diabetes, leading to diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM). Increasing evidence suggests ...that dihydromyricetin (DHM) can be used to effectively treat cardiomyopathy. In this study, we investigated whether DHM affects the expression of miR-34a in DCM.
Methods
The expression of miR-34a in high-glucose-induced cardiomyocytes and in the heart tissue of diabetic mice was determined by microRNA isolation and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Lipofectamine 3000 was used to transfect cardiomyocytes with miR-34a inhibitor, miR-34a mimics, and miR-control. These agents were intravenously injected into the tail vein of streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice. Autophagy and apoptosis were assessed in high-glucose-induced cardiomyocytes and cardiac tissue in diabetic mice by western blotting, immunofluorescence, Masson staining, hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E), and electron microscopy.
Results
DHM clearly ameliorated the cardiac dysfunction in the diabetic mice. The expression of miR-34a was up-regulated in high-glucose-induced cardiomyocytes and in the hearts of diabetic mice, thus impairing autophagy. Treatment with DHM decreased the expression of miR-34a and rescued the impairment of autophagy in high-glucose-induced cardiomyocytes and in the heart tissue of diabetic mice, while the miR-34a mimic offset the effect of DHM with respect to the development of DCM by inhibiting autophagy.
Conclusions
By decreasing the expression of miR-34a, DHM restores impaired autophagy, and thus ameliorates DCM. Therefore, DHM may potentially be used in the treatment of DCM.
With the shortage of resources and the increasingly serious environmental pollution in China, green innovation has become a sustainable competition for a region. The Yangtze River Economic Belt ...(YREB) strategy is one of the most important strategies for the sustainable development of China’s economy under the new normal. Green innovation plays a linking role in the resources exchange and trade flow in YREB, and it is also the foundation and guarantee to implement the YREB strategy. The global environmental pollution and the weak recovery of world economy make the traditional extensive economic growth model unsustainable. Sustainable economic growth should focus on the quality of development and its external costs to the environment. In order to implement the concept of sustainable development, the improvement of logistics ecological efficiency is related to the quality of ecological civilization construction. Therefore, it is of theoretical and practical significance to study the measurement, evolution, and driving factors of coordinated development level of regional green innovation system. This paper proposes a super-slack-based measure (super-SBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to measure the green innovation efficiency of 11 provinces and cities in YREB from 2008 to 2017, mastering its spatial and evolutionary characteristics, and conduct empirical analysis on the influencing factors. The empirical results indicate that economic development, government support, and industrial structure upgrading are the leading forces to directly enhance the green technology innovation ability of cities in the Yangtze River Economic belt and play the core driving role of green innovation. To further enhance the capacity of urban green innovation in the Yangtze River Economic belt, we will increase the government’s support for green innovation, optimize the environmental governance model, promote the green upgrading of industrial structure, and enhance the enthusiasm of enterprises for green innovation.
Background:
Cardiac fibroblast (CF) activation is a hallmark feature of cardiac fibrosis in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM). Inhibition of the sodium-dependent glucose transporter 1 (SGLT1) attenuates ...cardiomyocyte apoptosis and delays the development of DCM. However, the role of SGLT1 in CF activation remains unclear.
Methods:
A rat model of DCM was established and treated with si‐SGLT1 to examine cardiac fibrosis. In addition,
in vitro
experiments were conducted to verify the regulatory role of SGLT1 in proliferation and collagen secretion in high-glucose– (HG–) treated CFs.
Results:
SGLT1 was found to be upregulated in diabetic cardiac tissues and HG-induced CFs. HG stimulation resulted in increased proliferation and migration, increased the expression of transforming growth factor-β1 and collagen I and collagen III, and increased phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2. These trends in HG-treated CFs were significantly reversed by si-SGLT1. Moreover, the overexpression of SGLT1 promoted CF proliferation and collagen synthesis and increased phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and ERK1/2. SGLT1 silencing significantly alleviated cardiac fibrosis, but had no effect on cardiac hypertrophy in diabetic hearts.
Conclusion:
These findings provide new information on the role of SGLT1 in CF activation, suggesting a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of DCM fibrosis.
Doxorubicin (DOX) has a wide antitumor spectrum, but its adverse cardiotoxicity may lead to heart failure. Urotensin II (UII) is the most potent vasoconstrictor in mammals. It plays a role by ...activating the UII receptor (UT), the orphan G protein-coupled receptor (GPR14), collectively referred to as the UII/UT system. In the new version of "Chinese expert consensus on cardiac rehabilitation of chronic heart failure," it is pointed out that exercise rehabilitation is the cornerstone of cardiac rehabilitation. In this study, in vitro and in vivo assessments were performed using DOX-treated H9C2 cells and rats. It was found that the UT antagonist Urantide and exercise training improved DOX-induced cardiac insufficiency, reduced DOX-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis, improved the structural disorder of myocardial fibers, and inhibited DOX-induced myocardial fibrosis. Further studies showed that Urantide alleviated DOX-induced cardiotoxicity by downregulating the expression levels of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway.
