Objective: Patients with hematological malignancies have an elevated risk of developing pneumonia after contracting COVID-19. Lymphoma is the most prevalent hematologic malignancy. It is critical to identify patients at high risk of contracting COVID-19-associated pneumonia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFControlling the microstructure of semiconducting polymers is critical for optimizing thermoelectric performance, yet remains challenging, requiring complex processing techniques like alignment. In this study, a straightforward strategy is introduced to enhance the thermoelectric properties of semi-crystalline polymer films by incorporating minimal amounts of nucleating agents, a method widely used in traditional polymer industries. By blending less than 1 wt% of N,N'-(1,4-phenyl)diisonicotinamide (PDA) into poly(2,5-bis(3-alkylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene) (PBTTT-C14), controlled modulation of crystallization behavior is achieved, resulting in reduced structural disorder and enhanced charge carrier mobility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the long-term interaction between plants and phytophagous insects, plants generate diverse plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) to defend against insects, whereas insects persistently cause harm to plants by detoxifying PSMs. Xanthotoxin is an insect-resistant PSM that is widely found in plants. However, the understanding of detoxification mechanism of xanthotoxin in insects is still limited at present.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCardiac fibrosis is a chronic inflammatory response that considerably impacts cardiac function following myocardial infarction (MI). Although Plumbagin, a natural compound, has been shown to have anti-fibrotic effects by suppresses the ROS and NF-κB pathways in liver fibrosis, its role in regulating cardiac function and cardiac fibrosis post-MI remains unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that Plumbagin effectively inhibits TGF-β1-induced myocardial fibroblast fibrosis and promotes autophagy activation by suppressing the AKT/mTOR pathway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a severe lung injury caused by chronic liver disease, with limited understanding of the disease pathology. Exosomes are important mediators of intercellular communication that modulates various cellular functions by transferring a variety of intracellular components to target cells. Our recent studies have indicated that a new long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), PICALM-AU1, is mainly expressed in cholangiocytes, and is dramatically induced in the liver during HPS.
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