In this study, a quantitative real-time PCR was developed to detect and quantify Acanthamoeba spp. in various environmental water samples. The water samples were taken from watershed, water treatment plant, and three thermal spring recreation areas. The overall detection rate was 14.2 % (25/176) for Acanthamoeba spp. The percentages of samples containing Acanthamoeba spp. from river water, raw drinking water, and thermal spring water were 13 % (13/100), 25 % (7/28), and 10.4 % (5/48), respectively. Acanthamoeba spp. concentrations were determined according to SYBR Green quantitative real-time PCR. A plasmid-based standard curve was constructed to determine the Acanthamoeba concentration using dilution factors for achieving 1.36 × 10(9) gene copies per PCR for 18S rRNA gene in Acanthamoeba spp. The resulting concentrations varied by the type of water, in the range of 46-2.6 × 10(2) cells/l in positive raw drinking water, 2.7 × 10(2)-1.5 × 10(4) cells/l in river water, and 54-1.7 × 10(3) cells/l in thermal spring water. The presence of Acanthamoeba spp. in the raw drinking water samples was also found to have a significant difference with heterotrophic plate count. The presence of Acanthamoeba spp. in various aquatic environments may be a potential health hazard and must be further evaluated.
Salmonella is a leading cause of waterborne diseases. Salmonella can survive for a long time in aquatic environments, and its persistence in the environment is of great concern to public health. Nonetheless, the presence and diversity of Salmonella in the aquatic environments in most areas remain relatively unknown. In this study, we examined three analytical processes for an optimum Salmonella detection method, and the optimized method was used to evaluate seasonal variations of Salmonella in aquatic environments. In addition, Salmonella strains were isolated by selective culture medium to identify the serotypes by biochemical testing and serological assay, and to identify the genotypes by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis based on the genetic patterns. A total of 136 water samples were collected in the study area in 9 months. Forty-one (30.1%) samples were found to contain Salmonella-specific invA gene, and most (24/41) of the detections occurred in summer. The serovars of Salmonella enterica were identified, including Bareilly, Isangi, Newport, Paratyphi B var. Java, Potsdam and Typhimurium.
BackgroundCoronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), a worldwide disaster, has already affected lots of people. Effective care and therapy are currently being evaluated in full swing.PurposeOur purpose was to investigate the effects of tocilizumab, an interleukin-6 receptor inhibitor, on treatment of adult patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.Data Sources, Study Selection, and Data ExtractionWe conducted a meta-analysis and searched for relevant studies on Pubmed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library without restrictions on language from inception until February 1, 2021. Fifteen studies were included for this meta-analysis. Two authors independently selected and screened these studies, assessed the quality of included studies, and extracted related information.ResultsFifteen studies were included in this meta-analysis. The main studies showed that tocilizumab was associated with lower mortality (risk ratio = 0.62, 95% confidence interval = 0.46–0.83; and hazard ratio = 0.61, 95% confidence interval = 0.51–0.72). Using tocilizumab might also affect biochemistry indicators (lowered C-reactive protein and ferritin, increased lymphocyte count).ConclusionThese current bodies of evidence could indicate that early use of tocilizumab was associated with lower mortality in adult patients with COVID-19. Early use of tocilizumab could reduce the mortality rate of adult patients with COVID-19 without obvious fatal side effects, which may be a treatment option in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.Systematic Review RegistrationThe study protocol was registered on PROSPERO (ID:242811).
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