A web-based survey of educational opportunities of medical professionals based on changes in conference design during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, understanding how to hold future online academic conferences effectively is imperative. We assessed the impact of COVID-19 on academic conferences, including facilities and settings for attendance, participation status, cost burden, and preferences for future styles of holding conferences, through a web-based questionnaire survey of 2,739 Japanese medical professionals, from December 2020 to February 2021. Of the participants, 28% preferred web conferences, 60% preferred a mix of web and on-site conferences, and 12% preferred on-site conferences. Additionally, 27% of the presenters stopped presenting new findings at web conferences. The proportion of participants who audio-recorded or filmed the sessions, despite prohibition, was six times higher at web than face-to-face conferences. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the percentage of participants attending general presentations decreased from 91 to 51%. While web conferencing offers advantages, these are offset by a decrease in presentations pertaining to novel findings and data. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-022-11032-5.

Chemical Hybridization of Vizantin and Lipid A to Generate a Novel LPS Antagonist.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) antagonists have attracted considerable interest as promising candidates for the treatment of severe sepsis triggered by Gram-negative bacteria. In this article, we describe the development of a novel LPS antagonist based on chemical hybridization of vizantin and the hydrophobic molecular unit of LPS (lipid A). Vizantin, 6,6'-bis-O-(3-nonyldodecanoyl)-α,α'-trehalose, was designed as an immunostimulator from a structure-activity relationship (SAR) study with trehalose 6,6'-dicorynomycolate (TDCM). Our recent study indicated that vizantin displays adjuvant activity by specifically binding to the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/MD2 protein complex. Because lipid A unit (or LPS) is also known to trigger an inflammatory response via the same TLR4/MD2 complex as vizantin, we designed a hybrid compound of vizantin and lipid A with the aim of developing a novel biofunctional glycolipid. Focusing on the antagonism to Escherichia coli LPS in an in vitro model with human macrophages (THP-1 cells), we identified a potent LPS antagonist among the synthesized hybrid compounds. The novel LPS antagonist effectively inhibited LPS-induced release of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) in a dose-dependent manner with an IC50 value of 3.8 nM, making it a candidate for the treatment drug of Gram-negative sepsis and/or septic shock.