Screening and Identification of Marburg Virus Entry Inhibitors Using Approved Drugs

正Dear Editor,Marburg virus(MARV) belongs to the Filoviridae family,along with the related Ebola virus(EBOV). Although MARV is less renowned than EBOV, it causes an equally devastating disease, with clinical symptoms similar to EBOV infection and a remarkably high mortality rate. To     

Do corticosteroids have a role in treating Ebola virus disease?

<正>Dear Editor,Humans have been fighting Ebola virus disease(EVD)since its first outbreak in 1976 in Yambuku village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo(previously Zaire).EVD is part of the Filoviridae family of viruses that includes Ebola and Marburg viruses.To date,EVD,one of the most deadly communicable diseases known to humans,has had15 outbreaks in Africa.In 2014,the most severe and complicated outbreak yet swept through the West African countries of Guinea,Liberia,Nigeria,Senegal and Sierra Leone,     

Developing an efficient multiplex PCR method to detect mcr-like genes

<正>Dear Editor,Since 2016, a growing number of mobile colistin resistance(mcr) genes have been identified and characterized (Liu et al., 2016). In addition to mcr-1 and its variants, mcr-2 to mcr-8 have now been reported, which reflects a significant threat to public health and agricultural production (Sun et al.,2018). These diverse new genes (mcr-2 to mcr-8) share     

D-ribose increases triglyceride via upregulation of DGAT in the liver

正Dear Editor,Fatty liver disease or hepatic steatosis, recognized as the hepatic component of metabolic syndrome, can progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (Youngwanichsetha,2018). Triglyceride, one of the most important lipid molecules, is involved in fatty liver (Kawano and Cohen, 2013)and other diseases such as hyperlipidaemia, coronary heart disease (Yin and Tang, 2011) and diabetes mellitus (Beshara et al., 2016). The liver is the main organ for triglyceride metabolism. Hepatocytes utilize non-esterified fatty acids and de novo lipogenesis to synthesize triglyceride, and the     

Both structure and function of human monoclonal antibodies contribute to enhancement of Zika virus infectivity in vitro

正Dear Editor,Antibody-dependent enhancement(ADE)has long been recognized for dengue virus(DENV)in vitro and in vivo.It is now clear that antibodies to DENV can also enhance Zika virus(ZIKV)infection in vitro,and vice versa(Dejnirattisai et al.,2016;Stettler et al.,2016).The characteristics of enhancing antibodies,however,remain elusive.Some have suggested that non-neutralizing antibodies or antibodies recognizing specific antigenic sites are enhancing     

Novel hepacivirus in Asian house shrew,China

<正>Dear Editor,Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading global cause of various liver diseases, including chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The genome of HCV is monopartite, single-stranded, positive RNA, about 10 kb in size.HCV is the prototype species of the Hepacivirus genus,which contains 14 species according to the update from the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (Smith et al., 2016). Prior to 2005, humans were thought to be the only     

Primary EBV infection and hypersensitivity to mosquito bites:a case report

正Dear Editor,Hypersensitivity to mosquito bites(HMB)is primarily seen in children and adolescents in Asia and Central America.HMB may be related to the reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus(EBV)in infected natural killer(NK)cells and is directly associated with chronic active EBV infection(CAEBV)and NK/T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.     

CD95-CD95L interaction mediates the growth control of MHV68 immortalized B cells by cytotoxic T cells

<正>Dear Editor,The main limitation of the viral pathogenesis study of human gammaherpesviruses Epstein-Barr virus(EBV)and Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus(KSHV)is the absence of animal model owing to the narrow host tropism of both EBV and KSHV.Murine gammaherpesvirus 68(MHV68)encodes several genes involved in     

Genomic characterizations of H4 subtype avian influenza viruses from live poultry markets in Sichuan province of China, 2014–2015

正Dear Editor,Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) have posed a serious threat to poultry production and public health. To date, more than fourteen AIV subtypes that are able to infect human beings have been documented. Also, it is suggested that new subtypes may be reported in the future, owing to the migration of wild birds and live poultry transportation (Gao, 2018).Poultry may act as a potential incubator for novel subtypes of avian influenza virus (Bi et al., 2016a; Bi et al., 2016b; Liu et al., 2014a; Su et al., 2017). Up to date, the H7N9 AIV emerged in February 2013 has caused 1,567 human cases,with a fatality rate of 39.2%(http://www.who.int/influenza/     

T4-like coliphage ΦKAZ14 virulent to pathogenic and extended spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli of poultry origin

<正>Dear Editor,Bacteriophages(otherwise called phages)are a type of virus that infect bacteria.This viral type has found useful applications in the control of bacterial pathogens in foods and food processing environments.In addition,phages may be useful to prevent colonization and shedding of bacteria into the surrounding environment.     

Effects of short-Term experimental warming on soil microbes in a typical alpine steppe北大核心CSCD

