Efficient production of L-asparaginase in Bacillus licheniformis by optimizing expression elements and host / 生物工程学报

L-asparaginase (L-ASN) is widely applied in the treatment of malignant tumor and low-acrylamide food production, however, the low expression level hampers its application. Heterologous expression is an effective strategy to increase the expression level of target enzymes, and Bacillus is generally used as the host for efficient production of enzymes. In this study, the expression level of L-asparaginase in Bacillus was enhanced through optimization of expression element and host. Firstly, five signal peptides (SPSacC, SPAmyL, SPAprE, SPYwbN and SPWapA) were screened, among which SPSacC showed the best performance, reaching an activity of 157.61 U/mL. Subsequently, four strong promoters (P43, PykzA-P43, PUbay and PbacA) from Bacillus were screened, and tandem promoter PykzA-P43 showed the highest yield of L-asparaginase, which was 52.94% higher than that of control strain. Finally, three Bacillus expression hosts (B. licheniformis Δ0F3 and BL10, B. subtilis WB800) were investigated, and the maximum L-asparaginase activity, 438.3 U/mL, was reached by B. licheniformis BL10, which was an 81.83% increase compared with that of the control. This is also the highest level of L-asparaginase in shake flask reported to date. Taken together, this study constructed a B. licheniformis strain BL10/PykzA-P43-SPSacC-ansZ capable of efficiently producing L-asparaginase, which laid the foundation for industrial production of L-asparaginase.

Revealing public opinion towards COVID-19 vaccines using Twitter data in the United States: a spatiotemporal perspective

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a large, initially uncontrollable, public health crisis both in the US and across the world, with experts looking to vaccines as the ultimate mechanism of defense. The development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly advancing via global efforts. Hence, it is crucial for governments, public health officials, and policy makers to understand public attitudes and opinions towards vaccines, such that effective interventions and educational campaigns can be designed to promote vaccine acceptance. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to investigate public opinion and perception on COVID-19 vaccines by investigating the spatiotemporal trends of their sentiment and emotion towards vaccines, as well as how such trends relate to popular topics on Twitter in the US. MethodsWe collected over 300,000 geotagged tweets in the US from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. We examined the spatiotemporal patterns of public sentiment and emotion over time at both national and state scales and identified three phases along the pandemic timeline with the significant changes of public sentiment and emotion, further linking to eleven key events and major topics as the potential drivers to induce such changes via cloud mapping of keywords and topic modelling. ResultsAn increasing trend of positive sentiment in parallel with the decrease of negative sentiment are generally observed in most states, reflecting the rising confidence and anticipation of the public towards vaccines. The overall tendency of the eight types of emotion implies the trustiness and anticipation of the public to vaccination, accompanied by the mixture of fear, sadness and anger. Critical social/international events and/or the announcements of political leaders and authorities may have potential impacts on the public opinion on vaccines. These factors, along with important topics and manual reading of popular posts on eleven key events, help identify underlying themes and validate insights from the analysis. ConclusionsThe analyses of near real-time social media big data benefit public health authorities by enabling them to monitor public attitudes and opinions towards vaccine-related information in a geo-aware manner, address the concerns of vaccine skeptics and promote the confidence of individuals within a certain region or community, towards vaccines.

Human mobility and COVID-19 transmission: a systematic review and future directions

Without a widely distributed vaccine, controlling human mobility has been identified and promoted as the primary strategy to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19. Many studies have reported the relationship between human mobility and COVID-19 transmission by utilizing the spatial-temporal information of mobility data from various sources. To better understand the role of human mobility in the pandemic, we conducted a systematic review of articles that measure the relationship between human mobility and COVID-19 in terms of their data sources, statistical models, and key findings. Following the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, we selected 47 articles from Web of Science Core Collection up to September 2020. Restricting human mobility reduced the transmission of COVID-19 spatially, although the effectiveness and stringency of policy implementation vary temporally and spatially across different stages of the pandemic. We call for prompt and sustainable measures to control the pandemic. We also recommend researchers 1) to enhance multi-disciplinary collaboration; 2) to adjust the implementation and stringency of mobility-control policies in corresponding to the rapid change of the pandemic; 3) to improve statistical models used in analyzing, simulating, and predicting the transmission of the disease; and 4) to enrich the source of mobility data to ensure data accuracy and suability.

Elevated expression of thyroid hormone receptor-interacting protein 13 drives tumorigenesis and affects clinical outcome.

AIM: To investigate the expression of TRIP13 in multiple tumors and to evaluate the relationship between TRIP13 and survival of cancer patients. MATERIALS & METHODS: Sample expression profiles were downloaded from the gene expression omnibus database. Correlation between TRIP13 expression and clinicopathological features was analyzed by χ2 test. Patient survival was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier analysis. RESULTS:  TRIP13 expression was upregulated in 12 cancer types; it significantly correlated with multiple clinicopathological features of breast, liver and lung cancer. High TRIP13 expression indicated poor prognosis of patients with breast, liver, gastric and lung cancer. CONCLUSION:  TRIP13 is highly expressed in multiple tumors and may be used as a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target.

