Cross-species transmission of viruses from wildlife animal reservoirs poses a marked threat to human and animal health . Bats have been recognized as one of the most important reservoirs for emerging viruses and the transmission of a coronavirus that originated in bats to humans via intermediate hosts was responsible for the high-impact emerging zoonosis, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) . Here we provide virological, epidemiological, evolutionary and experimental evidence that a novel HKU2-related bat coronavirus, swine acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), is the aetiological agent that was responsible for a large-scale outbreak of fatal disease in pigs in China that has caused the death of 24,693 piglets across four farms. Notably, the outbreak began in Guangdong province in the vicinity of the origin of the SARS pandemic. Furthermore, we identified SADS-related CoVs with 96-98% sequence identity in 9.8% (58 out of 591) of anal swabs collected from bats in Guangdong province during 2013-2016, predominantly in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp.) that are known reservoirs of SARS-related CoVs. We found that there were striking similarities between the SADS and SARS outbreaks in geographical, temporal, ecological and aetiological settings. This study highlights the importance of identifying coronavirus diversity and distribution in bats to mitigate future outbreaks that could threaten livestock, public health and economic growth.
During the past several decades, an increasing incidence of thyroid cancer has been reported in many parts of the world. To date, no study has compared trends in thyroid cancer incidence across continents. We examined incidence data from Cancer Incidence in Five Continents (CI5) over the 30-year period 1973-2002 from 19 populations in the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Thyroid cancer rates have increased from 1973-1977 to 1998-2002 for most of the populations except for Sweden, in which the incidence rates decreased about 18% for both males and females. The average increase was 48.0% among males and 66.7% among females. More recently, the age-adjusted international thyroid cancer incidence rates from 1998-2002 varied 5-fold by geographic region for males and nearly 10-fold for females by geographic region. Considerable variation in thyroid cancer incidence was present for every continent but Africa, in which the incidence rates were generally low. Our analysis of published CI5 data suggests that thyroid cancer rates increased between 1973 and 2002 in most populations worldwide and that the increase does not appear to be restricted to a particular region of the world or by the underlying rates of thyroid cancer.
Increasing evidence has suggested that microRNAs (miRNA) play an important role in tumorigenesis. As transcriptional regulators, altered miRNA expression may affect many cancerrelated biological pathways, indicating that miRNAs can function as tumor suppressors and/or oncogenes. We first performed a genetic association analysis by screening genetic variants in 15 miRNA genes and detected that a common sequence variant in hsa-miR-196a-2 (rs11614913, C!T) was significantly associated with decreased breast cancer risk ( for homozygous variant: odds ratio, 0.44; 95% confidence interval, 0.28-0.70). Hypermethylation of a CpG island upstream (-700 bp) of the miR-196a-2 precursor was also associated with reduced breast cancer risk (odds ratio, 0.35; 95% confidence interval, 0.15-0.81).
Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKP) is traditionally defined by hypermucoviscosity, but data based on genetic background are limited. Antimicrobial-resistant hvKP has been increasingly reported but has not yet been systematically studied. K. pneumoniae isolates from bloodstream infections, hospital-acquired pneumonia, and intra-abdominal infections were collected from 10 cities in China during February to July 2013. Clinical data were collected from medical records. All K. pneumoniae isolates were investigated by antimicrobial susceptibility testing, string test, extended-spectrum -lactamase (ESBL) gene detection, capsular serotypes, virulence gene profiles, and multilocus sequence typing. hvKP was defined by aerobactin detection. Of 230 K. pneumoniae isolates, 37.8% were hvKP. The prevalence of hvKP varied among different cities, with the highest rate in Wuhan (73.9%) and the lowest in Zhejiang (8.3%). Hypermucoviscosity and the presence of K1, K2, K20, and rmpA genes were strongly associated with hvKP (P < 0.001). A significantly higher incidence of liver abscess (P ؍ 0.026), sepsis (P ؍ 0.038), and invasive infections (P ؍ 0.043) was caused by hvKP. Cancer (odds ratio [OR], 2.285) and diabetes mellitus (OR, 2.256) appeared to be independent variables associated with hvKP infections by multivariate analysis. Importantly, 12.6% of hvKP isolates produced ESBLs, and most of them carried bla CTX-M genes. Patients with neutropenia (37.5% versus 5.6%; P ؍ 0.020), history of systemic steroid therapy (37.5% versus 5.6%; P ؍ 0.020), and combination therapy (62.5% versus 16.7%; P ؍ 0.009) were more likely to be infected with ESBL-producing hvKP. The prevalence of hvKP is high in China and has a varied geographic distribution. ESBLproducing hvKP is emerging, suggesting an urgent need to enhance clinical awareness, especially for immunocompromised patients receiving combination therapy. Over the past few decades, increasing rates of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKP) infection have been reported worldwide (1-4). Such strains are notorious for their capacity to cause serious and metastatic infections in young and healthy individuals, such as pyogenic liver abscesses and endophthalmitis (5). Hypermucoviscosity is an important in vitro parameter for identification of hvKP (6, 7). However, several controversies have arisen regarding the association of hypermucoviscosity phenotype and virulence (8, 9). Hypermucoviscosity-negative strains are more prone to cause severe infections and have a higher mortality rate in diabetic mice than hypermucoviscous K. pneumoniae (8). Our previous study also demonstrated that one of the five hypermucoviscous K. pneumoniae isolates showed high virulence in both in vitro and in vivo assays (9). Therefore, it is apparent that hvKP cannot be defined by string test alone (10). Aerobactin accounts for increased siderophore production and is a major virulence determinant and new defining trait for hvKP based on genetic background (11). Some advances have been made recently...
Using a novel approach to investigate etiologic heterogeneity among NHL subtypes, we identified risk factors that were common among subtypes as well as risk factors that appeared to be distinct among individual or a few subtypes, suggesting both subtype-specific and shared underlying mechanisms. Further research is needed to test putative mechanisms, investigate other risk factors (eg, other infections, environmental exposures, and diet), and evaluate potential joint effects with genetic susceptibility.
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