MHC-Based Mate Choice in Wild Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys.

The genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are an important component of the vertebrate immune system and play a significant role in mate choice in many species. However, it remains unclear whether female mate choice in non-human primates is based on specific functional genes and/or genome-wide genes. The golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) lives in a multilevel society, which consists of several polygynous one-male-several-female units. Although adult females tend to mainly socialize with one adult male, females often initiate extra-pair copulations with other males resulting in a high proportion of offspring being fathered by extra-pair males. We investigated the effects of adaptive MHC genes and neutral microsatellites on female mate choice in a wild R. roxellana population. We sequenced 54 parent-offspring triads using two MHC class II loci (Rhro-DQA1 and Rhro-DQB1) and 20 microsatellites from 3 years of data. We found that the paternities of offspring were non-randomly associated with male MHC compositions not microsatellite genotypes. Our study showed that the fathers of all infants had significantly less variance for several estimates of genetic similarity to the mothers compared with random males at both MHC loci. Additionally, the MHC diversity of these fathers was significantly higher than random males. We also found support for choice based on specific alleles; compared with random males, Rhro-DQA1∗ 05 and Rhro-DQB1∗ 08 were more common in both the OMU (one-male unit) males and the genetic fathers of offspring. This study provides new evidence for female mate choice for MHC-intermediate dissimilarity (rather than maximal MHC dissimilarity) and highlights the importance of incorporating multiple MHC loci and social structure into studies of MHC-based mate choice in non-human primates.

Survey of vitamin A nutritional status of primary and secondary school students in Qiongzhong,2014-2017 / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To understand vitamin A level of middle and primary school students in Qiongzhong Area in Hainan Province implementing the "Nutritional Compulsory Education Student Nutrition Improvement Plan" (hereinafter referred to as "Student Nutrition Plan"), and to provide suggestions for the followup implementation of student nutrition improvement work.@*Methods@#The multi-stage cluster sampling method was used to select three junior high schools and elementary schools in Qiongzhong County, Hainan Province, and students from 1-2 classes from each grade were randomly selected as survey objects. In March 2014, November 2015, December 2016 and December 2017, fasting venous blood was collected from students and serum vitamin A (Retinol) levels were detected by high-performance liquid chromatography.@*Results@#From 2014 to 2017, vitamin A levels were (358.77±88.44) (333.54±81.91) (345.84±86.08) (370.70±87.94)μg/L respectively, the subclinical deficiency rate of vitamin A were 22.3%, 31.6%, 27.9%, 18.0%, the vitamin A level of elementary school students were (332.92±71.80) (315.34±73.41) (327.44±77.02) (356.84±80.88)μg/L, the vitamin A level of junior high school students were (412.20±95.56) (383.20±83.53) (396.63±89.48) (411.60±95.14)μg/L, the difference were statistically significant by year (F=26.43, 4.01, P<0.05); vitamin A level and vitamin A subclinical rate of primary school students showed differences by year in both gender. The deficiency rate was statistically significant regardless of the annual difference between men and women(P<0.05); there was no statistically significant difference in the annual rate of vitamin A deficiency and sub-clinical vitamin A deficiency among junior high school students of different grades and genders (χ2=0.85, 2.08, 1.40, 2.36, P>0.05).@*Conclusion@#The implementation of "Student Nutrition Plan" in Qiongzhong area of Hainan Province shows pasitive effect on the vitamin A nutritional status of students. It’s suggested that prevention should be further strengthened, and nutrition knowledge publicity should be promoted.

Potential Drug Targets Against Hepatitis B Virus Based on Both Virus and Host Factors.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B is a very harmful and epidemic disease caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV). Although an effective anti-HBV vaccine is available, chronic infection poses still a huge health burden in the whole world. The present anti-HBV drugs including nucleoside analogues and interferonalpha have their limitations without exception. There is no effective drug and therapeutic method that can really and truly cure hepatitis B so far. The variability of HBV genome results in that a significant number of patients develop drug resistance during the long-term use of anti-HBV drugs. Hence, it is urgently needed to discover novel targets and develop new drugs against hepatitis B. OBJECTIVE: The review aims to provide the theory support for designing of the anti-HBV innovative drugs by offering a summary of the current situation of antiviral potential targets. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Since HBV is obligate intracellular parasite, and as such it depends on host cellular components and functions to replicate itself. The targeting both virus and host might be a novel therapeutic option for hepatitis B. Accordingly, we analyse the advances in the study of the potential drug targets for anti-HBV infection, focusing on targeting virus genome, on targeting host cellular functions and on targeting virus-host proteins interactions, respectively. Meanwhile, the immune targets against chronic hepatitis B are also emphasized. In short, the review provides a summary of antiviral therapeutic strategies to target virus factors, host factors and immune factors for future designing of the innovative drug against HBV infection.

Structure Properties and Mechanisms of Action of Naturally Originated Phenolic Acids and Their Derivatives against Human Viral Infections.

BACKGROUND: A great effort has been made to develop efficacious antiviral drugs, but many viral infections are still lack of efficient antiviral therapies so far. The related exploration of natural products to fight viruses has been raised in recent years. Natural compounds with structural diversity and complexity offer a great chance to find new antiviral agents. Particularly, phenolic acids have attracted considerable attention owing to their potent antiviral abilities and unique mechanisms. The aim of this review is to report new discoveries and updates pertaining to antiviral phenolic acids. METHODS: The relevant references on natural phenolic acids were searched. The antiviral phenolic acids were classified according to their structural properties and antiviral types. Meanwhile, the antiviral characteristics and structure-activity relationships of phenolic acids and their derivatives were summarized. RESULTS: The review finds that natural phenolic acids and their derivatives possessed potent inhibitory effects on multiple virus in humans such as human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex virus, influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus. In particular, caffeic acid/gallic acid and their derivatives exhibited outstanding antiviral properties by a variety of modes of action. CONCLUSION: Naturally derived phenolic acids especially caffeic acid/gallic acid and their derivatives may be regarded as novel promising antiviral leads or candidates. Additionally, scarcely any of these compounds has been used as antiviral treatment in clinical practice. Therefore, these phenolic acids with diverse skeletons and mechanisms provide us an excellent resource for finding novel antiviral drugs.