[Systematic review and Meta-analysis of efficacy and safety of Ningmitai Capsules in treatment of urinary tract infection].

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Ningmitai Capsules in the treatment of urinary tract infection.To be specific, articles on the treatment of urinary tract infection with Ningmitai Capsules were retrieved from China National Know-ledge Infrastructure(CNKI), Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, and Web of Science(from establishment to October 2021).Eligible randomized controlled trials(RCTs) were screened out, and ROB and RevMan 5.3 of Cochrane were employed for data integration and Meta-analysis.Finally, 17 articles were included, involving 1 972 cases, with 1 045 in the experimental group and 927 in the control group.The Meta-analysis results are as follows.Ningmitai Capsules combined with conventional antibiotics was superior to sensitive antibiotics alone in the treatment of acute pyelonephritis in aspects of clinical cure rate(RR=1.94, 95%CI[1.58, 2.37], P<0.000 01), reduction in the count of red blood cells in the urine(MD=-3.22, 95%CI[-3.23,-3.21], P<0.000 01), decrease in the count of white blood cells in the urine(MD=-2.34, 95%CI[-2.59,-2.10], P<0.000 01), and time for the disappearance of the symptoms(MD_(time for urinary tract irritation disappeared)=-2.19, 95%CI[-2.69,-1.68], P<0.000 01; MD_(time for waist aches disappeared)=-3.58, 95%CI[-4.20,-2.97], P<0.000 01; MD_(time for heating disappeared)=-0.57, 95%CI[-0.81,-0.33], P<0.000 01).The combination of either cephalosporin or quinolone with Ningmitai Capsules can improve clinical cure rate of acute pyelonephritis(RR_(combined with cephalosporin)=1.94, 95%CI[1.56, 2.42], P<0.000 01; RR_(combined with quinolone)=1.91, 95%CI[1.16, 3.15], P=0.01).The clinical cure rate(RR=1.91, 95%CI[1.47, 2.49], P<0.000 01) of diabetes complicated with urinary tract infection by Ningmitai Capsules was higher than that by quinolones.The clinical cure rate(RR=1.22, 95%CI[1.09, 1.37], P=0.000 5) of non-gonococcal urethritis by Ningmitai Capsules combined with conventional tetracycline and macrolide antibiotics was higher than that by conventional antibiotics.Ningmitai Capsules combined with conventional antibiotics/Ningmitai Capsules alone was superior to conventional antibiotics alone in the treatment of urinary tract infection in terms of the clinical cure rate(RR=1.35, 95%CI[1.17, 1.56], P<0.000 1) and incidence of adverse reactions(RR=0.32, 95%CI[0.15, 0.68], P=0.003), particularly the combination with quinolone antibiotics(RR=1.30, 95%CI[1.04, 1.61], P=0.02).The main adverse reactions were mild gastrointestinal discomfort, nausea, vomiting, and dry mouth.In summary, Ningmitai Capsules combined with conventional sensitive antibiotics/Ningmitai Capsules alone can improve the clinical cure rate of patients with urinary tract infection.Ningmitai Capsules combined with conventional sensitive antibiotics can significantly reduce the time for symptom disappearance of acute pyelonephritis and down-regulate the counts of red and white blood cells in the urine compared with antibiotics alone, and no serious adverse reactions have been found.However, in light of the low proportion of quality eligible articles, experiments with rigorous design, large sample size, and complete outcome in-dexes should be carried out in the future to verify the clinical efficacy and safety of Ningmitai Capsules in the treatment of urinary tract infection.

Reusable fibrous adsorbent prepared via Co-radiation induced graft polymerization for iodine adsorption.

Volatile iodine released from nuclear power plant reactors is radiological hazard to environment and human's health because of their high fission yield and environmental mobility. The complexity of nuclear waste management motivated the development of solid-phase adsorbents. Herein, co-radiation induced graft polymerization (CRIGP) was employed in the graft polymerization of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP) onto polyethylene-coated polypropylene skin-core (PE/PP) fibers using electron beam (EB) irradiation. This work provides a one-step green synthetic approach to prepare iodine fibrous adsorbents without any chemical initiators or large amount of organic solvent. The original and modified PE/PP fibers were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric (TG) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to demonstrate the grafting of NVP onto the PE/PP fibers. The capacity of iodine absorbed by the PE/PP-g-PNVP fibers was 1237.8 mg/g after 180 min. Meanwhile, absorbents can be regenerated efficiently by two different means of ethanol elution and heating at 120 °C, respectively. Within 10 min, 94.17% and 90.12% of the iodine can be released from the PE/PP-g-PNVP fibers with these two methods, respectively. The adsorbent exhibited a long service life of at least ten adsorption-desorption cycles, suggesting that PE/PP-g-PNVP fibers might be a promising adsorbent for volatile iodine adsorption from fission products in nuclear power plant reactors.

Near-infrared laser-controlled nitric oxide-releasing gold nanostar/hollow polydopamine Janus nanoparticles for synergistic elimination of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and wound healing.

