Effect of a combination of Tuina therapy and budesonide inhalation on asthma in children, and its influence on lung function and pro inflammatory f actors

Purpose: To determine the effect of a combination of Tuina therapy and budesonide inhalation on pediatric asthma, and its influence on lung function and levels of inflammatory factors. Methods: Eligible 100 asthmatic children admitted to Provincial Maternity and Child-care Hospital, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, from January 2019 to January 2021 were randomized either to a control group or study group (1:1). The patients in control group were treated with budesonide inhalation, while the study group was given Tuina therapy in combination with budesonide inhalation. Treatment effectiveness, levels of inflammatory factors, immune functions and number of infections were evaluated in the patients. Results: The study group exhibited higher effectiveness profile versus the control group (96 vs 82 %; p < 0.05). After treatment, decreases were observed in the frequency of asthmatic attacks and number of respiratory infections in the two groups, with lower results in the study group than in the control group (p < 0.05). There were marked decreases in the levels of IgG, TNF-α and IL-8 in both groups, with the study group showing higher reductions (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Combined treatment with Tuina and budesonide inhalation decreases the levels of inflammatory factors, regulates immune function, and improves lung function of asthmatic children. Further investigation in a larger population would be required to establish the mechanism and clinical value of this therapy

Seroepidemiology of human Toxoplasma gondii infection in China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Toxoplasmosis is an important zoonotic parasitic disease worldwide. In immune competent individuals, <it>Toxoplasma gondii </it>preferentially infects tissues of central nervous systems, which might be an adding factor of certain psychiatric disorders. Congenital transmission of <it>T. gondii </it>during pregnancy has been regarded as a risk factor for the health of newborn infants. While in immune-compromised individuals, the parasite can cause life-threatening infections. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of <it>T. gondii </it>infection among clinically healthy <b>i</b>ndividuals and patients with psychiatric disorders in China and to identify the potential risk factors related to the vulnerability of infection in the population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Serum samples from 2634 healthy individuals and 547 patients with certain psychiatric disorders in Changchun and Daqing in the northeast, and in Shanghai in the south of China were examined respectively for the levels of anti-<it>T. gondii </it>IgG by indirect ELISA and a direct agglutination assay. Prevalence of <it>T. gondii </it>infection in the Chinese population in respect of gender, age, residence and health status was systematically analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall anti-<it>T. gondii </it>IgG prevalence in the study population was 12.3%. In the clinically healthy population 12.5% was sero-positive and in the group with psychiatric disorders 11.3% of these patients were positive with anti-<it>T. gondii </it>IgG. A significant difference (P = 0.004) was found between male and female in the healthy population, the seroprevalence was 10.5% in men versus 14.3% in women. Furthermore, the difference of <it>T. gondii </it>infection rate between male and female in the 20-19 year's group was more obvious, with 6.4% in male population and 14.6% in female population.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A significant higher prevalence of <it>T. gondii </it>infection was observed in female in the clinically healthy population. No correlation was found between <it>T. gondii </it>infection and psychiatric disorders in this study. Results suggest that women are more exposed to <it>T. gondii </it>infection than men in China. The data argue for deeper investigations for the potential risk factors that threat the female populations.</p

Myb Transcription Factors and Light Regulate Sporulation in the Oomycete <i>Phytophthora infestans</i>

<div><p>Life cycle progression in eukaryotic microbes is often influenced by environment. In the oomycete <i>Phytophthora infestans</i>, which causes late blight on potato and tomato, sporangia have been reported to form mostly at night. By growing <i>P. infestans</i> under different light regimes at constant temperature and humidity, we show that light contributes to the natural pattern of sporulation by delaying sporulation until the following dark period. However, illumination does not permanently block sporulation or strongly affect the total number of sporangia that ultimately form. Based on measurements of sporulation-induced genes such as those encoding protein kinase Pks1 and Myb transcription factors Myb2R1 and Myb2R3, it appears that most spore-associated transcripts start to rise four to eight hours before sporangia appear. Their mRNA levels oscillate with the light/dark cycle and increase with the amount of sporangia. An exception to this pattern of expression is <i>Myb2R4</i>, which is induced several hours before the other genes and declines after cultures start to sporulate. Transformants over-expressing <i>Myb2R4</i> produce twice the number of sporangia and ten-fold higher levels of <i>Myb2R1</i> mRNA than wild-type, and chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that Myb2R4 binds the <i>Myb2R1</i> promoter <i>in vivo</i>. <i>Myb2R4</i> thus appears to be an early regulator of sporulation. We attempted to silence eight Myb genes by DNA-directed RNAi, but succeeded only with Myb2R3, which resulted in suppressed sporulation. Ectopic expression studies of seven Myb genes revealed that over-expression frequently impaired vegetative growth, and in the case of <i>Myb3R6</i> interfered with sporangia dormancy. We observed that the degree of silencing induced by a hairpin construct was correlated with its copy number, and ectopic expression was often unstable due to epigenetic silencing and transgene excision.</p></div

Serial sporulation induced by over-expression of Myb3R6.

<p><b>A,</b> mRNA levels of <i>Myb3R6</i> in wild-type, using the same developmental stages as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0092086#pone-0092086-g002" target="_blank">Fig. 2</a>. Error bars represent standard deviation from three replicates. <b>B,</b> mRNA levels in three over-expressing transformants (T60, T61, T62) and wild-type (WT). <b>C,</b> inferred stages of aberrant germination observed in sporangia harvesting from rye-sucrose agar cultures. Images show sporangium of normal appearance (panel 1), sporangium extending germ tube (panel 2), secondary sporulation (panels 3,4), and formation of a third (panel 5) and fourth sporangium (panel 6). <b>D,</b> Percent of sporangia exhibiting serial sporulation from 8-day cultures of strains expressing Myb3R6::FLAG (T60, T61, T62), a non-expressing revertant of T61 (T61-R), an empty vector transformant (EV), and strains expressing Myb2R5::FLAG (T50, T51, T52). <b>E,</b> Age-dependence of serial sporulation. Data are from a Myb3R6::FLAG transformant, a Myb2R5::FLAG transformant, and an empty vector transformant.</p

Effect of light on asexual sporulation in <i>P. infestans</i>.

<p><b>A,</b> Sporulation of strain 1306 on tomato leaves incubated at 18°C with constant humidity and a 12 hr light/12 hr dark cycle, as indicated by the bars at the base of the panel. <b>B,</b> Sporulation of strain 1306 on rye-sucrose agar in plates exposed to a 12 hr light/12 hr dark cycle, or continuous darkness. <b>C,</b> Sporulation of strains 1306 and E13a on plates exposed to a light/dark cycle, continuous darkness, or continuous light, after 8 days. <b>D,</b> Strain 1306 grown under light/dark cycle, continuous darkness, or continuous light. The right side of each image has been contrast-enhanced to accentuate the growth rings in the light/dark regime. The “x” in the top panel is a ridge on the petri dish.</p

Sporulation and gene expression on rye-sucrose agar.

<p><b>A,</b> Cultures of strain 1306 exposed to a 12/12 hr dark cycle, showing the relative increase in sporangia and mRNA levels of four sporulation-associated genes. <b>B,</b> Cultures exposed to continuous darkness. <b>C,</b> Cultures exposed to continuous light. Gene expression and sporulation data are presented as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0092086#pone-0092086-g003" target="_blank">Fig. 3</a>. Numerical RT-qPCR data are shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0092086#pone.0092086.s005" target="_blank">Table S3</a>.</p