Steep reductions of malaria cases were achieved by 3 monthly rounds of either AP+PMQLD or AP alone, suggesting potential for highly successful MDA without PMQLD in epidemiological settings such as those on Anjouan. A major challenge is to sustain and expand the public health benefits of malaria reductions by MDA.

BackgroundMalaria is still one of the serious public health problems in Grande Comore Island, although the number of annual cases has been greatly reduced in recent years. A better understanding of malaria parasite population diversity and transmission dynamics is critical for assessing the effectiveness of malaria control measures. The objective of this study is to investigate temporal changes in genetic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum populations and multiplicity of infection (MOI) in Grande Comore 10 years after introduction of ACT.MethodsA total of 232 P. falciparum clinical isolates were collected from the Grande Comore Island during two sampling periods (118 for 2006‒2007 group, and 114 for 2013‒2016 group). Parasite isolates were characterized for genetic diversity and complexity of infection by genotyping polymorphic regions in merozoite surface protein gene 1 (msp-1), msp-2, and msp-3 using nested PCR and DNA sequencing.ResultsThree msp-1 alleles (K1, MAD20, and RO33), two msp-2 alleles (FC27 and 3D7), and two msp-3 alleles (K1 and 3D7) were detected in parasites of both sampling periods. The RO33 allele of msp-1 (84.8%), 3D7 allele of msp-2 (90.8%), and K1 allele of msp-3 (66.7%) were the predominant allelic types in isolates from 2006–2007 group. In contrast, the RO33 allele of msp-1 (63.4%), FC27 allele of msp-2 (91.1%), and 3D7 allele of msp-3 (53.5%) were the most prevalent among isolates from the 2013–2016 group. Compared with the 2006‒2007 group, polyclonal infection rates of msp-1 (from 76.7 to 29.1%, P < 0.01) and msp-2 (from 62.4 to 28.3%, P < 0.01) allelic types were significantly decreased in those from 2013‒2016 group. Similarly, the MOIs for both msp-1 and msp-2 were higher in P. falciparum isolates in the 2006–2007 group than those in 2013–2016 group (MOI = 3.11 vs 1.63 for msp-1; MOI = 2.75 vs 1.35 for msp-2). DNA sequencing analyses also revealed reduced numbers of distinct sequence variants in the three genes from 2006‒2007 to 2013‒2016: msp-1, from 32 to 23 (about 28% decline); msp-2 from 29 to 21 (about 28% decline), and msp-3 from 11 to 3 (about 72% decline).ConclusionsThe present data showed dramatic reduction in genetic diversity and MOI among Grande Comore P. falciparum populations over the course of the study, suggesting a trend of decreasing malaria transmission intensity and genetic diversity in Grande Comore Island. These data provide valuable information for surveillance of P. falciparum infection and for assessing the appropriateness of the current malarial control strategies in the endemic area.

The roles of sphingolipids in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are still unknown. This study aimed to investigate the sphingolipid characteristics for different types of PCOS using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). A total of 107 women with PCOS and 37 healthy women as normal controls were studied. PCOS patients were further classified into non-obesity with insulin resistance (IR) (NOIR), obesity with IR (OIR), and non-obesity and non-IR (NIR) subgroups. A total of 87 serum sphingolipids, including 9 sphingosines, 3 sphinganines, 1 sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), 19 ceramides (Cers), 1 ceramide-1-phosphate, 44 sphingomyelins (SMs), 4 hexosylceramides, and 6 lactosylceramides (LacCers) were analyzed using an improved sphingolipidomic approach based on LC-MS. Notable elevations in the levels of S1P, Cer, and SM were observed in PCOS patients when compared with healthy women, and SM species with long saturated acyl chains showed potential as novel biomarkers of PCOS. In addition, the level of LacCer was only elevated in NIR, and there was almost no change in NOIR and OIR. This study is the first to report the comprehensive sphingolipidomic profiling of different subgroups of PCOS with or without IR or obesity and suggests that serum sphingolipids might be useful as diagnostic biomarkers for different types of PCOS.

The antimicrobial activities of longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour. Fen ke) seed extracts were investigated using a disc diffusion method and also determining the minimal inhibitory concentration. The DL-P01-SI01 fraction showed that the strongest activity against Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus at MIC 64 μg/mL, which was found to be due to the phenolic compounds. The HPLC analysis showed that the major phenolic compounds are gallic acid, corilagin, ethyl gallate and ellagic acid.

The frequency of surgical site infection was independent of timing of preoperative prophylactic antibiotics but was associated with the presence of medical comorbidity.