An evaluation of chest computed tomography and hemogram data in patients with COVID-19: The importance of the thymus.

BACKGROUND/AIM: To investigate the relationship between imaging findings and peripheral blood cell counts of COVID-19 patients and the degree of thymus fat involution of these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Computed tomography (CT) images of 87 patients with COVID-19 positive through RT-PCR testing were evaluated retrospectively by two radiologists. Ground glass densities and other signs of viral pneumonia were recorded, lung involvement was scored quantitatively. The patients thymus fat involution was graded on CT. Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio(NLR), platelet ? lymphocyte ratios(PLR), lymphocyte and platelet counts were calculated. Imaging findings and degrees of thymus fat involution were compared with laboratory data. RESULTS: Quantitative scoring of lung involvement was calculated at mean 6.63±4.70 (1-23) for observer 1 and mean 6.55±4.65(1-23) for observer 2 (K=0.824 ? 1.000). Statistical significance was determined between the increase in age and the increase in scores of lung findings(p=0.003). Lymphocyte count(p=0.0001) and PLR(p=0.001) were significantly lower in patients with severe CT involvement. A statistically significant correlation was found between increased thymus fat component and presence of COVID-19 lung involvement in CT (r = 0.461). CONCLUSION: The severity of imaging findings for COVID-19 patients significantly correlates with the degree of fat involution in patients? thymus tissue.

Potential Antidiabetic Activity of Benzimidazole Derivative Albendazole and Lansoprazole Drugs in Different Doses in Experimental Type 2 Diabetic Rats.

AIM: The aim of this study is to determine the effects of different concentrations of albendazole and lansoprazole, which were benzimidazole derivatives, on endocrinologic and biochemical parameters in experimental type 2 diabetic (T2D) rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, 46 male Wistar Albino rats were used. Animals were divided as healthy control (0.1 mL/rat/day saline, s.c, n=6), diabetes control (0.1 mL/rat/day saline, s.c, n=8), diabetes+low-dose albendazole (5 mg/kg, oral, n=8), diabetes+high-dose albendazole (10 mg/kg, oral n=8), diabetes+low-dose lansoprazole (15 mg/kg, subcutaneous, n=8) and diabetes+high-dose lansoprazole (30 mg/kg, subcutaneous, n=8). All groups were treated for 8 weeks. The blood samples were analyzed by autoanalyzer and ELISA kits for biochemical and endocrinological parameters, respectively. RESULTS: Glucose, HbA1c, triglyceride, LDL, leptin, and HOMA-IR levels increased and insulin and HOMA-ß levels decreased in the diabetic rats compared to the healthy control group. The glucose, HbA1c, and triglyceride levels were partially decreased however insulin and HOMA-ß levels were increased by low-dose albendazole therapy. The high dose of lansoprazole treatment increased insulin level. CONCLUSIONS: The lansoprazole and albendazole treatments can be a potential drug or combined with antidiabetic drugs in T2D treatment by AMPK, PPAR, incretin-like effect and other antidiabetic mechanisms. It may be beneficial to create an effective treatment strategy by developing more specific substances with benzimidazole scaffold.

Tellurium Triggered Formation of Te/Fe-NiOOH Nanocubes as an Efficient Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting.

The electrocatalyzed oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions (OER/HER) are the key constituents of water splitting toward hydrogen production over electrolysis. The development of stable non-noble nanomaterials as bifunctional OER/HER electrocatalysts is the foremost bottleneck to commercial applications. Herein, the fabrication of Te-modulated FeNiOOH nanocubes (NCs) by a novel tailoring approach is reported, and the doping of Te superbly modulated the local electronic structures of Fe and Ni. The Te/FeNiOOH-NC catalyst displays better mass and electron transfer ability, exposure of plentiful OER/HER edge active centers on the surface, and a modulated electronic structure. Accordingly, the as-made Te/FeNiOOH-NC catalyst reveals robust OER activity (overpotential of 0.22 V@10 mA cm-2) and HER activity (overpotential of 0.167 V@10 mA cm-2) in alkaline media. Considerably, this bifunctional catalyst facilitates a high-performance alkaline water electrolyzer with a cell voltage of 1.65 V at 10 mA cm-2. This strategy opens up a new way for designing and advancing the tellurium dopant nanomaterials for various applications.

Color-Tunable Persistent Luminescence of Ca10M(PO4)7:Eu2+ (M = Li, Na, and K) with a ß-Ca3(PO4)2-Type Structure.

Eu2+-activated Ca10M(PO4)7 (M = Li, Na, and K) phosphates have been explored extensively because of their tunable emission wavelengths and excellent luminescence performances. Herein, the persistent luminescence (PersL) properties of Eu2+-doped Ca10M(PO4)7 phosphors with a ß-Ca3(PO4)2-type structure are reported. With the variation of alkali metal M from Li to Na and to K, the PersL color can be adjusted sequentially from yellow to white and to blue, and the persistent durations are prolonged significantly from about ∼61 s for Ca9.997Li(PO4)7:0.003Eu2+ to ∼1950 s for Ca9.999Na(PO4)7:0.001Eu2+ and to ∼7440 s for Ca9.9995K(PO4)7:0.0005Eu2+ at the threshold value (0.32 mcd/m2) after 254 nm irradiation. The trap depths are estimated according to the thermoluminescence glow curves with various heating rates. Comparing the thermoluminescence excitation and photoluminescence excitation spectra, it can be verified that there are two sources of ionized electrons in the charging process: one is excited from the valence band to the conduction band (CB) and the other is excited from the 4f ground state of Eu2+ to the higher 5d levels or directly to the CB. Finally, the PersL mechanism is proposed. This work is expected to motivate more research of Eu2+-doped phosphate-based PersL materials, as well as contributes to the understanding of the PersL mechanism of Eu2+-doped phosphors.

