[Epidemiology of syphilis in Zhejiang province, 2010-2019].

Objective: To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of syphilis in Zhejiang province and to provide scientific basis for the development of syphilis prevention and control strategies. Methods: A descriptive epidemiological analysis was conducted on the incidence data of syphilis in Zhejiang from 2010 to 2019. Results: During the period, the incidence rate of syphilis decreased from 94.90/100 000 in 2010 to 53.53/100 000 in 2019 with an average decreasing rate of 6.16%. The annual decreases of the incidences of congenital syphilis, primary syphilis and secondary syphilis were all obvious, which were 43.47%, 21.38% and 14.19% respectively. The proportion of latent syphilis cases increased with year. Except for Lishui, the incidences of syphilis in the remaining 10 prefectures showed declining trends. The incidence rates in both men and women showed declining trends with the average rates of 4.80% and 6.45% respectively. The incidence peaks occurred in old men aged ≥60 years and in sexually active women aged 20-34 years, and the syphilis cases in age group ≥60 years increased significantly. The cases were mainly farmers, accounting for 43.00%. Conclusion: The incidence of syphilis in Zhejiang showed a decreasing trend, but the situation remains serious, indicating that the intensity and quality of the comprehensive prevention and control needs to be further strengthened.

Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio acts as an independent risk factor for patients with hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma who received transarterial chemoembolization.

OBJECTIVE: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common cause of tumor-related deaths worldwide. Previous studies have shown that increased systemic inflammation and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are associated with poor prognosis of various cancers. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of pretreatment PLR on survival in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC who underwent repeated transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 122 patients with HBV-related HCC who underwent TACE from two centers in the central China were analyzed retrospectively and were separated into two groups based on the median value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR; low: < 2.61 or high: ≥ 2.61) and PLR (low: < 96.13 or high: ≥ 96.13). RESULTS: Patients with low pretreatment PLR and NLR had a higher rate of overall survival compared with patients with a high PLR and NLR (log-rank test). Univariate analyses indicated that a high PLR was a significant risk factor for poor survival (p = 0.022), and multivariate analyses further showed that a high PLR was an independent factor that predicted worse survival (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that a high pretreatment PLR is a useful prognosticator for poor survival in patients with HBV-related HCC undergoing TACE.

Molecular characterization and structure analysis of RPL10/QM-like protein from the red drum Sciaenops ocellatus (Sciaenidae).

The QM-like gene encodes a ribosomal protein L10. Besides housekeeping roles in protein synthesis, QM-like proteins have multiple extraribosomal functions during cell growth, cell differentiation and apoptosis. We obtained the full-length cDNA of QM-like protein (designated as SoQM) from the salt water game fish Sciaenops ocellatus, using RACE-PCR. The sequence consists of 740 bp, encoding 215-amino acid residues with 24.60 kDa. The AA sequence of the SoQM protein contains a series of functional motifs that belong to the QM family signature, which is conserved among different species. The SoQM gene contains five introns and six exons. The expression pattern of SoQM as determined by RT-PCR indicated that SoQM mRNA was expressed in all tissues tested, including brain, gill, head-kidney, intestine, stomach, heart, spleen, blood, muscle, and gonads. The phylogenetic tree constructed with MEGA 4.0 showed that SoQM clusters together with that of other fish. It was found that the sequences of the SoQM gene are highly conserved, suggesting the fundamental and critical functions of SoQM in S. ocellatus. The three-dimensional structure of the SoQM protein core domain (4~169) was predicted by the Swiss-Model program. Compared with QM proteins in other species, the main structure of SoQM protein was conserved, while the C-terminal domain was different from other QM-like proteins. Prediction of the three-dimensional structure of SoQM would provide valuable insight into the molecular basis of protein function, allowing an effective design of experiments, such as site-directed mutagenesis, studies of disease-related mutations or structure-based design of specific inhibitors.