Value of the expression levels of complement-3a receptor 1 and neutrophil extracellular traps in predicting sepsis-induced coagulopathy / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To investigate the clinical value of complement-3a receptor 1 (C3aR1) and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in predicting sepsis-induced coagulopathy (SIC).@*METHODS@#A prospective study was conducted among 78 children with sepsis who attended Xuzhou Children's Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University from June 2022 to June 2023. According to the presence or absence of SIC, they were divided into two groups: SIC (n=36) and non-SIC (n=42) . The two groups were compared in terms of clinical data and the levels of C3aR1 and NETs. The factors associated with the occurrence of SIC were analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the performance of C3aR1 and NETs in predicting SIC.@*RESULTS@#Compared with the non-SIC group, the SIC group had significantly higher levels of C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10, C3aR1, and NETs (P<0.05). The multivaiate logistic regression analysis showed that the increases in C3aR1, NETs, and IL-6 were closely associated with the occurrence of SIC (P<0.05). The ROC curve analysis showed that C3aR1 combined with NETs had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.913 in predicting SIC (P<0.05), which was significantly higher than the AUC of C3aR1 or IL-6 (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference in AUC between C3aR1 combined with NETs and NETs alone (P>0.05).@*CONCLUSIONS@#There are significant increases in the expression levels of C3aR1 and NETs in the peripheral blood of children with SIC, and the expression levels of C3aR1 and NETs have a high clinical value in predicting SIC.

Application of esmolol in severe hand, foot, and mouth disease / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the clinical effect and mechanism of action of esmolol in the treatment of severe hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A prospective randomized controlled trial was performed. A total of 102 children with severe HFMD were enrolled in the study and were randomly divided into conventional treatment and esmolol treatment groups (n=51 each). The children in the conventional treatment group were given conventional treatment according to the guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of HFMD. Those in the esmolol treatment group were given esmolol in addition to the conventional treatment. The heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and respiratory rate (RR) were continuously monitored for all children. Blood samples were collected from all children before treatment and 1, 3, and 5 days after treatment to measure the levels of norepinephrine (NE), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) p65 in mononuclear cells. Serum levels of myocardial enzymes and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were measured before treatment and after 5 days of treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were no significant differences in HR, SBP, RR, NE, TNF-α, IL-6, NF-κB p65, serum myocardial enzymes, and NT-proBNP before treatment between the conventional treatment and esmolol treatment groups. Both groups had significant reductions in these parameters at each time point (P<0.05). Compared with the conventional treatment group, the esmolol treatment group had significant improvements in the above parameters after 1 and 3 days of treatment (P<0.05). After 5 days of treatment, the esmolol treatment group had significant improvements in serum levels of myocardial enzymes and NT-proBNP compared with the conventional treatment group (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Early application of esmolol can effectively stabilize the vital signs of the children with severe HFMD. Its mechanism of action may be related to reducing serum catecholamine concentration, alleviating myocardial damage, improving cardiac function, and reducing inflammatory response.</p>

Construction and expression of recombinant plasmid to initiate polarization and activation of regulatory T cells / 中国实验血液学杂志

In order to construct a recombinant plasmid initiating the polarization and activation of the regulatory T cells (Treg), the fragments of hTGF-β1 and C2-C4 of gp120 amplified by RT-PCR and cloned into pCR2.1 vector respectively. hTGF-β1 and C2-C4 DNA fragments were obtained, then sub-cloned to generate the prokaryotic expression vector named pET-28a/C2-C4-Linker- hTGF-β1. The expression of recombinant protein was induced by IPTG (0.1 mmol/L) for 6 hours. The results showed that the fragments of hTGF-β1 and C2-C4 were amplified and cloned into pCR2.1, the prokaryotic expression vector pET-28a/C2-C4-Linker- hTGF-β1 was constructed successfully. The recombinant protein was expressed as inclusion body after being induced by IPTG. It is concluded that this recombinant protein can initiate the polarization and activation of Treg cells, indicating the engineering E.coli strain is successfully obtained.