ABSTRACT
Mycobacterium abscessesus (MAB) is the most common species of rapidly growing pathogenic nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). MAB is also an opportunistic pathogen with high drug resistance. The unique structure of cell wall enables it to exist in different forms and to undergo morphological transformation, making it the "shapeshifter of the mycobacterial world" , which facilitates its survival in natural environment in a saprophytic manner; and also facilitates its invasion into the host with long-term survival and being pathogenic. This article reviews research progress on the specific deformability of MAB and the mechanism associated with its phenotypic transformation; discusses the evolutionary characteristics of MAB to adapt environmental changes to provide reference for better understanding the biological characteristics and pathogenicity of MAB.
ABSTRACT
Current studies have found that cognitive training has a significant effect on the improvement of training task performance in the elderly, but the training effects are difficult to transfer to untrained cognitive tasks.Recent studies have found that adaptive cognitive training can obtain better transfer effects.This article focuses on the transfer and maintenance effects of adaptive cognitive training; reviews recent research on brain mechanisms related to adaptive cognitive training; analyzes existing problems in the field, and proposes further studies to explore ways for effective implementation of adaptive cognitive training with continuously challenging tasks and to elucidate the cognitive and neural mechanisms related to the transfer effects.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Genetic variations in the interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) receptor 1 gene (IFNGR1) may contribute to tuberculosis (TB) risk in different populations. Many studies have investigated the relationship between IFNGR1 56C/T polymorphism and the susceptibility to TB, but have yielded conflicting results. A comprehensive meta-analysis is needed to provide a more accurate estimation of the relationship between them.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A literature search based on a combination of manual and computer-based methods was conducted on four English databases (PubMed, Science Direct, SpringerLink, and EBSCO) and three Chinese databases (Wanfang, CQVIP, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases). Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated using either the fixed-effects model or the random-effects model for different genetic models based on the heterogeneity examination.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of six studies comprising 1 497 confirmed TB cases and 1 802 controls were included in this meta-analysis. Overall, no significant association was observed between IFNGR1 -56C/T polymorphism and TB susceptibility (C vs. T, OR = 0.90, 95% CI 0.69-1.17; CC vs. TT, OR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.65-1.18; TC vs. TT, OR = 1.031, 95% CI 0.872-1.219; CC+TC vs. TT, OR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.64-1.26; CC vs. TC+TT, OR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.66-1.29). In subgroup analysis, a significant association was found in the dominant model (CC+TC vs. TT, OR = 1.24, 95% CI 1.02-1.51) in Africans, but not in Asians or Caucasians.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Our meta-analysis did not provide enough powerful evidence to identify a significant association between IFNGR1 -56C/T polymorphism and TB susceptibility in the overall population. In subgroup analysis, it indicates that IFNGR1 -56C/T is possibly associated with increased TB risk in Africans, but not in Asians or Caucasians. However, larger sample size and better-designed case-control studies are needed to validate these findings.</p>