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Until the recent emergence/re-emergence of human-pathogenic viruses in ticks, tick-borne viruses have been neglected as causative agents of human disease (particularly in China). To gain insight into the diversity of tick-borne viruses in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (northwestern China), we conducted illumina deep sequencing-based screening for virus-derived small RNAs in field-collected Ixodes persulcatus ticks. We found 32, 631 unique virus-matched reads. In particular, 77 reads mapped to the tick-borne group within the genus of Flavivirus, and covered 3.8%-2.4% viral genomes. In addition, 32 unique reads were specific to the Siberian subtype of tick-borne encephalitis viruses (TBEV-Sib) which have never been reported in Chinese TBE loci. We confirmed the potential existence of TBEV-Sib by amplification (using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) of genomic fragments from the envelope gene or 3' genomic terminus from the pools of examined ticks. Both sequences demonstrated high homology to TBEV-Sib strains attached geographically to southern Siberia with nucleotide identity of 97.2%-95.5% and aminoacid identity of 99.4%-98.3%, respectively. In conclusion, we report, for the first time, detection of TBEV-Sib in the natural TBE loci of China. These novel data may provide genetic information for further isolation and epidemiologic investigation of TBEV-Sib.

Objective: To study the co-infection of tick-borne pathogens in Ixodes persulcatus collected in Charles Hilary, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region (Xinjiang)., Methods: Ticks were collected by flagging in grassy areas in Charles Hilary, Xinjiang from June 2012 to June 2013. The 5S-23S rRNA intergenic region from Borrelia (B.) burgdorferi, 16S rRNA gene from Anaplasma, ompA gene from spotted fever group Rickettsia, com1 gene from Coxiella (C.) burneti and Nss-rRNA gene from Babesia were amplified with nested polymerase chain reaction (nested PCR) , respectively., Results: Among 204 Ixodes persulcatus, 104 were positive for tick-borne pathogens with the positive rate of 50.98%, and among them the positive rates of B. burgdorferi, spotted fever group Rickettsia and Anaplasma phagocytophilum were 34.31% (n=70), 28.92% (n=59), 9.31% (n=19) , respectively. And no C. burnetii and Babesia were detected. The overall co-infection rate was 19.12% (39/204), the co-infection rate was 16.18% (33/204) for B. garinii and spotted fever group Rickettsia, 4.90% (10/204) for B. burgdorferi and Anaplasma phagocytophilum, 2.94% (6/204) for spotted fever group Rickettsia and Anaplasma phagocytophilum and 2.45% (5/204) for B. burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and spotted fever group Rickettsia., Conclusion: The results indicated that the natural co-infections of B. garinii, B. afzelii, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and spotted fever group Rickettsia existed in Charles Hilary Ixodes persulcatus collected in Xinjiang.

Objective: To analyze the total cost and life quality of the femoral neck fracture patients who received different surgery and supplement comprehensive data of osteoporotic fracture., Methods: One hundred and five patients above 60-year old who were diagnosed femoral neck fracture and received operation in Department of Orthopedics ＆ Traumatology, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital were admitted into our study from August 2013 to December. According to the type of surgery there were 52 and 53 cases in internal fixation (IF) group and hemiarthroplasty (HA) group respectively. At first we collected the medical expense of the patients before and during hospitalization. And then the 1-year medical and non-medical expenses were collected by the cost diary ever 3 months after discharge. At the last follow-up we evaluated the life quality by the EuroQol-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) and calculated the total cost. Outcome All the patients completed the operation successfully. No nonunion or delayed union cases in IF group, and no cases received revision surgery in both groups. The total average cost was 59 584.9 yuan including 79.1% medical cost and 20.9% non-medical cost. The primary treatment cost accounts for 84.1% of the medical cost. The cost for home care accounts for 90.7% of the non-medical care. The total and medical cost of IF group just account for 40.3% and 38.5% of the HA group and the non-medical showed no significant difference between the 2 groups (P>0.05). In addition the data of life quality and walking capability also showed no significant difference., Conclusion: The main cost for the femoral neck fracture is medical expense in 1-year follow-up. Both surgeries can provide satisfactory outcome, however IF may be more cost-effective compared to the HA because of the less total cost.

Objective: To analyze the causes of back pain after vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty., Methods: 1 863 patients with back pain who underwent vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty from Jan. 2004 to Dec. 2014 in Department of Spine Surgery, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, were followed up for least 3 months after surgery with their back pain evaluated by VAS scores. Related information including preoperative, operative and postoperative factors was gathered. The VAS at last follow-up over 5 or the symptom relief less than 50% was considered as non-relieved, the correlations between the symptom relief and potential influencing factors were analyzed by the Spearman correlation., Results: Symptom relief was only correlated with postoperative complications (P<0.001). The back pain in 283 cases (15.2%) had not been relieved. Among them, 87 cases got fractures in other vertebrae (adjacent vertebrae in 67 cases, non-adjacent vertebrae in 20 cases); 3 cases got nonunion in the operated vertebrae; 1 case got postoperative infection; 6 cases got misdiagnosis and the other 186 cases had no known causes for the unrelieved pain., Conclusions: Postoperative back pain after vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty may have variable causes, and some of which have not been entirely understood. If the symptoms are not alleviated or even aggravate after active symptomatic treatment and anti-osteoporotic therapy, underlying causes such as re-fracture, nonunion, infection, pathologic fracture should be sought out.

Objective: To detect potential mutations in genes related with non-syndromic oculocutaneous albinism I-IV and ocular albinism type I in two couples who had given births to children with albinism., Methods: All exons of the non-syndromic albinism related genes TYR, OCA2, TYRP-1, MITF, SLC45A2 and GPR143 were subjected to deep sequencing. The results were verified with Sanger sequencing., Results: For the two female carriers, the coding region of the TYR gene was found to harbor a frameshift mutation c.925&#95;926insC, which was also suspected to have been pathogenic. In one of the male partners, a nonsense mutations c.832C>T was found, which was also known to be pathogenic. Another male partner was found to harbor a TYR gene mutation c.346C>T, which was also known to be a pathogenic nonsense mutation., Conclusion: The coding region of the TYR gene c.925&#95;926insC (p.Thr309ThrfsX9) probably underlies the OCA1 disease phenotype.

Objective: To monitor and discover medically important mosquito-borne viruses circulating in Xinjiang, China., Methods: Mosquitoes were collected from Abbey Lake wetland in Bortala, in Northern Xinjiang. Viral isolates were obtained through inoculating and serial passaging into susceptible mammalian host cells (BHK-21), identified by cytopathogenic effect (CPE) observation and plague forming assay. Genetic identification of viral isolates was conducted by RT-PCR, sequencing and phylogenetic analysis., Results: A virus strain which causing CPE on BHK-21 cells, was isolated from the predominant Culex modestus (36.6%) and tentatively designated as Abbey Lake virus. Information on molecular identification revealed that Abbey Lake virus belonged to Orthobunyavirus genus within Bunyaviridae. Partial sequences (651 bp and 980 bp) of viral genomic S and M segment showed that Abbey Lake virus was phylogenetically related to Germiston virus that uniquely found in South Africa with 90.6% nucleotides and 95.0% amino acids similarities in S segment. However, viral M segment displayed much variability with 78.6% nucleotides and 86.1% amino acid similarities, suggesting a new member of Orthobunyavirus genus was discovered in the area., Conclusion: In this study, Abbey Lake virus was isolated and characterized indicating its potential circulation nature of this newly-emerged mosquito-borne virus.