Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Zheng Fang.
Phage vB_AgrS_573, isolated from oligotrophic karst cave sediment, is a lytic phage that infects Agrobacterium tumefaciens GV3101. It belongs to the class Caudoviricetes and harbors a 55,316-bp linear double-stranded DNA genome with 91 predicted protein-coding genes and a GC content of 52.19%; no transfer RNA genes were identified.
Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC) is a significant threat to agriculture due to the pathogen's broad host range and persistence in soil. Bacteriophages (phages) are being explored as biocontrol agents, and such strategies are gaining interest. In this study, we isolated and characterized vB_RsoP_HXg1W, a novel phage propagated on R. pseudosolanacearum GMI1000. The phage has a linear double-stranded DNA genome of 40,184 bp with a GC content of 62.3%, and displays an icosahedral head with a short tail. A total of 51 open reading frames (ORFs) were identified, and no tRNA genes were detected. Comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses revealed that vB_RsoP_HXg1W is closely related to Ralstonia phage p2137, p2106, and RpY2, and clusters within the genus Serkorvirus in the family Autotranscriptaviridae. VIRIDIC analysis revealed a maximum intergenomic similarity of 84.7% to the closest included relative, supporting vB_RsoP_HXg1W as a putative novel species-level member of Serkorvirus. These findings contribute to the understanding of RSSC-infecting phages and provide a foundation for further exploration of phage evolution, host range, and biocontrol relevant traits.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of indocyanine green near-infrared fluorescence (ICG-NIRF) imaging versus conventional surgery for assessing testicular viability and guiding decision-making in pediatric testicular torsion (TT). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 225 pediatric patients undergoing emergency scrotal exploration for TT between January 2019 and January 2025. Patients were categorized into a conventional surgery group (n = 118) relying on visual grading and an ICG-NIRF imaging group (n = 107). Primary outcomes included intraoperative testicular preservation rates and postoperative success rates. Multivariate Cox regression was utilized to identify factors influencing testicular preservation. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics were comparable between groups. The ICG-NIRF group demonstrated a significantly higher intraoperative preservation rate (74.77% vs. 61.02%, p = 0.028) and postoperative success rate (88.75% vs. 69.44%, p = 0.003) compared to the conventional group. Additionally, the ICG-NIRF group exhibited significantly lower rates of secondary orchiectomy (1.25% vs. 9.72%, p = 0.027) and 6-month testicular atrophy (7.59% vs. 23.08%, p = 0.02). Multivariate analysis confirmed ICG-NIRF application as an independent protective factor for testicular preservation (HR = 0.556, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: ICG-NIRF imaging provides an objective, real-time assessment of testicular perfusion, significantly improving testicular preservation rates and postoperative outcomes. This technique overcomes the subjectivity of conventional visual methods, offering substantial clinical value for fertility preservation in pediatric TT.
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Arginine dimethylation, encompassing asymmetric and symmetric configurations, represents a fundamental post-translational modification. Despite sharing identical chemical formulas, the two arginine dimethylation isomers exhibit different or even opposite biological effects. Therefore, it is necessary to determine their specific structure before conducting a further biological investigation. However, current methods for arginine dimethylation analysis face great challenges in efficient isomer differentiation, preventing the functional investigation of arginine dimethylation. To overcome this obstacle, herein, we introduce a novel chemical strategy leveraging pH-tuned reactivity with methylglyoxal (MGO) to decode these dimethylation isomers. By utilizing molecular dynamics simulation analysis, we revealed the different chemical reactivities of asymmetrically and symmetrically dimethylated arginine when reacted with MGO at different pH conditions. This property enabled the development of a pH-tuned chemical strategy by combining the MGO reaction with boronate affinity enrichment to simultaneously enrich and differentiate the dimethylation isomers. This strategy can effectively distinguish dimethylated arginine isomers in complex cell samples, and the good feasibility of this strategy was verified by orthogonal validation with the neutral loss. Of the obtained data set, this strategy identified sDMA at R112 of SNRPN, which is confirmed to be modified by PRMT5. Further functional analysis reveals its crucial role in maintaining protein stability and in regulating spliceosome assembly. Overall, by transforming the inherent pH sensitivity of MGO reactions into a powerful analytical tool, our work establishes the first chemical platform for functional proteomic dissection of arginine dimethylation isomers, which paves the way for further regulating mechanism investigations of protein methylation.