An adenovirus-vectored vaccine based on the N protein of feline coronavirus elicit robust protective immune responses.

Feline coronavirus (FCoV) is an unsegmented, single-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Alphacoronavirus genus. It can cause fatal feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) in cats of any ages. Currently, there are no effective prevention and control measures to against FCoV. In this study, we developed a recombinant adenovirus vaccine, AD5-N, based on the nucleocapsid(N) protein of FCoV. The immunogenicity of AD5-N was evaluated through intramuscular immunization in 6-week-old Balb/c mice and 9-12 months old cats. Compared to the control group, AD5-N specifically induced a significant increase in IgG and SIgA levels in the vaccinated mice. Furthermore, AD5-N not only effectively promoted strong cellular immune responses in cats but also induced high levels of specific SIgA, effectively helping cats resist FCoV infection. Our findings suggest that adenovirus vector vaccines based on the N gene have the potential to become candidate vaccines for the prevention and control of FCoV infection.

The primacy of temporal dynamics in driving spatial self-organization of soil iron redox patterns.

This study investigates mechanisms that generate regularly spaced iron-rich bands in upland soils. These striking features appear in soils worldwide, but beyond a generalized association with changing redox, their genesis is yet to be explained. Upland soils exhibit significant redox fluctuations driven by rainfall, groundwater changes, or irrigation. Pattern formation in such systems provides an opportunity to investigate the temporal aspects of spatial self-organization, which have been heretofore understudied. By comparing multiple alternative mechanisms, we found that regular iron banding in upland soils is explained by coupling two sets of scale-dependent feedbacks, the general principle of Turing morphogenesis. First, clay dispersion and coagulation in iron redox fluctuations amplify soil Fe(III) aggregation and crystal growth to a level that negatively affects root growth. Second, the activation of this negative root response to highly crystalline Fe(III) leads to the formation of rhythmic iron bands. In forming iron bands, environmental variability plays a critical role. It creates alternating anoxic and oxic conditions for required pattern-forming processes to occur in distinctly separated times and determines durations of anoxic and oxic episodes, thereby controlling relative rates of processes accompanying oxidation and reduction reactions. As Turing morphogenesis requires ratios of certain process rates to be within a specific range, environmental variability thus modifies the likelihood that pattern formation will occur. Projected changes of climatic regime could significantly alter many spatially self-organized systems, as well as the ecological functioning associated with the striking patterns they present. This temporal dimension of pattern formation merits close attention in the future.

Diagnostic Accuracy of MRI for Detecting Cervical Invasion in Patients with Endometrial Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the preoperative assessment of cervical invasion and to analyse the influence of different imaging protocols in patients with endometrial carcinoma. Methods: An extensive search of articles about MRI for assessing cervical invasion in patients with endometrial carcinoma was performed on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Clinical Trials from January 2000 to July 2020. Two reviewers independently evaluated the methodological quality of each study by using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2). Diagnostic accuracy results and additional useful information were extracted. The pooled estimation data was obtained by statistical analysis. Results: A total of 42 eligible studies were included in the meta-analysis. Significant evidence of heterogeneity was found for detecting cervical invasion (I2 = 74.1%, P = 0.00 for sensitivity and I2 = 56.2%, P = 0.00 for specificity). The pooled sensitivity and specificity of MRI were 0.58 and 0.95 respectively. The use of higher field strength (3.0 T) demonstrated higher pooled sensitivity (0.74). Using diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) alone presented higher pooled sensitivity (0.86) than using other sequences. The studies that used dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) alone showed higher sensitivity (0.80) and specificity (0.96) than those that used T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) alone. Conclusions: MRI shows high specificity for detecting cervical infiltration in endometrial carcinoma. Using DWI or a 3.0-T device may improve the pooled sensitivity. DCE-MRI demonstrates higher pooled sensitivity and specificity than T2WI.

Adverse outcomes of proton pump inhibitors in chronic liver disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are among the most commonly prescribed medications in the US, but their safety in cirrhosis has recently been questioned. We performed a meta-analysis of observational studies to evaluate the impact of PPIs on adverse clinical outcomes in the setting of chronic liver disease (CLD). METHODS: We searched several databases from inception to 26 May 2019 to identify comparative studies evaluating the effect of PPIs in CLD. Outcomes of interest were the associations between PPIs use and the occurrence of hepatic encephalopathy, hepatocellular carcinoma, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, bacterial infections, and mortality in CLD. We performed a meta-analysis in accordance to the PRISMA guidelines. RESULTS: Of 14,662 papers evaluated, 47 studies with 169,806 participants were identified. Of these, 35 were cohort studies and 12 were case-control studies. The pooled odds ratio (OR) for hepatic encephalopathy in individuals with PPI users, compared with those without, was 2.31 (95% CI 1.63-3.28). The pooled OR for spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in individuals with PPI users was significantly higher compared with non-PPI users (OR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.42-2.09). Results were also consistent with a higher risk of the bacterial infections and mortality in PPI users compared with non-PPI users. For hepatocellular carcinoma, the final conclusion cannot be drawn because of the limited number of studies. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies a significant relationship between PPIs therapies and several specific adverse clinical outcomes in CLD. However, these results should be carefully considered given the potential selection bias and unmeasured confounding variables in observational studies, it may be reasonable to re-evaluate the need for PPIs in patients with CLD.

