The use of belimumab on patients with both systemic lupus erythematosus and immune thrombocytopenia: A retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to provide a description of a group of retrospective cohort outcomes in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) complicated with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) receiving belimumab. METHODS: This study reports on the treatment of 10 female patients (mean age 34.3 ± 14.0 years, mean weight 58.7 ± 18.2 kg) with both SLE and ITP who received belimumab in addition to basic drug therapy. The belimumab treatment regimen consisted of a dosage of 10 mg/kg, with an initial infusion every 2 weeks for the first 3 doses, followed by an infusion every 4 weeks. RESULTS: Ten patients were included in the study. The overall response rate of thrombocytopenia was 90% after treatment. The parameters such as platelet count, lymphocyte count, erythrocyte count, hemoglobin, dsDNA, C3, and C4 were significantly improved (p < .05). The SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI), British Islet lupus Assessment Group 2004 (BILAG-2004), and Physician Global assessment (PGA) scores were significantly decreased (p < .05). There were no significant differences in glutamic pyruvic transaminase (ALT), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (AST), and serum creatinine (Scr) before and after treatment (p > .05). CONCLUSION: Belimumab shows promising clinical outcomes in the treatment on patients with both SLE and ITP. Further studies are needed to validate these findings in larger patient populations and compare the efficacy of belimumab with other treatments for SLE complicated with ITP. Long-term response rates and adverse events associated with belimumab treatment also warrant further investigation.

Constructing C-O bridged CeO2/g-C3N4 S-scheme heterojunction for methyl orange photodegradation：Experimental and theoretical calculation.

Owing to its feasibility, efficiency in light-harvesting and effectiveness in the interfacial charge transfer between two n-type semiconductors, constructing heterojunction photocatalysts have been identified as an effective way for enhancing the photocatalytic properties. In this research, a C-O bridged CeO2/g-C3N4 (cCN) Step-scheme (S-scheme) heterojunction photocatalyst was constructed successfully. Under visible light irradiation, the cCN heterojunction exhibited the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of methyl orange, which was about 4.5 and 1.5 times higher than that of pristine CeO2 and CN, respectively. The DFT calculations, XPS and FTIR analyses demonstrated the formation of C-O linkages. And the calculations of work functions revealed the electrons would flow from g-C3N4 to CeO2 due to the difference in Fermi levels, resulting in the production of internal electric fields. Benefiting from the C-O bond and internal electric field, the photo-induced holes in the valence band of g-C3N4 and the photo-induced electrons from conduction band of CeO2 would be recombined when exposed to visible light irradiation, while leaving the electrons with higher redox potential in the conduction band of g-C3N4. This collaboration accelerated the separation and transfer rate of photo-generated electron-hole pairs, which promoted the generation of superoxide radical (•O2-) and improved the photocatalytic activity.

Global landscape of COVID-19 and epilepsy research: A bibliometric analysis.

Background: A large number of papers regarding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and epilepsy have been published since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is no bibliometric analysis on these papers. In this study, we aimed to analyze the bibliometric characteristics of these papers, thus identifying the trends and future directions of COVID-19 and epilepsy research. Methods: Scientific papers regarding COVID-19 and epilepsy were retrieved through searches of the Web of Science Core Collection database. Title, authors, contributing institute, country, source journal, times cited, and additional information were extracted from each selected paper. Microsoft Excel 2019 and GraphPad Prism 8 were used to analyze the extracted data and export the bar charts and tables whilst VOSviewer software was used to perform and visualize co-authorship analysis and co-occurrence analysis of keywords. Results: A total of 317 papers regarding COVID-19 and epilepsy were included in the final analysis. Epilepsy & Behavior published the largest number of papers (n = 84). J. Helen Cross and Naoto Kuroda were the most prolific authors (n = 13 each). The United States (n = 88) and the University of London (n = 23) were the country and organization with the most contributions, respectively. The strongest authors' collaborations were between Giovanni Assenza and Jacopo Lanzone and between J. Helen Cross and Nathalie Jette. Selected author keywords were organized into seven clusters, and the keywords in clusters 1 and cluster 4 had the largest average appearing year of any clusters. Conclusion: This is the first bibliometric analysis of papers regarding COVID-19 and epilepsy. Our results showed that the United States was the leading country whilst J. Helen Cross was the most influential scholar in COVID-19 and epilepsy research. psychological consequences of COVID-19, and the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for people with epilepsy, are possible areas for future research on COVID-19 and epilepsy.

The Effects of Mandarin Chinese Lexical Tones in Sound-Shape and Sound-Size Correspondences.

Crossmodal correspondences refer to when specific domains of features in different sensory modalities are mapped. We investigated how vowels and lexical tones drive sound-shape (rounded or angular) and sound-size (large or small) mappings among native Mandarin Chinese speakers. We used three vowels (/i/, /u/, and /a/), and each vowel was articulated in four lexical tones. In the sound-shape matching, the tendency to match the rounded shape was decreased in the following order: /u/, /i/, and /a/. Tone 2 was more likely to be matched to the rounded pattern, whereas Tone 4 was more likely to be matched to the angular pattern. In the sound-size matching, /a/ was matched to the larger object more than /u/ and /i/, and Tone 2 and Tone 4 correspond to the large-small contrast. The results demonstrated that both vowels and tones play prominent roles in crossmodal correspondences, and sound-shape and sound-size mappings are heterogeneous phenomena.

A cross-sectional study of inpatients with late stage of dementia in Southeast China and the associations between biochemical parameters and apolipoprotein E genotypes.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to analyze the disease distribution of patients in the late stage of dementia through a cross-sectional investigation and to clarify the association between apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotypes and the serum levels of total cholesterol, total triglycerides, and blood glucose in the late-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. METHODS: Patients who were in the late stage of dementia in a mental health center were enrolled in this study. A broad battery of neuropsychological tests and neuroimaging was applied to make the diagnosis. The APOE genotype was determined by the multiplex amplification refractory mutation system polymerase chain reaction. The association between APOE genotype and the blood level of biochemical parameters was studied. RESULTS: A total of 155 patients were enrolled in this study. The majority of patients had AD (67.8%), followed by vascular dementia (15.5%), mixed dementia (9%), and others (7.7%). The APOE ε4 allele frequency was significantly different in the different groups. The serum level of total cholesterol (TC) in APOE ε4 carriers was higher than in non-carriers (P<0.05). No statistically significant differences were found in the blood glucose and triglycerides (TG) levels between these two groups. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first paper to study the characteristics of late-stage dementia in hospital patients in Southeast China. We found that the disease distribution was quite consistent with previous prevalence studies. Moreover, we found that the serum level of TC was higher in APOE ε4 carriers group. However, no association was found between the APOE ε4 allele and serum levels of glucose, TC and TG in the late stage of AD.