Myocardial contractile dysfunction in diabetic cardiomyocytes is a significant promoter of heart failure. Herein, we investigated the effect of icariin, a flavonoid monomer isolated from
, on ...diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) and explored the mechanisms underlying its unique pharmacological cardioprotective functions. High glucose (HG) conditions were simulated
using cardiomyocytes isolated from neonatal C57 mice, while DCM was stimulated
in db/db mice. Mice and cardiomyocytes were treated with icariin, with or without overexpression or silencing of Apelin and Sirt3
transfection with adenoviral vectors (Ad-RNA) and specific small hairpin RNAs (Ad-sh-RNA), respectively. Icariin markedly improved mitochondrial function both
and
, as evidenced by an increased level of mitochondrial-related proteins
western blot analysis (PGC-1α, Mfn2, and Cyt-b) and an increased mitochondrial membrane potential, as observed
JC-1 staining. Further, icariin treatment decreased cardiac fibrogenesis (Masson staining), and inhibited apoptosis (TUNEL staining). Together, these changes improved cardiac function, according to multiple transthoracic echocardiography parameters, including LVEF, LVSF, LVESD, and LVEDD. Moreover, icariin significantly activated Apelin and Sirt3, which were inhibited by HG and DCM. Importantly, when Ad-sh-Apelin and Ad-sh-Sirt3 were transfected in cardiomyocytes or injected into the heart of db/db mice, the cardioprotective effects of icariin were abolished and mitochondrial homeostasis was disrupted. Further, it was postulated that since Ad-Apelin induced different results following increased Sirt3 expression, icariin may have attenuated DCM development by preventing mitochondrial dysfunction through the Apelin/Sirt3 pathway. Hence, protection against mitochondrial dysfunction using icariin may prove to be a promising therapeutic strategy against DCM in diabetes.
Doxorubicin (DOX) is a commonly used chemotherapy drug widely applied in various cancers such as breast cancer, leukemia, and sarcomas. However, its usage is limited by cardiotoxicity. Additionally, ...the cardiac toxicity of DOX accumulates with dose and duration, making it imperative to identify therapeutic targets for DOX-induced cardiomyopathy (DIC). It has been reported that miRNAs are involved in the progression of DIC. Mir-34a-5p has been identified as an early diagnostic marker for DIC. While studies have shown the involvement of mir-34a-5p in DIC apoptosis, it has not been validated in animal models, nor has the potential improvement of DIC by inhibiting mir-34a-5p been confirmed. Autophagy and pyroptosis are key factors in the development of DIC and can serve as therapeutic targets for its treatment. In this study, we found that mir-34a-5p was upregulated in the heart after DOX treatment and that the inhibition of mir-34–5p reduced autophagy and pyroptosis in DIC. We also found that the inhibition of mir-34a-5p inhibited pyroptosis by regulating autophagy and reducing mitochondrial reactive oxygen species. Moreover, we identified Sirtuin3 (Sirt3) as a target gene of mir-34a-5p using a double-luciferase reporter assay. overexpression Sirt3 reduced pyroptosis by alleviating autophagy. Our research findings suggest that inhibiting mir-34a-5p has a beneficial role in alleviating autophagy and pyroptosis in DIC. This provides therapeutic prospects for treating DIC.
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•Mir-34a-5p up-regulates in doxorubicin-induced cardiac toxicity.•Mir-34a-5p targets Sirt3 to regulated mitochondrial autophagy in doxorubicin-induced cardiac toxicity.•Inhibition of Mir-34a-5p can regulate mitochondrial autophagy, reduce pyroptosis.
•Doxorubicin induces acute cardiotoxicity accompanied by disordered apoptosis and autophagy in vivo and vitro.•Fucoidan could restore doxorubicin-induced acute cardiotoxicity by inhibiting apoptosis ...and promoting autophagy.•The protective role of fucoidan can be impaired by inhibiting the activation of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway.
Doxorubicin (DOX) is well-known for its potent antitumor activity but limited by its multiple and serious adverse effects. A major adverse effect is acute cardiotoxicity; yet, its mechanism has not been elucidated. Fucoidan is a multifunctional and nontoxic polysaccharide that is widely studied because of its favorable biological activities and safety. Hence, we proposed that fucoidan may play a protective role in DOX-induced acute cardiotoxicity without causing additional side effects. Sprague-Dawley rats were injected intraperitoneally with a single high dose of DOX to induce acute cardiac injury. Fucoidan was administered orally before DOX injection and AG490, a JAK2 inhibitor, was applied to verify the participation of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway. In vitro, H9C2 cells were treated with the same drugs at different concentrations and intervention times. in vivo and in vitro results demonstrated that DOX administration induced myocardial damage accompanied by acceleratory apoptosis and deficient autophagy in heart tissues or cells, which could be significantly improved by fucoidan supplement. AG490 partly abolished the cardioprotective effects of fucoidan, suggesting the involvement of JAK2 signaling. Additionally, western blotting revealed DOX-induced JAK2/STAT3 pathway activation, which was enhanced by fucoidan and weaken by AG490. Hence, fucoidan exerted a favorable effect on DOX-induced cardiotoxicity by enhancing autophagy and suppressing apoptosis in a JAK2/STAT3-dependent manner, which may provide a promising and novel therapeutic strategy against negative chemotherapy-induced effects.