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Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) causes chronic respiratory disease (CRD), posing a significant threat to global poultry production. Current preventive strategies face limitations, emphasizing the need for alternative approaches such as breeding for disease resistance. This study identifies the matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP7) gene as a key factor in CRD resistance. Analysis of high-throughput sequencing data revealed MMP7's association with MG infection at tissue and cellular levels. Overexpression of MMP7 in avian type II alveolar epithelial cells (AECII) and macrophages (HD11) inhibited MG adhesion, modulated immune responses, and suppressed MG-induced cell proliferation and apoptosis, though MG replication remained unaffected. Conversely, MMP7 inhibition enhanced MG infection. Experimental infections in commercial (Jingfen Layer No.6, Hy-Line White) and local Chinese chicken breeds (Guangxi Indigenous, Tianlu Partridge, Cyan Shank Partridge) validated Tianlu Partridge chickens' relative resistance and Jingfen Layers' susceptibility. MMP7 expression levels correlated positively with reduced chick weight, air sac damage, tracheal mucosal thickness, and MG lung loads. These findings highlight MMP7 as a molecular target for assessing MG susceptibility and breeding resistant chickens while demonstrating the utility of local Chinese breeds in resistance-focused breeding programs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript, and manuscript is approved by all authors for publication., (Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is a highly contagious avian respiratory pathogen characterized by rapid spread, widespread distribution, and long-term persistence of infection. Previous studies have shown that chicken macrophage HD11 cells play a critical role in the replication and immunomodulation of MG. Macrophages are multifunctional immunomodulatory cells that polarize into different functions and morphologies in response to exogenous stimuli. However, the effect of MG infection on HD11 polarization is not well understood. In this study, we observed a time-dependent increase in both the expression of the MG-related virulence protein pMGA1.2 and the copy number of MG upon MG infection. Polarization studies revealed an upregulation of M1-type marker genes in MG-infected HD11 cells, suggesting that MG mainly induces HD11 macrophages towards M1-type polarization. Furthermore, MG activated the inflammatory vesicle NLRP3 signaling pathway, and NLRP3 inhibitors affected the expression of M1 and M2 marker genes, indicating the crucial regulatory role of the NLRP3 signaling pathway in MG-induced polarization of HD11 macrophages. Our findings reveal a novel mechanism of MG infection, namely the polarization of MG-infected HD11 macrophages. This discovery suggests that altering the macrophage phenotype to inhibit MG infection may be an effective control strategy. These findings provide new perspectives on the pathogenic mechanism and control measures of MG., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are important health problem in tropical and sub-tropical regions, which afflict more than a billion people worldwide and cause several million deaths every year, especially in Africa. The World Health Organization has called for global efforts to control and eliminate NTDs. China began its health assistance program from 1950s, especially on medical mission dispatched to more than 50 African countries. In this study, a SWOT analysis was used to analyze the current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of China's health assistance relating to NTDs, in order to provide the recommendation to promote the activities on international assistance and cooperation on NTDs. Based on this analysis, interventions for NTDs and suggestions for future cooperation relating to NTDs are proposed. In the context of global health, China should strengthen and improve the capacity on health assistance for NTDs control., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by hematodes of genus Schistosoma. This review evaluated the available nucleic acid amplification techniques for diagnosing S. mansoni infections in humans, intermediate host snails, and presumed rodent reservoirs., Methods: Sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and 95% CI were calculated based on available literature. The potential of PCR, nPCR, PCR-ELISA, qPCR, and LAMP was compared for diagnosing S. mansoni infections., Results: A total of 546 published records were identified. Quality assessment by QUADAS-2 revealed an uncertain risk in most studies, and 21 references were included in the final. For human samples, the four nucleic acid amplification techniques showed an overall sensitivity of 89.79% (95% CI: 83.92%-93.67%), specificity of 87.70% (95% CI: 72.60%-95.05%), and DOR of 37.73 (95% CI: 21.79-65.33). LAMP showed the highest sensitivity, followed by PCR-ELISA, PCR, and qPCR, while this order was almost reversed for specificity; qPCR had the highest AUC. For rodent samples, qPCR showed modest sensitivity (68.75%, 95% CI: 43.32%-86.36%) and high specificity (92.45%, 95% CI: 19.94%-99.83%). For snail samples, PCR and nPCR assays showed high sensitivity of 90.06% (95% CI: 84.39%-93.82%) and specificity of 85.51% (95% CI: 54.39%-96.69%)., Conclusion: Nucleic acid amplification techniques had high diagnostic potential for identifying S. mansoni infections in humans., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to measure brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity by targeted peptide (CKGGRAKDC-NH2)-coupled, polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) nanoparticles with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)., Methods: The peptide was conjugated with PEG-coated USPIO to obtain targeted probes. Male C57BL/6 J mice were randomly divided into cold exposing and control group (n = 5 per group). T2*-weighted images were obtained pre- and post-contrast probes. Histological and gene expression analyses were carried out., Results: T2* relaxation time of BAT in the cold exposing group decreased more significantly compared to the control group. The calculated R2* increased with the reduction of T2* value. The ΔR2* (26.68 s -1 ) of BAT in the cold exposing group was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the control group. Iron particle sediments in BAT of the cold exposing group were revealed more than the control group with Prussian blue staining. The UCP1 expression level was up-regulated after cold activation., Conclusions: BAT activity could be measured in vivo by the targeted peptide-coupled, PEG-coated USPIOs with MRI., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Oncomelania hupensis plays a significant role in the transmission of schistosomiasis japonica, which remains a major public health concern in China. Understanding the biological characteristics of O. hupensis is a prerequisite for its control; however, there are currently no studies investigating the intestinal microbiota of the O. hupensis snail. This study aimed to profile the intestinal microbiome of O. hupensis across different ecological landscapes in mainland