Assessing the Efficacy of Clotrimazole and Metronidazole Combined Treatment in Vaginitis: A Meta-Analysis.

Objective: This meta-analysis aims to assess the efficacy of combining clotrimazole and metronidazole in the treatment of mixed infectious vaginitis (VA). The goal is to provide clinical guidance for future medication strategies. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive search of the literature database for studies involving the use of clotrimazole combined with metronidazole in the treatment of mixed infectious VA. After rigorous screening, eligible studies were subjected to meta-analysis using RevMan 5.3 software. Outcome measures included cure rates, recurrence rates, and the incidence of adverse reactions. Results: Six randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included, comprising 160 patients in the test group (treated with clotrimazole combined with metronidazole) and 160 patients in the control group (treated with alternative regimens). All selected studies were of high quality and possessed significant reference value. Meta-analysis results indicated that, in comparison to the control group, the test group exhibited a comparable incidence of adverse reactions (P > .05), higher cure rates, increased treatment satisfaction, and a lower recurrence rate (P < .05). Conclusions: The combination of clotrimazole and metronidazole is an effective treatment option for mixed infectious vaginitis, thus warranting recommendation.

UPF3A is dispensable for nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in mouse pluripotent and somatic cells.

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a highly conserved regulatory mechanism of post-transcriptional gene expression in eukaryotic cells. NMD plays essential roles in mRNA quality and quantity control and thus safeguards multiple biological processes including embryonic stem cell differentiation and organogenesis. UPF3A and UPF3B in vertebrate species, originated from a single UPF3 gene in yeast, are key factors in the NMD machinery. Although UPF3B is a well-recognized weak NMD-promoting factor, whether UPF3A functions in promoting or suppressing NMD is under debate. In this study, we generated a Upf3a conditional knockout mouse strain and established multiple lines of embryonic stem cells and somatic cells without UPF3A. Through extensive analysis on the expressions of 33 NMD targets, we found UPF3A neither represses NMD in mouse embryonic stem cells, somatic cells, nor in major organs including the liver, spleen, and thymus. Our study reinforces that UPF3A is dispensable for NMD when UPF3B is present. Furthermore, UPF3A may weakly and selectively promote NMD in certain murine organs.

Inflammatory Cytokines Changed in Patients With Depression Before and After Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Treatment.

Studies have found that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation rTMS can produce antidepressant effects by affecting inflammatory cytokines in patients with depression, which plays a key role in the therapeutic mechanism of antidepressants. This study aimed to explore the changes in inflammatory cytokine levels in patients with depression after 4 weeks of rTMS treatment to determine the possible antidepressant mechanism of rTMS. This prospective, double-blind, pseudo-stimulus-controlled study was conducted, and a total of 57 patients with depression and 30 healthy controls were recruited. Patients were randomly divided into the active rTMS (n = 29) and sham rTMS groups (n = 28). The Hamilton Depression Scale was used to evaluate depressive symptoms and their severity. The serum levels of seven inflammatory cytokines were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Inflammatory cytokines include high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP-hc); tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α); interferon (IFN-γ); interleukin-2 (IL-2); interleukin-4 (IL-4); interleukin-6 (IL-6); and interleukin-8 (IL-8). At baseline, TNF-α (F = 36.699, p < 0.001), IFN-γ (F = 8.907, p < 0.001), IL-4 (F = 66.256, p < 0.001), and IL-2 (F = 9.162, p < 0.001) levels in the depression group were significantly different from those of healthy controls. In the self-control analysis of the active rTMS group, the levels of IL-2 and CRP-hc increased significantly after 2 and 12 weeks of treatment. In the sham-rTMS group, IFN-γ increased after 2 and 12 weeks of treatment. Our results revealed that the changes in inflammatory cytokines after rTMS treatment showed different patterns compared to the sham group, suggesting that the antidepressant effect of rTMS may be related to changes in inflammatory cytokines.

Synthesis and characterization of double-network hydrogels based on sodium alginate and halloysite for slow release fertilizers.

In this work, novel sodium alginate-based double-network hydrogel beads were prepared and applied for the water-retention and slow release of fertilizers (WSF). The WSF beads were prepared by ion-crosslinking and the free radical polymerization of acrylic acid, acrylamide, and polymerizable ß-cyclodextrin in the presence of urea-loaded halloysites. The WSF beads were characterized using SEM, FTIR, and TGA. Their swelling capacity and water retention were measured by a weighing method and their slow-release behavior was studied by spectrophotometry. The water retention and slow release results showed that the fertilizer displayed improved urea release and water retention properties, indicating that halloysite nanotubes clearly improved the performance of fertilizers. In addition, the experimental data of the slow release of urea in water and soil better fitted the Korsmeyer-Peppas model compared with the Higuchi model, a zero-order model or a first order mode. The release behavior of the fertilizer beads followed a Fickian diffusion mechanism.

Process optimization and kinetic evaluation for biosynthesis of D-isoascorbyl stearate.

The synthesis of D-isoascorbyl stearate from D-isoascorbic acid and stearic acid with immobilized lipase (Novozym(®)435) as catalyst was studied. Response surface methodology and Box-Behnken design with six variables and three levels were employed to evaluate the effects of processing conditions on the conversion of D-isoascorbic acid. The results confirmed that the response surface method and statistical analysis were proved to be useful in developing optimal conditions for D-isoascorbyl stearate synthesis. The optimum conditions were predicted as follows: reaction temperature 48 °C, reaction time 17.7 h, immobilized lipase amount 50.0 % (w/w, of D-isoascorbic acid), substrate molar ratio 9:1 (stearic acid to D-isoascorbic acid), D-isoascorbic acid concentration 0.14 mol/L (based on solvent), 4A molecular sieve addition 200 g/L (based on solvent), and the optimal conversion was 90.6 %. Through the kinetics model fitting of the esterification, it was considered that the esterification conformed to a Ping-Pong bi-bi kinetic model with D-isoascorbic acid inhibition, and the obtained kinetic constants showed that the inhibition of D-isoascorbic acid and the enzyme affinity to substrate were abate with the increase of the reaction temperature.