It has been found more than 100 species of mosquito-­borne viruses circulating around the world, and these viruses could cause several severe diseases in both animals and humans, which is a public health issue raising worldwide concern. For a long time in China, Japanese encephalitis and dengue fever were the mainly mosquito­borne viral diseases. While, recently, the epidemic of West Nile virus and Tahyna virus and related viral diseases has been found in China. West Nile virus was isolated from the mosquito samples collected in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and a large number of serological results provided the evidence that diseases caused by West Nile virus infection existed in the local area and also, epidemic of viral encephalitis once occurred due to West Nile virus infection. Besides, Tahyna virus was isolated from the mosquito samples collected in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the virus circulation in nature and the prevalence of clinical infections were also found. West Nile virus and Tahyna virus and those related infectious diseases found in China offer new challenges for the prevention and control of vector­borne viruses and vector­borne viral diseases.

Porcine sapovirus (PoSaV), transmitted through fecal-­oral pathway, is an enteric calicivirus causing acute gastroenteritis in pigs, and poses a serious threat to the environment­-harmony ecotype of breeding industry. Porcine sapoviruses closely related to human strains have been detected in swine. As more and more porcine and human recombinant sapoviruses have been reported, the potential risk of cross­species infections and zoonotic generation is a practical concern. However, researches on invasion, infection, mutation, migration, immunization, outbreaks, epidemiology, cross­species infection and transmission of porcine sapovirus are rare. In this review, we focus on viral morphology and resistance, genomic structure and recombinant, transmission, epidemiology and cell receptor of porcine sapovirus.

Human astrovirus (HAstV) is one of the major causes of viral gastroenteritis in infants and young children. However, data on the host response to and pathogenesis of HAstV infection are limited. The primary goal of this study was to identify differentially expressed genes and enriched pathways associated with HAstV infection in human CaCo­-2 cells. The clinical isolates of HAstV were used to infect CaCo-­2 cells and total viral RNAs in the extracellular medium were quantitatively detected. Real­time reverse transcriptase­polymerase chain reaction (RT­-PCR) assay was applied to clearly demonstrate a significant increase in the amount of viral RNAs in the culture supernatant at 9-­24 h post­infection. Finally, RNA sequencing was performed to compare the transcriptomes of CaCo­-2 cells infected with and without a clinically isolated HAstV strain. Statistical analyses on differentially expressed genes revealed that axon guidance and Ras signaling pathways were altered in HAstV­5-­infected CaCo­-2 cells (P<0.05). This is the first report on the deep­-sequencing analysis of transcripts of CaCo-­2 cells infected with HAstV. The data from this study can serve as a basis for future studies of HAstV pathogenesis.

To explore the immunogenicity of DNA vaccine expressing IgG2b-­Fc, eukaryotic expression vectors pSV­-Gag and pSV-­Gag-­IgG2b were constructed. The constructed DNA vaccines were validated by restriction enzyme digestion and DNA sequencing. Western blotting results showed both of the two DNA vaccines could be expressed at appreciable levels in vitro. C57BL/6 mice were injected with these two DNA vaccines by intramuscular injection and their antigen­-specific humoral responses and T cell responses were compared after the last immunization. The results showed that human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV­-1) Gag fused with mouse IgG2b-­Fc elicited superior Gag­-specific humoral responses and T cell responses, but there was only significant increase in antigen­-specific humoral responses between the two DNA vaccines.

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) H37Rv, is a human disease of major importance worldwide. The avirulent M. tuberculosis H37Ra which is used commonly in the laboratory was derived from H37Rv in 1935, but the mechanism of its virulence attenuation remains unclear. In order to explore its possible mechanism of virulence attenuation, screening for different phenotypes is important. To make a rapid and high throughput phenotypic analysis between H37Ra and H37Rv, as well as catch the different phenotypes related to virulence attenuation, the Biolog Phenotype MicroArray analysis was conducted. In this research, the phenotypes of H37Ra were determined and compared with its virulent counterpart H37Rv. Of 765 substrates surveyed, H37Ra phenotypes were highly similar to that of H37Rv, but there were several differences in carbon utilization, osmosis and pH arrays. These arrays suggested that H37Ra could not utilize mono-­methyl succinate and Tween 40 as carbon source in contrast to H37Rv. More interestingly, the differences between H37Ra and H37Rv in the tolerance abilities of hyperosmosis and acid were found, and H37Ra could not tolerate circumstance of pH 5.5 or 3% NaCl, but H37Rv could. These metabolic differences may have a disparate impact on the survival of M. tuberculosis in the hosts and be closely related to the virulence attenuation of H37Ra.

