Photoelectrochemical sensing of glutathione using bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) decorated with polyaniline (PANI) and cadmium sulfide (CdS).

A ternary nanocomposite photoelectrode composed of cadmium sulfide (CdS), polyaniline (PANI), and bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) was successfully designed by combining cyclic voltammetry (CV) with electrochemical deposition and high-temperature calcination. The first synthesized CdS/PANI/BiVO4 composite was used as a photoelectrochemical (PEC) monitoring platform for glutathione (GSH). The ternary CdS/PANI/BiVO4 nanocomposites exhibited higher PEC activity, which was attributed to the accelerated electron transfer by the loading of CdS and PANI, which enables the material surface to better adsorb the electrons separated by GSH, thereby oxidizing it into GSSH. The photoanodes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and photoelectrochemical experiments. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the BiVO4 electrode modified with CdS and PANI exhibited a linear response in the concentration range of 0.1-20 µM with a sensitivity of 0.669 µA mM-1 cm-2 and a detection limit of 40 nM. Moreover, the PEC sensor exhibits good reproducibility and long-term stability. In summary, the designed materials have excellent electrochemical properties, which make them ideal candidates for PEC detection of GSH.

The Co-Occurrence of Anthracosis with Interstitial Lung Disease.

Objective: Anthracosis is defined as deposition of black pigments in the bronchial mucosa or lung parenchyma. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical features of patients with coexisting anthracosis and interstitial lung diseases (ILDs). Methods: A total of 335 ILDs patients who underwent bronchoscopy at the affiliated hospital of Qingdao University were included in our study. We enrolled 71 patients who diagnosed with anthracosis by bronchoscopy. The clinical presentations, radiographic features, and bronchoscopic findings of the patients were reviewed. Results: Compared with the non-anthracosis group, biomass exposure (48, 67.6% vs. 153, 53.9%, p=0.041), the median pressure of carbon dioxide before six-minute test (42.00 mmHg vs. 40.00 mmHg, P=0.001), the mean peak expiratory flow (115.21 ±23.55 %predicted vs. 104.20±26.17%pre-dicted, P=0.048), the mean level of triglyceride (1.79±1.27 mmol/L vs. 1.51 ±0.74 mmol/L, P=0.034) were significantly increased and the mean oxygen saturation after six-minute test (95.49 ±2.72% vs. 96.56 ±1.27%, P=0.028), the mean cardiac ejection fraction (61.22±2.07% vs.62.08±2.89%, P=0.019) were significantly decreased in the anthracosis group. However, we didn't find significant difference between the two groups in lymph node calcification (p=0.620) and lymphadenectasis (p=0.440). Conclusions: Biomass smoke is a risk factor for anthracosis. Anthracosis produce a bad effect on the oxygenation, cardiac function and lipid metabolism in ILDs patients. The ILDs patients should decrease the exposure of biomass.

Process validation and in vitro-in vivo evaluation of rosuvastatin calcium tablets.

Establishing documented evidence that provides a high degree of assurance that a specific wet granulation process for manufacturing rosuvastatin calcium tablets 40 mg will consistently produce a product meeting its pre-determined specifications and quality attributes. It mainly involves the steps to be followed to evaluate and qualify the acceptability of the wet granulation manufacturing process of rosuvastatin calcium tablets 40 mg. The process is limited to the three batches manufactured of specific batch size with specified equipment and control parameters for rosuvastatin calcium tablets 40 mg. The results suggest providing documentary evidence that all the manufactured rosuvastatin calcium tablets were evaluated as per specifications. The steps involved such as Blend uniformity results between 90% and 110%, compression assay results between 90% and 110% were found within acceptable limits. Other tests related to compression such as hardness, thickness, disintegration, dissolution and for coatings such as weight gain, dissolution was found within acceptable limit. The design was chosen for fasting and fed study and showed bioequivalence with RLD (Codine®), with 90% CI values found to be between 80% and 125%.

TiO2 nanotube arrays decorated with BiOBr nanosheets by the SILAR method for photoelectrochemical sensing of H2O2.

The design and construction of a photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensor with excellent photoelectric properties and good photoelectrocatalysis activity is significant for the effective detection of analytes. In this paper, based on a two-step anodic oxidation method and successive ionic layer adsorption (SILAR) method, a TiO2 nanotube array (TNT) photoelectrochemical sensor modified with BiOBr nanosheets was constructed and applied for the detection of H2O2 for the first time. The photocurrent of the photoelectrochemical sensor increases with the increase of the H2O2 concentration under the irradiation of an 8 W UV lamp. Excellent linearity was obtained in the concentration range from 10 nM to 100 µM with a low detection limit of 5 nM (S/N = 3). This excellent photoelectrochemical performance is due to the formation of a p-n heterojunction between BiOBr and TiO2 nanotube arrays, which provides efficient separation of charge carriers and accelerates electron transport. Moreover, it is applied to detect H2O2 in milk samples and it showed a good recovery result ranging from 95.73% to 105.65%, which provides a promising new strategy for the detection of H2O2.

