High-sensitive and rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection by IFN-γ release assay among HIV-infected individuals in BCG-vaccinated area

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An accurate test for <it>Mycobacterium tuberculosis </it>infection is urgently needed in immunosuppressed populations. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic power of enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT)-based IFN-γ release assay in detecting active and latent tuberculosis in HIV-infected population in <it>bacillus Calmette-Guerin </it>(BCG)-vaccinated area. A total of 100 HIV-infected individuals including 32 active tuberculosis patients were recruited. An ELISPOT-based IFN-γ release assay, T-SPOT.TB, was used to evaluate the <it>M. tuberculosis </it>ESAT-6 and CFP-10 specific IFN-γ response. Tuberculin skin test (TST) was performed for all recruited subjects.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The subjects were divided into group HIV+ATB (HIV-infected individuals with active tuberculosis, n = 32), group HIV+LTB (HIV-infected individuals with positive results of T-SPOT.TB assay, n = 46) and group HIV only (HIV-infected individuals with negative results of T-SPOT.TB assay and without evidence of tuberculosis infection, n = 22). In group HIV+ATB and HIV+LTB, T-SPOT.TB positive rate in subjects with TST <5 mm were 50% (16/32) and 41.3% (19/46), respectively. Individuals in group HIV+ATB and HIV+LTB with CD4+ T cells <500/μl, T-SPOT.TB showed a higher sensitivity than TST (64.5% vs. 22.6% and 62.2% vs. 29.7%, respectively, both <it>P </it>< 0.0001). In addition, the sensitivity of T-SPOT.TB assay in group HIV+ATB increased to >85% in patients with TB treatment for less than 1 month and CD4+ T cells ≥200/μl, while for patients treated for more than 3 months and CD4+ T cells <200/μl, the sensitivity was decreased to only 33.3%. Furthermore, the results could be generated by T-SPOT.TB assay within 24 hours, which was more rapid than TST with 48–72 hours.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>ELISPOT-based IFN-γ release assay is more sensitive and rapid for the diagnosis of TB infection in Chinese HIV-infected individuals with history of BCG vaccination, and could be an effective tool for guiding preventive treatment with isoniazid in latently infected people and for TB control in China.</p

MetaSquare: An integrated metadatabase of 16S rRNA gene amplicon for microbiome taxonomic classification

MOTIVATION: Taxonomic classification of 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon is an efficient and economic approach in microbiome analysis. 16S rRNA sequence databases like SILVA, RDP, EzBioCloud and HOMD used in downstream bioinformatic pipelines have limitations on either the sequence redundancy or the delay on new sequence recruitment. To improve the 16S rRNA gene-based taxonomic classification, we merged these widely used databases and a collection of novel sequences systemically into an integrated resource. RESULTS: MetaSquare version 1.0 is an integrated 16S rRNA sequence database. It is composed of more than 6 million sequences and improves taxonomic classification resolution on both long-read and short-read methods. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Accessible at https://hub.docker.com/r/lsbnb/metasquare_db and https://github.com/lsbnb/MetaSquare. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online

Successful resuscitation of a patient With electrical storm over 7 days: a case report

Abstract: A 75 year old woman with atrial fibrillation-related tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy suffered ventricular fibrillation induced by dobutamine and was successfully defibrillated into atrial fibrillation in hospital. During the following 7 days, she suffered a cardiac electrical storm with 55 episodes of ventricular tachycardia rapidly degenerating to ventricular fibrillation and was converted with a total of 51 defibrillations and 4 chest compressions. Sinus rhythm was restored by electric cardioversion in the second episode of ventricular fibrillation. There was no response to the use of any recommended anti arrhythmic drugs. However, the use of chlorpromazine and promethazine surprisingly stabilized her heart rhythm. During a two-year follow-up period, the patient has remained free of ventricular fibrillation episodes and maintained sinus rhythm. [Guo YL, Zhang HY, Han YF, Zhang SL. Successful resuscitation of a patient With electrical storm over 7 days: a case report. Life Sci J 2012;9(2

Ammonium 2-(2,4-dichloro­phen­oxy)acetate hemihydrate

The title compound, NH4 +·C8H7Cl2O6 −·0.5H2O, was prepared by the reaction of 2-(2,4-dichloro­phen­oxy)­acetic acid and ammonia in water at 367 K. The mol­ecular structure and packing are stabilized by N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O inter­molecular hydrogen-bond inter­actions

