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Abstract Background World Health Organization recommends countries introducing new drug and short treatment regimen for drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) should develop and implement a system for active pharmacovigilance that allows for detection, reporting and management of adverse events. The aim of the study is to evaluate the frequency and severity of adverse events (AEs) of bedaquiline-containing regimen in a cohort of Chinese patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR)/extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-TB based on active drug safety monitoring (aDSM) system of New Drug Introduction and Protection Program (NDIP). Methods AEs were prospectively collected with demographic, bacteriological, radiological and clinical data from 54 sites throughout China at patient enrollment and during treatment between February, 2018 and December, 2019. This is an interim analysis including patients who are still on treatment and those that have completed treatment. A descriptive analysis was performed on the patients evaluated in the cohort. Results By December 31, 2019, a total of 1162 patients received bedaquiline-containing anti-TB treatment. Overall, 1563 AEs were reported, 66.9% were classified as minor (Grade 1–2) and 33.1% as serious (Grade 3–5). The median duration of bedaquiline treatment was 167.0 [interquartile range (IQR): 75–169] days. 86 (7.4%) patients received 36-week prolonged treatment with bedaquiline. The incidence of AEs and serious AEs was 47.1% and 7.8%, respectively. The most frequently reported AEs were QT prolongation (24.7%) and hepatotoxicity (16.4%). There were 14 (1.2%) AEs leading to death. Out of patients with available corrected QT interval by Fridericia's formula (QTcF) data, 3.1% (32/1044) experienced a post-baseline QTcF ≥ 500 ms, and 15.7% (132/839) had at least one change of QTcF ≥ 60 ms from baseline. 49 (4.2%) patients had QT prolonged AEs leading to bedaquiline withdrawal. One hundred and ninety patients reported 361 AEs with hepatotoxicity ranking the second with high occurrence. Thirty-four patients reported 43 AEs of hepatic injury referred to bedaquiline, much lower than that referred to protionamide, pyrazinamide and para-aminosalicylic acid individually. Conclusions Bedaquiline was generally well-tolerated with few safety concerns in this clinical patient population without any new safety signal identified. The mortality rate was generally low. These data inform significant positive effect to support the WHO recent recommendations for the wide use of bedaquiline.

At present, COVID-19 is raging all over the world. Many comorbidities, such as diabetes mellitus (OR = 2.67, 95% CI = 1.91–3.74) and hypertension (OR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.76–3.00), have been shown to worsen the patient's condition. However, whether cardio-cerebrovascular disease will affect COVID-19 remains unclear. In this meta-analysis, we collected studies from PubMed, Wed of Science and CNKI (Chinese) to July 25, which reported COVID-19 patients with and without cardio-cerebrovascular disease as well as their severity and mortality. The random-effect model meta-analysis was used to analyze them and get overall odds ratios (OR) with 95% CIs. Funnel plots and the Begg's and Egger's test were used to assess publication bias. Thirty-one studies with 23,632 patients were finally included in the meta-analysis. The results showed an OR of 3.004 (95% CI = 2.097–4.303) for COVID-19 severity and an OR of 5.587 (95% CI = 2.810–11.112) for COVID-19 mortality. Compared with cardiovascular disease, the subgroup analysis indicated that cerebrovascular disease was more likely to increase the severity (OR = 3.400, 95% CI = 1.569–7.368) and mortality (OR = 23.477, 95% CI = 3.050–180.735) of COVID-19. Therefore, it can be inferred that cardio-cerebrovascular disease is associated with an increase in the risk of severe illness and death among COVID-19 patients. This meta-analysis showed that cardio-cerebrovascular disease has a significant relation with severe and death outcomes of COVID-19. Nurses should pay special attention to COVID-19 patients with the cardio-cerebrovascular disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wei-Wei-Kang-Granule(WWKG) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) preparation for the treatment of chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG). We examined the pathologic change and the effects of Wei-Wei-Kang-Granule (WWKG) on the expression of EGFR (epiderminal growth factor receptors) and NF-kB (nuclear transcription factor KappaB) in rats with chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), and evaluated the possible mechanisms. Ninety rats were randomly divided into control group and four experimental groups. CAG rat models were induced by repeated stimulating experiments in the experimental groups. After modeled rats were intragastrically injected (i.g.) with WWKG at 6000mg/kg (large dose WWKG group), WWKG at 3000mg/kg (small dose WWKG group), San-Jiu-Wei-Tai-Granule(SJWTG) at 1600mg/kg(SJWTG group), and normal saline(0.9%)at 20ml/kg (model group and control group), respectively, once a day for 30 days. After 30 days, all rats were sacrificed and samples were taken from the sinus ventriculi and body of stomach. The gastric specimens were prepared for microscopic view with hematoxylin and eosin (H-E). The immunohistochemistry method was used to observe the expression of protein of EGFR and NF-kB in gastric tissue. The data were analyzed in pre-and post-treatment by computer image automatic analysis system. Immunohistochemistry detection showed that the average optical density of EGFR and NF-kB in antrum was lower in large and small dose WWKG groups than the model group (P<0.01). CAG in rats was related with the damage of barrier in gastric mucosa and the misbalance of cell proliferation and apoptosis. One of the mechanisms is perhaps to reduce the expressing of EGFR and NF-Kb in gastric mucosa.

TaLEA1, a gene encoding a late-embryogenesis-abundant protein, was cloned from wheat and was transformed into Salvia Miltiorrhiza Bunge by Agrobacterium-mediated leaf-disk transformation method. Seven transgenic lines were obtained after kanamycin (50 mg/L) screening. Six positive lines were obtained by PCR amplification, and after four additional generations, one stable line was obtained by Southern hybridization. Transgenic plants had better growth states than control plants on mediums containing 1% NaCl and 8% PEG6000, which demonstrated that TaLEA1 played an important role in increasing the salt and drought tolerance of S. miltiorrhiza.