Research on the impact mechanism of changes in the production of medical solid waste in China before and after COVID-19.

The changes of medical solid waste (MSW) output in recent years have had a significant impact on the spread of the virus. There is a high-risk transmission of MSW in various stages such as storage, transportation, and treatment during the COVID-19. To cope with the risks brought by the epidemic, normalized prevention consumes a large amount of protective clothing, medical masks, goggles, packaging bags, and other related medical supplies. There is a significant uncertainty in the amount of MSW output that poses a risk of COVID-19 infection in the event of an emergency, which increases the difficulty of collecting and handling epidemic prevention MSW. The analysis of MSW data from 2000 to 2022 found a stable growth trend before 2019. However, the MSW data was a sudden increase trend from 2020 to 2022, and the COVID-19 in China was characterized by an initial stage, an outbreak stage, and a stable growth stage. The range of MSW output during the epidemic was (1.19-1.75) × 106 t a-1. The amount of MSW was approximately 1.19 × 106 t a-1 during the normalized epidemic period, and its treatment cost was as high as 3.57 × 109 yuan (RMB)·a-1. The distribution of MSW output was uneven due to factors such as climate conditions, population data, and local economy. This study has important reference value for epidemic medical material reserves and MSW treatment.

The Application of Biomedicine in Chemodynamic Therapy: From Material Design to Improved Strategies.

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) has garnered significant interest as an innovative approach for cancer treatment, owing to its notable tumor specificity and selectivity, minimal systemic toxicity and side effects, and absence of the requirement for field stimulation during treatment. This treatment utilizes nanocatalytic medicines containing transitional metals to release metal ions within tumor cells, subsequently initiating Fenton and Fenton-like reactions. These reactions convert hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into hydroxyl radical (•OH) specifically within the acidic tumor microenvironment (TME), thereby inducing apoptosis in tumor cells. However, insufficient endogenous H2O2, the overexpressed reducing substances in the TME, and the weak acidity of solid tumors limit the performance of CDT and restrict its application in vivo. Therefore, a variety of nanozymes and strategies have been designed and developed in order to potentiate CDT against tumors, including the application of various nanozymes and different strategies to remodel TME for enhanced CDT (e.g., increasing the H2O2 level in situ, depleting reductive substances, and lowering the pH value). This review presents an overview of the design and development of various nanocatalysts and the corresponding strategies employed to enhance catalytic drug targeting in recent years. Additionally, it delves into the prospects and obstacles that lie ahead for the future advancement of CDT.

A review on reactive oxygen species (ROS)-inducing nanoparticles activated by uni- or multi-modal dynamic treatment for oncotherapy.

Cancer seriously threatens human health. As compared to normal tissue cells, tumor cells are generally more susceptible to oxidative stress and accumulate higher concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Accordingly, nanomaterials-based therapies that boost intracellular ROS generation have recently been effective in targeting and eliminating cancer cells by causing programmed death. This review presents a comprehensive analysis of ROS-generation induced by nanoparticles and critically examines the associated therapies which can be categorized as uni-modal (chemodynamic therapy, photodynamic therapy, sonodynamic therapy) and multi-modal (uni-modal therapy + chemotherapy, uni-modal therapy + uni-modal therapy) therapies. Comparison of the relative tumor volume ratio between the experimental and initial tumor volumes shows that multi-modal therapy significantly outperformed other treatments. However, the limitations of multi-modal therapy are in the difficulties of materials preparation and sophisticated operation protocols, thus limiting its applications in clinical practice. As an emerging treatment modality, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a reliable source of ROS, light, and electromagnetic fields that can be used to implement multi-modal treatments in a simple setting. Therefore, the field of tumor precision medicine is expected to increasingly benefit from these promising and rapidly emerging multi-modal therapies based on ROS-generating nanomaterials and reactive media such as CAPs.

The Manufacturing Process of Kiwifruit Fruit Powder with High Dietary Fiber and Its Laxative Effect.

Kiwifruit is rich in vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and other functional components, and it has long been used as a functional food to treat intestinal ailments such as constipation. The current research made full use of the kiwifruit, the juice was prepared by microencapsulation, and the dietary fiber in kiwifruit pomace was modified by enzymatic hydrolysis and grinding, then, the two were mixed to obtain an ultra-micro kiwifruit powder (UKP). In addition, the laxative effect of the UKP was verified by a diphenoxylate induced constipated mice model. The results demonstrated that compared with the raw samples, the retention rate of vitamin C, lutein and catechin in UKP were 83.3%, 81.9% and 88.3%, respectively, thus effectively avoiding the loss of functional components during the processing of kiwifruit. Moreover, α-amylase, protease and the ball milling process effectively reduced the size of dietary fiber in kiwifruit pomace, and its water-holding capacity (WHC), oil-holding capacity (OHC) and swelling capacity (SWC) were enhanced by 1.26, 1.65 and 1.10 times, respectively. Furthermore, to analyze the laxative effect of the UKP, a constipation mice model was established by diphenoxylate treatment (5 mg·kg-1, i.g.) for the last week, with or without UKP supplementation (2.4 g·kg-1 B.W. per day) for 4 weeks. The results demonstrated that UKP significantly increased feces condition (fecal output and dejecta moisture content, gut transit (the intestinal propulsion rates) and substance P (SP) levels in portal vein plasma, and it decreased the whole gut transit time and mucinogen granules secreted by goblet cell in constipated mice.

Forecasting influenza activity using self-adaptive AI model and multi-source data in Chongqing, China.

