Prevalence and risk factors of Helicobacter pylori infection in military personnel: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background and Aims: Helicobacter pylori infection is prevalent and recognized as a major cause of gastrointestinal diseases in the world. Previous studies on the prevalence of H. pylori infection in military personnel have shown some conflicting results. This study aimed to estimate the pooled prevalence of H. pylori infection and evaluate its risk factors in military personnel. Methods: The PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched. We pooled the prevalence of H. pylori infection in military personnel using a random-effect model. Metaregression analysis was used to explore the sources of heterogeneity. Pooled proportion of H. pylori infection with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. Results: Sixteen studies were included. Meta-analysis showed that the overall prevalence of H. pylori infection was 32% (95% CI = 31–33) in military personnel. There was a significant heterogeneity. Metaregression analysis showed that study region (P = 0.0004) and publication year (P = 0.023) were the potential sources of heterogeneity. In the subgroup analysis by study region, the highest prevalence was found in Asia (50.2%; 95% CI = 49–51.4). In the subgroup analysis by diagnostic methods for H. pylori, the highest prevalence was found when urea breath test was employed (47.9%; 95% CI = 46.5–49.3). The most common risk factor for H. pylori infection was familial aggregation, followed by living environment and age. Conclusion: H. pylori infection is common in military personnel. In future, we may require appropriate population screening for H. pylori infection by multiple diagnostic tests and increase the knowledge and awareness of the bacterial transmission among military personnel.

Infestation and distribution of chigger mites on Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) in Yunnan Province, Southwest China

@#Chigger mites is a group of arthropods and some of them are vectors of scrub typhus. As a common synanthropic rodent species, the Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) often harbors lots of ectoparasites including chigger mites. According to some “data mining” strategies, the present study took the advantage of the abundant original data from a long-term field ecological investigation between 2001 and 2015 to make a detailed analysis of chigger mites on R. norvegicus in Yunnan Province, Southwest of China. From 18 of 33 investigated counties, only 1414 chigger mites were collected from 1113 Brown rats with relatively low infestations. The 1414 individual chigger mites were identified as comprising 61 species, 11 genera and 2 subfamilies of the family Trombiculidae with a high species diversity (S=61, H’=3.13). Of 61 mite species, there were four main species, Walchia ewingi, Ascoschoengastia indica, W. koi and A. rattinorvegici, which accounted for 44.41% of the total mites. All the chigger mites were of aggregated distribution among different individuals of R. norvegicus. The Brown rats in the outdoor habitats harbored much more individuals and species of chigger mites with a higher mean abundance (MA=1.46) and mean intensity (MI=12.53) than in the indoor habitats (P<0.05). The overall infestation of the rats was significantly higher in the mountainous landscapes than in the flatland landscapes (P<0.001). The species similarity (Css) of the mites on the male and female rats reached 64.44% with sex biased infestations. The male rats harbored more species and individuals of the mites than the female rats. The adult rats harbored more species and individuals of the mites than the juvenile rats. The species abundance distribution of the mites was successfully fitted by Preston’s lognormal model with S

Hernia Umbilical Asintomática en la Cirrosis Hepática / ASYMPTOMATIC UMBILICAL HERNIA IN LIVER CIRRHOSIS

La hernia umbilical es una complicación que puede constituirse en una amenaza para la vida en la cirrosis hepática. Aquí, demostramos dos interesantes casos de cirrosis hepática que se presentaron con hernia umbilical asintomática, pero que no fueron sometidos a ningún tipo de cirugía

Umbilical hernia is a life-threatening complication of liver cirrhosis. Herein, we demonstrated two interesting cases with liver cirrhosis that presented with asymptomatic umbilical hernia, but did not undergo any surgery.