Efficacy and pharmacoeconomical analysis of three platinum based chemotherapy regimens for advanced non small cell lung cancer / 中国基层医药

Objective To explore the cost-effectiveness and clinical effect of three platinum based chemotherapy regiments for advanced non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods 100 patients who were diagnosed as NSCLC,were randomly divided into four groups.The group Ⅰ received NP which was given NVB and DDP.The group Ⅱreceived GP which was given GEM and DDP.The group Ⅲ received TP which was given taxotere and DDP.The clinical effect,adverse reaction and cost effectiveness of the three groups were assessed.Results The clinical effective rates of the three groups were 31.43%,36.36%,37.50% from Ⅰ to Ⅲ group.The adverse events of the group Ⅰ and group Ⅱ were more than those of the group Ⅲ.In the adverse effects of treatment,the major cytotoxicity was digestive reaction and leukopenia in the two groups,but they were tolerable.The ratios of cost effectiveness in the four groups were 550.22yuan,556.48yuan,583.23yuan from Ⅰ to Ⅲ group.Conclusion The NP group is the best one in total cost.

3-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography for left ventricular rotation and twist in patients with hypertension / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To analyze the characteristics of left ventricular rotation and twist in patients with essential hypertension (EH) of different left ventricular configurations by 3-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (3D-STE).@*METHODS@#A total of 106 EH patients were divided into 4 groups: a left ventricular normal configuration (LVN) group (n=30), a concentric remodeling (CCR) group (n=31), a concentric hypertrophy (CCH) group (n=29), an eccentric hypertrophy (ECH) group (n=16), and a control group of 30 healthy subjects. The parameters of LVEF, peak basal rotation (Prot-B), peak apical rotation (Prot-A), left ventricular peak apical rotation (LV-rot), and left ventricular peak apical twist (LV-tw) were compared.@*RESULTS@#The left ventricular mass index in the EH groups, which kept increasing, was higher than that in the normal control group (P0.05), but LVEF was lower in the ECH group than in other groups (P<0.05). Compared with the normal control group, Prot-B, Prot-A, LVrot and LVtw were significantly higher in the LVN, CCR and CCH group (P<0.05), but decreased in the ECH group (P<0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#3D-STE can evaluate the left ventricular rotation and twist in EH patients with different configurations, and reflect changes in the left ventricular systolic function in EH of different configurations.

Study on endothelial dysfunction and platelet activation in elderly hypertensive patients complicated with cerebral infarction / 中南大学学报(医学版)

Objective　The aim of this paper was to investigate endothelial dysfunction，platelet activation, and inflammation in elderly hypertensive patients and those complicated with cerebral infarction. Methods　Twenty-eight elderly hypertensive patients complicated with cerebral infarction(within 72 hours after onset of neurological symptoms),thirty-one Stage Ⅰ～Ⅱelderly hypertensive patients and twenty-eight elderly healthy individuals were selected as subjects.Their plasma concentrations of von Willebrand factor(vWF), alpha granule membrane protein-140(GMP-140), and serum concentrations of C-reaction protein(CRP) were examined. Results　Elderly hypertensive patients complicated with cerebral infarction had significantly higher plasma vWF, GMP-140, and serum CRP than elderly hypertensive patients and elderly healthy individuals. Plasma vWF and GMP-140 were higher in elderly hypertensive patients than elderly healthy individuals, whereas serum CRP was increased slightly and there was no significant difference between elderly hypertensive patients and elderly healthy individuals. Conclusion　This study suggests that elderly hypertensive patients complicated with cerebral infarction have obvious endothelial dysfunction, platelet activation, and inflammatory change. Stage Ⅰ～Ⅱ elderly hypertensive patients have obvious endothelial dysfunction and platelet activation as well.

The Effect of Nilestriol on Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Elderly Women With Hypertension / 中国医师杂志

Objective To observe the benefits and harms of nilestriol in elderly women with hypertension.Methods Forty-one elderly women with hypertension who had received antihypertensive therapy were randomly divided into two groups. Women in group A (n=21) received oral nilestriol, wherase those in group B(n=20) received oral placebo for six months. Blood sugar(Bs), blood lipids, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1(sICAM-1),E-selectin and plasma fibrinogen(Fbg),tissue-type plasminogen activator antigen(tPA),plasminogen activator inhibitor 1(PAI-1),von Willebrand factor(vWF) were measured before starting treatment and 6th month after treatment.Results Levels of total cholesterol(TC),Fbg,tPA,PAI-1,vWF,sICAM-1,E-selectin in group A were significantly lower than those in group B.Conclusions In elderly women with hypertension, nilestriol could improve the metabolism of lipids,endotheliocytes function,inflammation factors expression,thrombosis and hemostasis.

A Multiple Factor Study on the Quality of Life in Hospitalized Elderly Terminal Patients / 中国心理卫生杂志

Objective: To study the quality of life (QOL) and its influencing factors of elderly hospitalized terminal patients. Methods: The scale of Life Quality, Social Support Inventory, Life Satisfaction Index A(LSIA), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale(HAD), degree of pain (Verbal Report Scale, VRS) and Activities of Daily Living(ADL) were administered in 152 elderly hospitalized terminal patients. Results: 1)The total score of each scale was QOL 36.9?7.4, ADL56.27?34.5,Social Support 40.0?6.3, HAD(A)8.9?4.1,HAD(D)11.2?4.9,LSIA 11.6?3.9?2)Pearson's correlation showed that QOL scores were negatively correlated with degree of pain (r=-0.54,P