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Summary: Due to the higher and more rapid consumption of carbohydrates by cancer cells compared to normal cells, carbohydrates can be effectively employed as a targeted therapeutic strategy for tumor treatment. Here, we present a protocol for synthesizing sequence-controlled glycooligomers using both solution-phase and solid-phase systems. We outline detailed procedures for evaluating the safety and tumor-targeting properties of the sequence-controlled glycooligomers in vivo.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Chen et al.1 : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.

Aims This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between both low and high osmolarity and the risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in diabetic population.Methods All participants were included from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2014. Baseline serum osmolality was determined from laboratory tests and cause of death from national death records. HRs and 95% CIs for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality in diabetes were estimated using Cox proportional regression analysis. The non-linear relationship was explored using restricted cubic splines regression.Results Among 7622 individuals with diabetes, 1983 (12.4%) died during a total of 3.26 thousand person-years of follow-up. Compared with the reference category (281–284 mmol/kg), the multivariable-adjusted HRs and 95% CIs for all-cause mortality were 1.27 (1.16–1.40; p312 mmol/kg). Restricted cubic splines results showed that serum levels of osmolality had a U-shaped association with the risk of all-cause mortality, and L-shaped relationship with the risk of cardiovascular death.Conclusions Both low osmolality and high osmolality were predictive of increased all-cause mortality in patients with diabetes, supporting a U-shaped relationship. Also, a lower serum osmolality increased the risk of cardiovascular mortality.

Insects have a long history of being used in medicine, with clear primary and secondary functions and less side effects, and the study and exploitation of medicinal insects have received increasing attention. Insects gut microbiota and their metabolites play an important role in protecting the hosts from other potentially harmful microbes, providing nutrients, promoting digestion and degradation, and regulating growth and metabolism of the hosts. However, there are still few studies linking the medicinal values of insects with their gut microbes. In this study, we focused on the specific gut microbiota common to medicinal insects, hoping to trace the potential connection between medicinal values and gut microbes of medicinal insects. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing data, we compared the gut microbiota of medicinal insects [Periplaneta americana, Protaetia (Liocola) brevitarsis (Lewis) and Musca domestica], in their medicinal stages, and non-medicinal insects (Hermetia illucens L., Tenebrio molitor, and Drosophila melanogaster), and found that the intestinal microbial richness of medicinal insects was higher, and there were significant differences in the microbial community structure between the two groups. We established a model using a random-forest method to preliminarily screen out several types of gut microbiota common to medicinal insects that may play medicinal values: Parabacteroides goldsteinii, Lactobacillus dextrinicus, Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis (B. infantis), and Vagococcus carniphilus. In particular, P. goldsteinii and B. infantis were most probably involved in the anti-inflammatory effects of medicinal insects. Our results revealed an association between medicinal insects and their gut microbes, providing new development directions and possibly potential tools for utilizing microbes to enhance the medicinal efficacy of medicinal insects.

Abstract Although several cases of family clusters with SARS-Cov-2 infection have been reported, there are still limited data preventing conclusions from being drawn regarding the characteristics and laboratory findings in the COVID-19 population within family clusters. In the present study, we retrospectively collected five family clusters with COVID-19 and summarized the dynamic profiles of the clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, immune markers, treatment and prognosis of this population. Furthermore, we also compared clinical and laboratory data between the SARS-Cov-2 infection with family cluster (n = 21) and those without family cluster (n = 16). We demonstrated that the duration of SARS-Cov-2 replication might be varied based on the different family clusters due to their different genetic backgrounds. The onset improved lung radiology might start at the end of the SARS-Cov-2 positive period. Furthermore, the obtained results demonstrated that similar basic characteristics and clinical findings seem to exist between the cases with SARS-Cov-2 and without family clusters. The serum level of ferritin might have a different biological function and be a new biomarker for the family cluster. Further studies with larger numbers of patients are required.

ABSTRACTThis study aims to analyze the different clinical characteristics between children and their families infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Clinical data from nine children and their 14 families were collected, including general status, clinical, laboratory test, and imaging characteristics. All the children were detected positive result after their families onset. Three children had fever (22.2%) or cough (11.2%) symptoms and six (66.7%) children had no symptom. Among the 14 adult patients, the major symptoms included fever (57.1%), cough (35.7%), chest tightness/pain (21.4%), fatigue (21.4%) and sore throat (7.1%). Nearly 70% of the patients had normal (71.4%) or decreased (28.6%) white blood cell counts, and 50% (7/14) had lymphocytopenia. There were 10 adults (71.4%) showed abnormal imaging. The main manifestations were pulmonary consolidation (70%), nodular shadow (50%), and ground glass opacity (50%). Five discharged children were admitted again because their stool showed positive result in SARS-CoV-2 PCR. COVID-19 in children is mainly caused by family transmission, and their symptoms are mild and prognosis is better than adult. However, their PCR result in stool showed longer time than their families. Because of the mild or asymptomatic clinical process, it is difficult to recognize early for pediatrician and public health staff.

