Metabolic alterations in patients with Helicobacter pylori-related gastritis: The H. pylori-gut microbiota-metabolism axis in progression of the chronic inflammation in the gastric mucosa.

PURPOSE: To characterize the serum metabolism in patients with Helicobacter pylori-positive and H. pylori-negative gastritis. METHODS: Clinical data and serum gastric function parameters, PGI (pepsinogen I), PGII, PGR (PGI/II), and G-17 (gastrin-17) of 117 patients with chronic gastritis were collected, including 57 H. pylori positive and 60 H. pylori negative subjects. Twenty cases in each group were randomly selected to collect intestinal mucosa specimens and serum samples. The gut microbiota profiles were generated by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the serum metabolites were analyzed by a targeted metabolomics approach based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) technology. RESULTS: Altered expression of 20 metabolites, including isovaleric acid, was detected in patients with HPAG. Some taxa of Bacteroides, Fusobacterium, and Prevotella in the gut microbiota showed significant correlations with differentially expressed metabolites between H. pylori positive and H. pylori negative individuals. As a result, an H. pylori-gut microbiota-metabolism (HGM) axis was proposed. CONCLUSION: Helicobacter pylori infection may influence the progression of mucosal diseases and the emergence of other complications in the host by altering the gut microbiota, and thus affecting the host serum metabolism.

Postsynthetic Surface-Treatment of CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, or I) Nanocrystals via CdX2 Precursor Solution toward High Photoluminescence Quantum Yield.

The existing defects on the surface of CsPbX3 nanocrystals (NCs) resulted in the decrease of the photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) of NCs. In this study, we developed a simple strategy, which can make the treated CsPbX3 NCs exhibit high PLQYs and better stability by CdX2 post-treatment at room temperature. The treated CsPbX3 NCs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and PL spectra. The shape, size, and crystal structure of the NCs remained unchanged after Cd ion treatment. The PLQYs of CsPbCl3 increased from 24 to 73% and the PLQYs of CsPbBr3 NCs increased from 85 to 92% after treatment. The significant enhancement of PLQYs is ascribed to the effective passivation of surface defects, in which Cd2+ and X- ions occupied the Pb-X vacancies existing on the surface of the NCs. In addition, this strategy was also applied to a mixed halide perovskite. The practical application of CsPbX3 NCs will be extended by this method.

Development and validation of serum exosomal microRNAs as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. China accounts for over half of the new cases and deaths. Diagnostic imprecision and a lack of complimentary molecular biomarkers are partially responsible for this lack of progress. Herein, serum-derived exosomal microRNA (miRNA) profiling was performed on 80 patients which histologically confirmed HCC and 30 normal controls. A classification of 8 exosomal miRNAs had biologically and statistically significant differences between HCC and normal serum samples, including miR-122, miR-125b, miR-145, miR-192, miR-194, miR-29a, miR-17-5p, and miR-106a. Online algorithm showed strong independent classification accuracy (area under the curve) reached 0.535 to 0.850, separately. The significant correlation between serum exosomal miRNAs and tumor size was observed. In addition, the survival difference of HCC patients with high or low exosomal miR-106a was statistically significant using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Besides, we also measured the proliferation and invasion ability of HCC cells following exosomal miR-106a mimics or inhibitor treatment. After prediction with algorithms, mitogen-activated protein kinase and c-Jun N-terminal kinase pathways were identified associated with miR-106a's function. In summary, differentially expressed serum exosomal miRNAs can be helpful for diagnostic and prognostic of HCC.

Helicobacter pylori infection alters gastric and tongue coating microbial communities.

OBJECTIVE: Infection with Helicobacter pylori (H pylori), especially cytotoxin-associated gene A-positive (CagA+) strains, has been associated with various gastrointestinal and extragastric diseases. The aim of this study was to characterize H pylori-induced alterations in the gastric and tongue coating microbiota and evaluate their potential impacts on human health. DESIGN: The gastric mucosa and tongue coating specimens were collected from 80 patients with chronic gastritis, and microbiota profiles were generated by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Samples were grouped as H pylori negative (n = 32), CagA-negative H pylori infection (n = 13), and CagA-positive H pylori infection (n=35). The comparison of bacterial relative abundance was made using a generalized linear model. Functional profiling of microbial communities was predicted with PICRUSt and BugBase. Microbial correlation networks were produced by utilizing SparCC method. RESULTS: Significant alterations of the gastric microbiota were found in the H pylori+/CagA+ samples, represented by a decrease in bacterial diversity, a reduced abundance of Roseburia, and increased abundances of Helicobacter and Haemophilus genera. At the community level, functions involved in biofilm forming, mobile element content, and facultative anaerobiosis were significantly decreased in gastric microbiome of the H pylori+ subjects. The presence of CagA gene was linked to an increased proportion of Gram-negative bacteria in the stomach, thereby contributing to an upregulation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis. The number of bacterial interactions was greatly reduced in networks of both tongue coating and gastric microbiota of the H pylori+/CagA+ subject, and the cooperative bacterial interactions dominated the tongue coating microbiome. CONCLUSIONS: Infection with H pylori strains possessing CagA may increase the risk of various diseases, by upregulating LPS biosynthesis in the stomach and weakening the defense of oral microbiota against microorganisms with pathogenic potential.

