Research progress on the structure of crystal protein of Bacillus thuringiensis and its mechanism / 中国热带医学

@#Abstract: Mosquitoes are involved in the transmission of serious diseases such as malaria, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, Zika virus disease, and filariasis, and their prevention and control have always been a research hotspot. Currently, mosquito control methods mainly include physical control, chemical control and biological control. Physical control methods are environmentally friendly, but they are slow to take effect and have unsatisfactory control effects; although chemical control can quickly eliminate mosquitoes, it has been eliminated due to its high pollution, high residual, and easy drug resistance; biological control uses natural enemies or pathogens to kill mosquitoes and reduce their ability to transmit disease. Therefore, environmentally friendly biological control has become the main measure for controlling and preventing mosquitoes. In recent years, significant progress has been made in bacterial mosquito control agents, among which Bacillus thuringiensis has been the most extensively studied. Bacillus thuringiensis is a Gram-positive soil microorganism, which is the pathogenic bacterium of a variety of agricultural pests such as Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera. During the sporulation process, its strains produce a variety of insecticidal crystal proteins (ICPs) or δ-endotoxins with insecticidal activity against mosquito larvae. This review firstly introduces the crystal proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis, describes in detail the types and structures of crystal proteins in detail, and also reveals the mechanism of action of crystal proteins related to receptors.

Natural anti-phytopathogenic fungi compound phenol, 2, 4-bis (1, 1-dimethylethyl) from Pseudomonas fluorescens TL-1

A strain was isolated from tobacco phylloplane and preliminarily identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens TL-1, which had the visible inhibition against ten plant pathogenic fungi, viz., Curvularia lunata, Bipolaris maydis, Valsa mali, Rhizoctonia solani, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Botrytis cinerea, Alternaria alternate, Fusarium oxysporum and Verticillium dahlia in dual culture experiments. The ethyl acetate extract of nutrient broth seeded with Pseudomonas fluorescens TL-1 suspension was separated into fifty-nine fractions by the Sephadex LH-20 column and the antifungal activity of each fraction was tested with paper disc diffusion method against Curvularia lunata. The results showed that fraction 1 to 3 had the strongest inhibitory effects on Curvularia lunata. Furthermore, GC/MS analysis of the constituents of fraction 1 to 59 confirmed that phenol, 2, 4-bis (1, 1-dimethylethyl) was the active compound for the antifungal activity from Pseudomonas fluorescens TL-1.

Correlation between body fat percentage with physical fitness in female college students / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To reveal the relationship between physical fitness and body fat percentage (BFP) among female college students.@*Methods@#During March 2017, BFP and fat free mass were measured among 633 randomly selected healthy female college students. All subjects were divided into five groups based on BFP: low weight, normal weight, high body fat, grade I obesity and grade II/III obesity. Grip strength, leg strength, back strength, vital capacity, maximal oxygen uptake, reaction time, sitandreach, back scratch and standing on one foot with closed eyes were tested.@*Results@#There were significant differences between all groups in grip strength, back strength, vital capacity, the absolute and relative value of VO2max, back scratch on both sides and standing on one foot with closed eyes(P<0.05). Grade I obesity group showed significant higher vital capacity, but lower relative value of VO2max, back scratch in both sides compared with normal group. Significant differences were observed in relative value of maximum oxygen uptake and back scratch in both sides between high body fat group and grade I obesity(P<0.05). Moreover, grade II/III obesity group showed significantly higher grip strength, back strength, vital capacity and absolute VO2max, but lower relative VO2max, back scratch in both sides and standing on one foot with closed eyes compared with normal and high body fat groups(P<0.05). There were significant differences in all the indicators except back strength and the relative VO2max between grade II/III obesity and grade I obesity group(P<0.05).@*Conclusion@#The results showed that physical fitness of female college students with normal body fat percentage is significantly better than that of obese peers. Body fat percentage confers damage for cardiopulmonary endurance fitness and upper limb flexibility fitness when higher than 30% and for balance fitness when higher than 35%.

Evaluation of cardiopulmonary function by using exercise heart rate variability index in male college students / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To explore and evaluate a simple and useful indicator for cardiopulmonary function assessment.@*Methods@#College male students were enrolled and received leg lifting (in 30 s, 40 s, 60 s) test and t rhythm squat test (20 times/30 s, 30 times/30 s, 30 times/30 s). Exercise heart rate variability index (EHVI) and heart function index (HFI) was calculated and explored its association with vital capacity and to determine the validity and reliability of cardiopulmonary function indicators through Kappa-tests.@*Results@#No significant associations were found between Leg lifting and squat with absolute and relative vital capacity. Correlation between HFI in rhythm squat test with VO-2max was below 0.2, with some being non-significant. Low but significant correlation was found between EHVI in leg lifting test, especially for EHVI of 60 s leg lifting(r=0.47, P<0.01). The Kappa test showed good consistency between the two measures(Kappa=0.76, P<0.01).@*Conclusion@#Exercise heart rate variability index (EHVI) from 60s leg lifting test can be used as a simple indicator for cardiopulmonary function assessment in male college students.

