Objective To express and purify the pneumococcal surface adhesin A(PsaA) protein,discuss its application as a protein carrier in conjugates vaccine. Methods The gene encoding for the PsaA protein was amplified from the genomic DNA of Streptococcus pneumoniae using PCR. The PCR product was then cloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pET-28a and the recombinant was transformed into host cell E. coli BL21 (DE3). The expression of the recombinant protein(rPsaA) was induced by IPTG and purifled by using DEAE anion-exchange chromatography. The rPsaA was successfully conjugated with group A meningococcal polysaccharide(GAMP). The mice were immunized subcutaneously with the conjugate and the immune responses against GAMP and PsaA were detected by ELISA. Results The recombinant PsaA was expressed as a 37 × 103 soluble protein without His-Tag. The rPsaA was successfully conjugated with GAMP. In addition to the immune response against PsaA, The antibody response against GAMP was significant improved in the mice immunized with conjugate vaccine in comparison with those immunized with GAMP alone. Conclusion The recombinant protein PsaA without His-Tag was obtained and conjugated with GAMP. The strong antibody responses against PsaA and CAMP were obtained in the immunized mice at the same time which may provide the protection against pneumonia and meningitis simultaneously.

There is no specific treatment for post-polio syndrome. The common applied therapies include mediciation, exercise, cogni-tive behavioural therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, assistive technology, psychological and social factors adjustment, interdisciplinary comprehensive rehabilitation, and so on.

Objective To study the effect of water extract of ephedra on hepatic injury induced by cisplatin in rats. Methods Forty rats were randomly divided into the blank group, model group, and ephedra water extract was divided into the low dose group, medium and high dose group. Ephedra water extract in the low, medium dose group, high dose group were 100, 200, 400 mg/kg. The normal saline of equal volume was used in the blank group and model group, once a day for 10 days. In addition to the blank group, the other groups were given cisplatin (8 mg/kg) on the 6th day to establish the model of liver injury in rats. The changes of body weight, serum ALT, AST and liver MDA, NO, SOD, GSH were detected by biochemical method. The pathological changes of liver tissue were observed by the staining. Results On the 3rd day and 5th day after administration of cisplatin, the body weight of the rats in the low, medium and high dose group were significantly higher than that in the model group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Compared with the model group, the serum AST (328.00 ± 168.00 U/L, 297.00 ± 139.00 U/L vs. 409.00 ± 364.00 U/L), ALT (122.00 ± 76.00 U/L, 97.00 ± 64.00 U/L vs. 198.00 ± 156.00 U/L) in the medium-, high- dose group significantly decreased (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The content of SOD (34.98 ± 7.40 U/mg, 41.80 ± 8.10 U/mg vs. 12.70 ± 3.10 U/mg), GSH (16.90 ± 1.70 mg/g, 22.70 ± 3.70 mg/g vs. 9.90 ± 1.30 mg/g) in the medium-, high- dose group significantly increased,while the content of MDA (3.20 ± 0.60 nmol/ml, 2.20 ± 0.30 nmol/ml vs. 4.30 ± 0.70 nmol/ml), NO (0.90 ± 0.10 μmol/L, 0.80 ± 0.20 μmol/L vs. 1.20 ± 0.30 μmol/L) significantly decreased (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Conclusion The ephedra water extract can protect the liver injury induced by cisplatin in rats.