Aims Soil microbe plays key role in mediating terrestrial carbon cycles. It has been suggested that climate warming may affect the microbial community, which may accelerate carbon release and induce a positive feedback to soil climate warming. However, there is still controversy on how microbial community responds to experimental warming, especially in cold and drought environment. Methods We conducted an open top chambers (OTCs) experiment to explore the effects of warming on soil microbial community in an alpine steppe on Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. During the maximum of the growing seasons (August) of 2015 and 2016, we monitored the biomass and structure of soil microbial community in warming and control plots using phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) as biomarkers. Important findings Short-Term warming treatment significantly increased the soil temperature by 1.6 and 1.6 C and decreased soil moisture by 3.4% and 2.4% (volume fraction) respectively, but did not alter either soil properties or normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) during the growing season (from May to October) in 2015 and 2016. During the maximum of growing seasons (August) of 2015 and 2016, the magnitude of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) were 749.0 and 844.3 mg·kg-1, microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) were 43.1 and 102.1 mg·kg-1, and the microbial biomass C:N ranged between 17.9 and 8.4. Moreover, all three showed no significant differences between warming and control treatments. The abundance of bacteria was the most in microbial community, while arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi was the least, and warming treatment did not alter the abundance of different microbial group and the microbial community structure. Nonetheless, our result revealed that warming-induced changes in MBC had significant positive correlation with changes in soil temperature and soil moisture. These patterns indicate that, microbial community in this alpine steppe may not respond substantially to future climate warming due to the limitation of soil drought. Therefore, estimation of microbial community response to climate change calls for consideration on the combined effect of warming and drought. © 2018 Editorial Office of Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology. All rights reserved.     

miR319-TCPs-TGA9/TGA10/ROXY2 regulatory module controls cell fate specification in early anther development in Arabidopsis

<正>Dear Editor,The process of anther development is generally conserved across plant species(Ma, 2005). Many protein-coding genes and noncoding RNAs have been identified to participate in early anther development in Arabidopsis(Walbot and Egger, 2016).mi R319 is one of the most ancient and conserved mi RNA families in land plants(Chávez Montes et al., 2014).     

Introduction of a multicenter online database for non-metastatic breast cancer in China

正Dear Editor,Breast cancer is now the most frequently diagnosed cancer and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death in Chinese women. Therefore, the burden of breast cancer in China is gradually increasing. According to figures released by the Chinese Cancer Center in 2018, the number of newly diagnostic breast cancer is about 278,900 cases, accounting for 16.51%of all women who were diagnosed with the first primary malignant tumors; and 66,000 cases of breast cancer died in 2014 (Chen et al., 2016).     

Decreased decidual epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) alpha and gamma subunits in recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL)

正Dear Editor,Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) in early pregnancy is a devastating problem for couples who want to become parents and a difficult challenge for their physician. RPL is also referred to as recurrent miscarriage or habitual abortion. It is defined as two or more consecutive clinical miscarriages(CMs) before 20 weeks of gestation (Practice Committee of     

Transposon-based screen identifies a XRE family regulator crucial for candicidin biosynthesis in Streptomyces albus J1074

正Dear Editor,Polyene macrolides are a group of natural products with potent antifungal activity (Caffrey et al., 2016). Candicidin/FR-008, a potent broad-spectrum anti-fungal agent, is produced by several Streptomycetes, including Streptomycetes sp. strain FR-008 (Chen et al., 2003), S. griseus 3570(Campelo and Gil, 2002) and S. albus J1074 (Olano et al.,2014). Due to its medical importance, considerable effort has been applied to elucidate its biosynthetic pathway and identify key regulatory genes (Chen et al., 2003; Zhang et al.,2015).     

Complete genome sequence of a novel bacteriophage infecting Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens USDA110

正Dear Editor,The nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria, rhizobia are the most important beneficial bacteria in soil, as they form nodules with host legume plants to fix nitrogen to maintain soil fertility and facilitate plant growth. Although these bacteria are critically important to agriculture, bacteriophages of rhizobia (rhizobiophages) are commonly present in soils, rhizosphere,and nodules, which have major influences on the composition and population of rhizobia in soils and affect nodulation and nitrogen fixation. Despite the importance of rhizobiophages,only 23 phage full genomes have been sequenced.     

Photoperiodic refractoriness in energy balance: a specific pattern in Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)

正Dear Editor,Small mammals inhabiting temperate and arctic zone have evolved seasonal life-history traits, such as seasonal body mass cycle and seasonal reproduction. Photoperiod delivers an unambiguous cue to this seasonal acclimatization in most small mammals. Some species lose body mass, and some others increase body mass in short day (SD) compared to those in long-day (LD) acclimation. The variation in body mass is due to the balance of energy intake and expenditure. Basal     

Amino acids essential for the interaction between cellular heat shock protein 90 and a Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus-encoded protein kinase ORF36

正Dear Editor,Protein-protein interactions(PPIs)often play important roles in biological processes(Zhang et al.,2016).The split Renilla luciferase complementation assay(SRLCA)is one of the methods in studying PPIs.SRLCA is based on the complementation of the N-terminal domains of Renilla luciferase(LN)and C-terminal domains of     

Diatomaceous earths as alternatives to chemical insecticides in stored grain

Diatomaceous earth （DE） is a natural inert dust used to control insect pests in stored grain as an alternative to synthetic residual insecticides. Various DE formulations are now registered as a grain protectant or for structural treatment in many different countries throughout the world. The mode of action of DE is through the absorption of cuticular waxes in the insect cuticle, and insect death occurs from desiccation. The main advantages of using DE are its low mammalian toxicity and its stability. The main limitations to widespread commercial use of DE are reduction of the bulk density and flowability of grain, irritant hazards during application and reduction in efficacy at high moisture contents. This paper is an updated review of published results of researches related to the use of DEs and discusses their potential use in large-scale, commercial storage and in small scale applications.     

Enlarged DNA unwinding by Nme2Cas9 permits a broadened base editing window beyond the protospacer

<正>Dear Editor,Base editing has been developed to be one of the effective CRISPR-based gene editing techniques(Rees and Liu,2018).Base editors(BEs) take advantage of DNAmodifying enzymes fused with a catalytically impaired CRISPR protein to install base mutations.In BE,DNA-modifying enzymes often process nontarget singlestranded DNA(NTS) generated by Cas proteins.