GMMAD: a comprehensive database of human gut microbial metabolite associations with diseases.

Background: The natural products, metabolites, of gut microbes are crucial effect factors on diseases. Comprehensive identification and annotation of relationships among disease, metabolites, and microbes can provide efficient and targeted solutions towards understanding the mechanism of complex disease and development of new markers and drugs.

Results: We developed Gut Microbial Metabolite Association with Disease (GMMAD), a manually curated database of associations among human diseases, gut microbes, and metabolites of gut microbes.

COVID-19 and its effects on the digestive system.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by infection of the coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with typical respiratory symptoms. SARS-CoV-2 invades not only the respiratory system, but also other organs expressing the cell surface receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2. In particular, the digestive system is a susceptible target of SARS-CoV-2.

The role of isolation rooms, facemasks and intensified hand hygiene in the prevention of nosocomial COVID-19 transmission in a pulmonary clinical setting.

From December 25, 2019 to January 31, 2020, 33 cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were identified in the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, China, yet none of the affiliated HCWs was infected. Here we analyzed the infection control measures used in three different departments in the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University and correlated the measures with the corresponding infection data of HCWs affiliated with these departments. We found that three infection control measures, namely the isolation of the presumed positive patients, the use of facemasks and intensified hand hygiene play important roles in preventing nosocomial transmission of COVID-19.

Calpain inhibition attenuates bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis via switching the development of epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

Calpains are intracellular calcium-dependent cysteine proteases, which cleave several substrates proteins, have been proven to play important roles in lung fibrosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of calpain on bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis. A lung fibrosis mice model was established successfully by intraperitoneal injection of bleomycin.

Increased IL-4- and IL-17-producing CD8 cells are related to decreased CD39CD4Foxp3 cells in allergic asthma.

Objective: In allergic asthma, regulatory T cell (Treg) number and function are decreased. Antigen-primed CD8 T cells play an indispensable role in the full development of airway inflammation and airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) occurring in asthma. In this study, we investigated the relationship between subpopulations of CD8 T cells and CD39 Tregs.

Adjunctive therapy of vaccine in the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

A number of studies have suggested that the (MV) vaccine as an adjunctive therapy has a positive effect in the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). However, the result is inconclusive. The aim of the present study was to systematically evaluate the effect and safety of MV as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of MDR-TB.

[Sulfatide-loaded CD1d tetramer to detect typeII NKT cells in mice].

Aim: To create a method of detecting typeII natural killer T (NKT) cells of mice.

Methods: Biotinylated mouse CD1d monomers were mixed with sulfatide at a molar ratio of 1:3 (protein:lipid) and incubated at room temperature overnight, and then 80 μg of streptavidin-PE was added into 200 μg of the CD1d-sulfatide mixture and incubated at room temperature for 4 h to get sulfatide/CD1d tetramer. Flow cytometry was used to detect the percentage of typeII NKT cells in mononuclear cells (MNCs) of lung and spleen of normal mice, as well as the percentage of typeII NKT cells in spleen MNCs of mice after stimulated with sulfatide.