Background. The study was performed to investigate the prevalence, awareness and the risk factors of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the community population in Shanghai, China.Methods. A total of 2596 residents were randomly recruited from the community population in Shanghai, China. All were screened for albuminuria, haematuria, morning spot urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio and renal function. Serum creatinine, uric acid, cholesterol, triglyceride and haemoglobin were assessed. A simplified MDRD equation was used to estimate the glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). All studied subjects were screened by kidney ultrasound. Haematuria, if present in the morning spot urine dipstick test, was confirmed by microscopy. The associations among the demographic characteristics, health characteristics and indicators of kidney damage were examined.Results. Two thousand five hundred and fifty-four residents (n = 2554), after giving informed consent and with complete data, were entered into this study. Albuminuria and haematuria were detected in 6.3% and 1.2% of all the studied subjects, respectively, whereas decreased kidney function was found in 5.8% of all studied subjects. Approximately 11.8% of subjects had at least one indicator of kidney damage. The rate of awareness of CKD was 8.2%. The logistic regression model showed that age, central obesity, hypertension, diabetes, anaemia, hyperuricaemia and nephrolithiasis each contributed to the development of CKD.Conclusion. This is the first Shanghai community-based epidemiological study data on Chinese CKD patients. The prevalence of CKD in the community population in Shanghai is 11.8%, and the rate of awareness of CKD is 8.2%. All the factors including age, central obesity, hypertension, diabetes, anaemia, hyperuricaemia and nephrolithiasis are positively correlated with the development of CKD in our studied subjects.

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Human mastadenovirus species C (HAdV-C) are the most common etiologic agents of respiratory disease in young children and are frequently detected worldwide including China. Two recombinant HAdV-C strains (BJ04 and BJ09) were isolated from infants with acute respiratory infection (ARI) in Beijing in 2012-2013. The whole genome sequences (WGS) of BJ04 and BJ09 were generated and compared to other 35 HAdV-C WGSs publicly available. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the BJ04 strain might be the result of three homologous recombination events involving the parental strains JX173086 (HAdV-1), NC_001405 (HAdV-2) and LC068718 (HAdV-6), whereas BJ09 viral genome might be made of genetic elements from JX173083 (HAdV-1), KF268199 (HAdV-5), and KR699642 (strain CBJ113). Despite intratypic recombination, amino acid analysis showed that the gene repertoire of BJ04 and BJ09 were similar to type 2 viruses. Finally, this analysis revealed that at least three lineages of HAdV-C have been identified in China, represented by BJ04 related to NC_001405, BJ09 related to CBJ113, and KF951595 (strain DD28) related to virus isolated in Japan. This study showed that the frequent recombination played an important driving force for complexity of the HAdV-C epidemic in Beijing, thereby demonstrating the necessity for epidemiological and virological surveillance for HAdV-C in China.Human mastadenovirus (HAdV) is a non-enveloped, double-stranded DNA virus of the family Adenoviridae within the genus Mastadenovirus 1 . HAdV genomes generally range from 26 to 45 kb in length 2 . The viral capsid is composed of two types of capsomeres: the hexon and the penton (which consists of the penton base and the fiber) 1 . Hexon and fiber are involved in neutralization as well as hemagglutination inhibition for the later 3 . HAdVs can be divided into 7 species (HAdV-A to G) with more than 70 types based on biological properties, a serum neutralization assay, and whole-genome sequencing 4 . Recently, in order to serve to the adenovirus research community, HAdV working group, being a collaboration between adenoviral researcher and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NIH)/GenBank, was established with the goals of coordinating and standardizing the process of assigning names to candidate novel HAdV. The working group established a parallel nomenclature based on penton base, hexon and fiber sequences (PHF), and is continuously updating the nomenclature based on biological and genomics data (http://hadvwg.gmu.edu). As multiple studies revealed that HAdV was prone to intratypic recombination, the 9th International Adenovirus Meeting proposed to use whole genome sequences (WGSs) to characterize and name novel HAdV types 5 .

Previous studies have documented the effect of information and communications technology (ICT) on farmers' market participation. We employ a triple-hurdle model to examine the effect of internet and phones on Peruvian smallholder farmers' market participation, marketplace choice, and volume decisions using householdlevel data from the IV National Agricultural Census of Peru in 2012. Double matching at the district-and household-levels is implemented to address potential selection bias. Results indicate a positive direct effect of internet and phones on farmers' market participation and volume decisions on the national market. Those with ICT access are more likely to sell on the foreign market than those without ICT access. The marginal effects suggest that internet access tends to have larger impacts on volume decisions than phones. In addition to direct effects, we find that internet access has significant and positive spillover effects on market participation and volume decisions in the national market. Without implementing matching procedures, the magnitude of the ICT effect tends to be smaller. Results provide empirical support for policies and social programmes that promote ICT especially internet usage in rural Peru to improve smallholder farmers' marketing performance.

