Bioinformatics analysis of Omp19 and Omp25 proteins for designing multi-epitope vaccines against Brucella.

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Brucella. There is no effective vaccine against human brucellosis. Omp19 and Omp25 are the outer membrane proteins of Brucella. They are widely expressed and highly conserved in Brucella and have high immunogenicity. Herein, we aim to identify multi-epitope vaccine candidates based on Omp19 and Omp25. We analyzed the physicochemical properties and protein structure of Omp19 and Omp25, and predicted the corresponding B cell and T cell epitopes using bioinformatics analysis. Omp19 and Omp25 were composed of 177 amino acids and 213 amino acids, respectively. They were both stable hydrophilic proteins. The instability indices were 44.8 and 23, respectively. The hydrophilicity was -0.1 and -0.317, respectively. In the secondary structure of Omp19 and Omp25 proteins, the α-helix accounted for 12.43% and 23.94%, the ß-sheet was 18.64% and 23.47%, the ß-turn was 6.78% and 4.23%, and the random coil was 62.15% and 48.36%. Finally, 5 B cell epitopes, 3 Th-cell epitopes and 5 CTL cell epitopes of Omp19 protein, and 4 B cell epitopes, 3 Th-cell epitopes, and 5 CTL cell epitopes of Omp25 protein were selected as vaccine candidates. In conclusion, we obtained potential B cell and T cell epitopes of the Brucella outer membrane Omp19 and Omp25 proteins. This lays the foundation for the further design of multi-epitope vaccine of Brucella.

Association between SLC2A9 Genetic Variants and Risk of Hyperuricemia in a Uygur Population.

EN: Summary]This study aimed to test the effects of five single nucleotide polymorphisms within SLC2A9 on uric acid level in a special ethnic population, the Uygurs in Xinjiang, China. According to our inclusion and exclusion criteria, Uygur adults from Xinjiang constituted the study population. There were 1053 Uygur adults with hyperuricemia and 1373 normal Uygur adults who served as controls. Five single nucleotide polymorphisms within SLC2A9 (rs938557, rs7679916, rs7349721, rs13101785, and rs13137343) were selected with the HapMap dataset and TaqMan assays. We found that, in normouricemia group, rs938557 was significantly correlated with uric acid (ß=11.39±3.74, P=0.0024) adjusting for age, gender and BMI; rs7679916 and rs13137343 were marginally associated with uric acid concentration (ß=5.77±3.09, P=0.0626; ß= 5.99±3.08, P=0.0520). In the hyperuricemia group, no SNP was found to possibly influence uric acid concentration. None of these SNPs showed significant association with hyperuricemia after controlling for age, gender and BMI. There were significant or marginal correlations between certain single nucleotide polymorphisms in the SLC2A9 region and uric acid concentration in Uygur normouricemia samples. In turn, some of these single nucleotide polymorphisms in SLC2A9 may increase the risk of hyperuricemia.

Antibiotic resistance, biochemical typing, and PFGE typing of Bifidobacterium strains commonly used in probiotic health foods.

This study firstly analyzed the antibiotic resistance, biochemical typing, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis typing of 45 Bifidobacterium strains commonly used in health foods. Most strains were resistant to antibiotics but their antibiotic resistance rates were not high: Fos (56.52%), TET (43.48%), CRO (21.74%), AMC (15.22%), GEN (13.04%), RIF (10.87%), CHL (8.7%), CTX (6.52%), VAN (4.35%), and ERY (4.35%). The 45 strains could be divided into 14 pulsed-field gel electrophoresis types, of which the strain numbers of six pulsed-field gel electrophoresis types were more than one. All the Bifidobacterium strains could be divided into nine types by API50CHL biochemical identification. The same species displayed same biochemical typings, expect for B. animalis. Furthermore, the results confirmed that the same pulsed-field gel electrophoresis-type strains had closer antibiotic resistance patterns, and the same biochemical-type strain also had similar antibiotic resistance patterns.

Association of human leukocyte antigen DP/DQ gene polymorphisms with chronic hepatitis B in Chinese Han and Uygur populations.

Several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown that human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DP/DQ gene polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We clarified the roles of the HLA-DP/DQ gene in HBV infection in different nationalities. Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in HLA-DP (rs9277471, rs9277535 and rs9277542) and the SNP rs9272346 in HLA-DQ were studied. In total, 779 patients were recruited to this study, including 400 Chinese Han and 399 Uygurs. The rs9277535 variant genotypes were directly associated with HBV persistence compared to healthy controls in an additive model of the Chinese Han population (odds ratio [OR]=1.88, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.03-3.41, P=0.040), and in a recessive model of the Chinese female population (OR=2.02, 95% CI=1.26-3.24, P=0.003). In addition, rs9277471 and rs9277542 variant genotypes significantly decreased the risk of HBV infection compared to healthy controls in an additive model of the Chinese Han population (OR=0.53, 95% CI=0.29-0.98, P=0.042; OR=0.53, 95% CI=0.29-0.97, P=0.039) and in a dominant model of the Chinese female population (OR=0.50, 95% CI=0.31-0.80, P=0.004; OR=0.49, 95% CI=0.31-0.79, P=0.003). The GG genotype of rs9277346 was associated with HBV infection in the Chinese Han population (additive model: OR=0.38, 95%CI=017-0.82, P=0.014; recessive model: OR=0.41, 95% CI=0.19-0.86, P=0.019) and in males (additive model: OR=0.31, 95% CI=0.14-0.65, P=0.002; dominant model: OR=0.65, 95% CI=0.43-0.97, P=0.034; recessive model: OR=0.36, 95% CI=0.18-0.73, P=0.005). In addition, allele G of rs9277346 was marginally related to a reduction in risk for HBV infection in the Uygur population. Our study suggests that HLA-DP/DQ polymorphisms can affect susceptibility and resistance to HBV infection in Chinese populations, and are possibly linked to race and sex.

Association between APOE polymorphism and metabolic syndrome in Uyghur ethnic men.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the association between apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism and metabolic syndrome (MetS) among Uyghur ethnic men in Xinjiang, China. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 482 patients with MetS and 510 healthy sex-matched and age-matched controls were recruited from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. The participants were subjected to routine physical and blood biochemical tests, and APOE genotyping was performed. RESULTS: The APOE ε3/3 was the predominant type, with a frequency of 71.8%, while ε2/2 was less common than ε4/4 in Uyghur males. The frequencies of the APOE2, E3 and E4 alleles in Uyghur males were 8.5%, 80.0% and 11.5%, respectively. However, the distribution of APOE genotypes was significantly different between the MetS and control groups (p<0.001). In the MetS group, the frequencies of the ε2 and ε4 alleles and the frequencies of the ε2/2, ε2/3 and ε2/4 genotypes were significantly lower than those of the control group. Those individuals without the ε2 and ε4 alleles had higher MetS prevalence than the other gene carriers, and the ORs of these individuals developing MetS were 1.5 and 1.27 compared to the gene carriers. Triglyceride, serum total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were lower and serum high-density lipoprotein was higher in the ε2 carriers than the ε3 carriers, and the prevalence of MetS, central obesity, high blood pressure, hypercholesterolaemia and hypertriglyceridaemia was lower in the APOE2 group than in the APOE4 group. The risks of these individuals with ε4 allele carriers getting these changes were 1.327, 1.780, 1.888, 1.428 and 2.571 times greater than those of ε2 allele carriers. CONCLUSIONS: APOE4 is associated with many individual components of MetS, whereas APOE2 was associated with a reduced risk of MetS at the univariate level in Uyghur ethnic men.