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...

This study aimed to estimate the attack rates, and identify the risk factors of COVID-19 infection. Based on a retrospective cohort study, we investigated 11,580 contacts of COVID-19 cases in Guangdong Province from 10 January to 15 March 2020. All contacts were tested by RT-PCR to detect their infection of SARS-COV-2. Attack rates by characteristics were calculated. Logistic regression was used to estimate the risk factors of infection for COVID-19. A total of 515 of...

Cronobacter sakazakii, an emerging opportunistic pathogen, is implicated in severe foodborne outbreak infections in premature and full-term infants. Generally, acid tolerance is vital for the pathogenesis of foodborne pathogens; however, its role in C. sakazakii virulence remains largely unknown. To screen out acid-tolerance determinants from transposon mutants, anovel counterselection method using gentamicin and acid was developed. Using the counterselection method and growth assay, we screened several acid-sensitive mutants and found that nlpD encodes an acid-resistance...

Abstract Background Thin endometrium negatively impacts the reproductive function. Current treatments for thin endometrium do not always improve endometrial receptivity. Preliminary evidence suggests that electroacupuncture could have potential therapy for thin endometrium in infertile women. Thus, this randomized controlled trial was designed to test whether electroacupuncture can improve endometrial receptivity in infertile women with thin endometrium. Methods This study is a randomized, single-blinded, controlled, clinical trial. A total of 142 eligible patients will be recruited...

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...

Growth performance and meat quality are important traits for pig production. The aim of the present study was to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying growth performance and meat quality, and to identify novel target molecules for predicting the growth performance and meat quality. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in Diannan small ears pigs (DSP) and Landrace pigs (LP) were assessed by RNA-sequencing analyzing technology. A total of 339 DEGs were obtained between DSP and LP....

Genetic analysis of porcine growth and fatness traits is beneficial to the swine industry and provides a reference to understand human obesity. Here, we obtained 29 growth and fatness traits for 473 individuals from a White Duroc × Erhualian F3 intercross population. Basic statistical analyses showed that: (1) Positive correlations between different-stage body weights were detected, the shorter the time interval the stronger the correlation. (2) Strong correlations existed in the paired fatness traits. (3)...

Our previous works have shown that tanshinone IIA inhibited maladaptive extracellular matrix remodeling in cardiac fibroblasts implicating its potential role in treating of pathologic cardiac remodeling. However, the intrinsically poor solubility and bioavailability of tanshinone IIA hindered its clinical application. Here we develop monomethoxy-poly (ethylene glycol)-poly (lactic acid)-D-α-Tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (mPEG-PLA-TPGS) nanoparticle incorporating tanshinone IIA (tanshinone IIA-NPs) and study its efficacy in post-infarction left ventricular (LV) remodeling. Male C57BL/6 mice underwent left coronary...

Quantile treatment effects can be important causal estimands in the evaluation of biomedical treatments or interventions for health outcomes such as birthweight and medical cost. However, the existing estimators require either a propensity score model or a conditional density vector model is correctly specified, which is difficult to verify in practice. In this paper, we allow multiple models for propensity score and conditional density vector, then construct a class of calibration estimators based on multiple...

Introduction:Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV ECMO) is now considered a reasonable option to salvage acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, we lack a rodent model for experimental studies. This study was undertaken to establish an animal model of VV ECMO in ARDS rats.Methods:A total of 18 Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (350 ± 50 g) were used in this study. Using a rat model of oleic acid (OA)-induced ARDS, VV ECMO was established through cavoatrial cannulation of...

Introduction:Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV ECMO) is now considered a reasonable option to salvage acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, we lack a rodent model for experimental studies. This study was undertaken to establish an animal model of VV ECMO in ARDS rats.Methods:A total of 18 Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (350 ± 50 g) were used in this study. Using a rat model of oleic acid (OA)-induced ARDS, VV ECMO was established through cavoatrial cannulation of...

Sludge-recycling enhanced flocculation (SEF) is an effective method for enhancing flocculation. In the conventional SEF process, the settled sludge is recirculated into the flocculation process without any further treatment. However, studies have shown that the efficacy of the SEF process could be improved by pre-treating the sludge. In this work, the acid activation of sludge was performed using a range of pH values (1.0–6.0) and charge states, with and without long-chain bridging. The resulting residual...

Shigella is an intracellular pathogen that primarily infects the human colon and causes shigellosis. Shigella virulence relies largely on the type III secretion system (T3SS) and secreted effectors. VirF, the master Shigella virulence regulator, is essential for the expression of T3SS-related genes. In this study, we found that YhjC, a LysR-type transcriptional regulator, is required for Shigella virulence through activating the transcription of virF. Pathogenicity of the yhjC mutant, including colonization in the colons of...

