Type 2 diabetes mellitus related sarcopenia: a type of muscle loss distinct from sarcopenia and disuse muscle atrophy.

Muscle loss is a significant health concern, particularly with the increasing trend of population aging, and sarcopenia has emerged as a common pathological process of muscle loss in the elderly. Currently, there has been significant progress in the research on sarcopenia, including in-depth analysis of the mechanisms underlying sarcopenia caused by aging and the development of corresponding diagnostic criteria, forming a relatively complete system. However, as research on sarcopenia progresses, the concept of secondary sarcopenia has also been proposed. Due to the incomplete understanding of muscle loss caused by chronic diseases, there are various limitations in epidemiological, basic, and clinical research. As a result, a comprehensive concept and diagnostic system have not yet been established, which greatly hinders the prevention and treatment of the disease. This review focuses on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM)-related sarcopenia, comparing its similarities and differences with sarcopenia and disuse muscle atrophy. The review show significant differences between the three muscle-related issues in terms of pathological changes, epidemiology and clinical manifestations, etiology, and preventive and therapeutic strategies. Unlike sarcopenia, T2DM-related sarcopenia is characterized by a reduction in type I fibers, and it differs from disuse muscle atrophy as well. The mechanism involving insulin resistance, inflammatory status, and oxidative stress remains unclear. Therefore, future research should further explore the etiology, disease progression, and prognosis of T2DM-related sarcopenia, and develop targeted diagnostic criteria and effective preventive and therapeutic strategies to better address the muscle-related issues faced by T2DM patients and improve their quality of life and overall health.

Association between skeletal muscle and left ventricular mass in patients with hyperthyroidism.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationship between skeletal muscle and left ventricular mass (LVM) in patients with hyperthyroidism, providing theoretical and data-based foundations for further research on the interaction between secondary muscle atrophy and cardiac remodeling. Methods: A retrospective data collection was conducted, including 136 patients with hyperthyroidism (Study group) and 50 healthy participants (control group). The Study group was further divided into Group A (high LVM) and Group B (low LVM) based on LVM size. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to examine the correlation between skeletal muscle and LVM, with model evaluation. Based on the results, further nonlinear regression analysis was conducted to explore the detailed relationship between skeletal muscle and LVM. Results: Compared to the control group, the Study group exhibited significantly lower LVM, skeletal muscle mass index (SMI), and skeletal muscle mass (SMM) (P<0.05). Within the subgroups, Group A had significantly higher SMI, SMM, and hand grip strength compared to Group B (P<0.05). The results of the multiple linear regression showed a certain correlation between SMI (ß=0.60, P=0.042, 95% CI=0.02~1.17) and hand grip strength (ß=0.34, P=0.045, 95% CI=0.01~0.67) with LVM. However, the residuals of the multiple regression did not follow a normal distribution (K-S=2.50, P<0.01). Further results from a generalized linear model and structural equation modeling regression also demonstrated a correlation between SMI (ß=0.60, P=0.040, 95% CI=0.03~1.17) (ß=0.60, P=0.042, 95% CI=0.02~1.17) and hand grip strength (ß=0.34, P=0.043, 95% CI=0.01~0.67) (ß=0.34, P=0.045, 95% CI=0.01~0.67) with LVM. Conclusion: Patients with hyperthyroidism may exhibit simultaneous decreases in LVM, SMM, and SMI. The LVM in patients is correlated with SMM and hand grip strength, highlighting the need for further exploration of the causal relationship and underlying mechanisms. These findings provide a basis for the prevention and treatment of secondary sarcopenia and cardiac pathology in patients with hyperthyroidism.

Phase Interrogation Sensor Based on All-Dielectric BIC Metasurface.

The low performance of sensors based on an all-dielectric metasurface limits their application compared to metallic counterparts. Here, for the first time, an all-dielectric BIC (bound states in the continuum) metasurface is employed for highly sensitive phase interrogation refractive index sensing. The proposed sensor is well analyzed, fabricated, and characterized. Experimentally, a high-performance BIC-based microfluidic sensing chip with a Q factor of 1200 is achieved by introducing symmetry breaking. A refractive index sensor with high figure of merit of 418 RIU-1 is demonstrated, which is beneficial to the phase interrogation. Notably, we measure a record phase interrogation sensitivity of 2.7 × 104 deg/RIU to the refractive index, thus enabling the all-dielectric BIC to rival the refractive index detection capabilities of metal-based sensors such as surface plasmon resonance. This scheme establishes a pivotal role of the all-dielectric metasurface in the field of ultrahigh sensitivity sensors and opens possibilities for trace detection in biochemical analysis and environment monitoring.

Polished hollow core Bragg fiber sensor for simultaneous measurement of cortisol concentration and temperature.