Study of the peak broadening due to detection in the electrophoretic separation of DNA by CE and microchip CE and the application of image sensor for ultra-small detection cell length.

Narrow peaks are important to high-resolution and high-speed separation of DNA fragments by capillary electrophoresis and microchip capillary electrophoresis. Detection cell length is one of the broadening factors, which is often ignored in experiments. However, is it always safe to neglect detection cell length under any condition? To answer this question, we investigated the influence of detection cell length by simulation and experiments. A parameter named as detection cell length ratio was proposed to directly compare the detection cell length and the spatial length of sample band. Electrophoretic peaks generated by various detection cell length ratios were analyzed. A simple rule to evaluate the peak broadening due to detection cell length was obtained. The current states of the detection cell length of detection system and their reliabilities in capillary electrophoresis and microchip capillary electrophoresis were analyzed. Microchip capillary electrophoresis detection with an ultra-small detection cell length of 0.36 µm was easily achieved by using an image sensor.

Exosomal miR-93 promotes proliferation and invasion in hepatocellular carcinoma by directly inhibiting TIMP2/TP53INP1/CDKN1A.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignant cancer worldwide; lacking biomarkers for early prognostication contributes to its high lethality. Herein, we report a novel biomarker, exosome delivered miR-93, is up-regulated in HCC cell line media and serum samples of HCC patients. We measured the proliferation and invasion ability of HCC cell lines following exosomal miR-93 treatment. After prediction with online algorithms, we further confirmed that TP53INP1, TIMP2 and CDKN1A are direct targets of miR-93 by dual-luciferase reporter assay. In addition, the diagnostic value of exosomal miR-93 was evaluated by qPCR and ROC analysis. The significant correlation between serum exosomal miR-93 and clinical information including stage, tumor size were observed. Furthermore, the survival differences of HCC patients with high or low miR-93 were statistically significant using Kaplan-Meier analysis. In summary, our work identified exosomal miR-93 as a novel biomarker for both diagnosis and prognosis in HCC.

[Intensive hospital monitoring of Shuxuening injection in 30 209 cases].

In order to obtain the characteristics and incidence of adverse reactions of Shuxuening injection (Xingxue), the design method of a multi-center, large sample intensive monitoring in the hospitals was adopted. The hospitalized patients with use of Shuxuening injection from 27 medical institutions were enrolled as the research subjects to monitor their entire process of treatment cycle. The main content of monitoring included the patients' general information, diagnostic information, medication information, and adverse event information. A total of 30 209 patients with Shuxuening injection were enrolled; adverse reactions occurred in 34 cases, with an incidence of 0.113%, which belonged to the rare adverse reactions. Adverse reactions were characterized by headache, dizziness, pruritus, palpitations, nausea, et al. All the above results showed that Xingxue Shuxuening injection had high safety in clinical application.

Practical Performance Analysis for Multiple Information Fusion Based Scalable Localization System Using Wireless Sensor Networks.

In practical localization system design, researchers need to consider several aspects to make the positioning efficiently and effectively, e.g., the available auxiliary information, sensing devices, equipment deployment and the environment. Then, these practical concerns turn out to be the technical problems, e.g., the sequential position state propagation, the target-anchor geometry effect, the Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) identification and the related prior information. It is necessary to construct an efficient framework that can exploit multiple available information and guide the system design. In this paper, we propose a scalable method to analyze system performance based on the Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB), which can fuse all of the information adaptively. Firstly, we use an abstract function to represent all of the wireless localization system model. Then, the unknown vector of the CRLB consists of two parts: the first part is the estimated vector, and the second part is the auxiliary vector, which helps improve the estimation accuracy. Accordingly, the Fisher information matrix is divided into two parts: the state matrix and the auxiliary matrix. Unlike the theoretical analysis, our CRLB can be a practical fundamental limit to denote the system that fuses multiple information in the complicated environment, e.g., recursive Bayesian estimation based on the hidden Markov model, the map matching method and the NLOS identification and mitigation methods. Thus, the theoretical results are approaching the real case more. In addition, our method is more adaptable than other CRLBs when considering more unknown important factors. We use the proposed method to analyze the wireless sensor network-based indoor localization system. The influence of the hybrid LOS/NLOS channels, the building layout information and the relative height differences between the target and anchors are analyzed. It is demonstrated that our method exploits all of the available information for the indoor localization systems and serves as an indicator for practical system evaluation.

