ObjectivesTo analyze the trends in mortality and disease burden of colorectal cancer (CRC) among the registered residents in Danyang City, Jiangsu Province, from 2013 to 2023, and to provide a scientific basis for developing CRC prevention and control strategies. MethodsMortality surveillance data on CRC among the registered residents in Danyang City from 2013 to 2023 were collected and analyzed. Crude mortality rate (CMR), age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR), years of life lost (YLL) due to premature death, and YLL rate were calculated. The annual percentage change (APC) and average annual percent change (AAPC) of CMR, ASMR and YLL rate were calculated with Joinpoint Regression Program 4.9.0.1. ResultsA total of 1 920 deaths from colorectal cancer were recorded in Danyang City during 2013‒2023, with an average annual CMR of 21.75/100 000, which showed an upward trend (APC=6.47%, 95%CI: 4.21%‒8.79%, P<0.001), with higher CMR observed in males than that in females. The overall ASMR by Chinese standard population was 12.10/100 000, with no obvious temporal trends (APC=1.37%, P=0.364). ASMR increased with age, particularly after 45 years. The total YLL due to CRC was 34 711 person-years, with an average YLL rate of 3.93‰. The YLL rate showed a significant upward trend from 2013 to 2023 (APC=4.96%, 95%CI: 4.08%‒18.16%, P<0.001) in Danyang City. ConclusionThe mortality rate of colorectal cancer in Danyang City is relatively high and has shown a rising trend, resulting in an increasing disease burden on the residents year by year. Continued efforts to strengthen CRC prevention and control are needed, particularly targeting males and the elderly population.

Microbial communities such as those residing in the human gut are highly diverse and complex, and many with important implications for health and diseases. The effects and functions of these microbial communities are determined not only by their species compositions and diversities but also by the dynamic intra- and inter-cellular states at the transcriptional level. Powerful and scalable technologies capable of acquiring single-microbe-resolution RNA sequencing information in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of complex microbial communities together with their hosts are therefore utterly needed. Here we report the development and utilization of a droplet-based smRNA-seq (single-microbe RNA sequencing) method capable of identifying large species varieties in human samples, which we name smRandom-seq2. Together with a triple-module computational pipeline designed for the bacteria and bacteriophage sequencing data by smRandom-seq2 in four human gut samples, we established a single-cell level bacterial transcriptional landscape of human gut microbiome, which included 29,742 single microbes and 329 unique species. Distinct adaptive response states among species in Prevotella and Roseburia genera and intrinsic adaptive strategy heterogeneity in Phascolarctobacterium succinatutens were uncovered. Additionally, we identified hundreds of novel host-phage transcriptional activity associations in the human gut microbiome. Our results indicated that smRandom-seq2 is a high-throughput and high-resolution smRNA-seq technique that is highly adaptable to complex microbial communities in real-world situations and promises new perspectives in the understanding of human microbiomes.
Humans ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome/genetics* ; Bacteriophages/physiology* ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Sequence Analysis, RNA/methods* ; Bacteria/virology*

Objective:To investigate the correlation between gender, age, blood collection time, season and changes in cTnT concentration.Methods:In this study, 3548 patients (non-cardiovascular diseases) in Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University were selected from 1 January to 31 December 2019. The basic data of the patients were collected, including gender, age, time of blood collection, medical history, clinical diagnosis, and results of cTnT testing. 1 840 males and 1 708 females were finally enrolled, with an age distribution of 65 (53, 75) years. The distribution of the data was assessed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, where non-normally distributed data were expressed as M( Q1, Q3). The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare cTnT concentrations between men and women, and to analyse the influence of gender on cTnT results. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare cTnT levels between gender groups, to analyse the correlation between different times of blood collection, seasons, and other factors and cTnT concentrations. Result:cTnT concentrations increased with age in both males and females over the age of 60 years. cTnT levels were highest in individuals over the age of 90 years (0.028 ng/ml in males and 0.018 ng/ml in females). cTnT levels were higher in males (0.012 ng/ml) than in females (0.009 ng/ml) in all age groups ( H=6.340, P<0.01). The concentrations of cTnT varied at different time points of blood collection. In both males and females, cTnT concentrations reached a maximum at 8:00 and 13:00 (0.013 ng/ml and 0.012 ng/ml, respectively). Analysis of the physiological effect of season on cTnT secretion showed that cTnT levels were generally higher in spring and winter(0.012 ng/ml) than in summer and autumn(0.010 ng/ml). Conclusions:cTnT concentration is influenced by gender, age, time of blood collection and season. When analysing cTnT results in clinical practice, the gender and age of the individual should be taken into account, as well as the time point of blood collection and seasonal factors.

