China Three Gorges University

About: China Three Gorges University is a education organization based out in Yichang, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Landslide. The organization has 11161 authors who have published 8011 publications receiving 82224 citations. The organization is also known as: Sanxia Daxue.

Radiographic and Clinical Features of Children With Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pneumonia

Abstract: Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate chest computed tomography (CT) findings in children with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pneumonia in our hospital. Methods: This study included 22 pediatric patients with confirmed COVID-19 from January to March, 2020. The chest CT images and clinical data were reviewed. Results: The most prevalent presenting symptoms were fever (64%) and cough (59%), and a mildly elevated mean (SD) C-reactive protein (CRP) level of 11.22(11.06) and erythrocyte sedimentation rateof 18.8(15.17) were detected. The major CT abnormalities observed were mixed ground-glass opacity and consolidation lesions (36%), consolidations (32%), and groundglass opacities (14%). Peripheral distribution (45%) of lung lesions was predominant. Most of the lesions were multilobar(68%), with an average of three lung segments involved. Conclusion: Children with COVID-19 had relatively milder symptoms and less severe lung inflammation than adults.Chest CT plays an important role in the management of children with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Monensin inhibits cell proliferation and tumor growth of chemo-resistant pancreatic cancer cells by targeting the EGFR signaling pathway

Abstract: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most deadly malignancies with <5% five-year survival rate due to late diagnosis, limited treatment options and chemoresistance. There is thus an urgent unmet clinical need to develop effective anticancer drugs to treat pancreatic cancer. Here, we study the potential of repurposing monensin as an anticancer drug for chemo-resistant pancreatic cancer. Using the two commonly-used chemo-resistant pancreatic cancer cell lines PANC-1 and MiaPaCa-2, we show that monensin suppresses cell proliferation and migration, and cell cycle progression, while solicits apoptosis in pancreatic cancer lines at a low micromole range. Moreover, monensin functions synergistically with gemcitabine or EGFR inhibitor erlotinib in suppressing cell growth and inducing cell death of pancreatic cancer cells. Mechanistically, monensin suppresses numerous cancer-associated pathways, such as E2F/DP1, STAT1/2, NFkB, AP-1, Elk-1/SRF, and represses EGFR expression in pancreatic cancer lines. Furthermore, the in vivo study shows that monensin blunts PDAC xenograft tumor growth by suppressing cell proliferation via targeting EGFR pathway. Therefore, our findings demonstrate that monensin can be repurposed as an effective anti-pancreatic cancer drug even though more investigations are needed to validate its safety and anticancer efficacy in pre-clinical and clinical models.

High-dose but not low-dose corticosteroids potentially delay viral shedding of patients with COVID-19.

Abstract: To the Editor—Considering the cytokine storm secondary to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, some patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), especially severe and critical patients, have received treatment with systemic corticosteroids. In China, systemic corticosteroid administration (methylprednisolone, <1–2 mg/kg, 3–5 days) is recommended as adjuvant therapy for COVID-19 [1]. We read with interest the recent study by Xu et al [2] who determined risk factor associated with prolonged viral shedding in patients with COVID-19. They reported that use of corticosteroids was associated with higher probability of late viral RNA clearance (≥15 days after illness onset) in univariate logistic regression analysis (P = .025), but not in multivariate logistic regression analysis (odds ratio, 1.38 [95% confidence interval {CI}, .53–3.65]; P = .519). Systemic corticosteroids have always been controversial in treating viral pneumonia. A newly published meta-analysis demonstrated that corticosteroid treatment was associated with longer length of stay, higher probability of bacterial infection, and mortality among patients with coronavirus pneumonia [3]. In addition, whether systemic corticosteroids delay viral clearance is another topic of priority. The first randomized controlled trial about corticosteroids and viral clearance observed that patients with early use of hydrocortisone harbored higher plasma SARS-CoV viral load and longer time of viral shedding than those without hydrocortisone [4]. During the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), 48.9% of critical patients received corticosteroid treatment in Saudi Arabia; early use (<7 days after hospital) of highdose corticosteroids (methylprednisolone equivalent dose >60 mg/day; adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.26 [95% CI, .09–.77]; P = .015) and lose-dose corticosteroids (≤60 mg/day [aHR, 0.41 [95% CI, .19– .88]; P = .022) also delayed viral shedding compared with no use of corticosteroids [5]. High-dose corticosteroids seemingly were more likely to prolong viral clearance of MERS. Ogimi and colleagues [6] further suggested that high-dose steroids (>1 mg/kg) were associated with prolonged shedding of human coronavirus compared with low-dose steroids (≤1 mg/ kg). A dose-response manner of corticosteroid and viral shedding also was shown in influenza viral pneumonia. Studies from Cao et al [7] and Boudreault et al [8] also observed that prolonged shedding of influenza virus was found in high-dose corticosteroids, but not shown in low-dose corticosteroids. We collected >60 variables from 206 patients with COVID-19 to assess risk factors of long-term (>30 days) positive SARS-CoV-2 and viral shedding. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analysis effectively resolved the colinearity of high-dimensional data and performed tuning parameter selection using 10-fold cross-validation [9]. LASSO analysis with logistic regression model indicated no impact of corticosteroids on long-term positive SARS-CoV-2. However, LASSO analysis with Cox regression model and restricted mean survival time analysis demonstrated that high-dose (80 mg/day; aHR, 0.67 [95% CI, .46–.96]; P = .031) but not low-dose corticosteroids (40 mg/day; aHR, 0.72 [95% CI, .48–1.08]; P = .11) potentially delayed viral shedding of patients with COVID-19. Our study suggests that the effect of corticosteroids on viral shedding may be a dose-response manner in Cox regression analysis. In addition, high-dose but not low-dose corticosteroids were found to potentially increase the mortality of patients with severe COVID-19 [10]. Therefore, high-dose corticosteroids should be used with extreme caution in treating COVID-19.

Double-walled core-shell structured Si@SiO2@C nanocomposite as anode for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract: Double-walled core-shell structured Si@SiO2@C nanocomposite has been prepared by calcination of silicon nanoparticles in air and subsequent carbon coating. The obtained Si@SiO2@C nanocomposite demonstrates a reversible specific capacity of about 786 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g−1 with a capacity fading of 0.13 % per cycle. The enhanced electrochemical performance can be due to that the double walls of carbon and SiO2 improve the electronic conductivity and enhance the compatibility of electrode materials and electrolyte as a result of accommodating the significant volumetric change during cycles. The interlayer SiO2 may release the mechanical strain and enhance the interfacial adhesion between carbon shell and silicon core.

Optimization of Cu catalysts for nitrophenol reduction, click reaction and alkyne coupling

Abstract: Earth-abundant nanocatalysts are actively searched to replace expensive noble metal catalysts for a number of essential processes. Here, Cu catalysts have been designed based on manganese oxide octahedral molecular sieve (OMS-2) supports to optimize the catalytic activity in nitrophenol reduction, CuAAC click reaction and terminal alkyne homocoupling. A correlation has been established between the different synthetic strategies and catalytic activities. CuOx/OMS-2 has also been found an efficient catalyst for the homocoupling of terminal alkynes, click reaction and the reduction of 4-nitrophenol, 2,4-dinitrophenol and 4-nitrobenzene diazo tetrafluoroborate with high activity, whereas Cu-OMS-2 only shows poor catalytic activity for reduction and click reaction, and no catalytic activity for homocoupling.