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African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a highly pathogenic double-stranded DNA virus. It affects various breeds of pigs, causing serious economic losses and health threats because of its rapid spread and high pathogenicity and infectivity. This situation is not helped by the lack of a validated vaccine or effective therapies. Since the 1960s, different strains of ASFV have been subjected to serial passage in a variety of cell lines. The attenuated ASFV strains obtained through serial passage are not only candidates for ASF vaccine research, but also are useful to study the molecular genetic characteristics and pathogenic mechanism of the virus. This review summarizes related studies on the attenuated strains of ASFV acquired through cell passage over the last 60 years, with the aim of providing inspiration for the rational design of vaccines in future.

The direct-current (DC) resistivity method is a commonly used geophysical technique for surveying adverse geological conditions. Inversion can reconstruct the resistivity model from data, which is an important step in the geophysical survey. However, the inverse problem is a serious ill-posed problem that makes it easy to obtain incorrect inversion results. Deep learning (DL) provides new avenues for solving inverse problems, and has been widely studied. Currently, most DL inversion methods for resistivity are purely data-driven and depend heavily on labels (real resistivity models). However, real resistivity models are difficult to obtain through field surveys. An inversion network may not be effectively trained without labels. In this study, we built an unsupervised learning resistivity inversion scheme based on the physical law of electric field propagation. First, a forward modeling process was embedded into the network training, which converted the predicted model to predicted data and formed a data misfit to the observation data. Unsupervised training independent of the real model was realized using the data misfit as a loss function. Moreover, a dynamic smoothing constraint was imposed on the loss function to alleviate the ill-posed inverse problem. Finally, a transfer learning scheme was applied to adapt the trained network with simulated data to field data. Numerical simulations and field tests showed that the proposed method can accurately locate and depict geological targets.

Different samples were collected from three swine farms in China to investigate the spread of antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli. A total of 130 E. coli isolates were obtained from feces, air, river water, silt, and soil samples and characterized. The susceptibility of the E. coli isolates to 19 antibiotics was tested. The results revealed that the resistance rates of the E. coli isolates against 9 antibiotics were high. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and nalidixic acid were mainly in the ranges of 2–64, 8–64, and 8–64 μg/ml. The plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) genes qnr, aac(6′)-Ib-cr, qepA, and oqxAB were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the similarity of E. coli from different samples was identified by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The detection rates of the qnrA, qnrB, qnrS, aac(6′)-Ib-cr, qepA, and oqxAB genes in the E. coli isolates from three swine farms were in the range of 10.87–23.08%, 13.04–20.51%, 40.00–43.48%, 30.43–38.46%, 6.52–12.82%, and 7.69–17.39%, respectively. The PFGE result showed that 49% (49/100) of isolates originating from air, river water, soil, and silt samples had ≥85% similarity to fecal-obtained isolates, and 40.82% (20/49) of them shared the same PMQR genes with fecal-obtained isolates. This indicated that E. coli carrying PMQR genes and originating from feces in swine farms could spread to the external environment, which could be a potential threat to the public environment and human health.

The current research aims to prove the impact of resilience on sleep quality and to investigate the mediating function of perceived stress in the paths from resilience to sleep quality among disabled Chinese elders. The participants were 196 elders with visual and physical disability who resided in the nursing houses in Shanghai, including 102 males and 94 females whose mean age was 74.5 years old (standard deviation = 6.81). All the elders were measured with the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Perceived Stress Scale. The results showed that all the demographic variables were significantly related to perceived stress and PSQI scores. High levels of resilience could significantly enhance the quality of sleep in disabled Chinese elders. In addition, the two-step mediation models also confirmed the impact of resilience on sleep quality as mediated through perceived stress in this special aged population. Better knowledge on the mechanisms of sleep quality among older adults could benefit the prevention and treatment of some geriatric diseases.

Due to the combined effects of global warming and human activities, the ecological environment of the Yellow River source area has undergone profound changes and desertification has become increasingly prominent. In this study, an optimal desertification monitoring index based on feature space was proposed for the Yellow River source area, and constructed using Landsat images. Then, the spatial and temporal variation of desertification in the Yellow River source area and its driving mechanism were studied using Geodetector. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The newly proposed feature space-based desertification monitoring index has good applicability in the study area. The best inversion accuracy of the point-to-point Albedo-NDVI feature space model was 88.4%. (2) Desertification in the eastern and southern regions of the Yellow River source area has a tendency to increase, while the desertification situation in the central region is relatively stable. (3) From 1995 to 2015, there was a significant improvement in desertification in the study area, as evidenced by a decrease in desertification intensity. (4) As the intensity of human disturbance increases, the influence of natural factors on desertification gradually diminishes. The interaction of natural and anthropogenic factors has greater explanatory power for desertification than that of individual natural or anthropogenic factors. The research results can be used as a reference for decision-making on desertification control in the Three-River Source Region.

