BACKGROUND: This study was aimed to investigate the genetic diversity and antibiotic resistance profile of the nosocomial infection agent Acinetobacter baumannii from a medical intensive care unit (ICU) in a teaching hospital in Suzhou, China. METHODS: The genetic relationship among A. baumannii isolates in an ICU was investigated using multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The antibiotic resistance pattern was determined by performing an antibiotic susceptible test, which included an agar dilution method and an E-test method. Resistant determinants, e.g., carbapenemase genes, metallo-beta-lactamases, and class 1 integron, were analyzed by specific PCR and DNA sequencing. RESULTS: In the present study, 33 non-duplicate isolates were identified as 5 existing sequence types (STs) (ST92, ST75, ST112, ST145, and ST345) and 1 new sequence type STn, which has a G-A mutation at nt268 on ropD40 of ST251. These results reveal limited diversity in carbapenem non-susceptible A. baumannii (CNSAb) isolates in our ICU, which are comprised of only 2 distinct STs, with ST92 and ST75 clustering into a clonal complex (CC) 92. Most CNSAb isolates (94.4%, 17/18) harbored the OXA-23 gene, while no carbapenem-susceptible A. baumannii (CSAb) isolates harbored it. In addition, 66.7% (22/33) isolates were positive for class 1 integrase, and gene cassette analysis showed there are 3 gene arrays among them, i.e., aacA4-catB8-aadA1 (77.3%, 17/22), aacA4 (22.7%, 5/22), and aacC1-orfX-orfX'-aadA1 (4.5%, 1/22). CONCLUSIONS: When all these data are combined, the antibiotic resistance and wide distribution of CNSAb isolates in our ICU are probably caused by expansion of the CC92 clone.

BACKGROUND: The dramatic increase in use of the IgG test for toxoplasma, rubella, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and herpes simplex virus (HSV) [TORCH] has led to the requirement for a high-efficiency method that can be used in the clinical laboratory. This study aimed to compare the results of BGI-Array ELISA TORCH IgG (BGI-GBI, China) screening method to those of Virion/Serion TORCH IgG ELISA (Virion/Serion, Germany). METHODS: Serum specimens (n=400) submitted for routine IgG testing by Virion/Serion ELISA were also tested using the BGI-Array ELISA method. The agreements of these two kinds of method were analyzed by kappa-coefficients calculation. RESULTS: Following repeat testing, the BGI-Array ELISA TORCH IgG assays demonstrated agreements of 99.5% (398/400 specimens), 98% (392/400 specimens), 99% (396/400 specimens), and 99.5% (398/400 specimens), respectively. The BGI-Array ELISA IgG assays provided results comparable to Virion/Serion ELISA results, with kappa-coefficients showing near-perfect agreement for the HSV (kappa=0.87), rubella (kappa=0.92) and CMV (kappa=0.93) and substantial agreement for the toxoplasma (kappa=0.80) IgG assays. The use of the BGI-Array ELISA TORCH IgG assays could reduce the turnaround time (1.5 hr vs. 5 hr by Virion/Serion ELISA for 100 specimens) and were easy to use. CONCLUSIONS: BGI-Array ELISA TORCH IgG shows a good agreement with Virion/Serion ELISA methods and is suitable for clinical application.
Antibodies, Viral/blood ; Cytomegalovirus/immunology/*metabolism ; *Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G/*analysis/blood ; Protozoan Infections/diagnosis ; Reagent Kits, Diagnostic ; Rubella virus/immunology/*metabolism ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Simplexvirus/immunology/*metabolism ; Toxoplasma/immunology/*metabolism ; Virion/*immunology/metabolism ; Virus Diseases/diagnosis

BACKGROUND: Implantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) is a potential alternative for promoting bone defects healing or osseointegration in osteoporosis. However, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulated and excessive inflammation in the osteoporotic microenvironment could weaken the self-replication and multi-directional differentiation of transplanted BMSCs. METHODS: In this study, to improve the hostile microenvironment in osteoporosis, Poloxamer 407 and hyaluronic acid (HA) was crosslinked to synthetize a thermos-responsive and injectable hydrogel to load MnO2 nanoparticles as a protective carrier (MnO2 @Pol/HA hydrogel) for delivering BMSCs. RESULTS: The resulting MnO2 @Pol/HA hydrogel processed excellent biocompatibility and durable retention time, and can eliminate accumulated ROS effectively, thereby protecting BMSCs from ROS-mediated inhibition of cell viability, including survival, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation. In osteoporotic bone defects, implanting of this BMSCs incorporated MnO2 @Pol/HA hydrogel significantly eliminated ROS level in bone marrow and bone tissue, induced macrophages polarization from M1 to M2 phenotype, decreased the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., TNFa, IL-1b, and IL-6) and osteogenic related factors (e.g., TGF-b and PDGF). CONCLUSION This hydrogel-based BMSCs protected delivery strategy indicated better bone repair effect than BMSCs delivering or MnO2 @Pol/HA hydrogel implantation singly, which providing a potential alternative strategy for enhancing osteoporotic bone defects healing.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease commonly seen in clinical practice. It can lead to thickening of vascular intima, occlusion of lumen stenosis and thrombosis, leading to angina pectoris, hypertension, myocardial infarction and other diseases, posing a serious threat to human life and health. This study provides a method for removing shield needles from graphene oxide thrombus and its preparation. The graphene oxide shield needle mainly includes flexible rotating shaft, radial flexible rod, rotating needle, adsorption main pipe and dosing main pipe, laser measuring device, high definition camera and other structures, which has the following advantages:firstly, it achieves multi-angle rotation grinding thrombosis, precise rotation grinding, avoids vascular damage and infection; secondly, thrombolytic drugs can be applied in the process of rotary grinding and small thrombus can be adsorbed to effectively avoid secondary embolization of blood vessels; thirdly, it a coating of graphene oxide on a rotating needle, which protects against bacteria and infection. This study has practical reference value for the development of thrombotherapy and the application of graphene in the medical field.
Adsorption ; Graphite ; Humans ; Needles ; Thrombosis/prevention & control*