Japanese encephalitis following liver transplantation: A rare case report.

BACKGROUND: Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a serious public health concern with a high mortality rate in many Asian countries. For many years, JE virus (JEV) was considered the major cause of viral encephalitis in Asia. Although most JE cases are asymptomatic, the case fatality rate approaches 30%, and approximately 30%-50% of survivors have long-term neurological sequelae. To the best of our knowledge, JEV infection has never been reported following liver transplantation. CASE SUMMARY: We report a case of a woman who underwent liver transplantation for autoimmune liver disease but presented with fever and neurological symptoms 13 d after transplantation. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed JEV infection, and positive immunoglobulin M antibody to JEV in blood and cerebrospinal fluid confirmed JE. The patient was treated with antiviral agents, immune regulation, and organ function support. No neurological sequelae were present after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Imaging and lumbar puncture examination should be performed as soon as possible in patients with fever and central nervous system symptoms after liver transplantation, and the possibility of atypical infection should be considered, which is helpful for early diagnosis and improved prognosis.

Impact of yeast and lactic acid bacteria on mastitis and milk microbiota composition of dairy cows.

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of yeast and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on mastitis and milk microbiota composition of dairy cows. Thirty lactating Holstein cows with similar parity, days in milk were randomly assigned to five treatments, including: (1) Health cows with milk SCC < 500,000 cells/mL, no clinical signs of mastitis were found, fed basal total mixed ration (TMR) without supplementation (H); (2) Mastitis cows with milk SCC > 500,000 cells/mL, fed basal TMR without supplementation (M); (3) Mastitis cows fed basal TMR supplemented with 8 g day-1 yeast (M + Y); (4) Mastitis cows fed basal TMR supplemented with 8 g day-1 LAB (M + L); (5) Mastitis cows (milk SCC > 500,000 cells/mL) fed basal TMR supplemented with 4 g day-1 yeast and 4 g day-1 LAB (M + Y + L). Blood and milk sample were collected at day 0, day 20 and day 40. The results showed efficacy of probiotic: On day 20 and day 40, milk SCC in H, M + Y, M + L, M + Y + L was significantly lower than that of M (P < 0.05). Milk concentration of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1ß in M + Y + L were significantly reduced compared with that of M on day 40 (P < 0.05). Milk Myeloperoxidase (MPO) and N-Acetyl-ß-D-Glucosaminidase (NAG) activity of M + Y, M + L, M + L + Y were lower than that of M on day 40 (P < 0.05). At genus level, Staphylococcus, Chryseobacterium and Lactococcus were dominant. Supplementation of LAB decreased abundance of Enterococcus and Streptococcus, identified as mastitis-causing pathogen. The results suggested the potential of LAB to prevent mastitis by relieving mammary gland inflammation and regulating milk microorganisms.

Effect of quercetin on doxorubicin-induced expression of MDR1 gene in HL-60 cells / 中国实验血液学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Leukemia cells can acquire a multidrug resistant (MDR) phenotype in response to a wide variety of chemotherapeutic agents including doxorubicin (Dox). In addition to the constitutive expression in the leukemia prior to chemotherapy, a complex phenotype of pleiotropic resistance is presented in the residual or recurrent leukemia. Recent studies showed Dox-induced coexpression of COX2 and MDR1 genes in human leukaemia cells, and whether Dox-induced MDR1 up-regulation in acute leukaemia cells is dependent on COX2-transcriptional activity and thus might be overcome or prevented with COX2-promotor inhibitor quercetin interfering with COX2 expression and activity. This study was purposed to investigate the impacts of quercetin on Dox-induced mRNA expression of MDR1 and COX2 genes in HL-60 leukemia cells.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The MDR1 and COX2 mRNA expression in HL-60 cells was detected by RT-PCR; the prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) release was measured by ELISA; the cytotoxicity of Dox was determined by MTT test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The incubation of HL-60 cells with Dox not only up-regulated MDR1 mRNA, but also COX2 mRNA expression, and after co-incubation with quercetin or celecoxib, Dox-induced overexpression of MDR1 and COX2 mRNA were reduced by quercetin, not by celecoxib, whereas PGE2 release was significantly decreased with subsequent enhancement of Dox cytotoxic efficacy by both of them.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Dox-induced MDR1 up-regulation may be dependent on COX2-transcriptional activity, not PGE2, suggesting that the existence of causal link between COX2 and MDR1 expression induced by Dox, and modulation of COX2 transcriptional expression by quercetin would not only sensitize leukemia cells to Dox, but also prevent the acquisition of MDR during chemotherapy.</p>

