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...

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

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...

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...

The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a disaster for human society. A convenient and reliable neutralization assay is very important for the development of vaccines and novel drugs. In this study, a G protein-deficient vesicular stomatitis virus (VSVdG) bearing a truncated spike protein (S with C-terminal 18 amino acid truncation) was compared to that bearing the full-length spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and showed much higher efficiency. A neutralization assay was established based...

Multidrug resistance (MDR) of cancer cells is a significant challenge in chemotherapy, highlighting the urgent medical need for simple and reproducible strategies to reverse this process. Here, we report the development of an active tumor-targeting and redox-responsive nanoplatform (PA-ss-NP) using hyaluronic acid-g-cystamine dihydrochloride-poly-ε-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-L-lysine (HA-ss-PLLZ) to co-deliver paclitaxel (PTX) and apatinib (APA) for effective reversal of MDR. This smart nanoplatform specifically bound to CD44 receptors, leading to selective accumulation at the tumor site and uptake by...

Multidrug resistance (MDR) of cancer cells is a significant challenge in chemotherapy, highlighting the urgent medical need for simple and reproducible strategies to reverse this process. Here, we report the development of an active tumor-targeting and redox-responsive nanoplatform (PA-ss-NP) using hyaluronic acid-g-cystamine dihydrochloride-poly-ε-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-L-lysine (HA-ss-PLLZ) to co-deliver paclitaxel (PTX) and apatinib (APA) for effective reversal of MDR. This smart nanoplatform specifically bound to CD44 receptors, leading to selective accumulation at the tumor site and uptake by...

The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a disaster for human society. A convenient and reliable neutralization assay is very important for the development of vaccines and novel drugs. In this study, a G protein-deficient vesicular stomatitis virus (VSVdG) bearing a truncated spike protein (S with C-terminal 18 amino acid truncation) was compared to that bearing the full-length spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and showed much higher efficiency. A neutralization assay was established based...

It is a common approach to dichotomize a continuous biomarker in clinical setting for the convenience of application. Analytically, results from using a dichotomized biomarker are often more reliable and resistant to outliers, bi-modal and other unknown distributions. There are two commonly used methods for selecting the best cutoff value for dichotomization of a continuous biomarker, using either maximally selected chi-square statistic or a ROC curve, specifically the Youden Index. In this paper, we explained...

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...

It is a common approach to dichotomize a continuous biomarker in clinical setting for the convenience of application. Analytically, results from using a dichotomized biomarker are often more reliable and resistant to outliers, bi-modal and other unknown distributions. There are two commonly used methods for selecting the best cutoff value for dichotomization of a continuous biomarker, using either maximally selected chi-square statistic or a ROC curve, specifically the Youden Index. In this paper, we explained...

Ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSCs) that are a subpopulation within bulk tumor survive chemotherapy and conduce to chemo-resistance and tumor relapse. However, conventional gene delivery is unsuitable for the on-demand content release, which limits OCSCs therapeutic utility. Here, we reported ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD)-triggerable poly(ethylene glycol)-disulfide bond-polyethylenimine loaded microbubble (PSP@MB). Taking advantage of glutathione (GSH) responsiveness, ultrasound triggering and spatiotemporally controlled release manner, PSP@MB is expected to realize local gene delivery for OCSCs treatment. But...

Ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSCs) that are a subpopulation within bulk tumor survive chemotherapy and conduce to chemo-resistance and tumor relapse. However, conventional gene delivery is unsuitable for the on-demand content release, which limits OCSCs therapeutic utility. Here, we reported ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD)-triggerable poly(ethylene glycol)-disulfide bond-polyethylenimine loaded microbubble (PSP@MB). Taking advantage of glutathione (GSH) responsiveness, ultrasound triggering and spatiotemporally controlled release manner, PSP@MB is expected to realize local gene delivery for OCSCs treatment. But...

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