Disturbance of surrounding temperature inevitably affects the accuracy of fiber biosensors. To that end, we propose a compact label-free optofluidic sensor based on a polished hollow core Bragg fiber (HCBF) that can simultaneously measure the cortisol concentration and surrounding temperature in real-time. The sensor is comprised of fusion splicing single mode fiber (SMF), multimode fiber (MMF) and HCBF. HCBF is side polished to remove part of the cladding that the suspended inner surface of the fiber can contact the external environment. After the incident light passes through the MMF from the SMF, it enters the hollow area, high refractive index (RI) layers, respectively, where the anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) guiding mechanism and Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) are simultaneously excited. Taking advantage of the high RI layers of HCBF, compared to the fiber with uniform cladding, the light can be more confined in the cladding and more sensitive to inner surface medium. The inner surface of sensor is immobilized with cortisol aptamer for the sake of achieving high sensitivity and specific sensing of cortisol with the limit of detection (LOD) to be 4.303 pM. The proposed sensor has a compact structure, enables temperature compensation, and can be fabricated at low cost making it highly suitable for in-situ monitoring and high-precision sensing of cortisol and other biological analytes.

Colorimetric sensor arrays for antioxidant recognition based on Co3O4 dual-enzyme activities.

Antioxidants are considered as essential compounds for monitoring human health. In this work, a colorimetric sensor array was developed using oxidase-like (OXD) and peroxidase-like (POD) activities of Co3O4 nanoflowers as sensing elements, together with a substrate, 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine dihydrochloride (TMB), as a signal reader to effectively identify different antioxidants. In the presence of Co3O4, colorless TMB can be oxidized into blue oxTMB to different degrees in the presence and absence of H2O2. Interestingly, after the addition of antioxidants, the sensor array showed cross-reactions, and different changes in color and absorbance were observed, as TMB and antioxidants competed for binding. Different colorimetric responses were obtained on the sensor array and identified by linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The LDA result indicated that the sensor array can be used to distinguish 4 antioxidants, namely, dopamine (DA), glutathione (GSH), ascorbic acid (AA), and cysteine (Cys) at seven different concentrations, namely, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 200, and 250 nM. Different concentrations of antioxidants and proportions of mixed antioxidants were determined. This demonstrates the potential application of sensor arrays in diagnosis and food monitoring.

Enhanced Performance of Porphyrin-Modified CuO-Co3O4 Heterojunction as a Photoelectrocatalyst for Methanol Oxidation.

It is desirable to improve the methanol oxidation ability of heterojunction catalysts because of their potential in the field of electrocatalysis. In this article, we have integrated CuO/Co3O4 heterojunction with porphyrin (TCPP) for TCPP/Cu2Co1. The results demonstrate that the specific surface area and electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) are enhanced, and the unblocked separation and transfer of photogenerated charges are guaranteed by the matched band energy of CuO, Co3O4, and TCPP. As such, the photocatalytic methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) performance and stability of TCPP/Cu2Co1 are significantly enhanced compared with those of Cu2Co1. This study provides a promising pathway for the design of MOR catalysts with high MOR activity.

Zinc pyrovanadate nanorods with excellent peroxidase-like activity at physiological pH for the colorimetric assay of H2O2 and epinephrine.

Exploring highly active peroxidase mimics at physiological pH is important for the construction of efficient and convenient colorimetric sensing platforms for detecting small biomolecules. In this work, prepared zinc pyrovanadate (Zn3V2O7(OH)2·2H2O) nanorods exhibit excellent peroxidase-like activity, which is verified by the fast oxidation of colorless 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) into a blue product (oxTMB) by H2O2 at physiological pH (pH = 7) in 2 min. In addition, the catalytic behaviors of Zn3V2O7(OH)2·2H2O as a peroxidase-like nanozyme conform to the Michaelis-Menten equation. Scavenger experiments prove that the catalytic activity of Zn3V2O7(OH)2·2H2O is ascribed to ˙O2- radicals generated in the process of catalysis. Based on the peroxidase-like activity of the Zn3V2O7(OH)2·2H2O nanozyme, a fast and convenient colorimetric sensor has been constructed to detect H2O2 and epinephrine (EP) under physiological pH. The detection limit of EP is as low as 0.26 µM. In addition, the feasibility of the proposed sensor has been validated to detect H2O2 in milk and EP in serum.

