Dinucleotide composition representation -based deep learning to predict scoliosis-associated Fibrillin-1 genotypes.

Introduction: Scoliosis is a pathological spine structure deformation, predominantly classified as "idiopathic" due to its unknown etiology. However, it has been suggested that scoliosis may be linked to polygenic backgrounds. It is crucial to identify potential Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS)-related genetic backgrounds before scoliosis onset.

Exosomal Vaccine Loading T Cell Epitope Peptides of SARS-CoV-2 Induces Robust CD8 T Cell Response in HLA-A Transgenic Mice.

Purpose: Current vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 virus mainly induce neutralizing antibodies but overlook the T cell responses. This study aims to generate an exosomal vaccine carrying T cell epitope peptides of SARS-CoV-2 for the induction of CD8 T cell response.

Methods: Thirty-one peptides presented by HLA-A0201 molecule were conjugated to the DMPE-PEG-NHS molecules, and mixed with DSPE-PEG to form the peptide-PEG-lipid micelles, then fused with exosomes to generate the exosomal vaccine, followed by purification using size-exclusion chromatography and validation by Western blotting, liquid nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) test and transmission electron microscopy.

Prognostic significance of pretreatment 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in patients with primary T cell lymphomas.

Objective: T cell lymphomas are associated with an aggressive worse prognosis. This study is designed to assess T cell lymphomas using 18F-FDG PET/CT.

Methods: Sixty-four patients with newly diagnosed T cell lymphomas underwent PET/computed tomography (PET/CT) scans, 47 cases who were fully followed up were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed.

Generation and Characterization of a Nanobody Against SARS-CoV.

The sudden emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) has caused global panic in 2003, and the risk of SARS-CoV outbreak still exists. However, no specific antiviral drug or vaccine is available; thus, the development of therapeutic antibodies against SARS-CoV is needed. In this study, a nanobody phage-displayed library was constructed from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of alpacas immunized with the recombinant receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV.

Effect of clinical pharmacist intervention on the treatment of acute pancreatitis.

Background The participation of clinical pharmacists in the treatment of acute pancreatitis has rarely been reported. Objective The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the impact of intervention of clinical pharmacists on the treatment of acute pancreatitis. Setting An academic teaching hospital in Taizhou, Jiangsu, China.

Features of Ebola Virus Disease at the Late Outbreak Stage in Sierra Leone: Clinical, Virological, Immunological, and Evolutionary Analyses.

We performed Ebola virus disease diagnosis and viral load estimation for Ebola cases in Sierra Leone during the late stage of the 2014-2015 outbreak (January-March 2015) and analyzed antibody and cytokine levels and the viral genome sequences. Ebola virus disease was confirmed in 86 of 1001 (9.7%) patients, with an overall case fatality rate of 46.

Noninvasive imaging of c(RGD) -9R as a potential delivery carrier for transfection of siRNA in malignant tumors.

The purpose of our study was to develop and evaluate a novel integrin α β -specific delivery carrier for transfection of siRNA in malignant tumors. We adopted arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD) motif as a tissue target for specific recognition of integrin α β . A chimaeric peptide was synthesized by adding nonamer arginine residues (9-arginine [9R]) at the carboxy terminus of cyclic-RGD dimer, designated as c(RGD) -9R, to enable small interfering RNA (siRNA) binding.

PSO-SVM-Based Online Locomotion Mode Identification for Rehabilitation Robotic Exoskeletons.

Locomotion mode identification is essential for the control of a robotic rehabilitation exoskeletons. This paper proposes an online support vector machine (SVM) optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO) to identify different locomotion modes to realize a smooth and automatic locomotion transition. A PSO algorithm is used to obtain the optimal parameters of SVM for a better overall performance.

Upregulation of microRNA-146a by hepatitis B virus X protein contributes to hepatitis development by downregulating complement factor H.

Unlabelled: Hepatic injuries in hepatitis B virus (HBV) patients are caused by immune responses of the host. In our previous study, microRNA-146a (miR-146a), an innate immunity-related miRNA, and complement factor H (CFH), an important negative regulator of the alternative pathway of complement activation, were differentially expressed in HBV-expressing and HBV-free hepatocytes. Here, the roles of these factors in HBV-related liver inflammation were analyzed in detail.

Live/Real time three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography in percutaneous closure of atrial septal defects.

Objectives: This study assessed the ability of live/real time three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3DTEE) in measuring (1) atrial septal defect (ASD) maximum dimension, area, and adjacent rim size, (2) ASD occluder left and right atrial disk size, (3) length of contact between the left atrial (LA) disk and the aorta, and in (4) assessing device related complications such as residual shunt, device embolization, and device encroachment upon adjacent cardiac structures.

Materials And Methods: 3DTEE images acquired during percutaneous ASD closure by the Amplatzer Septal Occluder in 15 adult patients were retrospectively analyzed. Offline analysis was done using both the Philips 5500 ultrasound system and Philips QLAB software.

[Polysomnographic findings and clinical presentation of adult men with obstructive sleep apnea].

Aim: To determine the age-related differences in the polysomnography (PSG) and clinical presentation of Chinese male adult subjects with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and attempt to identify the age-specific effects on the severity of sleep apnea.

Methods: This retrospective study included a cohort of 836 Chinese male a-dult subjects, who were diagnosed with OSA by the initial overnight PSG and recruited from the clinic population. The eligible subjects were classified into three different age groups: 312 young (mean 37.

