The Epidemiologic and Clinical Features of Radiographic-Confirmed Community-Acquired Pneumonia Among Chinese Children: A Retrospective Hospital-Based Study.

BACKGROUND: To help understand the disease burden of vaccine-preventable bacterial disease, we delineated the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of radiographic-confirmed community-acquired pneumonia (CXR-CAP) among Chinese children. METHODS: We retrospectively screened the electronic database of the hospital information system to identify all pediatric CAP cases admitted to the Children's Hospital of Soochow University between 2010 and 2014. Radiographic findings and clinical data were extracted from the medical charts through individual chart reviews. CXR-CAP cases were defined as the presence of consolidation or pleural effusion noted on chest radiograph reports. We employed a multivariate logistic regression model to identify the potential risk factors associated with CXR-CAP. RESULTS: Among the 27,485 hospitalized CAP cases with radiologic data, 6322 (23.00%) were identified as CXR-CAP cases, while 21,163 (77.00%) were categorized as non-CXR-CAP cases. Children with CXR-CAP were notably older than those without CXR-CAP (non-CXR-CAP; χ2 = 1313.22; P < 0.01). CXR-CAP cases exhibited a higher rate of intensive care unit admission (3.55% vs. 1.94%; P < 0.01), extended hospital stays (73.87% vs. 63.79%; P < 0.01) and increased mortality rates (0.19% vs. 0.04%; P < 0.01). The factors associated with CXR-CAP included age (>12 months), season (summer and autumn), fever, abnormal breath sounds, C-reactive protein (>8 mg/L) and alanine transaminase (>40 U/L). CONCLUSIONS: CXR-CAP cases consisted of a substantial proportion of hospitalized patients with CAP and had more severe clinical manifestations than in-patients without CXR-CAP among Chinese children.

LC-MS characterization of N/O-glycans of α- and ß-subunits of chicken ovomucin separated by SDS-PAGE.

As the main active glycoprotein of egg white, the biological functions of chicken ovomucin α- and ß-subunit are closely related to the structure of glycans. However, the exact composition and structure of the subunit glycans are still unknown. We obtained highly pure chicken ovomucin α-subunit and ß-subunit protein bands by the strategy combined with two-step isoelectric precipitation and SDS-PAGE gel electrophoresis. The ammonia-catalyzed one-pot procedure was then used to release and capture α-and ß-subunit protein glycans with 1-phenyl- 3-Methyl-5-pyrazolone (PMP). The N/O-glycans of bis-PMP derivatives were purified and analyzed by LC-MS. More importantly, an effective dual modification was performed to accurately quantify neutral and sialylated O-glycans through methylamidation of sialic acid residues and simultaneously through carbonyl condensation reactions of reducing ends with PMP. We first showed that the α-subunit protein has only N-glycosylation modification, and the ß-subunit only O-glycosylation, a total of 22 N-glycans and 20 O-glycans were identified in the α- and ß-subunit, respectively. In addition, the complex N-glycan (47 %) and the sialylated O-glycan (77 %) are each major types of the above subunits. Such findings in this study provide a basis for studying the functional and biological activities of chicken ovomucin glycans.

Performance enhancement of multiple-mode FBMC-IM VLC systems with group-interleaved precoding.

In this paper, we introduce the application of multiple-mode index modulation (MMIM) to filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC) for the first time in visible light communication (VLC) systems. Additionally, we propose a group-interleaved precoding (GIP) technique to enhance the performance of MM-FBMC-IM-based VLC systems. The GIP technique reduces complexity in precoding by grouping and achieves equalization of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) through subcarrier interleaving. Furthermore, we develop a robust low-complexity maximum likelihood (LCML) detector, which can maintain the same computational complexity as a conventional LCML detector and achieve similar performance as an ML detector. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed MM-FBMC-IM-based VLC system with GIP are demonstrated through comprehensive validation by both simulation and experimental results.

