Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) associated with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is an emerging infectious disease. 12 patients with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome in our study were presented mainly with fever and severe malaise. The clinical manifestations typically became worse on the 6th or 7th day. The average fever time is 9.11 ± 1.54 days. Most of them had multiorgan dysfunction, and part of them had hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis histiocytosis (HLH). The characteristic laboratory findings in the early stage were the drop of white blood cells (WBC), platelets (PLT) and serum Ca++, while increase of aspartate amino transferase (AST), creatine kinase (CK), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). CD3+CD4+ were significantly decreased, while CD3-CD56+ were significantly increased, whereas CD3+CD8+ were constantly elevated throughout the disease course. Ten to 14 days after illness onset, symptoms were improved, accompanied by resolution of laboratory abnormalities. These results indicate that severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome has an acute onset and self-limited course. It is a systemic infection. The host immune response caused tissues and organs injury. The improvement of symptoms and laboratory tests is consistent with the elimination of the virus and recover of immune response. Further investigation should be done in order to better understand this disease and guide the clinical treatment.

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BackgroundHistoplasmosis is one of the invasive fungal infections and presents with symptoms mainly in the lungs. Disseminated histoplasmosis (DH) is rare and its lesions in the gastrointestinal tract are even uncommon. The concomitant involvement of the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract has never been described in the immunocompetent individuals.Case presentationA 44-year-old immunocompetent Chinese man presented with fever, hepatosplenomegaly, fungal esophagitis and protuberant lesions with central depression and erosion along the mucous membrane of the colon. The patient was diagnosed as disseminated histoplasmosis by gastrointestinal endoscopy.ConclusionsHistoplasmosis should be taken caution in patients with fever and hepatosplenomegaly. Actions should be taken to avoid its disseminated infection associated high mortality.

Artificial lighting, especially blue light, is becoming a public-health risk. Excessive exposure to blue light at night has been reported to be associated with brain diseases. However, the mechanisms underlying neuropathy induced by blue light remain unclear. An early anatomical tracing study described the projection of the retina to the lateral habenula (LHb), whereas more mechanistic reports are available on multiple brain functions and neuropsychiatric disorders in the LHb, which are rarely seen in epigenetic studies, particularly N6-methyladenosine (m6A). The purpose of our study was to first expose Sprague-Dawley rats to blue light (6.11 ± 0.05 mW/cm2, the same irradiance as 200 lx of white light in the control group) for 4 h, and simultaneously provide white light to the control group for the same time to enter a sleep period. The experiment was conducted over 12 weeks. RNA m6A modifications and different mRNA transcriptome profiles were observed in the LHb. We refer to this experimental group as BLS. High-throughput MeRIP-seq and mRNA-seq were performed, and we used bioinformatics to analyze the data. There were 188 genes in the LHb that overlapped between differentially m6A-modified mRNA and differentially expressed mRNA. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and gene ontology analysis were used to enrich neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction, long-term depression, the cyclic guanosine monophosphate-dependent protein kinase G (cGMP-PKG) signaling pathway, and circadian entrainment. The m6A methylation level of the target genes in the BLS group was disordered. In conclusion, this study suggests that the mRNA expression and their m6A of the LHb were abnormal after blue light exposure during the sleep period, and the methylation levels of target genes related to synaptic plasticity were disturbed. This study offers a theoretical basis for the scientific use of light.

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