An analysis of reported cases of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) after COVID-19 vaccination.

Although COVID-19 vaccines are an effective public health tool to combat the global pandemic, serious adverse events, such as hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), caused by them are a concern. In this systematic review, cases of HLH reported after COVID-19 vaccination have been examined to understand the relationship between the two and propose effective therapeutic strategies. Furthermore, ruxolitinib's potential as a cytokine inhibitor and its affinity for CD25 were initially assessed through molecular docking, aiming to aid targeted HLH therapy. PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched for published individual case reports on the occurrence of HLH after the administration of any COVID-19 vaccine. A total of 17 articles (25 patients) were included in this qualitative analysis. Furthermore, molecular docking was employed to investigate the therapeutic potential of ruxolitinib for HLH after COVID-19 vaccination. The mean age of patients who developed HLH after COVID-19 vaccination was 48.1 years. Most HLH episodes occurred after the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (14/25 cases) and to an extent after the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 vaccination (5/25 cases). Almost all affected patients received steroid and antibiotic therapy. Three patients died despite treatment because of esophagus rupture, neutropenic fever, bacteroides bacteremia, refractory shock, and encephalopathy and shock. Visual docking results of IL-2 Rα and ruxolitinib using the Discovery Studio 2019 Client software yielded a model score of 119.879. The findings highlight the importance of considering and identifying the adverse effects of vaccination and the possibility of using ruxolitinib for treating HLH after COVID-19 vaccination.

Cytokine storm and targeted therapy in hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a life-threatening systemic hyperinflammatory syndrome. The central pathogenesis is an explosive cytokine storm characterized by a significant increase in proinflammatory cytokines, including IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-18, IFN-γ, and TNF-α. Meanwhile, negative regulatory factors, such as IL-10 and TGF-ß, are also related to the production of HLH. Exploring the specific mechanism of cytokine storms could provide ideas regarding targeted therapy, which could be helpful for early treatment to reduce the mortality of HLH. Although some research has focused on the advantages of targeted therapies, there is still a lack of a comprehensive discourse. This article attempts to summarize the mechanisms of action of various cytokines and provide a therapeutic overview of the current targeted therapies for HLH.

Assessing the regional carbon sink with its forming processes- a case study of Liaoning province, China.

Assessing the regional carbon sink sets the basis of regional carbon management, which involves many measures but has large uncertainties. Carbon sink assessment scheme based on its forming processes (CSF) is a recently proposed measure but repeatly calculates emission from water erosion and ignored human inducing carbon inputs. Therefore, we revised the CSF by calculating the direct outputs from land surface and adding human returned carbon (HC) to the input. The revised CSF thus involved gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (ER), carbon removal from cropland (CRC), emission from reactive carbon (ERC), emission from water erosion (Ewat), and HC, which can be obtained from public data sources. Then the revised CSF was applied to the Liaoning province of China. The estimated carbon input of Liaoning province during 2000-2014 was 114.77 ± 8.41 TgC yr-1, while the carbon output was 110.48 ± 8.38 TgC yr-1. The difference between input and output induced a carbon sink of 4.30 ± 2.20 TgC yr-1, accounting for 3.75% of total carbon input. The carbon sink spatially decreased from northeast to southwest, which was highly correlated with that of GPP. However, though its forming fluxes significantly increased from 2000 to 2014, the carbon sink showed a decreasing trend. In addition, the revised scheme only needed published and public data, which made it serve as an alternative approach for regional carbon budget assessment.

Divergent drivers of the spatial and temporal variations of cropland carbon transfer in Liaoning province, China.

