Decoding trends in mRNA vaccine research: A comprehensive bibliometric study.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, infectious diseases like COVID-19 have had profound global socio-economic impacts. mRNA vaccines have gained prominence due to their rapid development, industrial adaptability, simplicity, and responsiveness to new variants. Notably, the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognized significant contributions to mRNA vaccine research. METHODS: Our study employed a comprehensive bibliometric analysis using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database, encompassing 5,512 papers on mRNA vaccines from 2003 to 2023. We generated cooperation maps, co-citation analyses, and keyword clustering to evaluate the field's developmental history and achievements. RESULTS: The analysis yielded knowledge maps highlighting countries/institutions, influential authors, frequently published and highly cited journals, and seminal references. Ongoing research hotspots encompass immune responses, stability enhancement, applications in cancer prevention and treatment, and combating infectious diseases using mRNA technology. CONCLUSIONS: mRNA vaccines represent a transformative development in infectious disease prevention. This study provides insights into the field's growth and identifies key research priorities, facilitating advancements in vaccine technology and addressing future challenges.

Multi-Query Vehicle Re-Identification: Viewpoint-Conditioned Network, Unified Dataset and New Metric.

Existing vehicle re-identification methods mainly rely on the single query, which has limited information for vehicle representation and thus significantly hinders the performance of vehicle Re-ID in complicated surveillance networks. In this paper, we propose a more realistic and easily accessible task, called multi-query vehicle Re-ID, which leverages multiple queries to overcome viewpoint limitation of single one. Based on this task, we make three major contributions. First, we design a novel viewpoint-conditioned network (VCNet), which adaptively combines the complementary information from different vehicle viewpoints, for multi-query vehicle Re-ID. Moreover, to deal with the problem of missing vehicle viewpoints, we propose a cross-view feature recovery module which recovers the features of the missing viewpoints by learnt the correlation between the features of available and missing viewpoints. Second, we create a unified benchmark dataset, taken by 6142 cameras from a real-life transportation surveillance system, with comprehensive viewpoints and large number of crossed scenes of each vehicle for multi-query vehicle Re-ID evaluation. Finally, we design a new evaluation metric, called mean cross-scene precision (mCSP), which measures the ability of cross-scene recognition by suppressing the positive samples with similar viewpoints from the same camera. Comprehensive experiments validate the superiority of the proposed method against other methods, as well as the effectiveness of the designed metric in the evaluation of multi-query vehicle Re-ID. The codes and dataset are available at: https://github.com/zhangchaobin001/VCNet.

Advances in new target molecules against schistosomiasis: A comprehensive discussion of physiological structure and nutrient intake.

Schistosomiasis, a severe parasitic disease, is primarily caused by Schistosoma mansoni, Schistosoma japonicum, or Schistosoma haematobium. Currently, praziquantel is the only recommended drug for human schistosome infection. However, the lack of efficacy of praziquantel against juvenile worms and concerns about the emergence of drug resistance are driving forces behind the research for an alternative medication. Schistosomes are obligatory parasites that survive on nutrients obtained from their host. The ability of nutrient uptake depends on their physiological structure. In short, the formation and maintenance of the structure and nutrient supply are mutually reinforcing and interdependent. In this review, we focus on the structural features of the tegument, esophagus, and intestine of schistosomes and their roles in nutrient acquisition. Moreover, we introduce the significance and modes of glucose, lipids, proteins, and amino acids intake in schistosomes. We linked the schistosome structure and nutrient supply, introduced the currently emerging targets, and analyzed the current bottlenecks in the research and development of drugs and vaccines, in the hope of providing new strategies for the prevention and control of schistosomiasis.

