Azvudine and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid) are recommended for COVID-19 treatment in China, but their safety and efficacy in the elderly population are not fully known. In this multicenter, retrospective, cohort study, we identified 5131 elderly hospitalized COVID-19 patients from 32,864 COVID-19 patients admitted to nine hospitals in Henan Province, China, from December 5, 2022, to January 31, 2023. The primary outcome was all-cause death, and the secondary outcome was composite disease progression. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to control for confounding factors, including demographics, vaccination status, comorbidities, and laboratory tests. After 2:1 PSM, 1786 elderly patients receiving azvudine and 893 elderly patients receiving Paxlovid were included. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses revealed that compared with Paxlovid group, azvudine could significantly reduce the risk of all-cause death (log-rank P = 0.002; HR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.573-0.883, P = 0.002), but there was no difference in composite disease progression (log-rank P = 0.52; HR: 1.05, 95% CI: 0.877-1.260, P = 0.588). Four sensitivity analyses verified the robustness of above results. Subgroup analysis suggested that a greater benefit of azvudine over Paxlovid was observed in elderly patients with primary malignant tumors (P for interaction = 0.005, HR: 0.32, 95% CI: 0.18-0.57) compared to patients without primary malignant tumors. Safety analysis revealed that azvudine treatment had a lower incidence of adverse events and higher lymphocyte levels than Paxlovid treatment. In conclusion, azvudine treatment is not inferior to Paxlovid treatment in terms of all-cause death, composite disease progression and adverse events in elderly hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Lonicerae Japonicae Flos(LJF), a bulk medicinal material, has long been used in clinical settings. The main/Dao-di production areas are Shandong, Henan, and Hebei. However, no systematic study on the difference in volatile components of LJF from different areas is available at the moment. In this study, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS) was used to detect the volatile components in 30 batches of LJF from 3 main production areas. Based on the relative odor activity value(ROAV), the key aroma components were analyzed. Multivariate statistical analysis was performed to analyze the differential components and characteristic aroma components in the samples from the 3 areas. Finally, 113 volatiles were identified from the samples, which were mainly alcohols, esters, acids, aldehydes, ketones, and alkenes. Among the common components of the three areas, linalool, myristic acid, and α-linolenic acid methyl ester had high content. A total of 15 key and 9 modifying aroma components in LJF were determined based on ROAV. The 15 differential components can be used for origin identification. Among them,(E, E)-2,4-decadienal and hexanal contributed a lot to the aroma of LJF from Henan and α-nerol was a characteristic aroma component of LJF in Hebei. In addition, lauryl aldehyde was a biomarker of LJF from Shandong. This study can provide a reference for the origin identification and quality evaluation of LJF.
Lonicera ; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Multivariate Analysis

Objective:To investigate the status quo of human resources of dentists who deal with periodontal disease in Beijing area through an online survey, which may hopefully provide a preliminary basis for the decision-making of administrative departments and the formulation of periodontal professional development plan.Methods:The dentists who deal with periodontal disease at least half a day per week in Beijing area were investigated. A questionnaire was designed by the chairman of the Periodontology Committee of Beijing Stomatological Association. The questionnaire was sent to and finished by the dentists via "WenJuanXing" online survey software. The contents of the survey included general condition, the property of practice unit, title and position of the dentist, membership of professional society, time and content of periodontal treatment, adoption of new technology and new method of periodontal therapy during the past one year, status of periodontal treatment in the local population and reasons, understanding and influencing factors of periodontal professional development.Results:A total of 1 255 dentists completed the survey, who came from all 16 districts in Beijing, mainly Haidian, Chaoyang, Dongcheng and Xicheng Districts [The total percentage of these four main districts was 70.3% (882/1 255)]. The mean age of the dentists was (36.1±8.3) years. Among the dentists, 71.1% (892/1 255) were females, 88.1% (1 106/1 255) got a Bachelor′s degree or above. It was estimated that 35.4% (444/1 255) of the dentists had received standardized periodontal training ever. The percentage of dentists carrying out new technology in the past one year was as high as 68.1% (855/1 255). There were only 163 periodontal specialists (13.0%) out of the dentists in the survey. Only 15.9% (200/1 255) of the dentists routinely performed periodontal surgery. The majority of the dentists [82.8% (1 039/1 255)] were from the state-owned hospitals. Fifty-four point seven percemt (686/1 255) of the dentists thought that lack of knowledge was the main reason why the general public failed to receive periodontal treatment. As for the biggest bottleneck affecting periodontal professional development, fifty-one point zero percent (640/1 255) of the dentists attributed it to the public neglect.Conclusions:The periodontal practitioners in Beijing are young, highly educated, unevenly distributed in 16 districts and mostly females. State-owned oral health institutions are an important force in periodontal diagnosis and treatment services in Beijing. The number of periodontal specialists need to be improved. Promotion of standardized periodontal surgery and the popularization of healthcare knowledge on periodontal disease should also be the focus in the future.

