Functional cure induced by tenofovir alafenamide plus peginterferon-alpha-2b in young children with chronic hepatitis B: a case series study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Data on the safety and effectiveness of tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) plus peginterferon-alpha (Peg-IFN-α) in children with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) are lacking. The current study aimed to present the characteristics of four pediatric CHB patients who obtained a functional cure by using TAF and Peg-IFN-α. METHODS: In this case series study initiated in May 2019, ten children who had no clinical symptoms or signs received response-guided (HBV DNA undetectable, hepatitis B e antigen [HBeAg] loss or seroconversion, and hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg] loss or seroconversion) and functional cure-targeted (HBsAg loss or seroconversion) TAF (25 mg/d, orally) plus Peg-IFN-α-2b (180 µg/1.73m2, subcutaneously, once weekly) in combination (9/10) or sequential (1/10) therapy. The safety and effectiveness of these treatments were monitored. RESULTS: As of April 2024, four out of ten children obtained a functional cure after a mean of 31.5 months of treatment, and the other six children are still undergoing treatment. These four cured children, aged 2, 4, 8, and 6 years, were all HBeAg-positive and had alanine aminotransferase levels of 80, 47, 114, and 40 U/L; HBV DNA levels of 71200000, 93000000, 8220, and 96700000 IU/mL; and HBsAg levels of 39442.8, 15431.2, 22, and 33013.1 IU/mL, respectively. During treatment, all the children (10/10) experienced mild or moderate adverse events, including flu-like symptoms, anorexia, fatigue, and cytopenia. Notably, growth retardation (8/10) was the most significant adverse event; and it occurred in three cured children (3/4) treated with combination therapy and was present to a low degree in the other cured child (1/4) treated with sequential therapy. Fortunately, all three cured children recovered to or exceeded the normal growth levels at 9 months posttreatment. CONCLUSIONS: TAF plus Peg-IFN-α-2b therapy is potentially safe and effective for pediatric CHB patients, which may provide important insights for future clinical practice and study designs targeting functional cures for children with CHB.

Time domain turbo equalization based on vector approximate message passing for multiple-input multiple-output underwater acoustic communications.

This paper proposes a high-performance receiver for underwater acoustic communications based on time reversal processing for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The receiver employs the vector approximate message passing (VAMP) algorithm as a soft equalizer in turbo equalization. By performing self-iteration between the inner soft slicer and the inner soft equalizer, the VAMP algorithm achieves near-optimal performance. Furthermore, an iterative channel-estimation-based soft successive interference cancellation method is incorporated to suppress co-channel interference in the MIMO system. Additionally, the introduction of passive time reversal technology can combine multiple channels into a single channel, which greatly reduces the computational complexity of the MIMO system, especially for large MIMO systems. The effectiveness of the proposed receiver is verified using experimental data collected in Songhua Lake, China in 2019. The results demonstrate that the proposed receiver significantly reduces the complexity of the traditional parallel-VAMP receiver without sacrificing performance and outperforms other receivers of the same type. Moreover, our experimental results also verify that the VAMP-turbo outperforms the generalized approximate message passing (GAMP)-turbo in terms of bit error rate and convergence performance.

Transforming Natural Eggshell and Diatomite into Bioactive Calcium Silicate Material for Bone Regeneration.

Calcium silicate (CS), a new and important bioceramic bone graft material, is prepared by using eggshells, which have a porous structure and are rich in calcium ions. Furthermore, the preparation of new CS materials using eggshells and diatomaceous earth minimizes their negative impact on the environment. In this study, we prepared CS materials using a high-temperature calcination method. The composition of the material was demonstrated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis confirmed the porous structure of the CS material. We also introduced ZnO to prepare ZnO-CS with antibacterial properties and showed that ZnO-CS exhibits excellent antibacterial effects through in vitro antibacterial experiments. Subsequent in vitro mineralization experiments demonstrated that ZnO-CS promoted the formation of a hydroxyapatite layer. Furthermore, in vitro cytotoxicity experiments demonstrated that ZnO-CS had very good biosafety and promoted cell proliferation. These findings were confirmed through subsequent cell proliferation experiments. Our results indicate that the novel ZnO-CS is a promising candidate for bone tissue engineering.