Spatiotemporal analysis of imported and local dengue virus and cases in a metropolis in Southwestern China, 2013-2022.

Dengue fever is a viral illness, mainly transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. With climate change and urbanisation, more urbanised areas are becoming suitable for the survival and reproduction of dengue vector, consequently are becoming suitable for dengue transmission in China. Chongqing, a metropolis in southwestern China, has recently been hit by imported and local dengue fever, experiencing its first local outbreak in 2019. However, the genetic evolution dynamics of dengue viruses and the spatiotemporal patterns of imported and local dengue cases have not yet been elucidated. Hence, this study implemented phylogenetic analyses using genomic data of dengue viruses in 2019 and 2023 and a spatiotemporal analysis of dengue cases collected from 2013 to 2022. We sequenced a total of 15 nucleotide sequences of E genes. The dengue viruses formed separate clusters and were genetically related to those from Guangdong Province, China, and countries in Southeast Asia, including Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia. Chongqing experienced a dengue outbreak in 2019 when 168 imported and 1,243 local cases were reported, mainly in September and October. Few cases were reported in 2013-2018, and only six were imported from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Our findings suggest that dengue prevention in Chongqing should focus on domestic and overseas population mobility, especially in the Yubei and Wanzhou districts, where airports and railway stations are located, and the period between August and October when dengue outbreaks occur in endemic regions. Moreover, continuous vector monitoring should be implemented, especially during August-October, which would be useful for controlling the Aedes mosquitoes. This study is significant for defining Chongqing's appropriate dengue prevention and control strategies.

Association between the sarcopenia-related traits and Parkinson's disease: A bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the causal association between sarcopenia-related traits and Parkinson's disease by Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. METHODS: A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of sarcopenia-related traits was done at the UK Biobank (UKB). The traits were appendicular lean mass, low hand grip strength (including the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) criteria and usual walking pace. The International Parkinson's Disease Genomics Consortium (IPDGC) gave us GWAS data for Parkinson's disease (PD). We used three different types of MR analyses: including Inverse-variance weighted (IVW), Mendelian randomized Egger regression (MR-Egger), and weighted median methods (both weighted and simple modes). RESULTS: The MR analysis showed that low hand grip strength was negatively associated with the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, including EWGSOP criterion (odds ratio (OR) = 0.734; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.575-0.937, P = 0.013) and FNIH criterion (OR = 0.619; 95% CI = 0.419-0.914, P = 0.016), and usual walking pace was also a risk factor for Parkinson's disease (OR = 3.307, 95% CI = 1.277-8.565, P = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: In European population, low hand grip strength is negatively associated with the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, and usual walking pace is also a risk factor for Parkinson's disease. Further exploration of the potential genetic mechanisms underlying hand grip strength and Parkinson's disease and the potential relationship between walking pace, balance, and falls in Parkinson's patients may help to reduce the burden of sarcopenia and Parkinson's disease.

Homolog of Pea SGR Controls Stay-Green in Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.).

Faba bean is an important legume crop consumed as a vegetable or snack food, and its green cotyledons could present an attractive color for consumers. A mutation in SGR causes stay-green in plants. In this study, vfsgr was identified from a green-cotyledon-mutant faba bean, SNB7, by homologous blast between the SGR of pea and the transcriptome of faba bean. Sequence analysis revealed that a SNP at position 513 of the CDS of VfSGR caused a pre-stop codon, resulting in a shorter protein in the green-cotyledon faba bean SNB7. A dCaps marker was developed according to the SNP that caused the pre-stop, and this marker was completely associated with the color of the cotyledon of faba bean. SNB7 stayed green during dark treatment, while the expression level of VfSGR increased during dark-induced senescence in the yellow-cotyledon faba bean HST. Transient expression of VfSGR in Nicotiana. benthamiana leaves resulted in chlorophyll degradation. These results indicate that vfsgr is the gene responsible for the stay-green of faba bean, and the dCaps marker developed in this study provides a molecular tool for the breeding of green-cotyledon faba beans.

Bacterial Colonization on Healthcare Workers' Mobile Phones and Hands in Municipal Hospitals of Chongqing, China: Cross-contamination and Associated Factors.

BACKGROUND: Mobile phones are widely used in clinical settings and could be colonized by potential pathogenic bacteria which may lead to hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) transmission. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of bacterial contamination of healthcare workers' (HCWs) mobile phones, identify bacterial isolates, and assess the factors associated with mobile phone contamination. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the information on the demographic characteristics and the use of mobile phones. A total of 111 HCWs' hands and their mobile phones were swabbed, then bacterial culture, isolation, and identification were performed. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression were applied to identify factors associated with mobile phone bacterial contamination. RESULTS: Totally 106 (95.5%) of the 111 mobile phones investigated were contaminated with bacteria. Staphylococcus epidermidis (13/111), Acinetobacter baumannii (4/111) and Staphylococcus aureus (3/111) were the predominant bacterial isolates from HCWs' mobile phones. Univariate analyses showed that age, gender, profession and the frequency of mobile phone utilization were significantly associated with the number of bacterial colonization. Frequency of phone utilization (OR 8.366; 95% CI 1.496-46.797) was found to be the most significant factors associated with the qualified rate of mobile phones bacterial load. In addition, phone cover using was associated with the increased risk of mobile phone bacterial contamination. CONCLUSION: There was cross-contamination between hands and phones. It is necessary to develop guidelines for mobile phone cleaning. Special attention needs to be paid to the disinfection of mobile phone covers to reduce contamination and transmission of pathogens.

Association between meteorological factors and the prevalence dynamics of Japanese encephalitis.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is an acute infectious disease caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) and is transmitted by mosquitoes. Meteorological conditions are known to play a pivotal role in the spread of JEV. In this study, a zero-inflated generalised additive model and a long short-term memory model were used to assess the relationship between the meteorological factors and population density of Culex tritaeniorhynchus as well as the incidence of JE and to predict the prevalence dynamics of JE, respectively. The incidence of JE in the previous month, the mean air temperature and the average of relative humidity had positive effects on the outbreak risk and intensity. Meanwhile, the density of all mosquito species in livestock sheds (DMSL) only affected the outbreak risk. Moreover, the region-specific prediction model of JE was developed in Chongqing by used the Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the JE dynamics and helps the local government establish precise prevention and control measures.