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Serum hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) is associated with liver inflammation in chronic hepatitis B patients. This study aimed to investigate whether anti-HBc could serve as a predictor of significant liver inflammation in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected patients with normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and detectable HBV DNA. Treatment-naive HBeAg-negative chronic HBV infected patients with normal ALT and detectable HBV DNA who underwent liver biopsy were retrospectively included from two medical centers. Liver inflammation grade was evaluated using the Scheuer scoring system and significant liver inflammation was defined as ≥G2. Serum anti-HBc levels were measured by commercial immunoassays (Abbott GmbH & Co. KG). A total of 117 patients were included and 50 (42.7%) patients showed significant liver inflammation. Serum anti-HBc levels in patients with significant liver inflammation were significantly higher than patients with no or mild liver inflammation (

Previous studies reported that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) was likely to result in liver injury. However, few studies reported the impacts of COVID‐19 on liver function in patients with chronic liver diseases. We aimed to describe a case series of COVID‐19 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Confirmed hospitalized COVID‐19 patients from hospitals in 10 cities of Jiangsu province, China were retrospectively included between January 18, 2020, and February 26, 2020. Demographic information, epidemiologic data, clinical features and treatment data were extracted from medical records. Seven COVID‐19 patients with chronic HBV infection were included. Six (85.7%) patients were male. The patients aged from 33 years to 49 years. Two patients had HBV‐related cirrhosis. One patients (14.3%) were positive for serum hepatitis B virus e antigen. On admission, 1 (14.3%) patients had mildly elevated ALT level (>40 U/L) and 1 (14.3%) had elevated AST level (>40 U/L). The serum albumin level and platelet counts were decreased in 2 patients with HBV‐related liver cirrhosis. Three (42.9%) patients had elevated ALT level and 2 (28.6%) patients had elevated AST level in hospitalization. However, the peak ALT and AST level during hospitalization was 51 U/L and 44 U/L, respectively. As of February 29, 2020, all patients were discharged. No patient was admitted to the intensive care units or developed liver failure during hospitalization. The abnormalities of liver function are not uncommon on COVID‐19 patients with chronic HBV infection in our case series. However, no patient developed severe liver‐related complications during hospitalization. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Noninvasive tests (NITs) for liver fibrosis are highly needed for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. We aimed to investigate whether plateletcrit (PCT) could be used as a NIT in predicting liver fibrosis for CHB patients. Five hundred and sixty-seven treatment-naive CHB patients with available liver biopsies were included. Patients were randomly divided into a derivation cohort (n = 378) and a validation cohort (n = 189). The diagnostic accuracy of PCT was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. In the derivation cohort, PCT in CHB patients with S2-S4 (0.14%), S3-S4 (0.13%) and S4 (0.12%) was lower than patients with S0-S1 (0.17%, P < .001), S0-S2 (0.17%, P < .001) and S0-S3 (0.16%, P < .001), respectively. PCT was an independent predictor of significant fibrosis (≥S2), advanced fibrosis (≥S3) and cirrhosis (S4). The area under the ROC curve (AUROC) of PCT in predicting significant fibrosis, advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis was 0.645, 0.709 and 0.714, respectively. The AUROC of PCT was higher than the aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index (APRI) in identifying advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis, while this was comparable with APRI in identifying significant fibrosis. The diagnostic value of PCT was comparable with fibrosis-4 score (FIB-4) in predicting significant fibrosis, advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis. In the validation cohort, PCT could also identify significant fibrosis, advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis with similar diagnostic accuracy as in the derivation cohort. PCT represents a simple and inexpensive indictor for liver fibrosis in CHB patients. PCT is just as good or better than other more complex tools for staging liver fibrosis in CHB patients.

Background and Aims: Previous studies reported that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was likely to result in liver injury. However, few studies investigated liver injury in COVID-19 patients with chronic liver diseases. We described the clinical features in COVID-19 patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods: Confirmed COVID-19 patients from hospitals in 10 cities of Jiangsu province, China were retrospectively included between January 18, 2020, and February 26, 2020. Hepatic Steatosis Index (HSI) was used to defined NAFLD. Results: A total of 280 COVID-19 patients were enrolled. Eighty-six (30.7%) of 280 COVID-19 patients were diagnosed as NAFLD by HSI. 100 (35.7%) patients presented abnormal liver function on admission. The median ALT levels (34.5 U/L vs. 23.0 U/L, P 40 U/L) (40.7% vs. 10.8%, P

