In comparison to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), SARS-CoV-2 appears to be more contagious 1, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients demonstrate varied clinical ...manifestations distinct from those seen in patients with SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infections 2. Collective results from the clinical and epidemiological observations suggest a distinct viral–host interaction in COVID-19 patients. Profiling of the antibody response during SARS-CoV-2 infection may help improve our understanding of the viral–host interaction and the immunopathological mechanisms of the disease.
Humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2 showed an early response of IgA, instead of IgM, in COVID-19 patients. As highlighted by this study, enhanced IgA responses observed in severe COVID-19 might confer damaging effects in severe COVID-19.
https://bit.ly/3fA7c1I
Prevention and management of lung cancer in China Hong, Qun‐Ying; Wu, Guo-Ming; Qian, Gui‐Sheng ...
Cancer,
September 1, 2015, 2015-Sep-01, 2015-09-00, 20150901, Letnik:
121, Številka:
S17
Journal Article
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by infection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is transmitted through respiratory droplets and close contact 1–4. To ...diagnose COVID-19, oropharyngeal swab (OP swab) sampling is widely used for viral nucleic acid detection 3. However, healthcare workers who perform OP swab are at high risk of infection due to aerosol from patients during the process of sampling. And the quality of manual OP swabs is inconsistent among different collectors, which may lead to misdiagnosis 5. Use of a remote-controlled OP swab robot has the potential to avoid close contact between healthcare workers with patients, and thus reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection during sampling. Here, we invented a robotic sampling (RS) system and evaluated the safety and efficacy of this system on OP swab sampling during the period of pandemic.
Clinical application of the safety and effectiveness of an intelligent oropharyngeal-swab robot, and its implication for the COVID-19 pandemic
https://bit.ly/2BUsV55
Cross-species transmission of viruses from wildlife animal reservoirs poses a marked threat to human and animal health
. Bats have been recognized as one of the most important reservoirs for emerging ...viruses and the transmission of a coronavirus that originated in bats to humans via intermediate hosts was responsible for the high-impact emerging zoonosis, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
. Here we provide virological, epidemiological, evolutionary and experimental evidence that a novel HKU2-related bat coronavirus, swine acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), is the aetiological agent that was responsible for a large-scale outbreak of fatal disease in pigs in China that has caused the death of 24,693 piglets across four farms. Notably, the outbreak began in Guangdong province in the vicinity of the origin of the SARS pandemic. Furthermore, we identified SADS-related CoVs with 96-98% sequence identity in 9.8% (58 out of 591) of anal swabs collected from bats in Guangdong province during 2013-2016, predominantly in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp.) that are known reservoirs of SARS-related CoVs. We found that there were striking similarities between the SADS and SARS outbreaks in geographical, temporal, ecological and aetiological settings. This study highlights the importance of identifying coronavirus diversity and distribution in bats to mitigate future outbreaks that could threaten livestock, public health and economic growth.
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported to have critical regulatory roles in tumor biology. However, their contribution to melanoma remains largely unknown.
CircRNAs derived from oncogene CD151 ...were detected and verified by analyzing a large number of melanoma samples through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Melanoma cells were stably transfected with lentiviruses using circ_0020710 interference or overexpression plasmid, and then CCK-8, colony formation, wound healing, transwell invasion assays, and mouse xenograft models were employed to assess the potential role of circ_0020710. RNA immunoprecipitation, luciferase reporter assay and fluorescence in situ hybridization were used to evaluate the underlying mechanism of circ_0020710.
Our findings indicated that circ_0020710 was generally overexpressed in melanoma tissues, and high level of circ_0020710 was positively correlated with malignant phenotype and poor prognosis of melanoma patients. Elevated circ_0020710 promoted melanoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro as well as tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, we found that high level of circ_0020710 could upregulate the CXCL12 expression via sponging miR-370-3p. CXCL12 downregulation could reverse the malignant behavior of melanoma cells conferred by circ_0020710 over expression. Moreover, we also found that elevated circ_0020710 was correlated with cytotoxic lymphocyte exhaustion, and a combination of AMD3100 (the CXCL12/CXCR4 axis inhibitor) and anti-PD-1 significantly attenuated tumor growth.
Elevated circ_0020710 drives tumor progression via the miR-370-3p/CXCL12 axis, and circ_0020710 is a potential target for melanoma treatment.
The effects of bronchial thermoplasty (BT) on smooth muscle (SM) and nerves in small airways are unclear.
We recruited 15 patients with severe refractory asthma, who received BT treatment. ...Endobronchial optical-coherence tomography (EB-OCT) was performed at baseline, 3 weeks' follow-up and 2 years' follow-up to evaluate the effect of BT on airway structure. In addition, we divided 12 healthy beagles into a sham group and a BT group, the latter receiving BT on large airways (inner diameter >3 mm) of the lower lobe. The dogs’ lung lobes were resected to evaluate histological and neuronal changes of the treated large airways and untreated small airways 12 weeks after BT.
