Objective To assess the value of serum amyloid A (SAA) in patients with acute asthma attack. Methods Sixty-four asthmatic patients in acute phase and 20 healthy individuals were included. The asthmatic patients were divided into bacterial infection-induced group and non-bacterial infection-induced group. Lung function test and chest X-rays test were conducted And inflammatory cell counts , serum SAA and CRP levels were measured. SAA were compared among subgroups of asthmatic patients and healthy controls and the diagnostic value of SAA to distinguish bacterial infection-induced asthma was estimated. Results SAA of both asthma subgroups were significantly higher when compared with the healthy individuals, and it was higher in bacterial infection-induced group than that in non-bacterial infection-induced group. In terms of ROC curve , AUC was 0.966 for SAA to distinguish merging bacterium infection, and the cut-off value was 36.67mg/L with sensitivity of 92.3% and specificity of 88.2%. Conclusions SAA increases in patients during acute asthma attack, and particularlymore obviously in bacterial infection-induced patients. It may be used as a reliable biomarker to distinguish merging bacterium infection during acute asthma attack.

Objective To explore the effect of wild type or mutant parkin gene expression on the growth of human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line Huh-7. Methods The parkin (wild type or mutant) expression vector and empty vector were transferred into Huh-7 cell lines with LipofectAMINE 2000 reagents. The positive clones that expressed parkin gene stably were chosen by G418 and checked by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to check the DNA sequences. The cytobiological behaviors of those positive clones were analyzed by cell proliferation assay and tumorigenesis in nude mice. Results Huh-7 cell lines that expressed wild type or mutant parkin gene stably were successfully established. The growth of wild type parkin-expressed cells was obviously inhibited compared with the control cells transfected with empty vectors(t= 3. 875, P= 0. 031).The volume of tumor formed by wild type parkin-expressing cells in nude mice was also significantly reduced (t=8. 228,P=-0. 003). Mutant parkin gene expression had a slight effect on the growth of Huh-7 cells in vitro and in vivo (P＞0.05). Conclusion The re-expression of wild type parkin gene can favor the malignant phenotype revision of Huh-7 cells. Therefore, it might be a good candidate for tumor suppressor gene associated with HCC.

OBJECTIVETo establish a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based method for determining isoniazide concentration in pleural effusion and plasma of patients with tuberculous pleurisy, and evaluate the permeability of isoniazide from blood into pleural effusion.

METHODSWe collected pleural effusion from 15 patients with tuberculous pleurisy 2 h after administration 300 mg isoniazide in the morning of day 1. Pleural effusion and plasma were obtained 2 h after isoniazide administration on day 3. Isoniazide concentration was measured using HPLC, and the penetration rate of isoniazide in pleural effusion was calculated.

RESULTSIsoniazide concentration in the pleural effusion averaged 1.156∓1.190 µg/ml in the 15 patients at 2 h after isoniazide administration on day 1. On day 3, isoniazide concentration was 1.920∓1.294 µg/ml in the pleural effusion and 2.445∓1.463 µg/ml in the plasma, and the mean penetration rate of isoniazide from blood into the pleural effusion was 86.0%.

CONCLUSIONAs isoniazide has a high penetration rate into the pleural effusion in most patients, continuous oral administration of isoniazid has been sufficient to achieve an effective treatment concentration, and intrapleural injection of isoniazide may seem unnecessary for non-drug-resistant tuberculosis pleurisy.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; methods ; Female ; Humans ; Isoniazid ; pharmacokinetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Permeability ; Pleura ; metabolism ; Pleural Effusion ; metabolism ; Tuberculosis, Pleural ; metabolism ; Young Adult

