Paradox of complex diversity: Challenges in the diagnosis and management of bacterial keratitis

Bacterial keratitis continues to be one of the leading causes of corneal blindness in the developed as well as the developing world, despite swift progress since the dawn of the “anti-biotic era”. Although, we have expeditiously developed our understanding about the different causative organisms and associated pathology leading to keratitis, extensive gaps in knowledge continue to dampen the efforts required for early and accurate diagnosis, and management in these patients, resulting in poor clinical outcomes. The ability of the causative bacteria to subdue the therapeutic challenge stems from their large genome encoding complex regulatory networks, variety of unique virulence factors, and rapid secretion of tissue damaging proteases and toxins.In this review article, we provide an overview of the established diagnostic techniques and therapeutics for keratitis caused by various bacteria. We extensively report the recent in-roads through novel tools for accurately diagnosing mono- and poly-bacterial corneal infections. Furthermore, we outline the recent progress by our groups and others in understanding the sub-cellular genomic changes that lead to antibiotic resistance in these organisms. Finally, we discuss in detail, the novel therapies and drug delivery systems in development for the efficacious management of bacterial keratitis.     

FOLFCIS Treatment and Genomic Correlates of Response in Advanced Anal Squamous Cell Cancer

Background

Treatment of advanced anal squamous cell cancer (SCC) is usually with the combination of cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil, which is associated with heterogeneous responses across patients and significant toxicity. We examined the safety and efficacy of a modified schedule, FOLFCIS (leucovorin, fluorouracil, and cisplatin), and performed an integrated clinical and genomic analysis of anal SCC.

69份苦玄参种质SSR遗传多样性及品质性状相关标记分析

目的:采用简单重复序列(SSR)分子标记技术对广西苦玄参主产区69份苦玄参种质样本进行遗传多样性及亲缘关系分析,并筛选与苦玄参苷含量相关联的优良种质基因。为苦玄参种质资源评价、遗传进化分析及分子标记辅助育种等提供依据。方法:基于转录组测序技术,开发20对引物进行批量扩增。利用各标记位点的遗传多态信息,分析69份苦玄参种质的遗传多样性及亲缘关系,并通过一元线性和多元逐步回归分析,筛选与苦玄参苷含量相关联的分子标记。结果:20对SSR引物共扩增出76个等位基因,平均每个位点观测等位基因3.8个,高于有效等位基因数(1.9692个),稀有等位基因率为38.2%,等位基因分布不均匀。等位基因多态率范围为0~59%,平均38.24%,各位点多态率差异较大。各位点多态信息含量(PIC)变化范围为0~0.6211,平均0.3780;Shannon多态性信息指数变化范围为0~1.2401,平均0.7590;Nei’s基因多样性指数(Nei)变化范围为0~0.6823,平均0.4409;以上3个指标最高的为P21,最低为P7,各位点遗传多样性存在较大差异。各位点平均观测杂合度为0.3824,低于平均期望杂合度(0.4425),表现为杂合子缺失;平均遗传分化系数Fst为0.3659;基因流Nm平均值为0.4332,种质遗传分化较大,基因流较小。一元线性回归分析和多元逐步回归分析结果表明,与苦玄参苷IA和IB相关的位点各有5个,其中仅有1个位点与2个成分的含量均相关。结论:20个SSR标记位点遗传多样性存在较大的差异,供试69份种质遗传分化大,基因流较小;从供试20个SSR标记中筛选出9个与苦玄参苷含量相关联的标记位点,试验结果可为苦玄参遗传进化分析及良种选育和繁育等提供依据。     

Absence of FGFR3–TACC3 rearrangement in hematological malignancies with numerical chromosomal alteration

FGFR–TACC, found in different tumor types, is characterized by the fusion of a member of fibroblast grown factor receptor (FGFR) tyrosine kinase (TK) family to a member of the transforming acidic coiled-coil (TACC) proteins. Because chromosome numerical alterations, hallmarks of FGFR–TACC fusions are present in many hematological disorders and there are no data on the prevalence, we studied a series of patients with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome who presented numerical alterations using cytogenetic traditional analysis. None of the analyzed samples showed FGFR3–TACC3 gene fusion, so screening for this mutation at diagnosis is not recommended.     

