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4,800 |
Predicting social response to infectious disease outbreaks from internet-based news streams
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Infectious disease outbreaks often have consequences beyond human health, including concern among the population, economic instability, and sometimes violence. A warning system capable of anticipating social disruptions resulting from disease outbreaks is urgently needed to help decision makers prepare appropriately. We designed a system that operates in near real-time to identify and predict social response. Over 150,000 Internet-based news articles related to outbreaks of 16 diseases in 72 countries and territories were provided by HealthMap. These articles were automatically tagged with indicators of the disease activity and population reaction. An anomaly detection algorithm was implemented on the population reaction indicators to identify periods of unusually severe social response. Then a model was developed to predict the probability of these periods of unusually severe social response occurring in the coming week, 2 and 3 weeks. This model exhibited remarkably strong performance for diseases with substantial media coverage. For country-disease pairs with a median of 20 or more articles per year, the onset of social response in the next week was correctly predicted over 60% of the time, and 87% of weeks were correctly predicted. Performance was weaker for diseases with little media coverage, and, for these diseases, the main utility of our system is in identifying social response when it occurs, rather than predicting when it will happen in the future. Overall, the developed near real-time prediction approach is a promising step toward developing predictive models to inform responders of the likely social consequences of disease spread. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10479-017-2480-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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4,801 |
Biomedical vignette
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4,802 |
Syndromic Surveillance and Patients as Victims and Vectors
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Syndromic surveillance uses new ways of gathering data to identify possible disease outbreaks. Because syndromic surveillance can be implemented to detect patterns before diseases are even identified, it poses novel problems for informed consent, patient privacy and confidentiality, and risks of stigmatization. This paper analyzes these ethical issues from the viewpoint of the patient as victim and vector. It concludes by pointing out that the new International Health Regulations fail to take full account of the ethical challenges raised by syndromic surveillance.
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4,803 |
Web alert
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4,804 |
Surface display of recombinant protein on the cell surface of Bacillus subtilis by the CotB anchor protein
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We developed a novel surface display system based on the CotB anchoring motif in order to express foreign protein on the surface of vegetative Bacillus subtilis cells. CotB is a protein in the B. subtilis spore coat. In this system, three repeats of the immunodominant ovalbumin T-cell epitope (OVA(323–339)) were linked with the cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) to construct a fusion protein, CTB-OVA epi, which was then fused to the C-terminal of the CotB protein so that CTB-OVA epi was expressed in vegetatively-growing B. subtilis. The expression and localization of the CTB-OVA epi protein was confirmed by western blotting, immunofluorescence microscopy, and flow cytometry. The results indicated that a CotB-based surface display system was successfully used to express the CTB-OVA epi protein on the surface of vegetative B. subtilis cells.
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4,805 |
Cloning and expression of the membrane protein gene of TGEV HB06 strain
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The membrane protein gene(M) of transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) strain HB06, isolated from the feces of piglets infected with TGEVon a pig farm in Hebei province, was amplified by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The amplified PCR products of TGEV HB06 were cloned, sequenced, and compared with other TGEV strains genes selected from the GenBank. Then, the recombinant fragment in pMD18-T was subcloned into corresponding sites of prokaryotic expression vector pGEX-6P-1 after digestion with EcoRI and XhoI to construct a recombinant fusion expression vector pGEX-6P-M. Then, the verified recombinant plasmid was transformed into Escherichia coli Rossetta (DE3), and the expression of M fusion protein was induced by using isopropylthio-beta-D-galactoside (IPTG) as inducer. The results showed that the gene fragment of M at a length of 789 bp was amplified and cloned into the vector pMD18-T successfully, and sequence comparison with that reported in GenBank revealed that the M gene complete sequence shares more than 94% homology in nucleotide. The result of SDS-PAGE showed that the recombinant membrane protein had a molecular mass of approximately 56 kDa, which was the same as the expected results. It was proven by Western blotting that the recombinant membrane protein had strong positive reactions with TGEV-specific antibody. Therefore, the expressed fusion protein has a good antigenicity. This work established a good foundation for further studies on the production of anti-TGEV vaccines.
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4,806 |
Annual Meeting Abstracts
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4,807 |
Data Decision and Transmission Based on Mobile Data Health Records on Sensor Devices in Wireless Networks
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The contradiction between a large population and limited and unevenly distributed medical resources is a serious problem in many developing countries. This problem not only affects human health but also leads to the occurrence of serious infection if treatment is delayed. With the development of wireless communication network technology, patients can acquire real-time medical information through wireless network equipment. Patients can have the opportunity to obtain timely medical treatment, which may alleviate the shortage of medical resources in developing countries. This study establishes a new method that can decide and transmit effective data based on sensor device mobile health in wireless networks. History data, collection data, and doctor-analyzed data could be computed and transmitted to patients using sensor devices. According to probability analysis, patients and doctors may confirm the possibility of certain diseases.
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4,808 |
Chandra Wickramasinghe, A Journey with Fred Hoyle: The Search for Cosmic Life. Edited by Kamala Wickramasinghe: World Scientific Publishing, Singapore, 2005, US$ 33.00, ISBN-10 981-238-912-1
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4,809 |
Clinical characteristics of 42 SARS patients and their treatment of integrative Chinese and western medicine
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Objective: To understand the clinical manifestation of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and explore its effective treatment with integrative Chinese and western medicine (ICWM).Methods: The data of patients, whose diagnosis of SARS had been confirmed were summarized and analyzed, and clinical observation was conducted when the patients were treated with ICWM.Results: In the early stage of the 42 patients, the symptoms revealed were fever in 100% of SARS patients, headache in 92. 9%, aversion to cold in 76. 2%, chest stuffiness in 76. 2%, cough in 73. 8% and myalgia in 88. 1%; pulmonary lesion involves ≥3 lobes in 42. 9%, 2 lobes in 47. 6% and 1 lobe in 9. 5%; 61. 9% of them showed liver function abnormality (increase of ALT or AST), 47. 6% showed elevated myocardial enzyme (CK or CK-MB), 0. 48% showed an inclination of renal function (higher of BUN or Cr); in their T lymphocyte subsets, 91. 2% (31/34 patients) had lowered CD(3) and 76. 5% (26/34 patients) lowered CD(4)/CD(8) ratio. In the mid-late stage, the symptoms were lassitude and weakness in 85. 7%, scare in 81. 0%, short of breath or chest stuffiness in 71. 4%, loss of appetite in 64. 3%; light dark tongue proper in 52.4%, yellow and white tongue coating in 45. 2%, and yellow thick coating on the middle-root part of the tongue in 21. 4%. Most of them were asymptomatic when discharged from hospital, with 92. 8% of their pulmonary lesion, according to chest film, completely absorbed and liver function, myocardial enzyme and renal function all normalized. However, of the 30 patients who had CD(3) reexamination, 70% of the CD(3) showed lower than normal range and 36. 7% showed their CD(4)/CD(8) inclined to lower margin, follow-up should be done for these patients. Of the 42 patients, who received western medicine (WM) alone in the early stage and ICWM in the mid-late stage, 10 were severe cases and 3 critical cases, but none of them died. The mean defervescent time was 3. 52±0. 85 days, the time for complete absorption of pulmonary lesion judged by chest X-ray film was 26. 82±5. 98 days, and the mean hospitalization time was 33. 60±4. 37 days.Conclusion: The manifestation of SARS is multifarious, showing that there were damage in multiple organs. The T lymphocyte count percentage and its subsets, CD(3) and CD(4) /CD(8) ratio, are valuable for early diagnosis and follow-up in the rehabilitation stage. Majority of the patients could be clinically cured. Combined treatment of WM and TCM according to syndrome differentiation and psychiatric intervention are beneficial to remit partial symptoms and promote rehabilitation.
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4,810 |
The vignette for V13N3 issue
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4,811 |
Optimization of transfection methods for Huh-7 and Vero cells: A comparative study
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Availability of an efficient transfection protocol is the first determinant in success of gene transferring studies in mammalian cells which is accomplished experimentally for every single cell type. Herein, we provide data of a comparative study on optimization of transfection condition by electroporation and chemical methods for Huh-7 and Vero cells. Different cell confluencies, DNA/reagent ratios and total transfection volumes were optimized for two chemical reagents including jetPEI™ and Lipofectamine™ 2000. Besides, the effects of electric field strength and pulse length were investigated to improve electroporation efficiency. Transfection of cells by pEGFP-N1 vector and tracking the expression of GFP by FACS and Fluorescence Microscopy analysis were the employed methods to evaluate transfection efficiencies. Optimized electroporation protocols yielded 63.73 ± 2.36 and 73.9 ± 1.6% of transfection in Huh-7 and Vero cells respectively, while maximum achieved level of transfection by jetPEI™ was 14.2 ± 0.69 and 28 ± 1.11% Huh-7 and Vero cells, respectively. Post transfectional chilling of the cells did not improve electrotransfection efficiency of Huh-7 cells. Compared to chemical based reagents, electroporation showed superior levels of transfection in both cell lines. The presented protocols should satisfy most of the experimental applications requiring high transfection efficiencies of these two cell lines.
