Immunological Responses to the Combination of EBNA1 and LMP2 in Mice

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection is closely associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)and considered one of the major risk factors[1]. A limited number of viral proteins, such as latent membrane proteins (LMP1, LMP2) and EB nuclear antigen1 (EBNA1), are expressed in NPC cells[2].Recognition epitopes for CD8+and CD4+T cells were included in the LMP2 antigen and EBNA1 C-terminal region (amino acid No. 380-641), respectively[3,4].Both CD4+and CD8+memory T-cell responses were efficiently reactivated by EBNA1 and LMP2[5;6].

Investigation and analysis of the biosafety awareness of laboratory staff involved in the detection of pathogens in seven provincial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in China

This study aims to evaluate the biosafety awareness of laboratory staff working on pathogens detection in seven Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and support these staff's biosafety management and training.A total of 208 laboratory staff from seven provincial CDCs were chosen by stratified random sampling to undergo a self-administered questionnaire survey.The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0.The overall average biosafety awareness of the CDC laboratory staff involved in pathogen detection was 82.5 points.The average biosafety awareness score was the highest in health monitoring(92.63 points)and the lowest in risk assessment and control(41.6 points).Among the seven provincial CDCs,the Guizhou Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory staff showed the lowest average biosafety awareness score(74.3 points).The team who worked for 5–14 years were more likely to score above the passing score(≥88 points;corrected OR 0.400,95%CI:0.168–0.951)than the staff with less than five years of work experience.In addition,the mid-level and junior-level staff,as well as the lower position ones were more likely to score below the passing score(<88 points;junior level and lower:corrected OR 3.473,95%CI:1.028–11.737;mid-level:corrected OR 2.797,95%CI:1.027–7.618)compared with the senior-level staff.Among the surveyed team,66.3%identified a lack of specific funds related to work,61.5%identified a lack of designated personnel for the laboratory biosafety management.The biosafety awareness in CDC laboratory staff involved in pathogen detection is low,especially regarding risk assessment and control.The biosafety awareness in Guizhou and Guangxi Provincial CDC laboratory staff is also low.Laboratory funding,job title,and years of experience in a laboratory influence biosafety awareness in CDC laboratory staff.The biosafety knowledge,education,and training of CDC laboratory staff involved in pathogen detection need to improve by paying attention to the content and coverage of biosafety training,exploring new training modalities,and increasing funding for activities related to biosafety in CDC.

Development of a Recombinase-aided Amplification Combined With Lateral Flow Dipstick Assay for the Rapid Detection of the African Swine Fever Virus

Objective To establish a sensitive,simple and rapid detection method for African swine fever virus(ASFV)B646L gene.Methods A recombinase-aided amplification-lateral flow dipstick(RAA-LFD)assay was developed in this study.Recombinase-aided amplification(RAA)is used to amplify template DNA,and lateral flow dipstick(LFD)is used to interpret the results after the amplification is completed.The lower limits of detection and specificity of the RAA assay were verified using recombinant plasmid and pathogenic nucleic acid.In addition,30 clinical samples were tested to evaluate the performance of the RAA assay.Results The RAA-LFD assay was completed within 15 min at 37°C,including 10 min for nucleic acid amplification and 5 minutes for LFD reading results.The detection limit of this assay was found to be 200 copies per reaction.And there was no cross-reactivity with other swine viruses.Conclusion A highly sensitive,specific,and simple RAA-LFD method was developed for the rapid detection of the ASFV.

LMP2-DC Vaccine Elicits Specific EBV-LMP2 Response to Effectively Improve Immunotherapy in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Cancer

Objective To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine based on latent membrane protein 2(LMP2)modified dendritic cells(DCs)that boosts specific responses of cytotoxic T lymphocytes(CTLs)to LMP2 before and after intradermal injection in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC).Methods DCs were derived from peripheral blood monocytes of patients with NPC.We prepared LMP2-DCs infected by recombinant adenovirus vector expressing LMP2(rAd-LMP2).NPC patients were immunized with 2×105 LMP2-DCs by intradermal injection at week 0 and after the second and fourth weeks.Specific responses to LMP2 were detected by enzyme-linked immunospot(ELISPOT)assay at week 0 and at the fifth and eighth weeks.Local clinicians performed the follow-up and tracking of patients.Results We demonstrated that DCs derived from monocytes displayed typical DC morphologies;the expression of LMP2 in the LMP2-DCs vaccine was confirmed by immunocytochemical assay.Twenty-nine patients with NPC were enrolled in this clinical trial.The LMP2-DCs vaccine was well tolerated in all of the patients.Boosted responses to LMP2 peptide sub-pools were observed in 18 of the 29 patients with NPC.The follow-up data of 29 immunized patients from April,2010 to April 2015 indicated a five-year survival rate of 94.4%in responders and 45.5%in non-responders.Conclusion In this pilot study,we demonstrated that the LMP2-DCs vaccine is safe and effective in patients with NPC.Specific CTLs responses to LMP2 play a certain role in controlling and preventing the recurrence and metastasis of NPC,which warrants further clinical testing.

The hepatitis B vaccine originally jointly developed by China and the US is safe and effective

According to the disease control and prevention data of China,hepatitis B vaccinations have caused 188 coincidence deaths of newborns totally from 2000 to 2013.No problems have been found with the vaccines.Besides inspection of the manufacturers,all vaccines are launched to the market after inspection of the central government of China.Similar events happened also in other vaccines.The recent deaths related to hepatitis B vaccination have been proved to be coincidence.The hepatitis B virus vaccine used is originally jointly developed by the Chinese government and the US government.Its safety has been proved by the inoculation of one billion people around the globe.

A Knowledge Survey on Health Education of Echinococcosis Among Students — Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, 2020

Summary What is already known about this topic?Previous surveys have mainly focused on how well residents and primary school students have understood the core knowledge of echinococcosis control and are limited in terms of the comprehensiveness of the knowledge category and respondents.What is added by this report?There were some shortcomings in related knowledge of echinococcosis among students,which showed a tendency to know methods but not the rationale.The differences among regions indicated a lack of a unified system for training educators and allocating comprehensive educational material.What are the implications for public health practices?The results of this study provide evidence to potentially help improve health education programs in the new phase of echinococcosis prevention and control in China.

New strategy for virus discovery:viruses identified in human feces in the last decade

Emerging and re-emerging viruses continue to surface all over the world.Some of these viruses have the potential for rapid and global spread with high morbidity and mortality,such as the SARS coronavirus outbreak.It is extremely urgent and important to identify a novel virus near-instantaneously to develop an active preventive and/or control strategy.As a cultureindependent approach,viral metagenomics has been widely used to investigate highly divergent and completely new viruses in humans,animals,and even environmental samples in the past decade.A new model of Koch's postulates,named the metagenomic Koch's postulates,has provided guidance for the study of the pathogenicity of novel viruses.This review explains the viral metagenomics strategy for virus discovery and describes viruses discovered in human feces in the past 10 years using this approach.This review also addresses issues related to the metagenomic Koch's postulates and the challenges for virus discovery in the future.