Clinical features, polysomnography, and genetics association study of restless legs syndrome in clinic based Chinese patients: A multicenter observational study.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To systemically describe the clinical features, polysomnography (PSG) finding, laboratory tests and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a clinic based Chinese primary restless legs syndrome (RLS) population. METHODS: This observational study, conducted from January 2020 to October 2021 across 22 sleep labs in China, recruited 771 patients diagnosed with RLS following the 2014 RLSSG criteria. Clinical data, PSG testing, and laboratory examination and SNPs of patients with RLS were collected. A total of 32 SNPs in 24 loci were replicated using the Asian Screening Array chip, employing data from the Han Chinese Genomes Initiative as controls. RESULTS: In this study with 771 RLS patients, 645 had primary RLS, and 617 has DNA available for SNP study. Among the 645 primary RLS, 59.7% were women. 33% had a family history of RLS, with stronger familial influence in early-onset cases. Clinical evaluations showed 10.4% had discomfort in body parts other than legs. PSG showed that 57.1% of RLS patients had periodic leg movement index (PLMI) of >5/h and 39.1% had PLMI >15/h, respectively; 73.8% of RLS patients had an Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) > 5/h, and 45.3% had an AHI >15/h. The laboratory examinations revealed serum ferritin levels <75 ng/ml in 31.6%, and transferrin saturation (TSAT) of <45% in 88.7% of RLS patients. Seven new SNPs in 5 genes showed a significant allelic association with Chinese primary RLS, with one previously reported (BTBD9) and four new findings (TOX3, PRMT6, DCDC2C, NOS1). CONCLUSIONS: Chinese RLS patients has specific characters in many aspects. A high family history with RLS not only indicates strong genetic influence, but also reminds us to consider the familial effect in the epidemiological study. Newly developed sequencing technique with large samples remains to be done.

The First Nationwide Surveillance of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome in Ruminants and Wildlife in Taiwan.

Since the first discovery of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) in China in 2009, SFTSV has rapidly spread through other Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Pakistan, in chronological order. Taiwan reported its first discovery of SFTSV in sheep and humans in 2020. However, the prevalence of SFTSV in domestic and wildlife animals and the geographic distribution of the virus within the island remain unknown. A total of 1324 animal samples, including 803 domestic ruminants, 521 wildlife animals and 47 tick pools, were collected from March 2021 to December 2022 from 12 counties and one terrestrial island. The viral RNA was detected by a one-step real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Overall, 29.9% (240/803) of ruminants showed positive SFTSV RNA. Sheep had the highest viral RNA prevalence of 60% (30/50), followed by beef cattle at 28.4% (44/155), goats at 28.3% (47/166), and dairy cows at 27.5% (119/432). The bovine as a total of dairy cow and beef cattle was 27.8% (163/587). The viral RNA prevalence in ticks (predominantly Rhipicephalus microplus) was similar to those of ruminants at 27.7% (13/47), but wild animals exhibited a much lower prevalence at 1.3% (7/521). Geographically the distribution of positivity was quite even, being 33%, 29.1%, 27.5% and 37.5% for northern, central, southern and eastern Taiwan, respectively. Statistically, the positive rate of beef cattle in the central region (55.6%) and dairy cattle in the eastern region (40.6%) were significantly higher than the other regions; and the prevalence in Autumn (September-November) was significantly higher than in the other seasons (p < 0.001). The nationwide study herein revealed for the first time the wide distribution and high prevalence of SFTSV in both domestic animals and ticks in Taiwan. Considering the high mortality rate in humans, surveillance of other animal species, particularly those in close contact with humans, and instigation of protective measures for farmers, veterinarians, and especially older populations visiting or living near farms or rural areas should be prioritized.

Work stress, burnout, occupational commitment, and social support among Chinese pediatric nurses: A moderated mediation model.

PURPOSE: Pediatric nurses are at high risk for burnout, resulting in unsatisfactory care quality. Although job resources like social support can prevent the development of burnout under work stress, the mediating role of personal resources like occupational commitment is not well studied. This study was to examine the mediating role of occupational commitment in the relationship between work stress and burnout, and test if the effect of work stress on occupational commitment varies at different levels of social support among pediatric nurses. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data of pediatric nurses from 6 hospitals in Chengdu, China. Multiple linear regressions and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals were used to test the proposed model. RESULTS: In this sample of 488 pediatric nurses, work stress was significantly associated with emotional exhaustion (ß = 0.278, p < 0.001), depersonalization (ß = 0.112, p < 0.001), and personal accomplishment (ß = -0.047, p < 0.05). Occupational commitment partly mediated the links of work stress and emotional exhaustion (ß = 0.056, 95%CI: 0.034-0.082), and depersonalization (ß = 0.026, 95%CI: 0.014-0.041), and fully mediated the relationship between work stress and personal accomplishment (ß = -0.059, 95%CI: -0.080 ∼ -0.039). Social support significantly moderated the relationship between work stress and occupational commitment (ß = 0.007, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Among pediatric nurses, work stress has an indirect influence on burnout through occupational commitment, and such an effect is weakened when social support is high. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Nurse managers could consider developing interventions by promoting both occupational commitment and social support to prevent burnout of employees.

The interaction of flavonoid-lysozyme and the relationship between molecular structure of flavonoids and their binding activity to lysozyme.

In this work, the interactions of twelve structurally different flavonoids with Lysozyme (Lys) were studied by fluorescence quenching method. The interaction mechanism and binding properties were investigated. It was found that the binding capacities of flavonoids to Lys were highly depend on the number and position of hydrogen, the kind and position of glycosyl. To explore the selectivity of the bindings of flavonoids with Lys, the structure descriptors of the flavonoids were calculated under QSAR software package of Cerius2, the quantitative relationship between the structures of flavonoids and their binding activities to Lys (QSAR) was performed through genetic function approximation (GFA) regression analysis. The QSAR regression equation was K(A) = 37850.460 + 1630.01Dipole +3038.330HD-171.795MR. (r = 0.858, r(CV)(2) = 0.444, F((11,3)) = 7.48), where K(A) is binding constants, Dipole, HD and MR was dipole moment, number of hydrogen-bond donor and molecular refractivity, respectively. The obtained results make us understand better how the molecular structures influencing their binding to protein which may open up new avenues for the design of the most suitable flavonoids derivatives with structure variants.

[A quantum chemistry investigation on antimalarial mechanism of Qinghaosu based on cleavage of the peroxide bridge].

AIM: To investigate antimalarial mechanism of Qinghaosu ( QHS) and its derivatives. METHODS: The electronic structure of QHS and its derivatives were completely optimized and calculated at B3LYP/6-31G * level, while the route was at HF/STO-3G level. RESULTS: The peroxide bridge is the active center of QHS and induced by ferrous iron to produce cyclic product. CONCLUSION: Heme can link with QHS derivatives.