Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy uses photosensitizers to produce reactive oxygen species under light exposure to inhibit pathogenic bacteria.Although its application in the management of oral infectious diseases has in-creased over recent years,it is limited by inadequate tissue and biofilm penetration and suboptimal bioavailability exhib-ited by individual photosensitizers.These challenges can potentially be surmounted through the integration of nanomate-rials,such as polymers,metals and metal oxides,metal-organic frameworks,and carbon and silicon nanomaterials.Polymers allow the controlled release of photosensitizers through structural adjustments but have low stability,while metals and metal oxides possess strong antibacterial properties but can be potentially toxic.Meanwhile,metal-organic frameworks have flexible structures and multifunctionality but have low stability and potential toxicity.Moreover,carbon and silicon nanomaterials,despite exhibiting excellent antibacterial properties and biocompatibility,have limited appli-cation due to high production costs.Materials with inherent antibacterial properties,such as chitosan and graphene ox-ide,have broader application prospects,as they can form multimodal antibacterial platforms with photosensitizers,en-hancing the antibacterial effects and eliminating infections.Future research could incorporate other functional materials,such as anti-inflammatory agents and immunomodulatory materials,to construct comprehensive therapeutic nanoplat-forms for the treatment of oral infectious diseases.

Heart failure is a fatal stage of end-stage cardiovascular disease,which brings a huge medical burden to the society because of its high mortality and re-hospitalisation rates.Intestinal microecology is the largest and most com-plex microecosystem of human body.It is inhabited by tens of thousands of microorganisms in human gastrointestinal tract.In recent years,with the deepening of the study of intestinal flora,more and more studies have found that the im-balance of intestinal microecology can cause changes of metabolites in heart failure patients,which is one of the key triggers for the development of heart failure,therefore,using the intestinal microbial homeostasis as a new entry point for the treat-ment of heart failure will be a hotspot in medical research.However,the theory of Chinese medicine,"the spleen is the guardian",covers the physiological functions of the spleen,such as the spleen's main function of transporting,spleen's main function of ascending and clearing,and its main function of hiding camping,etc.,and the functions of intestinal flora and the"spleen is the guardian"are similar to a certain extent.Therefore,this paper starts from a holistic viewpoint and takes the theory of"spleen as the guardian"in Chinese medicine as an entry point to elaborate on the pathogenesis of intes-tinal microecological imbalance and heart failure,so as to provide a reference for Chinese medicine treatment or drug re-search.

Objective:To investigate the prevalence of sarcopenia as defined by the third lumbar skeletal muscle index (L3-SMI) and explore its impact on drug therapy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).Methods:The baseline abdominal CT images of 230 patients with IBD hospitalized in the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University from December 2018 to December 2022 were retrospectively analyzed to obtain L3-SMI. The optimal cut-off value of L3-SMI to define sarcopenia was determined using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The IBD group included 164 cases of ulcerative colitis (UC) and 66 cases of Crohn's disease (CD), compared with 100 cases of the normal control. The clinical data and biochemical indicators, such as body mass index (BMI), albumin (ALB), pre-albumin (PA), disease activity and therapeutic drugs, were collected. Outcomes were followed up, including the optimization of baseline drug therapy, the initiation of additional biological agents or combined drug therapy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for the escalation of drug therapy, and the nomogram was constructed and evaluated for the prediction of drug regimen escalation in patients with IBD.Results:The prevalence of sarcopenia in the IBD population in this study was 39.6%, among whom 36.0% were with ulcerative colitis and 48.5% with Crohn's disease. The prevalence of malnutrition (BMI<18.5) in IBD patients was 18.7%, whereas 69.2% of patients with concurrent IBD and sarcopenia had a BMI≥18.5 . The median L3-SMI of IBD patients was significantly lower than that of normal controls (36.30 cm 2/m 2vs. 39.37 cm 2/m 2, P=0.004). Sarcopenia ( OR=3.33, 95% CI: 1.06 to 10.50, P=0.040) was associated with the escalation of drug therapy in patients with IBD. Based on the patient's age, presence or absence of sarcopenia, albumin and BMI, the nomogram prediction model was established, with the area under the curve (AUC) of 0.762 (95% CI: 0.691 to 0.834), showing good discriminating performance. The calibration curve and Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test demonstrated good consistency between the predicted and observed data ( χ2 =11.906, P=0.156). Decision curve analysis showed potential benefits of the prediction model in clinical settings. Conclusion:Sarcopenia is common in patients with IBD, which is related to the escalation of drug therapy in patients with IBD.

