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Early diagnosis of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) can reduce the risk of major illnesses. Disadvantages of EBV antibody detection methods that are commonly used clinically include lengthy assay time, need for a lot of reagent, and low efficiency. Compared with traditional detection methods, microfluidics technology offers high throughput, low reagent consumption, less bio-contamination, and a higher degree of automation. Advantages of magnetic immunofluorescence technology include high detection efficiency and a strong signal. The combined advantages of the two methods can compensate for the shortcomings of traditional methods. In the present study, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as the raw material was subjected to laser cutting and vacuum hot pressing to quickly obtain chips. Magnetic beads labeled with antigen and fluorescent microspheres labeled with anti-human antibody were then rapidly lyophilized into microspheres by freeze-drying and embedded into the chips. After incubation and cleaning, the last step was detection. Image J software was used to analyze the mean fluorescence intensity and obtain negative or positive test results. To determine the precision of the chip, high- and low-value samples of each item were retested 10 times. The mean values were calculated to obtain the relative standard deviation (RSD) for several common pathogens. Furthermore, the coincidence rate of clinical samples was tested using a chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) to determine the potential clinical application value. The RSD of the precision test for each item was10%, indicating good precision. The precision of the accelerated stability test was not verified. Specificity test results revealed no cross-reaction with some common pathogen antibodies, indicating good specificity. It remains to be verified whether the antibodies detected by this method cross-react with other herpes simplex viruses, such as types 1 and 2, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated virus, and human herpes virus type 6 and 7. Of the 121 clinical samples tested, statistical analysis of the data indicated good agreement with the chemiluminescence immunoassay in clinical trials. EB viral capsid antigen (EB VCA) IgG positive coincidence rate was 95.77% (68/71), the negative coincidence rate was 86% (43/50) (Kappa=0.828

Five isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were fed to juvenile cobia, to assess the relative contribution of different proteins (fish meal, soybean meal, corn gluten and beer yeast) to the growth of cobia. The dietary effects on nitrogen and carbon turnover and on the isotopic diet-consumer discrimination factors (Δ15N and Δ13C) were also assessed. Growth results showed that the final body weight, growth rate, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio of cobia fed diets with alternative protein were significantly lower (P

The present study examines the effect of sustained exercise on glycolysis and fatty acids oxidation in the swimming muscles and liver in juvenile tinfoil barb (Barbonymus schwanenfeldii). The subjects were divided into one control group (water current speed of 0.0 bl s-1, body length per second) and two training groups (1.0 and 2.0 bl s−1), respectively. Results showed that the glycolysis was stimulated by high-speed training in the white muscle, accompanied by significantly increased activities of hexokinase, pyruvate kinase, and reduction in glycogen contents in training groups (P

The full-length cDNA of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) and silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) was obtained from liver. The grass carp UCP2 cDNA was determined to be 1152 bp in length with an open reading frame that encodes 310 amino acids. Five introns (Intron 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7) in the translated region, and partial sequence of Intron 2 in the untranslated region of grass carp UCP2 gene were also obtained. Gene structure comparison between grass carp and mammalian (human and mouse) UCP2 gene shows that, the UCP2 gene structure of grass carp is much similar to that of human and mouse. Partial UCP2 cDNA sequences of bighead carp (Aristichthys nobilis) and mud carp (Cirrhinus molitorella), were further determined. Together with the common carp (Cyprinus carpio) UCP2 sequence from GenBank (AJ243486), multiple alignment result shows that the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the UCP2 gene, were highly conserved among the five major Chinese carps that belong to four subfamilies. Using beta-actin as control, the ratio UCP2/beta-actin mRNA (%) was determined to be 149.4 +/- 15.6 (common carp), 127.4 +/- 22.1(mud carp), 96.7 +/- 12.7 (silver carp), 94.1 +/- 26.8 (bighead carp) and 63.7 +/- 16.2 (grass carp). The relative liver UCP2 expression of the five major Chinese carps, shows a close relationship with their food habit: benthos and detritus-eating fish (common carp and mud carp) > planktivorious fish (silver carp and bighead carp) > herbivorous fish (grass carp). We suggest that liver UCP2 might be important for Chinese carps to detoxify cyanotoxins and bacteria in debris and plankton food.

Background Previous animal studies by us and others have indicated that catheter-administered plasmin or its des-kringle derivatives may be more appropriate alternatives to plasminogen activators for treating thrombolytic diseases, since it has a very short serum half-life and therefore does not result in hemorrhaging. We have previously produced recombinant miniPlasmin (mPlasmin) that was proven suitable for treating peripheral arterial occlusion in animal models. However, our previous results showed that non-specific cleavage at position K698 of mPlasmin during activation hindered the further development of this promising therapeutic candidate. In order to minimize or eliminate the non-specific cleavage problem, we performed saturation mutagenesis at the K698 position to develop a mutant form of mPlasmin for thrombolytic therapy. Methods We changed K698 to 16 other amino acids, with preferred E. coli codons. Each of these mutants were expressed in E. coli as inclusion bodies and then refolded, purified, and subsequently characterized by detailed kinetic assays/experiments/studies which identified highly active mutants devoid of non-specific cleavage. Results Activation studies indicated that at those conditions in which the wild type enzyme is cut at the non-specific position K698, the active mutants can be activated without being cleaved at this position. Conclusions From the above results, we selected two mutants, K698Q and K698N, as our lead candidates for further thrombolytic drug developments. The selected mutants are potentially better therapeutic candidates for thrombolytic therapy.