Expression of Anti-Lipopolysaccharide Factor Isoform 3 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Showing High Antimicrobial Activity

Antimicrobial peptides are a class of proteins with antibacterial functions. In this study, the anti-lipopolysaccharide factor isoform 3 gene (ALFPm3), encoding an antimicrobial peptide from Penaeus monodon with a super activity was expressed in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which would develop a microalga strain that can be used for the antimicrobial peptide production. To construct the expression cluster, namely pH2A-Pm3, the codon optimized ALFPm3 gene was fused with the ble reporter by 2A peptide and inserted into pH124 vector. The glass-bead method was performed to transform pH2A-Pm3 into C. reinhardtii CC-849. In addition to 8 μg/mL zeocin resistance selection, the C. reinhardtii transformants were further confirmed by genomic PCR and RT-PCR. Western blot analysis showed that the C. reinhardtii-derived ALFPm3 (cALFPm3) was successfully expressed in C. reinhardtii transformants and accounted for 0.35% of the total soluble protein (TSP). Furthermore, the results of antibacterial assay revealed that the cALFPm3 could significantly inhibit the growth of a variety of bacteria, including both Gram-negative bacteria and Gram-positive bacteria at a concentration of 0.77 μM. Especially, the inhibition could last longer than 24 h, which performed better than ampicillin. Hence, this study successfully developed a transgenic C. reinhardtii strain, which can produce the active ALFPm3 driven from P. monodon, providing a potential strategy to use C. reinhardtii as the cell factory to produce antimicrobial peptides.     

An improved ferritin assay for canine sera

An improved serum ferritin assay for canine serum has been developed. It uses two monoclonal antibodies in a sandwich arrangement. Serum ferritin can be determined on undiluted canine sera with this assay. The recovery of ferritin added to canine serum ranged from 98 to 106%, the within-assay coefficient of variability was 3.3 to 4.5%, and the assay-to-assay variability was 9.8 to 10.2%. Serum ferritin from 61 apparently healthy dogs had a geometric mean of 252 ng/ml, with a range of 80 ng/ml to 800 ng/ml.     

奶牛MTT比色法的最佳条件探讨

为建立奶牛淋巴细胞增殖反应MTT比色法,对试验条件进行了研究。应用L16(45)正交试验,对影响MTT比色法的四个主要因素,包括ConA浓度、细胞浓度、培养液小牛血清浓度及培养时间进行了比较和探索。试验表明几个因素对其增殖反应都有显著影响(P<0.05),且最佳反应条件为:15μg/mL的ConA、1×106/mL细胞浓度、10%小牛血清及60h的培养时间;影响增殖反应的先后顺序为细胞浓度、ConA浓度、培养时间及血清浓度。     

Effect of Heat‐treatment on Accuracy of Infrared Spectroscopy and Digital and Optical Brix Refractometers for Measuring Immunoglobulin G Concentration in Bovine Colostrum

Background

Heat‐treatment of colostrum is a method developed to reduce calf exposure to pathogens. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy and Brix refractometers can be used for measuring colostral IgG concentration and assessing colostrum quality.

Objectives

To determine the impact of heat‐treatment on accuracy of IR spectroscopy and Brix refractometers for measuring colostral IgG concentration and assessing colostrum quality before and after heat‐treatment.

Animals

A total of 60 Holstein dairy cows on 8 commercial dairy farms.

Methods

A cross‐sectional study was designed to determine the effect of heat‐treatment at 60°C and 63°C each for 30 and 60 minutes duration on colostral IgG concentration measured by the reference radial immunodiffusion (RID) assay, IR spectroscopy, and digital and optical refractometers.

Results

Colostrum IgG concentration significantly decreased after heat‐treatment at 63°C for 30 or 60 minutes as measured by RID, but the IgG values remained unchanged when measured by IR spectroscopy and refractometers. The lowest correlation coefficient found between IR spectroscopy (r = 0.70) and RID results was in colostrum heat‐treated at 63°C for 60 minutes. For digital (r = 0.48) and optical (r = 0.50) refractometers, the lowest correlation coefficient was at 63°C for 30 minutes when compared to RID. The accuracy of the IR spectroscopy, digital and optical Brix refractometers was decreased from 91.7 to 80%, 81.7 to 45%, and 80 to 45%, respectively, when colostrum heat‐treated at 63°C for 60 minutes.

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

Radial immunodiffusion, IR spectroscopy, and Brix refractometers exhibit utility for measuring IgG concentration when colostrum heat‐treated at 60°C but does not detect decrease IgG concentrations when heat‐treated at 63°C.     

