The growing needs of genetic counselling—Feasibility in utilization of tele-genetic counselling in Asia and Hong Kong

The need for the expansion of genomic services has been at a record time high in the past decade. As technological advancement continues to strengthen the entire genetic and genomic pipeline and clinical operational workflow, the major challenge remains to be the speed of workforce development to meet service growth. In particular, the international expansion of genetic counselling (GC) services has been a topic of interest for the past few years. GC is an emerging profession in most of Asia, and in many countries the profession of GC often refers to physicians or front-line health workers with expertise in genetics to provide GC services rather than being a specific independent profession. As genetic and genomic services, especially pre-test and post-test GC, expand globally, the need to tackle the longstanding obstacles of GC personnel shortage and funding issues must not be overlooked. There is an urgent need internationally, and especially in Asia, where GC profession is comparatively less well-established, to seek alternative approaches to meet service demand. The present review examines the global development and feasibility of tele-genetics and tele-genetic counselling (TGC), and serves as the foundation to explore a possible roadmap in Hong Kong via the Hong Kong Genome Project

Group Signatures and Accountable Ring Signatures from Isogeny-based Assumptions

Group signatures are an important cryptographic primitive providing both anonymity and accountability to signatures. Accountable ring signatures combine features from both ring signatures and group signatures, and can be directly transformed to group signatures. While there exists extensive work on constructing group signatures from various post-quantum assumptions, there has not been any using isogeny-based assumptions. In this work, we propose the first construction of isogeny-based group signatures, which is a direct result of our isogeny-based accountable ring signature. This is also the first construction of accountable ring signatures based on post-quantum assumptions. Our schemes are based on the decisional CSIDH assumption (D-CSIDH) and are proven secure under the random oracle model (ROM)

Production of N-acetyl-D-neuraminic acid using two sequential enzymes overexpressed as double-tagged fusion proteins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Two sequential enzymes in the production of sialic acids, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine 2-epimerase (GlcNAc 2-epimerase) and <it>N</it>-acetyl-D-neuraminic acid aldolase (Neu5Ac aldolase), were overexpressed as double-tagged gene fusions. Both were tagged with glutathione S-transferase (GST) at the N-terminus, but at the C-terminus, one was tagged with five contiguous aspartate residues (5D), and the other with five contiguous arginine residues (5R).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both fusion proteins were overexpressed in <it>Escherichia coli </it>and retained enzymatic activity. The fusions were designed so their surfaces were charged under enzyme reaction conditions, which allowed isolation and immobilization in a single step, through a simple capture with either an anionic or a cationic exchanger (Sepharose Q or Sepharose SP) that electrostatically bound the 5D or 5R tag. The introduction of double tags only marginally altered the affinity of the enzymes for their substrates, and the double-tagged proteins were enzymatically active in both soluble and immobilized forms. Combined use of the fusion proteins led to the production of <it>N</it>-acetyl-D-neuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) from <it>N</it>-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Double-tagged gene fusions were overexpressed to yield two enzymes that perform sequential steps in sialic acid synthesis. The proteins were easily immobilized via ionic tags onto ionic exchange resins and could thus be purified by direct capture from crude protein extracts. The immobilized, double-tagged proteins were effective for one-pot enzymatic production of sialic acid.</p

Ultrasound sonication with microbubbles disrupts blood vessels and enhances tumor treatments of anticancer nanodrug

Ultrasound (US) sonication with microbubbles (MBs) has the potential to disrupt blood vessels and enhance the delivery of drugs into the sonicated tissues. In this study, mouse ear tumors were employed to investigate the therapeutic effects of US, MBs, and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) on tumors. Tumors started to receive treatments when they grew up to about 15 mm3 (early stage) with injection of PLD 10 mg/kg, or up to 50 mm3 (medium stage) with PLD 6 (or 4) mg/kg. Experiments included the control, PLD alone, PLD + MBs + US, US alone, and MBs + US groups. The procedure for the PLD + MBs + US group was that PLD was injected first, MB (SonoVue) injection followed, and then US was immediately sonicated on the tumor. The results showed that: (1) US sonication with MBs was always able to produce a further hindrance to tumor growth for both early and medium-stage tumors; (2) for the medium-stage tumors, 6 mg/kg PLD alone was able to inhibit their growth, while it did not work for 4 mg/kg PLD alone; (3) with the application of MBs + US, 4 mg/kg PLD was able to inhibit the growth of medium-stage tumors; (4) for early stage tumors after the first treatment with a high dose of PLD alone (10 mg/kg), the tumor size still increased for several days and then decreased (a biphasic pattern); (5) MBs + US alone was able to hinder the growth of early stage tumors, but unable to hinder that of medium stage tumors. The results of histological examinations and blood perfusion measurements indicated that the application of MBs + US disrupts the tumor blood vessels and enhances the delivery of PLD into tumors to significantly inhibit tumor growth

The Severity of Fatty Liver Disease Relating to Metabolic Abnormalities Independently Predicts Coronary Calcification

Background. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the metabolic disorders presented in liver. The relationship between severity of NAFLD and coronary atherosclerotic burden remains largely unknown. Methods and Materials. We analyzed subjects undergoing coronary calcium score evaluation by computed tomography (MDCT) and fatty liver assessment using abdominal ultrasonography. Framingham risk score (FRS) and metabolic risk score (MRS) were obtained in all subjects. A graded, semiquantitative score was established to quantify the severity of NAFLD. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to depict the association between NAFLD and calcium score. Results. Of all, 342 participants (female: 22.5%, mean age: 48.7 ± 7.0 years) met the sufficient information rendering detailed analysis. The severity of NAFLD was positively associated with MRS (X2 = 6.12, trend P < 0.001) and FRS (X2 = 5.88, trend P < 0.001). After multivariable adjustment for clinical variables and life styles, the existence of moderate to severe NAFLD was independently associated with abnormal calcium score (P < 0.05). Conclusion. The severity of NAFLD correlated well with metabolic abnormality and was independently predict coronary calcification beyond clinical factors. Our data suggests that NAFLD based on ultrasonogram could positively reflect the burden of coronary calcification