The Diagnostic Value of MRI for Preoperative Staging in Patients with Endometrial Cancer: A Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for detecting myometrial invasion, cervical invasion, and lymph node metastases in endometrial cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Clinical trials. The methodological quality of each study was assessed by using the standard Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2. Statistical analysis included evaluating publication bias, assessing threshold effect, exploring heterogeneity, pooling data, meta-regression, forest plot, and summary receiver-operating characteristics curves construction. RESULTS: Fourteen studies could be analyzed. For detecting deep myometrial invasion, the pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.79 and 0.81 respectively, and patients younger than 60 years old demonstrated higher sensitivity (0.84) and specificity (0.90). The diagnostic accuracy is highest by jointly using T2-weighted image, dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, and diffusion weighted imaging to detect the deep myometrial invasion. There were low sensitivity and high specificity for the diagnosis of cervical invasion (0.53, 0.95), cervical stromal invasion (0.50, 0.95), pelvic or/and para-aortic lymph node metastases (0.59, 0.95), and pelvic lymph node metastases (0.65, 0.95). CONCLUSION: MRI has good diagnostic performance for assessing myometrial invasion in patients with endometrial cancer, especially in patients younger than 60 years old. Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and diffusion weighted imaging can help improve sensitivity and specificity for detecting myometrial invasion. MRI shows high specificity for detecting cervical invasion and lymph node metastases in endometrial cancer.

Metabolic syndrome and liver-related events: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its component conditions are linked to the development of many benign or malignant diseases. Some studies have described relationships among metabolic syndrome or diabetes and liver cancer, but not many articles described the relationships between MetS and cirrhosis, acute hepatic failure, end-stage liver disease, and even death. However, liver cancers, cirrhosis, acute hepatic failure, end-stage liver disease, and liver-related mortality-collectively described as liver-related events (LREs)-may have different relationships with MetS. We undertook this meta-analysis to examine the association between MetS and LREs, and to determine whether geographic region or hepatitis B virus (HBV) positivity might influence the association. METHODS: Relevant studies were identified from PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane database. Two reviewers independently searched records from January 1980 to December 2017. The search terms included 'metabolic syndrome', 'diabetes mellitus', 'insulin resistance syndrome', and 'metabolic abnormalities', combined with 'cirrhosis', 'hepatic fibrosis ', 'hepatocellular carcinoma', 'complication', 'LRE', 'HCC', 'liver-related events', and 'liver cancer'. No language restriction was applied to the search. We chose the studies reporting an association between MetS and LREs. We used Begg's and Egger's tests and visually examined a funnel plot to assess publication bias. All analyses were conducted in Stata 14.0 software. RESULTS: There were 19 studies (18 cohort and 1 case-control) included in the analysis, with a total of 1,561,457 participants. The subjects' ages ranged from 18 to 84 years. The combined analysis showed an overall 86% increase risk of LREs in cases with MetS (RR: 1.86,95% CI: 1.56-2.23). The funnel plot was asymmetrical, and the Egger's test p values showed a publication bias in this meta analysis. However, through the trim and fill method, we obtained a new RR value for LREs with MetS of 1.49 (95% CI: 1.40-1.58, p = 0.000). There was no obvious difference with the two answers, so we concluded that the results were robust. For hepatitis B positive patients, the RR for MetS and LREs was 2.15 (95% CI:1.02-4.53, p = 0.038), but for the hepatitis B negative patients, the RR was 1.85 (95% CI:1.53-2.24, p = 0.000). And for non-Asians, the RR for MetS and LREs was 2.21 (95% CI: 1.66-2.69, p = 0.000), while for Asians, the RR was 1.73 (95% CI: 1.35-2.22, p = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis showed that MetS is associated with a moderately increased risk of LREs prevalence. Patients with MetS together with hepatitis B are more likely to develop hepatic events. For non-Asians, MetS is more likely to increase the incidence of LREs.