Saccharomyces uvarum is a good wine yeast species that may have great potential for the future. However, sulfur tolerance of most S. uvarum strains is very poor. In addition there is still little ...information about the SSU1 gene of S. uvarum, which encodes a putative transporter conferring sulfite tolerance. In order to analyze the function of the SSU1 gene, two expression vectors that contained different SSU1 genes were constructed and transferred into a sulfite-tolerant S. uvarum strain, A9. Then sulfite tolerance, SO2 production, and PCR, sequencing, RT-qPCR and transcriptome analyses were used to access the function of the S. uvarum SSU1 gene. Our results illustrated that enhancing expression of the SSU1 gene can promote sulfite resistance in S. uvarum, and an insertion fragment ahead of the additional SSU1 gene, as seen in some alleles, could affect the expression of other genes and the sulfite tolerance level of S. uvarum. This is the first report on enhancing the expression of the SSU1 gene of S. uvarum.
•Preterm infants often have the risk of apnea and respiratory distress.•Caffeine has been widely used to prevent apnea of prematurity.•Caffeine has been shown the conflicting effects on the ...developing brain.•Early application of caffeine in preterm infants improves white matter development.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of early prophylactic caffeine treatment on white matter development in very preterm infants using cerebral magnetic resonance imaging. A total of 194 preterm infants (≤32 weeks gestational age) were randomly assigned to the caffeine (n = 96) or placebo (n = 93) treatment group and administered with either caffeine or placebo within 72 h after birth. Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging, including diffuse tensor imaging examination, was performed at 34–36 weeks of corrected gestational age, and the fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were measured. In total, 160 infants were included in the final analysis, including 80 cases in the placebo group and 80 cases in the caffeine group. There were fewer instances of apnea of prematurity and shorter assisted ventilation times for infants in the caffeine group compared to the placebo group (p < 0.05). Infants in the caffeine group had significantly higher FA values in white matter, including the posterior limb of the internal capsule, the corpus callosum, the frontal, occipital, and parietal white matter, the cerebellum, and the cerebral peduncle, compared to infants in the placebo group. ADC values in the above white matter areas were significantly reduced in the caffeine group. However, there were no significant differences regarding the FA and ADC in the gray matter between the two groups. These results demonstrate that early administration of caffeine improves white matter micro-structural development in preterm infants, but with no significant effect on short-term complications related to prematurity.
Fusarium crown rot of wheat has been spreading in the Huanghuai wheat‐growing area in China since 2010, leading to a potential yield loss. To investigate the pathogens associated with this disease in ...Jiangsu and Shandong provinces in recent years, 617 Fusarium isolates were isolated from nine sites in these two provinces between 2014 and 2016. Of these isolates, 372 were identified as Fusarium pseudograminearum, and the remaining isolates were identified as F. asiaticum and F. graminearum, suggesting that F. pseudograminearum is becoming a predominant causative pathogen of crown rot of wheat in eastern China. Trichothecene gene detection and chemical analyses of trichothecenes indicated that the F. pseudograminearum isolates belonged to the 3‐ADON or 15‐ADON chemotype, and one isolate had the NIV genotype but produced no detectable NIV. 3‐ADON isolates were predominant in Jiangsu, whereas 15‐ADON isolates were prevalent in Shandong. The mating type of the F. pseudograminearum isolates were identified. MAT‐1 and MAT‐2 existed, but in most collections, particularly those in Jiangsu, the ratios of the two mating types deviated significantly from an expected 1:1 ratio. The reason for the occurrence of F. pseudograminearum is hypothesized, and the chemotype and mating type distribution of this species in these two provinces are analysed.
Fusarium pseudograminearum has become the dominant pathogen of wheat crown rot in Shandong and Jiangsu provinces of China, but its chemotype as well as mating type distribution is different between these two provinces.
