Exploring the interplay of psychiatric symptoms, antipsychotic medications, side effects, employment status, and quality of life in Chronic Schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Many factors contribute to quality of life (QoL) in patients with schizophrenia, yet limited research examined these factors in patients in China. This cross-sectional study explores subjective QoL and its associated factors in patients. METHODS: The QoL was assessed using the Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale (SQLS). Clinical symptoms were evaluated using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and seven factors were extracted. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) were used to assess depression and anxiety. Cognitive impairment was assessed using the Ascertain Dementia 8 (AD8). The Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale (TESS) and Rating Scale for Extrapyramidal Side Effects (RSESE) were used to evaluate the side effects of medications. RESULTS: We recruited 270 patients (male:142,52.6%, mean age:41.9 ± 9.4 years). Positive correlations were observed between SQLS and its subdomains with the total score of BPRS, PHQ-9, GAD-7, AD8, TESS, and RSESE (all P < 0.005). Patients who were taking activating second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) had lower scores on total SQLS, Motivation/ Energy domain of SQLS (SQLS-ME) as well as Symptoms/ Side effects domain of SQLS (SQLS-SS) compared to those taking non-activating SGAs (all P < 0.005). Multiple regression analysis showed that depressive/ anxiety symptoms and cognitive impairment had significant negative effects on QoL (P ≤ 0.001), while activating SGAs had a positive effect (P < 0.005). Blunted affect and unemployment were inversely associated with the motivation/energy domain (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our findings emphasize the important role of depression/anxiety symptoms and cognitive impairment in the QoL of patients with chronic schizophrenia. Activating SGAs and employment may improve the QoL of these individuals. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This protocol was registered at chictr.org.cn (Identifier: ChiCTR2100043537).

Development of sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for the detection of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in fecal samples.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes acute diarrhea and dehydration in new-born piglets with subsequent economic losses to swine industry. In the current study, gene encoding of 381aa-792aa spike protein (S1) with the main epitope relative to virus neutralization of PEDV was amplified by RT-PCR and inserted into vector pET-30A(+). The plasmid was transferred into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). Meanwhile, recombinant protein expression was induced by isopropy1-ß-galactopyranoside (IPTG). After denaturation and renaturation of inclusion bodies, the S1 protein was obtained by using purified recombinant S1 protein in immunized female BALB/c mice. Monoclonal antibodies (MAb) against S1 protein, named 4C7 by hybridoma technique were gained successfully. The result showed that MAb can specifically respond to S1 protein and PEDV via ELISA, Western bolt and immunofluorescence assay methods. A sandwich ELISA (S-ELISA) was established by using the captured monoclonal antibodies 4C7. The sensitivity and specificity were compared between S-ELISA and RT-PCR, which showed similar sensitivity and specificity. This work indicated that S-ELISA would be a significant tool alongside a specific diagnostic reagent for PEDV in future.

Note: Vibrationally mediated photodissociation of carbon dioxide cation.

The photodissociation dynamics of carbon dioxide cation, CO2(+), mediated by its different Ã(2)Πu,1/2(υ1,υ2,0) vibronic states has been investigated by means of time-sliced velocity map imaging. Through analysis of the recorded translational energy release spectra of photofragment CO(+), we found that the photodissociation of CO2(+) exhibits drastic change in a rather narrow energy region. A conformational barrier in the CO2(+)(Ã(2)A1) state is suggested to be ∼5600 cm(-1) relative to the CO2(+)(Ã(2)Πu,1/2(0,0,0)) state, in reasonable agreement with previous prediction.

Molecular cloning and phylogenetic analysis of Babesia orientalis heat shock protein 70.

The heat shock protein 70 (hsp70) gene of Babesia orientalis was obtained from a cDNA expression library by immunoscreening with B. orientalis infected buffalo sera. The nucleotide sequence of the cDNA was 2192bp with an open reading frame (ORF) of 1944bp encoding a polypeptide of 648 amino acid residues. Phylogenetic analysis of the 1944bp sequence together with 30 inter-erythrocytic protozoa hsp70 nucleotide sequences available from GenBank was performed. The results showed that B. orientalis was occurred within the Babesia clade, and most closely related to B. ovis and B. bovis. Similar topologies were obtained from trees based on apicomplexa parasite 18S rRNA sequence. Meanwhile, the BoHsp70 gene was cloned into pET-32a and subsequently expressed in Escherichia coli Rosetta strain as a Trx-fusion protein. The recombinant hsp70 of B. orientalis (rBoHsp70) was purified and evaluated as an antigen in the western blot. The serum from B. orientalis infected buffalo recognized the 92kDa rBoHsp70 expressed in E. coli Rosetta (DE3) by western blotting. The rabbit antiserum against rBoHsp70 recognized a specific 70kDa band in lysates of B. orientalis infected buffalo erythrocytes. These results suggested that hsp70 gene was well conserved among inter-erythrocytic protozoa and the BoHsp70 might be a diagnostic and candidate vaccine antigen.

[Construction and immunoscreening of cDNA library of Babesia orientalis].

OBJECTIVE: To construct a cDNA library for Babesia orientalis and screen immunologically positive clones. METHODS: Total RNA of B. orientalis in red blood cells from an infected calf was isolated. cDNA was synthesized by reverse transcriptase, amplified by PCR and ligated into lambdaTriplEx2 vector. The recombined vectors were packaged and the unamplified cDNA library was constructed. The cDNA library was then amplified and immunologically screened with rabbit anti-B. orientalis serum. The recombinant lambdaTriplEx2 of positive clones were converted to the corresponding recombinant pTriplEx2. The inserted fragments were identified by PCR amplification. The plasmids were sequenced and compared against GenBank database by Blast. RESULTS: The titer of the unamplified library was 2.0 x 10(6) pfu/ml. The inserted fragment length of the library ranged from 500 to 3,000 bp, and the recombination efficiency accounted for 98.8%. The titer of the amplified library was 5.8 x 10(8) pfu/ml. Three positive clones were selected by serum immunological screening and named B04, B05, and B41, respectively. The inserted fragments of the B04, B05 and B41 were about 1,300 bp, 1,000 bp, and 2,400 bp, respectively. Sequence analysis revealed that the 3 clones contained open reading frames. Blast results showed that they were highly homologous to the nuclear movement protein gene, the hypothetical protein gene and the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) gene, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequences of B04, B05 and B41 contained 310, 192 and 647 amino acid residues, with Mr of 34,000, 21,000, and 70,700, respectively. CONCLUSION: A qualified cDNA library of B. orientalis has been constructed and three positive clones of B. orientalis discovered.