Novel pectin from crude polysaccharide of Syzygium aromaticum against SARS-CoV-2 activities by targeting 3CLpro

To date, COVID-19 is still a severe threat to public health, hence specific effective therapeutic drugs development against SARS-CoV-2 is urgent needed. 3CLpro and PLpro and RdRp are the enzymes required for the SARS-CoV-2 RNA synthesis. Therefore, binding to the enzyme may interfere the enzyme function. Before, we found that sulfated polysaccharide binding to 3CLpro might block the virus replication. Hence, we hypothesize that negative charged pectin glycan may also impede the virus replication. Here we show that 922 crude polysaccharide from Syzygium aromaticum may near completely block SARS-CoV-2 replication. The inhibition rate was 99.9% (EC50 : 0.90 M). Interestingly, 922 can associates with 3CLpro, PLpro and RdRp. We further show that the homogeneous glycan 922211 from 922 may specifically attenuate 3CL protease activity. The IC50s of 922 and 922211 against 3CLpro are 4.73 {+/-} 1.05 {micro}M and 0.18 {+/-} 0.01 {micro}M, respectively. Monosaccharide composition analysis reveals that 922211 with molecular weight of 78.7 kDa is composed of rhamnose, galacturonic acid, galactose and arabinose in the molar ratio of 8.21 : 37.81 : 3.58 : 4.49. The structure characterization demonstrated that 922211 is a homogalacturonan linked to RG-I pectin polysaccharide. The linear homogalacturonan part in the backbone may be partly methyl esterified while RG-I type part bearing 1, 4-linked -GalpA, 1, 4-linked -GalpAOMe and 1, 2, 4-linked -Rhap. There are four branches attached to C-1 or C4 position of Rhamnose glycosyl residues on the backbone. The branches are composed of 1, 3-linked {beta}-Galp, terminal (T)-linked {beta}-Galp, 1, 5-linked -Araf, T-linked -Araf, 4-linked -GalpA and/or 4-linked {beta}-GalpA. The above results suggest that 922 and 922211 might be a potential novel leading compound for anti-SARS-CoV-2 new drug development.

Systematic review and Meta-analysis on chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression treated with acupuncture / 中国针灸

OBJECTIVE@#To review systematically the effectiveness of acupuncture in treatment of chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression.@*METHODS@#From the date of database establishment to April 1, 2020, the articles on randomized controlled trials of chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression were retrieved by computer from the following databases, i.e. PubMed, Cochrane central register of controlled trials (CENTRAL), EMbase, cumulative index to nursing & allied health literature (CINAHL), JBI database of systematic reviews and implementation reports, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP and SinoMed. Using RevMan5.3, Meta-analysis was conducted. With GRADEpro GDT, the evidence quality was evaluated.@*RESULTS@#A total of 12 articles were included, 10 articles of which were analyzed by quantitative Meta-analysis. Compared with the control group, the improvements in the decrease of post-chemotherapy leukocyte (@*CONCLUSION@#Acupuncture alleviates the decrease of leukocyte, platelet, neutrophile granulocyte and erythrocyte counts and improves the survival quality of patients with chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression.

Multislice spiral computed tomography imaging in evaluating hemophilic arthropathy / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

BACKGROUND@#Certain hemophilia patients are unable to cooperate with or afford magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations. The purpose of our study was to explore the value of multislice spiral computed tomography (MSCT) in evaluating hemophilic arthropathy (HA).@*METHODS@#Thirty-eight patients with 73 joints of HA were consecutively selected from January 2016 to May 2018 for this prospective study. All 73 joints were examined by X-ray, CT, and MRI within 2 days. The MRI scores of the joints were determined by the International Prophylaxis Study Group (IPSG) standard. The CT findings were quantified according to the IPSG standard, except for cartilage injury, which was quantified by joint space narrowing using the X-ray Pettersson score. The CT and MRI scores were compared by the paired Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The correlations between the CT score of joint space narrowing and MRI score of cartilage injury and the total CT and MRI scores were analyzed by Spearman rank correlation. The kappa test was used to compare the consistency of CT and MRI scores.@*RESULTS@#MRI was superior to CT based on the scores for small amount of effusion (P  0.05), and there was a high degree of consistency between the two scores (kappa > 0.81). The consistency between the Pettersson scores of joint space narrowing on CT and the IPSG scores of cartilage injury on MRI was high (kappa = 0. 774, P < 0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#The image scores of MSCT are generally consistent with MRI except for mild synovitis, which can be used as an alternative for the evaluation of HA.

Long Noncoding RNA Expression Signatures of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Revealed by Microarray / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>This study is aimed at observing the role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>LncRNA and mRNA expression signatures of AAA tissues and normal abdominal aortic tissues (NT) were analyzed by microarray and further verified by Real-time quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). The lncRNAs-mRNAs targeting relationships were identified using computational analysis. The effect of lnc-ARG on 5-lipoxygenase (ALOX5) expression was tested in HeLa cells.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Differential expressions of 3,688 lncRNAs and 3,007 mRNAs were identified between AAA and NT tissues. Moreover, 1,284 differentially expressed long intergenic noncoding RNAs and 206 differentially expressed enhancer-like lncRNAs adjacent to protein-coding genes were discerned by bioinformatics analysis. Some differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs between AAA and normal tissue samples were further verified using qRT-PCR. A co-expression network of coding and noncoding genes was constructed based on the correlation analysis between the differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs. In addition, the lnc-ARG located within the upstream of ALOX5 was sorted as a noncoding transcript by analyzing the protein-coding potential using computational analysis. Furthermore, we found that lnc-ARG can decrease the mRNA level of ALOX5 and reactive oxygen species production in HeLa cells.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>This study revealed new lncRNA candidates are related to the pathogenesis of AAA.</p>

