Sex differences in prevalence and clinical correlates of internet addiction among Chinese adolescents with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit sex differences in various aspects, and patients with SCZ have a high prevalence of internet addiction (IA). However, sex differences in IA among patients with SCZ mostly remain unstudied, particularly in Chinese adolescent patients with SCZ. This study investigated sex differences in prevalence, risk factors, and clinical correlates of IA among Chinese adolescent patients with SCZ. METHODS: A total of 706 adolescent patients with SCZ were enrolled in this study using a cross-sectional design and a convenience sampling method. Demographics and clinical data of the patients were collected using a standardized clinical assessment form. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Young's Internet Addiction Test were used to evaluate psychopathological symptoms and IA respectively. RESULTS: Overall, the prevalence of IA among Chinese adolescent patients with SCZ was 26.30% (95% CI: 23.09-29.60%). In Chinese adolescents with SCZ, there was a sex difference in the comorbidity of IA (males: 33.33% vs. females: 21.69%). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that IA was significantly predicted by good socioeconomic status in male and female patients with SCZ. City of living and PANSS total score were associated with IA in male patients with SCZ. In contrast, hospitalization rate and depression score were associated with IA in female patients with SCZ. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests sex differences in clinical correlates of IA in Chinese adolescent patients with SCZ. An additional longitudinal study is required to confirm the findings of the present study.

A Platelet-Mimicking Single-Atom Nanozyme for Mitochondrial Damage-Mediated Mild-Temperature Photothermal Therapy.

Single-atom nanozyme (SAzyme) systems have shown great potential in tumor therapy. A multifunctional SAzyme not only possesses high catalytic activity but also can be used as photothermal agents in photothermal therapy (PTT). Furthermore, it is also imperative to overcome tumor thermal resistance in SAzyme-based PTT so that PTT under a mild temperature is achievable. Herein, a novel platelet membrane (PM)-coated mesoporous Fe single-atom nanozyme (Fe-SAzyme) was formulated to solve these issues. The PM-coated mesoporous Fe-SAzyme (PMS) showed a satisfactory NIR-II photothermal performance, high peroxidase (POD) activity, and good tumor-targeting ability. In addition, PMS may be used as a carrier for protein drugs owing to its inner mesoporous structure. In vitro experiments showed that PMS could inhibit the expression of heat shock protein (HSP) by damaging the mitochondria, thereby finally improving the effect of mild-temperature PTT. Moreover, in vivo results showed that PMS could efficiently accumulate in tumor sites and suppress tumor growth with minimal toxicity in major organs. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first report of a biomimetic mesoporous Fe-SAzyme used to achieve mitochondrial damage-mediated mild-temperature PTT. The study provides new promising ideas for designing other SAzyme systems for cancer treatment.

Prevalence and Related Factors of Insomnia Among Chinese Medical Staff in the Middle and Late Stage of COVID-19.

Background: The outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has brought serious psychological pressure to people, especially medical health staff. At present, there are few studies on insomnia and related factors of medical health staff in the middle and late stage of the epidemic of COVID-19. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of insomnia and its related risk factors among medical workers in China in the middle and later stage of COVID-19 epidemic, as well as the relationship between insomnia and psychological resilience. Methods: From February 14 to March 29, 2020, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 606 medical staff in China through Ranxing Technology's "SurveyStar" network platform. All subjects were assessed with the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and simplified Chinese version of Connor-Davidson Resilience scale (CD-RISC-10). Results: In the middle and later stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, the incidence of insomnia among medical staff was 32.0%. Compared with non-insomnia group, the insomnia group had younger age, lower education level, longer daily working hours and less psychological resilience. In addition, the prevalence of insomnia was higher in medical staff with a history of somatic diseases. The severity of insomnia of Chinese medical staff was associated with age, education level, daily working hours, psychological resilience and somatic diseases. Conclusions: Our study shows that nearly 1/3 of Chinese medical workers suffer from insomnia nearly a month after the COVID-19 outbreak. Compared with the general population, medical staff who are working with COVID are more prone to insomnia. Risk factors for insomnia include younger age, lower education level, longer working hours per day, and physical illness. The tenacious dimension of psychological resilience is a protective factor for insomnia.

A novel fluorescent probe for H2O2 detection based on CdSe@ZnS quantum dots/Ag nanocluster hybrid.

