scholarly journals Sporadic and Severe Lower Respiratory Illness-related Human Adenovirus Type 21 Infection in Southern China

Author(s):  
Wenkuan Liu ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
Yong Cai ◽  
Dehui Chen ◽  
Shuyan Qiu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Human adenovirus type 21 (HAdV-21) is an important member of HAdV species B, but our understanding of this type is limited. Methods: We screened HAdV and 17 other common respiratory pathogens for 1,704 pediatric patients (≤14 years old) hospitalized with acute respiratory illness in Guangzhou, China in 2019. HAdV-21 infections were further confirmed by molecular typing from HAdV-positive patients, and their clinical manifestations, genomes, infectivity and pathogenicity in vitro were analyzed.Results: 151 of 1,704 cases (8.9%) were positive for HAdV, making it the third most frequently detected pathogen. Two sporadic HAdV-21 infections were identified in June and September. Both HAdV-21-positive patients presented with severe lower respiratory illness and had similar initial symptoms at onset of illness. The genome structure of HAdV-21 was found to be similar to that of other members of HAdV species B. The phylogenetic analysis showed that it was closely related to HAdV-B21 strain BB/201903 (MN686206) isolated in Bengbu, China in 2019, suggesting the possibility of the same source, and attention need to be paid to its prevention and control. In vitro, the infectivity and pathogenicity of HAdV-21 were lower than the main epidemic types 7 and 3. Plaques formed by HAdV-21, -7, and -3 were significantly different in shape and size (p < 0.05), with plaques formed by HAdV-21 being the smallest and with poorly defined edges. There was no significant difference between the plaques of the HAdV-21 isolates (p > 0.05). Conclusions: This study provides an important reference for the in-depth understanding of the epidemiology and pathogenicity of HAdV-21, and suggests the necessity of HAdV-21 research, prevention and control.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Cheng ◽  
Zeyi Liu ◽  
Guangquan Cheng ◽  
Jincai Huang

AbstractBeginning on December 31, 2019, the large-scale novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in China. Tracking and analysing the heterogeneity and effectiveness of cities’ prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic is essential to design and adjust epidemic prevention and control measures. The number of newly confirmed cases in 25 of China’s most-affected cities for the COVID-19 epidemic from January 11 to February 10 was collected. The heterogeneity and effectiveness of these 25 cities’ prevention and control measures for COVID-19 were analysed by using an estimated time-varying reproduction number method and a serial correlation method. The results showed that the effective reproduction number (R) in 25 cities showed a downward trend overall, but there was a significant difference in the R change trends among cities, indicating that there was heterogeneity in the spread and control of COVID-19 in cities. Moreover, the COVID-19 control in 21 of 25 cities was effective, and the risk of infection decreased because their R had dropped below 1 by February 10, 2020. In contrast, the cities of Wuhan, Tianmen, Ezhou and Enshi still had difficulty effectively controlling the COVID-19 epidemic in a short period of time because their R was greater than 1.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1483
Author(s):  
Emily A. Bates ◽  
John R. Counsell ◽  
Sophie Alizert ◽  
Alexander T. Baker ◽  
Natalie Suff ◽  
...  

