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To seek how soil biotic and abiotic factors which might shape the Bdellovibrio -and-like-organisms community, we sampled paddy soils under different fertilization treatments including fertilization without nitrogen (Control), the nitrogen use treatment (N) and the nitrogen overuse one (HNK) at three rice growing stages. The abundances of BALOs were impacted by the rice-growing stages but not the fertilization treatments. The abundances of Bdellovibrionaceae -like were positively associated with soil moisture, which showed a negative relationship with Bacteriovoracaceae -like bacteria. High-throughput sequencing analysis of the whole bacterial community revealed that the α-diversity of BALOs was not correlated with any soil properties data. Network analysis detected eight families directly linked to BALOs, namely, Pseudomonadaceae , Peptostreptococcaceae , Flavobacteriaceae , Sediment-4, Verrucomicrobiaceae, OM27 , Solirubrobacteraceae and Roseiflexaceae. The richness and composition of OTUs in the eight families were correlated with different soil properties, while the evenness of them had a positive effect on the predicted BALO biomass. These results highlighted that the bottom-up control of BALOs in paddy soil at least partially relied on the changes of soil water content and the diversity of bacteria directly linked to BALOs in the microbial network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer is a complex and refractory disease, which can disseminate from primary site to a different site even at an early stage. Cancer immunotherapy harnesses host immune system to battle against cancer, but only a minority of patients benefit from it. Genetic-based technologies have significantly promoted the development of cancer immunotherapy. Here we describe genetic-based cancer immunotherapies in three aspects: recombinant cancer vaccine, immune checkpoint blockade therapy and adoptive cell transfer. In the future, multi-disciplinary collaboration will greatly increase the scope and effectiveness of cancer immunotherpy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Partners Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRN) seeks to advance and accelerate comparative effectiveness and translational research in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Our IBD-focused PCORnet PPRN has been designed to overcome the major obstacles that have limited patient-centered outcomes research in IBD by providing the technical infrastructure, patient governance, and patient-driven functionality needed to: 1) identify, prioritize, and undertake a patient-centered research agenda through sharing person-generated health data; 2) develop and test patient and provider-focused tools that utilize individual patient data to improve health behaviors and inform health care decisions and, ultimately, outcomes; and 3) rapidly disseminate new knowledge to patients, enabling them to improve their health. The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Partners PPRN has fostered the development of a community of citizen scientists in IBD; created a portal that will recruit, retain, and engage members and encourage partnerships with external scientists; and produced an efficient infrastructure for identifying, screening, and contacting network members for participation in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background and aims: Little is known about depression in elderly individuals with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). We assessed the point prevalence of depression and determined associations with disease activity, quality of life, and medication adherence in elderly patients with IBD. Methods: We identified elderly (≥65years) individuals within Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Partners, an online IBD cohort. Individuals completed the short geriatric depression scale (GDS). We used bivariate statistics to determine whether demographic or disease-related factors, disease activity, quality of life or medication adherence was associated with depression. We used logistic regression to estimate independent effects of depression on medication adherence. Results: A total of 359 elderly individuals with IBD completed the GDS. The mean age was 70.2years (SD 4.7); mean disease duration was 25.6years (SD 17.6), and 62.6% had Crohn's disease (CD). The point prevalence of depression was 22.6%. Lower education levels (p =0.001), higher corticosteroid use (<0.01) and lower exercise levels (<0.001) were associated with depression. For both CD and ulcerative colitis (UC), those with depression had increased disease activity (short Crohn's disease activity index 52.5 versus 29, p =0.005, and simple clinical colitis activity index 5 versus 2, p =0.003). Depressed patients had lower quality of life (short IBD questionnaire 4.6 versus 5.7, p <0.001). Depressed individuals had reduced medication adherence (adjusted OR 2.18; 95% CI 1.04–4.57). Conclusions: Depression is common in this geriatric IBD cohort. Depression is independently associated with reduced medication adherence. Recognition and treatment of depression in elderly patients with IBD could improve outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The elevational distribution patterns of microbial functional groups have long been attracting scientific interest. Ammonia-oxidizers (ammonia-oxidizing archaea [AOA] and bacteria [AOB]), complete ammonia oxidation (comammox) Nitrospira and nitrite-oxidizers (e.g. Nitrobacter and Nitrospira) play crucial roles in the nitrogen cycle, yet their activities and abundances in response to elevational gradients in a subtropical forest ecosystem remain unclear. Here, we investigated the distribution of potential functions and abundances of these nitrifiers in forest soils along elevational gradients on Mount Lu, China. Our results showed that AOA and Nitrospira abundance was higher than that of their counterparts. Only AOA, Nitrobacter and comammox Nitrospira abundances followed a hump-backed-model with altitude. Soil potential ammonia-oxidation activity (PAO) and nitrite-oxidation activity (PNO) ranged from 0.003 to 0.084 and 0.34 to 0.53 μg NO2−-N g−1 dry soil h−1, respectively. The biotic (AOA, Nitrobacter , Nitrospira and comammox Nitrospira abundances) and abiotic factors (soil variables) jointly affected PAO, whereas the abiotic factors were mainly responsible for PNO. Variance partitioning analysis showed that contemporary environmental disturbance is the most important driver for the biogeography of nitrifier assemblages. Overall, our findings indicate that forest soil nitrifier assemblages exhibit a biogeographic pattern largely shaped by soil chemistry along an elevational gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]