Introduction As an emerging infectious disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has rapidly spread throughout worldwide. Health care workers (HCWs) on frontline directly participated in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of COVID‐19 patients are at high risk of getting infected with the highly infectious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), the novel coronavirus that causes COVID‐19. In Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, a total of 222 medical staff went to Wuhan city for support. In this study, we aimed to determine any nosocomial infection among our cohort of HCWs who worked in Wuhan. Methods Throat swab samples were obtained for RNA testing on day 1 and 14 of their quarantine upon their return to Nanjing. Radiological assessments were performed by chest computed tomography (CT) on day 14 of their quarantine. The blood was collected from 191 HCWs between May 12 and May 15. Anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibody responses were determined by a chemiluminescence immunoassay. Results All the throat swab specimens were found negative for SARS‐CoV‐2. The radiological analysis revealed that there was no typical chest CT scan of COVID‐19 among 222 HCWs. Consistently, anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgM or IgG was also found to be negative among 191 HCWs. Conclusions There was no nosocomial infection of SARS‐CoV‐2 among our cohort of the frontline HCWs, suggesting that zero occupational infection is an achievable goal with appropriate training, strict compliance, and psychological support for the frontline HCWs., Although coronavirus disease 2019 is a highly communicable disease, that zero occupational infection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is an achievable goal with appropriate training, strict compliance, and psychological support for frontline health care workers.

In this work, the interior-walls decyl-perfluorinated functionalized magnetic mesoporous microspheres (F(17)-Fe(3)O(4)@mSiO(2)) were synthesized for the first time, and applied as adsorbents to extract and concentrate perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) from water samples. The fluorous functionalized interior pore-walls contributed to the high-selective preconcentration of PFCs due to fluorous affinity; and abundant silanol groups on the exterior surface of microspheres contributed to the good dispersibility in water sample. Four kinds of PFCs were selected as model analytes, including perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorononanoic acid, perfluorododecanoic acid, and perfluorooctane sulphonate. In addition, UHPLC-ESI/MS/MS was introduced to the fast and sensitive detection of the analytes after sample pretreatment. Important parameters of the extraction procedure were optimized, including salinity, eluting solvent, the amount of F(17)-Fe(3)O(4)@mSiO(2) microspheres, and extraction time. The optimized procedure took only 10 min to extract analytes with high recoveries and merely 800-μL acetonitrile to elute analytes from the magnetic adsorbents. Validation experiments showed good linearity (0.994-0.998), precision (2.6-7.6%), high recovery (93.4-105.7%) of the proposed method, and the limits of detection were from 0.008 to 0.125 μg/L. The F(17)-Fe(3)O(4)@mSiO(2) magnetic microspheres have the advantages of great dispersibility in aqueous solution, high specificity of extraction, large surface area, and efficient separation ability. The results showed that the proposed method based on F(17)-Fe(3)O(4)@mSiO(2) microspheres is a simple, fast, and sensitive tool for the analysis of PFCs in water sample.

The conformation of a new recombinant RGD-hirudin, which has the activities of anti-thrombin and anti-platelet aggregation, was investigated by multi-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. The 1H NMR spectra of this protein are assigned in a sequential manner by using a combination of 2D NMR techniques to demonstrate through-bond and through-space (

Addition of bulky C60 moiety, a powerful electron acceptor (EA = 2.6–2.8 eV), to the poly(p-bromostyrene)(PBS) by a novel organometallic reaction considerably changes the chemical and physical properties of this polymer. The product obtained is a “charm-bracelet” non-crosslinked brownish yellow polymer which is easily soluble in many common organic solvents, and has a single glass transition temperature [134.0°C vs. 83.2°C for poly(p-bromostyrene)], this being congruent with its chemical structure. Covalent attachment of C60 to the brominated polystyrene backbone is confirmed by a variety of techniques such as UV-VIS, FT-IR, TGA, DSC, SEM, ESR, GPC, and 13C-NMR. The results show that both the stereo-electronic effect and the steric hindrance of C60 have an important influence on the structure and physical properties of polymer. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Addition of the C60 moiety, a powerful electron acceptor, to iodinated poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVKI) by chemical reaction modifies considerably the photoconductive property of PVKI. The photoinduced discharge rates for pure PVK, PVKI, C60-chemically modified PVKI (C60-PVKI copolymer), and C60-doped PVKI (a simple mixture of the component) under the same experimental conditions are found in the following order: C60-PVKI copolymer > C60-doped PVKI > PVKI > PVK. The fullerenated PVKI has a visibly brownish yellow cast when compared with the unreacted polymer. The UV-vis absorption spectrum in which the main bands occur at 220, 230, 252, 268, 300, 332, and 346 nm extends the active range from about 300 to 860 nm. Also, its apparent temperature sensitivity is very intriguing, and an unusual temperature dependence for the ESR spectrum is observed. The photoconductive performance of the fullerenated polymer is closely related to its paramagnetism. A considerable difference of electronic structure between pure PVKI and the C60-PVKI copolymer is indicated. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.