Research Advance of Chinese Medicine in Treating Atherosclerosis: Focus on Lipoprotein-Associated Phospholipase A2.

As a serious cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis (AS) causes chronic inflammation and oxidative stress in the body and poses a threat to human health. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is a member of the phospholipase A2 (PLA2) family, and its elevated levels have been shown to contribute to AS. Lp-PLA2 is closely related to a variety of lipoproteins, and its role in promoting inflammatory responses and oxidative stress in AS is mainly achieved by hydrolyzing oxidized phosphatidylcholine (oxPC) to produce lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC).

Management in the paediatric wards facing novel coronavirus infection: a rapid review of guidelines and consensuses.

Objectives: Relevant guidelines and consensuses for COVID-19 contain recommendations aimed at optimising the management in paediatric wards. The goal of this study was to determine the quality of those recommendations and provide suggestions to hospital managers for the adjustment of existing hospital prevention and control strategies, and also to offer recommendations for further research.

Design: A rapid review of the guidelines and consensuses for the management in paediatric wards facing COVID-19.

[Effects of donor-specific bone marrow cell infusion on chimerism and acute rejection in kidney transplantation].

Objective: To evaluate the effect of donor-specific bone marrow cell infusion on the production of chimerism and acute rejection in kidney transplantation.

Methods: Sixty-one patients, 48 males and 13 females, aged 38.4 (23 - 45), underwent transplantation of cadaveric kidneys, 24 of which underwent kidney transplantation combined with donor-specific bone marrow cell infusion and 37 of which underwent pure transplantation of kidney.

Real-time fluorescence PCR assays for detection and characterization of Shiga toxin, intimin, and enterohemolysin genes from Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli.

PCR assays have proved useful for detecting and characterizing Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC). Recent advances in PCR technology have facilitated the development of real-time fluorescence PCR assays with greatly reduced amplification times and improved methods for the detection of amplified target sequences. We developed and evaluated two such assays for the LightCycler instrument: one that simultaneously detects the genes for Shiga toxins 1 and 2 (stx(1) and stx(2)) and another that simultaneously detects the genes for intimin (eae) and enterohemolysin (E-hly).

Escherichia coli harboring Shiga toxin 2 gene variants: frequency and association with clinical symptoms.

Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) from patients with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), patients with diarrhea without HUS, or asymptomatic subjects were genotyped to assess associations between stx2 variants and clinical manifestations of infection. Neither stx2d nor stx2e was found in 268 STEC isolates from patients with HUS. Of 262 STEC isolates from patients with diarrhea, stx(2d) was found in 41 (15.