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Guo-Shuai Lin,* Mao-Mao Zhao,* Xiao-Qing Li, Hong-Xia Yu Department of Infectious Disease, Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong, 264000, People’s Republic of China*The authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hong-Xia Yu, Department of Infectious Disease, Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong, 264000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 15053573266, Email yuhongxiag6d@163.comBackground: Infective endocarditis (IE) can be caused by a variety of pathogens. Endocarditis due to the Coxiella burnetii (C. burnetii) infection is common in patients with negative blood culture results and usually occurs in patients with previous valvular heart disease, impaired immune function, and during pregnancy. The diagnosis is difficult based on the conventional diagnostic method, and serious adverse outcomes may occur in the case of delayed diagnosis.Case Report: In the present study, a case of a 43-year-old male patient with previous valvular heart disease was reported. The patient was admitted with a diagnosis of IE, but the etiology was unclear. Accurate diagnosis and treatment were achieved by combining metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) with Q fever serological antibody assay.Conclusion: Metagenomic next-generation sequencing has been increasingly applied in clinical practice in recent years to detect the DNA or RNA in samples, and this could play a decisive role in the etiological diagnosis of some infectious diseases.Keywords: Q fever, endocarditis, diagnosis, metagenomic next-generation sequencing

Introduction: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a global disease responsible for a large number of deaths, with significant economic impact. As diagnostic tools have increased in sensitivity, understanding of the etiology of CAP has begun to change. Mycoplasma pneumoniae is one of the major pathogens causing CAP. Macrolides and related antibiotics are first-line treatments for M. pneumoniae. Macrolide resistance has been spreading for 15 years and now occurs in worldwide. We undertook the first study on macrolide resistance of M. pneumoniae in Yantai. This may be helpful to determine the appropriate therapy for CAP in this population. Objective: To investigate the rate and mechanism of macrolide resistance in Yantai. Methods: Pharyngeal swab samples were collected from adult CAP patients. Samples were assayed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and cultivated to test for M. pneumoniae. Nested PCR was used to specifically amplify M. pneumoniae 23S rRNA gene fragments containing mutations, and amplicons were analyzed by CE-SSCP for macrolide resistance mutations. Results were confirmed by sequencing. Twenty-seven strains of M. pneumoniae were isolated and the activities of nine antibiotics against M. pneumoniae were tested in vitro. Results: Out of 128 samples tested, 27 were positive for M. pneumoniae. Mycoplasma 100% macrolides resistance to Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The mechanism of macrolides resistance was A2063G point mutation in the sequence directly binding to macrolides in the 23S rRNA V domain in vitro. The mean pyretolytic time for the fluoroquinolone group was 4.7 ±2.9 d, which was significantly shorter than 8.2 ±4.1 d for the azithromycin group. Conclusions: Macrolides are not the first-line treatment for M. pneumoniae respiratory tract infections in Yantai. Resumen Introducción: Neumonía adquirida por en la comunidad (NAC) es una enfermedad responsable por un gran número de muertes y un impacto económico importante. Debido a que el diagnostico incrementó la sensibilidad, se cambió la etiología de la NAC. Adicionalmente, Mycoplasma pneumoniae es uno de los patógenos que causan la NAC. Los macrólidos y antibióticos relacionados son la primera línea de tratamiento para M. pneumoniae. La resistencia a macrólidos se aumentó en los últimos 15 años y ahora se encuentra distribuido en todo el mundo. Nosotros realizamos el primer estudio de resitencia a M. pneumoniae a los macrólidos en Yantai. Esto podría ser útil para determinar una terapia apropiada para NAC en esta población. Objetivo: Investigar la tasa y el mecanismo para la resitencia a los macrólidos en Yantai. Métodos: Se colectaron muestras faringeas usando un hisopo. Las muestras se analizaron mediante la reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR) y por cultivo para M. pneumoniae. Se uso una PCR anidad para amplificar fragmentos del gen 23S rRNA especifico con las mutaciones para M. pneumoniae. Se analizaron amplicomes por CE-SSCP para determinar la resitencia a los macrólidos. Estos resultados se confirmaron por secuenciación. Se aislaron 27 cepas de M. pneumoniae y se probaron nueve antibióticos in vitro. Resultados: De 128 muestras, 27 fueron positivas para M. pneumoniae. Se determinó una resistencia a macrólidos por Mycoplasma del 100%. Los mecanismos de esta resitencia fue una mutacion punctual A2063G en la secuencia que se une directamente a los macrólidos en el dominio 23S rRNA V in vitro. El tiempo piotolítico medio para el grupo de fluoroquinolonas fue 4.7 ±2.9 d, que fue significativamente más corto que para el grupo de azitromicina: 8.2 ±4.1 d. Conclusiones: Los macrólidos no son la primera linea de tratamiento para las infecciones del tracto respiratorio contra M. pneumoniae respiratory tract infections en Yantai.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common viral infection of the reproductive tract, which can increase the risk of cervical cancer. Development of HPV-specific vaccines that can be recognized and presented by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system is considered as an important approach to prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. In this study, a combination of bioinformatics analysis and peptide binding assay was described to identify potential cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes from the HPV genome. In the procedure, a structure-based quantitative structure–activity relationship (SB-QSAR) was used to analyze the intermolecular interactions between HLA proteins and peptide epitopes, and the obtained nonbonded descriptors were then correlated linearly and nonlinearly with HLA–peptide affinities by using partial least squares regression and support vector machine, respectively. Several SB-QSAR models were established and evaluated rigorously, from which the best predictor was applied to virtual screening against thousands of nonapeptide segments generated from the HPV-16 genome. With this protocol a number of peptide ligands were inferred to have high affinity for a variety of frequently observed HLA-A alleles, including 0101, 0201, 0202, 0203, 0206 and 0301, from which several promising candidates were selected and tested in vitro to determine their binding strength toward HLA proteins. Consequently, several peptides were identified as potent HLA binders with half-maximal binding BL50 at micromolar level. The molecular mechanism underlying the high-affinity binding of identified peptide ligands to HLA proteins was also investigated in detail.

