Study on mNGS Technique in Diagnosing Pneumocystis jirovecii Pneumonia in Non-HIV-Infected Patients.

Objective: To investigate the value of metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing (mNGS) in diagnosing Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) in non-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. Methods: In this retrospective study, non-HIV-infected patients with PJP and those diagnosed with non-PJP from August 2022 to December 2024 were selected as subjects. The presence of Pneumocystis jirovecii (PJ) and other co-pathogens in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was analyzed, and the diagnostic efficacy of NGS, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serum 1,3-ß-D-glucan (BDG) in PJP was compared with the reference standard of clinical compound diagnosis. Results: Eighty-nine non-HIV-infected patients were recruited, with dyspnea as the primary symptom (69.66%) and solid malignant tumor as the most common underlying disease (20.22%). Taking clinical compound diagnosis as the reference standard, the sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value and positive predictive value of mNGS were higher than those detected by PCR and serum BDG. Among 42 non-HIV-infected patients with PJP who underwent mNGS and conventional pathogen detection of BALF, 6 had simple PJ infection and 36 had combined PJ infection. The detection rate of mNGS in mixed infections was significantly higher than that of conventional pathogen detection (85.71 vs 61.70%, P = 0.012). A total of 127 pathogens were detected in BALF using mNGS, among which fungi had the highest detection rate (46.46%). The fungi, viruses and bacteria detected were mainly Pneumocystis jirovecii, human gammaherpesvirus 4 and Acinetobacter baumannii. Conclusion: mNGS is highly effective in diagnosing non-HIV-infected patients with PJP and exhibits ideal performance in the detection of co-pathogens. In addition, it has certain value for clinical diagnosis and guidance of targeted anti-infective drug treatment.

[Evolution Characteristics of Soil Active Organic Carbon and Carbon Pool Management Index Under Vegetation Restoration in Karst Area].

Vegetation restoration affects the carbon cycle of terrestrial ecosystems by changing the rate of carbon input and conversion. In order to explore the evolution characteristics of soil active organic carbon components and carbon pool management index during vegetation restoration in karst areas, the soil of a grassland sequence(5, 10, 15, and 20 a), shrub sequence(5, 10, 15, and 20 a), and garden sequence(5, 10, and 15 a) in a karst area was taken as the research object, and the adjacent farmland was taken as the control(CK). The effects of different vegetation restoration years on the evolution of soil organic carbon(SOC), readily oxidizable organic carbon(ROC333, ROC167, and ROC33 were all soil active organic carbon that could be oxidized by 333, 167, and 33 mmol·L-1 KMnO4), microbial biomass carbon(MBC), dissolved organic carbon(DOC), and carbon pool management index(CPMI) were analyzed. The results showed that compared with that of CK, the average grassland, shrub, and garden SOC contents in the 0-40 cm soil layer increased by 70.77%, 114.40%, and 50.17%, respectively. In the 0-20 cm soil layer, with the increase in restoration years, the SOC content of the grassland sequence and garden sequence increased first and then decreased, and that of the shrub sequence increased first, then decreased, and then increased again. ROC333, ROC167, and ROC33 were consistent with the SOC change trend of the corresponding sequence. In the 20-40 cm soil layer, the change trend of ROC333, ROC167, and ROC33 of each sequence was inconsistent with the SOC of the corresponding sequence. In the 0-40 cm soil layer, the MBC content of the grassland sequence decreased first, then increased, and then decreased, and the maximum value of MBC in each soil layer was in G15. The shrub sequence in the 0-10 cm soil layer increased first, then decreased, and then increased, and in the 10-40 cm soil layer it increased first and then decreased. The garden sequence increased first and then decreased in the 0-30 cm soil layer and gradually increased in the 30-40 cm soil layer. Kos of the three sequences decreased first, then increased, and then decreased, whereas L and LI showed the opposite of Kos. CPI increased first and then decreased; the CPMI of the grassland and garden sequences increased first and then decreased, whereas the CPMI of the shrub sequence increased first, then decreased, and then increased again. The contents of SOC, ROC333, ROC167, ROC33, and MBC and the annual growth of Kos were shrub>grassland>orchard, and the annual growth of DOC and CPMI were orchard>grassland>shrub. The contents of SOC and its components in the three sequences decreased with the increase in soil layer and had obvious surface aggregation. Redundancy analysis showed that alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen(AN) was the main environmental factor affecting soil active organic carbon components and soil organic carbon pool under the vegetation restoration in the karst area. In summary, soil active organic carbon components and CPMI evolved with vegetation restoration years. Different vegetation restorations could increase the content of SOC and its components in karst areas to a certain extent, and shrub restoration promotes the accumulation of SOC.

Identifying mild-moderate Parkinson's disease using whole-brain functional connectivity.

