Publications by authors named "XuHu Mao"

Severe cases of COVID-19 are associated with immune responses that lead to a surge in inflammatory molecules, resulting in multi-organ failure and death. This significant increase in inflammatory factors is triggered by viral proteins. Open reading frame 8 (ORF8) has received particular attention as a unique accessory protein of SARS-CoV-2.

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Background: is a gram-negative bacterium widely found in Southeast Asia and northern Australia. This bacterium, which lacks an available vaccine, is the causative agent of melioidosis and has properties that potentially enable its exploitation as a bioweapon.

Methods: Polymerase chain reaction assays targeting each of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) genetic types were used to investigate genotype frequencies in populations.

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Melioidosis is a serious infectious disease caused by the Gram-negative bacterium . Recently, Rab32-dependent immune vesicles emerge as a critical defense pathway to restrict the intracellular . However, can evade host immune vesicles and survive in the cytoplasm, although this mechanism is not well understood.

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Article Synopsis
  • A certain type of bacteria can hide inside cells and stay safe from the immune system by using tricks.
  • When this bacteria infects a cell, it helps the cell get rid of damaged parts (like mitochondria) to survive better.
  • The bacteria uses a special protein (BipD) to control the cell's recycling process, allowing it to live longer inside the host cell.
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Article Synopsis
  • - Mitophagy is crucial for maintaining healthy mitochondria by eliminating damaged ones, and researchers found that the bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei exploit this process to survive inside host cells using a protein called BipD.
  • - BipD interacts with specific host proteins (KLHL9 and KLHL13) and recruits a ligase (CUL3) to promote mitochondrial ubiquitination, although these host proteins don't directly regulate infectious diseases.
  • - The study identifies IMMT as a key substrate for ubiquitination by the KLHL9/KLHL13/CUL3 complex, showing that a specific type of ubiquitination is necessary for starting mitophagy and reducing harmful mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS).
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Melioidosis, a severe tropical illness caused by , poses significant treatment challenges due to limited therapeutic options and the absence of effective vaccines. The pathogen's intrinsic resistance to numerous antibiotics and propensity to induce sepsis during acute infections further complicate management strategies. Thus, exploring alternative methods for prevention and treatment is crucial.

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Burkholderia pseudomallei, an intracellular pathogen, is responsible for melioidosis, a zoonotic disease. Its pathogenesis involves several virulence factors, among which lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plays a crucial role. Our research reveals that the O antigen present within the LPS significantly regulates the host immune response.

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Shiga toxin type 2 (Stx2) is the primary virulence factor produced by Shiga toxin-producing enterohemorrhagic (STEC), which causes epidemic outbreaks of gastrointestinal sickness and potentially fatal sequela hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Most studies on Stx2-induced apoptosis have been performed with holotoxins, but the mechanism of how the A and B subunits of Stx2 cause apoptosis in cells is not clear. Here, we found that Stx2 A-subunit (Stx2A) induced mitochondrial damage, PINK1/Parkin-dependent mitophagy and apoptosis in Caco-2 cells.

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, the causative agent of melioidosis can be responsible for a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and heterogeneous prognoses, with a high mortality in the acute onset. We report a case of a deep abdominal abscess with sepsis secondary to melioidosis in a young farmer from a non-high-risk population. Emergency medical treatment was administered according to the detection of serum antibodies against Hcp1, the results of which provided etiological evidence of infection for the timely and properly antimicrobial therapy in the absence of direct evidence of melioidosis.

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Melioidosis is a bacterial infection caused by (), posing a significant threat to public health. Rapid and accurate detection of is crucial for preventing and controlling melioidosis. However, identifying is challenging due to its high similarity to other species in the same genus.

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Persistent infection is associated with the development of human colorectal cancer (CRC) and promotes tumorigenicity, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we reported that promoted the tumorigenicity of CRC, which was associated with -induced microRNA-31 (miR-31) expression in CRC tissues and cells. infection inhibited autophagic flux by miR-31 through inhibiting syntaxin-12 (STX12) and was associated with the increased intracellular survival of .

