In vitro anti-Helicobacter pylori activity and the underlining mechanism of an empirical herbal formula – Hezi Qingyou

BackgroundHelicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is thought to primarily colonize the human stomach and lead to various gastrointestinal disorders, such as gastritis and gastric cancer. Currently, main eradication treatment is triple or quadruple therapy centered on antibiotics. Due to antibiotic resistance, the eradication rate of H. pylori is decreasing gradually. Therefore, searching for anti-H. pylori drugs from herbal sources has become a strategy for the treatment. Our team proposed a Hezi Qingyou Formula (HZQYF), composed of Chebulae Fructus, Ficus hirta Vahl and Cloves, and studied its anti-H. pylori activity and mechanism.MethodsChemical components of HZQYF were studied using UHPLC–MS/MS and HPLC. Broth microdilution method and agar dilution method were used to evaluate HZQYF’s antibacterial activity. The effects of HZQYF on expression of adhesion genes (alpA, alpB, babA), urease genes (ureE, ureF), and flagellar genes (flaA, flaB) were explored using Reverse Transcription-quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) technology. Effects on morphology and permeability of the extracellular membrane were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and N-phenylnaphthalen-1-amine (NPN) uptake. Effect on urease activity was studied using a urease kinetics analysis in vitro. Immunofluorescence staining method was used to examine the effect on adhesion. Western blot was used to examine the effect on cagA protein.ResultsMinimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the formula against H. pylori clinical strains and standard strains were 80–160 μg/mL, and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values were 160–320 μg/mL. The formula could down-regulate the expression of adhesion genes (alpA, alpB, babA), urease genes (ureE, ureF) and flagellar genes (flaA, flaB), change the morphology of H. pylori, increase its extracellular membrane permeability, and decrease its urease activity.ConclusionPresent studies confirmed that HZQYF had promising in vitro anti-H. pylori activities and demonstrated its possible mechanism of action by down-regulating the bacterial adhesion, urease, and flagellar gene expression, which provided scientific bases for further clinical investigations

Case Report: Chronic hepatitis E virus Infection in an individual without evidence for immune deficiency

Chronic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection occurs mainly in immunosuppressed populations. We describe an investigation of chronic HEV infection of genotype 3a in an individual without evidence for immune deficiency who presented hepatitis with significant HEV viremia and viral shedding. We monitored HEV RNA in plasma and stools, and assessed anti-HEV specific immune responses. The patient was without apparent immunodeficiency based on quantified results of white blood cell, lymphocyte, neutrophilic granulocyte, CD3+ T cell, CD4+ T cell, and CD8+ T cell counts and CD4/CD8 ratio, as well as total serum IgG, IgM, and IgA, which were in the normal range. Despite HEV specific cellular response and strong humoral immunity being observed, viral shedding persisted up to 109 IU/mL. After treatment with ribavirin combined with interferon, the indicators of liver function in the patient returned to normal, accompanied by complete suppression and clearance of HEV. These results indicate that HEV chronicity can also occur in individuals without evidence of immunodeficiency

Effects of Superphosphate as an Additive on Nutrient Characteristics and NH₃, CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O Emissions during Pig Manure Composting

Nutrient conservation and greenhouse gas emission control during composting have attracted much attention. This study investigated the effects of different amounts of superphosphate (SSP) on greenhouse gas emissions and the dynamic changes in nutrients during pig manure composting. Six treatments were used: pig manure + straw (S1), pig manure + straw + 3% SSP (S2), pig manure + straw + 6% SSP (S3), pig manure (M1), pig manure + 3% SSP (M2), and pig manure + 6% SSP (M3). The results showed that the addition of SSP had no negative effect on organic matter composting, and all treatments met the requirement of being harmless. The contents of TN, TP, and TK increased during the composting process, but the content of organic matter decreased gradually. At the end of composting, the total nutrient content of the pig manure + straw + 6% SSP treatment was the highest (6.39%), while that of the pig manure treatment was the lowest (4.47%). The NH3 emission reductions with additions of 3% and 6% SSP were 37.13~56.80% and 45.63~77.04%, respectively, compared with the pig manure treatment. The treatment addition of 6% SSP reduced CO2 emissions by 10.3~20.1% compared with the pig manure treatment. The pig manure + 6% SSP treatment resulted in the lowest cumulative emission of N2O, which was 79.75% lower than that of the pig manure treatment. For the cumulative emission of CH4, the treatment of pig manure + 6% SSP was at least 23.14 mg·kg−1 and had the lowest global warming potential. In conclusion, adding 6% SSP to pig manure compost effectively reduces NH3 and CO2 emissions and improves compost quality