Patients with depression have a high prevalence of developing dyslipidemia. In this study, we aim to investigate the difference of serum lipids, including total cholesterol (TCH), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides (TG), between the depressed patients and healthy controls. Sex differences in lipids and their psychological correlations were also included. The study included 56 healthy controls (males/females = 26/30) and 110 first-diagnosed drug-naïve outpatients (males/females = 35/75). A total of...

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) include the transition and transversion of a single base. In this study, we found two cSNPs (rs110757796 and rs110652478) in the FABP4 (fatty acid-binding protein 4) gene and tested their population genetic parameters in five Chinese cattle breeds. FABP4 is a key marker molecule for lipid production. It plays a crucial role in the growth and development of animals. Thus, we also analyze the association between the two cSNPs of FABP4...

To investigate the differential expression of microRNA-150-5p (miR-150-5p) and early growth response 1 (EGR1) in myocardial fibrosis (MF) cells, and determine the effect between miR-150-5p and EGR1 on MF. Human MF cells were generated via Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) infection, a mouse model of MF was generated via angiotensin II. The expression levels of miR-150-5p and EGR1 were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot assay. The correlation between miR-150-5p and...

To investigate the differential expression of microRNA-150-5p (miR-150-5p) and early growth response 1 (EGR1) in myocardial fibrosis (MF) cells, and determine the effect between miR-150-5p and EGR1 on MF. Human MF cells were generated via Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) infection, a mouse model of MF was generated via angiotensin II. The expression levels of miR-150-5p and EGR1 were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot assay. The correlation between miR-150-5p and...

Heterosis refers to the superior performance of a hybrid offspring over its two inbred parents. Although heterosis has been widely observed in agriculture, its molecular mechanism is not well studied. Recent advances in high-throughput genomic technologies such as RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) facilitate the investigation of heterosis at the gene expression level. However, it is challenging to identify genes exhibiting heterosis using RNA-seq data because high-dimension of hypotheses tests are conducted with limited sample size. Furthermore,...

Heterosis refers to the superior performance of a hybrid offspring over its two inbred parents. Although heterosis has been widely observed in agriculture, its molecular mechanism is not well studied. Recent advances in high-throughput genomic technologies such as RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) facilitate the investigation of heterosis at the gene expression level. However, it is challenging to identify genes exhibiting heterosis using RNA-seq data because high-dimension of hypotheses tests are conducted with limited sample size. Furthermore,...

In plants, recent studies have revealed that N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methylation of mRNA has potential regulatory functions of this mRNA modification in many biological processes. m6A methyltransferase, m6A demethylase and m6A-binding proteins can cause differential phenotypes, indicating that m6A may have critical roles in the plant. In this study, we depicted the m6A map of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides Linn.) transcriptome. Similar to A. thaliana, m6A sites of sea buckthorn transcriptome is significantly enriched around the...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) middle surface antigen (MHBs) mutation or deletion occurs in patients with chronic HBV infection. However, the functional role of MHBs in HBV infection is still an enigma. Here, we reported that 7.33% (11/150) isolates of CHB patients had MHBs start codon mutations compared with 0.00% (0/146) in acute hepatitis B (AHB) patients. Interestingly, MHBs loss accounted for 11.88% (126/1061) isolates from NCBI GenBank, compared with 0.09% (1/1061) and 0.00% (0/1061) for...

The phytochemical investigation of the methanol extract of Ixeris sonchifolia led to the isolation and identification of nine analogs, including one new guaiane-type sesquiterpenoid, named ixerinoid A (1). The structure of 1 was determined by extensive analysis of the 1 D and 2 D nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic data, as well as quantum chemical calculations. Additionally, all the isolates were tested for their neuroprotective activity using the oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion-induced SH-SY5Y cell injury model. Compounds 3,...

The study aimed to systematically review the existing literature and assess the effects of percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty (PBMV) in patients with mitral stenosis and atrial fibrillation (AF) as opposed to sinus rhythm (SR). Eligible studies were identified from six electronic databases before June 2021. The primary outcome was mitral valve area (MVA), and secondary outcomes were hemodynamic measurements, in-hospital complications, and long-term outcomes. Relative risks (RRs) or weighted mean differences (WMDs) with 95% confidence...

The phosphoprotein phosphatase catalytic subunit (PPPCs) family has been shown to play an important role in the development and progression of various malignancies, but its expression patterns and biological functions in breast cancer (BC) remain unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the clinical significance and biological functions of the PPPCs family to understand its possible significance in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of breast cancer. We comprehensively investigated the expression levels, diagnostic accuracy, prognostic outcomes,...

Objective: Imatinib mesylate (IM), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, exhibits clinically prominent effects against chronic myeloid leukemia (CML); however, a few patients have shown resistance to IM treatment, resulting in disease progression. Smad4 is a tumor inhibitor that transduces TGF-β signaling and modulates genomic stability. Previous studies have indicated that decreased Smad4 expression played a bidirectional role in chemosensitivity in many types of cancers. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the association between IM sensitivity and...