Lovastatin for the Treatment of Adult Patients With Dengue: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Dengue endangers billions of people in the tropical world, yet no therapeutic is currently available. In part, the severe manifestations of dengue reflect inflammatory processes affecting the vascular endothelium. In addition to lipid lowering, statins have pleiotropic effects that improve endothelial function, and epidemiological studies suggest that outcomes from a range of acute inflammatory syndromes are improved in patients already on statin therapy. METHODS: Following satisfactory review of a short pilot phase (40 mg lovastatin vs placebo in 30 cases), we performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 5 days of 80 mg lovastatin vs placebo in 300 Vietnamese adults with a positive dengue NS1 rapid test presenting within 72 hours of fever onset. The primary outcome was safety. Secondary outcomes included comparisons of disease progression rates, fever clearance times, and measures of plasma viremia and quality of life between the treatment arms. RESULTS: Adverse events occurred with similar frequency in both groups (97/151 [64%] placebo vs 82/149 [55%] lovastatin; P = .13), and were in keeping with the characteristic clinical and laboratory features of acute dengue. We also observed no difference in serious adverse events or any of the secondary outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: We found lovastatin to be safe and well tolerated in adults with dengue. However, although the study was not powered to address efficacy, we found no evidence of a beneficial effect on any of the clinical manifestations or on dengue viremia. Continuing established statin therapy in patients who develop dengue is safe.Chinese Clinical Trials Registration. ISRCTN03147572.

Highly Deformable Fabric Gas Sensors Integrating Multidimensional Functional Nanostructures.

Highly strain-endurable gas sensors were implemented on fabric, which was taken from a real T-shirt, employing a sequential coating method. Multidimensional, functional nanostructures such as reduced graphene oxide, ZnO nanorods, palladium nanoparticles, and silver nanowires were integrated for their realization. It was revealed that the fabric gas sensors could detect both oxidizing and reducing gases at room temperature with differing signs and magnitudes of responses. Noticeably, the fabric gas sensors could normally work even under large strains up to 100%, which represents the highest strain tolerance in the gas sensor field. Furthermore, the fabric gas sensors turned out to bear harsh bending and twisting stresses. It was also demonstrated that the sequential coating method is an effective and facile way to control the size of the fabric gas sensor.

Preparation of g-C3N4/Graphene Composite for Detecting NO2 at Room Temperature.

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets were exfoliated from bulk g-C3N4 and utilized to improve the sensing performance of a pure graphene sensor for the first time. The role of hydrochloric acid treatment on the exfoliation result was carefully examined. The exfoliated products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The exfoliated g-C3N4 nanosheets exhibited a uniform thickness of about 3-5 nm and a lateral size of about 1-2 µm. A g-C3N4/graphene nanocomposite was prepared via a self-assembly process and was demonstrated to be a promising sensing material for detecting nitrogen dioxide gas at room temperature. The nanocomposite sensor exhibited better recovery as well as two-times the response compared to pure graphene sensor. The detailed sensing mechanism was then proposed.