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Takifugu rubripes (T. rubripes) is marine fish rich in protein and essential amino acids. With the continuous development of T. rubripes farming, intensive aquaculture has increased the infection rate with fish diseases. To explore the relationship between environmental microbial communities and gut microbiota, we sequenced the 16s rRNA gene V3–V4 region of the microorganisms in the aquaculture water and gut flora of T. rubripes. The results indicated 934 operational taxonomic units for T. rubripes gut contents and aquaculture samples. A total of 31 phyla and 498 genera were identified. At the phylum level, except for the phylum Proteobacteria, the dominant phyla in intestinal contents were Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, and Fusobacteria. However, the dominant phyla in water were Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Patescibacteria. At the genus level, intestinal contents included Photobacterium, Arcobacter, Vibrio, and Ruminococcaceae. The water samples mainly included Clade_Ia, Rhodobacteraceae, Eutreptiella pomquetensis, Lentibacter, Clade_III, and PeM15. Principal component analysis showed that the microbial compositions of samples from the same source were similar. There were significant differences between the intestinal flora and water microorganisms. Therefore, the research results showed the differences between the microbial communities in the intestinal tract and aquaculture water of T. rubripes and the characteristics of the main pathogenic bacteria; this could help guide the environmental regulation and disease prevention of T. rubripes aquaculture.

Background and purpose: SIRT1 exerted its link to CAS risk in humans and EPCs presented its reparative role in CAS. In this study, we explored the role of SIRT1 in CAS mice and also its modulation in EPCs.Methods and materials: ApoE-/- mice were fed with high-fat and high-glucose food to establish the CAS animal model with the normally-raised C57BL/6 mice as a healthy control group. 5 ApoE mice were intravenously injected with SIRT1 activator, SRT 2104 and another 5 were injected with inhibitor Nicotinamide in tail. Weight changes were recorded per week. Blood samples were taken from posterior orbital venous plexus and detected by automatic biochemical analyzer for lipid concentrations. Coronary artery tissues were observed. HE staining displayed the pathological condition while Immunohistochemistry (IHC) evaluated the CD34+/VEGFR2+ relative density. In vitro, EPCs were isolated from bone marrow each group and then purified, cultured and verified using immunofluorescence staining (IFS). Thereafter, we examined the modulatory mechanism of SIRT1 in EPCs by RT-PCR, MTT, Western Blot (WB) and colony formation, scratch methods, connecting the wnt/β-catenin/GSK3β signaling pathway.Results：SIRT1 activation negatively regulated the weight and TC, TG and LDL. SIRT1 activator alleviated the lesion area and decreased the CD34+/VEGFR2+ density which was higher in coronary artery tissues in CAS and SIRT1 inhibitor groups. In vitro, SIRT1 activator promoted the bone marrow-derived EPCs proliferation, migration and activated wnt/β-catenin/GSK3β signaling pathway while inhibited the autophagy biomarkers ATG1 and LC3II. Furthermore, inhibition of autophagy led to the upregulation of SIRT1 and increase in cell proliferation, migration and wnt/β-catenin/GSK3β activity. The suppression of the pathway in turn lowered SIRT1 expression in EPCs, attenuated the cell proliferation and migration and promoted autophagy. Conclusion: Taken all the findings together, this research disclosed that SIRT1 activator might perform its protective role in CAS through autophagy inhibition via wnt/β-catenin/GSK3β signaling pathway in EPCs.

Caused by SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 has become a severe threaten to society and human health, its epidemic control emerges as long-term issue. A sustainable epidemic and environmental transmission risk control (SEERC) in urban area is urgently needed. This work aims to conduct a new investigation on the transmission risk of SARS-COV-2 as virus/hazardous material through various environmental medias, routes and regions in the entirely urban area for guiding the SEERC. Specifically, 5 routes in 28 regions (totally 140 scenarios) are considered. For a new perspective, the risk evaluation is conducted by the quantification of frontline medicals staffs’ valuable experience in this work. 207 specialists responsible for the treatment of over 9000 infected patients are involved. The result showed that degree of risk was in the order of breath>contact-to-object>contact-to-human>intake>unknown. The modeling suggested source control as the prior measure for epidemic control. The combination of source control & mask wearing showed high efficiency in SEERC. The homeworking policy needed to cooperate with activity limitation to perform its efficiency. Subsequently, a new plan for SEERC was discussed. This work delivered significant information to researchers and decision makers for the further development of sustainable control for SARS-COV-2 spreading and COVID-19 epidemic., Graphical Abstract ga1

