Objective To establish a high-throughput screening system to obtain key Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus)secretory proteins which required for S.aureus survival in macrophages.Methods Based on our validated eukaryotic expression vector library of S.aureus secretory proteins,DNA transfection was used to obtain an RAW264.7 macrophage array expressing S.aureus secretory proteins.After the RAW264.7 cells were infected with S.aureus,the extracellular bacteria were removed to observe the intracellular surviving situation of S.aureus.Finally,the screening results were validated by the overexpression and knockout S.aureus of corresponding secretory proteins.Results The optimal transfection dose (1.0 μg/well)of plasmids for RAW264.7,multiplicity of infection (MOI,1 .0 ),and infection time (4 h after removing extracellular bacteria of S.aureus ) were established respectively.To validate the screening results,the corresponding overexpression and knockout strains were constructed.And hypothetical protein and Serine protease E were found to promote the survival of intracellular S.aureus.Conclusion We successfully construct a screening system for key secreted secretory proteins which required for S.aureus surviving in macrophages,which may advance the study of the intracellular surviving mechanism of S.aureus.

Objective To investigate the distribution of B cells in both tumor and non-tumor tissues of gastric cancer patients,analyze their phenotypic characteristics and explore the impact on T cell proliferation.Methods Immunohistochemical staining was utilized to detect the expression of B cell surface marker CD 19 in tumor and non-tumor tissues from 33 gastric cancer patients.The expression levels of chemokine receptors and immunoglobulin molecules on B cells in both tumor and non-tumor tissues were measured using flow cytometry.Chemotaxis experiments were conducted to examine the role of the CXCL12-CXCR4 axis in B cell chemotaxis.B cells isolated and purified from both tissue types were co-cultured with autologous peripheral T cells to assess their effect on T cell proliferation.Results There were significantly more B cells infiltrated in tumor tissues than those infitrated in the non-tumor tissues of gastric cancer patients(P＜0.01),and CXCR4 was highly expressed on tumor-infiltrating B cells compared with B cells derived from non-tumor tissues(P＜0.05).The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)analysis indicated that the expression level of CXCL12 in tumor tissues was positively correlated with the expression level of CD19 in gastric cancer patients(r=0.15,P＜0.01).And the expression level of CXCL12 in tumor tissues of the gastric cancer patients was also positively correlated with the number of B cells infiltrated in tumor tissues.Chemotaxis experiments confirmed that the CXCL12-CXCR4 axis was involved in promoting B cell chemotaxis(P＜0.05).Although B cells in tumor and non-tumor tissues had similar levels of IgM,IgG,and IgA expression,tumor-infiltrating B cells significantly inhibited the proliferation of T cells when compared with B cells derived from non-tumor tissues(P＜0.01).Conclusion There are more B cells infiltrated in gastric cancer tissues,which may be recruited to tumor tissues through the CXCL12-CXCR4 axis,and then inhibit T cell proliferation to promote the progression of gastric cancer.

Objective To explore the mechanism which drives nimbolide(NIM)in treating acute pneumonia caused by Staphylococcus aureus(S.auteus).Methods A mouse model of acute pneumonia caused by S.auteus was constructed through endotracheal intubation.After NIM treatment,the survival rate was observed,the amount of bacteria in the lung was tested by plate culture,and the expression of inflammatory cytokines in the lung tissues was detected with ELISA.After primary cultured peritoneal macrophages(PM)were infected with S.auteus,the effect of NIM on the expression of inflammatory cytokines and activation of inflammatory pathway were studied with ELISA and Western blotting,respectively.The effect of RNF114 knockdown by lentiviral shRNA infection on inflammation responses in PM was explored with ELISA and Western blotting.Results Acute infection of S.auteus in the lung could cause acute death in the mice,while NIM treatment significantly improved the survival rate and down-regulated the levels of inflammatory cytokines in the lung.However,it had no effect on the lung colonization of S.auteus in the short term.The results of in vitro experiments indicated that NIM may regulate RNF114 function to down-regulate the phosphorylation level of ERK,inhibit the activation of MAPK pathway,and thus suppress the expression of inflammatory cytokines.Conclusion NIM may inhibit the activation of MAPK pathway by regulating the function of RNF114,and thus suppress the expression of inflammatory cytokines in the lung,and finally inhibit the death of mice with acute pulmonary hyperinflammation caused by S.auteus.

Tumor has become the major reasons cause of death,and its vaccine has become the effective tracts of treatment and prevention by enhancing the immune response of patients.However,most vaccines which are recombination subunit protein antigens are poorly immunogenic and difficult to induce a robust immune response in patients with compromised immune systems,resulting in poor marketing approval.The core component of the vaccine adjuvant can greatly enhance the strength,speed and duration of the immune response,thus becoming the key to the development of an ideal tumor vaccine.Most tumor vaccines are combined with tradition adjuvant such as aluminum,MF59 and AS adjuvant,but their products and patents are monopolized by large foreign companies.We found that natural adjuvants have many unique advantages,such as good biocompatibility and biodegradability,promoting the maturation of dendritic cell and the secretion of immune cytokines,significantly enhancing the tumor vaccine immune response,etc.In this paper,the application and future development of natural polysaccharides,saponins,flavonoid and plant virus-like particles in cancer vaccines were reviewed,which may lay a solid foundation for the development of the original and innovative adjuvants with domestic independent intellectual property rights.

The outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection poses a serious threat to global public health. Vaccination is an effective way to prevent the epidemic of the virus. 2019-nCoV along with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) belong to the same β-genus of coronavirus family. Base on the previous experience and the technical platform of developing SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV vaccines, scientists from all over the world are working hard and quickly on the related fields. There are substantial progress in these fields including the characterizing the 2019-nCoV virus, identification of candidate antigens and epitopes, establishment of animal models, characterizing the immune responses, and the design of vaccines. The development of 2019-nCoV vaccines cover all types: inactivated virus vaccine, recombinant protein vaccine, viral vector-based vaccine, mRNA vaccine, and DNA vaccine, et al. As of March 2020, two 2019-nCoV vaccines have entered phase I clinical trials. One is named as Ad5-nCoV developed by the Chinese Institute of Biotechnology of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Tianjin Cansino Biotechnology Inc. Ad5-nCoV is based on the replication-defective adenovirus type 5 as the vector to express 2019-nCoV spike protein. The another vaccine is mRNA-1273 developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Moderna, Inc.. RNA-1273 is an mRNA vaccine expressing 2019-nCoV spike protein. Although the rapid development of 2019-nCoV vaccine, it still faces many challenges with unknown knowledge, including the antigenic characteristics of the 2019-nCoV, the influence of antigenic variation, the protective immune response of host, the protection of the elderly population, and the downstream manufacturing process of the new vaccine. The safety and efficacy of vaccines are the first priority for vaccine development and should be carefully evaluated.

Biotechnological Pharmaceutics is a compulsory course for biotechnology undergraduates in our school. We designed and implemented an elective course named Structural Biology to help students master technological principles through practice. This elective course included in-classroom lectures and experiments; during which we encouraged students to work together, and design, prepare, implement, and complete projects; examination score of Biotechnological Pharmaceutics was used to assess learning outcomes. The results showed that students who took this course gained higher score in the examination, indicating that the elective course is effective to improve the learning effect of Biotechnological Pharmaceutics for biotechnology undergraduates.

Biotechnological pharmaceutics is an important course for pharmacy undergraduates , however there are many problems in current curriculum design and teaching methods. With the advantage of our platform National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, we tried to carry out the teaching reformation based on Excellent Engineer Education and Training Plan. We optimized the curriculum standards and teaching design, highlighted the combination ofBiotechnological pharmaceuticsand Engineering, strengthened the experiment teaching, tried the reformation of teaching method such as flipped classroom and PBL, strengthened the cultivation of innovative thinking and scientific research ability. Our teaching reformation is beneficial to cultivating the compound talents in the field of biotechnological pharmaceutics.

BACKGROUNDHelicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection could lead to most gastroduodenal diseases and is even identified as a carcinogen of gastric cancer. Total alkaloids of sophora alopecuroides (TASA) is widely used in herbal remedies to treat various infectious diseases, including stomach-associated diseases. This study is aimed at evaluating the antimicrobial activity of TASA on H. pylori-infected BALB/c mice mouse gastritis.

METHODSTotally 120 BALB/c mice were orally inoculated with H. pylori Bacterial liquid to construct BALB/c mice H. pylori infection gastritis animal model, after the model was successfully created. We randomly assigned 100 infected mice into 10 treatment groups, the first group (normal saline); the second group (bismuth pectin); the third group (omeprazole); the fourth group (TASA 2 mg/d); the fifth group (TASA 4 mg/d); the sixth group (TASA 5 mg/d); the seventh group (TASA + bismuth pectin); the eighth group (TASA + omeprazole); the ninth group (bismuth pectin + clarithromycin + metronidazole); the tenth group (omeprazole + clarithromycin + metronidazole), 5 other non-infected mice as negative control. Mice were orally inoculated twice a day and 7 days continuously. Then the mice were killed 4 weeks after treatment, we used realtime PCR to detect 16sDNA of H. pylori to test both the colonization and the clearance mice of bacteria of each treatment. We applied hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and immunostaining of mice gastric mucosa to observe the general inflammation and related factors interleukin 8 (IL-8), cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2), and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) expression change after treatments.

