Objective:To understand the infection and distribution of syphilis in hospitalized patients, thus to provide reference for syphilis prevention and control.Methods:TP-ELISA test was used to examine early syphilis antibody, and adopted the TPPA test to validation syphilis antibody, and TRUST was used to determine the titer of syphilis antibody in 80 478 hospitalized patients from January 2015 to November 2017, then the results were retrospectively analyzed.Results:Among 80 478 inpatients, 1 326 cases were positive by TP-ELISA test(1 223 cases positive, 101 cases weak positive and 2 cases negative by TPPA confirmed). The positive rates of TP-ELISA in different years were 1.62%(445/27 394), 1.72%(490/28 412) and 1.58%(389/24 672), respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant( P>0.05). The positive rates of male and female patients were 2.02%(689/33 985) and 1.37%(635/46 479), and the difference was statistically significant(χ 2=52.91, P=0.00). The positive rates of ≤18 years old, >18-59 years old, >59-79 years old and>79 years old were 0.32%(7/2 161), 1.44%(765/53 001), 2.31%(488/21 163) and 1.50%(62/4 153), respectively.The highest proportion of syphilis patients was in the group of >59-79 years old, and the differences were statistically significant compared with the other groups(χ 2=37.08, 67.05, 10.80, all P<0.01). Among the TP-ELISA positive patients, 54.90%(728/1 326) had TRUST titer negative, 36.50%(484/1 326) had titer less than 1∶8, and the others had 8.44%(112/1 326). Conclusion:The incidence of syphilis was higher in males than in females in 80 478 hospitalized patients.The highest positive rate was found in >59-79 years old group, and the number of elderly cases increased rapidly.Therefore, the effective interventions should be developed to control the transmission of syphilis according to the epidemiological features.

Objective To evaluate the changes of adenosine metabolism pathway related molecules and their contribution to inflammatory injury in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC).Methods The consecutive samples of 49 subjects with PBC from The First People's Hospital of Taicang and The Second People's Hospital of Changshu were recruited from October 2016 to October 2017,and 36 healthy controls were involved in this study.The expression of CD39 and CD73 on CD4+T cells and Foxp3 + regulatory T cells were assayed by flow cytometry and the concentration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in serum was analyzed by ultraperformance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS).The correlations between Tregs,ATP and liver function were analyzed,i.e.,alanine aminotransferase (ALT),aspartate aminotransferase (AST),gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT),alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Mayo scores.Results In the patients with PBC,low proportions of CD4+CD39+T cells were noted compared with healthy controls [(5.28 ± 1.92) ％ vs (11.0l ± 3.19) ％,t =10.25,P ＜ 0.01].The patients with PBC also had significantly low proportion of CD4+CD25 + Foxp3+ CD39+ T cells compared with healthy controls [(23.75 ± 9.48) ％ vs (54.68 ± 5.18) ％,t =13.79,P ＜0.01].No significant difference of the proportion of CD4+CD73+T or CD4+CD25+ Foxp3+CD39+T cells was found between PBC and control groups (t values were 2.235 and 1.083,P ＞ 0.05).The level of serum ATP was higher in the patients with PBC than that of healthy controls [(200.28 ± 79.41) μg/L vs (89.20 ± 33.76) μg/L,t =8.367,P ＜ 0.01].A significant correlation was demonstrated between the proportion of CD39 + Treg in total Treg cells and the levels of ATP (r =-0.413,P =0.003),GGT (r=-0.378,P=0.007) and Mayo score (r=-0.382,P=0.007).Conclusion The low proportion of CD39+ Treg cells may contribute to the down-regulation of ATP hydrolysis in the patients with PBC.No significant change of CD73 + Treg cells was found in PBC patients.

