Children Transmission Research Articles

Impact du SARS-CoV-2 sur la fertilité, les gamètes et l’Assistance médicale à la procréation

The current pandemic context raises questions about COVID-19 consequences on Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART). Indeed, according to the first Biomedicine Agency recommendations, ART centers suspended their activities in March 2020 during the first wave of Covid-19. However, SARS-CoV-2 direct and indirect effects on gametes, fertility, pregnancy and neonatal health are still debated. The aim of this review is to assess the available data on this subject, to inform patients in care and adapt daily practice. Most recent studies are based on the effects of the infectious syndrome, on hormonal factors as well as on the expression of viral entry proteins (ACE2 and TMPRSS2) in cells involved in gametogenesis, to assess the impact of COVID-19. So far, no effect on female gametes was highlighted. More studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis. Mother to children transmission couldn’t be proven, yet neonatal infection remains possible. However, men are more susceptible to be infected by SARS-CoV-2, to be symptomatic, and spermatogenesis is likely to be affected. Presence of the virus in semen is infrequently reported, but all of these parameters should be taken into account in ART.

Sero prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) in general population of Lakki Marwat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan

A research study was conducted with the aim to investigate the frequency of Hepatitis B Virus positivity in the general population of district Lakki Marwat. Blood samples were collected from 2000 individuals in various hospitals and diagnostic/ medical laboratories of the study area. All the blood samples were evaluated for HBV by Liver function tests (LFTs), Immuno-chromatographic tests (ICT) and PCR. Among the total, 108 blood samples were found positive for the virus with a prevalence rate of 5.4%. A higher prevalence rate (4.15%) was found in males as compare to 1.25% in females. Among the total HBV positive samples 83 (76.85%) were male (from 4 years to 75 years) and 25 (23.19%) were female (from 5 years to 60 years). The HBV positive data was also analyzed for various age groups i.e. 1-15 years, 16-30 years, 31-45 years, 46-60 years and above 60 years. It was found that disease prevails more in males than in females and is predominant in the age group 16-30 (57%), followed by age groups 31-45 (23%), 1-15 (10.18%), 46-60 (7%) and >60 (3%) respectively. Various risk factors were found involved in the spread of HBV in the study area like medical injections (59.26%), dental procedures by medical quacks (12.04%), hair dressing and shaving salons/ barber shops (11.11%), transfusion of blood and blood based products (5.56%), mother to children transmission (3.70%), occupational risk groups (2.78%), sexual transmission (2.78%), tattooing (0.92%), circumcision (0.92%) and shared injection by drug abuser (0.92%). Keywords: Frequency; HBV; ICT; PCR; Risk factors http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2020.90267

Effect of highly active antiretroviral therapy on growth and development of infants and children

Objective To investigate the effect of high active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on growth and development of infants born to pregnant women infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the effect on blocking mother to children transmission. Methods Totally 165 pregnant women diagnosed with HIV infection from May 2006 to May 2017 and their 169 infants, including four pairs of twins were enrolled, and 82 infants born to HIV negative pregnant women in the same period were enrolled as control. All of the pregnant women in the experimental group were administrated with HAART when HIV antibody test was positive. The delivery intervention and artificial feeding were carried out as well. The weight, height, hemoglobin (Hb), serum iron and serum calcium level of infants at birth, 12 months and six years old were monitored and compared between the two groups. Apgar scores of newborns and intelligence tests at six-year-old were also recorded. Statistical analysis was performed by t test. Results Pregnant women were generally in good conditions and well tolerated to the drugs. There were no significant differences in neonatal Apgar scores, body weight, body length, Hb, serum iron, serum calcium and CD4+ T lymphocyte count between HIV positive experimental group and control group (t =-1.27, -1.12, -3.41, -5.62, -0.89, -3.02 and-0.74, respectively, all P>0.05). At the age of 12 months, there were no significant differences in body weight, length, Hb, serum iron, serum calcium and CD4+ T lymphocyte count between the two groups (t = 1.02, 1.41, 1.32, 1.03, 0.89 and 1.06, respectively, all P > 0.05). At the age of six years, there were no significant differences in all indexes between the two groups (t= 1.02, 0.87, 1.58, 1.03, 0.92 and 2.07, respectively, all P > 0.05). Intelligence assessment was performed in 78 children of the experimental group and 45 children of the control group at the age of six years, and there was no significant difference between the two groups ((89.7±12.5) score vs (91.2±13.7) score, t=1.67, P=0.43). All the children in the experimental group were positive for HIV antibody at birth, and six cases were positive for HIV RNA who were diagnosed with neonatal HIV infection. HAART was initiated for the six cases, while HIV antibody tests were still positive until the age of 18 months after HAART. The rest of the children′s HIV antibody tests became negative with the mother to children tramsission rate of 3.55% (6/169). Conclusion HAART could not only block mother to children tramsission of HIV, but also has no effect on growth and intellectual development of children during the observation period. Key words: Antiretroviral therapy, highly active; Human immunodeficiency virus; Child; Growth and development