The Impact of Climate Change on Rainfall Frequency in Taiwan

The purpose of this research is to assess climate change impacts on rainfall frequency in Taiwan. The changes in future precipitation were projected statistically from general circulation model (GCM) outputs. Based on five downscaled GCM outputs [China’s FGOALS-g1.0, Japan’s CGCM2.3.2, the USA’s CM2.0, Canada’s CGCM3(T47), and France’s CM3] under the SRES A1B scenario, the frequency of the maximum consecutive dry days and maximum 1-, 2-, and 3-day rainfall during 2080 - 2099 are evaluated and compared with those in the period of 1980 - 1999. The results show that by the end of the 21st century, the risk of droughts and floods over Taiwan has a tendency to increase. The distribution of water resources in Taiwan will be more uneven, with a noticeable change in the ratio of wet and dry seasons. Due to these climate change impacts, future water conservation work will be a major challenge for governments

Discovery of four gravitational lensing systems by clusters in the SDSS DR6

We report the discovery of 4 strong gravitational lensing systems by visual inspections of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey images of galaxy clusters in Data Release 6 (SDSS DR6). Two of the four systems show Einstein rings while the others show tangential giant arcs. These arcs or rings have large angular separations (>8") from the bright central galaxies and show bluer color compared with the red cluster galaxies. In addition, we found 5 probable and 4 possible lenses by galaxy clusters.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Added referenc

Arginine starvation impairs mitochondrial respiratory function in ASS1-deficient breast cancer cells.

Autophagy is the principal catabolic response to nutrient starvation and is necessary to clear dysfunctional or damaged organelles, but excessive autophagy can be cytotoxic or cytostatic and contributes to cell death. Depending on the abundance of enzymes involved in molecule biosynthesis, cells can be dependent on uptake of exogenous nutrients to provide these molecules. Argininosuccinate synthetase 1 (ASS1) is a key enzyme in arginine biosynthesis, and its abundance is reduced in many solid tumors, making them sensitive to external arginine depletion. We demonstrated that prolonged arginine starvation by exposure to ADI-PEG20 (pegylated arginine deiminase) induced autophagy-dependent death of ASS1-deficient breast cancer cells, because these cells are arginine auxotrophs (dependent on uptake of extracellular arginine). Indeed, these breast cancer cells died in culture when exposed to ADI-PEG20 or cultured in the absence of arginine. Arginine starvation induced mitochondrial oxidative stress, which impaired mitochondrial bioenergetics and integrity. Furthermore, arginine starvation killed breast cancer cells in vivo and in vitro only if they were autophagy-competent. Thus, a key mechanism underlying the lethality induced by prolonged arginine starvation was the cytotoxic autophagy that occurred in response to mitochondrial damage. Last, ASS1 was either low in abundance or absent in more than 60% of 149 random breast cancer biosamples, suggesting that patients with such tumors could be candidates for arginine starvation therapy

An ant colony optimization approach for maximizing the lifetime of heterogeneous wireless sensor networks

Maximizing the lifetime of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a challenging problem. Although some methods exist to address the problem in homogeneous WSNs, research on this problem in heterogeneous WSNs have progressed at a slow pace. Inspired by the promising performance of ant colony optimization (ACO) to solve combinatorial problems, this paper proposes an ACO-based approach that can maximize the lifetime of heterogeneous WSNs. The methodology is based on finding the maximum number of disjoint connected covers that satisfy both sensing coverage and network connectivity. A construction graph is designed with each vertex denoting the assignment of a device in a subset. Based on pheromone and heuristic information, the ants seek an optimal path on the construction graph to maximize the number of connected covers. The pheromone serves as a metaphor for the search experiences in building connected covers. The heuristic information is used to reflect the desirability of device assignments. A local search procedure is designed to further improve the search efficiency. The proposed approach has been applied to a variety of heterogeneous WSNs. The results show that the approach is effective and efficient in finding high-quality solutions for maximizing the lifetime of heterogeneous WSNs

Human umbilical cord blood-derived mononuclear cell transplantation: case series of 30 subjects with Hereditary Ataxia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The differential diagnosis for hereditary ataxia encompasses a variety of diseases characterized by both autosomal dominant and recessive inheritance. There are no curative treatments available for these neurodegenerative conditions. This open label treatment study used human umbilical cord blood-derived mononuclear cells (CBMC) combined with rehabilitation training as potential disease modulators.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>30 patients suffering from hereditary ataxia were treated with CBMCs administered systemically by intravenous infusion and intrathecally by either cervical or lumbar puncture. Primary endpoint measures were the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), serum markers of immunoglobulin and T-cell subsets, measured at baseline and pre-determined times post-treatment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A reduction of pathological symptoms and signs was shown following treatment. The BBS scores, IgG, IgA, total T cells and CD3+CD4 T cells all improved significantly compared to pre-treatment values (<it>P </it>< 0.01~0.001). There were no adverse events.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The combination of CBMC infusion and rehabilitation training may be a safe and effective treatment for ataxia, which dramatically improves patients' functional symptoms. These data support expanded double blind, placebo-controlled studies for these treatment modalities.</p