Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) accounts for approximately 10,000 annual cases of severe encephalitis in Europe and Asia and causes encephalitis in humans. In this study, we demonstrate TBEV appears to activate the interferon (IFN)-β dependent on RIG-I/MDA5. Both the IFN-β accumulation and the IFN stimulated genes (ISGs) transcription greatly delay. Further studies reveal that TBEV NS4A could block the phosphorylation and dimerization of STAT1/STAT2 to affect type I and II IFN-mediated STAT signalling. Additional data...

The source of secondary lower respiratory tract bacterial infections in influenza patients is not fully understood. A case–control study was conducted during the 2017–2018 influenza epidemic period in Beijing, China. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from 52 virologically confirmed influenza patients and 24 healthy medical staff. The nasopharyngeal microbiota taxonomic composition was analysed using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene V3–V4 regions. The super-dominant pathobiontic bacterial genus (SDPG) was defined as that accounting for >50%...

UXT (ubiquitously expressed prefoldin like chaperone), a small chaperone-like protein, is widely expressed in diverse human and mouse tissues and is more abundant in retina and kidney. However, the functional characterization of UXT at tissue level was largely unknown. Here, we reported that mice deficient in UXT exhibited salient features of retinal degenerative disease, similar to retinitis pigmentosa. Conditional knockout (CKO) of Uxt led to retinal degeneration and pigmentation in mice retina along with significant...

Mycobacterial persistence mechanisms remain to be fully characterized. Screening a transposon insertion library of Mycobacterium marinum identified kdpA, whose inactivation reduced the fraction of persisters after exposure to rifampicin. kdpA encodes a transmembrane protein that is part of the Kdp-ATPase, an ATP-dependent high-affinity potassium (K+) transport system. We found that kdpA is induced under low K+ conditions and is required for pH homeostasis and growth in media with low concentrations of K+. The inactivation of...

To investigate whether introduction of colistin into the clinical settings selected colistin-resistant CRE, we performed molecular epidemiological study of 1868 CRE strains collected from different geographical locales in China during the period 2014–2019. 1755 (96.18%) isolates carried the carbapenemase genes blaKPC and blaNDM; 14 Escherichia coli isolates (0.75%) carrying mcr-1 and blaNDM (MCR-CREC) were also identified. Importantly, the number and relative prevalence of MCR-CREC isolates increased from 5 (0.41%) to 9 (1.38%) after introduction of...

The newly identified 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has caused more than 11,900 laboratory-confirmed human infections, including 259 deaths, posing a serious threat to human health. Currently, however, there is no specific antiviral treatment or vaccine. Considering the relatively high identity of receptor-binding domain (RBD) in 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV, it is urgent to assess the cross-reactivity of anti-SARS CoV antibodies with 2019-nCoV spike protein, which could have important implications for rapid development of vaccines and therapeutic...

Worldwide emergence of Salmonella enterica serovar Newport (S. Newport) infection in humans, in parallel with a significant increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AR), is a serious public health concern. However, the prevalence of S. Newport resistance in China remains largely unknown. A retrospective study of 287 S. Newport clinical isolates collected during 1997–2018 was undertaken for characterization of AR profiles using the micro-dilution assay. We found a recent emergence of colistin resistance in four Chinese...

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...

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is primarily manifesting as acute hepatitis, but extra-hepatic replication and injury are frequently reported. During the study period, we discovered two acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients infected with HEV genotype 3 and 4, respectively, and HEV RNA and/or viral proteins were persistently detected in the bone marrow of both patients. The finding suggests that HEV can replicate in human bone marrow as it may serve as a new target site...

Candida albicans is a common fungal pathogen in humans that colonizes the skin and mucosal surfaces of the majority healthy individuals. How C. albicans disseminates into the bloodstream and causes life-threatening systemic infections in immunocompromised patients remains unclear. Plasminogen system activation can degrade a variety of structural proteins in vivo and is involved in several homeostatic processes. Here, for the first time, we characterized that C. albicans could capture and “subvert” host plasminogen to invade...

We use a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach to identify sex-linked markers in a torrent frog (Amolops mantzorum) using wild-caught individuals of 21 males and 19 females from the same population. A total of 141 putatively sex-linked markers were screened from 1,015,964 GBS tags through three approaches, respectively based on sex differences in allele frequencies, sex difference in heterozygosity, and sex-limited occurrence. With validations, 69 sex-linked markers were confirmed, all of which point to male heterogamety. The...

