The Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes neonatal abnormalities and other disorders. Antibodies to the ZIKV envelope (E) protein can block infection. In this study, next-generation sequencing (NGS) of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) mRNA transcripts was combined with single-cell PCR cloning of E-binding monoclonal antibodies for analysing antibody response in a patient from the early stages of infection to more than one year after the clearance of the virus. The patient's IgH...

In this work, a novel flexible photoelectrochemical immunosensor is developed to determine cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in serum. The flower-like ZnIn2S4 nanospheres (ZIS), as signal amplification material, were successfully synthesized by a solvothermal method. The ZIS and Bi2Se3 were modified on the indium tin oxide- polyethylene terephthalate (ITO-PET) electrode, which effectively accelerates the electronic transition and improved the photocurrent conversion efficiency (signal on). However, the binding of antigen–antibody proteins blocks the electron transfer, resulting in...

Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing K. pneumoniae (KPC-KP) have disseminated worldwide and emerged as major threats to public health. Of epidemiological significance, the international pandemic of KPC-KP is primarily associated with CG258 isolates and blaKPC-IncF plasmids. CRISPR-Cas system is an adaptive immune system that can hinder gene expansion driven by horizontal gene transfer. Because of blaKPC-IncF plasmids are favored by CG258 K. pneumoniae, it was of interest to examine the co-distribution of CRISPR and blaKPC-IncF plasmids...

Scabies remains a significant public health concern globally, affecting people of all ages, races, and socioeconomic groups. The epidemic characteristics of scabies are yet unravelled, especially in high-income countries and elderly population. In this study, we sought to investigate incidence and prevalence and their trends of scabies worldwide from 1990 to 2017 via the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2017. The prevalence and incidence of scabies tend to a moderate increase after age 70....

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a wide spectrum of disease severity from mild upper respiratory symptoms to respiratory failure. The role of neutralizing antibody (NAb) response in disease progression remains elusive. This study determined the seroprevalence of 733 non-COVID-19 individuals from April 2018 to February 2020 in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and compared the neutralizing antibody (NAb) responses of eight COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with those of 42...

Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China, it has rapidly spread across many other countries. While the majority of patients were considered mild, critically ill patients involving respiratory failure and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome are not uncommon, which could result death. We hypothesized that cytokine storm is associated with severe outcome. We enrolled 102 COVID-19 patients who were admitted to Renmin Hospital (Wuhan, China). All patients were classified into moderate, severe...

Objectives Severe or critical COVID-19 is associated with intensive care unit admission, increased secondary infection rate, and would lead to significant worsened prognosis. Risks and characteristics relating to secondary infections in severe COVID-19 have not been described. Methods Severe and critical COVID-19 patients from Shanghai were included. We collected lower respiratory, urine, catheters, and blood samples according to clinical necessity and culture and mNGS were performed. Clinical and laboratory data were archived. Results We found...

In December 2019, Wuhan, China suffered a serious outbreak of a novel coronavirus infectious disease (COVID) caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV 2). To quickly identify the pathogen, we designed and screened primer sets, and established a sensitive and specific qRT-PCR assay for SARS-CoV 2; the lower limit of detection (LOD) was 15 (95% CI: 9.8–21) copies per reaction. We combined this qRT-PCR assay with an automatic integration system for nucleic acid...

Staff and employees “Zero infection” has been achieved during the whole medical activities in the COVID-19 Fangcang Shelter Hospital in Wuhan, China. This study analyses the personnel and environmental protection status of the East–West Lake Fangcang Shelter Hospital. The HCWs were mostly composed of national medical rescue teams, from different provinces in China. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, 82.64% of the HCWs had already known the proper procedure of wearing masks and other personal protective equipment...

Staff and employees “Zero infection” has been achieved during the whole medical activities in the COVID-19 Fangcang Shelter Hospital in Wuhan, China. This study analyses the personnel and environmental protection status of the East–West Lake Fangcang Shelter Hospital. The HCWs were mostly composed of national medical rescue teams, from different provinces in China. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, 82.64% of the HCWs had already known the proper procedure of wearing masks and other personal protective equipment...

Tigecycline is one of the last-resort antibiotics to treat severe infections. Recently, tigecycline resistance has sporadically emerged with an increasing trend, and Tet(X) family represents a new resistance mechanism of tigecycline. In this study, a novel chromosome-encoded tigecycline resistance gene, tet(X14), was identified in a tigecycline-resistant and colistin-resistant Empedobacter stercoris strain ES183 recovered from a pig fecal sample in China. Tet(X14) shows 67.14-96.39% sequence identity to the other variants [Tet(X) to Tet(X13)]. Overexpression of Tet(X14)...

Critically ill patients with coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) are of grave concern. Those patients usually underwent a stage of excessive inflammation before developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. In this study, we test the hypothesis that short-term, low-to-moderate-dose corticosteroids would benefit patients when used in the early phase of excessive inflammation, namely, the therapeutic window. Among a Shanghai cohort and a validation cohort, we enrolled COVID-19 patients showing marked radiographic progression. Short-term, low-to-moderate-dose corticosteroids were considered...

Background: Critically ill patients with COVID-19 are of grave concern. Those patients usually underwent a stage of excessive inflammation before developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. In this study, we test the hypothesis that short-term, low-to-moderate-dose corticosteroids would benefit patients when used in the early phase of excessive inflammation namely, the therapeutic window. Methods: Among a Shanghai cohort and a validation cohort, we enrolled COVID-19 patients showing marked radiographic progression. Short-term, low-to-moderate-dose corticosteroids were considered for...

