Early assessment of the safety and immunogenicity of a third dose (booster) of COVID-19 immunization in Chinese adults / 医学前沿

Inducing durable and effective immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) via vaccination is essential to combat the current pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It has been noticed that the strength of anti-COVID-19 vaccination-induced immunity fades over time, which calls for an additional vaccination regime, as known as booster immunization, to restore immunity among previously vaccinated populations. Here we report a pilot open-label trial of a third dose of BBIBP-CorV, an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (Vero cell), on 136 participants aged between 18 to 63 years. Safety and immunogenicity in terms of neutralizing antibody titers and cytokine/chemokine responses were analyzed as the main endpoint until day 28. While systemic reactogenicity was either absent or mild, SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibody titers rapidly arose in all participants within 4 weeks, surpassing the peak antibody titers elicited by the initial two-dose immunization regime. Broad increases of cellular immunity-associated cytokines and chemokines were also detected in the majority of participants after the third vaccination. Furthermore, in an exploratory study, a newly developed recombinant protein vaccine, NVSI-06-08 (CHO Cells), was found to be safe and even more effective than BBIBP-CorV in eliciting humoral immune responses in BBIBP-CorV-primed individuals. Together, these results indicate that a third immunization schedule with either homologous or heterologous vaccine showed favorable safety profiles and restored potent SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity, providing support for further trials of booster vaccination in larger populations.

Progress in genetic research on tooth agenesis associated with Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway / 中华医学遗传学杂志

Tooth agenesis is the most common form of congenital craniofacial dysplasia seen in stomatology clinics, which may be caused by genetic and/or environmental factors. Tooth development is regulated by a series of signaling pathways, and variants in any of these strictly balanced signaling cascades can result in tooth agenesis and/or other oral defects. Notably, variants of genes of the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway are important cause for both non-syndromic and syndromic tooth agenesis. This article has provided a review for the molecular genetics of tooth agenesis associated with Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway, which may shed lights on the etiology and molecular mechanism of this disease.

Comparison of therapeutic effects of different tiotropium bromide regimens in adult patients with asthma / 中国生化药物杂志

Objective To analyze the clinical effect and the related performance of different tiotropium bromide in the treatment of adult asthma patients.Methods58 patients in the Second hospital of Shandong University from August 2014 to May 2016 admitted to the adult bronchial asthma, were randomly divided into observation group and control group, each of the 29 cases of patients, two patients were taken on the basis of routine treatment of tiotropium bromide in the treatment, the observation group in each given tiotropium 5 g treatment.The control group took a day sooner or later given tiotropium 2.5 g treatment, analysis of clinical effect of two groups were compared and the related performance.ResultsThis group of patients with different delivery methods after treatment, the observation group and the control group of arterial blood gas analysis results have significant difference compared to the clinical effect compared with statistical difference (P<0.05);treatment group the effective rate of treatment group and control the efficiency compared with significant differences (P<0.05);the two groups of patients after treatment, clinical symptoms were observed in groups of patients with asthma remission time were (6.24±1.92) d, while the control group was (8.33±2.47) d, the two groups were compared with statistical difference (P<0.05).ConclusionDifferent tiotropium dosing regimen for adult patients with asthma curative effect has significant clinical effect, compared with 5 per night given tiotropium Gtherapy and its clinical effect is more obvious.