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4,812 |
Literature alert
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4,813 |
Prophylactic and therapeutic effects of egg yolk immunoglobulin against porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus in piglets
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Porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) is the causative agent of acute diarrhea of newborn piglets that provokes high mortality rates in affected farms. In this study, specific immunoglobulin from egg yolk against TGEV was produced by immunization of White leghorn hens. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and virus neutralization (VN) test revealed that the specific antibody titer started to increase on the tenth day post-immunization, reached its peak on the eighth week, and remained at a high level until the last week that we tested. The prophylactic and therapeutic effects of egg yolk immunoglobulin (IgY) was investigated in piglets. IgY was found effective to increase piglets survival rate significantly after challenge exposures in prophylactic efficacy analysis. The therapeutic effects test revealed that the mortality was dramatically reduced by orally administered IgY. All these results in our study indicated that IgY specific to TGEV could be an alternative prophylactic method like colostral antibodies against TGEV in piglets.
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4,814 |
Detection and analysis system for hybridization images of lab-in-a-tube microarray
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A lab-in-a-tube microarray system is developed for sample inspection and signal detection by fabricating a flat transparent window cap of the Eppendorf tube. The oligonucleotide microarray is immobilized on the inner surface of the cap. A small vessel is placed in an Eppendorf tube for storing hybridization solutions. With the microarray system, the full biochemical processes, including gene fragment amplification, fluorescence labeling, hybridization, and fluorescence detection, have been performed in the sealed tube without opening the cap. The images are obtained from a fluorescence microscope and captured by a CCD, and the data are transported to a computer through the universal serial bus (USB). After noise reduction, signal intensity is determined from hybridization image and the presence of gene fragments is identified. The final data output includes sample information, process steps, and hybridization results. A lab-in-a-tube microarray system for detecting ten respiratory viruses at a single detection is designed. High detection throughput and accuracy have been demonstrated with the system.
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4,815 |
The vignette for V15 N3 issue
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4,816 |
Virus rejection with two model human enteric viruses in membrane bioreactor system
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A membrane bioreactor (MBR) with gravity drain was tested for virus rejection with two coliphages, T4 and f2, which were used as surrogates for human enteric viruses. Virus rejection was investigated by PVDF and PP membrane modules, with the pore sizes of 0.22 and 0.1 μm, respectively. In tap water system, 2.1 lg rejection of coliphage T4 could be achieved by PVDF membrane compared with complete rejection by PP membrane, while for coliphage f2 with smaller diameter, 0.3–0.5 lg rejection of the influent virus was removed by the two membranes. In domestic wastewater system, cake layer and gel layer on the membrane surface changed the cut-off size of the membrane so that there was no significant difference between PP and PVDF for each coliphage. The removal ratios of coliphage T4 and f2 in the MBR were more than 5.5 and 3.0 lg, respectively. Compared with 5.5 lg removal for virus T4 in the MBR system, only 2.1 lg (96.8%–99.9%) removal rate was observed in the conventional activated sludge system with the influent virus concentration fluctuating from 1830 to 57000 PFU/mL. Only 0.8%–22% virus removal was the effect of adsorption to activated sludge, which showed a decreasing tendency with the retention time, while 75%–98% was the effect of virus inactivation by microbial activity. It indicated that the major mechanism of virus removal was not the transfer of viruses from the water phase to the sludge phase but inactivation in the biological treatment process.
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4,817 |
Learn to fight from the war
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4,818 |
Biomedical Vignette
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4,819 |
Reducing Energy Consumption and Overhead Based on Mobile Health in Big Data Opportunistic Networks
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A great number of people and non-equalizing medical resources, in developing countries, have become a serious contradiction. Not only does it affects the person’s life, but also causes serious epidemic contagious, because patients can not get help with hospital on time. With the development of wireless communication network, patient may get medical information by wireless network device. It can alleviate contradictions between patients and medical resources. But in developing countries, population quantity is a big data. How to solve data packets in wireless communication network is a big problem when researchers face huge population. In order to solve some problems in big data communication, this paper founds availability data transmission routing algorithm. This algorithm can reduce energy consumption and overhead, then improve deliver ratio in big data communication. Compare with Spray and Wait algorithm, Binary spray and wait algorithm in opportunistic networks, this algorithm acquires good results by reduce energy consumption, overhead and deliver ratio.
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4,820 |
Experimental study on effect of Compound Biejia Ruangan prescription on high-resolution computerized tomographic images in bleomycin induced pulmonary fibrosis rats
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Objective: To study the therapeutic effect of Compound Biejia Ruangan prescription (CBRP) on rat model with pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin.Methods: Fifty-four male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 6 groups (9 rats in each group). From the first day to the 28th day of the experiment, except to those in the sham-model control group that were treated with normal saline, the same amount of bleomycin injection as the normal saline given to the control group was given through endotracheal instillation to all the rats in all the other groups. From the 29th day of the modeling, CBRP solution of different dosages was respectively injected into the rats in the high, moderate and low CBRP dose group, while equal volume of normal saline was given to those in the sham-model control group and the model control group, and an equal volume of prednisone solution was given to rats in the prednisone group. On the 80th day, the high-resolution computerized tomographic (HRCT) images were observed on an equal footing, and HRCT-pathology was correlatively studied.Results: Different HRCT pathological changes were shown in the rats with pulmonary fibrosis, such as lung consolidation, thickening of interlobular septum and interlobular mesenchyma as well as lobular deformation, nodule shadow, abnormal brochiovascular tract, thickened pleura with irregular junction and polished glass-like dense shadows. Honeycomb lung was observed in some cases. Pathological sections showed fibrotic proliferation of lung tissues and noticeable pulmonary interstitial fibrosis. CBRP could improve HRCT images of rats with pulmonary fibrosis, and lower fibrotic proliferation of the lung tissue.Conclusion: CBRP plays its therapeutic role possibly through its effect on the structure of the lung in rats with pulmonary fibrosis.
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4,821 |
Dynamics of HIV/AIDS in Turkey from 1985 to 2016
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In this paper, we formulated a mathematical model that studies the dynamics of HIV/AIDS in Turkey from 1985 to 2016. We find two equilibrium points, disease free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium. Global stability analysis of the equilibria was conducted using Lyapunov function which depends on the basic reproduction ratio R (0). If R (0) < 1, the disease free equilibrium point is globally asymptotically stable, and if R (0) ≥ 1 the endemic equilibrium point is globally asymptotically stable. We computed and predicted the basic reproduction ratios across all the years. It was found out that there were flaws in the exact values of R (0) which is related to the poor registration system of HIV/AIDS in Turkey. Hence, there is need for the government to improve the system in order to cover the actual cases of the disease. The increase of the basic reproduction ratio over the years also shows the need for the relevant authorities to adopt appropriate control measures in combating the disease.
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4,822 |
Therapeutic effect of integrative traditional Chinese and western medicine on 51 SARS patients and its influence on their T lymphocyte subsets
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Objective: To observe the clinical effect of integrative Chinese and western medicine (IC-WM) in treatment of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and its influence on their T-lymphocyte subsets.Methods: Fifty-one patients with SARS of severe type were observed with synchronous non-randomized controlled method. They were divided into the ICWM group (29 patients) and the western medicine (WM) group (22 patients). Western medical treatment was applied to both groups, but to the ICWM group, Chinese medicine was given additionally. The therapeutic course was 2–3 weeks for both groups. Clinical effect and changes of T-lymphocyte subsets (CD4(+)) after treatment were observed.Results: In the ICWM group, 26 patients (89. 66%) were cured and 3 (10. 34%) died, while in the WM group, 12 (54. 55%) cured and 10 (45. 45%) died, thus comparison of the cure rate between the two groups showing significant difference (P <0.01). The score of clinical symptoms in the ICWM group was decreased from 7.14±5.20 scores before treatment to 1.82±3.75 scores after treatment, while in the WM group, it lowered from 7. 36±3.84 scores before treatment to517±417 scores after treatment, significant difference shown in the comparison of the values between the two groups after treatment (P < 0.01). Immunological function test showed that CD4(+) T-lymphocyte in the ICWM group rose from 361 ± 278 cells/mm(3) before treatment to 630 ± 454 cells/mm(3) after treatment, showing significant difference (P < 001); but in the WM group, it merely rose from 288±186 cells/mm(3) to 376±285 cells/mm(3) in the corresponding period (P > 0.05).Conclusion: ICWM could improve the clinical symptoms of SARS patients markedly, enhance their T-lymphocyte immune function, and reduce their mortality.
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4,823 |
Biomedical and Environmental Ethics Alliance: Common Causes and Grounds
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In the late 1960s Van Rensselaer Potter, a biochemist and cancer researcher, thought that our survival was threatened by the domination of military policy makers and producers of material goods ignorant of biology. He called for a new field of Bioethics—“a science of survival.” Bioethics did develop, but with a narrower focus on medical ethics. Recently there have been attempts to broaden that focus to bring biomedical ethics together with environmental ethics. Though the two have many differences—in habits of thought, scope of concern, and value commitments—in this paper we argue that they often share common cause and we identify common ground through an examination of two case studies, one addressing drug development, the other food production.
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4,824 |
Effective use of a Limited Antiviral Stockpile for Pandemic Influenza
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Just allocation of resources for control of infectious diseases can be profoundly influenced by the dynamics of those diseases. In this paper we discuss the use of antiviral drugs for treatment of pandemic influenza. While the primary effect of such drugs is to alleviate and shorten the duration of symptoms for treated individuals, they can have a secondary effect of reducing transmission in the community. However, existing stockpiles may be insufficient for all clinical cases. Here we use simple mathematical models to present scenarios where the optimum policies to minimise morbidity and mortality, with a limited drug stockpile, are not always the most intuitively obvious and may conflict with theories of justice. We discuss ethical implications of these findings.