Impact of COVID-19 Nonpharmaceutical Interventions on Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections in Hospitalized Children.

BACKGROUND: Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) targeted at SARS-CoV-2 have remarkably affected the circulation of other respiratory pathogens, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). This study aimed to assess the changes in epidemiological and clinical characteristics of RSV infections in hospitalized children before and during the pandemic in Suzhou, China. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled children aged < 18 years who were hospitalized in Soochow University Affiliated Children's Hospital with acute lower respiratory infection (ALRIs) from January 2018 to July 2022. Changes in epidemiological and clinical characteristics of RSV infections were analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with the same period in 2018-2019, the difference in the overall positive rate of RSV was not statistically significant in 2020, while it increased significantly in 2021 (11.8% [662/5621] vs. 20.8% [356/1711], p < 0.001) and 2022 (9.0% [308/3406] vs. 18.9% [129/684], p < 0.001). Specifically, the positive rates declined considerably from October to December 2020 but sharply increased during the summer of 2021. Compared to prepandemic period, RSV infections were more frequently observed in older children during the pandemic. RSV-positive children exhibited milder clinical characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic, including decreased proportion of patients with hospital stay ≥ 11 days (10.3% vs. 6.7%, p < 0.05), less requirement for oxygen therapy (13.7% vs. 6.9%, p < 0.001), and fewer cases of polypnea (12.2% vs. 9.7%, p < 0.05) and wheeze (50.1% vs. 42.9%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of multilayered NPIs targeted at COVID-19 has affected the activity of RSV. Ongoing monitoring of RSV is warranted as the changing RSV epidemiology can provide valuable insights for future healthcare system planning.

Induction of Neuroinflammation and Brain Oxidative Stress by Brain-Derived Extracellular Vesicles from Hypertensive Rats.

Neuroinflammation and brain oxidative stress are recognized as significant contributors to hypertension including salt sensitive hypertension. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) play an essential role in intercellular communication in various situations, including physiological and pathological ones. Based on this evidence, we hypothesized that EVs derived from the brains of hypertensive rats with salt sensitivity could trigger neuroinflammation and oxidative stress during hypertension development. To test this hypothesis, we compared the impact of EVs isolated from the brains of hypertensive Dahl Salt-Sensitive rats (DSS) and normotensive Sprague Dawley (SD) rats on inflammatory factors and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) production in primary neuronal cultures and brain cardiovascular relevant regions, including the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and lamina terminalis (LT). We found that brain-derived DSS-EVs significantly increased the mRNA levels of proinflammatory cytokines (PICs) and chemokines, including TNFα, IL1ß, CCL2, CCL5, and CCL12, as well as the transcriptional factor NF-κB in neuronal cultures. DSS-EVs also induced oxidative stress in neuronal cultures, as evidenced by elevated NADPH oxidase subunit CYBA coding gene mRNA levels and persistent mtROS elevation. When DSS-EVs were injected into the brains of normal SD rats, the mRNA levels of PICs, chemokines, and the chronic neuronal activity marker FOSL1 were significantly increased in the PVN and LT. Furthermore, DSS-EVs caused mtROS elevation in brain PVN and LT, particularly in neurons. Our study reveals a novel role for brain-derived EVs from hypertensive rats in triggering neuroinflammation, upregulating chemokine expression, and inducing excessive ROS production. These findings provide insight into the complex interactions between EVs and hypertension-associated processes, offering potential therapeutic targets for hypertension-linked neurological complications.

Acetic Acid: An Underestimated Metabolite in Ethanol-Induced Changes in Regulating Cardiovascular Function.

Acetic acid is a bioactive short-chain fatty acid produced in large quantities from ethanol metabolism. In this review, we describe how acetic acid/acetate generates oxidative stress, alters the function of pre-sympathetic neurons, and can potentially influence cardiovascular function in both humans and rodents after ethanol consumption. Our recent findings from in vivo and in vitro studies support the notion that administration of acetic acid/acetate generates oxidative stress and increases sympathetic outflow, leading to alterations in arterial blood pressure. Real-time investigation of how ethanol and acetic acid/acetate modulate neural control of cardiovascular function can be conducted by microinjecting compounds into autonomic control centers of the brain and measuring changes in peripheral sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure in response to these compounds.

