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Root rot symptoms were observed in fields of alfalfa in Chifeng city, Inner Mongolia, China in 2016. Disease incidences of seven alfalfa varieties planted in 2014 ranged from 56% to 95%, while incidence of Gongnong No. 1 planted in 2016 was 8%, 31% and 76% in 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively. Paraphoma isolates were consistently recovered from black necrotic root tissues of diseased plants with a frequency of 77.1%. Based on morphological characters and phylogenetic analysis of rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS), elongation factor 1‐α (EF1‐α) and β‐tubulin (TUB), this fungus was identified as Paraphoma radicina. Glasshouse pathogenicity experiments showed that P. radicina significantly reduced above‐ and below‐ground biomass of alfalfa plants 2 months after inoculation. Paraphoma radicina infected 70% of the plants inoculated with a root dip in conidia, and these symptoms were consistent with the symptoms in the field. Paraphoma radicina was successfully reisolated from disease roots of the inoculated alfalfa plants. This is the first report of P. radicina as the causal agent of alfalfa root rot in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. It has been indicated that human papillomaviruses 16 (HPV16) might participate in the pathogenesis and development of breast cancer. However, the detected rate of HPV16 varies with region. We will investigate HPV16 E6 expression in North China and explore the effects and mechanism of HPV16 E6 on breast cancer proliferation in this study. Methods. The expressions of HPV16 E6 and COX-2 in paraffin-embedded tissues of the invasive ductal breast cancer were detected by qPCR and IHC. The effects of HPV16 E6 on breast cancer proliferation were determined by function studies. The mechanism of HPV16 E6 in promoting breast cancer proliferation was explored by Western blot and Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay. Results. HPV16 E6 was positive in 28% invasive ductal breast carcinoma in North China; HPV16 E6 promoted breast cancer proliferation. Inhibition of COX-2 by siCOX-2 or Celecoxib attenuated the proliferation of breast cancer cells with HPV16 E6 expression; and the upregulation of COX-2 could be suppressed by the inhibition of NF-κB activity. Conclusion. HPV16 E6 promotes breast cancer proliferation by activation of NF-κB signaling pathway and increase of COX-2 expression. COX-2 will be a potential target for HPV16 E6-associated breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed at examining the association of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the protein tyrosine phosphatase gene ( PTPN22) with the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a Chinese population. A total of 200 RA patients and age and gender-matched healthy controls were recruited. Their genotypes and allelic frequency were determined by the TaqMan-MGB probe-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The frequencies of the CC genotype and C allele in RA patient group were significantly higher than that of controls ( P < 0.01 or P < 0.05) with an odds ratio of 1.67, respectively. These data suggest, the CC genotype and C allele of the -1123G > C in the PTPN22 gene are associated with an increased risk for RA in Chinese population. Therefore, the CC genotype and C allele of the -1123G > C in the PTPN22 gene may be used as a genetic marker for the predisposition of RA in Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca is a critically endangered species endemic to China. In order to carry out effective genetic management for the giant panda population, sufficient and reliable polymorphic genetic markers are required to provide essential information on the genetic diversity survey of this species. Seven new tetranucleotide microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized in this study and presented here as a tool for evaluating the genetic variation of giant pandas in the world's two largest captive populations (Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan Province and the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong, Sichuan Province). A total of 45 alleles were identified from these seven new microsatellite loci on the basis of 48 giant panda individuals, including 19 private alleles (six from the Chengdu population, 13 from the Wolong population) and 26 shared alleles. The average number of alleles, the average allelic richness the and mean observed heterozygosity were 4.6, 4.367 and 0.649, respectively in the Chengdu population and 5.6, 5.697 and 0.675 in the Wolong population, suggesting that the Chengdu population has a much lower allelic diversity than the Wolong population. Thus, we proposed a better strategy for the captive breeding of giant pandas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landraces and wild germplasm are important citrus genetic resources. Knowledge of the genetic diversity of this germplasm provides