Background: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is not widely available in China. Previous studies reported low awareness and inconclusive findings on the acceptability of PrEP among Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM). Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of an online national survey comparing preferences for oral and long-acting injectable PrEP among MSM and identifying correlates of preferences. The study did not collect detailed information about partner types that may influence negotiated safety and PrEP uptake. Results: Nine-hundred and seventy-nine men from the larger sample of 1045 men responded to the PrEP survey questions. Most men (81.9%) had never heard of PrEP, but reported interest in using PrEP. More participants chose injectable PrEP (36.3%) as their preferred formulation than oral PrEP (24.6%). Men who had at least two HIV tests (adjusted OR = 1.36, 95%CI 1.04, 1.78) more commonly preferred injectable PrEP. Conclusion: Our findings may help inform PrEP messaging in areas where PrEP has yet to be scaled up.

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serious threat worldwide. Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease with a high morbidity burden and is an important cause of pelvic inflammatory disease. The failure of recommended dual therapy with ceftriaxone and azithromycin has compromised the general and reproductive health of infected individuals. Thereby, Neisseria gonorrhoeae was recently classified as a 'Priority 2' microorganism by the World Health Organization. Consequently, persistent attempts are under way to discover novel drug targets as well as new drugs to fight against Neisseria. In this direction, considerable number of phytochemicals have been reconnoitred for their remedial intercession via targeting bacterial proteins. Methods MurI gene is specific to the bacterial kingdom, it can be exploited as a potential drug target for the treatment of bacterial diseases. Accordingly, diverse families of phytochemicals were screened in silico for their binding affinity with NG-MurI protein. Esculetin, one of the shortlisted compounds, was evaluated for its functional, structural and antibacterial activity. MurI was cloned, expressed and purified to homogeneity and used for testing the effect of esculetin on its racemase activity under invitro conditions. We further evaluated the effect of esculetin on sensitive and drug resistant strains of NG. Results We screened various classes of natural compounds and found esculetin, a coumarin derivative as a potent compound to target its effect on the growth of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Treatment with esculetin resulted in growth inhibition, cell wall damage and altered permeability as revealed by fluorescence and electron microscopy. Furthermore, esculetin inhibited racemization activity of recombinant, purified MurI protein of NG, an important enzyme required for peptidoglycan biosynthesis. Conclusions Our results suggest that esculetin could be further explored as a lead compound for developing new drug molecules against multidrug resistant strains.