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4,825 |
Control of acute virus diseases of calves in the Federal Republic of Germany
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The most important acute viral diseases of calves in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) are: 1. Enzootic bronchopneumonia. 2. Bovine viral diarrhoea — mucosal disease (BVD-MD). 3. Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis — infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (IBR-IPV). 4. Rota- and Coronavirus infections. The incidence, diagnosis and control of these infections in the FRG are discussed. Stomatitis papulosa and malignant catarrhal fever are also briefly mentioned.
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4,826 |
Organization and regulation of nucleocytoplasmic transport
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Separation of DNA replication and transcription, which occur in the nucleus, from protein synthesis, which occurs in the cytoplasm, allows a more precise regulation of these processes. Selective exchange of macromolecules between the two compartments is mediated by proteins of the nuclear pore complex (NPC). Receptor proteins of the karyopherin family interact with NPC components and transfer their cargos between the nucleus and cytoplasm. Nucleocytoplasmic transport pathways are regulated at multiple levels by modulating the expression or function of individual cargoes, transport receptors, or the transport channel. The regulatory levels have increasingly broad effects on the transport pathways and affect a wide range of processes from gene expression to development and differentiation.
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4,827 |
Emerging research fronts in science and technology: patterns of new knowledge development
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Research fronts represent the most dynamic areas of science and technology and the areas that attract the most scientific interest. We construct a methodology to identify these fronts, and we use quantitative and qualitative methodology to analyze and describe them. Our methodology is able to identify these fronts as they form—with potential use by firms, venture capitalists, researchers, and governments looking to identify emerging high-impact technologies. We also examine how science and technology absorbs the knowledge developed in these fronts and find that fronts which maximize impact have very different characteristics than fronts which maximize growth, with consequences for the way science develops over time.
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4,828 |
Targeting and expression of antigenic proteins in transgenic plants for production of edible oral vaccines
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Exploiting plants as biological bioreactors for production and delivery of edible oral subunit vaccines is a promising application of biotechnology. Efforts to enhance expression levels of transgenes coding for antigenic proteins by exploiting promoters, targeting sequences, and enhancer elements have produced rather low quantities of the antigen in plant tissues, but enough to induce immune responses in feeding studies. This review will cover components of various gene constructs used in developing plant-based vaccines against a myriad of viral and bacterial diseases. Specifically, it will focus on sequences that are involved in targeting the antigen to mucosal tissues of the intestinal tract, thus enhancing the immunogenicity of the plant-based vaccine as well as those components that result in higher accumulation of the protein within the plant.
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4,829 |
Enterotoxins from gram-negative bacteria relevant for veterinary medicine
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The chemistry, mechanism of action, assay methods, pharmacology, and prevention and treatment of diarrhoea due to toxins of gram-negative microbes are discussed. Other virulence factors are mentioned briefly. Special emphasis is placed on non-specific treatment by oral rehydration.
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4,830 |
In situ airborne virus inactivation by microwave irradiation
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Infectious diseases cause tremendous costs of both human and economy annually. Previously, we have studied the bacterial, fungal, and allergen aerosol inactivation by direct microwave irradiation. Here, we further investigated its effects on airborne viruses. MS2 coliphage used as a human model virus was aerosolized and exposed to the direct microwave irradiation for ~2 min at three different power levels (700, 385, and 119 W). In addition to the survival rate, the viral genes before and after the microwave treatments were also examined using PCR and gel electrophoresis. Direct exposure of airborne MS2 viruses to the microwave irradiation at 700 W for less than 2 min was shown to result in more than 90 % inactivation efficiency, about 65 % at medium power level (385 W), and 50 % at the lowest level (119 W). The aerosol inactivation rate followed a linear relationship with the microwave exposure time (R (2) = 0.9889). Scanning electron images revealed visible damages to the viral surface after the exposure. Damages were also observed to the viral RNA genes coding for coat proteins, among which the A protein gene was completely destroyed. This study demonstrated that even without the filtration the direct microwave irradiation could also achieve rapid inactivation of viral aerosols. The information obtained can provide useful guidance on the development of microwave-based viral threat mitigation solutions in a closed or semi-closed space.
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4,831 |
Search for the new potential RNA thermometers in the genome of Salmonella enterica
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Currently, a number of structurally and functionally different temperature-sensitive elements such as RNA thermometers which control a variety of biological processes in bacteria, including virulence, are known. Based on computer and thermodynamic analysis of completely sequenced genomes of 25 Salmonella enterica isolates, the algorithm and criteria for the search of potential RNA thermometers were developed. It will make it possible to carry out the search for potential riboswitches in the genome of other socially important pathogens. For S. enterica, apart from the known 4U RNA thermometer, four hairpin-loop structures were identified which may probably act as additional RNA thermometers. They satisfy the necessary and sufficient conditions for formation of RNA thermometers and are highly conservative uncanonical structures, since these highly conservative structures were found in the genome of all 25 isolates of S. enterica. The hairpins forming a cruciform structure in the supercoiled pUC8 DNA were visualized by atomic force microscopy.
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4,832 |
Transgenic plants for animal health: plant-made vaccine antigens for animal infectious disease control
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A variety of plant species have been genetically modified to accumulate vaccine antigens for human and animal health and the first vaccine candidates are approaching the market. The regulatory burden for animal vaccines is less than that for human use and this has attracted the attention of researchers and companies, and investment in plant-made vaccines for animal infectious disease control is increasing. The dosage cost of vaccines for animal infectious diseases must be kept to a minimum, especially for non-lethal diseases that diminish animal welfare and growth, so efficient and economic production, storage and delivery are critical for commercialization. It has become clear that transgenic plants are an economic and efficient alternative to fermentation for large-scale production of vaccine antigens. The oral delivery of plant-made vaccines is particularly attractive since the expensive purification step can be avoided further reducing the cost per dose. This review covers the current status of plant-produced vaccines for the prevention of disease in animals and focuses on barriers to the development of such products and methods to overcome them.
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4,833 |
Clinical controlled study of integrative Chinese and western medicine in treating 49 cases of SARS
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Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of integrative Chinese and western medicine (ICWM) in treating severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients.Methods: Through parallel control design, 49 SARS patients were observed. Used as control, there were in the western medicine (WM) group 29 patients, who were treated with Ribavirin, Levofloxacin, Thymopentin, Azithromycin, methylprednisolone, etc., on the basis of “Recommended Protocol for Infectious Atypical Pneumonia” (abbreviated as “Recommended Protocol”) issueed by Ministry of Health. As the treated group, there were in the ICWM 20 cases. The protocol for treatment of SARS in “Special Science and Technological Action to Prevent and Treat SARS” (abbreviated as “Special S-T Action”), issued by Ministry of Science and Technology, together with the same WM as those for the control group.Results: (1) Time from the disease onset to the symptom improvement were 5.10±2. 83 days and 7. 62±2. 27 days in ICWM and WM group respectively,P < 0.05; (2) As to corticosteroid (CS) amount and days before reducing dosage, 2 groups showed no significant difference,P > 0.05; (3) There was no significant difference in the time from disease onset to the body temperature normalization and the total amount of CS and the duration of using CS before reducing it to 80 mg between the ICWM group and the WM group; (4) The days and amounts for use CS after reducing between the ICWM group and the WM group were significantly different (P < 0. 05).Conclusion: There were obvious advantages in ICWM to treat SARS, compared with that of WM alone, especially in improving the clinical symptoms, promoting the recovery of immune function, promoting the absorption of pulmonary inflammation and reducing the dosage and duration of CS treatment.
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4,834 |
Animal Symposia
| null |
4,835 |
Role of siRNAs and miRNAs in the processes of RNA-mediated gene silencing during viral infections
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Phenomenon of RNA-induced gene silencing is a highly conservative mechanism among eukaryotic organisms. Several classes of small RNAs (siRNAs and miRNAs) 21–25 nt in length, which play a significant role in the processes of development of an organism, occurred important components of antiviral defence in animals and plants. This review shortly describes the main stages of gene silencing mechanism, features of antiviral RNA silencing in plants, invertebrates, mammals, ways of suppression of RNA-interference by viruses, as well as possible approaches of utilization of abovementioned phenomenon for struggling against viral infections.
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4,836 |
Recognition for avian influenza virus proteins based on support vector machine and linear discriminant analysis
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Total 200 properties related to structural characteristics were employed to represent structures of 400 HA coded proteins of influenza virus as training samples. Some recognition models for HA proteins of avian influenza virus (AIV) were developed using support vector machine (SVM) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The results obtained from LDA are as follows: the identification accuracy (R (ia)) for training samples is 99.8% and R (ia) by leave one out cross validation is 99.5%. Both R (ia) of 99.8% for training samples and R (ia) of 99.3% by leave one out cross validation are obtained using SVM model, respectively. External 200 HA proteins of influenza virus were used to validate the external predictive power of the resulting model. The external R (ia) for them is 95.5% by LDA and 96.5% by SVM, respectively, which shows that HA proteins of AIVs are preferably recognized by SVM and LDA, and the performances by SVM are superior to those by LDA.
