IL-31 expression in HIV-infected patients with different routes of disease transmission.

ABSTRACT: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS is characterized by an impaired immune system and low cellular immunity. The main manifestation of AIDS is a reduction in the number of CD4+ T cells and alteration in cytokine concentration. The present work aimed to explore the expression of IL-31 in HIV infection and disease progression.Serum samples were collected from HIV-infected patients with different routes of disease transmission. The subjects included 24 patients who were infected with HIV upon blood transmission and 36 patients who had acquired the disease through sexual transmission (21 cases of homosexual transmission and 15 cases of heterosexual transmission). In addition, 20 normal healthy individuals were included to serve as the control group. The levels of IL-31 in the collected serum samples were estimated using the human IL-31 Platinum ELISA kit.The serum analysis results revealed that the concentration of IL-31 in the serum samples for the blood transmission, sexually transmission, and normal group patients was 4.07 ±â€Š1.63 pg/L, 7.43 ±â€Š1.15 pg/L, and 2.87 ±â€Š1.04 pg/L, respectively. The statistical analysis revealed that the concentration of IL-31 in HIV-1 infection was higher than that in the normal control. In addition, the expression of IL-31 was significantly higher in the sexual transmission group compared to the blood transmission group (P < .05).IL-31 could have an important role in HIV infection, although the role of IL-31 in disease progression in HIV-infected individuals requires further research.

Linc8986 and linc0597 in plasma are novel biomarkers for systemic lupus erythematosus.

Despite increasing evidence that large intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are widely involved in human disease, the role of lincRNAs in the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has remained largely elusive. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the expression of three lincRNAs (linc0597, linc8986 and linc7190) in the plasma of patients with SLE and their potential use as biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of SLE. Plasma samples were obtained from 54 patients with SLE, 24 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 24 patients with Sjogren's syndrome (SS) and 22 healthy controls. LincRNA expression levels were measured by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. Compared with those in the healthy controls, the plasma levels of linc0597 and linc8986 were significantly increased in the patients with SLE (P<0.001), while the difference in the level of linc7190 was not significant (P=0.052). In addition, there was no significant difference in the levels of linc0597 and linc8986 among patients with RA, patients with SS and the healthy controls (P>0.05). Compared with patients with SLE without lupus nephritis (LN), the levels of linc0597 were significantly higher in patients with LN (P=0.044). For linc7190 and linc8986, there was no significant difference between patients with and without LN (P>0.05). Furthermore, complement component 3 (C3) levels were used to evaluate whether the expression of linc8986 and linc0597 is related to the activity of SLE. The results indicated that the levels of linc8986 and linc0597 were negatively correlated with the level of C3 (P<0.001 and P=0.004, respectively). Further analysis suggested that linc0597 and linc8986 were able to specifically identify patients with SLE and that a combination of linc0597 and linc8986 may improve the diagnostic accuracy. Therefore, the plasma levels of linc0597 and linc8986 may be suitable biomarkers for diagnosing SLE.

Physical dosimetry reconstructions of significant radiation exposure at an industrial accelerator facility in Tianjin (China).

The goal of this thesis is to estimate the physical radiation doses for two victims who were accidently exposed to an industrial electron beam at an industrial accelerator facility on 7 July 7 2016 in Tianjin, China. On the basis of the radiation source parameters, irradiation situation and irradiation time, physical dose reconstruction was carried out at the accident site by using a Bottle-Manikin-Absorption (BOMAB) phantom and an Alderson Radiation Therapy (ART) phantom. With thermoluminscent dosimeters (TLDs), skin estimation was conducted for the feet, calves, upper arms, left side of the body and neck, and the mean dose was estimated to be 14.1 ± 5.6 Gy. The foot and leg skin received the highest dose, which was >16.3 Gy. In addition, the mean dose estimated for the eye lens was 0.18 ± 0.07 Gy. The organ effective dose estimated and the total organs effective dose estimated were 0.46-4.94 mSv and 0.21 Sv, respectively. In the course of the accident, the damage caused by the electron radiation field to the exposed person was mainly to the skin, and the contributions to other radiation-sensitive organs were small. The damage to the organs other than the skin was mainly caused by the X-rays generated by the bremsstrahlung of the electron beam from the environment or the human body.

Changes of intestinal flora in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in northeast China.

OBJECTIVE: The human gut harbors diverse microbes that play a fundamental role in the well-being of their hosts. Microbes can cause autoimmunity, trigger autoimmunity in genetically susceptible individuals or prevent autoimmunity. There were reports about intestinal flora changes in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients, but no data were available in northeast China. In this study, we investigated the intestinal flora changes of SLE patients in Heilongjiang province located in northeast China. METHODS: Feces from 16 SLE patients and 14 healthy volunteers were employed to extract bacterial DNA, amplify 16s RNA of bacteria, and analyze the biological information by sequencing. The statistical analysis used the SPSS version of 17. RESULT: We found that there were 1 phylums, 4 families and 9 genera in the intestinal flora of SLE patients. And the nine differences genera can be used to distinguish SLE patients from normal people. CONCLUSION: We found an increase of Proteobacteria and a decrease of Ruminococcaceae in SLE patients in different regions. In addition, we found that some proteins, enzymes, and diseases were significantly associated with SLE.

Dynamic traversal of large gaps by insects and legged robots reveals a template.

It is well known that animals can use neural and sensory feedback via vision, tactile sensing, and echolocation to negotiate obstacles. Similarly, most robots use deliberate or reactive planning to avoid obstacles, which relies on prior knowledge or high-fidelity sensing of the environment. However, during dynamic locomotion in complex, novel, 3D terrains, such as a forest floor and building rubble, sensing and planning suffer bandwidth limitation and large noise and are sometimes even impossible. Here, we study rapid locomotion over a large gap-a simple, ubiquitous obstacle-to begin to discover the general principles of the dynamic traversal of large 3D obstacles. We challenged the discoid cockroach and an open-loop six-legged robot to traverse a large gap of varying length. Both the animal and the robot could dynamically traverse a gap as large as one body length by bridging the gap with its head, but traversal probability decreased with gap length. Based on these observations, we developed a template that accurately captured body dynamics and quantitatively predicted traversal performance. Our template revealed that a high approach speed, initial body pitch, and initial body pitch angular velocity facilitated dynamic traversal, and successfully predicted a new strategy for using body pitch control that increased the robot's maximal traversal gap length by 50%. Our study established the first template of dynamic locomotion beyond planar surfaces, and is an important step in expanding terradynamics into complex 3D terrains.