The characteristics of hDPP4 transgenic mice subjected to aerosol MERS coronavirus infection via an animal nose-only exposure device.

Background: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which is not fully understood in regard to certain transmission routes and pathogenesis and lacks specific therapeutics and vaccines, poses a global threat to public health.

Methods: To simulate the clinical aerosol transmission route, hDPP4 transgenic mice were infected with MERS-CoV by an animal nose-only exposure device and compared with instillation-inoculated mice. The challenged mice were observed for 14 consecutive days and necropsied on days 3, 5, 7, and 9 to analyze viral load, histopathology, viral antigen distribution, and cytokines in tissues.

Mechanism and therapeutic prospect of resveratrol combined with TRAIL in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma.

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has been reported to kill a wide variety of tumor cells with minimal effects on normal cell. However, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cells 786-0 and OS-RC-2 were resistant to TRAIL. The present study examines the potential of combining polyphenolic compound resveratrol (RES) with TRAIL.

Establishment of BALB/C mouse models of influenza A H1N1 aerosol inhalation.

Influenza A (H1N1) is a rapidly spreading acute respiratory illness that remains a worldwide burden on public health. To simulate natural infection routes, BALB/C mice were challenged with the H1N1 virus by aerosol and intranasal instillation routes. We compared the weight change and survival of the mice for 14 consecutive days after infection.

Identification of acetyltransferase genes (HAT1 and KAT8) regulating HBV replication by RNAi screening.

Background: The initiation of hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication involves the formation of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) and its transcription into pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) in hepatocyte nuclei. The regulatory mechanism of HBV replication by acetyltransferase is thus far not well understood, but human acetyltransferase has been reported as being involved in the regulation of HBV replication.

Results: Depletion of KAT8 or HAT1 via RNA interference (RNAi) markedly down-regulated HBV-DNA and pgRNA levels in HepG2.

An optimized real-time PCR to avoid species-/tissue-associated inhibition for H5N1 detection in ferret and monkey tissues.

The real-time PCR diagnostics for avian influenza virus H5N1 in tissue specimens are often suboptimal, since naturally occurring PCR inhibitors present in samples, or unanticipated match of primer to unsequenced species' genome. With the principal aim of optimizing the SYBR Green real-time PCR method for detecting H5N1 in ferret and monkey (Chinese rhesus macaque) tissue specimens, we screened various H5N1 gene-specific primer pairs and tested their ability to sensitively and specifically detect H5N1 transcripts in the infected animal tissues, then we assessed RNA yield and quality by comparing Ct values obtained from the standard Trizol method, and four commonly used RNA isolation kits with small modifications, including Roche High Pure, Ambion RNAqueous, BioMIGA EZgene, and Qiagen RNeasy. The results indicated that a single primer pair exhibited high specificity and sensitivity for H5N1 transcripts in ferret and monkey tissues.

Triple combinations of neuraminidase inhibitors, statins and fibrates benefit the survival of patients with lethal avian influenza pandemic.

The high mortality of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses infection in humans gives rise to considerable concern that it might someday cause another lethal pandemic. At present there is no other effective alternative besides the early and enough administration of neuraminidase inhibitors, which may be crucial for the patient management. However, its efficacy is sometimes limited because of the late administration in some patients especially the seriously ill ones and the continual occurrence of oseltamivir resistant A (H5N1) strains.