Humans ; China/epidemiology* ; SARS-CoV-2 ; COVID-19

Crude glycerol is the main by-product of biodiesel production. A few microorganisms can transfer crude glycerol to 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) that is an important chemical material. There exist many limitations such as substrate inhibition, product inhibition when wild strains are used in 1,3-PD biosynthesis. In this review, based on the microbial transformation of 1,3-propanediol from glycerol and its limitations, some strategies using genetic engineering such as knockout or gene overexpression were summarized. The latest research progresses in biosynthesis of 1,3-propanediol from glycerol by genetically engineered strains are discussed.

Background and purpose:Concurrent radiochemotherapy is the standard modality for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients. This clinical trial aimed to assess the effectiveness and toxicity of continuous infusion of 5-lfuorouracil (5-FU) and weekly paclitaxel combined with radiotherapy in ESCC patients. Methods:Patients with locally advanced (T2-4N0-1M0-1a) esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were enrolled in a prospective, single-institutional, single-arm study of deifnitive chemoradiotherapy. Patients received 61.2 Gy with IMRT in 34 fractions. Patients had a Karnofsky performance status of 70 or greater, and normal liver, renal, and bone marrow functions. Patients were recommended to receive concurrent 5-FU (300 mg/m2 civ 96 h) for 5 days a week for 5 weeks, plus paclitaxel (50 mg/m2) given during 3 hours every week for 5 weeks. Patients were recommended to receive 2 courses of consolidation chemotherapy after concurrent radio (chemo) therapy (5-FU 1 800 mg/m2 civ 72 h, plus paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 every 28 days). The primary endpoints of the study were 5 year overall survival and acute toxicity. Results:Fifty patients were enrolled in this study, including 38 male patients and 12 female patients;median age:58 years (ranged 26 to 75 years). 72%patients completed all the chemotherapy and 98%patients received the full dose of radiotherapy. 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year survival were 75%, 56%, 42%and 28%respectively. Among haematological toxicities, grade 3 leukopenia (16%) was recorded, and no patients experienced any≥grade 2 thrombocytopenia or anaemia. Among non-haematological toxicities, the rates of grade 2 peripheral neurotoxicity, arthralgias and myalgias, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue were 8%, 4%, 4%, 2%and 6%respectively. The rates of≥grade 2 acute radiation-induced esophageal toxicity, radiation pneumonitis and skin toxicity were 32%, 44% and 14% respectively. No treatment-related deaths occurred and no patients experienced any ≥ grade 4 toxicities. Conclusion: Continuous infusion of 5-FU plus paclitaxel given concurrently with radiotherapy may be an effective and tolerable treatment option for ESCC patients.

OBJECTIVE:To establish a method for the determination of 7 residual solvents(ethanol,n-hexane,benzene,tolu-ene,xylene,styrene,divinylbenzene)in Liuwei dihuang glycoside. METHODS:The column was DB-624 capillary column,carri-er gas was nitrogen,flow rate was 5.0 ml/min;detector was a hydrogen flame ionization detector with temperature of 250 ℃(pro-grammed temperature);equilibrium temperature was 80 ℃,sample loop temperature was 90 ℃,and transfer line temperature was 100 ℃;the equilibrium time of vial heating was 30 min,sample loop filling time was 0.05 min,injection time was 1.0 min;the carrier gas pressure was 95 kpa,and the vial pressure was 60 kpa. RESULTS:The linear range was 25-500 μg/ml for ethanol(r=0.998 7),0.025-10μg/ml for n-hexane(r=0.998 8),0.025-10μg/ml for benzene(r=0.999 9),0.1-40μg/ml for toluene(r=1.000 0),0.25-100 μg/ml for xylene(r=0.999 9),0.5-500 μg/ml for styrene(r=1.000 0) and 0.5-500 μg/ml for divinylbenzene (r=1.000 0);RSDs of precision,stability and reproducibility tests were lower than 4%;recoveries were 99.60%-102.70%(RSD=1.08%,n=9),90.70%-100.30%(RSD=4.51%,n=9),100.10%-109.80%(RSD=3.82%,n=9),99.50%-110.00%(RSD=4.40%,n=9),100.00%-109.10%(RSD=3.50%,n=9),93.40%-102.30%(RSD=3.73%,n=9) and 99.70%-101.70%(RSD=0.79%,n=9),respectively;the low limits of detection were 1.000,0.025,0.025,0.025,0.100,0.025,0.250 μg/ml respectively. CONCLUSIONS:The method is simple,stable and reproducible,and can be used for the determination of residual solvents(etha-nol,n-hexane,benzene,toluene,xylene,styrene,divinylbenzene)in Liuwei dihuang glycoside.