Prognostic role of s‑phase kinase‑associated protein 2 in breast cancer: A meta‑analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Emerging evidence has shown that the F‑box protein S‑phase kinase‑associated protein 2 (Skp2) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of breast cancer (BC). Our study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of Skp2 in BC patients using meta‑analysis based on the published studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eligible studies were identified by searching the online databases such as PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science up to October 2015. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to clarify the correlation between Skp2 expression and indicators of BC clinical outcomes, including overall survival (OS), disease‑free survival (DFS), and BC‑specific survival. RESULTS: In total, nine studies with 1820 BC patients were included for final analysis. The meta‑analysis suggested that Skp2 overexpression was associated with poor OS (HR = 2.58, 95% CI: 1.83–3.63, P = 0.000) and poor DFS (HR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.48–3.05, P = 0.000) in BC patients. CONCLUSIONS: This meta‑analysis indicates that enhanced Skp2 is an independent prognostic factor for poor cancer survival.

CIAPIN1 gene silencing enhances chemosensitivity in a drug-resistant animal model in vivo

Overexpression of cytokine-induced apoptosis inhibitor 1 (CIAPIN1) contributes to multidrug resistance (MDR) in breast cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of CIAPIN1 gene silencing by RNA interference (RNAi) as a treatment for drug-resistant breast cancer and to investigate the effect of CIAPIN1 on the drug resistance of breast cancer in vivo. We used lentivirus-vector-based RNAi to knock down CIAPIN1 in nude mice bearing MDR breast cancer tumors and found that lentivirus-vector-mediated silencing of CIAPIN1 could efficiently and significantly inhibit tumor growth when combined with chemotherapy in vivo. Furthermore, Western blot analysis showed that both CIAPIN1 and P-glycoprotein expression were efficiently downregulated, and P53 was upregulated, after RNAi. Therefore, we concluded that lentivirus-vector-mediated RNAi targeting of CIAPIN1 is a potential approach to reverse MDR of breast cancer. In addition, CIAPIN1 may participate in MDR of breast cancer by regulating P-glycoprotein and P53 expression.

Changes in tau phosphorylation levels in the hippocampus and frontal cortex following chronic stress

Studies have indicated that early-life or early-onset depression is associated with a 2- to 4-fold increased risk of developing Alzheimers disease (AD). In AD, aggregation of an abnormally phosphorylated form of the tau protein may be a key pathological event. Tau is known to play a major role in promoting microtubule assembly and stabilization, and in maintaining the normal morphology of neurons. Several studies have reported that stress may induce tau phosphorylation. The main aim of the present study was to investigate possible alterations in the tau protein in the hippocampus and frontal cortex of 32 male Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) and then re-exposed to CUMS to mimic depression and the recurrence of depression, respectively, in humans. We evaluated the effects of CUMS, fluoxetine, and CUMS re-exposure on tau and phospho-tau. Our results showed that a single exposure to CUMS caused a significant reduction in sucrose preference, indicating a state of anhedonia. The change in behavior was accompanied by specific alterations in phospho-tau protein levels, but fluoxetine treatment reversed the CUMS-induced impairments. Moreover, changes in sucrose preference and phospho-tau were more pronounced in rats re-exposed to CUMS than in those subjected to a single exposure. Our results suggest that changes in tau phosphorylation may contribute to the link between depression and AD.

Immune strategies using single-component LipL32 and multi-component recombinant LipL32-41-OmpL1 vaccines against leptospira

