In adults with Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), higher stool concentrations of toxins A and B are associated with severe baseline disease, CDI-attributable severe outcomes, and recurrence. We evaluated whether toxin concentration predicts these presentations in children with CDI.

We conducted a prospective cohort study of inpatients aged 2–17 years with CDI who received treatment. Patients were followed for 40 days after diagnosis for severe outcomes (intensive care unit admission, colectomy, or death, categorized as CDI primarily attributable, CDI contributed, or CDI not contributing) and recurrence. Baseline stool toxin A and B concentrations were measured using ultrasensitive single-molecule array assay, and 12 plasma cytokines were measured when blood was available.

We enrolled 187 pediatric patients (median age, 9.6 years). Patients with severe baseline disease by IDSA-SHEA criteria (n = 34) had nonsignificantly higher median stool toxin A+B concentration than those without severe disease (n = 122; 3,217.2 vs 473.3 pg/mL; P = .08). Median toxin A+B concentration was nonsignificantly higher in children with a primarily attributed severe outcome (n = 4) versus no severe outcome (n = 148; 19,472.6 vs 429.1 pg/mL; P = .301). Recurrence occurred in 17 (9.4%) of 180 patients. Baseline toxin A+B concentration was significantly higher in patients with versus without recurrence: 4,398.8 versus 280.8 pg/mL (P = .024). Plasma granulocyte colony-stimulating factor concentration was significantly higher in CDI patients versus non-CDI diarrhea controls: 165.5 versus 28.5 pg/mL (P < .001).

Higher baseline stool toxin concentrations are present in children with CDI recurrence. Toxin quantification should be included in CDI treatment trials to evaluate its use in severity assessment and outcome prediction.

To evaluate hospital-level variation in using first-line antibiotics for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) based on the burden of laboratory-identified (LabID) CDI.

Using data on hospital-level LabID CDI events and antimicrobial use (AU) for CDI (oral/rectal vancomycin or fidaxomicin) submitted to the National Healthcare Safety Network in 2019, we assessed the association between hospital-level CDI prevalence (per 100 patient admissions) and rate of CDI AU (days of therapy per 1,000 days present) to generate a predicted value of AU based on CDI prevalence and CDI test type using negative binomial regression. The ratio of the observed to predicted AU was then used to identify hospitals with extreme discordance between CDI prevalence and CDI AU, defined as hospitals with a ratio outside of the intervigintile range.

Among 963 acute-care hospitals, rate of CDI prevalence demonstrated a positive dose–response relationship with rate of CDI AU. Compared with hospitals without extreme discordance (n = 902), hospitals with lower-than-expected CDI AU (n = 31) had, on average, fewer beds (median, 106 vs 208), shorter length of stay (median, 3.8 vs 4.2 days), and higher proportion of undergraduate or nonteaching medical school affiliation (48% vs 39%). Hospitals with higher-than-expected CDI AU (n = 30) were similar overall to hospitals without extreme discordance.

The prevalence rate of LabID CDI had a significant dose–response association with first-line antibiotics for treating CDI. We identified hospitals with extreme discordance between CDI prevalence and CDI AU, highlighting potential opportunities for data validation and improvements in diagnostic and treatment practices for CDI.

Sex-related differences in psychopathology are known phenomena, with externalizing and internalizing symptoms typically more common in boys and girls, respectively. However, the neural correlates of these sex-by-psychopathology interactions are underinvestigated, particularly in adolescence.

Participants were 14 years of age and part of the IMAGEN study, a large (N = 1526) community-based sample. To test for sex-by-psychopathology interactions in structural grey matter volume (GMV), we used whole-brain, voxel-wise neuroimaging analyses based on robust non-parametric methods. Psychopathological symptom data were derived from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).

We found a sex-by-hyperactivity/inattention interaction in four brain clusters: right temporoparietal-opercular region (p < 0.01, Cohen's d = −0.24), bilateral anterior and mid-cingulum (p < 0.05, Cohen's d = −0.18), right cerebellum and fusiform (p < 0.05, Cohen's d = −0.20) and left frontal superior and middle gyri (p < 0.05, Cohen's d = −0.26). Higher symptoms of hyperactivity/inattention were associated with lower GMV in all four brain clusters in boys, and with higher GMV in the temporoparietal-opercular and cerebellar-fusiform clusters in girls.

Using a large, sex-balanced and community-based sample, our study lends support to the idea that externalizing symptoms of hyperactivity/inattention may be associated with different neural structures in male and female adolescents. The brain regions we report have been associated with a myriad of important cognitive functions, in particular, attention, cognitive and motor control, and timing, that are potentially relevant to understand the behavioural manifestations of hyperactive and inattentive symptoms. This study highlights the importance of considering sex in our efforts to uncover mechanisms underlying psychopathology during adolescence.

An increasing number of studies have described the relationship between velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS) and schizophrenia. in a family-based study, we found that rs10314, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) present in the 3’-flanking region of the CLDN5 gene, was associated with schizophrenia among a Chinese population. High false positive rate is a common problem with the association study of human diseases. It is very important to replicate an initial finding with different samples and experimental designs.

A total of 749 patients with schizophrenia and 383 age and sex matched healthy control subjects in Chinese population were recruited. PCR-based RFLP protocol was applied to genotype rs10314 to see its disease association.

The χ2 goodness-of-fit test showed that the genotypic distributions of rs10314 were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in both the patient group (χ2=1.12, P=0.289) and the control group (χ2=0.22, P=0.639). rs10314 was associated with schizophrenia with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.32 in the male subjects (χ2=5.45, P=0.02, 95% CI 1.05-1.67) but not in the female subjects (χ2=0.64, P=0.425, OR=1.14, 95% CI 0.83-1.57). the χ2 test showed a genotypic association only for combined samples (χ2=7.80, df=2, P=0.02). SNP rs10314 is a G to C base change. Frequency of the genotypes containing the C allele was significantly higher in the patient group than in the control group.