Dexmedetomidine and acute kidney injury following cardiac surgery in pediatric patients-An updated systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common postoperative complication in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery and associated with poor outcomes. Dexmedetomidine has the pharmacological features of organ protection in cardiac surgery patients. The aim of this meta-analysis is to investigate the effect of dexmedetomidine infusion on the incidence of AKI after cardiac surgery in pediatric patients. Methods: The databases of Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched until April 24, 2022 following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. RevMan 5.3 was used to perform statistical analyses. Results: Five relevant trials with a total of 630 patients were included. The pooled result using fixed-effects model with OR demonstrated significant difference in the incidence of AKI between patients with dexmedetomidine and placebo (OR = 0.49, 95% CI: [0.33, 0.73], I 2 = 0%, p for effect = 0.0004). Subgroup analyses were performed based on congenital heart disease (CHD) types and dexmedetomidine intervention time. Pooled results did not demonstrate considerable difference in the incidence of AKI in pediatric patients receiving intraoperative (OR = 0.53, 95% CI: [0.29, 0.99], I 2 = 0%, p for effect = 0.05) or postoperative dexmedetomidine infusion (OR = 0.56, 95% CI: [0.31, 1.04], p for effect = 0.07), but a significant difference in patients receiving combination of intra- and postoperative dexmedetomidine infusion (OR = 0.27, 95% CI: [0.09, 0.77], p for effect = 0.01). Besides, there was no significant difference in duration of mechanical ventilation (SMD: -0.19, 95% CI: -0.46 to 0.08, p for effect = 0.16; SMD: -0.16, 95% CI: -0.37 to 0.06, p for effect = 0.15), length of ICU (SMD: 0.02, 95% CI: -0.41 to 0.44, p for effect = 0.93) and hospital stay (SMD: 0.2, 95% CI: -0.13 to 0.54, p for effect = 0.23), and in-hospital mortality (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 0.33-4.84, p for effect = 0.73) after surgery according to the pooled results of the secondary outcomes. Conclusion: Compared to placebo, dexmedetomidine could significantly reduce the postoperative incidence of AKI in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), but the considerable difference was reflected in the pediatric patients receiving combination of intra- and postoperative dexmedetomidine infusion. Besides, there was no significant difference in duration of mechanical ventilation, length of ICU and hospital stay, or in-hospital mortality after surgery.

Focus on ferroptosis regulation: Exploring novel mechanisms and applications of ferroptosis regulator.

Ferroptosis is a kind of iron-dependent regulatory necrosis characterized by the fatal accumulation of iron-dependent lipid peroxides in the plasma membrane and the final oxidative damage of the cell membrane. Morphologically, ferroptosis features high membrane density, decreased or disappeared cristae, rupture of the mitochondrial outer membrane, plasma membrane integrity loss, cytoplasmic swelling, and organelle swelling. Under physiological conditions, ferroptosis occurs through two major pathways, the extrinsic or transporter-dependent pathway and the intrinsic or enzyme-regulated pathway, triggered by a series of small molecules inside and outside the cell. At present, it is assumed that ferroptosis is mainly related to abnormal toxicity of iron, lipid peroxidation, and mitochondrial dysfunction. With more detailed studies, ferroptosis plays potential pathogenic roles in multisystem diseases as a pathological response, and targeted regulation of ferroptosis in treating ferroptosis-related diseases has broad prospects. In conclusion, it is of great clinical significance to further clarify the specific mechanism of ferroptosis and explore new strategies for ferroptosis regulation. The present review emphatically summarizes the latest mechanism of ferroptosis, focusing on the regulation mechanism and clinical application of ferroptosis inducers and inhibitors. We are devoted to providing new ideas for the further study of ferroptosis and the diagnosis and treatment of ferroptosis-related multisystem diseases.

Correlation between ITGB2 expression and clinical characterization of glioma and the prognostic significance of its methylation in low-grade glioma(LGG).