BACKGROUND: Early detection of influenza activity followed by timely response is a critical component of preparedness for seasonal influenza epidemic and influenza pandemic. However, most relevant studies were conducted at the regional or national level with regular seasonal influenza trends. There are few feasible strategies to forecast influenza activity at the local level with irregular trends. METHODS: Multi-source electronic data, including historical percentage of influenza-like illness (ILI%), weather data, Baidu search index and Sina Weibo data of Chongqing, China, were collected and integrated into an innovative Self-adaptive AI Model (SAAIM), which was constructed by integrating Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model and XGBoost model using a self-adaptive weight adjustment mechanism. SAAIM was applied to ILI% forecast in Chongqing from 2017 to 2018, of which the performance was compared with three previously available models on forecasting. FINDINGS: ILI% showed an irregular seasonal trend from 2012 to 2018 in Chongqing. Compared with three reference models, SAAIM achieved the best performance on forecasting ILI% of Chongqing with the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 11·9%, 7·5%, and 11·9% during the periods of the year 2014-2016, 2017, and 2018 respectively. Among the three categories of source data, historical influenza activity contributed the most to the forecast accuracy by decreasing the MAPE by 19·6%, 43·1%, and 11·1%, followed by weather information (MAPE reduced by 3·3%, 17·1%, and 2·2%), and Internet-related public sentiment data (MAPE reduced by 1·1%, 0·9%, and 1·3%). INTERPRETATION: Accurate influenza forecast in areas with irregular seasonal influenza trends can be made by SAAIM with multi-source electronic data.

[Correlation of the electric excitability treated with electroacupuncture at different acupoints and the prognosis of Bell's palsy].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the correlation of the electric excitability treated with electroacupuncture (EA) at different acupoints and the prognosis of Bell's palsy, using the Logistic regression analysis. METHODS: A total of 93 patients of Bell's palsy were collected in the retrospective analysis. Acupuncture was applied to Cuanzu (BL 2), Yangbai (GB 14), Yingxiang (LI 20), Dicang (ST 4), Xiaguan (ST 7) and Qianzheng (Extra point) on the affected side. The electric stimulation was added at the three pairs of points, named Cuanzu (BL 2) and Yangbai (GB 14) (A group), Yingxiang (LI 20) and Dicang (ST 4) (B group) and Qianzheng (Extra point) and Xiaguan (ST 7) (C group), continue wave, 1 Hz at current frequency, for 30 min in one treatment. EA was given once every two days. The endpoint outcome evaluation was conducted when the facial nerve function was recovered completely after treatment or in 16 weeks after onset. On the 8th day of onset, the prognosis-related indexes were collected, such as the electric excitability grade in the A, B and C groups, gender, age, the facial nerve lesion segment and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The Logistic regression analysis was conducted on these indexes and the prognosis. RESULTS: The single factor Logistic regression analysis showed that the gender, age and the electric excitability of the C group were negatively correlated with the prognosis statistically (P>0.05). T2DM, the facial nerve lesion segment and the electric excitability of the A and B groups were positively correlated with the prognosis statistically (P<0.05). The multivariate Logistic regression analysis indicated that the electric excitability in the A and B groups was the independent predictor of Bell's palsy prognosis (P<0.05). OR values were 8.410 (1.176-60.113) and 12.589 (1.355-116.922) respectively. CONCLUSION: The electric excitability of EA at the pairs of Cuanzu (BL 2) and Yangbai (GB 14), and of Yingxiang (LI 20) and Dicang (ST 4) is one of the indexes for the prognosis evaluation of Bell's palsy. It contributes to the early identification of the severity of facial nerve lesion, the regulation of the therapeutic regimen and the improvement of the clinical effects.

Thirty cases of the blood-stasis type prolapse of lumbar intervertebral disc treated by acupuncture at the xi (cleft) point plus herbal intervention injection.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical therapeutic effects and explore the mechanism of acupuncture at the xi (cleft) points combined with herbal intervention injection for treatment of prolapse of the lumbar intervertebral disc with TCM symptoms and signs of blood stasis. METHODS: The 60 cases in this series were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group, 30 cases in each group. The patients in the treatment group were treated by acupuncture at Jiaji L4-S1, Waiqiu (GB 36), Weizhong (BL 40) and Xiaxi (GB 43) plus intervention injection of Gegensu Zhusheye (Puerarin Injectio). The patients of the control group were given the routine acupuncture combined with injection of Gegensu Zhusheye (Puerarin Injectio) into the Ashi points. The changes in interleukin-6 (IL-6) and hemodynamics were observed before and after treatment in both the two groups. RESULTS: The total therapeutic effect in the treatment group was obviously better (P < 0.05) and the treatment course was obviously shorter than that of the control group (P < 0.01). After the treatment, the total score, the visual analog scale (VAS) pain-evaluating score, and the score in straight-leg raising test were obviously improved in both the two groups, in which the improvement in the treatment group shown by the score in straight-leg raising test and the total score superior to that of the control group (P < 0.05). The IL-6 level, red blood cell ratio, K value of blood sedimentation equation, and whole blood high shearing specific viscosity were improved in both the two groups, but the treatment group showed better improvement than that of the control group in the red blood cell ratio, K value of blood sedimentation, and IL-6 level (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The treatment group was superior to the control group in improvement of the symptoms and signs, the daily life ability, and in pain alleviation. The mechanism is possibly related with the improvement in the IL-6 level and hemodynamic indexes, which may promote the subsidence of inflammation of the nerve roots.