A Meta-Analysis on the Impact of Prenatal and Early Childhood Antimicrobial Use on Autism Spectrum Disorders.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of prenatal and early childhood antimicrobial use on autism spectrum disorders (ASD). DATA SOURCES: We searched PubMed and Embase databases for relevant studies from inception to August 2022. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION: Peer-reviewed, observational studies were all acceptable. Raw data were extracted into a predefined worksheet and quality analysis was performed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. DATA SYNTHESIS: Nineteen studies were identified in the meta-analysis. Prenatal antimicrobial exposure was not associated with ASD (P = 0.06 > 0.05), whereas early childhood antimicrobial exposure was associated with an increased odds ratio of ASD (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = [1.08-1.27], P value < 0.001). The sibling-matched analysis, with a very limited sample size, suggested that neither prenatal (P = 0.47 > 0.05) nor early childhood (P = 0.13 > 0.05) antimicrobial exposure was associated with ASD. Medical professionals may need to take the possible association into consideration when prescribing an antimicrobial in children. CONCLUSIONS: Early childhood antimicrobial exposure could increase the incidence of ASD. In future studies, it would be necessary to control for confounding factors, such as genetic factors, parenteral age at birth, or low birthweight, to further validate the association.

Identification of a Genomic Instability-Related Long Noncoding RNA Prognostic Model in Colorectal Cancer Based on Bioinformatic Analysis.

Background: In recent years, a growing body of research has revealed that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in regulating genomic instability. Materials and Methods: We obtained RNA expression profiles, somatic mutation profiles, clinical information, and pathological features of colorectal cancer (CRC) from The Cancer Genome Atlas project. We divided the cohort into two groups based on mutation frequency and identified genomic instability-related lncRNAs (GI-lncRNAs) using R software. We further analyzed the function of identified GI-lncRNAs and established a prognostic model through Cox regression. Using the established prognostic model, we divided the cohort into the high- and low-risk groups and further verified the prognostic differences between the two groups as well as the predictive power of prognosis-related lncRNAs in the genomic instability of CRC. Results: We identified a total of 143 GI-lncRNAs that were differentially expressed between the higher mutation frequency group and the lower mutation frequency group. According to Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway and Gene Ontology analyses, a series of cancer-associated terms were enriched. We further constructed a prognostic model that included five GI-lncRNAs (lncRNA PTPRD-AS1, lncRNA AC009237.14, lncRNA LINC00543, lncRNA AP003555.1, and lncRNA AL109615.3). We confirmed that the expression of the five GI-lncRNAs was associated with prognosis and the mutation of critical genes in the CRC patient cohort. Conclusions: The present research further confirmed the vital function of GI-lncRNAs in the genomic instability of CRC. The five GI-lncRNAs identified in our study are potential biomarkers and need to be studied in more depth.

Interfacial synthesis and widely controllable conductivity of polythiophene microparticles.

Fine polythiophene (PTh) microparticles were successfully synthesized by a novel interfacial polymerization at a dynamic interface between two immiscible solvents, i.e., n-hexane and acetonitrile or nitromethane containing thiophene and oxidant, respectively. The polymerization yield, size, and electrical conductivity of the microparticles are optimized by facilely regulating the medium species, oxidant species, oxidant/monomer ratio, monomer concentration, and polymerization temperature. The microparticles were thoroughly characterized by IR, UV-vis spectroscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffractometry, laser particle-size analyzer, and simultaneous TG-DSC technique. The yield rises with increasing oxidant/monomer ratio, monomer concentration, and polymerization temperature. However, low monomer concentration, low polymerization temperature, and modest oxidant/monomer ratio are all favorable for the formation of the PTh with good, large pi-conjugation and high conductivity. With decreasing the thiophene concentration from 200 to 50 mM at a fixed FeCl3/thiophene molar ratio of 3 at 0 degrees C in hexane/nitromethane biphase system, the PTh obtained exhibits a steadily enhanced conductivity from 10(-12) to 0.01 S cm(-1) and gradually darkening color from crimson to black. Under the same conditions, the PTh obtained in hexane/acetonitrile usually possesses lower yield but higher conductivity than that in hexane/nitromethane. The conductivity will be further enhanced to 1.1 and 4.4 S cm(-1) if the PTh powders are doped in iodine vapor and simply carbonized at 25 through 999 degrees C in nitrogen, respectively. The PTh is fine particles with the number-average diameter of 2.67-3.95 microm and low size polydispersity index between 1.12 and 1.23. The black particles carbonized at 25 to 999 degrees C are much smaller than original PTh particles, with the number-average diameter of 279 nm and size polydispersity index of 1.09. This interfacial approach provides an optimal synthesis of unique PTh microparticles with large pi-conjugation, high conductivity, black color, uniform size, good insolubility, excellent infusibility, high thermostability, and high yield of electrically conducting char at 999 degrees C.