λ-Carrageenan P32 Is a Potent Inhibitor of Rabies Virus Infection

Rabies, caused by rabies virus (RABV), is an acute, fatal encephalitic disease that affects many warm-blooded mammals. Currently, post-exposure prophylaxis regimens are effective for most rabies cases, but once the clinical signs of the disease appear, current treatment options become ineffective. Carrageenan has been reported as a potent inhibitor of many viruses. In this study, the λ-carrageenan (λ-CG) P32 was investigated for its potential role in inhibiting RABV infection. Our results show that P32 specifically inhibits the replication of several RABV strains but not vesicular stomatitis virus in multiple cell lines and shows low cytotoxicity. P32 mainly abrogated viral replication during the early stage of the post-adsorption period. Further studies demonstrated that P32 could affect not only viral internalization but also viral uncoating by blocking cell fusion mediated by RABV glycoprotein. Moreover, P32 can fully inhibit RABV infection in vitro during the post-adsorption period, whereas heparin and heparan sulfate, which possess similar structures to P32, showed significant but not complete inhibition of RABV infectivity. Collectively, our results indicate that λ-CG P32 is a promising agent that can inhibit RABV infection mainly by inhibiting viral internalization and glycoprotein-mediated cell fusion and can be used for the development of novel anti-RABV drugs.     

Distinct differences in serum eicosanoids in healthy,enteritis and colorectal cancer individuals

Background

Eicosanoids as inflammatory mediators take part in the regulation of disease progression. However, the application of serum eicosanoid in disease progression identification was still uncertain.

Methods

Serum from 52 healthy volunteers, 34 enteritis patients and 55 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients were collected. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was used to analyze the change of serum eicosanoids.

Results

Of 158 eicosanoids, we found that lower levels of anti-inflammatory eicosanoids 13-HOTrE, 9-HOTrE, DHA, 11-HETE and 12-HHT were observed in enteritis and CRC group compared with healthy group, meanwhile the content of 5-iPF2α-VI as oxidative stress mediator in enteritis and CRC group was greater than that in healthy groups. Moreover, 9-HODE, 13-HODE, 12,13-diHOME, 8-HETE and 15-HETE were dramatically decrease in CRC group compared with non-CRC group. Additionally, the change of 5-, 12- and 15-HETE content in serum sample was associated with progression from healthy to enteritis, finally to CRC. No significant difference between serum eicosanoids and the expression of CerbB-2 and Ki67 were observed.

Conclusion

Serum eicosanoids might be used as a possible biomarker for identifying among health, enteritis and CRC.

     

A Duplex Real-Time PCR Assay for the Simultaneous Detection of Porcine Circovirus 2 and Circovirus 3

Porcine circoviruses (PCV) include PCV1, PCV2, and the new-emerging PCV3. PCV2 is pathogenic to pigs, but the pathogenicity of PCV3 in pigs is debatable. Recently, there have been frequent reports of PCV2 and PCV3 co-infections in clinical samples. Thus, it would be practical to develop a duplex PCR method to detect PCV2 and PCV3 simultaneously. In this study, specific primers and probes were designed to target PCV2 cap and PCV3 rep genes. A duplex real-time PCR method was then developed to detect the two viruses. The assay was found to be highly specific, sensitive, and reproducible for PCV2/3 without cross-reactions with other swine pathogens. The sensitivity of this assay was 2.9 copies for the PCV2 plasmid and 22.5 copies for the PCV3 plasmid. The established assay was then used to detect PCV2/3 infection in 340 clinical samples collected in the first half of 2017. The results showed that the co-infection rate of PCV2/3 in the samples was 27.6%. Our study provides an important tool that can be used to perform urgently needed surveys for the two porcine circoviruses to evaluate their impact on the swine industry.     

Highly Efficient Identification of O‐GalNAc Glycosylation by an Acid‐Assisted Glycoform Simplification Approach

Compared with N‐linked glycosylation, the analysis of O‐GalNAc glycosylation is extremely challenging due to the high structure diversity of glycans and lack of glycosidases to release O‐GalNAc glycans. In this work, a glycoform simplification strategy by combining HILIC enrichment with chemical de‐sialylation to characterize O‐GalNAc glycosylation of human serum is presented. This method is first validated by using the bovine fetuin as the test sample. It is found that more than 90% of the sialic acid residues can be removed from bovine fetuin by the acid‐assisted de‐sialylation method, which significantly simplifies the glycan structure and improves identification sensitivity. Indeed, the number of identified peptide backbones increases nearly one fold when this strategy is used. This method is further applied to analyze the human serum sample, where 185 O‐GalNAc modified peptide sequences corresponding to 94 proteins with high confidence (FDR (false detection rate) <1%) are identified. This straight forward strategy can significantly reduce the variations of glycan structures, and is applicable to analysis of other biological samples with high complexity.     

