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Abstract Background Juvenile spondyloarthropathies (JSpA) are defined as a heterogeneous group of diseases that start before the age of 16. The study aimed to identify key genes and pathways that are influenced by circRNAs and to screen potential therapeutic agents for JSpA. The study involved the analysis of circRNA expression profiles, identification of circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks, and functional annotation of differentially expressed genes. The results of the study may have provided insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying JSpA and potential therapeutic targets for this disease. Methods In this study, sequencing data of circRNA, miRNA, and mRNA were obtained from the GEO datasets. The data were then analyzed to identify candidates for constructing a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network based on circRNA-miRNA interactions and miRNA-mRNA interactions. Functional enrichments of genes were performed using the DAVID database. A PPI network was constructed using the STRING database and visualized using Cytoscape software. The MCODE plugin app was used to explore hub genes in the PPI network. The expression changes in immune cells were assessed using the online CIBERSORT algorithm to obtain the proportion of various types of immune cells. Finally, the Connectivity Map L1000 platform was used to identify potential agents for JSpA treatment. Overall, this study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying JSpA and to identify potential therapeutic agents for this disease. Results A total of 225 differentially expressed circRNAs (DEcircRNAs), 23 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) and 1324 differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs) were identified. We integrated 5 overlapped circRNAs, 7 miRNAs and 299 target mRNAs into a circRNA–miRNA–mRNA network. We next identified 10 hub genes based on the PPI network. KEGG pathway analysis revealed that the DEGs were mainly associated with JAK-STAT signal pathway. We found that neutrophils accounted for the majority of all enriched cells. In addition, we discovered several chemicals as potential treatment options for JSpA. Conclusions Through this bioinformatics analysis, we suggest a regulatory role for circRNAs in the pathogenesis and treatment of JSpA from the view of a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network.

Objective To investigate the clinical features and treatment outcomes of chronic non-bacterial osteomyelitis (CNO) from five tertiary pediatric rheumatology services in China and provide possible treatment options for clinicians. Methods In this multicenter, retrospective study, pediatric patients diagnosed with CNO in Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University and the First Hospital of Jilin University from March 2014 to August 2022 were included. According to the treatment plan, the patients were divided into nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) group, traditional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARD) group, tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNF-i) group, bisphosphonate group, and bisphosphonate+TNF-i group, and physician global assessment score was used to evaluate the efficacy. Results Retrospective data analysis showed that the disease was more common in boy sthan girls(31 vs. 27), and the average age at onset of symptoms was 8.5±3.4 years, the mean age of diagnosis was 9.8±3.2 years, and the Median follow-up was 10.9(5.0, 30.1) months. A total of 46 cases (79.3%) were diagnosed in the last 3 years. Bone pain and / or arthralgia was the predominant symptom in 54(93.1%) patients followed by fever in 31(53.4%) patients. Raised inflammatory markers (ESR and CRP) were present in 87.9% and 77.6% of the patients. The most frequently affected bones were lower limb bones, including 42 cases of femur and 41 cases of tibia; 3 patients had compression fractures of the vertebrae at the time of diagnosis. Bone biopsy was conducted in 33 cases, and subacute or chronic osteomyelitis manifested with inflammatory cells infiltration were detected. The remission rate was not statistically different between treatment groups (P=0.562), with the remission rate at 11 months in the bisphosphonate+TNF-i group being 60.0%, 55.6% and 33.3% in the NSAID and DMARD groups respectively; 66.7% and 52.4% in the NSAID and TNF-i groups respectively at 12 months. A total of 40 patients were followed up for ≥6 months, with the remission rate of 81.3%. Conclusions Our multicenter study describes the features and outcomes of CNO patients in China. The characteristics of CNO children from multiple centers in China were lack of specificity. Bone pain and/or arthralgia were the main clinical symptoms, accompanied by fever, normal white blood cells, and raised inflammatory markers (CRP and/or ESR). Although anti-inflammatory treatment regimens were different, the efficacy of the treatment groups was similar. Anti-inflammatory therapy is currently the first choice.

Objective The clinical characteristics of children with Behçet's disease like trisomy 8 (T8-BD) diagnosed and treated in multi-centers were summarized, so as to improve the understanding and treatment ability of clinicians. Methods Clinical data of children with T8-BD who were hospitalized in the First Hospital of Jilin University, Children's Hospital of Fudan University and Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2016 to June 2022 were retrospectively collected, and then based on the literature, to summarize their general data, symptoms and signs, auxiliary examination results, and treatment and prognosis. Results A total of 6 children with T8-BD hospitalized in the First Hospital of Jilin University, Children's Hospital of Fudan University and Peking Union Medical College Hospital and 13 children with T8-BD recorded in 10 literature reports were included. Among the 19 children with T8-BD, there were 4 males (21.1%) and 15 females (78.9%). The median age of onset was 8 years (range: 0-16 years). The main clinical manifestations were oral ulcer (94.7%), vulvar ulcer (57.9%) and fever (57.9%, including 4 cases with periodic fever-like manifestations). There were 14 cases (73.7%) of malignant hematologic diseases, 9 cases (47.4%) of digestive tract lesions, 7 cases (36.8%) of skin lesions, and 1 case (5.3%) of cerebrospinal fluid pressure elevation. There were 7 cases (36.8%) of abnormal development, including 5 cases of developmental delay, 3 cases of deep folds, 3 cases of joint deformity, 1 case of special facial appearance, 1 case of intellectual impairment, and 1 case of agenesis of corpus callosum. Auxiliary examination showed hemocytopenia in 11 cases (57.9%); C-reactive protein increase in 11 cases (57.9%), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate increase in 9 cases (47.4%). In terms of treatment, 11 cases (57.9%) were treated with glucocorticoid, 9 cases (47.4%) with traditional immunosuppressant, 6 cases (31.6%) with biological agents, 6 cases (31.6%) with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and 3 cases (15.8%) with chemical agents. In terms of prognosis, 4 cases (21.1%) died, all of which were complicated with hematologic malignancies. Conclusions The common clinical symptoms of T8-BD are oral ulcers, vulvar ulcers and fever, which can be combined with digestive tract lesions, skin lesions, hematologic malignancies and developmental abnormalities. However, some children are accompanied by other atypical manifestations at the onset of the disease, to which clinicians should pay attention to identify. Overall, the prognosis of children with T8-BD is reasonable, but patients with hematologic malignancies have poor response to immunosuppressive therapy and increased risk of death.

Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries, considered one of the important candidate technologies for green and environmentally friendly large‐scale energy storage, hinge upon the performance of cathode materials as the key factor driving their development. Vanadate oxide is a promising cathode material due to its high theoretical capacity; furthermore, in order to accelerate the reaction kinetics, ion or molecular intercalation is often utilized. However, non‐electrochemically active intercalants tend to cause capacity degradation. In this study, a one‐step hydrothermal method is employed to intercalate electrochemically active poly‐o‐phenylenediamine (PoPDA) into the interlayers of NH4V3O8 (NVO), with graphene oxide (GO) being used to further improve the conductivity of the composite material (NVO/PoPDA@GO). The insertion of PoPDA expands the interlayer spacing of the NVO, alters the charge distribution, and enhances the migration rate of Zn2+ among the hybrid materials. Additionally, PoPDA serves as a support within the interlayers, improving the material stability. Moreover, the reversible transformation and rearrangement of chemical bonds (C═N/C─N) in PoPDA allows for coordination with Zn2+, providing additional capacity. As a result, NVO/PoPDA@GO exhibits excellent electrochemical performance, releasing a specific capacity of 433 mAh g−1 at 0.5 A g−1, even with a capacity of 224 mAh g−1 at 5 A g−1. This work provides a promising direction for the preparation of organic–inorganic composite cathode materials with dual active components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The aim of this study is to identify whether low lupus disease activity status (LLDAS) and clinical remission (CR) of belimumab plus standard of care (SoC) therapy are achievable goals in childhood-onset SLE (cSLE). Methods This multicentre, one arm pre-post intervention study was conducted at 15 centres in China. The primary end point was to describe the proportion of patients who achieved LLDAS and CR after 3, 6 and 12 months after treatment with belimumab plus SoC therapy. A multiple regression model was used to impute missing data. A Poisson regression model was used to calculate the effect of belimumab treatment on the reduced risk of serious diseases and the incidence of new damage. Result A total of 193 (92.2% female) with active cSLE from 15 centres were included. At 3, 6 and 12 months, the proportion of LLDAS (CR) was 12.4% (1.0%), 25.6% (4.5%) and 70.3% (29.7%), respectively. The mean SELENA-SLEDAI score decreased from 11.0 at baseline to 3.7, 2.9 and 1.7 at 3, 6 and 12 months. At baseline, all patients received steroids at a mean (s. d.) prednisone equivalent dose of 31.0 (18.2) mg/day, which decreased to 19.4 (10.8) mg/day at month 3, 12.6 (7.2) mg/day at month 6 and 6.7 (5.3) mg/day at month 12. The symptoms and immunological indicators were also significantly improved. Conclusion This is the first and largest sample size prospective clinical intervention study of cSLE patients treated with belimumab in China. LLDAS and CR were attainable treat-to-target of belimumab plus SoC therapy in cSLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs), based on hard carbon anodes and Na+‐intercalation compound cathodes, have gained significant attention. Nonetheless, hard carbon anodes involve the storage of Na+ at a low potential, typically below 0.1 V (vs Na/Na+), which increases the risk of dendritic Na growth on the anode surface during overcharging. Herein, a safe organic/inorganic composite anode containing tetrasodium 3,4,9,10‐perylenetetracarboxylate (Na4PTC) and Metallic bismuth (Bi) with a weight ratio of 7:2, which exhibits an average potential of 0.7 V (vs Na+/Na) and a capacity of 150 mAh g−1 is proposed. The electrode reaction involves a reversible coordination reaction within the organic host and alloying reactions within the metallic Bi component. Importantly, the organic component efficiently buffers the volume changes in Bi during the alloying reaction, while the metallic Bi enhances the electronic conductivity of the organic material. As a result, this composite anode shows high cycle stability and rate performance, even under high mass loadings ranging from 10 to 50 mg cm−2. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the Na‐ion full cell, consisting of the composite anode and the Na3V2O2(PO4)2F cathode, exhibits minimal capacity degradation over 100 cycles while maintaining a high areal capacity of 1.1 mA cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]