Overcome tumor relapse in CAR T cell therapy.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy is a novel therapeutic approach that uses gene editing techniques and lentiviral transduction to engineer T cells so that they can effectively kill tumors. However, CAR T cell therapy still has some drawbacks: many patients who received CAR T cell therapy and achieve remission, still had tumor relapse and treatment resistance, which may be due to tumor immune escape and CAR T cell dysfunction. To overcome tumor relapse, more researches are being done to optimize CAR T cell therapy to make it more precise and personalized, including screening for more specific tumor antigens, developing novel CAR T cells, and combinatorial treatment approaches. In this review, we will discuss the mechanisms as well as the progress of research on overcoming plans.

Morphologic and Molecular Characterization of a Strain of Zika Virus Imported into Guangdong, China.

The recent outbreaks of Zika virus (ZIKV) disease have caused worldwide concerns. Guangdong province is one of the commercial centers in China and communicates frequently with the epidemic areas. To date, 65.2% of the ZIKV infection cases in China were imported via port of entry in Guangdong. The continuous surveillance of imported cases is crucial for the prevention and control of potential ZIKV infection outbreak in China. In this study, a strain of ZIKV was isolated from the serum of a 6-year-old child returning from Venezuela. The morphology of the ZIKV was analyzed in vivo and in vitro by electron microscopy, and clusters of virus particles were found in the loose cytoplasmic membrane structures. The genomic sequence of the isolated ZIKV was determined, and the alignment and phylogenetic analysis identified one unique amino acid substitution occurring in the non-structural protein 4B (NS4B), and the isolated virus belonged to the Asian lineage.

Enhanced Production of Vitamin K2 from Bacillus subtilis (natto) by Mutation and Optimization of the Fermentation Medium

The aim of this study was to enhance the production of vitamin K2 by using N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitroso-guanidine (NTG) and low energy ion beam implantation and optimizing the fermentation medium. Mutation resulted in 1.66-fold higher production of vitamin K2 than that of the parentl strain. The production by the mutant BN-P15-11-1was increased 55% and reached 3.593±0.107 mg/L by using the Plackett-Burman and Box-Behnken designs to optimize the fermentation medium. The optimal fermentation culture medium was composed of (g/L) glycerol 69.6, sucrose 34.5, K2HPO4 4.0, peptone 20, yeast extract 25 and fermented at 37 °C and 150 rpm for 72 h. The results showed that the NTG and low energy ion beam implantation mutations and optimizing fermentation medium were effective methods to enhance vitamin K2 production.

Occupation is more important than rural or urban residence in explaining the prevalence of metabolic and cardiovascular disease risk in Guatemalan adults.

Diet and activity pattern changes consequent to urbanization are contributing to the global epidemic of cardiovascular disease; less research has focused on activity within rural populations. We studied 527 women and 360 men (25-42 y), all rural-born and currently residing in rural or urban areas of Guatemala. We further classified rural male occupations as agricultural or nonagricultural. Overweight status (BMI > or = 25 kg/m(2)) differed by residence/occupation among men (agricultural-rural, 27%; nonagricultural-rural, 44%; and urban, 55%; P< 0.01) and women (rural, 58%; and urban, 68%; P= 0.04). A moderate-to-vigorous lifestyle was reported by 76, 37, and 20% of men (agricultural-rural, nonagricultural-rural, and urban, respectively; P< 0.01); most women were sedentary, with no difference by residence. Prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was 17, 24, and 28% in agricultural-rural, nonagricultural-rural, and urban men, respectively (P= 0.2), and 44 and 45% in rural and urban women (P= 0.4). Dietary variables were largely unassociated with adiposity or cardio-metabolic risk factors; physical activity was inversely associated with the percentage of body fat in men. Percent body fat was inversely associated with HDL-cholesterol, and positively associated with triglycerides, blood pressure, and the metabolic syndrome in both men and women, and with LDL-cholesterol and fasting glucose in women. Differences in physical activity level, mainly attributable to occupation, appear more important than residence, per se, in influencing the risk for cardiovascular disease among men; differences among these sedentary women are likely related to other factors associated with an urban environment.