Objective: To analyze the bioinformatics of domestic Clostridium difficile toxin B(TcdB) and prepare it to provide data support for the development of effective vaccines. Methods: Using bioinformatics software such as Snippy, Blast, Muscle, and the dist.alignment() and hclust() functions in R, 1 355 strains of Clostridium difficile from NCBI GenBank in China were compared and analyzed, and TcdB were grouped. The maximum likelihood tree and phylogenetic tree were beautified and displayed using iTOL. An online bioinformatics analysis website was used to predict and analyze the spatial structure and antigenic epitopes of the two largest subgroups, TcdB1 and TcdB2. The antigen protein TcdB was expressed and purified by prokaryotic system. Results: According to the genotype of toxin B, the 1 355 prevalent strains of Clostridium difficile in China could be roughly divided into 12 subtypes, among which TcdB1 and TcdB2 were the main subtypes, accounting for more than 93.94% of all isolated strains, and about 17.20% of the strains were nontoxigenic or lack TcdB. The antigen epitope prediction of TcdB1 and TcdB2 showed that their antigen epitope distributions were basically the same, and many of them were distributed outside the C-terminal combined repetitive oligopeptides domains. Conclusion A specialized typing system for C. difficile TcdB in China has been established, and its main subtypes have been predicted for antigenic epitopes. The screened TcdB has been expressed for recombinant preparation.

To formulate an expert consensus on the principles of preoperative hair removal and provide scientific guidance for standardized removal of hair before surgical procedures so as to reduce the incidence of surgical site infections.METHODS Led by the Hospital Management Institute of National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China,this consensus was reached with the joint efforts from the expects of relevant fields such as surgeries,interventional therapies,nursing,and infection prevention and control.The consensus facilitates the classification and evaluation of literatures by following the evidence grade formulated by Oxford Evidence-based Medicine Center and focuses on the association of preoperative hair removal with surgical site infection,it reaches the evidence grade of expert consensus and recommendation intensity by integrating with discussions on meetings and clinical experience of the expects from relevant fields.RESULTS A total of 6 items of consensus were reached by summarizing the latest evidence on the aspects including the indications for preoperative hair removal,tools,range,timing and places.CONCLUSION The consensus,to some extent,make supplements to and complete the exiting regulations and standards.It provides guidance for the medical institutions to carry out the preoperative hair removal.

To formulate an expert consensus on the principles of preoperative hair removal and provide scientific guidance for standardized removal of hair before surgical procedures so as to reduce the incidence of surgical site infections.METHODS Led by the Hospital Management Institute of National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China,this consensus was reached with the joint efforts from the expects of relevant fields such as surgeries,interventional therapies,nursing,and infection prevention and control.The consensus facilitates the classification and evaluation of literatures by following the evidence grade formulated by Oxford Evidence-based Medicine Center and focuses on the association of preoperative hair removal with surgical site infection,it reaches the evidence grade of expert consensus and recommendation intensity by integrating with discussions on meetings and clinical experience of the expects from relevant fields.RESULTS A total of 6 items of consensus were reached by summarizing the latest evidence on the aspects including the indications for preoperative hair removal,tools,range,timing and places.CONCLUSION The consensus,to some extent,make supplements to and complete the exiting regulations and standards.It provides guidance for the medical institutions to carry out the preoperative hair removal.

The aim of this study was to prepare a self-assembled nanoparticle monkeypox vaccine candidate and study its immune response characteristics,so as to provide reference test data for its vaccine design.The antigen protein A29L-SpyTag and the backbone protein Mi3-SpyCatcher were expressed and purified by prokaryotic system,and nanoparticles A29L-Mi3 were prepared by chemical assembly,then the antibody titers were determined by ELISA,the antibody neutralization was determined by plaque test,and the cytokine secretion of lymphocytes was determined by flow cytometry to describe the immune response characteristics.Data showed that A29L-Mi3 nanoparticles were successfully prepared,and the particles were uniformly distributed in hollow cages,with an average particle size of(29±0.19)nm.After the A29L-Mi3 nanoparticle vaccine candidate was combined with SP01 adjuvant,the neutralizing antibody titer was stronger than that of the A29L protein candidate,and the A29L-Mi3 nanoparticle vaccine candidate could obtain neutralizing antibodies with similar titers after two immunizations.The level of mouse T lymphocyte immune response activated by the A29L-Mi3 nanoparticle vaccine candidate was higher than that of the A29L protein vaccine candidate.In conclusion,A29L-Mi3 protein nanoparticles with uniform structure have successfully assembled in vitro,which has strong immunogenicity and improved neutralization ability after combination with SP01 adjuvant,thus provided reference data for the optimization of immune programs.In addition,the level of cellular immune response is higher than that of A29L protein alone,which provides a reference for the design and development of monkeypox vaccine.

