Objective To study the therapeutic effects of Ag85A plasmid DNA vaccines in a mouse model of multi-drug resistant-(MDR-) Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Methods BALB/c mice were infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical strain HB361 with isoniazid and rifampin resist-ance by intratail-vein injection and were subsequently divided into 6 groups. At the third day after infection, the mice were treated with saline (group A), vector pVAX1 (greup B), rifampin (group C), vaccae (group D), Ag85A plasmid DNA vaccines (group E),rifampin and Ag85A plasmid DNA vaccines (group F) for 60 d. The lungs and spleens from the mice were taken and their pathological changes, weight and number of myeobacterial colony were examined at the third week after the end of treatment. Results At third week af-ter the end of treatment, the gross pathological observation and histopathological examination in lung showed that the lung lesions were limited, the profile of the alveoli was relatively clear, and normal structure could be seen in 2/3 areas of the lung sections in group D, E and F. The extent of lung lesion was 50% in group D,20% in group E and F. The pathological changes in group A, B, and C were more severer than those in group D, E and F. Compared with group A, the colony-forming units (CFU) in the lungs from mice in group D,E and F decreased 52%, 68%, 78%, respectively. The CFU in the spleens from mice in group D,E and F decreased 48%, 65%, 79%, respectively. Conclusion Ag85A plasmid DNA vaccines alone or Ag85A plasmid DNA vaccines along with chemotherapy have significant therapeutic effects on the mouse model of MDR-Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.

Objective: To identify Xanthii Fructus and secure its quality and safety in medication. Methods: Total ge-nomic DNA was extracted from Xanthii Fructus and its adulterants. ITS2 sequences were amplified, and purified PCR products were sequenced. Sequence assembly and consensus sequence generation were performed using the CodonCode Aligner V 4.2. The Kimura 2-Parameter (K2P) distances were calculated using MEGA 5.0. The neigh-bor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic trees were constructed. Results: The intraspecific genetic distances of Xanthii Fructus were 0. The interspecific genetic distances between Xanthii Fructus and its adulterants were ranged from 0.009 to 0.542. The NJ tree showed that Xanthii Fructus could differ from its adulterants obviously. Conclusion: ITS2 can be used to identify Xanthii Fructus from its adulterants effectively, and our study further confirmed the effectiveness of ITS2 to identify traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

CRISPR-Associated Protein 9 ; Gene Editing ; CRISPR-Cas Systems/genetics*