Aedes aegypti Galectin Competes with Cry11Aa for Binding to ALP1 To Modulate Cry Toxicity.

The key step for the toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) is the interaction between toxins and putative receptors; thus, many studies focus on identification of new toxin receptors and engineering of toxins with higher affinity/specificity for receptors. In the larvae of Aedes aegypti, galectin-14 was one of the genes upregulated by Bti treatment. RNAi knockdown expression of galectin-14 and feeding recombinant galectin-14-thioredoxin fusion protein significantly affected survival of Ae. aegypti larvae treated with Bti toxins. Recombinant galectin-14 protein bound to brush border membrane vesicles (BBMVs) of Ae. aegypti larvae, ALP1 and APN2, and galectin-14 and Cry11Aa bound to BBMVs with a similarly high affinity. Competitive binding results showed that galectin-14 competed with Cry11Aa for binding to BBMVs and ALP1 to prevent effective binding of toxin to receptors. These novel findings demonstrated that midgut proteins other than receptors play an important role in modulating the toxicity of Cry toxins.

Identification of transcripts involved in digestion, detoxification and immune response from transcriptome of Empoasca vitis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) nymphs.

Tea production has been significantly impacted by the false-eye leafhopper, Empoasca vitis (Göthe), around Asia. To identify the key genes which are responsible for nutrition absorption, xenobiotic metabolism and immune response, the transcriptome of either alimentary tracts or bodies minus alimentary tract of E. vitis was sequenced and analyzed. Over 31 million reads were obtained from Illumina sequencing. De novo sequence assembly resulted in 52,182 unigenes with a mean size of 848nt. The assembled unigenes were then annotated using various databases. Transcripts of at least 566 digestion-, 224 detoxification-, and 288 immune-related putative genes in E. vitis were identified. In addition, relative expression of highly abundant transcripts was verified through quantitative real-time PCR. Results from this investigation provide genomic information about E. vitis, which will be helpful in further study of E. vitis biology and in the development of novel strategies to control this devastating pest.

[Study on tolerability for safflower peony ointment in clinical trial phase I].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the tolerability for safflower peony ointment and determine its safe dosage, by selecting health volunteers and testing from the initial safety dosage, in order to provide basis for formulating administration scheme of the drug in clinical trial phase II. METHOD: Forty-six healthy volunteers were included in the open, random, dose escalation, self control clinical trial on tolerability for single dosage scheme or multi-dosage. In the single dosage scheme, dosages of test drugs were 2.16 g (four people), 4.32 g (6 people), 6.48 g (6 people), 8.62 g (6 people), 11.46 g (6 people), 15.24 g (including crude drug) for 24 hours, once everyday. In the multi-dosage scheme, dosages of test drugs were 8.62 g (6 people), 11.46 g (including crude drug) once everyday for 7 days. RESULT: The maximum safe dosage of single administration was 15.24 g (including crude drug) , while that of multiple administration 8.62 g (including crude drug). The occurrence rate of side effect was as low as 2.17%, which was recovered by medicines, without severe adverse event. CONCLUSION: The study proves the safe application of single administration and multiple administration of safflower peony ointment in human bodies, which lays a foundation for the application in the clinical trial phase II.