Incidence of community-acquired pneumonia among children under 5 years in Suzhou, China: a hospital-based cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: To depict the seasonality and age variations of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) incidence in the context of the COVID-19 impact. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: The observational cohort study was conducted at Soochow University Affiliated Children's Hospital from January 2017 to June 2021 and involved 132 797 children born in 2017 or 2018. They were followed and identified CAP episodes by screening on the Health Information Systems of outpatients and inpatients in the same hospital. OUTCOME: The CAP episodes were defined when the diagnoses coded as J09-J18 or J20-J22. The incidence of CAP was estimated stratified by age, sex, birth year, health status group, season and month, and the rate ratio was calculated and adjusted by a quasi-Poisson regression model. Stratified analysis of incidence of CAP by birth month was conducted to understand the age and seasonal variation. RESULTS: The overall incidence of CAP among children aged ≤5 years was 130.08 per 1000 person years. Children aged ≤24 months have a higher CAP incidence than those aged >24 months (176.84 vs 72.04 per 1000 person years, p<0.001). The CAP incidence increased from October, peaked at December and January and the highest CAP incidence was observed in winter (206.7 per 1000 person years, 95% CI 204.12 to 209.28). A substantial decline of CAP incidence was observed during the COVID-19 lockdown from February to August 2020, and began to rise again when the communities reopened. CONCLUSIONS: The burden of CAP among children is considerable. The incidence of CAP among children ≤5 years varied by age and season and decreased during COVID-19 lockdown.

Modeling the optimal seasonal monoclonal antibody administration strategy for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) prevention based on age-season specific hospitalization rate of RSV in Suzhou, China, 2016-2022.

BACKGROUND: The approval of nirsevimab brings light to reducing the heavy disease burden caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Considering the seasonality of RSV, the timing of administrating monoclonal antibody (mAb) is critical to maximize health utility. This study aimed to model and seek the optimal seasonal mAb administration strategy for preventing RSV-associated hospitalization. METHODS: Age-season specific hospitalization rates for RSV-associated acute lower respiratory infection (RSV-ALRI) were estimated from a hospital-based birth cohort. Using these rates, we simulated and evaluated the effect of diverse mAb administration strategies on preventing RSV-ALRI hospitalization. Optimal strategies were selected based on their effectiveness and relative cost-effectiveness. RESULTS: Compared with the year-round strategy of administration mAb at birth for all children, 291 out of the 854 candidate strategies, featuring diverse administration timing and age thresholds, demonstrated a greater number of averted RSV-ALRI hospitalizations and a lower number needed to treat (NNT). The NNT represents the number of mAb doses needed to prevent one case of RSV-ALRI hospitalization. Among the 291 strategies, administration mAb to children born in July-January or August-January at birth and administrating to the remaining <12 months old children in September, exhibited the highest increase in averted RSV-ALRI hospitalizations than the year-round strategy, with a magnitude of 23 %, while also achieve an 18 % reduction in NNT. CONCLUSION: Administrating monoclonal antibodies to children born in July to January at birth, and administrating to the remaining <1-year-old children in September or October would be the optimal seasonal mAb administration strategy for children in Suzhou, China.

Comprehensive Comparison of Bioactive N-Glycans among Seven Species of Livestock and Poultry Plasma Using a Relative Quantification Strategy.