A Hybrid Secure Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks against Timing Attacks Using Continuous-Time Markov Chain and Queueing Model.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently gained popularity for a wide spectrum of applications. Monitoring tasks can be performed in various environments. This may be beneficial in many scenarios, but it certainly exhibits new challenges in terms of security due to increased data transmission over the wireless channel with potentially unknown threats. Among possible security issues are timing attacks, which are not prevented by traditional cryptographic security. Moreover, the limited energy and memory resources prohibit the use of complex security mechanisms in such systems. Therefore, balancing between security and the associated energy consumption becomes a crucial challenge. This paper proposes a secure scheme for WSNs while maintaining the requirement of the security-performance tradeoff. In order to proceed to a quantitative treatment of this problem, a hybrid continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) and queueing model are put forward, and the tradeoff analysis of the security and performance attributes is carried out. By extending and transforming this model, the mean time to security attributes failure is evaluated. Through tradeoff analysis, we show that our scheme can enhance the security of WSNs, and the optimal rekeying rate of the performance and security tradeoff can be obtained.

Adaptive Particle Filter for Nonparametric Estimation with Measurement Uncertainty in Wireless Sensor Networks.

Particle filters (PFs) are widely used for nonlinear signal processing in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, the measurement uncertainty makes the WSN observations unreliable to the actual case and also degrades the estimation accuracy of the PFs. In addition to the algorithm design, few works focus on improving the likelihood calculation method, since it can be pre-assumed by a given distribution model. In this paper, we propose a novel PF method, which is based on a new likelihood fusion method for WSNs and can further improve the estimation performance. We firstly use a dynamic Gaussian model to describe the nonparametric features of the measurement uncertainty. Then, we propose a likelihood adaptation method that employs the prior information and a belief factor to reduce the measurement noise. The optimal belief factor is attained by deriving the minimum Kullback-Leibler divergence. The likelihood adaptation method can be integrated into any PFs, and we use our method to develop three versions of adaptive PFs for a target tracking system using wireless sensor network. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that our likelihood adaptation method has greatly improved the estimation performance of PFs in a high noise environment. In addition, the adaptive PFs are highly adaptable to the environment without imposing computational complexity.

Adult outpatients with long COVID infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. Part 1: Oral microbiota alterations.

BACKGROUND: Many individuals experience long COVID after SARS-CoV-2 infection. As microbiota can influence health, it may change with COVID-19. This study investigated differences in oral microbiota between COVID-19 patients with and without long COVID. METHODS: Based on a prospective follow-up investigation, this nested case-control study evaluated the differences in oral microbiota in individuals with and without long COVID (Symptomatic and Asymptomatic groups), which were assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing on tongue coating samples. A predictive model was established using machine learning based on specific differential microbial communities. RESULTS: One-hundred-and-eight patients were included (n=54 Symptomatic group). The Symptomatic group had higher Alpha diversity indices (observed_otus, Chao1, Shannon, and Simpson indices), differences in microbial composition (Beta diversity), and microbial dysbiosis with increased diversity and relative abundance of pathogenic bacteria. Marker bacteria (c__Campylobacterota, o__Coriobacteriales, o__Pseudomonadales, and o__Campylobacterales) were associated with long COVID by linear discriminant analysis effect size and receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC 0.821). CONCLUSION: There were distinct variations in oral microbiota between COVID-19 patients with and without long COVID. Changes in oral microbiota may indicate long COVID.

Mechanism of enhanced microalgal biomass and lipid accumulation through symbiosis between a highly succinic acid-producing strain of Escherichia coli SUC and Aurantiochytrium sp. SW1.

