A 17-year-old student with ankle sprain to leg amputation.

Cutaneous mucormycosis with ischemic complications is a life-threatening condition with high mortality rates, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. The incidence of mucormycosis has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic due to reduced immunity. We present the case of a 17-year-old high school student who experienced a sprained left lower extremity, followed by worsening pain and swelling due to the topical application of unknown local herbs. Eighteen days after the injury, she was admitted to our department in a comatose state with left lower limb ischemia. The patient had a history of uncontrolled diabetes mellitus and displayed a necrotic lesion on her left ankle, suggestive of invasive infectious fungi disease. Diagnostic procedures, including tissue staining and molecular analysis, identified Rhizopus oryzae as the causative organism. Administering amphotericin B yielded marked improvement, but the patient necessitated a mid-thigh amputation to curtail the infection's advance, culminating in her successful discharge post-treatment.

Transcriptome analysis provides insights into the immunity function of venom glands in Pardosa pseudoannulata in responses to cadmium toxicity.

Due to some similarity of innate immunity between insects and mammals, the study of the molecular mechanism of innate immunity in insects has become a focus of research. However, the exact molecular and cellular basis of immune system in insect remains poorly understood. Characterization of the transcriptomic response to Cd of spider is an effective approach to understanding the innate immunity mechanisms. In this study, we carried out transcriptome sequencing and gene expression analyses to develop molecular resources for Pardosa pseudoannulata venom glands with and without Cd treatments. A total of 92,778 assembled unigenes and 237 Cd stress-associated differentially expressed genes between the Cd-treated and control groups were obtained. Expression profile analysis demonstrated that immunity-related genes involved in bacterial invasion of epithelial cells, leukocyte transendothelial migration, platelet activation, apoptosis, phagosome, and Rap1 signaling pathway were upregulated by Cd exposure, except the genes involved in PPAR signaling pathway were downregulated. Our results provide the first comprehensive transcriptome dataset of venom glands in P. pseudoannulata response to Cd, which is valuable for throws light on the immunotoxicity mechanism of Cd, and the innate immunity complexity.

Transcriptome assembly and expression profiling of the molecular responses to cadmium toxicity in cerebral ganglia of wolf spider Pardosa pseudoannulata (Araneae: Lycosidae).

Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal that can cause irreversible toxicity to animals, and is an environmental pollutant in farmlands. Spiders are considered to be an excellent model for investigating the impacts of heavy metals on the environment. To date, the changes at the molecular level in the cerebral ganglia of spiders are poorly understood. Cd exposure leads to strong damage in the nervous system, such as apoptosis and necrosis of nerve cells, therefore we conducted a transcriptomic analysis of Pardosa pseudoannulata cerebral ganglia under Cd stress to profile differential gene expression (DGE). We obtained a total of 123,328 assembled unigenes, and 1441 Cd stress-associated DEGs between the Cd-treated and control groups. Expression profile analysis demonstrated that many genes involved in calcium signaling, cGMP-PKG signaling, tyrosine metabolism, phototransduction-fly, melanogenesis and isoquinoline alkaloid biosynthesis were up-regulated under Cd stress, whereas oxidative phosphorylation-related, nervous disease-associated, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease-associated, and ribosomal-associated genes were down-regulated. Here, we provide a comprehensive set of DEGs influenced by Cd stress, and heavy metal stress, and provide new information for elucidating the neurotoxic mechanisms of Cd stress in spiders.

Biotoxicity of Cry1Ab protein on wolf spider Pardosa pseudoannulata.

In this research, we carried out a tritrophic bioassay to assess the potential effect of Cry1Ab-expressing rice on the foraging behavior of the common wolf spider Pardosa pseudoannulata and its underlying molecular mechanism. Results indicated the Bt-containing spiders expressed a higher foraging range when compared to controls. The high throughput de novo transcriptome sequencing was further carried out for central nervous system (CNS) of P. pseudoannulata with and without Cry1Ab intake. We obtained 120, 985 unigenes with a mean length of 529.73 bp. Functional analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) showed the expression levels of genes related to energy metabolism were changed in response to Cry1Ab, which may contribute to a more active foraging behavior. In addition, some DEGs also have a function related to metal ion binding, implying a potential influence on metal ions-dependent reactions. This may be associated with Cry1Ab resistance mechanism in the spider.