Conceptual Design of the "Private Car" Self-Isolation Ecosystem for the 2019-nCoV Infection.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, confirmed and suspected cases of the disease have been increasing rapidly. The isolation of cases is one of the most effective methods for the control and containment of COVID-19 and has been rapidly popularized. Problems with isolation have gradually emerged, such as the inadequate allocation of isolation resources and the failure to properly resettle many of the suspected cases of the 2019-nCoV infection. In this paper, a self-isolation ecosystem of a rapid-deploying negative-pressurized "private car" is proposed for housing patients with 2019-nCoV infection, which could be lightweight, moderately sized and transparent to enable group supervision and communication. This "private car" isolation method aims to achieve self-isolation of patients and essentially solves the problem of where and how to isolate suspected cases while saving isolation resources and preventing the large-scale transmission of COVID-19.

The effects of LL-37 on virulence factors related to the quorum sensing system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Background: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have shown promise in the treatment of multi-resistant pathogens. It was therefore of interest to analyze the effects of the AMP LL-37 on the regulation of several virulence factors related to the quorum sensing (QS) system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) in vitro. Methods: The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was evaluated by the micro broth dilution method. The expression of QS-related and QS-regulated virulence factor genes was also evaluated. Exotoxin A activity was measured with the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) (Coenzyme I) method; Elastase activity was detected with the elastin-Congo red (ECR) method; Pyocyanin detection was performed using the chloroform extraction method. The effects of LL-37 were assessed by measuring the expression changes of the virulence protein-encoding genes of the strains with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: The MIC of LL-37 against both P. aeruginosa reference strain (ATCC 15692 PAO1) and PA-ΔlasI/rhII was therefore determined to be 256 µg/mL. LL-37 at sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations (sub-MICs) had no significant effects on P. aeruginosa bacterial growth (P>0.05), but significantly downregulated the expression of all 3 virulence factors. Conclusions: Interestingly, this effect appeared to be dose-related. These findings suggest that LL-37 could be a potential candidate for QS inhibition against bacterial infection and may have significant clinical potential in the treatment of P. aeruginosa biofilms.

Diagnostic value of computed tomography-based pulmonary artery to aorta ratio measurement in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with pulmonary hypertension: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: We conducted a meta-analysis to systematic assess the diagnostic value of computed tomography (CT)-based pulmonary artery to aorta (PA:A) ratio measurement in COPD with pulmonary hypertension (COPD-PH). METHODS: Published studies referring to diagnostic accuracy of PA:A ratio for COPD-PH were screened out from PubMed, Embase, Web of science, China National Knowledge databases (CNKI), Wan fang databases, and VIP databases. We used bivariate random-effects model to estimate pooled sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive and negative likelihood ratios (PLR and NLR, respectively), and diagnostic odds ratios (DOR). Summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves and area under the curve (AUC) were also calculated to summarize the aggregate diagnostic performance. RESULTS: Nine eligible studies were included and the pooled SEN was 69% (95% CI: 59 ~ 78), SPE was 85% (95% CI: 77 ~ 90), PLR was 4.5 (95% CI: 2.8 ~ 7.5), and NLR was 0.36 (95% CI: 0.26 ~ 0.51), respectively. DOR reached 13.00 (95% CI: 6.00 ~ 28.00), and value of AUC was 0.84 (95% CI: 0.81 ~ 0.87). Subgroup analysis indicated that when the value of PA:A ratio was equal or greater than one (PA/A ≥ 1), the combined SEN, SPE, AUC, and DOR was 69%, 89%, 0.90, and 19.65, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: PA:A ratio is helpful for appraisal of COPD-PH, and PA/A ≥ 1 possessed prominent diagnostic accuracy.

SERS substrate fabrication for biochemical sensing: towards point-of-care diagnostics.

Rapid technology development and economic growth have brought attention to public health issues, such as food safety and environmental pollution, which creates an ever-increasing demand for fast and portable sensing technologies. Portable surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) capable of various analyte detection with low concentration in a convenient manner shows advantages in sensing technology including enhanced diagnostic precision, improved diagnostic efficiency, reduced diagnostic cost, and alleviation of patient pain, which emerges as a promising candidate for point-of-care testing (POCT). SERS detection technology based on different nanostructures made of noble metal-based nanomaterials can increase the sensitivity of Raman scattering by 6-8 orders of magnitude, making Raman based trace detection possible, and greatly promote the application scenarios of portable Raman spectrometers. In this perspective, we provide an overview of fundamental knowledge about the SERS mechanism including chemical and electromagnetic field enhancement mechanisms, the design and fabrication of SERS substrates based on materials, progress of using SERS for POCT in biochemical sensing and its clinical applications. Furthermore, we present the prospective of developing new nanomaterials with different functionalities for advanced SERS substrates, as well as the future advancement of biomedical sensing and clinical potential of SERS technology.