Neutrophilic inflammation occurs during asthma exacerbation, and especially, in patients with steroid-refractory asthma, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Recently, a significant ...accumulation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in the airways of neutrophilic asthma has been documented, suggesting that NETs may play an important role in the pathogenesis. In this study, we firstly demonstrated that NETs could induce human airway epithelial cell damage
. In a mouse asthmatic model of neutrophil-dominated airway inflammation, we found that NETs were markedly increased in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), and the formation of NETs exacerbated the airway inflammation. Additionally, a small-molecule drug necrostatin-1 (Nec-1) shown to inhibit NETs formation was found to alleviate the neutrophil-dominated airway inflammation. Nec-1 reduced total protein concentration, myeloperoxidase activity, and the levels of inflammatory cytokines in BAL. Finally, further experiments proved that the inhibition of Nec-1 on NETs formation might be related to its ability to inhibiting mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL) phosphorylation and perforation. Together, these results document that NETs are closely associated with the pathogenesis of neutrophilic asthma and inhibition of the formation of NETs by Nec-1 may be a new therapeutic strategy to ameliorate neutrophil-dominated airway inflammation.
Data on the long-term impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and young people (CYP) are conflicting. We assessed evidence on long-term post-COVID symptoms in CYP examining prevalence, risk ...factors, type and duration. Methods: Systematic search of published and unpublished literature using 13 online databases between 01/12/2019 and 31/07/2021. Eligible studies reported CYP ≤19 years with confirmed or probable SARS-CoV-2 with any symptoms persisting beyond acute illness. Random effects meta-analyses estimated pooled risk difference in symptom prevalence (controlled studies only) and pooled prevalence (uncontrolled studies also included). Meta-regression examined study characteristics hypothesised to be associated with symptom prevalence. Prospectively registered: CRD42021233153.
Twenty two of 3357 unique studies were eligible, including 23,141 CYP. Median duration of follow-up was 125 days (IQR 99–231). Pooled risk difference in post-COVID cases compared to controls (5 studies) were significantly higher for cognitive difficulties (3% (95% CI 1, 4)), headache (5% (1, 8)), loss of smell (8%, (2, 15)), sore throat (2% (1, 2)) and sore eyes (2% (1, 3)) but not abdominal pain, cough, fatigue, myalgia, insomnia, diarrhoea, fever, dizziness or dyspnoea. Pooled prevalence of symptoms in post-COVID participants in 17 studies ranged from 15% (diarrhoea) to 47% (fatigue). Age was associated with higher prevalence of all symptoms except cough. Higher study quality was associated with lower prevalence of all symptoms, except loss of smell and cognitive symptoms.
The frequency of the majority of reported persistent symptoms was similar in SARS-CoV-2 positive cases and controls. This systematic review and meta-analysis highlights the critical importance of a control group in studies on CYP post SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Rubia plants are one of the most important plant resources possessing significant commercial and medicinal values. Plant endophytes could benefit their host plants in different ways. Rubiaceae‐type ...cyclopeptides (RAs), mainly isolated from Rubia plants, have attracted considerable attentions for their distinctive bicyclic structures and significant antitumor activities, but their contents in plants are low. The aim of this study is to investigate the diversity of endophytic fungi in Rubia plants and their potential for production of RAs. In this work, 143 endophytic fungi isolates were obtained from two Rubia plants. Phylogenetic analysis was performed based on the ITS rDNA sequences, and the isolates were classified into 29 genera. Among them, four endophytic fungal strains were found to produce anti‐tumour RAs by LC‐MS/MS analysis. This work successfully provides valuable knowledges of endophytic fungi microbiome in Rubia plants for agricultural and industrial applications, and exploits a new environmental‐friendly resource of RAs.
Significance and Impact of the Study: In this work, 143 endophytic fungi isolates belonging to 29 genera were obtained from two Rubia plants. Among them, four endophytic fungal strains were found to produce anti‐tumour Rubiaceae‐type cyclopeptides, which were main anti‐tumour ingredients of Rubia plants. This is the first study on the systematic isolation of endophytic fungi from Rubia plants, and we believe that our work could provide valuable knowledges of endophytic fungi microbiome in Rubia plants for agricultural and industrial applications. Furthermore, our work could also exploit a new environmental‐friendly resource of Rubiaceae‐type cyclopeptides, which will avoid wildcrafting and overcollection of Rubia plants for environment protection.
Toroidal dipole resonance can significantly reduce radiation loss of materials, potentially improving sensor sensitivity. Generally, toroidal dipole response is suppressed by electric and magnetic ...dipoles in natural materials, making it difficult to observe experimentally. However, as 2D metamaterials, metasurfaces can weaken the electric and magnetic dipole, enhancing toroidal dipole response. Here, we propose a new graphene-integrated toroidal resonance metasurface as an ultra-sensitive chemical sensor, capable of qualitative detection of chlorothalonil in the terahertz region, down to a detection limit of 100 pg/mL. Our results demonstrate graphene-integrated toroidal resonance metasurfaces as a promising basis for ultra-sensitive, qualitative detection in chemical and biological sensing.