To investigate the potential effect of endotoxin tolerance on nucleotide­-binding oligomerization domain containing 2 (NOD2) signaling pathway, murine macrophage RAW264.7 cells were pretreated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 100 ng/mL) or phosphate buffered saline (PBS) for 20 h to establish endotoxin tolerance group and control group respectively. Both groups were subjected to the treatment with LPS (1 000 ng/mL) or heat­killed Aspergillus fumigatus (HAf). The mRNA levels of NOD2, receptor-­interacting protein 2 (RIP2) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-­α) were measured at 0, 2, 6, 12, 24 h after stimulation by real-­time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The concentrations of secreted TNF-­α and interleukin 8 (IL­-8) were also quantified by enzyme-­linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The collective results showed that neither LPS nor HAf had any significant effect on NOD2, RIP2, and TNF­-α transcription or TNF­-α and IL­-8 secretion in the endotoxin tolerance group. On the contrary, a clear up-­regulation was detected in the control group upon either LPS or HAf treatment, concomitant with a peak at 12 h after stimulation. These data indicate that the NOD2 signaling pathway might be suppressed under endotoxin tolerance conditions.

The present paper aims to analyze the clinical features and prognosis of rabies inpatients treated in The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University during 2002-­2015. Through the review of medical records and telephone questionnaire of the relatives of rabies patients, a descriptive analysis of general status, clinical data, laboratory test results and vaccine inoculation of 92 rabies patients was made. The male to female ratio was 1.6:1, and 96% of the patients were from rural areas. Dogs were the main source of infection. The onset of the disease was mainly within the first three months of the exposure (54%). 98% of the patients did not receive the injection of rabies vaccine before the reported exposure. All the patients died. The minimum duration from symptom onset to death was 20 h, and the maximum duration was 11 d. In conclusion, rabies is still at high risk in the rural areas of western China. The health education and publicity of knowledge of rabies prevention should be strengthened, especially for the protection of children less than 15 years and the population aged 40-­60 years.

A case of Pasteurella canis meningitis and ependymitis in an 8-­month-­old infant was reported. The patient had a history of 5-­day fever and 2­-day convulsion before the admission, and Pasteurella canis was detected from clinical samples. Although timely treatment with a panel of sensitive antibiotics was administered after hospital admission, the conditions continued to progress with cerebral hemia, central respiratory failure and death. This case demonstrates that a rare bacterial infection may cause serious conditions to infants and parents should keep their children away from potential dangerous situations.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, are irreversible and fatal neurodegenerative disorders associated with the conformational conversion of cellular prion protein (PrP^C), a normal cellular protein, into scrapie prion protein (PrP^Sc), a structural isoform that is infectious and with no effective treatment yet. MicroRNA can regulate cellular protein expression at transcriptional level and may play an critical role in the development process of central nervous system. Recent studies indicate that some specific microRNAs involved in the regulation of innate immune response and inflammation signaling pathways may also be implicated in prion diseases and provide some new insights into the treatment of prion diseases. This review highlights the progress on microRNAs in the occurrence of prion diseases and discusses the leading microRNAs in detail.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is a pathogen for hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), and its prevalence is a great challenge to public health. Pathogenesis of EV71 is closely related to a panel of host innate immune responses, such as escape of interferon response, suppression of nuclear factor κB (NF­-κB) signaling pathway and interactions between virus and innate immune cells. This review focuses on the new progress on interactions between EV71 and host innate immunity.