Covid-19 May Impact the Acute Attack of Primary Angle-closure Glaucoma (preprint)

Objects: To compare the medical records of inpatients with acute angle-closure glaucoma(AACG) in the period of pandemic 2022(2022.12.9-2023.1.19) , and the same time period of last three years.To analyses covid-19 infection-related conditions in patients with AACG of the pandemic 2022. Methods: Patients with AACG who first hospitalized for surgical treatment in the ophthalmology department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from 2022.12.9 to 2023.1.19(after the adjustment of China's pandemic prevention policies) were included, and the patients of same time of last three years,(2019group:2019.12.9-2020.1.19, pandemic 2020:2020.12.9-2021.1.19 and pandemic 2021:2021.12.9-2022.1.19).These inpatients’ medical records were compared.During the period from 2022.12.9 to 2023.1.19,patients with acute ACG who were first diagnosed or first hospitalized for surgical treatment, an online questionnaire was administered, and whether they had glaucoma attacks during COVID-19 infection was used as a subgroup question to compare the two groups of people with AACG in general differences in conditions. Results: A total of 114 patients (135 operated eyes) with medical records were included：24 (28 eyes) of 2019 group，27 (27 eyes) of pandemic 2020,29(37eyes)of pandemic 2021 and 34 (43 eyes) of pandemic 2022 respectively. 72 patients participated in the questionnaire. The number of patients hospitalized for surgery for AACG in the period following the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly higher by approximately 41.6% compared to the 2019 group, accounting for a significantly higher percentage (p=0.004),a significant difference in the status of comorbid systemic disease and comorbid hypertension among surgically treated patients (p=0.042, p=0.010) Significant difference in the rate of trabeculectomy(Trab) for glaucoma decreasing from year to year (p=0.019) and a significant increasing trend in the rate of goniosynechialysis(GSL) (p=0.007) Whether the pandemic environment or viral infection precipitates glaucoma attacks may be related to whether patients drink alcohol (p=0.028) and whether they have combined hypertension (p=0.014). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic may promote an increase in the number of patients with AACG, and COVID-19 infection has the potential to contribute to the attack of primary angle-closure glaucoma.

Who is the “Matchmaker” between Proteins and Nucleic Acids? (preprint)

A plenty of theories on the origin of genetic codes have been proposed so far, yet all ignored the energetic driving force, its relation to the biochemical system, and most importantly, the missing “matchmaker” between proteins and nucleic acids. Here, a new hypothesis is proposed, according to which ATP is at the origin of the primordial genetic code by driving the coevolution of the genetic code with the pristine biochemical system. This hypothesis aims to show how the genetic code was produced e.g. by photochemical reactions in a protocell that derived from a lipid vesicle enclosing various life’s building blocks (e.g. nucleotides and peptides). At extant cell, ATP is the only energetic product of photosynthesis, and is at the energetic heart of the biochemical systems. ATP could energetically form and elongate chains of both polynucleotides and polypeptides, thus acting a “matchmaker” between these two bio-polymers and eventually mediating precellular biochemical innovation from energy transformation to informatization. ATP was not the only one that could drive the formation of polynucleotides and polypeptides, but favored by precellular selection. The protocell innovated a photosynthetic system to produce ATP efficiently and regularly with the aids of proteins and RNA/DNA. The completion of permanently recording the genetic information by DNA marked the dawn of cellular life operated by Darwinian evolution. The ATP hypothesis assumes or supports the photochemical origin of life, shedding light on the origins of both photosynthetic and biochemical systems, which remain largely unknown thus far. Based on the ATP hypothesis, virus (like the new coronavirus) could not be the earliest life on Earth, as it has neither biochemical systems nor lipid bilayer membrane that provided relatively isolated environment for the development of protobiochemical reactions, although it owns the genetic code of a cellular life. Virus could not be a bridge between life and non-life, but is an anti-life substance, as it depletes cellular material for its own replication, and then spreads by destroying the host cells. It can be imagined that if cellular life are completely wiped out by the virus, the complete destruction of life on Earth would be inevitable.