Effects of ECM protein-coated surfaces on the generation of retinal pigment epithelium cells differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells.

Retinal degeneration diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP), initially manifest as dysfunction or death of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Subretinal transplantation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived RPE cells has emerged as a potential therapy for retinal degeneration. However, RPE cells differentiated from hPSCs using current protocols are xeno-containing and are rarely applied in clinical trials.

The Status and Influencing Factors of COVID-19 Vaccination for 3-7-Year-Old Children Born Prematurely.

Objective: To explore the status and influencing factors of COVID-19 vaccination for 3-7-year-old children born prematurely.

Methods: A questionnaire was administered to parents of preterm infants born between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2019 in Gansu Maternal and Child Health Hospital using convenience sampling.

Results: It was found that 96.

Plasma neurofilament light as a promising biomarker in neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease.

Neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder lacking reliable biomarkers. This study investigates plasma protein levels as potential biomarkers of disease severity and progression in NIID. In this study, we enrolled 30 NIID patients and 36 age- and sex-matched controls, following them for 1-2 years.

Real-World COVID-19 Vaccine Protection Rates against Infection in the Delta and Omicron Eras.

The real-world vaccine protection rates (VPRs) against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) infection are critical in formulating future vaccination strategies against the virus. Based on a varying coefficient stochastic epidemic model, we obtain 7 countries' real-world VPRs using daily epidemiological and vaccination data, and find that the VPRs improved with more vaccine doses. The average VPR of the full vaccination was 82% (SE: 4%) and 61% (SE: 3%) in the pre-Delta and Delta-dominated periods, respectively.

Better strategies for containing COVID-19 pandemic: a study of 25 countries via a vSIADR model.

We study epidemiological characteristics of 25 early COVID-19 outbreak countries, which emphasizes on the reproduction of infection and effects of government control measures. The study is based on a vSIADR model which allows asymptomatic and pre-diagnosis infections to reflect COVID-19 clinical realities, and a linear mixed-effect model to analyse the association between each country's control measures and the effective reproduction number . It finds significant effects of higher stringency measures in lowering the reproduction, and a significant shortening effect on the time to the epidemic turning point by applying stronger early counter measures.