Spatial and temporal variations are important points of focus in ecological research. Analysing their differences improves our understanding on the variations of ecological phenomena. Using data from the Liaoning Statistical Yearbook, we investigated the spatial and temporal variations of cropland carbon transfer (CCT), an important ecological phenomenon in quantifying the regional carbon budget, in particular, the influencing factors and difference. The results showed that, from 1992 to 2014, the average CCT in Liaoning province was 18.56 TgC yr-1 and decreased from northwest to southeast. CCT spatial variation was primarily affected by the ratio of planting area to regional area (RPR) via its effect on the magnitude of carbon transfer (MCT), which depended mainly on fertilizer usage per area (FUA). From 1992 to 2014, CCT exhibited a significantly increasing trend with a rate of 0.48 TgC yr-1. The inter-annual variation of CCT was dominated by carbon transfer per planting area (CTP) through its effect on MCT, which significantly correlated with FUA but showed no significant correlation with climatic factors. Therefore, the factors affecting the spatial variation of CCT differed from those that affected its inter-annual variation, indicating that the spatial and temporal variations of ecological phenomena were affected by divergent factors.

Clinical significance of long noncoding RNA SPRY4-IT1 in melanoma patients.

Long noncoding RNA SPRY4-IT1 has been reported to promote melanoma cell growth and invasion, and to block apoptosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of SPRY4-IT1 in patients with malignant melanoma. The relative expression levels of SPRY4-IT1 were measured in plasma samples from 70 patients and 79 healthy controls by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. SPRY4-IT1 expression is high in melanoma patients but low in healthy controls, and is closely associated with tumor site and tumor stage. Elevated SPRY4-IT1 significantly reduces overall survival rates of patients and is considered as an independent prognostic factor in patients with melanoma. The prognostic nomogram shows a good prediction of the probability of 5-year overall survival of patients with melanoma (c-index: 0.72). The calibration curve for the probability of survival presents good agreement between actual outcomes and predictive consequences. In summary, SPRY4-IT1 may be a potential prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic target.

Magnetic solid-phase extraction and ultrafast liquid chromatographic detection of Sudan dyes in red wines, juices, and mature vinegars.

A nanocomposite of polystyrene-coated magnetic nanoparticles was successfully synthesized and employed as adsorbent for magnetic solid-phase extraction of four Sudan dyes (I, II III, and IV) in red wines, juices, and mature vinegars. The prepared magnetic nanoparticles with highly hydrophobic properties have excellent adsorption capacity for these lipophilic Sudan dyes. Extraction conditions were optimized. Experimental results showed that the recoveries of the four Sudan dyes were very satisfactory when 70 mg of polystyrene-coated magnetic nanoparticles were used and the extraction could be completed within 20 min. It was proved that these magnetic nanoparticles can be reused after an easy washing process. By coupling the magnetic solid-phase extraction with ultrafast liquid chromatography-ultraviolet spectrometry, a rapid, green, effective, and sensitive method for the determination of Sudan dyes was developed. The LOD for Sudan I, Sudan II, Sudan III, and Sudan IV were 0.0039, 0.0063, 0.0057, and 0.017 ng/mL, respectively. Recoveries obtained by analyzing spiked water samples at three concentration levels (0.1, 1.0, and 10.0 ng/mL) were between 76.3 and 96.6%. The intra- and interday RSDs for the analytes were lower than 9.6%.

Antibiotic resistance of Streptococcus agalactiae from cows with mastitis.

The aim of this study was to characterise the phenotypic and genotypic antibiotic resistance patterns of Streptococcus agalactiae isolated from cows with mastitis in China. Antibiotic resistance was based on minimum inhibitory concentrations and detection of resistance genes by PCR. S. agalactiae isolates most frequently exhibited phenotypic resistance to tetracycline, while the resistance genes most frequently detected were ermB, tetL and tetM. Resistance genes were detected in some susceptible isolates, whereas no resistance genes could be detected in some resistant isolates, indicating that the resistance genotype does not accurately predict phenotypic resistance.

Characterization of Prototheca zopfii associated with outbreak of bovine clinical mastitis in herd of Beijing, China.