Brucella vaccination is one of the most important strategies for controlling brucellosis in livestock. The A19 strain was the effective vaccine used to control brucellosis in China. However, the characteristics of physiological and attenuated virulence of the A19 strain are not investigated in detail. In this study, we compared the phenotypic characteristics of the A19 to the wild-type strain S2308. Virulence test showed that the A19 was significantly attenuated at chronic infection stage in infected mouse model. In growth analysis, the A19 exhibited a quick growth at exponential phase and premature at stationary phase. The inflammatory response of macrophages infected by the A19 was detected using TaqMan qPCR assay, indicating that the inflammatory level of the A19-infected macrophages was higher than that of the S2308 infection. Cell death analysis showed that the A19 was not cytotoxic for macrophages. Cell infection showed that the A19 reduced its ability to invade, survive and traffic within host cells, and the intracellular A19 hardly excludes lysosome-associated marker LAMP-1, suggesting that the A19 can't escape the lysosome degradation within host cells. In further study, the sensitivity test exhibited that the A19 is more sensitive to stress and bactericidal factors than the S2308 strain, Western blot and silver staining analysis exhibited that the A19 has a different expression pattern of OMPs and reduces LPS O-antigen expression relative to the S2308 strain. Those data give us a more detailed understanding about the A19 vaccine strain, which will be beneficial for improvement of current Brucella vaccine and overcoming its defects.

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed in various tumors and is associated with cancer initiation, progression, and poor prognosis. Despite the achievements made by tyrosine kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies in certain cases, many patients have not benefited from such treatment due to resistance. Immunotoxins (ITs) are antibody-cytotoxin chimeric molecules with specific cell killing ability, which have achieved different degrees of success in the treatment of a wide range of cancers in clinical trials. The aim of the current study was to examine a novel targeting EGFR recombinant immunotoxin Bs/cucurmosin (CUS) generated by fusing CUS to the EGFR-specific nanobody 7D12-9G8. Bs/CUS was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli strain BL21 (DE3) in a soluble form. Furthermore, it retained binding capacity and specificity with EGFR and was superior to rE/CUS, a monospecific IT we reported previously. In vitro results showed that Bs/CUS could be internalized into the cytoplasm and selectively kill cells in the picomolar range. Flow cytometry showed that Bs/CUS killed the cells mediated by the apoptosis pathway. Taken together, results of the current study indicated that Bs/CUS is a promising candidate that should be further evaluated as a cancer therapeutic for the treatment of EGFR-positive tumors.

Escherichia coli is a common bacterium in the air; it can affect the health of humans and animals. The carrying status of five primary virulence factor genes in E. coli (i.e., STa, STb, LTa, stx1, and stx2/stx2e) in various animal houses and their spread to the outside environment were investigated by comparing the air inside animal houses with that outside the houses. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction detection of the five genes was performed on samples from five chicken houses, and 117 E. coli isolates were obtained. From five swine houses, 120 were obtained, and from six cow houses, 143 were obtained. Results reveal that E. coli virulence genes derived from animal houses can be propagated via gas exchange from the inside to the outside and, depending on weather conditions, across some distance, resulting in biological pollution and the spread of pathogenic microorganisms. This study of the transmission of environmental microbial aerosols in animal houses has great significance in public health and epidemiology.

This paper investigates the correlations between 52 financial markets located in different countries or regions from July 2004 through June 2011. By using a correlation matrix time series and a participation frequency method based on the random matrix theory, we show that a time-stable information structure is contained in the correlations between global financial markets. We further find that the information structure is closely associated with global market and global geographical factors, and that each financial index's participation in the global market factor varies over time and presents dynamics. Two patterns, hierarchy and cluster effects, are found to be in the dynamics of the indices' participation in the global market factor. The cluster effect implies a more concentrated participation during the 2008 financial crisis.

