Analysis of the Risk Factors for Plastic Bronchitis in Children with Severe Adenovirus Pneumonia: A Retrospective Study.

Purpose: Plastic bronchitis (PB), a rare complication of respiratory infection characterized by the formation of casts in the tracheobronchial tree, can lead to airway obstruction and severe condition. Adenovirus is one of the common pathogens of PB caused by infection. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical features and risk factors for PB in children with severe adenovirus pneumonia. Methods: A retrospective study of children with severe adenovirus pneumonia with bronchoscopy results at Guangzhou Women and Children's Hospital between January 2018 and January 2020 was performed. Based on bronchoscopy, we divided children with severe adenovirus pneumonia into two groups: PB and non-PB. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent risk factors for PB in patients with severe adenovirus pneumonia after univariate analysis. Results: Our study examined 156 patients with severe adenovirus pneumonia with bronchoscopy results in hospital. Among them, 18 developed PB and 138 did not. On multivariate analysis, the independent risk factors of PB in children with severe adenovirus pneumonia were history of allergies (OR 10.147, 95% CI 1.727-59.612; P=0.010), diminished breath sounds (OR 12.856, 95% CI 3.259-50.713; P=0.001), and increased proportion of neutrophils (>70%; OR 8.074, 95% CI 1.991-32.735; P=0.003). Conclusion: Children with severe adenovirus pneumonia with a history of allergies, diminished breath sounds, and increased the proportion of neutrophils >70% may show higher risk of PB.

TAK-242 protects against oxygen-glucose deprivation and reoxygenation-induced injury in brain microvascular endothelial cells and alters the expression pattern of lncRNAs.

Background: Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) is a technique used during the surgical treatment of aneurysms of the thoracic aorta in adult patients, and complex congenital heart disease in neonates. And brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) are essential components of the cerebrovascular network and participate in maintaining the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and brain function. In our previous study, we found that oxygen-glucose deprivation and reoxygenation (OGD/R) activated Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling in BMECs, and induced pyroptosis and inflammation. In this study, we further investigated the potential mechanism of ethyl(6R)-6-[N-(2-Chloro-4-fluorophenyl) sulfamoyl] cyclohex-1-ene-1-carboxylate (TAK-242) on BMECs under OGD/R, as in patients with sepsis, the TAK-242 was tested in clinical trials. Methods: To confirm the function of TAK-242 on BMECs under OGD/R, cell viability, inflammatory factors, inflammation-associated pyroptosis, and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling were determined using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and western blotting, respectively. To investigate the lncRNAs associated with TLR4 during OGD/R, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) expression patterns were profiled with RNA deep sequencing. Moreover, to confirm whether lncRNA-encoded short peptides, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used. Results: Relative control group, OGD/R inhibited the cell viability, increased the section of inflammatory factors secretion, including IL-1ß, IL-6, and TNF-α, and promoted the pathways of TLR4/NLRP3/Caspase-1 and TLR4/NF-κB. However, TAK-242 + OGD/R group promoted OGD/R cell viability, decreased OGD/R-induced inflammatory factors secretion, and inhibited the pathways of TLR4/NLRP3/Caspase-1 and TLR4/NF-κB. In addition, AABR07000411.1, AABR070006957.1, and AABR070008256.1 were decreased in OGD/R cells compared with controls, but TAK-242 restored their expression under OGD/R condition. AABR07000473.1, AC130862.4, and LOC10254972.6 were induced by OGD/R, but were suppressed in TAK-242 + OGD/R cells compared with OGD/R. Moreover, AABR07049961.1, AC127076.2, AABR07066020.1, and AABR07025303.1-encoded short peptides were dysregulated in OGD/R cells, and TAK-242 attenuated the dysregulation of AABR07049961.1, AC127076.2, and AABR07066020.1-encoded short peptides. Conclusions: TAK-242 alters the expression pattern of lncRNAs in OGD/R cells, and differently expressed lncRNAs may exert a protective effect against OGD/R injury through a mechanism of competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) and encoding short peptides. These findings maybe provide a new theory basis for the treatment of DHCA.

Analysis of mortality risk factors in children with severe adenovirus pneumonia: A single-center retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Human adenovirus (HAdV) is one of the most common viruses causing respiratory infections among young children. Most adenovirus infections are mild and self-limited; however, these infections may occasionally cause severe pneumonia and even death. The mortality risk factors for severe adenovirus pneumonia are not completely clear. This study aimed to evaluate the mortality risk factors in children with severe adenovirus pneumonia. METHODS: A retrospective study of children with severe adenovirus pneumonia hospitalized in Guangzhou Women and Children's Hospital between July 2018 and January 2020 was performed. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent mortality risk factors for severe adenovirus pneumonia after univariate analysis. RESULTS: Our study included 189 patients (123 males and 66 females). Among them, 13 patients did not survive with a mortality of 6.88%. In multivariate analysis, the independent mortality risk factors in children with severe adenovirus pneumonia were age less than 1 year (OR = 18.513, 95% CI: 2.157-158.883, p = 0.008), hypoxia (OR = 62.335, 95% CI: 2.385-1629.433, p = 0.013), and thrombocytopenia (platelet <100∗10ˆ9/L) (OR = 13.324, 95% CI: 1.232-144.075, p = 0.033). CONCLUSIONS: In children with severe adenovirus pneumonia who are younger than one year old, hypoxia and platelet counts less than 100∗10ˆ9/L represent mortality risk factors.

