[Analysis of 14 cases of melanosis caused by 1, 8-dinitronaphthalene and 1, 8-diaminonaphthalene]

14 workers in the 1, 8-diaminonaphthalene workshop of a chemical company in Nantong City had symptoms or signs of varying degrees of pruritus and pigmentation of the face, neck and waist. Pathological examination of skin biopsies showed hyperkeratosis, the basal cells were liquefied and denatured. Seven workers were eventually diagnosed with occupational melanosis. To explore the causes of occupational melanosis caused by exposure to 1, 8-dinitronaphthalene and 1, 8-diaminonaphthalene, and to provide reference for the prevention and treatment of occupational melanosis in the future, this paper reported 14 cases of melanosis in the skin of workers in chemical industry.

Viral loads, lymphocyte subsets and cytokines in asymptomatic, mildly and critical symptomatic patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a retrospective study

Background

Tens of million cases of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) have occurred globally. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) attacks the respiratory system, causing pneumonia and lymphopenia in infected individuals. The aim of the present study is to investigate the laboratory characteristics of the viral load, lymphocyte subset and cytokines in asymptomatic individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection in comparison with those in symptomatic patients with COVID-19.

Methods

From January 24, 2020, to April 11, 2020, 48 consecutive subjects were enrolled in this study. Viral loads were detected by RT-PCR from throat-swab, sputum and feces samples. Lymphocyte subset levels of CD3 + , CD4 + , and CD8 + T lymphocytes, B cells and NK cells were determined with biological microscope and flow cytometric analysis. Plasma cytokines (IL2, IL4, IL5, IL6, IL8, IL10, TNF-α, IFN-α and IFN-γ) were detected using flow cytometer. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Chi-square or Fisher's exact test and Pearson’s Correlation assay was used for all data.

Results

Asymptomatic (AS), mild symptoms (MS) and severe or critical cases (SCS) with COVID-19 were 11 (11/48, 22.9%), 26 (54.2%, 26/48) and 11 cases (11/48, 22.9%), respectively. The mean age of AS group (47.3 years) was lower than SCS group (63.5 years) (P < 0.05). Diabetes mellitus in AS, MS and SCS patients with COVID-19 were 0, 6 and 5 cases, respectively, and there was a significant difference between AS and SCS (P < 0.05). No statistical differences were found in the viral loads of SARS-CoV-2 between AS, MS and SCS groups on admission to hospital and during hospitalization. The concentration of CD 3 + T cells (P < 0.05), CD3 + CD4 + T cells (P < 0.05), CD3 + CD8 + T cells (P < 0.01), and B cells (P < 0.05) in SCS patients was lower than in AS and MS patients, while the level of IL-5 (P < 0.05), IL-6 (P < 0.05), IL-8 (P < 0.01) and IL-10 (P < 0.01), and TNF-α (P < 0.05) was higher. The age was negatively correlated with CD3 + T cells (P < 0.05), CD3 + CD4 + T cells (P < 0.05), and positively correlated with IL-2 (P < 0.001), IL-5 (P < 0.05), IL-6 (P < 0.05) IL-8 (P < 0.05), and IL-10 (P < 0.05). The viral loads were positively correlated with IL-2 (P < 0.001), IL-5 (P < 0.05), IL-6 (P < 0.05) IL-8 (P < 0.05) and IL-10 (P < 0.05), while negatively correlated with CD 3 + T cells (P < 0.05) and CD3 + CD4 + T cells (P < 0.05).

Conclusions

The viral loads are similar between asymptomatic, mild and severe or critical patients with COVID-19. The severity of COVID-19 may be related to underlying diseases such as diabetes mellitus. Lymphocyte subset and plasma cytokine levels may be as the markers to distinguish severely degrees of disease, and asymptomatic patients may be as an important source of infection for the COVID-19.

Development of stable Pickering emulsions/oil powders and Pickering HIPEs stabilized by gliadin/chitosan complex particles