Early physical growth and disease analysis among children born delivered by HBsAg-positive mothers

Objective: To estimate the early physical growth and disease in children born to HBsAg-positive mothers. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study. Three areas as Xihu in Hangzhou, Lanxi in Jinhua, and Haiyan in Jiaxing in Zhejiang province were selected by cluster sampling. The growth outcomes of children born to HBsAg-positive mothers (exposure group) and matched 1∶1 women uninfected with HBV (control group) in 2014 were investigated and compared at birth, 6, 9, 12, and 18 months, respectively. There were totally 342 children in each group. Results: The incidences of low birth weight (LBW) for children born to exposure and control group were 1.8% (6/342), and 2.6% (9/342), respectively (P=0.433); and, rates of preterm birth were 2.3% (8/342), and 2.0% (7/342), respectively (P=0.794). The mean birth weight of children born to mothers without HBV infection (3.4±0.4) kg was dramatically higher than children in exposure group (3.3±0.4) kg (P=0.019). At 18 months, the average head circumference was significantly greater among children in control group (47.3±1.3) cm than children in exposure group (47.0±2.0) cm (P=0.038). Additional, mean birth weeks, height, weight, increases in height/weight/head circumference each month, weight/height/head circumference for age Z scores, proportion of growth retardation and low weight, disease prevalence were not observed statistically differences between two groups (P>0.05). All children born to HBsAg-positive mothers were received three-dose HBV vaccination. The rate of hepatitis B immunoglobulin for births born to HBsAg-positive was 98.8% (338/342). Mother to children transmission of HBV at 18 months was 1.0% (1/97). Conclusion: No significant differences in growth development and disease prevalence were found among children born to HBsAg-positive women and women without HBV infection.

Nothing else matters: Evolution of preference for social prestige

This paper seeks answers to two questions. First, if a greater social activity of an individual enhances oblique (i.e. to non-relatives) transmission of her cultural traits at the expense of vertical (i.e. to children) transmission as well as family size, which behavior is optimal from cultural evolution standpoint? I formalize a general model that characterizes evolutionarily stable social activity. The proposed model replicates the theory of Newson et al. (2007) that fertility decline is caused by increasing role of oblique cultural transmission. Second, if social activity is a rational choice rather than a culturally inherited trait, and if cultural transmission acts on preferences rather than behaviors, which preferences survive the process of cultural evolution? I arrive at a very simple yet powerful result: under mild assumptions on model structure, only preferences which emphasize exclusively the concern for social prestige, i.e. extent to which one’s cultural trait has been picked up by others, survive.

Highlights of the third edition of Chinese guidelines for AIDS diagnosis and treatment(2015)

The third edition of Chinese guidelines for AIDS diagnosis and treatment was launched in 2015 by AIDS Professional Group, Society of Infectious Diseases, Chinese Medical Association. New edition emphasizes the importance of timely initiation of anti-retroviral therapy(ART). Like other guidelines, this edition recommends that once the HIV infection is confirmed, the ART should be initiated timely. For patients with HIV and opportunistic infections, once the infections are under control, the ART should be initiated without delay. For AIDS patients complicated with tuberculosis whose CD4 cell counts are less than 200/μL, the ART should start within 2 weeks after the initiation of anti-tuberculosis treatment. In this guideline, the drugs with severe toxicities and poor tolerance are excluded, and new drugs are added such as rilpivrine (RPV) and atazanavir (ATV) because of less toxicity and higher HIV depression effect; and 3TC+TDF+EFV is recommended as the first line regimen. As for children with HIV infection, especially for those less than 5 years, once the infection is confirmed the ART should be initiated immediately. For the prevention of HIV mother to children transmission, new edition recommends that HIV-infected pregnant women start ART early and keep on ART all their lives.

