The prevalence of HIV among MSM in China: a large-scale systematic analysis.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) has become a significant public health challenge. The aim was to comprehensively estimate the national prevalence of HIV among MSM and its time trends through a large-scale systematic analysis. METHODS: Systematic search of Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang Data databases without language restriction for studies on the prevalence of HIV among MSM published before Dec.31, 2018. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they were published in the peer-reviewed literature and used validated assessment methods to assess the prevalence of HIV among MSM. Estimates were pooled using random-effects analysis. RESULTS: Data were extracted from 355 cross-sectional studies (571,328 individuals) covered 59 cities from 30 provinces and municipalities of China. The overall national prevalence of HIV among MSM from 2001 to 2018 was estimated to be 5.7% (95% CI: 5.4-6.1%), with high between-study heterogeneity (I2 = 98.0%, P <  0.001). Our study showed an increased tendency in the HIV prevalence as time progressed by meta-regression analysis (I2 = 95.9%, P <  0.0001). HIV prevalence was the highest in those aged 50 years and older with HIV prevalence of 19.3% (95%CI: 13.1-27.4%, N = 13). HIV was more prevalent in the illiterate population (16.8%), than in those who had received an education. Although the internet was a major venue for Chinese MSM seeking male sex partners (35.6, 95%CI: 32.3-39.9%, N = 101), seeking MSM in bathhouses/saunas had the highest associated prevalence of HIV (13.4, 95%CI: 10.3-17.1%, N = 22). The HIV prevalence among MSM varied by location: compared with other regions in China, HIV was highly prevalent among MSM in the southwest (10.7, 95%CI: 9.3-12.2%, N = 91). Compared to participants who sometimes or always used condoms, participants who had never used a condom in the past 6 months had a higher risk of HIV infection, with odds ratios of 0.1 (95%CI: 0.08-0.14). CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis provided reliable estimates of China's HIV burden among MSM, which appears to present an increasing national public health challenge. Effective government responses are needed to address this challenge and include the implementation of HIV prevention.

Prevalence of dementia in the People's Republic of China from 1985 to 2015: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis.

BACKGROUND: In China, the most populous developing country in the world, dementia represents a serious challenge. We performed a large-scale systematic review and meta-regression analysis to elucidate the prevalence of dementia and its subtypes and to identify potential factors underlying the differences between articles. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was conducted in the following databases to identify studies published up to December 2015: Cochrane Library, CBMDISK, Chongqing VIP, CNKI, PubMed and EMBASE. All statistical analyses (including subtype and meta-regression analyses) were performed with R version 3.3.3. RESULTS: In total, 51 surveys were selected. The pooled prevalence rates of dementia and its main subtypes, namely, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VAD), for the population aged 55 years and older were 4.03, 2.44 and 1.09%, respectively. The outcomes showed that the meta-regression analysis was affected by the publication year, sample size, region and diagnostic criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis provided reliable estimates of the prevalence of dementia/ AD/ VD over the past 30 years, which may be affected by education level, and diagnostic criteria. The prevalence of AD/VAD was higher in northern than in southern China, which warrants further study.

99mTc-Phy portal perfusion index imaging helps predict the severity of hepatitis B virus cirrhosis: a preliminary study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to perform exploratory research on the application of technetium phytate (Tc-Phy) portal perfusion index (PPI) imaging in predicting the complications of hepatitis B cirrhosis and their severity. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 65 hepatitis B cirrhosis patients were stratified, respectively, into three groups from classes A to C according to Child-Pugh scores and five groups from stages 1 to 5 according to the five-stage prognostic system. PPIs were compared and analyzed, respectively, among the three and five groups. The correlations between PPIs and major biochemical indices of liver function were also analyzed. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare the PPIs among the various groups and a nonparametric Spearman test was used to analyze the correlations between PPIs and various biochemical indices. RESULTS: PPIs of the five groups decreased gradually from stage 1 to stage 5 (73.03±8.49, 52.96±16.22, 46.24±15.25, 29.99±17.36, and 11.50±6.37, respectively); with the exception of the difference between stages 2 and 3 (P=0.252), the differences between the remaining groups were statistically significant (P<0.05). The PPI showed positive correlations with serum total protein, serum albumin, and albumin/globulin results (r=0.292, 0.559, 0.520, respectively; P<0.05), and negative correlations with serum globulin (r=-0.366, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Technetium phytate PPI could be a promising noninvasive and effective method for predicting the complications of hepatitis B cirrhosis and their severity; a lower PPI value indicates a higher severity of complications for hepatitis B cirrhosis patients. PPI can provide very meaningful reference data for clinical practice.

