BACKGROUND:Cervical Open-door laminoplasty with unilateral mass screw fixation and laminectomy with bilateral mass screw fixation are both procedures that treat cervical spondylotic myelopathy by expanding the space available for the spinal cord. Effectiveness and safety of two operative methods remain unclear. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the biocompatibility of implant and host between open-door laminoplasty with unilateral mass screw fixation and laminectomy with bilateral mass screw fixation to treat multi-segment cervical spondylotic myelopathy. METHODS: Data of 117 patients with multi-segment cervical spondylotic myelopathy (≥ 3 segments) were retrospectively analyzed. Sixty-five cases underwent open-door laminoplasty with unilateral mass screw fixation (laminoplasty group). Fifty-two cases underwent laminectomy with bilateral mass screw fixation (laminectomy group). Clinical outcomes were evaluated by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association scoring system and by recovery rate. Cervical curvature index and cervical range of motion were assessed by X-ray films in both groups. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The average folow-up time was 28 months (range 12-59 months) in both groups. No C5 nerve root palsy occurred in the two groups. Japanese Orthopaedic Association scores were greater during final folow-up than pre-fixation in both groups (P < 0.01). No significant difference in Japanese Orthopaedic Association score, recovery rate, and final folow-up cervical curvature index was detected in both groups (P > 0.05). Cervical range of motion was lower during final folow-up than pre-fixation in both groups (P < 0.01). Results confirmed that open-door laminoplasty with unilateral mass screw fixation and laminectomy with bilateral mass screw fixation have similar effectiveness in the improvement of neurological function, relieving pain and reducing complications, but wil greatly reduce the cervical range of motion.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate how the National Health Commission of China (NHCC)-recommended Chinese medicines (CMs) modulate the major maladjustments of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), particularly the clinically observed complications and comorbidities. METHODS: By focusing on the potent targets in common with the conventional medicines, we investigated the mechanisms of 11 NHCC-recommended CMs in the modulation of the major COVID-19 pathophysiology (hyperinflammations, viral replication), complications (pain, headache) and comorbidities (hypertension, obesity, diabetes). The constituent herbs of these CMs and their chemical ingredients were from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Information Database. The experimentally-determined targets and the activity values of the chemical ingredients of these CMs were from the Natural Product Activity and Species Source Database. The approved and clinical trial drugs against these targets were searched from the Therapeutic Target Database and DrugBank Database. Pathways of the targets was obtained from Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and additional literature search. RESULTS: Overall, 9 CMs modulated 6 targets discovered by the COVID-19 target discovery studies, 8 and 11 CMs modulated 8 and 6 targets of the approved or clinical trial drugs for the treatment of the major COVID-19 complications and comorbidities, respectively. CONCLUSION The coordinated actions of each NHCC-recommended CM against a few targets of the major COVID-19 pathophysiology, complications and comorbidities, partly have common mechanisms with the conventional medicines.
COVID-19/physiopathology* ; Comorbidity ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use* ; Humans ; Medicine ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; SARS-CoV-2

Treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection with the viral DNA polymerase inhibitors or pegylated alpha-interferon has led to a significant retardation in HBV-related disease progression and reduction in mortality related to chronic hepatitis B associated liver decompensation and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, chronic HBV infection remains not cured. The reasons for the failure to eradicate HBV infection by long-term antiviral therapy are not completely understood. However, clinical studies suggest that the intrinsic stability of the nuclear form of viral genome, the covalently closed circular (ccc) DNA, sustained low level viral replication under antiviral therapy and homeostatic proliferation of hepatocytes are the critical virological and pathophysiological factors that affect the persistence and therapeutic outcomes of HBV infection. More importantly, despite potent suppression of HBV replication in livers of the treated patients, the dysfunction of HBV-specific antiviral immunity persists. The inability of the immune system to recognize cells harboring HBV infection and to cure or eliminate cells actively producing virus is the biggest challenge to finding a cure. Unraveling the complex virus-host interactions that lead to persistent infection should facilitate the rational design of antivirals and immunotherapeutics to cure chronic HBV infection.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become one major threat to human population health. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) presents an ideal target of antivirals, whereas nucleoside analogs inhibitor is hindered by the proofreading activity of coronavirus. Herein, we report that corilagin (RAI-S-37) as a non-nucleoside inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 RdRp, binds directly to RdRp, effectively inhibits the polymerase activity in both cell-free and cell-based assays, fully resists the proofreading activity and potently inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection with a low 50% effective concentration (EC