Conjugation of PEG-hexadecane markedly increases the immunogenicity crossMark of pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a serious Gram-positive pathogen that can lead to an invasive pneumococcal disease with high mortality rate. Pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide (PS) is a key virulence determinant and its immunogenicity can be increased by conjugation with a carrier protein. However, the PS-specific cellular and humoral immunity of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine needs further improvement. Hexadecane (HD) is an element of lipid that decorates the surface of nearly all microbial classes. Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-HD conjugate (PEG-HD) is soluble and can act as an adjuvant. In the present study, a novel pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine was prepared by conjugation of tetanus toxoid (IT) portion of PS-TT conjugate (PS-TT) with PEG-HD. As compared with PS-TT, conjugation with PEG -HD led to an 8.0-fold increase in the PS-specific IgG titers. Conjugation with PEG -HD also gave rise to 34.9-, 3.6- and 7.7-fold increase in the IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha and IL-5 levels, respectively. Thus, the conjugated PEG -HD has a stimulatory adjuvant activity to potentiate a robust humoral and cellular immunity. Our proposed conjugate was expected to act as an effective pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for prevention of S. pneumoniae infections. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p

A GaAs-based hybrid integration of a tunneling diode and a 1060-nm semiconductor laser

We report on a hybrid integrated tunneling diode, with a simple structure, and a quantum well laser diode, lasing at ~1060 nm, on GaAs substrate. The low-frequency operation of the integrated circuit was measured and obvious negative differential resistance regions were shown in the electrical and optical output. The electrical and optical bistability were measured, and the peak and valley voltage were 2.03 and 2.17 V, respectively. A 140-mV-wide hysteresis loop and an optical on/off ratio of 21 dB were obtained. The device has potential applications in biomedicine and optical interconnects

Experimental and Modeling Study on the High-Performance p++-GaAs/n++-GaAs Tunnel Junctions with Silicon and Tellurium Co-Doped InGaAs Quantum Well Inserted

The development of high-performance tunnel junctions is critical for achieving high efficiency in multi-junction solar cells (MJSC) that can operate at high concentrations. We investigate silicon and tellurium co-doping of InGaAs quantum well inserts in p++-GaAs/n++-GaAs tunnel junctions and report a peak current density as high as 5839 A cm&minus;2 with a series resistance of 5.86 &times; 10&minus;5 &Omega; cm2. In addition, we discuss how device performance is affected by the growth temperature, thickness, and V/III ratio in the InGaAs layer. A simulation model indicates that the contribution of trap-assisted tunneling enhances carrier tunneling

Severe anemia is associated with increased short-term and long-term mortality in patients hospitalized with cirrhosis

Introduction and Objectives: The relationship between anemia and the outcome of patients with cirrhosis is not completely clear. Therefore, we performed this large-scale epidemiological study to investigate the prevalence and severity of anemia in patients with cirrhosis and acute decompensation or liver injury and how anemia impacts short-term and long-term outcomes. Patients and Methods: Patients with cirrhosis and acute decompensation (AD) or acute liver injury (ALI) were enrolled in the Chinese AcuTe on CHronic LIver FailurE (CATCH-LIFE) studies, which consisted of two large, multicenter, prospective, observational cohorts between January 2015 and December 2016 and July 2018 and January 2019. We conducted data analysis on the prevalence of anemia and determined the relationship between anemia and prognosis. Results: Among 1979 patients, 1389 (70.2%) had anemia, among whom 599 (41.3%) had mild anemia, 595 (15.8%) had moderate anemia and 195 (2.4%) had severe anemia. A linear association between hemoglobin level and 90-day or 1-year LT-free mortality was shown, and a 10 g/L decrease in hemoglobin level was associated with a 6.8% extra risk of 90-day death and a 5.7% extra risk of 1-year death. Severe anemia was an independent risk factor for 90-day [HR=1.649 (1.100, 2.473), p=0.016] and 1-year LT-free mortality [HR=1.610 (1.159, 2.238), p=0.005]. Multinomial logistic regression analysis further identified that severe anemia was significantly associated with post-28-day mortality but not within-28-day mortality. Conclusions: Anemia is common in patients with cirrhosis admitted for acute events. Severe anemia was associated with poor 90-day and 1-year prognoses in these patients

Systematic genome editing of the genes on zebrafish Chromosome 1 by CRISPR/Cas9

Genome editing by the well-established CRISPR/Cas9 technology has greatly facilitated our understanding of many biological processes. However, a complete whole-genome knockout for any species or model organism has rarely been achieved. Here, we performed a systematic knockout of all the genes (1333) on Chromosome 1 in zebrafish, successfully mutated 1029 genes, and generated 1039 germline-transmissible alleles corresponding to 636 genes. Meanwhile, by high-throughput bioinformatics analysis, we found that sequence features play pivotal roles in effective gRNA targeting at specific genes of interest, while the success rate of gene targeting positively correlates with GC content of the target sites. Moreover, we found that nearly one-fourth of all mutants are related to human diseases, and several representative CRISPR/Cas9-generated mutants are described here. Furthermore, we tried to identify the underlying mechanisms leading to distinct phenotypes between genetic mutants and antisense morpholino-mediated knockdown embryos. Altogether, this work has generated the first chromosome-wide collection of zebrafish genetic mutants by the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, which will serve as a valuable resource for the community, and our bioinformatics analysis also provides some useful guidance to design gene-specific gRNAs for successful gene editing