This study aimed to investigate the influencing factors of delayed clearance of Talaromyces marneffei (T. marneffei) in blood culture of patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) ...complicated with talaromycosis after antifungal therapy.
The patients with AIDS complicated with talaromycosis were retrospectively enrolled, and divided into two groups according to the blood T. marneffei culture results in two weeks after antifungal therapy. The baseline clinical data were collected and the antifungal susceptibility of T. marneffei was tested.
A total of 190 patients with AIDS and talaromycosis were enrolled, of whom 101 cases remained positive for T. marneffei (Pos-group) while the other 89 cases were negative in blood culture (Neg-group) after two weeks' antifungal treatment. The Pos-group had a higher baseline Aspartate aminotransferase (AST, 78.5 vs. 105 U/L; P = 0.073) and lower CD4+ T cells level (11 vs. 7 cells/μl; P = 0.061). The percentage of isolates with higher MICs of voriconazole (VOR) and fluconazole (FLU) in the Pos-group were significantly higher than those in the Neg-group (χ2 = 12.623, P < 0.001 and χ2 = 9.356, P = 0.002, respectively). By multivariate logistic regression, the MIC value for VOR was identified as the prognostic variable that may influence the clearance of T. marneffei in blood culture after antifungal therapy among AIDS patients with talaromycosis.
The delayed negative conversion of blood T. marneffei-culture may be associated with some factors especially higher MIC of VOR, indicating the possibility of drug resistance of T. marneffei.
Purpose
We aimed to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of filamentous fungi (FF) carriage in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients in Guangdong province, along with its ...subsequent incidence of invasive fungal disease (IFD).
Methods
Seven hundred and sixteen HIV-infected individuals from the outpatient clinic and 293 sex-matched healthy controls were recruited prospectively from May 1 to August 31, 2017. Fungi were isolated from oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs, then identified by morphological and molecular biological techniques. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors of pathogenic FF carriage. Pathogenic FF carriers were followed up through the end of 2019.
Results
Of the 716 included HIV-infected patients, 602 (84.1%) were male, the median age was 34 (27–42) years, and the median CD4+ count was 385 (254–542) cells/μl. Pathogenic FF were isolated in 119 (16.6%) cases with HIV infection and 40 (13.7%) healthy controls. Mucorales were found in 3 HIV-infected individuals and
Talaromyces marneffei
in 2 HIV-infected individuals, but not in healthy controls. History of cured opportunistic infections (OIs; OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.23–3.13,
p
= 0.004), and smoking (OR, 1.55; 95%CI, 1.03–2.32,
p
= 0.035) were independent risk factors of pathogenic FF carriage in HIV-infected individuals. A total of 119 pathogenic FF carriers with HIV infection were followed. During follow-up, 119 (100%) cases received antiretroviral therapy (ART) for at least 28 months, 107 (90%) cases had CD4+ counts>200 cells/μl, and none developed IFD.
Discussion
Pathogenic FF carriage is common in HIV-infected individuals but may not develop IFD in those who achieved immune reconstitution. Smoking and cured OIs history increase the risk of pathogenic FF carriage. Smoking abstinence and ART adherence are especially important for these patients.
Talaromycosis (TM) caused by
(
) is a growing public health concern. Although Toll-like receptor (TLR) genes play a critical role in the host defense against fungal infection, the influence of ...polymorphisms in these genes on the susceptibility of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients to TM remains unknown. This study aims to uncover the associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TLR genes with TM susceptibility among patients with AIDS.
Altogether 200 AIDS patients complicated with TM, 200 matched AIDS patients without TM, and 76 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled in this case-control study. In total, 23 SNPs in the TLR2, TLR4, and TLR9 genes, which may influence the susceptibility of AIDS patients to TM, were checked by the time of flight mass spectrometry (TOF/MS) method among these Han Chinese subjects.
No significant differences in genotype or allele frequencies of selected SNPs were found among the TM group, Non-TM group, and HC group. Haplotype analysis also demonstrated no correlation of these SNPs with TM. However, subgroup analysis showed that the genotype TT and the T allele in TLR2 SNP rs1339 were more frequent in typical TM cases than controls (50.0
35.8%, 70.5
59.7%); the frequency of the GT genotype in TLR2 SNP rs7656411 was markedly higher in severe TM cases compared to controls (57.8
34.4%).
