Organic-free growth of gold nanosheets inside 3D bacterial cellulose as highly efficient and robust antibacterial biopolymers.

Without any chemical agent, gold nanosheets (AuNSs) were controllable synthesized through a facile photo-induced reduction within bacterial cellulose (BC) biopolymers. Compared with traditional polymers, AuNSs modified BC biopolymers (AuNSs@BC) biopolymers exhibited similar levels of softness, ductility, and better tensile strength. The in situ constructing of AuNSs@BC biopolymers was demonstrated to provide great reusability and antibacterial activities and towards both of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The optimized AuNSs@BC biopolymers remain at least 95% antibacterial activities after three cycles. The facile and shape-controlled synthesis of AuNSs@BC biopolymers is believed to be useful for the design and application of biomass-based medical dressing. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10853-022-07273-x.

A meta-analysis on the risk factors adjusted association between cardiovascular disease and COVID-19 severity.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD), one of the most common comorbidities of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has been suspected to be associated with adverse outcomes in COVID-19 patients, but their correlation remains controversial. METHOD: This is a quantitative meta-analysis on the basis of adjusted effect estimates. PubMed, Web of Science, MedRxiv, Scopus, Elsevier ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library and EMBASE were searched comprehensively to obtain a complete data source up to January 7, 2021. Pooled effects (hazard ratio (HR), odds ratio (OR)) and the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to evaluate the risk of the adverse outcomes in COVID-19 patients with CVD. Heterogeneity was assessed by Cochran's Q-statistic, I2test, and meta-regression. In addition, we also provided the prediction interval, which was helpful for assessing whether the variation across studies was clinically significant. The robustness of the results was evaluated by sensitivity analysis. Publication bias was assessed by Begg's test, Egger's test, and trim-and-fill method. RESULT: Our results revealed that COVID-19 patients with pre-existing CVD tended more to adverse outcomes on the basis of 203 eligible studies with 24,032,712 cases (pooled ORs = 1.41, 95% CIs: 1.32-1.51, prediction interval: 0.84-2.39; pooled HRs = 1.34, 95% CIs: 1.23-1.46, prediction interval: 0.82-2.21). Further subgroup analyses stratified by age, the proportion of males, study design, disease types, sample size, region and disease outcomes also showed that pre-existing CVD was significantly associated with adverse outcomes among COVID-19 patients. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated that pre-existing CVD was an independent risk factor associated with adverse outcomes among COVID-19 patients.

The Association of Cerebrovascular Disease with Adverse Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients: A Meta-Analysis Based on Adjusted Effect Estimates.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to address the association between cerebrovascular disease and adverse outcomes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients by using a quantitative meta-analysis based on adjusted effect estimates. METHOD: A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE up to August 10th, 2020. The adjusted effect estimates were extracted and pooled to evaluate the risk of the unfavorable outcomes in COVID-19 patients with cerebrovascular disease. Subgroup analysis and meta-regression were also carried out. RESULTS: There were 12 studies with 10,304 patients included in our meta-analysis. A significant trend was observed when evaluating the association between cerebrovascular disease and adverse outcomes (pooled effect = 2.05, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.34-3.16). In addition, the pooled effects showed that patients with a history of cerebrovascular disease had more likelihood to progress fatal outcomes than patients without a history of cerebrovascular disease (pooled effect = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.04-3.07). CONCLUSION: This study for the first time indicated that cerebrovascular disease was an independent risk factor for predicting the adverse outcomes, particularly fatal outcomes, in COVID-19 patients on the basis of adjusted effect estimates. Well-designed studies with larger sample size are needed for further verification.