The human adenovirus phylogenetic tree is split across seven species (A–G). Species D adenoviruses offer potential advantages for gene therapy applications, with low rates of pre-existing immunity detected across screened populations. However, many aspects of the basic virology of species D—such as their cellular tropism, receptor usage, and in vivo biodistribution profile—remain unknown. Here, we have characterized human adenovirus type 49 (HAdV-D49)—a relatively understudied species D member. We report that HAdV-D49 does not appear to use a single pathway to gain cell entry, but appears able to interact with various surface molecules for entry. As such, HAdV-D49 can transduce a broad range of cell types in vitro, with variable engagement of blood coagulation FX. Interestingly, when comparing in vivo biodistribution to adenovirus type 5, HAdV-D49 vectors show reduced liver targeting, whilst maintaining transduction of lung and spleen. Overall, this presents HAdV-D49 as a robust viral vector platform for ex vivo manipulation of human cells, and for in vivo applications where the therapeutic goal is to target the lung or gain access to immune cells in the spleen, whilst avoiding liver interactions, such as intravascular vaccine applications.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shixiao Dong ◽  
Deyu Huang ◽  
Zheng Wang ◽  
Guanyou Zhang ◽  
Fengjuan Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Rotavirus was the an important causative agent of acute gastroenteritis in children. In China, rotavirus was positive in approximately 30% of the diarrhea children and become a serious public problem. This study was carried out to investigate the clinical and molecular epidemic characterization of rotavirus infection among children under 5 years old with acute diarrhea in Shandong province, China. From July 2017 to June 2018, a total of 1211 fecal specimens were detected and the prevalence of rotavirus infection was 32.12%. The mean age of positive children was 12.2 ± 10.9 months and the highest infection rate was observed in children aged 7–12 months with a rate of 41.64%. G9P[8] (76.61%) was the most prevalent combinations followed by G2P[4] (7.20%), G3P[8] (3.60%) and G9P[4] (2.06%). In addition to diarrhea, vomiting, fever and dehydration were the most common accompanied symptoms. In general, there was no significant difference in clinical manifestations among different age groups. However, the clinical manifestations between vaccinated and unvaccinated children were significantly different. Vaccinated children showed lower incidence and frequency of vomiting, lower incidence and degree of dehydration, lower incidence of severe cases than unvaccinated children. The findings suggested necessary to continue rotavirus strains surveillance in order to monitor the change of prevalent genotype. Moreover, introducing vaccine into national immunization program to prevent and control rotavirus infections is needed in China.


2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (05) ◽  
pp. 356-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. L. Wendelburg ◽  
S. Tepic ◽  
S. M. Stover ◽  
T. Garcia-Nolen ◽  
P. B. Stearns ◽  
...  

SummaryElbow dysplasia, primarily affecting the medial compartment, is the most common cause of lameness in the thoracic limb. Elbow arthroplasty is an option for end stage or severely affected patients. The purpose of this study was to compare ex vivo axial load to failure of an implanted novel elbow arthroplasty system to control limbs. The partial arthroplasty is a medial compartmental, unconstrained system, intended to allow conversion to total arthroplasty. We hypothesized that there would not be any significant difference between implanted and controlled limbs when loaded to failure. Six pairs of medium mixed breed canine cadaveric thoracic limbs were prepared for comparison of failure loading of control and implanted limbs. Axial compression was performed using a mechanical testing system. Failure loads were normalized to bodyweight. The mean normalized failure load (N/kg) for the implanted limbs and control limbs were 2.47 (range: 1.62-3.38) and 2.68 (range: 2.25-3.25), respectively. An implanted to control ratio of 0.93 ± 0.19 was calculated. The difference between paired control and implanted limbs in normalized failure loading was not significant (p = 0.38). There were not any differences noted in the yield load (p = 0.30), stiffness (p = 0.62), or energy (0.58). Failure modes were recorded. We concluded that the differences between implanted and control limbs in supra-physiologic axial load to failure were not significant.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahboobeh Rasoulzadeh Bidgoli ◽  
robab latifnejad roudsari ◽  
ali montazeri

Abstract Background: Infertility is an emotional tension which influences the whole aspects of relationships in infertile couples. A main objective of infertility treatments is elevation of pregnancy rate. The present study aimed to examine the effect of collaborative counseling on pregnancy rate in infertile women, undergoing in vitro fertilization in Mashhad, Iran. Methods: In this clinical trial, 60 women with primary infertility were selected from an infertility research center and were randomly allocated into intervention (n=29) and control (n=31) groups. The intervention group received individual counseling, based on the collaborative reproductive healthcare model with collaboration of a midwife, a gynecologist and a clinical psychologist in five sessions during a two-month period. The control group received routine care. Positive pregnancy test was considered as a criterion of treatment success at the end of the study. Data were analyzed using statistical tests including independent samples t-test. Results: There was no significant difference in pregnancy rate between intervention and control groups (P = 0.298). Also, there were no significant differences in follicle and embryo numbers between two groups. However, a significant difference was observed between two groups in terms of oocyte numbers where the intervention group had more oocyte (P = 0.014). Conclusion: Overall the findings indicated that the collaborative infertility counseling did not improve treatment success in infertile women undergoing in vitro fertilization


