Since 2019, a large number of people worldwide have been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Among those infected, a limited number develop severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which generally has an acute onset. The treatment of patients with severe COVID-19 is challenging. To optimize disease prognosis and effectively utilize medical resources, proactive measures must be adopted for patients at risk of developing severe COVID-19. We analyzed the data of COVID-19 patients from seven medical institutions in Tokyo and used mathematical modeling of patient blood test results to quantify and compare the predictive ability of multiple prognostic indicators for the development of severe COVID-19. A machine learning logistic regression model was used to analyze the blood test results of 300 patients. Due to the limited data set, the size of the training group was constantly adjusted to ensure that the results of machine learning were effective (e.g., recognition rate of disease severity > 80%). Lymphocyte count, hemoglobin, and ferritin levels were the best prognostic indicators of severe COVID-19. The mathematical model developed in this study enables prediction and classification of COVID-19 severity.
Most solid tumors are clinically treated using surgical resection, and the presence of residual tumor tissues at the surgical margins often determines tumor survival and recurrence. Herein, a hydrogel (Apt‐HEX/Cp‐BHQ1 Gel, termed AHB Gel) is developed for fluorescence‐guided surgical resection. AHB Gel is constructed by tethering a polyacrylamide hydrogel and ATP‐responsive aptamers together. It exhibits strong fluorescence under high ATP concentrations corresponding to the TME (100–500 µm) but shows little fluorescence at low ATP concentrations (10–100 nm) such as those in normal tissues. AHB Gel can rapidly (within 3 min) emit fluorescence after exposure to ATP, and the fluorescence signal only occurs at sites exposed to high ATP, resulting in a clear boundary between the ATP‐high and ATP‐low regions. In vivo, AHB Gel exhibits specific tumor‐targeting capacity with no fluorescence response in normal tissue, providing clear tumor boundaries. In addition, AHB Gel has good storage stability, which is conducive to its future clinical application. In summary, AHB Gel is a novel tumor microenvironment‐targeted DNA‐hybrid hydrogel for ATP‐based fluorescence imaging. It can enable the precise imaging of tumor tissues, showing promising application in fluorescence‐guided surgeries in the future.
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