Delimiting urban growth boundaries (UGBs) has been generally regarded as a regulatory measure for controlling chaotic urban expansion. There are increasing demands for delimiting urban growth boundaries in fast growing regions in China. However, existing methods for delimiting UGBs mainly focus on intrinsic dynamic processes of urban growth and ignore external planning interventions. Delimiting UGBs to restrain chaotic expansion and conserve ecological areas is actually a spatial optimization problem. This study aims to develop an optimization-based framework for delimiting optimal UGBs by incorporating dynamic processes and planning interventions into an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm. Local connectivity, total utility values and quantity assignment were integrated into the exchange mechanism to make ACO adaptive for the delimitation of UGBs. The core area of Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomeration, a very fast growing area in Central China was selected as the case study area to validate the proposed model. UGBs under multi planning scenarios with given combinations of weights for urban suitability, high-quality farmland protection, and landscape compactness were efficiently derived from the ACO model. Hypothetic datasets were initially used to test the performance of ACO on global optimum and its ability to optimize complex landscape patterns. Compared with experts' planning scenario, the optimal UGBs delimited by ACO model is practical. Results indicate that spatial optimization methods are plausible for delimiting optimal UGBs.

Aspergillus fumigatus is a ubiquitous pathogen in poultry farms, causing aspergillosis in chickens. To study the pathogenicity of A. fumigatus, 14-days-old chickens were infected with fungal conidia (2 × 107 CFU/mL) via thoracic intra-air sacs inoculation. The clinical symptoms, gross and histopathological lesions, and fungal load in the lungs were examined. Additionally, the mRNAs of Toll like receptors (TLR) and pro-inflammatory cytokines were evaluated by quantitative PCR to explore the immune responses induced by A. fumigatus. The results showed that overt depression, ruffled feathers, and dyspnea were observed in the infected chickens as early as 3 days post infection (dpi). Eleven out of 25 infected chickens died from 5 to 9 dpi, and A. fumigatus could also be reisolated from the infected lung. Histopathological examination revealed obvious airsacculitis and pneumonia, characterized by inflammatory cell infiltration (heterophils and macrophages), and granulomatous lesions in the lung. The mRNA expressions of TLR1 and TLR2 were upregulated in the lung and spleen, and most pro-inflammatory cytokines including IL-1β, Cxcl-8, TNF-α, IL-12, and IFN-γ were increased in both the lung and spleen during the tested period, suggesting that the innate immune responses were triggered by A. fumigatus infection, and these cytokines participated in the inflammatory responses against A. fumigatus. These results indicate that A. fumigatus infection by thoracic intra-air sacs inoculation can cause severe respiratory damage in chickens, activate TLR1 and TLR2 mediated immune responses, and elicit large expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, Cxcl-8, and IFN-γ. These data will help further understanding of the pathogenesis and immune responses of A. fumigatus infection in the chicken.

ATP-dependent DEAD (Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp)-box RNA helicases not only regulate RNA metabolism, but also are involved in host antiviral innate immune responses. It is important to investigate the orthologs of this protein family to broaden our understanding of innate immunity and promote protective strategies against viral infections in ducks. In the current study, duck DDX3X (duDDX3X) was first cloned, which consists of 1959 bp encoding a protein of 652 amino acids. duDDX3X has the typical structure of this family, including nine motifs, DEAD and HELICc domains. The amino acid sequence of duDDX3X shares a high similarity with the DDX3Xs of avian and mammalian. Quantitative real-time PCR indicated that duDDX3X was ubiquitously expressed in nearly all tissues. Overexpression of duDDX3X could activate interferon (IFN)-β and enhance the RIG-I-induced IFN-β yield in duck embryo fibroblast cells. However, duDDX3X had no significant effect on the expression of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, IL-6, and CXCL-8. Tembusu virus (TMUV) infection significantly downregulated duDDX3X. Overexpression and siRNA interference studies showed that duDDX3X inhibited the replication of TMUV through IFN-β at the early stages of infection. Collectively, our results indicated that duDDX3X could positively modulate type I interferon and play an essential role in response to TMUV infection. This study will contribute to a better understanding of duDDX3X in the innate immune system of ducks and lay a solid foundation for further studies of duDDX3X in antiviral immunity.

Trastuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody against HER2 approved by FDA for breast and gastric cancer therapy. However, only a quarter of patients have the potential to benefit from it, and most of them develop resistance within therapy. The main purpose of this study is to broaden trastuzumab's therapeutic window by conjugating trastuzumab with recombinant cucurmosin to form an immunotoxin called T-CUS245C. T-CUS245C was chemically conjugated and the purification of T-CUS245C was evaluated by SDS-PAGE. SRB tests showed a remarkable cytotoxicity of T-CUS245C with IC50 values in picomolar range on HER2 positive cancer cells without significantly proliferation inhibition on HER2 negative cells (P

Serotype 4 fowl adenovirus (FAdV-4) is the main pathogen for hydropericardium syndrome (HPS) in chickens. It has caused major economic losses in the global poultry industry. Currently, FAdV-4&prime, s transmission routes in chickens remain unclear. Here we investigate the airborne transmission routes of FAdV-4 in chickens. A total of 45 ten-day-old chickens were equally divided into three groups (infected group/isolator A, airborne group/isolator B, and control group/isolator C). Of note, isolators A and B were connected by a leak-free pipe. The results showed that the virus could form a viral aerosol, detected in isolators two days post infection (dpi). The viral aerosol reached a peak at 4 dpi in the infected group. Healthy chickens in the airborne group were infected by the virus at 8 dpi. The chickens of the airborne group demonstrated subclinical symptoms capable of shedding the virus for some time. This finding suggests that FAdV-4 can be efficiently transmitted among chickens by aerosol transmission. These findings have significant implications for developing strategies to control this infectious disease epidemic.

Recent epidemiological surveys have shown that class I Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is widely distributed in China. However, little is currently known about its transmission. Therefore, in this study, we compared the transmission of class I and class II NDV. Specific-pathogen-free chickens were divided into a class I NDV inoculation group and an aerosol-exposed infection group and kept in 2 separate isolators (A and B, respectively) that were connected with an airtight plastic pipe. After inoculation, air samples were collected regularly with an All-Glass Impinger-30 (Liaoyang, China), and the airborne virus contents were analyzed using the plaque count method. In addition, oral and cloacal swabs were collected regularly to detect virus shedding using quantitative reverse transcription PCR. Similar trials were conducted simultaneously with class II NDV in isolators C and D. We consistently detected class I NDV aerosols in both isolators A and B up to 40 D post-inoculation (dpi). The aerosol concentration reached a maximum of 13.81 × 103 plague-forming units per cubic meter of air at 18 dpi and was significantly higher than that of class II NDV at 21 and 24 dpi. We also detected class I virus shedding from 2 to 40 dpi in the inoculated chickens and from 7 to 40 D post-aerosol-exposed infection in the aerosol-exposed chickens. This phenomenon may explain why class I NDV has been the primary epidemic strain of NDV in recent years.

Brucellosis is an important zoonotic bacterial disease widespread in the world. The key step of control this disease is accurate diagnosis and elimination of diseased animals. The classic diagnostic methods, such as tube agglutination test, are inaccurate and nonspecific, because of cross-reaction with Yersinia enterocolitica serotype O:9. Previously, several proteins were reported as Brucella main immunogens. In this study, we used animal infection model to evaluate antibody production against OMP16, BP26, BLS, BCSP31, VirB12, SodC and GroEL proteins and investigated their application in diagnosis of brucellosis. The results showed that the BP26 and BLS are two best immunogenic proteins. In further study, we detected 44 clinical bovine sera using western blot, showing that the BP26 and BLS reacted with 30 Brucella-positive sera, but false-positive results were also shown in 14 Brucella-free sera. In an indirect ELISA assay, compared to lipopolysaccharide-based ELISA, the conformance of the BP26-based ELISA was 92.68 % in Brucella-positive sera, but only 52.94 % in Brucella-free sera. The BLS-based ELISA can hardly differentiate positive sera from negative sera. Besides, truncated fragments of the BP26 protein cannot exclude false-positive results in detection of Brucella-free sera. Altogether, although Brucella main immunogenic proteins have good reaction with Brucella-positive sera, false-positive reaction with Brucella-free sera may lead to misdiagnosis of brucellosis, suggesting that it should be more careful to use these immunogenic proteins as antigen targets to diagnosis of brucellosis.

