Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

About: Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is a government organization based out in Beijing, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The organization has 16037 authors who have published 15098 publications receiving 423452 citations. The organization is also known as: China CDC & CCDC.

Selective Activation of Type II Interferon Signaling by Zika Virus NS5 Protein.

Abstract: Severe complications of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection might be caused by inflammation, but how ZIKV induces proinflammatory cytokines is not understood. In this study, we show opposite regulatory effects of the ZIKV NS5 protein on interferon (IFN) signaling. Whereas ZIKV and its NS5 protein were potent suppressors of type I and type III IFN signaling, they were found to activate type II IFN signaling. Inversely, IFN-γ augmented ZIKV replication. NS5 interacted with STAT2 and targeted it for ubiquitination and degradation, but it had no influence on STAT1 stability or nuclear translocation. The recruitment of STAT1-STAT2-IRF9 to IFN-β-stimulated genes was compromised when NS5 was expressed. Concurrently, the formation of STAT1-STAT1 homodimers and their recruitment to IFN-γ-stimulated genes, such as the gene encoding the proinflammatory cytokine CXCL10, were augmented. Silencing the expression of an IFN-γ receptor subunit or treatment of ZIKV-infected cells with a JAK2 inhibitor suppressed viral replication and viral induction of IFN-γ-stimulated genes. Taken together, our findings provide a new mechanism by which the ZIKV NS5 protein differentially regulates IFN signaling to facilitate viral replication and cause diseases. This activity might be shared by a group of viral IFN modulators.IMPORTANCE Mammalian cells produce three types of interferons to combat viral infection and to control host immune responses. To replicate and cause diseases, pathogenic viruses have developed different strategies to defeat the action of host interferons. Many viral proteins, including the Zika virus (ZIKV) NS5 protein, are known to be able to suppress the antiviral property of type I and type III interferons. Here we further show that the ZIKV NS5 protein can also boost the activity of type II interferon to induce cellular proteins that promote inflammation. This is mediated by the differential effect of the ZIKV NS5 protein on a pair of cellular transcription factors, STAT1 and STAT2. NS5 induces the degradation of STAT2 but promotes the formation of STAT1-STAT1 protein complexes, which activate genes controlled by type II interferon. A drug that specifically inhibits the IFN-γ receptor or STAT1 shows an anti-ZIKV effect and might also have anti-inflammatory activity.

Potential gains in life expectancy by attaining daily ambient fine particulate matter pollution standards in mainland China: A modeling study based on nationwide data.

Abstract: Background Ambient fine particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) is one leading cause of disease burden, but no study has quantified the association between daily PM2.5 exposure and life expectancy. We aimed to assess the potential benefits in life expectancy by attaining the daily PM2.5 standards in 72 cities of China during 2013–2016. Methods and findings We applied a two-stage approach for the analysis. At the first stage, we used a generalized additive model (GAM) with a Gaussian link to examine the city-specific short-term association between daily PM2.5 and years of life lost (YLL); at the second stage, a random-effects meta-analysis was used to generate the regional and national estimations. We further estimated the potential gains in life expectancy (PGLE) by assuming that ambient PM2.5 has met the Chinese National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS, 75 μg/m3) or the ambient air quality guideline (AQG) of the World Health Organization (WHO) (25 μg/m3). We also calculated the attributable fraction (AF), which denoted the proportion of YLL attributable to a higher-than-standards daily mean PM2.5 concentration. During the period from January 18, 2013 to December 31, 2016, we recorded 1,226,849 nonaccidental deaths in the study area. We observed significant associations between daily PM2.5 and YLL: each 10 μg/m3 increase in three-day–averaged (lag02) PM2.5 concentrations corresponded to an increment of 0.43 years of life lost (95% CI: 0.29–0.57). We estimated that 168,065.18 (95% CI: 114,144.91–221,985.45) and 68,684.95 (95% CI: 46,648.79–90,721.11) years of life lost can be avoided by achieving WHO’s AQG and Chinese NAAQS in the study area, which corresponded to 0.14 (95% CI: 0.09–0.18) and 0.06 (95% CI: 0.04–0.07) years of gain in life expectancy for each death in these cities. We observed differential regional estimates across the 7 regions, with the highest gains in the Northwest region (0.28 years of gain [95% CI: 0.06–0.49]) and the lowest in the North region (0.08 [95% CI: 0.02–0.15]). Furthermore, using WHO’s AQG and Chinese NAAQS as the references, we estimated that 1.00% (95% CI: 0.68%–1.32%) and 0.41% (95% CI: 0.28%–0.54%) of YLL could be attributable to the PM2.5 exposure at the national level. Findings from this study were mainly limited by the unavailability of data on individual PM2.5 exposure. Conclusions This study indicates that significantly longer life expectancy could be achieved by a reduction in the ambient PM2.5 concentrations. It also highlights the need to formulate a stricter ambient PM2.5 standard at both national and regional levels of China to protect the population’s health.

[A sero-epidemiological study on hepatitis C in China].

Abstract: Objective To better understand and measure the status of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, we conducted a sero-epidemiological study using the remaining blood samples and data of the nationwide survey of hepatitis B in Chinese residents which was carried out in 2006.Methods The anti-HCV reagent was screened out from the reagents by the HCV infection blood serum plate with anti-HCV positives or negatives. This plate recognized the Murex 3.0 and Ortho 3.0 reagents as gold standards. Anti-HCV in the blood samples were tested using this reagent and confirmed by Chiron HCV RIBA 3.0 reagents. Results Among the population aged 1 year to 59 year-olds, the overall prevalence rate of anti-HCV was 0.43％ (95％CI: 0.33％-0.53％ ), with the rates of anti-HCV among males and females as 0.46％ and 0.40％, respectively. The prevalence rate of anti-HCV in urban area was 0.43％,and in rural area it was 0.43％. The prevalence rate of anti-HCV in the Eastern, Middle and Western areas were 0.37％ (95％ CI: 0.21％-0.53％ ) , 0.67％ (95％ CI: 0.40％-0.94％ ) and 0.31％ (95％CI: 0.20％-0.42％ ) respectively. The prevalence rates of anti-HCV for the three areas did not show significant differences, statistically. The prevalence rate of anti-HCV in the South and North areas were 0.29％(95％CI:0.21％-0.52％) and 0.53％ (95％CI:0.38％-0.64％)respectively. Conclusion Our data revealed that China was in the low prevalence area for hepatitis C infection and the results also suggested that the comprehensive measures for HCV control and prevention had been successfully achieved in the country. Key words: Hepatitis C; Sero-epidemiology

Immune responses during COVID-19 infection

Abstract: Over the past 16 years, three coronaviruses (CoVs), severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV) in 2002, Middle East respiratory syndrome CoV (MERS-CoV) in 2012 and 2015, and SARS-CoV-2 in 2020, have been causing severe and fatal human epidemics. The unpredictability of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) poses a major burden on health care and economic systems across the world. This is caused by the paucity of in-depth knowledge of the risk factors for severe COVID-19, insufficient diagnostic tools for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, as well as the absence of specific and effective drug treatments. While protective humoral and cellular immune responses are usually mounted against these betacoronaviruses, immune responses to SARS-CoV2 sometimes derail towards inflammatory tissue damage, leading to rapid admissions to intensive care units. The lack of knowledge on mechanisms that tilt the balance between these two opposite outcomes poses major threats to many ongoing clinical trials dealing with immunostimulatory or immunoregulatory therapeutics. This review will discuss innate and cognate immune responses underlying protective or deleterious immune reactions against these pathogenic coronaviruses.