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Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to explore the job burnout of primary healthcare workers in Guangzhou during the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic and its influencing factors from the perspective of institutional operation and management in 2021–2022. Methods A cross-sectional study involved 866 primary healthcare workers from different districts of Guangzhou, China. The Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) was utilized to assess job burnout. From the perspective of organizational operation and management, the possible causes of job burnout among primary healthcare workers during COVID-19 have been categorized into 7 major aspects. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify influencing factors for job burnout in primary healthcare workers. Results The detection rate of job burnout among primary healthcare workers was 78.29%. Men (OR = 2.39) and whose institution was located in urban–rural fringe (OR = 1.56) were more likely to detect job burnout. Conversely, institution heads showed a lower risk of job burnout. From the perspective of institutional operation and management, workers who were not satisfied with personnel management (OR = 2.41), materials and vehicles (OR = 2.89), subsidies and compensation (OR = 2.18), humanistic care (OR = 2.11), superior management (OR = 8.32) were found to have a higher risk of job burnout. Conclusion The detection rate of job burnout among primary healthcare workers in Guangzhou was relatively high during the period of COVID-19. When there is another sudden major epidemic, the managers of institutions can focus on and deal with the problems related to the operation and management of institutions such as personnel management, materials and vehicles, subsidies and compensation, humanistic care, and superior management, so as to provide logistical support for the workers and alleviate their job burnout.

BackgroundPrimary healthcare workers in China were vital in controlling COVID-19, facing unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic’s suddenness and transmissibility. This paper analyzed their work in Guangzhou, highlighting key difficulties in past epidemic control efforts.MethodsSemi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with selected primary healthcare workers in Guangzhou City and audio-recorded until saturation of themes was reached. The data were analyzed independently for themes using NVivo V.12.ResultsThematic analysis of qualitative interview data revealed that challenges and difficulties encountered in grassroots epidemic prevention and control work during the COVID-19 pandemic were primarily categorized into seven dimensions: human resource allocation, material and vehicle support, epidemic prevention subsidies and compensation, humanistic care, upper-level management, horizontal collaboration, and resident cooperation.ConclusionBased on the findings, the research team recommends that administrative departments and institutions related to primary healthcare should appropriately schedule personnel work and rest time, adjust work content flexibly, optimize the allocation of medical and logistical resources, and increase investment in primary healthcare work as well as staff protection.

A transplanted stem cell's engagement with a pathologic niche is the first step in its restoring homeostasis to that site. Inflammatory chemokines are constitutively produced in such a niche; their binding to receptors on the stem cell helps direct that cell's "pathotropism." Neural stem cells (NSCs), which express CXCR4, migrate to sites of CNS injury or degeneration in part because astrocytes and vasculature produce the inflammatory chemokine CXCL12. Binding of CXCL12 to CXCR4 (a G protein-coupled receptor, GPCR) triggers repair processes within the NSC. Although a tool directing NSCs to where needed has been long-sought, one would not inject this chemokine in vivo because undesirable inflammation also follows CXCL12-CXCR4 coupling. Alternatively, we chemically "mutated" CXCL12, creating a CXCR4 agonist that contained a strong pure binding motif linked to a signaling motif devoid of sequences responsible for synthetic functions. This synthetic dual-moity CXCR4 agonist not only elicited more extensive and persistent human NSC migration and distribution than did native CXCL 12, but induced no host inflammation (or other adverse effects); rather, there was predominantly reparative gene expression. When coadministered with transplanted human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hNSCs in a mouse model of a prototypical neurodegenerative disease, the agonist enhanced migration, dissemination, and integration of donor-derived cells into the diseased cerebral cortex (including as electrophysiologically-active cortical neurons) where their secreted cross-corrective enzyme mediated a therapeutic impact unachieved by cells alone. Such a "designer" cytokine receptor-agonist peptide illustrates that treatments can be controlled and optimized by exploiting fundamental stem cell properties (e.g., "inflammo-attraction"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]