Nipah disease is a highly fatal zoonosis which is caused by the Nipah virus. The Nipah virus is a BSL-4 virus with fruit bats being its natural host. It is mainly prevalent in Southeast Asia. The virus was first discovered in 1997 in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Currently, it is mainly harmful to pigs and humans with a high mortality rate. This study describes the route of transmission of the Nipah virus in different countries and analyzes the possibility of the primary disease being in China and the method of its transmission to China. The risk factors are analyzed for different susceptible populations to Nipah disease. The aim is to improve people’s risk awareness and prevention and control of the disease and reduce its risk of occurring and spreading in China.

Keloid is a disorder of fibroproliferative diseases that occurs in wounds, characterized by an exaggerated response to injury. The key factor responsible for the disease process has not been identified. This study sought to elucidate the role of β-catenin in the regulation of keloid phenotypes and signaling. Expression of β-catenin in keloid and normal non-keloid samples was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Knockdown of β-catenin was achieved by delivering small interfering RNA to target β-catenin. Cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, and apoptosis of keloid cells were measured by functional assays in vitro. The proteins related to keloid fibrosis were measured by Western blotting. β-catenin expression was significantly upregulated in keloid tissue samples compared with the normal non-keloid age-adjusted skin sample counterparts. Functionally, targeting β-catenin with lipofection-delivered small interfering RNA oligonucleotide inhibited the proliferation and cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase and increased apoptosis of fibroblast cells, accompanied by downregulation of Wnt2 and cyclin D1 as well as the phosphorylation level of glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta in the keloid fibrosis. Our study supports a crucial role of β-catenin in the regulation of fibroproliferation and extracellular matrix deposition. Targeting β-catenin using small interfering RNA oligonucleotide may be a promising approach for preventing excessive fibroproliferative development after wound healing and may lead to the development of novel strategies for restoring keloid diseases.

Microbial aerosol whose species and concentrations are closely related to human health is ubiquitous. The effect of microbes on human and animal health and production performance is, in many cases, caused by the spreading of air. Samples in this experiment were from a live poultry market (LPM) in Tai’an, China, collected three times a day (8 am, 14 pm, and 20 pm) over three consecutive days each month for 11 months (Original sampling plan was a year, the government due to the environmental protection, the was LPM closed). The main indicators of the test were concentrations of cultural airborne bacteria, airborne fungi, and Gram-negative bacteria. At the same time the species of Gram-negative bacteria and the concentration of endotoxin were tested. Temperature and humidity were recorded in the process of each sampling. The results showed that the diurnal variation of the concentration of bacteria, fungi, and Gram-negative bacteria is higher in the morning and evening, but lower at noon. The concentrations of airborne bacteria and Gram-negative bacteria increased in earlier months and decreased in later months, with the peak appearing in the autumn. The concentration of fungi showed a decrease first and then tended to stabilize, with the peak occurring in the spring. The concentration peak of endotoxin occurred in the summer. Endotoxin levels were significantly correlated with humidity (r = 0.90, p < 0.01). Most bacteria were distributed at the third and fourth stages (2.1–4.7 μm) in the ANDERSEN-6 sampler. The dominant species of Gram-negative bacteria during the four seasons were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Salmonella. In China, people have a habit of eating fresh poultry, LPM distribution is widespread, stream of people and traffic flow are large, easily caused the spread of bacteria and viruses, so the LPM microbial aerosol research have significant public health implications.

The study was conducted to investigate drug resistance, OXA-type carbapenemases-encoding genes and genetic diversity in airborne Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) in burn wards. Airborne A. baumannii were collected in burn wards and their corridors using Andersen 6-stage air sampler from January to June 2011. The isolates susceptibility to 13 commonly used antibiotics was examined according to the CLSI guidelines; OXA-type carbapenemases-encoding genes and molecular diversity of isolates were analyzed, respectively. A total of 16 non-repetitive A. baumannii were isolated, with 10 strains having a resistance rate of greater than 50% against the 13 antibiotics. The resistance rate against ceftriaxone, cyclophosvnamide, ciprofloxacin, and imipenem was 93.75% (15/16), but no isolate observed to be resistant to cefoperazone/sulbactam. Resistance gene analyses showed that all 16 isolates carried OXA-51, and 15 isolates carried OXA-23 except No.15; but OXA-24 and OXA-58 resistance genes not detected. The isolates were classified into 13 genotypes (A-M) according to repetitive extragenic palindromic sequence PCR (REP-PCR) results and only six isolates had a homology ≥90%. In conclusion, airborne A. baumannii in the burn wards had multidrug resistance and complex molecular diversity, and OXA-23 and OXA-51 were dominant mechanisms for resisting carbapenems.

