First report of Fusarium proliferatum causing Root and Bulb Rot on tiller onion (Allium cepa L. var. Agrogatum Don) in China.

Tiller onion is a biennial herb and a fascicular variety of onion. Tiller onion has strong tillering ability and can produce up to ten bulbs per plant. It is widely cultivated due to nutrition and special flavor. In July 2020, we observed a disease that seriously affected the normal growth of tiller onion in Halahai Town, Nongan County, Jilin Province, China. At least 70% of tiller onions in the field were affected by this disease. Aboveground parts of the symptomatic plants showed stunted growth, wilting and drying. Underground parts of infected plants were shown that onion increase tiller number but did not grow and expand. Root appeared red lesions and rot in severe cases. The bulb disc appeared brown to dark brown rot. Symptomatic roots were cut into 0.5 cm pieces and surface-sterilized by dipping in 75% ethanol for 60 s, 3% NaOCl for 3 min, and rinsing three times with sterile distilled water. Pieces were placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) plates and incubated at 25±1℃ for 4 days. Fifteen isolates were obtained and pure-cultured through single-sporing. On PDA plates, the colonies initially had white aerial mycelia that then turned pale purple. The color of the colonies on the back of the plates was purple. Macroconidia were hyaline, falcate and 14.4 to 38.7 × 1.2 to 3.0 µm. Microconidia were hyaline, reniform or elliptic, unicellular or bicellular and were 7.62 to 19.61 µm in length, and 3.23 to 8.41 µm in width. Based on these morphological and culture characteristics, the causal agent was tentatively identified as F. proliferatum. To confirm the pathogen identity, segments of the internal transcribed spacer region of the rRNA gene ( ITS, primers ITS4 and ITS5, White et al., 1990), ß-tubulin gene (TUB2, primers T1 and T2, O'Donnell and Cigelnik, 1997), and translation elongation factor 1-alpha gene (TEF-1α, primers EF1 and EF2 from O'Donnell et al., 1998) were amplified by PCR. Per the BLASTN search, TEF-1α (Accession No. OL355013), TUB2 (Accession No. OL355012), and ITS (Accession No. OL355011) queries showed 99.26%, 100%, and 99.82% homology to F. proliferatum GenBank accessions KU872098, MH398224, and MH997878, respectively. Pathogenicity of fifteen isolates of F. proliferatum from tiller onion was confirmed by inoculating healthy tiller onion roots and bulb disc with a spore suspension (1 × 106 spores/ml) produced on PDA. For each treatment, five plants were injected with 5 ml of spore suspension. Control plants (n=5) were injected with sterilized water. All plants were enclosed in plastic bags for 48 h in a greenhouse at 28℃ and 12 h/d light cycle. After 10 days, inoculated plants showed similar symptoms to those on the original diseased plants, while control plants remained symptomless. F. proliferatum was successfully re-isolated from symptomatic plants to fulfill Koch's postulates. Diseases caused by F. proliferatum are only reported in A. cepa. To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. proliferatum in Allium cepa L. var. agrogatum Don in China. Our findings are important for informed surveillance of the disease in China as F. proliferatum infection can not only reduce the quality and yield of tiller onion but also can contaminate the bulbs with harmful mycotoxins.

[Use of sofosbuvir-based regimens in the treatment of adolescents and children with chronic hepatitis C].

Sofosbuvir has ushered in a new era of hepatitis C treatment with its strong inhibition on the replication of hepatitis C virus, favorable safety profile and less interactions with other drugs. Sofosbuvir-based regimens have been included as the first-line therapies for the treatment of adults with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) in international guidelines. Available clinical trial data show that sofosbuvir with ribavirin and ledipasvir/sofosbuvir are highly efficacious and safe in CHC patients aged 3-17 years old; therefore, they can meet the unmet medical needs of adolescents and children with CHC in China. Furthermore, the pan-genotypic sofosbuvir/velpatasvir is being investigated in adolescents and children with CHC, which is expected to make the treatment in such patients more convenient upon approval.

Research on the correlation of changes in plasma lncRNA MEG3 with change in inflammatory factors and prognosis in patients with traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: To study the correlation between the plasma long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) and the levels of inflammatory cytokines in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to evaluate its prognosis to screen new biological targets for the diagnosis and treatment of TBI. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 40 patients with TBI (TBI group) and 40 healthy people (control group) were collected and venous blood was drawn. The plasma MEG3 in subjects was quantitatively analyzed via quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR). Moreover, the levels of inflammatory cytokines [tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), IL-6, and IL-8] in plasma in each group were detected via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Finally, the correlation analysis was performed for the MEG3 expression level and inflammatory cytokine levels in patients with TBI. Patients were divided into high-expression MEG3 group and low-expression MEG3 group, high-level inflammatory cytokine group and low-level inflammatory cytokine group according to the median, followed by prognosis evaluation. The MEG3 expression level in TBI group was significantly decreased compared to that in control group, and the levels of inflammatory cytokines in plasma, including TNF-α, IL-1ß, IL-6, and IL-8, were significantly higher than in control group. RESULTS: The results of the correlation analysis showed that the expression level of plasma MEG3 had a significantly negative correlation with the level of each inflammatory cytokine. The prognostic analysis revealed that the prognosis of patients with high MEG3 expression level and low inflammatory cytokine levels was good, while it was poor in patients with low MEG3 expression level and high inflammatory cytokine levels; the difference was significant. In patients with TBI, the expression level of plasma MEG3 is decreased, while the inflammatory cytokine levels are increased, and there is a significantly negative correlation between the two items. CONCLUSIONS: The prognosis of patients with high MEG3 expression level and low inflammatory cytokine levels is good so MEG3 and inflammatory cytokines can be used as biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment of TBI, improving the prognosis of patients.

