In recent years, with the development of corneal cross-linking technology, corneal cross-linking therapy combined with adopting riboflavin and ultraviolet has been widely used in several corneal disorders, not only for keratoconus, but also for other corneal diseases, including infectious keratitis,chemical corneal injury, bullous keratopathy, and refractive surgery. Corneal cross-linking is a non-invasive procedure with the virtue of minor damage, rapid rehabilitation, convenient operation, and high safety. This review aims to investigate the mechanism of corneal cross-linking therapy, emphasizing the new progress of its efficacy and safety in the application of treating non-expanding corneal diseases, including infectious keratitis, chemical burns, bullous keratopathy and marginal degeneration. Corneal cross-linking therapy may be potentially helpful in the treatment of non-expanding corneal diseases.

Diabetic retinopathy(DR)is considered to be a chronic medium-and low-grade inflammatory disease(mi-croinflammation).Inflammation runs through the entire process of DR,manifesting as an increase in ocular and systemic inflammation biomarkers.In the eyes of DR patients,there is an increase in pro-inflammatory mediators,such as interleu-kin(IL)-1 β,IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α,as well as activated and increased number of inflammatory cells,such as ac-tivated microglia,Müller cells in the retina,and infiltration of mononuclear macrophage.In addition,immunocytes are also involved in the pathogenesis of DR,such as the involvement of circulating T cells in leukostasis.These indicate that chronic inflammation is an inducing factor of DR,with multiple inflammation-related factors participating and influencing each other,leading to the destruction of the blood-retinal barrier and neuronal injury and exacerbating the development of DR.There-fore,personalized anti-inflammatory therapy is of great significance in the treatment of DR.

Objective To explore the clinical effect of personalized pars plana vitrectomy(PPV)for proliferative di-abetic retinopathy(PDR).Methods In this retrospective case study,76 patients(86 eyes)diagnosed with PDR and re-ceiving PPV in the Department of Ophthalmology of Songjiang Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine,from October 2019 to November 2022,were divided into the observation group(40 patients,46 eyes)and the control group(36 patients,40 eyes).Patients in the obseration group were treated with personalized PPV,while patients in the control group were treated with conventional PPV,After treatment,all patients were followed up for 12 months.The operation time,intraoperative use of heavy water and silicone oil,incidence of iatrogenic retinal tears and heavy water resi-dues,proportion of scleral buckling,preoperative and postoperative best corrected visual acuity(BCVA)and intraocular pressure(IOP),retinal reattachment rate at 12 months after surgery,and the incidence of post-vitrectomy vitreous hemor-rhage(PVH),diabetic macular edema(DME)and neovascular glaucoma(NVG)were compared between the two groups.Results The operation time of patients in the observation group was shorter than that in the control group(P＜0.05).Intraoperative use of heavy water and silicone oil in the observation group was lower than that in the control group(both P＜0.05).The incidence of iatrogenic retinal tears and heavy water residues and the proportion of scleral buckling showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups(all P＞0.05).There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in BCVA preoperatively,3,6 and 12 months postoperatively(all P＞0.05).BCVA in the observa-tion group was better than that in the control group at 1 day,1 week and 1 month after surgery(all P＜0.05).Compared with the preoperative value,BCVA increased in the observation group at 1 day,1 week,1 month,3 months,6 months,and 12 months after surgery(all P＜0.05);in the control group,BCVA increased slightly at 1 day and 1 week(both P＞0.05)and then increased significantly at 1 month,3 months,6 months,and 12 months after surgery(all P＜0.05).The two groups showed no statistically significant difference in IOP at 1 day,1 week,1 month,3 months,6 months,and 12 months postoperatively(all P＞0.05).There was no statistically significant difference in the retinal reattachment rate and the inci-dence of complications such as PVH,DME,and NVG between the two groups at 12 months postoperatively(all P＞0.05).Conclusion Personalized PPV can shorten the operation time,reduce the intraoperative use of heavy water and silicone oil,enhance the efficiency of the operation,and rapidly improve the visual acuity of PDR patients.