Glycans have been proven to play special roles in keeping human health as a class of nutritional and bioactive ingredients in many food materials. However, their broad use in the food industry is hindered by the lack of comprehensive analytical methods for high-quality food glycomics studies and large-quantity raw materials for their production. This study focuses on structural identification and quantitative comparison of bioactive N-glycans in seven species of livestock and poultry plasma as potential natural glycan resources by a novel comprehensive relative quantification strategy based on stable isotope labeling with nondeuterated and deuterated 4-methyl-1-(2-hydrazino-2-oxoethyl)-pyridinium bromide (d0/d7-HMP) in combination with linkage-specific derivatization of sialic acid residues. Methodological validation of the method in terms of detection sensitivity, signal resolution, quantification linearity, precision, and accuracy on model neutral and complicated sialylated glycans demonstrated its advantages over the existing methods. Based on this method, a series of bioactive N-glycans were found in seven species of livestock and poultry plasma, and their differences in structure, abundance percentages, and relative contents of N-glycans were revealed, demonstrating their excellent applicability for comprehensive food glycomics analysis and great exploitation potential of these plasma samples as large-quantity raw materials in producing bioactive N-glycans for application in food and pharmaceutical industries.

Interpretable Inference and Classification of Tissue Types in Histological Colorectal Cancer Slides Based on Ensembles Adaptive Boosting Prototype Tree.

Digital pathology images are treated as the "gold standard" for the diagnosis of colorectal lesions, especially colon cancer. Real-time, objective and accurate inspection results will assist clinicians to choose symptomatic treatment in a timely manner, which is of great significance in clinical medicine. However, Manual methods suffers from long inspection cycle and serious reliance on subjective interpretation. It is also a challenging task for existing computer-aided diagnosis methods to obtain models that are both accurate and interpretable. Models that exhibit high accuracy are always more complex and opaque, while interpretable models may lack the necessary accuracy. Therefore, the framework of ensemble adaptive boosting prototype tree is proposed to predict the colorectal pathology images and provide interpretable inference by visualizing the decision-making process in each base learner. The results showed that the proposed method could effectively address the "accuracy-interpretability trade-off" issue by ensemble of m adaptive boosting neural prototype trees. The superior performance of the framework provides a novel paradigm for interpretable inference and high-precision prediction of pathology image patches in computational pathology.

Ethanol Metabolite, Acetate, Increases Excitability of the Central Nucleus of Amygdala Neurons through Activation of NMDA Receptors.

The central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) is a key brain region involved in emotional and stressor responses due to its many projections to autonomic regulatory centers. It is also a primary site of action from ethanol consumption. However, the influence of active metabolites of ethanol such as acetate on the CeA neural circuitry has yet to be elucidated. Here, we investigated the effect of acetate on CeA neurons with the axon projecting to the rostral ventrolateral medulla (CeA-RVLM), as well as quantified cytosolic calcium responses in primary neuronal cultures. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in brain slices containing autonomic CeA-RVLM neurons revealed a dose-dependent increase in neuronal excitability in response to acetate. N-Methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonists suppressed the acetate-induced increase in CeA-RVLM neuronal excitability and memantine suppressed the direct activation of NMDAR-dependent inward currents by acetate in brain slices. We observed that acetate increased cytosolic Ca2+ in a time-dependent manner in primary neuronal cell cultures. The acetate enhancement of calcium signaling was abolished by memantine. Computational modeling of acetic acid at NMDAR/NR1 glutamatergic and glycinergic sites suggests potential active site interactions. These findings suggest that within the CeA, acetate is excitatory at least partially through activation of NMDAR, which may underlie the impact of ethanol consumption on autonomic circuitry.

Probing the evolutionary mechanism of the hydrogen bond network of cellulose nanofibrils using three DESs.

Complex interactions between cellulose molecules and small molecules in Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES) systems can lead to dramatic changes in the structure of the hydrogen bond network in cellulose. However, the mechanism of interaction between cellulose and solvent molecules and the mechanism of evolution of hydrogen bond network are still unclear. In this study, cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) were treated with DESs based on oxalic acid as hydrogen bond donors (HBD), and choline chloride, betaine, and N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) as hydrogen bond acceptors (HBA). The changes in the properties and microstructure of CNFs during treatment with the three types of solvents were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that the crystal structures of CNFs were not changed during the process, but the hydrogen bond network evolved, increasing the crystallinity and crystallite size. Further analysis of the fitted peaks of FTIR and generalized two-dimensional correlation spectra (2DCOS) revealed that all three hydrogen bonds were disrupted to different degrees, the relative content changed, and evolved strictly in a certain order. These findings indicate that the evolution of hydrogen bond networks in nanocellulose has certain regularity.

