S-allylmercapto-N-acetylcysteine ameliorates pulmonary fibrosis in mice via Nrf2 pathway activation and NF-κB, TGF-ß1/Smad2/3 pathway suppression.

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a chronic lung disease characterised by alveolar inflammatory injury, alveolar septal thickening, and eventually fibrosis. Patients with severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) may have left a certain degree of pulmonary fibrosis. PF is commonly caused by oxidative imbalance and inflammatory damage. S-allylmercapto-N-acetylcysteine (ASSNAC) exhibits anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects in other diseases. However, the pharmacodynamics of ASSNAC remain unclear for PF. This investigation aimed to evaluate the efficacy and mechanism of ASSNAC against PF. The PF model was established by TGF-ß1 stimulating HFL-1 cells in vitro. ASSNAC exhibited the potential to inhibit fibroblast transformation into myofibroblasts. Also, in the PF mice model with bleomycin (BLM), the sodium salt of ASSNAC (ASSNAC-Na) inhalation was treated. ASSNAC remarkably improved mice's lung tissue structure and collagen deposition. The important indicator proteins of PF, collagen Ⅰ, collagen Ⅲ, and α-SMA significantly decreased in the ASSNAC treated groups. Besides, ASSNAC attenuated oxidative stress by reversing glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels and interfering with Nrf2/NOX4 signaling pathways. ASSNAC showed an anti-inflammatory effect by reducing the number of inflammatory cells and inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α and IL-6, and blocking the NF-κB signaling pathway. ASSNAC inhibited fibroblast differentiation by blocking the TGF-ß1/Smad2/3 signaling pathway. This study implicates that ASSNAC alleviates pulmonary fibrosis through fighting against oxidative stress, reducing inflammation and inhibiting fibroblast differentiation.

Configurations for positive public behaviors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 crisis poses considerable threats to public health, and exploring the key configuration conditions of the public behavior response is very important for emergency risk management. OBJECTIVE: This study attempts to reveal differences in the conditional configuration and mechanism of public behavior based on the proposed framework, further make up for the deficiencies of existing research in explaining such issues as "How to promote the public's protective behavior or reduce the public's excessive behavior?" and finally provide new evidence and ideas for the government to improve the emergency management system. METHODS: A total of 735 valid cases were obtained using an online survey and revealed the conditional configuration and mechanism of public behavior differences through a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis based on the proposed public behavioral framework. RESULTS: The results show that critical factors including risk communication, trust, risk perception, and negative emotions alone did not constitute a necessary condition for public protective or excessive behavior. The different configurations of influencing factors reveal the complexity of public behavioral risk management, and taking adequate measures to increase public trust and reduce negative public emotions constitute the core path of risk management to enhance positive public behavior. CONCLUSIONS: The configurations of various influencing factors reveal the complexity of public behavioral risk management. For behavioral risk management, governments should focus on adapting to multiple conditions according to their situations and, under the "overall perspective," formulate policies based on local conditions and further form a differentiated risk management path. Practically speaking, for the government, taking adequate measures to increase public trust and reduce negative public emotions is the core path of risk management to enhance positive public behavior.

Analyzing Risk Communication, Trust, Risk Perception, Negative Emotions, and Behavioral Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China Using a Structural Equation Model.

Objective: Risk communication and the degree of trust are major factors that affect the public's behavioral coping strategies and play an important role in emergency risk management. However, the internal formation mechanism involved in the public's psychological behavior remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association among risk communication, trust, risk perception, negative emotions, and behavioral coping strategies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and to identify and quantify the factors that influence public behavior. Methods: We launched an online survey through social media from April to July 2020 in China. Relevant data were elicited using a self-designed questionnaire that mainly examined respondent characteristics, risk communication, trust, risk perception, negative emotions, protective coping behavior, and excessive coping behavior in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 735 valid responses were obtained. A structural equation model was then used to explore relationship pathways among the components. Results: The higher the degree of risk communication (ß = -0.10, p < 0.05) and trust (ß = -0.22, p < 0.001), the lower the public risk perception. Risk communication and trust had a direct effect on public behavioral coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The higher the level of risk communication (ß = 0.14, p < 0.001) or trust (ß = 0.48, p < 0.001), the more likely it was that this would encourage the public to adopt protective coping behaviors, while the public was less likely to engage in excessive coping behaviors as the degree of trust increased (ß = -0.12, p < 0.01). Risk perception influenced by poor risk communication and trust generated negative emotions (ß = 0.31, p < 0.001), and such negative emotions further positively influenced public behavioral coping strategies (whether protective [ß = 0.09, p < 0.05] or excessive [ß = 0.24, p < 0.001] behaviors). Conclusion: Risk communication, trust, risk perception, and negative emotions were significantly directly or indirectly related to public behavior. The findings provide useful information for emergency risk management and a theoretical basis for follow-up research on public coping behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.