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Flower-visiting beetles belonging to three species of Cetoniidae were collected on three mountains near Beijing, China, and yeasts were isolated from the gut of the insects collected. Based on the 26S rDNA D1/D2 domain and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region sequence analysis and phenotypic characterization, four novel anamorphic yeast species located in the Candida albicans/Lodderomyces elongisporus clade were identified from 18 of the strains isolated. The new species and type strains are designated as Candida blackwellae AS 2.3639(T) (=CBS 10843(T)), Candida jiufengensis AS 2.3688(T) (=CBS 10846(T)), Candida oxycetoniae AS 2.3656(T) (=CBS 10844(T)), and Candida pseudojiufengensis AS 2.3693(T) (=CBS 10847(T)). C. blackwellae sp. nov. was basal to the branch formed by C. albicans and C. dubliniensis with moderately strong bootstrap support. The closest relative of C. oxycetoniae was L. elongisporus. C. jiufengensis sp. nov. and C. pseudojiufengensis sp. nov. were closely related with each other and formed a branch in a subclade represented by C. parapsilosis and L. elongisporus.

Sha zheng quan shu (A Complete Book for Sha Disease), the famous books on sha diseases in the early Qing dynasty, did exert influence on the classification and names of the sha disease ever since. During its circulation, deletions and supplementations with frequent changes in its form and contents made its versions so diversified and lead to difficulties in both its cataloguing, inheriting and searching for its origin and development. By comparing more than dozens of its editions, four main groups of version can be recognized, among which Zhang Zhong--xin's edition was the earliest one, published four years after Wang Kai's original version completed, which could reflect the authentic appearance of Wang's original version. Shen Jin-ao re--compiled and modified Zhang's version which has several separate editions with substantial changes in its contents, book title and author's names, while He Fen revised and reprinted Zhang's version, and his version was often misunderstood as the primitive one of Wang's version due to its extensive circulation. Hu Jie made a little abridgement based on He's version with another book Sha yi lun (Treatise on Pestilent Sha Disease) included and attached.

Three methanol-utilizing yeast strains were isolated from basidiocarps of Ganoderma sp. collected from a tree trunk in Mangshan Mountain, Hunan Province, southern China. These strains formed hat-shaped ascospores in unconjugated and deliquescent asci. Sequence analysis of the large-subunit rRNA gene D1/D2 domain and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, electrophoretic karyotype comparison and phenotypic characterization demonstrated that the three strains represent a novel species of the genus Ogataea, which is described as Ogataea ganodermae sp. nov. (type strain SHS 2.1(T) =CGMCC AS 2.3435(T) =CBS 10646(T)). Phylogenetically, the novel species was closely related to Ogataea pini and Ogataea henricii. The latter two taxa with similar D1/D2 sequences were confirmed to represent separate species by ITS sequence and electrophoretic karyotype comparisons.

Objective: To probe the epidemiological trend of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and cellular immunological change of RSV bronchopneumonia among children in Suzhou in the past five years., Methods: 10,205 children with acute respiratory tract infection from January 2001 to December 2005 were enrolled into the study. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were obtained from the respiratory tract by aseptic vacuum aspiration. Direct immuno-fluorescence assay was employed to detect seven kinds of virus antigens including RSV antigen. CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19, CD16 and CD56 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 30 patients with RSV bronchopneumonia (1.5-24.0 months old group) were analyzed by flow cytometry analysis, and 15 normal infants (1.5-24.0 months old group) were enrolled as control group., Results: The annual positive rate of RSV was 24.94%, 25.83%, 24.05%, 25.39% and 27.30% respectively from 2001 to 2005. It also found that the peak season for RSV infection was spring or winter (January to March or November to December). The positive rate of RSV was significantly higher in 1-12 months old group than that in > 12 months old group (chi2 = 97.320, P < 0.01), as well as the groups between 1-12 months old (chi2 = 7.804, P < 0.05, the highest positive rate was occurred at 3-6 months old group). The positive rate of RSV was significantly higher in boys than that in girls (chi2 = 9.693, P < 0.01). The percentages of CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and NK (CD16 + 56)+ cells were significantly lower in RSV bronchopneumonia than those in control group (t = 3.199, P < 0.01; t = 2.215, P < 0.05; t = 2.619, P < 0.05 and t = 5.240, P < 0.01, respectively). While the percentage of CD19+ cells was significantly elevated in RSV bronchopneumonia than that in control group (t = 2.875, P < 0.01)., Conclusion: RSV infection is of obvious seasonal changes. The younger the patient, the higher positive rates of RSV infection is, while and the cellular immunity function is lower. The effective measures for preventing RSV infection are important, especially for the infants. Further investigation is necessary to understand the causes of the variations for RSV infections between boys and girls.