[Analysis of the characteristics of lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood among coal worker's pneumoconiosis patients].

Objective: To preliminary analysis of the characteristics of lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood among 135 cases of coal worker's pneumoconiosis patients in Huainan mining area. Methods: The peripheral bloods of 135 cases of coal worker's pneumoconiosis patients and 112 cases of health examiners were collected. Flow cytometry was used to detect peripheral blood lymphocytes, T cell subsets and CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells. Results: Compared with the control group, CD64 index of granulocytes and lymphocytes was slightly higher. The total T cells (CD3(+)) increased in peripheral blood, CD4(+) expression was reduced and CD8(+) expression was increased in infection group, CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio was inverted, the differences between the infection group and the control group were statistically significant (P<0.05) . There were significantly fewer NK (nature killer) and B cells, significantly more double negative T cells (DNT, CD3(+)CD4(-)CD8(-)) than the control group (P<0.05) . There was no statistically significant difference of CD4(+)CD25(+)CD127(+low)、CD4(+)CD25(+)CD127(+hi) and the ration of Treg/CD4(+)CD25(+)CD127(+hi) protein expression in peripheral blood in two groups (P>0.05) . Conclusion: The analysis of peripheral blood lymphocyte and subgroup is an ideal index to monitor the immune status of coal worker's pneumoconiosis patients. It has theoretical significance for studying the immune mechanism of pneumoconiosis and guiding clinical treatment.

Investigations of high order plasmonic resonance features of the nano hyper ring.

A novel silver hyper ring and its complex nanostructures are designed and its plasmonic properties are investigated numerically. It is found that these hyper ring structures have relative stable optical features. The absorption cross section of the structure changes slightly when the direction and polarization of incident light is adjusting. For the complex structure, the position of each resonance peak does not present obvious change when the relative position of the inner hyper ring and outside larger ring changes. The result of the investigation has great significance for the production of practical nanostructures and the improvement of possible applications.

The identification of the biological characteristics of human ovarian cancer stem cells.

OBJECTIVE: Identifying the biological characteristics of previously screened ovarian cancer cell line HO8910-derived stem cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The pre-screening of ovarian cancer cell line HO8910-derived stem cells were subcultured (HO8910 cells were used as a control group) in serum-free medium. Firstly, the capacities of forming spheroids and self-renewal were observed. Then ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs) were seeded in medium containing serum and cultured to observe the changes in their ability to differentiate. The stem cell-specific markers were also tested. Secondly, we tested the sensitivity of stem cells to cisplatin, doxorubicin, and mitoxantrone using drug susceptibility test. Finally, we inoculated the ovarian CSCs after passaging from culturing in serum-free media to NOD/SCID (non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient mice) mice in order to observe the tumorigenicity in vivo. RESULTS: Ovarian CSCs cultured in serum-free medium are capable of forming stable passaged cells spheres and have strong ability of self-renewal and differentiation. Under the condition of serum-free medium culture, the expression levels of CDl33+, CD117+, ABCG2, Nanog, Oct4, and BCRP in ovarian cancer stem cell are significantly higher than the counterparts in HO8910 cells. With the increase of the ability of differentiation, the stem cell marker expression levels reduced. While the differentiation, potential marker-E-cadherin expression levels were significantly lower than the control group. With the increase of the ability to differentiate, E-cadherin expression level was increased. Ovarian CSCs have significant resistance to cisplatin, doxorubicin, and mitoxantrone. NOD/SCID nude mice experiments showed that ovarian cancer stem cell tumorigenicity was significantly higher than control cells and has a continuous tumorigenicity. CONCLUSIONS: Comparing ovarian CSCs derived from HO8910 to HO8910 cells, the stem cells have significantly enhanced abilities of self-renewal, differentiation, in vivo tumorigenicity, highly expressed stem cell genes, and multidrug resistance.

Gankyrin promotes breast cancer cell metastasis by regulating Rac1 activity.

Tumor metastasis is responsible for most cancer patients' deaths. Understanding the mechanism of metastasis is crucial for improving the cure rate for cancer. Here, we report that Gankyrin, a chaperone of ubiquitin-proteasome, has an essential role in breast cancer metastasis. We find that Gankyrin is highly overexpressed in human breast cancers and the expression correlates strongly with lymph node metastasis. Knocking down Gankyrin expression in highly metastatic human breast cancer cells significantly decreases cancer cell migration and invasion. Furthermore, we demonstrate that depletion of Gankyrin inhibits intrinsic Rac1 activity and induces large focal adhesions. Overexpression of Gankyrin accelerates focal adhesion turnover and increases cell migration. Notably, reduction of Gankyrin expression in mouse mammary tumor cell significantly decreases tumor metastasis to lung in animal models. Therefore, our findings suggest that Gankyrin is crucial for breast cancer metastasis and highlight the potential of Gankyrin as a therapeutic target for tumor metastasis.