Role of Prealbumin in Predicting the Prognosis of Severely and Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients.

Most critically ill patients experience malnutrition, resulting in a poor prognosis. This study aimed to evaluate the association of prealbumin (PAB) with the prognosis for severely and critically ill coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and explore factors related to this association. Patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 from West Campus of Union Hospital in Wuhan from January 29, 2020 to March 31, 2020 were enrolled in this study.

Hyperforin Ameliorates Imiquimod-Induced Psoriasis-Like Murine Skin Inflammation by Modulating IL-17A-Producing γδ T Cells.

Hyperforin is a major active constituent of  L. extract, which is widely used for the treatment of depressive disorders. Recent studies have reported that hyperforin reduced inflammation in stroke and suppressed proliferation and differentiation in keratinocytes.

Accumulated Clinical Experiences from Successful Treatment of 1377 Severe and Critically Ill COVID-19 Cases.

In late December 2019, COVID-19 was firstly recognized in Wuhan, China and spread rapidly to all of the provinces of China. The West Campus of Wuhan Union Hospital, the designated hospital to admit and treat the severe and critically ill COVID-19 cases, has treated a large number of such patients with great success and obtained lots of valuable experiences based on the Chinese guideline (V7.0).

Evaluation of Nutrition Risk and Its Association With Mortality Risk in Severely and Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients.

Background: The nutrition status of coronavirus disease 2019 patients is unknown. This study evaluates clinical and nutrition characteristics of severely and critically ill patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and investigates the relationship between nutrition risk and clinical outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective, observational study was conducted at West Campus of Union Hospital in Wuhan.

lncRNA NEAT1 facilitates melanoma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion via regulating miR-495-3p and E2F3.

Melanoma contributes a lot to skin cancer-related deaths. lncRNAs are implicated in various diseases, including melanoma. lncRNA NEAT1 is frequently dysregulated and can play important roles in multiple cancers.

MicroRNA-31 functions as an oncogenic microRNA in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma cells by targeting RhoTBT1.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is a malignancy of epidermal keratinocytes that is responsible for ~20% of annual skin cancer-associated mortalities. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that the dysregulation of micro (mi)RNAs serves a significant role in the tumorigenesis and progression of human cSCC. MicroRNA-31 (miR-31) is upregulated in cSCC and is involved in cSCC development.

Down-regulation of tissue microRNA-126 was associated with poor prognosis in patients with cutaneous melanoma.

Background: MiR-126 is frequently downregulated in a variety of malignancies and acts as a potential tumor suppressor. It also played a tumor suppressor role in human melanoma through the direct or indirect repression of several key oncogenic molecules.

Methods: qRT-PCR assay was performed to examine the expression of miR-126.

Expression of phosphorylated-STAT3 and osteopontin and their correlation in melanoma.

The expressions of p-STAT3 and osteopontin in 22 cases of normal nevi and 43 cases of malignant melanoma were immunohistochemically detected, and the correlation between p-STAT3 and osteopontin in malignant melanoma and the correlations of p-STAT3 (or osteopontin) with invasion, metastasis and thickness of malignant melanoma were examined. The results showed p-STAT3 was expressed in 2 of 22 cases of normal nevi and 30 of 43 cases of malignant melanoma, while osteopontin was expressed in 3 cases of normal nevi and 29 cases of malignant melanoma. The expressions of p-STAT3 and osteopontin in melanoma were significantly higher than that in benign nevi.

The expression of endothelin receptor B in melanoma cells A375 and Sk-mel-1 and the proliferative effects of endothelin 3 on A375 cells.

In order to investigate the expression of endothelin receptor B (ETR-B) in human malignant melanoma (MM) cells A375 and SK-mel-1 and the proliferative effects of endothelin 3 (ET3) on A375 cells, RT-PCR was applied to detect the expression of ETR-B gene in human MM cells A375 and SK-mel-1. MTT method was used to evaluate the growth enhancing effects of ET3 on A375 cell line in vitro. The results showed that ETR-B gene was expressed in both MM A375 and SK-mel-1 cells.

In vitro recombination and identification of mutated fragment corresponding to regulation region of mtrR gene of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

A site-directed mutant DNA fragment was synthesized and transfected into clinical Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) stains to construct the transformants that contained the corresponding mutagenesis of regulation region of mtrR gene. According to the technique of gene splicing by overlap extension (SOEing), a DNA segment with specific mutagenesis was constructed by two-step polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The mutation fragments EF could be used for the next experiment in which the mutation NG strains were induced.

The expression of interleukin-22 and S100A7, A8, A9 mRNA in patients with psoriasis vulgaris.

In order to study the expression of interleukin-22 (IL-22) and S100A7, A8, A9 mRNA in the skin lesions of patients with psoriasis vulgaris and their relationship, the biopsies were taken from skin lesions in 35 patients with psoriasis vulgaris and the skin of 16 normal controls, and the expression levels of IL-22 and S100A7, A8 and A9 mRNA were detected by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. The results showed that (1) IL-22 and S100A8, A9 mRNA were positively expressed in the psoriatic skin lesions but negatively expressed in the normal controls; The expression level of S100A7 was (1.133+/-0.

Expression of minichromosome maintenance 5 protein in proliferative and malignant skin diseases.

