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....

The centrosome is a unique membraneless organelle that plays a pivotal role in the orderly progression of the cell cycle in animal cells. It has been shown that two pericentriolar scaffold proteins, Cep63 and Cep152, generate a heterotetrameric complex to self-assemble into a higher-order cylindrical architecture around a centriole. However, the mechanisms underlying how they reach their threshold concentrations in the vast intracellular space and generate a self-assembled architecture remain mysterious. Here we demonstrate that,...

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...

Rapid accumulation of viral proteins in host cells render viruses highly dependent on cellular chaperones including heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90). Three highly pathogenic human coronaviruses, including MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, have emerged in the past 2 decades. However, there is no approved antiviral agent against these coronaviruses. We inspected the role of Hsp90 for coronavirus propagation. First, an Hsp90 inhibitor, 17-AAG, significantly suppressed MERS-CoV propagation in cell lines and physiological-relevant human intestinal organoids. Second,...

Enhanced serum secreted clusterin (sCLU) protein was associated with progression, poor prognosis and chemotherapy sensitivity evaluation in malignant patients. However, the clinical significance of serum sCLU protein levels in patients with invasive breast cancer (IBC) is unknown. In this study, the serum sCLU protein in 2648 patients with IBC was detected. The diagnostic value and treatment responses of serum sCLU protein in patients with IBC was also performed. The results showed that the serum sCLU...

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...

Mobile colistin resistance (mcr) genes represent an emerging challenge. Here we describe a novel mcr gene, mcr-10, on an IncFIA plasmid of an Enterobacter roggenkampii clinical strain. mcr-10 has the highest nucleotide identity (79.69%) with mcr-9 and encodes MCR-10 with 82.93% amino acids identical to MCR-9. mcr-10 confers 4-fold increase in colistin MIC (from 1 to 4 mg/L) when cloned into a colistin-susceptible E. roggenkampii strain. By screening GenBank, mcr-10 was found in various Enterobacteriaceae...

Smart polymers as ideal drug nanocarriers have attracted much attention due to the effective drug delivery, internalization and release once triggered by intracellular stimuli, as well as reduced cytotoxicity. We here reported the anionic micelle consisting of copolymer (PEG-b-PAsp) and a PBE (Phenylboronic Ester) group grafted, which can achieve fast response to intracellular ROS and enhanced anti-tumor activity. With this, PEG-b-PAsp-g-PBE/DOX system showed better tumor growth inhibition when studied on HeLa cell lines with high...

SARS-CoV-2 caused a major outbreak of severe pneumonia (COVID-19) in humans. Viral RNA was detected in multiple organs in COVID-19 patients. However, infectious SARS-CoV-2 was only isolated from respiratory specimens. Here, infectious SARS-CoV-2 was successfully isolated from urine of a COVID-19 patient. The virus isolated could infect new susceptible cells and was recognized by its’ own patient sera. Appropriate precautions should be taken to avoid transmission from urine.

SARS-CoV-2 caused a major outbreak of severe pneumonia (COVID-19) in humans. Viral RNA was detected in multiple organs in COVID-19 patients. However, infectious SARS-CoV-2 was only isolated from respiratory specimens. Here, infectious SARS-CoV-2 was successfully isolated from urine of a COVID-19 patient. The virus isolated could infect new susceptible cells and was recognized by its’ own patient sera. Appropriate precautions should be taken to avoid transmission from urine.

A dynamic treatment regime (DTR) is a sequence of decision rules that adapt to the time-varying states of an individual. Black-box learning methods have shown great potential in predicting the optimal treatments; however, the resulting DTRs lack interpretability, which is of paramount importance for medical experts to understand and implement. We present a stochastic tree-based reinforcement learning (ST-RL) method for estimating optimal DTRs in a multistage multitreatment setting with data from either randomized trials or...

Additional file 1. SPIRIT 2013 checklist.

