Characteristics and immune functions of the endogenous CRISPR-Cas systems in myxobacteria.

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and their associated proteins (CRISPR-Cas) system widely occurs in prokaryotic organisms to recognize and destruct genetic invaders. Systematic collation and characterization of endogenous CRISPR-Cas systems are conducive to our understanding and potential utilization of this natural genetic machinery. In this study, we screened 39 complete and 692 incomplete genomes of myxobacteria using a combined strategy to dispose of the abridged genome information and revealed at least 19 CRISPR-Cas subtypes, which were distributed with a taxonomic difference and often lost stochastically in intraspecies strains. The cas genes in each subtype were evolutionarily clustered but deeply separated, while most of the CRISPRs were divided into four types based on the motif characteristics of repeat sequences. The spacers recorded in myxobacterial CRISPRs were in high G+C content, matching lots of phages, tiny amounts of plasmids, and, surprisingly, massive organismic genomes. We experimentally demonstrated the immune and self-target immune activities of three endogenous systems in Myxococcus xanthus DK1622 against artificial genetic invaders and revealed the microhomology-mediated end-joining mechanism for the immunity-induced DNA repair but not homology-directed repair. The panoramic view and immune activities imply potential omnipotent immune functions and applications of the endogenous CRISPR-Cas machinery. IMPORTANCE: Serving as an adaptive immune system, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and their associated proteins (CRISPR-Cas) empower prokaryotes to fend off the intrusion of external genetic materials. Myxobacteria are a collective of swarming Gram-stain-negative predatory bacteria distinguished by intricate multicellular social behavior. An in-depth analysis of their intrinsic CRISPR-Cas systems is beneficial for our understanding of the survival strategies employed by host cells within their environmental niches. Moreover, the experimental findings presented in this study not only suggest the robust immune functions of CRISPR-Cas in myxobacteria but also their potential applications.

Fe(III)/peroxymonosulfate oxidation system for the degradation of rhein, a toxic component abundance in rhubarb residue.

Rhubarb is widely used in health care, but causing a great amount of rhein-containing herbal residue. Rhein with several toxicities might pollute environment, damage ecology and even hazard human health if left untreated. In this study, the degradation effects of bisulfite- (BS) and peroxymonosulfate- (PMS) based oxidation systems on rhein in rhubarb residue were compared and investigated. The effects of BS and PMS with two valence states of ferric ion (Fe) on the degradation of rhein in rhubarb residue were optimized for the selection of optimal oxidation system. The influences of reaction temperature, reaction time and initial pH on the removal of rhein under the optimal oxidation system were evaluated. The chemical profiles of rhubarb residue with and without oxidation process were compared by UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS, and the degradation effects were investigated by PLS-DA and S plot/OPLS-DA analysis. The results manifested that PMS showed relative higher efficiency than BS on the degradation of rhein. Moreover, Fe(III) promoted the degradation effect of PMS, demonstrated that Fe(III)/PMS is the optimal oxidation system to degrade rhein in rhubarb residue. Further studies indicated that the degradation of rhein by the Fe(III)/PMS oxidation system was accelerated with the prolong of reaction time and the elevation of reaction temperature, and also affected by the initial pH. More importantly, Fe(III)/PMS oxidation system could degrade rhein in rhubarb residue completely under the optimal conditions. In conclusion, Fe(III)/PMS oxidation system is a feasible method to treat rhein in rhubarb residue.

Tislelizumab induced dual organs dysfunction in a patient with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a case report.

Background: Tislelizumab, a humanized IgG4 anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody has been approved in China and Europe. According to the published clinical research, tislelizumab shows satisfactory safety profile. No severe hepatotoxicity or acute kidney injury were reported. Case presentation: We presented a case study of a 74-year-old man who developed acute kidney injury (grade 3) and acute liver injury (grade 4) after being administered tislelizumab for the treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. We reviewed the patient's history, physical examination, and laboratory findings and provided comprehensive differentials of the possible causes of the toxicities. Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICI) hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity were confirmed clinically. We also discussed the management of toxicities associated with ICIs and the need for a multidisciplinary approach to care. Conclusions: The case highlights the importance of close monitoring and prompt management of toxicities associated with ICIs and the need for further research to better understand the risk factors for these toxicities and to identify effective treatments for them.

Interaction of reed litter and biochar presences on performances of constructed wetlands.

