The protective effects of BMSA1 and BMSA5-1-1 proteins against Babesia microti infection

Yu-Chun Cai,Chun Li Yang,Peng Song,Muxin Chen,Jia-Xu Chen 대한기생충학ㆍ열대의학회 2024 The Korean Journal of Parasitology Vol.62 No.1

The intracellular parasite Babesia microti is among the most significant species causinghuman babesiosis and is an emerging threat to human health worldwide. Unravelling thepathogenic molecular mechanisms of babesiosis is crucial in developing new diagnosticand preventive methods. This study assessed how priming with B. microti surface antigen1 (BHSA 1) and seroreactive antigen 5-1-1 (BHSA 5-1-1) mediate protection against B. microti infection. The results showed that 500 µg/ml rBMSA1 and rBMSA5-1-1 partiallyinhibited the invasion of B. microti in vitro by 42.0±3.0%, and 48.0±2.1%, respectively. Blood smears revealed that peak infection at 7 days post-infection (dpi) was 19.6%,24.7%, and 46.7% in the rBMSA1, rBmSA5-1-1, compared to the control groups (healthymice infected with B. microti only), respectively. Routine blood tests showed higher whiteblood cell, red blood cell counts, and haemoglobin levels in the 2 groups (BMSA1 andBMSA5 5-1-1) than in the infection control group at 0–28 dpi. Moreover, the 2 groups hadhigher serum interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α and Interleukin-17A levels, and lowerIL-10 levels than the infection control group throughout the study. These 2 potential vaccine candidate proteins partially inhibit in vitro and in vivo B. microti infection and enhancehost immunological response against B. microti infection.

Association of MC4R Gene Polymorphisms with Growth and Body Composition Traits in Chicken

Li, Chun-Yu,Li, Hui Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2006 Animal Bioscience Vol.19 No.6

Genetic and pharmacological studies in mice have demonstrated a complementary role for the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) in the control of food intake, energy balance and body weight. This study was designed to investigate the associations of a MC4R gene polymorphism on chicken growth and body composition traits in broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat. A SNP (G54C) was found in CDS region of chicken MC4R gene. The analysis of the least squares and variance revealed a significant association between the G54C SNP and BW, CW and SL at 7 wk of age, and there were significant differences in different genotypes (p<0.05). The results from protein secondary structure prediction and tertiary structure prediction showed that it appeared a helix in $13^{th}$ amino acid and two strands at $14^{th}$ and $15^{th}$ amino acid in mutant protein, respectively. It maybe induce the change of the activity or function of MC4R gene in poultry.

Proteomic Analysis of Serum of Women with Elevated Ca-125 to Differentiate Malignant from Benign Ovarian Tumors

Li, Li,Xu, Yi,Yu, Chun-Xia Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.7

Clinically, elevated cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) in blood predicts tumor burden in a woman's body, especially in the ovary, but cannot differentiate between malignant or benign. We here used intensive modern proteomic approaches to identify predictive proteins in the serum of women with elevated CA-125 to differentiate malignant from benign ovarian tumors. We identified differentially expressed proteins in serum samples of ovarian cancer (OC) patients, benign ovarian tumor (BT) patients, and healthy control women using mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics. Both the OC and BT patients had elevated CA-125. Quantitation was achieved using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation. We obtained 124 quantified differential serum proteins in OC compared with BT. Two proteins, apolipoprotein A-4 (APOA4) and natural resistance-associated macrophage 1, were verified using Western blotting. Proteome profiling applied to OC cases identified several differential serum proteins in the serum of women with elevated CA-125. A novel protein, APOA4, has the potential to be a marker for malignant tumor differentiation in the serum of women with elevated CA-125.