In this paper, we demonstrate the use of gliadin/chitosan complex particles (GCCPs) as particulate stabilizers of oil-in-water emulsions of natural oils and water. For this purpose, we fabricated GCCPs through a facile anti-solvent procedure and demonstrated their usage in the formation of Pickering emulsions and Pickering high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs). The GCCPs can be used to produce surfactant-free o/w Pickering emulsions and Pickering HIPEs; unfortunately these emulsions were labile to coalescence. NaCl addition and/or pH regulation, and the combination were used to modify the surface wettability of the complex particles to achieve stable emulsions. The microstructures, e.g., interfacial frameworks, GCCP partition between the continuous phase and interfacial region, and the state of the droplets, of Pickering emulsions were visualized by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), confirming that the inclusion of NaCl and slightly adjusting pH toward 4.0 and/or 5.0 benefited the adsorption and accumulation of colloid particles at the droplet surface to form an engineered interfacial structure, bridging droplets together through a percolating layer of colloidal particles at the oil/water interface. A schematic representation for the formation route of the emulsions is proposed to relate the physical performance and rheological property with the interfacial structures and aggregate behaviors in the Pickering system stabilized by the complex particles. Interestingly, direct freeze-drying of the emulsions transformed unstable Pickering emulsions into stable oil powders. This study opens a promising route based on Pickering HIPEs or oil powders to structure liquid oils into solid-like fats without artificial trans-fat, which outlines new directions for future fundamental research.

Characterization and development of 56 EST-SSR markers derived from the transcriptome of Odontobutis potamophila

Expressed sequence tags (ETSs) are the sources of microsatellite development. In this study, we isolated and characterized microsatellite markers for Odontobutis potamophila by using Illumina RNA-sequencing. We sequenced a large number of ESTs and screened 200 potential microsatellites. Consequently, a total of 56 novel polymorphic microsatellite repeat markers were identified in thirty-two individuals from a wild population area (Jiande, Zhejiang Province, China). The number of alleles per locus varied from two to eight, the observed heterozygosity (H_O) ranged from 0.03571 to 0.9375, and the expected heterozygosity (H_E) ranged from 0.14326 to 0.81549. The average number of alleles, H_O, and H_E were 5.0, 0.4467, and 0.5518, respectively. By the calculation, the range of polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.1177-0.8492. Most of the loci showed moderate or high polymorphism. These newly developed EST-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers would serve as an efficient tool for analyzing population connectivity and provide sufficient information for genetic diversity research, parentage, and molecular breeding of O. potamophila and other fishes with similar genetic relationship.

Phylogenetic relationships of twenty Gymnothorax species based on cytochrome b sequence data

To study the phylogenetic relationships of the genus Gymnothorax (moray eels) distributed in South China Sea, polymerase chain reactions were performed, and the amplification products were sequenced by cloning into the PMD18T-vector (TaKaRa). The entire gene sequences encoding cytochrome b (1140 bp) for 16 Gymnothorax (G. flavimarginatus, G. meleagris, G. undulates, G. reticularis, G. reevesi, G. melanospilus, G. rueppeliae, G. javanicus, G. chilospilus, G. pseudothyrsoideus, G. fimbriatus, G. hepaticus, G. berndti, G. curostus, G. favagineus, and G. margaritophorus) were obtained. Four additional Gymnothorax sequences from GenBank were also included. The nucleotide composition, genetic distances, and base substitution saturation analysis were calculated using the MEGA 5.0 Software. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using maximum-parsimony, maximum-likelihood (ML), and neighbor-joining (NJ). The results were as follows: 1) base-substitution saturation analysis suggested that both in third codon positions, and the full-length cytochrome b data set, Ts are not saturated, but Tv substitutions may be saturated, 2) the genus Gymnothorax, native to the South China Sea, is divided into four distinct clades, with two clades in the NJ and ML trees, and 3) according to our experimental data, G. melanospilus (Bleeker, 1855) and G. favagineus (Bloch and Schneider, 1801) are the same species.

Molecular cloning, characterization, and expression of vacuolar-type-H⁺-ATPase B1 (VHAB1) gene in the gill of Anguilla marmorata

We explored the molecular mechanism of the regulation of vacuolar-type-H+-ATPase B1 (VHAB1) in elvers in the response to salinity. The full-length cDNA of VHAB1 in Anguilla marmorata (designated as AmVHAB1), which was 1741 base pairs (bp) in length, was found to encompass a 1512-bp open reading frame encoding a polypeptide with 503 amino acids (55.9 kDa), an 83-bp 5'-untranslated region, and a 146-bp 3'-untranslated region. The mRNA and protein expression levels of AmVHAB1 in the gill were evaluated at different time points (0, 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h, and 15 days) during the exposure to various salinity levels (0, 10, and 25‰). The results indicated that the expression levels of AmVHAB1 mRNA in the gill significantly increased and reached the highest level at 1 h exposure in the brackish water (BW, 10‰) group and at 6 h exposure in the seawater (SW, 25‰) group. The salinity level affected the relative expression level of AmVHAB1 mRNA in the gill, which was increased by approximately 44-fold in the SW group when compared with that in fresh water. Immunoblotting analysis showed that VHA expression was significantly higher in the BW and SW groups, with the highest expression level was detected at 96 h exposure. We found that the AmVHAB1 gene in elvers from A. marmorata plays an important role in the adaptation to seawater.

