Increased Frequencies of Th22 Cells as well as Th17 Cells in the Peripheral Blood of Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>T-helper (Th) 22 is involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases. The roles of Th22 cells in the pathophysiological of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remain unsettled. So we examined the frequencies of Th22 cells, Th17 cells and Th1 cells in peripheral blood (PB) from patients with AS and patients with RA compared with both healthy controls as well as patients with osteoarthritis.</p> <h3>Design and Methods</h3><p>We studied 32 AS patients, 20 RA patients, 10 OA patients and 20 healthy controls. The expression of IL-22, IL-17 and IFN-γ were examined in AS, RA, OA patients and healthy controls by flow cytometry. Plasma IL-22 and IL-17 levels were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.</p> <h3>Results</h3><p>Th22 cells, Th17 cells and interleukin-22 were significantly elevated in AS and RA patients compared with OA patients and healthy controls. Moreover, Th22 cells showed positive correlation with Th17 cells as well as interleukin-22 in AS and RA patients. However, positive correlation between IL-22 and Th17 cells was only found in AS patients not in RA patients. In addition, the percentages of both Th22 cells and Th17 cells correlated positively with disease activity only in RA patients not in AS patients.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The frequencies of both Th22 cells and Th17 cells were elevated in PB from patients with AS and patients with RA. These findings suggest that Th22 cells and Th17 cells may be implicated in the pathogenesis of AS and RA, and Th22 cells and Th17 cells may be reasonable cellular targets for therapeutic intervention.</p> </div

Intragenic Recombination as a Mechanism of Genetic Diversity in Bluetongue Virus▿

Bluetongue (BT), caused by Bluetongue virus (BTV), is an economically important disease affecting sheep, deer, cattle, and goats. Since 1998, a series of BT outbreaks have spread across much of southern and central Europe. To study why the epidemiology of the virus happens to change, it is important to fully know the mechanisms resulting in its genetic diversity. Gene mutation and segment reassortment have been considered as the key forces driving the evolution of BTV. However, it is still unknown whether intragenic recombination can occur and contribute to the process in the virus. We present here several BTV groups containing mosaic genes to reveal that intragenic recombination can take place between the virus strains and play a potential role in bringing novel BTV lineages

Elimination of chloramphenicol through electro-fenton-like reaction: Reaction mechanism and electron transfer pathway

Abstract An electro-Fenton-like reaction process relying on peroxymonosulfate activation can stably degrade chloramphenicol (CAP) within 16 min, where the kinetic rate constant can be as high as 0.089 min−1 and the energy consumption value can be as low as 25.1 kWh•m^−3. Evidence indicated that the use of a Na2SO4 solution as the electrolyte can enhance CAP degradation due to rapid electron transfer properties. The generated electrons and active free radicals are responsible for CAP degradation, and the electrons can be transferred from the highest occupied molecular orbital of CAP to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of peroxymonosulfate via the PbO2 electrode. Density functional theory calculations based on Fukui index analysis elucidated the key attack sites in CAP; moreover, reaction-free energy calculations shed light on potential CAP degradation pathways. Not only does this study afford an insight into the activation of peroxymonosulfate for organic pollutant degradation but also provides an innovative technology with potential applications in wastewater purification

Isolation and Identification of a Novel Rabies Virus Lineage in China with Natural Recombinant Nucleoprotein Gene

<div><p>Rabies virus (RABV) causes severe neurological disease and death. As an important mechanism for generating genetic diversity in viruses, homologous recombination can lead to the emergence of novel virus strains with increased virulence and changed host tropism. However, it is still unclear whether recombination plays a role in the evolution of RABV. In this study, we isolated and sequenced four circulating RABV strains in China. Phylogenetic analyses identified a novel lineage of hybrid origin that comprises two different strains, J and CQ92. Analyses revealed that the virus 3′ untranslated region (UTR) and part of the <em>N</em> gene (approximate 500 nt in length) were likely derived from Chinese lineage I while the other part of the genomic sequence was homologous to Chinese lineage II. Our findings reveal that homologous recombination can occur naturally in the field and shape the genetic structure of RABV populations.</p> </div

Recombination confirmation table of different recombination analysis methods.

<p>Recombination confirmation table of different recombination analysis methods.</p

Analysis of the origin of the CQ92 lineage in different regions of the <i>N</i> gene delimited by the putative breakpoints.

<p>(A) A split tree inferred from the complete <i>N</i> gene sequence showing the evolutionary relationship. A networked pattern of mosaic lineage was found to be related to lineages GX4 and SH06. The Neighbor-Net tree was constructed by employing the SplitsTree4 program. (B) Phylogenetic relationships from positions 180 to 598 of CQ92 genome. (D) Phylogenetic relationship of the <i>N</i> gene fragment from positions 1–179 and 599–891. (D) Phylogenetic relationship of positions 892–1423. The evolutionary history of each fragment was inferred using the maximum likelihood method with the Kimura 2-parameter substitution model and Neighbor-Joining (NJ) method with the Maximum Composite Likelihood model. The percentage (>80%) of replicate ML trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test (1000 replicates) is shown beside the branches. The NJ tree bootstrap values of the branch associated with recombinant strain are shown in parentheses. The tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths shown in the same units as those of the evolutionary distances used to infer the phylogenetic tree. ▪, mosaics.</p