Objective: Previous studies have shown that bacillus calmette-guerin (BCG) can deviate TH2 response toward TH1 response, resulting in a suppressive effect on the development of asthma/atopy. This study examined the effect of BCG treatment on regulatory T cells in asthmatic mice to investigate the possible mechanism., Methods: Kunming mice were sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA) to establish asthmatic models. Asthmatic mice were injected intradermally with BCG five days before and after sensitization. After 24 hrs of last challenge, bronchoaveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and peripheral blood were collected . The total cells and eosinophils were counted in the BALF. The percentage of CD4(+) CD25(+) in peripheral blood was detected with flow cytometry. Single spleen cell suspension was prepared and cultured in 1640 medium for 48 hrs and then the cytokine IL-10 level in the supernatant was determined using ELISA. The mice which were challenged with normal saline were used as the Normal control group., Results: The number of total cells and eosinophils in BALF in asthmatic mice [(27.27 +/- 5.36) x 10(7)/L and (6.59 +/- 1.32) x 10(7)/L respectively] were more than in the Normal control group [(1.52 +/- 0.36) x 10(7)/L and zero respectively] (P < 0.01). The number of total cells and eosinophils in BALF in asthmatic mice were reduced after BCG treatment [(13.71 +/- 3.17) x 10(7)/L and (1.43 +/- 0.37) x 10(7)/L respectively] (P < 0.01). The percentage of CD4(+) CD25(+) in peripheral blood of asthmatic mice [(11.59 +/- 1.33)%] was noticeably lower than that of the Control group [(13.66 +/- 1.68)%] (P < 0.01), but increased significantly in asthmatic mice after BCG treatment [(14.40 +/- 2.70)%] (P < 0.05). The IL-10 level in spleen cell supernatant in the BCG-treated group (7.79 +/- 1.34 pg/mL) also increased compared with that in the untreated asthmatic mice (5.54 +/- 0.66 pg/mL) (P < 0.01)., Conclusions: BCG can markedly inhibit the airway inflammation in asthmatic mice possibly by promoting the production of regulatory T cells.

Objective: With the improvement of the diagnosis and treatment, the complete remission (CR) rate and the survival rate of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia have been increased in the recent 10 years. The objective of this study was to analyze the outcomes of 119 standard-risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (SR-ALL) patients, and explore how to improve the survival rate in ALL., Methods: A total of 119 patients aged 14 months to 15 years were diagnosed as SR-ALL according to the Suggestion of Diagnosis And Treatment for Childhood Acute Leukemia-1993. Among them, seventy-nine were boys and 40 were girls. All of the patients were treated with the CCLG-97 protocol and were followed up for a period of 20 approximately 78 months., Results: The complete remission rate reached 97.4% in four-week induction. Twenty-one patients were out of follow-up, comprising 63%, 14%, 10%, 8% and 5% of all subjects in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002, respectively. The overall survival rates were 93.3%, 90.2%, 88.0%, 85.0%, 85.0% and 85.0% in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years and 5 years, respectively. Relapses occurred in 13 patients (13.8%). Among 9 isolated hematologic relapses, 5 patients (56%) were given irregular therapy, 2 did not reach CR within 4 weeks and relapsed 2 years later, 2 accepted regular therapy, 1 was of hypodiploidy and 1 T-ALL. Isolated central nervous system (CNS) relapse occurred in 4 patients (4.3%). Fifteen patients (12.6%) died, 5 of whom (4.2%) died of complications., Conclusion: Reinforcing administration and regular therapy are important to improve the long-term survival rate in childhood ALL. The clinical classification should be adjusted with the improvement of diagnostic methods. CCLG-97 protocol decreased the rate of the relapses in SR-ALL and didn't increase the rate of therapy-related death. High-dose methotrexate should be used in therapy and its dosage, usage and individualized therapeutic regimen should be further studied.