Patients receiving BT treatment had significant improvement in Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) scores and significant reduction in asthma exacerbations. EB-OCT results demonstrated a notable increase in inner-airway area (Ai) and decrease in airway wall area percentage (Aw%) in both large (3rd-to 6th-generation) and small (7th-to 9th-generation) airways. Furthermore, the animal study showed a significant reduction in the amount of SM in BT-treated large airways but not in untreated small airways. Protein gene product 9.5 (PGP9.5)–positive nerves and muscarinic receptor 3 (M3 receptor) expression in large and small airways were both markedly decreased throughout the airway wall 12 weeks after BT treatment.
BT significantly reduced nerves, but not SM, in small airways, which might shed light on the mechanism of lung denervation by BT.
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•A novel ionic liquid containing DOPO and tosylate is synthesized.•DmimTos endows EP with excellent fire safety.•DmimTos has accelerating effect on the curing of EP.•Flame-retardant ...EP maintains its mechanical properties and transparency.
Most flame retardants used in epoxy resin (EP) inevitably affect its curing process, mechanical properties as well as transparency. To solve this problem, a novel phosphorus-containing halogen-free ionic liquid (DmimTos), composed of imidazole cation modified with 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) and tosylate anion, has been designed and used as a flame retardant for EP. DSC non-isothermal curing scans show that DmimTos has accelerating effect on the curing of EP. The addition of DmimTos enhances not only the crosslinking density but also the modulus of EP. The unnotched izod impact strength and the glass transition temperatures (Tgs) of EP/DmimTos are a little lower than pure EP because of the plasticization of unreacted DmimTos. Due to the good affinity with epoxy resin, low DmimTos addition almost has no effect on the transparency of EP. Besides, incorporation of 4 wt% DmimTos into EP makes it pass UL-94 V-0 level and increases the LOI value to 32.5%. Cone calorimeter test indicates the peak heat release rate (p-HRR) of EP/4.0DmimTos reduces by 37% compared with EP. The flame-retardant mechanism of EP/DmimTos has been investigated in detail. It is found that the flame-retardant action of DmimTos on EP is in the gas phase for quenching effect of phosphorus-based radicals and the condensed phase for dehydration of phosphorous fragments.
The methyltransferase like 3 （METTL3）-containing methyltransferase complex catalyzes the N6-methyladenosine （m6A） formation, a novel epitranscriptomic marker; however, the nature of this complex ...remains largely unknown. Here we report two new components of the human m6A methyltransferase complex, Wilms＇ tumor 1-associating protein （WTAP） and methyltransferase like 14 （METTL14）. WTAP interacts with METTL3 and METTL14, and is required for their localization into nuclear speckles enriched with pre-mRNA processing factors and for catalytic ac- tivity of the m6A methyltransferase in vivo. The majority of RNAs bound by WTAP and METTL3 in vivo represent mRNAs containing the consensus m6A motif. In the absence of WTAP, the RNA-binding capability of METTL3 is strongly reduced, suggesting that WTAP may function to regulate recruitment of the m6A methyltransferase complex to mRNA targets. Furthermore, transcriptomic analyses in combination with photoactivatable-ribonucleoside-en- hanced crosslinking and immunoprecipitation （PAR-CLIP） illustrate that WTAP and METTL3 regulate expression and alternative splicing of genes involved in transcription and RNA processing. Morpholino-mediated knockdown targeting WTAP and/or METTL3 in zebrafish embryos caused tissue differentiation defects and increased apoptosis. These findings provide strong evidence that WTAP may function as a regulatory subunit in the m6A methyltransferase complex and play a critical role in epitranscriptomic regulation of RNA metabolism.
Filoviruses, especially Ebola virus (EBOV) and Marburg virus (MARV), are notoriously pathogenic and capable of causing severe haemorrhagic fever diseases in humans with high lethality
. The risk of ...future outbreaks is exacerbated by the discovery of other bat-borne filoviruses of wide genetic diversity globally
. Here we report the characterization of a phylogenetically distinct bat filovirus, named Měnglà virus (MLAV). The coding-complete genome of MLAV shares 32-54% nucleotide sequence identity with known filoviruses. Phylogenetic analysis places this new virus between EBOV and MARV, suggesting the need for a new genus taxon. Importantly, despite the low amino acid sequence identity (22-39%) of the glycoprotein with other filoviruses, MLAV is capable of using the Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) as entry receptor. MLAV is also replication-competent with chimeric MLAV mini-genomes containing EBOV or MARV leader and trailer sequences, indicating that these viruses are evolutionally and functionally closely related. Finally, MLAV glycoprotein-typed pseudo-types transduced cell lines derived from humans, monkeys, dogs, hamsters and bats, implying a broad species cell tropism with a high risk of interspecies spillover transmission.
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