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Background HIV prevalence has been rapidly increasing among men who have sex with men (MSM) attending university in China, but HIV testing rates remain suboptimal. The factors associated with past HIV testing in this population in Beijing, China, were investigated.Methods: This study used data from the baseline survey of an HIV intervention clinical trial among MSM who did not have a history of a positive HIV diagnosis. This analysis focused on the HIV testing experience in a subgroup of university student MSM participants. Log-binomial models were used to evaluate factors associated with past HIV testing.Results: Of 375 university student MSM, the median age was 22 years; 89.3% were Han ethnic. Approximately half (50.4%, n = 189) had ever taken an HIV test before the survey. In a multivariable log-binomial model, older age (adjusted prevalence ratio (APR), 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02-1.06), had first sexual intercourse at age <18 years (APR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.08-1.45) and knew someone living with HIV (APR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.07-1.61) were associated with a higher likelihood of past testing. Self-reported barriers to taking a test included perceived low HIV risk, fear of a positive diagnosis, did not know where to get tested and fear of discrimination. Facilitators included anonymity in taking a test, confidentiality of testing results and availability of home-based and rapid testing.Conclusions: The HIV testing rate among university student MSM was low. Interventions should be implemented to address structural, institutional and individual barriers to HIV testing in this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, especially in China, with high metastasis and poor prognosis. Recently, as the core component of the polycomb repressive complexes 1 (PRC1), chromobox protein homolog 8 (CBX8) is considered as an oncogene and prognostic marker in HCC. Methods: A tissue microarray of 166 paired HCC and adjacent non-tumor samples were collected to identify the relationship between CBX8 and epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) associated proteins by Spearman correlation analysis. Knock-down of CBX8 in HCC cells was conducted to detect the biologic functions of CBX8 in HCC metastasis. Results: We found out that CBX8 was over-expressed in HCC and its expression was closely related to the metastasis of HCC patients. In addition, knock-down of CBX8 was found to inhibit the invasion and migration ability of HCC cells. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between expression of CBX8 and EMT associated proteins both in HCC cells and tumor tissues. Conclusions: Our results indicate that CBX8 promotes metastasis of HCC by inducing EMT process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent years, the number of HIV/AIDS cases among youth has increased year by year around the world. A spatial and temporal analysis of these AIDS cases is necessary for the development of youth AIDS prevention and control policies., Objective: This study aimed to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution and associated factors of HIV/AIDS among youth in Guangxi as an example., Methods: The reported HIV/AIDS cases of youths aged 15-24 years in Guangxi from January 2014 to December 2021 were extracted from the Chinese Comprehensive Response Information Management System of HIV/AIDS. Data on population, economy, and health resources were obtained from the Guangxi Statistical Yearbook. The ArcGIS (version 10.8; ESRI Inc) software was used to describe the spatial distribution of AIDS incidence among youths in Guangxi. A Bayesian spatiotemporal model was used to analyze the distribution and associated factors of HIV/AIDS, such as gross domestic product per capita, population density, number of health technicians, and road mileage per unit area., Results: From 2014 to 2021, a total of 4638 cases of HIV/AIDS infection among youths were reported in Guangxi. The reported incidence of HIV/AIDS cases among youths in Guangxi increased from 9.13/100,000 in 2014 to 11.15/100,000 in 2019 and then plummeted to a low of 8.37/100,000 in 2020, followed by a small increase to 9.66/100,000 in 2021. The districts (counties) with relatively high HIV/AIDS prevalence among youths were Xixiangtang, Xingning, Qingxiu, Chengzhong, and Diecai. The reported incidence of HIV/AIDS among youths was negatively significantly associated with road mileage per unit area (km) at a posterior mean of -0.510 (95% CI -0.818 to 0.209). It was positively associated with population density (100 persons) at a posterior mean of 0.025 (95% CI 0.012-0.038), with the number of health technicians (100 persons) having a posterior mean of 0.007 (95% CI 0.004-0.009)., Conclusions: In Guangxi, current HIV and AIDS prevention and control among young people should focus on areas with a high risk of disease. It is suggested to strengthen the allocation of AIDS health resources and balance urban development and AIDS prevention. In addition, AIDS awareness, detection, and intervention among Guangxi youths need to be strengthened., (© Juntong Li, Runxi Zhang, Guanghua Lan, Mei Lin, Shengkui Tan, Qiuying Zhu, Huanhuan Chen, Jinghua Huang, Dongni Ding, Chunying Li, Yuhua Ruan, Na Wang. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (https://publichealth.jmir.org).)