A novel mutation impairing the tertiary structure and stability of γC-crystallin (CRYGC) leads to cataract formation in humans and zebrafish lens.

Congenital cataract is one of the leading causes of human blindness. In this study, we identified a novel, heterozygous c.385G View Article and Find Full Text PDF

[Immunosuppressant dexamethasone can significantly extend the expression of hepatitis B virus antigens in the HBV mouse model by hydrodynamic transfection method].

To develop a HBV infection mouse model by hydrodynamic-based transfection and further to optimize the method of development of HBV infection mouse model. We first developed a construct which contained inverted terminal repeat elements (ITR) of adeno-associated virus (AAV) and 1. 3 copies of HBV genome (ayw subtype).

Small interfering RNA targeting m2 gene induces effective and long term inhibition of influenza A virus replication.

RNA interference (RNAi) provides a powerful new means to inhibit viral infection specifically. However, the selection of siRNA-resistant viruses is a major concern in the use of RNAi as antiviral therapeutics. In this study, we conducted a lentiviral vector with a H1-short hairpin RNA (shRNA) expression cassette to deliver small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) into mammalian cells.

Expression of the LIM-homeodomain gene Lmx1a in the postnatal mouse central nervous system.

The LIM-homeodomain transcription factor Lmx1a plays critical roles in roof plate formation as well as in the cell fate determination of midbrain dopaminergic neurons during embryonic development, but its function in the adult brain remains unknown. In the present study, as the first step in exploring its function in adult brain, we examined the expression of Lmx1a in the mouse central nervous system (CNS) from birth to adulthood by in situ hybridization. Lmx1a was expressed at high levels in the posterior hypothalamic area, supremammillary nucleus, ventral premammillary nucleus, subthalamic nucleus, ventral tegmental area, compact part of the substantia nigra and parabrachial nucleus from birth to adulthood, and co-localized with its paralogue Lmx1b in these regions.

Expression of the transcription factor GATA3 in the postnatal mouse central nervous system.

GATA binding protein 3 (GATA3) is an important regulator of central nervous system (CNS) development, but its expression pattern in the postnatal CNS has not been studied. In the present study, we examined the distribution of GATA3 mRNA in the mouse CNS at different postnatal stages by in situ hybridization. During the first 2 weeks of postnatal development, numerous GATA3-expressing cells were found in the intergeniculate leaf, ventral lateral geniculate nucleus, pretectal nucleus, nucleus of the posterior commissure, superior colliculus, inferior colliculus, periaqueductal grey, substantia nigra and raphe nuclei.

Delayed antiviral plus immunomodulator treatment still reduces mortality in mice infected by high inoculum of influenza A/H5N1 virus.

The mortality of human infection by influenza A/H5N1 virus can exceed 80%. The high mortality and its poor response to the neuraminidase inhibitor oseltamivir have been attributed to uncontrolled virus-induced cytokine storm. We challenged BALB/c mice with 1,000 LD50 of influenza A/Vietnam/1194/04.

Inhibitors of the proteasome suppress homologous DNA recombination in mammalian cells.

Proteasome inhibitors are novel antitumor agents against multiple myeloma and other malignancies. Despite the increasing clinical application, the molecular basis of their antitumor effect has been poorly understood due to the involvement of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in multiple cellular metabolisms. Here, we show that treatment of cells with proteasome inhibitors has no significant effect on nonhomologous end joining but suppresses homologous recombination (HR), which plays a key role in DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair.

A critical role for the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme Ubc13 in initiating homologous recombination.

The ubiquitin (Ub)-conjugating enzyme Ubc13 is implicated in Rad6/Rad18-dependent postreplication repair (PRR) in budding yeast, but its function in vertebrates is not known. We show here that disruption or siRNA depletion of UBC13 in chicken DT40 or human cells confers severe growth defects due to chromosome instability, and hypersensitivity to both UV and ionizing radiation, consistent with a conserved role for Ubc13 in PRR. Remarkably, Ubc13-deficient cells are also compromised for DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair by homologous recombination (HR).

Collaborative roles of gammaH2AX and the Rad51 paralog Xrcc3 in homologous recombinational repair.

One of the earliest events in the signal transduction cascade that initiates a DNA damage checkpoint is the phosphorylation on serine 139 of histone H2AX (gammaH2AX) at DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). However, the role of gammaH2AX in DNA repair is poorly understood. To address this question, we generated chicken DT40 cells carrying a serine to alanine mutation at position 139 of H2AX (H2AX(-/S139A)) and examined their DNA repair capacity.

[Expression of mouse CD1.1 in CHO cells and its stimulatory function on NKT cells].

Aim: To get cell lines which express mouse CD1.1 (mCD1.1) stably and to study the stimulatory effects of mCD1.

Effects of annealing temperature on magnetic property and structure of amorphous Co49Pt51 alloy nanowire arrays prepared by direct-current electrodeposition.

Co49Pt51 nanowire arrays with an average diameter of 35 nm and lengths up to several micrometers were grown in an ordered porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template using direct-current electrodeposition. The as-deposited samples were annealed at 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, and 700 degrees C, respectively. The temperature dependence of the magnetic property of the Co49Pt51 nanowire arrays associated with the microstructure was analyzed by X-ray diffraction and a vibrating sample magnetometer.