Diabetic retinopathy(DR)is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes and has become one of the leading causes of blindness and visual impairment in diabetes patients.The pathogenesis of DR is multifaceted,involving inflammation,oxidative stress,neurovascular abnormalities,and other factors that present potential targets for disease management interventions.Currently,anti-vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)drugs serve as the primary treatment for advanced stages of DR when irreversible neurovascular damage and visual impairment have occurred.Additionally,some patients show poor or no response to anti-VEGF treatment.There is a lack of early intervention options for the initial phases of the disease.Therefore,there is an urgent need to develop novel local or systemic therapies based on the underlying mechanisms of DR to enable early prevention and treatment with the aim of preserving patients' vision.Medications targeting various pathways including anti-inflammatory agents(corticosteroids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs),neurotrophic and neuroprotective drugs,drugs modulating biochemical pathways,antioxidant phytochemicals,and gene therapy can complement each other in terms of therapeutic effects to benefit a larger number of individuals affected by DR.This article reviews previous research reports on the pathogenesis,drug treatment methods,and potential therapeutic targets associated with DR in order to provide guidance for clinical practice.

Objective:To assess the value of nalbuphine intravenously injected before epidural labor analgesia in inhibiting uterine contraction pain in primiparae.Methods:A total of 140 expectant primiparae who were suitable and willing to receive epidural labor analgesia with a singleton fetus in vertex presentation, aged 20-40 yr, of American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status classification Ⅰ-Ⅱ, with their cervical dilation of 2-3 cm, were divided into nalbuphine group (N group) and routine control group (C group), with 70 cases in each group.Group N received intravenous injection of nalbuphine 0.1 mg/kg (in normal saline 5 ml) at 10 min before epidural puncture, while group C received intravenous injection of the equal volume of normal saline at 10 min before epidural puncture.The epidural puncture-related items including the intensity of pain (Numeric Rating Scale [NRS] scores) and degree of sedation-agitation (Riker sedation agitation scores) during uterine contraction, duration of epidural procedure, parturients′ satisfaction with epidural puncture, successful epidural catheterization at first attempt and complications (nerve paraesthesia and inadvertent intravascular punctures) were recorded.Results:Compared with group C, the NRS scores and Riker scores for uterine contraction pain were significantly decreased during epidural procedure ( P<0.05), with NRS score <6 and Riker sedation agitation scores of 4, the duration of epidural puncture was shortened, the success rate of epidural puncture at first attempt was increased(51%/70%), and the incidence of nerve paraesthesia and inadvertent intravascular puncture was decreased(17%/6%, 14%/4%), and the parturients′ satisfaction with epidural puncture was increased in group N ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Nalbuphine 0.1 mg/kg intravenously injected before epidural labor analgesia can safely and effectively reduce uterine contraction pain without limb agitation, which is helpful in implementating epidural puncture in primiparae.

The Genome Sequence Archive (GSA) is a data repository for archiving raw sequence data, which provides data storage and sharing services for worldwide scientific communities. Considering explosive data growth with diverse data types, here we present the GSA family by expanding into a set of resources for raw data archive with different purposes, namely, GSA (https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/gsa/), GSA for Human (GSA-Human, https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/gsa-human/), and Open Archive for Miscellaneous Data (OMIX, https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/omix/). Compared with the 2017 version, GSA has been significantly updated in data model, online functionalities, and web interfaces. GSA-Human, as a new partner of GSA, is a data repository specialized in human genetics-related data with controlled access and security. OMIX, as a critical complement to the two resources mentioned above, is an open archive for miscellaneous data. Together, all these resources form a family of resources dedicated to archiving explosive data with diverse types, accepting data submissions from all over the world, and providing free open access to all publicly available data in support of worldwide research activities.

