Effect of different nucleoside analogues on liver fibrosis and peripheral blood dendritic cell function of patients with chronic hepatitis B

Objective: To study the effect of different nucleoside analogues on liver fibrosis and peripheral blood dendritic cell function of patients with chronic hepatitis B. Methods: Patients with chronic hepatitis B who received antiviral therapy in Infectious Diseases Hospital of Shanghai Huangpu District between April 2014 and October 2016 were selected as the research subjects and divided into 3 groups, group A received entecavir therapy, group B received adefovir dipivoxil therapy and group C received lamivudine therapy. 24 weeks and 48 weeks after treatment, the levels of liver fibrosis indexes in serum as well the levels of DC and the expression of surface markers in peripheral blood of the three groups were measured respectively. Results: After treatment, serum hyaluronic acid (HA), procollagen III (PC-III), laminin (LN) and collagen type IV (C-IV) levels of all groups were significantly lower than those before treatment, and the number of myeloid DC (mDC) and plasmacytoid DC (pDC) in peripheral blood as well as the expression levels of DC surface molecules CD80, CD86, CD1αand HLA-DR in peripheral blood were significantly higher than those before treatment. After treatment, the serum levels of HA, PC-III, LN and C-IV in group A were significantly lower than those in group B and C, and the number of mDC and pDC in peripheral blood as well as the expression of DC surface molecules CD80, CD86, CD1α and HLA-DR in peripheral blood were significantly higher than those in group B and C. Conclusion: Antiviral therapy by nucleoside analogues can effectively inhibit liver fibrosis and improve peripheral blood DC function in patients with chronic hepatitis B, and Entecavir function is better than that of adefovir dipivoxil and lamivudine.

Effects of Buyi prescription combined with immunotherapy on PD-1/PD-L1 expression in peripheral blood T cells of patients with autoimmune hepatitis

Objective:To study the effect of Buyi prescription combined with immunotherapy on PD-1/PD-L1 expression in peripheral blood T cells in patients with autoimmune hepatitis.Methods:56 patients with autoimmune hepatitis who were treated in our hospital between May 2014 and December 2016 were randomly divided into two groups with 28 patients in each group. The control group received prednisone combined with azathioprine for routine immunotherapy, and the observation group received Buyi prescription combined with prednisone and azathioprine therapy. 12 weeks after treatment, the serum was collected to determine the levels of liver damage marker molecules, liver fibrosis marker molecules and T cell-related cytokines, and the peripheral blood was collected to determine the PD-1 and PD-L1 expression in CD4+T cells. Results:12 weeks after treatment, fluorescence intensity of CD4+PD-1+ and CD4+PD-L1+T cells in the peripheral blood of the observation group were significantly lower than those of the control group;serum ALT,γ-GT, PC-III, C-IV, IFN-γ and IL-17 levels were significantly lower than those of the control group while IL-4 and IL-10 levels were significantly higher than those of the control group.Conclusion:Buyi prescription combined with immunotherapy can reduce the expression of PD-1/PD-L1, adjust the CD4+T cell function, reduce the liver damage, inhibit the liver fibrosis and treat AIH effectively.

Pinning-down molecules in their self-assemblies with multiple weak hydrogen bonds of C-H···F and C-H···N

Two-dimensional self-assemblies of four partially fluorinated molecules, 1,4-bis（2,6-difluoropyridin-4-yl）benzene, 4,4＇-bis（2,6-difluoropyridin-4-yl）-1,1＇-biphenyl, 4,4＇-bis（2,6-difluoropyridin-4-yl）-1,1＇：4＇,1＇-terphenyl and 4,4＇-bis（2,6-difluoropyridin-3-yl）-1,1＇-biphenyl, involving weak intermolecular C-H···F and C-H···N hydrogen bonds were systematically investigated on Au（111） with low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. The inter-molecular connecting modes and binding sites were closely related to the backbones of the building blocks, i.e., the molecule length determines its binding sites with neighboring molecules in the assemblies while the attaching positions of the N and F atoms dictate its approaching and docking angles. The experimental results demonstrate that multiple weak hydrogen bonds such as C-H···F and C-H···N can be efficiently applied to tune the molecular orientations and the self-assembly structures accordingly.