COVID-19 lessons to protect populations against future pandemics by implementing PPPM principles in healthcare

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has continued for more than 3 years, placing a huge burden on society worldwide. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an end to COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), it is still considered a global threat. Previously, there has been a long debate as to whether the COVID-19 emergency will eventually end or transform into a more common infectious disease from a PHEIC, and how should countries respond to similar pandemics in the future more time-efficiently and cost-effectively. We reviewed the past, middle and current situation of COVID-19 based on bibliometric analysis and epidemiological data. Thereby, the necessity is indicated to change the paradigm from reactive healthcare services to predictive, preventive and personalised medicine (PPPM) approach, in order to effectively protect populations against COVID-19 and any future pandemics. Corresponding measures are detailed in the article including the involvement of multi-professional expertise, application of artificial intelligence, rapid diagnostics and patient stratification, and effective protection, amongst other to be considered by advanced health policy

How much does exchange rate volatility affect China's value-added in exports?

This paper aims to study how much exchange rate volatility affect China's value-added in exports from the perspective of global value chains. Econometric models are established to estimate the influence of RMB volatility on exports and imports demand. By combining these econometric models with non-competitive input-output model capturing processing trade, this paper further measure the impact of RMB volatility on China's value-added in exports. The results show that RMB volatility not only affect the direct value-added in exports, but also affect the indirect value-added in exports because it affects the substitution of imports for domestic products. Additionally, the results reveal that processing trade mitigate the influence of RMB volatility on value-added in exports. As for the sectors, sectors with higher share of processing trade are less affected. On the contrary, sectors which have higher import price elasticities tend to be more strongly affected

Breakthrough of glycobiology in the 21st century

As modern medicine began to emerge at the turn of the 20th century, glycan-based therapies advanced. DNA- and protein-centered therapies became widely available. The research and development of structurally defined carbohydrates have led to new tools and methods that have sparked interest in the therapeutic applications of glycans. One of the latest omics disciplines to emerge in the contemporary post-genomics age is glycomics. In addition, to providing hope for patients and people with different health conditions through a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of common complex diseases, this new specialty in system sciences has much to offer to communities involved in the development of diagnostics and therapeutics in medicine and life sciences.This review focuses on recent developments that have pushed glycan-based therapies into the spotlight in medicine and the technologies powering these initiatives, which we can take as the most significant success of the 21st century

Revolutionising health care: Exploring the latest advances in medical sciences

Recent years have seen a revolution in the domain of medical science, with ground-breaking discoveries changing health care as we once knew it [1]. These advances have considerably improved disease diagnosis, treatment, and management, improving patient outcomes and quality of life [2–5]. . .

Reap success from persistence

The road to success is long and arduous. Almost all Nobel prize laureates experienced tremendous efforts and countless failures before they made their scientific breakthroughs. Hypothesis-driven, independent and critical thinking, passion, repeated experiments and repetitive failures and running in circles on the entire scientific process finally approved their hypotheses

Association of immunoglobulin G N-glycosylation with carotid atherosclerotic plaque phenotypes and actual clinical cardiovascular events: A study protocol for a longitudinal prospective cohort study

Introduction Immune-inflammatory response plays a key role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. IgG N-glycosylation is reported to be associated with the 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk score and subclinical atherosclerosis. However, the relationship of IgG glycosylation with actual clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and plaque phenotypes has rarely been investigated. Therefore, this study aims to understand whether IgG glycosylation traits are correlated with actual clinical CVD events and plaque phenotypes. Methods and analysis Designed to verify the efficacy of IgG glycosylation as a risk for CVD events and screen potential biomarkers of CVD to prevent atherosclerosis occurrence, this longitudinal prospective cohort study will be conducted at the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, China. In total, 2720 participants routinely examined by carotid ultrasound will be divided into different groups according to plaque phenotype characteristics. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography will be performed to separate and detect IgG N-glycans in serum collected at baseline and at the end of the first, second and third years. The primary outcome is the actual clinical CVD composite events, including non-fatal myocardial infarction, death due to coronary heart disease, and fatal or non-fatal stroke. Ethics and dissemination The Clinical Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College approved this study (number: B-2021-127). Findings of this study will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number ChiCTR2100048740

Gravity enhanced quantum spatial target detection

Quantum illumination can utilize entangled light to detect the low-reflectivity target that is hidden in a bright thermal background. We apply this technique to the detection of an object under the curved spacetime of the Earth, and are especially interested in how the curvature of spacetime influences the spatial quantum illumination. We find that in the near-Earth curved spacetime, the spatial quantum illumination with entangled state transmitter outperforms the one with coherent state transmitter. Furthermore, whether the quantum illumination system or the coherent state system is employed, the detection error-probability and the transmitted modes in the curved spacetime case are always lower than those in the flat spacetime case. That is to say, the Earth's gravity makes the spatial target detection more efficient. This is because the effects of gravity on the illumination signal beam can cancel each other out, while the thermal noise in the return signal is reduced because of the gravitational effect.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Synergy between pH- and hypoxia-responsiveness in antibiotic-loaded micelles for eradicating mature, infectious biofilms