Introduction: Glioma is the most common primary tumor in the brain.Integrin beta 2(ITGB2) is a member of the leukocyte integrin family (leukocyte integrin), participating in lymphocyte recycling and homing, cell adhesion, and cell surface-mediated signal transduction. However, few studies on ITGB2 in gliomas have been reported yet.This study first discussed the relationship between ITGB2 expression and clinical characterization of glioma and the prognostic significance of its methylation in low-grade glioma. Methods: We collected Clinical data and transcription of glioma patients from TCGA, CGGA, and Rembrant datasets to analyze the differential expression of ITGB2 mRNA in glioma tissues and normal tissues. The box polts to evaluated the expression patterns of ITGB2 in different molecular subtypes. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) were used to evaluate and verify the reliability of the model. Kaplan-Meier survival curves to evaluated the relationship between the level of ITGB2 mRNA expression and overall survival (OS). Using cox regression analysis to verify the ability of ITGB2 as an independent predictor of OS in glioma patients. We use TIMER to analyze and visualize the association between immune infiltration levels and a range of variables. The methylation of GBMLGG patients were obtained from the TCGA database through the biological portal. Results: ITGB2 can be a potential marker for mesenchymal molecular subtype gliomas. COX regression analysis shows that ITGB2 is an independent predictive marker of OS in malignant glioma patients. Biological processes show that ITGB2 has involved glioma immune-related activities, especially closely related to B cells, CD4+Tcells, macrophages, neutrophils, and dendritic cells. ITGB2 is negatively regulated by ITGB2 methylation, resulting in low expression in LGG tissues. Low expression of ITGB2 and high methylation indicate good OS in patients with LGG. The ITGB2 methylation risk score (ITMRS) obtained from the ITGB2 methylation CpG site can better predict the OS of LGG patients. We used univariate and multivariate cox regression analysis of methylationsites, used the R language predict function to obtain the risk score of these ITGB2 methylation sites(ITMRS). Discussion: ITGB2 can be used as a potential marker of mesenchymal molecular subtypes of gliomas and as an independent predictive marker of OS in patients with malignant gliomas. The ITMRS we established can be used as an independent prognostic factor for LGG and provide a new idea for the diagnosis and treatment of LGG.

Predictors of Short-term Outcomes Following Repair of Anomalous Origin of the Left Coronary Artery From the Pulmonary Artery in Chinese Children: A Case-Control Study.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the predictive factors associated with prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) and prolonged duration of inotropic support (PDIS) following anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) surgery with possible concomitant mitral valve procedure (MVP) in a relatively young population. DESIGN: A retrospective case-control study. SETTING: Fuwai hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Pediatric patients with ALCAPA surgery from July 2010 to October 2017. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: PMV was defined as a mechanical ventilation time ≥48 hours and PDIS as a duration of inotropic support ≥6 days. Univariate analysis, logistic regression analysis, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were used to identify independent predictors of PMV and PDIS. The independent predictors of PMV were found to be the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter z-score (LVEDDz), estimate of glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and maximum vasoactive-inotropic score (VISm). The odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for these predictors of PMV were the following: LVEDDz, 1.58 (1.19-2.09); eGFR, 0.96 (0.93-0.998); and VISm, 1.08 (1.01-1.17). The predictor of PDIS was LVEDDz at 1.65 (1.26-2.15). One patient died during hospitalization, and there was no reoperation. Thirty-seven patients received concomitant MVP with no hospital mortality. At discharge, mitral regurgitation (MR) had improved in all patients with MR. Patients with PMV were associated with more acute kidney injury, PDIS, and longer ICU and hospital stays. CONCLUSIONS: In relatively young individuals who received ALCAPA surgery and possible concomitant MVP, short-term outcomes are favorable. Based on their experience bias, the authors recommend combining LVEDDz, eGFR, and VISm to predict PMV and applying LVEDDz for PDIS.

Risk factors for anastomotic leakage following esophagectomy: Impact of thoracic epidural analgesia.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Anastomotic leakage (AL) is one of common complications after esophageal cancer surgery. Thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) is often recommended in patients undergoing esophagectomy. However, the impact of TEA on AL is still controversial. Thus, we conducted this study to evaluate the effect of TEA on the occurrence of AL and identify risk factors for the development of AL following esophagectomy. METHODS: Our retrospective study identified patients who underwent elective esophagectomy between July 2013 and July 2016. Univariate and multivariate logistics analyses and propensity score matching analysis were conducted to identify the risk factors for AL occurring within 30 days after operation. RESULTS: Overall 30-day AL was 7.9%. Multivariate analysis revealed that surgical procedure (Sweet: referent; Ivor-Lewis: OR 2.854; 95%CI 1.726-4.718; Three-incision: OR 4.837; 95%CI 3.457-6.768) and surgeon (high-volume: referent; low-volume: OR 1.740; 95%CI 1.269-2.384) were independent risk factors for AL after esophagectomy. No statistically significant difference was observed in the incidences of AL between the epidural analgesia group and the intravenous analgesia group either before or after propensity score matching (9.1% vs 7.7%, P = 0.359; 8.3% vs 9.2%, P = 0.683). CONCLUSIONS: TEA does not affect the AL risk after esophagectomy.

