Effects of Ixeris Chinensis (Thunb.) Nakai boiling water extract on hepatitis B viral activity and hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and hepatocellular carcinoma are major diseases that affect the Taiwanese population. Therefore, the development of an alternative herbal medicine that can effectively treat these diseases is a research target. In this study, we tested Ixeris Chinensis (Thunb.) Nakai boiling water extract (ICTN BWE) in vitro and analysed its effects on the HBV and liver cancer.Materials and Methods: We used a human liver cancer cell line (Hep3B, a cell line that continuously secretes HBV particles into a medium) as an experimental model for the screening of various ICTN BWE concentrations and their effects on the HBV in vitro.Results: Our results showed that 75 μg/mL ICTN BWE downregulated the relative expression of the hepatitis B virus surface antigens (HBsAg) to 77.1%. Using the human liver cancer cell lines HuH-7 and HepG2, and 3-(4,5- dimethylthiazol-zyl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and tumour clonogenic assays, we then showed that ICTN BWE inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma growth.Conclusion: Fluorescent microscopy of DAPI(4',6-Diamidino-2-phenylindole)-stained nuclei and DNA fragmentation assays confirmed the inhibitory effects of ICTN BWE on liver tumour cell growth through induction of apoptosis.Keywords: herbal medicine, Ixeris Chinensis (Thunb.) Nakai, antihepatocellular carcinoma, apoptosis, antihepatitis B viru

Expanding genotype/phenotype of neuromuscular diseases by comprehensive target capture/NGS

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Single Cut Integration

We present an analytic technique for evaluating single cuts for one-loop integrands, where exactly one propagator is taken to be on shell. Our method extends the double-cut integration formalism of one-loop amplitudes to the single-cut case. We argue that single cuts give meaningful information about amplitudes when taken at the integrand level. We discuss applications to the computation of tadpole coefficients.Comment: v2: corrected typo in abstrac

A Method for Rapid Demineralization of Teeth and Bones

Tooth and bone specimen require extensive demineralization for careful analysis of cell morphology, as well as gene and protein expression levels. The LacZ gene, which encodes the ß-galactosidase enzyme, is often used as a reporter gene to study gene-structure function, tissue-specific expression by a promoter, cell lineage and fate. This reporter gene is particularly useful for analyzing the spatial and temporal gene expression pattern, by expressing the LacZ gene under the control of a promoter of interest. To analyze LacZ activity, and the expression of other genes and their protein products in teeth and bones, it is necessary to carry out a complete demineralization of the specimen before cutting sections. However, strong acids, such as formic acid used for tooth demineralization, destroy the activities of enzymes including those of ß-galactosidase. Therefore, most protocols currently use mild acids such as 0.1 M ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) for demineralization of tooth and bone specimen, which require a longer period of treatment for complete demineralization. A method by which hard tissue specimens such as teeth and bones can be rapidly, but gently, decalcified is necessary to save time and effort. Here, we report a suitable method for rapid demineralization of mouse teeth in 0.1M EDTA at 42˚C without any loss of ß-galactosidase activity

Sequence and Phylogenetic Analysis of SSU rRNA Gene of Five Microsporidia

The complete small subunit rRNA (SSU rRNA) gene sequences of five microsporidia including Nosemaheliothidis, and four novel microsporidia isolated from Pieris rapae, Phyllobrotica armta, Hemerophila atrilineata, and Bombyx mori, respectively, were obtained by PCR amplification, cloning, and sequencing. Two phylogenetic trees based on SSU rRNA sequences had been constructed by using Neighbor-Joining of Phylip software and UPGMA of MEGA4.0 software. The taxonomic status of four novel microsporidia was determined by analysis of phylogenetic relationship, length, G+C content, identity, and divergence of the SSU rRNA sequences. The results showed that the microsporidia isolated from Pieris rapae, Phyllobrotica armta, and Hemerophila atrilineata have close phylogenetic relationship with the Nosema, while another microsporidium isolated from Bombyx mori is closely related to the Endoreticulatus. So, we temporarily classify three novel species of microsporidia to genus Nosema, as Nosema sp. PR, Nosema sp. PA, Nosema sp. HA. Another is temporarily classified into genus Endoreticulatus, as Endoreticulatus sp. Zhenjiang. The result indicated as well that it is feasible and valuable to elucidate phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic status of microsporidian species by analyzing information from SSU rRNA sequences of microsporidia

Superconductivity in HfTe5 across weak to strong topological insulator transition induced via pressures