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4,837 |
Synthesis, Biological Evaluation and Ligand Based Pharmacophore Modeling of New Aromatic Thiosemicarbazones as Potential Anticancer Agents
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Two series of new aromatic thiosemicarbazone derivatives were synthesized by condensation of N-(4-cyanophenyl)hydrazine carbothioamide (I) and N-(4-methylsulfanylphenyl)hydrazine carbothioamide (II) with appropriate aromatic aldehydes in order to investigate their antiviral and cytostatic potency. The chemical structures of all compounds were fully characterized by elemental analysis and spectroscopic techniques. The results of the bioassays indicated that compounds Id, Ie, If and IIf proved inhibitory against influenza virus A (EC(50) = 13 – 27 μg/mL for strain H1N1 and 9.3 – 18 μg/mL for strain H3N2). Compounds Ig and IIg were the most cytostatic compounds with inhibition of HeLa cell proliferation at an IC(50) = 0.3 μg/mL for Ig and 1.9 μg/mL for IIg. Especially, compound Ig showed the highest cytostatic activity with IC(50) of 0.30, 0.70 and 2.50 μg/mL against HeLa, CEM and L1210 cell lines, respectively. This inhibition range was within the same order of magnitude as that for cisplatin. Furthermore, molecular modeling was carried out to examine the cytostatic activity and determine the best pharmacophore model as a guide for the design and development of potential prodrugs in future studies.
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4,838 |
Biomedical vignette
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4,839 |
Applying integrative Chinese and western medicine in fighting SARS
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4,840 |
Erratum to: Candidate Genes Associated with Susceptibility for SARS-Coronavirus
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4,841 |
Potential thermosensitive riboswitches in the genome of Salmonella
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Currently, a number of structurally and functionally different thermosensitive elements, such as structurally and functionally different RNA thermometers, for controlling a variety of biological processes in bacteria, including virulence are known. These well-known RNA thermometers are structures, whether matched or mismatched, which are represented by either a single stretched hairpin structure or a few hairpins. Based on computer and thermodynamic analyses of 25 isolates of Salmonella enterica with complete genome, we have developed an algorithm and criteria to search for potential RNA thermometers, which will enable us to undertake a future search for potential riboswitches in the genomes of other socially significant pathogens. In addition to the well-known 4U RNA thermometer, another four hairpin-loop structures have been identified in S. enterica as new potential RNA thermometers and two of them are localized in 5′-UTR of virulence regulators gltB and yaeQ. They are highly conserved noncanonical structures and correspond to the necessary and sufficient conditions for forming RNA thermometers, since they are found in each of the 25 S. enterica genome isolates. We analyzed the thermosensitive motif in the pXO1 plasmid of Bacillus anthracis—an anthrax-causative pathogen—and visualized matched hairpins that form a cruciform structure in pUC8 supercoiled plasmid by atomic force microscopy.
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4,842 |
Evaluation of Total Proteins and Serum Protein Fractions in Cats Naturally Infected by Leishmania infantum–A Preliminary Study
| null |
4,843 |
Preparation and physicochemical property of chicken yolk immunoglobulin (IgY) against porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV)
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Oral administration of immunoglobulin prepared from the egg yolk of hens immunized with porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) has been demonstrated to reduce piglets mortality significantly in our previous studies. In the present study, we investigated the stability of chicken yolk immunoglobulin (IgY) specific to TGEV by measuring the remaining activity by ELISA. The results showed that the IgY was stable between pH 4 and pH 11. In the incubation with pepsin at pH 4 and pH 6, about 90% and 100% of the IgY activity remained, respectively. IgY activity could remain approximately 80% at 60°C for 30 min, suggesting that pasteurization can be applied to sterilizing the product. The stability of IgY at 25°C and freezing-thawing treatment indicated that the IgY was easy to be conserved. These results highlight the attractive potential application of IgY as the antibodies of oral administration for treatment of TGEV infections.
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4,844 |
The effect of adjuvants on vaccine-induced antibody response against influenza in aged mice
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While influenza remains a major threat to public health, researchers continue to search for a universal solution to improving the efficacy of the influenza vaccine. Even though influenza affects people of all different ages, it can be extremely hazardous to people of 65 years of age or older since that is the population that makes up the high majority of the death toll caused by influenza-related diseases. Elderly individuals suffer the effects of immunosenescence as they age, which is the diminishing of the overall immune response. Immunosenescence occurs by specifically affecting the adaptive immune response which controls the establishment of immunity after vaccination or infection. There are many studies under way that are trying to find a resolution to the problem of the influenza vaccine not providing enough protection in the elderly population. One of the possible strategies is to seek the use of an optimal adjuvant, an immunological agent that can enhance immune responses, with the current vaccine formulation. Here, we used the murine model to review the effects of adjuvants on the antibody response to influenza vaccines in aged mice. Since adjuvants can enhance the production of important inflammatory cytokines and activation of dendritic cells, the stimulation of these cells are boosted to increase the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in aged mice which would hopefully translate to the elderly.
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4,845 |
Population-genetic study of Balkan endemic nephropathy in Serbia
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The study of Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) in the affected localities of southern Serbia shows population-genetic difference between samples of BEN affected individuals and control group consisting of non-affected individuals from the same localities. Detailed population-genetic study in village Chepure, which includes 20 large families where BEN is present in 646 (from first to fourth degree) relatives of probands, shows a familial character of disease as well as significant genetic influences in expression of the illness. Our study of genetic homozygosity degree includes an analysis of the presence, distribution and individual combination of 20 to 30 selected genetically controlled morphophysiological traits in the sample of BEN patients and in the control-healthy group. Assuming that BEN is genetically controlled disease, we made a hypothesis that an increased homozygosity level, as well as the changed variability among the patients, could be populationgenetic parameter for the prediction of the illness. Taking into consideration our experience, as well as the experience of numerous scientists who studied the nature of the inheritance of mono-and oligo-genically controlled qualitative traits, we applied a methodology to estimate the proportion of such homozygously recessive characters (HRC-test). This population-genetic study did not only show statistically significant difference of the mean values of genetic homozygosity (BEN: 8.7 ± 0.3; control: 7.6 ± 0.3), but of the differences in the type of distribution too, as well as the differences in the presence of certain individual combinations of such traits.
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4,846 |
Infection and immunity in farm animals: R. Pandey (ed). Progress in veterinary microbiology and immunology, vol. 1, S. Karger, Basel, Switzerland, 1985. 225 pp, US$98.25, ISBN 3 8055 3925 8
| null |
4,847 |
Evolution of virulence, environmental change, and the threat posed by emerging and chronic diseases
|
Assessments of future threats posed by infection have focused largely on zoonotic, acute disease, under the rubric “emerging diseases.” Evolutionary and epidemiological studies indicate, however, that particular aspects of infrastructure, such as protected water supplies, vector-proof housing, and health care facilities, protect against the emergence of zoonotic, acute infectious diseases. While attention in the global health community has focused on emerging diseases, there has been a concurrent, growing recognition that important chronic diseases, such as cancer, are often caused by infectious agents that are already widespread in human populations. For economically prosperous countries, the immediacy of this threat contrasts with their infrastructural protection from severe acute infectious disease. This reasoning leads to the conclusion that chronic infectious diseases pose a more significant threat to economically prosperous countries than zoonotic, acute infectious diseases. Research efforts directed at threats posed by infection may therefore be more effective overall if increased efforts are directed toward understanding and preventing infectious causes of chronic diseases across the spectrum of economic prosperity, as well as toward specific infrastructural improvements in less prosperous countries to protect against virulent, acute infectious diseases.
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4,848 |
Laboratory diagnosis methods for bovine respiratory syncytial virus
|
Laboratory diagnosis of bovine respiratory syncytial (BRS) virus no longer poses a problem. Clinical diagnosis, based on signs of pulmonary emphysema manifest in autumn, should be confirmed by laboratory techniques. Direct isolation of the BRS virus from field samples in cell cultures is often unsuccessful, whereas detection of the viral antigens by staining ultra-thin tissue sections with fluorescein isothiocyanate antibody conjugates is highly effective. Complement fixation and especially indirect immunofluorescence tests are still very useful for the detection of BRS specific antibodies in serum and nasal mucus.
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4,849 |
Book Reviews
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4,850 |
Screening efficient siRNAs in vitro as the candidate genes for chicken anti-avian influenza virus H5N1 breeding
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The frequent disease outbreaks caused by avian influenza virus (AIV) not only affect the poultry industry but also pose a threat to human safety. To address the problem, RNA interference (RNAi) has recently been widely used as a potential antiviral approach. Transgenesis, in combination with RNAi to specifically inhibit AIV gene expression, has been proposed to make chickens resistant to avian influenza. For the transgenic breeding, screening the efficient siRNAs in vitro as the candidate genes is one of the most important tasks. Here, we combined an online search tool and a series of bioinformatics programs with a set of rules for designing the siRNAs targeting different mRNA regions of AIV H5N1 subtype. By this method we chose five rational siRNAs, constructed five U6 promoter-driven shRNA expression plasmids contained the siRNA genes, and used these to produce stably transfected Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. Data from virus titration, IFA, PUI-stained flow cytometry, real-time quantitative RT-PCR and DAS-ELISA analyses showed that all five stably transfected cell lines were effectively resistant to viral replication when exposed to 100 CCID50 of AIV, and we finally chose the most effective plasmids (pSi-604i and pSi-1597i) as the candidates for making the transgenic chickens. These findings provide baseline information for breeding transgenic chickens resistant to AIV in combination with RNAi.