The perpetuation of ritualistic actions as revealed by young children's transmission of normative behavior

Children will comprehensively copy others' actions despite manifest perceptual cues to their causal ineffectiveness. In experiment 1 we demonstrate that children will overimitate in this way even when the arbitrary actions copied are used as part of a process to achieve an outcome for someone else. We subsequently show in experiment 2 that children will omit arbitrary actions, but only if the actions are to achieve a clear, functional goal for a naïve adult. These findings highlight how readily children adopt what appear to be conventional behaviors, even when faced with a clear demonstration of their negligible functional value. We show how a child's strong, early-emerging propensity for overimitation reveals a sensitivity for ritualistic behavior.

Pedagogical cues encourage toddlers' transmission of recently demonstrated functions to unfamiliar adults.

Young children use pedagogical cues as a signal that others' actions are social or cultural conventions. Here we show that children selectively transmit (enact in a new social situation) causal functions demonstrated pedagogically, even when they have learned and can produce alternative functions as well. Two-year-olds saw two novel toys, each with two functions. One experimenter demonstrated one function using pedagogical cues (eye contact and child-directed speech) and a second experimenter demonstrated the alternative function using intentional actions towards the object, but without pedagogical cues. Children imitated both functions at equal rates initially, indicating equal causal learning from both types of demonstration. However, they were significantly more likely to enact the pedagogical function for a new adult not present during the initial demonstrations. These results indicate that pedagogical cues influence children's transmission of information, perhaps playing a role in the dissemination of cultural conventions from a young age.

Young children's creation and transmission of social norms

Children's lives are governed by social norms. Since Piaget, however, it has been assumed that they understand very little about how norms work. Recent studies in which children enforce social norms indicate a richer understanding, but children are still relating to pre-existing adult norms. In this study, triads of 5-year-olds worked on an instrumental task without adult guidance. Children spontaneously created social norms regarding how the game “should” be played. They transmitted these with special force (using more generic and objective language) to novices, suggesting that young children understand to some degree, the conventional nature and special force of social norms in binding all who would participate.

The analysis of hepatitis B virus genetic characterization from immuned children and their mother

In order to investigate the characterization of mother to children transmission, the sequences of HBV were analyzed to offer the information about the effect of interrupt. The sera of 75 mother with positive HBsAg are collected from 2003, and the ELISA was performed to determine the HBV infection of the child. The Large S sequence of HBV including preS and S gene are amplified and sequenced. The genotype was determined with the standard genotype sequence. The mutation ratios of group successfully interrupted and failed compared. The sera of 4 pairs mother-children were HBsAg positive, including one twins. The virus genes are successful amplified. Four of HBV genotype is B and one is C. Gene of twins has mutation of T143M. 43 HBV of successfully interrupted group were sequenced. There are 37 of genotype B and 6 of genotype C. Three have the mutation in "a" dominant, and the percentage is 7%. Most failed interrupted child have the same sequence with their mother, and the ratio is higher than the mother of successful group, however there have no statistical significance.

Children Versus Ideas: An 'Influential' Theory of Demographic Transition

This paper seeks answers to two questions. First, if a greater social activity of an individual enhances oblique (i.e. to non-relatives) transmission of her cultural traits, but reduces their vertical (i.e. to children) transmission as well as family size, which behavior is optimal from cultural evolution standpoint? I formalize a general model that characterizes evolutionarily stable behaviors. The proposed model replicates the theory of Newson et al. (2007) that fertility decline is caused by increasing role of oblique cultural transmission. Second, if social activity is a rational choice rather than culturally inherited trait, and if cultural transmission acts on preferences rather than decisions, which preferences survive the process of cultural evolution? I arrive at a very simple yet powerful result: under mild assumptions on model structure, only preferences which emphasize exclusively the concern for social prestige, i.e. extent to which one’s cultural trait has been picked up by others, survive.

Role of calpain-10 gene variants in familial type 2 diabetes in Caucasians.