Effects of VEGF Inhibitor Conbercept on Corneal Neovascularization Following Penetrating Keratoplasty in Rabbit Model.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of the vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor conbercept (KH902) on corneal neovascularization and wound healing following penetrating keratoplasty in rabbits. METHODS: Conbercept was administered to New Zealand white rabbits through topical and subconjunctival routes. Corneal neovascularization and wound healing were examined by slit-lamp photography and histological analyses. The expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor, α-smooth muscle actin, and keratocan in the corneal grafts were measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). RESULTS: The anterior segment photographs demonstrated that corneal neovascularization started in the 2nd week. In the 4th week, histologically, the superficial corneal stroma layer showed disordered arrangement, and there were large numbers of dense inflammatory cells and blood vessels in the stroma layer. Vascular endothelial growth factor in the experimental groups was significantly decreased at all time points compared with the control group (both P = 0.001). Expression of α-smooth muscle actin in corneal grafts demonstrated an increase in time even it was lower in experimental groups, but the difference was not statistically significant (P equaled to 0.507 and 0.723, respectively). There were no significant differences with the expression of keratocan in all groups except that it significantly declined at the 4th week as to the second week in all groups and P values were 0.022, 0.020 and 0.014 in control (C), topical (E1), and subconjunctival (E2) group, respectively. CONCLUSION: The study found that conbercept inhibited the formation of corneal neovascularization without affecting keratocan-mediated corneal wound healing and there were no significant differences between topical administration of different doses of conbercept on the rabbit corneal neovascularization after penetrating keratoplasty in this study.

Updates on the Management of Ocular Vasculopathies with VEGF Inhibitor Conbercept.

Purpose: To provide a detailed review on the therapeutic efficacy of conbercept for the management of ocular vasculopathies. Methods: A comprehensive literature search of various electronic databases was performed. Results: Ocular vasculopathy is one of the major causes of visual impairment and blindness which includes a range of disorders. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) regulates angiogenesis, enhances vascular permeability, and drives the formation of neovascularization. Anti-VEGF therapy has been shown to prevent vision loss or potentially improve vision in patients with exudative or neovascular retinal disease. The most recent anti-VEGF drug in China is conbercept. In the USA and Europe, bevacizumab is the most recently approved anti-VEGF agent. Conclusions: Conbercept serves as another anti-VEGF option for patients with neovascular AMD and other retinal vascular disorders. There have not been many clinical trials that study conbercept as compared with other currently available anti-VEGF drugs. There is a need for large-scale, well-designed, randomized clinical trials to ensure its long-term safety and efficacy and to determine if it has any advantages over other anti-VEGF agents.

Observation of topical tacrolimus on high-risk penetrating keratoplasty patients: a randomized clinical trial study.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of topical tacrolimus 0.1% and cyclosporine 1% on high-risk penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) patients. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A series of 49 high-risk PKP patients (49 eyes), 20 males, 29 females from the age of 4 months to 74 years of age with the mean of 32.5 from 2012 to 2017 were recruited in this study. The patients were randomly divided into two groups by receiving either topical tacrolimus 0.1% or cyclosporine 1% respectively. Twenty five patients were treated with topical tacrolimus 0.1% and 24 patients with topical cyclosporine 1%. The traditional baseline management on these two groups were Tobramycin and Dexamethasone eye drops in the first 3 weeks and then tapered off. Clinical procedures and postoperative follow-up were documented. RESULTS: After 6-54 months follow-up, with the average of 24 months, 11 of 24 high-risk patients (11 eyes) had graft rejection, the rejection rate was 45.8% in topical cyclosporine 1% group. The rejections occurred from 35 days to 20 months after PKP. Three patients had irreversible rejection. On topical tacrolimus 0.1% group, the rejection occurred in four patients (four eyes) with rejection rate of 16%, and no irreversible rejection was observed. The graft rejection episodes were documented between 23 days and 24 months. As compared with the topical cyclosporine 1%, topical tacrolimus 0.1%, a key immunosuppressant, significantly decreased corneal graft rejection rate (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Topical tacrolimus 01% on high-risk PKP patients significantly prevented corneal graft rejection, and it had less adverse effects and was very safe to high-risk patients as to topical cyclosporine 1%. Further case controlled randomized clinical trial studies are needed to establish the best management option for these high-risk patients.

Altered functional connectivity density in high myopia.

Abnormal visual experience can affect the brain structure and function. Visual functional performances of high myopia (HM) individuals were observed to be abnormal in contrast to emmetropics, even with a corrected visual acuity. Attention deficits and brain morphological changes have been revealed in the HM, but it is unknown whether there are functional connectivity (FC) alterations. The current study combined the resting-state functional connectivity density (FCD) mapping and seed-based correlation analysis to investigate FC alterations in the brain of HM. In our results, the HM exhibited decreased short- and long-range FCD in the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus and decreased long-range FCD in the inferior temporal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex. Specially, long-range FCD in the rostrolateral prefrontal cortex showed a significant positive correlation with the uncorrected visual acuity in the HM. Moreover, the HM showed significantly decreased FC not only between the supramarginal gyrus and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex, but also between networks they belong to, the ventral attention and frontoparietal control networks. These results provide evidence for the FC changes in the HM and may help to understand the attention deficits in myopes.

Tract-based spatial statistics analysis of white matter changes in children with anisometropic amblyopia.

Amblyopia is a neurological disorder of vision that follows abnormal binocular interaction or visual deprivation during early life. Previous studies have reported multiple functional or structural cortical alterations. Although white matter was also studied, it still cannot be clarified clearly which fasciculus was affected by amblyopia. In the present study, tract-based spatial statistics analysis was applied to diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate potential diffusion changes of neural tracts in anisometropic amblyopia. Fractional anisotropy (FA) value was calculated and compared between 20 amblyopic children and 18 healthy age-matched controls. In contrast to the controls, significant decreases in FA values were found in right optic radiation (OR), left inferior longitudinal fasciculus/inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (ILF/IFO) and right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) in the amblyopia. Furthermore, FA values of these identified tracts showed positive correlation with visual acuity. It can be inferred that abnormal visual input not only hinders OR from well developed, but also impairs fasciculi associated with dorsal and ventral visual pathways, which may be responsible for the amblyopic deficiency in object discrimination and stereopsis. Increased FA was detected in right posterior part of corpus callosum (CC) with a medium effect size, which may be due to compensation effect. DTI with subsequent measurement of FA is a useful tool for investigating neuronal tract involvement in amblyopia.