Impact of COVID-19 control measures on respiratory syncytial virus and hand-foot-and-mouth disease transmission in Hong Kong and South Korea.

The public health and social measures (PHSMs) for mitigation/control of COVID-19 pandemic influenced the transmission dynamics of many other infectious diseases, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, and hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) and their disease-burden. This study aimed to infer the transmission dynamics of these respiratory viruses and assess the impact of COVID-19 PHSMs on their community activity. We developed a compartmental framework to infer the transmission dynamics of RSV and HFMD in Hong Kong and South Korea from January 2014 to May 2024.

vHDvDB 2.0: Database and Group Comparison Server for Hepatitis Delta Virus.

The hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a unique pathogen with significant global health implications, affecting individuals who are coinfected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). HDV infection has profound clinical consequences, manifesting either as coinfection with HBV, resulting in acute hepatitis and potential liver failure, or as superinfection in chronic HBV cases, substantially increasing the risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Given the complex dynamics of HDV infection and the urgent need for advanced research tools, this article introduces vHDvDB 2.

Prediction of upcoming global infection burden of influenza seasons after relaxation of public health and social measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: a modelling study.

Background: The transmission dynamics of influenza were affected by public health and social measures (PHSMs) implemented globally since early 2020 to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to assess the effect of COVID-19 PHSMs on the transmissibility of influenza viruses and to predict upcoming influenza epidemics.

Methods: For this modelling study, we used surveillance data on influenza virus activity for 11 different locations and countries in 2017-22.

Joint Estimation of Generation Time and Incubation Period for Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a heavy disease burden globally. The impact of process and timing of data collection on the accuracy of estimation of key epidemiological distributions are unclear. Because infection times are typically unobserved, there are relatively few estimates of generation time distribution.

Variation by lineage in serum antibody responses to influenza B virus infections.

Two lineages of influenza B virus currently co-circulate and have distinct antigenicity, termed Victoria and Yamagata after the B/Victoria/2/87 and B/Yamagata/16/88 strains, respectively. We analyzed antibody titer dynamics following PCR-confirmed influenza B virus infection in a longitudinal community-based cohort study conducted in Hong Kong from 2009-2014 to assess patterns in changes in antibody titers to B/Victoria and B/Yamagata viruses following infections with each lineage. Among 62 PCR-confirmed cases, almost half had undetectable hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) antibody titers to the lineage of infection both pre-infection and post-infection.

Author Correction: Temporal dynamics in viral shedding and transmissibility of COVID-19.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Temporal dynamics in viral shedding and transmissibility of COVID-19.

We report temporal patterns of viral shedding in 94 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and modeled COVID-19 infectiousness profiles from a separate sample of 77 infector-infectee transmission pairs. We observed the highest viral load in throat swabs at the time of symptom onset, and inferred that infectiousness peaked on or before symptom onset. We estimated that 44% (95% confidence interval, 25-69%) of secondary cases were infected during the index cases' presymptomatic stage, in settings with substantial household clustering, active case finding and quarantine outside the home.

Burden of influenza-associated outpatient influenza-like illness consultations in China, 2006-2015: A population-based study.

Background: Human influenza virus infections cause a considerable burden of morbidity and mortality worldwide each year. Understanding regional influenza-associated outpatient burden is crucial for formulating control strategies against influenza viruses.

Methods: We extracted the national sentinel surveillance data on outpatient visits due to influenza-like-illness (ILI) and virological confirmation of sentinel specimens from 30 provinces of China from 2006 to 2015.

Influenza-associated excess respiratory mortality in China, 2010-15: a population-based study.

Background: The estimation of influenza-associated excess mortality in countries can help to improve estimates of the global mortality burden attributable to influenza virus infections. We did a study to estimate the influenza-associated excess respiratory mortality in mainland China for the 2010-11 through 2014-15 seasons.

Methods: We obtained provincial weekly influenza surveillance data and population mortality data for 161 disease surveillance points in 31 provinces in mainland China from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention for the years 2005-15.

The Landscape of Actionable Molecular Alterations in Immunomarker-Defined Large-Cell Carcinoma of the Lung.

Introduction: Patients with pulmonary large-cell carcinoma (LCC) have poor prognosis and limited treatment options. The identification of clinically actionable molecular alterations helps to guide personalized cancer treatment decisions.

Patients And Methods: A consecutive cohort of 789 resected NSCLC cases were reviewed.

EXOSC4 functions as a potential oncogene in development and progression of colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease with complex mechanisms of pathogenesis. Classification systems have been proposed based on molecular features of tumors in clinical practice. Thus, more molecular markers associated with development and progression of CRC might serve as useful tools for early diagnosis even for providing more accurate molecular classification.

RASAL2 promotes tumor progression through LATS2/YAP1 axis of hippo signaling pathway in colorectal cancer.

Background: Patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) have a high incidence of regional and distant metastases. Although metastasis is the main cause of CRC-related death, its molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown.

Methods: Using array-CGH and expression microarray analyses, changes in DNA copy number and mRNA expression levels were investigated in human CRC samples.

Variation in Influenza B Virus Epidemiology by Lineage, China.

We used national sentinel surveillance data in China for 2005-2016 to examine the lineage-specific epidemiology of influenza B. Influenza B viruses circulated every year with relatively lower activity than influenza A. B/Yamagata was more frequently detected in adults than in children.

Assessment of programmed cell death ligand-1 expression by 4 diagnostic assays and its clinicopathological correlation in a large cohort of surgical resected non-small cell lung carcinoma.

Immune checkpoint blockade targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis has recently demonstrated efficacy and promise in cancer treatment. Appropriate biomarker selection is therefore essential for improving treatment efficacy. However, the establishment of PD-L1 assay in pathology laboratories is complicated by the presence of multiple testing platforms using different scoring systems.

MET Amplification and Exon 14 Splice Site Mutation Define Unique Molecular Subgroups of Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma with Poor Prognosis.

Purpose: Activation of MET oncogene as the result of amplification or activation mutation represents an emerging molecular target for cancer treatment. We comprehensively studied MET alterations and the clinicopathologic correlations in a large cohort of treatment-naïve non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).

Experimental Design: Six hundred eighty-seven NSCLCs were tested for MET exon 14 splicing site mutation (METΔ14), DNA copy number alterations, and protein expression by Sanger sequencing, FISH, and IHC, respectively.

Profiling of Oncogenic Driver Events in Lung Adenocarcinoma Revealed MET Mutation as Independent Prognostic Factor.

Introduction: Oncogenic driver mutations activating receptor tyrosine kinase pathways are promising predictive markers for targeted treatment. We investigated the mutation profile of an updated driver events list on receptor tyrosine kinase/RAS/PI3K axis and the clinicopathologic implications in a cohort of never-smoker predominated Chinese lung adenocarcinoma.

Methods: We tested 154 lung adenocarcinomas and adenosquamous carcinomas for EGFR, KRAS, HER2, BRAF, PIK3CA, MET, NRAS, MAP2K1, and RIT1 mutations by polymerase chain reaction-direct sequencing.