Nano LIFE

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dexmedetomidine on perioperative stress response and cellular immunity in elderly patients with posterior lumbar surgery. Sixty patients with lumbar degenerative disease requiring posterior lumbar surgery were included and randomly divided into the dexmedetomidine group (the test group, $n=30$) and the control group ($n=30$). After the experimental group entered the room, dexmedetomidine was intravenously pumped 10min before induction of anesthesia and dexmedetomidine was continuously pumped after anesthesia. The control group replaced dexmedetomidine with the same amount of normal saline, and the other operations were exactly the same as the experimental group. Hemodynamic parameters were routinely monitored and the percentages of T lymphocyte subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry. Samples for stress response parameters were sent to the Clinical Laboratory of our hospital, and perioperative pain, postoperative adverse reactions and complications were evaluated during the study. The levels of postoperative stress hormones, including noradrenaline (NE), epinephrine (E), cortisol (Cor) and acetylcholine (Ach), were reduced in the test group compared with those in the control group ($P<0.05$). Proportions of CD3${}^{+}$, CD4${}^{+}$, CD8${}^{+}$ and NK as well as the CD4${}^{+}$/CD8${}^{+}$ in the control group were significantly decreased at postoperative Day 1 (T6), Day 3 (T7) and Day 7 (T8) compared with those at preoperative Day 1 (T-1) ($P<0.05$), while the proportions of CD4${}^{+}$ and NK in the test group were significantly increased at T6, T7 and T8 compared with those at T-1 ($P<0.05$). The mean arterial pressure (MAP) of the test group was decreased compared with that of the control group at each time point ($P<0.05$). After the operation, the heart rate (HR) of the patients in the test group was significantly decreased compared with the control group ($P<0.05$) and the VAS score of the control group were increased compared with the test group at each time point ($P<0.05$). Dexmedetomidine can decrease the stress response and improve postoperative cellular immune function in patients with posterior lumbar surgery by reducing postoperative stress hormones to alleviate the postoperative cellular immunosuppression and the pain in patients.

Prenatal depression is a common disease, and it is an important risk factor for depression of postpartum and the diseases of newborn. However, this diagnosis of disease was deeply dependent on questionnaires evaluation by psychologists. The methods of evaluating and monitoring depression in the clinical laboratory are very limited. We dynamically determined serum cytokines (GM-CSF, Il-1$\beta$, Il-2, Il-3, Il-4, Il-5, Il-6, Il-10, Il-12, Il-17, TNF-$\alpha$ and IFN-$\gamma$) and catecholamine (CA) hormone (adrenaline (AD) noradrenaline (NA) and dopamine (DA)) to screen valuable markers evaluating depression in pregnancy. A higher rate of anxiety in pregnant women was 73.58% (78/106) during early pregnancy, compared with it in middle pregnancy. A higher rate of depression in pregnant women was 31.73% (33/104) compared with it during early pregnancy. During early pregnancy, there were no significant differences in cytokine, AD and DA between healthy pregnant women, anxious and depressed pregnant women. But the severely depressed pregnant women had a high level of NA ($168.49\pm 11.22$pg/mL versus $340.85\pm 26.78$pg/mL, $P<0.05$) during early pregnancy. The depressed pregnant women with vaginal bleeding were at a high-level NA. During middle pregnancy, IL-1$\beta$ ($P<0.05$), IL-6 ($P<0.05$) and IL-10 levels ($P<0.05$) were significantly higher in depressed women than in healthy women. There was no significant difference in CA hormones between healthy women and depressed women. Our study showed that levels of cytokines and CA hormones kept shifting during the pregnancy process. A continuous high level of NA in serum might be related to depression during early pregnancy and might have a possibility of inducing vaginal bleeding.

Background: Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma (PSC) as a rare subtype of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is resistant to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy with poor prognosis. Nivolumab is a monoclonal antibody against PD-1 and might be a valuable therapy option for PSC, but limited case reports have shown good response.

Case presentation: A 61-year-old man with PSC characterized with KRAS-G12C mutation and TP53 mutation received treatment of nivolumab synchronously combined with hydrogen inhalation. Clinical symptoms gradually relieved, and evaluation on imaging revealed a response after 1 year.

Conclusion: This case suggests that immunotherapy combined with hydrogen inhalation may potentially be a promising strategy to treat PSC patients.

Aim: To develop a nursing early warning system in children’s hospital during the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, and to accomplish the construction and application of this system, so as to provide decision-support of the prevention and control for COVID-19 in children’s medical institutions. Method: Children’s hospital nursing early warning system was divided into three modules: hospital nursing early warning platform includes internal and external early warning platform, nursing staff early warning program includes protection, human resources early warning plan and patient early warning program includes outpatient, emergency and ward early warning plan. The data of epidemic training, assessment, prevention and control screening from January to June 2020 were collected from the nursing early warning system to evaluate the application effect of the system. Results: A total of 18 procedures and specifications were formulated, nine hospital-level trainings and about 1000 department-level trainings were organized, two hospital-level assessments (pass rate 95.6% and 98.2%), and 78 nurses were reserved, and 10 popular science articles, five popular science videos were published during the application of the nursing early warning system. A total of 583,435 children and 139,308 caregivers were screened in outpatient, emergency and wards during pre-checks, 2385 suspected cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia were confirmed (0.41%) after the screening and 1 case (0.0002%) was finally confirmed. Conclusion: The nursing early warning system of children’s hospital can prevent and control the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic from each module, ensure early warning and triage of suspected infected patients, reduce the risk of cross-infection in hospital and improve the safety of the children’s hospital medical environment.