Influence of the timing of bronchoscopic alveolar lavage on children with adenovirus pneumonia: a comparative study.

BACKGROUND: Adenovirus pneumonia is prone to severe clinical and imaging manifestations in children. Bronchoscopic alveolar lavage (BAL) is an important adjunctive therapy for patients with severe imaging findings. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of the timing on the efficacy of bronchoalveolar lavage in children with adenovirus pneumonia. METHODS: This study included 134 patients with adenovirus pneumonia treated with BAL at Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center from January 2019 to January 2020.They were classified into the severe and mild groups. Based on the timing of BAL, each group was divided into the early BAL layer (received BAL within 1-9 days of the illness course) and the late BAL layer (received BAL within 10-14 days of the illness course). The clinical data of patients with different BAL timings were analyzed in two groups. RESULTS: Among the 134 patients, 70 were categorized into the mild group and 64 were categorized into the severe group. Of the 134 patients, 42 patients received BAL early (mild group: n = 21 and severe group: n = 21) and 92 patients received BAL later (mild group: n = 49 and severe group: n = 43). In the mild group, the fever and hospital duration were shorter in patients who received BAL early than in those who received BAL later (p < 0.05). However, in the severe group, there were no statistically significant differences in the fever and hospital duration between patients who received BAL early and those who received BAL later. However, the need for mechanical ventilation and the incidence of BAL complications, such as new need for oxygen, were higher in patients who received BAL early than in those who received BAL later in the severe group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: For mild adenovirus pneumonia, early BAL may shorten the fever and hospital duration. However, early BAL in severe cases might not shorten the course of the disease or improve prognosis and may even increase the risks of mechanical ventilation and BAL complications.

MicroRNA-20b suppresses the expression of ZFP-148 in viral myocarditis.

Viral myocarditis is a common cardiovascular disease, which seriously endangers the health of people and even leads to sudden unexpected death. MicroRNAs play very important roles in various physical and pathological processes including cardiogenesis and heart diseases. In recent years, miR-20b has been implicated in various diseases such as breast cancer, gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, cardiovascular diseases. However, the function of miR-20b in the pathological progress of viral myocarditis has not been reported. In this study, we found that miR-20b was up-regulated in mouse heart tissues post Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) infection. Bioinformatics analysis identified ZFP-148, a transcription factor that plays essential roles in the regulation of virus replication, is one of the predicted targets of miR-20b. MiR-20b expression was found to be up-regulated and ZFP-148 protein level was markedly repressed during viral myocarditis. Further studies demonstrated that miR-20b directly binds to the 3'-UTR of ZFP-148 and suppresses its translation. Moreover, aberrant expression of miR-20b promoted the expression of anti-apoptosis proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, suggesting that altered gene expression might promote cardiomyocytes survival in viral myocarditis. Our findings indicated that miR-20b might be a potential therapeutic target for CVB3-induced viral myocarditis and a useful marker for the diagnosis of viral myocarditis.

[Dominant species population structure and dynamics of natural secondary forest in Mulan-weichang, China]. / æœ¨å °å›´åœºå¤©ç„¶æ¬¡ç”Ÿæž—ä¼˜åŠ¿ç§ç¾¤çš„ç»“æž„ä¸ŽåŠ¨æ€.

To explicate the structure and dynamics of dominant tree populations of the natural se-condary forest in Mulanweichang, the canopy stratum composition, diameter class structure, static life table, survival curve, mortality curve, survival function and the time series prediction were studied. The results showed that there were 9 populations in canopy stratum, with Acer mono, Quercus mongolica, Tilia mandshurica and Betula platyphylla as the dominant populations. The survival curve of A. mono and T. mandshurica populations approximately belonged to Deevey-2 type, while that of Q. mongolica population and B. platyphylla population belonged to Deevey-3 type and Deevey-2 type, respectively. With the increase of diameter class, the mortality rate curves and the vanishing rate curves of all tree populations changed similarly. The maximum mortality rate and va-nishing rate of A. mono, Q. mongolica and T. mandshurica populations appeared in 4,1and1diameter class, respectively. B. platyphylla changed little over all diameter classes. The 4 survival functions showed that A. mono, Q. mongolica and T. mandshurica populations declined at early stage, but became relatively stable at intermediate and late stages. The B. platyphylla population had no obvious change. The time series prediction showed that the number of small-sized (1-2) individuals of B. platyphylla decreased gradually and tended to decline, while the populations of A. mono, Q. mongolica and T. mandshurica were fairly stable. We suspected that A. mono, Q. mongo-lica and T. mandshurica would finally dominate within this natural secondary forest.

