Project description:Changes in gene expression on MNV infection of RAW264.7 cells RAW264.7 cells were infected with MNV-1 at a multiplicity of infection of 1, or mock infected, for 12 hours
Project description:Human norovirus infects humans through the consumption of contaminated food, contact with the excrement or vomit of an infected person, and through airborne droplets that scatter the virus through the air. Being highly infectious and highly viable in the environment, inactivation of the norovirus requires a highly effective inactivating agent. In this study, we have discovered the thermal denaturing capacity of a lysozyme with known antimicrobial activity against gram-positive bacteria, as well as its inactivating effect on murine norovirus. This study is the first report on the norovirus-inactivating effects of a thermally denatured lysozyme. We observed that lysozymes heat-treated for 40 min at 100 °C caused a 4.5 log reduction in infectivity of norovirus. Transmission electron microscope analysis showed that virus particles exposed to thermally denatured lysozymes were expanded, compared to the virus before exposure. The amino acid sequence of the lysozyme was divided into three sections and the peptides of each artificially synthesised, in order to determine the region responsible for the inactivating effect. These results suggest that thermal denaturation of the lysozyme changes the protein structure, activating the region responsible for imparting an inactivating effect against the virus.
Project description:=Since the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan City in December of 2019, numerous model predictions on the COVID-19 epidemics in Wuhan and other parts of China have been reported. These model predictions have shown a wide range of variations. In our study, we demonstrate that nonidentifiability in model calibrations using the confirmed-case data is the main reason for such wide variations. Using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) for model selection, we show that an SIR model performs much better than an SEIR model in representing the information contained in the confirmed-case data. This indicates that predictions using more complex models may not be more reliable compared to using a simpler model. We present our model predictions for the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan after the lockdown and quarantine of the city on January 23, 2020. We also report our results of modeling the impacts of the strict quarantine measures undertaken in the city after February 7 on the time course of the epidemic, and modeling the potential of a second outbreak after the return-to-work in the city.
Project description:Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory disorder for which a definitive cure is still missing. This is characterized by an overwhelming inflammatory milieu in the colonic tract where a composite set of immune and non-immune cells orchestrate its pathogenesis. Over the last years, a growing body of evidence has been pinpointing gut virome dysbiosis as underlying its progression. Nonetheless, its role during the early phases of chronic inflammation is far from being fully defined. Here we show the gut virome-associated Hepatitis B virus protein X, most likely acquired after an event of zoonotic spillover, to be associated with the early stages of ulcerative colitis and to induce colonic inflammation in mice. It acts as a transcriptional regulator in epithelial cells, provoking barrier leakage and altering mucosal immunity at the level of both innate and adaptive immunity. This study paves the way to the comprehension of the aetiopathogenesis of intestinal inflammation and encourages further investigations of the virome as a trigger also in other scenarios. Moreover, it provides a brand-new standpoint that looks at the virome as a target for tailored treatments, blocking the early phases of chronic inflammation and possibly leading to better disease management.
Project description:Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors. Asia has a high incidence of gastric cancer globally. South Korea, Mongolia, Japan and China are the four countries with the highest incidence of gastric cancer in the world. Gansu province in China has the estimated age-standardized incidence rates and mortality rates by Chinese standard population of 62.34/100,000 and 36.94/100,000, respectively, in 2012, which are much higher than the average level of China (22.06/100,000 and 15.16/100,000) in the same year. As a high incidence area of gastric cancer in China, Wuwei city in Gansu province has the prevalence of gastric cancer almost 5 times higher than the average level nationwide. In this study, the cancer tissues and matched adjacent normal mucosa tissues of 5 patients with early gastric cancers who were treated with ESD in Gansu Wuwei Tumor Hospital and the First Hospital of Lanzhou University were collected. All of the patients are from Gansu, China. MicroRNA array was used to find the differences in microRNAs expression profile between the early gastric cancer tissues and the para-cancer normal tissues. It is expected to explore the reasons of the abnormal high incidence of gastric cancer in Gansu Province, China, from the aspect of microRNAs expression profile characteristics.