Background: Nearly one-third of new HIV infections occurred among youth in 2019 worldwide. Previous studies suggested that student youths living with HIV and nonstudent youths living with HIV might differ in some risk factors, transmission routes, HIV care, and disease outcomes., Objective: This study aimed to compare the HIV epidemic, disease outcomes, and access to care among student and nonstudent youths living with HIV aged 16 to 25 years in Guangxi, China., Methods: We performed a historical cohort study by extracting data on all HIV or AIDS cases aged 16 to 25 years in Guangxi, China, during 1996-2019 from the Chinese Comprehensive Response Information Management System of HIV or AIDS. We conducted analyses to assess possible differences in demographic and behavioral characteristics, HIV care, and disease outcomes between student and nonstudent youths living with HIV. Multivariate Cox regression was used to assess differences in mortality and virologic failure between student and nonstudent cases., Results: A total of 13,839 youths aged 16 to 25 years were infected with HIV during 1996-2019. Among them, 10,202 cases were infected through sexual contact, most of whom were men (n=5507, 54%); 868 (8.5%) were students, and 9334 (91.5%) were not students. The number of student youths living with HIV was lower before 2006 but gradually increased from 2007 to 2019. In contrast, the nonstudent cases increased rapidly in 2005, then gradually declined after 2012. Student cases were mainly infected through homosexual contact (n=614, 70.7% vs n=1447, 15.5%; P<.001), while nonstudent cases were more likely to be infected through heterosexual contact (n=7887, 84.5% vs n=254, 29.3%; P<.001). Moreover, nonstudent cases had a significantly lower CD4 count than student cases at the time of HIV diagnosis (332 vs 362 cells/μL; P<.001). Nonstudents also had a delayed antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation compared to students (93 days vs 22 days; P<.001). Furthermore, the mortality rate of 0.4 and 1.0 deaths per 100 person-years were recorded for student and nonstudent youths with HIV, respectively. Overall, the mortality risk in nonstudent cases was 2.3 times that of student cases (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 2.3, 95% CI 1.2-4.2; P=.008). The virologic failure rate was 2.3 and 2.6 per 100 person-years among student and nonstudent youths living with HIV, respectively. Nonstudent cases had double the risk of virologic failure compared to student cases (AHR 1.9, 95% CI 1.3-2.6; P<.001)., Conclusions: Nonstudent youths living with HIV might face a low CD4 count at the time of HIV diagnosis, delayed ART initiation, and increased risk of death and virologic failure. Thus, HIV prevention and interventions should target youths who dropped out of school early to encourage safe sex and HIV screening, remove barriers to HIV care, and promote early ART initiation to curb the HIV epidemic among youths., (©Na Wang, Guanghua Lan, Qiuying Zhu, Huanhuan Chen, Jinghua Huang, Qin Meng, Zhiyong Shen, Shujia Liang, Xiuling Wu, Liuhong Luo, Rongyi Ye, Jinli Chen, Shengkui Tan, Hui Xing, Yiming Shao, Yuhua Ruan, Mei Lin. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (https://publichealth.jmir.org), 24.02.2023.)

Objectives: Birth defects (BDs) are a major contributor to perinatal and infant mortality, morbidity and lifelong disability worldwide. A hospital-based study on birth defects was designed in Guilin city in the Guangxi province of Southwestern China aiming to determine the prevalence of BDs in the studied region, and the classify the BDs based on clinical presentation and causation., Methods: The study involved BDs among all pregnancy outcomes (live births, stillbirths, death within 7 days, and pregnancy terminations) born in the 42 registered hospitals of Guilin between 2018 and 2020. The epidemiological characteristics of BDs and the etiologic profile of BDs were evaluated in this study., Results: Of the total 147,817 births recorded during the study period, 2,003 infants with BDs were detected, giving a total prevalence rate of 13.55 per 1,000 births. The top five BD types were congenital heart defects, polydactyly, syndactyly, malformations of the external ear, and talipes equinovarus, whereas, neural tube defects, congential esophageal atresia, gastroschisis, extrophy of urinary bladder, were the least common BD types in these 3 years. Only 8.84% of cases were assigned a known etiology, while most cases (91.16%) could not be conclusively assigned a specific cause., Conclusion: This study provides an epidemiological description of BDs in Guilin, which may be helpful for understanding the overall situation in Southwest China of BDs and aid in more comprehensive studies of BDs in future healthcare systems, including funding investment, policy-making, monitor, prevention. Strong prevention strategies should be the priority to reduce BDs and improve the birth quality., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Yang, Zeng, Gu, Fang, Wei, Tan and Zhang.)

