Abstract: Objective　To study the characteristics and diagnostic efficacy of Rose-Bengal plate agglutination test (RBPT), standard-tube agglutination test (SAT) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the diagnosis of brucellosis. Methods　A total of 489 suspected brucellosis patients with complete records, who admitted to Xing'anmeng People's Hospital from March 2020 to May 2021, were selected as the subjects. The diagnostic value of SAT, RBPT and ELISA for brucellosis was analyzed with exposure history + clinical symptoms + serological test/brucellosis isolation and culture as the gold standard. Results　Of the 489 suspected patients, 183 (37.42%) were diagnosed with brucellosis, while 234 (47.85%), 148 (30.27%) and 195 (39.88%) were positive by RBPT, ELISA and SAT, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of RBPT in the diagnosis of brucellosis were 95.08%, 80.39%, 74.36%, 96.47%, and 85.89%, respectively; the values of the above parameters for ELISA were 78.69%, 98.69%, 97.30%, 88.56%, and 91.21%, respectively; those values of SAT were 98.36%, 95.10%, 92.31%, 98.98%, and 96.32%, respectively. The sensitivity of RBPT was significantly higher than ELISA, but the specificity and accuracy were significantly lower than ELISA (all P<0.05). The sensitivity and accuracy of SAT diagnosis were significantly higher than ELISA, but the specificity was significantly lower than ELISA (all P<0.05). There was no significant difference between SAT and RBPT in the sensitivity of diagnosis, but the specificity and accuracy were significantly higher than those of RBPT (P<0.05). Conclusion　RBPT and SAT have high sensitivity in diagnosis of brucellosis, while ELISA has high specificity in diagnosis. RBPT with high sensitivity and convenient operation can be used for primary screening in field detection, and then the other two methods can be used for rechecking, so as to further improve the efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis of brucellosis.

Vaccination is the primary strategy for the prevention and control of pandemic influenza. Because influenza virus is highly variable across strains, universal influenza vaccines need to be developed to address this problem. This review describes the research progress in conserved epitopes of influenza virus, the advances in the research and development of universal influenza vaccines based on the relatively conserved sequences of NP, M2e, HA2, and headless HA, the mechanisms of cross-protection, and the methods to improve cross-protection.
Animals ; Cross Reactions ; Humans ; Orthomyxoviridae ; immunology ; Species Specificity ; Viral Proteins ; immunology ; Viral Vaccines ; genetics ; immunology

Animals ; Humans ; Influenza A virus ; genetics ; immunology ; Influenza Vaccines ; administration & dosage ; genetics ; immunology ; Influenza, Human ; prevention & control ; virology ; Vaccines, Virus-Like Particle ; administration & dosage ; genetics ; immunology

Microbial lipase,one of important industrial biocatalysts,has been used widely in many industrial and agricultural fields.It is always the research focus to screen,mine and develop the microbial lipases with novel catalytic activity and high stability.This paper introduces briefly the pathways and methods to mine novel microbial lipase resources from six aspects,including extremophile,metagenome,genome database,protein engineering,immobilization,chemical modification,etc.

Microbial lipases are important industrial biocatalysts with the character of stereoselectivity,site selectivity and high catalytic activity with few side effects.They have been used widely in many industrial and agricultural fields.The technology of protein engineering has been successfully applied to improve the activity and stability of microbial lipases,which will raise the competitive capacity of microbial lipase preparations and enlarge theirs application fields.The strategies,the problems and the prospects of protein engineering technology which have been applied to modify the microbial lipases was surveied.

Doctor WANG Zhi-zhong in the Southern Song Dynasty proposed the acupoint view of "location of disease", which explained the connotation of acupoints from the angle of clinic. Its meaning included two levels, one level meant pathological change on the body surface, that was the location of acupuncture diagnosis-treatment, and the other one indicated that the body surface which was the reflecting point of pathological change on the distal area or inside the body was the location of acupuncture diagnosis-treatment. The specific connotations of clinical acupoints were: location of pathogenic factors or reflection of pathogenic factors, regularity between acupoints un- der disease and specific organ, morphological differences and positioning variability after acupoints under disease, and acupoints examination, diagnosis and treatment.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; history ; China ; History, Ancient ; Humans ; Medicine in Literature ; Meridians

OBJECTIVETo understand if the Neuraminidase (N1) of Influenza A virus at the surface of yeast-displaying system, eukaryotic expression system and the infected cells could be used for anti-NA Abs screening, their activities and bindings to five candidate Abs were assayed.

METHODSThe surface NA expression was obtained by transfecting by recombinant NA constructors with specific tag-labels or live virus infection. The functional activity was measured by the fluorescent assay. Their bindings to the Abs were detected by flow cytometry.

RESULTSThe surface NAs presenting on the yeast-displaying system and eukaryotic expression system exhibited functional NA activities as the NA at the surface of virus-infected cells which showed affinities to Ab1, 4, and 5. The same bindings to Abl and 5 were found in the surface NA expressed by eukaryotic expression system while minor binding was observed in the yeast displayed-NA.

CONCLUSIONThe epitopes of yeast-displayed NA may be different from the NAs present at eukaryotic expression system and the infected cells which more likely suitable for the screening of anti-NA Abs.

