A putative new lyssavirus was found in 2 Japanese pipistrelles (Pipistrellus abramus) in Taiwan in 2016 and 2017. The concatenated coding regions of the virus showed 62.9%-75.1% nucleotide identities ...to the other 16 species of lyssavirus, suggesting that it may be representative of a new species of this virus.
The purpose of this study is to assess the preclinical therapeutic efficacy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-monitored focused ultrasound (FUS)-induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption to ...enhance Temozolomide (TMZ) delivery for improving Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) treatment. MRI-monitored FUS with microbubbles was used to transcranially disrupt the BBB in brains of Fisher rats implanted with 9L glioma cells. FUS-BBB opening was spectrophotometrically determined by leakage of dyes into the brain, and TMZ was quantitated in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma by LC-MS\MS. The effects of treatment on tumor progression (by MRI), animal survival and brain tissue histology were investigated. Results demonstrated that FUS-BBB opening increased the local accumulation of dyes in brain parenchyma by 3.8-/2.1-fold in normal/tumor tissues. Compared to TMZ alone, combined FUS treatment increased the TMZ CSF/plasma ratio from 22.7% to 38.6%, reduced the 7-day tumor progression ratio from 24.03 to 5.06, and extended the median survival from 20 to 23 days. In conclusion, this study provided preclinical evidence that FUS BBB-opening increased the local concentration of TMZ to improve the control of tumor progression and animal survival, suggesting its clinical potential for improving current brain tumor treatment.
Lumpy skin disease is an arthropod-borne bovine disease caused by lumpy skin disease virus. A suspect lumpy skin disease case in a breeding cattle farm on Kinmen Island, Taiwan was reported on July ...8, 2020 and later confirmed the first occurrence of lumpy skin disease in the country by molecular biological detections, electron microscopy, and sequence comparison. Implementation of control measures including blanket vaccination on the island effectively ceased the outbreaks. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the virus discovered in the outbreaks was most similar to those identified in China in 2019. Identifying this virus in the coastal areas in East Asia indicated the rapid eastward spread of lumpy skin disease in Asia.
Childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is associated with greater disease activity, more aggressive course, and high rates of organ damage. The prolonged use of corticosteroids in ...childhood SLE contributes to increased morbidity, including avascular necrosis (AVN). We conducted this retrospective study using claims data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, enrolling 1,472 children with newly-diagnosed SLE between 2005 and 2013. The mean age at the diagnosis of SLE was 15.5 ± 3.3 years, and the female to male ratio was 6.2:1. Thirty-nine patients (2.6%) developed symptomatic AVN during a mean follow-up of 4.6 ± 2.5 years. In multivariate analysis, the risk of AVN was higher in the patients with a daily prednisolone dose between 7.5 mg and 30 mg (HR 7.435, 95% CI 2.882-19.178, p < 0.001) and over 30 mg (HR 9.366, 95% CI 2.225-39.418, p = 0.002) than in those with a dose ≤ 7.5 mg/day. In addition, AVN was inversely correlated with the use of hydroxychloroquine > 627 days (HR 0.335, 95% CI 0.162-0.694, p = 0.003). In conclusion, high daily doses of prednisolone were associated with a significant risk of AVN, whereas the use of hydroxychloroquine > 627 days conferred an advantage. We suggest that the judicious use of corticosteroids combined with hydroxychloroquine might be a promising preventive strategy for AVN.
This work studies the effect of the sized silver (Ag) nanoparticles on the optical property of SPR. Nanoparticles were prepared on fluorine-doped-tin-oxide (FTO) coated glass substrates by RF ...magnetron sputtering with various deposition times and the subsequent rapid thermal annealing (RTA) to control the particle size. To make the Ag films, Ag films of different thicknesses were first deposited on either glass or FTO substrate by a vacuum sputtering technique. Some of the samples founded nanoparticles by rapid thermal annealing. The substrates with and without nanoparticles were then sensitized by immersing them in a 0.2 mM N719 dye solution. Finally, the effect of the absorption coefficient was investigated by adsorbing it on fine silver Ag islands. The surface plasmon resonance enhanced the absorption by the sample with Ag nanoparticles above that of the sample without nanoparticles. In this study, the peak position of the surface plasmon characteristic absorption increased with the grain size of the nanoparticles in a red-shift. The structure and the quantity of Ag particles were very critical to the surface plasmon resonance effect.