an opportunity both to mandarin breeding programmes and to germplasm conservation strategies. Genetic diversity of 33 loose-skin mandarin landraces and 19 wild mandarin accessions were analysed with ten nuclear simple sequence repeat (nSSR) and eight chloroplast simple sequence repeat (cpSSR) markers. Our analysis of nuclear and chloroplast genome polymorphism showed that the genetic diversity in wild populations was slightly higher than that found in landraces, with polymorphic information content values of 0.6138 and 0.5091 at nSSR loci, and 0.4921 and 0.3769 at cpSSR loci, respectively. Overall, 60 nSSR alleles and 19 cpSSR haplotypes were identified, and all but seven accessions were unambiguously discriminated by nSSR markers. Five groups of landraces and two groups of wild mandarins were identified based on the nSSR data, and two groups each of landraces and wild mandarins were identified at the cpSSR loci. Different distribution patterns of landraces and wild mandarins were observed between dendrograms constructed using these two marker systems, and hybrid origins for several landraces were suggested by these results. Combined analysis also suggested that, among wild mandarin, ‘Chongyi’ showed the closest relationship to landraces, and that landrace ‘Chazhigan’ was the primary genotype among landraces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a first report of yellow stunt and root rot of standing milkvetch, which is considered to be a perennial forage in China. The fungus which was identified as Embellisia species was observed intercellularly and was isolated from tissues with symptoms, which are characterized by yellowing and necrosis of leaf blades, brown lesions of petioles, and other abnormalities leading to plant death. With three methods of spraying, wounded root and seed inoculation with 75-day-seedlings, 35-day-seedlings, and seeds that were pre-germinated for 2 days, pathogenicity was confirmed. While the untreated seedlings remained symptomless, inoculated seedlings and seeds showed symptoms similar to those observed in the field.

Objective: To observe the prevalence and related factors of thyroid diseases in different iodine intake areas from 2015 to 2017 after the implementation of national salt iodization policy in China for 20 years. Methods: A cross-sectional survey. Multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling was used to randomly select subjects meeting the inclusion criteria from 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China from January 2015 to December 2017, and stratified by age and sex. The survey included questionnaire, physical examination and thyroid ultrasonography. At the same time, the concentrations of serum thyrotropin, thyroxine, thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb), thyroid globulin antibody (TgAb) and urinary iodine were measured.To determine whether the patient has a certain thyroid disease according to the above results. Different iodine nutrition areas were defined according to urinary iodine concentration, and the influence of iodine nutrition status in different iodine intake areas on thyroid diseases was analyzed. Results: A total of 78 470 adults were included, including 39 893 in the area of moderate iodine, 28 779 in the area of adequate iodine, and 9 798 in the area of excessive iodine.In the above three regions, the prevalence of subclinical hyperthyroidism (hyperthyroidism) was 0.45% (95% CI : 0.39%-0.52%), 0.50%(95% CI : 0.35%-0.70%)and 0.27%(95% CI : 0.20%-0.35%), respectively, with statistical significance( χ ²=6.92, P =0.003). The prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism (hypothyroidism) was 11.36% (95% CI : 10.73%-12.02%), 13.57%(95% CI : 11.70%-15.69%) and 16.18%(95% CI : 12.41%-20.82%), respectively, with statistical significance( χ ²=5.08, P =0.009). The prevalence rates of Graves' disease, TPOAb, goiter and thyroid nodule among the three regions were statistically significant (all P <0.05). There were no significant differences in the prevalence of clinical hyperthyroidism and clinical hypothyroidism and the positive rate of TgAb among the three regions (all P >0.05). Multivariate logistic regression model analysis showed that excess iodine was a risk factor for subclinical hypothyroidism ( OR =1.24, 95% CI : 1.06-1.44), and a protective factor for thyroid nodules ( OR =0.73, 95% CI : 0.57-0.94). Iodine overdose was a risk factor for subclinical hypothyroidism ( OR =1.47, 95% CI : 1.08-2.01), while it was a protective factor for subclinical hyperthyroidism ( OR =0.56, 95% CI : 0.41-0.77), and TPOAb positive ( OR =0.93, 95% CI : 0.87-0.99), goiter ( OR =0.33, 95% CI : 0.17-0.66) and thyroid nodule ( OR =0.77, 95% CI : 0.61-0.97). Conclusions: There are significant differences in the prevalence of subclinical hyperthyroidism, subclinical hypothyroidism, positive TPOAb, thyroid nodule and goiter in different iodine intake regions. Different iodine intake levels have an effect on the incidence of thyroid diseases.

