Abstract To determine the frequency of co-infections with Plasmodium species in southern Myanmar, we investigated the prevalence of P. knowlesi. More than 20% of patients with malaria had P. knowlesi infection, which occurred predominantly as a co-infection with either P. falciparum or P. vivax.
Background To evaluate the performance of the Abbott RealTime CT/NG assay for detection of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) among female sex workers (FSWs) in China. Methods Cervical swabs from 997 participants were blindly detected by the Abbott RealTime CT/NG assay on the automated m2000 molecular platform and Roche Cobas Amplicor CT/NG assay. Discrepant analysis were confirmed by the Qiagen care CT PCR assay. The sample was defined as candidate nvCT-positive if it was CT positive in the Abbott m2000 assay, but CT negative in the other two assays. Results 25 specimens that were discordant for CT and 26 specimens that were discordant for NG between the two assays were resolved by Qiagen care CT & NG PCR assays. The sensitivity and specificity, respectively, for Abbott m2000 assay were 92.59% and 100% for CT and 95.45% and 99.90% for NG. The positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of Abbott m2000 assay were100% and 98.52% for CT and 95.5% and 99.90% for NG, respectively. No candidate new-variant CT(nvCT)specimens were identified. Conclusion Abbott RealTime CT/NG assay were more specify for CT and NG detection, however, its sensitivity for CT and NG were a little bit lower than Roche Cobas Amplicor CT/NG assay. Abbott RealTime CT/NG assay had higher PPV for NG detection than Roche Cobas Amplicor CT/NG assay; it would be more suitable for screening for population with low-prevalence NG. There is currently no evidence that nvCT is present in FSWs in China.
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic nonspecific inflammatory disease of the colon and rectum with unknown etiology, and its symptoms include bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, and hematochezia. Traditional Chinese medicine compound has a good therapeutic, multi-target effect on UC. Ganjiang decoction (GD), which is a traditional classic prescription in China, contains Zingiberis Rhizoma, Angelicae Sinensis Radix, Coptidis Rhizoma, Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex, Sanguisorbae Radix, Granati Pericarpium, and Asini Corii Colla and could be used to treat symptoms of UC. This study aimed to conduct a preliminary study before GD colon-targeted preparation, to explore the relationship between extraction method and efficacy of GD.High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for the fingerprinting of five preparation methods of GD. HPLC and gas chromatography were used to quantitatively analyze the important chemical components of GD and compare their differences. Mice with UC induced by dextran sulphate sodium salt received the extracts from the five preparation methods of GD via gavage. Disease activity index (DAI) score, colonic length, relative weight of spleen, pathological analysis results, inflammatory factors, therapeutic effect of the five preparation methods of GD, and their relationship with extraction process were compared.Cluster analysis revealed that the content of the components extracted by traditional extraction methods was significantly different from the other four methods. The third and fifth preparation methods extracted Coptidis Rhizoma and Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex with 50% ethanol to obtain more alkaloids. In the fourth and fifth methods, more volatile oils were detected by adding Zingiberis Rhizoma and Angelicae Sinensis Radix fine powder. According to DAI score, colonic length, relative weight of spleen, pathological analysis results, and inflammatory factors, the third method showed a good therapeutic effect, while the fifth method had the best therapeutic effect.The results showed that the difference of the five extracts of GD in the efficacy of DSS-induced UC in mice was closely related to the extraction method. Our study improved the extraction process of GD and provided a foundation for the process of enteric-soluble preparations and a new idea for traditional Chinese medicine compound preparation.
The results of syphilis surveillance showed that there were some singnicant problems in syphilis stage diagnosis and case-reporting in China. In order to assess the data quality of syphilis case reported in the country, and identify the problems for improving the quality, we conducted this sampling survey.
Methods
According to the national protocol and syphilis diagnostic criteria, checking data with original reporting cards, clinical and laboratory logs of syphilis cases reported, assessment of diagnosis correctness were conducted by related experts at 43 medical hospitals/institutions sampled in 13 counties of 10 prefectures in 5 provinces based on geographic distribution to evaluate the data quality, and Excel 2003 and SPSS18.0 software were employed in data analysis.
Results
The proportions of the reporting cards timely reported, completely filled, correctly filled, correctly entered by web for syphilis cases were as high as with 99.82% (1691/1694), 97.05% (1644/1694), 96.22% (1630/1694) and 96.22% (1630/1694), respectively, and the one of the reporting cards repeatedly reported was very low with 1.42%(24/1694) in 5 provinces. The proportions of correct diagnosis for syphilis cases was high with 95.40% (2491/2611), however, the ones of correct stage for primary, secondary and latent syphilis were not high with 42.49% (167/393), 77.46% (275/355) and 85.89% (1497/1743), respectively. There was the severe bias of misclassification in primary and secondary syphilis, the reason of which was that some latent syphilis cases were falsely classified into primary and secondary ones by non dermatological/STD and in-patients department doctors.
Conclusion
The indicators of data quality related to reporting information and correct diagnosis of syphilis cases were high, however proportion of correct stage for primary and secondary syphilis cases was low, which directly affected on analysis of syphilis incidence. It is urged that the training on related doctors in syphilis diagnosis criteria should be strengthened to substantially improve the data quality.