Avascular necrosis (AVN) is a clinical condition characterized by the death of bone components due to interruption in the blood supply. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology and determine ...the risk factors for AVN in patients with autoimmune diseases.
We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort analysis using claims data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. A total of 49,636 patients with autoimmune diseases between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2013 were included. Cox regression analysis was used to identify associated risk factors for the development of AVN.
A total of 490/49,636 patients (1.0%) developed symptomatic AVN. The systemic lupus erythematosus patients had a higher risk of AVN compared to other autoimmune diseases. AVN was positively correlated with male sex (p < 0.001), alcoholism (p < 0.001), mean daily prednisolone dosage 7.51 to 30 mg (p < 0.001) and > 30 mg (p < 0.001), and total cumulative prednisolone dose 0 g to 5 g (p = 0.002). However, AVN was inversely correlated with cumulative duration of hydroxychloroquine exposure > 0.6 years (p < 0.001).
Male sex, systemic lupus erythematosus, alcoholism, mean daily corticosteroid > 7.5 mg and a total cumulative dose of corticosteroid 0 to 5 g were independently associated with the development of AVN in autoimmune patients. While hydroxychloroquine use > 0.6 years conferred significant protection against the development of AVN. Clinicians should regularly assess patients with risk factors to enable the early diagnosis of AVN.
•It revealed the correlation of BEF epizootics to population immunity.•Taiwanese BEFVs were varying but antigenically stable.•East Asian countries shared the same gene pool of BEFVs.
Bovine ephemeral ...fever is an arthropod-borne bovine viral disease caused by infection with bovine ephemeral fever virus which belongs to genus Ephemerovirus within the family Rhabdoviridae. In this study, serological data and virological information about the disease and the virus, spanning from 2001 to 2013, were employed to analyze the relationships of bovine ephemeral fever epizootics to population immunity and virus variation. National and regional surveillance data indicated that 2 of the 3 major epizootics and 87% regional outbreaks were associated with lower neutralizing antibody titers and immunity coverage, reflecting the importance of population immunity for the control of bovine ephemeral fever. Phylogenetic analysis and sequence comparison demonstrated that Taiwanese bovine ephemeral fever viruses were >96.0% and >97.6% similar to the East Asian isolates in nucleotide and amino acid sequences, respectively. These analyses supported that the Taiwanese viruses shared the same gene pool with the strains of the other East Asian countries, mainly Japan.
Polymer-network stabilized blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) has been studied for decade; however, mechanism of hysteresis is not fully understood. In this report, based on the interaction between ...polymer-network and blue phase liquid crystal, mechanism of hysteresis was proposed. Results and discussion were confirmed by experimental data and literature reports. Mechanism of hysteresis is governed by three dominated factors, primary factor is relaxation ability of BPLC, secondary is steric hindrance of polymer network and tertiary is anchoring force between BPLC and polymer network. Although experimental results showed trade off in eliminate hysteresis, an effective approach of dual frequency effect was applied and hysteresis was significantly reduced from 4.44% to 0.01%.
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Glioma is the most common and aggressive type of brain tumor. While long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are clearly more abundant in human brain than protein-coding genes, the specific roles of lncRNAs ...and mechanisms underlying their dysregulation in glioma remain unclear. Here, we focused on lncRNAs that are differentially expressed in brain tumor and their potential biological functions. LOC441204, a novel non-coding RNA gene displaying high expression in clinical specimens of brain tumor and significant upregulation in glioma cell lines in microarray analyses, was selected for further study. Notably, knockdown of LOC441204 suppressed tumor cell proliferation in two glioma cell lines. Moreover, LOC441204-induced tumor cell growth was mediated the stabilization of β-catenin pathway. Briefly, LOC441204 bound to β-catenin preventing its degradation, resulting in downstream p21 repression and cdk4 activation to enhance glioma cell proliferation. Collectively, our findings indicate a pro-oncogenic role of LOC441204 in tumor cell growth through activation of the β-catenin/p21/cdk4 cascade to act as a potential diagnostic marker or therapeutic target in brain tumor.
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