Introduction::The triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) ratio, a novel biomarker for metabolic syndrome (MetS), has been validated in the general population as being significantly correlated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, its capabilities to predict CVD in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV; PLWH) remain underexplored.Methods::We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 16,081 PLWH who initiated antiretroviral therapy (ART) at the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen (China) from 2005 to 2022. The baseline TG/HDL-C ratio was calculated as TG (mmol/L) divided by HDL-C (mmol/L). We employed a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model to assess the association between the TG/HDL-C ratio and CVD occurrence, using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests to compare survival distributions. The increase in prediction risk upon the addition of the biomarker to the conventional risk model was examined through the assessment of changes in net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI). Nonlinear relationships were investigated using a restricted cubic spline plot, complemented by a two-piecewise Cox proportional hazards model to analyze threshold effects.Results::At the median follow-up of 70 months, 213 PLWH developed CVD. Kaplan-Meier curves demonstrated a significant association between the increased risk of CVD and a higher TG/HDL-C ratio (log-rank P <0.001). The multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression model indicated that the CVD hazard ratios (HR) (95% confidence intervals [95% CIs]) for Q2, Q3, and Q4 versus Q1 of the TG/HDL-C ratio were 2.07 (1.24, 3.45), 2.17 (1.32, 3.57), and 2.20 (1.35, 3.58), respectively ( P <0.05). The consideration of the TG/HDL-C ratio in the model, which included all significant factors for CVD incidence, improved the predictive risk, as indicated by the reclassification metrics (NRI 16.43%, 95% CI 3.35%-29.52%, P = 0.014). The restriction cubic spline plot demonstrated an upward trend between the TG/HDL-C ratio and the CVD occurrence ( P for nonlinear association = 0.027, P for overall significance = 0.009), with the threshold at 1.013. Significantly positive correlations between the TG/HDL-C ratio and CVD were observed below the TG/HDL-C ratio threshold with HR 5.88 (95% CI 1.58-21.88, P = 0.008), but not above the threshold with HR 1.01 (95% CI 0.88-1.15, P = 0.880). Conclusion::Our study confirms the effectiveness of the TG/HDL-C ratio as a predictor of CVD risk in PLWH, which demonstrates a significant nonlinear association. These findings indicate the potential of the TG/HDL-C ratio in facilitating early prevention and treatment strategies for CVD among PLWH.

Objective: To explore the clinical and genetic characteristics of a Chinese pedigree affected with a syndromic form of hereditary gingival fibromatosis (HGF). Methods: Clinical data of the pedigree members were collected. The excised gingiva were collected, and the pathological features were observed by histological sectioning. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples, and whole-exome sequencing was used to identify gene mutations. Results : The proband, her mother, her maternal grandfather and her maternal grandfather's sister all suffered from gum hyperplasia; female patients had congenital hirsutism and macromastia, while male patients also had congenital hirsutism, which suggests that this pedigree may have a congenital syndrome. The pathological characteristics of the gingival tissue were chronic inflammation with fibromatous hyperplasia, connective tissue enlargement, and filling with thick collagen fiber bundles. In addition, whole-exome sequencing results showed that no mutations related to known pathogenic genes were found, suggesting that new pathogenic gene mutations may be the cause. Conclusion According to the literature and our gene sequencing results, it is suggested that this may be the first pedigree with a new syndrome HGF (gingival fibromatosis + congenital hirsutism + macromastia) caused by an unknown pathogenic gene mutation.

Objective:To construct a value evaluation framework for high-value medical consumables,providing a guidance for medical insurance access and hospital access management scenarios in China.Methods:It conducted literature review,qualitative in-terviews and quantitative surveys.A total of 12 experts were invited for qualitative interviews,while 100 experts from four fields of health technology assessment,medical insurance,hospital management,and clinical practice participated in the quantitative survey.Through those process,it generated the composition of the value framework and the scoring of each item.Differences in ratings be-tween different scenarios and experts were analyzed through chi-square tests.The recommendation level for each item was graded.Re-sults:A comprehensive value evaluation framework for high-value medical consumables was established,which included 6 core dimen-sions,comprised 16 items for secondary dimensions and 50 items for tertiary dimensions.It showed significant differences between the medical insurance access and hospital access scenarios,as well as among different fields of experts in the same scenario.furthermore,grading the items in two scenarios.The medical insurance access scenario had 8 highly recommended items,and the hospital access scenario had 24 highly recommended items.Conclusion:Value evaluation should encourage multi-dimensional assessments and inter-disciplinary participation,continually improving the management of high-value medical consumables in medical insurance and hospital access.