The selective and quantitative detection of H2O2 is important for its employment in physiological, environmental and industrial applications. In this paper, a sensitive and selective strategy for H2O2 detection was established based on the fluorescence quenching of CdSe@ZnS quantum dots (QDs) by H2O2-mediated etching process of Ag nanoclusters (AgNCs). In this strategy, dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA) modified AgNCs were applied as H2O2 response group, the existence of H2O2 could initiate the oxidation of AgNCs and the production of Ag+. CdSe@ZnS QDs are very sensitive to Ag+, which could give rise to the effective fluorescence quenching of CdSe@ZnS QDs. Based on this strategy, the present fluorescent assay could realize the quantification detection of H2O2 and the limit of detection is calculated to be 0.3 µM under the optimum conditions. Furthermore, CdSe@ZnS/AgNCs hybrid-based probe was applied to detecting H2O2 in milk samples and showed a good recoveries results ranged from 95.8% to 112.0%, meaning the potential applicability of this strategy.

Rapid ratiometric detection of Cd2+ based on the formation of ZnSe/CdS quantum dots.

Developing simple and sensitive non-aggregation strategy for detecting Cd2+ is necessary for improving the selectivity and sensitivity of probe. Here, we establish a simple, rapid and ratiometric strategy for the recognition of Cd2+ based on the formation of core-shell ZnSe/CdS structure using ZnSe quantum dots (QDs). The transformation from binary ZnSe QDs to core-shell ZnSe/CdS QDs both change the elemental composition and structure of ZnSe QDs, leading to the changes in band gap of ZnSe QDs, which could be observed in the UV-vis spectra. In the detection process, ZnSe QDs only possess absorption peak at 343 nm, the formation of ZnSe/CdS after the addition of Cd2+ leads to the appearance of the new peak at 397 nm, while other heavy metal ions could not cause the appearance of new absorption peak. Therefore, this strategy shows good selectivity for Cd2+ detection. Based on this strategy, the limit of detection (LOD) for Cd2+ is 11 nM by UV-vis spectroscopy with a desirable relation of linearity (R2 = 0.999) between A397/A343 and Cd2+ contents, which is superior to the LOD of most reported nanomaterials. The response time for Cd2+ detection is as short as 60 s, which is suitable for rapid detection. This ratiometric probe has also been applied to the detection of Cd2+ in tap water samples, the recovery of Cd2+ was between 94.9% and 105.6% for tap water samples, indicating the high accuracy of our ratiometric assay. Our strategy not only provided a new method for detecting Cd2+, but also put forward an implication that the band energy changes of QDs caused by heavy metal ions can be applied in the selective and sensitive detection of heavy metal ions.

Expression, purification, and characterization of formaldehyde dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

As a member of zinc-containing medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenase family, formaldehyde dehydrogenase (FDH) can oxidize toxic formaldehyde to less active formate with NAD(+) as a cofactor and exists in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Most FDHs are well known to be glutathione-dependent in the catalysis of formaldehyde oxidation, but the enzyme from Pseudomonas putida is an exception, which is independent of glutathione. To identify novel glutathione-independent FDHs from other bacterial strains and facilitate the corresponding structural and enzymatic studies, high-level soluble expression and efficient purification of these enzymes need to be achieved. Here, we present molecular cloning, expression, and purification of the FDH from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is a Gram-negative pathogenic bacterium causing opportunistic human infection. The FDH of P. aeruginosa shows high sequence identity (87.97%) with that of P. putida. Our results indicated that coexpression with molecular chaperones GroES, GroEL, and Tig has significantly attenuated inclusion body formation and improved the solubility of the recombinant FDH in Escherichiacoli cells. A purification protocol including three chromatographic steps was also established to isolate the recombinant FDH to homogeneity with a yield of ∼3.2 mg from 1L of cell culture. The recombinant P. aeruginosa FDH was properly folded and biologically functional, as demonstrated by the mass spectrometric, crystallographic, and enzymatic characterizations of the purified proteins.

Structure of formaldehyde dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa: the binary complex with the cofactor NAD+.

Formaldehyde dehydrogenase (FDH) is a member of the zinc-containing medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenase family which oxidizes toxic formaldehyde to formate using NAD(+) as an electron carrier. Three-dimensional structures have been reported for FDHs from several different species. Most FDHs are dependent on glutathione for catalysis, but the enzyme from Pseudomonas putida is an exception. In this structural communication, the recombinant production, crystallization and X-ray structure determination at 2.7 Šresolution of FDH from P. aeruginosa are described. Both the tetrameric assembly and the NAD(+)-binding mode of P. aeruginosa FDH are similar to those of P. putida FDH, which is in good agreement with the high sequence identity (87.97%) between these two proteins. Preliminary enzymatic kinetics studies of P. aeruginosa FDH also revealed a conserved glutathione-independent `ping-pong' mechanism of formaldehyde oxidization.