This study aimed to investigate the expression and clinical significance of chemokine-like factor-like MARVEL transmembrane domain-containing family member 2 (CMTM2) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues. Bioinformatics analysis showed that CMTM2 was downregulated in HCC tissues and correlated with vascular invasion of HCC patients. The immunohistochemistry (IHC) method found that CMTM2 expression was negative in 29/75 (38.67%) cases of HCC tissues and 13/75 (17.33%) cases of paracancerous tissues, also showed a significantly lower expression of CMTM2 in HCC tissues than the paired paracancerous tissues ( p  < 0.05). Moreover, CMTM2 expression was significantly correlated with tumor grade of HCC patients ( p  < 0.05), but had no relationship with other clinicopathological features. In addition, multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that tumor grade was an independent risk factor for CMTM2 expression. The survival time of HCC patients between high and low expression of CMTM2 had no difference by bioinformatics analysis, but the IHC result showed that the negative expression of CMTM2 was related to a poor prognosis of HCC patients. Further COX regression analysis showed that CMTM2 expression was an independent protective factor for the prognosis of HCC patients. We identify that CMTM2 is downregulated in HCC tissues and correlated with the prognosis of HCC patients, suggesting a potential tumor suppressor role of CMTM2 in HCC progression.

Background: As an essential member of the Polycomb group (PcG) proteins, chromobox homolog 7 (CBX7) is found deregulated in some human cancers, and is thought to be a contributing factor in carcinogenesis. However, the expression and role of CBX7 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still not well characterized. Materials and Methods: The levels of the CBX7 protein were quantified in 75 paired HCC and adjacent nontumor tissues by immunohistochemistry; comparisons were made using McNemar's chi-square test. The Kaplan-Meier estimate was used for survival analysis. Results: We found that the expression of CBX7 in HCC tissues was significantly lower than that of adjacent nontumor tissues. In addition, decreased CBX7 expression levels were correlated with liver cirrhosis in HCC patients. Furthermore, the survival times of HCC patients who were CBX7-expression-negative were shorter than HCC patients who were CBX7-expression-positive. Conclusion: Our results show that downregulation of CBX7 is related to HCC progression and a poor prognosis in HCC patients.

Polymorphisms in genes may affect its expression and alter individual susceptibility to cancer. In this study, we investigate associations between CMTM family gene polymorphisms and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a southern Chinese population. Ten selected single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CMTM family genes were genotyped in 315 HCC patients and 315 cancer-free controls using Sequenom MassARRAY platform and the associations of the selected SNPs with HCC risk were evaluated. We found individuals with the rs164207 AA genotypes had a significantly increased risk of HCC than those with CC genotypes (adjusted OR = 2.794, 95% CI = 1.143-6.828). Also, individuals with the rs3811178 GG genotypes showed a significant association with increased risk of HCC when compared with the AA genotypes (adjusted OR = 2.578, 95% CI = 1.114-5.969). Furthermore, there was also a significantly increased risk of HCC when combined risk genotypes of these loci, i.e., rs164207 AA, CA and rs3811178 GG, GA. Compared with the low-risk group (0 risk genotypes), the high-risk group (2 risk genotypes) was at significantly increased risk of HCC (adjusted OR = 3.339, 95% CI = 1.119-9.964, p = 0.031). Our results suggest that polymorphisms of rs3811178 in CMTM5 and rs164207 in CMTM6 might contribute to the genetic susceptibility of HCC in the southern Chinese population. Further well-designed studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm our findings.

Down-regulated RINGl and YYl binding protein (RYBP) is reported to be an independent predictor of a poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the genetic association of RYBP polymorphisms with HCC risk and prognosis has not been investigated now. In this study, five RYBP SNPs, rs12956, rs2118593, rs17009699, rs4676875 and rs4532099, were studied from a hospital-based case-control study including 1100 cases (HCC patients) and 1100 controls (non-HCC patients) in Guangxi, China. All these SNPs interacted with environmental risk factors, such as HBV infection, alcohol intake and smoking in the pathogenesis of HCC. Compared to the CC genotype, patients with TT genotype of rs12956 had a decreased risk of HCC (OR = 0.587, 95% CI = 0.403~0.923) and an increased survival time (Co-dominant, HR = 0.745, 95% CI = 0.594~0.934), while those with TT genotype of rs2118593 had an increased risk of HCC (OR = 1.538, 95% CI = 1.093~2.735) and a decreased survival time (Co-dominant, HR = 1.447, 95% CI = 1.174~1.782). No significant difference was found between the other three RYBP polymorphisms with HCC risk and prognosis. Furthermore, we found that tumor number, tumor staging, metastasis and rs2118593 were associated with the overall survival of HCC patients by multivariate COX regression analysis. Our study suggests RYBP SNP, rs2118593 as a new predictor for poor prognosis of HCC patients., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)