Objective To synthesize a kind of carbon nanoparticles incorporated liquid-gas phase-transition nanodroplets (CNPs),and to verify their traceability for photoacoustic/ultrasound dual-modality imaging at real time.Methods The nanodroplets were synthesized using dual-emulsion technique.The basic properties were observed and measured with optical microscope,transmission electron microscope and laser particle size analyzer.The phase transition of CNPs was observed after laser irradiation.DiI-labeled CNPs phagocytosed by macrophages were also observed with the laser scanning confoeal microscope.The enhanced photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging with CNPs in vitro was observed after laser irradiation.And the in vivo experiment was used to analyze the effect of CNPs for tracking metastatic lymph nodes of the axilla in VX2 tumor-bearing rabbits with enhanced photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging.Results CNPs with the average diameter of (483.32 ± 45.09) nm and Zeta potential of (-26.3 ± 5.02) mV were successfully prepared.After laser irradiation,the phase-transition of CNPs obviously took place.After co-incubation with macrophages,CNPs were massively phagocytosed by macrophages.Photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging were significantly enhanced with CNPs in vitro and in vivo.And the mean photoacoustic signal and the grey level increased with the concentration of CNPs.Conclusion CNPs are successfully synthesized with excellent phase-transition feature after laser irradiation,which could be used for photoacoustic/ultrasound dual-modality imaging at real time.And this excellent property got further confirmed by tracking malignant metastatic lymph nodes in rabbits.

Advanced schistosomiasis is the most serious clinical type of schistosomiasis. Its diagnosis and treatment are relat?ed to many special departments,such as gastroenterology,general surgery,neurology,endocrinology,radiology,traditional Chinese medicine,blood purification,endoscopy,intervention,and ICU. It is necessary to apply a multidisciplinary treatment (MDT)mode. However,the mode has no universal standard and guide in practice. It is very important for the implementation of MDT mode of advanced schistosomiasis to form a treatment expert team,formulate the formal working procedures,and standard?ize the treatment schedules. The standardized implementation of MDT mode will be important to provide a more effective clinical decision on advanced schistosomiasis.

The effects of polymerization conditions including scan potential range, scan cycles, the concentration ratio of template molecules to functional monomer, pH of the buffer, and washing time for removing the template molecule from the imprinted polymer on the difference of zero current potential of benzidine ( BZ) interaction with BZ-MIP were investigated. The optimum preparations were obtained. The imprinted capacity of benzidine, 4-chloroaniline, and 4-aminobiphenyl and carmine was calculated as 0. 632, 0. 1123, 0. 1123, 0. 0847 and 0. 0725, respectively. This indicated that BZ-MIP had good specific recognition and selectivity to benzidine, and other substances did not interfere with the binding of BZ-MIP with BZ. The zero current potential variation was linear with the lorgarithm of BZ concentration in the range of 4í10-8-1í10-5 mol/Lwith detection limitation of 1. 89í10-8 mol/L. The sensor was used to detect BZ in waste water sample with recoveries of 95 . 7%-104 . 2%.