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Background National treatment guidelines of China evolving necessitates population-level surveillance of transmitted drug resistance (TDR) to inform or update HIV treatment strategies. Methods We analyzed the demographic, clinical, and virologic data obtained from people with HIV (PWH) residing in 31 provinces of China who were newly diagnosed between 2018 and 2023. Evidence of TDR was defined by the World Health Organization list for surveillance of drug resistance mutations. Results Among the 22 124 PWH with protease and reverse transcriptase sequences, 965 (4.36%; 95% CI, 4.1–4.63) had at least 1 TDR mutation. The most frequent TDR mutations were nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) mutations (2.39%; 95% CI, 2.19%–2.59%), followed by nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor mutations(1.35%; 95% CI, 1.2%–1.5%) and protease inhibitor mutations (1.12%; 95% CI,.98%–1.26%). The overall protease and reverse transcriptase TDR increased significantly from 4.05% (95% CI, 3.61%–4.52%) in 2018 to 5.39% (95% CI, 4.33%–6.57%) in 2023. A low level of integrase strand transfer inhibitor TDR was detected in 9 (0.21%; 95% CI,.1%–.38%) of 4205 PWH. Conclusions Presently, the continued use of NNRTI-based first-line antiretroviral therapy regimen for HIV treatment has been justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In 2016, China has implemented the World Health Organization's "treat all" policy. We aimed to assess the impact of significant improvements in the 95-95-95 targets on population-level human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission dynamics and incidence. Methods We focused on 3 steps of the HIV care continuum: diagnosed, on antiretroviral therapy, and achieving viral suppression. The molecular transmission clusters were inferred using HIV-TRACE. New HIV infections were estimated using the incidence method in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control HIV Modelling Tool. Results Between 2004 and 2023, the national HIV epidemiology database recorded 2.99 billion person-times of HIV tests and identified 1 976 878 new diagnoses. We noted a roughly "inverted-V" curve in the clustering frequency, with the peak recorded in 2014 (67.1% [95% confidence interval, 63.7%–70.5%]), concurrent with a significant improvement in the 95-95-95 targets from 10-13-<71 in 2005 to 84-93-97 in 2022. Furthermore, we observed a parabolic curve for a new infection with the vertex occurring in 2010. Conclusions In general, it was suggested that the improvements in the 95-95-95 targets were accompanied by a reduction in both the population-level HIV transmission rate and incidence. Thus, China should allocate more effort to the first "95" target to achieve a balanced 95-95-95 target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Early and accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is crucial for initiating timely treatment and preventing new infections. In this study, we introduced the iFIND TBR assay, an automated all-in-one tuberculosis detection approach that simultaneously detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and rifampicin (RIF) resistance. Methods: The limits of detection (LOD), sensitivity, specificity, and RIF-R rpoB mutation detection of the iFIND TBR were tested on Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA or sputum samples spiked with known numbers of M.tuberculosis H37Rv. Frozen clinical samples from patients suspected of having TB were also tested. Results: The LOD of the iFIND TBR for MTB detection were 13.34 CFU/ml (95% CI, 11.71-16.47), and for RIF resistance was 109.79CFU/mL (95% CI, 95-138.19). The iFIND TBR assay accurately distinguish MTB strains from non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) without any cross reactivity. Testing on 157 clinical sputum samples, compared with the bacteriologically TB standard, the overall sensitivity and specificity of the iFIND TBR was 100% (95%CI, 94.64, 100) and 85.29% (95% CI, 74.61, 92.72), respectively. When assessing RIF susceptibility, the iFIND TBR achieved a sensitivity of 98.15% (95% CI, 90.11–99.95) and a specificity of 85.71% (95% CI, 67.33–95.97), compared with phenotypic drug susceptibility testing. Discordant RIF susceptibility results were more frequently observed in samples exhibiting heteroresistance. Discussion: These findings demonstrate that iFIND TBR assay performs well in detecting TB and RIF resistance, and shows promise as a point-of-care tool in resource-limited areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the effects of copper and zinc addition on the microstructure and indentation creep behaviors of SnSb8Cu4 Babbitt alloy were systematically investigated. An indentation creep testing device with a flat tip indenter was used to characterize the creep behaviors of the Babbitt alloys at ~100°C with different loads. By increasing the copper content from 4wt% to 8wt%, coarser and shorter Cu6Sn5 dendrites with larger volume fraction were observed. The corresponding Brinell hardness increased from 21.9 to 28.1 at room temperature. However, the improvement in creep resistance was not obvious. After adding 0.72 wt% zinc, large number of small-sized SnSb particles precipitated along the grain boundaries of tin matrix. The total volume fraction of intermetallics, i.e., Cu6Sn5 and SnSb particles, increased from 15.1% to 20.9%. Although, the increment of Brinell hardness was not remarkable at room temperature, dramatic improvement in creep resistance was observed. The addition of zinc caused the decrement of the solid solubility of Sb in tin matrix, while more network-like SnSb particles precipitating in tin matrix were found, giving rise to the pinning effect against grain boundary sliding during creep deformation. However, increment of copper content showed no obvious effect on the solid solubility of Sb in tin matrix. Meanwhile, an exponential relationship between indentation creep rate and indentation stress at the steady creep stage was found. Based on the measured data, the indentation stress exponent of SnSb8Cu4, SnSb8Cu8 and SnSb8Cu4Zn was deduced to be 2.949, 2.865 and 2.743, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implantation of a scaffold into the body in a safe and convenient manner remains a challenge in the repair of patient bone defect. In the present study, a strategy for fabrication of the redox-sensitive nanofibers with a core-shell structure that can deliver the growth factors in a tunable manner is presented. Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) forms the inner core region, and a mixture of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) and redox-responsive c-6A PEG-PCL nanogel with -S-S- bond forms the outer shell. The redox-sensitive shell of the nanofibers can respond the change of the GSH (glutathione) concentration and thus regulate the BMP-2 release behavior in vitro and in vivo. In vitro cytotoxicity results indicated that the redox-sensitive nanofiber had good osteoinduction. The in vivo results demonstrated that the nanofibers exhibited a capacity of prompting new bone generation in the bone defect. Therefore, the redox-responsive nanofiber in the present study may be of great potential for application in bone reconstruction.