The present work shows that the CLDN5 gene polymorphism is more likely to be involved in schizophrenic men than women, suggesting that this gene may contribute to the gender differences in schizophrenia.

This double-blind (DB), relapse prevention, phase-3 study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of paliperidone palmitate long-acting 3-monthly formulation (PP3M) versus placebo in delaying time-to-relapse of schizophrenia symptoms.

Adults (18-70 years old) with schizophrenia (DSM-IV-TR) were treated with PP (17-week, open-label [OL] transition phase: 50, 75, 100, or 150 mg eq, once-monthly, [PP1M]; 12-week OL maintenance phase: 3.5-fold PP1M stabilized dose, single injection), and then randomized (1:1) to PP3M fixed doses (175, 263, 350 or 525 mg eq.) or placebo.

305/506 patients enrolled were randomized (PP3M: n=160; placebo: n=145); majority were men (75%), white (59%), mean age 38.4 years. Interim analysis results favored PP3M vs. placebo (p = 0.0002, two-sided log-rank test; HR: 3.45, 95% CI: 1.73; 6.88); median time-to-relapse was 274 days in placebo and not estimable in PP3M group. Final results were consistent with interim analysis. Both PANSS total score and CGI-S score showed a significant effect over time in PP3M- vs. placebo-treated patients (p>0.001). 330/506 (65.2%) patients in OL phase and 183/305 (60.0%) in DB phase (PP3M: 61.9% vs. placebo: 57.9%) had ≥1 treatment-emergent adverse event (TEAE). The TEAEs noted more frequently in PP3M-vs. placebo (DB phase) were nasopharyngitis (5.6% vs. 1.4%), weight gain (8.8% vs. 3.4%), headache (8.8% vs.4.1%) and akathisia (4.4% vs. 0.7%).

Compared with placebo, PP3M significantly delayed time to first relapse in patients with schizophrenia, previously treated for 4 months with PP1M. PP3M was tolerable with a safety profile generally consistent with other marketed formulations of paliperidone.

Increasing evidence indicates that major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with cognitive as well as mood disturbances.

To evaluate cognitive function and white matter structure, resting-state brain function in first-episode, treatmentnaive patients with MDD.

To explore brain structure and function mechanisms of cognitive impairment in MDD.

46 Han Chinese MDD patients aged 18–45 year and 46 controls were assessed by a series of validated test procedures.Then, 30 patients and 30 controls were obtained by MRI scan.White matter abnormalities evaluated using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were analyzed using tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) and resting-state brain function was evaluated using regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis.

Cognitive impairment in patients with MDD was demonstrated by reduced accuracy in the Wisconsin Card Sorting test (WSCT) and to a lesser extent the Continuous Performance test (CPT) and Trail Making tests (TMT). White matter abnormalities found in the left cerebellum, and resting-state abnormalities present in the left inferior parietal gyrus, left anterior cingulate nucleus and left hippocampal gyrus were associated with impaired performance in the WSCT and CPT tests. We also showed that poor WSCT performance was associated with increased interconnectivity between the left ventral anterior cingulate nucleus and the medial frontal lobe areas.

The present study indicates cognitive disturbances in patients with MDD are associated with white matter and resting-state changes and altered interconnections in specific brain areas.

In this study, we aimed to identify protein molecules in the hypothalamus in the female rats injected exogenous androgen before sexual differentiation.

Neonatal female SD rats were randomly divided into two groups: experimental group and control female group. Four neonatal male SD rats were control male group. All animals were subjected to intraperitoneal injection of testosterone propionate as experimental group or aseptic oil as control. The rats were sacrificed 90 days after the injection and the brains were collected. 2-DE were performed in order to establish profiles of proteome from rat hypothalamus and followed by MALDITOF- TOF mass spectrometry was used to identify proteins differentially expressed in rat hypothalamus from experimental group as compared to normal control group.

11 differential spots were cut off from the Silver stained gel, and 9 of the spots were identified, which were Dihydropyrimidinase-like 3 (DPYSL3), heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K(hnRNP K), Profilin2, Triosephosphate isomerase 1(Tpi 1), Carbonic anhydrase II(CA II), Annexin A3, Protein disulfide isomerase associated 3 (PDIA3), Creatine kinase-B and Secernin 1.

The results of the present study indicate that the development of sexual differentiation may be associated with the alteration in the expression of a large number of cytosolic proteins in the hypothalamus.

Cigarette smoking is strongly associated with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, any genetic etiology of such comorbidity and causal relations is poorly understood, especially at the genome-wide level.

In the present in silico research, we analyzed summary data from the genome-wide association study of the Psychiatric Genetic Consortium for MDD (n = 191 005) and UK Biobank for smoking (n = 337 030) by using various biostatistical methods including Bayesian colocalization analysis, LD score regression, variant effect size correlation analysis, and Mendelian randomization (MR).

By adopting a gene prioritization approach, we identified 43 genes shared by MDD and smoking, which were significantly enriched in membrane potential, gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor activity, and retrograde endocannabinoid signaling pathways, indicating that the comorbid mechanisms are involved in the neurotransmitter system. According to linkage disequilibrium score regression, we found a strong positive correlation between MDD and current smoking (rg = 0.365; p = 7.23 × 10−25) and a negative correlation between MDD and former smoking (rg = −0.298; p = 1.59 × 10−24). MR analysis suggested that genetic liability for depression increased smoking.

These findings inform the concomitant conditions of MDD and smoking and support the use of self-medication with smoking to counteract depression.