Is propofol injection pain really important to patients?

BACKGROUND: Propofol injection pain (PIP) has been adequately studied during the past decades. However, patients' opinion on this problem and the incidence of patients' recall of this brief discomfort are still unknown. Thus, we conducted this study to know the patients' perspectives on PIP and provide useful information about the incidence of recall of PIP under our routine general anesthesia. METHODS: Five hundred preoperative questionnaires were distributed to patients who were scheduled for elective open thyroidectomy under general anesthesia from May 2016 to July 2016. They were asked to rank ten possible adverse effects associated with general anesthesia from their most undesirable to their least undesirable effect. Patients who completed the preoperative questionnaires were asked whether they could recall PIP and to grade the severity of PIP on the first postoperative day. RESULTS: A total of 448 preoperative questionnaires were returned and analyzed with an efficient rate of 89.6%. Incisional pain was ranked as most undesirable, followed (in order) by vomiting, gagging on the tracheal tube, nausea, sore throat, propofol injection pain, shivering, intravenous puncture pain, and anxiety. The majority (91.5%) of surveyed patients could not recall any discomfort or pain during anesthetics injection. Of those who could recall PIP, 89.5% grade it as mild pain, 7.9% moderate pain, and 2.6% severe pain. CONCLUSIONS: Most of patients undergoing elective open thyroidectomy in our hospital viewed PIP as a relatively minor problem. The incidence of recall of PIP was low and the majority of those who recalled regarded it as mild, temporary and acceptable pain. However, further investigations into propofol injection pain may be warranted as patients' perspectives on propofol injection pain and its severity may differ between patient populations.

5-HT3 Receptor Antagonists for the Prevention of Perioperative Shivering: A Meta-Analysis.

The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the preventive efficacy and safety of 5-HT3 receptor antagonists (5-HT3 RAs) on perioperative shivering. Relevant databases were searched to identify eligible randomized, controlled trials through January 2016. Primary outcome was the incidence of perioperative shivering, and secondary outcomes were the incidence of safety-related outcomes including postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), bradycardia, and hypotension. We calculated risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for dichotomous data. Trial sequential analysis was performed to assess the risk of random errors and calculate the required information size. Sixteen studies with a total of 1126 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with the control group, 5-HT3 RAs administered intravenously could statistically significantly reduce the incidence of perioperative shivering (RR, 0.44; 95%CI, 0.35 to 0.56; P < .00001; heterogeneity: I2 = 30%) as well as PONV (RR, 0.52; 95%CI, 0.28 to 0.97; P = .04; heterogeneity: I2 = 0%). However, they did not show superiority in lowering the rate of bradycardia (RR, 0.75; 95%CI, 0.38 to 1.49; P = 0.42; heterogeneity: I2 = 0%) or hypotension (RR, 0.79; 95%CI, 0.44 to 1.43; P = .44; heterogeneity: I2 = 24%). Trial sequential analysis of primary outcome showed that the required information size was 2634 patients and that the trial sequential monitoring boundary was crossed. Thus, more high-quality randomized, controlled trials with larger sample sizes are still required to draw a definite conclusion about the preventive efficacy of 5-HT3 RAs on perioperative shivering prevention in the future.

Vegetation dynamics and its driving forces from climate change and human activities in the Three-River Source Region, China from 1982 to 2012.

The Three-River Source Region (TRSR), a region with key importance to the ecological security of China, has undergone climate changes and a shift in human activities driven by a series of ecological restoration projects in recent decades. To reveal the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation dynamics and calculate the contributions of driving factors in the TRSR across different periods from 1982 to 2012, net primary productivity (NPP) estimated using the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach model was used to assess the status of vegetation. The actual effects of different climatic variation trends on interannual variation in NPP were analyzed. Furthermore, the relationships of NPP with different climate factors and human activities were analyzed quantitatively. Results showed the following: from 1982 to 2012, the average NPP in the study area was 187.37gcm(-2)yr(-1). The average NPP exhibited a fluctuation but presented a generally increasing trend over the 31-year study period, with an increase rate of 1.31gcm(-2)yr(-2). During the entire study period, the average contributions of temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation to NPP interannual variation over the entire region were 0.58, 0.73, and 0.09gcm(-2)yr(-2), respectively. Radiation was the climate factor with the greatest influence on NPP interannual variation. The factor that restricted NPP increase changed from temperature and radiation to precipitation. The average contributions of climate change and human activities to NPP interannual variation were 1.40gcm(-2)yr(-2) and -0.08gcm(-2)yr(-2), respectively. From 1982 to 2000, the general climate conditions were favorable to vegetation recovery, whereas human activities had a weaker negative impact on vegetation growth. From 2001 to 2012, climate conditions began to have a negative impact on vegetation growth, whereas human activities made a favorable impact on vegetation recovery.

