Toxoplasma gondii: expression pattern and detection of infection using full-length recombinant P35 antigen

A complete P35 surface antigen of Toxoplasma gondii was sequenced (GenBank ). Immunoblot found that it reacted specially with T. gondii acute infected sera, and the recombinant P35 signal was specific for P35 antigen. The P35-GST protein was used as antigen to detect 125 sera samples by double-sandwich ELISA. P35-IgM positive rate in a chronic infected group, a persistent IgM positive chronic group, a recently seroconvered group and an acute infected group were 4% (1 out of 25), 16% (4 out of 25), 88% (22 out of 25), and 100% (25 out of 25), respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the recombinant full-length P35 antigen were 100 and 96%, respectively. The detailed expression patterns of P35 antigen were studied in 36 IgM and IgG positive sequential samples from 10 recently seroconvered patients. Results showed that the P35-IgM positive rate decreased as the time after the first seroconversion increased. P35-IgM positive samples in the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth month after the first seroconversion test were 90, 78, 57, 50, and 33%, respectively. P35-IgG positive samples in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh month after the first seroconversion test were 70, 100, 100, 100, 67, 100, and 100%, respectively. All samples were P35-IgM negative after the fifth month, and P35-IgG negative after the seventh month from seroconversion. P35-IgM existed the shortest time and was a more specific marker for T. gondii acute infection than P35-IgG, IgM, and IgG to whole tachyzoites antigens.     

Molecular cloning and sequence analysis of prion protein gene in Xiji donkey in China

Prion diseases are a group of human and animal neurodegenerative disorders caused by the deposition of an abnormal isoform prion protein (PrP^Sc) encoded by a single copy prion protein gene (PRNP). Prion disease has been reported in many herbivores but not in Equus and the species barrier might be playing a role in resistance of these species to the disease. Therefore, analysis of genotype of prion protein (PrP) in these species may help understand the transmission of the disease. Xiji donkey is a rare species of Equus not widely reared in Ningxia, China, for service, food and medicine, but its PRNP has not been studied. Based on the reported PrP sequence in GenBank we designed primers and amplified, cloned and sequenced the PRNP of Xiji donkey. The sequence analysis showed that the Xiji donkey PRNP was consisted of an open reading frame of 768 nucleotides encoding 256 amino acids. Amino acid residues unique to donkey as compared with some Equus animals, mink, cow, sheep, human, dog, sika deer, rabbit and hamster were identified. The results showed that the amino acid sequence of Xiji donkey PrP starts with the consensus sequence MVKSH, with almost identical amino acid sequence to the PrP of other Equus species in this study. Amino acid sequence analysis showed high identity within species and close relation to the PRNP of sika deer, sheep, dog, camel, cow, mink, rabbit and hamster with 83.1–99.7% identity. The results provided the PRNP data for an additional Equus species, which should be useful to the study of the prion disease pathogenesis, resistance and cross species transmission.     

深圳市一株境外输入新型冠状病毒C.1.2变异株的分子特征分析

为了了解境外输入的新型冠状病毒（SARS-CoV-2）变异株的分子特征,本研究对2021年6月深圳市一株从南非输入的SARS-CoV-2毒株进行了全基因组测序和序列分析。Illumina测序技术获得的SARS-CoV-2毒株基因组长度为29 567nt。根据"Pango lineages"分型法,本研究测定的毒株属于C.1.2系,该谱系属世界卫生组织定义的监测变异株（Variants Under Monitoring,VUM）成员之一。与参考株Wuhan-Hu-1(NC＿045512.2)比较,本研究C.1.2系毒株共出现了58个核苷酸变异位点,其中56个变异位点位于编码区。氨基酸变异位点共有33个,氨基酸变异位点分布于6个开放阅读框,变异数由多到少依次为：S蛋白区12个,ORFlab蛋白区9个,ORF3a蛋白区2个,M区2个,ORF8区2个,E区1个。本研究测定的SARS-CoV-2毒株属我国大陆首例境外输入的C.1.2变异株。开展境外输入的SARS-CoV-2毒株基于基因组测序的分子监测,对防控由境外输入的SARS-CoV-2变异株引起本地新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）暴发与...     

