Preparation of peptide mimotope-based diagnostic antigen of Epstein-Barr virus infection / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

Objective@#To prepare peptide minotope-based recombinant diagnostic antigen of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and evaluate its antigenicity preliminarily.@*Methods@#With Trx at the N-terminal and His tag at the C-terminal, the peptide minotope of EBV (GP125, F1, A2, A3C2) was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by affinity and anion exchange chromatography (designated 'H58’); based on antigenicity of H58 identified by Western blotting (WB), we constructed and evaluated a novel early diagnostic ELISA for EBV infection.@*Results@#The soluble H58 protein with high concentration (2.8 mg/ml) and purity (99.01) was obtained; WB analysis found that there was an obvious band (28 ×103) on the NC membrane, using H58 anti-Trx monoclonal antibody or acute-phase sera of EBV infection as the first antibody. With the novel ELISA, 50 positive sera of EBV infection and 50 negative sera were detected, displaying that the grouping of OD value of positive serum (95%CI: 1.233-1.489) and negative serum (95%CI: 0.113-0.159) was different (P<0.05) with the sensitivity 98.0%, specificity 96.0% and kappa value 0.940.@*Conclusions@#By E. coli expression and affinity and ion exchange chromatography purification, the peptide minotope-based recombinant diagnostic antigen of EBV infection was obtained with excellent antigenicity, which could be applied for serological detection of EBV infection.

Parallel test of anti-HCV and HCV-RNA can enhance the ability to detect HCV infection / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

Objective@#To explore the method of enhancing the ability to detect HCV infection and to provide the advice for practical work.@*Methods@#A total of 487 samples from a village in Hebei Province were selected by cluster sampling. Serum samples were detected by anti-HCV and HCV-RNA assays. The results were compared between the two tests. The correlation of HCV-RNA quantification and its anti-HCV s/n value was analyzed.@*Results@#The positive values of anti-HCV and HCV-RNA were 22.1% and 14.2%, respectively, which were lower than that of the parallel test (χ2=4.0000, P=0.0455, χ2=42.0000, P <0.0001). The HCV-RNA quantification of the samples was positively correlated with the anti-HCV s/n value, which means anti-HCV s/n value increased with HCV-RNA quantification.@*Conclusion@#The parallel test of anti-HCV and HCV-RNA can enhance the ability to detect HCV infection.

Urotensin II modulates hepatic fibrosis and portal hemodynamic alterations in rats.

The influence of circulating urotensin II (UII) on liver disease and portal hypertension is unknown. We aimed to evaluate whether UII executes a pathogenetic role in the development of hepatic fibrosis and portal hypertension. UII was administered by continuous infusion over 4 wk in 20 healthy rats divided into three treatment groups, controls (saline, n = 7), low dose (UII, 1 nmol x kg(-1) x h(-1), n = 8), and high dose (UII, 3 nmol x kg(-1) x h(-1), n = 5). Hemodynamic parameters and morphometric quantification of fibrosis were assessed, and profibrotic cytokines and fibrosis markers were assayed in hepatic tissue. UII induced a significant dose-dependent increase in portal venous pressure (5.8 +/- 0.4, 6.4 +/- 0.3, and 7.6 +/- 0.7, respectively, P = 0.03). High-dose UII infusion was associated with an increase in hepatic transcript for transforming growth factor-beta (P < 0.05) and platelet-derived growth factor-beta (P = 0.06). Liver tissue hydroxyproline was elevated in the high-dose group (P < 0.05). No systemic hemodynamic alterations were noted. We concluded that UII infusion elevates portal pressure and induces hepatic fibrosis in normal rats. This response may be mediated via induction of fibrogenic cytokines. These findings have pathophysiological implications in human liver disease where increased plasma UII levels have been observed.

Pilot study of a cell membrane like biomimetic drug-eluting coronary stent / 生物医学工程学杂志

A novel bioinspired phospholipid copolymer has been synthesized by the radical polymerization of poly2-Methacryloyloxyethylphosphorylcholine (MPC), stearyl methacrylate (SMA), hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA) and trimethoxysilylpropyl methacrylate (TSMA). Contact angle results indicated that the coating surface rearranged to get a more hydrophilic surface at the polymer/water interface. The membrane mimic phosphorylcholine coating surface could resist the platelet adhesion and prolong plasma recalcification time significantly. Rapamycin was used as model drugs to prepare drug-eluting coating. The animal experiments showed that this novel drug-eluting stent could effectively prevent the phenomena of restenosis.

Long-term efficacy and persistence of Chinese infants after receiving only active plasma-derived hepatitis B vaccine / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>To determine the long-term efficacy and persistence of Chinese infants after receiving only active plasma-derived hepatitis B vaccine, and to evaluate if providing booster vaccination after basic hepatitis B immunization is necessary.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Infants who were born in 1986-1988 in four demonstrative hepatitis B immunization trial areas of Hunan, Guangxi, Hebei and Shanghai after receiving only active plasma-derived hepatitis B vaccination, had been randomly followed up for 15 years. HBsAg,anti-HBs and anti-HBc in 21 680 person-times were tested using commercial SPRIA kits.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Prevalence of HBV carriers was less than 1.66% among all children vaccinated with only active plasma-derived hepatitis B vaccine in 4 clinical trial areas. Prevalence of HBsAg did not increase with years after vaccination,90%(95% Cl:83.1%-97.2%) effectiveness of hepatitis B vaccine persisted for 15 years in preventing chronic HBV infection. Carriage, HBV infection and efficacy were not different among all age groups (P>0.05). Seroprotection rate (anti-HBs?10 mIU/ml) and quantity of anti-HBs were significantly decreased with years after vaccination. Seroprotection rates of anti-HBs were 40%-50% and 30%-42% during the 9th-10th year and the 13th-14th ear of vaccination, respectively. Titer of anti-HBs declined?by 90% after 14 years.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>These results showed that long-term efficacy of only active plasma-derived hepatitis B vaccination, which was not affected by decline in seroprotection rate and titer of anti-HBs. For children and adults whose immune status is normal, booster doses of vaccine are not recommended.</p>