CRISPR-Cas9应用于病毒性传染病防控的研究进展

病毒性传染病是威胁人类健康的重要因素,迫切需要新的治疗方法来降低由急性病毒感染如鼻病毒和登革热病毒以及慢性病毒感染如人类免疫缺陷病毒1和乙型肝炎病毒引起的发病率和死亡率.随着分子生物学技术的发展,靶向序列特异性的基因编辑技术成为传染病治疗的有力工具.其中规律成簇间隔短回文重复序列(clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,CRISPR)-CRISPR相关蛋白9(CRISPR associated protein 9,Cas9)凭借其高效、简便、高特异性等特点被广泛应用于细胞系和动物模型中的传染病治疗,从而成为有前景的新型传染病治疗模式.目前,利用病毒和非病毒载体将Cas9以DNA、m RNA或蛋白质的形式递送到细胞中的可行性研究和评估CRISPR-Cas9体内适用性的临床试验已经在进行中.本篇综述中,我们将对CRISPR-Cas9的原理,其应用于传染病治疗的最新研究进展以及该技术面临的挑战和可预测性的解决方法等加以概述,并进一步展望其未来的发展方向.     

microRNA作为传染性疾病标志物的研究进展

传染性疾病往往具有较大的传染性,易于大面积流行,且难以控制,严重危害人们生命健康,快速准确的筛查成为预防及控制其传播的重要手段之一。Micro RNA(mi RNA)是一类长度仅有约22nt的非编码单链微小RNA,广泛存在于动植物真核细胞中,主要通过与靶m RNA分子的3'端非编码区域(3'-untranslated region,3'UTR)完全或不完全互补配对,调控该m RNA分子的表达或转录后翻译;在细胞生长、发育、凋亡,肿瘤形成,病毒感染等多种生理病理过程中起重要作用。在病毒感染时,mi RNA调控病毒与宿主之间的相互作用,影响病毒感染的进程与结局;感兴趣的是,mi RNA其自身的表达对病毒感染具有一定的特异性。因此,mi RNA有望成为筛查病毒传染性疾病的临床标志物,目前已成为一热点研究领域。本文主要从循环体液中mi RNA的稳定性,mi RNA在病毒感染中的特异性表达,以及mi RNA检测技术方面做简要综述,并对mi RNA作为传染病一种新型检测标志物的可行性进行了初步的分析。     

综述与专论: 树鼩病毒感染模型的研究新进展

病毒感染引起的疾病接近中国主要传染病发病率的一半,也是传染病致死的主要病因。建立与人类亲缘关系较近、方便有效的感染人类病毒的动物模型,对了解病毒的生物学特性、感染致病机理及制定有效防控措施具有重要意义。树鼩作为灵长类动物的近亲,与人类在生理生化、基因组学等方面的相似性远高于大鼠、小鼠等常用啮齿类实验动物,并具有个体小、便于实验操作、饲养成本低、能感染多种人类病毒等特点,作为动物模型在病毒感染性疾病研究中突显优势和潜能。本文从地区分布、进化、生物学特性等方面,阐述了树鼩作为动物模型应用于病毒感染性疾病研究的优势,包括在乙型肝炎病毒、甲型肝炎病毒,及其他病毒感染疾病研究中的进展。     

猪瘟病毒与宿主天然免疫系统的相互作用

猪瘟(Classical swine fever,CSF)是由猪瘟病毒(Classical swine fever virus,CSFV)感染引起的一种高度接触性传染病,临床上以出血综合征与免疫抑制为主要特征。它在多个国家流行,给中国乃至世界养猪业造成巨大的经济损失。研究表明,猪瘟病毒感染能够诱导宿主的天然免疫应答,也能通过影响天然免疫效应分子的表达来抑制宿主的天然免疫功能。本文将对猪瘟病毒感染与天然免疫应答及其免疫抑制的现象与机理进行综述。     

中国感染性疾病动物模型的现状与展望

面对许多老的传染病因耐药等原因卷土重来,以及大量新发现传染病的压力,感染性动物模型的重要性近年来中国受到广泛重视并取得许多进展。目前已经在大鼠、小鼠、兔等十余种动物多种品系中建立了蒙古沙鼠幽门螺杆菌感染模型、家兔肺炎双球菌感染发热模型等20种以上针对不同细菌性病原体的感染模型;建立了呼吸道合胞病毒感染模型和肾综合征出血热病毒感染动物模型等25种以上的病毒性感染疾病动物模型,建立了隐孢子虫动物模型、日本血吸虫感染模型等近20种寄生虫病动物模型,以及多种针对衣原体、真菌病、螺旋体感染的动物模型。这些感染模型在…     