Author(s):  
Jennifer Bautista-Gogel ◽  
Clifford M Madsen ◽  
Xiaoyan Lu ◽  
Senthilkumar K Sakthivel ◽  
Irma Froh ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhong Sun ◽  
Guozhong He ◽  
Ninghao Huang ◽  
Hongyu Chen ◽  
Shuwei Zhang ◽  
...  

Background: COVID-19 developed into a global pandemic in 2020 and poses challenges regarding the prevention and control capabilities of countries. A large number of inbound travelers from other regions could lead to a renewed outbreak of COVID-19 in the local regions. Globally, as a result of the imbalance in the control of the epidemic, all countries are facing the risk of a renewed COVID-19 outbreak brought about by travelers from epidemic areas. Therefore, studies on a proper management of the inbound travelers are urgent.Methods: We collected a total of 4,733,414 inbound travelers and 174 COVID-19 diagnosed patients in Yunnan province from 21 January 2020 to 20 February 2020. Data on place of origin, travel history, age, and gender, as well as whether they had suspected clinical manifestations for inbound travelers in Yunnan were collected. The impact of inbound travelers on the local epidemic was analyzed with a collinear statistical analysis and the effect of the control measures on the epidemic was evaluated with a sophisticated modeling approach.Results: Of the 174 COVID-19 patients, 60.9% were not from Yunnan, and 76.4% had a history of travel in Hubei. The amount of new daily cases in Yunnan was significant correlated with the number of inbound travelers from Hubei and suspected cases among them. Using Susceptible–Exposed–Infectious–Recovered (SEIR) model analysis, we found that the prevention and control measures dropped the local R0 down to 1.07 in Yunnan province.Conclusions: Our preliminary analysis showed that the proper management of inbound travelers from outbreak areas has a significantly positive effect on the prevention and control of the virus. In the process of resettlement, some effective measures taken by Yunnan province may provide an important reference for preventing the renewed COVID-19 outbreak in other regions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong Wang ◽  
Min Wang ◽  
Qingwen Zhang ◽  
Shiyang Cao ◽  
Xiang Li ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTMany genes in the bacterial pathogenYersinia pestis, the causative agent of three plague pandemics, remain uncharacterized, greatly hampering the development of measures for plague prevention and control. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat interference (CRISPRi) has been shown to be an effective tool for gene knockdown in model bacteria. In this system, a catalytically dead Cas9 (dCas9) and a small guide RNA (sgRNA) form a complex, binding to the specific DNA target through base pairing, thereby impeding RNA polymerase binding and causing target gene repression. Here, we introduce an optimized CRISPRi system usingStreptococcus pyogenesCas9-derived dCas9 for gene knockdown inY. pestis. Multiple genes harbored on either the chromosome or plasmids ofY. pestiswere efficiently knocked down (up to 380-fold) in a strictly anhydrotetracycline-inducible manner using this CRISPRi approach. Knockdown ofhmsH(responsible for biofilm formation) orcspB(encoding a cold shock protein) resulted in greatly decreased biofilm formation or impaired cold tolerance inin vitrophenotypic assays. Furthermore, silencing of the virulence-associated genesyscBorailusing this CRISPRi system resulted in attenuation of virulence in HeLa cells and mice similar to that previously reported foryscBandailnull mutants. Taken together, our results confirm that this optimized CRISPRi system can reversibly and efficiently repress the expression of target genes inY. pestis, providing an alternative to conventional gene knockdown techniques, as well as a strategy for high-throughput phenotypic screening ofY. pestisgenes with unknown functions.IMPORTANCEYersiniapestisis a lethal pathogen responsible for millions of human deaths in history. It has also attracted much attention for potential uses as a bioweapon or bioterrorism agent, against which new vaccines are desperately needed. However, manyY. pestisgenes remain uncharacterized, greatly hampering the development of measures for plague prevention and control. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat interference (CRISPRi) has been successfully used in a variety of bacteria in functional genomic studies, but no such genetic tool has been reported inY. pestis. Here, we systematically optimized the CRISPRi approach for use inY. pestis, which ultimately repressed target gene expression with high efficiency in a reversible manner. Knockdown of functional genes using this method produced phenotypes that were readily detected byin vitroassays, cell infection assays, and mouse infection experiments. This is a report of a CRISPRi approach inY. pestisand highlights the potential use of this approach in high-throughput functional genomics studies of this pathogen.


