OBJECTIVE: Clinical characteristics and outcome in COVID-19 with brucellosis patients has not been well demonstrated, we tried to analyze clinical outcome in local and literature COVID-19 cases with brucellosis before and after recovery. METHODS: We retrospectively collected hospitalization data of comorbid patients and prospectively followed up after discharge in Heilongjiang Infectious Disease Hospital from January 15, 2020 to April 29, 2022. Demographics, epidemiological, clinical symptoms, radiological and laboratory data, treatment medicines and outcomes, and follow up were analyzed, and findings of a systematic review were demonstrated. RESULTS: A total of four COVID-19 with brucellosis patients were included. One patient had active brucellosis before covid and 3 patients had nonactive brucellosis before brucellosis. The median age was 54.5 years, and all were males (100.0%). Two cases (50.0%) were moderate, and one was mild and asymptomatic, respectively. Three cases (75.0%) had at least one comorbidity (brucellosis excluded). All 4 patients were found in COVID-19 nucleic acid screening. Case C and D had only headache and fever on admission, respectively. Four cases were treated with Traditional Chinese medicine, western medicines for three cases, no adverse reaction occurred during hospitalization. All patients were cured and discharged. Moreover, one case (25.0%) had still active brucellosis without re-positive COVID-19, and other three cases (75.0%) have no symptoms of discomfort except one case fell fatigue and anxious during the follow-up period after recovery. Conducting the literature review, two similar cases have been reported in two case reports, and were both recovered, whereas, no data of follow up after recovery. CONCLUSION These cases indicate that COVID-19 patients with brucellosis had favorable outcome before and after recovery. More clinical studies should be conducted to confirm our findings.
Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Brucellosis ; COVID-19 ; Retrospective Studies ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Treatment Outcome ; Case Reports as Topic

Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics of children with Burkitt lymphoma (BL) and to summarize the mid-term efficacy of China Net Childhood Lymphoma-mature B-cell lymphoma 2017 (CNCL-B-NHL-2017) regimen. Methods: Clinical features of 436 BL patients who were ≤18 years old and treated with the CNCL-B-NHL-2017 regimen from May 2017 to April 2021 were analyzed retrospectively. Clinical characteristics of patients at disease onset were analyzed and the therapeutic effects of patients with different clinical stages and risk groups were compared. Survival analysis was performed by Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox regression was used to identify the prognostic factors. Results: Among 436 patients, there were 368 (84.4%) males and 68 (15.6%) females, the age of disease onset was 6.0 (4.0, 9.0) years old. According to the St. Jude staging system, there were 4 patients (0.9%) with stage Ⅰ, 30 patients (6.9%) with stage Ⅱ, 217 patients (49.8%) with stage Ⅲ, and 185 patients (42.4%) with stage Ⅳ. All patients were stratified into following risk groups: group A (n=1, 0.2%), group B1 (n=46, 10.6%), group B2 (n=19, 4.4%), group C1 (n=285, 65.4%), group C2 (n=85, 19.5%). Sixty-three patients (14.4%) were treated with chemotherapy only and 373 patients (85.6%) were treated with chemotherapy combined with rituximab. Twenty-one patients (4.8%) suffered from progressive disease, 3 patients (0.7%) relapsed, and 13 patients (3.0%) died of treatment-related complications. The follow-up time of all patients was 24.0 (13.0, 35.0) months, the 2-year event free survival (EFS) rate of all patients was (90.9±1.4) %. The 2-year EFS rates of group A, B1, B2, C1 and C2 were 100.0%, 100.0%, (94.7±5.1) %, (90.7±1.7) % and (85.9±4.0) %, respectively. The 2-year EFS rates was higher in group A, B1, and B2 than those in group C1 (χ²=4.16, P=0.041) and group C2 (χ²=7.21, P=0.007). The 2-year EFS rates of the patients treated with chemotherapy alone and those treated with chemotherapy combined with rituximab were (79.3±5.1)% and (92.9±1.4)% (χ²=14.23, P<0.001) respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that stage Ⅳ (including leukemia stage), serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)>4-fold normal value, and with residual tumor in the mid-term evaluation were risk factors for poor prognosis (HR=1.38,1.23,8.52,95%CI 1.05-1.82,1.05-1.43,3.96-18.30). Conclusions: The CNCL-B-NHL-2017 regimen show significant effect in the treatment of pediatric BL. The combination of rituximab improve the efficacy further.
Adolescent ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use* ; Burkitt Lymphoma/drug therapy* ; Child ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Humans ; Lactate Dehydrogenases ; Lymphoma, B-Cell/drug therapy* ; Male ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Rituximab/therapeutic use* ; Treatment Outcome

