Impact of gout on cardiovascular disease mortality: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Several epidemiological studies have suggested that gout patients have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease mortality than healthy people. In contrast, the association between gout and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality was not obvious in other studies. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the relative risk for CVD mortality in gout patients in comparison to healthy controls. METHODS: Literature published before March 2023 was searched in Google Scholar, PubMed, and the Web of Science. We summarized the impact of gout on CVD mortality with a meta-analysis. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) regarding the impact of gout on CVD mortality were summarized with STATA 12.0 software. RESULTS: Compared to individuals without gout, those with gout had higher mortality risks for CVD during follow-up, with a random effects model showing a risk of 1.30 (95% CI 1.15 to 1.48, p < 0.001; p-value for Cochran Q test < 0.001, I2 = 95.9%). Similarly, subjects with gout had a mortality risk of 1.28 (95% CI 1.12 to 1.46, p < 0.001; p-value for Cochran Q test = 0.050, I2 = 50.2%) for coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality during follow-up using the same statistical model. Furthermore, using a fixed effects model, individuals with gout had a mortality risk of 1.13 (95% CI 1.00 to 1.27, p = 0.049; p-value for Cochran Q test = 0.494, I2 = 0.0%) for myocardial infarction (MI) mortality during follow-up. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this meta-analysis provides evidence supporting a markedly increased mortality risk from CVD and CHD as well as MI in patients with gout relative to reference subjects without gout.

STAT3-induced upregulation of lncRNA MEG3 regulates the growth of cardiac hypertrophy through miR-361-5p/HDAC9 axis.

Cardiac hypertrophy is closely correlated with diverse cardiovascular diseases, augmenting the risk of heart failure and sudden death. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been studied in cardiac hypertrophy for their regulatory function. LncRNA MEG3 has been reported in human cancers. Whereas, it is unknown whether MEG3 regulates the growth of cardiac hypertrophy. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the specific role of MEG3 in the progression of cardiac hypertrophy. Here, we found that MEG3 contributed to the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy. MEG3 expression was remarkably strengthened in the mice heart which undergone the transverse aortic constriction (TAC). Moreover, qRT-PCR analysis revealed that MEG3 was upregulated in the cardiomyocytes which were treated with Ang-II. Silenced MEG3 inhibited the increasing size of hypertrophic cardiomyocytes and reversed other hypertrophic responses. Mechanically, MEG3 could affect cardiac hypertrophy by regulating gene expression. Mechanically, we found that MEG3 could be upregulated by the transcription factor STAT3 and could regulate miR-361-5p and HDAC9 by acting as a ceRNA. Finally, rescue assays were made to do further confirmation. All our findings revealed that STAT3-inducetd upregulation of lncRNA MEG3 controls cardiac hypertrophy by regulating miR-362-5p/HDAC9 axis.

Earth-abundant NiS co-catalyst modified metal-free mpg-C3N4/CNT nanocomposites for highly efficient visible-light photocatalytic H2 evolution.

In the present work, the earth-abundant NiS co-catalyst modified mesoporous graphite-like C3N4 (mpg-C3N4)/CNT nanocomposites were prepared via a two-step strategy: the sol-gel method and the direct precipitation process. The mpg-C3N4/CNT/NiS composite photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), photoelectrochemical (PEC) and electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) experiments. The photocatalytic H2-production activity over the composite catalysts was also evaluated by using an aqueous solution containing triethanolamine under visible light (λ≥ 420 nm). The results showed that the loading of earth-abundant NiS co-catalysts onto metal-free mpg-C3N4/CNT nanocomposites can remarkably enhance their photocatalytic H2-production activity. The optimal loading amount of NiS on metal-free mpg-C3N4/CNT nanocomposites was about 1 wt%. The as-obtained mpg-C3N4/CNT/1% NiS ternary composite photocatalyst exhibits the best H2-evolution activity with the highest rate of about 521 µmol g(-1) h(-1) under visible light (λ≥ 420 nm), which is almost 148 times that of a pure mpg-C3N4/CNT sample. The enhanced photocatalytic activity can be mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of effectively promoted separation of photo-generated electron-hole pairs and enhanced H2-evolution kinetics. The co-loading of nanocarbon materials and earth-abundant co-catalysts onto metal-free mpg-C3N4 photocatalysts offers great potential for practical applications in photocatalytic H2 evolution under visible light illumination.

Amorphous Co3O4 modified CdS nanorods with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic H2-production activity.

In this work, amorphous Co3O4 modified CdS nanorods were synthesized by a two-step solvothermal/hydrothermal method, and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, nitrogen absorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The photocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized Co3O4-CdS nanorods was evaluated through H2 generation from an aqueous solution containing sulfide and sulfite under visible light (λ ≥ 420 nm). The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of CdS nanorods for H2 evolution could be significantly enhanced by loading the amorphous Co3O4. The optimal Co3O4 loading was found to be approximately 3.0 mol%. The as-prepared CdS nanorods with 3 mol% Co3O4 exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity for H2 evolution under visible light irradiation, 236 µmol g(-1) h(-1), which is 33-fold higher than that of the pristine CdS nanorods. Furthermore, the co-loading of 1 wt% Pt can lead to another three times enhancement in the photocatalytic H2-production activity. The mechanism for the enhanced H2-production performance of Co3O4-CdS nanorods was discussed. The excellent performance of Co3O4-CdS nanorods is mainly ascribed to the loading of amorphous Co3O4 onto the surface of CdS nanorods, which could promote the separation of electron-hole pairs and enhance the stability of CdS nanorods due to the formation of p-n heterojunctions between the Co3O4 and CdS nanorods, thus leading to an enhanced activity for H2 generation. This work demonstrated that the loading of amorphous Co3O4 is a facile strategy to enhance the photocatalytic activity of CdS nanorods, which may provide some potential opportunities for designing other composite photocatalysts for water splitting.