Background: Myasthenic crisis (MC) refers to rapid deterioration of myasthenia gravis (MG), affecting lung and bulbar muscles and causing breathing difficulties. Currently, efgartigimod has shown good therapeutic effects in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (GMG). This retrospective real-world study explored the effectiveness of efgartigimod in patients with MC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The prevalence of patients positive for muscle-specific kinase antibody (hereafter, MuSK-Ab) accounts for 5-8% of all myasthenia gravis (MG) cases. Currently, efgartigimod has shown good therapeutic effects in MUSK-Ab-positive MG patients in a phase III clinical trial. However, phase III clinical trials tend to exclude MG patients in exacerbation, and there are only few real-world studies on the efficacy of efgartigimod in MuSK-Ab-positive myasthenic crisis (MC) patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEngineering piezo/ferroelectricity in two-dimensional materials holds significant implications for advancing the manufacture of state-of-the-art multifunctional materials. The inborn nonstoichiometric propensity of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides provides a spiffy ready-available solution for breaking inversion centrosymmetry, thereby conducing to circumvent size effect challenges in conventional perovskite oxide ferroelectrics. Here, we show the extendable and ubiquitous piezo/ferroelectricity within nonstoichiometric two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides that are predominantly centrosymmetric during standard stoichiometric cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe electrochemical formation of liquid sulfur at room temperature on the basal plane of MoS has attracted much attention due to the high areal capacity and rapid kinetics of lithium-liquid sulfur chemistry. However, the liquid sulfur is converted to the solid phase once it contacts the solid sulfur crystals generated from the edge of MoS. Thus, stable liquid sulfur cannot be formed on the entire MoS surface.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCa-ion batteries (CIBs) have been considered a promising candidate for the next-generation energy storage technology owing to the abundant calcium element and the low reduction potential of Ca /Ca. However, the large size and divalent nature of Ca induce significant volume change and sluggish ion mobility in intercalation cathodes, leading to poor reversibly and low energy/power densities for CIBs. Herein, a polyanionic Na superionic conduction (NASICON)-typed Na-vacant Na V (PO ) F (N PVF ) with sufficient interstitial spaces is reported as ultra-stable and high-energy Ca ion cathodes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor known to mediate toxic responses to dioxin. However, the role of the AhR in the regulation of cellular physiology has only recently been appreciated, including its ability to control cell cycle progression and apoptosis by unknown mechanisms. We hypothesized that the AhR enhances the activation of the AKT serine/threonine kinase (Akt) pathway to promote cell survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol
March 2021
The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor whose physiological function is poorly understood. The AhR is highly expressed in barrier organs such as the skin, intestine, and lung. The lungs are continuously exposed to environmental pollutants such as cigarette smoke (CS) that can induce cell death mechanisms such as apoptosis, autophagy, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLithium sulfur batteries with high energy densities are promising next-generation energy storage systems. However, shuttling and sluggish conversion of polysulfides to solid lithium sulfides limit the full utilization of active materials. Physical/chemical confinement is useful for anchoring polysulfides, but not effective for utilizing the blocked intermediates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAtomic layered two-dimensional (2D) materials have become fascinating research topics due to their intriguing performances, but the limitation of nonmagnetic properties hinders their further applications. Developing versatile strategies endowing 2D materials with ferromagnetism is one of the main trends in current research studies. Herein, a hydrogen plasma strategy is introduced to dope hydrogen (H) atoms into the prototypical layered α-MoO nanosheets, by which ferromagnetic and exchange bias (EB) effects can be induced by H atom doping into α-MoO to form HMoO.
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