A CD44 specific peptide developed by phage display for targeting gastric cancer

OBJECTIVE

To develop a peptide probe that could be used for gastric cancer detection via binding to CD44 protein with specificity and affinity.

RESULTS

A 12-mer phage peptide library was screened against immobilized CD44 protein. Bound phage counts using ELISA were performed to identify phage clones carrying the most highly selective peptide, which termed RP-1. Immunofluorescence and flow cytometry analysis indicated that the consensus peptide RP-1 could bind to CD44-positive gastric cancer cells with mean fluorescence intensities significantly higher than that of CD44-negative cells. CD44 knockdown led to decreased binding activity of RP-1 to the same cell line. Tissue array technique was used to identify the relationship (r = 0.556) between peptide binding and CD44 detection on gastric cancer tissues. Further, the hyaluronan-binding domain of CD44 was docked with RP-1 using computer modeling/docking approaches, revealing a RP-1/CD44 interaction with geometrical and energy match (-8.6 kcal/mol).

CONCLUSIONS

The RP-1 peptide we screened exhibits affinity and specificity to CD44 on cells and has the potential to be used as a candidate probe for gastric cancer cell targeting.

Development and validation of single nucleotide polymorphism markers in Odontobutis potamophila from transcriptomic sequencing

Transcriptome sequencing technology has been applied in the development and discovery of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers in fish. In this study, a panel of 120 expressed sequence tag (EST)-derived SNPs was selected by several selection filters from the resultant EST library of Odontobutis potamophila using Illumina Sequencing. In total, 37 SNPs from 120 putative SNPs were considered as the true SNPs using Sanger sequencing. For each SNP locus of 30 individuals of one wild population of O. potamophila that was successfully calculated, the number of alleles per locus was 2 with an observed heterozygosity of 0.0000-0.9000 and an expected heterozygosity of 0.1000-0.5263. A total of 33 loci conformed to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), and 4 loci deviated from HWE after Bonferroni correction. These 33 SNP markers will benefit the studies of population genetic structure, population evolution analysis, and construction of a high-density linkage map of O. potamophila.

Development and characterization of microsatellite loci in a threatened marine fish, Cheilinus undulatus (humphead wrasse)

Cheilinus undulatus (humphead wrasse) is a marine fish distributed widely throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific. It has been listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red Data Book and in CITES Appendix II four times. Fifteen microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized for this species. The number of alleles ranged from 3 to 15 per locus, and the observed and expected heterozygosity ranged between 0.0323-0.7742 and 0.2597-0.8773, respectively. The polymorphism information content ranged from 0.2353-0.8520. Four microsatellite loci deviated significantly from Hardy-Weinberg expectations. No significant linkage disequilibrium was found among any of the loci. These microsatellite loci will be useful for future investigations of genetic variation in the wrasse population.

Isolation and characterization of 16 microsatellite loci in marble goby (Oxyeleotris marmoratus)

A microsatellite-enriched genomic library for marble goby (Oxyeleotris marmoratus), a freshwater fish of considerable economic value, was obtained. A total of 16 microsatellite markers were successfully isolated and characterized in a population from the Mekong River in Vietnam. These markers had 2-20 alleles with expected heterozygosity ranging from 0.0370 to 0.8927. Linkage equilibrium was observed in most loci, and only 1 locus revealed a significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. These microsatellite markers will be useful for genetic diversity and molecular marker-assisted selection studies of wild and farmed O. marmoratus.

A wuantitative structure-property relationship study of the glass transition temperature of OLED materials

Organic light-emitting-diodes (OLED) materials possess great potential applications. Stability and efficiency are the two major factors to be improved toward commercialization, especially the thermal stability, because in the working device, the organic molecular materials can have high temperature. One of the most important factors, which influences the stability, is the glass transition temperature (T(g)). We employed a QSPR (quantitative structure-properties relationship) approach to establish a theoretical model to predict the glass transition temperatures of organic molecular materials. A six-parameter correlation with the squared correlation coefficient R(2) = 0.9270 and the average absolute error 8.5 K was developed for a diverse set of 73 OLED materials. All descriptors were derived solely from the chemical structures of the organic compounds. A satisfactory average absolute error of 17.9 K for a test set of 15 OLED materials makes the model very useful for the prediction of the unknown OLED materials.