Nigeria Enabulele, Montgomery, re-elected into World Medical Association Council
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By Chioma Obinna
For the second time, Former President of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, and current President Commonwealth Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, and the current World Medical Association’s, WMA, Chairman, Dr. Frank Ulrich Montgomery among others have been re-elected into the WMA Council for another two- year term.
Montgomery was re-elected as Chairman while Nigerian Enabulele was re-elected as Chair of the Socio-Medical Affairs Committee.
Montgomery, a radiologist from Hamburg, and former President of the German Medical Association were re-elected unopposed during an online WMA Council meeting.
Cell Lines
ESCC cell lines (Eca109, KYSE150, KYSE180 and KYSE450) and human esophageal epithelial cell line HET-1A were purchased from the Shanghai Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences Cell Collection (Shanghai, China). All these five cell lines were cultured with Roswell Park Memorial Institute-1640 medium (RPMI-1460; Gibco, Carlsbad, CA, USA) added with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS; Gibco), 1% 100 units/mL penicillin (Gibco) and 1% 100 μg/mL streptomycin (Gibco). All cell lines were maintained at 37°C incubator with 5% CO
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Western Blot Assay
ESCC cells were collected and lysed using whole cell lysis buffer (Abcam). Protein quantification was conducted with the commercial bicinchoninic acid (BCA) protein assay kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Proteins were separated using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) gel and transferred onto the polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane (Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA). After blocking, the membra
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1Key Laboratory of Prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases of Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Provincial Clinical Research Center for Vascular Anomalies, Basic Medical School, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, People’s Republic of China;
2Basic Medical School, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, People’s Republic of China;
3Department of Pediatric Surgery, Jiangxi Provincial Clinical Research Center for Vascular Anomalies, Key Laboratory of Prevention and Treatment of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases of Ministry of Education, The First Affiliate Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, People’s Republic of China These authors contributed equally to this work
Correspondence: Qian Liu
IgG antibodies are crucial for protection against invading pathogens. A highly conserved N-linked glycan within the IgG-Fc tail, essential for IgG function, shows variable composition in humans. Afucosylated IgG variants are already used in anti-cancer therapeutic antibodies for their elevated activity through Fc receptors (FcγRIIIa). Here, we report that afucosylated IgG (~6% of total IgG in humans) are specifically formed against enveloped viruses but generally not against other antigens. This mediates stronger FcγRIIIa responses, but also amplifies brewing cytokine storms and immune-mediated pathologies. Critically ill COVID-19 patients, but not those with mild symptoms, had high levels of afucosylated IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, amplifying pro-inflammatory cytokine release and acute phase responses. Thus, antibody glycosylation plays a critical role in immune responses to enveloped viruses, including COVID-19.
2School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
3Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Zhengzhou, China
The structure and diversity of human gut microbiota are directly related to diet, though less is known about the influences of ethnicity and diet-related behaviors, such as fasting (intermittent caloric restriction). In this study, we investigated whether fasting for Ramadan altered the microbiota in Chinese and Pakistani individuals. Using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing and self-reported dietary intake surveys, we determined that both the microbiota and dietary composition were significantly different with little overlap between ethnic groups. Principal Coordinate Analyses (PCoA) comparison of samples collected from both groups before and after fasting showed partial separation of microbiota related to fasting in the Pakistani group, but not in the Chinese group. Measurement of alpha diversity showed that Ramadan fasting significantly