Tiotropium in Patients with Bronchiectasis: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Purpose: There are limited studies on the use of bronchodilators for the treatment of bronchiectasis. This study investigated the efficacy of tiotropium in patients with bronchiectasis and airflow limitation.

Methods: This study was a prospective cohort study, including 169 patients with bronchiectasis and airflow limitation from 2015 to 2019.

Clinical efficacy of low-dose emetine for patients with COVID-19: a real-world study.

Objective: Emetine, an isoquinoline alkaloid that is enriched at high concentrations in the lung, has shown potent in vitro activity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The aim of this study was to better understand the effectiveness of low-dose emetine for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Methods: In this real-world study, 63 patients with mild or common COVID-19 were recruited from Wuhan Fangcang Shelter Hospital and five COVID-19-designated hospitals in Anhui Province, China from February to March 2020.

Injectable hydrogel-mediated combination of hyperthermia ablation and photo-enhanced chemotherapy in the NIR-II window for tumor eradication.

Local administration of therapeutic agents with long-term retention capabilities efficiently avoids nonspecific distribution in normal organs with an increased drug concentration in pathological tissue. Herein, we developed an injectable and degradable alginate-calcium (Ca2+) hydrogel for the local administration of corn-like Au/Ag nanorods (NRs) and doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX·HCl). The immobilized Au/Ag NRs with strong absorbance in the near-infrared II (NIR-II) window efficiently ablated the majority of tumor cells after 1064 nm laser irradiation and triggered the release of DOX to kill residual tumor cells.

Phosphorylated ERM Mediates Lipopolysaccharide Induced Pulmonary Microvascular Endothelial Cells Permeability Through Negatively Regulating Rac1 Activity.

Introduction: The endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced pulmonary endothelial barrier disruption is a key pathogenesis of acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying LPS-impaired permeability of pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs) are not fully understood.

Methods: Rat PMVECs were isolated and monolayered cultured, then challenged with different doses of LPS (0.

Hesperidin attenuates influenza A virus (H1N1) induced lung injury in rats through its anti-inflammatory effect.

Background: Influenza A viruses (IAV) can cause pandemics and are big threats to human health. Inflammation is the main pathological process in the lungs after IAV infection. We aimed to investigate whether hesperidin, a well-known anti-inflammatory compound, could be effective in improving IAV-induced lung injury.

Silymarin mitigates lung impairments in a rat model of acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a deadly disease and lacks effective treatments. Inflammation and oxidative stress play key roles in ARDS development. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of pretreatment of silymarin, which has capacities of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative stress, in ARDS.

A Method to Encapsulate Small Organic Molecules in Calcium Phosphate Nanoparticles Based on the Supramolecular Chemistry of Cyclodextrin.

Calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CPNPs) encapsulating small organic molecules, such as imaging agents and drugs, are considered to be ideal devices for cancer diagnosis or therapy. However, it is generally difficult to encapsulate small organic molecules in CPNPs because of the lack of solubility in water or binding affinity to calcium phosphate. To solve these issues, we utilized the carboxymethyl β-cyclodextrin (CM-β-CD) to increase the solubility and binding affinity to small organic molecules for the encapsulation into CPNPs in this work.

Expression variations of connective tissue growth factor in pulmonary arteries from smokers with and without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Cigarette smoking contributes to the development of pulmonary hypertension (PH) complicated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and the pulmonary vascular remodeling, the structural basis of PH, could be attributed to abnormal proliferation of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs).In this study, morphometrical analysis showed that the pulmonary vessel wall thickness in smoker group and COPD group was significantly greater than in nonsmokers. In addition, we determined the expression patterns of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and cyclin D1 in PASMCs harvested from smokers with normal lung function or mild to moderate COPD, finding that the expression levels of CTGF and cyclin D1 were significantly increased in smoker group and COPD group.

Expression of IL-17A and IL-17F in lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury and the counteraction of anisodamine or methylprednisolone.

Th17 cytokines IL-17A and IL-17F as pro-inflammatory cytokines played an important role in triggering inflammatory responses. However, little was known about the expression of IL-17A and IL-17F in acute lung injury (ALI). Therefore, the present study investigated the expression of IL-17A and IL-17F in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI in rats and rat pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVEC) by enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay or reverse transcription-polymerase chains reaction.

Preparation of reduced graphene oxide by infrared irradiation induced photothermal reduction.

We present a green and scalable route toward the formation of reduced graphene oxide (r-GO) by photothermal reduction induced by infrared (IR) irradiation, utilizing a bathroom IR lamp as the source of IR light. Thermogravimetric analysis, Raman, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirm the reduction of r-GO by IR light. Ultraviolet-visible-infrared spectra indicate that adsorption of IR light by original GO films is less than that of UV and visible light; but when GO is exposed to IR light, its adsorption of IR light increases very rapidly with time.

Practical value of intravenous urography combined with add-on CT in diagnosing ureteral abnormalities.

Background: Intravenous urography (IVU) combined with add-on CT (IVU-CT) can help to provide more diagnostic information for determining the localization and nature of ureteral abnormalities with less irradiation dose. This study aimed to determine the value of IVU-CT for diagnosis of ureteral diseases, where IVU is insufficient to determine the diagnosis.

Methods: Two hundred and eighty patients underwent IVU for suspected ureteral disorders, which identified a definite diagnosis in 184 cases and was insufficient for definite diagnosis in 96 cases designated as indeterminate diagnosis.

Carbon nanotubes noncovalently functionalized by an organic-inorganic hybrid: new building blocks for constructing superhydrophobic conductive coatings.

A facile method for constructing superhydrophobic, conductive, and transparent/translucent coatings is presented. Pristine multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are first noncovalently (wrapped) modified by an organic-inorganic hybrid of an amphiphilic copolymer of styrene and maleic anhydride and silica with the existence of gamma-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (a silane coupling agent). The modified MWNTs were mixed with tetraethyl orthosilicate in ethanol, air sprayed, coated with a fluoroalkylsilane, and then heat treated to obtain the superhydrophobic, conductive, and transparent/translucent coatings.