High sensitivity detection of SARS-CoV-2 by an optofluidic hollow eccentric core fiber.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), efficient real-time monitoring has become one of the challenges faced in SARS-CoV-2 virus detection. A compact all-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer optofluidic sensor based on a hollow eccentric core fiber (HECF) for the detection and real-time monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein (SARS-CoV-2 S2) is proposed, analyzed and demonstrated. The sensor is comprised of fusion splicing single mode fiber (SMF), hollow core fiber (HCF) and HECF. After the incident light passes through the HCF from the SMF, it uniformly enters the air hole and the suspended micrometer-scale fiber core of the HECF to form a compact all-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). HECF is side polished to remove part of the cladding that the suspended fiber core can contact the external environment. Subsequently, the mouse anti SARS-CoV-2 S2 antibody is fixed on the surface of the suspended-core for the sake of achieving high sensitivity and specific sensing of SARS-CoV-2 S2. The limit of detection (LOD) of the sensor is 26.8 pM. The proposed sensor has high sensitivity, satisfactory selectivity, and can be fabricated at low cost making it highly suitable for point-of-care testing and high-throughput detection of early stage of COVID-19 infection.

PBA-MoS2 nanoboxes with enhanced peroxidase activity for constructing a colorimetric sensor array for reducing substances containing the catechol structure.

Some nanoperoxidase-based colorimetric sensors have been used to detect only one molecule at a time. Thus, the simultaneous detection of various molecules coexisting in the same system is a great challenge. In this work, an excellent nanoperoxidase, nickel cobalt Prussian blue analogue-MoS2 nanoboxes (PBA-MoS2), have been successfully prepared by the hydrothermal method and used to construct a colorimetric sensing array to determine a series of reductive substances containing the catechol structure (such as catechol, epinephrine hydrochloride, procyanidin, caffeic acid and dopamine hydrochloride). The excellent peroxidase-like activity of PBA-MoS2 is verified by the chromogenic reaction of 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of H2O2 in 2 min. The catalytic mechanism of PBA-MoS2 is attributed to generated reactive species including holes (h+) and superoxide radicals (˙O2-) in the process of catalysis. The fast economic H2O2 colorimetric sensing array has been constructed based on the PBA-MoS2 nanoperoxidase. Due to the presence of different reducing substances, the catalytic oxidation of TMB can be restricted to different extents, accompanied by blue colour changes to varying degrees. Therefore, on combining PBA-MoS2 nanoperoxidase with H2O2 and TMB, five reductive substances can be quantitatively distinguished by linear discriminant analysis (LDA) at the 2 mM level.

Strong Coupling between a Single Quantum Emitter and a Plasmonic Nanoantenna on a Metallic Film.

The strong coupling between single quantum emitters and resonant optical micro/nanocavities is beneficial for understanding light and matter interactions. Here, we propose a plasmonic nanoantenna placed on a metal film to achieve an ultra-high electric field enhancement in the nanogap and an ultra-small optical mode volume. The strong coupling between a single quantum dot (QD) and the designed structure is investigated in detail by both numerical simulations and theoretical calculations. When a single QD is inserted into the nanogap of the silver nanoantenna, the scattering spectra show a remarkably large splitting and anticrossing behavior of the vacuum Rabi splitting, which can be achieved in the scattering spectra by optimizing the nanoantenna thickness. Our work shows another way to enhance the light/matter interaction at a single quantum emitter limit, which can be useful for many nanophotonic and quantum applications.

Neuroprotective effects of salidroside on ageing hippocampal neurons and naturally ageing mice via the PI3K/Akt/TERT pathway.

Studies have found that salidroside, isolated from Rhodiola rosea L, has various pharmacological activities, but there have been no studies on the effects of salidroside on brain hippocampal senescence. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanistic role of salidroside in hippocampal neuron senescence and injury. In this study, long-term cultured primary rat hippocampal neurons and naturally aged C57 mice were treated with salidroside. The results showed that salidroside increased the viability and MAP2 expression, reduced ß-galactosidase (ß-gal) levels of rat primary hippocampal neurons. Salidroside also improved cognition dysfunction in ageing mice and alleviated neuronal degeneration in the ageing mice CA1 region. Moreover, salidroside decreased the levels of oxidative stress and p21, p16 protein expressions of hippocampal neurons and ageing mice. Salidroside promoted telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) protein expression via the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway. In conclusion, our findings suggest that salidroside has the potential to be used as a therapeutic strategy for anti-ageing and ageing-related disease treatment.

The Correlation Between COVID-19 Activities and Climate Factors in Different Climate Types Areas.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of human infection with corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Moscow, Lima, Kuwait, and Singapore to analyze the effects of climate factors on the incidence of COVID-19. METHODS: Collect the daily incidence of COVID-19 and related climate data in four areas, construct a negative binomial regression model, and analyze the correlation between the incidence of COVID-19 and meteorological factors. RESULTS: AH was the climate factor affecting the incidence of COVID-19 in Moscow, Lima, and Singapore; Ta and RH were the climate factors affecting the incidence of COVID-19 in Kuwait. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of COVID-19 in four areas were all associated with the humidity, and climate factors should be taken into consideration when epidemic prevention measures are taken, and environment humidification may be a feasible approach to decrease COVID-19 virus transmission.