Apoptosis is one of the major mechanisms of photodynamic therapy (PDT) that leads to tumor degradation. Apoptosis-related genes and proteins function in a certain order and timing in the complex network of apoptosis. To further understanding of the apoptotic mechanism of PDT, this research examined the time course of apoptosis from PsD007 (a second-generation photosensitizer developed in China) induced PDT on the rat acute myeloid leukemia cell line LT12. MTT was used to detect the temporal dynamic of PDT killing effects and identified the "apoptotic window" of 2-24 h. Apoptosis showed a basal peak at 2 h, and the duration of apoptosis depended on PDT dose, which disappeared quickly at low concentrations but lasted to higher levels to 6 or 12 h at high concentrations as detected by flow cytometry. High-content imaging confirmed these results. An 84-gene apoptosis PCR array identified 15 genes with an expression level change of over twofold at 6 h post-PDT. Nine apoptosis-related genes showed changes in expression at 2-12 h after PDT. TNF family genes TNF and FASLG showed a maximal change of 3.47- and 4.42-fold from baseline. Key apoptosis proteins such as activated caspases showed strong up-regulation after PDT, with the expression peaks of cleaved caspase-7, caspase-9 and PARP at 4-6 h, and cleaved caspase-3 delayed to 6-12 h. Our findings help clarify the time course of apoptosis events in response to PDT treatment in a leukemia cell line and may help contribute to the clinical application of PDT in leukemia treatment.

Systemic PDT (SPDT) approach is developed to treat a variety of hematological diseases, including cancers and blood-borne infections. We evaluated the efficacy of an SPDT method for treating leukemia using a Brown Norway myeloid leukemia (BNML) rat model with the LT12 cells engineered to express GFP. The survival times of animals receiving SPDT at 5 (early-SPDT) and 10 (mid-SPDT) days post-LT12 injection were prolonged by 2 days, the rats in the late-SPDT group (15 days) exhibited a 6-day increase in life span (p

We evaluated the potential utility of hydrogels for delivery of the photosensitizing agents 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether (HMME) to rectal tumors. Hydrogel suppositories containing ALA or HMME were administered to the rectal cavity of BALB/c mice bearing subcutaneous tumors of SW837 rectal carcinoma cells. For comparison, ALA and HMME were also administered by three common photosensitizer delivery routes; local administration to the skin and intratumoral or intravenous injection. The concentration of ALA-induced protoporphyrin IX or HMME in the rectal wall, skin, and subcutaneous tumor was measured by fluorescence spectrophotometry, and their distribution in vertical sections of the tumor was measured using a fluorescence spectroscopy system. The concentration of ALA-induced protoporphyrin IX in the rectal wall after local administration of suppositories to the rectal cavity was 9.76-fold (1 h) and 5.8-fold (3 h) higher than in the skin after cutaneous administration. The maximal depth of ALA penetration in the tumor was ~3–6 mm at 2 h after cutaneous administration. Much lower levels of HMME were observed in the rectal wall after administration as a hydrogel suppository, and the maximal depth of tumor penetration was

Discrimination between urosepsis and febrile urinary tract infections is important in therapeutic decision-making to indicate suitable treatments to avoid sepsis-related organ failure. Accurate diagnosis is time-consuming and susceptible to false-positive results. Moreover, patient responses to urosepsis are complex and varied. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a new, early diagnostic predictor that could discriminate between patients with urosepsis and those with febrile urinary tract infections using a combination of initial procalcitonin and albumin levels. We conducted a retrospective study involving 140 patients with febrile urinary tract infections from January 2013 to December 2017. Univariate and multivariate logistic analyses were performed to identify the independent risk factors for differentiating urosepsis from febrile urinary tract infection. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to compare the predictive accuracy of the procalcitonin/albumin ratio. Patients in the urosepsis group had higher procalcitonin/albumin ratios compared to those in the febrile urinary tract infection group [2.254 (0.978, 6.299) vs 0.021 (0.004, 0.095); P 0.44) were 84.62% and 96.00%, respectively. Moreover, in the subset of 65 patients with urosepsis, the procalcitonin/albumin ratio in the uroseptic shock group was higher than in the group of patients without uroseptic shock [5.46 (1.43, 6.58) vs 1.24 (0.63, 4.38); P = .009]. Our study demonstrates that the procalcitonin/albumin ratio is an early diagnostic predictor that can discriminate between urosepsis and febrile urinary tract infection. Additionally, in patients with urosepsis, those with higher procalcitonin/albumin ratios were more prone to uroseptic shock. Our findings suggest that the procalcitonin/albumin ratio is a rapid and relatively low-cost biomarker that can be used in clinical practice.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) particles that remain in the blood of patients are frequently ignored as targets for AIDS treatment. We therefore investigated the use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether (HMME) as a means of inactivating cell-free HIV in vitro. Virus particles including HIV-1(IIIB), resistant HIV-1 variants, HIV-1 clinical variants, and HIV-2 variants were incubated with HMME for 40 min, followed by irradiation with a 630-nm semiconductor laser at an energy density of 0.3 J/cm(2). The antiviral effects were evaluated by counting syncytium formation or measuring p24 antigen expression levels in supernatants by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The relationships between photoinactivation and HMME concentrations, energy density, power density and antioxidants (NaN(3) and D: -mannitol) were also assessed using the above methods. All the tested virus particles were completely responsive to HMME-PDT. HMME concentration and energy density were positively correlated with photoinactivation of HIV, while power density was negatively correlated. Both sodium azide and D: -mannitol weakened the inhibitory effect of PDT on virus-induced membrane fusion, with D: -mannitol having a stronger effect. HMME-PDT can inactivate HIV particles, and may therefore represent a promising treatment for AIDS patients.