Objective:To evaluate the trend and hotspots of the research on cognitive frailty in China and abroad through literature visualization analysis.Methods:Literature related to cognitive frailty were retrieved from the databases of CNKI, Wanfang, VIP and Web of Science from January 1, 2013 to August 31, 2022 with"cognitive frailty""cognitive decline"and"cognitive impairment"as retrieval terms. Based on the visualization software CiteSpace and VOSviewer, the network map analysis was conducted on the number of publications, journal distribution, country distribution and cooperation, institution distribution and cooperation and research hotspots.Results:A total of 2 500 literatures were retrieved, including 151 in Chinese and 2 349 in English. The number of publications showed an increasing trend with time. Among Chinese journals, Chin J Mod Nurs published the most literature (10 articles), while BMC Geriatr published the most literature (105 articles) in English journals. The top 5 countries in the number of English literature published were the United States (608 articles), the United Kingdom (295 articles), Italy (271 articles), China (252 articles) and Canada (195 articles). The top 5 institutions in the number of Chinese literature published were Fudan University (12 articles), Capital Medical University (10 articles), Zhengzhou University (7 articles), Central South University (5 articles) and Huazhong University of Science and Technology (5 articles). The National Center For Geriatrics Gerontology in Japan published the most English articles (74 articles). A total of 22 Chinese keywords and 44 English keywords were included. The nodes of the network analysis diagram were closely connected and highly centralized. The Chinese and English keywords“cognitive frailty”“elderly”and“frailty”were all in the core position. The Chinese emergent words were“cognitive frailty”“heart failure”“chronic disease”and“risk prediction”. The English burst terms were“cognitive frailty”“questionnaire”“cohort study”“social isolation”and“prevention”. Conclusions:The research popularity in the field of cognitive frailty is increasing year by year, and the number of articles published in English is higher than those in Chinese. At present, the main research focus is cognitive frailty, the elderly and frailty with great differences between China and abroad.

China ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Humans ; Length of Stay ; Malnutrition ; Mass Screening ; Postoperative Complications ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Anthrax is a highly lethal infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The major virulence factor of B. anthracis consists of protective antigen (PA), lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF). PA binds with LF to form lethal toxin (LT), and PA binds with EF to form edema toxin (ET). Antibiotics is hard to work in advanced anthrax infections, because injuries and deaths of the infected are mainly caused by lethal toxin (LT). Thus, the therapeutic neutralizing antibody is the most effective treatment of anthrax. Currently most of the anthrax toxin antibodies are monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) for PA and US FDA has approved ABTHRAX humanized PA monoclonal antibody for the treatment of inhalational anthrax. Once B. anthracis was artificially reconstructed or PA had mutations within recognized neutralization epitopes, anti-PA MAbs would no longer be effective. Therefore, anti-LF MAbs is an important supplement for anthrax treatment. Most of the anti-LF antibodies are murine or chimeric antibodies. By contrast, fully human MAbs can avoid the high immunogenicity of murine antibodies. First, we used LF to immunize the transgenic mice and used fluorescent cell sorting to get antigen-specific memory B cells from transgenic mice spleen lymphocytes. By single cell PCR method, we quickly found two strains of anti-LF MAbs with binding activity, 1D7 and 2B9. Transiently transfected Expi 293F cells to obtain MAbs protein after purification. Both 1D7 and 2B9 efficiently neutralized LT in vitro, and had good synergistic effect when mixed with anti-PA MAbs. In summary, combining the advantages of transgenic mice, fluorescent cell sorting and single-cell PCR methods, this study shows new ideas and methods for the rapid screening of fully human monoclonal antibodies.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of the time of initial diagnosis with the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: A total of 803 patients who were diagnosed to have COPD for the first time in our hospital between May 2015 to February 2018 were enrolled in this study.The diagnoses of COPD and asthma COPD overlap (ACO) were made according GOLD guidelines and european consensus definition.Lung function of the patients was graded according to the GOLD guidelines. RESULTS: The patients with COPD had a mean age of 61.8±9.9 years,including 726 male and 77 female patients.The course of the patients (defined as the time from symptom onset to the establishment of a diagnosis) was 3(0.5,8) years.Among these patients,85.2% had a moderate disease severity (FEV1%<80%),and 48.3% had severe or very severe conditions (FEV1%<50%);47.0% of them were positive for bronchial dilation test.In the overall patients,295(36.7%) were also diagnosed to have ACO,and the mean disease course of ACO[3(1,9) years]was similar to that of COPD[3(0.5,8) years](>0.05).A significant correlation was found between the disease course and the lung function of the patients.Multiple linear regression analysis showed that an older age and a longer disease course were associated with poorer lung functions and a greater disease severity. CONCLUSIONS The delay of the initial diagnosis is significantly related to the severity of COPD.
Age Factors ; Aged ; Asthma ; diagnosis ; Delayed Diagnosis ; adverse effects ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Humans ; Lung ; physiopathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Severity of Illness Index ; Time Factors