As a potential vectored vaccine,Newcastle disease virus(NDV)has been subject to various studies for vaccine development,while relatively little research has outlined the immunomodulatory effect of the virus in antigen presentation.To elucidate the key inhibitory factor in regulating the interaction of infected dendritic cells(DCs)and T cells,DCs were pretreated with the NDV vaccine strain LaSota as an inhibitor and stimulated with lipopolysaccharide(LPS)for further detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA),flow cytometry,immunoblotting,and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR).The results revealed that NDV infection resulted in the inhibition of interleukin(IL)-12p40 in DCs through a p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK)-dependent manner,thus inhibiting the synthesis of IL-12p70,leading to the reduction in T cell proliferation and the secretion of interferon-γ(IFN-γ),tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α),and IL-6 induced by DCs.Consequently,downregulated cytokines accelerated the infection and viral transmission from DCs to T cells.Furthermore,several other strains of NDV also exhibited inhibitory activity.The current study reveals that NDV can modulate the intensity of the innate?adaptive immune cell crosstalk critically toward viral invasion improvement,highlighting a novel mechanism of virus-induced immunosuppression and providing new perspectives on the improvement of NDV-vectored vaccine.

Lateral epicondylitis is a common clinical disease with characteristics of lateral elbow pain, insidious onset and easy recurrence, which can cause forearm pain and decreased wrist strength, seriously affecting patients′ daily life and work. Although there are various treatment methods for lateral epicondylitis with different effects, standard treatments are still lacking nowadays. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has good effects on bone and tendon repair, and is now widely used in the treatment of lateral epicondylitis. However, there is a lack of a unified understanding of the technology and specifications of PRP in the treatment of lateral epicondylitis. Therefore, the Sports Medicine Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Branch of the Chinese Medical Association organized experts in the fields of sports medicine and rehabilitation medicine in China to formulate the "clinical expert consensus on platelet-rich plasma treatment for lateral epicondylitis (2022 version)", and proposed suggestions based on evidence-based medicine mainly from the concept, epidemiology and pathophysiology of lateral epicondylitis, symptoms, signs and imaging manifestations of lateral epicondylitis, PRP concept and application component requirements, quality control of PRP preparation technology, indications and contraindications of PRP in the treatment of lateral epicondylitis, PRP injection in the treatment of lateral epicondylitis, application of PRP in the operation of lateral epicondylitis, related problems after PRP treatment of lateral epicondylitis, evaluation of the results after PRP treatment of lateral epicondylitis, and health and economic evaluation of PRP treatment of lateral epicondylitis, so as to provide guidance for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, the main pathogen causing seafood related food poisoning worldwide, has strong biofilm formation ability. ToxR is a membrane binding regulatory protein, which has regulatory effect on biofilm formation of V. parahaemolyticus, but the specific mechanism has not been reported. c-di-GMP is an important second messenger in bacteria and is involved in regulating a variety of bacterial behaviors including biofilm formation. In this study, we investigated the regulation of ToxR on c-di-GMP metabolism in V. parahaemolyticus. Intracellular c-di-GMP in the wild type (WT) and toxR mutant (ΔtoxR) strains were extracted by ultrasonication, and the concentrations of c-di-GMP were then determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Three c-di-GMP metabolism-related genes scrA, scrG and vpa0198 were selected as the target genes. Quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR) was employed to calculate the transcriptional variation of each target gene between WT and ΔtoxR strains. The regulatory DNA region of each target gene was cloned into the pHR309 plasmid harboring a promoterless lacZ gene. The recombinant plasmid was subsequently transferred into WT and ΔtoxR strains to detect the β-galactosidase activity in the cellular extracts. The recombinant lacZ plasmid containing each of the target gene was also transferred into E. coli 100λpir strain harboring the pBAD33 plasmid or the recombinant pBAD33-toxR to test whether ToxR could regulate the expression of the target gene in a heterologous host. The regulatory DNA region of each target gene was amplified by PCR, and the over-expressed His-ToxR was purified. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) was applied to verify whether His-ToxR directly bound to the target promoter region. ELISA results showed that the intracellular c-di-GMP level significantly enhanced in ΔtoxR strain relative to that in WT strain, suggesting that ToxR inhibited the production of c-di-GMP in V. parahaemolyticus. qPCR results showed that the mRNA levels of scrA, scrG and vpa0198 significantly increased in ΔtoxR strain relative to those in WT strain, suggesting that ToxR repressed the transcription of scrA, scrG and vpa0198. lacZ fusion assay showed that ToxR was able to repress the promoter activities of scrA, scrG and vpa0198 in both V. parahaemolyticus and E. coli 100λpir. EMSA results showed that His-ToxR was able to bind to the regulatory DNA regions of scrA and scrG, but not to the regulatory DNA region of vpa0198. In conclusion, ToxR inhibited the production of c-di-GMP in V. parahaemolyticus via directly regulating the transcription of enzyme genes associated with c-di-GMP metabolism, which would be beneficial for V. parahaemolyticus to precisely control bacterial behaviors including biofilm formation.
Vibrio parahaemolyticus/metabolism* ; Escherichia coli/metabolism* ; Bacterial Proteins/metabolism* ; Transcription Factors/genetics* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial

Background: Currently available guidelines contain conflicting recommendations on the management of blood pressure (BP) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Therefore, it is necessary to appraise the guidelines and summarize the agreements and differences among recommendations. Methods: Four databases and the websites of guideline organizations were searched for guidelines regarding BP targets and thresholds for pharmacologic therapy in DM patients, and the included guidelines were appraised with the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument. Results: In 6,498 records identified, 20 guidelines met our inclusion criteria with 64.0% AGREE II scores (interquartile range, 48.5% to 72.0%). The scores of the European and American guidelines were superior to those of the Asian guidelines (both adjusted P<0.001). Most of the guidelines advocated systolic BP targets <130 mm Hg (12 guidelines, 60%) and diastolic BP targets <80 mm Hg (14 guidelines, 70%) in DM patients. Approximately half of the guidelines supported systolic BP thresholds >140 mm Hg (10 guidelines, 50%) and diastolic BP thresholds >90 mm Hg (nine guidelines, 45%). The tiny minority of the guidelines provided the relevant recommendations regarding the lower limit of official BP targets and the ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM)/home BP monitoring (HBPM) targets and thresholds in DM patients. Conclusion The lower official BP targets (<130/80 mm Hg) in patients with DM are advocated by most of the guidelines, but they contain conflicting recommendations on the official BP thresholds. Moreover, the gaps regarding the lower limit of official BP targets and the ABPM/HBPM targets and thresholds need to be considered by future study.

Background: Currently available guidelines contain conflicting recommendations on the management of blood pressure (BP) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Therefore, it is necessary to appraise the guidelines and summarize the agreements and differences among recommendations. Methods: Four databases and the websites of guideline organizations were searched for guidelines regarding BP targets and thresholds for pharmacologic therapy in DM patients, and the included guidelines were appraised with the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument. Results: In 6,498 records identified, 20 guidelines met our inclusion criteria with 64.0% AGREE II scores (interquartile range, 48.5% to 72.0%). The scores of the European and American guidelines were superior to those of the Asian guidelines (both adjusted P<0.001). Most of the guidelines advocated systolic BP targets <130 mm Hg (12 guidelines, 60%) and diastolic BP targets <80 mm Hg (14 guidelines, 70%) in DM patients. Approximately half of the guidelines supported systolic BP thresholds >140 mm Hg (10 guidelines, 50%) and diastolic BP thresholds >90 mm Hg (nine guidelines, 45%). The tiny minority of the guidelines provided the relevant recommendations regarding the lower limit of official BP targets and the ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM)/home BP monitoring (HBPM) targets and thresholds in DM patients. Conclusion The lower official BP targets (<130/80 mm Hg) in patients with DM are advocated by most of the guidelines, but they contain conflicting recommendations on the official BP thresholds. Moreover, the gaps regarding the lower limit of official BP targets and the ABPM/HBPM targets and thresholds need to be considered by future study.

Objective To generate various types of diabetic retinopathy ( DR) fundus images automatically by computer vision algorithm. Methods A method based on deep learning to generate fundus images was proposed,which used the vascular vein of the fundus image and the text description of lesions as the constraint conditions to generate fundus image. The text description was encoded by using a long short-term memory ( LSTM) , and the vascular vein image was encoded by a convolutional neural network (CNN). Then the encoded information was combined and used to generate a fundus image by generative adversarial networks ( GAN ) . Results The results showed that the algorithm can generate realistic fundus images. However, the image detail features were not obvious because the text-encoded recurrent neural network ( RNN ) loss function did not converge well. Conclusions Using the GAN can generate realistic DR fundus images, which has certain application value in expanding medical data. However,the generation of detail features in small areas still needs improvement.

Objective To investigate the transcriptional autoregulation of PhoP/PhoQ under different growth conditions in Yersinia pestis.Methods The entire promoter region of YPO1635 was amplified and cloned into the pRW50 vector containing a promoterless lacZ reporter gene.The recombinant LacZ reporter plasmid was transformed into the wild-type strain (WT) and the phoP mutant strain (ΔphoP),respectively,to measure the promoter activity (the β-galactosidase activity) of the target gene in WT and ΔphoP by using the β-galactosidase enzyme assay system.Total RNAs were extracted from WT and ΔphoP strains,and primer extension assay was employed to detect the promoter activity by examining the amount of primer extension products of YPO1635 in WT and ΔphoP.Results The LacZ fusion results showed that the transcription of YPO1635 was positively regulated by PhoP under L-TMH and brain-heart infusion(BHI) conditions,but it was not regulated in H-TMH medium.The primer extension assay detected two transcriptional start sites located at 90 and 118 bp upstream of the translation initiation site of phoP,named P1 and P2,respectively.Under low Mg2+ TMH conditions,the promoter activity of P1 rather than P2 was positively regulated by PhoP.Under high Mg2+ TMH conditions,the promoter activities of both P1 and P2 showed no obvious difference in the WT and ΔphoP strains.Under rich BHI conditions,both promoters were under negative control of PhoP.Conclusion Different autoregualtion patterns of PhoP/PhoQ under different growth conditions would help Y.pestis to quickly adapt to the changing living environment.