Objective To observe glomerular mesangial cells (GMCs) proliferation induced by IgA1 and the association with the expression of apoptosis-related proteins-B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2),cysteine aspartic acid protease-3 (Caspase-3),cysteine aspartic acid protease-9 (Caspase-9) and with mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) in rat GMCs,to study the possible mechanism of valsartan inhibiting rat GMCs proliferation,and to provide a new direction for the mechanism of GMCs proliferation and intervention research in IgA nephrology (IgAN).Methods GMCs stimulated with IgA1 were cultured in vitro to detect cellproliferation with the cell counting kit-8 cell activity assay (CCK8).GMCs were divided into three groups:CG,TG and VG.The GMCs proliferation level was detected by the CCK8,using real-time PCR to detect Mfn2 expression and Western blotting to detect protein levels of Mfn2,Bcl-2,Caspase-3,and Caspase-9.Results Rat GMCs proliferated significantly after stimulation with IgA1,and IgA1 could obviously stimulate high expression of Bcl-2 in GMCs and down regulate the expression of Mfn2,Caspase-3,and Caspase-9.Valsartan could inhibit the proliferation of GMCs induced by IgA1 significantly,downregulate the expression of Bcl-2,and upregulate the expression of Mfn2,Caspase-3,and Caspase-9.Conclusions These results showed that the mechanism of action of valsartan in the treatment of lgAN is inhibiting the proliferation of GMCs.This mechanism may be associated with the regulation of apoptosis-related proteins,such as Mfn2,Bcl-2,Caspase-3,and Caspase-9.These findings may provide a new direction for the mechanism of GMCs proliferation and intervention research in IgAN.

Objective To investigate the effect of resistant starch(RS)on the intestinal microbiota and metabolism in obese rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).Methods The Wistar rats were divided into normal control(NC)group,model group(Mod),acarbose intervention group(Aca)and RS intervention group(RS),with 8 rats in each group.TC,TG,HDL-C,and LDL-C were detected after 8 weeks of continuous administration.Lee's index,insulin sensitivity index(HOMA-IS),insulin resistance index(HOMA-IR),pancreatic β cell function index(HOMA-β),inflammatory factors,and area under the curve of glucose tolerance(AUC)were calculated.Serum TNF-α,IL-6 and lipopolysaccharide(LPS)were detected by ELISA.The steatosis of liver tissue was observed by HE staining,and the feces were collected for 16S rDNA sequencing in each group.Species difference analysis,Beta diversity analysis and other methods were used to analyze the structure and quantity of intestinal microbiota.Results The Lee's index was higher in the Mod,Aca and RS groups than in the NC group(P<0.05).Compared with the NC group,TC,TG,LDL-C,HDL-C,FIns,HOMA-IR,TNF-α,IL-6 and LPS were increased(P<0.05),HOMA-β and HOMA-IS decreased in the Mod,Aca,and RS groups(P<0.05).Compared with the Mod group,TC,TG,LDL-C,HDL-C,FIns,HOMA-IR,TNF-α,IL-6 and LPS decreased(P<0.05),and HOMA-IS and HOMA-β increased in the Aca and RS groups(P<0.05).Compared with the Aca group,IL-6 was increased(P<0.05),and LDL-C and HDL-C decreased in the RS group(P<0.05).The results of 16S rDNA sequencing showed that the total number of operational taxonomic units were increased and the diversity and uniformity of the intestinal microbiota were also increased in the Aca and RS groups.Conclusions RS can regulate glucose and lipid metabolism,improve IR,increase intestinal microbial diversity,regulate intestinal microbiota structure,and maintain intestinal health in obese rats with T2DM.

Objective:To explore the responsibilities of respiratory nurses in the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patient and the difficulties in disease management, so as to provide reference basis for formulating COPD management training strategies for respiratory nurses.Methods:Using phenomenological methodology, 14 nurses from the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University and the First People′s Hospital of Yinchuan were interviewed in a personal semi-structured way from May to August 2021, and the data were sorted and analyzed according to Colaizzi 7-step analysis method.Results:Nurses′understanding of the responsibilities of COPD patient management could be summarized into five themes: dynamic monitoring and management of patients′ health, nursing decision-making of sudden changes in patients′ condition, implementation of patients′ out of hospital follow-up, promotion of improvement of patients′ self-management behavior, and cooperation among multidisciplinary team members. The difficult experience of nurses in the management of COPD patients abstracted five themes: lack of professional knowledge of COPD management, lack of clinical nursing decision-making authority, lack of human and financial support for follow-up, lack of communication skills with patients, and lack of multidisciplinary team formation in the hospital.Conclusions:Respiratory nurses have a clear understanding of the responsibilities of COPD patient management, but there are multiple difficulties in performing their responsibilities. We should pay attention to the responsibility positioning and difficulty support of nurses′ COPD management, and formulate targeted training strategies to promote the improvement of COPD nursing quality.