OBJECTIVE: Our study aims to extract significant disorder-associated patterns from whole brain functional connectivity to distinguish mild-moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) patients from controls. METHODS: Resting-state fMRI data were measured from thirty-six PD individuals and thirty-five healthy controls. Multivariate pattern analysis was applied to investigate whole-brain functional connectivity patterns in individuals with 'mild-moderate' PD. Additionally, the relationship between the asymmetry of functional connectivity and the side of the initial symptoms was also analyzed. RESULTS: In a leave-one-out cross-validation, we got the generalization rate of 80.28% for distinguishing PD patients from controls. The most discriminative functional connectivity was found in cortical networks that included the default mode, sensorimotor and attention networks. Compared to patients with the left side initially affected, an increased abnormal functional connectivity was found in patients in whom the right side was initially affected. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that discriminative functional connectivity is likely associated with disturbances of cortical networks involved in sensorimotor control and attention. The spatiotemporal patterns of motor asymmetry may be related to the lateralized dysfunction on the early stages of PD. SIGNIFICANCE: This study identifies discriminative functional connectivity that is associated with disturbances of cortical networks. Our results demonstrated new evidence regarding the functional brain changes related to the unilateral motor symptoms of early PD.

Association between prothrombin gene polymorphisms and hereditary thrombophilia in Xinjiang Kazakhs population.

To assess the association between polymorphisms of prothrombin gene and hereditary thrombophilia in Xinjiang Kazakhs population. Through cross-sectional investigation, permanent Kazakh population of Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture was selected as the study object to measure their antithrombin III (AT-III), protein C, protein S activity and activated C protein resistance value, thus defining the situation of the crowd's hereditary thrombophilia. Sequenom Massarray detection technology was used to conduct a genotype test of the six sites selected by the case and control groups. Haploview software was used to perform linkage disequilibrium analysis of the six sites, and the impact of the interaction between genetic variations and environment on hereditary thrombophilia was researched by the use of sum model. A total of 1005 Kazakh volunteers participated in the test (332 men and 673 women), average age (41.13 ±â€Š11.50) years; the prevalence of hereditary thrombophilia in Xinjiang Kazakh population was 31.0%, and the prevalence of AT-III deficiency, protein C deficiency, protein S deficiency and activated protein C resistance was 16.4, 14.9, 20.6 and 7.8%, respectively. The difference in allele frequency of the hereditary thrombophilia patient group at rs3136447 and rs5896 sites was statistically significant (P = 0.0483 and P = 0.0302, respectively). rs5896 and rs2070852 had high linkage disequilibrium (r = 0.99), and constituted a single-domain block 1. The rs3136447 and the rs5896 polymorphisms located in the region of the prothrombin gene may be associated with hereditary thrombophilia in the Xinjiang Kazakhs population. There is additive interactive effect of rs5896 polymorphism (CT + TT) and smoke on hereditary thrombophilia.

[Negative association of STAMP2 gene polymorphisms with essential hypertension in Xinjiang Uygur population].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the genetic polymorphisms of the six transmembrane protein of prostate 2 gene (STAMP2) and essential hypertension in Xinjiang Uygur population. METHODS: The sequences of STAMP2 gene functional region were sequenced in Xinjiang Uygur population with hypertension. The representative variations selected were genotyped by TaqMan-PCR method in 2047 Uygur individuals, including 810 patients with hypertension and 1237 healthy subjects. The association of the genetic variations of the STAMP2 gene with hypertension in Uygur was analyzed. RESULTS: In the three representative variations (rs8122, rs1981529 and rs34741656) genotyped, there were no significant differences in genotype distribution and allele frequencies between the essential hypertension and control groups (P > 0.05). In ANCOVA analysis, none of the polymorphisms was significantly associated with systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure (P > 0.05). There were no significant differences in haplotype frequencies between the two groups either(P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: There was no association of the three polymorphisms (rs8122, rs1981529 and rs34741656) in the STAMP2 gene with essential hypertension in Xinjiang Uygur population.

[Genetic variation and association of STEAP4 gene with metabolic syndrome in Chinese Uygur patients].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the genetic variations of the six transmembrane epithelial antigen of prostate 4 gene (STEAP4) in Chinese Uygur patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and to analyze the association of the representative genetic variations of STEAP4 gene with MetS in the population. METHODS: The sequences of STEAP4 gene functional region (all exons, exon-intron boundaries and the putative promoter region, including the -1 kb 5'and 3'untranslated regions) were amplified and sequenced for patients with MetS. The representative variations were selected based on the function (missense mutation) and linkage disequilibrxium (γ² > 0.8) and genotyped with TaqMan-PCR method in 1910 general populations (682 MetS and 1228 non-MetS controls). The subjects were selected from the cross-sectional study of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia from January to February 2007 among Uygur people, a relatively isolated population with a relatively homogeneous environment, in Hextian area in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. RESULTS: (1) Fourteen novel and six known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or mutations, including 2 missense mutations, were identified at the functional region of STEAP4 gene in 96 Uygur patients with MetS. The minor allele frequencies of the SNPs of STEAP4 gene in Uygur population were different from that in European and Chinese Han in Beijing area. (2) The SNP 364G/A (rs34741656, Ala122Thr) was significantly associated with MetS [dominant model P = 0.034, OR = 0.757(95%CI: 0.584-0.982) adjusted for age and gender], and was associated with fasting blood glucose (FBG) (P = 0.049) and 2-hour postprandial glucose (2HPG) (P = 0.027) levels in controls. In this SNP, the AA carriers had lower blood glucose levels compared with subjects carrying GG and GT genotypes. (3) The common haplotype H4 (rs8122/rs1981529/ rs34741656, G-A-A), may be associated with MetS (permutation P = 0.089). CONCLUSION: STEAP 4 genetic polymorphisms may be associated with MetS risk in Chinese Uygur population.