HAdV infections circulate all year-round. HAdV B7 is strongly related to severe infections and pneumonia. Underlying neurologic diseases and prematurity are risk factors for severe HAdV infections.

During embryogenesis, the activated Torso receptor tyrosine kinase (TOR RTK) pathway activates tailless (tll) expression by a relief-of-repression mechanism. Various lines of evidence have suggested that multiple factors are required for this repression. We show that Tramtrack69 (TTK69) binds to two sites within tll cis-regulatory DNA, TC2 and TC5, and that TTK69 is phosphorylated by mitogen activated protein kinase. In embryos lacking maternal ttk69 activity, the expression of both endogenous tll and lacZ driven by the tll minimal regulatory region (tll-MRR) are expanded. Further, in wild-type embryos, the tll-MRR mutated in TC5 drives uniform lacZ expression before late stage 4. We conclude that TTK69 is required for early (before the end of stage 4) repression of tll transcription.

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RSV is the most common pathogen causing LRTIs in young children, followed by hMPV. The hMPV group had higher mixed infection rate than RSV group. hBoV does circulate in northern Taiwan.

. Sixteen of these isolates belonged to Salmonella serogroup B, nine belonged to serogroup C, four belonged to serogroup D, and two belonged to serogroup E. The majority were from stool cultures. The mechanism of resistance was investigated for eight isolates, including three S. enterica serovar Typhimurium, one S. enterica serovar Wagenia, one S. enterica serovar Senftenberg, one S. enterica serovar Derby, one S. enterica serovar Panama, and one S. enterica serovar Duesseldorf isolate. All eight patients from whom these isolates were recovered had community-acquired infections. All eight isolates were resistant to ampicillin, ceftriaxone, and cefotaxime but susceptible to imipenem and ciprofloxacin. Ceftriaxone resistance was due to the production of the CMY-2 AmpC ␤-lactamase by seven isolates and the CTX-M-14 ␤-lactamase by the remaining isolate. Both ␤-lactamase genes were carried on conjugative plasmids. In a 2.5-kb region encompassing the bla CMY-2 gene, at nucleotide 49 upstream of the start codon of bla CMY-2 , three of the seven bla CMY-2 -positive isolates had an A nucleotide and four had a G nucleotide. In conclusion, the ceftriaxone resistance of nontyphoidal Salmonella isolates in our hospital was attributed to the CTX-M-14 and CMY-2 ␤-lactamases.

BackgroundRespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) circulates year round in Taiwan. A novel six consecutive monthly doses of palivizumab for RSV prevention protocol has been approved for high risk preterm infants since December 2010. This study aimed to determine the clinical effectiveness and safety of this novel protocol for the prevention of RSV infection.MethodsFrom April 2011 to March 2013, we enrolled infants born at ≤28 weeks gestation and infants born at ≤35 weeks gestation with chronic lung disease (CLD) who received palivizumab prophylaxis as study group and followed up for 12 months. Historic control, those who were born and followed up between July 2000 and June 2008, were retrieved for propensity score matching. Primary endpoint was RSV-related hospitalization, and secondary endpoints included the length of hospital stay and intensive care unit (ICU) care.ResultsWe enrolled 127 infants (108 infants born at ≤28 weeks and 19 infants born at 29–35 weeks with CLD). They completed 6-dose palivizumab as scheduled. Among the study group, the RSV-related hospitalizations were 2 (1.6%) within 6 months and 5 (3.9%) within 12 months after discharge. We matched 127 infants in the control group with 127 infants in the study group by propensity score matching. The reduction of RSV-related hospitalization rates were 86% (10.2% vs 1.6%, p = 0.002) within 6 months after discharge and 78% (15.7% vs 3.9%, p = 0.004) within 12 months after discharge. Compared to the control group, the rate of ICU care significantly decreased from 7.1% to 0.8% (p = 0.024) within 6 months after discharge and from 7.9% to 0.8% (p = 0.014) within 12 months after discharge. Adverse events were recorded in 6.4% injections.ConclusionsSix monthly intramuscular administration of palivizumab is effective for prevention of RSV hospitalization in regions with no single seasonal peak of RSV infection such as Taiwan.

The study aimed to characterize the molecular epidemiology, phylogenetic relationship, and population dynamics of the G protein gene in clinical respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) strains isolated from northern Taiwan. We analyzed a total of 160 and 116 G protein gene sequences of RSV-A and RSV-B representative strains, respectively, from 804 clinical viral stocks collected between July 2000 and June 2016. Population dynamic patterns of the RSV G protein gene were analyzed using Bayesian inference through the Markov chain Monte Carlo framework. A phylogenetic analysis revealed that RSV-A from Taiwan could be categorized into GA2, GA5, and GA7 lineages. GA2 of RSV-A could be further divided into NA1, NA2, NA4, and ON1 clades. These RSV-A lineages has been replaced over time, whereas RSV-B strains from Taiwan continually evolved from a single lineage with significant time-dependent waves. Four putative positive selection sites were observed in both RSV-A and RSV-B. The Bayesian skyline plot revealed that the local population dynamics of RSV were associated with lineage displacement events. Both circulating subtypes and population dynamics represented a unique local pattern. Our results affirm the necessity of continuing molecular surveillance of RSV to attain a more comprehensive understanding of epidemics.

Background and AimsThe glycoprotein (G protein) and fusion protein (F protein) of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) both show genetic variability, but few studies have examined the F protein gene. This study aimed to characterize the molecular epidemiology and phylodynamics of the F protein gene in clinical RSV strains isolated in northern Taiwan from 2000–2011.MethodsRSV isolates from children presenting with acute respiratory symptoms between July 2000 and June 2011 were typed based on F protein gene sequences. Phylogeny construction and evaluation were performed using the neighbor-joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods. Phylodynamic patterns in RSV F protein genes were analyzed using the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo framework. Selection pressure on the F protein gene was detected using the Datamonkey website interface.ResultsFrom a total of 325 clinical RSV strains studied, phylogenetic analysis showed that 83 subgroup A strains (RSV-A) could be further divided into three clusters, whereas 58 subgroup B strains (RSV-B) had no significant clustering. Three amino acids were observed to differ between RSV-A and -B (positions 111, 113, and 114) in CTL HLA-B*57- and HLA-A*01-restricted epitopes. One positive selection site was observed in RSV-B, while none was observed in RSV-A. The evolution rate of the virus had very little change before 2000, then slowed down between 2000 and 2005, and evolved significantly faster after 2005. The dominant subtypes of RSV-A in each epidemic were replaced by different subtypes in the subsequent epidemic.ConclusionsBefore 2004, RSV-A infections were involved in several small epidemics and only very limited numbers of strains evolved and re-emerged in subsequent years. After 2005, the circulating RSV-A strains were different from those of the previous years and continued evolving through 2010. Phylodynamic pattern showed the evolutionary divergence of RSV increased significantly in the recent 5 years in northern Taiwan.