Efficacy Evaluation of an Inactivated Duck Tembusu Virus Vaccine.

To evaluate the potential use of an inactivated virus-based vaccine for the control and prevention of the newly emerged duck Tembusu virus infection in China, a duck Tembusu virus isolate, Tembusu-HB, was propagated in 12-day-old duck embryos and inactivated by treatment with formaldehyde. The inactivated viral antigen was emulsified with mineral oil, and five batches of the vaccine were manufactured. The immunogenicity and protection efficacy of the vaccine were evaluated in Beijing ducks and Beijing white geese. Results showed that more than 80% of immunized ducks were protected against virulent virus challenge after two intramuscular or subcutaneous injections of the inactivated vaccine, as evidenced by the negative virus isolation results. The protection is also correlated with a positive virus-specific antibody response as detected by ELISA. In contrast, none of the control ducks and geese had any detectable antibody response. Virus was isolated from all control ducks and geese after virulent virus challenge. Interestingly, a variable level of protection (20%-80%) was observed in Beijing white geese immunized twice with the same batches of vaccine, suggesting a species-specific effect of the vaccine. Overall, the results clearly suggest that the inactivated duck Tembusu virus vaccine is immunogenic and provides protection against virulent virus challenge.

Serum metabolomics study of polycystic ovary syndrome based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex, heterogeneous disorder, which produces in 5-10% reproductive age women. In this study, a nontargeted metabolomics approach based on ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry is used to investigate serum metabolic characteristics of PCOS. PCOS women and healthy control can be clustered into two distinct groups based on multivariate statistical analysis. Significant increase in the levels of unsaturated free fatty acids, fatty acid amides, sulfated steroids, glycated amino acid and the decrease in levels of lysophosphatidylcholines, lysophosphatidylethanolamines, etc., were found. These metabolites showed abnormalities of lipid- and androgen-metabolism, increase of stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) activity and accumulation of advanced glycation end-products in PCOS patients. On the basis of the binary logistic regression model, free fatty acid (FFA) 18:1/FFA 18:0, FFA 20:3, dihydrotestosterone sulfate, glycated phenylalanine, and uridine were combined as a diagnostic biomarker. The area under the curve (AUC) of combinational biomarker was 0.839 in 131 discovery phase samples and 0.874 in 109 validation phase samples. The findings of our study offer a new insight to understand the pathogenesis mechanism, and the discriminating metabolites may provide a prospect for PCOS diagnosis.

[Clinical observation on Qidi Yiqi Yangyin Huoxue Recipe in treating diabetic nephropathy at stage III and IV].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical effect of Qidi Yiqi Yangyin Huoxue Recipe (QYYHR) on diabetic nephropathy (DN) at stage III and IV. METHODS: One hundred type 2 DN patients of qi-yin deficiency with blood-stasis syndrome were randomly divided into two groups, all were treated with basal hypoglycemic treatment but with QYYHR given to the treatment group additionally for 3 months. The symptoms were observed, blood glucose, urinary albumin excretion rate (UAER), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr) and hemorheological parameters were detected before and after treatment. RESULTS: The total effective rate was higher in the treatment group than that in the control group (89.6% vs. 68.1%, P < 0.01), and the improvement of UAER, BUN, Cr and hemorheological parameters was also significantly better in the former than in the latter (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: QYYHR has favorable effects on type 2 DN of qi-yin deficiency with blood-stasis syndrome.

Synthesis, in vitro, reactivity, and identification of 6-phenyl-3-hexen-2-one in human urine after kava-kava (Piper methysticum) ingestion.

This study describes the synthesis of 6 -phenyl-3-hexen-2-one, a proposed metabolite of kava-kava (kava, 'Awa, Yaqona, Piper methysticum Forst.), its reactivity with glutathione in vitro, and its isolation and identification, as its mercapturic acid adduct using LC/MS/MS, in the urine of two human subjects following their ingestion of kava. A possible metabolic pathway for the formation of this metabolite and its possible role in hepatotoxicity are also discussed.

Kava does not display metabolic toxicity in a homogeneous cellular assay.

To determine whether kava (Kava kava, 'Awa, Yaqona, Piper methysticum Forst.), the popular herbal product associated recently with possible human hepatotoxicity, is bioactivated by cytochrome P450 enzymes to cytotoxic metabolites, three kava lactones (methysticin, yangonin, and desmethoxyyangonin) and an ethanolic extract of dried kava root were incubated over time in culture with MCL-5 cells, a human lymphoblastoid cell line that has been stably transfected with five human P450's (CYP 1A1, 1A2, 2A6, 2E1, and 3A4) and human epoxide hydrolase. Incubations were performed concurrently with a control cell line (cH2) that is derived from the same parental line as MCL-5, but transfected with two empty vectors. The kava compounds displayed varying degrees of toxicity (IC (50) values ranged from 50 to > 100 microM) to the MCL-5 and cH2 cell lines; however, both cell lines were equally sensitive to the test compounds. These results suggest that the parent compound for each of the four test compounds was primarily responsible for the observed cell toxicity and that CYP 1A1, 1A2, 2A6, 2E1, and 3A4 or epoxide hydroxylase did not appear to be involved. Thus, in vitro kava does not appear to be activated to toxic metabolites by enzymes known to be important in metabolic toxicity.

Diversity of bacterial communities in acid mine drainage from the Shen-bu copper mine, Gansu province, China

This study presents bacterial population analyses of microbial communities inhabiting three sites of acid mine drainage (AMD) in the Shen-bu copper mine, Gansu Province, China. These sites were located next to acid-leached chalcopyrite slagheaps that had been abandoned since 1995. The pH values of these samples with high concentrations of metals ranged from 2.0 to 3.5. Amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) was used to characterize the bacterial population by amplifying the 16S rRNA gene of microorganisms. A total of 39 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained from the three samples and sequenced from 384 clones. Sequence data and phylogenetic analyses showed that two dominant clones (JYC-1B, JYC-1D) in sample JYC-1 represented 69.5 percent of the total clones affiliated with Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (gamma-Proteobacteria), and the most dominant clones of JYC-2 and JYC-3 were affiliated with Caulobacter crescentus (alpha-Protebacteria). At the level of bacterial divisions, differences in the relative incidence of particular phylogenetic groups among the three samples and discrepancies in physicochemical characteristics suggested that the physico-chemical characteristics had an influence on phylogenetic diversity. Furthermore, the relationships between the discrepancies of physicochemical characteristics and the diversity of the bacteria communities in the three samples suggested that the biogeochemical properties, pH and concentration of soluble metal, could be key factors in controlling the structure of the bacterial population.