Prototheca zopfii (P. zopfii) has become an important cause of bovine mastitis in many countries. In the present study, to better understand the occurrence of one clinical mastitis (CM) outbreak due to P. zopfii, the molecular characterization and resistance patterns of the microalga were described. P. zopfii strains were isolated from 17 of 23 quarters, which suffered CM in the outbreak, and 7 of 46 CM recovered quarters before the outbreak, as well as 2 of 75 environmental samples in the dairy farm. All strains were identified as genotype 2 by genotype-specific PCR analysis. Results of in vitro antimicrobial and antifungal susceptibility tests indicated that these strains were resistant to majority of tested drugs, with the only exception of amphotericin B, nystatin, streptomycin, gentamicin, and amikacin. This is the first report about CM outbreak caused by P. zopfii in China. These data suggest that P. zopfii may represent a serious risk in the studied herd, and this microalga could be an important potential pathogen causing mastitis in dairy herds of Beijing.

[Nondestructive quantitative analysis of Cofrel medicines by improved partial least squares-NIR spectroscopy].

In the present paper, improved partial least squares (PLS) method was used to parse near infrared (NIR) reflectance spectrum of Cofrel medicine. The contents of benproperine phosphate, a availability pharmaceutical in Cofrel medicine, were accurately nondestructively quantitatively predicted. The best number of principal components (PC) was designed by scores plot of samples in PC. The effects of the wavelength range, conventional spectra, first-derivative spectra and second-derivative spectra on the results were discussed respectively. Comparing the results with those of HPLC, the relative errors(RE%) of benproperine phosphate were less than 0.42%. The analytical results were sufficient for practical manufacture of Cofrel medicine.

Fluoride-induced oxidative stress of osteoblasts and protective effects of baicalein against fluoride toxicity.

The key role of osteoblasts in skeletal fluorosis makes the exploration of the possible mechanisms of the fluoride-induced oxidative stress of osteoblasts of great importance. In this article, the in vitro effects of fluoride on the oxidative stress of osteoblasts are presented. To study the inhibitory effect of baicalein on the oxidative stress of osteoblasts, the antioxidant activity of baicalein was evaluated for osteoblasts exposed to fluoride. Calvarial osteoblasts were prepared and respectively treated with alpha-MEM (5% calf serum) containing 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0, 12.0, and 20.0 mg/L fluoride for 48 h. Baicalein (10 micromol/L) was added to the cells for the same period of time as that of the fluoride treatment. Low concentrations of fluoride (0.5-2 mg F-/L) stimulated the mitochondrial activity of osteoblasts and produced significant reaction to the oxidative stress, whereas high concentrations of fluoride (>or=12 mg F-/L) inhibited cell proliferation and the activity of antioxidant enzymes. This suggests that the oxidative stress induced by low concentrations of fluoride might mediate or participate in the process of fluoride inducing the proliferation of osteoblasts. The viability of osteoblasts in the high concentrations of fluoride with the addition of 10 mumol/L baicalein (>or=12 mg/L) was higher than those of the same level of fluoride- treated groups without the addition of baicalein. The protective role of baicalein is obvious as an inhibitor of lipid peroxidation against the damage induced by the high concentration of fluoride.

[Simultaneous determination of multi-components in Chinese herbal medicine with UV spectrometry by virtual components-artificial neural network].

In the present paper, the simultaneous determination of multi-components in Chinese herbal medicine was performed by artificial neural network-UV spectrometry. The interference of other components was eliminated by self-revising and self-simulation of the virtual component. The double ANN including training and simulation network was established, and the capabilities of self-recognition and self-studying were improved. Therefore, the prediction accuracy of multicomponent content was improved greatly in the complicated Chinese herbal medicine system. The contents of aesculin and aesculetin, which were extracted from 21 Cortex Fraxinis, were predicted. Comparing the results with those of HPLC, the prediction accuracy was more than 90% within the relative errors less than 10%. The measurement precisions of aesculin and aesculetin were 0. 37% and 1. 5% respectively.

[Determination of 20 (S)-ginsengnoside Rh2 in the alkali-hydrolysis product of saponins from leaves of Panax qinquefolium by RP-HPLC].

