[Association between genetic predisposition to childhood obesity and the risk of adult ischemic heart disease in China].

Objective: To examine the associations of childhood obesity, assessed by genetic variations of childhood body mass index (BMI), with the risk of adult ischemic heart disease (IHD) and major coronary event (MCE). Methods: More than 69 000 participants from the China Kadoorie Biobank were genotyped. After excluding those with coronary heart disease, stroke, or cancer at baseline, a total of 64 454 participants were included in this study. Based on genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), childhood BMI genetic risk score were constructed for every participant and divided into quintiles, with the lowest quintile as the low genetic risk group and the highest quintile as the high genetic risk group. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the association between genetic predisposition to childhood obesity and the risk of ischemic heart disease. Results: During a median of 10.7 years of follow-up, 7 073 incident cases of IHD and 1 845 cases of MCE were documented. After adjusting for sex, age, region, and the first ten genetic principal components, the HRs (95%CIs) for IHD and MCE in the high genetic risk group were 1.10 (1.02-1.18) and 1.10 (0.95-1.27), compared with the low genetic risk group. IHD risk increased by 4% (2%-6%) for each one standard deviation increase in genetic risk score (trend P=0.001). After further adjustment for baseline BMI, the differences between genetic risk groups were not statistically significant, but there was still a linear trend between genetic risk score and IHD risk (trend P=0.019). Conclusions: IHD risk increased with genetic predisposition to childhood obesity, suggesting that childhood obesity is an important risk factor for the development of IHD in China. As an easily identifiable feature, changes of childhood BMI should be monitored regularly to realize early intervention of IHD in adults.

[Development and outlook on human challenge trial of vaccine].

Human challenge trial (HCT) is a test in which human volunteers are intentionally infected with pathogens in order to evaluate the efficacy of candidate preventive or therapeutic drugs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the HCT of vaccines has aroused people's attention due to its significant advantages over clinical trial. This paper introduces the concept, development and application of HCT, the advantages and limitations of HCT for vaccine evaluation, and the consideration of future HCT of COVID-19 vaccine in China.

[Hesitancy of parents towards vaccines in national immunization program in three regions in China: a cross-sectional study].

Objective: To investigate the incidence and determinants of vaccine hesitancy towards national immunization program in China and understand the current status of parents' hesitancy to different vaccines used in national immunization program. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Beijing, Sichuan and Gansu. The methods of proportional probability sampling and convenience sampling were used to select the eligible study subjects for questionnaire surveys. Results: A total of 3 592 parents were enrolled in the study, in whom 38.22% fully accepted all the vaccines, 59.35% agreed to let their children to receive all the vaccines but showed slight concern, and 2.42% had hesitancy to the vaccines. The vaccine with the most hesitancy was polio vaccine (0.89%), followed by diphtheria pertussis tetanus vaccine (0.70%) and hepatitis A vaccine (0.64%). The dominant reason for vaccine hesitancy was the risk-benefit perception of vaccination (31.03%), followed by the low awareness of the parents (21.84%) and the inconvenience caused by distance and time (21.84%). Conclusions: The incidence of vaccine hesitancy towards national immunization program was low in parents in China, but over 50% of the parents showed concern to the vaccines. It is essential to improve the service quality of national immunization program and strengthen the health education about the vaccination to reduce the incidence of vaccine hesitancy in parents.

[Studies on sexual and childbearing-related stigma against chronic hepatitis B patients in four provinces in China].

Objective: This study intended to explore the current sexual and childbearing stigma, experienced by chronic hepatitis B patients in China, and to develop related preventive strategies. Methods: We used a self-made questionnaire to investigate the sexual and childbearing stigma suffered by chronic hepatitis B patients in four provinces of China. Analysis of variance and chi-square test were used to compare the differences on sexual and childbearing stigma indexes between different demographic variables. Results: We surveyed 797 chronic hepatitis B patients in four provinces. Among them, 4.15% (28/675) of the patients were persuaded not to give birth to children, and 4.67% (10/210) of patients were told to stop pregnancy, by their medical care takers or by members from the family planning institutions. 3.62% (25/690) and 3.48% (24/690) of the patients were not able to enjoy the family planning or reproductive health services as they were stigmatized,suffered, as having HBV infection. Among the male chronic hepatitis B patients, the under 30 years group suffered less sexual and childbearing stigma than those who were aged 31- (P=0.011) or 51 and above year-olds (P=0.009). Among female chronic hepatitis B patients, the 31- year-olds group suffered less sexual and childbearing stigma than those under 30 years group but higher than those aged 41- (P=0.001) or 51 and above ones (P<0.001). Patients with knowledge on route of sexual transmission for HBV, were more likely to practice less related sexual behaviors than those without such knowledge (P=0.022). Patients who were aware or not that condoms could reduce the risk of HBV infection did not show statistically significant difference on sex behaviors (P=0.612). Conclusions: Chronic hepatitis B patients did suffer from sexual and childbearing related stigma, with women aged 31-40 years old the most. It is necessary to advocate on the advantage of condom use for prevention of HBV transmission among pregnant women, both horizontally and vertically. Strategies on protection the rights of patients with hepatitis B should be developed and strengthened.

Automated solid-phase extraction workstations combined with quantitative bioanalytical LC/MS.

An automated solid-phase extraction workstation was used to develop, characterize and validate an LC/MS/MS method for quantifying a novel lipid-regulating drug in dog plasma. Method development was facilitated by workstation functions that allowed wash solvents of varying organic composition to be mixed and tested automatically. Precision estimates for this approach were within 9.8% relative standard deviation (RSD) across the calibration range. Accuracy for replicate determinations of quality controls was between -7.2 and +6.2% relative error (RE) over 5-1,000 ng/ml(-1). Recoveries were evaluated for a wide variety of wash solvents, elution solvents and sorbents. Optimized recoveries were generally > 95%. A sample throughput benchmark for the method was approximately equal 8 min per sample. Because of parallel sample processing, 100 samples were extracted in less than 120 min. The approach has proven useful for use with LC/MS/MS, using a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) approach.

Immunological classification of 31 multiple myeloma patients.

Thirty-one multiple myeloma patients were classified chiefly by heavy and light chain detection of myeloma protein (M protein). The results were as follows: 19 out of the 31 cases belonged to the IgG class, including the following subclasses--IgG1-lambda, 7; IgG1-k, 5; IgG3-lambda, 1; IgG3-k, 2; double M myeloma, 2 (IgG3-lambda + IgG2-k, IgG1-lambda + IgG4-lambda); IgG-lambda, 1; and IgG1-k 1. Seven cases were light chain diseases, of which 4 belonged to lambda type, 2 were k, and one was a double light chain disease. Five cases belonged to the IgA class (IgA-lambda, 3; IgA-k, 2). We found no correlation between electrophoretic mobility and the antigenicity of M protein even within subclasses, and the highly concentrated BJP in urine had a tendency to form light chain polymers, possibly along different polymerization pathways.

Absence of antibodies to ethinyl estradiol in users of oral contraceptive steroids.

Sera from current and past oral contraceptive users, never-users, and never-users with venous thrombosis were examined for immunoglobulin G (IgG) which was precipitable at 25% or 33% saturation with ammonium sulfate or which showed specific binding of ethinyl estradiol. No increase in "specific" IgG and no evidence of ethinyl estradiol binding was observed in oral contraceptive users. This provides no support for the claim that a significant percentage of oral contraceptive users develop a special IgG, precipitable at 25% ammonium sulfate saturation and showing high binding affinity to ethinyl estradiol, which may be causally linked to the development of thrombotic phenomena in oral contraceptive users.