[Influencing factors of poor treatment adherence in uncontrolled asthma patients in China].

Objective: To evaluate the influencing factors of poor treatment adherence in patients with uncontrolled asthma in China. Methods: From April 2017 to April 2018, all asthma patients with uncontrolled asthma and poor compliance in 32 third-class hospitals in 28 provinces and cities of China mainland included in the "National Mobile Asthma Assessment and Management Project" were selected as the subjects. A total of 923 patients were enrolled in the study including 388 males and 535 females. By analyzing the baseline data of the patients at the initial visit when enrolled, the influencing factors of poor adherence of adult asthma was analyzed by inter-group comparison and χ2 test. Results: Poor compliance in asthma was related to the following factors: age from 59 to 68 years old, course of disease more than 20 years, low education level, non-local follow-up, having obstructive ventilation dysfunction and low awareness of the disease[P values were 0.026(t=1.20), 0.004(t=3.97), 0.001(t=4.92), 0.003(t=3.98), 0.032(t=1.22) and 0.001(t=4.99), respectively]. Totally, 243 patients (26.33%) answered all the questions about asthma correctly. Their medication adherence rating scale (MARS-A) scores were significantly higher than those who answered incompletely correctly (36.23±5.85 vs. 31.77±5.74, P=0.001). Conclusions: The adherence of adult asthma patients was affected by individual and external environment factors. Clinicians should choose individualized methods based on the characteristics of patients. Patient education should be strengthened to improve patients' awareness of the disease at the same time.

ß-Arrestins promote podocyte injury by inhibition of autophagy in diabetic nephropathy.

ß-Arrestins are multifunctional proteins originally identified as negative adaptors of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Emerging evidence has also indicated that ß-arrestins can activate signaling pathways independent of GPCR activation. This study was to elucidate the role of ß-arrestins in diabetic nephropathy (DN) and hypothesized that ß-arrestins contribute to diabetic renal injury by mediating podocyte autophagic process. We first found that both ß-arrestin-1 and ß-arrestin-2 were upregulated in the kidney from streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice, diabetic db/db mice and kidney biopsies from diabetic patients. We further revealed that either ß-arrestin-1 or ß-arrestin-2 deficiency (Arrb1(-/-) or Arrb2(-/-)) ameliorated renal injury in diabetic mice. In vitro, we observed that podocytes increased both ß-arrestin-1 and ß-arrestin-2 expression levels under hyperglycemia condition and further demonstrated that ß-arrestin-1 and ß-arrestin-2 shared common mechanisms to suppress podocyte autophagy by negative regulation of ATG12-ATG5 conjugation. Collectively, this study for the first time demonstrates that ß-arrestin-1 and ß-arrestin-2 mediate podocyte autophagic activity, indicating that ß-arrestins are critical components of signal transduction pathways that link renal injury to reduce autophagy in DN. Modulation of these pathways may be an innovative therapeutic strategy for treating patients with DN.

Epidemiology of bovine ephemeral fever virus infection in Taiwan.

Sick animals with excessive nasal discharges and protruding tongue as a result of dyspnea were observed in the August of 1996. Eight strains of BEF virus were isolated from heparinized blood samples of the affected cattle. Most of the affected cattle were difficult to be treated and had a poor prognosis. A total of 516 farms in the 9 districts of Taiwan were affected in 1996. Among a population of 110,247 dairy cattle, 14,993 (13.6%) cattle were found to be clinically ill. During the epidemic, 1,685 (11.3%) affected cattle were culled or dead after the onset of the disease. Furthermore, a strain of Ibaraki virus was isolated from the blood sample of a sick cattle that showed pyrexia, labored respiration and solitary behavior in the affected farm. The cattle with Ibaraki virus infection had typical symptoms of BEF at the early stage of the disease, but neither stomatitis nor pharyngoesophageal paralysis was observed at the onset of the disease. The outbreak was presumably brought about by the low level or non-immune status of a large cattle population due to the negligence of BEF vaccination. Therefore, the disease easily recurred in Taiwan after a typhoon episode in the August of 1996, which resulted in the proliferation of biting midges in the field. No difference in the antigenicty was found between the new and the previous isolates of BEF virus. As analyzed by cross neutralization test, the isolated BEF viruses showed no relationship to the Kimberley and Berrimah viruses that were isolated from the blood of cattle and related to BEF virus in Australia. We have tried to advise farmers that they must vaccinate their cattle annually to prevent BEF outbreak in the future.

Applications of peroxidase-antiperoxidase staining technique for detection of transmissible gastroenteritis virus in pigs.

The peroxidase-antiperoxidase (PAP) staining technique was used for the detection of transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) in small intestines of TGEV-infected 8-week-old pigs and in infected McClurkin pig testicle cells by means of light microscopy. The specific-positive reaction was characterized by the presence of many brown granules of various sizes in the cytoplasm of infected cells. Nonspecific granules caused by endogenous peroxidases in the cytoplasm of eosinophils stained by PAP were darker, larger, more round, and more uniform in size than were specific granules. Acetone fixation was superior to fixation with periodate-lysine-paraformaldehyde or 10% formalin. Our results indicate that the PAP staining technique is a sensitive, specific technique for detection of TGEV in the small intestines of pigs.

Epizootic of Chlamydia psittaci infection in goats in Taiwan.

Epizootic abortion in goats has been frequently reported in Taiwan since 1993. The outbroken flocks were found in most of districts in Taiwan. No apparent clinical signs were found in aborted doe. The typical abortion occurred in the last two months of pregnancy. The incidence of abortion was from 10% to 87% in outbroken farms in 1993, and a total of 976 out of 2130 pregnancies (46%) were found abortion in our investigation. Gross lesions in aborted fetuses included generalized haemorrhage and swollen liver. Chlamydia psittaci was isolated from tissues of aborted fetuses and from vaginal swabs of aborted does. Chlamydial antibodies were detected among 67% to 100% of aborted does from epizootic flocks. The C. psittaci was diagnosed as the causal agent in enzootic abortion. This is the first report on chlamydial isolation and antibody surveys in epizootic abortion in goats in Taiwan.

The skin, tongue, and brain as favorable organs for hog cholera diagnosis by immunofluorescence.

Hog cholera virus antigens were found densely distributed in skin and tongue of pigs experimentally infected with hog cholera virus. The finding described here warrants the usage of ear biopsies for hog cholera diagnosis on a herd basis.