Objective: To explore the relationship between age at menarche and general obesity (based on BMI) and central obesity (based on WC or WHtR) in middle-aged and elderly women in China. Methods: A total of 6 363 women from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were included. Restricted cubic splines based on binary logistic regressions were used to analyze the relationship between age at menarche and the risk of obesity. Age at menarche was divided into four groups: ≤13, 14- (control group), 16- , and ≥18 years old. Binary logistic regressions were applied to analyze the relationship between the continuous or grouped variable of age at menarche and the risk of obesity. Results: After adjusting potential confounders, the age at menarche showed a negative linear relationship with the risk of general obesity and central obesity. The risk for obesity based on BMI, WC and WHtR significantly decreased by 6% ( OR= 0.94, 95% CI : 0.90-0.99), 4% ( OR= 0.96, 95% CI : 0.92-1.00), and 6% ( OR= 0.94, 95% CI : 0.90-0.99) for each 1 year increase in age at menarche. Compared with participants who had menarche at age 14- years old, the risk for obesity based on BMI ( OR= 0.71, 95% CI : 0.55-0.91), WC ( OR= 0.75, 95% CI : 0.62-0.92) and WHtR ( OR= 0.76, 95% CI : 0.61-0.96) significantly decreased by 29%, 25%, and 24% in participants who had menarche at age ≥18 years old. Conclusions: There was a negative linear relationship between age at menarche and the risk for general obesity and central obesity in middle-aged and elderly women in China. Older age at menarche might be negatively associated with risk for obesity in middle-aged and elderly women.

Objective: To explore the medication compliance for secondary prevention drugs and long-term prognosis of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) between hospitals in different regions of China. Methods: The Optimal Antiplatelet Therapy for Chinese Patients with Coronary Artery Disease (OPT-CAD) study was a prospective, multi-center and registered study. Patients diagnosed as ACS and underwent PCI in OPT-CAD study were selected. Taking the Yangtze River as the dividing line between the south and the north of China, these patients were divided into two groups according to the hospitals where the patients visited, namely the southerns region group ( n =1 958) and the northerns region group ( n =5 091). In order to reduce selection bias and potential confounding factors, the patients in the two groups were matched by the tendency score, and the patients in the two groups were matched by the 1: 1 nearest match method according to the tendency score. The main endpoint of this study was the major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) occurring within 5 years after discharge, namely the composite endpoint of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, and/or ischemic stroke. Secondary endpoints were all-cause death, cardiac death, myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and type 2, 3, and 5 bleeding events defined by the Academic Research Consortium on Hemorrhage (BARC) within 5 years. The secondary preventive drugs was recorded, including antiplatelet drugs, statins, beta blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensinⅡreceptor blockers (ACEI/ARB), etc. Before and after the matching, the secondary preventive medication and the incidence of clinical events of the two groups were compared. Results: A total of 7 049 ACS patients, including 1 958 patients in the southern region group and 5 091 patients in the northern region group were enrolled in this study. There were 5 319 males (37.9%), and the aged was (60.7±6.7) years. After propensity score matching, there were 1 324 cases in each group. Before matching, in the northern region group, the proportion of smoking, hypertension and diabetes, previous history (myocardial infarction, PCI and stroke) and family history of coronary heart disease were higher (all P <0.05). The proportion of complex lesions, diffuse lesions, small vessel lesions and thrombotic lesions in the northern region group was higher than that in the southern region group (all P <0.05). Sixty months after discharge, the antiplatelet patterns were quite different between patients in the northern and southern region group ( P <0.001). The proportion of clopidogrel monotherapy in the southern region group was higher than that in the northern region group (9.8% (130/1324) vs. 1.1% (14/1324)), while the proportion of aspirin monotherapy in the northern region group was higher than that in the southern region group (67.4% (893/1324) vs. 46.5% (616/1324)). As for the use of other secondary prophylactic drugs, the proportion of patients in southern region group receiving beta blockers (24.5% (325/1324) vs. 16.8% (222/1324), P <0.001) and ACEI/ARB (19.4% (257/1324) vs. 10.0% (133/1324), P <0.001) was higher than that in northern region group. After matching, the incidence of MACCE (8.4%(111/1 324) vs.6.2% (82/1 324), P =0.030) and BARC 2, 3 and 5 bleeding (6.0% (80/1 324) vs. 4.0% (53/1 324), P =0.020) was higher in patients in northern region group. Conclusions: ACS patients who undergo PCI in northern area hospital is at higher prevalence of comorbidities and complicated coronary artery lesions compared to patients in the southern area hospital, and the drug compliance is worse than that in southern area, and the prognosis is also relatively poor.