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are frequently used for effective biological treatment of nitrogen-rich wastewater with external carbon source addition; however, these approaches often neglect the interaction between plant litter and biochar in biochar-amended CW environments. To address this, we conducted a comprehensive study to assess the impacts of single or combined addition of common reed litter and reed biochar (pyrolyzed at 300 and 500 °C) on nitrogen removal, greenhouse gas emission, dissolved organic matter (DOM) dynamics, and microbial activity. The results showed that combined addition of reed litter and biochar to CWs significantly improved nitrate and total nitrogen removal compared with biochar addition alone. Compared to those without reed litter addition, CWs with reed litter addition had more low-molecular-weight and less aromatic DOM and more protein-like fluorescent DOM, which favored the enrichment of bacteria associated with denitrification. The improved nitrogen removal could be attributed to increases in denitrifying microbes and the relative abundance of functional denitrification genes with litter addition. Moreover, the combined addition of reed litter and 300 °C-heated biochar significantly decreased nitrous oxide (30.7 %) and methane (43.9 %) compared to reed litter addition alone, while the combined addition of reed litter and 500 °C-heated biochar did not. This study demonstrated that the presences of reed litter and biochar in CWs could achieve both high microbial nitrogen removal and relatively low greenhouse gas emissions.

Multi-Contrast Complementary Learning for Accelerated MR Imaging.

Thanks to its powerful ability to depict high-resolution anatomical information, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an essential non-invasive scanning technique in clinical practice. However, excessive acquisition time often leads to the degradation of image quality and psychological discomfort among subjects, hindering its further popularization. Besides reconstructing images from the undersampled protocol itself, multi-contrast MRI protocols bring promising solutions by leveraging additional morphological priors for the target modality. Nevertheless, previous multi-contrast techniques mainly adopt a simple fusion mechanism that inevitably ignores valuable knowledge. In this work, we propose a novel multi-contrast complementary information aggregation network named MCCA, aiming to exploit available complementary representations fully to reconstruct the undersampled modality. Specifically, a multi-scale feature fusion mechanism has been introduced to incorporate complementary-transferable knowledge into the target modality. Moreover, a hybrid convolution transformer block was developed to extract global-local context dependencies simultaneously, which combines the advantages of CNNs while maintaining the merits of Transformers. Compared to existing MRI reconstruction methods, the proposed method has demonstrated its superiority through extensive experiments on different datasets under different acceleration factors and undersampling patterns.

Genome-wide analysis of lipolytic enzymes and characterization of a high-tolerant carboxylesterase from Sorangium cellulosum.

Microorganisms are important sources of lipolytic enzymes with characteristics for wide promising usages in the specific industrial biotechnology. The cellulolytic myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum is rich of lipolytic enzymes in the genome, but little has been investigated. Here, we discerned 406 potential lipolytic enzymes in 13 sequenced S. cellulosum genomes. These lipolytic enzymes belonged to 12 families, and most are novel with low identities (14-37%) to those reported. We characterized a new carboxylesterase, LipB, from the alkaline-adaptive So0157-2. This enzyme, belonging to family VIII, hydrolyzed glyceryl tributyrate and p-nitrophenyl esters with short chain fatty acids (≤C12), and exhibited the highest activity against p-nitrophenyl butyrate. It retained over 50% of the activities in a broad temperature range (from 20°C to 60°C), alkaline conditions (pH 8.0-9.5), and the enzymatic activity was stable with methanol, ethanol and isopropanol, and stimulated significantly in the presence of 5 mM Ni2+. LipB also exhibited ß-lactamase activity on nitrocefin, but not ampicillin, cefotaxime and imipenem. The bioinformatic analysis and specific enzymatic characteristics indicate that S. cellulosum is a promising resource to explore lipolytic enzymes for industrial adaptations.

ORM1 promotes tumor progression of kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) through CALR-mediated apoptosis.

Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) is the most prevalent type of kidney cancer and causes thousands of deaths each year. The prognosis for KIRC is poor. One critical factor is that the mechanism beneath KIRC is unclear. ORM1 is a reactant to acute inflammation. In this study, we demonstrated that methylation of ORM1 promoter was low and ORM1 was expressed significantly higher in KIRC. KIRC with higher ORM1 expression exhibited worse survival probability. Meanwhile, ORM1 was expressed higher in KIRC cell lines. When ORM1 was knocked down, cell proliferation ability was inhibited potently compared to the NC control. Cell migration as well as invasion ability were also suppressed dramatically. At molecular level, the expression of active caspase-3 and Bax was upregulated in ORM1-KD group while Bcl-2 downregulated. Moreover, CALR decreased following ORM1-KD and rescued expression of CALR increased Bcl-2 level but reduced the level of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax. Consistently, the apoptotic rate of 786-O and Caki-2 cells was upregulated in ORM1-KD but downregulated after CALR overexpression. The activity of caspase-3 was also regulated by ORM1-KD. In addition, the inhibition rate of sorafenib was enhanced in ORM1 KD group but reduced after overexpression of ORM1. Conclusively, ORM1 is clinically associated with progression of KIRC and regulates cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis in KIRC. Moreover, ORM1 affects the efficiency of sorafenib in KIRC and regulates caspase-3 mediated cascades response through CALR molecule. This study provides us a new way to recognize the development and progression in KIRC.

Refined Feature-based Multi-frame and Multi-scale Fusing Gate network for accurate segmentation of plaques in ultrasound videos.

The accurate segmentation of carotid plaques in ultrasound videos will provide evidence for clinicians to evaluate the properties of plaques and treat patients effectively. However, the confusing background, blurry boundaries and plaque movement in ultrasound videos make accurate plaque segmentation challenging. To address the above challenges, we propose the Refined Feature-based Multi-frame and Multi-scale Fusing Gate Network (RMFG_Net), which captures spatial and temporal features in consecutive video frames for high-quality segmentation results and no manual annotation of the first frame. A spatial-temporal feature filter is proposed to suppress the noise of low-level CNN features and promote the detailed target area. To obtain a more accurate plaque position, we propose a transformer-based cross-scale spatial location algorithm, which models the relationship between adjacent layers of consecutive video frames to achieve stable positioning. To make full use of more detailed and semantic information, multi-layer gated computing is applied to fuse features of different layers, ensuring sufficient useful feature map aggregation for segmentation. Experiments on two clinical datasets demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods under different evaluation metrics, and it processes images with a speed of 68 frames per second which is suitable for real-time segmentation. A large number of ablation experiments were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of each component and experimental setting, as well as the potential of the proposed method in ultrasound video plaque segmentation tasks. The codes can be publicly available from https://github.com/xifengHuu/RMFG_Net.git.

Research on the brand image of iOS and Android smart phone operating systems based on mixed methods.

Introduction: To analyze the differences in system functions, interaction behaviors and user experience between iOS and Android smart phone operating system, and then study the differences in their brand images, so as to provide theory and research method for shaping corporate brand images from the perspective of product interaction design. Methods: This study was divided into three stages. In the first stage, the functional information architecture of iOS and Android smart phone operating system are studied comparatively by using information visualization methods. In the second stage, the brand image differences between the two systems at the explicit, behavioral and semantic levels are analyzed comparatively by building the "explicit - behavioral - semantic" product brand gene model. In the third stage, the functions of "setting alarm clock", "sharing pictures" and "modifying passwords" were selected for interactive behavior analysis. First, analyze the user experience of the three system functions from the perspective of interaction process and information architecture, and present the analysis results using the method of information visualization.; Secondly, the user experience and brand image differences between the two systems are analyzed by setting up manipulation task experiments. Results: The brand images of iOS and Android systems are similar in conciseness, clearness and efficiency; In terms of uniqueness, iOS system is more unique, while Android system has stronger applicability. Discussion: This study constructs an "explicit-behavior-semantic" brand gene model to create a unique product brand image for software products such as operating systems through interactive design, so as to solve the problem of product brand image homogeneity caused by the convergence of function and interaction design.

Therapeutic effects and mechanisms of N-(9,10-anthraquinone-2-ylcarbonyl) xanthine oxidase inhibitors on hyperuricemia.

