Willingness to accept monkeypox vaccine and its correlates among men who have sex with men in Southern China: a web-based online cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The May 2022 global outbreak of monkeypox (MPX) poses a threat to the health of men who have sex with men. However, there is limited data on the willingness of MSM to receive monkeypox vaccination in Southern China. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of MPX, concerns regarding MPX, and willingness to receive monkeypox vaccination, as well as their correlates, among MSM in China. METHODS: We conducted a Web-based online survey of MSM in Southern China from August to September 2022. Data were collected on the socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, worries, concerns regarding MPX and willingness to receive monkeypox vaccination. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to explore the factors associated with willingness to receive monkeypox vaccination. RESULTS: A total of 1903 participants completed the survey. Among them, approximately 69.9% reported being aware of MPX awareness, 94.1% of the participants supported the promotion of monkeypox vaccination. The majority of participants (91.4%) expressed their willingness to receive monkeypox vaccination. Participants who considered monkeypox vaccination safe [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 4.82, 95% CI: 1.35-17.18], agreed on the necessity of government promotion of monkeypox vaccination in China (aOR = 6.03, 95% CI: 1.07-33.93), believed in prioritizing monkeypox vaccination for MSM (aOR = 5.01, 95% CI: 1.10-22.71), and had friends or sexual partners who had already received the monkeypox or smallpox vaccination (aOR = 10.37, 95% CI: 2.11-50.99) are more likely to be vaccinated. Conversely, married individuals (aOR = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.03-0.47), those engaging in anal sex 4-6 times per week in the past 3 months (aOR = 0.26, 95% CI: 0.09-0.77) expressed hesitancy toward monkeypox vaccination. CONCLUSION: There was a high willingness to receive monkeypox vaccination among MSM in China. The hesitancy toward the monkeypox vaccine can be effectively mitigated by addressing concerns about its safety and potential adverse reactions. Moreover, increasing acceptance of the monkeypox vaccination among MSM and their peers is crucial, as social influence significantly impacts vaccine attitudes and behaviors

Evaluating micro-optical coherence tomography as a feasible imaging tool for pancreatic disease diagnosis

Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer mortality worldwide due to the lack of reliable tools for early diagnosis of this cancer. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of micro-optical coherence tomography (μOCT) as an imaging tool for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancers. Specifically, we constructed a μOCT device that achieves a resolution of 1.67 ± 0.01 μm and 1.79 ± 0.01 μm in axial and lateral directions, respectively, and acquired three-dimensional μOCT images of mouse, rat, and human pancreatic specimens ex vivo. We compared the results of μOCT with those of the corresponding histology. In μOCT images of normal pancreatic specimens, the detailed cellular and subcellular-level pancreatic microstructures, e.g., the islet of Langerhans (IL), IL cell nuclei, blood vessels, and serous acini, could be clearly resolved in different cases. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate that the cellular and subcellular structures of pancreatic tissues were identified using OCT. More importantly, we showed that these normal cellular-level structures were lost in μOCT images of cancerous specimens, demonstrating the feasibility of differentiating malignant lesions from normal tissues using μOCT. Moving forward, the development of an intraoperative imaging device may realize optical biopsies in vivo or real-time cellular-resolution examination of specimens from needle aspiration biopsies.Ministry of Education (MOE)Nanyang Technological UniversityNational Medical Research Council (NMRC)National Research Foundation (NRF)Accepted versionThis work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61705184, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (G2018KY0308), in part by the National Research Foundation of Singapore (NRF-CRP13-2014-05), in part by the Ministry of Education of Singapore (MOE2013-T2-2-107), in part by the National Medical Research Council of Singapore (NMRC/CBRG/0036/2013), and in part by the NTU-AIT-MUV Program in Advanced Biomedical Imaging (NAM/15005)

Gastrin stimulates pancreatic cancer cell directional migration by activating the Gα12/13–RhoA–ROCK signaling pathway

The mechanism by which gastrin promotes pancreatic cancer cell metastasis is unclear. The process of directing polarized cancer cells toward the extracellular matrix is principally required for invasion and distant metastasis; however, whether gastrin can induce this process and its underlying mechanism remain to be elucidated. In this study, we found that gastrin-induced phosphorylation of paxillin at tyrosine 31/118 and RhoA activation as well as promoted the metastasis of PANC-1 cancer cells. Depletion of Gα12 and Gα13 inhibited the phosphorylation of paxillin and downstream activation of GTP-RhoA, blocked the formation and aggregation of focal adhesions and facilitated polarization of actin filaments induced by gastrin. Suppression of RhoA and ROCK also exhibited identical results. Selective inhibition of the CCKBR–Gα12/13–RhoA–ROCK signaling pathway blocked the reoriented localization of the Golgi apparatus at the leading edge of migrated cancer cells. YM022 and Y-27632 significantly suppressed hepatic metastasis of orthotic pancreatic tumors induced by gastrin in vivo. Collectively, we demonstrate that gastrin promotes Golgi reorientation and directional polarization of pancreatic cancer cells by activation of paxillin via the CCKBR–Gα12/13–RhoA–ROCK signal pathway.Published versio