The Genome Warehouse (GWH) is a public repository housing genome assembly data for a wide range of species and delivering a series of web services for genome data submission, storage, release, and sharing. As one of the core resources in the National Genomics Data Center (NGDC), part of the China National Center for Bioinformation (CNCB;https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn), GWH accepts both full and partial (chloroplast, mitochondrion, and plasmid) genome sequences with different assembly levels, as well as an update of existing genome assemblies. For each assembly, GWH collects detailed genome-related metadata of biological project, biological sample, and genome assembly, in addition to genome sequence and annotation. To archive high-quality genome sequences and annotations, GWH is equipped with a uniform and standardized procedure for quality control. Besides basic browse and search functionalities, all released genome sequences and annotations can be visualized with JBrowse. By May 21, 2021, GWH has received 19,124 direct submissions covering a diversity of 1108 species and has released 8772 of them. Collectively, GWH serves as an important resource for genome-scale data management and provides free and publicly accessible data to support research activities throughout the world. GWH is publicly accessible at https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/gwh.

COVID-19 and its causative pathogen SARS-CoV-2 have rushed the world into a stag-gering pandemic in a few months, and a global fight against both has been intensifying. Here, we describe an analysis procedure where genome composition and its variables are related, through the genetic code to molecular mechanisms, based on understanding of RNA replication and its feed-back loop from mutation to viral proteome sequence fraternity including effective sites on the replicase-transcriptase complex. Our analysis starts with primary sequence information, identity-based phylogeny based on 22,051 SARS-CoV-2 sequences, and evaluation of sequence variation patterns as mutation spectra and its 12 permutations among organized clades. All are tailored to two key mechanisms: strand-biased and function-associated mutations. Our findings are listed as follows: 1) The most dominant mutation is C-to-U permutation, whose abundant second-codon-position counts alter amino acid composition toward higher molecular weight and lower hydropho-bicity, albeit assumed most slightly deleterious. 2) The second abundance group includes three negative-strand mutations (U-to-C, A-to-G, and G-to-A) and a positive-strand mutation (G-to-U) due to DNA repair mechanisms after cellular abasic events. 3) A clade-associated biased muta-tion trend is found attributable to elevated level of negative-sense strand synthesis. 4) Within-clade permutation variation is very informative for associating non-synonymous mutations and viral pro-teome changes. These findings demand a platform where emerging mutations are mapped onto mostly subtle but fast-adjusting viral proteomes and transcriptomes, to provide biological and clinical information after logical convergence for effective pharmaceutical and diagnostic applica-tions. Such actions are in desperate need, especially in the middle of the War against COVID-19.

On January 22, 2020, China National Center for Bioinformation (CNCB) released the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Resource (2019nCoVR), an open-access information resource for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). 2019nCoVR features a comprehensive integra-tion of sequence and clinical information for all publicly available SARS-CoV-2 isolates, which are manually curated with value-added annotations and quality evaluated by an automated in-house pipeline. Of particular note, 2019nCoVR offers systematic analyses to generate a dynamic landscape of SARS-CoV-2 genomic variations at a global scale. It provides all identified variants and their detailed statistics for each virus isolate, and congregates the quality score, functional annotation,and population frequency for each variant. Spatiotemporal change for each variant can be visualized and historical viral haplotype network maps for the course of the outbreak are also generated based on all complete and high-quality genomes available. Moreover, 2019nCoVR provides a full collection of SARS-CoV-2 relevant literature on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), including published papers from PubMed as well as preprints from services such as bioRxiv and medRxiv through Europe PMC. Furthermore, by linking with relevant databases in CNCB, 2019nCoVR offers data submission services for raw sequence reads and assembled genomes, and data sharing with NCBI. Collectively, SARS-CoV-2 is updated daily to collect the latest information on genome sequences, variants, hap-lotypes, and literature for a timely reflection, making 2019nCoVR a valuable resource for the global research community. 2019nCoVR is accessible at https://bigd.big.ac.cn/ncov/.