Previous studies have shown that livestock (LA)-MRSA ST398 evolved from a human-adapted methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) clone. However, detailed information regarding ST9 is still unclear. Here, we characterized a community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) ST9-SCCmec XII isolate that has not been previously reported to cause serious disease in China. We obtained whole-genome sequences of one ST9-t899-XII isolate—ZY462471—from a patient with bloodstream infection without livestock contact. The antibiotic susceptibilities of ZY462471 were determined and the clinical...

Intradialytic-hypotension (IDH) is a common complication of hemodialysis. High ultrafiltration rate (UFR) might lead to IDH. However, the relationships between UFR, IDH, and cardiac remodeling among hemodialysis patients in the long-term have not been deeply explored. This retrospective cohort study collected clinical and echocardiographic data. Patients were enrolled from 1 January 2014 to 31 March 2014 and were followed-up for 5-year. Those who suffered from more than four hypotensive events during three months (10% of...

In this paper, the growth pattern, magnetic and electronic structure of VLin (n = 2–13) clusters are studied using density functional theory in generalised gradient approximation. The growth pattern showed that the VLin (n = 2–13) clusters favoured the three-dimensional configuration and appeared cage-like structures with increasing size. The average binding energy, second-order energy difference and dissociation energy are discussed, and the VLi12 cluster is magnetic superatom. The spin magnetic moment of VLi12 cluster is...

Krüppel-like factor 5 (KLF5) can both promote and suppress cell migration, but the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. In this study, we show that the function of KLF5 in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and migration of liver cancer cells depends on the status of the cellular tumor antigen p53 (p53). Furthermore, zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 2 (ZEB2) is the main regulator of KLF5 in EMT in liver cancer cells in the context of p53 loss....

Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63) is primarily associated with common cold in children, elderly and immunocompromised individuals. Outbreaks caused by HCoV-NL63 are rare. Here we report a cluster of HCoV-NL63 cases with severe lower respiratory tract infection that arose in Guangzhou, China, in 2018. Twenty-three hospitalized children were confirmed to be HCoV-NL63 positive, and most of whom were hospitalized with severe pneumonia or acute bronchitis. Whole genomes of HCoV-NL63 were obtained using next-generation sequencing. Phylogenetic and...

In order to devise more effective penetration enhancers, 4-O-acylterpineol derivatives which were expected to be hydrolyzed into nontoxic metabolites by esterase in the living epidermis, were synthesized from 4-terpineol (4-TER) enantiomers and straight chain fatty acids. Their promoting activities on the SR-flurbiprofen and its enantiomers were tested across full-thickness rabbit skin, as well as to correlate under in vitro and in vivo conditions. The permeation studies indicated that both d-4-O-acylterpineol and l-4-O-acylterpineol had significant enhancing...

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....

Scabies remains a significant public health concern globally, affecting people of all ages, races, and socioeconomic groups. The epidemic characteristics of scabies are yet unraveled, 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 age-standardized rate (ASR) of scabies tend to a moderate...

One of the major goals in HIV-1 vaccine development is to achieve properly folded and stabilized envelope glycoprotein (Env) trimers that mimic the native Env on the mature virion. Here, we design and characterize uncleaved prefusion-optimized (UFO) trimers for 12 Envs currently circulating in China. Biochemical and biophysical characterization of these UFO trimers identified two subtype B/Bʹ Envs, CNE6 and MG13, which exhibited the highest trimer content and stability at a level comparable to the...

One of the major goals in HIV-1 vaccine development is to achieve properly folded and stabilized envelope glycoprotein (Env) trimers that mimic the native Env on the mature virion. Here, we design and characterize uncleaved prefusion-optimized (UFO) trimers for 12 Envs currently circulating in China. Biochemical and biophysical characterization of these UFO trimers identified two subtype B/Bʹ Envs, CNE6 and MG13, which exhibited the highest trimer content and stability at a level comparable to the...

A simple, eco-friendly and convenient procedure has been developed for the synthesis of diphenyl diselinides from readily available aryl boronic acids by reaction with SeO2 in the presence of iodine under simple conditions. The methodology is reported about 19 examples and applicable to a broad scope of aryl boronic acids containing electron-rich and electron-poor substituents. Apart from being milder and environmentally benign conditions, this synthetic protocol comprises a novel, reliable methodology to give good to...

Previous studies have shown that livestock (LA)-MRSA ST398 evolved from a human-adapted methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) clone. However, detailed information regarding ST9 is still unclear. Here, we characterized a community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) ST9-SCCmec XII isolate that has not been previously reported to cause serious disease in China. We obtained whole-genome sequences of one ST9-t899-XII isolate—ZY462471—from a patient with bloodstream infection without livestock contact. The antibiotic susceptibilities of ZY462471 were determined and the clinical...