Objective:To the investigate the predictive value of preoperative systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI) for postoperative clinical outcome in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in basal ganglia region.Methods:Patients with ICH in basal ganglia region underwent surgical treatment at the Department of Neurosurgery, the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from January 2015 to December 2021 were retrospectively included. At 3 months after surgery, the modified Rankin Scale was used to evaluate the clinical outcome, with a score of 0-2 defined as good outcome and >2 defined as poor outcome. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the independent correlation between SIRI and poor outcome in patients with ICH. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to identify the predictive value of SIRI. Results:A total of 258 patients with ICH in basal ganglia region underwent surgical treatment were enrolled, including 176 males (68.22%), aged 57.00 years (interquartile range, 49.00-65.25 years); median hematoma volume was 50.00 ml (interquartile range, 40.00-70.00 ml), and median SIRI was 4.12 (interquartile range, 2.28-7.30); 143 patients (55.43%) had poor outcome. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that older age (odds ratio [ OR] 1.070, 95% confidence interval [ CI] 1.030-1.111; P<0.001), lower Glasgow Coma Scale score ( OR 0.669, 95% CI 0.575-0.779; P<0.001), higher platelet count ( OR 1.010, 95% CI 1.003-1.017; P=0.004), and higher SIRI ( OR 1.434, 95% CI 1.255-1.638; P<0.001) were the independent predictors of poor outcome. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve for predicting poor outcome by SIRI was 0.791 (95% CI 0.737-0.845; P<0.001), with an optimal cutoff value of 4.53. The predictive sensitivity and specificity were 67.8% and 81.7%, respectively. Conclusion:Preoperative SIRI can effectively predict the clinical outcome of patients with ICH in basal ganglia area at 3 months after surgery, and SIRI >4.53 indicates poor outcome.

Objective:To investigate the effect and of piperine(PIP)on nerve injury in rats with cerebral infarction.Meth-ods:The rat model of cerebral infarction was prepared by modified thread embolism method.The rats were divided into Sham group,Model group,piperine group(PIP group,20 mg/kg piperine),piperine+PKA inhibitor group(PIP+H-89 group,20 mg/kg PIP+5 mg/kg H-89).The rats were scored for neurological impairment,the volume of cerebral infarction,neuronal damage and neuronal apoptosis were observed,and the levels of cAMP,IL-1β and IL-6 in hippocampus and the protein expressions of GFAP,NSE,AC6,PKA,p-CREB,CREB and BDNF were detected.Results:Compared with Sham group,Model group had large cerebral infarction,cerebral in-farction volume,the neurological deficit score,neuronal apoptosis rate,the levels of IL-6 and IL-1β in hippocampus,and number of GFAP positive cells,the positive expression rates of NSE protein increased,the number of Nissl bodies,and the expressions of cAMP,AC6,PKA,p-CREB and BDNF proteins in hippocampus decreased(P<0.05);compared with Model group,cerebral infarc-tion volume,the neurological deficit score,neuronal apoptosis rate,the levels of IL-6 and IL-1β in hippocampus,and number of GFAP positive cells,the positive expression rates of NSE protein in the PIP group decreased,the number of Nissl bodies,and the ex-pressions of cAMP,AC6,PKA,p-CREB and BDNF proteins in hippocampus increased(P<0.05);the effect of piperine in improving nerve injury in rats with cerebral infarction was able to be reversed by H-89.Conclusion:PIP can inhibit the apoptosis of hippocampal neurons,and improve the neural injury induced by cerebral infarction by activating AC/PKA/CREB signal pathway.

N ⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) modification is critical for mRNA splicing, nuclear export, stability and translation. Fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO), the first identified m⁶A demethylase, is critical for cancer progression. Herein, we developed small-molecule inhibitors of FTO by virtual screening, structural optimization, and bioassay. As a result, two FTO inhibitors namely 18077 and 18097 were identified, which can selectively inhibit demethylase activity of FTO. Specifically, 18097 bound to the active site of FTO and then inhibited cell cycle process and migration of cancer cells. In addition, 18097 reprogrammed the epi-transcriptome of breast cancer cells, particularly for genes related to P53 pathway. 18097 increased the abundance of m⁶A modification of suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) mRNA, which recruited IGF2BP1 to increase mRNA stability of SOCS1 and subsequently activated the P53 signaling pathway. Further, 18097 suppressed cellular lipogenesis via downregulation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (C/EBPα), and C/EBPβ. Animal studies confirmed that 18097 can significantly suppress in vivo growth and lung colonization of breast cancer cells. Collectively, we identified that FTO can work as a potential drug target and the small-molecule inhibitor 18097 can serve as a potential agent against breast cancer.

Scaffold hopping refers to computer-aided screening for active compounds with different structures against the same receptor to enrich privileged scaffolds, which is a topic of high interest in organic and medicinal chemistry. However, most approaches cannot efficiently predict the potency level of candidates after scaffold hopping. Herein, we identified potent PDE5 inhibitors with a novel scaffold via a free energy perturbation (FEP)-guided scaffold-hopping strategy, and FEP shows great advantages to precisely predict the theoretical binding potencies ΔG _FEP between ligands and their target, which were more consistent with the experimental binding potencies ΔG _EXP (the mean absolute deviations | Δ G FEP - Δ G EXP |  < 2 kcal/mol) than those ΔG _MM-PBSA or ΔG _MM-GBSA predicted by the MM-PBSA or MM-GBSA method. Lead L12 had an IC₅₀ of 8.7 nmol/L and exhibited a different binding pattern in its crystal structure with PDE5 from the famous starting drug tadalafil. Our work provides the first report via the FEP-guided scaffold hopping strategy for potent inhibitor discovery with a novel scaffold, implying that it will have a variety of future applications in rational molecular design and drug discovery.

Objective:To investigate the clinical characteristics, diagnosis, treatment and outcome of patients with human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) viral encephalitis after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT).Methods:The clinical manifestations, laboratory characteristics, diagnosis and treatment process and outcome of 3 patients with HHV-7 viral encephalitis after allo-HSCT in Hebei Yanda Lu Daopei Hospital from 2018 to 2020 were retrospectively analyzed, and the related literature was reviewed.Results:The clinical features of 3 patients with HHV-7 viral encephalitis after allo-HSCT included fever, headache, vomiting, apathy, etc., without specific symptoms or signs. The conventional white blood cell count in the cerebrospinal fluid was normal or slightly higher, mainly lymphocytes, and the cerebrospinal fluid protein was normal or slightly higher. The HHV-7 virus DNA in cerebrospinal fluid was positive, and the treatment with ganciclovir or foscarnet was effective. The prognosis was favorable in two mild cases, but one case with cerebral hemorrhage died eventually.Conclusions:HHV-7 viral encephalitis is a rare infection after allo-HSCT, and it can be easily misdiagnosed due to lack of typical symptoms and indications for routine laboratory tests. The detection of HHV-7 DNA in the cerebrospinal fluid can help confirm the diagnosis. Currently, there is no standard treatment programs, but ganciclovir and foscarnet are effective.

Our recent studies demonstrated that the natural product nobiletin (NOB) served as a promising multidrug resistance (MDR) reversal agent and improved the effectiveness of cancer chemotherapy . However, low aqueous solubility and difficulty in total synthesis limited its application as a therapeutic agent. To tackle these challenges, NOB was synthesized in a high yield by a concise route of six steps and fourteen derivatives were synthesized with remarkable solubility and efficacy. All the compounds showed improved sensitivity to paclitaxel (PTX) in P-glycoprotein (P-gp) overexpressing MDR cancer cells. Among them, compound exhibited water solubility 280-fold higher than NOB. A drug-resistance A549/T xenograft model showed that at a dose of 50 mg/kg co-administered with PTX (15 mg/kg), inhibited tumor growth more effective than NOB and remarkably increased PTX concentration in the tumors P-gp inhibition. Moreover, Western blot experiments revealed that inhibited expression of NRF2, phosphorylated ERK and AKT in MDR cancer cells, thus implying of multiple mechanisms to reverse MDR in lung cancer.