Normal development of the colon is essential for well-being during the life span. Integrin linked kinase (ILK), which is a key part of the integrin signaling pathway, connects intracellular and extracellular signaling pathways and is evolutionally conserved. It has been shown that ILK knockouts can lead to abnormal formation of various organs. In our study, we found that deletion of ILK by platelet-derived growth factor receptor B (PDGFR$\beta )$-Cre leads to the abnormal migration of neural crest cells (NCCs) and the shortening of the gastrointestinal tract, along with the expansion of the colon cavity and dysplasia of the intestinal nerve fibers. In conclusion, ILK is required for normal colon development.

Cypher, which is named ZASP/LDB3, one of the members of PDZ-LIM family, was well known to express in cardiac and skeletal muscles which played a functional role in muscles. It has shown that global deletion of Cypher in mice leads to lethality due to dysfunction of the skeletal muscles. Recently, the MGD database has been shown that conditional deletion of Cypher or gene mutations leads to human disease, the etiology and mechanism of which remained unknown. Therefore, it might be very important that we systemically investigated the expression of Cypher in organs or tissues from developmental stages through adulthood at first. We explored the expression pattern of Cypher by $X$-gal staining of Cypher LacZ knockin mice combing with chemical staining, immunostaining and in situ hybridization, suggesting that Cypher might play a functional role in those organs. Further investigation will be done by cooperation with other groups by using the conditional deletion of Cypher or the point mutation of genes in the organs, which studied Cypher expression according to the MGD database.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third-most deadly disease in the world and will be a major healthcare problem for decades to come. Its etiology is mainly related to the exposure to cigarette smoke and poisonous gases, and the infections of viruses including COVID-19 induce acute exacerbation of COPD, which may cause death in patients. Few advances have been made in COPD pathological mechanism, and the current clinical treatment strategies focus on both bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory interventions; but with limited clinical therapeutic agents, COPD therapies still lack more drugs especially those that antagonize COPD-specific inflammatory responses. We review the COPD clinically applied drugs, and the progress of research on new drugs and related novel targets, including ${\beta }_2$ agonists and anti-muscarinic drugs for airway diastole, glucocorticoids and phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitors for anti-inflammatory, protease inhibitors, emerging antioxidants, adhesion factor inhibitors, growth factor antagonists, adenylate cyclase agonists, chemokine antagonists, etc. We thus provide insights on the COPD new drugs research and development.

This review paper presents an overview of periodontal disease, beginning with clinical aspects including prevalence, etiology, disease progression mechanisms and implications for general health, followed by current diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. We then describe experimental models used for in vitro and in vivo investigations of periodontal disease, and emerging therapeutic approaches based on biomedical and tissue engineering concepts, nanotechnology, gene and stem cell therapies. We aim to provide bioengineers, tissue engineers and nanotechnology researchers an overall understanding of the state-of-the-art of periodontal disease to foster technological innovation based on interdisciplinary research and collaboration between physical and medical scientists.

During last two decades, the biggest global epidemic had been associated with middle east respiratory syndrome, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and novel coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) with clinical symptoms of bronchitis, pneumonia, and fetal respiratory illness. Infection caused by COVID-19 initially assumed to be milder in nature but consequently spreading across the globe and devastating mortality rate rapidly made it a pandemic. Having enormous challenges, many significant issues are yet to be addressed. Scientific community is engaged in designing and developing effective nano-biosensors for the quick detection of COVID-19, easy diagnosis as well as absolute tracking of infected population in order to prevent pandemic outbreak further. In this paper, key stages like suppressing the immune response of COVID-19 patients, diagnosis of COVID-19, and prevention of COVID-19 using nanomaterials have been discussed. Further, the unresolved challenges and drawbacks toward treatments and vaccine development at the earliest to win over this war have also been critically discussed.

Layered double hydroxide nanomaterials (LDH NMs) have been dragging the researchers’ attention toward biomedical applications owing to their physiochemical properties, biocompatibility, environmental sensitivity and good cellular uptake mechanisms. Various synthetic methods have been presented in brief. This paper draws attention toward the modification and functionalization of LDH nanostructures for biomedical applications in targeted and controlled drug release, anticancer, bioimaging, bone therapy and regeneration, gene delivery, ophthalmic and antitumor activities. Further, it explains the properties of conjugated LDH NMs which put forward their possibilities to be used in synthesizing the most demanding vaccine for COVID-19 pandemic. Current scenario, challenges and future perspective of LDH NMs have also been discussed.

