Frequency, severity, and risk factors related to sexual dysfunction in Chinese women with T2D

Background: The aim of the present study was to assess the frequency and severity of female sexual dysfunction (FSD) in those with T2D (T2D) compared with non-diabetic controls. In addition, risk factors for FSD were analyzed. Methods: Sexual dysfunction, measured using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), was evaluated using a questionnaire in 184 women with T2D and 146 non-diabetic controls at three study sites in China. In the T2D group, FSD was examined by education level, correlations between FSD and other variables were analyzed, and risk factors were studied. Results: The frequency of FSD in the T2D group was 75.0%, much higher than in the control group (56.2%; P = 0.001). The severity of FSD in the T2D group was 17.84 ± 8.47 (mean ± SD), significantly lower than in the control group (21.14 ± 8.08; P = 0.001). In patients with T2D, being older (P = 0.001), taking oral antidiabetic medications (P = 0.013), and having diabetic neuropathy (P = 0.036) were risk factors for FSD. Conclusions: The rate of FSD is high in China and, as seen in the literature, more severe in diabetics than non-diabetics. Being older, taking oral antidiabetic medications, and diabetic neuropathy are risk factors for FSD

Epidemiological and genomic analyses of human isolates of Streptococcus suis between 2005 and 2021 in Shenzhen, China

Streptococcus suis (S. suis) is an important food-borne zoonotic pathogen that causes swine streptococcosis, which threatens human health and brings economic loss to the swine industry. Three-quarters of human S. suis infections are caused by serotype 2. A retrospective analysis of human S. suis cases in Shenzhen, a megacity in China, with high pork consumption, between 2005 and 2021 was conducted to understand its genomic epidemiology, pathogen virulence, and drug resistance characteristics. The epidemiological investigation showed that human cases of S. suis in Shenzhen were mainly associated with people who had been in close contact with raw pork or other swine products. Whole-genome sequence analysis showed that 33 human isolates in Shenzhen were dominated by serotype 2 (75.76%), followed by serotype 14 (24.24%), and the most prevalent sequence types (STs) were ST7 (48.48%) and ST1 (39.40%). ST242 (9.09%) and ST25 (3.03%), which were rarely reported, were also found. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Shenzhen human isolates had close genetic relatedness to isolates from Guangxi (China), Sichuan (China), and Vietnam. We found a new 82 KB pathogenicity island (PAI) in the serotype 2 isolate that may play a role in sepsis. Similarly, a serotype 14 isolate, containing 78 KB PAI, was isolated from a patient presenting with streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSLS) who subsequently died. Multi-drug resistance (MDR) was high in human isolates of S. suis from Shenzhen. Most human isolates were resistant to tetracycline, streptomycin, erythromycin, and clindamycin, and 13 isolates had intermediate resistance to penicillin. In conclusion, swine importation from Guangxi, Sichuan, and Vietnam should be more closely monitored, and the use of antibiotics limited to reduce the potential for antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

Genome-wide association studies and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing identify regulatory variants influencing eyebrow thickness in humans

Hair plays an important role in primates and is clearly subject to adaptive selection. While humans have lost most facial hair, eyebrows are a notable exception. Eyebrow thickness is heritable and widely believed to be subject to sexual selection. Nevertheless, few genomic studies have explored its genetic basis. Here, we performed a genome-wide scan for eyebrow thickness in 2961 Han Chinese. We identified two new loci of genome-wide significance, at 3q26.33 near SOX2 (rs1345417: P = 6.51×10−10) and at 5q13.2 near FOXD1 (rs12651896: P = 1.73×10−8). We further replicated our findings in the Uyghurs, a population from China characterized by East Asian-European admixture (N = 721), the CANDELA cohort from five Latin American countries (N = 2301), and the Rotterdam Study cohort of Dutch Europeans (N = 4411). A meta-analysis combining the full GWAS results from the three cohorts of full or partial Asian descent (Han Chinese, Uyghur and Latin Americans, N = 5983) highlighted a third signal of genome-wide significance at 2q12.3 (rs1866188: P = 5.81×10−11) near EDAR. We performed fine-mapping and prioritized four variants for further experimental verification. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing provided evidence that rs1345417 and rs12651896 affect the transcriptional activity of the nearby SOX2 and FOXD1 genes, which are both involved in hair development. Finally, suitable statistical analyses revealed that none of the associated variants showed clear signals of selection in any of the populations tested. Contrary to popular speculation, we found no evidence that eyebrow thickness is subject to strong selective pressure

