The addition of nano zero-valent iron during compost maturation effectively removes intracellular and extracellular antibiotic resistance genes by reducing the abundance of potential host bacteria.

Applying compost to soil may lead to the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment. Therefore, removing ARGs from compost is critical. In this study, for the first time, nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) was added to compost during the maturation stage to remove ARGs. After adding 1 g/kg of nZVI, the abundance of total intracellular and total extracellular ARGs was decreased by 97.62% and 99.60%, and that of total intracellular and total extracellular mobile genetic elements (MGEs) was decreased by 92.39% and 99.31%, respectively. A Mantel test and network analysis indicated that the reduction in potential host bacteria and intI1 after nZVI treatment promoted the removal of intracellular and extracellular ARGs. The addition of nZVI during composting reduced the horizontal transfer of ARGs and improve the total nitrogen and germination index of compost, allowing it to meet the requirements for organic fertilizers.

Real-World Effectiveness of Primary Series and Booster Doses of Inactivated Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccine Against Omicron BA.2 Variant Infection in China: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: China has been using inactivated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines as primary series and booster doses to protect the population from severe to fatal COVID-19. We evaluated primary and booster vaccine effectiveness (VE) against Omicron BA.2 infection outcomes. METHODS: This was a 13-province retrospective cohort study of quarantined close contacts of BA.2-infected individuals. Outcomes were BA.2 infection, COVID-19 pneumonia or worse, and severe/critical COVID-19. Absolute VE was estimated by comparison with an unvaccinated group. RESULTS: There were 289 427 close contacts ≥3 years old exposed to Omicron BA.2 cases; 31 831 turned nucleic acid amplification test-positive during quarantine, 97.2% with mild or asymptomatic infection, 2.6% with COVID-19 pneumonia, and 0.15% with severe/critical COVID-19. None died. Adjusted VE (aVE) against any infection was 17% for primary series and 22% when boosted. Primary series aVE in adults >18 years was 66% against COVID-19 pneumonia or worse and 91% against severe/critical COVID-19. Booster dose aVE was 74% against pneumonia or worse, and 93% against severe/critical COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Inactivated COVID-19 vaccines provided modest protection from infection, very good protection against pneumonia, and excellent protection against severe/critical COVID-19. Booster doses are necessary to provide strongest protection.

Relative vaccine effectiveness against Delta and Omicron COVID-19 after homologous inactivated vaccine boosting: a retrospective cohort study.

ObjectiveTwo COVID-19 outbreaks occurred in Henan province in early 2022-one was a Delta variant outbreak and the other was an Omicron variant outbreak. COVID-19 vaccines used at the time of the outbreak were inactivated, 91.8%; protein subunit, 7.5%; and adenovirus5-vectored, 0.7% vaccines. The outbreaks provided an opportunity to evaluate variant-specific breakthrough infection rates and relative protective effectiveness of homologous inactivated COVID-19 vaccine booster doses against symptomatic infection and pneumonia. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study METHODS: We evaluated relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) with a retrospective cohort study of close contacts of infected individuals using a time-dependent Cox regression model. Demographic and epidemiologic data were obtained from the local Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; clinical and laboratory data were obtained from COVID-19-designated hospitals. Vaccination histories were obtained from the national COVID-19 vaccination dataset. All data were linked by national identification number. RESULTS: Among 784 SARS-CoV-2 infections, 379 (48.3%) were caused by Delta and 405 (51.7%) were caused by Omicron, with breakthrough rates of 9.9% and 17.8%, respectively. Breakthrough rates among boosted individuals were 8.1% and 4.9%. Compared with subjects who received primary vaccination series ≥180 days before infection, Cox regression modelling showed that homologous inactivated booster vaccination was statistically significantly associated with protection from symptomatic infection caused by Omicron (rVE 59%; 95% CI 13% to 80%) and pneumonia caused by Delta (rVE 62%; 95% CI 34% to 77%) and Omicron (rVE 87%; 95% CI 3% to 98%). CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 vaccination in China provided good protection against symptomatic COVID-19 and COVID-19 pneumonia caused by Delta and Omicron variants. Protection declined 6 months after primary series vaccination but was restored by homologous inactivated booster doses given 6 months after the primary series.

A case-case study on the effect of primary and booster immunization with China-produced COVID-19 vaccines on prevention of pneumonia and viral load among vaccinated persons infected by Delta and Omicron variants.

Using a three-prefecture, two-variant COVID-19 outbreak in Henan province in January 2022, we evaluated the associations of primary and booster immunization with China-produced COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 pneumonia and SARS-CoV-2 viral load among persons infected by Delta or Omicron variant. We obtained demographic, clinical, vaccination, and multiple Ct values of infections ≥3 years of age. Vaccination status was either primary series ≥180 days prior to infection; primary series <180 days prior to infection, or booster dose recipient. We used logistic regression to determine odds ratios (OR) of Delta and Omicron COVID-19 pneumonia by vaccination status. We analysed minimum Ct values by vaccination status, age, and variant. Of 826 eligible cases, 405 were Delta and 421 were Omicron cases; 48.9% of Delta and 19.0% of Omicron cases had COVID-19 pneumonia. Compared with full primary vaccination ≥180 days before infection, the aOR of pneumonia was 0.48 among those completing primary vaccination <180 days and 0.18 among booster recipients among these Delta infections. Among Omicron infections, the corresponding aOR was 0.34 among those completing primary vaccination <180 days. There were too few (ten) Omicron cases among booster dose recipients to calculate a reliable OR. There were no differences in minimum Ct values by vaccination status among the 356 Delta cases or 70 Omicron cases. COVID-19 pneumonia was less common among Omicron cases than Delta cases. Full primary vaccination reduced pneumonia effectively for 6 months; boosting six months after primary vaccination resulted in further reduction. We recommend accelerating the pace of booster dose administration.