Antibiotic-loaded PEG/PAE-based micelles are frequently considered for eradicating infectious biofilms. At physiological pH, PEG facilitates transport through blood. Near an acidic infection-site, PAE becomes protonated causing micellar targeting to a biofilm. However, micellar penetration and accumulation is confined to the surface region of a biofilm. Especially matured biofilms also possess hypoxic regions. We here designed dual-responsive PEG/PAE-b-P(Lys-NBCF) micelles, responding to both acidity and low oxygen-saturation level in matured biofilms. Dual, pH- and hypoxia-responsive micelles targeted and accumulated evenly over the depth of 7- to 14-days old biofilms. Delineation demonstrated that pH-responsiveness was responsible for targeting of the infection-site and accumulation of micelles in the surface region of the biofilm. Hypoxia-responsiveness caused deep penetration in the biofilm. Dual, pH- and hypoxia-responsive micelles loaded with ciprofloxacin yielded more effective, synergistic eradication of 10-days old, matured Staphylococcus aureus biofilms underneath an abdominal imaging-window in living mice than achieved by ciprofloxacin in solution or single, pH- or hypoxia responsive micelles loaded with ciprofloxacin. Also, wound-healing after removal of window and its frame proceeded fastest after tail-vein injection of ciprofloxacin-loaded, dual, pH- and hypoxia-responsive micelles. Concluding, pH- and hypoxia-responsiveness are both required for eradicating mature biofilms and advancing responsive antibiotic nanocarriers to clinical application. Statement of significance: pH-responsive antibiotic nanocarriers have emerged as a possible new strategy to prevent antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections from becoming the leading cause of death. In this paper, we show that commonly studied, pH-responsive micellar nanocarriers merely allow self-targeting to an infectious biofilm, but do not penetrate deeply into the biofilm. The dual-responsive (acidic pH- and hypoxia) antibiotic-loaded micelles designed here not only self-target to an infectious biofilm, but also penetrate deeply. The in vitro and in vivo advantages of dual-responsive nanocarriers are most obvious when studied in infectious biofilms grown for 10 viz a viz the 2 days, usually applied in the literature. Significantly, clinical treatment of bacterial infection usually starts more than 2 days after appearance of the first symptoms

Association between Percentage of Neutrophils at Admission and in-Hospital Events in Patients ≥75 Years of Age with Acute Coronary Syndrome

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the role of the neutrophil percentage (N%) at admission in predicting in-hospital major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients ≥75 years of age with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).Methods: A total of 1189 patients above 75 years of age with ACS hospitalized at the Second Xiangya Hospital between January 2013 and December 2017 were enrolled in this retrospective study. Receiver operator characteristic curve analysis was performed to calculate the optimal N% cut-off value for patient grouping. The in-hospital MACE consisted of acute left heart failure, stroke and any cause of death. Multivariable logistic analyses were used to assess the role of N% in predicting MACE in older patients with ACS.Results: The patients were divided into a high N% group (N% ≥74.17%, n=396) and low N% group (N%<74.17%, n=793) according to the N% cut-off value (N%=74.17%). The rate of MACEs during hospitalization was considerably higher in the high N% group than the low N% group (27.5% vs. 9.6%, P<0.001). After adjustment for other factors, high N% remained an independent risk factor for in-hospital MACE in older patients with ACS (odds ratio 1.779, 95% confidence interval 1.091–2.901, P=0.021).Conclusion: High N% at admission is an independent risk factor for in-hospital MACE in patients above 75 years of age with ACS

Dysnatremia is associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality within 365 days post-discharge in patients with atrial fibrillation without heart failure: A prospective cohort study

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between serum sodium concentrations at hospital admission and all-cause mortality within 365 days post-discharge in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) without heart failure (HF). Methods: The prospective cohort study enrolled 1,446 patients with AF without HF between November 2018 and October 2020. A follow-up was performed 30, 90, 180, and 365 days after enrollment through outpatient visits or telephone interviews. All-cause mortality was estimated in three groups according to serum sodium concentrations: hyponatremia ( \u3c 135 mmol/L), normonatremia (135 – 145 mmol/L), and hypernatremia ( \u3e 145 mmol/L). We estimated the risk of all-cause mortalities using univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models with normonatremia as the reference. Results: The all-cause mortalities of hyponatremia, normonatremia, and hypernatremia were 20.6, 9.4, and 33.3 % within 365 days post-discharge, respectively. In the univariable analysis, hyponatremia (HR: 2.19, CI 1.5 – 3.2) and hypernatremia (HR: 4.03, CI 2.32 – 7.02) increased the risk of all-cause mortality. The HRs for hyponatremia and hypernatremia were 1.55 (CI 1.05 – 2.28) and 2.55 (CI 1.45 – 4.46) after adjustment for age, diabetes mellitus, loop diuretics, antisterone, antiplatelet drugs, and anticoagulants in the patients with AF without HF. The association between serum sodium concentrations and the HRs of all-cause mortality was U-shaped. Conclusion: Dysnatremia at hospital admission was an independent factor for all-cause mortality in patients with AF without HF within 365 days post-discharge