We report the experimental results of the commissioning phase in the 10 PW laser beamline of the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF). The peak power reaches 2.4 PW on target without ...the last amplifying during the experiment. The laser energy of 72 ± 9 J is directed to a focal spot of approximately 6 μm diameter (full width at half maximum) in 30 fs pulse duration, yielding a focused peak intensity around 2.0 × 1021 W/cm2. The first laser-proton acceleration experiment is performed using plain copper and plastic targets. High-energy proton beams with maximum cut-off energy up to 62.5 MeV are achieved using copper foils at the optimum target thickness of 4 μm via target normal sheath acceleration. For plastic targets of tens of nanometers thick, the proton cut-off energy is approximately 20 MeV, showing ring-like or filamented density distributions. These experimental results reflect the capabilities of the SULF-10 PW beamline, for example, both ultrahigh intensity and relatively good beam contrast. Further optimization for these key parameters is underway, where peak laser intensities of 1022–1023 W/cm2 are anticipated to support various experiments on extreme field physics.
Hypoxic-ischemic (HI) brain injury is a major cause of neonatal death or lifetime disability without widely accepted effective pharmacological treatments. It has been shown that the survival of ...microglia requires colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) signaling and microglia participate in neonatal HI brain injury. We therefore hypothesize that microglia depletion during a HI insult period could reduce immature brain injury. In this study, CD1 mouse pups were treated with a CSF1R inhibitor (PLX3397, 25 mg/kg/daily) or a vehicle from postnatal day 4 to day 11 (P4-11), and over 90% of total brain microglia were deleted at P9. Unilateral hemisphere HI injury was induced at P9 by permanently ligating the left common carotid arteries and exposing the pups to 10% oxygen for 30 min to produce moderate left hemisphere injury. We found that the PLX3397 treatment reduced HI brain injury by 46.4%, as evaluated by the percentage of brain infarction at 48 h after HI. Furthermore, CSF1R inhibition suppressed the infiltration of neutrophils (69.7% reduction,
= 0.038), macrophages (77.4% reduction,
= 0.009), and T cells (72.9% reduction,
= 0.008) to the brain, the production of cytokines and chemokines (such as CCL12, CCL6, CCL21, CCL22, CCL19, IL7, CD14, and WISP-1), and reduced neuronal apoptosis as indicated by active caspase-3 labeled cells at 48 h after HI (615.20 ± 156.84/mm
vs. 1,205.00 ± 99.15/mm
,
= 0.013). Our results suggest that CSF1R inhibition suppresses neuroinflammation and neonatal brain injury after acute cerebral hypoxia-ischemia in neonatal mice.
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease that was caused by a novel bunyavirus, SFTSV. The study aimed to disclose the epidemiological and clinical ...characteristics of SFTSV infection in China so far. An integrated clinical database comprising 1920 SFTS patients was constructed by combining first-hand clinical information collected from SFTS sentinel hospitals (n = 1159) and extracted data (n = 761) from published literature. The considered variables comprised clinical manifestations, routine laboratory tests of acute infection, hospitalization duration and disease outcome. SFTSV-IgG data from 19 119 healthy subjects were extracted from the published papers. The key clinical variables, case-fatality rate (CFR) and seroprevalence were estimated by meta-analysis. The most commonly seen clinical manifestations of SFTSV infection were fever, anorexia, myalgia, chill and lymphadenopathy. The major laboratory findings were elevated lactate dehydrogenase, aminotransferase, followed by thrombocytopenia, lymphocytopenia, elevated alanine transaminase and creatine kinase. A CFR of 12·2% was estimated, significantly higher than that obtained from national reporting data, but showing no geographical difference. In our paper, the mortality rate was about 1·9 parts per million. Older age and longer delay to hospitalization were significantly associated with fatal outcome. A pooled seroprevalence of 3·0% was obtained, which increased with age, while comparable for gender. This study represents a clinical characterization on the largest group of SFTS patients up to now. A higher than expected CFR was obtained. A wider spectrum of clinical index was suggested to be used to identify SFTSV infection, while the useful predictor for fatal outcome was found to be restricted.