Recently, nitric oxide (NO) has received increasing interest in combat against bacteria-induced infections because of its ability to sensitize and enhance the antibacterial effectiveness of many therapeutic approaches such as antibiotics. However, high-efficient loading and controlled release of NO remain a big challenge. In the present work, a type of gold nanostar/hollow polydopamine Janus nanostructure (GNS/HPDA JNPs) with precise near infrared (NIR)-controlled NO release property was fabricated using a facile seed-mediated method. Upon NIR laser irradiation, the NO-releasing GNS/HPDA JNPs (GNS/HPDA-BNN6) exhibited a synergistic photothermal and NO antibacterial effect by significantly inhibiting the growth and biofilm formation of both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterial strains, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). An in-depth mechanism study revealed that two pathways were mainly involved in the synergistic photothermal and NO antibacterial effect. In one pathway, the synergistic effect severely destroyed the bacterial membrane by causing leakage of intracellular components such as DNA. In another pathway, the synergistic effect largely disturbed bacterial metabolism by regulating relative metabolic genes, followed by enhancing ROS generation to cause intracellular GSH depletion and DNA damage. More importantly, the synergistic effect significantly diminished the drug resistance of MRSA by downregulating the expression of the drug-resistant gene mecA and some relative multidrug efflux pumps (e.g., SepA and Tet38). An in vivo evaluation using a rat model with MRSA-infected wounds indicated that the synergistic photothermal and NO effect of GNS/HPDA-BNN6 can effectively eliminate MRSA from wounds, thereby alleviating inflammation and promoting wound healing. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria have become a big threat to mankind, and therefore, the development of innovative antibacterial agents with high antibacterial efficiency is urgently required. Nanomaterial-mediated nitric oxide (NO) therapy is a promising strategy to effectively combat MDR bacteria through a synergistic antibacterial effect. Here, a gold nanostar/hollow polydopamine Janus nanostructure with precise near infrared (NIR) light-controlled NO release property (GNS/HPDA-BNN6) was developed. Both in vitro and in vivo evaluations demonstrated that GNS/HPDA-BNN6 could effectively eliminate methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from infected wounds and promote wound healing through a synergistic photothermal and NO therapeutic effect. Remarkably, the synergistic effect significantly diminished the drug resistance of MRSA by downregulating the expression of some drug-resistant genes and multidrug efflux pumps.

The effect of blending poly (l-lactic acid) on in vivo performance of 3D-printed poly(l-lactide-co-caprolactone)/PLLA scaffolds.

Blending poly (l-lactic acid, PLLA) with poly (l-lactide-co-caprolactone, PLCL) is an effective strategy for developing new PLCL/PLLA blend based biomaterials. However, the effect of PLLA on in vivo performance of PLCL/PLLA blends is unclear yet. To address this issue, in this study, the effect of PLLA on in vivo biodegradability and biocompatibility of 3D-printed scaffolds of PLCL/PLLA blend was investigated. Three kinds of different 3D-printed PLCL/PLLA scaffolds using different blends with different mass ratios of the polymers, were prepared and implanted subcutaneously. The shrinkage and tissue responses were monitored by ultrasonography after the implantation. 2 months post-operation, the in vivo performances of the scaffolds were investigated histologically. All scaffolds showed good biocompatibility and allowed fast tissues ingrowth, however PLCL50/PLLA50 scaffold with the highest PLLA ratio induced the thickest the fibrous capsule surrounding the scaffolds and highest inflammatory scores. Furthermore, it was found that the fine porous structures of all scaffolds were well maintained, indicating the 3D-printed scaffolds were degraded through a surface erosion but not bulk erosion way. However, different scaffolds showed different shrinkage and degradation ratios, and PLCL50/PLLA50 scaffold resulted in a significant shrinkage, while PLCL90/PLLA10 scaffold showed the better structural stability. Therefore, PLLA at blending different ratio had different effects on the in vivo performance of 3D-printed PLCL/PLLA scaffolds. Particularly, PLCL/PLLA scaffolds blending with low ratio of PLLA, such as PLCL90/PLLA10 scaffold showed better application potential in tissue engineering. Our findings provide a new insight on the rational design, constrcution and application of the 3D-printed PLCL/PLLA scaffolds.

Graphene Oxide Transparent Hybrid Film and Its Ultraviolet Shielding Property.

Herein, we first reported a facile strategy to prepare functional Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hybrid film with well ultraviolet (UV) shielding property and visible light transmittance using graphene oxide nanosheets as UV-absorber. The absorbance of ultraviolet light at 300 nm can be up to 97.5%, while the transmittance of visible light at 500 nm keeps 40% plus. This hybrid film can protect protein from UVA light induced photosensitive damage, remarkably.

Syntheses, structures and chemical sensing properties of three complexes with mixed ligands of carboxylate and bipyridine.

Three mixed-ligand coordination polymers, [Cu(oda)(2,2'-bipy)](2) (1), Ni(2)(oda)(2)(4,4'-bipy)·DMF (2), and [{Ni(oda)(H(2)O)(2)}(2)(µ-4,4'-bipy)]·2H(2)O (3) were synthesized and characterized. Complex 1 features a 1D chain via intermolecular π-π interactions. Complex 2 is a novel 3D microporous coordination polymer with 1D polarized channels. Complex 3 forms a 3D network via extensive hydrogen bonding interactions. Thermogravimetric analyses have been studied. The chemical sensing properties have been investigated in situ by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). Complex 1 has a good sensitivity to toluene, complexes 2 and 3 have exceptionally high selectivity and sensitivity to water over organic solvents.