Hydrogen gas inhalation protects against liver ischemia/reperfusion injury by activating the NF-κB signaling pathway.

Hydrogen has been demonstrated to function as a novel antioxidant and exert therapeutic antioxidant activity in a number of diseases. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of hydrogen inhalation on liver ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats. The portal triad to the left lobe and the left middle lobe of the liver were completely occluded for 90 min. This was followed by reperfusion for 180 min. The rats subsequently underwent syngeneic orthotopic liver transplantation. Inhalation of various concentrations (1, 2 and 3%) of hydrogen gas and its administration for different durations (1, 3 and 6 h) immediately prior to the I/R injury allowed the optimal dose and duration of administration to be determined. Liver injury was evaluated through biochemical and histopathological examinations. The expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6, were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Liver nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) was detected by qPCR and western blot analysis. Inhalation of hydrogen gas at 2% concentration for 1 h significantly reduced the serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activities, the expression of cytokines, including IL-6, TNF-α, early growth response protein 1 (Egr-1) and IL-1ß, and morphological damage. In addition, the mRNA and protein expression levels of NF-κB, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and zinc finger protein A20 (A20) in rats where only the donors received hydrogen were significantly increased compared with those in rats where both the donor and recipient, or only the recipient received hydrogen. The results indicate that hydrogen inhalation at 2% concentration for 1 h prior to liver transplantation protected the rats from ischemia/reperfusion injury by activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway.

An increased abundance of tumor-infiltrating regulatory T cells is correlated with the progression and prognosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) can inhibit cytotoxic responses. Though several studies have analyzed Treg frequency in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) patients using flow cytometry (FCM), few studies have examined how intratumoral Tregs might contribute to immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. Thus, the potential role of intratumoral Tregs in PDA patients remains to be elucidated. In this study, we found that the percentages of Tregs, CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells were all increased significantly in tumor tissue compared to control pancreatic tissue, as assessed via FCM, whereas the percentages of these cell types in PBMCs did not differ between PDA patients and healthy volunteers. The percentages of CD8+ T cells in tumors were significantly lower than in PDA patient PBMCs. In addition, the relative numbers of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs and CD8+ T cells were negatively correlated in the tissue of PDA patients, and the abundance of Tregs was significantly correlated with tumor differentiation. Additionally, Foxp3+ T cells were observed more frequently in juxtatumoral stroma (immediately adjacent to the tumor epithelial cells). Patients showing an increased prevalence of Foxp3+ T cells had a poorer prognosis, which was an independent factor for patient survival. These results suggest that Tregs may promote PDA progression by inhibiting the antitumor immunity of CD8+ T cells at local intratumoral sites. Moreover, a high proportion of Tregs in tumor tissues may reflect suppressed antitumor immunity.

miR-15a inhibits cell proliferation and epithelial to mesenchymal transition in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma by down-regulating Bmi-1 expression.

PURPOSES: To investigate whether miR-15a inhibits cell proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) via the down-regulation of B cell-specific moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site 1 (Bmi-1) expression. METHODS AND RESULTS: miR-15a and Bmi-1 expressions in normal pancreatic tissue and PDAC tissue were measured. The relationship between miR-15a and Bmi-1 expression was analyzed. We found that miR-15a suppressed the expression of Bmi-1 and PDAC cell proliferation; E-cadherin expression was visibly up-regulated after silencing Bmi-1 by transfecting miR-15a into PDAC cell line. CONCLUSION: miR-15a inhibits cell proliferation and EMT in PDAC via the down-regulation of Bmi-1 expression.