Open triple-branched stent graft applied to patient of acute type a aortic dissection with Aberrant Right Subclavian Artery

A 57-year-old Chinese male patient presented with Standford type A aortic dissection with an aberrant right subclavian artery (ARSA). At operation, the ascending aorta was replaced by a mono–branch vascular prosthesis with the branch bypassing to the ARSA; the triple-branched stent graft was inserted into the true lumen of the arch and proximal descending aorta (covering the origin of the ARSA) with each sidearm graft being positioned into the aortic branches; and then its proximal end was sutured to mono–branched vascular prosthesis. Follow-up computed tomography angiography showed false lumen of the dissection disappeared with satisfactory position of the triple-branched stent graft

Changes in Nitric Oxide Level and Thickness Index of Synovial Fluid in Osteoarthritis Patients following Intraarticular Injection of Sodium Hyaluronate

Purpose: To monitor the changes in nitric oxide levels and synovium thickness index in synovial fluid following intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate.Methods: One hundred patients diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee from April 2014 to January 2015 in The Third Hospital of Jinan, Jinan, Shandong, China were selected and categorized into three phases; namely, mild, moderate and severe. Patients received a 20 mL sodium hyaluronate injection into the articular cavity of the knee once per week for 15 weeks, with continuous observation. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scores were recorded after five weeks. A total of 56 patients (78 knees) remaining in serious condition after 5 weeks were divided into mild, moderate, and severe groups and treated with sodium hyaluronate once a week. Internationally reorganized VAS and WOMAC scores were adopted as clinical observation indices to indicate the curative effect of sodium hyaluronate among the 56 patients after 15 weeks of treatment. The conditions of the patients in the two phases were compared.Results: After 5 weeks of treatment, treatment effective rate in the mild, moderate and severe groups was 72.92, 66.10 and 28.57 %, respectively, with an overall effective rate of 78 %. After 15 weeks of treatment, treatment effective rate in mild, moderate, and severe groups was 96.77, 95.45 and 66.67 %, respectively, with an overall effective rate of 67.95 %.Conclusions: Clinically curative effect of sodium hyaluronate is significant for mild and moderate phase patients after intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate, while the effect is insignificant in severe patients. Thus, sodium hyaluronate can effectively improve nitric oxide levels in synovial fluid, reduce synovium thickness, enhances articular cavity lubrication and effectively alleviates disease severity.Keywords: Osteoarthritis, Knee, Intra-articular injection, Sodium hyaluronate, Nitric oxide, Synovium thickness, WOMA

Metal–Organic Frameworks as A Tunable Platform for Designing Functional Molecular Materials

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), also known as coordination polymers, represent an interesting class of crystalline molecular materials that are synthesized by combining metal-connecting points and bridging ligands. The modular nature of and mild conditions for MOF synthesis have permitted the rational structural design of numerous MOFs and the incorporation of various functionalities via constituent building blocks. The resulting designer MOFs have shown promise for applications in a number of areas, including gas storage/separation, nonlinear optics/ferroelectricity, catalysis, energy conversion/storage, chemical sensing, biomedical imaging, and drug delivery. The structure-property relationships of MOFs can also be readily established by taking advantage of the knowledge of their detailed atomic structures, which enables fine-tuning of their functionalities for desired applications. Through the combination of molecular synthesis and crystal engineering MOFs thus present an unprecedented opportunity for the rational and precise design of functional materials

The CARMA1-Bcl10 Signaling Complex Selectively Regulates JNK2 Kinase in the T Cell Receptor-Signaling Pathway

SummaryMembers of the c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) family play crucial roles in cell activation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Although many studies have indicated that JNK1 and JNK2 have functional differences and redundancy, the upstream signaling pathway that selectively activates JNK1 or JNK2 remains unknown. In this study, we have revealed a selective mechanism of JNK activation, in which JNK2, but not JNK1, was regulated by CARMA1, a scaffold molecule, after stimulation of the T cell receptor (TCR). This CARMA1-dependent regulation of JNK2 worked through the scaffold molecule Bcl10, which was inducibly associated with JNK2 and served as a JNK-interacting protein (JIP)-like scaffold to assemble the kinases JNK2, MKK7, and TAK1. Finally, we showed that CARMA1- and Bcl10-mediated JNK2 activation had a critical role in regulating the amount of c-Jun protein. Together, our studies provide genetic evidence that JNK1 and JNK2 are differentially regulated in the TCR-signaling pathway and play different functions

Evaluation of mangrove restoration effectiveness using remote sensing indices - a case study in Guangxi Shankou Mangrove National Natural Reserve, China

