Characterization of the brain virome in human immunodeficiency virus infection and substance use disorder.

Viruses can infect the brain in individuals with and without HIV-infection: however, the brain virome is poorly characterized. Metabolic alterations have been identified which predispose people to substance use disorder (SUD), but whether these could be triggered by viral infection of the brain is unknown. We used a target-enrichment, deep sequencing platform and bioinformatic pipeline named "ViroFind", for the unbiased characterization of DNA and RNA viruses in brain samples obtained from the National Neuro-AIDS Tissue Consortium. We analyzed fresh frozen post-mortem prefrontal cortex from 72 individuals without known viral infection of the brain, including 16 HIV+/SUD+, 20 HIV+/SUD-, 16 HIV-/SUD+, and 20 HIV-/SUD-. The average age was 52.3 y and 62.5% were males. We identified sequences from 26 viruses belonging to 11 viral taxa. These included viruses with and without known pathogenic potential or tropism to the nervous system, with sequence coverage ranging from 0.03 to 99.73% of the viral genomes. In SUD+ people, HIV-infection was associated with a higher total number of viruses, and HIV+/SUD+ compared to HIV-/SUD+ individuals had an increased frequency of Adenovirus (68.8 vs 0%; p<0.001) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) (43.8 vs 6.3%; p=0.037) as well as an increase in Torque Teno virus (TTV) burden. Conversely, in HIV+ people, SUD was associated with an increase in frequency of Hepatitis C virus, (25 in HIV+/SUD+ vs 0% in HIV+/SUD-; p=0.031). Finally, HIV+/SUD- compared to HIV-/SUD- individuals had an increased frequency of EBV (50 vs 0%; p<0.001) and an increase in TTV viral burden, but a decreased Adenovirus viral burden. These data demonstrate an unexpectedly high variety in the human brain virome, identifying targets for future research into the impact of these taxa on the central nervous system. ViroFind could become a valuable tool for monitoring viral dynamics in various compartments, monitoring outbreaks, and informing vaccine development.

Unsupervised data mining for prescription and medication regularity for treatment of cervical vertigo / 中国中药杂志

Vertebral artery type cervical spondylosis is a common type of cervical spondylosis, also known as cervical vertigo. In recent years, with the increase of people's life pace and the number of office staff, the incidence rate has been rising year by year, with a trend of younger age. Because traditional Chinese medicine has unique advantages in treating cervical vertigo, it is necessary to study the regularity of the Chinese medicine for cervical vertigo. But at present, the research is mainly based on the statistics for frequency and proportion of herbs. In addition, in the process of diagnosis and treatment of Chinese medicine, personal experience also caused differences in prescription compatibility and drug dosage, which makes difficult guarantee for the safety and effectiveness of drug treatment. So, this paper is based on literatures about the traditional Chinese medicine in treatment of cervical vertigo in the past 5 years, by using association rules algorithm, complex system entropy clustering and other non supervised data mining methods. Analysis was made for the use of various drugs in the frequency, the association rules, the core drug combination and the new prescriptions. The traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support system(TCMISS) was utilized to analyze 154 drugs from the 101 prescriptions, determine the use frequency of drugs, analyze the characteristics and the compatibility of core drugs, and dig out 14 core drug combinations and 7 new prescription combinations. The prescription and medication regularities illustrates the drugs for treatment of cervical vertigo, including those for flating liver and suppressing yang, invigorating the circulation of blood to remove blood stasis, reducing water and permeating dampness, increasing qi and activating blood, and nourishing the liver and kidney mainly. Treatment rules are nourishing liver and kidney, invigorating the circulation of blood stasis Tongqiao, reducing phlegm and dampness, flating liver and suppressing yan, dredging collaterals, supplementing qi and nourishing blood. This study aims to summarize frequently used single herbs for vertebral artery type cervical spondylosis, combinations of frequently used herbs and dosage of frequently used herbs with significant efficacy, define the current prescription and medication regularities for treating cervical vertigo and give guidances for clinical mediation.