Single Nucleotide Polymorphism rs10919543 in FCGR2A/FCGR3A Region Confers Susceptibility to Takayasu Arteritis in Chinese Population.

BACKGROUND: Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a rare inflammatory arteriopathy of unknown etiology. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic susceptibility to TA in a Chinese population. METHODS: Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) those locate in the IL12B region (rs56167332), the MLX region (rs665268), the FCGR2A/FCGR3A locus (rs10919543), and the HLA-B/MICA locus (rs12524487), associated with TA in different population, were genotyped in 123 Chinese TA patients and 147 healthy controls from January 2013 to August 2014. A Chi-square test was used to test for genotype/allele frequencies variants. RESULTS: Among the four SNPs, rs10919543 was found to be significantly associated with TA in the studied population. The GG genotype of rs10919543 at the FCGR2A/FCGR3A locus is a high risk factor (odds ratio [OR] = 6.532, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.402 - 17.763, P < 0.001) for TA. Among TA patients, the level of eosinophil granulocytes (Eos) in the peripheral blood was observed to be higher in the GG group of rs10919543 (n = 23, Eos = 0.11 [0.08, 0.17] ×109/L) than the GA + AA group (n = 100, Eos = 0.08 [0.05, 0.13] ×109/L, P = 0.028). No correlation between the genotypes of the other three SNPs and TA patients was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings revealed unique genetic pattern in Chinese TA patients that may be partly responsible for the higher risk of TA in this population. FCGR2A/FCGR3A-related immune disorder might contribute to the etiology of TA.

Characterization and optimization of glycerol/sebacate ratio in poly(glycerol-sebacate) elastomer for cell culture application.

Poly(glycerol-sebacate) (PGS) is an elastomeric biodegradable polyester. Our previous series of studies have showed that PGS has good biocompatibility. In view of the potential use of PGS in bioengineering, we attempt to characterize the PGS polymer with different ratio of glycerol and sebacic acid, and the cell adhesion and growth on these polymers. PGSs with different proportion of glycerol and sebacic acid were synthesized by polycondensation reaction. The microstructure of the series PGSs were characterized by infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). Results showed that, with the increase of the ratio of sebacic acid in PGS from 1:0.8, 1:1, to 1:1.2 (ratio of glycerol to sebacic acid), the main diffraction peak in XRD, the sol content and gel swelling increased but then decreased, suggesting that the degree of crosslinking and the inherent degree of order of the series PGS increased and then decreased. With the increase of sebacic acid proportion, water absorption increased and then decreased, and the water absorption ranged from 9.62% to 10.66%. The mass loss of the series of samples in degradation experiments ranged from 24.63% to 40.06% on the 32nd day of degradation. Cell culture data suggested that the polymer with the ratio of 1:0.8 for glycerol and sebacate was suitable for cell adhesion and growth. In conclusion, PGS can be used as the cell culture matrix by modifying the composition ratio of glycerol and sebacic acid to improve the properties of cell adhesion and growth.

A poly(glycerol-sebacate-curcumin) polymer with potential use for brain gliomas.

Curcumin has multiple biological and pharmacological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and antitumor activities. However, the clinical use of curcumin is limited because of its poor oral absorption and extremely poor bioavailability. In order to overcome these limitations, we conjugate curcumin chemically into the known biocompatible and biodegradable polymer, poly(glycerol-sebacate), and prepare the unitary poly(glycerol-sebacate-curcumin) polymer. The structure, the in vitro degradation, the drug release, and antitumor activity as well as the in vivo degradation and tissue biocompatibility of poly(glycerol-sebacate-curcumin) polymer are investigated. The in vitro degradation and drug release profile of poly(glycerol-sebacate-curcumin) are in a linear manner. The in vitro antitumor assay shows that poly(glycerol-sebacate-curcumin) polymer significantly inhibits human malignant glioma cells, U87 and T98 cells. In view of the cytotoxicity against brain gliomas, local use of this polymer would be a potential method for brain tumors.