Bufalin (buf) has poor solubility in aqueous solution, poor tumor targeting, and many non-specific toxic and side effects. The advantages of high-molecular-weight polymer conjugates are that they can improve the water solubility of buf, prolong plasma half-life, and reduce non-specific toxicity. A novel water-soluble polymer–drug conjugate with buf and fluorescein pendants was prepared by the combination of reversible addition-fragmentation transfer (RAFT) polymerization and click chemistry. Its anticancer performance and cellular uptake behavior against liver cancer were investigated in vitro. The polymer–buf conjugates exhibit controlled release and tumor-targeting capabilities, showing promise for clinical applications.

In December 2019, the outbreak of novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection was reported in Wuhan, China. The disease has spread rapidly throughout China and the rest of the world. It not only occurred in adults but also in some children. So, in this report, we aimed to clarify the epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics; treatment; and outcomes of children infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 in Jinan, China, and found that children with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection are non-specific and are milder than adults. Asymptomatic infections were common. Chest computed tomographic scanning is helpful for diagnosis. While myocardial creatine kinase–myocardial band was prone to increase in these cases. The prognosis of most cases was better.

Abstract Objective This study aims to compare the clinical effects of selective interventional therapy (PCI) under the guidance of fractional flow reserve (FFR) and coronary arteriography. Methods Patients with sub-acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (sub-acute STEMI), who were under selective PCI treatment between April 2012 and June 2014, were included into this study. These patients were divided into two groups, based on FFR measurements: FFR-PCI group and radiography-PCI group. Then, differences in clinical symptoms, coronary angiography, intervention, and endpoint events were compared between these two groups. Results A total of 592 patients with sub-acute STEMI were included in this study (207 patients in the FFR-PCI group and 385 patients in the radiography-PCI group). No statistical differences were observed in baseline clinical data and coronary angiography results between these two groups. Mean stent number was greater in the radiography-PCI group (1.22 ± 0.32) than in the FFR-PCI group (1.10 ± 0.29), and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.019). During the follow-up period, 78 adverse events occurred (21 adverse events in the FFR-PCI group and 57 adverse events in the radiography-PCI group); and no statistical significance was observed between these two groups (log-rank P = 0.112). Conclusion Selective PCI treatment in patients with sub-acute STEMI under FFR acquired similar effects, compared to PCI treatment under the guidance of radiography, which can reduce the mean stent number.

Background/Aims: Gut microbiota has been reported to correlate with a higher mortality and worse prognosis of cardiovascular diseases. Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is a gut microbiota-dependent metabolite of specific dietary nutrients, which is linked to cardiac fibrosis. Recent reports have suggested that the activation of Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome contributed to cardiac fibrosis. However, whether TMAO mediates cardiac fibrosis via activating NLRP3 inflammasome remains unclear.Methods and Results: To determine the role of TMAO–mediated cardiac fibrosis, we established mouse models of doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiac fibrosis with or without TMAO in drinking water. TMAO exacerbated DOX-induced cardiac dysfunction, heart weight and cardiac fibrosis manifested by enhanced collagen accumulation, higher profibrotic levels and elevated inflammatory factors as well as NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Using primary cultured mouse cardiac fibroblast, our results indicated that TMAO promoted proliferation, migration and collagen secretion in a dose-dependent manner by TGF-β/Smad3 signaling. Furthermore, TMAO treatment induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation including oxidative stress in cultured cardiac fibroblast. Importantly, the silencing of NLRP3 presented a protection effect against cardiac fibrosis including cellular proliferation, migration and collagen deposition in vitro.Conclusion: Our data suggested that TMAO aggravated DOX-induced mouse cardiac fibrosis, at least in part, through activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, providing a new potential target for preventing the progression of cardiac fibrosis.