As one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the coastal wetlands, mangrove forests have been severely threatened by intensive human activities. Many countries and regions have carried out mangrove restoration projects. The evaluation of mangrove restoration effectiveness is of great significance for scientific decision-making for restoration engineering and wetland management. In this study, we presented a remote-sensing-based Mangrove Restoration Effectiveness Index (MREI) to evaluate mangrove restoration effectiveness. We took the Guangxi Shankou Mangrove National Natural Reserve (GSMNNR) in China, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, as our study area, where four phases of afforestation were implemented during 1990-2022. The MREI was developed based on Landsat-series images by considering the change in mangrove area and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from the start year to the end year of each afforestation phase (evaluation period). We further evaluated the Persistence of Restoration Effectiveness (PRE) based on the MREI change trajectory during the whole evaluation period, and the Process-based Restoration Effectiveness Index (PREI) was developed to evaluate the restoration effectiveness at village scale. The results showed that MREI can effectively represent the trajectory of mangrove restoration and showed consistent pattern with high-spatial-resolution imagery. From 1990 to 2022, the mangrove forest area increased from 235.26 ha in 1990 to 873.27 ha in 2022, and 84.59% of the mangrove forest was converted from tidal flats in the reserve. The average value of MREI in the five evaluation phases were 0.48, 0.24, 0.29, 0.17, and 0.72, respectively. The dynamic change of MREI showed that 5.24% of the zones had poor PRE, 44.17% of the zones had excellent PRE. From the perspective of spatial distribution, the Zones with PREI values ranging from high to low were follows: Zone A, E, J, G, C, H, I (D), F, B. Overall, the high value zones of PREI were mainly distributed in the central of the Dandou Sea and the northern part of the Yingluo Bay. The low value zones were distributed in the northwest of the Dandou Sea. We expect the MREI and PREI have great potential to be applied to other regions to evaluate mangrove restoration effectiveness

Application of liposomal technologies for delivery of platinum analogs in oncology

Platinum-based chemotherapy, such as cisplatin, oxaliplatin, and carboplatin, is one of the most widely utilized classes of cancer therapeutics. While highly effective, the clinical applications of platinum-based drugs are limited by their toxicity profiles as well as suboptimal pharmacokinetic properties. Therefore, one of the key research areas in oncology has been to develop novel platinum analog drugs and engineer new platinum drug formulations to improve the therapeutic ratio further. Such efforts have led to the development of platinum analogs including nedaplatin, heptaplatin, and lobaplatin. Moreover, reformulating platinum drugs using liposomes has resulted in the development of L-NDPP (Aroplatin™), SPI-77, Lipoplatin™, Lipoxal™, and LiPlaCis®. Liposomes possess several attractive biological activities, including biocompatibility, high drug loading, and improved pharmacokinetics, that are well suited for platinum drug delivery. In this review, we discuss the various platinum drugs and their delivery using liposome-based drug delivery vehicles. We compare and contrast the different liposome platforms as well as speculate on the future of platinum drug delivery research

Preparation and Characterization of Polyurethane/Nanocopper Composites and Their Application in Intrauterine Devices

A novel intrauterine devices material, polyurethane/nano-copper (PU/NC) nanocomposite, was prepared. The structure, morphology, copper ion (Cu2+) release rate, and water absorption of PU/NC nanocomposites were investigated. The results indicated that the nanocoppers were uniformly dispersed in the matrix. The release rates of Cu2+ of PU/NC nanocomposites remained stable during the experimentation time. These results indicated that the PU/NC nanocomposites have a great potential to replace current commercial intrauterine devices materials

An integrated software for virus community sequencing data analysis

BACKGROUND: A virus community is the spectrum of viral strains populating an infected host, which plays a key role in pathogenesis and therapy response in viral infectious diseases. However automatic and dedicated pipeline for interpreting virus community sequencing data has not been developed yet.RESULTS: We developed Quasispecies Analysis Package (QAP), an integrated software platform to address the problems associated with making biological interpretations from massive viral population sequencing data. QAP provides quantitative insight into virus ecology by first introducing the definition "virus OTU" and supports a wide range of viral community analyses and results visualizations. Various forms of QAP were developed in consideration of broader users, including a command line, a graphical user interface and a web server. Utilities of QAP were thoroughly evaluated with high-throughput sequencing data from hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, influenza virus and human immunodeficiency virus, and the results showed highly accurate viral quasispecies characteristics related to biological phenotypes.CONCLUSIONS: QAP provides a complete solution for virus community high throughput sequencing data analysis, and it would facilitate the easy analysis of virus quasispecies in clinical applications.</p