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4,851 |
The spreading frontiers of avian-human influenza described by the free boundary
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In this paper, a reaction-diffusion system is proposed to investigate avian-human influenza. Two free boundaries are introduced to describe the spreading frontiers of the avian influenza. The basic reproduction numbers r (0)(F) (t) and R (0)(F)(t) are defined for the bird with the avian influenza and for the human with the mutant avian influenza of the free boundary problem, respectively. Properties of these two time-dependent basic reproduction numbers are obtained. Sufficient conditions both for spreading and for vanishing of the avian influenza are given. It is shown that if r (0)(F) (0) < 1 and the initial number of the infected birds is small, the avian influenza vanishes in the bird world. Furthermore, if r (0)(F) (0) < 1 and R (0)(F)(0) < 1, the avian influenza vanishes in the bird and human worlds. In the case that r (0)(F) (0) < 1 and R (0)(F)(0) > 1, spreading of the mutant avian influenza in the human world is possible. It is also shown that if r (0)(F) (t (0)) ⩾ 1 for any t (0) ⩾ 0, the avian influenza spreads in the bird world.
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4,852 |
The characteristics and dynamic changes of X-ray chest film in 50 patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome
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4,853 |
The bedford-stuyvesant healthy homes initiative: A comprehensive approach to residential hazard assessment and control
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4,854 |
Effects of integrative Chinese and Western medicine on arterial oxygen saturation in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome
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Objective: To evaluate the effects of treatment of integrative Chinese and Western medicine (ICWM) on arterial oxygen saturation (SaO(2)) in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).Methods:The non-randomized, controlled trial was conducted on 447 SARS patients treated synchronously with western conventional treatment (WM group,n = 171) alone and ICWM (ICWM group,n = 276). The changes of the cases with normal level (≥95%) or abnormal level (<95%) SaO(2) were observed dynamically.Results: In the 3rd-14th day of the therapeutic course, the percentage of patients with normal SaO(2 ) in the ICWM group was higher than that in the WM group (OR = 0. 5178,P = 0.0038), and this tendency was more evident in patients of the severe type (OR = 0.18,P = 0.0001). However, the statistical significance of difference was only shown in patients for whom the ICWM treatment started in the early period after the onset (<-7 days after it, OR = 0.3803,P = 0.006), but not shown in those who received ICWM treatment later in the mid-late period of SARS (P>0.05).Conclusion: ICWM treatment, particularly when it is used for intervention in the early stage, is beneficial for maintaining normal SaO(2) in SARS patients.
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4,855 |
Identification of indoor contaminant source location by a single concentration sensor
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Methods of maximum correlation coefficient (MCC) and the minimum discrete degree (MDD) are developed to identify the location of indoor contaminant source. These two methods are simple, effective, and economic due to the need of only one sensor. The methods are validated by a three-dimensional case study. The effects of the sampling time, the sampling interval, and the sensor response time and measurement error on the location identification of the contaminant source are analyzed. The results indicate that the identification performance of the MDD method is better than that of the MCC method; however, the MDD requires a fast response and high-accuracy sensor. MCC method not only has smaller effects of response time and measurement error compared with the MDD method but it also does not require high-performance (accuracy) sensor and it is not suitable for fast identification in a short time. For source location identification, the two methods need to properly choose sampling time, sampling interval, and response time.
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4,856 |
Analysis and comparison of the tongue picture of 34 patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome
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Objective: To explore the changes of tongue pictures in the developing process of disease in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and to compare the tongue pictures of SARS patients with those of suspected SARS patients.Methods: Materials of tongue picture were dynamically collected from 34 SARS patients and 35 suspected SARS patients, and the difference and similarity between them were analyzed. Meanwhile, the changes in clinic symptoms and tongue picture after integrative medicinal treatment were observed.Results: Characteristics of tongue picture in SARS patients were changed along with the progress of the disease, showing that there existed a tendency of the pathogen invading from exterior to interior, from surface to the deep. Also the tongue pictures were varied due to the coexistence of dampness pathogen; the time of the early stage was generally 1–1.5 days, shorter than that of other stages. While in the patients with suspected SARS, the tongue picture was mostly red with thin white or yellow coating, comparatively steady and showing no obvious change along with the development of the disease.Conclusion: Observing the tongue picture and its changes in different stages can be helpful to understanding the property of pathogenic evil and its developing rules, thus offering a basis for clinical treatment.
|
4,857 |
Vignette for V13N1 issue
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4,858 |
Immune responses of a designed HIV-1 DNA vaccine on rhesus monkeys
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An effective HIV-1 vaccine will be the ultimate solution for the prevention of HIV/AIDS, though HAART plays important roles in treating the disease. In this study, a large-scale recombinant DNA plasmid containing a designed HIV-1 multi-epitope-p24 chimeric gene was prepared and purified. Rhesus monkeys were then inoculated muscularly with the plasmid for four times in week 0, 4, 8 and 18. Whole blood was collected two weeks after the third and fourth inoculation, followed by serum and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) separation. The CTL activity and proliferation of PBMCs stimulated by macaque MHC-I-restricted HIV-1 CTL epitope peptide were analyzed by MTT and LDH release assay, respectively. Th1 cytokines in supernatant of cultured PBMC stimulated by HIV-1 CTL epitope peptide and anti-HIV-1 antibody in serum were assayed by ELISA. The results showed that increased CTL target-killing activity, higher secretion of Th1 cytokines (IFN-γ and IL-2) and promoted proliferative reaction of monkey PBMCs stimulated by HIV-1 CTL epitope peptide were detected in the immunization group inoculated by the recombinant DNA vaccine for three times, which were further enhanced by the fourth inoculation. At the same time, HIV-1 specific antibody in serum of immunized monkeys was higher than that in controls. We concluded that the designed HIV-1 DNA vaccine may induce HIV-1 specific cellular and humoral immunity on monkeys.
|
4,859 |
Preparation, identification, and clinical application of anti-HBs monoclonal antibody that binds both wild-type and immune escape mutant HBsAgs
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Using a standard cellular fusion technique and indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), a hybridoma cell line strain secreting anti-HBs monoclonal antibody (mAb) (defined G6 mAb) was obtained. The cells grew and secreted mAb stably. Antibody titers in the culture supernatant and ascites were 2.048×10(6) and 4.096×10(6), respectively. By applying the anti-HBs G6 mAb and horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled goat anti-HBs antibody, we developed a sandwich ELISA (defined G6m ELISA) for detecting both wild-type and immune escape mutant HBsAgs (IEM HBsAg). The assay was performed to detect 17 species of genome recombinant expression HBsAg, including two wild-type species and 15 IEM HBsAg species, which varied in the “a” determinant, in a group of patients infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). The patients previously had a lower ELISA detection signal [(absorbance of patients/absorbance of normal people (P/N): 1.0–4.5)]. The results demonstrated that the sensitivity of this assay to wild-type HBsAg was no less than 0.125 μg/L; 12 of 15 IEM HBsAg species (P/N⩾2.5) were positive for G6 mAb. Of the positive IEM HBsAg species, two had a low absorbance value at 450 nm (A (450)), one had an intermediate A450 value and nine had a high A (450) value, which was 7.55%(mean), 59.4%and 92.1%–109.4% of the wild-type A (450) value, respectively. The two species with low A (450) value and the three negative species mutated at the bases 120–124 in the first loop of the HBV “a” determinant. Using the G6 ELISA and two commercial ELISA kits (A and B), 177 patients were tested. The G6 ELISA had a significantly higher detection rate than either commercial ELISAs (19.21% vs 14.89% and 6.21%, respectively; P<0.01, P<0.05, respectively).
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4,860 |
Stochastic dynamic model of SARS spreading
|
Based upon the simulation of the stochastic process of infection, onset and spreading of each SARS patient, a system dynamic model of SRAS spreading is constructed. Data from Vietnam is taken as an example for Monte Carlo test. The preliminary results indicate that the time-dependent infection rate is the most inportant control factor for SARS spreading. The model can be applied to prediction of the course with fluctuations of the epidemics, if the previous history of the epidemics and the future infection rate under control measures are known.
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4,861 |
Biomedical Vignette
| null |
4,862 |
Homelessness and housing
| null |
4,863 |
Construction of a CaHPO(4)-PGUS1 hybrid nanoflower through protein-inorganic self-assembly, and its application in glycyrrhetinic acid 3-O-mono-β-d-glucuronide preparation
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Glycyrrhetinic acid 3-O-mono-β-d-glucuronide (GAMG), an important pharmaceutical intermediate and functional sweetener, has broad applications in the food and medical industries. A green and cost-effective method for its preparation is highly desired. Using site-directed mutagenesis, we previously obtained a variant of β-glucuronidase from Aspergillus oryzae Li-3 (PGUS1), which can specifically transform glycyrrhizin (GL) into GAMG. In this study, a facile method was established to prepare a CaHPO(4)-PGUS1 hybrid nanoflower for enzyme immobilization, based on protein-inorganic hybrid self-assembly. Under optimal conditions, 1.2 mg of a CaHPO(4)-PGUS1 hybrid nanoflower precipitate with 71.2% immobilization efficiency, 35.60 mg·g(−1) loading capacity, and 118% relative activity was obtained. Confocal laser scanning microscope and scanning electron microscope results showed that the enzyme was encapsulated in the CaHPO(4)-PGUS1 hybrid nanoflower. Moreover, the thermostability of the CaHPO(4)-PGUS1 hybrid nanoflower at 55°C was improved, and its half-life increased by 1.3 folds. Additionally, the CaHPO(4)-PGUS1 hybrid nanoflower was used for the preparation of GAMG through GL hydrolysis, with the conversion rate of 92% in 8 h, and after eight consecutive runs, it had 60% of its original activity.