Objective To determine the trend of emergency department (ED)mortality of a tertiary general hospital from 2004 to 2014 in order to find the factors that may impact on ED mortality.Methods Mortality in ED was estimated according to the ratio of ED visiting patients to ED deaths.And the data of all ED deaths in 2004,2009 and 2014 were collected.Variance analysis and chi-square test were used for data analysis.Results During the past decade,ED visiting patients was increased significantly by 38.0% in 2014,compared with those in 2004,and the mortality was also increased accordingly from 0.7% in 2004, to 0.9% in 2009,to 1.2% in 2014 (P <0.01).Finally,a total of 1,091 deaths occurred in these three years were included for further evaluation.There were no significant changes in average age and gender distribution,and the average age was 61.9 and the male /female ratio was 1.36∶1 during past decade.The number of adults under 40 years old (18 -39)increased from 7.5% in 2004,to 10.6% in 2009,to 14.4% in 2014 (P <0.05).Both the facilities were upgraded and the number of staffs in ED increased markedly.The cardiovascular illness,cerebrovascular diseases,and sudden death were the leading causes of ED death during past decade.The incidences of trauma and tumor remained unchanged.Average time consumed from onset of illness to arrival to ED didn’t vary significantly during past decade.The study showed no changes in use of ambulance,but remarkable increases in number of non-compliant patients or their family from 18.3% in 2004,to 25.6% in 2009,to 38.3% in 2014 (P <0.01).The percentage of patients in the night time was higher,but there were no significant changes in number of emergency patients in the night time and during holidays in the past decade,but the mean ED stay time increased obviously from 22.4 h in 2004 to 53.3 h in 2014 (P <0.05 ).Conclusions During the past decade,although ED facilities and number of staffs have been improved apparently,ED mortality rate still keeps on escalating. The increase in ED mortality rate may be related to the severely ill patients presenting to ED,the obvious decrease in compliance of patients and the prolonged ED stay time.

Objective:To establish a predictive model of acute physiological and chronic health status score (APACHEⅡ) and the British Thoracic Society modified pneumonia score (CURB-65) score on the prognosis of patients with emergency severe pneumonia complicated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and to evaluate the predictive effect.Methods:The relevant clinical data of patients with severe pneumonia combined with ARDS admitted to the Emergency Intensive Care Unit (EICU) of General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University from January 2017 to December 2021 were retrospectively collected, and different logistic regression models were established. On this basis, three prediction models (model 1: APACHE Ⅱ score, model 2: CURB-65 score, Model 3: APACHE Ⅱ score combined with CURB-65 score) were established and the accuracy of the prediction model was evaluated by repeating 50 times of 10-fold cross-validations. The efficacy of the prediction model was evaluated by C statistics, Kendall's tau-a rank correlation coefficient, R2, Brier score, calibration curve, net reclassification index (NRI), composite discriminant improvement index (IDI) and decision curve (DCA).Results:The study eventually included 108 patients, including 81 males and 27 females, with mean age (57.92 ± 16.56) years. Forty-eight patients survived and 60 patients died. The age of the death group was older, and APACHEⅡ score and CURB-65 score of the death group were all greater than those in the survival group, and the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). Different logistic regression models showed that the OR value of model 1 was 1.12 (95% CI: 1.06 -1.20), that of model 2 was 2.21 (95% CI: 1.43 - 3.40), and that of model 3 was 1.10 (95% CI: 1.03 - 1.18) and 1.95 (95% CI: 1.24 - 3.07). The average accuracy of model 1, model 2, and model 3 were 0.68±0.14, 0.66±0.11, and 0.72±0.13, respectively. The C statistic, Kendall's Tau-a rank correlation coefficient, R2 and Bril score of model 3 were better than those of model 1 and model 2, and the different models fit well ( P<0.05). The calibration curve results of 500 resampling showed that the calibration degree of model 2 was better than that of model 1 and model 3, and the predictive ability of model 3 was improved compared with model 1, and the IDI was increased by 0.08 ( P<0.01). Compared with model 2, the reclassification ability of cases and the comprehensive discrimination ability of model 3 were improved ( P<0.01). The decision curves of different models showed that the net benefit of model 3 was higher than that of single model 1 and model 2 when the prediction probability was about 25% to 55%, while the benefits of model 1, model 2 and model 3 in other probability prediction intervals were basically equal. Conclusions:Both APACHE Ⅱ score and CURB-65 score have certain predictive power for prognosis of patients with emergency severe pneumonia and ARDS, and their combination has the best prediction effect. CURB-65 score has fewer parameters, and its prognostic benefit in emergency patients with severe pneumonia complicated with ARDS is basically equivalent to APACHE Ⅱ score, which may be more suitable for the prognosis evaluation of emergency patients with severe pneumonia complicated with ARDS.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by high prevalence, high disability and high mortality, which seriously threatens the health of the elderly. Medications are an important form of COPD treatment, and poor compliance will seriously affect the treatment effectiveness. Starting from the elderly COPD patients, this paper reviews the current status, influencing factors and intervention measures of medication compliance, so as to provide a reference for the research on medication compliance in elderly COPD patients.

