Protective immunity against Trichinella spiralis in mice elicited by oral vaccination with attenuated Salmonella-delivered TsSP1.2 DNA.

Trichinellosis is a worldwide important food-borne zoonosis caused mainly by ingesting raw or undercooked pork infected with Trichinella spiralis larvae. The development of vaccine is needed for preventing swine from Trichinella infection to ensure pork safety. Previous studies showed that T. spiralis serine protease 1.2 (TsSP1.2) is a vaccine candidate against Trichinella infection. In this study, the complete TsSP1.2 cDNA sequences were cloned into pcDNA3.1, and the rTsSP1.2 DNA was transformed into attenuated Salmonella typhimurium strain ΔcyaSL1344. Oral vaccination of mice with Salmonella-delivered rTsSP1.2 DNA vaccine induced an obvious intestinal mucosal IgA response and a systemic Th1/Th2 immune response; the vaccinated mice showed a 33.45% reduction of intestinal adult worms and 71.84% reduction of muscle larvae after T. spiralis larval challenge. The protection might be due to the rTsSP1.2-induced production of specific anti-TsSP1.2 sIgA, IgG, IgG1/IgG2a, and secretion of IFN-γ, IL-4 and IL-10, which protected intestinal mucosa from the parasite invasion, inhibited worm development and reduced female fecundity. The results indicate that the attenuated Salmonella-delivered rTsSP1.2 DNA vaccine offers a prospective strategy for the prevention and control of animal Trichinella infection.

Expression characterization of MANF during course of rat adjuvant arthritis and its relationship with inflammation / 中国药理学通报

Aim To observe the expression of mesen-cephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor(MANF) in synovial membrane and serum of rats with adjuvant arthritis (AA) and to analyse the relationship between MANF expression and arthritis. Methods AA models were prepared by injecting Freund complete adjuvant (FCA) into SD rats. The swelling of the secondary joint was measured by foot volume measurement. The severity of AA was recorded by arthritis index (AI). Synovial pathological changes were observed by HE staining. The protein and mRNA levels of MANF,BiP and CHOP extracted from synovial tissues in different periods of AA rats were detected by Western blot and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), respectively. The levels of MANF, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) in serum were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and then the relationship between MANF level and inflam-matory factors were explored. Results AA rat model was established successfully. The expression of BiP significantly increased in synovial tissue on d 2 after CFA injection,and decreased until d 28. The expres-sion of MANF slightly increased on d 2,then remained stable,and significantly increased on d 14, and then decreased gradually. The expression of CHOP kept to rise slowly at a low level. The level of MANF in serum markedly increased on d 14,then gradually decreased, but it was still higher than the normal level on d 28. The level of CRP exhibited similar trend with MANF. Correlation analysis showed that MANF had a negative correlation with arthritis symptoms, IL-1β and TNF-α in the secondary inflammatory period of AA rats. Con-clusions Arthritis induces the expression and secre-tion of MANF,and the level of MANF is closely relat-ed to the progression and severity of arthritis.

Complete mitochondrial genome of a German Shepherd (Canis lupus familiaris breed German Shepherd) provides insights into genome-wide sequence variations.

In this work, we report the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a German shepherd. The total length of the mitogenome was 16,727 bp. It contained the typical structure of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and a non-coding control region (D-loop region). The arrangement of these genes was the same as that found in other dogs. All the protein initial codons were ATG, except for ND2, ND3 and ND5 starting with ATA. Sequence comparison indicates that D-loop region harbors most sequence variations.

Screening and characterization of early diagnostic antigens in excretory-secretory proteins from Trichinella spiralis intestinal infective larvae by immunoproteomics.

The excretory-secretory (ES) antigens from Trichinella spiralis muscle larvae are the most commonly used diagnostic antigens for trichinellosis, but specific IgG antibodies were not detected in early stage of infection. The aim of this study was to identify early diagnostic antigens from ES proteins of intestinal infective larvae (IIL), the first invasive stage of T. spiralis. Six bands (92, 52, 45, 35, 32, and 29 kDa) of IIL ES proteins were recognized by infection sera in Western blotting as early as 10 days post infection. Total of 54 T. spiralis proteins in six bands were identified by shotgun LC-MS/MS, 30 proteins were annotated, and 27 had hydrolase activity. Several proteins (serine protease, putative trypsin, deoxyribonuclease II family protein, etc.) could be considered as the potential early diagnostic antigens for trichinellosis. Our study provides new insights for screening early diagnostic antigens from intestinal worms of T. spiralis.

[Studies on functional genes of Chinese herbal medicine].

In order to establish the foundation for modernization of Chinese herbal medicine, discovery of the functional genes related with the bioactive components of Chinese herbs and the rules of their expression was progressed for determining the regulatory mechanism, obtaining the core metabolic pathway and key regulatory factors of the medicinal components synthesis. In this article, the studies about plant's functional genes at home and abroad was introduced in three aspects: the pattern plants (rice, thaliana, etc.), the main technologic strategy (gene expression differentia, sequential tag of gene expression, DNA microarray technique and gene expression sequential analysis) and bio-informative method (comparative genomics). The current status of researches involving biosynthesis genes of flavonoids compounds and taxol, and the plant P450 genes were introduced. And the study of dendrobium functional genes conducted in authors' lab was also reviewed.