Dexamethasone in the prophylaxis of radiation-induced pain deterioration after pallia-tive radiotherapy for bone metastases from lung cancer / 中国肿瘤临床

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of dexamethasone in alleviating radiation-induced pain deterioration follow-ing palliative radiotherapy in patients with bone metastases from lung cancer. Methods:A total of 103 patients with bone metastases from lung cancer were randomly assigned into the observation group (n=51) and the control group (n=52). Dexamethasone (5 mg, iv) or placebo (saline, 1 mL) was administered after radiation. The incidence of pain deterionation in the two groups was compared. Re-sults:Of the 51 cases in observation group, 13 (25%) had pain deterioration. While 20 patients (38%) experienced aggravated pain in the control group (P=0.03). Conclusion:Dexamethasone alleviated pain deterioration in patients with bone metastases from lung can-cer following palliative radiotherapy, which needs to be confirmed by further studies.

Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Ameliorate Lung Injury through Anti-inflammatory and Antibacterial Effect in COPD Mice / 华中科技大学学报（医学）（英德文版）

The anti-inflammatory and antibacterial mechanisms of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) ameliorating lung injury in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mice induced by cigarette smoke and Haemophilus Parainfluenza (HPi) were studied.The experiment was divided into four groups in vivo:control group,COPD group,COPD+HPi group,and COPD+HPi+MSCs group.The indexes of emphysematous changes,inflammatory reaction and lung injury score,and antibacterial effects were evaluated in all groups.As compared with control group,emphysematous changes were significantly aggravated in COPD group,COPD+HPi group and COPD+HPi+MSCs group (P＜0.01),the expression of necrosis factor-kappaB (NF-κB) signal pathway and proinflammatory cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were increased (P＜0.01),and the phagocytic activity of alveolar macrophages was downregulated (P＜0.01).As compared with COPD group,lung injury score,inflammatory cells and proinflammatory cytokines were significantly increased in the BALF of COPD+HPi group and COPD+HPi+MSCs group (P＜0.01).As compared with COPD+HPi group,the expression of tumor necrosis factor-α stimulated protein/gene 6 (TSG-6) was increased,the NF-κB signal pathway was depressed,proinflammatory cytokine was significantly reduced,the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 was increased,and lung injury score was significantly reduced in COPD+HPi+MSCs group.Meanwhile,the phagocytic activity of alveolar macrophages was significantly enhanced and bacterial counts in the lung were decreased.The results indicated cigarette smoke caused emphysematous changes in mice and the phagocytic activity of alveolar macrophages was decreased.The lung injury of acute exacerbation of COPD mice induced by cigarette smoke and HPi was alleviated through MSCs transplantation,which may be attributed to the fact that MSCs could promote macrophages into anti-inflammatory phenotype through secreting TSG-6,inhibit NF-κB signaling pathway,and reduce inflammatory response through reducing proinflammatory cytokines and promoting the expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine.Simultaneously,MSCs could enhance phagocytic activity of macrophages and bacterial clearance.Meanwhile,we detected anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activity of macrophages regulated by MSCs in vitro.As compared with RAW264.7+HPi+CSE group,the expression of NF-κB p65,IL-1β,IL-6 and TNF-α was significantly reduced,and the phagocytic activity of macrophages was significantly increased in RAW264.7+HPi+CSE+MSCs group (P＜0.01).The result indicated the macrophages co-cultured with MSCs may inhibit NF-κB signaling pathway and promote phagocytosis by paracrine mechanism.

Screening of freshwater fungi for decolorizing multiple synthetic dyes

Abstract The biodegradation of synthetic dyes by fungi is emerging as an effective and promising approach. In the present study, freshwater fungal strains isolated from submerged woods were screened for the decolorization of 7 synthetic dyes. Subsequently, 13 isolates with high decolorization capability were assessed in a liquid system; they belonged to 9 different fungal species. Several strains exhibited a highly effective decolorization of multiple types of dyes. New absorbance peaks appeared after the treatment with 3 fungal strains, which suggests that a biotransformation process occurred through fungal biodegradation. These results showed the unexploited and valuable capability of freshwater fungi for the treatment of dye-containing effluents. The ability of certain fungi to decolorize dyes is reported here for the first time.

Apoptosis of Alveolar Wall Cells in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients with Pulmonary Emphysema Is Involved in Emphysematous Changes / 华中科技大学学报（医学）（英德文版）

s of alveolar wall cells, espe-cially apoptosis of type-Ⅱ cells, may take part in the pathogenesis of emphysema. Up-regulation of Bax expression may be responsible for the apoptosis of alveolar wall cells in the COPD patients with pulmonary emphysema.