Breast cancer remains a general-threat event in the health of women. Currently, increasing records indicate that long non-coding RNA maternally expressed 3 (MEG3) plays a central role in breast cancer. The current research focused on the function of MEG3 in paclitaxel (PTX)-resistance and human breast cancer growth. Levels of MEG3, microRNA (miR)-4513, and phenazine biosynthesis-like domain-containing protein (PBLD) were evaluated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) or western blot assays. 3-(4.5-dimethylghiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay...

Macrophage differentiation is associated with tumorigenesis, including the tumorigenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Herein, we explored the value of macrophage differentiation-associated genes (MDGs) in the prognosis of HCC using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) databases. We performed multivariate Cox regression analyses to identify the hub genes affecting HCC patient prognoses. The correlations between hub genes and macrophage differentiation and immune checkpoint inhibitors (PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA4)...

We studied plasma antibody responses of 35 patients about 1 month after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Titers of antibodies binding to the viral nucleocapsid and spike proteins were significantly higher in patients with severe disease. Likewise, mean antibody neutralization titers against SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus and live virus were higher in the sicker patients, by ∼5-fold and ∼7-fold, respectively. These findings have important implications for those pursuing plasma therapy, isolation of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies, and determinants of immunity.

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is the causative agent of bovine viral diarrhea-mucosal disease, which significantly affects the production performance of cattle, causing serious economic losses to the cattle industries worldwide. Up to now, some mechanisms involved in host-BVDV interaction are still not fully understood. The discovery of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) has provided a new perspective on gene regulation in diverse biological contexts, particularly in viral infection and host immune responses. However, little is...

Co-occurrence of hypervirulence and KPC-2 carbapenem resistant phenotypes in a highly-transmissible ST11 clone ofKlebsiella pneumoniae has elicited deep concerns from public health stand point. To address this puzzle, we conducted a large-scale epidemiological, clinical and genomic study of K. pneumonia ST11 clones with both hypervirulence and carbapenem resistance in two tertiary hospitals in Zhejiang province. Most of the patients (15/23) were diagnosed with exclusively carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKP) infections. Ten death cases were reported, some...

Quantitative real time PCR (RT-PCR) is widely used as the gold standard for clinical detection of SARS-CoV-2. However, due to the low viral load specimens and the limitations of RT-PCR, significant numbers of false negative reports are inevitable, which results in failure to timely diagnose, cut off transmission, and assess discharge criteria. To improve this situation, an optimized droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) was used for detection of SARS-CoV-2, which showed that the limit of detection...

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...

Krüppel-like factor 5 (KLF5) can both promote and suppress cell migration, but the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. In this study, we show that the function of KLF5 in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and migration of liver cancer cells depends on the status of the cellular tumor antigen p53 (p53). Furthermore, zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 2 (ZEB2) is the main regulator of KLF5 in EMT in liver cancer cells in the context of p53 loss....

Amentoflavone, robustaflavone, 2″,3″-dihydro-3′,3‴-biapigenin, 3′,3‴-binaringenin, and delicaflavone are five major hydrophobic components in the total biflavonoids extract from Selaginella doederleinii (TBESD) that display favorable anticancer properties. The purpose of this study was to develop a new oral delivery formulation to improve the solubilities, dissolution rates, and oral bioavailabilities of the main ingredients in TBESD by the solid dispersion technique. Solid dispersions of TBESD with various hydrophilic polymers were prepared, and different technologies were applied to select...

A simple, eco-friendly and convenient procedure has been developed for the synthesis of diphenyl diselinides from readily available aryl boronic acids by reaction with SeO2 in the presence of iodine under simple conditions. The methodology is reported about 19 examples and applicable to a broad scope of aryl boronic acids containing electron-rich and electron-poor substituents. Apart from being milder and environmentally benign conditions, this synthetic protocol comprises a novel, reliable methodology to give good to...

The single-index models (SIMs) provide an efficient way of coping with high-dimensional nonparametric estimation problems and avoid the “curse of dimensionality.” Many existing estimation procedures for SIMs were built on least square loss, which is popular for its mathematical beauty but is non-robust to non-normal errors and outliers. This article addressed the question of both robustness and efficiency of estimation methods based on a new data-driven weighted linear combination of convex loss functions instead of...

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease with increasing spread. Currently SFTS transmission has expanded beyond Asian countries, however, with definitive global extents and risk patterns remained obscure. Here we established an exhaustive database that included globally reported locations of human SFTS cases and the competent vector, Haemaphysalis longicornis (H. longicornis), as well as the explanatory environmental variables, based on which, the potential geographic range of H. longicornis and risk areas...

The emerging COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection poses severe challenges to global public health. Serum antibody testing is becoming one of the critical methods for the diagnosis of COVID-19 patients. We investigated IgM and IgG responses against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S) protein after symptom onset in the intensive care unit (ICU) and non-ICU patients. 130 blood samples from 38 COVID-19 patients were collected. The levels of IgM and IgG specific to N and...