Cryptosystem Identification Scheme Based on ASCII Code Statistics

In the field of information security, block cipher is widely used in the protection of messages, and its safety naturally attracts people’s attention. The identification of the cryptosystem is the premise of encrypted data analysis. It belongs to the category of attack analysis in cryptanalysis and has important theoretical significance and application value. This paper focuses on the extraction of ciphertext features and the construction of cryptosystem identification classifiers. The main contents and innovations of this paper are as follows. Firstly, inspired by language processing, we propose the feature extraction scheme based on ASCII statistics of ciphertexts which decrease the dimension of data preprocessing. Secondly, on the basis of previous work, we increase the types of block ciphers to eight, encrypt plaintext of the same sizes as experimental objects, and recognize the cryptosystem. Thirdly, we use two machine learning classifiers to perform classification experiments including random forest and SVM. The experimental results show that our scheme can not only improve the identification accuracy of 8 typical block cipher algorithms but also shorten the experimental time and reduce the computation load by greatly minimizing the dimension of the feature vector. And the various evaluation indicators obtained by the scheme have been greatly improved compared with the existing published literature

Sparse-TFM Imaging of Lamb Waves for the Near-Distance Defects in Plate-Like Structures

The ultrasonic phased array total focusing method (TFM) has the advantages of high imaging resolution and high sensitivity to small defects. However, it has a long imaging time and cannot realize near-distance defect imaging, which limits its application for industrial detection. A sparse-TFM algorithm is adopted in this work to solve the problem regarding rapid imaging of near- distance defects in thin plates. Green’s function is reconstructed through the cross-correlation of the diffuse full matrix captured by the ultrasonic phased array. The reconstructed full matrix recovers near-distance scattering information submerged by noise. A sparse array is applied to TFM for rapid imaging. In order to improve the imaging resolution, the location of active array elements in the sparse array can be optimized using the genetic algorithm (GA). Experiments are conducted on three aluminium plates with near-distance defects. The experimental results confirm that the sparse-TFM algorithm of Lamb waves can be used for near-distance defects imaging, which increases the computational efficiency by keeping the imaging accuracy. This paper provides a theoretical guidance for Lamb wave non-destructive testing of the near-distance defects in plate-like structures

Investigation of tick-borne bacterial microorganisms in Haemaphysalis ticks from Hebei, Shandong, and Qinghai provinces, China

Tick-borne microorganisms in many tick species and many areas of China are still not thoroughly investigated. In this study, 224 ticks including two species (Haemaphysalis longicornis and Haemaphysalis qinghaiensis) were collected from four cities in Hebei, Shandong, and Qinghai provinces, China. Ticks were screened for the presence of tick-borne bacterial microorganisms including Rickettsia, Anaplasmataceae (Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Neoehrlichia, etc.), Coxiella, Borrelia, and Bartonella. Two Anaplasma species (Anaplasma ovis and Anaplasma capra) were detected in H. longicornis from Xingtai City of Hebei Province, with a positive rate of 3 % and 8 %, respectively. A Coxiella species was detected in H. longicornis ticks from all three locations in Hebei and Shandong provinces, with the positive rate ranging from 30 to 75 %. All the 16S and rpoB sequences were very similar (99.77–100 % identity) to Coxiella endosymbiont of Haemaphysalis ticks. An Ehrlichia species was detected in H. qinghaiensis (6/66, 9 %) from Xining City, Qinghai Province. The 16S and groEL sequences had 100 % and 97.40–97.85 % nucleotide identities to “Candidatus Ehrlichia pampeana” strains, respectively, suggesting that it may be a variant of “Candidatus Ehrlichia pampeana”. All the ticks were negative for Rickettsia, Borrelia, and Bartonella. Because all the ticks were removed from goats or humans and were partially or fully engorged, it is possible that the microorganisms were from the blood meal but not vectored by the ticks. Our results may provide some information on the diversity and distribution of tick-borne pathogens in China

Detection of Bartonella in kissing bugs Triatoma rubrofasciata collected from Huizhou City, South China