Interpretable classification of pathology whole-slide images using attention based context-aware graph convolutional neural network.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Whole slide image (WSI) classification and lesion localization within giga-pixel slide are challenging tasks in computational pathology that requires context-aware representations of histological features to adequately infer nidus. The existing weakly supervised learning methods mainly treat different locations in the slide as independent regions and cannot learn potential nonlinear interactions between instances based on i.i.d assumption, resulting in the model unable to effectively utilize context-ware information to predict the labels of WSIs and locate the region of interest (ROI). METHODS: Here, we propose an interpretable classification model named bidirectional Attention-based Multiple Instance Learning Graph Convolutional Network (ABMIL-GCN), which hierarchically aggregates context-aware features of instances into a global representation in a topology fashion to predict the slide labels and localize the region of lymph node metastasis in WSIs. RESULTS: We verified the superiority of this method on the Camelyon16 dataset, and the results show that the average predicted ACC and AUC of the proposed model after flooding optimization can reach 90.89% and 0.9149, respectively. The average accuracy and ACC score are improved by more than 7% and 4% compared with the existing state-of-the-art algorithms. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that context-aware GCN outperforms existing weakly supervised learning methods by introducing spatial correlations between the neighbor image patches, which also addresses the 'accuracy-interpretability trade-off' problem. The framework provides a novel paradigm for the clinical application of computer-aided diagnosis and intelligent systems.

Clinical characteristics of 68 children with atypical hand, foot, and mouth disease caused by coxsackievirus A6: a single-center retrospective analysis.

Background: Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) caused by coxsackievirus A6 (CV-A6) has become prevalent in many parts of the world. It is commonly referred to as atypical HFMD which more likely to present as bullous lesions. Compared with traditional HFMD, its misdiagnosis rate is relatively high, which brings difficulties to clinical diagnosis. We retrospectively analyze the clinical characteristics of children with HFMD with bullous lesions caused by CV-A6. Methods: The study included 68 children with atypical HFMD caused by CV-A6 who were hospitalized from 2018 to 2020. Data of the children including age, sex, month of HFMD onset, the morphologies and distribution of rashes, the details of fever, the presence or absence of onychomadesis, and laboratory test results were analyzed and compared between an infant group (<1 year), a toddler group (1-<3 years), and a preschool group (3-<6 years). Results: Of the 68 children, 67 were younger than 5 years old, with a male to female ratio of 1.62:1. The disease peaked in the period from June to September. With 75.0% of the infant group had more than three kinds of rashes; 95.0% of the preschool group had rashes in more than five locations. These differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). All children had fever. The peak fever in the toddler group was lower (P=0.033). No critical cases were observed in any of the groups. Of the 61 children who were successfully followed up, 68.9% developed onychomadesis within 2-3 weeks. The proportion of cases with abnormal liver function was 83.3%, 41.7%, and 10.0% in the infant, toddler, and preschool groups (P<0.001). The proportion of cases with increased serum creatine kinase MB isoenzyme (CK-MB) were significantly higher in the toddler group (P<0.05). Conclusions: Atypical HFMD caused by CV-A6 infection usually occurred in children under 5 years old. The morphologies of the rashes in the infant group changed more, while the rashes in the preschool group was more widely distributed. The incidence of critical cases was low. More than half of the cases can develop onychomadesis in the recovery period. Organ damage was relatively mild in the preschool group.

Improved Glycoqueuing Strategy Reveals Novel α2,3-Linked Di-/Tri-Sialylated Oligosaccharide Isomers in Human Milk.

