Efficacy and safety of vildagliptin/pioglitazone combination therapy in Korean patients with diabetes

AIM:To assess the efficacy and safety of vildagliptin/pioglitazone combination therapy in Korean patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).METHODS:This was a post hoc analysis in Korean patients,from a 24-wk,randomized,active-controlled,double-blind,parallel-group,multicenter study.Eligible patients were aged between 18 and 80 years,drug naive,and had been diagnosed with T2DM [hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c):7.5-11.0 and fasting plasma glucose(FPG):【 270 mg/dL(【 15 mmol/L)].Patients were randomized(1:1:1:1) to receive the vildagliptin/pioglitazone comb ination at 100/30 mg q.d.(high-dose) or 50/15 mg q.d.(low-dose),vildagliptin 100 mg q.d.,or pioglitazone 30 mg q.d.monotherapies.The primary outcome measure was change in HbA1c from baseline to endpoint.RESULTS:The distribution of baseline demographic and clinical parameters was well balanced between treatment groups.The overall mean age,body mass index,HbA1c,FPG,and duration of disease were 50.8 years,24.6 kg/m2,8.6,10.1 mmol/L,and 2.2 years,respectively.Adjusted mean changes(± standard error) in HbA1c from baseline(~8.7) to week 24 endpoint were-2.03 ± 0.16(high-dose,N = 34),-1.88 ± 0.15(low-dose,N = 34),-1.31 ± 0.21(vildagliptin,N = 36),and-1.52 ± 0.16(pioglitazone,N = 36).The high-dose combination therapy demonstrated greater efficacy than monotherapies [vildagliptin(P = 0.029) and pioglitazone(P = 0.027)].Percentage of patients achieving HbA1c 【 7 and ≤ 6.5 was the highest in the high-dose group(76 and 68) followed by low-dose(58 and 47),vildagliptin(59 and 37),and pioglitazone(53 and 28) groups.The overall incidence of adverse events was comparable.CONCLUSION:In Korean patients,first-line treatment with high-dose combination therapy improved glycemic control compared to pioglitazone and vildagliptin monotherapies,consistent with results published for the overall study population.

Controllable substitutional vanadium doping in wafer-scale molybdenum disulfide films

Substitutional atomic doping of transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs)in the chemical vapor deposition(CVD)process is a promising and effective strategy for modifying their physicochemical properties.However,the conventional CVD method only allows narrow-range modulation of the dopant concentration owing to the low reactivity of the precursors.Moreover,the growth of wafer-scale monolayer TMD films with high dopant concentrations is much more challenging.Herein,we report a facile doping approach based on liquid precursor-mediated CVD process for achieving high vanadium(V)doping in the MoS_(2)lattice with excellent doping uniformity and stability.The lateral growth of the host MoS_(2)lattice and the reactivity of the V precursor were simultaneously improved by introducing an alkali metal halide as a reaction promoter.The metal halide promoter enabled the wafer-scale synthesis of V-incorporated MoS_(2)monolayer film with excessively high doping concentrations.The excellent wafer-scale uniformity of the highly V-doped MoS_(2)film was confirmed through a series of microscopic,spectroscopic,and electrical analyses.

Replica higher-order topology of Hofstadter butterflies in twisted bilayer graphene

The Hofstadter energy spectrum of twisted bilayer graphene(TBG)is found to have recursive higher-order topological properties.We demonstrate that higher-order topological insulator(HOTI)phases,characterized by localized corner states,occur as replicas of the original HOTIs to fulfill the self-similarity of the Hofstadter spectrum.We show the existence of exact flux translational symmetry in TBG at all commensurate angles.Based on this result,we identify that the original HOTI phase at zero flux is re-entrant at a half-flux periodicity,where the effective twofold rotation is preserved.In addition,numerous replicas of the original HOTIs are found for fluxes without protecting symmetries.Like the original HOTIs,replica HOTIs feature both localized corner states and edge-localized real-space topological markers.The replica HOTIs originate from the different interaction scales,namely,intralayer and interlayer couplings,in TBG.The topological aspect of Hofstadter butterflies revealed in our results highlights symmetry-protected topology in quantum fractals.