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Vaccine is an important means to prevent diseases, which have attracted the attention of many researchers. However, the immune efficacy of vaccine is limited and requires effective antigen delivery and adjuvant systems to provide appropriate vaccines or immunotherapy antigens for improving the immune efficacy of the mucosal immune system. Recent years, the application of chitosan and its derivatives in immunization have attracted a lot of attention. Many research results proved that chitosan and its derivatives were promising vaccine adjuvants and carriers, which improved immune response for its promising mucoadhesive properties. Among the derivatives, TMC and HTCC are currently the most studied quaternized chitosans. In the first part of our review, we elucidate the preparation methods of chitosan, TMC and HTCC and the factors that may affect their immunity. In the second part, not only we introduce their application as adjuvants and carriers to improve the efficacy of vaccines, but also their application as surface modification materials to improve immune response. All in all, we hold that chitosan, TMC and HTCC are promising biomaterials that can be used to improve immune efficacy, of which TMC may have good development potential.

Objective To evaluate the global prevalence of malnutrition in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). Study design A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed. Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, Wanfang Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and China Biology Medicine disc databases were searched for studies published through April 2021. Random-effect model meta-analyses were performed to derive the pooled the prevalence of pre-operative underweight, stunting, and wasting in CHD children. Time-trend analyses of post-operative malnutrition prevalence were undertaken. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were conducted to explore sources of heterogeneity. Egger’s test and funnel plots were used to explore public bias. Results A total 39 studies were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled estimates of pre-operative malnutrition in children with CHD were 27.4% (95% CI: 21.7-34.0) for underweight, 24.4% (95% CI: 19.5-30.0) for stunting, and 24.8% (95% CI: 19.3-31.3) for wasting. Catch-up growth was found in the post-operative period among some children. Different continents were identified as heterogeneity moderators by subgroup analyses. Conclusions Children with CHD have a high prevalence of pre-operative malnutrition and some show catch-up growth post-operatively. These data can be used as benchmarks in efforts to improve the nutritional status of children with CHD.

Multiple myeloma is currently incurable, and the incidence rate is increasing year by year worldwide. Although in recent years the combined treatment plan based on proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs has greatly improved the treatment effect of multiple myeloma, most patients still relapse and become resistant to current treatments. To solve this problem, scientists are committed to developing drugs with higher specificity, such as iberdomide, which is highly specific to ikaros and aiolos. This review aims to focus on the small molecular agents that are being researched/clinically used for the treatment of multiple myeloma, including the target mechanism, structure-activity relationship and application prospects of small molecular agents.

CD4+CXCR5+Foxp3+ follicular regulatory T (Tfr) cells possess critical roles in suppressing the germinal center reaction, B cell activation, and follicular helper T cell (Tfh) cytokine secretion. Since diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) can arise from B cells undergoing germinal center reaction and/or differentiation, we hypothesized that Tfr cells might be involved in DLBCL. In the present study, we recruited thirty-five DLBCL patients and twenty-five healthy controls. Data showed that DLBCL patients presented an enrichment of circulating CD4+CXCR5+Foxp3+ Tfr cells compared to controls. In the primary tumor isolated from enlarged lymph nodes, Tfr cells made up of roughly 3% to 16% of infiltrating T cells. Higher levels of tumor-infiltrating Tfr cells were observed in patients with less advanced DLBCL stages, and in patients that stayed in remission 24 months after the initial R-CHOP treatment. High BCL6 and high FOXP3 expression was observed in Tfr cells ex vivo. After anti-CD3/CD28 and IL-2 stimulation, the Tfr cells more closely resembled Treg cells and presented high IL10 and TGFB1 expression. CD4+CD25+CXCR5+ Tfr cells and CD4+CD25+CXCR5− non-Tfr Treg cells could suppress CD4+CD25− Tconv cell and CD8+ T cell proliferation with similar capacity. However, Tfr cells were less capable of suppressing IFNG expression than Treg cells, and although both cell types supported CD19+ tumor cell proliferation, Tfr cells were less supportive than the non-Tfr Treg cells. Overall, this study suggested that Tfr cells were involved in intratumoral immunity, were likely beneficial to DLBCL patients, and were functionally distinctive from non-Tfr Treg cells. The distribution pattern and the prognostic value of Tfr cells in DLBCL should be examined in further studies.

5-butyl-3,9-difluoro-5H-benzimidazo[1,2-a]benzimidazole was designed and synthesized, its structure was characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR, 13C NMR) spectroscopy. Optical properties including UV–vis absorption and fluorescence emission spectra of the title compound were investigated experimentally. The results showed the title compound can absorb UV light at 314 nm and exhibit UV fluorescence emission at 341 nm. Theoretical studies on molecular structure, IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, frontier molecular orbitals, UV–vis absorption and fluorescence emission of the synthesized compound had been carried out by using Gaussian 09 program with DFT method. Calculations on molecular structure and vibrational frequency were carried out at B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level. Nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shifts were performed by DFT MPW1PW91/6-311 + G(2d,p) method. UV–vis absorption and fluorescence emission were simulated with TD-DFT method at PBEPBE/6-311 + G(d,p) level. The comparison between experimental and theoretical results indicates good coincidences between them, which prove that the chosen theoretical methods are reliable for the properties prediction of other structurally similar compounds, especially for those whose properties are difficult to be measured experimentally. The results also clue the title compound a candidate dye with high fluorescence quantum yield for its small Stokes' shift and structural stacking protection.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have been widely studied in biomedical fields due to their special properties. In recent years, ZnO spherical nanoparticles (SNPs) with nano-size as an anti-tumor agent have been widely concerned. While the effects of the non-spherical shaped ZnO nanoparticles on tumor cell death have been rarely reported. Here, we prepared ZnO spiky nanoparticles (SPNPs) as the research subject. We found that the SPNPs showed superiority in killing tumor cells. To be specific, SPNPs presented a long-term cytotoxicity effect on killing tumor cells, as plenty of SPNPs retained on the cell plasma membrane's exterior and still showed toxicity effect on tumor cells after co-incubation multiple times. Moreover, compared to SNPs, it was encouraging that SPNPs still showed stronger cytotoxicity in both simulated circulatory systems of tumor cells and 3D tumor cell spheroids. The stronger toxicity against tumor cells suggested that ZnO SPNPs have more advantages on killing tumor cells as a promising nanomedicine.

This paper gives a sufficient and necessary condition for twisted products to be weak Hopf algebras, moreover, gives a description for smash products to be weak Hopf algebras. It respectively generalizes R. K. Molnar's major result and I. Boca's result.