A Genetic Analysis of Taoyuan Pig and Its Phylogenetic Relationship to Eurasian Pig Breeds

Li, Kuan-Yi,Li, Kuang-Ti,Cheng, Chun-Chun,Chen, Chia-Hsuan,Hung, Chien-Yi,Ju, Yu-Ten Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2015 Animal Bioscience Vol.28 No.4

Taoyuan pig is a native Taiwan breed. According to the historical record, the breed was first introduced to Taiwan from Guangdong province, Southern China, around 1877. The breed played an important role in Taiwan's early swine industry. It was classified as an indigenous breed in 1986. After 1987, a conserved population of Taoyuan pig was collected and reared in isolation. In this study, mitochondrial DNA sequences and 18 microsatellite markers were used to investigate maternal lineage and genetic diversity within the Taoyuan pig population. Population differentiation among Taoyuan, Asian type, and European type pig breeds was also evaluated using differentiation indices. Only one D-loop haplotype of the Taoyuan pig was found. It clustered with Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China Type pig breeds. Based on the polymorphism of microsatellite markers, a positive fixation index value ($F_{IS}$) indicates that the conserved Taoyuan population suffers from inbreeding. In addition, high $F_{ST}$ values (>0.2105) were obtained, revealing high differentiation among these breeds. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling showed a clear geometric structure among 7 breeds. Together these results indicate that maternally Taoyuan pig originated in the Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China; however, since being introduced to Taiwan differentiation has occurred. In addition, Taoyuan pig has lost genetic diversity in both its mitochondrial and nuclear genomes.

Astragalus polysaccharide: a review of its immunomodulatory effect

Chun-xiao Li,Ying Liu,Yu-zhen Zhang,Jing-chun Li,Jiang Lai 대한약학회 2022 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.45 No.6

The Astragalus polysaccharide is an importantbioactive component derived from the dry root of Astragalusmembranaceus . This review aims to provide a comprehensiveoverview of the research progress on the immunomodulatoryeff ect of Astragalus polysaccharide and providevaluable reference information. We review the immunomodulatoryeff ect of Astragalus polysaccharide on central andperipheral immune organs, including bone marrow, thymus,lymph nodes, spleen, and mucosal tissues. Furthermore, theimmunomodulatory eff ect of Astragalus polysaccharide on avariety of immune cells is summarized. Studies have shownthat Astragalus polysaccharide can promote the activities ofmacrophages, natural killer cells, dendritic cells, T lymphocytes,B lymphocytes and microglia and induce the expressionof a variety of cytokines and chemokines. The immunomodulatoryeff ect of Astragalus polysaccharide makesit promising for the treatment of many diseases, includingcancer, infection, type 1 diabetes, asthma, and autoimmunedisease. Among them, the anticancer effect is the mostprominent. In short, Astragalus polysaccharide is a valuableimmunomodulatory medicine, but further high-qualitystudies are warranted to corroborate its clinical effi cacy.

A Saliency Detection Method Based on Global Contrast

Chun-yan Yu,Wei-shi Zhang,Chun-li Wang 보안공학연구지원센터 2015 International Journal of Signal Processing, Image Vol.8 No.7

To highlight the saliency object clearly from the foreground, we propose a saliency detection method based on global contrast with cluster. Due to the fact that background pixels usually have similar patches, we use cluster analysis to merge the background regions. By using mean shift filter, the background pixels with similar color level are clustered and the saliency calculation can be decreased a lot. In the method, we use the contrast of color feature with all the other pixels to compute the saliency map. A weight coefficient is utilized to improve the detection accuracy in global contrast differences evaluation. The results of extensive experiments on public dataset show that our method perform well and can highlight the salient object clearly against the other five state-of-the-art methods. Besides, we demonstrate that the applications in image segmentation and fusion with our saliency map can get satisfactory results.

Screening for Metastatic Osteosarcoma Biomarkers with a DNA Microarray

Diao, Chun-Yu,Guo, Hong-Bing,Ouyang, Yu-Rong,Zhang, Han-Cong,Liu, Li-Hong,Bu, Jie,Wang, Zhi-Hua,Xiao, Tao Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.4