Characterization and Sensing of Inert Gases with a High-Resolution SPR Sensor.

It is generally difficult to characterize inert gases through chemical reactions due to their inert chemical properties. The phase interference-sensing system based on high-resolution surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has an excellent refractive index detection limit. Based on this, this paper presents a simple and workable method for the characterization and detection of inert gases. The phase of light for the present SPR sensor is more sensitive to the change in the external dielectric environment than an amplitude SPR sensor. The limit of detection (LOD) is usually in the order of 10-6 to 10-7 RIU, which is superior to LSPR (Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance) sensors and traditional SPR sensors. The sensor parameters are simulated and optimized. Our simulation shows that a 36 nm-thick gold film is more suitable for the SPR sensing of inert gases. By periodically switching between the two inert gases, helium and argon, the resolution of the system is tested. The SPR sensing system can achieve distinguishable difference signals, enabling a clear distinction and characterization of helium and argon. The doping of argon in helium has a detection limit of 1098 ppm.

The decreased permittivity of zebrafish embryos culture medium by magnetic fields did not affect early development of zebrafish embryos.

Epidemiological studies have shown associations between exposure to environmental extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) and health effects, but the mechanisms of ELF-MF induced biological effects remain unclear. We hypothesized that ELF-MF may regulate functions of tissues or cells via its effects on surrounding environment, e.g., culture medium. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effects of 50 Hz MF on the relative permittivity of zebrafish embryos culture medium as well as of MF-exposed medium on zebrafish embryos development. The responses of medium to 50 Hz MF exposure were evaluated by a phase-sensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR) system. The results demonstrated that MF treatment decreased relative permittivity of zebrafish embryos medium in a dose and time-dependent way. Interestingly, the decreased permittivity induced by MF exposure gradually recovered and approached to the base level when the exposure was removed off. However, MF-exposed medium did not trigger adverse consequences of embryos during zebrafish embryonic development, including mortality, malformation, hatching and heart rate when the MF pre-exposed medium was subjected to one cell-stage embryos. Moreover, the MF-exposed medium did not induce apoptosis of zebrafish embryos at 48 and 72 h post fertilization. Our data demonstrated that the relative permittivity of zebrafish embryos medium was decreased by MF exposure, whereas this decrease failed to result in abnormal development of zebrafish embryos.

Poly(arylene ether sulfone) crosslinked networks with pillar[5]arene units grafted by multiple long-chain quaternary ammonium salts for anion exchange membranes.

Several high-molecular-weight pillar[5]arene-containing poly(arylene ether sulfone) polymers were synthesized for the first time. Through grafting and crosslinking approaches, networks consisting of the molecular chains bearing multiple long-chain quaternary amine salts were fabricated. For the crosslinked membranes, high conductivity and low swelling were achieved even at low ion exchange capacity.

Construction of High-Performance, High-Temperature Proton Exchange Membranes through Incorporating SiO2 Nanoparticles into Novel Cross-linked Polybenzimidazole Networks.

The practical applications of phosphoric acid-doped polybenzimidazole (PA-PBI) as high-temperature proton exchange membranes (HT-PEMs) are mainly limited by their poor dimensional-mechanical stability at high acid doping levels (ADLs) and the leaching of PA from membranes during fuel cell operation. In this work, to overcome these issues, we fabricated novel cross-linked PBI networks with additional imidazole groups by employing a newly synthesized bibenzimidazole-containing dichloro compound as cross-linker and an arylether-type Ph-PBI as matrix. Ph-PBI featured by good solubility under high molecular weight offers satisfactory film-forming ability and mechanical strength using for the matrix. Importantly, the additional imidazole moieties in BIM-2Cl endow the cross-linked PBI membranes improved dimensional-mechanical stability with simultaneously enhanced ADLs and proton conductivity. Furthermore, superior acid retention capability is obtained by incorporating porous polyhydroxy SiO2 nanoparticles into these cross-linked networks. As a result, the SiO2/cross-linked PBI composite membranes are suitable to manufacture membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), and an excellent H2/O2 cell performance with a peak power density of 497 mW cm-2 at 160 °C under anhydrous conditions can be achieved.

Toward enhanced conductivity of high-temperature proton exchange membranes: development of novel PIM-1 reinforced PBI alloy membranes.

The PIMs are for the first time incorporated into an arylether-type PBI (OPBI) matrix to form some novel partially miscible alloy membranes containing a special intrinsic "porous" structure. A proton conductivity of 313 mS cm-1 at 200 °C and a peak power density of 438 mW cm-2 at 160 °C can be obtained under anhydrous conditions.