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4,864 |
Review on supermolecules as chemical drugs
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Supramolecular medicinal chemistry field has been a quite rapidly developing, increasingly active and newly rising interdiscipline which is the new expansion of supramolecular chemistry in pharmaceutical sciences, and is gradually becoming a relatively independent scientific area. Supramolecular drugs could be defined as medicinal supermolecules formed by two or more molecules through non-covalent bonds. So far a lot of supermolecules as chemical drugs have been widely used in clinics. Supermolecules as chemical drugs, i.e. supramolecular chemical drugs or supramolecular drugs, which might have the excellences of lower cost, shorter period, higher potential as clinical drugs for their successful research and development, may possess higher bioavailability, better biocompatibility and drug-targeting, fewer multidrug-resistances, lower toxicity, less adverse effect, and better curative effects as well as safety, and therefore exhibit wide potential application. These overwhelming advantages have drawn enormous special attention. This paper gives the definition of supramolecular drugs, proposes the concept of supramolecular chemical drugs, and systematically reviews the recent advances in the research and development of supermolecules, including organic and inorganic complex ones as chemical drugs in the area of antitumor, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antimalarial, antibacterial, antifungal, antivirus, anti-epileptic, cardiovascular agents and magnetic resonance imaging agents and so on. The perspectives of the foreseeable future and potential application of supramolecules as chemical drugs are also presented.
|
4,865 |
Meeting Report and Abstracts of the 2005 UC Davis Transgenic Animal Research Conference V
| null |
4,866 |
Modified Atmosphere Packaging Technology of Fresh and Fresh-cut Produce and the Microbial Consequences—A Review
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Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) technology offers the possibility to retard the respiration rate and extend the shelf life of fresh produce, and is increasingly used globally as value adding in the fresh and fresh-cut food industry. However, the outbreaks of foodborne diseases and emergence of resistant foodborne pathogens in MAP have heightened public interest on the effects of MAP technology on the survival and growth of pathogenic organisms. This paper critically reviews the effects of MAP on the microbiological safety of fresh or fresh-cut produce, including the role of innovative tools such as the use of pressurised inert/noble gases, predictive microbiology and intelligent packaging in the advancement of MAP safety. The integration of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points-based programs to ensure fresh food quality and microbial safety in packaging technology is highlighted.
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4,867 |
Recent developments in the use of transgenic plants for the production of human therapeutics and biopharmaceuticals
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In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the application of plant biotechnology for the production of a variety of commercially valuable simple and complex biological molecules (biologics) for use in human and animal healthcare. Transgenic whole plants and plant cell culture systems have been developed that have the capacity to economically produce large-scale quantities of antibodies and antibody fragments, antigens and/or vaccine epitopes, metabolic enzymes, hormones, (neuro)peptides and a variety of biologically active complexes and secondary metabolites for direct use as therapeutic agents or diagnostic tools in the medical healthcare industry. As the products of genetically modified plants make their way from concept to commercialization the associated risks and acceptance by the public has been become a focal point. In this paper, we summarize the recent advances made in the use of transgenic plants and plant cell cultures as biological factories for the production of human therapeutics and biopharmaceuticals and discuss the long-term potential of `molecular farming' as a low-cost, efficient method for the production of biological materials with demonstrated utility to the pharmaceutical industry or medical community.
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4,868 |
Molecular cloning, genomic structure, polymorphism and expression analysis of major histocompatibility complex class IIA gene of swamp eel Monopterus albus
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Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules play an important role in the immune response of vertebrates. In this paper, full-length MHC IIA cDNA was isolated from swamp eel (Monopterus albus) by rapid amplification of cDNA ends PCR. The genomic structure, molecular polymorphism, tissue distribution, and immune response of the MHC IIA gene to bacterial challenge were investigated. The full-length cDNA (GenBank accession No.: KC616308) is 1,509 bp in length including an 83 bp-long 5′ untranslated region (UTR) and a 709 bp-long 3′ UTR, which encoded a 238 amino acids protein. In the 2,339 bp-long MHC IIA genomic DNA, four exons and three introns were identified. Sequence comparison exhibited that the deduced amino acid sequence shared 27.1–66.3% identity with those of other species. Seven alleles were identified from five healthy individuals. Number of alleles per individual diversified from two to five. Five different 5′ UTR sequences and two different 3′ UTR sequences from one individual may infer the existence of five loci at least. Real-time quantitative PCR demonstrated that swamp eel MHC IIA transcripts were ubiquitously expressed in ten tissues, but the expression level was distinctly different. Significant changes were observed in liver, spleen, kidney and intestine after challenged with pathogenic bacteria Aeromonas hydrophilia.
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4,869 |
CT manifestations of lung changes and complications in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome
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Objective: To investigate the role of CT scanning in diagnosing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).Methods: One hundred and twelve times of spiral CT scanning, 106 times on the chest with standard pulmonary and mediastinal window, 5 on the brain and once on the abdomen, were performed in 82 patients (37 males and 45 females) of SARS.Results: Bilateral shadows showed in 66 patients (80.48%) and unilateral shadow in 16 (19.52%). The lung CT findings were sub-pleural focal consolidation in 26 patients (31.70%), flaky cloudy opacity in 53 (64.63%), large area consolidation in 9 (10.97%), ground-glass blurry shadow in 31 (37.80%), alveolar substantive shadow in 14 (17.07%) and interstitial changes in 16 (19.51%). The pulmonary CT signs of SARS were relatively characterized by: (1) The lesions tending to multiply occur, mostly to be bilaterally distributed and commonly involved in the lower lung field. (2) The lung shadows mostly showed as sub-pleural focal consolidation, flaky cloudy shadow, large area consolidation, ground-glass blurry shadow, and often accompanied with signs of broncho-inflation. (3) Having opacified nodular shadows in the alveolar cavities. (4) Rapid progressions or changes on the size, amount, and distribution of the lesions likely to be found in dynamic observation of chest X-ray and CT scanning, i.e., markedly dynamic changes found within 24 to 48 hrs. Lesions with these characteristics may be recognized as pulmonary changes possibly induced by SARS. Complications were found in 6 patients (7.31%), including tuberculosis of lung and brain accompanied with pneumomediastinum in one patient, secondary infection of lung in 2, pneumothorax in 1, pulmonary fungus in 1, and pyothorax in 1.Conclusion: CT scanning is a sensitive method for diagnosis of SARS, by which more accurate assessment of the abnormal changes of lung and occurrence of complications in SARS patients can be made.
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4,870 |
Effect of acupuncture on uncoupling protein 1 gene expression for brown adipose tissue of obese rats
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Objective; To explore the effects of acupuncture on the expression of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP(1)) gene of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in obese rats.Methods: The expression of UCP(1) gene of BAT was determined with RT-PCR technique. The changes of body weight, Lee’s index, body fat, and the expression of UCP(1) gene of BAT in obese rats were observed before and after acupuncture.Results: The body weight, Lee’s index, body fat in obese rats were all markedly higher than those in normal rats, but the expression of UCP(1) gene of BAT in obese rats was all lower than that in normal rats. There were negative correlation between the obesity index and the expression of UCP(1) gene in BAT. After acupuncture the marked effect of weight loss was achieved while the expression of UCP(1) gene of BAT obviously increased in obese rats.Conclusion: The abnormal reduction for expression of UCP(1) gene of BAT might be an important cause for the obesity. To promote the expression of UCP(1) in obese organism might be an important cellular and molecular mechanism in anti-obesity effect by acupuncture.
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4,871 |
Therapeutic effects of integrated traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in treating severe acute respiratory syndrome
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Objective: To improve the effects of treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and to explore the clinical significance of integrated traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine (ICWM) in the treatment of SARS and its influence on the chief indexes in the process of the disease.Methods: The clinical study involving observation of 135 patients of SARS was conducted in the randomized, synchronously controlled and open way. The patients were divided into two groups, 68 in the ICWM group and 67 in the control group, all of whom were treated with the same basic treatment of western medicine, but to the ICWM group, Chinese drugs for clearing Heat, detoxifying and removing Dampness were given additionally. The comprehensive effect on relieving fever, cell-mediated immunity, pulmonary inflammation and secondary infection was compared between the two groups.Results: The therapeutic effect in the ICWM group was better than that in the control group in such aspects as steadily lowering body temperature, alleviating general symptoms, accelerating the absorption of pulmonary infiltration and easing cellular immunity suppression.Conclusion: The therapeutic effect of ICWM is better in treating SARS than that of western medicine alone.
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4,872 |
Dynamics of a novel nonlinear SIR model with double epidemic hypothesis and impulsive effects
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In this paper, the propagation of a nonlinear delay SIR epidemic using the double epidemic hypothesis is modeled. In the model, a system of impulsive functional differential equations is studied and the sufficient conditions for the global attractivity of the semi-trivial periodic solution are drawn. By use of new computational techniques for impulsive differential equations with delay, we prove that the system is permanent under appropriate conditions. The results show that time delay, pulse vaccination, and nonlinear incidence have significant effects on the dynamics behaviors of the model. The conditions for the control of the infection caused by viruses A and B are given.