OBJECTIVE: To determine 20(S)-ginsengnoside Rh2 in the hydrolysis product of saponins from leaves of Panax qinquefolium. METHOD: The separation was performed on ZORBAX EXEND C18 column (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm), eluted with methanol and water (85:15) as mobile phase with the rate of 1.2 mL x min(-1) at 25 degrees C, the wavelength for measurement was 203 nm. RESULT: The calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.5-25 microg for 20(S)-ginsengnoside Rh2(r = 0.9999, n = 7). The average recovery was 99.7% (RSD= 1.0%). CONCLUSION: This method is simple, accurate, reliable and reproducible. The result shows that the transform ratio of 20(S)-ginsengnoside Rh2 is high by this hydrolysis method.

Separation and identification of Aconitum alkaloids and their metabolites in human urine.

To study the safety of Aconitum medicinal herbs in clinic and identify Aconitum alkaloids poisoning in forensic medicine, Aconitum alkaloids and their metabolites were separated and identified in human urine by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-multi-stage mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS(n)) and chemical pathway of metabolism was investigated. The alkaloids and their metabolites in the urine sample were extracted with solid-phase cartridges and separated by HPLC with acetonitrile-water-formic acid (40:60:0.5) mobile phase. Structures of five metabolites and three parent Aconitum alkaloids were identified with multi-stage mass spectrometry data through comparison with authentic substances as aconitine (M(1)), mesaconitine (M(2)), hypaconitine (M(3)), benzoylaconine (M(4)), benzoylmesaconine (M(5)), benzoylhypaconine (M(6)), 16-O-demethylaconitine (M(7)) and 16-O-demethylhypaconitine (M(8)), respectively. Among them, M(8) was identified and reported for the first time. Metabolic pathways of Aconitum alkaloids in human body were proposed.

Selection of phage antibodies with GPX activity by combination of phage displayed antibody library with chemical modification and their characterization using a surface plasmon resonance biosensor.

Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) is an important antioxidant enzyme, which plays an important role in scavenging reactive oxygen species. To obtain humanized GPX catalytic antibodies, the phage displayed human antibody library on the surface of the filamentous bacteriophage was used to select novel antibodies by repetitive screening. Phage antibodies B8, H6 and C1 with the GSH-binding site were obtained from the library by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analysis with four rounds of selection against three haptens, S-2,4-dinitrophenyl t-butyl ester [GSH-S-DNP-Bu (B)], S-2,4-dinitrophenyl t-hexyl ester [GSH-S-DNP-He (H)] and S-2,4-dinitrophenyl cycle-hexyl ester [GSH-S-DNP-cHe (C)], and characterized using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor. The gold layer was modified by dithiodiglycolic acid (DDA) and three haptens were easily attached to DDA by self-assembling to form a biosensor membrane. The membrane bounds specifically corresponding antibodies. The kinetic process of the reaction between phage antibodies and their haptens was studied by SPR biosensor. In order to improve selectivity, chemical modification was used to incorporate directly catalytic group selenocysteine (Sec) into selected phage clone B8, H6 and C1 to form Se-B8, Se-H6 and Se-C1, respectively. The GPX activities of Se-B8, Se-H6 and Se-C1 were found to be 3000, 2000 and 700units/mumol, respectively. Compared with conventional ELISA analysis, the proposed method based on SPR biosensor is much more rapid and simpler.

[Preliminary study on using acousto-optic tunable filter as wavelength selector for atomic absorption spectrometry].

An acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) is an all-solid-state, electronic monochromator that is based on the diffraction of light by an acoustic wave in an anisotropic crystal. It is a new kind of tunable small filter with narrow band compared with traditional unicolor filter. The filter can diffract incident white light at a specific wavelength when a specific radio frequency is applied into it. An AAS experimental setup using a microwave plasma torch (MPT) as the atomizer, and a visible AOTF as the wavelength selector was developed and the analytical performance was evaluated by determination of Na. The effect on the absorption signal of some operating conditions, including the observation height, the microwave forward power and the carrier and support gas flow rates for MPT, were investigated. The detection limit for Na was shown to be 0.23 microgram.mL-1 and the relative standard deviation was 2.6% (n = 6).