Towards Al3+-Induced Manganese-Containing Superoxide Dismutase Inactivation and Conformational Changes: An Integrating Study with Docking Simulations

Superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1) plays an important antioxidant defense role in skins exposed to oxygen. We studied the inhibitory effects of Al3+ on the activity and conformation of manganese-containing SOD (Mn-SOD). Mn-SOD was significantly inactivated by Al3+ in a dose-dependent manner. The kinetic studies showed that Al3+ inactivated Mn-SOD follows the first-order reaction. Al3+ increased the degree of secondary structure of Mn-SOD and also disrupted the tertiary structure of Mn-SOD, which directly resulted in enzyme inactivation. We further simulated the docking between Mn-SOD and Al3+ (binding energy for Dock 6.3: −14.07 kcal/mol) and suggested that ASP152 and GLU157 residues were predicted to interact with Al3+, which are not located in the Mn-contained active site. Our results provide insight into the inactivation of Mn-SOD during unfolding in the presence of Al3+ and allow us to describe a ligand binding via inhibition kinetics combined with the computational prediction

Antimicrobial Activity of Lactobacillus Species Against Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae

ObjectiveThis study aims to identify suitable lactobacilli that have anti-carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) activity with in vitro tolerance to pepsin and bile salts.MethodsFifty-seven Lactobacillus spp. strains encompassing nine species were collected for investigation. Their viabilities in the presence of pepsin and bile salts were tested using tolerance tests. Their anti-CRE effects were assessed by agar well diffusion and broth microdilution assay, as well as time-kill test.ResultsOf the 57 Lactobacillus isolates collected, 31 had a less than 2-log reduction in their viability in both pepsin and bile salt tolerance tests. Of these 31 isolates, 5 (LUC0180, LUC0219, LYC0289, LYC0413, and LYC1031) displayed the greatest anti-CRE activity with a CRE zone of inhibition greater than 15 mm in agar well diffusion assays. The minimal inhibitory percentages of supernatants from these five strains against CREs ranged from 10 to 30%. With the exception of LUC0180, which had a minimal bactericidal percentage ≥ 40%, the bactericidal percentage of all the strains ranged from 20 to 40%. The inhibitory effect of the cell-free culture supernatants from these Lactobacillus strains did not change after heating but was abolished as the pH changed to 7.0. After a 24-h incubation, five of the Lactobacillus strains at a concentration of 108 CFU/ml totally inhibited the growth of carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli (CRE316) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRE632). After a 48-h incubation, the growth of CRE316 was completely inhibited under each concentration of lactobacilli based on time-kill test. Furthermore, when the concentration of lactobacilli was at 108 CFU/ml, the decline in pH was faster than at other concentrations.ConclusionSome Lactobacillus strains exhibit anti-CRE activity, which suggests potential applications for controlling or preventing CRE colonization or infection

FLJ10540 is associated with tumor progression in nasopharyngeal carcinomas and contributes to nasopharyngeal cell proliferation, and metastasis via osteopontin/CD44 pathway

BACKGROUND: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is well-known for its highly metastatic characteristics, but little is known of its molecular mechanisms. New biomarkers that predict clinical outcome, in particular the ability of the primary tumor to develop metastatic tumors are urgently needed. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of FLJ10540 in human NPC development. METHODS: A bioinformatics approach was used to explore the potentially important regulatory genes involved in the growth/metastasis control of NPC. FLJ10540 was chosen for this study. Two co-expression strategies from NPC microarray were employed to identify the relationship between FLJ10540 and osteopontin. Quantitative-RT-PCR, immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry analysis were used to investigate the mRNA and protein expression profiles of FLJ10540 and osteopontin in the normal and NPC tissues to confirm microarray results. TW01 and Hone1 NPC cells with overexpression FLJ10540 or siRNA to repress endogenous FLJ10540 were generated by stable transfection to further elucidate the molecular mechanisms of FLJ10540-elicited cell growth and metastasis under osteopontin stimulation. RESULTS: We found that osteopontin expression exhibited a positive correlation with FLJ10540 in NPC microarray. We also demonstrated comprehensively that FLJ10540 and osteopontin were not only overexpressed in NPC specimens, but also significantly correlated with advanced tumor and lymph node-metastasis stages, and had a poor 5-year survival rate, respectively. Stimulation of NPC parental cells with osteopontin results in an increase in FLJ10540 mRNA and protein expressions. Functionally, FLJ10540 transfectant alone, or stimulated with osteopontin, exhibited fast growth and increased metastasis as compared to vehicle control with or without osteopontin stimulation. Conversely, knockdown of FLJ10540 by siRNA results in the suppression of NPC cell growth and motility. Treatment with anti-CD44 antibodies in NPC parental cells not only resulted in a decrease of FLJ10540 protein, but also affected the abilities of FLJ10540-elicited cell growth and motility in osteopontin stimulated-NPC cells. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that FLJ10540 may be critical regulator of disease progression in NPC, and the underlying mechanism may involve in the osteopontin/CD44 pathway