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The risk of early mortality of patients who start dialysis urgently is high; however, in patients with diabetes undergoing urgent-start peritoneal dialysis (USPD), the risk of, and risk factors for, early mortality are unknown.To identify risk factors for mortality during high-risk periods in patients with diabetes undergoing USPD.This retrospective cohort study enrolled 568 patients with diabetes, aged ≥ 18 years, who underwent USPD at one of five Chinese centers between 2013 and 2019. We divided the follow-up period into two survival phases: The first 6 mo of USPD therapy and the months thereafter. We compared demographic and baseline clinical data of living and deceased patients during each period. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were generated for all-cause mortality according to the New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification. A multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to identify risk factors for mortality within the first 6 mo and after 6 mo of USPD.Forty-one patients died within the first 6 mo, accounting for the highest proportion of mortalities (26.62%) during the entire follow-up period. Cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of mortality within 6 mo (26.83%) and after 6 mo (31.86%). The risk of mortality not only within the first 6 mo but also after the first 6 mo was higher for patients with obvious baseline heart failure symptoms than for those with mild or no heart failure symptoms. Independent risk factors for mortality within the first 6 mo were advanced age [hazard ratio (HR: 1.908; 95%CI: 1.400-2.600;To reduce the risk of mortality within the first 6 mo of USPD in patients with diabetes, controlling the serum phosphorus level and improving cardiac function are recommended.

Since the end of 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread worldwide. The RNA genome of SARS-CoV-2, which is highly infectious and prone to rapid mutation, encodes both structural and nonstructural proteins. Vaccination is currently the only effective method to prevent COVID-19, and structural proteins are critical targets for vaccine development. Currently, many vaccines are in clinical trials or are already on the market. This review highlights ongoing advances in the design of prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines against COVID-19, including viral vector vaccines, DNA vaccines, RNA vaccines, live-attenuated vaccines, inactivated virus vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines and bionic nanoparticle vaccines. In addition to traditional inactivated virus vaccines, some novel vaccines based on viral vectors, nanoscience and synthetic biology also play important roles in combating COVID-19. However, many challenges persist in ongoing clinical trials.

A high sensitivity surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based temperature and magnetic field sensor in a dual-core D-shaped photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with two types of holes is reported. The flat sur...

A double D-shaped optical fiber for simultaneous temperature and relative humidity (RH) sensing is described. The flat surfaces of the D-shaped optical fiber are coated with toluene as a thermally ...

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common and complex disorder that is associated with liver injury. Moreover, previous studies have revealed that chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) is associated with the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatic fibrosis. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. The present study aimed to investigate whether chronic intermittent hypoxia induced hepatic fibrosis, in addition to determining its underlying mechanisms, in CIH model rats using immunohistochemistry, western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. The present results suggested that CIH caused hepatic fibrosis and increased the expression levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-8, monocyte chemotactic-1, tumor necrosis factor-α, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 in the liver; these conditions could be reversed by Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) short hairpin RNA lentivirus treatment. Moreover, immunohistochemistry and western blotting results indicated that TLR4 and NF-κB expression levels were significantly increased in the CIH and CIH-TLR4 empty vector lentivirus group. However, protein expression levels of TLR4, NF-κB, inhibitor of NF-κB and phosphorylated-mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-1 in the hypoxia/reoxygenation group were significantly higher compared with the control group (P

Collagen is a kind of biocompatible protein material, which is widely used in medical tissue engineering, drug delivery, cosmetics, food and other fields. Because of its wide source, low extraction cost and good physical and chemical properties, it has attracted the attention of many researchers in recent years. However, the application of collagen derived from terrestrial organisms is limited due to the existence of diseases, religious beliefs and other problems. Therefore, exploring a wider range of sources of collagen has become one of the main topics for researchers. Marine-derived collagen (MDC) stands out because it comes from a variety of sources and avoids issues such as religion. On the one hand, this paper summarized the sources, extraction methods and characteristics of MDC, and on the other hand, it summarized the application of MDC in the above fields. And on the basis of the review, we found that MDC can not only be extracted from marine organisms, but also from the wastes of some marine organisms, such as fish scales. This makes further use of seafood resources and increases the application prospect of MDC.

Following the publication of the above article, the authors have realized that the first grant number featured in the Funding section of the Declarations on p. 658 appeared incorrectly: The text here should have been written as 'grant nos. 2018J01199, 2018Y0032 and 2016J01441' instead of 'grant nos. 2018J0105, 2018Y0032 and 2016J01441'. The authors regret their oversight in providing this incorrect information in the Funding section of their paper. They thank the Editor of Molecular Medicine Reports for allowing them the opportunity to publish this corrigendum, and apologize to the readership of the Journal and to the funding body in question for any inconvenience caused. [the original article was published in Molecular Medicine Reports 22: 651‑660, 2020; DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2020.11134].

In the paper, a double D-shaped optical fiber temperature and humidity sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is reported. The two flat surfaces of the double D-shaped optical fiber are respectively coated with ethanol as a temperature-sensitive material and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a humidity-sensitive material. The sensing properties of the structure were numerically simulated by the finite element method (FEM). The influence of the structural parameters on the sensing performance was investigated. The results show that the temperature sensitivity reaches 2.9 nm/℃ in the range of 10–70 ℃, and the humidity sensitivity reaches 11.6 nm/%RH in the range of 20−80%RH. A high linearity of 0.9933 and 0.9998 are obtained, respectively. This structure will promote the development of high-performance dual-parameter sensors.

There is increasing evidence that bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) are involved in the proliferation and drug tolerance of kidney cancer. However, the molecular mechanism of BMP8A in renal cell proliferation and drug tolerance is not clear. Here we showed that BMP8A was highly expressed in renal cell carcinoma, which suggests a poor prognosis of ccRCC. Promotion of cell proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis were detected by CCK‐8 assay, Trypan Blue staining, flow cytometry and bioluminescence. BMP8A promoted resistance of As2O3 by regulating Nrf2 and Wnt pathways in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, BMP8A enhanced phosphorylation of Nrf2, which, in turn, inhibited Keap1‐mediated Nrf2 ubiquitination and, ultimately, promoted nuclear translocation and transcriptional activity of Nrf2. Nrf2 regulates the transcription of TRIM24 detected by ChIP‐qPCR. BMP8A was highly expressed in ccRCC, which suggests a poor prognosis. BMP8A was expected to be an independent prognostic molecule for ccRCC. On the one hand, activated Nrf2 regulated reactive oxygen balance, and on the other hand, by regulating the transcription level of TRIM24, it was involved in the regulation of the Wnt pathway to promote the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of ccRCC and the resistance of As2O3. Taken together, our findings describe a regulatory axis where BMP8A promotes Nrf2 phosphorylation and activates TRIM24 to promote survival and drug resistance in ccRCC., BMP8A can promote Nrf2 phosphorylation and nuclear translocation to exert antioxidative stress and transcriptional activity. At the same time, Nrf2 acts as a transcription factor of TRIM24, promotes the expression of TRIM24, activates the Wnt pathway and increases chemotherapy tolerance.