Gastrointestinal Infection in South African Children under the Age of 5 years: A Mini Review.

Objective: To estimate gastroenteritis disease and its etiological agents in children under the age of 5 years living in South Africa. Methods: A mini literature review of pertinent articles published in ScienceDirect, PubMed, GoogleScholar, and Scopus was conducted using search terms: "Gastroenteritis in children," "Gastroenteritis in the world," Gastroenteritis in South Africa," "Prevalence of gastroenteritis," "Epidemiological surveillance of gastroenteritis in the world," and "Causes of gastroenteritis". Results: A total of 174 published articles were included in this mini review. In the last 20 years, the mortality rate resulting from diarrhea in children under the age of 5 years has declined and this is influenced by improved hygiene practices, awareness programs, an improved water and sanitation supply, and the availability of vaccines. More modern genomic amplification techniques were used to re-analyze stool specimens collected from children in eight low-resource settings in Asia, South America, and Africa reported improved sensitivity of pathogen detection to about 65%, that viruses were the main etiological agents in patients with diarrhea aged from 0 to 11 months but that Shigella, followed by sapovirus and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli had a high incidence in children aged 12-24 months. In addition, co-infections were noted in nearly 10% of diarrhea cases, with rotavirus and Shigella being the main co-infecting agents together with adenovirus, enteropathogenic E. coli, Clostridium jejuni, or Clostridium coli. Conclusions: This mini review outlines the epidemiology and trends relating to parasitic, viral, and bacterial agents responsible for gastroenteritis in children in South Africa. An increase in sequence-independent diagnostic approaches will improve the identification of pathogens to resolve undiagnosed cases of gastroenteritis. Emerging state and national surveillance systems should focus on improving the identification of gastrointestinal pathogens in children and the development of further vaccines against gastrointestinal pathogens.

Diet and the Human Gut Microbiome: An International Review.

This review summarizes the key results of recently published studies on the effects of dietary change and nutritional intervention on the human microbiome from around the world, focusing on the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It first explores mechanisms that might explain the ability of fiber-rich foods to suppress the incidence and mortality from westernized diseases, notably cancers of the colon, breast, liver, cardiovascular, infectious, and respiratory diseases, diabetes, and obesity (O'Keefe in Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol 4(12):984-996, 2019; Am J Clin Nutr 110:265-266, 2019). It summarizes studies from Africa which suggest that disturbance of the colonic microbiome may exacerbate chronic malnutrition and growth failure in impoverished communities and highlights the importance of breast feeding. The American section discusses the role of the microbiome in the swelling population of patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes and examines the effects of race, ethnicity, geography, and climate on microbial diversity and metabolism. The studies from Europe and Asia extoll the benefits of whole foods and plant-based diets. The Asian studies examine the worrying changes from low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets to high-fat, low-carbohydrate ones and the increasing appearance of westernized diseases as in Africa and documents the ability of high-fiber traditional Chinese diets to reverse type 2 diabetes and control weight loss. In conclusion, most of the studies reviewed demonstrate clear changes in microbe abundances and in the production of fermentation products, such as short-chain fatty acids and phytochemicals following dietary change, but the significance of the microbiota changes to human health, with the possible exception of the stimulation of butyrogenic taxa by fiber-rich foods, is generally implied and not measured. Further studies are needed to determine how these changes in microbiota composition and metabolism can improve our health and be used to prevent and treat disease.

LPS-induces IL-6 and IL-8 gene expression in bovine endometrial cells "through DNA methylation".

Uterine infection in dairy cows causes great economic loss. In bovine endometrial cells, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated increase in interleukin 6 (IL-6) and interleukin 8 (IL-8) mRNA is crucial for the inflammatory response; however, the regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we investigated the role of DNA methylation in IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA expression following LPS-induction in bovine endometrial cells. IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA expression was evaluated under DNA methylation inhibition using 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytodine (5Aza) following LPS stimulation. Expression of DNA methyltransferases (DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B), methyl CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) and DNA methylation at IL-6 and IL-8 regions, were analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP) following 24 h of LPS treatment. Inhibition of DNA methylation significantly enhanced LPS-induced IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA expression. LPS increased IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA expression, and decreased methylation levels of specific CpG sites at the IL-6 promoter (at -366 and -660) and the IL-8 promoter (at -120 and -48) after 24 h. Furthermore, LPS treatment for 24 h significantly increased DNMT1, DNMT3A, DNMT3B, and MeCP2 mRNA expression. Our results indicate that treating bovine endometrial cells with LPS induces the expression of IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA regulated by IL-6 and IL-8 promoter methylation.