Aim To explore the regulatory mechanism of berberine in the high glucose (HG) -induced podocyte ferroptosis. Methods Western blot and R T - qPCR were used to detect the changes of G P X 4, PTGS2, ACSL4, podocin, and desmin at different time (0 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, 36 h) of HG stimulation, and the relative expression of Nrf2, HO-1, GPX4 and podocin under HG after treated with berberine. The proliferation of podocytes stimulated by HG at different time points was observed by EdU staining. The therapeutic effect of berberine on podocyte damage was screened by CCK-8, and the effect of berberine on the level of oxidative stress in HG-induced podocytes were measured by fluorescence inverted microscope, GSH and GSSG kits. In addition, transmission electron microscopy was employed to observe the ultrastructural characteristics of podocytes in each group. Results The expression of podocin and GPX4 was significantly reduced at 24 h, and the mRNA levels of ACSL4 and PTGS2 were significantly up-regulated. Berberine could notably increase the expression of Nrf2, HO-1, GPX4 and podocin, and reduce the levels of PTGS2 and ACSL4. Moreover, berberine significantly improved the levels of ROS and GSH in podocytes under HG conditions, thereby alleviating membrane blistering, mitochondrial shrinkage and other morphological changes of HG-induced podocytes. Conclusions In this study, the number of podocytes decreases, which is a death mode different from autophagy and apoptosis, that is, ferroptosis. Berberine can alleviate the occurrence of this phenomenon by mediating the Nrf2/ H0-1/GPX4.

Objective To explore the neuroprotective effect and mechanism of picroside II on p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) signal transduction pathway after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats. Methods A total of 150 healthy male Wistar rats were subject to establish middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) models by inserting a monofilament thread. All rats were randomly divided into sham group, model group, picroside (Pier) group, anisomycin (Anis, agonist of p38 MAPK) group, Anis+Picr group, SB203580 (SB, inhibitor of p38 MAPK) group and SB+Picr group. The neurobehavioral function was evaluated by modified neurological severity score points (mNSS) test. The structure of neuron was observed using HE staining. The apoptotic cells were counted using TUNEL assay. The expression of phosphorylated p38 MAPK (p-p38 MAPK) in cortex was determined using the immunohistochemistry. And the expressions of p-p38 MAPK, phosphorylated MAPK activated protein kinase-2 (p-MK2), phosphorylated cytoplasm phospholipase A2 (p-cPLA2), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrotic factor a (TNF-α) were determined by Western blotting. Results No neurological behavioral malfunction was found in sham group. In model group, the damage of neuron was worsened, while the neurobehavioral function score, apoptotic cell index and the expressions of p-p38 MAPK, p-MK2, p-cPLA2,IL-6 and TNF-α increased significantly than those in control group. No significant difference was found in TNF-α. In Pier group, SB group and SB+Picr group, the damage of neuron was lighter, the neurological behavioral function was improved, the number of apoptotic cells and the expressions of p-p38 MAPK, p- MK2, p-cPLA2 and IL-6 decreased significantly than those in model group. In Anis group and Anis + Pier group, the damage was worsen, the cerebral infarction was larger, and the expressions of p-p38 MAPK, p-MK2, p-cPLA2 and IL-6 increased significantly than those in control group. Conclusion Picroside II can protect the neuron from the apoptosis and inflammation reaction after MCAO/R by inhibiting p38 MAPK signal transduction pathway in rats.

At present, the prevention and control of new coronavirus has entered a critical period. However, the use of quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assays for the detection of viral nucleic acid, as a crucial diagnostic approach, has been doubted in clinical practice. Herein, we have reviewed the current status of epidemic prevention and control, latest development of detection technologies, disease characteristics, clinical sampling and transport. We have also discussed the factors that may affect the performance of viral nucleic acid detection, and suggested some effective methods to improve the detection performance of the assays.

At present, the prevention and control of new coronavirus has entered a critical period. However, the use of quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR)assays for the detection of viral nucleic acid, as a crucial diagnostic approach, has been doubted in clinical practice. Herein, we have reviewed the current status of epidemic prevention and control, latest development of detection technologies, disease characteristics, clinical sampling and transport. It has also discussed the factors that may affect the performance of viral nucleic acid detection, and suggested some effective methods to improve the detection performance of the assays.