The Chinese version of the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure (MACE) scale: Psychometric properties in a sample of young adults.

There are several effective self-report instruments used by Chinese researchers to retrospectively assess exposure to childhood maltreatment. However, these measures do not assess the timing of exposure, restricting efforts to identify periods of development when childhood maltreatment maximally increases vulnerability to psychopathology and health outcomes. In the current study we created a Chinese version of the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure (MACE) scale, which assesses multiplicity (number of types of maltreatment experienced) and severity of maltreatment as well as when it occurred during childhood and adolescence. Rasch modeling was used for scale development in a sample of 812 undergraduate students. Item reduction analysis of the original 75 items produced a 58-item Chinese version with ten subdimensions. The new scale showed good three-week test-retest reliability, and good convergent validity with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the revised Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACEQ-R). Variance decomposition analyses found that compared to the CTQ and ACE, the MACE Severity and Multiplicity scores explained higher variance in self-reported depression and anxiety symptom ratings on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS). The results of the present study confirmed that the Chinese version of the MACE has sound psychometric properties in the Chinese cultural context. This new instrument will be a valuable tool for Chinese researchers, psychiatrists and psychologists to ascertain the type and timing of exposure to maltreatment.

Alkaloids Exhibit a Meaningful Function as Anticancer Agents by Restraining Cellular Signaling Pathways.

Alkaloids are nitrogen-containing organic compounds widely found in natural products, which play an essential role in clinical treatment. Cellular signaling pathways in tumors are a series of enzymatic reaction pathways that convert extracellular signals into intracellular signals to produce biological effects. The ordered function of cell signaling pathways is essential for tumor cell proliferation, differentiation, and programmed death. This review describes the antitumor progression mediated by various alkaloids after inhibiting classical signaling pathways; related studies are systematically retrieved and collected through PubMed. We selected the four currently most popular pathways for discussion and introduced the molecular mechanisms mediated by alkaloids in different signaling pathways, including the NF-kB signaling pathway, PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, and P53 signaling pathway. The research progress of alkaloids related to tumor signal transduction pathways and the realization of alkaloids as cancer prevention drugs by targeting signal pathways remains.

[Detailed docking of "phospholipid" biological metabolizing pathway].

OBJECTIVE: To construct protein functional network according to the physiological process in vivo and functionally based distinct families, to understand biological functions, and to make wise decisions. METHODS: We described here a very effective strategy combining with multiple-docking and protein-ligand binding-affinity fingerprint method to generate bio-functional network and pathway and reveal the protein "unknown" functions and their relationship. RESULTS: Totally 27 sets of proteins and 28 bio-active molecules were used to reconstruct the possible phospholipids metabolic network by computational simulation strategy. The protein-ligand network reconstruction and pathway based drug design showed that the direct interaction investigation might be effective in complex biological system study. CONCLUSION: Even for weak and moderate interactions in the real biology system, the relationship between each other can be achieved by fingerprint analysis based on multiple-docking data. The results of these calculations give valuable insight into the pathway and the function relationship among these proteins. This method can be a very useful tool for protein classification, target selection, and inhibitor design.

Correlation of the virulence of CSFV with evolutionary patterns of E2 glycoprotein.

Infection with classical swine fever virus (CSFV) is costly to the livestock industry. Several genomic sequences including velogenic strains and low virulent strains have been identified. However, the reasons for the virulence of the virus have remained unclear. Based on selective pattern and pressure strength, we classified all genes of CSFV into three classes. Among these genes, the E2 gene was under the strongest positive selection. Based on the analysis of 85 representative E2 gene sequences, the location and intensity of positive selection in CSFV isolates from group one and group two were identified. These results suggest that these two groups employ evolutionary difference. Moreover, the mutations, potentially driven by positive selection, can be correlated with the virulence of CSFV by altering the conformation and function of E2 and/or changing its glycosylation pattern. Based on these results, a model for the evolution of virulence of CSFV is proposed. The results provide a link between epidemiology and the gene function of CSFV, and may shed light on the molecular mechanism underlying the variation of CSFV virulence.

RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene sequence from foot-and-mouth disease virus in Hong Kong.

A foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV, HKN/2002) was isolated in Hong Kong in 2002. The nucleotide sequence of the 3D(pol) gene encoding the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase was determined and compared with that of the same gene from other FMDVs. The 3D(pol) gene was 1410 nucleotides in length encoding a protein of 470 amino acid residues. Sequence comparisons indicated that HKN/2002 belonged to serotype O. An evolutionary tree based on the 3D(pol) sequences of 20 FMDV isolates revealed that the nucleotide sequence of the HKN/2002 3D(pol) gene was most similar to those of isolates found in Taiwan in 1997, suggesting that they share a common ancestor. The amino acid sequence of the HKN/2002 3D(pol) gene was determined and aligned with those of representative isolates from seven other Picornaviridae genera. Eight highly conserved regions were detected, indicating a conserved functional relevance for these motifs. Alignment of 20 FMDV 3D(pol) amino acid sequences revealed a hypermutation region near the N-terminus that may help the virus evade host immune systems.