Our results demonstrate a genetic connection of TLR2 SNPs rs1339 and rs7656411 with an increased susceptibility and severity of TM among Han Chinese populations.
Phospholipase B is a virulence factor for several clinically important pathogenic fungi, including Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans and Aspergillus fumigatus, but its role in the thermally ...dimorphic fungus Talaromyces marneffei remains unclear. Here, we provide the first report of the expression of a novel phospholipase gene, designated TmPlb1, from T. marneffei in the eukaryotic expression system of Pichia pastoris GS115. Sensitive real-time quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) demonstrated that the expression of TmPlb1 increased 1.85-fold in the yeast phase compared with the mycelial phase. TmPlb1 contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 732 bp that encodes a protein of 243 amino acids. The conserved serine, aspartate and histidine catalytic triad and the G-X-S-X-G domain of TmPLB1 provide the structural basis for its molecular activity. The ORF of TmPlb1 was successfully cloned into a pPIC9K vector containing an α-mating factor secretion signal that allowed the secretory expression of TmPLB1 in P. pastoris. The heterologous protein expression began 12 h after methanol induction and peaked at 96 h. Through analysis with SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), western blotting and mass spectrometry, we confirmed that TmPLB1 was successfully expressed. Through Ni-affinity chromatography, TmPLB1 was highly purified, and its concentration reached 240.4 mg/L of culture medium. With specific substrates, the phospholipase A1 and phospholipase A2 activities of TmPLB1 were calculated to be 5.96 and 1.59 U/mg, respectively. The high purity and activity of the TmPLB1 obtained here lay a solid foundation for further investigation.
A secretory lipase-like gene was isolated from total cDNA of adult Clonorchis sinensis. The gene has an open reading frame of 1,218 bp long and encodes for a protein of 406 amino acids including a ...putative signal peptide of 20 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence including signal peptide has 42-45% identity with lipase of other species and two typical enzymic active sites that contain consensus sequence (Gly-X-Ser-X-Gly) of lipase. The cDNA encoding this protein was subcloned into pET-28a (+) expression vector and expressed in Escherichia coli. The expressed fusion protein has a molecular mass of about 45 kDa. Prediction of signal peptide and Western blot analysis indicated that the secretory lipase-like protein is an excretory-secretory product of C. sinensis. Immunostaining revealed that the secretory lipase-like protein was localized in the tegument of the adult worm and metacercaria. These results provide basis for further studies on the nutrition taking and invasion of C. sinensis mediated by the secretory lipase-like protein.
Dengue is the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Since its clinical symptoms are non-specific and easily mistaken as other kinds of infection, ...laboratory diagnosis is required to confirm dengue infections. In this study, ten peptides (E1-E10) from the envelope protein of dengue virus (DENV) were first identified using bioinformatic tool. The screened peptides were then synthesized for the peptide-based chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLEIA). Two peptides, E1 and E7, were found as the best candidate antigen and therefore used as downstream application in the development of low-cost peptide-based anti-DENV immunoglobulin M antibodies (IgM) indirect CLEIA. 176 serum samples were used to study the presence of anti-DENV IgM antibodies to evaluate the diagnostic ability of IgM-CLEIA. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to estimate the diagnostic cut-off value. The sensitivity and the specificity reached 82.5% and 94.6% respectively when peptide E1 was used, but declined to 79.2% and 92.9% respectively when peptide E7 was used. Therefore, the combination of E1 and E7 was used to improve the sensitivity and the specificity to 85.0% and 96.4% respectively in 1.5 h assay time, providing a potentially practical use for the diagnosis of DENV infections in patients' serum.
•Peptide-based CLEIA was developed for the detection of DENV infection.•Peptides E1 and E7 were identified as the target antigens to bind with anti-DENV IgM in patients' serum.•The combined peptides E1 and E7 improved the sensitivity (85.0%) and specificity (96.4%) of CLEIA.•The low-cost and short assay time (1.5 h) has a potential for clinical use in the DENV identification.
