Nanoscale covalent organic framework-mediated pyroelectrocatalytic activation of immunogenic cell death for potent immunotherapy.

The conventional molecular immunogenic cell death (ICD) inducers suffer from poor biocompatibility and unsatisfactory efficacy. Here, a biocompatible nanosized covalent organic framework (nCOF)-based pyroelectric catalyst (denoted as TPAD-COF NPs) is designed for pyroelectric catalysis-activated in situ immunotherapy. TPAD-COF NPs confine organic pyroelectric molecules to rigid TPAD-COF NPs to substantially reduce aggregation and enhance biocompatibility, thus improving pyroelectrocatalytic efficiency.

Quantum Dot Reporters Designed for CRISPR-Based Detection of Viral Nucleic Acids.

Diagnostic methods based on CRISPR technology have shown great potential due to their highly specific, efficient, and sensitive detection capabilities. Although the majority of the current studies rely on fluorescent dye-quencher reporters, the limitations of fluorescent dyes, such as poor photostability and small Stokes shifts, urgently necessitate the optimization of reporters. In this study, we developed innovative quantum dot (QD) reporters for the CRISPR/Cas systems, which not only leveraged the advantages of high photoluminescence quantum yield and large Stokes shifts of QDs but were also easily synthesized through a simple one-step hydrothermal method.

Engineering an Organic Nanoplatform for Augmented Pyroeletroimmunotherapy.

Photothermal immunotherapy has shown great promise in the treatment of tumor metastasis. However, the thermal resistance of tumor cells substantially compromises the treatment effect of photothermal immunotherapy. Herein, a high-performance organic pyroelectric nanoplatform, Bu-TPAD-BF nanoparticles (NPs), is rationally engineered for the effective pyroelectroimmunotherapy of tumor metastasis.

Identifying Risk Factors for Secondary Infection Post-SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Patients With Severe and Critical COVID-19.

Emerging evidence has unveiled the secondary infection as one of the mortal causes of post-SARS-CoV-2 infection, but the factors related to secondary bacterial or fungi infection remains largely unexplored. We here systematically investigated the factors that might contribute to secondary infection. By clinical examination index analysis of patients, combined with the integrative analysis with RNA-seq analysis in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell isolated shortly from initial infection, this study showed that the antibiotic catabolic process and myeloid cell homeostasis were activated while the T-cell response were relatively repressed in those with the risk of secondary infection.

Vitamin C supplementation is necessary for patients with coronavirus disease: An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry finding.

To administer vitamin C (VC) with precision to patients with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we developed an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method to assess plasma VC concentrations. 31 patients with COVID-19 and 51 healthy volunteers were enrolled. VC stability was evaluated in blood, plasma, and precipitant-containing stabilizers.

"Founding Its Empire on Spells of Pleasure": Brunonian Excitability, the Invigorated English Opium-Eater, and De Quincey's "China Question".

What light can De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) shed on its author's later advocacy of the First Opium War? To what degree did De Quincey's and other contemporaneous accounts of opium use in Britain influence metaphorical connections between bodily energy and national power in the 1830s and 1840s? Placing Confessions alongside John Brown's 1780 treatise, Elements of Medicine, this essay argues that De Quincey "nationalized" opium-eating by transforming mental exceptionality in British Romanticism into a medical body's connection with internal energies and external stimuli from China and "the Orient." The essay concludes that opium serves in De Quincey's Confessions as a crucial bridge between Romantic sublimity, in which it purportedly acted as a mysterious technology for self-strengthening, and Victorian consumerism, when the drug became both a popular commodity among national and global users.

An inter-correlated cytokine network identified at the center of cytokine storm predicted COVID-19 prognosis.

The hyper-inflammatory response is thought to be a major cause of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients with COVID-19. Although multiple cytokines are reportedly associated with disease severity, the key mediators of SARS-CoV-2 induced cytokine storm and their predictive values have not been fully elucidated. The present study analyzed maximal and early (within 10 days after disease onset) concentrations of 12-plex cytokines in plasma.

Regulatory CD4 and CD8 T cells are negatively correlated with CD4 /CD8 T cell ratios in patients acutely infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Regulatory T cell can protect against severe forms of coronaviral infections attributable to host inflammatory responses. But its role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19 is still unclear. In this study, frequencies of total and multiple subsets of lymphocytes in peripheral blood of COVID-19 patients and discharged individuals were analyzed using a multicolor flow cytometry assay.

Severe Coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia patients showed signs of aggravated renal impairment.

Background: This objective of this study was to identify a sensitive indicator of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

Methods: Samples were collected from 136 patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia admitted to the Shanghai public health clinical center (116 mild, 20 severe). The concentrations of serum urea, Uric Acid (UA), Creatinine (CREA), Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), and urine protein (Pro) have been tested in this study.

Association of gene with incomplete hemolytic phenotype in clinical .

This experiment aimed to evaluate the correlation between the hemolytic phenotype of and gene in terms of characteristics of antibiotic resistance. Two-hundred and eleven strains of hospital-acquired and their bacterial susceptibility to 20 antibiotics were determined by MicroScan WalkAway96. All strains were cultured on Columbia sheep blood agar plates for 24 hours and then underwent ten passages for investigation of their hemolytic phenotypes.

Effects of Desolvating Agent Types, Ratios, and Temperature on Size and Nanostructure of Nanoparticles from α-Lactalbumin and Ovalbumin.

In this study, we compare the preparation of ovalbumin (OVA) and α-lactalbumin (α-LA) nanoparticles using different desolvating agents (ethanol, acetone, and methanol) and water: desolvating agent volume ratios (1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:10, and 1:20). Also the effects of protein solution temperature (25, 50, and 80 ℃) on the size of nanoparticles and the stability of crosslinked nanoparticles for 30 d were studied. OVA and α-LA were shown to be good candidates for nanoparticulation and nanoparticles in the range of 60 to 230 nm were obtained.