Relation between clinical detection rates of the novel influenza virus A/H1N1 RNA in confirmed patients in Guangzhou and the disease course / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the relation of the detection rates of the novel influenza virus A/H1N1 RNA in clinically confirmed patients in the 2009 pandemic with the age distribution of the patients and the disease course.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 151 clinical patients with H1N1 infection were enrolled in this study, from whom 833 dynamic throat swab samples were obtained for detecting the H1N1 RNA using real-time PCR. A statistical analysis of the age distribution was performed among the patients with different disease courses. Chi-square for trend test was used to study the correlation between the detection rates of H1N1 RNA and the time of disease onset.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The majority of patients were young with their ages ranging from 10 to 20 years (57.26%) and 20 to 30 years (22.18%). Chi-square for trend test revealed that the positivity rates of the throat swabs in the patients decreased with the prolongation of the disease course (chi(2)=9.784, P=0.002).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Most of the H1N1 patients are young within the age range of 10-30 years, and the longest disease course can exceed 10 days. The positivity rates of throat swabs from the H1N1 patients decreases with the prolongation of the disease course.</p>

Investigation on a seasonal influenza accompanying with the first locale novel A/H1N1 influenza outbreak in China / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To timely summarize past experience and to provide more pertinent reference for control and prevention in A/H1N1 cases in influenza season.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>During May 25 to 31, 2009, 2 secondary community cases caused by a influenza A/H1N1 imported case. In the close contacts of 3 A/H1N1 cases, 14 had some aspirator symptoms onset, such as fever (> or = 37.5 degrees C), cough, sore throat and etc. Laboratory tests excluded the infection of A/H1N1 influenza. For throat swab test for the 14 cases, 7 were tested for seasonal influenza virus. A face-to-face or telephone interview was conducted by CDC staff to collect information of 62 close contacts.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of 14 fever cases, there was no significant by differences by age[15-age group: 19.2% (5/26), over 25-age group: 25.0% (9/36); chi(2) = 0.287, P = 0.592]; by sex group [24.0% (6/25) for male and 21.6% (8/37) for female; chi(2) = 0.048, P = 0.826], by working units [dressing and design, photograph, saleroom and others, consumer group: 42.1% (8/19), 27.3% (3/11), 12.5% (2/16) and 6.3% (1/16); chi(2) = 7.653, P = 0.054], by dormitory style [dormitory style = 33.3% (4/12), non-dormitory style = 29.4% (10/34); chi(2) = 0.699, P = 0.403]. All the cases had fever (37.5 - 37.9 degrees C), no case had diarrhea. One in 3 A/H1N1 cases had diarrhea. All the 14 cases were negative result for A/H1N1 RNA. Six from 7 cases were positive for seasonal influenza test.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>This was a seasonal influenza outbreak happened in the close contacts of first confirmed A/H1N1 cases in community in mainland China. It showed that we should exclude the seasonal influenza in the investigation of A/H1N1 cases in the seasonal influenza period in some time. It is necessary to take effective measure to strengthen the control and prevention of seasonal influenza.</p>

Distribution and property of anti-beta3-adrenoceptor autoantibody in patients with heart failure / 中华心血管病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the biological effects of anti-beta(3) adrenoceptor (beta(3)-AR) autoantibody in the serum of patients with heart failure, which may contribute to a new therapeutic clue for heart failure.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The synthetic peptide of the second extracellular loop of the beta(3)-AR was used as the antigen to screen sera of patients with heart failure and of healthy controls by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. IgG in the patients group of positive autoantibody sera was prepared by using a MabTrap Kit (Amersham) following the manufacturer's instructions. The effects of IgG per each group both on contractile response of adult isolated cardiomyocytes and on beating frequency of cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were observed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The positive rate of anti-beta(3)-AR autoantibody was 26.7% (mean antibody titer: 1:43.27 +/- 2.71) or 11.0% (mean antibody titer: 1:14.59 +/- 1.61) in patients or healthy subjects, respectively P < 0.05. Compared with the control group, the autoantibody against beta(3)-AR from the patients group decreased cell shortening amplitude/cell shortening 3.84% +/- 0.33%, the velocity of shortening -0.47 microm/s +/- 0.07 microm/s and relengthening 0.17 microm/s +/- 0.02 microm/s in adult isolated cardiac myocytes, respectively. The autoantibody in the patients group decreased the beating rate in cultured neonatal rat cardiac myocytes by 47.1 beats/min +/- 8.11 beats/min, which could have a 6-hour continuance. This decreasing was not modified by Nadolol (beta(1)-AR and beta(2)-AR antagonist) in pretreating myocytes, but was nearly prevented by Bupranolol (nonselective beta-AR antagonist) or beta(3)-AR specific antigen.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>It seems reasonable to state that a high titer of the autoantibody against beta(3)-AR in the serum in patients with heart failure, which could have a negative inotropic and chronotropic effect, may be a part of pathophysiological mechanisms of heart failure.</p>

Discoveries of avian influenza A(H9N2) virus in chickens and men infected by H9N2 virus in Guangzhou area / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To understand the epidemic status of avian influenza A virus in chickens and men in Guangzhou area and to prevent men suffering from avian influenza A (H5N1) virus.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Etiologic and serological surveys were conducted in chickens and men who were working in the poultry farms and slaughter house. Viruses were isolated with both MDCK cells and embryonated chicken eggs. Hemagglutination inhibition tests were performed by routine method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Anti-H9N2 antibody was found in 12.8% of the chickens and 5.1% of the workers.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Avian influenza virus H9N2 subtype existed in chickens and this subtype of influenza A virus might infect men.</p>