The present paper aimed to analyze the correlation between estradiol and cytokines in the patients with severe hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), and to provide information for the diagnosis and treatment of this disease. The samples of children with clinically diagnosed HFMD were collected. Enterovirus 71 (EV71) and other enteroviruses were detected by fluorescent quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The serum estradiol and cytokines were detected by chemiluminescent immunoassay and Milliplex xMAP assays respectively. The results showed that the concentrations of estradiol in severe HFMD, mild HFMD and healthy control groups were (6.12±6.08) pg/mL, (30.2±10.16) pg/mL and (20.62±7.43) pg/mL, respectively. There were significant differences in the concentrations of interferon γ (IFN-γ), interleukin 8 (IL-8) and IL-6 between severe HFMD group and mild HFMD group. Serum IL-8 and IL-6 levels were negatively correlated with estradiol concentration. The results suggest that serum estradiol concentration in HFMD patients is closely related to IFN-γ， IL-8 and IL-6 levels, which could be used as a biomarker for clinical judgement of severe HFMD.

Two lytic phage strains of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were isolated from waste water of a dairy farm, and named as phiSA_BS1 and phiSA_BS2. Electronic microscopy showed that both of them were composed of a polyhedral head and a contractible tail. Their one-step growth curve, temperature-tolerance and pH-tolerance were analyzed. They were able to lyse all three strains of S. aureus tested, but failed to lyse a strain of S. epidermidis. Complete genome sequencing and annotation showed that phiSA_BS1 had a genome of 142 978 bp, with 29.80% GC, presumably encoding 201 open reading frames (ORFs), and with no tRNA gene, whereas phiSA_BS2 had a genome of 149 230 bp, with 29.61% GC, presumably encoding 210 ORFs, and with one tRNA gene. Phylogenic analysis indicated that the two phages were members of Myoviridae, and they were two new S. aureus phages. However, they were highly distanced from any other reported phages. These two phage strains may provide new options for the therapy of S. aureus-related bovine mastitis.

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is a new technology to study the transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis), in addition to variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) typing and clustering. In this study, a total of 55 XDR-TB strains isolated from a hospital in Chongqing from 2003 to 2009 were genotyped and clustered (≤12 SNPs) by 9＋3 loci VNTR and WGS respectively. The evolutionary trees by the two methods were built, and the consistency and differences in clustering were compared. By VNTR, 55 strains of M. tuberculosis could be divided into 45 genotypes, of which 39 were single genotypes and 16 were in 6 clusters. Twenty of the 55 strains (36.4%) were divided into 5 clusters by WGS. The consistency of the two methods in identifying clusters was 63.6%. Compared with WGS, VNTR typing method had a sensitivity of 40.0% and a specificity of 77.1%. VNTR typing method had a higher specificity than WGS. The results indicate that VNTR typing alone might incorrectly estimate the transmission of XDR-TB, and clustering by no more than 12 SNPs for recent transmission of XDR-TB is a practical standard deserving more studies.

Coxackievirus A16 (CA16) is a major pathogen of hand, foot and mouth disease. Because of the unclear pathogenesis and immunomechanism of CA16, the development of a CA16 vaccine has encountered numerous difficulties. Many studies have reported that epithelial cells and associated immune cells in respiratory tract mucosa, especially innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), are largely contributed to the activation of innate and adaptive immune responses during viral infection. It is still unknown that whether ILCs play a similar role in the immune response induced by CA16 infection. To reveal the potential interactions between ILCs and CA16 infection, the expression levels of genes related to ILC activation in CA16-infected human tracheal epithelial cells (16HBE) and mouse respiratory tract epithelial cells (CP-M175) stimulated by adjuvants formulated CA16-inactivated antigen were firstly determined. Then, a formulated experimental CA16-inactivated vaccine was used to immunize BALB/c mice through nasal route, and the relationship between ILCs and viral antigens in the respiratory mucosa was analyzed. Both CA16 live virus and inactivated virus particles could induce upregulation of various molecules required for the activation of ILCs and stimulate transcription and expression of cytokines, which were secreted by activated ILCs, no matter in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, immunofluorescence and confocal microscopic results showed that the viral antigen was co-localized with ILC1/ILC3. Finally, the anti-CA16 neutralizing antibodies and specific cellular immune response in mice of four different immunization pathways/immunization procedures were tested. The results suggested that the mice immunized with the formulated CA16-inactivated vaccine could induce an effective antiviral immune response in vivo. In conclusion, CA16 antigen can induce an effective immune response by activating ILCs.

Batches of Oka varicella vaccine prepared in different years by Shanghai Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd. were deep-sequenced by the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology and analyzed to evaluate the quality consistency in molecular level. In average there were 77 loci present in Oka genome with proportion of vaccine-type allele (Pv) no less than 10%, of which 76 appeared in at least two batches. The maximum Pv difference of batch-to-batch was less than 10%. There were 40 loci with average Pv no less than 30%, among which 19 led to amino acid changes and 15 located within ORF62 and adjacent non-coding area. The results demonstrate a good molecular consistency of Oka varicella vaccines produced in different years, and provide research methods and basic data for the quality control of vaccine manufacture and market supervision.

Pandoraea is a Gram-negative bacterium, belonging to the family of Burkholderiaceae. Its infection in China is rare. One Pandoraea sp. strain was isolated from a neonatal blood culture in our laboratory, which was identified by biochemical methods, drug susceptibility testing and 16S rRNA gene sequencing.

Quick diagnosis and precise treatment of infectious diseases are two of the urgent tasks in clinical medicine. The nucleic acid aptamer is specific for target obtained by alternate screen and enrichment in vitro or systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) technology. The application of aptamer in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases is reviewed.

For millions of years, human beings have coexisted and coevolved with a vast number of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Now, the epidemiological relationships between several specific bacteria and cancer are explored at the molecular level. With the increasing maturity of next-generation sequencing technology, it will definitely promote the in-depth study of gut bacteria and thus help understand the taxonomic and metabolomic associations between bacteria and cancer. This review summarizes the tumorigenesis mechanisms of bacteria.