Objective: To observe the antioxidative effects of N-(9,10-anthraquinone-2-ylcarbonyl) xanthine oxidase inhibitors (NAY) in vitro and in vivo models of hyperuricemia and explore the mechanism. Methods: A classical experimental method of acute toxicity and a chronic toxicity test were used to compare the toxic effects of different doses of NAY in mice. The hyperuricemia mouse model was established by gavage of potassium oxonate in vivo. After treatment with different doses of NAY (low dose: 10 mg/kg, medium dose: 20 mg/kg, and high dose: 40 mg/kg) and allopurinol (positive drug, 10 mg/kg), observe the levels of uric acid (UA), creatinine (CRE), and urea nitrogen (BUN) in urine and serum, respectively, and detect the activities of xanthine oxidase in the liver. The hyperuricemia cell model was induced by adenosine and xanthine oxidase in vitro. The cells were given different doses of NAY (50, 100, and 200 µmol/L) and allopurinol (100 µmol/L). Then the culture supernatant UA level of the medium was measured. The next step was to detect the xanthine oxidase activity in the liver and AML12 cells, and the levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), and NOD-like receptor thermal protein domain-associated protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammatory factors in the kidney and serum of mice. Western blot was used to detect xanthine oxidase protein expression in mouse liver tissue and AML12 cells, ASC, Caspase-1, NLRP3, GLUT9, OAT1, and OAT3 protein expression in mouse kidney tissue and HK-2 cells. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was used to stain the liver and kidney tissues of mice and observe the tissue lesions. Results: NAY had little effect on blood routine and biochemical indexes of mice, but significantly reduced the serum UA level. NAY significantly reduced the level of UA in hyperuricemia mice and cells by inhibiting xanthine oxidase activity and reduced the levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and other inflammatory factors in serum and kidney of mice. NAY can inhibit inflammation by inhibiting the NLRP3 pathway. In addition, NAY can downregulate GLUT9 protein expression and upregulate OAT1 and OAT3 protein expression to reduce the UA level by promoting UA excretion and inhibiting UA reabsorption. Conclusion: These findings suggested that NAY produced dual hypouricemic actions. On the one hand, it can inhibit the formation of UA by inhibiting xanthine oxidase inhibitors activity, and on the other hand, it can promote the excretion of UA by regulating the UA transporter. It provides new ideas for the development of hyperuricemia drugs in the future.

Exploring the Positive User Experience Possibilities Based on Product Emotion Theory: A Beverage Unmanned Retail Terminal Case.

Since the last century, user experience has been regarded as a key concept in the process of product and service design. With the development of positive psychology, the transformation from negative to positive user experience has also taken place in the field of user experience; it emphasizes exploring the future possibility of positive user experience rather than just solving existing problems. Based on the research and analysis of existing literature, this study makes it clear that positive user experience research should be based on the "positive experience," and arousing a positive emotion is conducive to improving positive user experience. On this basis, the product emotion theory is applied to the analysis process of "positive experience." Through word frequency screening, thematic analysis, and correlation calculation, the relationship between product stimulus (object, activity, and identity) and user concern (goal, attitude, and standard) based on positive "user comments" is constructed, and positive user experience is understood from multiple levels. Based on the comment score, the positive user experience interval is divided in order to clarify the improvement direction. Finally, taking the "Angel Orange" unmanned retail terminal as an example, this study carried out an empirical analysis. As an exploratory study, this study can provide some insights into the quantitative research process of positive user experience design that evokes positive emotions from a user's "positive experience" story.

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells transplantation attenuates renal fibrosis following acute kidney injury by repairing the peritubular capillaries.

After the severe initial insults of acute kidney injury, progressive kidney tubulointerstitial fibrosis may occur, the peritubular capillary (PTC) rarefaction plays a key role in the disease progression. However, the mechanisms of PTC damage were not fully understood and potential therapeutic interventions were not explored. Previous studies of our research team and others in this field suggested that bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) transplanted into the AKI rat model may preserve the kidney function and pathological changes. In the current study, with the ischemia/reperfusion AKI rat model, we revealed that BMSCs transplantation attenuated the renal function decrease in the AKI model through preserving the peritubular capillaries (PTCs) function. The density of PTCs is maintained by BMSCs transplantation in the AKI model, detachment and relocation of pericytes in the PTCs diminished. Then we established that BMSCs transplantation may attenuate the renal fibrosis and preserve the kidney function after AKI by repairing the PTCs. Improving the vitality of pericytes, suppressing the detachment and trans-differentiation of pericytes, directly differentiation of BMSCs into pericytes by BMSCs transplantation all participate in the PTC repair. Through these processes, BMSCs rescued the microvascular damage and improved the density of PTCs. As a result, a preliminary conclusion can be reached that BMSCs transplantation can be an effective therapy for delaying renal fibrosis after AKI.

Characterization of Constitutive Promoters for the Elicitation of Secondary Metabolites in Myxobacteria.