Background: The entire minichromosome maintenance (MCM) family (MCM2-7) play roles in the initiation and elongation of DNA replication. Many studies have demonstrated that MCM proteins may be better indicators of a wide variety of proliferative or cancer cells in malignant tissues.

Objectives: To characterize the pattern and frequency of MCM5 expression in proliferative and malignant skin diseases in comparison with those of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA).

Expression of Candida albicans secreted aspartyl proteinase in acute vaginal candidiasis.

In order to analyze the in vivo expression of Candida albicans secreted aspartyl proteinases (SAP) in human vaginal infection, the vaginal secretion from 29 human subjects was collected by vaginal swab, and the expression of SAP1-SAP6 was detected by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction using specific primer sets. It was found that Sap2 and Sap5 were the most common genes expressed during infection; Sap3 and Sap4 were detected in all subjects and all 6 SAP genes were simultaneously expressed in some patients with vaginal candidiasis. It was suggested that the SAP family is expressed by Candida albicans during infection in human and that Candida albicans infection is associated with the differential expression of individual SAP genes which may be involved in the pathogenesis of vaginal candidiasis.

Expression of the p38 MAPK, NF-kappaB and cyclin D1 in extramammary Paget's disease.

Background: The p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB)/cyclin D1 signaling pathway has recently been shown to play an important part in the pathogenesis of many human tumors. However, the role of this signal transduction pathway in extramammary Paget's disease (EMPD) remains unknown.

Objective: This study was designed to investigate the expression of phosphorylated p38 MAP kinasealpha (p-p38 MAPKalpha), phosphorylated NF-kappa B p65 (p-NF-kappaB p65) and cyclin D1 proteins in EMPD and to evaluate the relationship among them.

Relationship between mutation of IR in the mtr system of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multiple antibiotic resistance.

To study the relationship between mutation of the inverted repeat sequence (IR) in the multiple transferable resistant system (mtr) of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) and its multiple antibiotic resistance, minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for the clinically isolated strains were tested by agar-dilution-method. The mtr system's IR gene of NG was sequenced after amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Either two susceptive or five penicillin-resistant strains had no base mutation in IR gene, while all of the 13 strains with multiple-antibiotic-resistance had a single-base deletion (A/T).

Overexpression of phosphorylated-STAT3 and phosphorylated-ERK protein in dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans.

The overexpression of phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (p-STAT3) and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) have recently been shown to play an important role in the pathogenesis of various human tumors. However, the role of these two major signal transduction pathways in dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) remains unknown. This study was designed to investigate the significance of p-STAT3 and p-ERK expression in DFSP.

Construction of prokaryotic expression plasmid of mtrC protein of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and its expression in E. coli.

In order to provide a rational research basis for detection of resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to antimicrobial hydrophobic agents and study on the resistant mechanism of multiple transferable resistance (mtr) efflux system, plasmid pET-28a(+) encoding mtrC gene was constructed and the related target protein was expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli) DE3. The fragments of mtrC gene of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from the standard strains were amplified and cloned into prokaryotic expression plasmid pET-28a(+) with restriction endonuclease to construct recombinant pET-mtrC which was verified by restriction endonuclease and DNA sequencing.

Correlation between the expression of Fas, Bcl-2 in peripheral blood lymphocytes and the level of IFN-gamma, IL-4 in serum of patients with condyloma acuminata.

In order to investigate the correlation between the expression of the apoptotic regulatory proteins (Fas, Bcl-2) in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLC) and the level of IFN-gamma and IL-4 in serum of the patients with condyloma acuminata (CA) in the immune pathogenesis of CA, indirect immunofluorescence labeling method of flow cytometer and solid sandwich ELISA method were performed for detecting the expression of Fas, Bcl-2 in PBLC and the level of IFN-gamma and IL-4 in serum of 60 cases of CA. The results showed the expression level of Fas in PBLC of CA was significantly higher than in the normal control group, but the expression level of Bcl-2 was significantly lower (both P<0.01).

Susceptibility of mixed infection of Ureaplasma Urealyticum and Mycoplasma Hominis to seven antimicrobial agents and comparison with that of Ureaplasma Urealyticum infection.

In order to investigate the susceptibility of mixed infection of Ureaplasma Urealyticum (UU) and Mycoplasma Hominis (MH) to 7 kinds of antimicrobial agents and comparison with that of UU infection in NGU patients, the in vitro susceptibility was determined by using microdilution method. The positive results were analyzed. The results showed that the sequence of susceptibility to 7 kinds of antimicrobial agents for both UU infection group and UU-MH mixed infection group was almost the same from the highest susceptibility to the lowest accordingly: Josamycin, Doxycycline, Minocycline, Sparfloxacin, Roxithromycin, Ofloxacin and Azithromycin.

Telomerase activity in condyloma acuminatum tissue with different HPV types.

The telomerase activity in condyloma acuminatum (CA) tissue with human papillomavirus (HPV) types of 6/11 and 16/18 was detected to investigate the function of telomerase in the occurrence, development and carcinogenesis of genital CA. Forty-two biopsies from patients with genital CA and 30 control tissue samples were tested for telomerase activity, HPV presence and types. The telomerase activity was determined by modified telomerase repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay and HPV typing by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with typing-specific primers.