Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is associated with the angiocentric inflammation and angiogenesis, yet the molecules involved in this process remain to be determined. Methods We did a cross-sectional study of a cohort of patients with COVID-19 in Zunyi, China between February 1 and March 30, 2020. Serum concentrations of PGRN were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in patients with COVID-19 at hospital admission and at discharge. In parallel, the serum levels of soluble adhesion molecules, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), P-selectin (sP-selectin), and E-selectin (sE-selectin) were assayed by a human adhesion molecule multiplex kit. The association between serum PGRN levels and other laboratory test results was analyzed by Spearman correlation analysis. Results At baseline, the median serum PGRN levels in patients with COVID-19 were 94.8 ng/mL [interquartile range (IQR): 66.6–119.6 ng/mL], which was significantly elevated compared with those in healthy controls (46.3 ng/mL, IQR: 41.8–55.6 ng/mL). Moreover, the median serum sVCAM-1 levels were significantly higher in COVID-19 patients (1396.0 ng/mL, IQR: 1019.1–1774.8 ng/mL) than those in healthy controls (612.4 ng/mL, IQR: 466.4–689.3 ng/mL). However, the levels of sICAM-1, sP-selectin, and sE-selectin were not significantly elevated in patients with COVID-19 when compared to healthy controls. Further analysis showed that serum PGRN levels were significantly positively associated with sVCAM-1 (r= 0.675, P = 0.008) and inversely with sICAM-1 (r= −0.609, P = 0.021) and aspartate aminotransferase levels (r= −0.560, P = 0.037) in patients with COVID-19 at hospital admission. In COVID-19 patients, serum PGRN and sVCAM-1 levels fell significantly after successful treatment. Conclusion The present study demonstrates elevated serum PGRN and sVCAM-1 levels in patients with COVID-19, which may provide clues as to the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the potential of PGRN and sVCAM-1 as biomarkers and investigate their role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19.

Docetaxel (DTX) is hydrophobic, and its available formulations (Taxotereis a Tween80-free formulation of DTX, which has been extensively studied but rarely involved with industrialization issues. In this work, novel DTX-PM with improved loading capacity and well-reconsitution ability was developed. The freeze-dried DTX-PM was analyzed by HPLC, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) to determine the DTX loading, micelle morphology and size respectively. The in vitro cytotoxic activity of DTX-PM in 4T1 cells was evaluated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and the corresponding in vivo study was assessed in BALB/c mice bearing 4T1 tumor through intravenous administration. The DTX-loading and efficiency into the micelles were 20.74 1.23% and 93.7 1.03% respectively, which was much higher than ever reported PM. The DTX-PM was spherical with a mean particle size of 16.62 0.31 nm, which suggested that they were able to selectively accumulate in solid tumors by enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. Another important characteristic of DTX-PM is the long term storage and reuses as aqueous injection solution. Many kinds of lyoprotectants were also investigated and dextrose was found to an excellent one. Compared with Duopafei ® , DTX-PM showed better cytotoxicity and anti-metastasis ability against 4T1 cells in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, DTX-PM significantly enhanced drug-loading capacity of DTX and had well-reconsitution ability, which could be a promising drug delivery system for clinic.

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In the past decade, a growing body of studies has explored spenders' happiness in prosocial spending (i.e., spending money on others). However, the happiness of recipients has been frequently ignored. Considering that most prosocial spending behaviors can be seen as a particular form of social interactions and emotional outcomes of social interactions depend on whom people interact with, the current study attempts to explore the influence of the social ties between spenders and recipients (strong vs. weak social ties) on recipients' happiness. More specifically, the present study also attempts to explain this influence from the aspect of basic psychological needs (i.e., relatedness, competence, and autonomy) satisfaction. Results of two studies reveal that gifts from strong social ties lead to recipients' greater happiness than those from weak social ties. Notably, relatedness satisfaction and competence satisfaction, but not autonomy satisfaction, explain this happiness effect of social ties.

Grounded on the cognitive consistency theory, this paper adopts the prime-probe paradigm and Electroencephalography (EEG) experiment to examine the impact of country-of-origin (COO) stereotypes-brand positioning congruence on consumer behavior, the boundary effect of brand positioning strategy, as well as the underlying cognitive mechanism. Behaviorally, consumers show a higher purchase intention in the congruence condition. Moreover, this congruence effect of purchase intention can be found for competence brand positioning strategies rather than warmth brand positioning strategies. At the brain level, we found that compared with the congruence condition, the incongruence condition enhances consumers' cognitive conflict, reflected in enhanced frontal theta-band oscillation. Furthermore, the cognitive conflict effect is accentuated in the competence positioning strategy condition rather than the warmth strategy positioning condition, confirming the boundary effect of brand positioning strategy from the brain level. These findings provide neural evidence that the congruence between COO stereotypes and brand positioning influences consumer purchase behavior, reveals a boundary effect in the COO stereotype-brand positioning congruence, and highlights the importance of the competence dimension. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.