BACKGROUND/AIMS: Nitric oxide (NO) is a molecule involved in vascular dilatation and pathogen suppression. It also has immunologic and regulatory functions. Liver cirrhosis is characterized by an increased risk for bacterial infections, including spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). The role of NO in SBP which develops in cirrhosis has not been clearly established. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of NO in the pathogenesis of SBP and its clinical usefulness for prediction of disease prognosis. METHODS: This study was designed to investigate the changes of ascites NO in the course of treatment. Nitric oxide metabolite (nitrites+nitrates [NOx]) was measured by chemiluminescence in 84 ascites samples obtained from 84 cirrhotic patients. Among them, the 38 patients with SBP were treated with cefotaxime 2.0 g, q 12hr for 7 days. In 24 of SBP patients, ascites was obtained consecutively before treatment (day 0), during treatment (day 2), and after treatment (day 7). RESULTS: Ascites NO levels in the patients with SBP (n=38; 82.3 +/- 14.4 micro M) were not different from those in patients with sterile ascites (n=46; 54.6 +/- 13.0 micro M). There was no significant change of NO levels in sequential ascites samples during antibiotic treatment. Ascites NO level before treatment was significantly higher in SBP patients who responded to antibiotics (n=26; 101.86 micro M/L) than that in SBP patients who did not respond to antibiotics (n=12; 40.03 micro M/L, P=0.044). A significant direct correlation was found between ascites and serum NO levels before treatment (Pearson correlation, r2=0.86, P=0.001). Among the SBP patients, treatment response rate to antibiotics were significantly higher in those patients with pretreatment NO level>or=80 micro M/L in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Ascites NO level was not different between ascites from SBP patients and ascites from cirrhotic patients with sterile ascites. There were no changes of ascites NO in SBP patients during treatment. Therefore ascites NO was not useful to predict the progress of SBP. Ascites NO levels reflect serum NO levels, and the patients with higher NO level may have better response to antibiotics.
Adult ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Ascitic Fluid/*chemistry ; Bacterial Infections/complications/*drug therapy ; Cefotaxime/therapeutic use ; English Abstract ; Female ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis/*complications ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nitric Oxide/*analysis ; Peritonitis/complications/*drug therapy ; Prognosis

Virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from human papillomavirus (HPV) L1 capsid proteins were used for HPV quadrivalent recombinant vaccine. The HPV quadrivalent vaccine is administrated in a 3-dose regimen of initial injection followed by subsequent doses at 2 and 6 months to prevent cervical cancer, vulvar, and vaginal cancers. The type 6, 11, 16, or 18 of HPV infection is associated with precancerous lesions and genital warts in adolescents and young women. The HPV vaccine is composed of viral L1 capsid proteins are produced in eukaryotic expression systems and purified in the form of VLPs. Four different the L1 protein of 3 different subtypes of HPV: HPV11, HPV16, and HPV18 were expressed in Escherichia coli divided into 2 fragments as N- and C-terminal of each protein in order to examine the efficacy of HPV vaccine. Vaccinated sera failed to recognize N-terminal L1 HPV type 16 and type 18 by western blot while they detected N-terminal L1 protein of HPV type 11. Moreover, the recombinant C-terminal L1 proteins of type 16 was non-specifically recognized by the secondary antibody conjugated with horseradish peroxidase. This expression and purification system may provide simple method to obtain robust recombinant L1 protein of HPV subtypes to improve biochemical analysis of antigens with immunized sera.
Adolescent ; Blotting, Western ; Capsid Proteins ; Condylomata Acuminata ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Escherichia coli ; Female ; Horseradish Peroxidase ; Humans ; Methods ; Papillomaviridae ; Recombinant Proteins* ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms ; Vaginal Neoplasms

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is a positive-sense singlestranded RNA (+ssRNA) that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The viral genome encodes twelve genes for viral replication and infection. The third open reading frame is the spike (S) gene that encodes for the spike glycoprotein interacting with specific cell surface receptor – angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) – on the host cell membrane. Most recent studies identified a single point mutation in S gene. A single point mutation in S gene leading to an amino acid substitution at codon 614 from an aspartic acid 614 into glycine (D614G) resulted in greater infectivity compared to the wild type SARS-CoV2. We were interested in investigating the mutation region of S gene of SARS-CoV2 from Korean COVID-19 patients. New mutation sites were found in the critical receptor binding domain (RBD) of S gene, which is adjacent to the aforementioned D614G mutation residue. This specific sequence data demonstrated the active progression of SARS-CoV2 by mutations in the RBD of S gene.The sequence information of new mutations is critical to the development of recombinant SARS-CoV2 spike antigens, which may be required to improve and advance the strategy against a wide range of possible SARS-CoV2 mutations.