Lung cancer is one of the malignant tumors with the highest morbidity and mortality rate, and effective screening and early diagnosis methods can significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality rate of lung cancer patients. Traditional lung cancer detection methods mainly include imaging tests, sputum cell tests, bronchoscopy, and needle biopsy, but these methods have disadvantages such as being highly invasive, complicated operation processes, prone to false positives, and low detection index. Tumor markers can reflect the occurrence and development of tumors and can monitor the effect of tumor treatment. Therefore, tumor marker detection is of great significance for early cancer diagnosis. Biosensor technology is a new rapid detection technology with promising applications. In recent years, research related to biosensors has been intensified in clinical testing and biomedicine. In this paper, the traditional detection methods for lung cancer were briefly introduced, and the technologies and detection methods related to optical or electrochemical lung cancer tumor marker biosensors based on immunology, nanomaterials, and aptamers were highlighted in recent years, and the future development trend of lung cancer tumor marker biosensors was prospected.

Objective:To systematically review the severe risk in common chronic diseases and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.Methods:PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, China Biology Medicine disc, medRxiv, SSRN and ChinaXiv were searched for clinical and epidemiological studies that reported chronic diseases in patients with COVID-19. Only studies of severe COVID-19 in comparison with non-severe controls were included. The prevalence rates of chronic diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes mellitus, hypertension, malignant tumor, cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and chronic liver disease were estimated. Pooled odds ratio ( OR) with 95% confidence interval ( CI) between patients with severe COVID-19 and non-severe groups were calculated. R 3.6.3 software was used for meta-analysis. Results:The search yielded 2 455 articles. A total of 19 eligible comparative studies with 4 792 patients were included in a quantitative analysis. Meta-analysis showed that there was a proportion of 55.0% (95% CI 40.0%-80.0%) male among patients with COVID-19, and the overall pooled prevalence of any chronic diseases in COVID-19 cases was 30.4% (95% CI 24.0%-37.0%). The most prevalent comorbidity was hypertension (16.9%(95% CI 14.0%-20.0%)), followed by diabetes mellitus (8.3%(95% CI 8.0%-9.0%)). The proportion of male patients with severe COVID-19 was higher than that of male patients with non-severe COVID-19 (64.4% vs 52.8%, OR=1.49, 95% CI 1.08-2.05, Z=4.63, P<0.01). The prevalence rates of COPD, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and malignant tumor in severe COVID-19 patients were higher than those of non-severe patients ( OR=5.77, 95% CI 3.80-8.74; OR=4.47, 95% CI 2.71-7.38; OR=3.55, 95% CI 2.86-4.40; OR=3.05, 95% CI=1.76-5.28; OR=2.82, 95% CI=1.96-3.97; OR=2.39, 95% CI=1.77-3.23; OR=2.15, 95% CI 1.27-3.66, respectively, Z=8.37, 6.01, 11.60, 4.20, 5.46, 5.71, 3.12, all P<0.01). There was no significant difference in the prevalence of chronic liver disease between severe and non-severe patients ( OR=1.35, 95% CI 0.84-2.17, P=0.11). Conclusion:COVID-19 patients with chronic diseases have higher risk of developing severe disease, and the ORs from high to low are COPD, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and malignant tumor.

Programmed death-1 (PD-1) is an immunosuppressive molecule on the surface of several cells, and functions as a negative regulatory factor in cellular and humoral immune responses via interaction with its ligand PD-L1 or PD-L2. The expression of PD-1 on the peripheral blood lymphocytes of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected people is commonly up-regulated, which not only affects the susceptibility of the virus to target cells and the host′s antiviral immune response, but also affects the effect of antiretroviral therapy. In vitro blocking PD-1/PD-L pathway showed improved HIV-specific immune response of host cells, and PD-1 blockade and/or PD-L1 blockade have been used as an auxiliary means to enhance the efficacy of antiviral therapy and HIV vaccines. This article reviews the progress of the studies on PD-1 in HIV infection, prevention and treatment.