2021年2月深圳市六株境外输入的SARS-CoV-2基因组特征分析

为了解深圳境外输入的新型冠状病毒(SARS-CoV-2)的遗传特征,本研究对2021年2月六株境外输入的SARS-CoV-2毒株进行了高通量测序与基因组序列分析.测序获得的六株SARS-CoV-2毒株基因组长度分别为29 450 nt、28 936 nt﹑28 875 nt、29 855 nt、29 146 nt 和29 528 nt.根据"Pango lineages"分型法,三个来自肯尼亚、南非和柬埔寨的毒株属于B.1.1.7系(VOC-202012/01),一个来自美国的毒株属于B.1.2系(美国谱系),两个来自南非和肯尼亚的毒株属于B.1.351系(20H/501Y.V2).与武汉毒株Wuhan-Hu-1(NC_045512.2)比较,B.1.1.7系毒株的刺突蛋白(S)中发现了多达10个氨基酸的变异,B.1.2系毒株的S蛋白仅发现一个氨基酸的变异,B.1.351系毒株的S蛋白中发现了多达11个氨基酸的变异.来自柬埔寨的一株B.1.1.7系毒株的S蛋白中发现了三个变异(H69S,V70I与Y144V)与另外两个B.1.1.7系毒株中的变异(H69del,V70del与Y144del)不同.六个毒株在ORF1b上都表现出了 P314L的变异,在S蛋白上都表现出了 D614G的变异.2021年2月深圳输入了传染性更强的B.1.1.7英国变异株和B.1.351南非变异株.境外输入的SARS-CoV-2变异株存在引起本地暴发与流行的风险,需持续对境外输入的SARS-CoV-2毒株进行分子监测.     

Item Anomaly Detection Based on Dynamic Partition for Time Series in Recommender Systems

In recent years, recommender systems have become an effective method to process information overload. However, recommendation technology still suffers from many problems. One of the problems is shilling attacks-attackers inject spam user profiles to disturb the list of recommendation items. There are two characteristics of all types of shilling attacks: 1) Item abnormality: The rating of target items is always maximum or minimum; and 2) Attack promptness: It takes only a very short period time to inject attack profiles. Some papers have proposed item anomaly detection methods based on these two characteristics, but their detection rate, false alarm rate, and universality need to be further improved. To solve these problems, this paper proposes an item anomaly detection method based on dynamic partitioning for time series. This method first dynamically partitions item-rating time series based on important points. Then, we use chi square distribution (χ²) to detect abnormal intervals. The experimental results on MovieLens 100K and 1M indicate that this approach has a high detection rate and a low false alarm rate and is stable toward different attack models and filler sizes.     

Primary study on the lesions and specific proteins in BEAS-2B cells induced with the 2009 A (H1N1) influenza virus

In order to investigate the lesions and proteins with differential expression in cells infected with the 2009 A (H1N1) virus and to determine the specific proteins involved in cell damage, the present study has been performed. BEAS-2B cells were infected with the 2009 A (H1N1) influenza virus or the seasonal H1N1 influenza virus for 12, 24, 48, and 72 h, and cell cycle and apoptosis were analyzed with flow cytometry. Total cellular proteins were extracted and underwent two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. The differentially expressed proteins underwent mass spectrometry for identification. The results showed that after 12 h, cells infected with the virus strain sourced from severe cases had the highest apoptosis rate (P?P?P?Galectin-1 was specifically observed in BEAS-2B infected with 2009 A (H1N1) influenza viruses, and cofilin-1 was specifically observed in BEAS-2B cells in the late stage of 2009 A (H1N1) influenza virus infection. In conclusion, differential effects of the 2009 A (H1N1) influenza virus and seasonal H1N1 influenza virus were identified on the cell cycle and apoptosis, and galectin-1 may play a role in cell apoptosis induced by 2009 A (H1N1) influenza virus.     

