OBJECTIVE: Poxviruses are zoonotic pathogens that infect humans, mammals, vertebrates, and arthropods. However, the specific role of ticks in transmission and evolution of these viruses remains unclear. METHODS: Transcriptomic and metatranscriptomic raw data from 329 sampling pools of seven tick species across five continents were mined to assess the diversity and abundance of poxviruses. Chordopoxviral sequences were assembled and subjected to phylogenetic analysis to trace the origins of the unblasted fragments within these sequences. RESULTS: Fifty-eight poxvirus species, representing two subfamilies and 20 genera, were identified, with 212 poxviral sequences assembled. A substantial proportion of AT-rich fragments were detected in the assembled poxviral genomes. These genomic sequences contained fragments originating from rodents, archaea, and arthropods. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate that ticks play a significant role in the transmission and evolution of poxviruses. These viruses demonstrate the capacity to modulate virulence and adaptability through horizontal gene transfer, gene recombination, and gene mutations, thereby promoting co-existence and co-evolution with their hosts. This study advances understanding of the ecological dynamics of poxvirus transmission and evolution and highlights the potential role of ticks as vectors and vessels in these processes.
Animals ; Poxviridae/physiology* ; Ticks/virology* ; Phylogeny ; Transcriptome ; Evolution, Molecular ; Poxviridae Infections/virology* ; Genome, Viral

OBJECTIVES: To characterize fine particulate matter (PM _2.5)-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) emitted from different cooking fumes and their exposure routes and assess their health-associated impact to provide a reference for health risk prevention from PAH exposure across different age and sex groups. METHODS: Sixteen PM _2.5-bound PAHs emitted from 11 cooking styles were analyzed using GC-MS/MS. The health hazards of these PAHs in the Handan City population (stratified by age and sex) were predicted using the incremental lifetime cancer risk ( ILCR) model. The respiratory deposition doses ( RDDs) of the PAHs in children and adults were calculated using the PM _2.5 deposition rates in the upper airway, tracheobronchial, and alveolar regions. RESULTS: The total concentrations of PM _2.5-bound PAHs ranged from 61.10 to 403.80 ng/m ³. Regardless of cooking styles, the ILCR _total values for adults (1.23 × 10 ^-6 to 3.70 × 10 ^-6) and older adults (1.28 × 10 ^-6 to 3.88 × 10 ^-6) exceeded the acceptable limit of 1.00 × 10 ^-6. With increasing age, the ILCR _total value first declined and then increased, varying substantially among the population groups. Cancer risk exhibited particularly high sensitivity to short exposure to barbecue-derived PAHs under equivalent body weights. Furthermore, barbecue, Sichuan and Hunan cuisine, Chinese cuisine, and Chinese fast food were associated with higher RDDs for both adults and children. CONCLUSION ILCR _total values exceeded the acceptable limit for both females and males of adults, with all cooking styles showing a potentially high cancer risk. Our findings serve as an important reference for refining regulatory strategies related to catering emissions and mitigating health risks associated with cooking styles.
Humans ; Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons/analysis* ; Cooking/methods* ; Male ; Female ; Particulate Matter/analysis* ; Adult ; Child ; Middle Aged ; Air Pollutants/analysis* ; Adolescent ; Air Pollution, Indoor/analysis* ; Young Adult ; Child, Preschool ; Aged ; China ; Inhalation Exposure ; Age Factors ; Sex Factors ; Cities ; Infant

Background/Aims: Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients who failed antiviral therapy are at increased risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study assessed the potential role of metformin and statins, medications for diabetes mellitus (DM) and hyperlipidemia (HLP), in reducing HCC risk among these patients. Methods: We included CHC patients from the T-COACH study who failed antiviral therapy. We tracked the onset of HCC 1.5 years post-therapy by linking to Taiwan’s cancer registry data from 2003 to 2019. We accounted for death and liver transplantation as competing risks and employed Gray’s cumulative incidence and Cox subdistribution hazards models to analyze HCC development. Results: Out of 2,779 patients, 480 (17.3%) developed HCC post-therapy. DM patients not using metformin had a 51% increased risk of HCC compared to non-DM patients, while HLP patients on statins had a 50% reduced risk compared to those without HLP. The 5-year HCC incidence was significantly higher for metformin non-users (16.5%) versus non-DM patients (11.3%; adjusted sub-distribution hazard ratio [aSHR]=1.51; P=0.007) and metformin users (3.1%; aSHR=1.59; P=0.022). Statin use in HLP patients correlated with a lower HCC risk (3.8%) compared to non-HLP patients (12.5%; aSHR=0.50; P<0.001). Notably, the increased HCC risk associated with non-use of metformin was primarily seen in non-cirrhotic patients, whereas statins decreased HCC risk in both cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients. Conclusions Metformin and statins may have a chemopreventive effect against HCC in CHC patients who failed antiviral therapy. These results support the need for personalized preventive strategies in managing HCC risk.