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4,873 |
Exploration on the effect and mechanism of Shenfu injection on resuscitation from general anesthesia
| null |
4,874 |
Effect of water deficit on biomass production and accumulation of secondary metabolites in roots of Glycyrrhiza uralensis
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Two-year-old seedlings of licorice plant (Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch) were exposed to three degrees of water deficit, namely weak (60–70%), moderate (40–50%), and strong (20–30%) relative water content in soil, whereas control plants were grown in soil with 80–90% water content. Moderate and strong water deficit decreased the net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and biomass production. Water use efficiency and the root-to-shoot ratio increased significantly in response to water deficit, indicating a high tolerance to drought. Weak water deficit did not decrease root biomass production, but significantly increased the production of glycyrrhizic acid (by 89%) and liquiritin (by 125%) in the roots. Therefore, a weak water deficit can increase the yield of root medical compounds without negative effect on root growth.
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4,875 |
State of research in the field of the creation of plant vaccines for veterinary use
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Transgenic plants as an alternative of costly systems of recombinant immunogenic protein expression are the source for the production of cheap and highly efficient biotherapeuticals of new generation, including plant vaccines. In the present review, possibilities of plant system application for the production of recombinant proteins for veterinary use are considered, the history of the “edible vaccine” concept is briefly summarized, advantages and disadvantages of various plant systems for the expression of recombinant immunogenic proteins are discussed. The list of recombinant plant vaccines for veterinary use, which are at different stages of clinical trials, is presented.
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4,876 |
Structure and function of the signal recognition particle (SRP)
| null |
4,877 |
The 20th Conference of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver Poster Presentation
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4,878 |
Application of building simulation tools for studying airborne infection and its control
| null |
4,879 |
Control of Viral Contamination of Food and Environment
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Viruses are often transmitted via food and the environment. Contamination may be controlled either by preventing its occurrence or by inactivating the contaminating virus. The majority of agents transmitted in this way are human enteric viruses, produced either in the intestines or the liver. They are shed in human feces (noroviruses also in vomitus) in a broad range of circumstances, and they are relatively stable outside the host. Non-enteric viruses are less often transmitted via foods and are generally less environmentally stable. Insofar as vaccines are available, they are able to prevent fecal shedding. Viruses shed in feces via the water-carriage toilet may be eliminated by proper treatment and disinfection of the wastewater. In the foods context, the most effective antiviral measures are cooking and hand washing. Detection methods are most useful after the fact, in investigating outbreaks and devising preventive measures.
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4,880 |
Immune responses and histopathological changes in rabbits immunized with inactivated SARS coronavirus
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To evaluate the immunogenicity of inactivated SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), three groups of rabbits were immunized three times at 2-week intervals with inactivated vaccine + adjuvant, adjuvant, and normal saline respectively. Eight batchs of serum were sampled from the auricular vein at day 7 to day 51, and specific IgG antibody titers and neutralizing antibody titers were detected by indirect ELISA and micro-cytopathic effect neutralizing test. Antibody specificity was identified by proteinchip assay. Histopathological changes were detected by H&E staining. The results showed that, rabbits in the experimental group immunized with inactivated SARS-CoV all generated specific IgG antibodies with neutralizing activity, which suggested the inactivated SARS-CoV could preserve its antigenicity well and elicit an effective humoral immune responses. The peak titer value of specific IgG antibody and neutralizing antibody reached 1:40960 and 1:2560 respectively. In the experimental group, no obvious histopathological changes was detected in the H&E stained slides of heart, spleen, kidney and testis samples, but the livers had slight histopathological changes, and the lungs presented remarkable histopathological changes. These findings are of importance for SARS-CoV inactivated vaccine development.
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4,881 |
Modeling transient particle transport by fast fluid dynamics with the Markov chain method
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Fast simulation tools for the prediction of transient particle transport are critical in designing the air distribution indoors to reduce the exposure to indoor particles and associated health risks. This investigation proposed a combined fast fluid dynamics (FFD) and Markov chain model for fast predicting transient particle transport indoors. The solver for FFD-Markov-chain model was programmed in OpenFOAM, an open-source CFD toolbox. This study used two cases from the literature to validate the developed model and found well agreement between the transient particle concentrations predicted by the FFD-Markov-chain model and the experimental data. This investigation further compared the FFD-Markov-chain model with the CFD-Eulerian model and CFD-Lagrangian model in terms of accuracy and efficiency. The accuracy of the FFD-Markov-chain model was similar to that of the other two models. For the two studied cases, the FFD-Markovchain model was 4.7 and 6.8 times faster, respectively, than the CFD-Eulerian model, and it was 137.4 and 53.3 times faster than the CFD-Lagrangian model in predicting the steady-state airflow and transient particle transport. Therefore, the FFD-Markov-chain model is able to greatly reduce the computing cost for predicting transient particle transport in indoor environments.
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4,882 |
Trends and Perspectives of Biosensors for Food and Environmental Virology
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Food and environmental virology has become a very important and interesting area of research because of food safety and public health concerns. During the last few decades, increasing foodborne diseases and environmental generated illnesses are considered to be highly challenging issues. Biosensor technology holds great promise for the healthcare market, and the security sector. Similar to clinical diagnostic tools, biosensors are being developed for the rapid, reliable, yet inexpensive identification and enumeration of pathogenic viruses which are adulterating environment, food and feed commodities. In this modern era, bio-and nano-technologies play a pivotal role in virological diagnostics of food industry, environmental and veterinary samples. This review covers the recent advances and future prospects of nanotechnology-based bioanalytical microsystems for food and environmental virology.
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4,883 |
Minimum Infective Dose of the Major Human Respiratory and Enteric Viruses Transmitted Through Food and the Environment
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Viruses are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. Determining the minimum dose of virus particles that can initiate infection, termed the minimum infective dose (MID), is important for the development of risk assessment models in the fields of food and water treatment and the implementation of appropriate infection control strategies in healthcare settings. Both respiratory and enteric viruses can be shed at high titers from infected individuals even when the infection is asymptomatic. Presence of pre-existing antibodies has been shown to affect the infectious dose and to be protective against reinfection for many, but not all viruses. Most respiratory viruses appear to be as infective in humans as in tissue culture. Doses of <1 TCID(50) of influenza virus, rhinovirus, and adenovirus were reported to infect 50% of the tested population. Similarly, low doses of the enteric viruses, norovirus, rotavirus, echovirus, poliovirus, and hepatitis A virus, caused infection in at least some of the volunteers tested. A number of factors may influence viruses’ infectivity in experimentally infected human volunteers. These include host and pathogen factors as well as the experimental methodology. As a result, the reported infective doses of human viruses have to be interpreted with caution.
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4,884 |
Molecular epidemiology and sequencing of the G-L intergenic region of rabies viruses isolated in China
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A group of 25 rabies viruses (RABVs), recovered from 24 dogs and one human case, were collected from various areas in China between 2004 and 2006. Genetic and phylogenetic analyses of the G-L intergenic region were carried out in 25 street RABV isolates and CTN vaccine strains of 7 generations. The study was based on the comparison of a 519 bp nucleotide sequence, encompassing the G-L intergenic region. The nucleotide sequence homologies of Chinese street strains were from 95.5% to 100%. The phylogenetic analysis showed that all Chinese isolates clearly supported the placement of all Chinese viruses in Lyssavirus genotype 1 and they were distributed according to their geographical origins. All of the Chinese strains were closely related but they could still be divided into two groups: group of street strains and group of CTN strains. This study presents details about the molecular epidemiology of rabies viruses based on the sequences of the G-L Intergenic region.
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4,885 |
Killing two birds with one stone: How do Plant Viruses Break Down Plant Defenses and Manipulate Cellular Processes to Replicate Themselves?
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As simple organisms with a parasite nature, viruses have become masters in manipulating and subvert cellular components, including host proteins and organelles, to improve viral replication. Therefore, the understanding of viral strategies to manipulate cell function disrupting plant defenses and enhancing viral infection cycles is fundamental to the production of virus-resistant plant lines. After invading susceptible plants, viruses create conditions that favor local and systemic infections by suppressing multiple layers of innate host defenses while use cellular machinery to own benefit. Viral interference in interlinked essential cellular functions results in phenotypic changes and disease symptoms, which debilitates plants favoring infection establishment. Herein in this review, the novelty it will be the discussion about the strategies used by (+) single strand RNA viruses to affect cellular processes and components to improve viral replication, in parallel to overcome plant defenses, favoring disease establishment by applying in one action using the same viral protein to coordinate viral replication and breaking down plant defense. This focus on plant-virus interaction was never done before, and this knowledge has the potential to help in the development of new strategies to produce resistant plants.
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4,886 |
Abstractbook of the Joint Conference 2017 of the DGHM & VAAM: Microbiology and Infection
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4,887 |
P19 of tomato bushy stunt virus suppresses RNA silencing induced by short hairpin RNA in mammal cells
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To counteract the immune system in parasitic hosts, some viruses encode proteins to suppress the RNA interference (RNAi) effect. In this report, we established two RNAi systems to be easily observed with strong and obvious effect. The function of the P19 of tomato bushy stunt virus, which suppresses RNAi in mammal cells, was then studied using these two systems. Short hairpin RNAs targeting green fluorescence protein (pshRNA-GFP) and firefly luciferase (pshRNA-luc) were designed and inserted into a eukaryotic transcriptional vector pTZU6+1, respectively. The shRNA expressing vectors were co-transfected with plasmids containing the target gene with or without P19. The GFP expression level was assayed by fluorescence microscopy, Western blotting and RT-PCR. The luciferase expression level was analyzed by the dual-luciferase assay system. pshRNA designed in this study down-regulated the target gene specifically and efficiently, with a decrease of expression of both genes of about 70%, respectively. When P19 was introduced into the RNAi systems, the expression of both GFP and the luciferase were mostly recovered compared with the control groups. The RNAi systems of GFP and luciferase were constructed successfully, demonstrating that P19 of tomato bushy stunt virus has the ability to counteract the RNAi effect induced by shRNA in mammal cells.
