Effects of Propofol anesthesia combined with remifentanil on inflammation, stress response and immune function in children undergoing tonsil and adenoid surgery.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of propofol anesthesia combined with remifentanil on inflammation, stress response, and immune function in children undergoing tonsil and adenoid surgery. For this aim,  126 children admitted to our hospital for elective temperature-controlled radio-frequency of tonsils and adenoids from October 2020 to September 2021 were randomly divided into an observation group (n=63) and a control group (n=63). The observation group was anesthetized with propofol in combination with remifentanil, while the control group underwent propofol combined with ketamine. The mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate, serum C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), epinephrine, cortisol (Cor), CD3+ T lymphocytes, CD4+ helper T lymphocytes, CD8+ suppressor T lymphocytes and CD4+/CD8+ ratio were compared between the two groups before induction of anaesthesia (T1), upon intubation (T2), at the beginning of surgery (T3), at the end of surgery (T4) and 5 min after extubation (T5). -(TNF-α). The recovery time from anaesthesia and adverse reactions after extubation were observed in the two groups. Results showed that the MAP and heart rate in both groups increased significantly at T2 compared to T1, but the observation group had lower values than the control group after the maintenance of anaesthesia (P<0.05). Serum CRP, IL-6 and TNF-α levels increased with time in both groups, and the increase was considered significant (P<0.05). In addition, serum epinephrine and Cor levels gradually rose from T1 to T4 in both groups, and then decreased at T5. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.05) between any two-time points. CRP, IL-6, TNF-α, epinephrine and Cor in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group from T3 to T5 (P<0.05). CD3+, CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ ratio decreased whereas CD8+ went up in both groups at T4 and T5, and which were considered statistically significant when compared with data from T1 to T3 (P<0.05). However, CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and CD4+/CD8+ ratios did not differ statistically significantly between the two groups at each time point (P>0.05). In the observation group, the time to recovery of spontaneous respiration, the time to resumption of limb movements and the span from discontinuation of anaesthetic to extubation were all significantly shorter than those in the control group, and the incidence of agitation during the awakening period was lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). Then propofol combined with remifentanil is more effective in inflammation, stress response and immune function in anesthetizing children undergoing tonsil and adenoid surgery. The observation group presented more stable hemodynamics, lower levels of inflammation and stress reactions, rapid awakening and fewer adverse effects, so the combination therapy was worthy of clinical promotion in pediatric surgery requiring general anesthesia.

A SARS-CoV-2 familial cluster infection reveals asymptomatic transmission to children.

Information on SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic infection and infectivity in children is limited. In this study, we aimed to report the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of a familial cluster infection including children with SARS-CoV-2. On February 1, 2020, two children(case 1 and case 2), an 8-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy, were admitted to the isolation ward in Xiangyang Central Hospital, Hubei province, China, with the diagnosis of COVID-19. Before admission, they had been staying at home with their father and never contacted with any confirmed patients except their mother (case 3) who returned from Wuhan on January 22. Both case 1 and case 2 got mild symptoms. Case 3 did not develop any symptoms until February 6, 2020, with an asymptomatic period of 15 days. She was transferred to ICU and administered multiple treatment according to the disease progression and chest CT manifestations. Her nucleic acid test turned positive until Feb 21, 2020, 15 days after symptoms onset, 30 days after her return from Wuhan. Our data showed that patients with SARS-CoV-2 may have the ability to transmit during their asymptomatic period even with the negative of viral nucleic acid in pharyngeal swabs.

An intein-mediated modulation of protein stability system and its application to study human cytomegalovirus essential gene function.

Functional analysis of the essential proteins encoded by human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is hindered by the lack of complementing systems. To overcome this difficulty, we have established a novel approach, termed the intein-mediated modulation of protein stability (imPS), in which a destabilizing domain and part of a split intein are fused to the essential protein. The growth of the mutant virus can then be regulated by the degradation and splicing of the protein. We found that an ultrafast gp41-1 split intein was able to rescue or degrade the protein of interest (POI) by removing or adding a strong degron through protein splicing. As a result, the function of the POI was turned on or off during the process. Using HCMV essential gene IE1/IE2, we confirmed that imPS worked remarkably well in conditionally regulating protein stability during viral infection. This conditional approach is likely to be applicable for dissecting the gene functions of HCMV or other viruses.

Loss and back-coupling effects on subwavelength imaging of three-dimensional superlens.

The loss and back-coupling effects on the subwavelength imaging of three-dimensional superlens are reported in this paper. The loss is added in the image region of a superlens. The back-coupling effects are considered by adding a shielded layer above the object region. (1) By adding loss in the image region, the long range plasmon mode is drastically suppressed. (2) The back-coupling shield above the objects has the effects of amplifying the higher spatial frequency components while suppressing the long range plasmon mode. Because of (1) and (2), the transfer function becomes flatter. Subsequently, the finer resolution of images is obtained. This is confirmed by the field and intensity distribution generated by the horizontal magnetic dipoles and vertical electric dipoles located in the object region and the image intensity distributions of the patterned mask structures in the lithography.

Subwavelength imaging enhancement through a three-dimensional plasmon superlens with rough surface.

In this Letter we investigate the subwavelength imaging of a three-dimensional plasmon superlens based on the full vector wave simulations of optical wave propagation and transmission. The optical transfer functions are computed. Comparisons are made between the results of lenses with flat and periodic/random rough surfaces. We also study the problem of practical imaging system geometry using laser as an illumination source. Results show that the lens with periodic or random roughness can reduce the field interference effects, and provide improved focus on the transmission field and the Poynting flux. We illustrate that the subwavelength roughness in a plasmon lens can enhance the image resolution over a flat lens for both matched and unmatched permittivity conditions. The enhancement of resolution occurs because the introduced subwavelength roughness can amplify the evanescent wave components and suppress the surface plasmon resonance peaks.