Objective: To analyze and compare therapy responses, outcomes, and incidence of severe hematologic adverse events of flumatinib and imatinib in patients newly diagnosed with chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) . Methods: Data of patients with chronic phase CML diagnosed between January 2006 and November 2022 from 76 centers, aged ≥18 years, and received initial flumatinib or imatinib therapy within 6 months after diagnosis in China were retrospectively interrogated. Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was performed to reduce the bias of the initial TKI selection, and the therapy responses and outcomes of patients receiving initial flumatinib or imatinib therapy were compared. Results: A total of 4 833 adult patients with CML receiving initial imatinib (n=4 380) or flumatinib (n=453) therapy were included in the study. In the imatinib cohort, the median follow-up time was 54 [interquartile range (IQR), 31-85] months, and the 7-year cumulative incidences of CCyR, MMR, MR(4), and MR(4.5) were 95.2%, 88.4%, 78.3%, and 63.0%, respectively. The 7-year FFS, PFS, and OS rates were 71.8%, 93.0%, and 96.9%, respectively. With the median follow-up of 18 (IQR, 13-25) months in the flumatinib cohort, the 2-year cumulative incidences of CCyR, MMR, MR(4), and MR(4.5) were 95.4%, 86.5%, 58.4%, and 46.6%, respectively. The 2-year FFS, PFS, and OS rates were 80.1%, 95.0%, and 99.5%, respectively. The PSM analysis indicated that patients receiving initial flumatinib therapy had significantly higher cumulative incidences of CCyR, MMR, MR(4), and MR(4.5) and higher probabilities of FFS than those receiving the initial imatinib therapy (all P<0.001), whereas the PFS (P=0.230) and OS (P=0.268) were comparable between the two cohorts. The incidence of severe hematologic adverse events (grade≥Ⅲ) was comparable in the two cohorts. Conclusion: Patients receiving initial flumatinib therapy had higher cumulative incidences of therapy responses and higher probability of FFS than those receiving initial imatinib therapy, whereas the incidence of severe hematologic adverse events was comparable between the two cohorts.
Adult ; Humans ; Adolescent ; Imatinib Mesylate/adverse effects* ; Incidence ; Antineoplastic Agents/adverse effects* ; Retrospective Studies ; Pyrimidines/adverse effects* ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive/drug therapy* ; Treatment Outcome ; Benzamides/adverse effects* ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Chronic-Phase/drug therapy* ; Aminopyridines/therapeutic use* ; Protein Kinase Inhibitors/therapeutic use*

Malaria, one of the major global public health events, is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among children and adults in tropical and subtropical regions(mainly in sub-Saharan Africa), threatening human health. It is well known that malaria can cause various complications including anemia, blackwater fever, cerebral malaria, and kidney damage. Conventionally, cardiac involvement has not been listed as a common reason affecting morbidity and mortality of malaria, which may be related to ignored cases or insufficient diagnosis. However, the serious clinical consequences such as acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, and malignant arrhythmia caused by malaria have aroused great concern. At present, antimalarials are commonly used for treating malaria in clinical practice. However, inappropriate medication can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cause severe consequences. This review summarized the research advances in the cardiovascular complications including acute myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, hypertension, heart failure, and myocarditis in malaria. The possible mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases caused by malaria were systematically expounded from the hypotheses of cell adhesion, inflammation and cytokines, myocardial apoptosis induced by plasmodium toxin, cardiac injury secondary to acute renal failure, and thrombosis. Furthermore, the effects of quinolines, nucleoprotein synthesis inhibitors, and artemisinin and its derivatives on cardiac structure and function were summarized. Compared with the cardiac toxicity of quinolines in antimalarial therapy, the adverse effects of artemisinin-derived drugs on heart have not been reported in clinical studies. More importantly, the artemisinin-derived drugs demonstrate favorable application prospects in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and are expected to play a role in the treatment of malaria patients with cardiovascular diseases. This review provides reference for the prevention and treatment of malaria-related cardiovascular complications as well as the safe application of antimalarials.
Child ; Adult ; Humans ; Antimalarials/pharmacology* ; Cardiovascular Diseases/drug therapy* ; Artemisinins/pharmacology* ; Quinolines ; Malaria, Cerebral/drug therapy* ; Heart Failure/drug therapy* ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac/drug therapy*

