Research progress on the regulation of endothelial cells by natural products of traditional Chinese medicine in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis

[] Atherosclerosis (As) is the pathological basis of coronary heart disease, and vascular endothelial injury is the initiating factor of coronary atherosclerosis. Vascular endothelial cells are a single layer of cells located in the inner layer of blood vessels and regulates exchanges between the blood stream and the surrounding tissues, and their integrity is very important. Many active monomers and the derivatives in natural products of traditional Chinese medicine modulate the function of endothelial cells by intervening oxidative stress, regulating the release of vasoactive substances, reducing inflammation, and equilibrating coagulation and anticoagulant system. They have the advantages of multi-pathway, multi-link and multi-target regulation in protecting from endothelial injury and attenuating atherogenesis. They have also been used to protect against corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) induced endothelial injury and atheroslerosis. This article reviews the research progress of the above issues in this field. © 2023, Editorial Office of Chinese Journal of Arteriosclerosis. All rights reserved.

The Impact of COVID-19 on College Students with Autism: Implications for College Counselors

As a result of additional stressors encountered by individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionately greater impact on college students with ASD than the general college population. To address the unique concerns this population encountered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this qualitative study analyzed the data collected from student meetings of 75 students with ASD, who participated in a program from Fall 2017 to Fall 2021 for individuals with ASD to support them as they navigate their college experiences. The data analysis strategy of Thematic Analysis was implemented to identify five overarching themes that participants experienced including: mental health and emotional considerations, social concerns, personal autonomy adjustments, goal realization/achievements, and changes in opportunities. Limitations for the study and recommendations for future research are provided. © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

Research progress on host restriction factors of respiratory viruses.

Respiratory viruses can cause a variety of serious respiratory infections and diseases of tissues and organs outside the respiratory tract, raising a potentially severe threat to the society.Virus replication and survival rely on the internal mechanism of host cells, and the latter also produce a variety of restriction factors that target viral invasion, genome transcription and replication, and assembly and release to block viral infection.Herein, this study reviewed the research progress of the antiviral effects of the host restriction factors of common respiratory viruses and their underlying mechanisms.Copyright © 2021 Chinese Medical Journals Publishing House Co.Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reporting and literature analysis of misdiagnosis and therapy of one case with tuberculous meningoencephalitis under the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic

Objective To improve the diagnosis and treatment level for tuberculous meningitis (TBM) under the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. Methods The diagnosis and treatment course of a female patient under the COVID-19 epidemic was analyzed for high fever, vomiting for 23 days, headache, talk nonsense for 10 days, inability to stand, and double vision lasting 5 days. The patient was successively misdiagnosed to suffer from viral pneumonia and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) in other hospitals. The patient had a history of transit at Hankou railway station (wearing a mask without departing the station throughout the process) under the COVID-19 epidemic. The patient had a history of leukopenia and long-term medical therapy. The patient was diagnosed as TBM by applying the diagnostic scheme for the 2019 China Central Nervous System Tuberculosis Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines after physical examination, cerebrospinal fluid test, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plain scan and enhanced examination. The analysis on reasons for extramural hospital misdiagnosis showed it was related to the lack of careful physical examination and lack of scientific analysis of laboratory test results. Results The intracranial pressure reduction, anti-tuberculosis treatment, adrenal cortex hormone treatment and symptomatic treatment were immediately administered according to the 2019 China Central Nervous System Tuberculosis Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines. Intensive anti-tuberculosis treatment (4 months) was implemented firstly and followed by the anti-tuberculosis treatment (12 months) during the consolidation phase, clinically enabling the patient to be cured. Conclusion Careful inquiry of medical history, careful physical examination, timely cerebrospinal fluid examination and MRI examination and scientific analysis on clinical data are critical to confirmation of TBM. Standard anti-tuberculosis treatment, rational use of adrenal cortex hormones and lowering intracranial pressure are critical factors for curing. © 2023, Editorial Department of Medical Pest Control. All rights reserved.