Tic disorder is a common neuropsychiatric disorder in children and one of the common serious chronic diseases that endanger children's health.According to YE Tianshi's theory of"yang transforms into internal wind",water fails to nourish wood(kidney yin deficiency can not nourish liver wood),spleen deficiency and liver hyperactivity,wood stagnation and intense fire cause internal wind,and leading to frenetic stirring of tendons.Insect drugs are considered to be"pathogenic wind"in terms of pathogenic factors,and the pain wanders unsteadily.They have the effects of tonifying the kidney and supplementing essence,calming the liver and suppressing wind,resolving phlegm and relieving spasm,dispelling wind and purging heat,dredging collaterals and removing blood stasis,which exert certain effects in treating children with tic disorder.Modern pharmacological studies have shown that insect drugs can treat children with tic disorders from multiple perspectives such as anti-convulsion,regulation of neurotransmitters,inhibition of neuroinflammation,and regulation of immunity.Based on the theory of"yang transforms into internal wind",this paper analyzes the application of insect drugs in the treatment of children with tic disorder,which can provide theoretical reference for the prevention and treatment of tic disorder by traditional Chinese medicine.

Humans ; Asthma/drug therapy* ; Biological Therapy

Objective: To explore the related factors of negative conversion time (NCT) of nucleic acid in children with COVID-19. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. A total of 225 children who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and admitted to Changxing Branch of Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from April 3^rd to May 31^st 2022 were enrolled in the study. The infection age, gender, viral load, basic disease, clinical symptoms and information of accompanying caregivers were retrospectively analyzed. According to age, the children were divided into<3 years of age group and 3-<18 years of age group. According to the viral nucleic acid test results, the children were divided into positive accompanying caregiver group and negative accompanying caregiver group. Comparisons between groups were performed using Mann-Whitney U test or Chi-square test. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the related factors of NCT of nucleic acid in children with COVID-19. Results: Among the 225 patients (120 boys and 105 girls) of age 2.8 (1.3, 6.2) years, 119 children <3 years and 106 children 3-<18 years of age, 19 cases were diagnosed with moderate COVID-19, and the other 206 cases were diagnosed with mild COVID-19. There were 141 patients in the positive accompanying caregiver group and 84 patients in the negative accompanying caregiver group.Patients 3-<18 years of age had a shorter NCT (5 (3, 7) vs.7 (4, 9) d, Z=-4.17, P<0.001) compared with patients <3 years of age. Patients in the negative accompanying caregiver group had a shorter NCT (5 (3, 7) vs.6 (4, 9) d,Z=-2.89,P=0.004) compared with patients in the positive accompanying caregiver group. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that anorexia was associated with NCT of nucleic acid (OR=3.74,95%CI 1.69-8.31, P=0.001). Conclusion: Accompanying caregiver with positive nucleic acid test may prolong NCT of nucleic acid, and decreased appetite may be associated with prolonged NCT of nucleic acid in children with COVID-19.
Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Young Adult ; China/epidemiology* ; COVID-19/genetics* ; Nucleic Acids ; Retrospective Studies