Trilinear Immersed-Finite-Element Method For Three-Dimensional Anisotropic Interface Problems In Plasma Thrusters

Accurately solving the anisotropic interface problem is one of the difficulties in aerospace plasma applications. Based on cubic Cartesian meshes, this paper develops a trilinear nonhomogeneous immersed finite element (IFE) method for solving the complex anisotropic 3D elliptic interface model with nonhomogeneous flux jump. Compared with the existing 3D linear IFE spaces based on tetrahedron meshes, the newly designed trilinear IFE space for the target model simplifies the mesh generation, significantly reduces the number of mesh elements and interface elements, provides much more convenient and efficient ways for finding the intersections between interfaces and mesh edges, and decreases the errors. These advantages lead to much higher efficiency when solving complex anisotropic interface problems in practice. In addition, the proposed method can be easily incorporated into other typical methods based on Cartesian meshes, such as the particle-in-cell method for plasma simulation. Numerical experiments are provided to verify the optimal accuracy, high efficiency, and reliability of the proposed method for solving complex interface problems, as well as its applicability to practical plasma thruster problems

Flexible, Temperature‐Stable, and Fatigue‐Endurable PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 Ferroelectric Film for Nonvolatile Memory

Flexible memory devices represent an emerging technological goal for information storage and data processing in portable, wearable, and smart electronics that work in curved conditions. This work presents a direct and cost-effective fabrication of a bendable PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) ferroelectric memory element with a Pt bottom electrode layer and Au top electrodes on a flexible mica substrate. The polycrystalline PZT film with morphotropic phase boundary composition shows excellent electrical properties, reflected by superior ferroelectricity with a large remanent polarization (Pr ≈ 30 μC cm−2), good frequency stability (1-50 kHz), broad working temperature (25-200 °C), and excellent fatigue resistance (up to 109). Most importantly, with the assistance of the flexible mica substrate and the individual bendability of each film layer, the all-inorganic PZT ferroelectric film capacitor can be safely bent to a small bending radius of 2 mm with a bending strain of less than 0.3%, undergo repeated bending-releasing cycles for 103 times where no obvious deterioration occurs in polarization, and show data retention of 105 s, and fatigue resistance at 109 switching cycles. This work is anticipated to advance the application potential of high-performance flexible ferroelectric memories in next-generation wearable electronic devices

Tryptophan Metabolism, Regulatory T Cells, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Mini Review

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract resulting from the homeostasis imbalance of intestinal microenvironment, immune dysfunction, environmental and genetic factors, and so on. This disease is associated with multiple immune cells including regulatory T cells (Tregs). Tregs are a subset of T cells regulating the function of various immune cells to induce immune tolerance and maintain intestinal immune homeostasis. Tregs are correlated with the initiation and progression of IBD; therefore, strategies that affect the differentiation and function of Tregs may be promising for the prevention of IBD-associated pathology. It is worth noting that tryptophan (Trp) metabolism is effective in inducing the differentiation of Tregs through microbiota-mediated degradation and kynurenine pathway (KP), which is important for maintaining the function of Tregs. Interestingly, patients with IBD show Trp metabolism disorder in the pathological process, including changes in the concentrations of Trp and its metabolites and alteration in the activities of related catalytic enzymes. Thus, manipulation of Treg differentiation through Trp metabolism may provide a potential target for prevention of IBD. The purpose of this review is to highlight the relationship between Trp metabolism and Treg differentiation and the role of this interaction in the pathogenesis of IBD

Occurrence and Characterization of Salmonella Isolated from Large-Scale Breeder Farms in Shandong Province, China

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella spp. isolated from large-scale breeder farms in Shandong Province, China. A total of 63 Salmonella isolates (63/409, 15.4%) were identified from 409 samples collected from five large-scale breeder farms in Shandong Province. These Salmonella isolates were assayed for serotype, antimicrobial susceptibility, prevalence of class 1 integrons, quinolone resistance genes, and β-lactamase genes and subtyped by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Among these isolates, S. Enteritidis (100%) was the predominant serovar, and high antimicrobial resistance rates to nalidixic acid (100.0%), streptomycin (100.0%), ampicillin (98.4%), and erythromycin (93.7%) were observed. All of the isolates carried blaTEM. MLST results showed that only one sequence type (ST11) was identified. Our findings indicated that Salmonella was generally prevalent not only on broiler farms but also on breeder farms