Reporting and literature analysis of misdiagnosis and therapy of one case with tuberculous meningoencephalitis under the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic

Objective To improve the diagnosis and treatment level for tuberculous meningitis (TBM) under the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. Methods The diagnosis and treatment course of a female patient under the COVID-19 epidemic was analyzed for high fever, vomiting for 23 days, headache, talk nonsense for 10 days, inability to stand, and double vision lasting 5 days. The patient was successively misdiagnosed to suffer from viral pneumonia and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) in other hospitals. The patient had a history of transit at Hankou railway station (wearing a mask without departing the station throughout the process) under the COVID-19 epidemic. The patient had a history of leukopenia and long-term medical therapy. The patient was diagnosed as TBM by applying the diagnostic scheme for the 2019 China Central Nervous System Tuberculosis Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines after physical examination, cerebrospinal fluid test, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plain scan and enhanced examination. The analysis on reasons for extramural hospital misdiagnosis showed it was related to the lack of careful physical examination and lack of scientific analysis of laboratory test results. Results The intracranial pressure reduction, anti-tuberculosis treatment, adrenal cortex hormone treatment and symptomatic treatment were immediately administered according to the 2019 China Central Nervous System Tuberculosis Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines. Intensive anti-tuberculosis treatment (4 months) was implemented firstly and followed by the anti-tuberculosis treatment (12 months) during the consolidation phase, clinically enabling the patient to be cured. Conclusion Careful inquiry of medical history, careful physical examination, timely cerebrospinal fluid examination and MRI examination and scientific analysis on clinical data are critical to confirmation of TBM. Standard anti-tuberculosis treatment, rational use of adrenal cortex hormones and lowering intracranial pressure are critical factors for curing. © 2023, Editorial Department of Medical Pest Control. All rights reserved.

Early Awake Prone Position Combined with High-Flow Nasal Oxygen Therapy in Severe COVID-19: A Case Series.

Background: Awake prone positioning has been used for non-intubated patients with COVID-19-related acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure, but the results are contradictory. We aimed to highlight the role of awake prone positioning combined with high-flow nasal oxygen therapy in severe COVID-19 patients infected with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. Methods: From June 12 to December 7, 2021, we successfully performed prone position(PP) combined with high-flow nasal oxygen(HFNO) therapy on two patients infected with the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. HFNO was prescribed to reach SpO2 ≥ 92%. PP was proposed to patients with PaO2/FiO2(P/F) < 150 mmHg. Arterial blood gas (ABG) and hemodynamic were monitored before and after PP sessions. The target time of PP was more than 12 h per day and could be appropriately shortened according to the patient's tolerance. Relevant clinical data, HFNO parameters, PICCO parameters, P/F ratio and PP duration were obtained from medical records. Results: A total of 23 PP sessions and 6 PP sessions combined with HFNO were performed in case 1 and case 2, respectively. Compared with values before PP, GEDI, ELWI and Qs/Qt decreased significantly (GEDI: 869.50 ± 60.50 ml/m2 vs. 756.86 ± 88.25 ml/m2; ELWI: 13.64 ± 2.82 ml/kg vs. 12.43 ± 2.50 ml/kg; Qs/Qt: 15.32 ± 6.52% vs. 12.24 ± 5.39%; all p < 0.05), Meanwhile, the oxygenation improved significantly (P/F: 184.50 ± 51.92 mmHg vs. 234.21 ± 88.84 mmHg, p < 0.05), The chest CT revealed the lung infiltrates improved significantly after PP. Both cases were discharged to a dedicated COVID-19 ward without requiring intubation. Conclusions: Combining PP with HFNO could be a useful treatment strategy for avoiding intubation in severe COVID-19 patients infected with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 to improve pulmonary vascular involvement, improve oxygenation and avoid intubation, but further studies are needed to validate our approach.

