Development of an Accelerated Rotator-based Drug Release Method for the Evaluation of Bupivacaine Multivesicular Liposomes.

PURPOSE: A multivesicular liposome (MVL) is a liposomal vehicle designed to achieve sustained release characteristics for drugs with short half-lives. For example, a commercial MVL formulation of bupivacaine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for local and regional analgesia. For complex formulations like those containing MVLs, challenges in developing an in vitro release testing (IVRT) method may hinder generic development and regulatory approval. In this study, we developed an accelerated rotator-based IVRT method with the ability to discriminate bupivacaine MVLs with different quality attributes. METHODS: Three IVRT experimental setups including mesh tube, horizontal shaker, and vertical rotator were screened to ensure that at least 50% of bupivacaine can release from MVLs in 24 h. Sample dilution factors, incubation temperature, and the release media pH were optimized for the IVRT. The reproducibility of the developed IVRT method was validated with commercial bupivacaine MVLs. The discriminative capacity was assessed via comparing commercial and compromised bupivacaine MVL formulations. RESULTS: The rotator-based release setup was chosen due to the capability to obtain 70% of drug release within 24 h. The optimized testing conditions were chosen with a 50-fold dilution factor, a temperature of 37ºC, and a media pH of 7.4. CONCLUSIONS: An accelerated rotator-based IVRT method for bupivacaine MVLs was developed in this study, with the discriminatory ability to distinguish between formulations of different qualities. The developed IVRT method was a robust tool for generic development of MVL based formulations.

A continuous covalent organic framework membrane as an artificial solid electrolyte interphase for lithium metal anodes.

Lithium (Li) metal is a promising next-generation anode material, but it suffers from dendrite growth and unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). We developed a robust and continuous self-standing covalent organic framework (COF) membrane using a same-phase synthesis method and utilized the membrane as an artificial SEI. The membrane suppressed dendrite growth and enhanced the stability and longevity of Li metal anode cycling.

Effect of Phanerochaete chrysosporium induced phosphate precipitation on bacterial diversity during the soil remediation process.

Biomineralization by phosphate minerals and phosphate solubilizing fungi (PSF) has attracted great interest as a novel remediation method for heavy metal(loid) co-contaminated soil. It was very essential to investigate the microenvironment response with the application of amendments. In this study, three grain sizes of hydroxyapatites (HAP) and Phanerochaete chrysosporium (P. chrysosporium) were used to investigate the change in heavy metal(loid) fractions, soil physicochemical properties, and bacterial community during the remediation of Mangchang and Dabaoshan acidic mine soils. The results showed that the residual fractions in the two soils increased significantly after 35 days of remediation, especially that of As and Zn in Dabaoshan soils were presented at over 87%. In addition, soil pH, organic matter (OM), and available phosphorous (AP) were almost improved. 16S rRNA sequencing analysis indicated that the introduction of culture medium and P. chrysosporium alone changed bacterial abundance, but the addition of HAP changed the bacterial diversity and community composition by altering environmental conditions. The amendments in the research showed good performance on immobilizing heavy metal(loid)s and reducing their bioavailability. Moreover, the research suggested that environmental factors and soil inherent properties could influence the microbial community structure and composition.

Different calcium sources affect the products and sites of mineralized Cr(VI) by microbially induced carbonate precipitation.

Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) is a common biomineralization method, which is often used for remediation of heavy metal pollution such as hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in recent years. Calcium sources are essential for the MICP process. This study investigated the potential of MICP technology for Cr(VI) remediation under the influence of three calcium sources (CaCl2, Ca(CH3COO)2, Ca(C6H11O7)2). The results indicated that CaCl2 was the most efficient in the mineralization of Cr(VI), and Ca(C6H11O7)2 could significantly promote Cr(VI) reduction. The addition of different calcium sources all promoted the urease activity of Sporosarcina saromensis W5, in which the CaCl2 group showed higher urease activity at the same Ca2+ concentration. Besides, with CaCl2, Ca(CH3COO)2 and Ca(C6H11O7)2 treatments, the final fraction of Cr species (Cr(VI), reduced Cr(III) and organic Cr(III)-complexes) were mainly converted to the carbonate-bound, cytoplasm and cell membrane state, respectively. Furthermore, the characterization results revealed that three calcium sources could co-precipitate with Cr species to produce Ca10Cr6O24(CO3), and calcite and vaterite were present in the CaCl2 and Ca(CH3COO)2 groups, while only calcite was present in the Ca(C6H11O7)2 group. Overall, this study contributes to the optimization of MICP-mediated remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil. CaCl2 was the more suitable calcium source than the other two for the application of MICP technology in the Cr(VI) reduction and mineralization.

Risk Factors and Prognosis of Early Neurological Deterioration after Bridging Therapy.