Two novel macrocyclic polyamine ligands and their dinuclear zinc (II)complexes were synthesized and characterized. Their interaction with plasmid DNA wasstudied by gel electrophoresis and fluorescence quenching experiment. The result showedthat these complexes could bind DNA efficiently under physiological conditions.
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) exert integrated effects in all aspects of tumor progression, including tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis. Recently, considerable preclinical and clinical trials have demonstrated that TAM-targeted therapy is an effective antitumor therapeutic approach, especially as a complementary strategy in combination with conventional chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or emerging immunotherapy. Here, we review all of the current clinical trials targeting TAMs worldwide up to May 2021 and highlight instances of the synergetic therapeutic efficacy of TAM-targeted combined therapeutic strategies. In total, 606 clinical trials were conducted, including 143 tested products. There has been explosive growth in macrophage-targeted therapy around the world during the past decade. Most trials were at early phase, and two-thirds used macrophage-targeting therapy as part of a combination approach. The most common combination is that of traditional chemotherapy with TAM-targeted therapy, followed by immune checkpoint inhibitors and targeted drugs. TAM-targeted therapeutic approaches are a newly emerging but rapidly developing area of anticancer therapy, especially as a combinatorial therapeutic approach. Further investigation of promising combination strategies will pave the way to more effective anticancer therapies. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) exert integrated effects in all aspects of tumor progression, including tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis. Recently, considerable preclinical and clinical trials have demonstrated that TAM-targeted therapy is an effective antitumor therapeutic approach, especially as a complementary strategy in combination with conventional chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or emerging immunotherapy. Here, we review all of the current clinical trials targeting TAMs worldwide up to May 2021 and highlight instances of the synergetic therapeutic efficacy of TAM-targeted combined therapeutic strategies. In total, 606 clinical trials were conducted, including 143 tested products. There has been explosive growth in macrophage-targeted therapy around the world during the past decade. Most trials were at early phase, and two-thirds used macrophage-targeting therapy as part of a combination approach. The most common combination is that of traditional chemotherapy with TAM-targeted therapy, followed by immune checkpoint inhibitors and targeted drugs. TAM-targeted therapeutic approaches are a newly emerging but rapidly developing area of anticancer therapy, especially as a combinatorial therapeutic approach. Further investigation of promising combination strategies will pave the way to more effective anticancer therapies.
Early studies with first-generation poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have already indicated some therapeutic potential for sulfur mustard (SM) injuries. The available novel and more potential PARP inhibitors, which are undergoing clinical trials as drugs for cancer treatment, bring it back to the centre of interest. However, the role of PARP-1 in SM-induced injury is not fully understood. In this study, we selected a high potent specific PARP inhibitor ABT-888 as an example to investigate the effect of PARP inhibitor in SM injury. The results showed that in both the mouse ear vesicant model (MEVM) and HaCaT cell model, PARP inhibitor ABT-888 can reduce cell damage induced by severe SM injury. ABT-888 significantly reduced SM induced edema and epidermal necrosis in MEVM. In the HaCaT cell model, ABT-888 can reduce SM-induced NAD + /ATP depletion and apoptosis/necrosis. Then, we studied the mechanism of PARP-1 in SM injury by knockdown of PARP-1 in HaCaT cells. Knockdown of PARP-1 protected cell viability and downregulated the apoptosis checkpoints, including p-JNK, p-p53, Caspase 9, Caspase 8, c-PARP and Caspase 3 following SM-induced injury. Furthermore, the activation of AKT can inhibit autophagy via the regulation of mTOR. Our results showed that SM exposure could significantly inhibit the activation of Akt/mTOR pathway. Knockdown of PARP-1 reversed the SM-induced suppression of the Akt/mTOR pathway. In summary, the results of our study indicated that the protective effects of downregulation of PARP-1 in SM injury may be due to the regulation of apoptosis, necrosis, energy crisis and autophagy. However, it should be noticed that PARP inhibitor ABT-888 further enhanced the phosphorylation of H2AX (S139) after SM exposure, which indicated that we should be very careful in the application of PARP inhibitors in SM injury treatment because of the enhancement of DNA damage.
Glioma is the most common central nervous system primary tumor, accounting for about 40% of intracranial tumors. In recent years, studies have shown that the human brain is not immune-free zone. The low immunogenicity of the tumor itself, tumor-generated immunosuppressive factors, and the low immunity of tumor patients all contribute to the “immune escape” phenomenon of glioma cells. Dendritic cells (DCs), as the strongest antigen-presenting cells in the body, play an important role in tumor immunotherapy with T-cell recognizing tumor antigens as the core. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a strategy of culturing and sensitizing DC cells in vitro to increase their number and improve their function before returning to the body for treatment of patients with glioma.
Navy exercise effects evaluation results will have a great influence on the decision making of leaders.In order to get navy combat effectiveness and training results,the exercise effects evaluation guiding mode is put forward based on the military systematic analysis method and analytic hierarchy process(AHP);the indicator system funding guiding mode is put forward based on the decomposition of an effectiveness framework;the index weights calculation method,the standardization process method and the combination method of index are also put forward.The real application shows that these methods have great military application values.