Current Situation of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

The new virus was initially defined in Wuhan, China, in 2019. Because of its quick transmission, a pandemic spread over the world. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is a subtype of the coronavirus family, the seventh virus type after SARS. The virus enters organisms' cells and produces mRNA in the host cell through a series of processes including replication and transcription. mRNA is translated into the corresponding viral protein in the cell and released from the host cell. To stop the spread of the disease, various vaccines have been developed and put into use in a short time. This paper details the design of a newer type of mRNA vaccine against COVID-19, its advantages and disadvantages, and compares it with other types of vaccines. The comparison reveals that mRNA vaccines have apparent advantages in terms of speed of production and safety, but at the same time their delivery conditions and instability are issues that need to be addressed. If the mRNA vaccines' storage conditions are improved, such as by raising the temperature at which they are stored, extending their half-life, and lowering the stringent storage standards, in the future, mRNA vaccines will play a larger clinical role. © 2022 SPIE. All rights reserved.

Machine Learning and Deep Learning Strategies in Drug Repositioning

Drug repositioning invovles exploring novel usages for existing drugs. It plays an important role in drug discovery, especially in the pre-clinical stages. Compared with the traditional drug discovery approaches, computational approaches can save time and reduce cost significantly. Since drug repositioning relies on existing drug-, disease-, and target-centric data, many machine learning (ML) approaches have been proposed to extract useful information from multiple data resources. Deep learning (DL) is a subset of ML and appears in drug repositioning much later than basic ML. Nevertheless, DL methods have shown great performance in predicting potential drugs in many studies. In this article, we review the commonly used basic ML and DL approaches in drug repositioning. Firstly, the related databases are introduced, while all of them are publicly available for researchers. Two types of preprocessing steps, calculating similarities and constructing networks based on those data, are discussed. Secondly, the basic ML and DL strategies are illustrated separately. Thirdly, we review the latest studies focused on the applications of basic ML and DL in identifying potential drugs through three paths: drug-disease associations, drug-drug interactions, and drug-target interactions. Finally, we discuss the limitations in current studies and suggest several directions of future work to address those limitations.

PATIENTS with SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS HAVE AN INCREASED RISK of MORTALITY, MECHANICAL VENTILATION, and HOSPITALIZATION from COVID-19

Background: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may have an increased risk of mortality from COVID-19 due to underlying immuno-suppression, comorbidities, and abnormalities in the innate immune system. Studies have shown that autoimmune diseases and some immunosuppres-sive agents are risk factors for hospitalization, ventilation, and mortality from COVID-19. Objectives: To compare the outcomes of patients with or without SLE who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and to identify the factors associated with 30-day hos-pitalization, mechanical ventilation, and mortality. We hypothesized that patients with SLE had a higher risk of adverse outcomes. Methods: This retrospective cohort study used the deidentifed Optum COVID-19 electronic health record dataset to identify adult patients with COVID-19 diagnosis from 1/1/2020-12/31/2020. The SLE cohort was defned as patients who had two or more international classifcation of diseases (ICD) 9 or 10 diagnosis codes of 710.0 or M32.xx but not M32.0 within one year before COVID-19 diagnosis and were on either antimalarial or immunosuppressive therapy. The general cohort excluded patients with SLE. We matched SLE cases with controls at a ratio of 1:10 by age, sex, race and ethnicity, and month of COVID-19 diagnosis via a propensity score matching with exact matching for the latter three variables. Outcomes included 30-day mortality, hospitaliza-tion, and mechanical ventilation after COVID-19 diagnosis. We performed multivariable logistic regression models to estimate the odds of 30-day mortality, hospitalization, and mechanical ventilation after adjusting for age, sex, race and ethnicity, COVID-19 diagnosis quarter, insurance, region, severe obesity, smoking status, and comorbidities. Results: We included 687 SLE cases matched with 6,870 controls. After matching, the 30-day mortality for SLE and control was 3.6% and 1.8% (p <0.001), the 30-day mechanical ventilation was 6.0% and 2.5% (p <0.001), and 30-day hospitalization was 31.0% and 17.7% (p <0.001). After multivariable adjustment (Table 1) for age, sex, race, COVID-19 diagnosis quarter, insurance, region, severe obesity, and smoking status, patients with SLE had higher odds of death (Odds Ratio (OR)=2.09;95% CI 1.31-3.32), mechanical ventilation (OR=2.43;95% CI 1.67-3.54) and hospitalization (OR=2.06;95% CI 1.71-2.49). After additionally adjusting for comorbidities, the OR decreased to 1.39 (95%CI 0.79-2.44), 1.81 (95%CI 1.16-2.82), and 1.32 (95%CI 1.05-1.65) for mortality, mechanical ventilation, and hospitalization respectively. Older age, male sex, Hispanic ethnicity or Black race, severe obesity, and smoking had increased risk of adverse outcomes. Conclusion: Patients with SLE have an increased risks of mortality, mechanical ventilation, and hospitalization within 30 days of COVID-19 diagnosis. The risks decreased after adjustment for comorbidities but remained statistically signifcant for mechanical ventilation and hospitalization.