Microalgae, known for rapid growth and lipid richness, hold potential in biofuels and high-value biomolecules. The symbiotic link with bacteria is crucial in large-scale open cultures. This study explores algal-bacterial interactions using a symbiotic model, evaluating acid-resistant Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), stress-resilient Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis, and various Escherichia coli strains in the Aurantiochytrium sp. SW1 system. It was observed that E. coli SUC significantly enhanced the growth and lipid production of Aurantiochytrium sp. SW1 by increasing enzyme activity (NAD-IDH, NAD-ME, G6PDH) while maintaining sustained succinic acid release. Optimal co-culture conditions included temperature 28 °C, a 1:10 algae-to-bacteria ratio, and pH 8. Under these conditions, Aurantiochytrium sp. SW1 biomass increased 3.17-fold to 27.83 g/L, and total lipid content increased 2.63-fold to 4.87 g/L. These findings have implications for more efficient microalgal lipid production and large-scale cultivation.

[Clinical evaluation of multi-function "rapid" allergic skin test instrument for application in drug allergy testing].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the multi-function rapid allergic skin test instrument for application in drug allergy testing. METHOD: Three hundred patients were planned to be treated with cephalosporins Injection were divided randomly into 3 groups, the new allergic skin test instrument group, normal allergic skin test instrument group, and traditional skin test group, the true positive rate and false positive rate were calculated. Using multifunctional rapid allergy skin test was carried out on 210 cases of volunteers preliminary clinical evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine injections skin test. RESULT: There were no significance difference between the new allergic skin test instrument group and control group in the true positive rate. As compared with the control group, a significance difference was found between the new allergic skin test instrument group and control group in false positive rate respectively (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The multi-function rapid allergic skin test instrument is safe and easy to use, with a higher rate of accuracy and lower false positive rate.

[Technical specifications for rational clinical use of parenterally administered Chinese medicine (draft version for comments)].

The regulations on basic clinical use of parenterally administered Chinese medicine, issued jointly in 2008, by the ministry of health (MOH), China food and drug administration (SFDA) and the state administration of traditional Chinese medicine (SATCM). Integrating actual clinical practice, these presented doctors and nurses with detailed specifications for the safe use of parenterally administered Chinese medicine. The regulations emphasize the use of Chinese medicine pattern differentiation, use in strict accordance with instructions, and they prohibit use combined with other medicines. The emphasis of the regulations are practicality and operability, and provide meaningful guidance to doctors and nurses for the rational and safe use of parenterally administered Chinese medicine, to reduce adverse reactions/adverse events caused by improper use.

[Expert consensus post-marketing evaluation scheme to detect immunotoxicity of Chinese medicine in clinical populations (draft version for comments)].

Through consensus, establish a post-marketing scheme and the technical processes to evaluate Chinese medicine's immunotoxicity on a population, as well as its beneficial influences on the immune system. Provide regulations on the collection, storage and transportation of serum samples. This article applies to the post-marketing scientific evaluation of the immunotoxicity of parenterally administered, and for other ways of taking Chinese medicine.

[Establishment of model of traditional Chinese medicine injections post-marketing safety monitoring].

OBJECTIVE: To establish a nurse based post-marketing safety surveillance model for traditional Chinese medicine injections (TCMIs). METHOD: A TCMIs safety monitoring team and a research hospital team engaged in the research, monitoring processes, and quality control processes were established, in order to achieve comprehensive, timely, accurate and real-time access to research data, to eliminate errors in data collection. RESULT: A triage system involving a study nurse, as the first point of contact, clinicians and clinical pharmacists was set up in a TCM hospital. Following the specified workflow involving labeling of TCM injections and using improved monitoring forms it was found that there were no missing reports at the ratio of error was zero. CONCLUSION: A research nurse as the first and main point of contact in post-marketing safety monitoring of TCM as part of a triage model, ensures that research data collected has the characteristics of authenticity, accuracy, timeliness, integrity, and eliminate errors during the process of data collection. Hospital based monitoring is a robust and operable process.

[Technical specifications for intensive hospital safety monitoring of post-marketing Chinese medicine (draft version for comments)].

It is of vital significance to conduct active post-marketing surveillance of Chinese medicine, as an active response to laws, rules and guidelines issued by the China food and drug administration. The standards for technological specifications based on expert consensus have been drafted. These will provide technological support in evaluating adverse drug reactions (ADRs) or adverse drug events (ADEs). The technological specifications for post-marketing surveillance focus on two surveillance designs; one is a large sample registry study to explore general population ADR/ADE characteristics, the other is a nested case-control study to explore the characteristic and mechanisms of ADRs.

Long-term fertilization coupled with rhizobium inoculation promotes soybean yield and alters soil bacterial community composition.