川南地区毛竹和林下植被芒箕细根分解特征

揭示竹林与其林下植被细根单独和混合分解特征,探讨竹林细根与其林下植被细根之间相互影响的潜在机制,为毛竹林林下植被的合理经营管理提供理论参考。采用原位分解袋法研究了四川长宁毛竹(Phyllostachys edulis)与林下植被芒箕(Dicranopteris pedata)细根分解和养分释放过程,试验周期为1年。结果表明(1)毛竹和芒箕细根初始化学组分有着明显差异,碳(C)含量、碳氮比(C/N)和碳磷比(C/P)毛竹显著高于芒箕(P0.05),而氮(N)含量、磷(P)含量和氮磷比(N/P)均芒箕高于毛竹(P0.05)。(2)毛竹和芒箕细根分解系数(k)分别为0.66±0.04和0.42±0.41,毛竹细根分解速率显著高于芒箕;土壤温度与分解速率呈显著正相关,是影响细根分解速率的关键环境因子。(3)毛竹和芒箕细根碳(C)、氮(N)、磷(P)养分释放均表现为净释放,毛竹细根碳(C)释放速率高于芒箕,但细根氮(N)和磷(P)释放率均低于芒箕。(4)混合分解的实测值和期望值对比结果表明毛竹和芒箕细根混合对分解速率和磷(P)元素的释放没有显著影响,但显著促进了碳(C)元素的释放,抑制了分解初期氮(N)元素的释放。毛竹与林下植被芒箕单独细根分解和养分释放特征均表现不同;细根混合分解速率无显著混合效应,但养分释放的混合效应表现出不同阶段性和不同方向(正或负),说明林下植被通过影响细根养分释放而影响竹林生态系统的养分循环。     

西南典型喀斯特地区石漠化时空演变特征——以贵州省普定县为例

为揭示我国西南典型喀斯特地区石漠化时空演变特征,选取贵州省普定县为研究对象,基于Landsat、DEM等影像数据,提取了坡度和4期植被覆盖度、岩石裸露率分布图,并利用地理探测器获得各自的贡献率,反演了1990—2015年4期石漠化空间分布信息,进而讨论了石漠化时空演变特征。结果表明:(1)在1990—2015年间,普定县石漠化演变复杂,经历了由好转到恶化再到好转的阶段,总体趋势在好转,局部恶化,石漠化治理仍需加大力度;(2)中度以上石漠化集中分布在三岔河沿岸附近,轻度以下石漠化则分布较散乱;(3)潜在和轻度石漠化演变方向复杂,潜在石漠化平均变化速率最大(2.75 km2/a),在1997—2006年间更是达到了16.5 km2/a;(4)植被覆盖度与岩石裸露率的变化主要呈负相关,前者的增加主导了石漠化的好转,而后者的增加则控制了石漠化的恶化;(5)石漠化演变存在突变,在三岔河沿岸附近,存在无/潜在石漠化突变为重度以上石漠化的现象;在靠近城乡居民地附近,存在重度以上石漠化突变为无/潜在石漠化的现象;(6)植被覆盖度、岩石裸露率、坡度能较准确反演石漠化,贡献率分别为44%、42%、14%。本文提供的石漠化反演方法快速高效,制作的图件、数据为同行提供了参考,得出的结论为石漠化治理提供了科学支撑。     

贵州宽阔水自然保护区野生动物红外相机调查初报

为系统掌握宽阔水国家级自然保护区野生动物资源状况,采用公里网格布设红外相机,对宽阔水重点区域大中型兽类和地面活动鸟类进行调查。结果显示：（1）褐胸噪鹛(Garrulax maesi)、蓝歌鸲(Luscinia cyane)、灰翅鸫(Turdus boulboul)、红腿长吻松鼠(Dremomys pyrrhomerus)等4种为该保护区新纪录野生动物;（2）宽阔水拍摄率高的常见种类有红腹锦鸡(Chrysolophus pictus)(1.09)、灰胸竹鸡(Bambusicola thoracica) (0.44)、红腿长吻松鼠(Dremomys pyrrhomerus)(3.16)、野猪(Sus scrofa)(0.69)、小麂(Muntiacus reevesi)(0.49)等。这些常见物种在宽阔水呈现不同的日活动节律。野猪活动频率为早午主副峰型（08:00-09:00为小高峰,11:00-13:30为大高峰）,小麂为晨昏型（09:30-11:30与17:00-19:00两个高峰）,红腿长吻松鼠虽在早08:00-10:00稍显活跃,但整个日间节律高低峰并不明显;灰胸竹鸡日节律呈多高峰,而红腹锦鸡为早晚双峰型（10:00-11:00与16:00-17:00）;（3）宽阔水监测区域内不同生境类型和海拔对物种拍摄率无显著差异。红外相机监测结果能够较为全面地反映出宽阔水保护区鸟兽多样性状况,有利于区域生物多样性编目、保护管理和重要物种生态学研究。