Sialylated human milk oligosaccharides (SHMOs) possess unique biological activities. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of SHMOs at different lactation stages are limited by interference from neutral oligosaccharides, glycan structural complexity, and low detection sensitivity. Herein, our previously developed glycoqueuing strategy was improved and applied to enable an isomer-specific quantitative comparison of SHMOs between colostrum milk (CM) and mature milk (MM). A total of 49 putative structures were determined, including 1 α2,6-linked and 13 α2,3-linked isomers separated from seven newly discovered SHMO compositions. The content of most oligosaccharides was more than 50% lower in MM than in CM, and α2,3-sialylation was observed in 43.74% of SHMOs from CM and 22.95% of SHMOs from MM. Finally, the fucosylation level of the SHMOs increased from 16.45 to 22.28% with prolonged lactation. These findings provide the basis for further studies on the structure-activity relationship of SHMOs and a blueprint to improve infant formula.

Bandwidth enhancement with DAC-enabled pre-equalization and real-valued precoding for a FBMC-VLC.

Modulation bandwidth limitation is one of the major drawbacks in light-emitting diode (LED)-based visible light communication (VLC) systems. Various advanced physical-layer modulation formats with digital/analog pre-equalization or adaptive modulation techniques are usually employed to improve the transmission rate of VLC systems. In this Letter, we use a radio frequency (RF) digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to directly realize signal pre-equalization without additional digital or analog signal processing. In addition, low-complexity real-valued precoding techniques are applied to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and equalize the subcarrier signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The proposed hybrid scheme is experimentally investigated in a spectral-efficient filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC)-based VLC transmission system. The results exhibit that the PAPR can be reduced by more than 3 dB at the complementary cumulative distribution function of 1 × 10-4 with the real-valued precoding techniques. By using the proposed hybrid scheme, the modulation bandwidth can be increased to 515 MHz for 16QAM-FBMC with a bit error rate below 3.8 × 10-3 after 2.3-m free-space transmission. The net bit rate is improved by more than 45% compared with the conventional FBMC-VLC.

Response of different benthic biotic indices to eutrophication and sediment heavy metal pollution, in fujian coastal water, East China sea.

The types and intensity of anthropogenic pressure in the same sea area may differ spatially and may change as time passes, but response of benthic biotic indices to different pressure is different, which makes it unreasonable to use the same benthic biotic indices in a large sea area. We provided a new way of thinking as to selecting benthic biotic indices according to pressure type. The study took six bays under eutrophication and sediment heavy metal pollution to different levels in Fujian coastal water, East China sea, as examples, analysed the response of five benthic biotic indices, namely AZTI marine biotic index (AMBI), multivariate AMBI (M-AMBI), Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H'), benthic opportunistic polychaetes amphipods (BOPA) and benthic polychaetes amphipods (BPA), to eutrophication factors and sediment heavy metal pollution factors firstly. The result indicated that AMBI well responded to dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP); M-AMBI responded soundly in the range of DIN >0.131 mg L-1 and DIP >0.022 mg L-1 and responded universally to heavy metals; H' responded to only Hg and Cd; BOPA has response to eutrophication condition of DIN >0.242 mg L-1; BPA had response to DIN, Cu and As. Then, suitable indices were selected based on the four pressure scenarios in the study area. AMBI was selected in no pressure scenario; M-AMBI was chosen under only eutrophication pressure and under dual pressure; H' was preferred in only heavy metal pressure scenario (mainly Hg pollution). At last, the density plot of the distribution of the selected indices in the evaluation grades under different pressure scenarios proved the proposal of selecting benthic biotic indices according to pressure types feasible. This study can offer some new insights into rapidly choosing indices to evaluate the coastal benthic ecological quality status.

Precoded and pre-equalized multi-band FBMC transmission enabled by radio-frequency DACs and the undersampling technique.

