LncRNA BCAR4 up-regulates EGFR and thus promotes human thyrocyte proliferation.

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Prevalence of Ureaplasma urealyticum, Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and herpes simplex virus in Beijing, China.

The prevalence of sexually transmitted infection (STI) pathogens in Beijing, China, is rarely reported. In this study, 34 911 symptomatic outpatients with suspected genital infections who attended outpatient clinics in a tertiary care hospital were included to investigate the updated prevalence of Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) and herpes simplex virus (HSV) from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2016 in Beijing, China. Results indicated that a decrease trend (UU, CT, NG and HSV) in male and an increase trend (UU, CT and NG) in female were observed during the period. Patients aged 20-39 years old were mostly affected by these pathogens, while the prevalence in patients aged 20-29 years old was the highest, The prevalence of UU in male was significantly lower than in female (31.5% vs. 49.3%, P < 0.05), while the prevalence of NG in male was significantly higher than in female (2.5% vs. 0.8%, P < 0.05). In patients with co-infections, 60.6% of male and 71.4% of female were co-infected by UU + CT. In total, 11.9% and 88.1% of patients with HSV infections were confirmed to be infected by HSV-1 and HSV-2. This study could contribute to a better understanding of the current epidemiological features of UU, NG, CT and HSV among symptomatic patients attending an outpatient clinic in Beijing, China, and thus facilitate to develop more effective intervention, prevention and treatment of STI.

Voltammetric determination of phenylephrine hydrochloride using a multi-walled carbon nanotube-modified carbon paste electrode.

A chemically modified carbon paste electrode (CPE) was designed by mixing graphite and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). The electrochemical behaviour was studied, and the determination method of phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE) on this sensor was established. According to the results, the optimal ratio of MWCNTs was approximately 12.5% (w/w). MWCNT-modified carbon paste electrodes (MWCNT-CPEs) showed high electrochemical activity for PHE, producing a sharp oxidation peak current (I p) at approximately +0.816 V versus a saturated calomel electrode (SCE) reference electrode in phosphate buffer solution (PBS, pH 6.45), and the I p increased by approximately two times compared to that of the bare CPE. The anodic I p was linearly related with 5.0 × 10-6-7.5 × 10-4 mol l-1 PHE, with a detection limit of 3.7 × 10-7 mol l-1. Furthermore, MWCNT-CPEs were successfully applied to the determination of PHE in injection, eye drop and nasal spray liquid samples as a simple, rapid and low-cost method.

Preparation and characterization of molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction column coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography for selective determination of melamine.

We synthesized a selective molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MIP-SPE) column and established an extraction and enrichment method using this MIP-SPE column. By coupling with HPLC, we developed a new method to detect trace amounts of melamine in eggs. The MIP-SPE column was synthesized by in situ thermal-initiated polymerization using melamine as the template, methacrylic acid as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linker and azodiisobutyronitrile as the initiator. HPLC was used to evaluate the identification and enrichment capability of the MIP-SPE column and for the measurement of melamine in the sample. The melamine concentration exhibited an excellent linear relationship in the range of 0.1-25.0 µg ml-1 (r = 0.9983). The identification capability of the MIP-SPE column was apparently superior to that of the non-imprinted polymer solid-phase extraction column; an average enrichment factor of 46.8-fold (RSD = 3.5%) was obtained for 0.4 µg ml-1 melamine by the MIP-SPE column. When the MIP-SPE HPLC method was applied to the detection of melamine in eggs, an average recovery rate of 93.5-102.0% (RSD = 3.6-4.9%) and a limit of detection of 0.05 µg kg-1 were obtained. This method is simple, fast and cost-effective; thus, it can greatly simplify the pre-treatment of complex samples and can be used in the detection of residual melamine in eggs and other products.