致人与猴死亡的埃波拉病毒

1976年在北扎伊尔和南苏丹暴发的埃波拉(Ebora)病毒曾使数百人丧生。 1989年10月又在美国弗吉尼亚州的Hazleton研究所内暴发了埃波拉病毒传染病。从菲律宾进口到该研究所的200只食蟹猴中查出五只被埃波拉病毒感染。于是把此200只和另200只猴全部处死。发病后,美国军队医学专家对该研究所进行了全面消毒。死亡病猴全部焚烧。埃波拉病毒疾病的临床症状与马尔堡(Marburg)病毒和猴出血热相似。感染埃波拉病毒     

甲型流感病毒感染过程中干扰素介导的天然免疫应答机制

甲型流感病毒作为引起人类和动物急性呼吸道传染病的一个主要病原体,在世界范围内广泛流行。研究表明,甲型流感病毒感染宿主后会诱导宿主的天然免疫应答。甲型流感病毒感染可引起Toll样受体(Toll like receptors,TLRs)和RIG-Ⅰ样受体(RIG-Ⅰ like receptors,RLRs)等宿主模式识别受体介导的抗病毒信号通路的活化,并在多种机制调控下诱导干扰素和其他细胞因子的表达,如Ⅰ型干扰素、Ⅲ型干扰素等,从而启动干扰素刺激基因(Interferon stimulated genes,ISGs)的转录及其抗病毒蛋白的表达,进而实现抗病毒作用。本文就甲型流感病毒感染与干扰素介导的天然免疫应答相关的信号通路和调控机制进行综述。     

埃博拉病与丝状病毒感染的研究进展

埃博拉病等丝状病毒感染性疾病对人类的健康和生命造成了巨大的威胁,本文综述了有关丝状病毒的生物学特性、致病机制、免疫应答、治疗药物与疫苗研发工作的研究进展,为更好的认识丝状病毒感染规律和寻找埃博拉病等传染病的防治方法,提供一定的线索。     

森林脑炎疫苗的研究进展

森林脑炎是严重危害人类健康的中枢神经系统急性病毒性传染病,在欧洲森林脑炎为一种地方病也是最重要的由节肢动物传播的病毒性传染病,成为主要的公共卫生问题。森林脑炎在我国存在有三大疫区、六个自然疫源地,其中东北疫区最为严重。森林脑炎为我国法定的由生物因素引起的职业病之一。美国CDC将森林脑炎病毒列为C类病毒类生物武器,并优先发展疫苗。预防森林脑炎病毒感染和流行以及抵御病毒类生物武器的袭击最有效的方法就是接种森林脑炎疫苗,森林脑炎疫苗在预防森林脑炎发病过程中发挥着重要作用,本文将森林脑炎疫苗研究现状和疫苗的免疫预防效果作以概述。     

科研快讯

<正>Immunity:新型蛋白质或可增强机体感知病毒及抑制其感染的能力近日,来自匹兹堡大学癌症研究所的研究人员通过研究发现,增强细胞中一种天然蛋白质的含量就可以增强机体感知以及抑制病毒感染的能力,相关研究成果刊登于国际著名杂志Immunity上,该研究或为开发治疗包括流感病毒到丙肝病毒感染的一系列病毒感染的疗法提供希望。Saumendra N.Sarkar博士说,尽管近些年来我们在疫苗和新型疗法的开发上取得了巨大进步,但是由于病毒感染引发的疾病仍然是引发全世界人群死亡的一个主要原因;我们需要新型的病毒感染抵御措施,而本文研究就恰恰为开发新型抗病毒感染疗法提供了思路。研究者表示,一种     

Low relationship quality predicts scratch contagion during tense situations in orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Primates show various forms of behavioral contagion that are stronger between kin and friends. As a result, behavioral contagion is thought to promote group coordination, social cohesion, and possibly state matching. Aside from contagious yawning, little is known about the contagious effect of other behaviors. Scratching is commonly observed during arousal and as such may play a role within group dynamics. While the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is commonly considered the least social great ape, orangutans do engage in social interactions. Therefore, their social organization makes them a suitable case for studying the social function of behavioral contagion. Through behavioral observations of captive orangutans, we recorded all yawn and scratch events together with the corresponding behavior of all bystander group-members. As yawning was rarely observed, no conclusions could be drawn regarding this behavior. Scratching was contagious and occurred within 90 s after the triggering scratch. Specifically, orangutans showed increased scratch contagion when they had seen a weakly bonded individual scratch during tense contexts. When the orangutan had not seen the triggering scratch, the contagiousness of scratching was not affected by context or relationship quality. Our results indicate that behavioral contagion is not simply higher between individuals with stronger social relationships, but that the contagiousness of behaviors may vary based on the context and on social factors. We discuss these findings in light of an adaptive function that may reduce aggression.     

