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An abstract of the article "Combination US-Guided Cutting-Needle Biopsy and Standard Pleural Biopsy for Diagnosis of Unilateral Pleural Effusions: A Novel Approach," by Jinlin Wang and colleagues is presented.

This research aimed to explore the effect of sturgeon head soup, made by high-pressure liquefaction after cooking, in promoting milk secretion in rats with postpartum hypogalactia. Lactating Wistar rats were randomly assigned into blank, bromocriptine-induced hypogalactia, positive control (whey + seabass power), and experimental (sturgeon head soup) groups (n = 6). After 14 days of oral administration, the changes in body mass and milk secretion were investigated. Mammary gland morphology, related hormone levels and protein expression were measured by hematoxylin eosin (HE) staining, immunohistochemistry, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The results showed that for the experimental group, an increase in the secretion of proteins that showed a brownish yellow in immunohistochemical analysis was observed in the mammary glandular ducts and acini along with a decrease in the number of adipose connective tissue between the mammary glandular lobules compared with the model group. Milk productivity, mammary gland to body mass ratio, and percent body mass gain of the whole litter of suckling rats were significantly increased in the experimental group (P < 0.05). The levels of prolactin (PRL), prolactin receptor (PRLR), β-casein (β-CN), α-lactalbumin (α-LA), lactose synthase (LS) and fatty acid synthase (FAS) were significantly elevated in the maternal serum and mammary tissue. The mRNA expression of the genes regulating the synthesis of β-CN and FAS in the mammary gland was significantly up-regulated compared with the model group. These results suggest that sturgeon head soup can promote milk secretion in rats with postpartum hypogalactia, and the underlying mechanism may be related to increasing the contents of PRL and PRLR and promoting the expression of β-CN, α-LA and FAS.

Vaccine-induced protective T cell immunity is necessary for HIV-1 functional cure. We previously reported that rhesus PD1-Gag-based DNA vaccination sustained simian- human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) suppression by inducing effector-memory CD81 T cells. Here, we investigated a human PD1-Gag-based DNA vaccine, namely, ICVAX, for clinical translation. PD1-based dendritic cell targeting and mosaic antigenic designs were combined to generate the ICVAX by fusing the human soluble PD1 domain with a bivalent HIV-1 Gag-p41 mosaic antigen. The mosaic antigen was cross-reactive with patients infected with B, CRF07/08_BC, and CRF01_AE variants. In mice, ICVAX elicited stronger, broader, and more polyfunctional T cell responses than mosaic Gag-p41 alone, and suppressed EcoHIV infection more efficiently. In macaques, ICVAX elicited polyfunctional effector-memory T cell responses that targeted multiple nonoverlapping epitopes of the Gag-p41 antigen. Furthermore, ICVAX manufactured following good manufacturing practices proved potent immunogenicity in macaques after biannual homologous vaccination, warranting clinical evaluation of ICVAX as an immunotherapy against HIV-1. IMPORTANCE This study presents that ICVAX, a PD1-based DNA vaccine against HIV-1, could induce broad and polyfunctional T cell responses against different HIV-1 subtypes. ICVAX encodes a recombinant antigen consisting of the human soluble PD1 domain fused with two mosaic Gag-p41 antigens. The mosaic antigens cover more than 500 HIV-1 strains circulating in China including the subtypes B/B’, CRF01_AE, and CRF07/08_BC. In mice, ICVAX elicited stronger, broader, and more polyfunctional T cell responses, with better EcoHIV suppression than the nontargeting mosaic Gag-p41 DNA vaccine. Moreover, both lab-generated and GMP-grade ICVAX also elicited strong polyfunctional effector-memory T cell responses in rhesus macaques with good immunogenicity against multiple nonoverlapping epitopes of the Gag-p41 antigen. This study therefore highlights the great potential to translate the PD1- based DNA vaccine approach into clinical use, and opens up new avenues for alternative HIV-1 vaccine design for HIV-1 preventive and functional cure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]