Carbohydrate metabolism in grape cultivars that differ in sucrose accumulation

Sugar concentrations and sucrose-metabolism related enzyme activities in berries and leaves were investigated during berry development using grape cultivars with different sucrose concentrations. Sucrose concentration was significantly negatively related to acid invertase activity in berries. Acid invertase showed the lowest activities in berries of high-sucrose cultivars, ‘Honey Juice’ and ‘B180’, and the highest in tracesucrose cultivars, ‘Concord’, ‘Jingxiu’, and ‘Jingya’. Acid invertase activities in berries of low-sucrose cultivar ‘Canadice’ were between high- and trace-sucrose cultivars. There was no significant difference in glucose and fructose concentrations, the activities of neutral invertase, sucrose synthase and sucrose phosphate synthase in berries among high-, low- and trace-sucrose cultivars as acid invertase. Sugar concentrations and sucrose-metabolism related enzymes activities in leaves also did not show such difference among all cultivars. The results suggest that differences in sucrose concentration in berries among grape cultivars mainly be due to acid invertase activity. In addition, the final sucrose concentration in berries at maturity for a grape cultivar might be decided at véraison, and véraison is the key period for sucrose accumulation.

Poly[[tetra­kis­(μ-2-anilinobenzoato-κ2 O:O′)tetra-μ1,1,1-azido-tetra-μ1,1-azido-octa­methano­lhexa­nickel(II)] methanol hexa­solvate]

The crystal structure of the title compound, [Ni6(C13H10NO2)4(N3)8(CH3OH)8]·6CH3OH, consists of a centrosymmetric hexa­nuclear [NiII 6(C13H10NO2)4(N3)8(CH3OH)8] mol­ecule and six methanol solvent mol­ecules. In the hexa­nuclear unit, the six octa­hedrally coordinated NiII atoms are linked by four μ1,1,1-azide and four μ1,1-azide bridges, forming a face-sharing Ni6N8 tetra­cubane-like unit with four missing corners. The NiII atoms are further bridged by four μ1,2-carboxalate groups. Neighbouring hexa­nuclear units are connected via N—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter­actions into a three-dimensional structure. Although the H atoms of the methanol OH groups could not be located, O⋯N/O contacts between 2.65 and 2.86 Å suggest that these mol­ecules participate in hydrogen bonding

Fibrosis progression in interferon treatment-naive Chinese plasma donors with chronic hepatitis C for 20 years: a cohort study

SummaryObjectivesTo evaluate the progression of fibrosis and factors influencing this in interferon (IFN) treatment-naive Chinese plasma donors infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) for approximately 20 years.MethodsFrom July 2010 to June 2011, we investigated 122 IFN treatment-naive chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients infected by plasma donation in 1992–1995. Liver fibrosis stage and inflammation grade were evaluated by Metavir and Scheuer scoring systems, respectively.ResultsOne hundred and twenty patients underwent liver biopsy. Liver biopsy was not performed in one patient with cirrhosis due to ascites, and another patient was excluded because of an invalid biopsy specimen. Cirrhosis was observed in three patients (fibrosis stage F4 in two patients revealed by biopsy, and one patient with ascites confirmed by physical and Doppler ultrasound examination). Fibrosis stages F1 and F2 were present in 55 and 50 patients, respectively. The severity of liver inflammation was independently related to moderate to severe fibrosis (F ≥2). Older age and male sex showed an increasing tendency for more severe fibrosis (F3/F4) in the present cohort.ConclusionsBased on histopathology results, the progression of fibrosis in patients with CHC infected by repeated plasma donation is slow after HCV infection of approximately 20 years. Liver inflammation is closely related to the development of moderate to severe liver fibrosis

catena-Poly[[chloridocadmium(II)]bis­{μ-1-[(2-ethyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl)meth­yl]-1H-benzotriazole}[chloridocadmium(II)]di-μ-chlorido]

