Background: Novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is prevalent around the world. We aimed to describe epidemiological features and clinical course in Shanghai. Methods: We retrospectively analysed 325 cases admitted at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, between January 20 and February 29, 2020. Results: 47.4% (154/325) had visited Wuhan within 2 weeks of illness onset. 57.2% occurred in 67 clusters; 40% were situated within 53 family clusters. 83.7% developed fever during the disease course. Median times from...

Stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems (DDSs) are expected to realize site-specific drug release and kill cancer cells selectively. In this study, a pH-responsive micelle was designed utilizing the pH-sensitivity of borate bonds formed between dopamine and boronic acid. First, methyl (polyethylene glycol)-block-polycaprolactone (mPEG-PCL) was conjugated with 4-cyano-4-(thiobenzoylthio)pentanoic acid (CTP) to obtain a macroinitiator. Two different segments poly(dopamine methacrylamide) (PDMA) and poly(vinylphenylboronic acid) (PVBA) were then grafted to the end of mPEG-PCL. Two triblock copolymers, mPEG-PCL-PDMA and...

Nanomaterials with various dimensionalities (e.g., nanowires, nanofilms, two-dimensional materials, and three-dimensional nanostructures) have shown great potential in the recent development of flexible electronics. Conventionally, organic solvents are inevitable while integrating nanomaterials onto flexible substrates, where polymer mediator-assisted transfer techniques are involved. This often damages the flexible substrate and thus hamper the large-scale application of nanomaterials. Here we report a method using water-soluble sugar as a mediator to facilely transfer nanomaterials onto rigid or flexible substrates....

Supplemental Material, CONSORT_b for Effectiveness of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Versus Mandibular Advancement Device in Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients With Mandibular Retrognathia: A Prospective Clinical Trial by Haichun Lai, Wei Huang, Wei Chen and Desheng Wang in Ear, Nose & Throat Journal

Supplemental Material, original_data for Effectiveness of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Versus Mandibular Advancement Device in Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients With Mandibular Retrognathia: A Prospective Clinical Trial by Haichun Lai, Wei Huang, Wei Chen and Desheng Wang in Ear, Nose & Throat Journal

Aim:Some obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients may have mandibular retrognathia (ANB > 4.7° and SNB < 76.2°). Currently, there are no studies that have compared the effectiveness of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) versus mandibular advancement device (MAD) in severe OSA patients with mandibular retrognathia. We explored the efficacy of CPAP versus MAD for the treatment of severe OSA patients with mandibular retrognathia.Methods:A total of 105 patients were enrolled. Outcomes were assessed by using polysomnography,...

Nanomaterials with various dimensionalities (e.g., nanowires, nanofilms, two-dimensional materials, and three-dimensional nanostructures) have shown great potential in the recent development of flexible electronics. Conventionally, organic solvents are inevitable while integrating nanomaterials onto flexible substrates, where polymer mediator-assisted transfer techniques are involved. This often damages the flexible substrate and thus hamper the large-scale application of nanomaterials. Here we report a method using water-soluble sugar as a mediator to facilely transfer nanomaterials onto rigid or flexible substrates....

Scabies remains a significant public health concern globally, affecting people of all ages, races, and socioeconomic groups. The epidemic characteristics of scabies are yet unravelled, especially in high-income countries and elderly population. In this study, we sought to investigate incidence and prevalence and their trends of scabies worldwide from 1990 to 2017 via the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2017. The prevalence and incidence of scabies tend to a moderate increase after age 70....

Icaritin (ICT) and hydrous icaritin (HICT) are two similar flavonoids compounds isolated from Epimedium Genus. This is the first comparative study on their in vitro and in vivo antitumor effects. Nanorods (NRs) were prepared for ICT and HICT by anti-solvent precipitation method using D-alpha tocopherol acid polyethylene glycol succinate (TPGS) as a stabilizer. The prepared ICT-NRs and HICT-NRs had similar diameter (155.5 nm and 201.7 nm), high drug loading content (43.30 ± 0.22% and 41.08...

Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China, it has rapidly spread across many other countries. While the majority of patients were considered mild, critically ill patients involving respiratory failure and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome are not uncommon, which could result death. We hypothesized that cytokine storm is associated with severe outcome. We enrolled 102 COVID-19 patients who were admitted to Renmin Hospital (Wuhan, China). All patients were classified into moderate, severe...

Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing K. pneumoniae (KPC-KP) have disseminated worldwide and emerged as major threats to public health. Of epidemiological significance, the international pandemic of KPC-KP is primarily associated with CG258 isolates and blaKPC-IncF plasmids. CRISPR-Cas system is an adaptive immune system that can hinder gene expansion driven by horizontal gene transfer. Because of blaKPC-IncF plasmids are favored by CG258 K. pneumoniae, it was of interest to examine the co-distribution of CRISPR and blaKPC-IncF plasmids...

The oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata, is a serious agricultural pest in China. Seasonal and roundtrip migration has recently led to sudden, localized outbreaks and crop losses. To evaluate genetic differentiation between populations in eastern and western China and elucidate gene flow, the genetic structure of 20 natural populations from nine provinces was examined using seven microsatellite markers. The results indicated high genetic diversity. However, little to moderate (0 < FST < 0.15) genetic differentiation was...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a wide spectrum of disease severity from mild upper respiratory symptoms to respiratory failure. The role of neutralizing antibody (NAb) response in disease progression remains elusive. This study determined the seroprevalence of 733 non-COVID-19 individuals from April 2018 to February 2020 in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and compared the neutralizing antibody (NAb) responses of eight COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with those of 42...

In December 2019, Wuhan, China suffered a serious outbreak of a novel coronavirus infectious disease (COVID) caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV 2). To quickly identify the pathogen, we designed and screened primer sets, and established a sensitive and specific qRT-PCR assay for SARS-CoV 2; the lower limit of detection (LOD) was 15 (95% CI: 9.8–21) copies per reaction. We combined this qRT-PCR assay with an automatic integration system for nucleic acid...

Obtaining ideal gene delivery vectors is still a major goal in cancer gene therapy. CAMEL, a short hybrid antimicrobial peptide, can kill cancer cells by membrane lysis. In this study, we constructed a series of non-viral vectors by attaching fatty acids with different chain lengths to the N-terminus of CAMEL. Our results showed that the cellular uptake and transfection efficiency of acyl-CAMEL started to significantly increase from a chain length of 12 carbons. C18-CAMEL was...

Additional file 2. Daily dietary and exercise records.

Additional file 2. Daily dietary and exercise records.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that affects approximately 2% of worldwide population, and causing long-term troubles to the patients. Therefore, it is urgent to develop safe and effective therapeutic drugs. Catalpol is a natural iridoid glucoside, that has several remarkable pharmacological effects, however, whether catalpol can alleviated psoriasis has not been explored. The goal of the present work is to study the role of catalpol in psoriasis in vivo and in vitro. Imiquimod-induced...

With the advent of global climate change, heat-tolerance is becoming more and more important to the sustainability of animal husbandry production systems. Previous studies have shown that MYO1A gene associated with pigmentation may be closely related to heat-tolerance in cattle. In this study, a novel missense mutation (NC_037332.1 g.56390345 A > G) was first detected in MYO1A in 891 individuals of 35 cattle breeds, which transformed the amino acid isoleucine into valine. The purpose of...

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) possess important regulatory effects on multiple myeloma (MM) progression. Here, we aimed at exploring the function of circ_0007841 in MM and the underlying molecular mechanism. Expression of circ_0007841, microRNA (miR)-129-5p and Jagged1 (JAG1) was determined via qRT-PCR or western blot assay. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay was applied to examine cell viability and IC50 value of MM cells to bortezomib (BTZ). Colony formation assay was performed to analyze cell proliferation. Moreover, cell...

Coxsackievirus A16 (CV-A16) is a major causative pathogen of hand, foot, and mouth diseases (HFMDs). The licensed HFMD vaccine targets EV-A71 without cross-protection against CV-A16. Thus, a CV-A16 vaccine is needed. In this study, the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a live attenuated CV-A16 candidate, K168-8Ac, were evaluated in a rhesus monkey model. Four passages of this strain (P35, P50, P60, and P70) were administered to monkeys, and its protective effect was identified. The immunized...

Previous studies have shown that the feather growth rate of chicks is determined by two alleles located on the sex chromosome Z; however, in chicken production, feathering is usually not consistently controlled by the sex chromosome. To identify whether the feathering rate is related to autosomal inheritance, whole-genome resequencing was performed in eight chickens with slow- and fast-feathering rate. A total of 54,984 autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified, including 393 and 376 exonic...

Acinetobacter baumannii has become a major healthcare threat that causes nosocomial infections, especially in critically ill patients. The spread of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAB) strains has long been a clinical concern. It is important to study the epidemiology and virulence characteristics of different CRAB isolates in order to tailor infection prevention and antibiotic prescribing. In this study, a total of 71 CRAB isolates were collected in the hospital, and clinical characteristics of infections were analyzed....

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) X inactive specific transcript (XIST) has been identified as an oncogenic lncRNA in a series of human cancers, including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). In this study, we aimed to further explore the underlying mechanism of XIST on ESCC progression. qRT-PCR assay was used to determine the levels of XIST and miR-129-5p. Western blot analysis was performed to assess cyclin D1 (CCND1) expression. Bioinformatic analysis was performed using starBase v2.0 software....

The adsorption of phages to hosts is the first step of phage infection. Studies have shown that tailed phages use tail fibres or spikes to recognize bacterial receptors and mediate adsorption. However, whether other phage tail components can also recognize host receptors is unknown. To identify potential receptors, we screened a transposon mutagenesis library of the marine pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus and discovered that a vp0980 mutant (vp0980 encodes a predicted transmembrane protein) could not be...