Genes encoding lipoproteins LipL32, LipL41 and the outer-membrane protein OmpL1 of leptospira were recombined and cloned into a pVAX1 plasmid. BALB/c mice were immunized with LipL32 and recombined LipL32-41-OmpL1 using DNA-DNA, DNA-protein and protein-protein strategies, respectively. Prime immunization was on day 1, boost immunizations were on day 11 and day 21. Sera were collected from each mouse on day 35 for antibody, cytokine detection and microscopic agglutination test while spleen cells were collected for splenocyte proliferation assay. All experimental groups (N = 10 mice per group) showed statistically significant increases in antigen-specific antibodies, in cytokines IL-4 and IL-10, as well as in the microscopic agglutination test and splenocyte proliferation compared with the pVAX1 control group. The groups receiving the recombined LipL32-41-OmpL1 vaccine induced anti-LipL41 and anti-OmpL1 antibodies and yielded better splenocyte proliferation values than the groups receiving LipL32. DNA prime and protein boost immune strategies stimulated more antibodies than a DNA-DNA immune strategy and yielded greater cytokine and splenocyte proliferation than a protein-protein immune strategy. It is clear from these results that recombination of protective antigen genes lipL32, lipL41, and ompL1 and a DNA-protein immune strategy resulted in better immune responses against leptospira than single-component, LipL32, or single DNA or protein immunization.

Incongruent evolution of chromosomal size in rice

To investigate genome size evolution, it is usually informative to compare closely related species that vary dramatically in genome size. A whole genome duplication (polyploidy) that occurred in rice (Oryza sativa) about 70 million years ago has been well documented based on current genome sequencing. The presence of three distinct duplicate blocks from the polyploidy, of which one duplicated segment in a block is intact (no sequencing gap) and less than half the length of its syntenic duplicate segment, provided an excellent opportunity for elucidating the causes of their size variation during the post-polyploid time. The results indicated that incongruent patterns (shrunken, balanced and inflated) of chromosomal size evolution occurred in the three duplicate blocks, spanning over 30 Mb among chromosomes 2, 3, 6, 7, and 10, with an average of 20.3% for each. DNA sequences of chromosomes 2 and 3 appeared to had become as short as about half of their initial sequence lengths, chromosomes 6 and 7 had remained basically balanced, and chromosome 10 had become dramatically enlarged (approximately 70%). The size difference between duplicate segments of rice was mainly caused by variations in non-repetitive DNA loss. Amplification of long terminal repeat retrotransposons also played an important role. Moreover, a relationship seems to exist between the chromosomal size differences and the nonhomologous combination in corresponding regions in the rice genome. These findings help shed light on the evolutionary mechanism of genomic sequence variation after polyploidy and genome size evolution.

Dose findings of dihydroartemisinin in treatment of falciparum malaria.

Forty patients with uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria were respectively treated in an open randomized comparative study of dihydroartemisinin tablets given at total doses of 480 mg over 5 days and 640 mg over 7 days in a drug-resistant malaria endemic area in Hainan, China. The result showed that all patients were clinically cured. In 5-day and 7-day groups, the mean fever clearance times (FCT) were 26.1+/-10.2 and 21.1+/-11.8 hours respectively; the mean parasite clearance times (PCT) were 58.7+/-20.9 and 59.4+/-20.9 hours respectively, which showed no significant difference. 28-day follow-ups were accomplished on 39 and 37 cases respectively in two groups, the recrudescence rates were 20.5% (8/39) in 5-day group, while 2.7% (1/37) in 7-day group with significant difference (chi2=4.19, p<0.05). No clinical drug-related side effect was found in two groups during treatment.

Diagnostic et traitement de l'acces pernicieux chez l'enfant a l'Hopital de Mbalmayo (Cameroun). [Lettre]

L'acces pernicieux est l'une des principales causes de la mortalite infantile en Afrique Sud-Saharienne. Les statistiques de l'Hopital Departemental de Mbalmayo; d'avril a septembre 1994; ont montre au total 543 consultations parmi lesquelles 441 cas de paludisme; une proportion de 84;9 pour cent. On y comptait 49 cas de neuro-paludisme soit 11 pour cent de la totalite des cas de malaria. L'evolution le plus souvent fatale; exige un diagnostic precoce et rapide en excluant toutes les autres encephalopathies presentes dans cette tranche d'age. Cet article presente donc une analyse faite a l'Hopital Departemental de Mbalmayo concernant le diagnostic et le traitement du neuro-paludisme chez l'enfant