Microbial diversity is an important indicator of soil fertility and plays an indispensable role in farmland ecosystem sustainability. The short-term effects of fertilization and rhizobium inoculation on soil microbial diversity and community structure have been explored extensively; however, few studies have evaluated their long-term effects. Here, we applied quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and amplicon sequencing to characterize the effect of 10-year fertilizer and rhizobium inoculation on bacterial communities in soybean bulk and rhizosphere soils at the flowering-podding and maturity stages. Four treatments were examined: non-fertilization control (CK), phosphorus and potassium fertilization (PK), nitrogen and PK fertilization (PK + N), and PK fertilization and Bradyrhizobium japonicum 5821 (PK + R). Long-term co-application of rhizobium and PK promoted soybean nodule dry weight by 33.94% compared with PK + N, and increased soybean yield by average of 32.25%, 5.90%, and 5.00% compared with CK, PK, and PK + N, respectively. The pH of PK + R was significantly higher than that of PK and PK + N at the flowering-podding stage. The bacterial abundance at the flowering-podding stage was positively correlated with soybean yield, but not at the maturity stage. The significant different class Gemmatimonadetes, and the genera Gemmatimonas, and Ellin6067 in soil at the flowering-podding stage were negatively correlated with soybean yield. However, the bacterial community at class and genus levels at maturity had no significant effect on soybean yield. The key bacterial communities that determine soybean yield were concentrated in the flowering-podding stage, not at maturity stage. Rhizosphere effect, growth period, and treatment synergies resulted in significant differences in soil bacterial community composition. Soil organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (TN), pH, and available phosphorus (AP) were the main variables affecting bacterial community structure. Overall, long-term co-application of rhizobium and fertilizer not only increased soybean yield, but also altered soil bacterial community structure through niche reconstruction and microbial interaction. Rhizobium inoculation plays key role in reducing nitrogen fertilizer application and promoting sustainable agriculture practices.

Fertilization altered co-occurrence patterns and microbial assembly process of ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms.

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria (AOA and AOB, respectively) are important intermediate links in the nitrogen cycle. Apart from the AOA and AOB communities in soil, we further investigated co-occurrence patterns and microbial assembly processes subjected to inorganic and organic fertilizer treatments for over 35 years. The amoA copy numbers and AOA and AOB communities were found to be similar for the CK and organic fertilizer treatments. Inorganic fertilizers decreased the AOA gene copy numbers by 0.75-0.93-fold and increased the AOB gene copy numbers by 1.89-3.32-fold compared to those of the CK treatment. The inorganic fertilizer increased Nitrososphaera and Nitrosospira. The predominant bacteria in organic fertilizer was Nitrosomonadales. Furthermore, the inorganic fertilizer increased the complexity of the co-occurrence pattern of AOA and decreased the complexity pattern of AOB comparing with organic fertilizer. Different fertilizer had an insignificant effect on the microbial assembly process of AOA. However, great difference exists in the AOB community assembly process: deterministic process dominated in organic fertilizer treatment and stochastic processes dominated in inorganic fertilizer treatment, respectively. Redundancy analysis indicated that the soil pH, NO3-N, and available phosphorus contents were the main factors affecting the changes in the AOA and AOB communities. Overall, this findings expanded our knowledge concerning AOA and AOB, and ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms were more disturbed by inorganic fertilizers than organic fertilizers.

Biogas Residues Improved Microbial Diversity and Disease Suppression Function under Extent Indigenous Soil Microbial Biomass.

Indigenous soil microbial biomass (ISMB) plays a key role in maintaining essential functions and biodiversity of soil health. One of the critical unknowns is how the indigenous microorganisms respond to different fertilizers which is directly related to agricultural production. Therefore, we used Mi-Seq sequencing and network analyses to compare the response of ISMB to biogas residue and chemical fertilizers. The results showed that crop production was profoundly influenced by levels of ISMB present and is further dependent on the strategy of fertilizer application. Higher ISMB primarily manifests through retention of richer microbial abundance, a balanced community structure, and tightened co-occurrence within a certain proportion of Nitrospirae, Rhizophlyctidaceae, and Gemmatimonadetes. Compared to chemical fertilizer, biogas residue resulted in higher production with more strongly linked nodes such as Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi and Gemmatimonadetes. Under the same level of ISMB, the microbial diversity was richer and co-occurrence was tighter when biogas residues were applied compared with chemical fertilizer. In addition, the higher level of ISMB with biogas residue applied had a lower abundance of potential fungal pathogens in both bulk and rhizosphere soil compared with chemical fertilizer. This study provides critical data to understand the influence of ISMB and biogas residue on soil ecological system.