BACKGROUND: Early neurological deterioration (END) after bridging therapy (BT) of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients is associated with poor outcomes. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to study the incidence, risk factors and prognosis of END after BT. METHODS: From January to December 2021, the clinical data of AIS patients treated by BT (intravenous thrombolysis with alteplase prior to mechanical thrombectomy) from three comprehensive stroke centers were analyzed. Patients were divided into non-END group and END group according to whether they developed END within 72 hours of symptom onset. Modified Rankin scale (mRS) was used to assess the patient's prognosis at 90 days, and favorable outcomes were defined as mRS≤2. The incidence of END was investigated, and binary logistic regression analysis was used to explore its associated factors. RESULTS: The incidence of END after BT was 33.67%. The eligible 90 patients included 29 cases in the END group and 61 cases in the non-END group. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that increase of systolic blood pressure (SBP) (OR=1.026, 95%CI:1.001-1.051, p =0.043), higher level of blood glucose at admission (OR=1.389, 95%CI:1.092-1.176, p =0.007) and large artery atherosclerosis (LAA) subtype (OR=8.009, 95%CI:2.357-27.223, p =0.001) were independent risk factors of END. Compared with the non-END group, the END group had significantly lower rates of good outcomes (6.90% versus 65.57%, p =0.001) while higher rates of mortality (44.83% versus 4.92%, p =0.001). CONCLUSION: It was found that the incidence of END after BT in AIS patients was 33.67%. An increase in SBP, higher glucose levels at admission, and LAA were independent risk factors of END that predicted a poor prognosis.

Redox-tunable isoindigos for electrochemically mediated carbon capture.

Efficient CO2 separation technologies are essential for mitigating climate change. Compared to traditional thermochemical methods, electrochemically mediated carbon capture using redox-tunable sorbents emerges as a promising alternative due to its versatility and energy efficiency. However, the undesirable linear free-energy relationship between redox potential and CO2 binding affinity in existing chemistry makes it fundamentally challenging to optimise key sorbent properties independently via chemical modifications. Here, we demonstrate a design paradigm for electrochemically mediated carbon capture sorbents, which breaks the undesirable scaling relationship by leveraging intramolecular hydrogen bonding in isoindigo derivatives. The redox potentials of isoindigos can be anodically shifted by >350 mV to impart sorbents with high oxygen stability without compromising CO2 binding, culminating in a system with minimised parasitic reactions. With the synthetic space presented, our effort provides a generalisable strategy to finetune interactions between redox-active organic molecules and CO2, addressing a longstanding challenge in developing effective carbon capture methods driven by non-conventional stimuli.

Liquid Gallium-Assisted Pyrolysis of MOF Affording CNT Non-Hollow Frameworks in High Yields for High-Performance Sodium-Ion Battery Anode.

Carbon materials have great potential for applications in energy, biology, and environment due to their excellent chemical and physical properties. Their preparation by carbonization methods encounters limitations and the carbon loss during pyrolysis in the form of gaseous molecules results in low yield of carbon materials. Herein a low-energy (600 °C) and high-yield (82 wt.%) carbonization strategy is developed using liquid gallium-assisted pyrolysis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) affording the N-doped carbon nanotube (CNT) non-hollow frameworks encapsulating Co nanoparticles. The liquid gallium layer offers protection against air, promotes heat transfer, and limits the escape of small carbonaceous gaseous molecules, which greatly improve the yields of the pyrolysis reaction. Experimental and theoretical results reveal that the synergistic interaction between CNTs and N/O-containing groups gives a non-hollow framework composed of N/O-enriched and open CNTs (NOCNTF-15, 15 denotes the 15 mm thickness of the liquid gallium layer during the pyrolysis) with high specific capacity (185 mAh g-1 at 10 A g-1) and ultra-stable cyclability (stable operation at 10 A g-1 and 50 °C for 20 000 cycles). This study provides a unique approach to carbonization that facilitates the practical application of low-cost CNTs and other MOFs-derived carbon materials in high-performance sodium-ion batteries (SIBs).

Detection of minimal hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis based on the Stroop-CN model (NCRCID-CHESS 2106): a prospective multicenter study.

Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) has a substantial impact on the clinical outcomes and quality of life (QOL) of patients with cirrhosis. However, timely diagnosis and intervention are challenging due to sophisticated diagnostic methods. In this study, 673 healthy controls and 905 patients with cirrhosis were screened, and 660 healthy controls and 757 patients with cirrhosis, divided into the test (292 patients) and validation (465 patients) cohort, were analyzed after screening. A diagnostic model of the Stroop test (Stroop-CN) was constructed by multivariate linear regression based on the results of healthy controls. The prevalence of MHE and the comparison results with psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score through the Stroop-CN model were stable in the test and validation cohorts. Moreover, the prevalence of MHE remained significantly higher in patients with worse disease conditions marked as high Child-Pugh grades and the Model for End-stage Liver Disease and Sodium (MELD-Na) scores in the test and validation cohort. The EuroQol 5-D questionnaire revealed that patients with MHE had a worse QOL than those without MHE both in the test and validation cohort. In conclusion, an easy and practical Stroop-CN model for MHE diagnosis based on the EncephalApp is established. It is found that a considerable number of Chinese patients with cirrhosis experience MHE, which significantly impacts their QOL.