Evaporative light scattering detector(ELSD) and charged aerosol detector(CAD) methods were established in this study for the content determination of four kinds of sugars in Zhusheyong Yiqi Fumai(YQFM), and the factors affecting the accuracy of CAD methods were discussed. HPLC-ELSD chromatographic separation was performed on a Shodex Asahipak NH2 P-50 column with acetonitrile-water(75∶25)as the mobile phase, with a flow rate of 0.8 mL·min~(-1), drift tube temperature of 80 ℃. The analysis by HPLC-CAD was performed on the same column with acetonitrile-water as mobile phase for gradient elution, with a flow rate of 0.8 mL·min~(-1), a neb temperature of 45 ℃, and power function(PF) of 1.3. The samples of YQFM were detected by ELSD and CAD respectively. It was found that YQFM was composed of fructose, glucose, sucrose and maltose. The linear relationship of the two methods was good, and the recoveries, reproducibility and stability of these four kinds of sugars measured by the two methods satisfied the requirements of methodology. Both CAD and ELSD detectors were accurate and reliable in detecting saccharides components in YQFM. In addition, it was revealed in this study for the first time that the PF parameter of CAD had an important influence on the accuracy of sugar determination and acted as the key parameter of CAD method. It was also found that for CAD, a non-linear detector, there was no significant difference between the results of linear regression and logarithmic regression.
Aerosols ; Carbohydrates ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Light ; Reproducibility of Results ; Scattering, Radiation ; Sugars

Objective: To investigate the effect of 1q21 amplification (1q) on the therapeutic response and prognosis of bortezomib(Btz) in the treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Methods: A total of 180 newly diagnosed MM were included for analyses of clinical characteristics, cytogenetics, objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), retrospectively. Gene expression profiling (GEP) was analyzed using publicly available R2 platform. Results: ① In 180 patients, 1q was found in 51.1% cases. Of them, 174 patients had complete follow-up data, including 88 cases with 1q and 86 without 1q (non-1q). ②Incidence of 1q was positively associated with percentage of IGH rearrangement (72.2%, P=0.017) and 1p deletion (1p) (27.8%, P=0.040). ③ The median PFS was 15.0 and 20.3 months for the 1q group and non-1q group, and the median OS was 29.4 and 44.0 months, respectively. Both PFS and OS of 1q group was significantly shorter than those of the non-1q group (P=0.029 and 0.038, respectively). Multivariate analysis further revealed that 1q was an independent prognostic factor for both PFS (HR=1.910, 95% CI 1.105-3.303, P=0.020) and OS (HR=2.353, 95% CI 1.090-5.078, P=0.029). ④ In 91 evaluable cases with 1q, very good partial remission (VGPR) rate was higher after treatment with Btz than those without Btz (62.1% vs 40.0%, P=0.032). Of note, the patients with 1q who received auto-HSCT after induction with Btz had significantly longer PFS than those without auto-HSCT (19 months vs 13 months, P=0.048). ⑤GEP analysis revealed that 1q21 amplification predominantly up-regulated expression of >50% genes within 1q21 region, and also altered expression of 28% genes in chromosome 1 and 10% genes in whole genome, particularly related to DNA repair and cell cycle. Conclusions: 1q is an independent adverse prognostic factor in patients with newly diagnosed MM. It is often associated with 1p deletion and IGH rearrangement. Patients with 1q respond well to Btz-based regimen, but they fail to gain long-term benefit from this treatment itself. However, auto-HSCT following Btz induction might improve survival of patients with 1q, suggesting a potential strategy to treat this high-risk subset of MM. GEP analysis warrants further attention in understanding the mechanisms underlying the high-risk of 1q.
Bortezomib/therapeutic use* ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Humans ; Multiple Myeloma/drug therapy* ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies

