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FuMei Chen,1,2,* Xianyu Deng,1,* Zhanpeng Wang,3 Li Wang,4 Ke Wang,1 Liang Gao1 1Department of Neurosurgery, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China; 2Department of Emergency Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 360001, China; 3Department of Neurosurgery, Shanghai Clinical College, Anhui Medical University, Shanghai 200072, China; 4Intensive Care Unit, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou City 310016, China; *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Severe ventriculitis (SV) caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria is associated with high morbidity and mortality in neurosurgical patients. This study assessed the outcomes of patients with SV caused by Acinetobacter baumannii who were treated by intraventricular (IVT) lavage and colistin administration. Methods: This retrospective study included consecutive patients with SV caused by A. baumannii who were admitted at the Neurosurgical Department of Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital from January 2014 to September 2017. Patients’ medical records, radiographic images, and surgical notes were reviewed. The patients were followed up for at least 6 months after discharge. Results: A total of 25 patients, including 20 male and five female, were enrolled in this study; the average age was 45.6 years. All patients underwent neurosurgery before infection, and all A. baumannii cultures from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) showed extensive resistance to the tested antibiotics except for tigecycline and colistin. All the patients underwent IVT lavage followed by daily administration of colistin after surgery; 24 patients received a daily colistin dose of 100,000 IU, while one received 50,000 IU. The patients also received tigecycline-based systemic antibiotic treatment. The mean duration of IVT colistin was 13.4±2.8 days. The time required to obtain a negative CSF culture was 8.9±4.0 days. Of the 20 patients who were cured, eight underwent shunt surgery due to hydrocephalus before they were discharged to a rehabilitation center. Five patients died, including one who was re-admitted due to recurrence 1 month after discharge. Conclusions: IVT lavage and colistin treatment may be an effective treatment for SV caused by extensively drug-resistant A. baumannii. Future studies with a larger sample size may be needed to verify the findings in this study. Keywords: severe ventriculitis, extensively drug resistant, intraventricular colistin, intraventricular lavage, Acinetobacter baumannii

Animals can remodel their gene expression to compensate for the effects of different ecological factors, which can confer resistance to extreme environment alteration, such as altitude changes. Understanding response of gene expression to divergent-altitude habitats, such as Tibetan Plateau (TP) and lower altitude area, in natural populations remains one of the greatest challenges. Previous studies extensively focused on vertebrates, while the current lack of understanding about transcriptomic gene expression alteration in divergent-altitude adaptation of invertebrates, especially the insects. Here, we downloaded raw data/reads of Dolycoris baccarum distributed in 1,300 m a.s.l (above sea level) and its corresponding TP strain (3,200 m a.s.l), and performed a mixed assembly of these two transcriptomes to construct unigene set of D. baccarum. Subsequently, we analyzed the gene expression changes between two populations, and validate the sequencing data using real time quantitative PCR. A total of 4,816 differentially expressed genes were largely enriched to GO involved in DNA repair, hypoxia response, energy production, suggesting that substantial plasticity in gene expressions was mainly associated with the ability to resist UV radiation, hypoxia, and cold. Our study firstly provides novel insights into gene expression variations of insects in divergent-altitude adaptation.

Adaptation to high-altitude environments has been extensively studied in vertebrates, but studies on invertebrates, especially insects, are very limited. Insects show different characteristics in phenotype, physiology and behavior from vertebrates and thus may have evolved specific mechanisms of high-altitude adaptation. Here, we downloaded clean data/reads of Gynaephora species (alpherakii and menyuanensis) distributed in 3,000 m a.s.l (above sea level) and 4,800 m a.s.l on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), and performed a mixed assembly of these two transcriptomes to construct unigene set of Gynaephora to infer potential genetic mechanisms at gene expression level of high-altitude adaptation in insects. Subsequently, by comparing gene expression of these two Gynaephora species, we obtained 3,238 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), most of which were significantly enriched in mitochondrial function, ATP production and energy metabolism. This study is useful for understanding the adaptation, evolution and speciation of Gynaephora endemic to the TP and provides novel insight into high-altitude adaptation in TP animals.Adaptation to high-altitude environments has been extensively studied in vertebrates, but studies on invertebrates, especially insects, are very limited. Insects show different characteristics in phenotype, physiology and behavior from vertebrates and thus may have evolved specific mechanisms of high-altitude adaptation. Here, we downloaded clean data/reads of Gynaephora species (alpherakii and menyuanensis) distributed in 3,000 m a.s.l (above sea level) and 4,800 m a.s.l on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), and performed a mixed assembly of these two transcriptomes to construct unigene set of Gynaephora to infer potential genetic mechanisms at gene expression level of high-altitude adaptation in insects. Subsequently, by comparing gene expression of these two Gynaephora species, we obtained 3,238 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), most of which were significantly enriched in mitochondrial function, ATP production and energy metabolism. This study is useful for understanding the adaptation, evolution and spec...

According to the conserved sequences flanking the 3' end of the 16S and the 5' end of the 23S rDNAs, PCR primers were designed, and the 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacers (IGSs) of two strains of Vibrio vulnificus were amplified by PCR and cloned into pGEM-T vector. Different clones were selected to be sequenced and the sequences were analyzed with BLAST and the software DNAstar. Analyses of the IGS sequences suggested that the strain ZSU006 contains five types of polymorphic 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacers, namely, IGSGLAV, IGSGLV, IGSIA, IGSG and IGSA; while the strain CG021 has the same types of IGSs except lacking IGSA. Among these five IGS types, IGSGLAV is the biggest type, including the gene cluster of tRNAGlu-tRNALys-tRNAAla-tRNAVal; IGSGLV includes that of tRNAGlu-tRNALys-tRNAVal; IGSAG, tRNAAla-tRNAGlu; IGSIA, tRNAIle-tRNAAla; IGSG, tRNAGlu and IGSA, tRNAAla. Intraspecies multiple alignment of all the IGS sequences of these two strains with those of V. vulnificus ATCC27562 available at GenBank revealed several highly conserved sequence blocks in the non- coding regions flanking the tRNA genes within all of strains, most notably the first 40 and last 200 nucleotides, which can be targeted to design species-specific PCR primers or detection probes. The structural variations of the 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacers lay a foundation for developing diagnostic methods for V. vulnificus.