This study aimed to determine the transmission characteristics of H9N2 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) derived from the air. Eight H9N2 AIVs were isolated from chicken houses between 2009 and 2010. We analyzed the phylogenic and pathogenic traits of these isolates. What is more, transmission characteristics in guinea pigs of two airborne isolates were determined in experimental conditions. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that the homologies of HA and NA genes of eight isolates were 95.4-99.7% and 86.6-99.8% respectively. They were able to duplicate in lung tissues of guinea pigs without prior adaptation. Two airborne isolates could both transmit among guinea pigs by direct contact. No infection was detected in aerosol contact animals while H9N2 AIV aerosols were detected in the air of isolators. Aerosol infection dose experiment showed that aerosol median infective dose (ID(50)) of H9N2 AIV to guinea pigs was 3.58×10(6)copies, demonstrating that the aerosols could infect guinea pigs at certain concentrations in experimental condition. In conclusion, H9N2 AIV aerosols were infectious to mammals, suggesting that urgent attention will need to be paid to its transmission.

Mitochondrial antiviral-signaling protein (MAVS), an adaptor protein of retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-like receptors (RLRs)-mediated signal pathway, is involved in innate immunity. In this study, Cherry Valley duck MAVS (duMAVS) was cloned from the spleen and analyzed. duMAVS was determined to have a caspase activation and recruitment domain at N-terminal, followed by a proline-rich domain and a transmembrane domain at C-terminal. Quantitative real-time PCR indicated that duMAVS was expressed in all tissues tested across a broad expression spectrum. The expression of duMAVS was significantly upregulated after infection with duck Tembusu virus (DTMUV). Overexpression of duMAVS could drive the activation of interferon (IFN)-β, nuclear factor-κB, interferon regulatory factor 7, and many downstream factors (such as Mx, PKR, OAS, and IL-8) in duck embryo fibroblast cells. What is more, RNA interference further confirmed that duMAVS was an important adaptor for IFN-β activation. The antiviral assay showed that duMAVS could suppress the various viral replications (DTMUV, novel reovirus, and duck plague virus) at early stages of infection. Overall, these results showed that the main signal pathway mediated by duMAVS and it had a broad-spectrum antiviral ability. This research will be helpful to better understanding the innate immune system of ducks.

The objective of this study was to obtain insight into the adverse health effects of airborne particulate matter (PM) collected from live bird markets (LBM) and to determine whether biological material in PM accounts for immune-related inflammatory response. Mice were exposed to a single or repeated dose of PM, after which the expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), cytokines, and chemokines in the lungs of infected mice were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and histopathological analysis. Results after single and repeated PM stimulation with PM2.5+, PM2.5-, PM10+, and PM10- indicated that TLR2 and TLR4 played a dominant role in the inflammatory responses of the lung. Further analysis demonstrated that the expression levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-8, IP-10, and MCP-1 increased significantly, which could eventually contribute to lung injury. Moreover, biological components in PM were critical in mediating immune-related inflammatory responses and should therefore not be overlooked.

In this study, differentially expressed proteins in A549 cells (human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line) infected with H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) were investigated by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE). Sixteen different spots between the groups (ratio>2, p

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) can cause severe disease in ducks, characterized by perihepatitis, pericarditis, and airsacculitis. Although the studies of bacteria isolation and methods of detection have been reported, host immune responses to APEC infection remain unclear. In response, we systemically examined the expression of immune-related genes and bacteria distribution in APEC-infected ducks. Results demonstrated that APEC can quickly replicate in the liver, spleen, and brain, with the highest bacteria content at 2 days post infection. The expression of toll-like receptors (TLRs), avian β-defensins (AvBDs) and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) were tested in the liver, spleen, and brain of infected ducks. TLR2, TLR4, TLR5, and TLR15 showed different expression patterns, which indicated that they all responded to APEC infection. The expression of AvBD2 was upregulated in all tested tissues during the 3 days of testing, whereas the expression of AvBD4, AvBD5, AvBD7, and AvBD9 were downregulated, and though MHC-I was upregulated on all test days, MHC-II was dramatically downregulated. Overall, our results suggest that APEC can replicate in various tissues in a short time, and the activation of host immune responses begins at onset of infection. These findings thus clarify duck immune responses to APEC infection and offer insights into its pathogenesis.