In the polymeric title complex, [CdCl2(C12H13N5)]n, the CdII atom is five-coordinated by two N atoms from two bridging 1-[(2-ethyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl)meth­yl]-1H-benzotriazole (bmei) ligands, two bridging Cl atoms and one terminal Cl atom in a distorted trigonal–bipyramidal geometry. The CdII atoms are connected alternately by the Cl atoms and bmei ligands, leading to a zigzag chain extending parallel to [011]. π–π inter­actions, with a centroid–centroid distance of 3.3016 (3) Å, help to stabilize the crystal packing

1-Phenyl-1-[(1-phenyl­ethyl)sulfonyl­methyl­sulfon­yl]ethane

There are two mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C17H20O4S2. There are slight differences in the twist of the two rings relative to the S–C–S chain [dihedral angles of 48.41 (18) and 87.58 (16)° in the first mol­ecule and 45.98 (18) and 87.02 (18)° in the second] and the difference in the C—S—C—S torsion angles [176.68 (17) and −77.6 (2)° for the two independent mol­ecules]

Associations between ALDOB polymorphisms and intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy susceptibility in the Chinese Han population

Objectives: To research the associations between fructose-bisphosphate aldolase B (ALDOB) gene polymorphisms and intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) risk. Material and methods: Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was performed to detect ALDOB polymorphisms. Five web-available tools were employed to predict the effect of the site variant on the protein. Protein structure comparisons between the reference and ALDOB-modified samples were performed by SWISS-MODEL and Chimera 1.14rc, respectively. Results: We identified 28 genetic variants in the ALDOB gene. When the cut-off value of minor allele frequency (MAF) of loci was 0.001 in four databases, five missense variants, including rs747604233, rs759204107, rs758242037, rs371526091 and rs77718928, were reserved for subsequent analysis. These variants were absent from the 1029 control individuals. The influence of all five variants on protein function was predicted to be damaging by the abovementioned five prediction software programs. Bioinformatics analysis demonstrated that these five missense variants were highly conserved among vertebrates. Compared to the wild-type protein structure, all five mutated protein structures showed a slight change in the chemical bond lengths of the enzyme activity domains. The combined clinical data indicate that the variant group had a significantly older age (p = 0.038), a higher level of indirect bilirubin (IDBIL, p = 0.033), and lower counts of white blood cells (WBCs, p = 7.38E-05) and platelets (PLTs, p = 0.018) than the wild-type group. Conclusions: This is the first study to examine the associations between ALDOB polymorphisms and ICP disease in 249 Chinese patients with ICP. Our present study expands the understanding of the pathogenesis of ICP

A clinical prediction rule for diagnosing human infections with avian influenza A(H7N9) in a hospital emergency department setting

BACKGROUND: Human infections with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus are associated with severe illness and high mortality. To better inform triage decisions of hospitalization and management, we developed a clinical prediction rule for diagnosing patients with A(H7N9) and determined its predictive performance. METHODS: Clinical details on presentation of adult patients hospitalized with either A(H7N9)(n = 121) in China from March to May 2013 or other causes of acute respiratory infections (n = 2,603) in Jingzhou City, China from January 2010 through September 2012 were analyzed. A clinical prediction rule was developed using a two-step coefficient-based multivariable logistic regression scoring method and evaluated with internal validation by bootstrapping. RESULTS: In step 1, predictors for A(H7N9) included male sex, poultry exposure history, and fever, haemoptysis, or shortness of breath on history and physical examination. In step 2, haziness or pneumonic consolidation on chest radiographs and leukopenia were also associated with a higher probability of A(H7N9). The observed risk of A(H7N9) was 0.3% for those assigned to the low-risk group and 2.5%, 4.3%, and 44.0% for tertiles 1 through 3, respectively, in the high-risk group. This prediction rule achieved good model performance, with an optimism-corrected sensitivity of 0.93, a specificity of 0.80, and an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.96. CONCLUSIONS: A simple decision rule based on data readily obtainable in the setting of patients' first clinical presentations from the first wave of the A/H7N9 epidemic in China has been developed. This prediction rule has achieved good model performance in predicting their risk of A(H7N9) infection and should be useful in guiding important clinical and public health decisions in a timely and objective manner. Data to be gathered with its use in the current evolving second wave of the A/H7N9 epidemic in China will help to inform its performance in the field and contribute to its further refinement.published_or_final_versio