We evaluated the diagnostic and clinical usefulness of blood specimens to detect Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection in 21 patients from the 2015 outbreak in South Korea. Viral RNA was detected in blood from 33% of patients at initial diagnosis, and the detection preceded a worse clinical course.

No abstract

Background: The possible relation between antibiotic exposure and the alteration of gut microbiota, which may affect dementia risk, has been revealed. However, the association between antibiotics and dementia incidence has rarely been studied. We aimed to determine the association between antibiotic exposure and the risk of dementia.Methods: This population-based retrospective cohort study used data from the National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort (NHIS-HEALS) in South Korea. Exposure was the cumulative days of antibiotic prescription from 2002 to 2005. Newly diagnosed overall dementia, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VD) were identified based on diagnostic codes and prescriptions for dementia-related drugs. The follow-up investigation was carried out from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2013. The Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the association between cumulative antibiotic prescription days and dementia incidence.Results: A total of 313,161 participants were analyzed in this study. Compared to antibiotic non-users, the participants who used antibiotics for 91 or more days had an increased risk of overall dementia [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR), 1.44; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.19–1.74], AD (aHR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.17–1.81), and VD (aHR, 1.38; 95% CI, 0.83–2.30). Those who used five or more antibiotic classes had higher risks of overall dementia (aHR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.00–1.66) and AD (aHR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.00–1.78) than antibiotic non-users.Conclusion: Antibiotic exposure may increase the risk of dementia in a cumulative duration-dependent manner among adult participants. Future studies are needed to assess the causality between the long-term prescription of antibiotics and dementia risk.

Amorphization technology has been the subject of continuous attention in the pharmaceutical industry, as a means to enhance the solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs. Being in a high energy state, amorphous formulations generally display significantly increased apparent solubility as compared to their crystalline counterparts, which may allow them to generate a supersaturated state in the gastrointestinal tract and in turn, improve the bioavailability. Conventionally, hydrophilic polymers have been used as carriers, in which the amorphous drugs were dispersed and stabilized to form polymeric amorphous solid dispersions. However, the technique had its limitations, some of which include the need for a large number of carriers, the tendency to recrystallize during storage, and the possibility of thermal decomposition of the drug during preparation. Therefore, emerging amorphization technologies have focused on the investigation of novel amorphous-stabilizing carriers and preparation methods that can improve the drug loading and the degree of amorphization. This review highlights the recent pharmaceutical approaches utilizing drug amorphization, such as co-amorphous systems, mesoporous particle-based techniques, and in situ amorphization. Recent updates on these technologies in the last five years are discussed with a focus on their characteristics and commercial potential.

No abstract

Numerous studies have reported that antibiotics could lead to diabetes, even after adjusting for confounding variables. This study aimed to determine the causal relationship between antibiotics use and diabetes in a nationally representative cohort. This retrospective cohort study included adults aged 40 years or older who were enrolled in the Korean National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort. Antibiotic exposure was assessed from 2002 to 2005 and newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus was determined based on diagnostic codes and history of antidiabetic medication use from 2006 to 2015. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the association between antibiotic use and diabetes incidence. The mean age of the 201,459 study subjects was 53.2 years. People who used antibiotics for 90 or more days had a higher risk of diabetes (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.16, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07–1.26) compared to non-users. Those who used five or more classes of antibiotics had a higher risk of diabetes than those who used one antibiotic class (aHR 1.14; 95% CI 1.06–1.23). The clear dose-dependent association between antibiotics and diabetes incidence supports the judicious use of antibiotics in the future.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are emerging interactive technologies that realize the “metaverse,” leading to a totally new digital interactive experience in daily life in various aspects. In order to provide users with a more immersive experience, displays for AR/VR have rapidly evolved to achieve high resolutions and a large color gamut on small panels. Recently, nanoscale light emitters such as quantum dots (QDs) and metal halide perovskites (MHPs) with high photoluminescence quantum efficiency and color purity levels have garnered much attention as color conversion materials in AR/VR displays. However, the low material stability and the absence of a high‐resolution patterning process that does not impair the optical properties of nanoscale emitters act as obstacles preventing the realization of high‐resolution AR/VR displays. Here, the state‐of‐the‐art technologies constituting current AR/VR devices are reviewed from an industrial point of view and the recent progress in QD and MHP emitter technologies are discussed, including their basic structural properties, synthesis strategies to enhance the stability, advanced patterning technologies, down‐conversion and light‐emitting diode applications. Based on the review, the authors’ perspective on future research directions of nanoscale emitters for next‐generation AR/VR displays is presented.

No abstract