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Wu MY, Chen L, Liu LC, Liu MJ, Li YF, Zheng HY, Leng L, Zou YJ, Chen WJ, Li J. Using circulating microbial cell-free DNA to identify persistent Treponema pallidum infection in serofast syphilis patients. iScience 2024; 27:109399. [PMID: 38523794 PMCID: PMC10959656 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2023] [Revised: 01/06/2024] [Accepted: 02/28/2024] [Indexed: 03/26/2024] Open
Abstract
The question of whether serofast status of syphilis patients indicates an ongoing low-grade Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum) infection remains unanswered. To address this, we developed a machine learning model to identify T. pallidum in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) using next-generation sequencing (NGS). Our findings showed that a TP_rate cut-off of 0.033 demonstrated superior diagnostic performance for syphilis, with a specificity of 92.3% and a sensitivity of 71.4% (AUROC = 0.92). This diagnosis model predicted that 20 out of 92 serofast patients had a persistent low-level infection. Based on these predictions, re-treatment was administered to these patients and its efficacy was evaluated. The results showed a statistically significant decrease in RPR titers in the prediction-positive group compared to the prediction-negative group after re-treatment (p < 0.05). These findings provide evidence for the existence of T. pallidum under serofast status and support the use of intensive treatment for serofast patients at higher risk in clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meng Yin Wu
- Department of Dermatology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
| | - Lu Chen
- Beijing Macro & Micro-test Bio-Tech Co., Ltd, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Li Cheng Liu
- Beijing Macro & Micro-test Bio-Tech Co., Ltd, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Ming Juan Liu
- Department of Dermatology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
| | - Yan Feng Li
- Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100730, China
| | - He Yi Zheng
- Department of Dermatology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
| | - Ling Leng
- State Key Laboratory of Complex Severe and Rare Diseases, Translational Medicine Center, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
| | - Yi Jun Zou
- College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Wei Jun Chen
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Jun Li
- Department of Dermatology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
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Ding F, Guo XG, Song WY, Fan R, Zhao CF, Mao KY, Zhang ZW, Peng PY, Lin H, Dong WG, Qian TJ, Yang ZH, Zou YJ. Infestation and distribution of chigger mites on Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) in Yunnan Province, Southwest China. Trop Biomed 2021; 38:111-121. [PMID: 33797533 DOI: 10.47665/tb.38.1.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Chigger mites is a group of arthropods and some of them are vectors of scrub typhus. As a common synanthropic rodent species, the Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) often harbors lots of ectoparasites including chigger mites. According to some "data mining" strategies, the present study took the advantage of the abundant original data from a long-term field ecological investigation between 2001 and 2015 to make a detailed analysis of chigger mites on R. norvegicus in Yunnan Province, Southwest of China. From 18 of 33 investigated counties, only 1414 chigger mites were collected from 1113 Brown rats with relatively low infestations. The 1414 individual chigger mites were identified as comprising 61 species, 11 genera and 2 subfamilies of the family Trombiculidae with a high species diversity (S=61, H'=3.13). Of 61 mite species, there were four main species, Walchia ewingi, Ascoschoengastia indica, W. koi and A. rattinorvegici, which accounted for 44.41% of the total mites. All the chigger mites were of aggregated distribution among different individuals of R. norvegicus. The Brown rats in the outdoor habitats harbored much more individuals and species of chigger mites with a higher mean abundance (MA=1.46) and mean intensity (MI=12.53) than in the indoor habitats (P<0.05). The overall infestation of the rats was significantly higher in the mountainous landscapes than in the flatland landscapes (P<0.001). The species similarity (Css) of the mites on the male and female rats reached 64.44% with sex biased infestations. The male rats harbored more species and individuals of the mites than the female rats. The adult rats harbored more species and individuals of the mites than the juvenile rats. The species abundance distribution of the mites was successfully fitted by Preston's lognormal model with ŝ(R)=15e-[0.31(R-1)]2 (α=0.31, R2=0.95). On the basis of fitting the theoretical curve by Preston's model, the total mite species on R. norvegicus was estimated to be 86 species, and 25 rare mite species were missed in the sampling field investigation. The curve tendency of the species-plot relationship indicates that R. norvegicus have a great potential to harbor many species of chigger mites, and more species of the mites would be collected if more rats are sampled.
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Affiliation(s)
- F Ding
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - X G Guo
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - W Y Song
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - R Fan
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - C F Zhao
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - K Y Mao
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - Z W Zhang
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - P Y Peng
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - H Lin
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - W G Dong
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - T J Qian
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - Z H Yang
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
| | - Y J Zou
- Institute of Pathogens and Vectors, Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Control and Prevention, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, 671000, China
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