This cross-sectional analysis aimed to assess the extent of conflicts of interest among the Japanese government coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) advisory board members and elucidate the accuracy of conflicts of interest (COI) disclosure and management strategies. Using the payment data from all 79 pharmaceutical companies in Japan between 2017 and 2019 and direct research grants from the Japanese government between 2019 and 2020, we evaluated the extent of financial and non-financial COI among all 20 Japanese government COVID-19 advisory board members. The Ethic Committee of the Medical Governance Research Institute approved this study. Japanese government COVID-19 advisory board members were predominantly male (75.0%) and physicians (50.0%). Between 2019 and 2020, 2 members (10.0%) received a total of $819,244 in government research funding. Another 5 members (25.0%) received $532,127 in payments, including $276,722 in personal fees, from 31 pharmaceutical companies between 2017 and 2019. The average value of the pharmaceutical payments was $9155 (standard deviation: $12,975). Furthermore, neither the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare nor the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat disclosed financial or non-financial COI with industry. Additionally, the government had no policies for managing COI among advisory board members. This study found that the Japanese government COVID-19 advisory board had financial and non-financial COI with pharmaceutical companies and the government. Furthermore, personal communication received as part of this research indicated that there were no rigorous COI management strategies for the COVID-19 advisory board members. Any government must ensure the independence of scientific advisory boards by implementing more rigorous and transparent management strategies that require the declaration and public disclosure of all COI.
There is a potential for silver nanowires (AgNWs) to be inhaled, but there is little information on their health effects and their chemical transformation inside the lungs in vivo. We studied the effects of short (S-AgNWs; 1.5 μm) and long (L-AgNWs; 10 μm) nanowires instilled into the lungs of Sprague-Dawley rats. S- and L-AgNWs were phagocytosed and degraded by macrophages; there was no frustrated phagocytosis. Interestingly, both AgNWs were internalized in alveolar epithelial cells, with precipitation of Ag2S on their surface as secondary Ag2S nanoparticles. Quantitative serial block face three-dimensional scanning electron microscopy showed a small, but significant, reduction of NW lengths inside alveolar epithelial cells. AgNWs were also present in the lung subpleural space where L-AgNWs exposure resulted in more Ag+ve macrophages situated within the pleura and subpleural alveoli, compared with the S-AgNWs exposure. For both AgNWs, there was lung inflammation at day 1, disappearing by day 21, but in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), L-AgNWs caused a delayed neutrophilic and macrophagic inflammation, while S-AgNWs caused only acute transient neutrophilia. Surfactant protein D (SP-D) levels in BALF increased after S- and L-AgNWs exposure at day 7. L-AgNWs induced MIP-1α and S-AgNWs induced IL-18 at day 1. Large airway bronchial responsiveness to acetylcholine increased following L-AgNWs, but not S-AgNWs, exposure. The attenuated response to AgNW instillation may be due to silver inactivation after precipitation of Ag2S with limited dissolution. Our findings have important consequences for the safety of silver-based technologies to human health.