In this Letter, we use radio-frequency digital-to-analog converters (DACs) operating in different frequency response modes to generate a high spectral-efficiency multi-band (MB) filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) signal. In the receiver, the undersampling technique is employed to realize down-conversions. No electrical mixers are required. Besides, discrete Fourier transform and orthogonal circulant matrix transform precoding techniques combined with channel-independent digital pre-equalization are enabled to enhance transmission performance. Both numerical simulations and offline experiments are performed. The relevant results show that the MB-FBMC without a cyclic prefix (CP) is robust against inter-symbol interference induced by the band-pass filtering. By using precoding and pre-equalization techniques, the bit error rate can be improved by more than one order of magnitude. In contrast, an additional 12.5% CP overhead is required for the MB orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system to achieve such an improvement.

Hospitalization rate of respiratory syncytial virus-associated acute lower respiratory infection among young children in Suzhou, China, 2010-2014.

BACKGROUND: There is a limited amount of data in China on the disease burden of respiratory syncytial virus- (RSV) associated acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) among young children. This study aimed to estimate the hospitalization rate of RSV-associated ALRI (RSV-ALRI) among children aged 0-59 months in Suzhou, China. METHODS: All cases from children hospitalized with ALRI who were aged 0-59 months in Suzhou University Affiliated Children's Hospital during January 2010 to December 2014 were retrospectively identified. Detailed diagnosis and treatment data were collected by reviewing each individual's medical chart. In accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) influenza disease burden estimation, the hospitalization rate of RSV-ALRI among children aged 0-59 months in Suzhou, China, was then estimated. RESULTS: Out of the 28,209 ALRI cases, 19,317 (68.5%) were tested for RSV, of which the RSV positive proportion was 21.3% (4107/19,317). The average hospitalization rate of RSV-ALRI for children aged 0-59 months was 14 (95% confidence interval [CI]:14-14)/1000 children years, and that for children aged 0-5, 6-11, 12-23, and 24-59 months were 70 (95% CI: 67-73), 31 (95% CI: 29-33), 11 (95% CI: 10-12), and 3 (95% CI: 3-3)/1000 children years, respectively. CONCLUSION: A considerable degree of RSV-ALRI hospitalization exists among children aged 0-59 months, particularly in those under 1 year of age. Therefore, an effective monoclonal antibody or vaccine is urgently needed to address the substantial hospitalization burden of RSV infection.

TNFα Triggers an Augmented Inflammatory Response in Brain Neurons from Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rats Compared with Normal Sprague Dawley Rats.

Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-α is a proinflammatory cytokine (PIC) and has been implicated in a variety of illness including cardiovascular disease. The current study investigated the inflammatory response trigged by TNFα in both cultured brain neurons and the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), a key cardiovascular relevant brain area, of the Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Our results demonstrated that TNFα treatment induces a dose- and time-dependent increase in mRNA expression of PICs including Interleukin (IL)-1ß and Interleukin-6 (IL6); chemokines including C-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 5 (CCL5) and C-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 12 (CCL12), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), as well as transcription factor NF-kB in cultured brain neurons from neonatal SD rats. Consistent with this finding, immunostaining shows that TNFα treatment increases immunoreactivity of IL1ß, CCL5, iNOS and stimulates activation or expression of NF-kB, in both cultured brain neurons and the PVN of adult SD rats. We further compared mRNA expression of the aforementioned genes in basal level as well as in response to TNFα challenge between SD rats and Dahl Salt-sensitive (Dahl-S) rats, an animal model of salt-sensitive hypertension. Dahl-S brain neurons presented higher baseline levels as well as greater response to TNFα challenge in mRNA expression of CCL5, iNOS and IL1ß. Furthermore, central administration of TNFα caused significant higher response in CCL12 in the PVN of Dahl-S rats. The increased inflammatory response to TNFα in Dahl-S rats may be indicative of an underlying mechanism for enhanced pressor reactivity to salt intake in the Dahl-S rat model.