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Objective: HIV/AIDS remains a global public health problem, and understanding the structure of social networks of people living with HIV/AIDS is of great importance to unravel HIV transmission, propose precision control and reduce new infections. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of HIV transmission in Fujian province, southeastern China from 2015 to 2020 based on HIV molecular network., Methods: Newly diagnosed, treatment-naive HIV/AIDS patients were randomly sampled from Fujian province in 2015 and 2020. Plasma was sampled for in-house genotyping resistance test, and HIV molecular network was created using the HIV-TRACE tool. Factors affecting the inclusion of variables in the HIV molecular network were identified using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses., Results: A total of 1,714 eligible cases were finally recruited, including 806 cases in 2015 and 908 cases in 2020. The dominant HIV subtypes were CRF01&#95;AE (41.7%) and CRF07&#95;BC (38.3%) in 2015 and CRF07&#95;BC (53. 3%) and CRF01&#95;AE (29.1%) in 2020, and the prevalence of HIV drug resistance was 4.2% in 2015 and 5.3% in 2020. Sequences of CRF07&#95;BC formed the largest HIV-1 transmission cluster at a genetic distance threshold of both 1.5 and 0.5%. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that ages of under 20 years and over 60 years, CRF07&#95;BC subtype, Han ethnicity, sampling in 2015, absence of HIV drug resistance, married with spouse, sampling from three cities of Jinjiang, Nanping and Quanzhou resulted in higher proportions of sequences included in the HIV transmission molecular network at a genetic distance threshold of 1.5% ( p < 0.05)., Conclusion: Our findings unravel the HIV molecular transmission network of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS patients in Fujian province, southeastern China, which facilitates the understanding of HIV transmission patterns in the province., Competing Interests: LL was employed by Fuzhou Institute for Disease Control and Prevention of China Railway Nanchang Bureau Group Co., Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wang, Wang, Lin, Qiu, Zhang, Xie, Lu, Lian, Yan, Chen, Feng, Xing, Wang and Wu.)

Mounting evidence demonstrates a close relationship between sleep disturbance and mood disorders, including major depression disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). According to the classical two-process model of sleep regulation, circadian rhythms driven by the light-dark cycle, and sleep homeostasis modulated by the sleep-wake cycle are disrupted in mood disorders. However, the exact mechanism of interaction between sleep and mood disorders remains unclear. Recent discovery of the glymphatic system and its dynamic fluctuation with sleep provide a plausible explanation. The diurnal variation of the glymphatic circulation is dependent on the astrocytic activity and polarization of water channel protein aquaporin-4 (AQP4). Both animal and human studies have reported suppressed glymphatic transport, abnormal astrocytes, and depolarized AQP4 in mood disorders. In this study, the "glymphatic dysfunction" hypothesis which suggests that the dysfunctional glymphatic pathway serves as a bridge between sleep disturbance and mood disorders is proposed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Yan, Qiu, Yu and Yang.)

HIV-indeterminate Western blotting (WB) results are typically obtained in WB confirmatory assays, and the number of indeterminate samples may increase with the detection of HIV infections, which will present considerable challenges for the management of HIV/AIDS. Nucleic acid detection has been used as a laboratory test for screening suspected or indeterminate samples. However, the effectiveness of these assays for the differential diagnosis of HIV-indeterminate WB samples remained undetermined. In this study, 210 subjects with HIV-indeterminate WB results were detected from 6360 positive HIV screening samples between 2015 and 2016 in southeastern China, in which HIV-indeterminate WB results accounted for 3.30%. The highest proportion of indeterminate results was observed in pregnant and lying-in women receiving physical examinations (16.67%), followed by that in voluntary blood donors (8.82%). The most common WB band patterns were p24, gp160 and p24, and gp160. The follow-up study revealed that the highest negative and positive conversion rates of HIV antibodies were in samples with a single p24 band (80.28%), and with gp160 and p24 bands (86.21%), respectively. Among the Env, Gag, and Pol antibodies, samples with a Gag band showed the highest negative conversion rate (81.25%), whereas the highest positive conversion rate was observed in samples with an Env band (56.76%). In addition, quantitative and qualitative HIV nucleic acid testing exhibited the highest sensitivity (96.3%) and specificity (97.85%), respectively. Our results indicate a lower proportion of HIV indeterminate WB results in southeastern China compared to previous reports, and the follow-up re-examination of patients with HIV indeterminate results should be performed. Nucleic acid testing facilitates the identification of HIV infections.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the shift in the epidemiological features of HIV/AIDS during the last three decades in Fujian Province, southeastern China, so as to provide evidence for the development of novel HIV/AIDS control strategies., Methods: Data pertaining to the conventional surveillance, sentinel surveillance and epidemiological survey in Fujian Province during the period from 1987 to 2015 were collected. The epidemiological trends were described, and the subtypes of HIV strain were genotyped. In addition, the response to antiretroviral therapy was evaluated, and HIV genotypic resistance was assayed., Results: There was an increasing trend observed in the reported cases of HIV/AIDS in Fujian Province. From 1987 to the end of 2015, a total of 8651 HIV/AIDS cases were reported across the province, with totally 1557 deaths found. Among the total cases, the ratio of male/female cases was 3.7:1, which appeared to be an increasing trend; 77.1% cases were detected in young and middle-aged populations aged 19 to 50 years, however, the new HIV infections recently tended to occur in young people aged 15 to 18 years and in populations aged 50 years and older. Among all infected individuals, 49.3% were married, however, the percentage of unmarried cases increased from 6.67% before 1994 to 40.1% in 2015; 64.8% had junior high school education or lower, however, the proportion of HIV/AIDS cases with junior college education or above gradually increased from 6.5% in 2009 to 21.4% in 2015. The reported HIV/AIDS cases were predominantly found in coastal regions; however, a rapidly increasing trend was seen in the number of HIV/AIDS cases in inland regions, and the geographical variation of the cases gradually reduced. There were multiple routes of HIV transmission found in Fujian Province, and 94.2% infections were sexually transmitted, with a large increase in the percentage of male homosexual transmission. A variety of HIV-1 subtypes were genotyped in the province during the study period, and CRF01-AE and CRF07-BC intersubtype recombinant forms were predominant; however, a declining trend in the proportion of HIV-1 CRF01-AE recombinant virus and a significant rise in the proportion of HIV-1 CRF07-BC recombinant virus were observed. Over 90% HIV inhibition was found in all cases receiving antiretroviral therapy during the period from 2011 to 2015, indicating a low prevalence of HIV drug resistance., Conclusions: An increasing trend is still observed in the HIV/AIDS epidemics in Fujian Province, southeastern China. However, the epidemiological pattern of HIV/AIDS has recently changed in the province, and effective control interventions targeting the shift in the epidemiological features of HIV/AIDS should therefore be implemented to control the spread of the epidemic.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of first-line antiretroviral therapy in HIV/AIDS patients in Southeast China. A total of 450 eligible patients were selected to initiate first-line antiretroviral therapy from February 2005 through August 2009. During the study period from 2009 through 2013, each subject received clinical and laboratory monitoring for effectiveness, safety and toxicity once every 3 months in the first year, and once every 6 months in the following years. The response to first-line antiretroviral therapy was evaluated through body weight gain and immunological and virological outcomes. During the mean follow-up period of 70.86 ± 28.9 months, the overall mortality was 14.2%. The mean body weight and CD4(+) counts increased significantly following antiretroviral therapy as compared to baselines across the follow-up period, and the rate of immunological effectiveness was over 85% in all subjects at 2 to 5 years of treatment. The rate of inhibition of HIV virus was 87.67%, 89.32%, 91.73%, 92.8% and 91.63% across the study period. In addition, significant differences were detected after treatment as compared to baselines, and Pearson correlation analysis revealed a positive correlation between immunological effectiveness and viral inhibition. Forty-eight percent of the subjects changed antiretroviral drugs once, and 16.22% twice, and 31 patients switched from first-line to second-line antiretroviral therapy. Long-term antiretroviral therapy remains effective for treatment of HIV/AIDS, resulting in higher mean body weight, effective viral inhibition and a higher CD4 count. Immunological effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy positively correlates with HIV viral inhibition.

Objective: To explore the relationship between XRCC3 and lung cancer after selecting tag SNPs from HapMap database and reconstructing haplotypes., Methods: Using case-control study design, smoking condition were surveyed by questionare. Peripheral blood of cases and saliva or buccal cell for controls were collected, and then their DNA were extracted. XRCC3 tagSNPs were genotyped by PCR-RFLP. TagSNPs were selected by Haploview, HWE and LD were checked by LDA. Best genetic model and relationship between tagSNPs and lung cancer were analysed by SPSS, and haplotype frequencies and effects were computed by THESIAS., Results: Carriers of rs861537 AG or AA genotype had a statistically significantly increased risk for lung cancer (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.17-1.86). Carriers of rs1799794 per G allele had a statistically significantly decreased risk for lung cancer (OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.72-0.97); no significant association was observed between rs861539 and lung cancer. Smoke interacted with rs861537 polymorphism. Compared with CGG haplotype, carriers of CAA had a statistically significantly increased risk for lung cancer (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 1.11-1.57)., Conclusion: XRCC3 gene polymorphisms were associated with lung cancer.