Genome mining has revealed that myxobacteria contain a myriad of cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Here, we report the characterization of a panel of myxobacterial promoters with variable strength that are applicable in the engineering of BGCs in myxobacteria. The screened strongest constitutive promoter was used to efficiently enhance the expression of two complex BGCs governing the biosynthesis of myxochromide and DKxanthene in the model myxobacterium Myxococcus xanthus DK1622. We also showcased the combination of promoter engineering and MS2-based spectral networking as an effective strategy to shed light on the previously overlooked chemistry in the family of myxochromide-type lipopeptides. The enriched promoter library substantially expanded the synthetic biology toolkit available for myxobacteria.

Internal Promoters and Their Effects on the Transcription of Operon Genes for Epothilone Production in Myxococcus xanthus.

The biosynthetic genes for secondary metabolites are often clustered into giant operons with no transcription terminator before the end. The long transcripts are frangible and the transcription efficiency declines along with the process. Internal promoters might occur in operons to coordinate the transcription of individual genes, but their effects on the transcription of operon genes and the yield of metabolites have been less investigated. Epothilones are a kind of antitumor polyketides synthesized by seven multifunctional enzymes encoded by a 56-kb operon. In this study, we identified multiple internal promoters in the epothilone operon. We performed CRISPR-dCas9-mediated transcription activation of internal promoters, combined activation of different promoters, and activation in different epothilone-producing M. xanthus strains. We found that activation of internal promoters in the operon was able to promote the gene transcription, but the activation efficiency was distinct from the activation of separate promoters. The transcription of genes in the operon was influenced by not only the starting promoter but also internal promoters of the operon; internal promoters affected the transcription of the following and neighboring upstream/downstream genes. Multiple interferences between internal promoters thus changed the transcriptional profile of operon genes and the production of epothilones. Better activation efficiency for the gene transcription and the epothilone production was obtained in the low epothilone-producing strains. Our results highlight that interactions between promoters in the operon are critical for the gene transcription and the metabolite production efficiency.

Research on Integrated Innovation Design Education for Cultivating the Innovative and Entrepreneurial Ability of Industrial Design Professionals.

In the industrial design industry, innovation and entrepreneurship made by professional and technical talents will become an important trend in the future development of the economy and society. The great changes in the design industry, such as the diversification and complication of design objects, the relatively restricted knowledge structure of design talents, the lack of entrepreneurial experience, and other reasons, have led to the low success rate of industrial design talent entrepreneurship. The purpose of this research is to analyze and explore the effects of integrated innovation design teaching modes and methods of cultivating the innovative and entrepreneurial abilities of industrial design professionals to help industrial design professionals to improve their success rate of establishing new companies. This research also aims to improve the innovative and entrepreneurial ability of industrial design professionals in terms of integrated innovation and design teaching reform by integrating the theories and methods of industrial design professional training links such as the objectives, teaching contents, teaching modes and methods, performance evaluation of innovation, and design education, combining these with the requirements of the innovative and entrepreneurial ability training of industrial design professionals. In this study, the educational reform of integrated innovation design in a specific Chinese university is taken as an example to carry out theoretical research and practical application. The results of this research show that the theory and method of integrated innovation of design education have made significant contributions to the enhancement of the innovative and entrepreneurial ability of industrial design professionals. This research also reveals a feasible direction for constructing an industrial design innovative and entrepreneurial talent training system that adapts to the transformation and upgrading of the design industry. Meanwhile, methods and teaching modes applied in this research can be promoted in relevant or similar majors to make innovation and entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities more professional, stimulate students' entrepreneurial consciousness, and improve students' abilities of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Self-administered acupressure for chronic severe functional constipation: A study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Functional constipation is a disease with a high incidence, which has a bad effect on general health, mental health, and social functioning. However, current treatment is sometimes unsatisfactory. Acupuncture has been proven effective in some randomized controlled trials. Acupressure is a subtype of acupuncture and can be manipulated by the patients at home. But the evidence is limited now. This study aims to provide some strict evidence for the use of self-administered acupressure in the treatment of functional constipation. METHODS: This 2-armed, parallel, nonspecific controlled, randomized trial will be conducted at The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University in Hangzhou. A total of 154 FC patients will be enrolled into the acupoint group and the sham acupoint group with a ratio of 1:1 into this trial and it will consist of a 2-week run-in period, an 8-week intervention period, and an 8-week follow-up period. The treatment will be done by the patients themselves at home twice a day and they should sign in on the WeChat APP every day to make sure they have done the acupressure. The outcome will also be collected in WeChat APP through the diary and questionnaires. For the one who is unable to use the WeChat, the print edition of the diary and questionnaires are provided and the supervision will be done by the short message. The primary outcome will be the proportion of participants whose CSBM≥3 during week 3 to 10. The secondary outcome will be the proportion of participants whose CSBM ≥3 between 2 groups in week 11 to 18, Spontaneous bowel movements, Bristol Stool Form Scale, Straining severity scores, Patient assessment of constipation quality of life, and Medicine use. DISCUSSION: Acupressure is not an invasive method and can be done by the patient itself at home. We hope this trial will provide credible evidence to the application of self-acupressure for the management of severe chronic functional constipation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial has been registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2000038594).