Objective To evaluate the impact of total parenteral nutrition(TPN)on nutrition status and inflammatory markers in hospitalized fasted patients with inflammatory bowel disease(IBD).Methods A retrospective study was performed and 82 hospitalized fasted IBD patients [male/female=58/24,(39.4±14.5)years] who received TPN entered the study.Among them,38 patients had ulcerative colitis(UC)and 44 patients suffered from Crohn`s disease(CD).Clinical data(gender,age,duration of disease,history of disease,prednisone,immuno-suppressor,and antibiotics)were obtained from medical records.Nutritional parameters,C-creative protein(CRP),and erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR)before and after TPN were also obtained.Average caloric supplementation by TPN was(4 437.3±1 199.1)kJ/d and the nitrogen amount was(9.9±1.7)g/d.Median PN length was 15 days(7-54 days).67 IBD patients received a TPN formula with glutamine(≥14 d,25 patients vs.0-14 d,42 patients)and 15 IBD subjects received TPN without glutamine.Malnutrition was diagnosed by body mass index(BMI)and serum albumin level.Results The prevalence of undernutrition was 90.2％(74/82)in the study population.CD patients had a significantly longer history of disease [84(3-288)months vs.24(1-324)months,P<0.001] and a significantly lower BMI [(15.6±1.8)kg/m2 vs.(19.1±3.5)kg/m2,P<0.001] compared with those in UC patients.TPN improved nutritional parameters [serum albumin:(28.7±6.6)g/L before TPN vs.(31.7±5.8)g/L after TPN,P<0.001;pre-albumin:(174.1±85.5)mg/L before TPN vs.(227.2±82.8)mg/L after TPN,P<0.001].Conclusions TPN improves nutritional status in hospitalized fasted IBD patients.However,prospective randomized controlled trials are required to estimate the role of low-to-middle dosage of glutamine in IBD patients.

Objective To study the transcriptional regulation of vp1667 by H-NS in Vibrio parahaemolyticus.Methods Total RNAs were extracted from Δhns and WT strains.Quantitative RT-PCR was carried out to calculate the transcriptional variation of vp1667 between Δhns and WT.Primer extension assay was also employed to detect the transcription start site and the promoter activity (i.e.the amount of primer extension products) of vp1667 in Δhns and that in WT.The promoter DNA region of vp1667 was amplified, purified, and cloned into the corresponding restriction endonuclease sites of pHRP309 that harbors a gentamicin resistance gene and a promoterless lacZ reporter gene.The recombinant pHRP309 plasmid was transformed into Δhns and WT, respectively, while β-galactosidase activity in cellular extracts was measured using a β-galactosidase enzyme assay system.The over-expressed His-H-NS was purified under native conditions with nickel loaded HiTrap Chelating Sepharose columns.The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and DNaseⅠ footprinting were then applied to analyze the DNA-binding activity of His-H-NS to vp1667 promoter region in vitro.Results and Conclusion The primer extension assay detected one transcription start site for vp1667, which was located at 28 bp upstream of vp1667, and its transcribed activity was under the negative control of the H-NS.The EMSA and DNaseⅠ footprinting assay results showed that His-H-NS was unable to bind to the promoter-proximal DNA region of vp1667, suggesting that H-NS indirectly inhibits the transcription of vp1667.

Objective To investigate the regulation of swimming motility by H-NS in Vibrio parahaemolyticus(VP). Methods VP was inoculated into the semi-solid swimming agar plate containing 1% Oxoid tryptone, 2% NaCl, 0.5%Difco Noble Agar, and 0.1% arabinose followed by incubation at 37℃ for 4.5 h before the diameters of bacterial lawns were measured.Total RNAs were extracted from the wild-type (WT) strains and the hns null mutant (Δhns), and the quantitative real-time( RT)-PCR( qRT-PCR) was carried out to calculate the transcriptional variation of flaA between WT andΔhns strains.The entire promoter DNA region of flaA was amplified and cloned into the lacZ fusion vector pHRP309 containing a promoterless lacZ gene. The recombinant lacZ reporter plasmid was transformed into WT and Δhns, respectively, to measure the β-galactosidase activities in cellular extracts using the β-galactosidase enzyme assay system. Results and Conclusion The phenotype results showed that swimming motility of VP was enhanced by H-NS.The qRT-PCR and LacZ fusion results indicated that the transcription of flaA was positively regulated by H-NS.Collectively, H-NS promotes the swimming motility of VP, at least partly, by activating the transcription of flaA.