Objective: The aim of this study was to screen for possible biomarkers of metastatic osteosarcoma (OS) using a DNA microarray. Methods: We downloaded the gene expression profile GSE49003 from Gene Expression Omnibus database, which included 6 gene chips from metastatic and 6 from non-metastatic OS patients. The R package was used to screen and identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between metastatic and non-metastatic OS patients. Then we compared the expression of DEGs in the two groups and sub-grouped into up-regulated and down-regulated, followed by functional enrichment analysis using the DAVID system. Subsequently, we constructed an miRNA-DEG regulatory network with the help of WebGestalt software. Results: A total of 323 DEGs, including 134 up-regulated and 189 down-regulated, were screened out. The up-regulated DEGs were enriched in 14 subcategories and most significantly in cytoskeleton organization, while the down-regulated DEGs were prevalent in 13 subcategories, especially wound healing. In addition, we identified two important miRNAs (miR-202 and miR-9) pivotal for OS metastasis, and their relevant genes, CALD1 and STX1A. Conclusions: MiR-202 and miR-9 are potential key factors affecting the metastasis of OS and CALD1 and STX1A may be possible targets beneficial for the treatment of metastatic OS. However, further experimental studies are needed to confirm our results.

Clinical Efficacy of Bevacizumab Concomitant with Pemetrexed in Patients with Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Zhang, Yu-Mei,Li, Yong-Qiang,Liu, Zhi-Hui,Liao, Xiao-Li,Liang, Rong,Lin, Yan,Yuan, Chun-Ling,Liao, Si-Na,Liang, Chao-Yong,Li, Qian,Li, Le-Qun Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.8

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy of bevacizumab concomitant with pemetrexed in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and Methods: A total of 72 patients were randomly divided into a combination group (pemetrexed+bevacizumab, n=36) and a pemetrexed group (n=36) and assessed for disease control (CR+PR+SD) after 4-cycles of first-line GP chemotherapy (gemcitabine+cisplatin). Clinical efficacy, progression-free survival time (PFS), overall survival time (OS), overall response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR) and rate of adverse responses between two groups were observed and compared. Results: ORR and DCR were 27.8% and 83.4% in combination group, and 16.7% and 69.5% in the pemetrexed group, respectively, but there were no significant differences (P>0.05). PFS in combination group and pemetrexed group were 4.6 months and 3.9 months respectively (P=0.09), whereas OS in the combination group was 14 months, evidently higher than in the pemetrexed group (11 months, P=0.004). Adverse responses in both groups included high blood pressure, bleeding, thrombocytopenia, anemia, elevated transaminase, diarrhea, vomiting and proteinuria, but there were no significant differences (P>0.05). Conclusions: Bevacizumab concomitant with pemetrexed has better clinical efficacy and safety, giving rise to prolonged survival time in patients with advanced NSCLC.

Comprehensive In-Service Training Program to Enhance Informatics Competency for Nurses in Taiwan

Chu Li Tseng,Zu Chun Lin,Yu Chin Lee,Huea Hwa Jiang,Li Li Li,Yu Lin Han 한국간호과학회 2011 한국간호과학회 학술대회 Vol.2011 No.10

A Genetic Analysis of Taoyuan Pig and Its Phylogenetic Relationship to Eurasian Pig Breeds

Kuan-Yi Li,Kuang-Ti Li,Chun-Chun Cheng,Chia-Hsuan Chen,Chien-Yi Hung,Yu-Ten Ju 아세아·태평양축산학회 2015 Animal Bioscience Vol.28 No.4

Taoyuan pig is a native Taiwan breed. According to the historical record, the breed was first introduced to Taiwan from Guangdong province, Southern China, around 1877. The breed played an important role in Taiwan’s early swine industry. It was classified as an indigenous breed in 1986. After 1987, a conserved population of Taoyuan pig was collected and reared in isolation. In this study, mitochondrial DNA sequences and 18 microsatellite markers were used to investigate maternal lineage and genetic diversity within the Taoyuan pig population. Population differentiation among Taoyuan, Asian type, and European type pig breeds was also evaluated using differentiation indices. Only one D-loop haplotype of the Taoyuan pig was found. It clustered with Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China Type pig breeds. Based on the polymorphism of microsatellite markers, a positive fixation index value (FIS) indicates that the conserved Taoyuan population suffers from inbreeding. In addition, high FST values (>0.2105) were obtained, revealing high differentiation among these breeds. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling showed a clear geometric structure among 7 breeds. Together these results indicate that maternally Taoyuan pig originated in the Lower Changjiang River Basin and Central China; however, since being introduced to Taiwan differentiation has occurred. In addition, Taoyuan pig has lost genetic diversity in both its mitochondrial and nuclear genomes.