Objective:To explore the evaluation value of sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score at different time points in the prognosis of patients with severe pneumonia combined with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).Methods:A retrospective cohort study method was conducted, including patients with severe pneumonia and ARDS admitted to the emergency intensive care unit (ICU) of General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University from January 2015 to December 2019. General clinical data such as gender, age, and the SOFA scores at 1, 2, 3, and 7 days after admission were recorded. According to the diagnostic test, the prognostic evaluation value of SOFA score in patients with severe pneumonia combined with ARDS at different time points and different ages was analyzed.Results:A total of 88 cases were included in this study, eventually, 42 cases were survived and 46 cases died, the mortality was 52.27%. The age of the death group was significantly older than the survival group (years old: 60.67±14.66 vs. 51.91±15.97), the SOFA score at each time point were significantly higher than those in the survival group (9.83±3.50 vs. 7.54±2.67, 9.98±3.75 vs. 7.48±2.92, 10.84±4.14 vs. 7.23±2.94, 11.71±4.03 vs. 6.51±3.22, respectively at 1, 2, 3, 7 days after admission, all P < 0.01). The receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC curve) showed that the SOFA score at 1, 2, 3, and 7 days after admission had a certain predictive value for the prognosis of patients with severe pneumonia combined with ARDS (all P < 0.01), and with the prolong of ICU stay, the area under ROC curve (AUC) of SOFA score had gradually increased. On the 7th day after admission, the SOFA score had the highest sensitivity in predicting severe pneumonia combined with ARDS patients, which was 92.86%, and the specificity was the highest on the 3rd day after admission, which was 88.10%. The AUC in day 7 was significantly higher than day 2 (0.85 vs. 0.72) , there was no statistically significant difference of AUC at other time points. After stratifying by age, the diagnostic of sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC of SOFA score for the prognosis had gradually increased, and the predictive value was better. However, only on day 3 after admission, the AUC of SOFA score was significantly higher than day 1 (0.80 vs. 0.77, P < 0.05), and there was no significant difference in AUC at other time points. In patients older than 60 years old, the AUC of the SOFA score predicting the prognosis of patients was relatively small on day 1 and day 2 (0.67, 0.68, respectively), the ability was poor. There was no statistically significant difference in the AUC of SOFA scores at each time point in evaluating the prognosis of patients. The trends over time of patients at different ages and time points showed that regardless of age, the SOFA scores of the patients in the death group showed an upward trend, while showed a downward trend in the survival group, the difference reached the largest on the 7th day after admission, and the death group was significantly higher than the survival group (age < 60 years old: 12.50 vs. 6.69; age≥60 years old: 11.58 vs. 6.21). Conclusion:The initial SOFA score has a certain value in the evaluation of prognosis of severe pneumonia patients combined with ARDS, but the effect is poor for elderly patients.