Publications by authors named "ZhongDao Wu"

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  • Pomacea canaliculata, an invasive South American species, is highly adaptable and genetically diverse across East and Southeast Asia, with 173 genomes studied.
  • The species' dispersal is linked to climate change and human activities, and researchers identified specific genes, like Csde1, that aid in low temperature adaptation.
  • Selection processes, such as positive and balancing selection, play a crucial role in the rapid environmental adaptation of P. canaliculata, particularly involving energy metabolism and immune response genes.
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  • Clonorchiasis is a disease that is causing problems in Guangdong province, and this study wanted to find out how bad the situation is there.
  • Researchers looked at how many people are infected, how long they are affected, and how much it costs to treat them.
  • In 2021, they found that 4.25% of the population had the disease, and while the situation seemed to improve from 2016 to 2020, it got worse again in 2021, especially in certain areas near rivers.
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Background & Aims: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is the second most common primary liver cancer and is highly lethal. Clonorchis sinensis (C. sinensis) infection is an important risk factor for iCCA.

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  • - The sterile insect technique involves releasing sterile male insects to mate with wild females, effectively reducing the population by inducing sterility in females and is being developed for Aedes mosquitoes.
  • - High ratios of sterile males to wild females can lead to decreased longevity and feeding success in female Aedes mosquitoes due to mating harassment and reduced blood uptake.
  • - A field trial in China showed an 80% reduction in female biting rates and a 40% decrease in female mosquito density, indicating this technique can also lower disease transmission by increasing female mortality and reducing contact with hosts.
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The microbiota in the intermediate snail hosts of human schistosomes can significantly affect host biology. For decades, researchers have developed axenic snails to manipulate the symbiotic microbiota. This review summarizes the characteristics of symbiotic microbes in intermediate snail hosts and describes their interactions with snails, affecting snail growth, development, and parasite transmission ability.

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The anti-foreign tissue (transplant rejection) response, mediated by the immune system, has been the biggest obstacle to successful organ transplantation. There are still many enigmas regarding this process and some aspects of the underlying mechanisms driving the immune response against foreign tissues remain poorly understood. Here, we found that a large number of neutrophils and macrophages were attached to the graft during skin transplantation.

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Schistosomiasis, caused by Schistosoma spp., is a zoonotic parasitic disease affecting human health. Rattus norvegicus (rats) are a non-permissive host of Schistosoma, in which the worms cannot mature and cause typical egg granuloma.

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Background: Studies on the gut microbiota of animals have largely focused on vertebrates. The transmission modes of commensal intestinal bacteria in mammals have been well studied. However, in gastropods, the relationship between gut microbiota and hosts is still poorly understood.

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Background: Gastropoda, the largest class within the phylum Mollusca, houses diverse gut microbiota, and some gastropods serve as intermediate hosts for parasites. Studies have revealed that gut bacteria in gastropods are associated with various biological aspects, such as growth, immunity and host-parasite interactions. Here, we summarize our current knowledge of gastropod gut microbiomes and highlight future research priorities and perspectives.

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snails play a crucial role in the transmission of the human blood fluke . The gut microbiota of intermediate hosts is known to influence their physiological functions, but little is known about its composition and role in snails. To gain insights into the biological characteristics of these freshwater intermediate hosts, we conducted metagenomic sequencing on and to investigate variations in their gut microbiota.

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Schistosoma parasites, causing schistosomiasis, exhibit typical host specificity in host preference. Many mammals, including humans, are susceptible to infection, while the widely distributed rodent, Microtus fortis, exhibits natural anti-schistosome characteristics. The mechanisms of host susceptibility remain poorly understood.

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Liver fibrosis can occur in many chronic liver diseases, and no effective treatments are available due to the poorly characterized molecular pathogenesis. Semaphorin 4D (Sema4D) has immune functions and serves important roles in T cell priming. Here, we found that Sema4D was highly expressed in fibrotic liver, and the expression of Sema4D increased with hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) activation.

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Background: The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a green and species-specific insect pest control technique that suppresses target populations by releasing factory-reared, radiosterilized males into the wild. Once released, it is important to be able to distinguish the released males from the wild males for monitoring purposes. Several methods to mark the sterile males exist.