Assembly processes and source tracking of planktonic and benthic bacterial communities in the Yellow River estuary.

Estuaries connect rivers with the ocean and are considered transition regions due to the continuous inputs from rivers. Microbiota from different sources converge and undergo succession in these transition regions, but their assembly mechanisms along environmental gradients remain unclear. Here, we found that salinity had a stronger effect on planktonic than on benthic microbial communities, and the dominant planktonic bacteria changed more distinctly than the dominant benthic bacteria with changes in salinity. The planktonic bacteria in the brackish water came mainly from seawater, which was confirmed in the laboratory, whereas the benthic bacteria were weakly affected by salinity, which appeared to be a mixture of the bacteria from riverine and oceanic sediments. Benthic bacterial community assembly in the sediments was mainly controlled by homogeneous selection and almost unaffected by changes in salinity, the dominant assemblage processes for planktonic bacteria changed dramatically along the salinity gradient, from homogeneous selection in freshwater to drift in seawater. Our results highlight that salinity is the key driver of estuarine microbial succession and that salinity is more important in shaping planktonic than benthic bacterial communities in the Yellow River estuary.

Inflammatory cytokine depletion in severe coronavirus disease 2019 infectious pneumonia: A case report.

RATIONALE: Multiorgan/system injury was observed in severely infected coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, in addition to viral pneumonia. Recognizing and correcting the key and immediate dysfunctions may reduce mortality. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 66-year-old previously healthy male patient was referred to the isolation ward in Guanggu Branch of Hubei Province Maternity and Childcare Hospital with a high fever and nonproductive cough for twenty days. DIAGNOSES: Diagnosis of severe COVID-19 infectious pneumonia was established by travel history, clinical features, chest imaging, and a positive oropharyngeal swab specimen result for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RT-PCR assay. INTERVENTIONS: In addition to standard supportive care, combined inflammatory cytokine depletion therapy (double filtration plasma pheresis and tocilizumab) and convalescent plasma were administered. OUTCOMES: The patient's homeostatic parameters (blood pressure, heart rate, spontaneous respiration, SPO2, and blood gas) recovered, along with the recovery on chest imaging. All the intravenous catheters were removed. Supportive care continued for several days, and the patient was transferred to a non-ICU isolation ward. LESSONS: It is not safe to draw causal conclusions between cytokine depletion and clinical manifestation improvement with only 1 case, but this is a potential research direction in facing the COVID-19 crisis.

Analysis on herbal medicines utilized for treatment of COVID-19.

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a substantial global public health threat, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was used in 91.50% of the COVID-19 cases in China, showing encouraging results in improving symptom management and reducing the deterioration, mortality, and recurrence rates. A total of 166 modified herbal formulae consisting of 179 single herbal medicines were collected for treating COVID-19 in China. Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizome, Scutellariae Radix, and Armeniacae Semen Amarum are the most frequently utilized in clinics, most of which are antipyretic (47, 26.26%), expectorant and cough-suppressing (22, 12.29%), and dampness-resolving (21, 11.73%) from traditional descriptions. A total of 1212 chemical components containing ß-sitosterol, stigmasterol, and quercetin were primarily selected. Additionally, using complex system entropy and unsupervised hierarchical clustering, 8 core herbal combinations and 10 new formulae emerged as potentially useful candidates for COVID-19. Finally, following scaffold analysis, self-organizing mapping (SOM) and cluster analysis, 12 clusters of molecules yielded 8 pharmacophore families of structures that were further screened as pharmacological targets in human metabolic pathways for inhibiting coronavirus. This article aims to make more easily accessible and share historical herbal knowledge used in contemporary treatments in a modern manner to assist researchers contain the global spread of COVID-19.