Author(s):  
A M A Hammouda ◽  
G E Mady

The measurement of carbamylated haemoglobin is a useful indicator of uraemic state during the preceding few weeks in patients with renal failure. In diabetic uraemic patients with hyperglycaemia, glycation of haemoglobin may interfere with its carbamylation, as both reactions involve the free amino groups of the protein. The aim of this study was to investigate the carbamylation of haemoglobin in the presence of hyperglycaemia. The study included 29 patients with chronic renal failure on regular haemodialysis, 14 diabetic and 15 non-diabetic patients, and 10 healthy controls. We found a significant correlation between the degree of haemoglobin carbamylation and mean blood urea concentration in both uraemic and control subjects. Carbamylation of haemoglobin was higher in both diabetic and non-diabetic chronic renal failure patients, but there were no significant differences between the groups regarding mean blood urea concentration or level of haemoglobin carbamylation. Carbamylated haemoglobin per unit of blood urea concentration was lower in the diabetic patients. Using a correction formula to account for the degree of haemoglobin glycation, there was no longer a significant difference in carbamylation per unit of blood urea concentration. In vitro incubation of red blood cells from six healthy and six diabetic non-uraemic patients in 70mmol/L urea showed a significantly lower carbamylation in the diabetic patients, but there was no significant difference when using corrected carbamylated haemoglobin values. We conclude that glycation of haemoglobin affects its carbamylation and that monitoring of uraemia in a diabetic patient necessitates the use of carbamylated haemoglobin value corrected for the degree of glycation.


1983 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Warnhoff ◽  
Gunter Dorsch ◽  
Karl M. Pirke

Abstract. A perfusion system was developed in which isolated median eminences (ME) were stimulated in vitro by depolarizing agents such as potassium and veratridine. Potassium concentrations between 30 and 80 mm released increasing amounts of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LRH) from the MEs of starved and control rats. Veratridine at a concentration of 50 μm caused a more prolonged LRH release in both starved and control animals. LRH secretion in vitro was slightly, though not under all conditions, significantly greater in rats starved for 5 days. The testosterone (T)-LH feedback was studied by castrating the animals and substituting various doses of T through implantation of T-releasing capsules of different sizes. The concentration in plasma, which can prevent the castration-induced much smaller in starved than in control rats. The in vitro release of LRH evoked by 80 mm potassium was not different for starved and fed rats under various feedback conditions. Both groups revealed decreased in vitro release of LRH when castrated animals were not substituted with T. The effect of castration was studied from 1 to 28 days. The plasma LH values rapidly increased in starved and control animals, indicating that the hypothalamic responsestration is not delayed by starvation. The release in vitro of LRH decreased from the first to the fifth day and remained constant thereafter. No significant difference between starved and fed rats was observed. The experiments indicate that the 'releasable pool' of LRH in vitro is greater under conditions of reduced LH release in vivo. The basic mechanism of depolarization-induced exocytosis of LRH from the ME is intact in starved animals.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document