Objective Genetic variants in FH (complement factor H) were reported to associate with susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This study proposed that the genetic defects of FH in the susceptibility and in the development of lupus nephritis might be different. Methods This study enrolled 334 lupus nephritis patients, 269 SLE patients without clinical renal involvement and 350 controls. Two-step genotyping was performed. First, all the exons of the FH gene were fully sequenced in 100 lupus nephritis patients and 100 healthy controls. Second, genotyping of three common variants reported to be functional, rs1061170, rs800292 and rs6677604, was conducted in all the recruited individuals. Further, analysis of their associations with SLE/lupus nephritis susceptibility and the clinico-pathological parameters in the lupus nephritis group was performed. Results No significant differences were observed in allele and genotype frequencies of the three single nucleotide polymorphisms between lupus patients and controls. There was a significantly higher ratio of CC/CT genotypes of rs1061170 in lupus nephritis patients with class III than in the other two classes (class III vs. class IV vs. class V: 21.0% vs. 9.7% vs. 9.4%; P = .044). The rs6677604-GG genotype was observed to be associated with the absence of anti-ds DNA antibody ( P = .021), and the rs800292-TT genotype was associated with a higher level of circulating C3 ( P = 0.20) in lupus nephritis. Conclusion In an independent cohort, this is the first genetic association analysis focusing on FH genetic variants in Chinese lupus nephritis patients. It was found that the variants in the FH gene might affect the histopathologic subtypes and some clinical features of the disease.

Objectives: To report the clinical, laboratory, and histological characteristics in a cohort of 28 Chinese patients with immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD)., Method: The patients were admitted to, or were out-patients in, Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) between January 2011 and May 2012 according to the criteria for IgG4-RD. Clinical presentations, imaging studies, serum Ig subclass assays, and histological examinations were performed in all patients., Results: The 28 patients (male-to-female ratio 1.8:1) enrolled in this study had a mean age at onset of disease of 51.5 years and the duration of symptoms before diagnosis was 20.4 months; 57% of the patients presented with a history of allergic disease. The most common symptoms were salivary and lacrimal gland swelling, and abdominal pain. Most patients (93%) presented with multiple organ involvement. Elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were observed in 16 (57%) and seven (25%) patients, respectively. The mean serum IgG4 level was 1142.3 mg/dL (range 149-3870 mg/dL). Eosinophilia was noted in 11 (39%) patients. IgE levels were elevated in all of eight patients examined. Lymphocyte and plasma cell infiltration and IgG4-positive plasma cell infiltration, together with tissue fibrosis, were the predominant histological findings. Most patients (93%) were given prednisone (0.5-0.8 mg/kg/day). Immunosuppressive agents were administered in 19 (68%) patients. Patients were followed for a mean of 6.3 months; efficacy was noted in more than 90% of cases., Conclusions: IgG4-RD is a chronic, systemic, multiorgan inflammatory disorder. IgG4-RD patients generally response well to glucocorticoids but the treatment should be individualized.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the C1qA gene region with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a Chinese Han population., Methods: Chinese SLE patients (n = 748) and ethnically- and geographically-matched healthy controls (n = 750) were genotyped for the C1qA region SNPs, rs172378 and rs665691, by using the Sequenom MassArray system., Results: The Chinese Han SLE patients and controls had statistically similar frequencies of alleles, genotypes, and haplotypes of C1qA polymorphisms. Moreover, no association signal was detected on different genetic models (additive, dominant, and recessive) or in SLE subgroups stratified by various clinical manifestations., Conclusions: The C1qA SNPs, rs172378 and rs665691, confer no genetic predisposition to SLE in a Chinese Han population.