Genotyping of 210 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains with Spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR among pediatric tuberculosis patients in Chongqing / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To evaluate the application of spacer oligonucleotide typing (Spoligotyping) and mycobaeterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable-number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) analysis in the molecular-epidemiological study of tuberculosis and to discuss the characteristics of pediatric Mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis strains in Chongqing. Methods M. tuberculosis strains isolated and typed by Spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR respectively, from the children patients in Chongqing and to compare the results from both methods, epidemiologically. Results By means of Spoligotyping, 210 clinical isolates were divided into 2 gene groups, displaying 44 genotypes. Among them, the biggest group was M. tuberculosis Beijing family, including 130 strains (61.90%) ,using the Spoligotyping. From the results of MIRU-VNTR, 24 loci showed different polymorphism and the HGI of different loci set (12 old loci, 15 basic loci and 24-loci set) increased accordingly. The subtle difference in HGI was originated from one locus ETR-B, which was included in the 24-locus system. The diversity of each loci and MIRU-VNTR set for non-Beijing genotype strains was higher than that of the Beijing genotype strains. Conclusion In this study, it was preliminarily confirmed the existence of high polymorphism of M. tuberculosis while the Beijing Family was the main genotype and main prevalent strain in children of Chongqing area. Spoligotyping prior to 15-locus with ETR-B combination seemed more suitable for the massive epidemiological investigation of pediatric tuberculosis patients.

[Construction of anti-lung tumor gene differentially expressed bank of wild mouse].

OBJECTIVE: To construct the anti-lung tumor gene differentially expressed bank of wild mouse and to explore the mechanisms of the TW wild mouse suppressing the occurring of lung tumor. METHODS: Using suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) technique, the differentially expressed genes between TAF1 mouse and A/wy mouse were selected out and the subtracted cDNA bank was constructed. 166 clones were performed DNA sequencing and then were assayed by blast programme. RESULTS: Among the blast results of 166 differentially expressed clones, 87 known genes (mRNA or cDNA) were in homology with 134 clones and were divided into 7 classifications according to the biological role.14 DNA fragments were in homology with 32 clones, in which 20 clones were in homology with 9 mouse DNA sequences, 2 clones were in homology with one bacterial gene sequences and 3 clones were clone vector. CONCLUSION: With SSH technique, the anti-lung tumor gene differentially expressed bank of wild mouse are successfully constructed.

[Expression and clinical significance of surfactant protein D mRNA in peripheral blood of lung cancer patients].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The sensitive detection of circulating tumor cells in lung cancer patients is very important for prognosis and selection of appropriate treatment modalities. Based on recent promising data, the authors established reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR with primers specific for surfactant protein D (SP-D) gene to detect circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of lung cancer patients, and to initiatively discuss its clinical significance. METHODS: The expression of SP-D mRNA was analyzed by an improved nested RT-PCR in the peripheral blood of 26 lung cancer patients with metastases, 37 lung cancer patients without metastases, 15 benign pneumonia patients, and 15 healthy volunteers. RESULTS: 1) The sensitivity of the method was 1 x 10(-6), with high level of specificity. 2) Using this method, the positive detection rate of the expression of SP-D mRNA was 92.3% (24/26) and 24.3% (9/37) in the peripheral blood of lung cancer patients with and without metastases, respectively. While no sample was positive for SP-D mRNA expression in the benign pneumonia patients and in the healthy volunteers. CONCLUSIONS: SP-D mRNA might be a valuable marker to detect circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of lung cancer patients. This method may be a valuable tool for early identification of metastases in asymptomatic lung cancer patients. Furthermore, it can also provide important clinical information for the evaluation of prognosis and in the selection of appropriate treatment strategies.