Fruit usually plays a vital role in people's daily life. Many kinds of fruits are rich in vitamins and trace elements, which have high edible value. Pests and diseases are a considerable problem in ...the process of fruit planting. The quality and quantity of fruit can be effectively improved by the detection and preventing pests and diseases. However, suppose in the process of fruit growth, it is always necessary to manually identify and detect pests and diseases. In that case, it will inevitably consume a lot of workforce and material resources. Therefore, it is advisable to have an automated system to save unnecessary time and effort. This article introduces the detection and identification system of pests and diseases based on Raspberry Pi to identify and detect the pests and diseases of fruit such as Longan and lychee. Firstly, we constructed a knowledge graph of pests and diseases related to lychee and longan. Then, we used the Raspberry Pi to control the camera to capture the pests and diseases images. Next, the system processed and recognized the images captured by the camera. Finally, the Bluetooth speaker broadcasted the results in real-time. We constructed the knowledge graph through data collection, information extraction, knowledge fusion and storage. We trained the vgg-16 model, which achieves 94.9% accuracy in the pests identification task, and we deployed it on a Raspberry Pi.
•The quality and quantity of fruit can be effectively improved by the detection and preventing pests and diseases.•The detection and identification system of pests and diseases based on Raspberry Pi is constructed to identify and detect the pests and diseases of fruit such as Longan and lychee.•The development of agricultural machinery and equipment is the basis and guarantee for achieving precision in agriculture.
Abstract
Background: Penicillium marneffei is an opportunistic fungus that may cause fatal disease, and usually infects acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients. The molecular epidemiology ...of this fungus remains enigmatic. Methods: A multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT) system based on 11 microsatellite loci was applied to 169 unrelated isolates of P. marneffei obtained from AIDS patients, in order to identify their genetic diversity. These patients came from the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, areas endemic for P. marneffei in China. Results: For the overall population, the average number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 8 (mean 5.5), while the discriminatory power (DP) of each locus ranged from 0.235 to 0.651 (mean 0.512). By combining the information generated for 11 loci, MLMT detected 159 different multilocus genotypes (MTs), resulting in a high degree of discrimination (DP = 0.999). One hundred and sixty-nine isolates were further clustered into 9 types (from A to I) at the similarity coefficient of 0.80, with type A (80 isolates) and type B (60 isolates) being the most common types. Within 5 subpopulations from different regions of China, the distribution of MTs of P. marneffei isolates was diverse. Although 169 isolates shared a high genetic similarity (range 0.71-0.933), isolates from Guangxi and Guangdong provinces could be differentiated from each other and clustered into 2 categories by unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) cluster analysis. Conclusions: By MLMT, the genetic diversity of clinical P. marneffei isolates could be discriminated, the dominant strain of P. marneffei cultured from AIDS patients in China could be identified, and clinical isolates of P. marneffei from Guangxi Province could be differentiated from those from Guangdong Province.
碩士
國立屏東教育大學
體育學系碩士班
101
The Taiwan folk arts Bah-Jia-Jang culture since the hundred years of history,but later due to the Guan-Jang-Shou emergence of increasingly popular in Taiwan, so that the ...majority of people do not know the difference, and be confused, coupled with the times changes, Bah-Jia-Jang and Guan-Jang-Shou in a lack of rigorous discipline under,the endless stream of negative publicity, the community Jia-Jang troupes has deep roots entrenched misconceptions and how the Taiwan folk arts sustainable development.There were three purpose:Ⅰ. Compare Taiwan folk arts "Bah-Jia-Jang" and "Guan-Jang-Shou" culture of the origins troupes.Ⅱ.Comparing the " Bah-Jia-Jang " and " Guan-Jang-Shou " troupes implications of cultural differences. Ⅲ. Explore Taiwan the folk arts Jia-Jang troupes cultural development.
This research is conducted in a qualitative way mainly.By Ethnography, Interviewing, document analysis and Fieldwork,will be gathered from the literature data analysis ,and summarized research results ar
PDF
