wen zhang

Asthma is a respiratory disease; involving millions of people worldwide. The main cause of asthma is allergy and immune response dysregulation. The effects of azithromycin and doxycycline as asthma-controlling drugs were evaluated in this study. Mice asthma model was produced and asthmatic mice were treated with azithromycin (75 mg/kg, orally) and doxycycline (20 mg/kg, orally). Eosinophils and neutrophils count, interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-12, IL-13, and total immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels were measured. Histological study and evaluating the genes expression of Muc5ac, Muc5b, IL-33, COX2, MYD88, and TRAF6 were performed. Azithromycin and doxycycline did not affect eosinophil and neutrophil percentage, IL-4, IL-5, IL-12, and total IgE levels, peribronchial and perivascular inflammation, goblet cell hyperplasia, and gene expression of MYD88, TRAF6, and COX2. Treatment with azithromycin significantly decreased IL-13 level, mucus secretion, and gene expression of IL-33, Muc5ac, and Muc5b; compared to the non-treated asthma group. Azithromycin administration controls mucus secretion and inflammation. Azithromycin therapy and not doxycycline might be an effective adjuvant option in asthma with reducing mucus in the airway.

Land-use and land-use change can directly affect soil organic carbon. Improper land management can lead to carbon loss from the soil, which can greatly intensify global warming. Despite the abundance of evidence on Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) in Iran, no paper has so far compiled the data for this region. Therefore, data were collected from 120 papers and 393 data points regarding land use and SOC changes. Stepwise regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between SOC with annual precipitation, average annual temperature, latitude and average depth of sampling. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between SOC and other factors. Based on the results, primary forests and reforested areas had significantly higher SOC stocks at the depth of 20cm with average values of 70.03 (±4.45) Mg C ha-1 and 84.38 (±9.01) Mg C ha-1, respectively while there were no significant differences among other land use categories. The findings of this study showed no changes in SOC stocks among land-use change categories and average annual rates of SOC changes. However, among farmlands, evidence was obtained for a significant SOC reduction in cases with a historic forest land-use (-15.2%) compared with those with historic grassland use. Results indicated that farmlands and primary forests had the highest level of SOC input from litter and fine roots, respectively. By evaluating the impact of different factors on SOC using a stepwise regression analysis, it was demonstrated that 31% of the variations in soil carbon storage at different land-use types can be explained by precipitation, temperature, latitude, and sampling depth. Using the obtained equation, SOC variation in Iran was simulated and mapped showing that except for a narrow strip in northern Iran, the rest of the country suffers from low SOC levels. Totally, protecting forests against land conversion is recommended as the top priority for land managers in Iran.

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV), a zoonotic pathogen, uses several species of animal as reservoirs. Swine is considered as the major reservoir for HEV infection in humans. Genotype 4 HEV is the dominant cause of hepatitis E disease in humans in China. Although many researches revealed that genotype 4 HEV is the main genotype that prevalent in eastern China, few researches have done to study the subtype of HEV in this area. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the subtype of HEV prevalent in eastern China. A total of 125 anti-HEV IgM positive human serum and 290 swine fecal samples were subjected to reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) screening of HEV RNA. Positive PCR products were sequenced and phylogenetically analyzed. From a total of 125 human serum samples, 19.2% (24.125) were positive, while 9.66% (28.290) of the 290 swine fecal samples were positive for HEV RNA. Phylogenetic analysis based on partial capsid gene showed that the 51 HEV strains in the current study all belonged to genotype 4, clustering into 6 different subtypes. Our results also revealed that some of HEV isolates prevalent in the human and swine populations were classified into the same clusters. Genotype 4 HEV in eastern China shows subtype diversity and some HEV isolates are involved in cross-species transmission.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major causative agent of acute clinical hepatitis in adults throughout much of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The lack of an efficient cell culture system for HEV has greatly limited our understanding of the mechanisms of infection, replication, and pathogenicity of this virus. The yeast two-hybridization system is considered to be an efficient method for determining protein-protein interactions and screening interactive proteins associated with host cells. In order to identify the host-cell proteins interacting with the HEV-capsid proteins, a fragment of the HEV-capsid protein p239 (amino acids 368-606) was used as bait; human liver cDNA library was used as a source of host-cell proteins, and the screening was performed using the CytoTrap yeast two-hybrid system. The CytoTrap yeast two-hybrid system, which is also called Sos Recruitment System (SRS), was used to analyze the interaction of the p239 fragment with host-cell proteins. We isolated 2 proteins, cytochrome P4502C8 (CYP4502C8) and retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) after 2 rounds of screening. Co-immunoprecipitation assays showed that both the proteins could bind in vitro to the HEV virion in HepG2 cells. CYP4502C8 and RBP4 screened from liver cDNA library using the CytoTrap yeast two-hybrid system interact with HEV capsid in vitro.