Glucocorticoid treatment inhibits intracerebral hemorrhage­induced inflammation by targeting the microRNA­155/SOCS­1 signaling pathway.

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) results in inflammation, and glucocorticoids have been proven to be effective inhibitors of ICH­induced inflammation. However, the precise underlying mechanisms of ICH­induced inflammation and glucocorticoid function remain largely undefined. Using a mouse ICH model, the present study demonstrated that the short non­coding RNA molecule microRNA­155 (miR­155) is involved in the inflammatory process initiated by ICH in mice. Increased mRNA expression levels of miR­155, as well as the pro­inflammatory cytokines interferon­ß (IFN­ß), tumor necrosis factor­α (TNF­α) and interleukin­6 (IL­6), were observed in vivo following ICH. By contrast, the expression level of suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS­1) protein was reduced in the ICH group compared with control mice. Similar results were observed in vitro using astrocytes, the primary effector cells in ICH. Compared with wild type astrocytes, astrocytes overexpressing miR­155 exhibited significant inhibition of SOCS­1 protein expression levels. These results suggest that miR­155 contributes to the development of ICH­induced inflammation in mice by downregulating SOCS­1 protein expression levels and promoting pro­inflammatory cytokine (IFN­ß, TNF­α and IL­6) production. Expression levels of miR­155 and pro­inflammatory cytokines in the ICH group were significantly decreased following dexamethasone administration. This suggests that glucocorticoids attenuate ICH­induced inflammation by targeting the miR­155/SOCS­1 signaling pathway in mice. In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that the miR­155/SOCS­1 signaling pathway is required for ICH­induced inflammation, and glucocorticoids inhibit this process by targeting the miR­155/SOCS­1 signaling pathway.

[Maternal and perinatal prognosis affected by the time of termination of pregnancy in patients with hemolysis elevated liver enzymes and low platelet syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the optimal time of termination of pregnancy for patients with hemolysis elevated liver enzymes and low platelet (HELLP) syndrome. METHODS: 57 patients with HELLP syndrome admitted from October 1992 to September 2001 were enrolled. According to the length from the time diagnoses confirmed to the time of delivery, patients were divided into 3 groups; group I, within 24 hours, group II, 24 to 48 hours and group III, over 48 hours. Complications, maternal and perinatal mortality were analyzed retrospectively between different groups. RESULTS: Maternal and perinatal mortality were 7% and 11% in group I, 16% and 21% in group II, 64% and 73% in group III with significant differences between group III and group I or group III and group II (P < 0.05). Incidence of DIC, ARF and neonatal asphyxia was 11%, 4% and 19% in group I compared with 55%, 36% and 64% in group III, significantly higher in group III than those in group I (P < 0.05). Incidence of ARF in maternal was 4% in group I and 37% in group II with significant difference (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Pregnancy should be terminated as soon as possible once diagnosis of HELLP is confirmed with optimal time within 48 hours.

[Advances in the research on targeted preparations of traditional Chinese medicine and natural drugs].

OBJECTIVE: Targeting dosage form is a kind of targeting drug delivery system which can be used to lock drugs aroud the target organs, tissues, cells and obtain more effective treatment for dose concentration, thus reducing the side-effects of such drugs while increasing their effeciveness. Targeting dosage form is the fourth-generation drug dosage form and it is ideal system for administration because it release the theraping drugs in the targeting-site. Particular emphasis was placed on liposome due to it was used as a drug carrier. Meanwhile, the highlights of research were on magnetic and enzyme targeting preparations. In addition, oral colon targeting drug delivery system, drugs were carried to ileocecum and release to get local and whole effect, is also an important part of targeting dosage form. The study on traditional chinese medicine (TCM) targeting dosage form is still at beginning stage in China. At present, most of study on TCM and natural products targeting drugs were focus on simple effective component and merely on TCM effective positions in relative with the difficult for determing their quality standard and procedure of preparing. It is the kernel item for TCM modernization and the key for TCM internationalization to develop new dosage form and new technology of TCM. There is a need in collaboration with multiple discipline. It will be a important research subject to develop TCM targeting preparation in the near future. TCM targeting dosage form can be classified into liposome, nanoparticles, multiple emulsion etc according to the difference of carrier and oral, rectal, colonic, nasal, dermal, ocular system on a basis of administration and so on. This paper made a summary on TCM and natural products targeting dosage form according to different targeting positions and introduce the procedure of preparing compared with the effect in vivo and manifest that TCM and natural products targeting dosage form will have good exploit prospect.