With the increasing incidence and mortality of fungal infection, the requirements for strict diagnostic approaches became a very urgent issue. Because of the traditional detective techniques, such as culture, gave poor diagnostic outcomes, the molecular biological techniques are expected to develop the potential diagnostic approaches. During the past decades, we have carried out serial studies on the molecular properties of pathogenic fungi, and we would like to review as following. Firstly, we applied several molecular tools in classification and identification of pathogenic fungi. We performed random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and other techniques in studying the typing, to classify and identify the properties of Dermatophytes, Candida spp., Cryptococcus neoformans, Dematiaceous fungi, and Aspergillus spp. Interestingly, we found the same T. rubrum strain might infect different sites of the host, while a site-specificity displayed in T. mentagrophytes. This finding indicated the genetic discrepancies among the fungi. Beside, we also found that the E. dermatitis strains with different virulences possessed some discrepancies at gene level. We then developed a PCR-based molecular procedure to identify the novel species in Exophiala spp. As the applicable strategy, we also investigated the rDNA sequence properties in several fungi. And as a result, we submitted for the first time to GenBank the complete sequence of Aspergillus fumigatus rDNA/ITSI/ITSII, which provided the basis for designing the species-specific probes and for its further clinical applications. Secondly, we have tried to develop the molecular diagnostic approaches based on our DNA sequence data which were used for identification studies previously. By analyzing the DNA sequence of Aspergillus fumigatus rDNA/ITSI/ITSII, we developed a nested PCR method to detect Aspergillus fumigatus genes. Our preliminary results indicated that this PCR-based molecular approach has great importance in the diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis. We also designed the species-specific probes and then established several in situ hybridization procedures. We found these hybridization methods could get the positive rate up to 81% (13/16), which suggests that these methods have potential diagnostic value for invasive candidiasis and aspergillosis. Based on our experiences, we would conclude that the molecular biological techniques possess great value to investigate the biological properties of pathogenic fungi, and we are looking forward to see more and more molecular tools will be used in the pathogenic mechanisms of fungal infections and antifungal activity studies.

Objective: To investigate the interrelations among morphology, immunology, cytogenetics and clinical outcome in childhood acute leukemia with 11q23 abnormalities., Methods: Eighteen patients with 11q23 abnormalities, from 320 childhood acute leukemia patients, were retrospectively analysed for cell morphology, flow cytometry, immunophenotyping, R-banding karyotype as well as clinical features and prognosis. Twenty cases of childhood AL with normal karyotype during the same period were used as control., Results: The incidence of 11q23 abnormalities in our childhood acute leukemia patients was 5.63% including 14 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 4 acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Of 16 cases immunophenotypically tested, 13 expressed lymphoid antigens and 3 CD(34) and other myeloid antigens. Karyotype analysis disclosed the following abnormalities: t(4; 11)(q21; q23) in 6 cases, t(10; 11)(p13; q23) in 3, t(11; 19)(q23; p13) in one and del(11)(q23) in 6. The complete remission rate for these patients with 11q23 abnormalities was comparable to that of the control (72.2% vs 80.0%, P > 0.05), while the mortality rate in the former was significantly higher than that in the latter (61.1% vs 25.0%, P < 0.05)., Conclusions: 11q23 abnormalities were mainly seen in childhood ALL and acute monocytic leukemia with unique prognostic features.

A randomised double-blind intervention trial was carried out in Huixian, Henan Province, People's Republic of China, to determine whether combined treatment with retinol, riboflavine, and zinc could lower the prevalence of precancerous lesions of the oesophagus. 610 subjects in the age group 35-64 were randomised to receive once a week the active treatment (15 mg [50 000 IU] retinol, 200 mg riboflavine, and 50 mg zinc) or placebo. Both at entry to the study and at the end of the treatment, 13.5 months later, the subjects were examined, with an emphasis on signs of vitamin A and riboflavine deficiences, and riboflavine, retinol, beta-carotene, and zinc levels were measured. Compliance was excellent. The final examination, on 567 (93%) subjects, included oesophagoscopy and at least two biopsies. The intervention did not affect the prevalence of oesophageal lesions: after one year, the prevalence of oesophagitis with or without atrophy or dysplasia was 45.3% in the placebo group and 48.9% in the vitamin/zinc treated group.