Abstract Background Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common chronic liver disease characterized by excessive fat accumulation in the liver. One of the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms is insulin resistance (IR). Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has showed potential benefits in the management of NAFLD. Lingguizhugan decoction (LGZG) is a representative Chinese herbal formula; however, there is still no rigorous clinical trial supporting its application. Methods/design This study will be a three-arm, dose-optimization, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled...

SARS-CoV-2 caused a major outbreak of severe pneumonia (COVID-19) in humans. Viral RNA was detected in multiple organs in COVID-19 patients. However, infectious SARS-CoV-2 was only isolated from respiratory specimens. Here, infectious SARS-CoV-2 was successfully isolated from urine of a COVID-19 patient. The virus isolated could infect new susceptible cells and was recognized by its’ own patient sera. Appropriate precautions should be taken to avoid transmission from urine.

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...

In the present study, a total of 7793 samples from 5 different types of hosts were collected and tested, with a seroprevalence of 2.4% (184/7793). Although the seroprevalence of human and animal brucellosis is relatively low, numbers of human brucellosis cases reported have increased continuously from 2004 to 2018. A total of 118 Brucella strains containing 4 biotypes were obtained, including Brucella melitensis bv.1 (n = 8) and bv.3 (n = 106), Brucella abortus bv.3...

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) correlate with cancer cell phenotypes. Particularly, circRNAs mediate the cancer process as microRNAs (miRNAs) sponges. This study was to ascertain the roles of hsa_circ_0009910 in phenotypic aspects of ovarian cancer cells. Mantel-Cox test was performed to analyze the correlation between hsa_circ_0009910 and survival outcomes of ovarian cancer. Minigene reporter was constructed and small interfering-RNA was designed for constructing hsa_circ_0009910-dysregulated and miR-145-upregulated cells identified by qRT-PCR. Proliferative and motile activities were monitored by...

Most research has used individual or group features to explain why migrants have different preferred number of children. However, these features can be identified and subdivided infinitely, with none of them broadly answering the question “why migrants desire more or less children”? This paper identified “environmental shocks”, which are a common experience for all migrants, as determinants of dissimilar preferred number of children across internal migrants in China. Environmental shocks refer to the uncertainty experienced...

Different primers/probes sets have been developed all over the world for the nucleic acid detection of SARS-CoV-2 by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) as a standard method. In our recent study, we explored the feasibility of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) for clinical SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection compared with qRT-PCR using the same primer/probe sets issued by Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) targeting viral ORF1ab or N gene, which showed that...

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 14.8 (95% CI: 9.8–21) copies per reaction. We combined this qRT-PCR assay with an automatic integration system for nucleic acid...

Background: Novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is prevalent around the world. We aimed to describe epidemiological features and clinical course in Shanghai. Methods: We retrospectively analysed 325 cases admitted at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, between January 20 and February 29, 2020. Results: 47.4% (154/325) had visited Wuhan within 2 weeks of illness onset. 57.2% occurred in 67 clusters; 40% were situated within 53 family clusters. 83.7% developed fever during the disease course. Median times from...

Stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems (DDSs) are expected to realize site-specific drug release and kill cancer cells selectively. In this study, a pH-responsive micelle was designed utilizing the pH-sensitivity of borate bonds formed between dopamine and boronic acid. First, methyl (polyethylene glycol)-block-polycaprolactone (mPEG-PCL) was conjugated with 4-cyano-4-(thiobenzoylthio)pentanoic acid (CTP) to obtain a macroinitiator. Two different segments poly(dopamine methacrylamide) (PDMA) and poly(vinylphenylboronic acid) (PVBA) were then grafted to the end of mPEG-PCL. Two triblock copolymers, mPEG-PCL-PDMA and...

Supplemental Material, CONSORT_b 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

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

Aim:Some obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients may have mandibular retrognathia (ANB > 4.7° and SNB < 76.2°). Currently, there are no studies that have compared the effectiveness of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) versus mandibular advancement device (MAD) in severe OSA patients with mandibular retrognathia. We explored the efficacy of CPAP versus MAD for the treatment of severe OSA patients with mandibular retrognathia.Methods:A total of 105 patients were enrolled. Outcomes were assessed by using polysomnography,...