Synchronous Control of Chain Length/Sequence/Topology for Precision Synthesis of Cyclic Block Copolymers from Monomer Mixtures.

Precision synthesis of cyclic polymers with predictable molecular weight and low dispersity is a challenging task, particularly concerning cyclic polar vinyl polymers through a rapid chain-growth mechanism and without high dilution. Harder yet is the precision synthesis of cyclic block copolymers (cBCPs), ideally from comonomer mixtures. Here we report that Lewis pair polymerization (LPP) capable of thermodynamically and kinetically compounded sequence control successfully addressed this longstanding challenge. Thus, LPP of acrylate/methacrylate mixtures under ambient temperature and normal concentration conditions rapidly and selectively affords well-defined cBCPs with high molecular weight (Mn = 247 kg/mol) and low dispersity (D = 1.04) in one step. Such cBCPs have been characterized by multiple techniques, including direct structural observation by imaging.

Understanding Mechanochromic Luminescence on Account of Molecular Level Based on Phosphorescent Iridium(III) Complex Isomers.

Mechanochromic luminescent (MCL) materials are promising in pressure sensors, security papers, photoelectric devices and optical data recording. Although some kinds of MCL-active iridium(III) complexes with various soft substituent functional ligands (e.g., dendritic carbazole, flexible chains, and Schiff base ligands) were reported, the MCL mechanism is still not clear and mainly ascribes to the physical phase transformations from crystalline state to amorphous state in response to force stimulus at present stage, and deserves further study in order to obtain more intelligent MCL materials. Herein, two new iridium(III) complex isomers are tactfully constructed and show distinctly opposite MCL properties in spite of the same physical phase transformations happening on them. The absolutely out of the ordinary MCL mechanism has been presented on account of molecular level for the first time via the comparative study of photophysical properties based on isomers 1 and 2 with the help of crystal structure analysis, room/low temperature emission spectra, NMR, PXRD, and TD-DFT calculations. All of these results suggest that the emitting state dominated by the triplet charge transfer excited state (3CT) plays a key role in achieving mechanochromic luminescence in iridium(III) complex systems.

Efficient p-n Heterojunction Perovskite Solar Cell without a Redundant Electron Transport Layer and Interface Engineering.

We report an electron transport layer-free perovskite solar cell (PSC) without interface engineering, whose key is a p-n heterojunction consisting of ITO/n-type FA0.9Cs0.1PbI3-xClx/p-type spiro-MeOTAD/Ag. The naturally matched energy levels between FA0.9Cs0.1PbI3-xClx and ITO make interface engineering unnecessary. The FA0.9Cs0.1PbI3-xClx film has a wide antisolvent processing window, favoring large-area production. The self-seeding growth method regulates the energy levels and work function of the FA0.9Cs0.1PbI3-xClx film via modulating the shape and distribution of residual PbI2. Interface band bending is confirmed by double-side photoluminescence (PL) measurement. Reduced PL is introduced for unambiguous charge transfer analysis without interference caused by different absorbance. Accordingly, enhanced ITO/perovskite interface energy level alignment and device performance (efficiency of 17.48% and Voc of 1.02 V) are demonstrated. Such simplified but efficient PSCs featuring a wide antisolvent processing window have great potential in practical applications.

Transmucosal Delivery of Self-Assembling Photosensitizer-Nitazoxanide Nanocomplexes with Fluorinated Chitosan for Instillation-Based Photodynamic Therapy of Orthotopic Bladder Tumors.

Theoretically, on account of improved local bioavailability of photosensitizers and attenuated systemic phototoxicity, intravesical instillation-based photodynamic therapy (PDT) for bladder cancer (BCa) would demonstrate significant advantages in comparison with the intravenous route. Actually, the low transmucosal efficiency, hypoxia regulation deficiency, as well as the biosafety risks of intravesical drug agents all have greatly limited the clinical development of instillation-based PDT for BCa. Herein, based on our recent findings on bladder intravesical vectors and photodynamic treatment, we explore and find that the conventional antiparasitic agent nitazoxanide (NTZ) by mixing with chlorine e6 (Ce6) conjugated human serum albumin (HSA), HSA-Ce6, is capable of forming self-assembled HSA-Ce6/NTZ nanoparticles (NPs). Then, the HSA-Ce6/NTZ complexes further fabricate with fluorinated chitosan (FCS), the synthesized transmucosal carrier, to form a biocompatible nanoscale system HSA-Ce6/NTZ/FCS NPs, which exhibit remarkably improved transmucosal delivery and uptake capacities compared with HSA-Ce6/NTZ alone or non-fluorinated HSA-Ce6/NTZ/CS NPs. Meanwhile, due to the metabolic regulation of tumor cells by NTZ, the tumor hypoxia could be efficaciously ameliorated to further favor PDT. This work represents a new photosensitizer nanomedicine formulation for the perfection of PDT performance through the modulation of tumor hypoxia by clinically approved agents. Thus, intravesical instillation of HSA-Ce6/NTZ/FCS NPs with favorable biocompatibility, followed by cystoscope-mediated PDT, could achieve a dramatically improved therapeutic effect to ablate orthotopic bladder tumors.