Objective To explore the feasibility of inter-laboratory comparison and trueness evaluation among clinical laboratories, and assess the quality of participants′measurement, by measuring the activity of alanine aminotransferase ( ALT ) in patient serum samples.Methods Method comparison study was used.Five patients serum samples, whose target values were assigned by two international candidate reference laboratory with reference method of ALT without pyridoxal phosphate, were measured by 23 routine laboratories.The bias between measurement result of each participant and the mean of reference laboratories was calculated, and then compared to allowable bias 6%.Calculate the mean value and the relative bias.Results Compared with the mean of reference laboratories, the maximum absolute value of bias among the 23 routine laboratories was 31.27%.The rate range which bias was less than the allowable bias was 26.09%-73.91 %.The bias acceptability of 8 participants were more than or equal to 80%;15 participants were less than or equal to 60%; and 3 participants were 0%.Conclusions Using patient serum samples and values assigned by reference method is an effective way to carry out inter-laboratory comparison and trueness evaluation.It can reflect the quality of measurement more truly.

Objective To evaluate the protective effects of oxymatrine injection on rats with endotoxic shock. Methods Wistar rat model of endotoxic shock was produced in this study. Twenty-four Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal control group (n=8), endotoxic shock group (n=8) and oxymatrine injection treatment group (n=8). Fifteen min?utes after the infusion of LPS (15 mg/kg) from femoral vein, oxymatrine was injected from femoral vein in treatment group, then we observed the mean arterial pressure (MAP) for six hours. At the end of experiment blood samples were harvested for measurement of urea and creatinine (Cr), which reflect renal function. Also contents of IL-6, IL-10, TNF-αin the renal ho?mogenate were detected. Results Oxymatrine can prevent progressive decrease of MAP in endotoxin shock treatment group. The contents of plasma urea and Cr were significantly higher in endotoxin shock group than those of control group. The contents of IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-αin renal homogenate increased obviously, but after the injection of oxymatrine, the contents of urea and Cr significantly decreased in treatment group, also IL-6 and TNF-α were significantly declined. Conclusion Oxymatrine provides protection at renal function after endotoxin shock, and its mechanism may be related to inhibit the releasing of inflammatory cytokines in kidney.

This study was aimed to establish a simultaneous determination method of chlorogenic acid,liquiritin,rosmarinic acid,arctiin,glycyrrhizic acid,schisandrin,menthone in Guo-Ming-Xing Bi-Yan(GMXBY) granules by HPLC under multiple UV wavelengths.Waters Symmetry C18 column (4.6 mm× 250 mm,5μm) was used as the chromatographic column.Acetonitrile-0.1% phosphoric acid water solution was used as the mobile phase with gradient elution.The detection wavelength of chlorogenic acid and rosmarinic acid was 327 nm; that of liquiritin and arctiin was 280 nm; that of glycyrrhizic acid,schisandrin and menthone was 250 nm.The column temperature was 25℃.The injection volume was 10μL.Chlorogenic acid showed a good linear relationship in the range of 1.19-59.50μg?mL-1 (r = 0.999 8).The average recovery rate was 100.95%.Liquiritin showed a good linear relationship in the range of 1.51-150.70μg?mL-1 (r = 0.999 1).The average recovery rate was 100.38%.Rosmarinic acid showed a good linear relationship in the range of 3.40-68.08 μg?mL-1 (r = 0.999 9).The average recovery rate was 101.02%.Arctiin showed a good linear relationship in the range of 56.15-1 123.00μg?mL-1 (r =0.999 9).The average recovery rate was 100.39%.Glycyrrhizic acid showed a good linear relationship in the range of 21.54-430.80μg?mL-1 (r = 0.999 8).The average recovery rate was 97.09%.Schisandrin showed a good linear relationship in the range of 2.57-51.34μg?mL-1 (r = 0.999 9).The average recovery rate was 99.19%.Menthone showed a good linear relationship in the range of 0.50-10.00μg?mL-1 (r = 0.999 9).The average recovery rate was 100.35%.This established method was simple and reliable with good reproducibility,which can be used as the determination method of active components in GMXBY granules.