Tigecycline is considered one of the last-resort antimicrobials for carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae. Plasmid-mediated tigecycline resistance remains largely unclear. Here, by utilizing whole genome sequencing, we report a plasmid-mediated tigecycline resistance mechanism, a 6,489 bp Resistance-nodulation-division family (RND) efflux pump (tmexCD1-toprJ1 pump), that confers transferable tigecycline resistance in K pneumoniae isolated from patients and chickens. In addition, we identified high prevalence of the plasmids co-harbouring both tmexCD1-toprJ1 pump and mcr (tmexCD1-mcr co-harbouring plasmid) from human in...

Tigecycline is considered one of the last-resort antimicrobials for carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae. Plasmid-mediated tigecycline resistance remains largely unclear. Here, by utilizing whole genome sequencing, we report a plasmid-mediated tigecycline resistance mechanism, a 6,489 bp Resistance-nodulation-division family (RND) efflux pump (tmexCD1-toprJ1 pump), that confers transferable tigecycline resistance in K pneumoniae isolated from patients and chickens. In addition, we identified high prevalence of the plasmids co-harbouring both tmexCD1-toprJ1 pump and mcr (tmexCD1-mcr co-harbouring plasmid) from human in...

Under the ongoing COVID-19 prevention and control measures in China, increasing the laboratory severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleic acid testing capacity has become the top priority. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in Xinfadi market in Beijing in June 2020, large-scale screening of key populations has been carried out, challenging the nucleic acid testing capabilities of hospital laboratories. Therefore, within 48 hours, Peking University People’s Hospital (PKUPH) transformed a non-nucleic acid testing laboratory into...

Objective: To determine whether the GGC repeats in the NOTCH2NLC gene contribute to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Methods In this study, 545 ALS patients and 1305 healthy controls from mainland China were recruited. Several pathogenic mutations in known ALS-causative genes, including polynucleotide repeat expansions in the C9ORF72, ATXN2, NOP56, and AR genes, had already been excluded. Repeat-primed PCR (RP-PCR) and GC-rich PCR were performed to determine the GGC repeat size in NOTCH2NLC. Systematic and targeted...

Acinetobacter baumannii has become a major healthcare threat that causes nosocomial infections, especially in critically ill patients. The spread of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAB) strains has long been a clinical concern. It is important to study the epidemiology and virulence characteristics of different CRAB isolates in order to tailor infection prevention and antibiotic prescribing. In this study, a total of 71 CRAB isolates were collected in the hospital, and clinical characteristics of infections were analyzed....

Coxsackievirus A16 (CV-A16) is a major causative pathogen of hand, foot, and mouth diseases (HFMDs). The licensed HFMD vaccine targets EV-A71 without cross-protection against CV-A16. Thus, a CV-A16 vaccine is needed. In this study, the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a live attenuated CV-A16 candidate, K168-8Ac, were evaluated in a rhesus monkey model. Four passages of this strain (P35, P50, P60, and P70) were administered to monkeys, and its protective effect was identified. The immunized...

Tissue-resident memory T (TRM) cells, located in the epithelium of most peripheral tissues, constitute the first-line defense against pathogen infections. Our previous study reported that gastric subserous layer (GSL) vaccination induced a “pool” of protective tissue-resident memory CD4+T (CD4+TRM) cells in the gastric epithelium. However, the mechanistic details how CD4+TRM cells form in the gastric epithelium are unknown. Here, our results suggested that the vaccine containing CCF in combination with Silk fibroin hydrogel (SF) broadened...

We, the Editors and Publisher of the journalArchives of Physiology and Biochemistry, have retracted the following article: Wei Zhang, Jun Ma, Shan Wang, Tao Huang & Min Xia (2020) Tranilast attenuates neuropathic pain during type-2 diabetes by inhibiting hypoxia-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines in Zucker diabetic fatty rat model, Archives of Physiology and Biochemistry, DOI: 10.1080/13813455.2020.1854309 Since publication, the authors informed the Publisher and Editor that the authors had not received ethics approval from the Institutional Animal...

To identify the association between the kinetics of viral load and clinical outcome in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, a retrospective study was performed by involved 188 hospitalized severe COVID-19 patients in the LOTUS China trial. Among the collected 578 paired throat swab (TS) and anal swab (AS) samples, viral RNA was detected in 193 (33.4%) TS and 121 (20.9%) AS. A higher viral RNA load was found in TS than that of AS,...

Following emergence in late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 rapidly became pandemic and is presently responsible for millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. There is currently no approved vaccine to halt the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and only very few treatment options are available to manage COVID-19 patients. For development of preclinical countermeasures, reliable and well-characterized small animal disease models will be of paramount importance. Here we show that intranasal inoculation of SARS-CoV-2 into Syrian...

An enclosed air-lift photobioreactor (ALPBR) is considered an efficient lab-scale bioreactor for microalgae cell growth and lipid biosynthesis. However, fluid-induced shear stress and mixing are two main factors that affect physiological metabolism in microalgal cell cultures. Herein, a 50-L ALPBR after being designed and manufactured was evaluated for microalgal suspension culture. Moreover, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was used to characterize the hydrodynamics of ALPBR. Specifically, two model microalgae species Chlorella vulgaris and Chlorella protothecoides...

Supplemental material, sj-xlsx-1-tam-10.1177_1758835920977117 for Low intratumor heterogeneity correlates with increased response to PD-1 blockade in renal cell carcinoma by Xia Ran, Jinyuan Xiao, Yi Zhang, Huajing Teng, Fang Cheng, Huiqian Chen, Kaifan Zhang and Zhongsheng Sun in Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology