Objective To investigate the infection sites,pathogen distribution and risk factors of nosocomial infection after craniocerebral surgery.Methods This is a case-control study.Eighty patients with a mean age of(63.2±8.2)years who developed hospital acquired infections after craniocerebral treatment at Suzhou Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine from January 2018 to December 2021 were assigned to infection group.Eighty patients with a mean age of(61.7±7.8)years who underwent craniocerebral surgery during the same period but did not develop hospital acquired infections were allocated to control group.The medical records and laboratory examination data of the patients were reviewed.Infection sites and pathogen characteristics in patients with hospital acquired infections after craniocerebral surgery were analyzed.Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to explore the risk factors for hospital acquired infections after craniocerebral surgery.Results The respiratory system was mainly infected in the 80 patients with hospital acquired infection after craniocerebral surgery(58.75%),followed by urinary system(22.50%).The main pathogenic bacteria in patients with respiratory system,urinary system and nervous system infections were Gram-negative bacteria.Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria in patients with blood system infection accounted for 50%,respectively.There was no significant difference in the composition of pathogenic bacteria among patients with infections in different parts of the body(P>0.05).In 51 patients with Gram-negative bacterial infections,the main pathogenic bacteria were Escherichia coli(26.25%)and Acinetobacter baumannii(15.00%).In 29 patients with Gram-positive bacterial infections,the main pathogenic bacteria were Staphylococcus aureus(16.25%)and Enterococcus faecalis(11.25%).Logistic regression model showed that non class Ⅰ incision,external ventricular drainage,cerebrospinal fluid leakage,non-prophylactic use of antibiotics before surgery,and indwelling catheter were independent risk factors for infection related complications in patients undergoing craniocerebral surgery(all P<0.05).Conclusion The respiratory system and urinary system are mainly involved in patients with nosocomial infection after craniocerebral surgery.The main pathogenic bacteria are Gram-negative bacteria.Non class Ⅰ incisions,external ventricular drainage,leakage of cerebrospinal fluid,non-prophylactic use of antibiotics before surgery,and indwelling catheter may increase the risk of postoperative infection.

Protein self-assemblies at the micro- and nano-scale are of great interest because of their morphological diversity and good biocompatibility. High-throughput screening of protein self-assembly at different scales and morphologies using protein crystallization screening conditions is an emerging method. When using this method to screen protein self-assembly conditions, some apparently transparent droplets are often observed, in which it is not clear whether self-assembly occurs. We explored the interaction between β-lactoglobulin and the protein crystallization kit Index™ C10 and observed the presence of micro- and nano-scale protein self-assemblies in the transparent droplets. The diverse morphology of the micro- and nano-scale self-assemblies in the transparent droplets formed by mixing different initial concentrations of β-lactoglobulin and Index™ C10 was further investigated by scanning electron microscope. Self-assembly process of fluorescence-labelled β-lactoglobulin was monitored continuously by laser confocal microscope, allowing real-time observation of the liquid-liquid phase separation phenomenon and the morphology of the final self-assemblies. The internal structure of the self-assemblies was gradually ordered over time by in-situ X-ray diffraction. This indicates that the self-assembly phenomenon within transparent droplets, observed in protein self-assembly condition screening experiments, is worthy of further in-depth exploration.
Crystallization ; Lactoglobulins

OBJECTIVE: To explore the genetic basis for a Chinese pedigree affected with non-syndromic hearing loss (NSHL). METHODS: Commercialized gene chip was applied to detect common mutations associated with congenital deafness. Whole exome sequencing was carried out for patients for whom gene chip yielded a negative result. Candidate variants were verified by Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: Two patients from the pedigree were discovered to carry compound heterozygous variants of the TRIOBP gene, namely c.3299C>A and c.5185-2A>G. Their parents had normal hearing and were both heterozygous carriers of the above variants. Both variants had co-segregated with the disease phenotype in the pedigree and were unreported previously. CONCLUSION Pathogenic variants of the TRIOBP gene comprise an important factor for NSHL. The novel c.5185-2A>G and c.3299C>A variants discovered in this study have enriched the mutational spectrum of the TRIOBP gene and enabled molecular diagnosis and genetic counseling for the family.
Deafness/genetics* ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural/genetics* ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Microfilament Proteins/genetics* ; Mutation ; Pedigree ; Whole Exome Sequencing

The effective treatment methods of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are limited. The patient's treatment plan is mainly based on individual differences and different risk levels [by revised International Prognostic Points System (IPSS-R)], including observation, erythropoiesis stimulating agents, iron elimination, immunosuppressive agents, lenalidomide, hypomethylating agents and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The limitations of the treatment strategies are important exploration directions for future clinical trials. At present, multiple clinical trials for the treatment of MDS are underway, but it is still necessary to optimize therapies through integrating molecular and genetic data and applying them to clinical practice. This article reviews the current treatment approaches of MDS and looks forward to future research directions.

Objective To investigate maternal zinc metabolism and the changes of zinc-related factors as metallothionein-1 (MT1) and zinc transporter-1 (ZnT1) in certain types of congenital heart diseases (CHD).Methods Fifteen infants with interventricular septal defect,12 infants with atrial septal defect and 7 infants with tetralogy of Fallot,together with their mothers were enrolled,and normal infants and their mothers were enrolled by a ratio of 1 ∶ 1 with the above three types of CHD diseases.General conditions of the mothers,along with their diets and zinc-containing drug supplementation during the pregnancy,were surveyed.Maternal blood zinc levels and serum alkaline phosphatase activities at gestation week 32 and delivery or induced abortion,and the protein and mRNA expressions of MT1 and ZnT1 in maternal serum and placental tissue at delivery or induced abortion were assayed.Results The general conditions were comparable between the CHD group and control group.The ratio of the mothers taking more zinc-rich food was significantly lower in the CHD group than in the control group.Circulating zinc levels in interventricular septal defect (73.55±5.79 μmol/L),atrial septal defect (72.66±5.82 μmol/L) and tetralogy of Fallot (68.72±6.72 μmol/L) groups were significantly lower than those in the control groups (82.77± 7.88,84.58 ± 7.55 and 85.66 ± 7.30 μmol/L) at delivery (P all ＜ 0.05).Similar change patterns were seen for serum alkaline phosphatase activities.The relative quantities of serum MT1 and ZnT1 proteins in interventricular septal defect (73.22±36.54 and 68.55± 27.82),atrial septal defect (64.29± 38.26 and 74.55 ± 29.67) and tetralogy of Fallot (67.88± 30.50 and 70.13±29.65) groups were significantly lower than those in their corresponding control groups (166.31±67.43and 97.67±30.22,182.56±71.40 and 111.65±32.70,and 173.81±62.36 and 108.27±28.52,P＜0.01 or P＜0.05).The relative quantities of placental MT1 and ZnT1 proteins and mRNA expressions in interventricular septal defect (protein quantities 0.438±0.096 and 0.384±0.061,mRNA expressions 1.23±0.82 and 0.96±0.39),atrial septal defect (0.427±0.093 and 0.377±0.059,1.17±0.70 and 0.85±0.40) and tetralogy of Fallot (0.414±0.111 and 0.336±0.066,1.31±0.97 and 0.90±0.38) groups were significantly lower than those in their corresponding control groups (protein quantities 0.565±0.083 and 0.541±0.090,mRNA expressions 2.78± 1.06 and 1.67±0.33;protein quantities 0.622±0.136 and 0.493±0.079,mRNA expressions 2.85±0.89 and 1.72±0.38;protein quantities 0.637±0.125 and 0.521±0.089,mRNA expressions 3.21 ± 0.99 and 1.61±0.29;P＜0.01 or P＜0.05).Conclusion Mothers with their fetus of certain types of CHD are found zinc deficiency,and down-regulation of MT1 and ZnT1 expressions in the serum and placenta may involve in the pathogenesis of CHD when maternal zinc deficiency.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mutation characteristics of common deafness gene from 127 non-syndromic hearing loss patients in Guangxi province. METHOD: Deafness-related gene mutations detection kit was used to detect 15 mutation sites in four deafness-associated genes, and a total of 127 hearing impaired patients were tested. The samples that could not be diagnosed with DNA microarray were subjected to PCR and sequenced to detect other mutations. RESULT Among the 127 patients with non-syndromic deafness, the total mutation rate is 8.66% (11/127), including GJB2 235delC homozygous in 3 cases (2.36%), 235delC single heterozygous mutation in 2 cases (1.57%), GJB2 235delC and 109 A > G mutations in 2 cases (1.57%); SLC26A4 1229C > T homozygous in 1 case (0.79%), IVS7-2A > G, IVS11 + 47T > C and 15448insC mutaion in 2 cases (1.57%); mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene mutations were not detected. The result indicates that GJB2 and SLC26A4 were the main genes in this study, and the mutation rate is significantly lower than the national average level. Three new mutations (SLC26A4 IVS11 + 47T > C,1548insC and GJB2 109A > G) were found. There may be rare mutations among sites or genes associated with deafness in Guangxi.
China ; Connexin 26 ; Connexins ; genetics ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Deafness ; genetics ; Heterozygote ; Homozygote ; Humans ; Membrane Transport Proteins ; genetics ; Mutation ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Ribosomal ; genetics ; Sulfate Transporters

OBJECTIVE To save the acute radiation sickness patients by preventing nosocomial infection and implementing environment protection of the wards.METHODS The results of air and the object surface in the wards,the workers′ hands detecting and sampling after improving environment protection were compared with those four days before improving it.RESULTS The problems were solved by the improverent of the new systems,rigorous training of the workers,air disinfecting,object surface management and their working process.CONCLUSIONS Discovering problems,seeking causes and solutions and the standardized administration of the environment in the wards are important to save the acute radiation sickness patients by environment protecting and keep safety of patients.