Recently, theoretical studies show that layered HfTe5 is at the boundary of weak & strong topological insulator (TI) and might crossover to a Dirac semimetal state by changing lattice parameters. The topological properties of 3D stacked HfTe5 are expected hence to be sensitive to pressures tuning. Here, we report pressure induced phase evolution in both electronic & crystal structures for HfTe5 with a culmination of pressure induced superconductivity. Our experiments indicated that the temperature for anomaly resistance peak (Tp) due to Lifshitz transition decreases first before climbs up to a maximum with pressure while the Tp minimum corresponds to the transition from a weak TI to strong TI. The HfTe5 crystal becomes superconductive above ~5.5 GPa where the Tp reaches maximum. The highest superconducting transition temperature (Tc) around 5 K was achieved at 20 GPa. Crystal structure studies indicate that HfTe5 transforms from a Cmcm phase across a monoclinic C2/m phase then to a P-1 phase with increasing pressure. Based on transport, structure studies a comprehensive phase diagram of HfTe5 is constructed as function of pressure. The work provides valuable experimental insights into the evolution on how to proceed from a weak TI precursor across a strong TI to superconductors

Nationwide Surveillance of Influenza during the Pandemic (2009–10) and Post-Pandemic (2010–11) Periods in Taiwan

INTRODUCTION: Although WHO declared the world moving into the post-pandemic period on August 10, 2010, influenza A(H1N1) 2009 virus continued to circulate globally. Its impact was expected to continue during the 2010-11 influenza season. This study describes the nationwide surveillance findings of the pandemic and post-pandemic influenza periods in Taiwan and assesses the impact of influenza A(H1N1) 2009 during the post-pandemic period. METHODS: The Influenza Laboratory Surveillance Network consisted of 12 contract laboratories for collecting and testing samples with acute respiratory tract infections. Surveillance of emergency room visits and outpatient department visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) were conducted using the Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance system and the National Health Insurance program data, respectively. Hospitalized cases with severe complications and deaths were reported to the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System. RESULTS: During the 2009-10 influenza season, pandemic A(H1N1) 2009 was the predominant circulating strain and caused 44 deaths. However, the 2010-11 influenza season began with A(H3N2) being the predominant circulating strain, changing to A(H1N1) 2009 in December 2010. Emergency room and outpatient department ILI surveillance displayed similar trends. By March 31, 2011, there were 1,751 cases of influenza with severe complications; 50.1% reported underlying diseases. Of the reported cases, 128 deaths were associated with influenza. Among these, 93 (72.6%) were influenza A(H1N1) 2009 and 30 (23.4%) A(H3N2). Compared to the pandemic period, during the immediate post-pandemic period, increased number of hospitalizations and deaths were observed, and the patients were consistently older. CONCLUSIONS: Reemergence of influenza A(H1N1) 2009 during the 2010-11 influenza season had an intense activity with age distribution shift. To further mitigate the impact of future influenza epidemics, Taiwan must continue its multifaceted influenza surveillance systems, remain flexible with antiviral use policies, and revise the vaccine policies to include the population most at risk

Exogenous interleukin-6, interleukin-13, and interferon-gamma provoke pulmonary abnormality with mild edema in enterovirus 71-infected mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neonatal mice developed neurological disease and pulmonary dysfunction after an infection with a mouse-adapted human Enterovirus 71 (EV71) strain MP4. However, the hallmark of severe human EV71 infection, pulmonary edema (PE), was not evident.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To test whether EV71-induced PE required a proinflammatory cytokine response, exogenous pro-inflammatory cytokines were administered to EV71-infected mice during the late stage of infection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After intracranial infection of EV71/MP4, 7-day-old mice developed hind-limb paralysis, pulmonary dysfunction, and emphysema. A transient increase was observed in serum IL-6, IL-10, IL-13, and IFN-γ, but not noradrenaline. At day 3 post infection, treatment with IL-6, IL-13, and IFN-γ provoked mild PE and severe emphysema that were accompanied by pulmonary dysfunction in EV71-infected, but not herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1)-infected control mice. Adult mice did not develop PE after an intracerebral microinjection of EV71 into the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS). While viral antigen accumulated in the ventral medulla and the NTS of intracerebrally injected mice, neuronal loss was observed in the ventral medulla only.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Exogenous IL-6, IL-13, and IFN-γ treatment could induce mild PE and exacerbate pulmonary abnormality of EV71-infected mice. However, other factors such as over-activation of the sympathetic nervous system may also be required for the development of classic PE symptoms.</p

Integrands for QCD rational terms and N=4 SYM from massive CSW rules

We use massive CSW rules to derive explicit compact expressions for integrands of rational terms in QCD with any number of external legs. Specifically, we present all-n integrands for the one-loop all-plus and one-minus gluon amplitudes in QCD. We extract the finite part of spurious external-bubble contributions systematically; this is crucial for the application of integrand-level CSW rules in theories without supersymmetry. Our approach yields integrands that are independent of the choice of CSW reference spinor even before integration. Furthermore, we present a recursive derivation of the recently proposed massive CSW-style vertex expansion for massive tree amplitudes and loop integrands on the Coulomb-branch of N=4 SYM. The derivation requires a careful study of boundary terms in all-line shift recursion relations, and provides a rigorous (albeit indirect) proof of the recently proposed construction of massive amplitudes from soft-limits of massless on-shell amplitudes. We show that the massive vertex expansion manifestly preserves all holomorphic and half of the anti-holomorphic supercharges, diagram-by-diagram, even off-shell.Comment: 30 pages, many figure