p38 MAPK regulates calcium signal-mediated lipid accumulation through changing VDR expression in primary preadipocytes of mice

In the present study we have examined whether p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) signal pathway interacts with calcium signal on lipid accumulation in primary preadipocytes of mice. The primary preadipocytes were treated with p38 MAPK inhibitor SB203580, blockers and excitomotors of calcium channel for 24 h, respectively. Intracellular triglyceride (TG) content was measured by triglyceride kit and lipid accumulation was determined by Oil Red O staining. Meanwhile, the mRNA expressions of peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) gene, fatty acid synthetase (FAS) gene, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) gene, vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene and extracellular Ca²⁺-sensing receptor (CaSR) gene were analyzed with real-time PCR. The protein content and phosphorylation of VDR and p38 were tested with Western Blotting. The data showed that intracellular TG content and the mRNA expression levels of PPARγ, FAS, LPL in N group and L group as well as FAS, LPL in C group were increased significantly (P < 0.01) compared to the control. On the contrary, intracellular TG content and the mRNA expression levels of PPARγ, FAS in B group as well as intracellular TG content and PPARγ, FAS, LPL in SB group and B+SB group were decreased significantly (P < 0.01). VDR mRNA expression and protein content were decreased in B, C, and SB added groups (P < 0.01). In addition, p38 phosphorylation levels increased in N and L groups (P < 0.01) and decreased in SB added groups (P < 0.01). These findings suggest that p38 MAPK pathway through regulating VDR mRNA expression participates in mediation of calcium signal and affects calcium signal regulating lipid accumulation in mice preadipocytes through changing PPARγ, FAS and LPL mRNA expression. In addition, calcium signal have a feedback effect in phosphorylation of p38.     

Serum Amyloid A and Clusterin as Potential Predictive Biomarkers for Severe Hand,Foot and Mouth Disease by 2D-DIGE Proteomics Analysis

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) affects more than one million children, is responsible for several hundred child deaths every year in China and is the cause of widespread concerns in society. Only a small fraction of HFMD cases will develop further into severe HFMD with neurologic complications. A timely and accurate diagnosis of severe HFMD is essential for assessing the risk of progression and planning the appropriate treatment. Human serum can reflect the physiological or pathological states, which is expected to be an excellent source of disease-specific biomarkers. In the present study, a comparative serological proteome analysis between severe HFMD patients and healthy controls was performed via a two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) strategy. Fifteen proteins were identified as differentially expressed in the sera of the severe HFMD patients compared with the controls. The identified proteins were classified into different groups according to their molecular functions, biological processes, protein classes and physiological pathways by bioinformatics analysis. The up-regulations of two identified proteins, serum amyloid A (SAA) and clusterin (CLU), were confirmed in the sera of the HFMD patients by ELISA assay. This study not only increases our background knowledge about and scientific insight into the mechanisms of HFMD, but also reveals novel potential biomarkers for the clinical diagnosis of severe HFMD.     

“微生物-肠-脑”轴介导的宿主食欲调节

人和动物的食欲受到中枢神经系统和外周激素的协同调控。近年来，一些研究指出肠道菌群的组成与变化通过多重途径影响宿主的食欲。肠道细菌分泌和产生的大量功能性代谢物如短链脂肪酸、次级胆汁酸和氨基酸衍生物等是其发挥调控作用的重要媒介物质。此外，肠道菌群还能够影响消化系统营养感知、肠迷走神经信号投递、肠道激素分泌等，这些也都会参与食欲和进食调节。在明确细菌调控食欲的作用机制后靶向调控和重组肠道微生物可能是改善宿主食欲的一种新策略，有助于厌食症、暴食症等相关疾病的诊治。