A Clinical Observation and Study on Prunella Vulgaris Decoction in Promoting the Repair of Chronic Infective Refractory Wounds

Objective: To further study the clinical efficacy of prunella vulgaris decoction in promoting the repair of chronic infective refractory wounds, and analyze and evaluate the feasibility of this treatment. Methods: A total of 80 patients with chronic infective refractory wounds were screened out from a hospital from March 2020 to March 2021. The random sampling method was used to divide the patients into the experimental group and reference group. The experimental group was treated with prunella vulgaris decoction while the reference group was treated with routine wound dressing change. Wound repair rate, bacterial negative conversion rate, healing time and clinical comprehensive efficacy in the two groups were used as evaluation indexes in this study. Results: After different treatment, the conditions of the patients in the two groups were statistically analyzed. It was found that the wound repair rate, bacterial negative conversion rate and total effective rate of the experimental group were much higher than that of the reference group. In addition, the wound healing time in the experimental group was also significantly shortened compared with that of the reference group. Conclusion: Prunella vulgaris decoction bears obvious anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effects and can accelerate the speed of wound repair, which has great practical value in clinic treatment and prosperous prospect in future development and application

Study on the Bacteriostatic Effect of Baitouweng on Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Infection of Wounds in Rats

Objective: To analyze the bacteriostatic effect of Baitouweng on Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection of wounds in rats. Methods: Forty Wistar rats were enrolled in the study, among which excisions were made on 30 rats on their upper layer of dorsal skin with an area of 1 cm x 1 cm, the other 10 rats as the control group of sterile wound. Prepared Pseudomonas aeruginosa was applied on the wounds of rats to create infection models. Forty rats were divided into three groups (control group, mafenide group and Baitouweng group) according to different infection methods, and were treated with normal saline, 100g/L mafenide, and 1g/L Baitouweng respectively after 3 hours of injury. The changes in the number of white blood cells in both the wound surface and body of the three groups were observed within one to four days after injury. After that, the changes on the number of both white blood cells and body weight were continuously observed. The survival of the rats in each group was observed on the 14th day after injury. Results: From the observation after injury, compared with the other two groups, rats in control group had more exudation and moist wounds, and the activities of rats decreased while the death rate increased. On the 3rd day after injury, the number of white blood cells in each group decreased, and the number of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the control group was significantly higher than that in the other two groups (P < 0.01). The rats in the sterile wound control group did not die and continued to gain weight. After 14 days, the survival number of rats in control group was significantly less than that in mafenide group and Baitouweng group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Baitouweng has obvious bacteriostatic and virus-killing effects on Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection of wounds in Wistar rats, reducing mortality rate effectively, and has practical value as well as development and application prospects

Nicotinic acid changes rumen fermentation and apparent nutrient digestibility by regulating rumen microbiota in Xiangzhong black cattle

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of dietary nicotinic acid (NA) on apparent nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation, and rumen microbiota in uncastrated Xiangzhong black cattle. Methods Twenty-one uncastrated Xiangzhong black cattle (385.08±15.20 kg) aged 1.5 years were randomly assigned to the control group (CL, 0 mg/kg NA in concentrate diet), NA1 group (800 mg/kg NA in concentrate diet) and NA2 group (1,200 mg/kg NA in concentrate diet). All animals were fed a 60% concentrate diet and 40% dried rice straw for a 120-day feeding experiment. Results Supplemental NA not only enhanced the apparent nutrient digestibility of acid detergent fiber (p<0.01), but also elevated the rumen acetate and total volatile fatty acid concentrations (p<0.05). 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis of rumen microbiota revealed that dietary NA changed the diversity of rumen microbiota (p<0.05) and the abundance of bacterial taxa in the rumen. The relative abundances of eight Erysipelotrichales taxa, five Ruminococcaceae taxa, and five Sphaerochaetales taxa were decreased by dietary NA (p< 0.05). However, the relative abundances of two taxa belonging to Roseburia faecis were increased by supplemental 800 mg/kg NA, and the abundances of seven Prevotella taxa, three Paraprevotellaceae taxa, three Bifidobacteriaceae taxa, and two operational taxonomic units annotated to Fibrobacter succinogenes were increased by 1,200 mg/kg NA in diets. Furthermore, the correlation analysis found significant correlations between the concentrations of volatile fatty acids in the rumen and the abundances of bacterial taxa, especially Prevotella. Conclusion The results from this study suggest that dietary NA plays an important role in regulating apparent digestibility of acid detergent fiber, acetate, total volatile fatty acid concentrations, and the composition of rumen microbiota