The polycondensing temperature rather than time determines the degradation and drug release of poly(glycerol-sebacate) doped with 5-fluorouracil.

Poly(glycerol-sebacate) (PGS) is an elastomeric biodegradable polyester that could be used as biodegradable drug carrier. We have previously prepared PGS implants doped with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU-PGSs) and found that 5-FU-PGSs exhibited an initial burst of 5-FU release during in vitro degradation. The synthesis temperature and time are two of the most important reaction conditions for polymer synthesis. Therefore, in order to establish a controllable drug-release manner, we prepared a series of 5-FU-PGS with 2% weight of 5-FU under synthesis conditions with different polycondensing temperature and time and characterized the infrared spectrum properties, in vitro degradation and drug release. Results showed that the polycondensing temperature determined the mechanical properties, degradation and drug release of 5-FU-PGSs. With the polycondensing temperature increasing, the elastic modulus and hardness of 5-FU-PGSs increased, and the mass loss and 5-FU release rate decreased. The polycondensing time had no significant influence on the mechanical property, degradation and drug release of 5-FU-PGSs. We suggest that the polycondensing temperature is the factor to control the drug-release manner.

Glycolic acid modulates the mechanical property and degradation of poly(glycerol, sebacate, glycolic acid).

The development of biodegradable materials with controllable degradation properties is beneficial for a variety of applications. Poly(glycerol-sebacate) (PGS) is a promising candidate of biomaterials; so we synthesize a series of poly(glycerol, sebacate, glycolic acid) (PGSG) with 1:2:0, 1:2:0.2, 1:2:0.4, 1:2:0.6, 1:2:1 mole ratio of glycerol, sebacate, and glycolic acid to elucidate the relation of doped glycolic acid to the degradation rate and mechanical properties. The microstructures of the polymers with different doping of glycolic acid were dissimilar. PGSG with glycolic acid in the ratio of 0.2 displayed an integral degree of ordering, different to those with glycolic acid in the ratio of 0, 0.4, 0.6, and 1, which showed mild phase separation structure. The number, DeltaH(m), and temperature of the PGSG melting peaks tended to decrease with the increasing ratio of doped glycolic acid. In vitro and in vivo degradation tests showed that the degradation rate of PGSG with glycolic acid in the ratio of 0.2 was slowest, but in the ratio range of 0, 0.4, and 0.6, the degradation rate increased with the increase of glycolic acid. All PGSG samples displayed good tissue response and anticoagulant effects. Our data suggest that doping glycolic acid can modulate the microstructure and degree of crosslinking of PGS, thereby control the degradation rate of PGS.

The application of poly (glycerol-sebacate) as biodegradable drug carrier.

Poly (glycerol-sebacate) (PGS) is an elastomeric biodegradable polymer which possesses the ideal properties of drug carriers. In the present study, we prepared a series of PGS implants (5-FU-PGSs) loaded with different weight percent of 5-fluorouracil (2, 5, 7.5 and 10%). We studied the infrared spectrum properties, in vitro degradation and drug release, in vivo degradation and tissue biocompatibility of 5-FU-PGSs, in order to provide detailed information for the application of PGS as biodegradable drug carrier in cancer therapy. Macroscopically, all 5-FU-PGS wafers in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) kept their geometries during the degradation period of 30 days. The in vitro degradation rates of 5-FU-PGSs were accelerated when higher concentration of 5-FU was doped. Scanning electron microscopy observation showed that the surfaces of 5-FU-PGSs with higher concentration of 5-FU had irregular pits. The cumulative drug release profiles of 5-FU-PGSs exhibited a biphasic release with an initial burst release in the first day. After 7 days, almost 100% cumulative release of 5-FU was found for all 5-FU-PGSs.The degradation rate of 5-FU-PGSs in vivo was much quicker than that in vitro. Hematoxylin and eosin staining showed that no remarkable inflammations were observed in the tissue surrounding 5-FU-PGS implants, suggesting 5-FU-PGSs had good biocompatibility and no tissue toxicity. In vitro anti-tumor activity assay suggested that 5-FU-PGSs exhibited anti-tumor activity through sustained-release drug mode. These results demonstrate that PGS is a candidate of biodegradable drug carriers.