Objective: Most cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are identified as moderate, which is defined as having a fever or dry cough and lung imaging with ground-glass opacities. The risk factors and predictors of prognosis in such cohorts remain uncertain. Methods: All adults with COVID-19 of moderate severity diagnosed using quantitative RT-PCR and hospitalized at the Central Hospital of Wuhan, China, from 1 January to 20 March 2020 were enrolled in this retrospective study. The main outcomes were progression from moderate to severe or critical condition or death. Results: Among the 456 enrolled patients with moderate COVID-19, 251/456 (55.0%) had poor prognosis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified higher neutrophil count: lymphocyte count ratio (NLR) on admission (OR 1.032, 95% CI 1.042e1.230, p 0.004) and higher C-reactive protein (CRP) on admission (OR 3.017, 95% CI 1.941e4.690, p < 0.001) were associated with increased OR of poor prognosis. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for NLR and CRP in predicting progression to critical condition was 0.77 (95% CI 0.694e0.846, p < 0.001) and 0.84 (95% CI 0.780e0.905, p < 0.001), with a cutoff value of 2.79 and 25.95 mg/L, respectively. The AUC of NLR and CRP in predicting death was 0.81 (95% CI 0.732e0.878, p < 0.001) and 0.89 (95% CI 0.825e0.946, p < 0.001), with a cutoff value of 3.19 and 33.4 mg/L, respectively. Conclusions: Higher levels of NLR and CRP at admission were associated with poor prognosis of individuals with moderate COVID-19. NLR and CRP were good predictors of progression to critical condition and death.
Zn-doped SnO 2 nanocrystals were successfully synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method. It is found that Zn doping into SnO 2 can induce a negative shift in the flat-band potential (V FB ) and increase the isoelectric point. As a result, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) based on Zn-doped SnO 2 nanocrystal photoanodes exhibit longer electron lifetimes and higher dye loading compared to undoped SnO 2 based DSCs. The overall power conversion efficiency (h) of the optimized Zn-doped SnO 2 based DSC reaches 4.18% and increases to 7.70% after the TiCl 4 treatment. More importantly, a remarkable h of 8.23% is achieved for DSCs based on a high-quality double-layer SnO 2 photoanode with the TiCl 4 treatment, to the best of our knowledge, which is so far the best reported efficiency for DSCs based on SnO 2 photoanodes. † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: The pH-dependent zeta-potential of the undoped and Zn-doped SnO 2 nanoparticles; J-V characteristics of the undoped and Zn-doped SnO 2 based cells measured in the dark; J-V characteristics of the undoped and Zn-doped SnO 2 based cells with the TiCl 4 treatment; comparison of the photovoltaic performance of the DSCs based on SnO 2 photoanodes with various morphologies; Plots of lifetime of photoinjected electrons in the DSCs based on undoped and Zn-doped SnO 2 photoanodes with TiCl 4 treatment as a function of charge; FESEM image of SnO 2 spheres. SeeFig. 3 XPS high-resolution spectra of undoped and Zn-doped SnO 2 nanoparticles: (a) Sn 3d, (b) O 1s, and (c) Zn 2p peaks.This journal is
The misfolding of human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) is regarded as one of the causative factors of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen), one of the most commonly used of traditional Chinese medicines, is often used in Compound Recipes for treating diabetes, however with unclear mechanisms. Since salvianolic acid B (SalB) is the most abundant bioactive ingredient of salvia miltiorrhiza water-extract. In this study, we tested whether SalB has any effect on the amyloidogenicity of hIAPP. Our results clearly suggest that SalB can significantly inhibit the formation of hIAPP amyloid and disaggregate hIAPP fibrils. Furthermore, photo-crosslinking based oligomerization studies suggest SalB significantly suppresses the toxic oligomerization of hIAPP monomers. Cytotoxicity protection effects on pancreatic INS-1 cells by SalB were also observed using MTT-based assays, potentially due to the inhibition on the membrane disruption effects and attenuated mitochondria impairment induced by hIAPP. These results provide evidence that SalB may further be studied on the possible pharmacological treatment for T2DM.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.