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Background: Angiostrongylus cantonensis (A. cantonensis) infection can induce acute inflammation, which causes meningoencephalitis and tissue mechanical injury to the brain. Parasite infection-induced microRNAs play important roles in anti-parasite immunity in non-permissive hosts.

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The geographic boundaries of arboviruses continue to expand, posing a major health threat to millions of people around the world. This expansion is related to the availability of effective vectors and suitable habitats. Armigeres subalbatus (Coquillett, 1898), a common and neglected species, is of increasing interest given its potential vector capacity for Zika virus.

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Article Synopsis
  • * In a study, two specific miRNAs (miR-17-5p and miR-193a-5p) showed significant differences in levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF-EVs) between pneumonia patients and controls, indicating their potential in diagnosing pneumonia.
  • * The study suggests that miR-17-5p and miR-193a-5p not only have diagnostic accuracy comparable to procalcitonin but also offer higher specificity, making them promising candidates for early
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  • A globally distributed food-borne parasite can remain in a host for a long time post-infection, with secretions affecting the host's immune response and fibroblast activity, though mechanisms are not fully understood.
  • The study focused on analyzing the role of larvae-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their specific miRNAs in how the parasite interacts with its host.
  • Results showed that the larvae EVs and certain miRNAs promote M2b macrophage polarization while suppressing fibroblast activation, helping to clarify the molecular dynamics of host-parasite interactions.
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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important regulatory role in neuronal growth and development. Different miRNAs target different genes to protect neurons in different ways, such as by avoiding apoptosis, preventing degeneration mediated by conditional mediators, preventing neuronal loss, weakening certain neurotoxic mechanisms, avoiding damage to neurons, and reducing inflammatory damage to them. The high expression of miRNAs in the brain has significantly facilitated their development as protective targets for therapy, including neuroprotection and neuronal recovery.

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NLRC5 has been reported to be involved in antiviral immunity; however, the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the functional role of NLRC5 in the infection of a flavivirus, dengue virus (DENV). We found that the expression of NLRC5 was strongly induced by virus infection and IFNB or IFNG stimulation in different cell lines.

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  • - Dengue fever has led to significant outbreaks in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where this study investigated the factors contributing to its spread and assessed community knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to dengue.
  • - The study involved a large sample of blood analyses and community surveys, revealing that Peshawar had the highest number of dengue cases, mostly affecting young, unmarried males from lower-income families.
  • - Findings indicated that higher human density and power outages were linked to increased risk, while the community showed varying levels of knowledge and practices towards dengue prevention, with 74% knowledgeable but only 43% practicing preventive measures effectively.
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The gut microbiota has been identified as a predictive biomarker for various diseases. However, few studies focused on the diagnostic accuracy of gut microbiota derived-signature for predicting hepatic injuries in schistosomiasis. Here, we characterized the gut microbiomes from 94 human and mouse stool samples using 16S rRNA gene sequencing.

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Currently, there is still no effective curative treatment for the development of late-stage liver fibrosis. Here, we have illustrated that TB001, a dual glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor/glucagon receptor (GLP-1R/GCGR) agonist with higher affinity towards GCGR, could retard the progression of liver fibrosis in various rodent models, with remarkable potency, selectivity, extended half-life and low toxicity. Four types of liver fibrosis animal models which were induced by CCl, -naphthyl-isothiocyanate (ANIT), bile duct ligation (BDL) and were used in our study.

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Humans and a wide range of mammals are generally susceptible to Schistosoma infection, while some rodents such as Rattus rats and Microtus spp are not. We previously demonstrated that inherent high expression levels of nitric oxide (NO), produced by inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), plays an important role in blocking the growth and development of Schistosoma japonicum in wild-type rats. However, the potential regulatory effects of NO on the immune system and immune response to S.

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infections, which lead to local inflammatory responses to schistosome eggs trapped in host tissues, can result in long-term, severe complications. The development of schistosomiasis may result from a complex interaction between the pathogenic, environmental, and host genetic components. Notably, the genetic factors that influence the development of schistosomiasis complications are poorly understood.

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