This study adopted an empirical analysis to explore social resilience to major natural disasters along the Tea-Horse Road (THR) in southwest China and to understand why and how the THR and its connected communities maintained and developed over a long period. A set of archive data, literature re-analysis, statistical data, monitoring data, and surveyed materials were collected and qualitatively and quantitatively analysed to support a holistic investigation of disaster impacts and social resilience. The results indicate that (a) natural disasters occurred frequently but were distributed over place and time and had various impacts, which left possibilities for maintaining social development with diverse and specific coping strategies; (b) strong central and local governance continually improved infrastructure and engineering technologies, and collaboration in social networks with local experience and disaster cultures were the major contributing factors that enhanced social resilience at various levels; (c) the THR area demonstrated various features of social resilience to natural disasters in terms of spatial-temporal scales, where the combination of multiple resilience measures enabled the resilience of the entire social system at various places over long time periods. Generally, larger social systems with diverse response capabilities were more resilient than small and individual entities over a long time scale. The study highlights that the THR region withstood frequent natural disasters but maintained a general development of social economy, transportation, and advanced technologies, and performed a positive transformation to a more resilient status. Overall, this paper describes the scale effects of multiple resilience measures along the THR and calls for specific studies on social resilience and transformation of diverse social entities over multiple spatial-temporal scales.

Among different insects, the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) has been bred in industrial scale successfully as a potential resource of protein, lipid, and antibacterial peptide. However, the application of its chitosan has not been studied widely, which has hindered the sufficient utilization of P. americana. In this paper, the chitosan from P. americana was separated, characterized, and processed into film (PaCSF) to examine its potential of being applied in food packaging. As the results of different characterizations showed, PaCSF was similar to shrimp chitosan film (SCSF). However, concerning the performances relating to food packaging, the two chitosan films were different. PaCSF contained more water (42.82%) than SCSF did, resulting in its larger thickness (0.08 mm). PaCSF could resist UV light more effectively than SCSF did. Concerning antioxidant activity, the DPPH radical scavenging ability of PaCSF increased linearly with time passing, reaching 72.46% after 8 h, which was better than that of SCSF. The antibacterial activity assay exhibited that PaCSF resisted the growth of Serratia marcescens and Escherichia coli more effectively than SCSF did. The results implied that P. americana chitosan could be a potential raw material for food packaging, providing a new way to develop P. americana.

The innate immunity is the most important defense against pathogen of insects, and the peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs) play an important role in the processes of immune recognition and initiation of Toll, IMD and other signal pathways. In fig wasps, pollinators and non-pollinators present different evolutionary histories and lifestyles, even though both are closely associated with fig syconia, which may indicate their different patterns in the evolution of PGRPs. By manual annotation, we got all the PGRP genes of 12 fig wasp species, containing seven pollinators and five non-pollinators, and investigated their putative different evolutionary patterns. We found that the number of PGRP genes in pollinators was significantly lower than in non-pollinators, and the number of catalytic PGRP presented a declining trend in pollinators. More importantly, PGRP-SA is associated with initiating the Toll pathway, as well as gram-negative bacteria-binding proteins (GNBPs), which were completely lost in pollinators, which led us to speculate that the initiation of Toll pathway was simpler in pollinators than in non-pollinators. We concluded that fig pollinators owned a more streamlined innate immune recognition system than non-pollinators. Our results provide molecular evidence for the adaptive evolution of innate immunity in insects of host specificity.

The association between off-hours presentation and mortality in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains unclear. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the impact of off-hours presentation on short- and long-term mortality among STEMI patients.We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library from their inception to 10 July 2016. Studies were eligible if they evaluated the relationship of off-hours (weekend and/or night) presentation with short- and/or long-term mortality.A total of 30 studies with 33 cohorts involving 192,658 STEMI patients were included. Off-hours presentation was associated with short-term mortality (odds ratio [OR] 1.07, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-1.12, P = 0.004) but not with long-term mortality (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.94-1.07, P = 0.979). No significant heterogeneity was observed. The outcomes remained the same after sensitivity analyses and trim and fill analyses. Subgroup analyses showed that STEMI patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention do not have a higher risk of short-term mortality (OR 1.061, 95% CI 0.993-1.151). In addition, higher mortality was observed only during hospitalization (OR 1.072, 95% CI 1.022-1.125), not at the 30-day, 1-year or long-term follow-ups.Off-hours presentation was associated with an increase in short-term mortality, but not long-term mortality, among STEMI patients. Clinical approaches to decrease short-term mortality regardless of the time of presentation should be evaluated in future studies.