Background The human body is usually exposed to a variety of heavy metals at the same time, and different types and concentrations of heavy metals may have complex interactions during their absorption and metabolism in the human body. Seminal fructose is an important energy source for sperm movement. A large number of studies have shown that metal exposure may impair semen quality, and seminal fructose is an important factor affecting male reproduction, so it is necessary to investigate the relationship between mixed heavy metal exposure and seminal fructose to explore the mechanism of semen quality damage caused by metal exposure. Objective To understand the status of common heavy metal exposure in men of childbearing age in Puyang City, Henan Province, and to study the relationship between mixed exposure to heavy metals and seminal fructose, as well as potential interactions among heavy metals. Methods Volunteers were recruited from the Puyang Maternal and Child Health Hospital Reproductive Center for a cross-sectional survey on general demographic characteristics, smoking, alcohol consumption, and other information. Semen samples were collected to detect 12 metals such as vanadium (V), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), silver (Ag), cadmium (Cd), barium (Ba), thallium (Tl), iron (Fe), and lead (Pb) in seminal plasma and seminal fructose. After correcting for selected confounding factors, a Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) model was used to evaluate the impact of seminal plasma heavy metal mixed exposure and its interactions on seminal fructose. Results A total of 825 adult males were enrolled. The concentrations in M (P₂₅, P₇₅) of V, Mn, Co, Ni, Zn, Se, Ag, Cd, Ba, Tl, Fe, and Pb in seminal plasma were 0.39 (0.28, 0.54), 12.31 (8.92, 17.52), 0.26 (0.18, 0.38), 5.15 (3.32, 8.64), 182159.80 (121847.80, 199144.50), 13.61 (10.55, 17.68), 0.03 (0.02, 0.04), 0.34 (0.27, 0.46), 8.64 (5.94, 13.43), 0.06 (0.05, 0.08), 168.74 (114.17, 259.45), and 1.69 (1.15, 2.36) μg·L⁻¹ respectively. The Spearman correlation results indicated that there was a negative correlation between V, Mn, Co, Zn, Se, Ba, Tl, or Fe in seminal plasma and seminal fructose (P<0.05), and the values of r (95%CI) were −0.044 (−0.087, −0.001), −0.129 (−0.171, −0.087), −0.055 (−0.099, −0.012), −0.099 (−0.143, −0.056), −0.053 (−0.097, −0.010), −0.068 (−0.111, −0.025), −0.095 (−0.138, −0.052), and −0.082 (−0.125, −0.039), respectively. The results of multiple linear regression indicated that there was a negative correlation between the exposure level of Cd, Mn, Zn, Ag, Ba, Tl, or Fe in seminal plasma and seminal fructose (P<0.05), the values of associated β (95%CI) were −0.551 (−0.956, −0.147), −0.315 (−0.419, −0.212), −0.187 (−0.272, −0.103), −0.161 (−0.301, −0.021), −0.188 (−0.314, −0.062), −1.159 (−2.170, −0.147), and −0.153 (−0.230, −0.076), respectively. The BKMR model analysis showed that seminal fructose level decreased with the increase of plasma metal mixed exposure concentration. Compared with all metal exposure at P₅₀, the seminal fructose level decreased by 0.2374 units when all metal exposure was at P₇₅. Seminal plasma Zn [posterior inclusion probabilities (PIPs)=1.0000] had the strongest effect on seminal fructose, followed by Mn (PIPs=0.5872), Se (PIPs=0.5656), and Ba (PIPs=0.5398). The univariate exposure-response curve showed a negative approximate linear correlations between Ba or Mn and seminal fructose, a positive linear correlation between Se and seminal fructose, and an approximate inverted U-shaped association between Zn and seminal fructose. No significant interaction between studied metals was found. Conclusion Mixed metal exposure may lead to decrease of seminal fructose, in which Zn, Mn, Se, and Ba may play an important role. Mn and Zn exposure may reduce the level of seminal fructose, Se may increase the level of seminal fructose, and there may be a threshold effect between Zn exposure and seminal fructose level. No interaction between different metals on seminal fructose is found.

While neuroblastoma accounts for 15% of childhood tumor-related deaths, treatments against neuroblastoma remain scarce and mainly consist of cytotoxic chemotherapeutic drugs. Currently, maintenance therapy of differentiation induction is the standard of care for neuroblastoma patients in clinical, especially high-risk patients. However, differentiation therapy is not used as a first-line treatment for neuroblastoma due to low efficacy, unclear mechanism, and few drug options. Through compound library screening, we accidently found the potential differentiation-inducing effect of AKT inhibitor Hu7691. The protein kinase B (AKT) pathway is an important signaling pathway for regulating tumorigenesis and neural differentiation, yet the relation between the AKT pathway and neuroblastoma differentiation remains unclear. Here, we reveal the anti-proliferation and neurogenesis effect of Hu7691 on multiple neuroblastoma cell lines. Further evidence including neurites outgrowth, cell cycle arrest, and differentiation mRNA marker clarified the differentiation-inducing effect of Hu7691. Meanwhile, with the introduction of other AKT inhibitors, it is now clear that multiple AKT inhibitors can induce neuroblastoma differentiation. Furthermore, silencing AKT was found to have the effect of inducing neuroblastoma differentiation. Finally, confirmation of the therapeutic effects of Hu7691 is dependent on inducing differentiation in vivo, suggesting that Hu7691 is a potential molecule against neuroblastoma. Through this study, we not only define the key role of AKT in the progression of neuroblastoma differentiation but also provide potential drugs and key targets for the application of differentiation therapies for neuroblastoma clinically.