RESULTSFirstly, we ensured that after 6-week intragastric administration, the bacteria colonization reached an exceed peak which is far higher than positive threshold (P < 0.001); secondly, after treatments, it is revealed that TASA combined with omeprazole or bismuth pectin showed promising antimicrobial activity against H. pylori as well as conventional triple therapy (P < 0.001); thirdly, HE staining showed that the inflammation on mice gastric mucosal membrane were also relieved obviously in TASA combined treatments and conventional triple therapy compared with normal saline treated mice, moreover, from immunohistochemistry results, H. pylori-induced IL-8, COX-2, and NF-κB were consistently suppressed in seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth group to a certain extent.

CONCLUSIONThese results open the possibility of taking TASA as an anti-inflammatory agent for H. pylori gastritis.

Alkaloids ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Animals ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Cyclooxygenase 2 ; metabolism ; Female ; Helicobacter Infections ; drug therapy ; Helicobacter pylori ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Immunohistochemistry ; Interleukin-8 ; metabolism ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; NF-kappa B ; metabolism ; Omeprazole ; therapeutic use ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sophora ; chemistry

Objective To investigate the correlation between Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection-associated gastritis and the ap-optotic genes in gastric mucosa .Methods Forty-five patients with chronic gastritis were registrated in our study from November 2013 to December 2014 .HP infection status in the patients was detected by using urease test and 13C-urea breath test .The degree of gastritis in the gastric mucosa with HP infection was confirmed via histopathology .qRT-PCR was used to measure the mRNA ex-pressions of Bax ,Bak and Bcl-2 in the gastric mucosa with HP infection and matched normal gastric mucosa .Person analysis was used to assess the correlation between the HP infection-associated gastritis and the mRNA expressions of Bax ,Bak and Bcl-2 in the gastric mucosa .Results Forty-five patients with HP infection in antrum and 45 patients (100% ) with chronic antrum gastritis were identified ,including 28 patients (62 .2% ) with light gastritis ,16 patients (35 .6% ) with moderate gastritis ,1 patient (2 .0% ) with severe gastritis .9 patients (20 .0% )with metaplasia ,5 patients(11 .1% ) with low grade intraepithelial neoplasms .The urease tests were negative in the gastric body of 45 patients ,6 patients (13 .3% )were mild chronic gastritis in the body ;Patient with meta-plasia and intrapithelial gastritis was not found .The Bax expression in the HP-infected gastric mucosa was markedly increased when compared with the normal gastric mucosa (P< 0 .01) ,and positively correlated with the degree of gastritis (P< 0 .01) , whereas the expressions of Bak and Bcl-2 have no significantly deferences bttween two groups(P>0 .05) .Conclusion HP infec-tion-associated gastritis positively correlated with the expressions of apoptotic genes in gastric mucosa ,suggesting that HP infection might result in increasing the Bax expression and further enhancing the cell apoptosis .

Objective To isolate and purify VacA protein secreted by Helicobacter pylori or recombinant VacA , and to investigate the effect of VacA-induced cell vacuolar change and apoptosis .Methods VacA proteins were separated and pu-rified from the culture supernatant of H.pylori ( ATCC26695 ) or from the split products of genetically engineered bacteria (pQE30-VacA-E.coli M15) expressing recombinant VacA.The VacA protein obtained was acidified and then incubated with AGS cells for 24 h at different final concentrations of 5 and 10 ng/ml before the vacuolar change and apoptosis of AGS cells were detected via microscopy and flow cytometry assay , respectively .Results H.pylori-secreted VacA and recombi-nant VacA were successfully separated and purified .The H.pylori-secreted VacA significantly induced the vacuolar change and apoptosis of AGS cells (P<0.01) while the recombinant VacA did not.Conclusion H.pylori-secreted VacA protein can effectively induce cell vacuolar change and apoptosis, but recombinant VacA can not, suggesting that the purified VacA protein secreted by H.pylori can be used to explore VacA-induced pathogenesis.