A generalized model of social and biological contagion

We present a model of contagion that unifies and generalizes existing models of the spread of social influences and microorganismal infections. Our model incorporates individual memory of exposure to a contagious entity (e.g. a rumor or disease), variable magnitudes of exposure (dose sizes), and heterogeneity in the susceptibility of individuals. Through analysis and simulation, we examine in detail the case where individuals may recover from an infection and then immediately become susceptible again (analogous to the so-called SIS model). We identify three basic classes of contagion models which we call epidemic threshold, vanishing critical mass, and critical mass classes, where each class of models corresponds to different strategies for prevention or facilitation. We find that the conditions for a particular contagion model to belong to one of the these three classes depend only on memory length and the probabilities of being infected by one and two exposures, respectively. These parameters are in principle measurable for real contagious influences or entities, thus yielding empirical implications for our model. We also study the case where individuals attain permanent immunity once recovered, finding that epidemics inevitably die out but may be surprisingly persistent when individuals possess memory.     

Spatial contagion drives colonization and recruitment of frogflies on clutches of red-eyed treefrogs

Spatial contagion occurs when the perceived suitability of neighbouring habitat patches is not independent. As a result, organisms may colonize less-preferred patches near preferred patches and avoid preferred patches near non-preferred patches. Spatial contagion may thus alter colonization dynamics as well as the type and frequency of post-colonization interactions. Studies have only recently documented the phenomenon of spatial contagion and begun to examine its consequences for local recruitment. Here, we test for spatial contagion in the colonization of arboreal egg clutches of red-eyed treefrogs by a frogfly and examine the consequences of contagion for fly recruitment. In laboratory choice experiments, flies oviposit almost exclusively on clutches containing dead frog eggs. In nature, however, flies often colonize intact clutches without dead eggs. Consistent with predictions of contagion-induced oviposition, we found that flies more frequently colonize intact clutches near damaged clutches and rarely colonize intact clutches near other intact clutches. Moreover, contagion appears to benefit flies. Flies survived equally well and suffered less parasitism on clutches lacking dead eggs. This study demonstrates how reward contagion can influence colonization dynamics and suggests that colonization patterns caused by contagion may have important population- and community-level consequences.     

Putting like a pro: the role of positive contagion in golf performance and perception

Many amateur athletes believe that using a professional athlete's equipment can improve their performance. Such equipment can be said to be affected with positive contagion, which refers to the belief of transference of beneficial properties between animate persons/objects to previously neutral objects. In this experiment, positive contagion was induced by telling participants in one group that a putter previously belonged to a professional golfer. The effect of positive contagion was examined for perception and performance in a golf putting task. Individuals who believed they were using the professional golfer's putter perceived the size of the golf hole to be larger than golfers without such a belief and also had better performance, sinking more putts. These results provide empirical support for anecdotes, which allege that using objects with positive contagion can improve performance, and further suggest perception can be modulated by positive contagion.     

Respiratory Protection Provided by Five New Contagion Masks

The effectiveness of five recently developed contagion masks in filtering air-borne particles (1 to 5 μ diam) has been reported. One mask, available in four sizes, was 99% efficient. This mask can be reused after sterilization. The other four masks are available in only one size and are intended to be used one time only. Two of these four disposable types were more than 90% efficient but the variability of their respective test results was much greater than that for the reusable mask. The two remaining disposable types were less than 80% efficient. Two of these contagion-mask types were worn by hospital personnel for periods of up to 8 hr to determine the effect of such prolonged use on aerosol filtration efficiency. No significant decrease in filtration efficiency was noted. Physicians, nurses, and other hospital personnel who wear masks will benefit from the increased individual respiratory protection afforded by improved contagion masks. Concurrently, the incidence of hospital patient air-borne infections should be greatly reduced.     

A metric of influential spreading during contagion dynamics through the air transportation network

The spread of infectious diseases at the global scale is mediated by long-range human travel. Our ability to predict the impact of an outbreak on human health requires understanding the spatiotemporal signature of early-time spreading from a specific location. Here, we show that network topology, geography, traffic structure and individual mobility patterns are all essential for accurate predictions of disease spreading. Specifically, we study contagion dynamics through the air transportation network by means of a stochastic agent-tracking model that accounts for the spatial distribution of airports, detailed air traffic and the correlated nature of mobility patterns and waiting-time distributions of individual agents. From the simulation results and the empirical air-travel data, we formulate a metric of influential spreading--the geographic spreading centrality--which accounts for spatial organization and the hierarchical structure of the network traffic, and provides an accurate measure of the early-time spreading power of individual nodes.     

Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens

The ability to share others' emotions, or empathy, is crucial for complex social interactions. Clinical, psychological, and neurobiological clues suggest a link between yawn contagion and empathy in humans (Homo sapiens). However, no behavioral evidence has been provided so far. We tested the effect of different variables (e.g., country of origin, sex, yawn characteristics) on yawn contagion by running mixed models applied to observational data collected over 1 year on adult (>16 years old) human subjects. Only social bonding predicted the occurrence, frequency, and latency of yawn contagion. As with other measures of empathy, the rate of contagion was greatest in response to kin, then friends, then acquaintances, and lastly strangers. Related individuals (r≥0.25) showed the greatest contagion, in terms of both occurrence of yawning and frequency of yawns. Strangers and acquaintances showed a longer delay in the yawn response (latency) compared to friends and kin. This outcome suggests that the neuronal activation magnitude related to yawn contagion can differ as a function of subject familiarity. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that yawn contagion is primarily driven by the emotional closeness between individuals and not by other variables, such as gender and nationality.     

Socio-ecological contagion in Veganville

In order to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement for 1.5 °C global warming, per capita emissions need to come down to 2.9 tonnes by 2030. Food systems are known to be a significant source of an individual's carbon footprint and demand attention in sustainability management. The objective of this research is to conceptualise and define an intersection between contagion theory and socio-ecological systems models. This is achieved using a population dynamics model between two groups characterised by a distinct food regime: omnivores and vegans. The greenhouse gas emissions of each food regime is used to estimate the city's changing carbon foodprint as the food regimes shift by social contagion. Social contagion is identified as a catalyst for social tipping points, and emission pathways are explored with a variety of different contagion variables to test sensitivity towards a tipping point. The main finding is that the urban carbon foodprint can be reduced significantly with widespread adoption of veganism, but that the foodprint reaches a minimum at 1.97 tonnes CO₂-equivalent per capita. This demonstrates the need to embed food demand in urban climate governance such as nudging towards plant-based food alternatives. Nudging is discussed as a lever of ecological importance to social contagion. Lastly, socio-ecological contagion is defined as the interactions between social contagion and damage done to ecological systems to measure peer-to-peer spread of environmental stewardship agendas, such as the journey to Veganville.     

Chimpanzees Show a Developmental Increase in Susceptibility to Contagious Yawning: A Test of the Effect of Ontogeny and Emotional Closeness on Yawn Contagion

Contagious yawning has been reported for humans, dogs and several non-human primate species, and associated with empathy in humans and other primates. Still, the function, development and underlying mechanisms of contagious yawning remain unclear. Humans and dogs show a developmental increase in susceptibility to yawn contagion, with children showing an increase around the age of four, when also empathy-related behaviours and accurate identification of others’ emotions begin to clearly evince. Explicit tests of yawn contagion in non-human apes have only involved adult individuals and examined the existence of conspecific yawn contagion. Here we report the first study of heterospecific contagious yawning in primates, and the ontogeny of susceptibility thereto in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus. We examined whether emotional closeness, defined as attachment history with the yawning model, affected the strength of contagion, and compared the contagiousness of yawning to nose-wiping. Thirty-three orphaned chimpanzees observed an unfamiliar and familiar human (their surrogate human mother) yawn, gape and nose-wipe. Yawning, but not nose-wiping, was contagious for juvenile chimpanzees, while infants were immune to contagion. Like humans and dogs, chimpanzees are subject to a developmental trend in susceptibility to contagious yawning, and respond to heterospecific yawn stimuli. Emotional closeness with the model did not affect contagion. The familiarity-biased social modulatory effect on yawn contagion previously found among some adult primates, seem to only emerge later in development, or be limited to interactions with conspecifics. The influence of the ‘chameleon effect’, targeted vs. generalised empathy, perspective-taking and visual attention on contagious yawning is discussed.     

In Bonobos Yawn Contagion Is Higher among Kin and Friends

In humans, the distribution of yawn contagion is shaped by social closeness with strongly bonded pairs showing higher levels of contagion than weakly bonded pairs. This ethological finding led the authors to hypothesize that the phenomenon of yawn contagion may be the result of certain empathic abilities, although in their most basal form. Here, for the first time, we show the capacity of bonobos (Pan paniscus) to respond to yawns of conspecifics. Bonobos spontaneously yawned more frequently during resting/relaxing compared to social tension periods. The results show that yawn contagion was context independent suggesting that the probability of yawning after observing others'' yawns is not affected by the propensity to engage in spontaneous yawns. As it occurs in humans, in bonobos the yawing response mostly occurred within the first minute after the perception of the stimulus. Finally, via a Linear Mixed Model we tested the effect of different variables (e.g., sex, rank, relationship quality) on yawn contagion, which increased when subjects were strongly bonded and when the triggering subject was a female. The importance of social bonding in shaping yawn contagion in bonobos, as it occurs in humans, is consistent with the hypothesis that empathy may play a role in the modulation of this phenomenon in both species. The higher frequency of yawn contagion in presence of a female as a triggering subject supports the hypothesis that adult females not only represent the relational and decisional nucleus of the bonobo society, but also that they play a key role in affecting the emotional states of others.