Simultaneous Detection of Inflammatory Biomarkers by SERS Nanotag-Based Lateral Flow Assay with Portable Cloud Raman Spectrometer.

Inflammatory biomarkers are closely related to infectious diseases. However, traditional clinical tests of laboratory inspection are unable to achieve rapid and accurate detection of these biomarkers on-site due to shortcomings such as complex experimental operation, expensive equipment, and long test time. Herein, we proposed a lateral flow assay (LFA) strip based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanotags (SERS-LFA strips) for the simultaneous and quantitative detection of dual infection biomarkers, serum amyloid A (SAA) and C-reactive protein (CRP), respectively. In practice, mesoporous silica (mSiO2)-coated Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) were used as the SERS substrate. Mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA) was embedded in the internal gap between Au NPs and the mSiO2 shell to prepare AuMBA@mSiO2 NPs, onto which SAA and CRP antibodies were modified to prepare two AuMBA@mSiO2 SERS nanotags. The Raman intensities of the test and control lines were simultaneously identified for the qualitative detection of SAA and CRP, with limits of detection (LODs) as low as 0.1 and 0.05 ng/mL for SAA and CRP, respectively. Finally, aiming at point-of-care testing (POCT) applications, we used a smartphone-based portable Raman spectrometer to quantitatively analyze the SERS-LFA strips. The Raman signal could still be accurately detected when the concentration of SAA and CRP was 10 ng/mL, which is lower than the LOD required in clinical practice for most diseases. Therefore, taking into account its simple operation and short analysis time, by using a portable Raman spectrometer which can be equipped with a 5G cloud-based healthcare management system, the current strategy based on SERS-LFA provides the potential for the quick and on-site diagnosis of infectious diseases such as sepsis, which is of great significance for medical guidance on the treatment of widely spread infection-related diseases in remote areas that lack well-developed medical resources.

Effects of continuous aerobic exercise on lung function and quality of life with asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Despite the obvious benefits of aerobic exercise for asthmatic patients, controversies persist. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of continuous aerobic exercise on lung function and quality of life of asthmatic patients. METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases up to May 2019 and included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of asthmatic patients intervened with whole body continuous aerobic exercise (moderate intensity, at least 20 minutes and two times a week, over a minimum period of four weeks), in which the endpoint measures were lung function and asthma-related quality of life. A fixed-effects model (I2≤50%) or random-effects model (I2>50%) was applied to calculate the pooled effects according to the I2-and Chi-squared (χ2) test, funnel plots were quantified to present publication bias, and a P value <0.05 was statistically significant. RESULTS: Eventually, 22 trials conformed to the selection criteria. In the aerobic exercise group, the forced expiratory volume improved in one second (FEV1) (I2=10.2%, WMD: 0.12, P=0.011), peak expiratory flow (PEF) (I2=87.3%, WMD: 0.66, P=0.002), forced vital capacity (FVC) (I2=0.0%, WMD: 0.18, P<0.001), FVC/predict (I2=3.9%, WMD: 4.3, P=0.014), forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of vital capacity (FEF25-75%) (I2=0.0%, WMD: 9.6, P=0.005), Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) (I2=0.0%, WMD: 0.20, P=0.002), and Pediatric Asthma Quality of life Questionnaire (PAQLQ) (I2=72.1%, WMD: 0.81, P<0.001), respectively, while no statistical significance existed in FEV1%predict (I2=36.0%, WMD: 0.68, P=0.312) and FEV1/FVC ratio (I2=0.0%, WMD: 0.27, P=0.443) compared with the control group. When the exercise mode was taken into account, we observed significant improvement in FEV1, PEF, and FVC in the swimming (P<0.05) or indoor treadmill (P<0.05) training group. CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis proved that regular continuous aerobic exercise benefits asthma patients on FEV1, PEF, FVC, FVC%pred, FEF25-75%, and quality of life, and was well tolerated, while there were no improvements in FEV1%pred and FEV1/FVC%. As such, swimming and treadmill training may be appropriate options.