Significance
Congenital human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is an important cause of newborn disability, and developing a vaccine against congenital HCMV is a top priority. However, despite decades of efforts, a vaccine remains elusive. Previous vaccines lacked an antigen called pentameric glycoprotein H (gH) complex, essential for the virus to infect epithelial/endothelial cells, and these vaccines induced poor neutralizing antibodies. To support a unique vaccine concept featuring the pentameric gH complex, we established 45 mAbs from a rabbit immunized with an experimental vaccine. Over 50% of the mAbs have antiviral activity, and potent clones target the pentameric gH complex, thus establishing this antigen as the key for potent antiviral antibodies by vaccination. Our result contributes to the understanding of immune attributes of an effective vaccine against HCMV.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes and is the leading cause of blindness in young adults. Oxidative stress has been implicated as a critical cause of DR. Metabolic abnormalities induced by high-glucose levels are involved in the development of DR and appear to be influenced by oxidative stress. The imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the antioxidant defense system activates several oxidative stress-related mechanisms that promote the pathogenesis of DR. The damage caused by oxidative stress persists for a considerable time, even after the blood glucose concentration has returned to a normal level. Animal experiments have proved that the use of antioxidants is a beneficial therapeutic strategy for the treatment of DR, but more data are required from clinical trials. The aims of this review are to highlight the improvements to our understanding of the oxidative stress-related mechanisms underlying the development of DR and provide a summary of the main antioxidant therapy strategies used to treat the disease.
For the first time, mesoporous Fe3O4@ZnO sphere decorated graphene (GN-pFe3O4@ZnO) composites with uniform size, considerable porosity, high magnetization and extraordinary electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption properties were synthesized by a simple and efficient three-step method. Structure and morphology details were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution electron microscopy and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. Electron microscopy images reveal that pFe3O4@ZnO spheres with obvious porous and core-shell structures are uniformly coated on both sides of the GN sheets without significant numbers of vacancies or apparent aggregation. EM wave absorption properties of epoxy containing 30 wt% GN-pFe3O4@ZnO were investigated at room temperature in the frequency region of 0.2-18 GHz. The absorption bandwidth with reflection loss (RL) values less than -10 dB is up to 11.4 GHz, and the minimal RL is almost -40 dB. The intrinsic physical and chemical properties of the materials, the synergy of Fe3O4 and ZnO, and particularly the unique multi-interfaces are fundamental to the enhancement of EM absorption properties. The as-prepared GN-pFe3O4@ZnO composites are shown to be lightweight, have strong absorption, and broad frequency bandwidth EM absorbers.
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