Potential antecedents to having a sense of purpose in life remain understudied. As researchers begin contemplating purpose as a promising target of public health intervention, it is critical to identify its antecedents. Using prospective data from the Nurses’ Health Study II (2009–2016; N ranged from 3,905 to 4,189), this study evaluated a wide range of potential antecedents of purpose, including psychosocial well-being, psychological distress, employment characteristics, lifestyle, and physical health factors. In separate regression models,...

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...

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...

Sichuan Province is located at the transitional junction regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the low-altitude plains. It also serves as the corridor of Sino-Tibetan-speaking population migration and expansion since neolithic expansion of Proto-Tibeto-Burman populations from Middle/Upper Yellow River during Majiayao period (3300–2000 BC). However, the population structure and the corresponding genetic diversity of forensic-related markers in this region remain unclear. Thus, we genotyped 30 insertion-deletion (InDel) markers in 444 samples from four ethnic groups...

This study aims to investigate the potential mechanisms and identify core biomarkers of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The profile GSE113850 was downloaded to analyze the differentially expressed genes. Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and protein–protein interaction network analysis were used to reveal the main signal pathways of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and hub genes. The correlation between core gene expression and pathological stages, the disease-free survival analysis, the overall survival...

The effects of livestock grazing on grasslands have garnered much attention; however, little is known about how grazing affects ecosystems’ ability to simultaneously support multiple ecosystem functions (i.e., ecosystem multifunctionality, hereafter EMF) in coastal saltmarshes. To comprehensively evaluate the ecological effects of livestock grazing and tidal flooding on saltmarshes, we conducted a grazing-exclusion experiment in the high and middle marsh zones of the Yangtze River Estuary, China. Livestock grazing generally enhanced EMF in the salt...

Supplemental Material, Supporting_Information for Thermally driven characteristic and highly photocatalytic activity based on N-isopropyl acrylamide/high-substituted hydroxypropyl cellulose/g-C3N4 hydrogel by electron beam pre-radiation method by Guo Liu, Ting-Ting Li, Xiao-Fang Song, Jin-Yu Yang, Jiang-Tao Qin, Fang-Fang Zhang, Zheng-Xi Wang, Hong-Guo Chen, Ming-Hu Wu and Yue-Sheng Li in Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials

Replication-competent vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-based recombinant viruses are useful tools for studying emerging and highly pathogenic enveloped viruses in level 2 biosafety facilities. Here, we used a replication-competent recombinant VSVs (rVSVs) encoding the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 in place of the original G glycoprotein (rVSV-eGFP-SARS-CoV-2) to develop a high-throughput entry assay for SARS-CoV-2. The S protein was incorporated into the recovered rVSV-eGFP-SARS-CoV-2 particles, which could be neutralized by sera from convalescent COVID-19 patients. The...

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...

Structural basis of HCoV-19 fusion core and an effective inhibition peptide against virus entry

Iron metabolism is involved in numerous physiological processes such as erythropoiesis, oxidative metabolism. However, the in vivo physiological functions of the iron metabolism-related gene Hfe in immune response during viral infection remain poorly understood. Here, we identified 5 iron metabolism-associated genes specifically affected during RNA virus infection by a high-throughput assay and further found that HFE was a key negative regulator of RIG-I-like receptors (RLR)-mediated type I interferons (IFNs) signaling. RNA virus infection inhibited the...

Supplemental Material, original_data for Effectiveness of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Versus Mandibular Advancement Device in Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients With Mandibular Retrognathia: A Prospective Clinical Trial by Haichun Lai, Wei Huang, Wei Chen and Desheng Wang in Ear, Nose & Throat Journal

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...

The present study aimed to assess the role of miR-1275 in cardiac ischemia reperfusion injury. H9 human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived cardiomyocytes stimulated by oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) were used to simulate myocardial injury in vitro. miR-1275 expression levels in cells were measured by RT-qPCR. The release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase (CK) was examined through LDH and CK ELISA kits. Cell apoptosis was detected through flow cytometry. A Fura-2 Calcium Flux Assay Kit...