COVID-19 Detection Method Based on Attentional Mechanism and LSTM

Since 2020, the Novel Coronavirus virus, which can cause upper respiratory and lung infections and even kill in severe cases, has been ravaging the globe. Rapid diagnostic tests have become one of the main challenges due to the severe shortage of test kits. This article proposes a model combining Long short-term Memory (LSTM) and Convolutional Block Attention Module for detection of COVID-19 from chest X-ray images. In this article, chest X-ray images from the COVID-19 radiology standard data set in the Kaggle repository were used to extract features by MobileNet, VGG19, VGG16 and ResNet50. CBAM and LSTM were used for classifcation detection. The simulation results showed that the experimental results showed that VGG16–CBAM–LSTM combination was the best combination to detect and classify COVID-19 from chest X-ray images. The classification accuracy of VGG-16-CBAM-LSTM combination was 95.80% for COVID-19, pneumonia and normal. The sensitivity and specificity of the combination were 96.54% and 98.21%. The F1 score was 94.11%. The CNN model proposed in this article contributes to automated screening of COVID-19 patients and reduces the burden on the healthcare delivery framework. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

A Neural Predictive Model of Negative Emotions for COVID-19

The long-lasting global pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed our daily life in many ways and put heavy burden on our mental health. Having a predictive model of negative emotions during COVID-19 is of great importance for identifying potential risky population. To establish a neural predictive model achieving both good interpretability and predictivity, we have utilized a large-scale (n =542) longitudinal dataset, alongside two independent samples for external validation. We built a predictive model based on psychologically meaningful resting state neural activities. The whole-brain resting-state neural activity and social-psychological profile of the subjects were obtained from Sept. to Dec. 2019 (Time 1). Their negative emotions were tracked and re-assessed twice, on Feb 22 (Time 2) and Apr 24 (Time 3), 2020, respectively. We first applied canonical correlation analysis on both the neural profiles and psychological profiles collected on Time 1, this step selects only the psychological meaningful neural patterns for later model construction. We then trained the neural predictive model using those identified features on data obtained on Time 2. It achieved a good prediction performance (r =0.44, p =8.13 ×10-27). The two most important neural predictors are associated with self-control and social interaction. This study established an effective neural prediction model of negative emotions, achieving good interpretability and predictivity. It will be useful for identifying potential risky population of emotional disorders related to COVID-19. IEEE

Research progress on host restriction factors of respiratory viruses

Respiratory viruses can cause a variety of serious respiratory infections and diseases of tissues and organs outside the respiratory tract, raising a potentially severe threat to the society.Virus replication and survival rely on the internal mechanism of host cells, and the latter also produce a variety of restriction factors that target viral invasion, genome transcription and replication, and assembly and release to block viral infection.Herein, this study reviewed the research progress of the antiviral effects of the host restriction factors of common respiratory viruses and their underlying mechanisms. © 2021 Chinese Medical Journals Publishing House Co.Ltd. All rights reserved.