The calpain-10 gene (CAPN10) has been implicated in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) susceptibility by both linkage and association in a Hispanic population from Starr County Texas. Common intronic variants seem to alter CAPN10 mRNA levels and were associated with insulin resistance but not diabetes in Pima Indians. The role of these variants in Caucasian populations is less clear. We found some evidence for linkage of T2DM to chromosome 2q approximately 20 cM proximal to the NIDDM1/CAPN10 locus. To test the hypothesis that CAPN10 is a diabetes susceptibility locus in Caucasian families at high risk for T2DM, we examined the influence of the three previously implicated CAPN10 variants on both diabetes risk and measures of insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis. We genotyped approximately 700 members of 63 families for 3 variants (SNP-43, SNP-19, and SNP-63). We tested each variant separately and as haplotype combinations for altered transmission from parents to affected children (transmission disequilibrium test), and we tested for an effect of each variant individually on measures of glucose and insulin during a glucose tolerance test in nondiabetic family members. Finally, we looked for an effect of each variant on measures of insulin sensitivity (S(I)) and insulin secretion estimated by frequently sampled iv glucose tolerance test and Minimal Model analysis. We could not confirm an increase in risk for T2DM susceptibility for any variant or for any haplotype combination, although we found marginal evidence for an increased risk of the 111/221 haplotype combination (P = 0.036) after ascertainment correction. However, both SNP-19 and SNP-63 increased fasting and/or postchallenge insulin levels, consistent with reduced insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, SNP-19 had modest effects on insulin sensitivity measured by homeostatic model, and on postchallenge glucose. The reduction in insulin sensitivity was confirmed by analysis of the subset of individuals who underwent iv glucose tolerance tests, where SNP-19 significantly altered the insulin sensitivity index. CAPN10 cannot be considered a major diabetes susceptibility gene in our population and seems unlikely to explain the observed linkage findings. However, CAPN10 influences insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis in nondiabetic members of kindreds at high risk for T2DM.

Co-receptor usage of HIV-1 primary isolates, viral burden, and CCR5 genotype in mother-to-child HIV-1 transmission

To investigate the relationship between CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) genotype, viral load and co-receptor usage of maternal HIV-1 isolates in perinatal HIV-1 transmission. A total of 181 mothers and infants were studied at the time of delivery. Wild-type (wt) and delta32 CCR5 alleles were determined by means of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The viral load in maternal plasma samples was determined by a quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR assay; co-receptor usage of maternal isolates was determined by viral infection in cells stably expressing CCR5 or CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) co-receptors. HIV-1 transmission rates in wt/wt and wt/delta32 mothers (14.7 versus 15.8%), and in wt/wt and wt/delta32 infants (14.6 versus 14.3%) were similar. Mothers transmitting infection to wt/delta32 infants had significantly higher HIV-1-RNA levels than those who transmitted infection to wt/wt infants (5.4 versus 4.1 log10 copies/ml, P = 0.03). In wt/wt children there was a positive relationship between transmission rate and maternal viral load over the entire range of HIV-1 values, whereas in wt/delta32 children transmission occurred only at viral loads greater than 4.0 log10 copies/ml. Logistic regression analysis confirmed that the relationship between viral load and transmission varied according to the child's CCR5 genotype (P = 0.035; adjusted for zidovudine prophylaxis and mode of delivery, P = 0.090). Moreover, the majority of wt/wt transmitting mothers had R5-type isolates, whereas none of the wt/delta32 mothers with an R5-type virus transmitted HIV-1 to their wt/delta32 infants. Taken together, these findings suggest that CCR5 delta32 heterozygosity exerts a protective effect against perinatal transmission in children exposed to a low maternal viral burden of an R5-type isolate.

Epidemiology and prevention of AIDS in children.

In Asia, HIV continues to spread rapidly through heterosexual contact and increasingly the women of child-bearing age are getting infected. There is legitimate concern that this would lead to the problem of AIDS among children, since 25–30% of women with infection will transmit infection to children/newborns through perinatal transmission. Suitable therapeutic interventions for reducing vertical transmission are presently not available in the developing world. The most effective and practical approach for the prevention of mother to children transmission therefore is to prevent HIV among women through educational programmes, treatment of STDs, and promotion of safer sexual practices including use of condoms.