Tumor–stroma interactions contribute greatly to intratumoral estrogen biosynthesis in endometrial carcinoma, but the mechanisms involved remain largely unknown. Previous study demonstrated that intratumoral aromatase upregulation in stromal cells participated in this process, but the specific aromatase-regulators have not been reported. In the present study, we found that aromatase expression in intratumoral stroma, but not in tumor epithelium, correlated positively with interleukin 6 (IL-6) expression in cancer epithelial cells by immunohistochemistry, which was confirmed using laser capture microdissection/real-time reverse transcription-PCR. With stimulation by exogenous IL-6, aromarase expression was increased in stromal cells not but not in cancer cells. Aromatase mRNA levels in endometrial cancer cells were not influenced by cocultivation with intratumoral stromal cells. When cocultured with 17b-estradiol (E2)-treated cancer cells, aromatase mRNA in stromal cells was significantly elevated and increased IL-6 protein levels were detected in E2-treated culture medium. Next, we demonstrated that E2-induced IL-6 production was through cooperation between estrogen receptor a and nuclear factor-kappa B. Furthermore, an IL-6 receptor blocking antibody could attenuate the upregulation of aromatase expression in stromal cells and the E2 concentration in coculture systems of cancer and stromal cells. The results were confirmed by an orthotopic nude endometrial carcinoma model in vivo. These studies elucidated the activation of a positive feedback loop, that is, IL-6 stimulated by E2 in endometrial cancer cells induced aromatase expression in stromal cells, promoting enhanced intratumoral E2 synthesis. Blocking of this tumor–stroma interaction may be a therapeutic strategy to overcome in situ estrogen biosynthesis in endometrial carcinoma.

ObjectiveTo explore the relationship between IL-1β, IL-1Ra gene polymorphism and the occurrence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) infertility.MethodsA total of 59 PCOS infertility cases visiting the reproductive center of our hospital from Mar. 2010 to Mar. 2012 and 56 healthy women were selected. ELISA method was used for the detection of IL-1β, IL-1Ra levels, and the levels of serum supersensitivity C reaction protein (US-CRP), insulin (FINS), follicule-stimulating hormone (FSH) and fasting blood-glucose (FBG) were detected. PCR analysis technology was adopted to detect the gene polymorphism of the 511 site of IL-1β and the second introne of IL-1Ra.ResultsThe levels of IL-1β, IL-1Ra, US-CRP, FINS and FBG in blood serum of patients in PCOS group were significantly higher than those in control group (P

In this study, microwave heating was used for the preparation of stearate-carboxymethyl konjac glucomannan ester (SCMK), which introduced hydrophilic carboxymethyl and hydrophobic stearate groups on konjac glucomannan (KMG) backbone. The physico-chemical properties and structure of SCMK were investigated. Results show that the viscosity of SCMK is much lower than that of KGM, but larger slightly than the carboxymethyl konjac glucomannan (CMK) and the viscosity is still stable after being placed for 48 h at ambient temperature. Its transmittance decreases and the resistance ability of SCMK solution to salt/sugar as well as base have been significantly promoted. Moreover, SCMK with substitution degree (DS) of 0.02 is proved to be a sound oil/water emulsifier which its HLB value is 13.01. In FTIR spectrum, the absorption peak of SCMK decreases at 2161.84 cm-1 and 2360.74 cm-1. Meanwhile, TGA indicates that SCMK is less thermal stable than KGM and CMK, but is still good.

As a novel porous functional material, metal rubber (MR) had many advantages of high loading capacity, high anti-blocked capacity and adjustable porosity with outside pressure made the MR more suitable as filtration material. However, there was no related study and successful application nowadays except in Russia. This study detailed investigated the filtration performance of MR including the influence of wire line diameter, porosity and molding thickness on initial pressure drop under clean liquid condition and their effects on pressure drop-flow rate property and filtration efficiency under contaminated liquid condition. The results indicate that the initial pressure drop increased with the decrease of porosity and wire line diameter, however decreased with the decrease of molding thickness when the flow was constant. Filtration drop increased significantly with the decrease of porosity. MR material made of small diameter wires showed a high filtration efficiency and large pressure drop because of its’ fine micro-pore. Filtration drop rose with the increase of molding thickness however, the filtration efficiency was little affected. These results provide a suitable guideline for further MR filter appliance and MR material research.