Clinical features, outcomes and risk factors for posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in systemic lupus erythematosus: a case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to investigate the clinical features, outcomes, and risk factors for posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS: From 2011 to October 2017, SLE patients with PRES were identified from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, China. Patients presenting with neuropsychiatric lupus hospitalized in the same period were included as controls. Additionally, survival status was acquired via telephone follow-up in March 2018. RESULTS: Thirty episodes of PRES were identified in 29 SLE patients from a total of 7059 SLE patients (prevalence 0.43%). Patients with PRES had a younger age at onset than controls, with seizures more commonly the initial clinical manifestation (80.00% vs 42.37%, p = 0.001). Multiple logistic regression yet again confirmed several known risk factors, including younger age (odds ratio (OR) 1.15 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.13-1.16)), nephritis (OR 20.74 (18.10-23.75)), history of hypertension (OR 1.17 (1.05-1.31)), SLE Disease Activity Index without neurologic symptoms (SLEDAI-N) score >12 (OR 1.14 (1.11-1.18)) and eclampsia (OR 9.38 (7.84-11.23)). Furthermore, we identified two novel independent risk factors for PRES in SLE: white blood cells >9 × 109/l (OR 2.33 (2.05-2.64)) and heart failure (OR 2.10 (1.18-2.42)). At follow-up, SLE patients with PRES had higher mortality than controls (30.77% vs 8.33%, respectively, p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS: PRES may be a reversible neurological deficit in patients with SLE other than neuropsychiatric lupus. Our results indicate two new risk factors for PRES and that PRES is associated with a higher mortality rate.

A high-spin ground-state donor-acceptor conjugated polymer.

Interest in high-spin organic materials is driven by opportunities to enable far-reaching fundamental science and develop technologies that integrate light element spin, magnetic, and quantum functionalities. Although extensively studied, the intrinsic instability of these materials complicates synthesis and precludes an understanding of how fundamental properties associated with the nature of the chemical bond and electron pairing in organic materials systems manifest in practical applications. Here, we demonstrate a conjugated polymer semiconductor, based on alternating cyclopentadithiophene and thiadiazoloquinoxaline units, that is a ground-state triplet in its neutral form. Electron paramagnetic resonance and magnetic susceptibility measurements are consistent with a high-to-low spin energy gap of 9.30 × 10-3 kcal mol-1. The strongly correlated electronic structure, very narrow bandgap, intramolecular ferromagnetic coupling, high electrical conductivity, solution processability, and robust stability open access to a broad variety of technologically relevant applications once thought of as beyond the current scope of organic semiconductors.

Study on the relationship between the structure and functions of anti-human cervical cancer single-chain antibody and the lengths of linkers.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to find the linker with minimal impact among chains to fight against the structure and function of cervical cancer (CC) single-chain antibody. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The original variable region of heavy chain (VH) and variable region of light chain (VL), and the single-chain antibody with linkers of different lengths (n = 1-8) were modeling by homologous modeling, while the peptide chain structure of (Gly4Ser)n was utilized by the linkers. Comparison of the similarity of original VH/VL and VHn/VLn was carried out by applying the algorithm of spatial hierarchical alignment based on the spherical coordinates. The fore and aft distance and diffusion radius of alpha (α) were also calculated. The stability of antibody with different linker length was then compared. ELISA method was adopted to evaluate the immunological activity of single-chain antibody with different linkers. MTT assay was used to analyze the inhibition effect of ScFv-n on CC cells. RESULTS: When n = 4, the structures were the most similar between ScFv and the original VH/VL. When n = 3, the influence of adding connecting peptide on the stability of single-chain antibody was the least. The result of ELISA and MTT methods indicated that when n = 3, single-chain antibody gained the highest activity. CONCLUSION: The optimum length of linker of anti-human CC single-chain antibody was n = 3 from the point of mathematical modeling and biology experiments. This study provided new ideas for the design and constructions of single-chain antibody, and theoretical basis for the treatment of CC.