Genome Analysis of ST1 Bartonella henselae, a Zoonotic Pathogen Causing Endocarditis in an Elderly Patient in China.

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare disease but with high associated mortality. Currently, the mainstays of diagnosis are still echocardiography and blood cultures. Here, we reported a case of infective endocarditis with negative blood cultures, and blood and aortic valve tissue metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) results suggested Bartonella henselae. In addition, we obtained the whole genomic sequence of B. henselae ZJBH strain. To our knowledge, this is the first report of B. henselae genomic analysis isolated from clinic in China. Furthermore, we described the whole genome sequencing (WGS) data incorporating all B. henselae from diverse sources worldwide and shed light on underlying risk of B. henselae transmitted between cats and humans.

Rhizomucor pusillus Infection in a Patient with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia After Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Clinical Impact of Metagenomics Next-Generation Sequencing.

Long-term chemotherapy and immunosuppressants in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients can result in a high risk of opportunistic infections. Rhizomucor pusillus is an opportunistic pathogen that exists in nature, but infection caused by R. pusillus is rare in the clinic. Notably, the sensitivity and detection time of conventional diagnostic tools for this fungus usually falls short of the needs of clinical diagnosis, resulting in treatment failure. Currently, metagenomics next-generation sequencing (mNGS) has played an important role in the detection of pathogens. Here, we report a case of R. pusillus pneumonia in a haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patient, detected by the mNGS method.

Prenatal exposure to di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate causes autism-like behavior through inducing Nischarin expression in the mouse offspring.

Epidemiologic evidence has suggested a relationship between di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) prenatal exposure and autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the underlying mechanisms are still at large unknown. In this study, pregnant mice were intragastrically administered with DEHP once a day from GD 3 to GD 17 and the neurobehavioral changes of offspring were evaluated. In addition to the repetitive stereotyped behaviors, DEHP at the concentration of 50 mg/kg/day and above significantly impaired the sociability of the offspring (P < 0.05) and decreased the density of dendritic spines of pyramidal neurons in the prefrontal cortex (P < 0.05). At the same time, the expression of Nischarin protein in prefrontal lobe increased (P < 0.05). Similarly, after 12-h incubation of DEHP at the concentration of 100 nM, the total spine density, especially the mushroom and stubby spine populations, significantly decreased in the primary cultured prefrontal cortical neurons (P < 0.05). However, the inhibitory effect of DEHP were reversed by knockdown of Nischarin expression. Collectively, these results suggest that prenatal DEHP exposure induces Nischarin expression, causes dendritic spine loss, and finally leads to autism-like behavior in mouse offspring.

Discovery and validation of novel biomarkers for detection of cervical cancer.

AIMS: To investigate novel biomarker for diagnosis of cervical cancer, we analyzed the datasets in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and confirmed the candidate biomarker in patient sample. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We collected major datasets of cervical cancer in GEO, and analyzed the differential expression of normal and cancer samples online with GEO2R and tested the differences, then focus on the GSE63514 to screen the target genes in different histological grades by using the R-Bioconductor package and R-heatmap. Then human specimens from the cervix in different histological grades were used to confirm the top 8 genes expression by immunohistochemical staining using Ki67 as a standard control. RESULTS: We identified genes differentially expressed in normal and cervical cancer, 274 upregulated genes and 206 downregulated genes. After intersection with GSE63514, we found the obvious tendency in different histological grades. Then we screened the top 24 genes, and confirmed the top 8 genes in human cervix tissues. Immunohistochemical (IHC) results confirmed that keratin 17 (KRT17) was not expressed in normal cervical tissues and was over-expressed in cervical cancer. Cysteine-rich secretory protein-2 (CRISP2) was less expressed in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs) than in other histological grades. CONCLUSION: For the good repeatability and consistency of KRT17 and CRISP2, they may be good candidate biomarkers. Combined analysis of KRT17, CRISP2 expression at both genetic and protein levels can determine different histological grades of cervical squamous cell carcinoma. Such combined analysis is capable of improving diagnostic accuracy of cervical cancer.