Electroantennographic and Behavioral Responses of the Melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett), to Volatile Compounds of Ridge Gourd, Luffa acutangular L.

The melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett), is a major invasive pest, widely distributed in the Asia-Pacific region and some parts of Africa. Melon fly attractants could improve the effectiveness of current pest management measures. Previous studies have shown that some host fruits are attractive to melon flies but few have investigated the chemical compounds responsible for their attraction. In this study, we aimed to identify the volatile compounds from Luffa acutangula L that attract Z. cucurbitae. In headspace trapping, chemical profiling identified 19 compounds from ridge gourds, with 1-pentadecene being the major component. EAG results revealed that seven compounds elicited antennal responses in Z. cucurbitae, and significant differences in antennal responses between male and female Z. cucurbitae adults were recorded to p-xylene, alpha-pinene, and 1-octadecene. Behavioral experiments demonstrated that the EAG-active compounds methyl isovalerate and methyl myristate had either attractive or repellent effects on Z. cucurbitae at different concentrations, and 1-octadecene attracted Z. cucurbitae. Our findings provide a theoretical basis producing repellents or attractants for effective Integrated Pest Management of Z. cucurbitae.

Spotted Fever Group Rickettsia Infecting Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae), Yak (Bos grunniens), and Tibetan Sheep (Ovis aries) in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Area, China.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Area (QTPA) has a complex natural ecosystem, causing a greatly increased risk of spreading various tick-borne diseases including rickettsial infections, which are regarded as one of the oldest known vector-borne zoonoses. However, the information of one of its pathogen, spotted fever group Rickettsia (SFG Rickettsia), is limited in tick vectors and animals in this area. Therefore, this study focused on the investigation of SFG Rickettsia in tick vectors, yaks (Bos grunniens), and Tibetan sheep (Ovis aries) in the QTPA. A total of 1,000 samples were collected from nine sampling sites, including 425 of yaks, 309 of Tibetan sheep, 266 of ticks. By morphological examination, PCR, and sequencing, we confirmed the species of all collected ticks. All tick samples, all yak and Tibetan sheep blood samples were detected based on SFG Rickettsia ompA and sca4 gene. The results showed that all tick samples were identified to be Haemaphysalis qinghaiensis, and the positive rates of SFG Rickettsia were 5.9% (25/425), 0.3% (1/309), and 54.1% (144/266) in yaks, Tibetan sheep, and ticks, respectively. All positive samples were sequenced, and BLASTn analysis of the ompA gene sequences of SFG Rickettsia showed that all positive samples from animals and ticks had 99.04-100% identity with yak and horse isolates from Qinghai Province, China. BLASTn analysis of the sca4 gene sequences of SFG Rickettsia showed that all positive samples had 97.60-98.72% identity with tick isolates from Ukraine. In addition, the phylogenetic analysis showed that all the SFG Rickettsia ompA and sca4 sequences obtained from this study belong to the same clade as Rickettsia raoultii isolated from livestock and ticks from China and other countries. Molecularly, this study detected and characterized SFG Rickettsia both in the tick vectors and animals, suggesting that the relationship between SFG Rickettsia, tick species and animal hosts should be explored to understand their interrelationships, which provide a theoretical basis for preventing control of this pathogen.

Development and application of a rapid detection system for human papillomavirus and Herpes simplex virus-2 by loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is an important factor that causes cervical cancer and non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), while HSV-2 plays an important role when HR-HPV triggers the cancer. Thus, a quick and convenient assay in the detection of HPV and HSV-2in the screening of HPV and HSV-2 infection is required. Two respective HPV and HSV-2 detection methods were established based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay. Specific outer primers, inner primers, and loop primers were designed according to the conserved domains of HPV and HSV-2 genomes, respectively, while degenerate primers were used for HPV assay. After optimizing the reaction conditions, the results were observed by LAMP Tubidimeter real-time LA-320. Standard plasmids HPV-L-P and HSV-2-L-P were cloned and used in sensitivity tests of HPV LAMP and HSV-2 LAMP, respectively. Fifty samples of actinic keratosis (AK), 20 samples of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 50 samples of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and 20 samples of seborrheic keratosis (SK) were detected by HPV assay. Seventy three clinical samples of vaginitis, chronic cervicitis, cervical intraepithelial neoplasias and cervical cancer level positive were detected with HPV and HSV-2 assays. The reaction conditions of two assays were the same with a reaction temperature of 63 °C and a reaction time of 45 min. The sensitivity of HPV LAMP assay was 10 copies/µL, while that of the HSV-2 LAMP assay was 100 copies/µL. No cross-reactivity was observed. The HPV positive rates of AK, SCC, BCC and SK samples were 80% (40/50), 75% (15/20), 44% (22/50) and 21% (15/72), respectively. As an economic and quick diagnostic tool, LAMP assay is conducive to the extensive screening of HPV and HSV-2 and has huge potential to be promoted in resource-limited hospitals.

[Brachial-basilic arteriovenous fistula versus arteriovenous graft in vascular access for maintenance hemodialysis patients].

OBJECTIVE: To compared the outcomes of autogenous brachial-basilic arteriovenous fistula (BBAVF) and AV graft (AVG) in patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis. METHODS: Approved by Zhong Da hospital ethics committee, we analyzed 61 complex patients, 30 randomized to receive AVG and 31 received BBAVF. We compared patency rates of BBAVF and AVG in 3 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, and complication rates. RESULTS: Patency rates of BBAVF in 3 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years were 100%, 96.8%, 90.3%, 87.1%, 3 years accumulative total infection rate was 3.2%, thrombosis rate was 3.2%. Patency rates of AVG in 3 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years were 96.7%, 50.0%, 36.7%, 33.3%, 3 years accumulative total infection rate was 26.7%, thrombosis rate was 33.3%. Patency rates of BBAVF in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years were higher than patency rates of AVG. The complication rates of infection and thrombosis were significantly lower for BBAVF than for AVG (P < 0.05, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: BBAVF has the advantage of a higher patency rate, a lower complication rates of infection and thrombosis, should be served as a favourable choice in building the vascular access in maintenance hemodialysis patients.

Protective role of interlekin-1 alpha gene polymorphism in Chinese Han population with sporadic Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorders after Alzheimer's disease in the elderly. Abundant evidence showed that proinflammatory factors were involved in the pathogenesis of sporadic Parkinson's disease (SPD). Interleukin-1 (IL-1) is a cytokine that plays an important role in neurodegenerative disease. Previous association studies between genetic polymorphisms of IL-1 alpha and PD have showed conflicting results and no such study was done in Chinese. We recruited 533 SPD patients and 530 controls in Chinese Han population to investigate the association of IL-1alpha C-899T allele and risk for PD. Real-time PCR was used to detect the polymorphism, and multiple logistic regression, Chi square test and survival analysis were performed to explore the association. The distribution of IL-1alpha alleles was significantly different between the cases and controls, and the T allele was associated with a reduced risk of PD (OR: 0.72, 95%CI: 0.54-0.97, rho = 0.033). However, survival analysis showed that the T allele did not delay the onset age of PD (T allele vs. non-T allele log rank: chi2 = 0.14, p = 0.70). Our data suggest that the T allele carriers have less inclination to have PD in Chinese Han population.