Correlations between TLR polymorphisms and inflammatory bowel disease: a meta-analysis of 49 case-control studies

Immunologic Research - Recently, the roles of toll-like receptor (TLR) polymorphisms in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) were intensively explored, with conflicting results. Therefore, we performed...     

High genetic diversity and recombination events of porcine astrovirus strains identified from ill and asymptomatic pigs in 2017, Hunan Province,China

Astroviruses (AstV) are associated with enteric and systemic disease in mammals and birds. Astroviruses have received increased attention recently as they have been found to be associated with sporadic neurologic disease in mammals including humans. In pigs, porcine astrovirus (PoAstV) can be widely detected and has been grouped in five genotypes (PoAstV1 to PoAstV5). In the present study, we detected multiple PoAstVs in serum samples, nasal swabs, and fecal swabs collected from pigs suffering from respiratory disease or diarrhea but also from asymptomatic pigs, indicating a wide tissue tropism of the identified PoAstV genotypes. Coinfection of different genotypes in the same pig was commonly observed, and within an individual pig a high genetic diversity was observed for viruses belonging to the same PoAstV genotype. Two complete genomes of PoAstV2-WG-R2/2017 and PoAstV4-WG-R2/2017 were successfully obtained and characterized, with genome sizes of 6396 and 6643 nucleotides, respectively. The PoAstV2-WG-R2/2017 genome showed identities of 67.2–77.4% to other known PoAstV2 genomes, and the PoAstV4-WG-R2/2017 genome showed identities of 72.8–80.5% to other known PoAstV4 genomes. The predicted spike domain of open reading frame 2 (ORF2) of these strains showed the highest genetic heterogeneity, with amino acid identities of 13.7–70.9% for PoAstV2-WG-R2/2017 to other known PoAstV2 strains, and identities of 24.4–63.3% for the PoAstV4-WG-R2/2017 to other known PoAstV4 strains. Possible recombination events were identified in each of the two sequences. Two subclades of PoAstV2 and three subclades of PoAstV4 were defined in the present analyses. The obtained data provide further evidence for extraintestinal infectivity of PoAstVs, and confirmed the high genetic diversity of PoAstVs and the coinfection potential of different PoAstV types in a single pig.

     

Visible Light Controlled Polymerization of Azide‐Derived Monomers: A Facile,Metal‐Free PET‐ATRP Route to Construct Azide Polymers

Well‐defined azide polymers are successfully synthesized by visible‐light‐induced metal‐free electron transfer–atom transfer radical polymerization (PET‐ATRP) at room temperature. This technique uses Eosin Y/Et₃N as the reductive quenching photocatalyst system, which can effectively prevent the destruction of the azide group in polymerization. Four kinds of azide‐derived monomers participate well in this reaction and obtain satisfactory results. The kinetic behavior, “ON/OFF” experiment, and chain‐extension experiment confirm the living feature of this visible light controlled polymerization. Moreover, random copolymers obtained by this protocol can be used as surface modifier which further demonstrates the utility and reliability of this method.     

One‐Step Route to Ladder‐Type C–N Linked Conjugated Polymers

A one‐step synthetic method is demonstrated to construct ladder‐type conjugated polymers without the resource to post‐cyclization procedures. The ladder‐type C–N linked conjugated polymers ( P1 and P2 ) and model compounds ( 1 and 2 ) are achieved in high yields. The obtained model compounds and polymers display desirable solubility in commonly used solvents and high thermal stability, which show a promising application in photoelectric material field.     

A Triple‐Shape Memory Material via Thermal Responsive Behavior of Liquid Crystalline Network Incorporating Main‐Chain/Side‐Chain LC Units

In the last several years, multiple‐shape memory liquid crystalline networks (LCNs) have received more and more attention due to the basic theoretical research on them and their wide potential applications. In this article, a novel main‐chain/side‐chain liquid crystalline monomer and its corresponding polymer networks based on the thiol‐ene click reaction are reported. Properties of the synthesized liquid crystalline monomer are well studied with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and polarized optical microscopy (POM). The as‐prepared free‐standing LCN films are investigated well by FTIR, DSC, POM, and X‐ray diffraction (XRD), which show them having good liquid crystalline properties. Tensile test and dynamical mechanical analysis (DMA) results indicate the LCN films have excellent thermal mechanical properties. By adjusting the crosslinking densities, LCN films exhibit two thermal transition temperatures (T_g and T_NI) that can be utilized to trigger the triple‐shape memory behaviors. The cyclic thermal mechanical analysis conducted by DMA reveals that LCN films exhibit good triple‐shape memory properties with high‐shape fixity ratio (R_f (S1→S2) is 99.2% and R_f (S2→S3) is 99.3%) and shape recovery ratio (R_r (S3→S2) is 92.4% and R_r (S2→S1) is 98.5%).     

Rapamycin attenuates Tc1 and Tc17 cell responses in cigarette smoke-induced emphysema in mice

Inflammation Research - Chronic exposure to cigarette smoke promotes airway inflammation and emphysema accompanied by enhanced CD8+ interferon (IFN)-γ+ T(Tc1) and CD8+ interleukin (IL)-17+...