Changes of serum vascular endothelial growth factor levels in a rat model of acute myocardial infarction

AIM and METHODS: To study the changes of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in a rat model of acute myocardial infarction (MI) and its significance. Eighty-eight male Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this study. MI was produced by left coronary arterial ligation in 80 animals, and eight rats undergoing thoracotomy but not coronary ligation served as controls (sham).Blood samples were drawn from the right atrium before (sham animals) and 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 hours and 2, 3, 5, 7, 14 days after MI(n=8, respectively). Serum VEGF concentrations were measured by a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with a rabbit polyclonal antibody specific for VEGF. RESULTS: In 8 sham animals, the concentration of serum VEGF was (66.99±17.83) pg/mL. Six hours after MI, the level of serum VEGF significantly increased to (125.68±28.07)pg/mL (P＜0.01 vs sham control), and reached a peak (240.61±70.63 pg/mL, P＜0.01 vs sham control) at 24 hours after ligation and then decreased gradually over the remaining 2 weeks. But the level remained significantly elevated for 14 days (107.64±30.31 pg/mL, P＜0.01 vs sham control).CONCLUSION: Serum VEGF levels markedly and permanently increase in the rat model of acute MI may play an important role in the angiogenesis associated with MI     

三唑磷酶联免疫吸附测定法中包被抗体稳定剂的研究

选择了甘油、山梨醇、聚乙二醇(PEG)、卵清蛋白(OVA)、多肽、糖、氨基酸等试剂,通过经验法和正交法相结合的手段配制了一系列稳定剂,对吸附在酶标板上的三唑磷多克隆抗体进行处理(37℃,1 h)后,再在37℃下连续贮存 7 d,利用直接竞争ELISA法对不同稳定剂处理的包被抗体免疫活性、亲合性及检测灵敏度进行检测,并与未经稳定剂处理的对照进行比较,筛选得到效果较好的稳定剂 1 (质量分数:甘油2.5%,氨基酸1.5%,蛋白胨3.0%,离子螯合剂0.1%,防腐剂0.01%)。用稳定剂 1 处理包被抗体后,4~6℃下保存半年及37℃下保存14 d的试验结果表明,抗体的活性相对保持率分别为97.8%和94.2%;其免疫活性、亲合性(I50分别为68.43和54.38 ng/mL)及灵敏度(I10分别为3.72和 3.22 ng/mL)与常规方法包被的抗体(包被好后不贮存,直接检测,I50为60.73 ng/mL,I10为 3.11 ng/mL)无明显差异;冻融试验表明,经稳定剂 1 处理的三唑磷抗体在反复冻-融次数不超过8次时其活性也是稳定的。说明筛选出的稳定剂可以显著提高三唑磷多克隆包被抗体的稳定性,可用于三唑磷ELISA试剂盒的生产。     

应用TaqMan-MGB探针进行松材线虫的实时荧光定量检测技术研究

 松材线虫是国际公认的最重要的检疫性有害生物之一,也是我国2类检疫危险性有害生物,我国口岸多次从货物的木质包装中截获该线虫。由于松材线虫与拟松材线虫在形态上极其相似,难以区分,幼虫更无法用于鉴定。传统的形态学鉴定、生化以及其他分子技术等方法存在费时、准确度不高、灵敏度低等缺点,不易形成标准。我们设计筛选一对引物以及一条MGB探针,对松材线虫进行实时荧光PCR检测。建立了一条从1 pg到10⁴pg标准曲线,相关系数r=0.965。该检测方法省时、准确、快速、无污染。     

灰飞虱体内水稻条纹病毒的检测

为评价灰飞虱体内水稻条纹病毒检测方法的适用范围,利用已经制备的水稻条纹病毒(Rice stripe virus,RSV)的多克隆抗体SV21和单克隆抗体3B9,采用多孔板间接ELISA、DIBA和Western blotting等三种方法进行单头灰飞虱Laodelphax striatellus Fallén(SBPH)体内RSV检测。结果表明,检测灵敏度以多孔板间接ELISA最高,其次为DIBA,Western blotting最低;用单克隆抗体3B9检测灵敏度高于多克隆抗体SV21。RT-PCR、IC-RT-PCR和DB-RT-PCR三种方法中,RT-PCR对单头灰飞虱稀释到400倍可检测到病毒;IC-RT-PCR在多克隆抗体SV21稀释浓度大于500倍时检测不出RSV,单克隆抗体3B9稀释浓度大于800倍时检测不到RSV;DB-RT-PCR检测结果显示,单头灰飞虱在稀释400倍后均无阳性反应。     

胶体金免疫层析法快速检测烟草环斑病毒

采用柠檬酸三钠还原法制备胶体金颗粒 ,标记烟草环斑病毒的抗体 ,制成免疫层析检测试纸条。检测粗提纯病毒的灵敏度为 1 0 0 0ng/ml,病汁液稀释 1 0 0 0倍后仍可快速检出。对大豆病种子、烟草冻干病叶等不同材料进行检测也有良好的效果 ,1～ 2min即可出现结果。用 9种不同的病毒进行测试 ,未出现非特异性反应。