[A clustered epidemic investigation of non-marital non-commercial heterosexual contact of HIV in Zhejiang Province].

Objective: To identify the transmission relationship between HIV infection cases the non-marital non-commercial heterosexual contact in Zhejiang Province. Methods: When HIV positive was informed during January 2020 to January 2022, the staff conducted an epidemiological investigation to collect cases information on sociodemographic characteristics, mobility information, past HIV testing history, high-risk sexual behaviors, sexual partners, and etcetera. At the same time, 6-8 ml of blood from the new diagnosis of people infected with HIV before antiviral treatment was collected to separate the bleeding plasma. pol gene was amplified by nucleic acid extraction and PCR, sequenced by Sequencer 5.0 software, and Cytoscape 3.6.0 software was used to draw HIV molecular transmission network. Results: From January 2020 to January 2022, 88 HIV infected individuals were found in Pujiang County, of which 74 were transmitted through heterosexual transmission, of which 31 were infected through non-marital non-commercial heterosexual contact. Preliminary case studies have found that three female cases have engaged in unprotected non-marital non-commercial heterosexual contact with one male case. Among the 4 infected individuals, 2 of their spouses tested positive for HIV antibodies. Molecular transmission network monitoring was carried out on 65 newly diagnosed cases of heterosexual transmission with acquired sequences, forming 9 transmission clusters. The largest cluster contained 10 cases. A total of 11 HIV-infected individuals were involved in this HIV cluster epidemic. They were 3 males and 8 females, all over 50 years old and were farmers or rural housewives. They were traced to 7 sexual partners (6 negatives of HIV, 1 undetected). Among the 18 respondents' sexual social network relationships, there were 6 couples, 8 permanent partners, and 3 temporary partners. Among 11 HIV infected individuals, there were 9 cases of non-marital non-commercial heterosexual transmission and 2 cases of intramarital transmission. The epidemiological association between 7 non-married non-commercial heterosexual partners and case 2 (56-year-old male farmer), 3 cases confirmed by epidemiological investigation and molecular transmission cluster results, 3 cases confirmed by molecular transmission cluster and epidemiological investigation results, and 1 case confirmed by epidemiological investigation results. Conclusions: The transmission mode of this cluster epidemic was to spread HIV through heterosexual sex with a male case as the core, then cause the transmission within marriage and between fixed sexual partners. The combination of epidemiological investigation and molecular transmission network traceability survey supports the conclusion of this study.

Risk of bone fracture associated with sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor treatment: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

AIM: To evaluate the association between sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and risk of bone fractures in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: A systematic literature search conducted of PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science from inception up to 31 August 2018 identified all eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The following data were extracted from each study: first author; year of publication; sample size; patient characteristics; study design; intervention drug; control drug; follow-up durations; and incident bone-fracture events. A meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.3 software to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for dichotomous variables. RESULTS: A total of 30 studies involving 23,372 patients with T2DM were included in our analysis. There were 387 incident bone-fracture cases (245 in the SGLT2 inhibitor group, 142 in the control group). Compared with patients who received placebo, those receiving SGLT2 inhibitor treatment had a pooled OR of bone fracture of 0.86 (95% CI: 0.70-1.06). Also, there was no evidence that individual SGLT2 inhibitors across different doses were associated with any increased risk of bone fracture. After stratification by follow-up duration, an SGLT2 inhibitor treatment period of ≤ 52 weeks appeared to have beneficial effects against bone fracture; however, when the treatment period exceeded 52 weeks, these beneficial effects for preventing bone fracture disappeared. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis has indicated that SGLT2 inhibitors do not increase risk of bone fracture compared with placebo in patients with T2DM. However, these findings now need to be confirmed in well-designed RCT studies.

Sequence analysis of VP1 and VP7 genes suggests occurrence of a reassortant of G2 rotavirus responsible for an epidemic of gastroenteritis.

G2 rotavirus was prevalent in a 1993 epidemic of acute gastroenteritis in Taiwan. In this study, the genetic relationship among G2 rotavirus strains was analysed. The VP7 genes were amplified and sequenced. Except for one strain isolated in 1981, the nucleotide sequences of the VP7 genes of most of the G2 rotaviruses were very similar (identity > 97%) and were closely related to that of a Japanese G2 reference strain, S2. The genetic relatedness of G2 rotaviruses was analysed further by RNA-RNA hybridization. The genomes of the major G2 strains of 1993 did not hybridize well with those of the G2 strains of previous seasons in RNA segments 1, 6 and 7. Partial nucleotide sequences of the VP1 gene were analysed and appeared to be similar among the major G2 strains from the same epidemic (identity > 98%), whereas the identity of the VP1 genes of the major G2 strains of the 1993 epidemic to those of previous seasons was only about 84%. Since the numbers of mutations accumulated in the VP1 and VP7 genes over a period of 10 years were comparable, the significant change in the VP1 genes of the major strains of the 1993 epidemic suggests that these G2 rotaviruses had evolved by genetic reassortment.

beta-Glucuronidase and oestrogens in hydatidiform mole.

The activity of beta-glucuronidase (beta-D-glucuronide glycuronohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.31) in placental and hydatidiform mole tissue and in sera from non-pregnant, normal and molar pregnant women was determined. The oestrogen concentrations in the two solid tissues were also assayed. Significant differences were found in the activities of the enzyme between placental and molar tissues and among the various sera. The lower activity in molar serum corresponds to a lower concentration of oestrogens in molar tissues and may be regarded as a response to the alleviation of conjugation requirements.