A novel disease of crayfish Procambarus clarkii appeared in the summer of 2004 in freshwater aquaculture in Jiangsu province of China. Light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), molecular biological methods and in vitro culture were used to identify the pathogen. The agent was unique in having a helical morphology and rotary motility as observed by phase-contrast light microscopy and was found in haemolymph, muscles, nerves and connective tissues by smear method and TEM. Ultra-thin sections under TEM revealed the wall-free membrane of the microbe. The agent could pass through membrane filters with pores 220 nm in diameter and was cultivated in vitro in M1D medium. 16S rDNA of the crayfish pathogen was amplified by PCR using primers specific for Spiroplasma-specific 16S rDNA. The resultant 271bp PCR product showed 99% identity with Spiroplasma mirum 16S rDNA, having a close relationship with the spiroplasma from the Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis. This is the second time a spiroplasma has been found in a freshwater crustacean. The 271bp PCR product was also amplified from the bottom mud in the ponds associated with the disease. The PCR molecular method is an effective way to detect spiroplasma in freshwater environment. The results from this study are significant in expanding the host range of spiroplasma and freshwater ecology.

Identifying disease-related microRNAs (miRNAs) is an essential but challenging task in bioinformatics research. Much effort has been devoted to discovering the underlying associations between miRNAs and diseases. However, most studies mainly focus on designing advanced methods to improve prediction accuracy while neglecting to investigate the link predictability of the relationships between miRNAs and diseases. In this work, we construct a heterogeneous network by integrating neighborhood information in the neural network to predict potential associations between miRNAs and diseases, which also consider the imbalance of datasets. We also employ a new computational method called a neural network model for miRNA-disease association prediction (NNMDA). This model predicts miRNA-disease associations by integrating multiple biological data resources. Comparison of our work with other algorithms reveals the reliable performance of NNMDA. Its average AUC score was 0.937 over 15 diseases in a 5-fold cross-validation and AUC of 0.8439 based on leave-one-out cross-validation. The results indicate that NNMDA could be used in evaluating the accuracy of miRNA-disease associations. Moreover, NNMDA was applied to two common human diseases in two types of case studies. In the first type, 26 out of the top 30 predicted miRNAs of lung neoplasms were confirmed by the experiments. In the second type of case study for new diseases without any known miRNAs related to it, we selected breast neoplasms as the test example by hiding the association information between the miRNAs and this disease. The results verified 50 out of the top 50 predicted breastneoplasm-related miRNAs.

PurposeTo compare the efficacy and safety of current treatments in diabetic macular edema (DME).MethodsPubMed, Embase and CENTRAL were systematically reviewed for randomized controlled trials of current treatments in DME through August 2015. Data on the mean change of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central macular thickness (CMT) were extracted, and adverse events (AEs) were collected.ResultsA total of 21 trials were included in our network meta-analysis. Intravitreal ranibizumab improved BCVA most significantly (OR: +7.01 95%CI (2.56 to 11.39)) in 6 months and intravitreal aflibercept (+8.19 (5.07 to 11.96)) in 12 months. Intravitreal triamcinolone combined with LASER decreased CMT most significantly (-111.34 (-254.61 to 37.93)) in 6 months and intravitreal aflibercept (-110.83 (-190.25 to -35.27)) in 12 months. Compared with the relatively high rate of ocular AEs in the groups with administration of steroids, systematic AEs occurred more frequently in the groups with vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors involved.ConclusionsOur analysis confirms that intravitreal aflibercept is most favorable with both BCVA improvement and CMT decrease than other current therapies in the management of DME within 12 months. Vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors for DME should be used with caution due to systematic AEs. Combined intravitreal triamcinolone with LASER has a stronger efficacy in decreasing CMT than the other interventions in the early stage after injection. More high-quality randomized controlled trials will be necessary.

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