The rapid spread of COVID-19 has become a major concern for people’s lives and health all around the world. COVID-19 patients in various phases and severity require individualized treatment given that different patients may develop different symptoms. We employed machine learning methods to discover biomarkers that may accurately classify COVID-19 in various disease states and severities in this study. The blood gene expression profiles from 50 COVID-19 patients without intensive care, 50 COVID-19 patients with intensive care, 10 non-COVID-19 individuals without intensive care, and 16 non-COVID-19 individuals with intensive care were analyzed. Boruta was first used to remove irrelevant gene features in the expression profiles, and then, the minimum redundancy maximum relevance was applied to sort the remaining features. The generated feature-ranked list was fed into the incremental feature selection method to discover the essential genes and build powerful classifiers. The molecular mechanism of some biomarker genes was addressed using recent studies, and biological functions enriched by essential genes were examined. Our findings imply that genes including UBE2C, PCLAF, CDK1, CCNB1, MND1, APOBEC3G, TRAF3IP3, CD48, and GZMA play key roles in defining the different states and severity of COVID-19. Thus, a new point of reference is provided for understanding the disease’s etiology and facilitating a precise therapy.

We investigated the functions of microRNAs in the therapeutic effects of noni (Morinda citrifolia L.) fruit juice on mouse models of acute gouty arthritis induced with monosodium urate (MSU). Compared with the model group (treated with MSU), mice in both the positive control group (treated with both MSU and colchicine) and noni fruit juice group (treated with MSU and noni fruit juice) showed a significantly decreased degree of paw swelling in 5 days, as well as the contents of two types of proinflammatory cytokines (i.e., NALP3 and TNF-α). Based on the next-generation sequencing technology, a total of 3896 microRNAs (234 known and 3662 novel) were identified in mice treated with noni fruit juice. A large amount of differentially expressed miRNAs were identified in the noni fruit juice group, suggesting the significant effects of noni fruit juice on the mice with acute gouty arthritis, while the different patterns of change in the numbers of both upregulated and downregulated miRNAs in both noni fruit juice and positive control groups indicated that the mice of acute gouty arthritis may be regulated by differential mechanisms between the treatments of noni fruit juice and colchicine. The target genes of microRNAs involved in the pathogenesis and pathology of acute gouty arthritis in mice were identified and further annotated by both Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses. Our results revealed the therapeutic effects of noni fruit juice on acute gouty arthritis in mice with a group of microRNAs involved in the pharmacological mechanisms of noni fruit juice, providing scientific evidence to support both the agricultural cultivation and pharmacological significance of noni plants.

Nitrite is one of the main pollutants in the water worldwide. In this study, we have applied the reverse suspension crosslinking methodology based on chitosan (CS) and Fe₃O₄ (FeO) to synthesize the novel magnetic nanomaterial of chitosan (CS-FeO). The physical and chemical properties of CS-FeO were further characterized by scanning electron microscopy, particle size distribution, thermogravimetry, fluxgate magnetometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Results revealed that CS-FeO showed high thermal stability in the temperature ranging from 50 to 200°C. CS-FeO showed high crystallinity and magnetism and was easily and quickly separated from aqueous solution in the presence of an external magnetic field. The molecular structure of CS-FeO showed that the core-shell structure of CS-FeO was established with FeO as the core and CS as the shell. Furthermore, the adsorption rate of nitrite by CS-FeO reached under optimal conditions. Moreover, CS-FeO showed high regeneration capability with Na₂SO₄ used as the eluent. Our study demonstrated evidently that CS-FeO can be potentially used to remove nitrite from drinking water sources and industrial wastewater, suggesting the promising future of the application of CS-derived magnetic nanomaterials in the areas of environmental protections.

The recent progress, particularly in this decade, in enantioselective hydrogenation using nanoporous materials supported catalysts was reviewed. The main content consists of the enantioselective hydrogenation or asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of prochiral carbonyl compounds or other prochiral substrates containing C=C or C=N double bonds using the immobilized chiral metal complex catalysts onto nanoporous materials, and the enantioselective hydrogenation of prochiral carbonyl compounds using nanoporous materials supported noble metal nanoparticles/clusters after chirally modified with cinchona alkaloids or other chiral molecules. The nanoporous materials discussed in this review involve ordered mesoporous silicates or aluminosilicates, alumina-mesoporous silica composites, nanoporous carbons, periodic mesoporous resols and metal-organic frameworks. Many examples about the enantioselective hydrogenation using nanoporous materials supported catalysts show that the enantioselectivities are similar to or even higher when compared with the corresponding homogeneous counterparts. In particular, the heterogenization of well-established soluble transition metal-based asymmetric catalysts on inorganic oxide or polymer supports allows easy separation and hence recycling and reuse of these expensive asymmetric catalysts. Nanoporous materials supported noble metal nanoparticles/clusters are also efficient in the relevant asymmetric hydrogenation reactions.