Background: The blood-feeding behavior of kissing bugs (subfamily Triatominae, family Reduviidae, order Hemiptera) means they are potential vectors of multiple humans pathogens. However, investigations of vector-borne pathogens harbored by kissing bugs are rare. Methods: In the current study, 22 adult kissing bugs (Triatoma rubrofasciata) were captured in Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, south China. The presence of vector-borne pathogens in the kissing bugs was tested, and the genetic diversity of these potential pathogens was investigated. Results: All the kissing bugs were negative for Anaplasmataceae bacteria, Rickettsia, and Coxiella. Bartonella DNA was detected in 36.4% (8/22) of the kissing bugs. The sequences of the Bartonella gltA genes divided into two clades in a phylogenetic tree, with close relationships to B. tribocorum and uncultured Bartonella sp. clone MYR-283, respectively. All the groEL sequences were closely related to those of B. kosoyi (identity 98.75%–100%). The ftsZ and rpoB sequences were most closely related to those of B. elizabethae, a recognized human pathogen, with nucleotide similarities of 98.70%–100% and 99.45%–100%, respectively. Conclusions: We report the detection of Bartonella DNA in Triatoma kissing bugs in southern China. Although the sample size is limited, the high positive rate of detection of Bartonella DNA, the close relationship of the gene sequences to those of zoonotic Bartonella species, and the distribution of the kissing bugs near human residences, hint at a risk to public health

LIMA1 links the E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF40 to lipid metabolism

Abstract LIMA1 is a LIM domain and Actin binding 1 protein that acts as a skeleton protein to promote cholesterol absorption, which makes it an ideal target for interfering with lipid metabolism. However, the detailed regulation of LIMA1 remains unclear. Here, we identified that ring finger protein 40 (RNF40), an E3 ubiquitin ligase previously known as an epigenetic modifier to increase H2B ubiquitination, mediated the ubiquitination of LIMA1 and thereby promoted its degradation in a proteasome-dependent manner. Fraction studies revealed that the 1–166aa fragment of LIMA1 was indispensable for the interaction with RNF40, and at least two domains of RNF40 might mediate the association of RNF40 with LIMA1. Notably, treatment with simvastatin dramatically decreased the levels of CHO and TG in control cells rather than cells with overexpressed LIMA1. Moreover, RNF40 significantly decreased lipid content, which could be reversed by LIMA1 overexpression. These findings suggest that E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF40 could directly target LIMA1 and promote its protein degradation in cytoplasm, leading to the suppression of lipid accumulation mediated by LIMA1. Collectively, this study unveils that RNF40 is a novel E3 ubiquitin ligase of LIMA1, which underpins its high therapeutic value to combat dysregulation of lipid metabolism

PET Imaging of VCAM‑1 Expression and Monitoring Therapy Response in Tumor with a ⁶⁸Ga-Labeled Single Chain Variable Fragment

Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is a transmembrane glycoprotein closely related to tumorigenicity as well as tumor metastasis. It is also a well-known candidate for detecting tumors. LY2409881, an IKKβ inhibitor, could induce apoptosis of VCAM-1 positive cells. Our purpose is to prepare a novel tracer to evaluate its feasibility of detecting VCAM-1 expression and monitoring LY2409881 tumor curative effect. The tracer was prepared by conjugating the single chain variable fragment (scFv) of VCAM-1 and NOTA-NHS-ester and then labeled with ⁶⁸Ga. ⁶⁸Ga-NOTA-VCAM-1_scFv was successfully prepared with high radiochemical yield. VCAM-1 overexpression and underexpression melanoma cell lines, B16F10 and A375m, were used in this study. The results of microPET/CT imaging in small animals indicated that the uptake of ⁶⁸Ga-NOTA-VCAM-1_scFv in B16F10 tumor was much higher than that of A375m, which was also confirmed by the biodistribution and autoradiography results. LY2409881 inhibits the growth of B16F10 melanoma <i>in vivo</i> by inducing dose- and time-dependent growth inhibition and apoptosis of the cells. The LY2409881 treated group and DMSO control group were established and imaged by microPET/CT. In the LY2409881 group, uptake of the tracer in tumor was decreased at the first week, and then gradually recovered to the initial level. In DMSO control, the uptake of the tracer remained at the same level during the whole time. The results suggested that LY2409881 inhibits the expression of VCAM-1 and suppresses tumor growth. ⁶⁸Ga-NOTA-VCAM-1_scFv, an easily synthesized probe, has a potential clinical application in the visual monitoring of IKKβ inhibitor intervention on VCAM-1 positive tumors