Control of Streptomyces alfalfae XY25T Over Clubroot Disease and Its Effect on Rhizosphere Microbial Community in Chinese Cabbage Field Trials

Clubroot caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae is one of the most destructive diseases in cruciferous crops. Streptomyces alfalfae XY25T, a biological control agent, exhibited great ability to relieve clubroot disease, regulate rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities in Chinese cabbage, and promote its growth in greenhouse. Therefore, field experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of S. alfalfae XY25T on clubroot and rhizosphere microbial community in Chinese cabbage. Results showed that the control efficiency of clubroot by S. alfalfae XY25T was 69.4%. Applying the agent can alleviate soil acidification; increase the contents of soil organic matter, available nitrogen, available phosphorus, and available potassium; and enhance activities of invertase, urease, catalase, and alkaline phosphatase. During Chinese cabbage growth, bacterial diversity decreased first and then increased, and fungal diversity decreased gradually after inoculation with S. alfalfae XY25T. High-throughput sequencing analysis showed that the main bacterial phyla were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, and Planctomycetes, and the major fungal phyla were Ascomycota and Basidiomycota in rhizosphere soil. The dominant bacterial genera were Flavobacterium, Candidatus, Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, Sphingomonas, Flavisolibacter, and Gemmatimonbacteria with no significant difference in abundance, and the major fungal genera were Monographella, Aspergillus, Hypocreales, Chytridiaceae, Fusarium, Pleosporales, Agaricales, Mortierella, and Pleosporales. The significant differences were observed among Pleosporales, Basidiomycota, Colletotrichum, two strains attributed to Agaricales, and another two unidentified fungi by using S. alfalfae XY25T. Moreover, quantitative real-time PCR results indicated that P. brassicae content was significantly decreased after the agent inoculation. In conclusion, S. alfalfae XY25T can affect rhizosphere microbial communities; therefore, applying the agent is an effective approach to reduce the damage caused by clubroot

Insights into the reduction of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and mobile antibiotic resistance genes by black soldier fly larvae in chicken manure

The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) from animal manure has raised concerns about the potential threats to public health. The bioconversion of animal manure with insect larvae, such as the black soldier fly larvae (BSFL, Hermetia illucens [L.]), is a promising technology for quickly attenuating ARB while also recycling waste. In this study, we investigated BSFL conversion systems for chicken manure. Using metagenomic analysis, we tracked ARB and evaluated the resistome dissemination risk by investigating the co-occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and bacterial taxa in a genetic context. Our results indicated that BSFL treatment effectively mitigated the relative abundance of ARB, ARGs, and MGEs by 34.9%, 53.3%, and 37.9%, respectively, within 28 days. Notably, the transferable ARGs decreased by 30.9%, indicating that BSFL treatment could mitigate the likelihood of ARG horizontal transfer and thus reduce the risk of ARB occurrence. In addition, the significantly positive correlation links between antimicrobial concentration and relative abundance of ARB reduced by 44.4%. Moreover, using variance partition analysis (VPA), we identified other bacteria as the most important factor influencing ARB, explaining 20.6% of the ARB patterns. Further analysis suggested that antagonism of other bacteria on ARB increased by 1.4 times, while nutrient competition on both total nitrogen and crude fat increased by 2.8 times. Overall, these findings provide insight into the mechanistic understanding of ARB reduction during BSFL treatment of chicken manure and provide a strategy for rapidly mitigating ARB in animal manure.This work was funding by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41977279), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2662020SKPY002 and 2662022SKYJ006), the Key Technology R & D Program of Hubei Province (2021BBA258) and the Major Project of Hubei Hongshan Laboratory (2022hszd013).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Correction to: Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake