In the Acknowledgements section of this Article, the grant number 'SQ2019FY010009' should have been '2019FY101500'; this has been corrected online.

bioRxiv preprint 2 Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, such as SARS, MERS, Zika and highly 25 pathogenic influenza present a major threat to public health 1-3 . Despite intense research 26 effort, how, when and where novel diseases appear are still the source of considerable 27 uncertainly. A severe respiratory disease was recently reported in the city of Wuhan, 28 Hubei province, China. At the time of writing, at least 62 suspected cases have been 29 reported since the first patient was hospitalized on December 12 nd 2019. Epidemiological 30 investigation by the local Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested 31 that the outbreak was associated with a sea food market in Wuhan. We studied seven 32 patients who were workers at the market, and collected bronchoalveolar lavage fluid 33 (BALF) from one patient who exhibited a severe respiratory syndrome including fever, 34 dizziness and cough, and who was admitted to Wuhan Central Hospital on December 35 26 th 2019. Next generation metagenomic RNA sequencing 4 identified a novel RNA virus 36 from the family Coronaviridae designed WH-Human-1 coronavirus (WHCV). 37 Phylogenetic analysis of the complete viral genome (29,903 nucleotides) revealed that 38 WHCV was most closely related (89.1% nucleotide similarity similarity) to a group of 39 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like coronaviruses (genus Betacoronavirus, 40 subgenus Sarbecovirus) previously sampled from bats in China and that have a history 41 of genomic recombination. This outbreak highlights the ongoing capacity of viral spill-42 over from animals to cause severe disease in humans. 43 44 Seven patients, comprising five men and two women, were hospitalized at the Central 45 : bioRxiv preprint 3 patients was 43, ranging from 31 to 70 years old. The clinical characteristics of the patients 47 are shown in Table 1. Fever and cough were the most common symptoms. All patients had 48 fever with body temperatures ranging from 37.2 o C to 40 o C. Patients 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 had 49 cough, while patients 1, 2 and 7 presented with severe cough with phlegm at onset of illness. 50 Patients 4 and 5 also complained of chest tightness and dyspnea. Patients 1, 3, 4 and 6 51 experienced dizziness and patient 3 felt weakness. No neurological symptoms were observed 52 in any of the patients. Bacterial culture revealed the presence of Streptococcus bacteria in 53 throat swabs from patients 3, 4 and 7. Combination antibiotic, antiviral and glucocorticoid 54 therapy were administered. Unfortunately, patient 1 and 4 showed respiratory failure: patient 55 1 was given high flow noninvasive ventilation, while patient 4 was provided with nasal/face 56 mask ventilation (Table 1). 57Epidemiological investigation by the Wuhan CDC revealed that all the suspected cases 58 were linked to individuals working in a local indoor seafood market. Notably, in addition to 59 fish and shell fish, a variety of live wild animals including hedgehogs, badgers, snakes, and 60 birds (turtledoves) were available for sale in th...

Background:Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious and fatal complication of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). It has high short- and long-term mortality rates and a poor prognosis but is potentially preventable. However, the current incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of AKI in the Chinese population are not well understood and would serve the first step to identify high-risk patients who could receive preventative care.Methods:The medical data of 1124 hospitalized patients diagnosed with AMI from October 2013 to September 2015 were reviewed. AKI was defined according to the 2012 Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes criteria. All the patients were divided into either the AKI group or the non-AKI group. A univariate comparison analysis was performed to identify possible risk factors associated with AKI. A multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify the independent risk factors for AKI in patients with AMI.Results:Overall, the incidence of AKI was 26.0%. The mortality rate of the AKI group was 20.5%, and the mortality rate of the non-AKI group was 0.6% (P < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that the independent risk factors for AKI in patients with AMI included: age (>60 years old) (odds ratio [OR] 1.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02–1.05, P = 0.000), hypertension (OR 2.51, 95% CI 1.62–3.87, P = 0.000), chronic kidney disease (OR 3.52, 95% CI 2.01–6.16, P = 0.000), Killip class ≥3 (OR 5.22, 95% CI 3.07–8.87, P = 0.000), extensive anterior myocardial infarction (OR 3.02, 95% CI 1.85–4.93, P = 0.000), use of furosemide (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.02–1.03, P = 0.000), non-use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blocker (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.04–2.40, P = 0.032). These factors provided an accurate tool to identify patients at high risk of developing AKI.Conclusions:Approximately 26.0% of patients undergoing AMI developed AKI, and the development of AKI was strongly correlated with in-hospital mortality. The risk factors for AKI in patients with AMI were determined to help identify high-risk patients and make appropriate clinical decisions.

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is a major global health issue. The role of rare genetic variants in CHB has not been elucidated. We aimed to identify rare allelic variants predisposing to CHB. We performed exome sequencing in 50 CHB patients who had no identifiable risk factors for CHB and 40 controls who were healthy and hepatitis B surface antibody-positive, but had never received hepatitis B vaccination. We selected six rare variant alleles and followed up their association with disease status by Sanger sequencing in a case-control study comprising 1,728 CHB patients and 1,636 healthy controls. The latter had either not been immunized with hepatitis B vaccine or had uncertain vaccination status. Our results showed that transmembrane protein 2 p.Ser1254Asn, interferon alpha 2 p.Ala120Thr, its regulator NLR family member X1 p.Arg707Cys, and complement component 2 p.Glu318Asp were associated with CHB, with P values of <1.0 3 10 27 , 2.76 3 10 25 , 5.08 3 10 25 , 2.78 3 10 24 and odds ratios (ORs) of 2.45, 4.08, 2.34, and 1.97, respectively. The combined P value was <2.0 3 10 216 . As there has been no indication of immunological functions for the associated gene, transmembrane protein 2, we further studied its expression by immunohistochemistry, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and western blotting. Our results showed that it was strongly expressed by healthy hepatocytes, but its expression was reduced in liver tissues with CHB, hepatitis B viral (HBV) genomecontaining HepG2.2.15 cells, as compared with healthy liver tissues and non-HBV genome-containing HepG2 cells (P 5 0.022 and 0.0036, respectively). Conclusion: We identified four missense mutations associated with CHB, our results providing evidence for rare inborn genetic defects that contribute to increased host susceptibility to

Purpose Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is reported to be associated with the two traditional estrogen receptor genes, ESR1 and ESR2. Yet, the novel estrogen receptor G protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER) has not been studied. To investigate the association of GPER gene polymorphisms with the onset and deterioration of AIS, we performed a case-control study. Methods Clinical information was recorded, blood samples were taken and genomic DNA was extracted. After resequencing the gene in 45 cases and 45 controls who were randomly selected, 16 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected. Then the association study was extended by an additional 344 patients and 293 controls with direct sequencing and a TaqMan-based genotyping assay. The chi-square test and logistic regression were used to analyse the genotypic and allelic association. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare the mean maximum Cobb angles and ages with different genotypes in the case-only data set.