Objective:To detect mutations in a pedigree containing two brothers with oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) by whole-exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing.Methods:Clinical data were collected from a pedigree with OCA, and DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples obtained from the proband and other family members. The whole-exome coding region of the proband was directly sequenced by whole-exome sequencing technology to identify potential pathogenic mutations, and Sanger sequencing was conducted to verify the gene mutations.Results:Both the proband and his younger brother presented with generalized white skin, golden-yellow hair, bilateral nystagmus, photophobia, translucent iris, conjunctival congestion, and refractive errors of both eyes. The proband′s parents, grandparents, maternal grandparents, and children were all phenotypically normal, and his parents′ marriage was non-consanguineous. Three heterozygous mutations were identified in the OCA2 gene of both the proband and his younger brother, including a nonsense mutation c.1290T>A, and 2 missense mutations c.1363A>G and c.1204T>C. The mutation c.1204T>C has not been previously reported, and was a novel gene mutation in the OCA2 gene. In addition, 1 heterozygous mutation c.1204T>C was identified in the OCA2 gene in the proband′s father and daughter, 2 heterozygous mutations c.1290T>A and c.1363A>G were found in the OCA2 gene in the proband′s mother, and 1 heterozygous mutation c.1290T>A was identified in the OCA2 gene in the proband′s son and the daughter of the proband′s younger brother.Conclusions:Three gene mutations were identified in the OCA2 gene in the 2 patients with OCA, and the nonsense mutation c.1290T>A may be the pathogenic mutation causing the clinical phenotype of this family. These findings expand the pathogenic mutational spectrum of the OCA gene.

COVID-19 ; Humans ; Inflammation/genetics* ; Lung ; Pneumonia ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Serologic Tests

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause acute respiratory distress syndrome, hypercoagulability, hypertension, and multiorgan dysfunction. Effective antivirals with safe clinical profile are urgently needed to improve the overall prognosis. In an analysis of a randomly collected cohort of 124 patients with COVID-19, we found that hypercoagulability as indicated by elevated concentrations of D-dimers was associated with disease severity. By virtual screening of a U.S. FDA approved drug library, we identified an anticoagulation agent dipyridamole (DIP) , which suppressed SARS-CoV-2 replication . In a proof-of-concept trial involving 31 patients with COVID-19, DIP supplementation was associated with significantly decreased concentrations of D-dimers ( < 0.05), increased lymphocyte and platelet recovery in the circulation, and markedly improved clinical outcomes in comparison to the control patients. In particular, all 8 of the DIP-treated severely ill patients showed remarkable improvement: 7 patients (87.5%) achieved clinical cure and were discharged from the hospitals while the remaining 1 patient (12.5%) was in clinical remission.

Objective: To investigate the influence of unitization encoding strategy and the moderating effect of unitization level on directed forgetting effect of associative recognition. Methods: Association recognition paradigm combined with directed forgetting paradigm were employed in this study.The 39 participants acquired by simple random sampling were asked to remember or forget compound words or unrelated word pairs which were randomly presented according to cues.In the retrieval stage, they needed to distinguish " old" or " rearranged" word pairs regardless of the cues. Results: (1) The reversed unitization effect reached significance. The discrimination of compound words (0.43±0.03) was lower than that of unrelated words (0.55±0.03) (F=27.27, P<0.001, η_p²=0.42). For the word pairs (to be remembered, TBR), the discrimination of compound words (0.43±0.03) was lower than that of unrelated words (0.59±0.03) (t=-6.05, P<0.001); for the word pairs (to be forgotten, TBF), the discrimination of compound words (0.43±0.03) was still lower than that of unrelated words (0.50±0.04) (t=-2.30, P=0.025). (2) The directed forgetting effect of associative recognition was significant.However, TBR (0.51±0.03) was more discriminative than TBF (0.46±0.03) (F=4.30, P=0.045, η_p²=0.10). But the difference was mainly reflected in the recognition of unrelated words.TBR (0.59±0.03) was more discriminative than TBF (0.50±0.04) (t=3.19, P=0.003). However, there was no significant difference between TBR (0.43±0.03) and TBF (0.43±0.03) in recognition of compound words. Conclusion The unitization encoding stratege can simultaneously promote hit rate and false alarm rate.The directed forgetting effect can be eliminated when unitization level is high enough.