In this study, several types of Artemisia annua in soil, including the soil which had not been planted, or planted for one year, or continuously planted for three or five years were collected, in order to study the influences of continuous cropping on the growth of A. annua, content of artemisinin, available nutrient of soil, and bacterial community structure through adopting routine analysis and Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that continuous cropping inhibited significantly the growth of A. annua and reduced leaf biomass, content and yield of artemisinin, with the maximum decreasing amplitude of 30.20%, 7.70% and 35.58% respectively. The content of soil organic matter, available nitrogen, available phosphorus and 16S rRNA sequence number were increased to different extents after continuous cropping of A. annua. According to the results of high-throughput sequencing, 634-812 types of common bacteria belonged to 21 categories were planted in different soil of A. annua with different planting years, which represented that the distribution distance of the point of bacterial community with different years among coordinate system of principal component was relative distant, and community structure had significant changes (P<0.05). As the planting years increased, the abundance of Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Gemmatimonadetes decreased in contrast to Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia. In the top 20 types of predominant bacteria,Nitrospira japonica and Nitrospira disappeared, among which, only Gemmatimonadaceae, Micromonosporaceae, Nitrosomonadaceae, Xanthobacteraceae, and unculture bacterium JG30-KF-AS9 were similar, indicating that the planting and continuous cropping of A. annua selectively inhibited the growth and reproduction of soil bacteria, and influenced the supply and transform of soil nutrient, leading to a poor growth and resulting in reduction of artemisinin content and yield. Therefore, it is necessary to advocate crop rotation in the process of planting A. annua.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of automotive paint volatile on the learning and memory ability and its influence mechanism of the amino acid neurotransmitters in the brain tissue of mice. METHODS: Thirty specific pathogen free healthy male Kunming mice were randomly divided into control group,primer group and topcoat group,10 mice in each group. By static inhalation intoxication method,the primer group and topcoat group were exposed to corresponding paint volatile 600 and 580 mg / m3 respectively every day for 4 weeks,6 days per week,one time a day,2 hours each time.The mice of the control group were kept in the exposure cabinet without any paint volatile. After the exposure,the neuroethology examination was carried out by Morris water maze test. The amino acid levels of glutamic acid( GLU),aspartic acid( ASP),γ-aminobutyric acid( GABA) and glycine( GLY) in brain tissue of mice were detected by high performance liquid chromatography. RESULTS: Compared with the control group,the escape latency and the first crossing platform time were longer( P < 0. 05),target quadrant staying time and platform crossing times were decreased( P <0. 05),and the levels of GLU,ASP,GABA and GLY in brain tissues were decreased in the primer group and the topcoat group( P < 0. 05). There was no significant difference between the primer group and the topcoat group in the above indexes( P > 0. 05). CONCLUSION: Automotive paint volatiles exposure may lower the learning and memory abilities of mice,and could reduce the secretion of amino acid neurotransmitters in the brain tissue of mice.

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively analyze the relationship between three dimensional arterial spin labeling (3D-ASL) and dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced perfusion weighted imaging (DSC-PWI) in ischemic stroke patients. Thirty patients with ischemic stroke were included in this study. All subjects underwent routine magnetic resonance imaging scanning, diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), 3D-ASL and DSC-PWI on a 3.0T MR scanner. Regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn on the cerebral blood flow (CBF) maps (derived from ASL) and multi-parametric DSC perfusion maps, and then, the absolute and relative values of ASL-CBF, DSC-derived CBF, and DSC-derived mean transit time (MTT) were calculated. The relationships between ASL and DSC parameters were analyzed using Pearson's correlation analysis. Receiver operative characteristic (ROC) curves were performed to define the thresholds of relative value of ASL-CBF (rASL) that could best predict DSC-CBF reduction and MTT prolongation. Relative ASL better correlated with CBF and MTT in the anterior circulation with the Pearson correlation coefficients (R) values being 0.611 (P<0.001) and-0.610 (P<0.001) respectively. ROC curves demonstrated that when rASL ≤0.585, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for predicting ROIs with rCBF<0.9 were 92.3%, 63.6% and 76.6% respectively. When rASL ≤0.952, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for predicting ROIs rMTT>1.0 were 75.7%, 89.2% and 87.8% respectively. ASL-CBF map has better linear correlations with DSC-derived parameters (DSC-CBF and MTT) in anterior circulation in ischemic stroke patients. Additionally, when rASL is lower than 0.585, it could predict DSC-CBF decrease with moderate accuracy. If rASL values range from 0.585 to 0.952, we just speculate the prolonged MTT.
Brain Ischemia ; metabolism ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Angiography ; Retrospective Studies ; Stroke ; metabolism