Procalcitonin mediates vascular dysfunction in obesity

A Panel of Diverse Inflammatory Biomarkers Is Not Associated with BMI-Calibrated Obesity nor with Dyslipidemia or Dysglycemia in Clinically Healthy Adults Aged 20 to 40 Years

OBJECTIVES

Low-grade metabolic inflammation is associated with several chronic metabolic disorders, including obesity. However, no concrete evidence that supports obesity as a direct cause of chronic inflammation. This study aims to identify the association of inflammation with obesity in apparently healthy adults.

METHODS

In this study, 162 seemingly healthy volunteers, aged between 20 and 40 years, of comparable sex ratio, were recruited and categorized based on their body mass index (BMI) into four obesity scales: normal (N), overweight (OW), obese (OB), and severely obese (SOB). After clinical examination, fasting blood samples were collected from the study subjects for glycemic (fasting blood glucose-FBG, and HbA1c) and lipid (total cholesterol, LDL-C, HDL-C, and triacyl glycerides -TAG) profile analysis. In addition, plasma levels of a panel of diverse inflammatory biomarkers, IL6, IL8, procalcitonin (PCT), TREM1, and uPAR were analyzed by sandwich ELISA.

RESULTS

The results showed that LDLC, TAG, FBG, and HbA1c were significantly higher in the obese (OB and SOB) group, compared to the non-obese (N and OW) group, while HDLc was significantly lower. The biomarker levels were not correlated with age or significantly differed between males and females. Importantly, levels of all assessed inflammatory biomarkers were comparable between the obesity classes. Moreover, the assessed biomarkers in subjects with dyslipidemia or dysglycemia were comparable to those with normal profiles. Finally, the biomarker levels were not correlated with the obesity, glycemic, or lipidemic parameters.

CONCLUSIONS

After correction for age and co-morbidities, our results deny the association of discrete obesity, probably dyslipidemia, and dysglycemia with systemic chronic inflammation. Further studies of local and systemic inflammation in non-elderly, healthy obese subjects are needed.

Plasma calcitonin gene-related peptide and nitric oxide predict therapeutic response to amlodipine in pediatric primary hypertension

Background

There is a lack of suitable predictive markers for assessing the efficacy of amlodipine in treating children with primary hypertension. This study aimed to explore whether plasma calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and nitric oxide (NO) could predict the effectiveness of amlodipine in pediatric primary hypertension.

Methods

This study enrolled 74 children and adolescents with primary hypertension who were prescribed amlodipine monotherapy, and after 4 weeks of treatment, they were divided into responders and non-responders according to blood pressure. Baseline data differences between the two groups were analyzed, followed by binary logistic regression to assess the correlation between significant variables and therapeutic efficacy. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the predictive efficacy, and the nomogram model was established to predict therapeutic response to amlodipine.

Results

The responders exhibited lower body mass index, C-peptide and plasma CGRP levels, and higher NO levels compared to the non-responders (p < 0.05). Multivariable logistic analysis revealed that plasma CGRP and NO were independently associated with the therapeutic response to amlodipine, showing a higher predictive performance when used in combination (AUC: 0.814, 95% CI 0.714-0.914) with a predictive sensitivity of 86.5% and specificity of 70.1%. The nomogram model displayed good calibration, and the decision curve analysis indicated this model led to net benefits in a wide range of threshold probability.

Conclusion

CGRP and NO may be valuable biomarkers for predicting amlodipine effectiveness in the treatment of pediatric primary hypertension, while the nomogram model indicates excellent predictive value.

Tannic acid and carboxymethyl chitosan-based multi-functional double-layered hydrogel with pH-stimulated response behavior for smart real-time infection monitoring and wound treatment

The dramatic increase of drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria has seriously effect on human health, appealing the needs of developing theranostic platforms with stimuli-responsive materials to realize the accurate bacterial diagnostics and therapeutics. Herein, a tannic acid and carboxymethyl chitosan-based multifunctional ZIF-90@i-PPOPs-phenol red double-layered hydrogel with stimuli-responsiveness and antibacterial activity was fabricated. The inner layer hydrogel (ZIF-90@i-PPOPs-based TFC hydrogels) was fabricated based on ZIF-90@i-PPOPs, integrate tannic acid and carboxymethyl chitosan linked by formylphenylboronic acid (FPBA), which exhibited outstanding injectable, biodegradability and antibacterial activity. The outer layer hydrogel (PR@PAM hydrogels) were constructed from polyacrylamide (PAM) and pH indicator phenol red, owning porous structure and excellent tissue adhesion. Due to the weakly acidic microenvironment within wound, the inner-layer hydrogel was stimulus-responsively decomposed, resulting in the accurate delivery of the positively charged ZIF-90@i-PPOPs to the lesion site to capture and kill bacteria by enhanced Zn2+ and ROS release. Meantime, the outer-layer hydrogel could real-timely monitor the pH changes to evaluate the wound recovery status. These double-layered hydrogels possessed precisely pH monitoring capacity, excellent antibacterial ability and negligible side effect to normal tissue in vivo, implying the high potential of the suggested hydrogels as theranostic platform for antibacterial treatment.

Ultrasensitive Photoelectrochemical Immunoassay Strategy Based on Bi2S3/Ag2S for the Detection of the Inflammation Marker Procalcitonin

As an inflammatory marker, procalcitonin (PCT) is more representative than other traditional inflammatory markers. In this work, a highly efficient photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunosensor was constructed based on the photoactive material Bi₂S₃/Ag₂S to realize the sensitive detection of PCT. Bi₂S₃ was prepared by a hydrothermal method, and Ag₂S quantum dots were deposited on the ITO/Bi₂S₃ surface via in situ reduction. Bi₂S₃ is a kind of admirable photoelectric semiconductor nanomaterial on account of its moderate bandgap width and low binding rate of photogenerated electron holes, which can effectively convert light energy into electrical energy. Therefore, based on the energy level matching principle of Bi₂S₃ and Ag₂S, a labeled Bi₂S₃/Ag₂S PEC immunosensor was constructed, and the sensitive detection of PCT was successfully established. The linear detection range of the PEC immunosensor was 0.50 pg∙mL^-1 to 50 ng∙mL^-1, and the minimum detection limit was 0.18 pg∙mL^-1. Compared with the traditional PEC strategy, the proposed PEC immunosensor is simple, convenient, and has good anti-interference, sensitivity, and specificity, which could provide a meaningful theoretical basis and reference value for the clinical detection of PCT.