Objective To detect the expressions of miR-155,T helper type 17 (Thl7) cells,and Th17 cellspecific transcription factor RORγt and effector cytokine interleukin (IL)-17 in peripheral blood and skin lesions from,and to evaluate their relationship in,patients with atopic dermatitis (AD).Methods Peripheral blood was obtained from 37 patients with AD and 33 age-and sex-matched healthy controls,and biopsy specimens from the lesional and perilesional skin of five patients with severe AD as well as from the normal skin of five healthy human controls.Real-time fluorescence-based reverse transcription (RT)-PCR was employed to measure the mRNA expression levels of miR-155,RORγt and IL-17 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and skin specimens,flow cytometry to detect the percentage of Th17 cells in PBMCs,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine the plasma concentration of IL-17.Statistical analysis was done using independent sample's t test,one-way analysis of variance followed by the least significant difference test,and linear correlation analysis.Results Compared with the healthy controls,the patients with AD showed a significant increase in Th17 cell percentage (1.78％ ± 0.52％ vs.0.47％ ± 0.15％,P＜ 0.01),mRNA expression levels of miR-155 (5.78 ± 1.78 vs.1.82 ± 0.46,P＜ 0.01),RORγt (6.08 ± 1.04 vs.1.64 ± 0.52,P＜ 0.01) and IL-17 (7.09 ± 1.75 vs.1.71 ± 0.46,P＜ 0.01),as well as in the plasma concentration of IL-17 ((2.51 ± 6.15) pg/ml vs.(11.80 ± 2.24) pg/ml,P＜ 0.01).There was a sequential decrease in the expression levels of miR-155,RORγt and IL-17 mRNA from lesional skin,perilesional skin to normal skin (F =41.803,17.040 and 37.064 respectively,all P ＜ 0.01).The miR-155 mRNA expression level in PBMCs was positively correlated with the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index,Th17 cell percentage,RORγt and IL-17 mRNA expression levels as well as IL-17 plasma concentration (r =0.405,0.426,0.402,0.410 and 0.408 respectively,all P ＜ 0.05).Similarly,the miR-155 expression level was positively correlated with RORγt and IL-17 mRNA expression levels in lesional and paralesional specimens (r =0.428 and 0.435 respectively,both P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion The up-regulated expression of miR-155,Th17 cells and their effector cytokine IL-17 may be associated with the development of AD.

Objective To discuss the feasibility of enzymatic reference methods in Routine Chemistry external quality assessment (EQA)inlaboratorymedicine.Methods Samplesofthe1stEQAin2012byNationalCenterforClinicalLaboratories(NCCL)and patients′sera were measured by reference methods and 5 clinical analytic systems for the catalytic activity of CK ,LDH ,ALP ,ALT , AST ,GGT and AMY ,then the results of 5 clinical systems were compared with the reference methods′or target value of NCCL by calculating the bias ,and evaluated them according to the criteria of EQA by NCCL .Results The results of EQA samples measured by reference methods was within ± 10% compared with NCCL target value .Compared with the results of reference method ,the through put was 100 .0% for wet clinical chemistry systems measuring both EQA samples and patients′serum ,and the dry clinical chemistry systems was 77 .1 for EQA samples and 97 .1% for patients′serum according to the criterion of EQA ,and the through put was 72 .9% and 63 .6% of wet clinical chemistry systems according to the standard of enzymatic trueness of NCCL .Conclusion Reference method could be applied to EQA ,and will be a great help for the trueness of clinical testing .

Objective To evaluate the association of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA),diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and the ABCD2 score assessments with secondary cerebral infarction after transient ischemic attack (TIA).Methods Intracranial vascular MRA,cranial DWI and ABCD2 score were retrospectively analyzed in 162 cases with TIA.The impact of TIA on survival time was assessed using the univariate Kaplan-Meier curve by Log-rank test.Hazard ratio (HR) and 95 ％ confidence interval (CI) of secondary cerebral infarction after TIA predicted by MRA,DWI and ABCD2 score were analyzed by Cox multivariable regression.Results Among the 162 patients with first attack of TIA,86 cases (53.1 ％) developed cerebral infarction within 90 d,of which 22 cases (13.6％) developed secondary cerebral infarction within 0 7 d,27 cases (16.7％) within 8～30d and 37 cases (22.8％) within 31-90 d.Single factor analysis by Kaplan-Meier curve showed that moderate to severe intracranial vascular stenosis diagnosed by MRA,positive DWI and moderate to high ABCD2 score were obviously related to cerebral infarction after first attack of TIA (all P＜0.001 or 0.01).Cox multifactor risk model indicated that age ≥70 y,moderate to severe intracranial vascular stenosis,positive DWI,moderate to high ABCD2 score were the risk factors for secondary cerebral infarction within 90 d after TIA (HR=1.782,2.245,1.964,1.204,95％CI:1.171-2.256,1.627 3.097,1.273-3.031,1.050-1.381,respectively,P＜0.05,0.01 or 0.001).Conclusions Intracranial artery stenosis examination may be more valuable than DWI and ABCD2 score in evaluating the outcome of TIA.