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A city-wide cytomegalovirus serosurvey was conducted in Shanghai, China, and associated parameters were calculated by employing the catalytic model. The lowest seroprevalence was 60.37%, found in the >1-to 3-year age group. The value increased rapidly with age until 25 years, when a value of 97.03% was found, caused by the high force of infection (12.69) and by the reproductive rate (8.89).Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is one of the eight human herpesviruses. Almost anyone of any age is susceptible to HCMV. The seropositivity of cytomegalovirus varies from 40% to 100%, with a pronounced disparity between developed and developing countries. Cytomegalovirus has a natural ability to enter latency after asymptomatic or symptomatic primary infection and undergoes periodic episodes of reactivation, especially in immunocompromised settings (17).Primary HCMV infection in the mother during pregnancy has a high possibility of causing congenital infection (1, 11). However, pregnant women with HCMV reactivated from latency or reinfected by new strains can also transmit the virus to the fetus through the placenta, with the latter circumstance leading more easily to this effect (4,11,22).In immunocompetent persons, adequate humoral and cellular immunity are required to restrain viral replication after primary infection and to maintain HCMV in a lifelong chronic state. Persistent cytomegalovirus infection could elicit the seemingly preferential expansion of HCMV-specific clones and lead to HCMV-related inflammation, which is harmful to adults, especially the elderly (2,12,15,20,21).There were several surveys conducted in Shanghai, China, estimating HCMV seroprevalence rates several decades ago, in which the population was selected only from women of childbearing age or those who were pregnant. Indeed, the overall seroprevalence rates of the entire population of Shanghai have not previously been investigated. Only when we survey and analyze the overall circumstances of HCMV infection in Shanghai can the public or government awareness be heightened and can a project be framed for prevention of HCMVassociated diseases, primary infection, or reinfection.Ethics approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Ruijin Hospital. A total of 8,190 serum samples collected from June 2006 to May 2008 in Shanghai, China, were tested for HCMV seroprevalence. The serum samples provided for the HCMV seroprevalence survey were supplied by the Ruijin clinical laboratory after completion of clinically required testing. Specimens from organ transplants and from subjects who received a transfusion within the past 3 months or were known to be infected with human immunodeficiency virus were discarded. Serum samples were identified at Ruijin Hospital by the name of the subject, gender, age or date of birth, and date of collection to ensure that only one sample from any one subject was tested. HCMV-specific immunoglobulin G levels were tested by microparticle enzyme immunoassay technology (AxSYM). The presence of at least 15 antibody units per ml of s...

The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between methods of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and enzyme multiplied immunoassay technology (EMIT) for determination of total mycophenolic acid (tMPA) and free (fMPA) concentration and to study pharmacokinetics of fMPA in Chinese liver transplant recipients. An HPLC method with fluorometric detection and an EMIT assay were established to determine fMPA in plasma ultrafiltrates. Pharmacokinetic parameters of tMPA and fMPA in 51 patients were estimated. The calibration range of fMPA was 0.0025 to 1.0 μg/mL for the HPLC method and 0.0050 to 0.50 μg/mL for the EMIT method. Mean recovery of the two methods was 98.0% and 97.1%, respectively. The intraday and interday coefficient of variations were 0.93% to 3.1% and 1.6% to 2.9% for HPLC and 4.51% to 15.8% and 5.83% to 19.5% for EMIT, respectively. The relationship of the two methods was EMIT = 1.074 × HPLC + 0.582 (r2 = 0.918, n = 470, P < 0.05) for tMPA and EMIT = 1.068 × HPLC + 0.004 (r2 = 0.945, n = 297, P < 0.05) for fMPA. There was a positive mean bias of EMIT for tMPA (27.0%) and fMPA (23.3%). The AUC0-12 of tMPA and fMPA obtained by HPLC in 51 patients was 34.7 ± 11.1 and 0.72 ± 0.38 μg·h/mL, respectively. The free fraction of MPA was 1.60 ± 1.21% (Median:1.36%, interquartile: 0.72, 2.22), [corrected] which was significantly correlated with 7-O-glucuronide conjugate of MPA AUC0-12 (r2 = 0.705, P < 0.001), albumin (r2 = -0.529, P < 0.001), and the clearance of creatinine (r2 = -0.417, r2 = 0.005). Both HPLC and EMIT assay are suitable for the determination of fMPA. A considerable interindividual variability exists in pharmacokinetics of fMPA among Chinese liver transplant recipients. 7-O-Glucuronide conjugate of MPA and albumin concentrations are two factors correlated to fMPA variance.

BackgroundFascin is a F-actin bundling protein and its overexpression is correlated with poor prognosis and increases metastatic potential in a number of cancers. But underlying function and mechanism of fascin on tumorigenesis in melanoma remain elusive.MethodsThe melanoma cell lines WM793 and WM39 were employed for the soft agar and sphere formation assay. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot were performed for identifying the gene expression at mRNA and protein levels, respectively. Co-IP and in vitro GST pulldown experiments were used to test the interaction between fascin and MST2.ResultsFascin regulates tumorigenesis and cancer cell stemness in melanoma through inhibition of the Hippo pathway kinase MST2 and the activation of transcription factor TAZ. Our data showed that fascin interacts with the kinase domain of MST2 to inhibit its homodimer formation and kinase activity. Depletion of fascin led to increase of p-LATS level and decrease of TAZ, but not YAP. We also demonstrated that fascin regulates melanoma tumorigenesis independent of its actin-bundling activity.ConclusionsFascin is a new regulator of the MST2-LATS-TAZ pathway and plays a critical role in melanoma tumorigenesis. Inhibition of fascin reduces melanoma tumorigenesis and stemness, and thus fascin could be a potential therapeutic target for this malignancy.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12964-018-0250-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.