AIM: To investigate the prevalence rate and risk factors of diabetic retinopathy(DR)in type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)in Fengyutan community in Shenyang.METHODS: Totally 457 community residents with T2DM were selected in 2011. Ninety-two of these people accepted the reexamination in 2013. Besides, there were 312 residents with T2DM joined in the study in the same year. Basic condition and life style were investigated, and diabetic retinopathy screening were performed. Logistic multiple regression was used to analyze related risk factors.RESULTS: The prevalence of DR were 15.8% and 41.2% in 2011 and 2013 respectively in the community. Compared with NDR group, age, family history of DM, duration of DM, fasting blood-glucose(FBG), 2h post-meal blood glucose(2hPG), hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c), total cholesterol(TC), serum creatinine(Scr), systolic blood pressure(SBP), high- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C, LDL-C)were statistically significant(PCONCLUSION: The prevalence of DR in Fengyutan community was much higher than the other studies in northern China. It was primarily concerned with long duration of DM, poor glycemic control, inadequate concern with or even neglect of DM and the related oculopathy, hypertension and hyperlipidemia and so on.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of visual impairment and blindness in working-aged people. Several studies have suggested that glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was correlated with DR. This is a hospital-based study and the aim of it was to examine the relationship between the GFR and DR in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We used CKD-EPI equation to estimate GFR and SPSS 19.0 and EmpowerStats software to assess their relationship. Among the 1613 participants (aged 54.75 ± 12.19 years), 550 (34.1%) patients suffered from DR. The multivariate analysis revealed that the risk factors for DR include age (P

BACKGROUND: To quantify the effect of a combination treatment of intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide (IVTA) injection, panretinal photocoagulation (PRP), and macular photocoagulation (MPC) in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and diabetic macular edema (DME). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a meta-analysis and searched for reports concerning IVTA injection combined with PRP for the treatment of PDR and DME using Medline, EMbase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and Google according to Cochrane evaluation guidelines. The quality of the reports was evaluated using the Jadad score. Only four studies were ultimately included in this meta-analysis and the fixed-effects model was used. Treatment with IVTA injection combined with PRP and MPC significantly improved BCVA (p

BACKGROUND: Although diabetic retinopathy (DR) is considered to be a major cause of blindness, this is the first meta-analysis to investigate the pooled prevalence of DR in mainland China. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a search of all English reports on population-based studies for the prevalence of DR using Medline, EMbase, Web of Science, Google (scholar), and all Chinese reports were identified manually and on-line using CBMDisc, Chongqing VIP database, and CNKI database. A meta-analysis was carried out. The fixed effects model or random effects model was used as a statistical test for homogeneity. Nineteen studies were included. The prevalence of DR, non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) in the pooled general population was 1.3% (95%CI: 0.5%-3.2%), 1.1% (95%CI: 0.6%-2.1%), and 0.1% (95%CI: 0.1%-0.3%), respectively, but was 23% (95%CI: 17.8%-29.2%), 19.1% (95%CI: 13.6%-26.3%), and 2.8% (95%CI: 1.9%-4.2%) in the diabetic group. The prevalence rate of DR in the pooled rural population was higher than that in the urban population, 1.6% (95%CI: 1.3%-2%), and the diabetic population, 29.1% (95%CI: 20.9%-38.9%). The prevalence of DR was higher in the Northern region compared with the Southern region. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The prevalence of DR in mainland China appeared a little high, and varied according to area. NPDR was more common. This study highlights the necessity for DR screening in the rural areas of China.

Owing to the abundant reserves and low cost, sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) have garnered unprecedented attention. However, their widespread adoption is hindered by the scarcity of alternative anodes with fast‐charging capability and high stability. To overcome this challenge, a fast‐charging SIB anode, N‐doped Bi/BiOCl embedded in a carbon framework (Bi/BiOCl@NC) with a fast Na+ transport channel and ultra‐high structural stability, is developed. During cycling in ether electrolyte, Bi/BiOCl@NC undergoes a remarkable transformation into a 3D porous skeleton, which significantly reduces the Na+ transport pathway and accommodates volume changes. By employing density functional theory calculations to simulate the storage behavior of Na+ in the structure, Bi/BiOCl@NC is theoretically characterized to have a low Na+ transport barrier (0.056 eV) and outstanding electronic conductivity. Such unique characteristics induce Bi/BiOCl@NC anode to have an ultra‐high Na+ storage capacity of 410 mAh·g−1 at 20 A·g−1 and exhibit outstanding cycling stability with over 2300 cycles at 10 A·g−1. This study provides a rational scenario for the fast‐charging anode design and will enlighten more advanced research to promote the exploitation of SIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]