Genetic characterization and diversity of porcine circovirus type 2 in non‐vaccinated South African swine herds

The porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is a swine infectious viral pathogen of great significance in global swine herds. It was recently detected at another Province of South Africa sequel to the first detection of North American‐like strain (PCV2a) at Gauteng about two decades ago, but there is a dearth of information about the genomic features and diversity of the viral strains in circulation within the country and the entire sub‐Saharan Africa region. To date, only one complete genome of the virus from South Africa is available on global data base. This current effort is therefore geared towards the full‐genome characterization of the circulating PCV2 strains in the pigs of Eastern Cape Province. With the use of conventional polymerase chain reaction method, fifteen complete PCV2 genomes were successfully amplified, sequenced and assembled from field samples obtained from non‐vaccinated pigs in the region. Neighbor Joining and Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analyses of the ORF2 gene and full genomes unanimously showed that most of the assembled genomes (11) belong to genotype PCV2b. Furthermore, three of the characterized sequences formed clade with other reference mutant PCV2b and PCV2b subtype 1C (i.e. PCV2d) strains from the USA, China and South Korea. The last sequence, however, clustered with other reference strains belonging to PCV2 intermediate clade 2 (PCV2‐IM2), recently identified in a global PCV2 strains phylogenetic analysis. This study reports the first complete genome sequences of PCV2b, PCV2d and PCV2‐IM2 in pigs from South Africa, and it gives a possible insight into the genetic characteristics and variability of the viral strains presently in circulation within the country. It further emphasizes the need for more stringent measures in curtailing the introduction and spread of transboundary swine pathogens in the country and entire Southern African region.     

耐碳青霉烯肺炎克雷伯菌对替加环素不同体外药敏试验方法学评估

目的 比较不同药敏试验方法检测替加环素对耐碳青霉烯肺炎克雷伯菌(CRKP)的敏感性。初步了解辽宁地区CRKP对替加环素的耐药情况，为临床合理用药提供依据。方法 回顾性收集辽宁省内多家大型三甲医院2011年1月-2016年12月分离的CRKP共269株，采用微量肉汤稀释法、KB纸片扩散法、Vitek-2仪器法及E试验法检测替加环素对CRKP的敏感性。结果 微量肉汤稀释法、E试验法、Vitek-2仪器法测定替加环素MIC50和MIC90分别为(0.5/1)、(0.25/0.5)和(0.5/4)μg/mL。按美国食品与药品监督管理局(FDA)和欧洲药敏试验委员会(EUCAST)判读标准，微量肉汤稀释法测得CRKP对替加环素的敏感率为97.4%/93.3%，中介率为2.2%/4.1%，耐药率为0.4%/2.6%。E试验法敏感率最高，为100%/98.9%，Vitek-2法耐药率最高，为8.6%/13.4%，纸片扩散法的中介率最高，为11.9%/46.5%。与微量肉汤稀释法比较，E试验法的基本一致率(EA)和分类一致率(CA)均≥90%，但存在重大误差(VME)，分别为0.4%/1.9%；Vitek-2法EA仅为61.7%，CA为87.4%/72.1%，且大误差(ME)为6.3%/7.4%，无VME；纸片扩散法CA仅为85.9%/46.5%，小误差(mE)为1.9%/2.6%，ME为0.7%/5.6%。结论 辽宁地区绝大多数CRKP对替加环素仍保持较高的敏感性。对于CRKP、E-试验法、Vitek-2仪器法和纸片扩散法均不适合单独检测替加环素敏感性，可考虑联合检测，若结果不一致，均应参考微量肉汤稀释法。     

Molecular characterization of the 17D-204 yellow fever vaccine

IntroductionThe worldwide use of yellow fever (YF) live attenuated vaccines came recently under close scrutiny as rare but serious adverse events have been reported. The population identified at major risk for these safety issues were extreme ages and immunocompromised subjects. Study NCT01426243 conducted by the French National Agency for AIDS research is an ongoing interventional study to evaluate the safety of the vaccine and the specific immune responses in HIV-infected patients following 17D-204 vaccination. As a preliminary study, we characterized the molecular diversity from E gene of the single 17D-204 vaccine batch used in this clinical study.Materials and methodsEight vials of lyophilized 17D-204 vaccine (Stamaril^®, Sanofi-Pasteur, Lyon, France) of the E5499 batch were reconstituted for viral quantification, cloning and sequencing of C/prM/E region.ResultsThe average rate of virions per vial was 8.68 ± 0.07 log₁₀ genome equivalents with a low coefficient of variation (0.81%). 246 sequences of the C/prM/E region (29–33 per vials) were generated and analyzed for the eight vials, 25 (10%) being defective and excluded from analyses. 95% of sequences had at least one nucleotide mutation. The mutations were observed on 662 variant sites distributed through all over the 1995 nucleotides sequence and were mainly non-synonymous (66%). Genome variability between vaccine vials was highly homogeneous with a nucleotide distance ranging from 0.29% to 0.41%. Average p-distances observed for each vial were also homogeneous, ranging from 0.15% to 0.31%.ConclusionThis study showed a homogenous YF virus RNA quantity in vaccine vials within a single lot and a low clonal diversity inter and intra vaccine vials. These results are consistent with a recent study showing that the main mechanism of attenuation resulted in the loss of diversity in the YF virus quasi-species.