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4,888 |
The influence of envelope features on interunit dispersion around a naturally ventilated multi-story building
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This study examines the influence of building envelope features on interunit dispersion around multi-story buildings, when the presence of an upstream interfering building is also considered. Validated CFD methods in the steady-state RANS framework are employed. In general, the reentry ratios of pollutant from a source unit to adjacent units are mostly in the order of 0.1%, but there are still many cases being in the order of 1%. The influence of envelope features is dependent strongly on the interaction between local wind direction and envelope feature. In a downward dominated near-facade flow field, the presence of vertical envelope features forms dispersion channels to intensify the unidirectional spread. Horizontal envelope features help induce the dilution of pollutant to the main stream and weakens largely the vertical interunit dispersion. The large influences caused by the presence of envelope features extend the existing understanding of interunit dispersion based on flat-facade buildings.
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4,889 |
An improved culture system for virus isolation and detection
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Cell culture plays an important role in virology. It provides a platform for the detection and isolation of viruses as well as for the biochemistry and molecular biology based studies of viruses. In the present work, a new system that could permits multiple (different) cell lines to be simultaneously cultured in one dish was developed. In the system, each cell line was cultured in an isolated zone in the same dish or well and the system is therefore called an isolated co-culture system. The usefulness of this novel approach for virus isolation was demonstrated using a model system based on adenovirus.
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4,890 |
Research proposals on diarrhoeal diseases
| null |
4,891 |
Temperature sensing using red fluorescent protein
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Genetically encoded fluorescent proteins are extensively utilized for labeling and imaging proteins, organelles, cell tissues, and whole organisms. In this study, we explored the feasibility of mRFP1 and its variants for measuring intracellular temperature. A linear relationship was observed between the temperature and fluorescence intensity of mRFP1 and its variants. Temperature sensitivities of E. coli expressing mRFP1, mRFP-P63A and mRFP-P63A[(4R)-FP] were −1.27%, −1.26% and −0.77%/°C, respectively. Finally, we demonstrated the potentiality of mRFP1 and its variants as an in vivo temperature sensor.
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4,892 |
Indirect Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay based on the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-like coronaviruses
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The nucleocapsid protein (N) is a major structural protein of coronaviruses. The N protein of bat SARS-like coronavirus (SL-CoV) has a high similarity with that of SARS-CoV. In this study, the SL-CoV N protein was expressed in Escherichia coli, purified and used as antigen. An Indirect Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (indirect ELISA) was developed for detection of SARS- or SL-CoV infections in bat populations. The detection of 573 bat sera with this indirect ELISA demonstrated that SL-CoVs consistently circulate in Rhinilophus species, further supporting the proposal that bats are natural reservoirs of SL-CoVs. This method uses 1–2 μl of serum sample and can be used for preliminary screening of infections by SARS- or SL-CoV with a small amount of serum sample.
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4,893 |
Air infiltration induced inter-unit dispersion and infectious risk assessment in a high-rise residential building
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Identifying possible airborne transmission routes and assessing the associated infectious risks are essential for implementing effective control measures. This study focuses on the infiltration-induced inter-unit pollutant dispersion in a high-rise residential (HRR) building. The outdoor wind pressure distribution on the building facades was obtained from the wind tunnel experiments. And the inter-household infiltration and tracer gas transmission were simulated using multi-zone model. The risk levels along building height and under different wind directions were examined, and influence of component leakage area was analysed. It is found that, the cross-infection risk can be over 20% because of the low air infiltration rate below 0.7 ACH, which is significantly higher than the risk of 9% obtained in our previous on-site measurement with air change rate over 3 ACH. As the air infiltration rate increases along building height, cross-infection risk is generally higher on the lower floors. The effect of wind direction on inter-unit dispersion level is significant, and the presence of a contaminant source in the windward side results in the highest cross-infection risks in other adjacent units on the same floor. Properly improving internal components tightness and increasing air change via external components are beneficial to the control of internal inter-unit transmission induced by infiltration. However, this approach may increase the cross-infection via the external transmission, and effective control measures should be further explored considering multiple transmission routes.
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4,894 |
Biological effects of HBV X protein on hepatocellular carcinogenesis in association with cellular factors
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The X protein (HBx) of Human hepatitis B virus (HBV) acts as an indirect transcriptional transactivator to regulate the expression of many viral and cellular genes, as well as playing a critical role in pathogenesis and the development of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here we described the biological effects of HBx in association with four cellular factors, including inflammatory factors (COX-2 and iNOS), oncoprotein (Ras), and a newly identified tumor suppressor (YueF). The characteristics of these effectors, which might be associated with hepatocellular carcinoma, are also discussed.
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4,895 |
Anti-cariogenic Characteristics of Rubusoside
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Streptococcus mutans plays an important role in the development of dental caries in humans by synthesizing adhesive insoluble glucans from sucrose by mutansucrase activity. To explore the anti-cariogenic characteristics of rubusoside (Ru), a natural sweetener component in Rubus suavissimus S. Lee (Rosaceae), we investigated the inhibitory effect of Ru against the activity of mutansucrase and the growth of Streptococcus mutans. Ru (50 mM) showed 97% inhibitory activity against 0.1 U/mL mutansucrase of S. mutans with 500 mM sucrose. It showed competitive inhibition with a K(i) value of 1.1 ± 0.2 mM and IC(50) of 2.3 mM. Its inhibition activity was due to hydrophobic and hydrogen bonding interactions based on molecular docking analysis. Ru inhibited the growth of S. mutans as a bacteriostatic agent, with MIC and MBC values of 6 mM and 8 mM, respectively. In addition, Ru showed synergistic anti-bacterial activity when it was combined with curcumin. Therefore, Ru is a natural anti-cariogenic agent with anti-mutansucrase activity and antimicrobial activity against S. mutans. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL (ESM): The online version of this article (doi: 10.1007/s12257-018-0408-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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4,896 |
Book reviews
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4,897 |
The functional motif of SARS-CoV S protein involved in the interaction with ACE2
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SARS-CoV is a newly discovery pathogen causing severe acute respiratory problems. It has been established that the S protein in this pathogen plays an important rule in the adsorption and penetration of SARS-CoV into the host cell by interaction with the ACE2 receptor. To determinant which functional motif of the S protein was involved in the interaction with ACE2, seven truncated S proteins deleted from the N or C terminal were obtained by an E.coli expression system and purified by column chromatography to homogeneity. Each truncated S protein was fixed on to the well of an ELISA plate and an interaction was initiated with the ACE2 protein. The adsorption were quantified by ELISA, and the results indicated that amino acids from 388 to 496 of the S protein was responsible for the interaction with the ACE2 receptor, and the interaction could be completely disrupted by an antibody specific to these amino acids. Deletions adjacent to this domain did not appear to have a significant impact on the interaction with ACE2, suggesting that the S protein of SARS-CoV could be developed as a vaccine to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV.
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4,898 |
Evaluation of sensitivities and specificities of SARS-CoV detection by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR assays
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The etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was identified as a new coronavirus, termed SARS-CoV. Establishment of an efficient and sensitive diagnostic system of SARS-CoV genetic materials is crucial for SARS control. In this study, we quantified SARS-CoV mRNAs in both infected cell culture lysate and in supernatant by using Real-time quantitative revere transcription-PCR based on EvaGreen™ dye and Taqman-MGB probes. For extensive evaluation of sensitivities and specificities, 13 pairs of primers and 4 probes were designed based on different genes of SARS-CoV. Glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was selected as the internal control gene. Results showed that S-gene-specific PCR was the most sensitive for detection, but because of its sequence variability in the different viral strains, primers and a probe based on the N gene were suitable substitutions. Meanwhile, we found the mRNA concentrations in cell culture lysates were much higher than in cell supernatant and facilited more sensitive detection of the SARS-CoV.
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4,899 |
Simultaneous extraction and separation of liquiritin, glycyrrhizic acid, and glabridin from licorice root with analytical and preparative chromatography
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Simultaneous extraction and separation of liquiritin, glycyrrhizic acid, and glabridin from licorice were developed by liquidliquid extraction with liquid chromatography separation. By utilizing different extraction solvents, procedures, and times, the optimum extraction conditions were established. The extracts of licorice were separated and determined using a C(18) column with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-water (containing 1.0% acetic acid) with a gradient elution of 0∼10 min from 20:80 to 60:40 (v/v). Preparative columns with different packing sizes were investigated to isolate the three compounds from the extracts of licorice. The 12 μm chromatographic column showed better separation for the three compounds from licorice. 0.29 mg/g for liquiritin, 1.43 mg/g for glycyrrhizic acid, and 0.07 mg/g for glabridin were obtained and the recoveries were 80.8, 89.7, and 72.5%, respectively.
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