Polymers are widely used in biomedical implants due to their low cost, ability to shape easily in different ways, low friction and strong anti-corrosion properties. Numerous polymers such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyamide (PA), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polyurethane (PU), Epoxy and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) are used to develop modified biomaterials applications. Among these polymers, UHMWPE stands out as a polymer with superior customization properties to satisfy specific requirements of the human body. Investigations show that the medical-grade and prosthetic product market gained dominance in 2020, accounting for over 30% of global sales. UHMWPE has proven its dominance in tribological applications such as bearings and biomedical components. Despite its exceptional tribological properties, UHMWPE struggles with drawbacks such as poor load-bearing capability and low thermal stability. Researchers are working on various paths to develop UHMWPE composites and hybrid composites with nano/micro fillers to develop a composite framework to address these challenges. This review paper aims to amalgamate the results from these studies. It provides an overview of the studies conducted and their contribution to our current understanding of various routes taken by different researchers to enhance the tribological efficiency of UHMWPE biomaterials. This discussion may inspire the development of low friction and improved wear resistance properties in polymer (UHMWPE) biomaterial composites.

The new COVID-19 variants are triggering a fresh panic all around. Scientists still have not found any closely related identification of these variants in the context of their evolution. The scrupulous deletion/mutations recognized inside the spike protein of the variants are emerging with an amplified pace and are observed to be associated with the alterations in the receptor-binding region (RBD) of the spike protein. This paper highlights the reported mechanistic studies conducted on SARS-CoV-2 mutant variants; the mutant virus’s ability in response to the antibody recognition to evade the immune system in humans. The role of cellular immunity in response to its interaction with SARS-CoV-2 variants and importantly the discussion on the antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of SARS-CoV-2 disease with therapeutic antibodies and vaccines has been highlighted. It is expected that this may likely be interesting and helpful for readers in clearing all their presumptions related to the spreading severity of the mutant virus strains and more importantly the effectiveness of current and upcoming vaccines for its possible control.

In this study, the Aspergillus niger L-arginase was expressed in Pichia pastorise and immobilized on Kappa-carrageenan crosslinked magnetic folic acid-conjugated chitosan nanoparticles (magnetic-FA/CTS NPs). L-arginase gene was isolated and cloned in pGAPZ$\alpha$A plasmid and transformed in P. pastoris. The purified L-arginase was loaded on magnetic-FA/CTS NPs nanocomposites and the structure of the synthesized nano-carriers was investigated using SEM, FT-IR and DLS techniques. Prepared formulations showed high encapsulation efficiency (91.93%). In vitro release and cytotoxic studies were performed at different pH (pH of 4–8) and against Molt-4 cancer cell line, respectively.

This work deals with the synthesis, characterization of gadolinium ferrite nanoparticles, and its use as an electrochemical sensor for detection of dopamine. For the synthesis of gadolinium ferrite nanoparticles (GdFeO₃ NPs), the combustion technique was employed using gadolinium oxide and ferric nitrate as precursor materials with sugar and ethanolamine as fuel. The size, shape and morphology of nanomaterials were determined by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The crystallite size of synthesized nanoparticles was found to be in the range of 40–45nm with a cubic crystal system. The electrochemical sensor, GdFeO₃ NPs@graphite paste (GdFeO₃/GP), was prepared by using synthesized nanomaterials and graphite powder by mixing in mortar in 1:4 ratio. cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) techniques were employed to assess the electrochemical properties of the developed sensor. The result indicated that the developed sensor possessed better sensing ability, where minimum detection limit of dopamine at GdFeO₃/GP electrode was 700nM with linearity range from 5$\mu$M to 160$\mu$M.

A novel spherical N-CQDs/BiOI photocatalyst was successfully synthesized through a facile solvothermal method. The optimization experiments of hydrothermal time and temperature were carried out. The effect of ammonium citrate addition was investigated. The as-synthesized photocatalysts were characterized via X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrum and elemental analysis. The adsorption and photocatalytic performance of as-synthesized photocatalysts were studied, 0.2N-CQDs/BiOI showed the best performance. For the removal of anionic dye RhB, adsorption occupied a major position. The maximum adsorption capacity was 97.09mg/g for RhB. For the removal of cationic dyes X3B, photocatalysis occupied a major position. The photocatalytic activity of 0.2N-CQDs/BiOI was superior to that of nano-TiO₂ under the simulate sunlight irradiation. Different scavengers were used to analyze the effect of active species and photocatalytic degradation mechanism of X3B. The outstanding stability and performance make 0.2N-CQDs/BiOI has highly potential applications in wastewater treatment.

A simple design of a triple-band terahertz metamaterial absorber is presented in this paper. The proposed absorber only uses a cross metal structure to achieve nearly perfect absorption of the three peaks, and the absorptivities are all over 97%. The structure shows excellent triple-band absorption by combining fundamental mode resonance with high-order resonance (third-order resonance) in a single metal structure, the absorption mechanism is different from most previous multi-band absorbers. By adjusting the structural parameters of the cross metal, a frequency tunable triple-band absorber is obtained. The metal structure is not only simple in graphics but also insensitive to the polarization waves, which is beneficial to manufacturing and practical application. Finally, the sensing performance of the absorber is analyzed in detail by changing the surrounding environmental parameters, which shows that the absorber has great application value in detection and sensing.