Antibodies ; immunology ; Antigens, Surface ; genetics ; immunology ; Cell Line ; HEK293 Cells ; Humans ; Influenza A virus ; genetics ; immunology ; Neuraminidase ; genetics ; immunology ; Protein Binding ; Recombinant Proteins ; genetics ; immunology

Objective To evaluate the running status of the water-improving projects in Gansu Province in order to further improve the supervising mechanism and raise the efficiency of defluoridation in drinking water.Methods The water-improving projects,either being normal,or intermittent,or discarded and the cause of abnormal running in 33 counties in Gansu Province were surveyed with unified standard method.Fluoride content in water was determined by F-ion selective electrode.Results 993 water improving projects covering 3389 fluorosis villages were surveyed,682 projects worked well[68.68%(682/993)]and had supplied water with normal fluoride contents to 2174 villages[64.15%(2174/3389)]and benefited 116.56 hundred thousand populations.And the rest 311[31.32%(311/993)]projects worked abnormally or supplied unqualified fluoride water.The main causes were the exceeded lasting life,insufficiency of water resources,high fluoride content in water and unqualified administration.Conclusions Most of the water-improving projects in Gansu Province are basically running normally,but about 1/3 of the projects do not function well,so the management of the projects must be improved and consummated.

Objective To compare the diagnostic value of myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) and 64 multi-slice spiral CT (64-MSCT) for coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods Fifty-two patients with suspected or known CAD were included in the study. Each patient underwent both stress and rest MPI,MSCT as well as conventional coronary angiography (CAG) within 1 month. The stress and rest MPI were scored by a 5-grade criteria (0 ～ 4) based on 17 coronary artery segments. The difference between summed stress and rest scores ＞ 1 was defined as myocardial ischemia. Stenosis in one main vessel or one main branch of the main vessel ≥50% was defined as myocardial ischemia by MSCT. CAG was used as the reference for comparison. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 13. 0 software. Kappa value was used to test the accordance of MPI and MSCT results. X2 test was used to evaluate the difference between MPI and MSCT results. Results The patient-based sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and accuracy of MPI and MSCT for the diagnosis of CAD were 86.7% (26/30), 77.3% ( 17/22),83.9% (26/31), 81.0% ( 17/21), 82.7% (43/52) and 83.3% ( 25/30), 86.4% ( 19/22), 89.3%( 25/28), 79.2% ( 19/24), 84.6% (44/52), respectively. The vessel-based sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and accuracy of MPI and MSCT were 74.5% (38/51), 81.0% (85/105 ), 65.5% (38/58), 86.7% ( 85/98), 78.8% ( 123/156 ) and 90.2% (46/51 ), 88.6% ( 93/105 ),79.3 % (46/58), 94.9% (93/98), 89.1% ( 139/156), respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between MPI and MSCT for either patient or lesion-based diagnosis (X2 =0.44, 0.21, both P ＞0.05 ). 96.0% (24/25) patients with both abnormal MPI and MSCT positive were valified by CAG while 83.3% (15/18) patients with both MPI and MSCT negative were excluded by CAG. Conclusions Both MPI and MSCT are reliable diagnostic modalities for CAD. They also provide complementary diagnostic value to each other.

Objective To understand distribution of the endemic fluorosis areas and running status of water-improving defuoridation projects in Gausu province. Methods In 2006, Gansu province endemic fluorosis areas, the content of fluoride in drinking water was measured in villages where water was not improved, running status of delluoridation projects was investigated and the content of fluoride in drinking water were determined in villages where water was improved. Dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis prevalence were examined in children in identified high-fluorlde villages. The fluorine content in drinking water was determined by F-ion selective electrode, dental fluorosis of children was diagnosed using Dean method, and adults skeletal fluorosis was diagnosed according to "National Standard for Clinical Diagnosis of Endemic Skeletal Fhiorosis" (GB 16396-1996). Results Water samples were examined in 1997 villages of 26 countries, among which water fluoride content was higher than 1.0 mg/L in 598 villages, accounting for 29.94%(598/1997). All 1215 water-improving and defluoridation projects had been investigated, among which 94.90%(1153/1215) of the projects were functioning well, and intermittent and abandoned projects accounted for 2.96%(36/1215) and 2.14%(26/1215). Mean fluoride of treated water of 1084 water-improving and defluoridation projects had water fluoride content ≤ 1.0 mg/L, accounted for 90.79%(1084/1194) ; mean fluoride of water from 1068 water-improving and defluoridation projects had water fuoride content ≤ 1.0 mg/L, accounting for 91.75%(1068/1164). Total 86 390 children of 8 to 12 year-old were examined, the detectable rate of dental fluorosis was 22.47%(19 414/86 390) and 142 211 adults above 16 year-old were examined, the detectable rate of skeletal fluorosis was 4.20%(5967/142 211). Conclusions Some villages yet have water fluoride content exceeding the standard. Some projects are abandoned and running badly, leading to fluoride content exceeding the standard. In a few areas, the prevalence of children dental fluorosis and adult skeletal fluorosis still exists in Gansu province, the task of prevention and control for endemic fluorosis is still arduous. We must raise the effect of prevention and treatment of this disease.