China. DNA was extracted from the intestines of the collected snails and the bacterial communities were detected using 454 pyrosequencing. A total of 3,799 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained, and Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria were identified as the dominant bacterial taxa at the phylum level. Bacillus and Lactococcus were the most common genera in samples obtained from the four ecological landscapes. Snail specimens were clustered into three clades according to microbial community diversity, and thirty-seven genera that contributed to differential microbiota distributions were identified. Co-occurrence network analysis indicated a symbiotic relationship for the intestinal microbiota of O. hupensis, and PICRUSt analysis predicted forty-one metabolic functions in all snail samples, including membrane transport, amino acid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, replication and repair, energy metabolism, as well as xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism. These findings improve our understanding of bacterial ecology in the O. hupensis intestine; further studies will focus on the relationship between O. hupensis intestinal microbiota and the microbiota in their specific ecological environments., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

World Bank Loan Project (WBLP) for schistosomiasis control conducted from 1992 to 2001, resulted in significant reduction of schistosomiasis morbidity and mortality in People's Republic of China (P.R. China), with implementation of morbidity control. Thereafter, an integrated control strategy, which targeted blocking disease transmission from reservoir hosts to the environment, was initiated in order to conquer schistosomiasis rebound after WBLP completion. Data obtained from the national schistosomiasis control reporting systems was collected and analyzed. The number of confirmed cases and infected cattle decreased significantly from 2002 to 2017, while no infected snails were found by dissection for four consecutive years. However, lake and marshland regions and some parts areas of Yunnan Province require attention for rigorous schistosomiasis control efforts. There is need to strengthen precise interventions and sensitive surveillance to achieve schistosomiasis elimination in P.R. China., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The rat lungworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis causes human eosinophilic meningitis and it is endemic in Southeast Asia, but little is known about its distribution in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We conducted a multi-country survey for A. cantonensis in these countries to estimate its prevalence in snails along the Mekong River and the east coast of Vietnam. We identified Angiostrongylus species by morphological and molecular analysis. We found A. cantonensis in the invasive snail, Pomacea spp. The wide accessibility of Pomacea snails, along with their infection by A. cantonensis, indicates that this snail species could be used in surveillance for preventing outbreaks of eosinophilic meningitis., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA) is probably disturbed after spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and could be an independent predictor of clinical outcome. Clinical determinants of dCA status after ICH need to be further elucidated., Methods: We finally enrolled 53 patients diagnosed with supratentorial ICH within 6days from onset. DCA was assessed 4-6days after ICH onset by monitoring middle cerebral artery blood flow velocities and simultaneous arterial blood pressure continuously, utilizing transcranial Doppler combined with a servo-controlled finger plethysmograph. Cerebral autoregulation was evaluated by phase difference (PD) in low frequency (0.06-0.12Hz) range derived from transfer function analysis. The previous clinical history was collected including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, prior stroke, smoking, heavy drinking history. Laboratory results during hospitalization were utilized for further risk factors screening, including fasting blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin A (1C), total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and homocysteine, etc. Computed tomography scans were performed to collect neuroimaging data, including hematoma location, volume and presence of intraventricular hemorrhage. Univariate and multivariate linear analyses were adopted to explore the relationship between clinical and laboratory variables and bilateral PD respectively., Results: In ICH patients, PD was lower (indicating disturbed autoregulation) both on the ipsilateral (37.53±17.78 degree, P<0.001) and contralateral (34.45±14.92 degree, P<0.001) side of hematoma compared with healthy controls (56.13±16.11 degree). Hematoma volume was independently associated with ipsilateral PD according to multivariate analysis (β=-0.383, P=0.024) after adjustment for clinical and laboratory factors., Conclusions: DCA is bilaterally disturbed after supratentorial ICH. Larger hematoma volume is likely to independently predict poorer cerebral autoregulation status ipsilateral to hematoma., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Modelling is an important tool for the exploration of Schistosoma japonicum transmission patterns. It provides a general theoretical framework for decision-makers and lends itself specifically to assessing the progress of the national control programme by following the outcome of surveys. The challenge of keeping up with the many changes of social, ecological and environmental factors involved in control activities is greatly facilitated by modelling that can also indicate which activities are critical and which are less important. This review examines the application of modelling tools in the epidemiological study of schistosomiasis japonica during the last 20 years and explores the application of enhanced models for surveillance and response. Updated and timely information for decision-makers in the national elimination programme is provided but, in spite of the new modelling techniques introduced, many questions remain. Issues on application of modelling are discussed with the view to improve the current situation with respect to schistosomiasis japonica., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Few outbreaks of the desert sub-type of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (VL) have been described worldwide. In 2008, the incidence rate of VL in Jiashi County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the western part of the People's Republic of China, increased more than twenty-folds compared to the average annual incidence rate. The majority of the cases (96.6%) occurred among <2 year-old infants. For the first time in the desert area of Xinjiang, the parasites were isolated from bone marrow aspirates, using the NNN medium culture approach. The genetic analysis of the ITS-1 nucleotide sequence indicated that three isolates from eastern Jiashi County were genetically closely related and belonged to the Leishmaniainfantum group. However, they differed from an isolate from Kashi city which was classified as a member of the Leishmaniadonovani group.