To address the increasing need for detecting and validating protein biomarkers in clinical specimens, mass spectrometry (MS)-based targeted proteomic techniques, including the selected reaction monitoring (SRM), parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), and massively parallel data-independent acquisition (DIA), have been developed. For optimal performance, they require the fragment ion spectra of targeted peptides as prior knowledge. In this report, we describe a MS pipe-line and spectral resource to support targeted proteomics studies for human tissue samples. To build the spectral resource, we integrated common open-source MS computational tools to assemble a freely accessible computational workflow based on Docker. We then applied the workflow to gen-erate DPHL, a comprehensive DIA pan-human library, from 1096 data-dependent acquisition (DDA) MS raw files for 16 types of cancer samples. This extensive spectral resource was then applied to a proteomic study of 17 prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Thereafter, PRM validation was applied to a larger study of 57 PCa patients and the differential expression of three proteins in prostate tumor was validated. As a second application, the DPHL spectral resource was applied to a study consisting of plasma samples from 19 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients and 18 healthy control subjects. Differentially expressed proteins between DLBCL patients and healthy control subjects were detected by DIA-MS and confirmed by PRM. These data demonstrate that the DPHL supports DIA and PRM MS pipelines for robust protein biomarker discovery. DPHL is freely accessible at https://www.iprox.org/page/project.html?id=IPX0001400000.

Background:Despite the growing epidemic of heart failure (HF),there is limited data available to systematically compare non-cardiac comorbidities in the young-old,old-old,and oldest-old patients hospitalized for HF.The precise differences will add valuable information for better management of HF in elderly patients.Methods:A total of 1053 patients aged 65 years or older hospitalized with HF were included in this study.Patients were compared among three age groups:(1) young-old:65 to 74 years,(2) old-old:75 to 84 years,and (3) oldest-old:≥85 years.Clinical details of presentation,comorbidities,and prescribed medications were recorded.Results:The mean age was 76.7 years and 12.7％ were 85 years or older.Most elderly patients with HF (97.5％) had at least one of the non-cardiac comorbidities.The patterns of common non-cardiac comorbidities were different between the young-old and oldestold group.The three most common non-cardiac comorbidities were anemia (53.6％),hyperlipidemia (45.9％),and diabetes (42.4％) in the young-old group,while anemia (73.1％),infection (58.2％),and chronic kidney disease (44.0％) in the oldest-old group.Polypharmacy was observed in 93.0％ elderly patients with HF.Additionally,29.2％ patients were diagnosed with infection,and 67.0％ patients were prescribed antibiotics.However,60.4％ patients were diagnosed with anemia with only 8.9％ of them receiving iron repletion.Conclusions:Non-cardiac comorbidities are nearly universal in three groups but obviously differ by age,and inappropriate medications are very common in elderly patients with HF.Further treatment strategies should be focused on providing optimal medications for age-specific non-cardiac conditions.

BACKGROUND: The perioperative hemorrhage of knee surgeries is a difficulty in clinic, and the efficacy of tranexamic acid to reduce postoperative bleeding has attracted more attention, but choosing which administrations remains controversial. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of tranexamic acid by intravenous injection or articular injection for reducing the perioperative hemorrhage of total knee arthroplasty. METHODS: Sixty patients undergoing unilateral total knee replacement were enrolled, and were then randomized into three groups (n=20 per group): no tranexamic acid administration (group A); intravenous dropping of 15 mg/kg tranexamic acid before tourniquet application plus 10 mg/kg tranexamic acid at 3 hours postoperatively (group B); articular injection of 50 mL saline diluted with 1 g tranexamic acid through a drainage tube (group C). Two-hour closure of drainage tube was performed in all patients. The postoperative dominant and hidden blood loss, blood transfusion rate, pulmonary embolism as well as lower extremity deep venous thrombosis were recorded. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) The dominant and hidden blood loss in the groups B and C were significantly less than those in the group A (P < 0.05); the dominant blood loss showed no significant difference between groups B and C (P > 0.05); the group B exhibited a significantly less hidden blood loss compared with group C (P < 0.05). (2) The blood transfusion rate in the groups B and C was significantly lower than that in the group A (P < 0.05). (3) No pulmonary embolism or lower extremity deep venous embolism occurred during 3-month follow-up. (4) That is to say, tranexamic acid can obviously reduce perioperative blood loss and blood transfusion rate without pulmonary embolism or lower extremity deep venous thrombosis, and intravenous administration exerts better clinical effectiveness.

p-coumaric acid is mainly found in fruits, vegetables, grains, and fungi, and is also abundant in Chinese herbal medicines. The pharmacological effects of p-coumaric acid has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antitumor effects, antiplatelet aggregation, cardiovascular protection, prevention and improvement of diabetes, and neuroprotection, while the anti-oxidant activities of p-coumaric acid is the important basis of other pharmacological effects. In addition, p-coumaric acid has a certain inhibitory effect on bacteria, and also can inhibit melanin formation and delay skin aging. This paper reviews the main pharmacological effects of p-coumaric acid and provides reference for the development of both medicinal and food resources.