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As a universal and extensively adopted technique, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) can be used to detect and quantify small molecules in many applications both clinical and analytical. However, generally, students experiment mechanically using commercial ELISA kits according to the instructions and eventually produce a standard curve to calculate the concentration of the sample to be measured, cannot understand the critical factors and process of method establishment. This study systematically introduced undergraduates to using the pathogen-specific antigen and establishing an indirect ELISA method to detect the diagnostic target pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei.

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Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis, a potentially life-threatening infectious disease, and poses public health risks in endemic areas. Due to the high mortality, intrinsic antibiotic resistance, and atypical manifestations, establishing a rapid, accurate, and sensitive identification of B. pseudomallei enables earlier diagnosis, proper treatments, and better outcomes of melioidosis.

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As a principal ingredient of vaccines, adjuvants can directly induce or enhance the powerful, widespread, innate, and adaptive immune responses associated with antigens. Ophiopogonin D (OP-D), a purified component extracted from the plant Ophiopogon japonicus, has been found to be useful as a vaccine adjuvant. The problems of the low solubility and toxicity of OP-D can be effectively overcome by using a low-energy emulsification method to prepare nanoemulsion ophiopogonin D (NOD).

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O antigen is the major component of lipopolysaccharide LPS. The chemical structure of the O antigen determines the LPS serospecificity of the bacteria, and the diversity of O antigen is the basis for serotyping Burkholderia pseudomallei. In this study, structural elucidation of type B O antigen obtained from a clinical B.

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Fusobacterium nucleatum infection plays vital roles in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression. Overexpression of microRNA-4717-3p (miR-4717) was reported to be upregulated in F. nucleatum positive CRC tissues, however, the underlying mechanism is unknown.

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Both Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) EVADR are associated with colorectal cancer (CRC), but their relationship with CRC metastasis and the mechanisms by which EVADR promotes CRC metastasis are poorly understood. Here, we report that F.

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Burkholderia pseudomallei causes melioidosis - an infectious disease with high mortality. Its varied clinical manifestations and resistance to many antibiotics make it a potential biothreat agent and calls for a robust diagnostic assay and effective vaccines. Bacterial cell surface polysaccharides are considered a valuable target for diagnostics and as protective antigen candidates.

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Burkholderia pseudomallei is the etiological agent of melioidosis, which is an emerging infectious disease endemic to many tropical regions. Autophagy is an intrinsic cellular process that degrades cytoplasmic components and plays an important role in protecting the host against pathogens. Like many intracellular pathogens, B.

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Background: Burkholderia pseudomallei, a facultative intracellular bacterium, is the aetiological agent of melioidosis that is responsible for up to 40% sepsis-related mortality in epidemic areas. However, no effective vaccine is available currently, and the drug resistance is also a major problem in the treatment of melioidosis. Therefore, finding new clinical treatment strategies in melioidosis is extremely urgent.

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is a zoonotic pathogen that usually affects patients' lungs and causes serious melioidosis. The interaction of with its hosts is complex, and cellular response to infection in humans still remains to be elucidated. In this study, transcriptomic profiling of -infected human lung epithelial A549 cells was performed to characterize the cellular response dynamics during the early infection (EI) stage.

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: which causes melioidosis with high mortality in humans, has become a global public health concern. Recently, infection-driven lipid droplet accumulation has been related to the progression of host-pathogen interactions, and its contribution to the pathogenesis of infectious disease has been investigated. Here, we demonstrated that infection actively induced a time-dependent increase in the number and size of lipid droplets in human lung epithelial cells and macrophages.

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Burkholderia pseudomallei is a gram-negative, facultative intracellular bacterium, which causes a disease known as melioidosis. Professional phagocytes represent a crucial first line of innate defense against invading pathogens. Uptake of pathogens by these cells involves the formation of a phagosome that matures by fusing with early and late endocytic vesicles, resulting in killing of ingested microbes.

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Methicillin-resistant (MRSA) resists nearly all β-lactam antibiotics that have a bactericidal activity. However, whether the empirically used β-lactams enhance MRSA pathogenicity remains unclear. In this study, we showed that a cluster of lipoprotein-like genes (, to [-]) was upregulated in MRSA in response to subinhibitory concentrations of β-lactam induction.

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common and highly lethal form of cancer. Although the etiologic role of Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) in the development of CRC has been elucidated, the specific tumor molecules involved in the progression of CRC induced by F.

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