First Report of Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua Root Rot Caused by Trichoderma virens in China.

Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua is a traditional Chinese medicine, which has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and other pharmacological effects (Lu et al. 2023). In June 2022, A disease of root rot was observed on P. cyrtonema plants in Tonggu County (28°63'89″N, 114°48'07″E), Jiangxi Province, China. The disease incidence was approximately 30% in a surveyed area of 3 hectares, which contained approximately 20,000 plants. Initially, the above-ground parts of the plants did not show any obvious symptoms. However, the underground roots exhibited red-brown spots that gradually expanded and sunken areas appeared, and the diseased plants presented leaf chlorosis and red-brown discoloration of the tubers, eventually leading to plant death. To identify the pathogen, symptomatic root tissues (0.5×0.5×0.5cm) from the lesion margin surface were sterilized with 75% ethanol for 30s, 3% NaClO for 3 min followed by rinsing three times with sterile water. The sterile root pieces were placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 25℃. Thirteen pure fungal isolates with the same morphological characteristics were obtained by monosporic isolation from 20 pieces of roots, and the representative isolates, HJGF1-1, HJGF1-2 were used for morphological studies and phylogenetic analyses. Initially, the two colonies on PDA appeared white with cotton-shaped aerial hyphae, which later turned light green to green and formed concentric rings. At the end of the conidiophores, 3 to 6 pear-shaped branches are irregularly gathered, and the angles between the branches are acute. The conidia were mostly solitary ellipsoid or obovate with the size of (3.7-5.9) × (3.6-4.5) µm (n=100). These morphological characteristics are consistent with the description of a Trichoderma spp. (Kamala et al. 2015). For molecular identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF-1α) and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (RPB2) sequences were PCR amplified using primer pairs of ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF1-728F/EF1-986R (Carbone et al. 1999), and RPB2-5F2/RPB2-7cR (O'Donnell et al. 2022), respectively. BLAST analysis showed that the ITS, TEF-1α and RPB2 sequences of isolates HJGF1-1 (GenBank accession nos. OR229621, OR290791, OR334600) and HJGF1-2 (GenBank accession nos. OR229622, OR290792, OR334600) showed 99%-100% identity with multiple GenBank sequences of Trichoderma virens. A phylogenetic tree based on concatenated sequences of ITS, TEF-1α and RPB2 using maximum-likelihood analyses revealed that the two isolates HJGF1-1 and HJGF1-2 were in the same clade with T. virens strains. The two isolates were identified as T. virens based on the morphological characteristics and molecular phylogeny. To test pathogenicity, ten healthy P. cyrtonema plants (one tuber each, 5 tubers per isolate, n=10) in the field were pin-pricked with a sterile needle and pour-inoculated with 5 mL spore suspension per tuber (1× 107 conidia/ mL) with a temperature of about 28℃. Another five tubers were were pin-pricked with a sterile needle, inoculated with sterile water and served as controls. The resulting symptoms were similar to those on the original infected plants in the field, and control tubers remained symptomless fourteen days after inoculation. T. virens was reisolated from the diseased tubers, nevertheless no pathogenic fungus was isolated from the control tubers. T. virens has been reported causing disease on tulip bulb (Lou et al. 2003) but has not previously been reported causing disease on P. cyrtonema. Although several species of Trichoderma are known to be beneficial microorganisms, the beneficial fungus may have had an evolutionary period of interaction with plants in which it behaved as a plant pathogen (Poveda et al. 2022). To our knowledge, this is the first report of T. virens infecting P. cyrtonema in China. This result may expanded the etiological study of T. virens and the control strategy of P. cyrtonema root rot.

Challenges and innovations in treating chronic and acute wound infections: from basic science to clinical practice.

Acute and chronic wound infection has become a major worldwide healthcare burden leading to significantly high morbidity and mortality. The underlying mechanism of infections has been widely investigated by scientist, while standard wound management is routinely been used in general practice. However, strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of wound infections remain a great challenge due to the occurrence of biofilm colonization, delayed healing and drug resistance. In the present review, we summarize the common microorganisms found in acute and chronic wound infections and discuss the challenges from the aspects of clinical diagnosis, non-surgical methods and surgical methods. Moreover, we highlight emerging innovations in the development of antimicrobial peptides, phages, controlled drug delivery, wound dressing materials and herbal medicine, and find that sensitive diagnostics, combined treatment and skin microbiome regulation could be future directions in the treatment of wound infection.

Preventive electroacupuncture reduces cognitive deficits in a rat model of D-galactose-induced aging.

Acupuncture can reduce cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease. However, whether electroacupuncture can prevent or alleviate the cognitive deficits in animal models of aging remains poorly understood. Studies have shown that disordered epigenetic modifications play a critical role in age-related cognitive decline. Therefore, we hypothesized that preventive electroacupuncture might improve cognitive functions during aging by regulating epigenetic modifications. A rat model of aging was produced by intraperitoneal injection of 120 mg/kg D-galactose for 8 weeks. Baihui and Shenshu acupoints were stimulated by electroacupuncture for 8 weeks from the first day of D-galactose administration. Preventive electroacupuncture alleviated memory impairment, decreased tau hyperphosphorylation, and reduced glycogen synthase kinase-3ß protein and mRNA expression levels in the brainstem dorsal raphe nucleus, where intracellular neurofibrillary tangle lesions first occur. In addition, the DNA methylation level in the promoter region of the glycogen synthase kinase-3ß gene was increased. The effects of preventive electroacupuncture were stronger than those of preventive acupuncture. Intraperitoneal injection of 0.4 mg/kg 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine, an inhibitor of DNA methyltransferase that blocks epigenetic modifications, antagonized the effects of preventive electroacupuncture. Our results suggest that preventive electroacupuncture treatment alleviates cognitive impairment in aging rats probably by affecting the epigenetic modification of the glycogen synthase kinase-3ß gene in the dorsal raphe nucleus. This study was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, China (approval No. HUCMS201712001) on November 28, 2017.

Choice of Single-Staged Reconstruction of Nasal Defect.

INTRODUCTION: The nasal defect is still a challenge for plastic surgeon now. Many surgical options are reported in previous literatures. There are few studies reported about the 1-staged repair of large nasal defect. In this article, the authors describe the experience about the nasal reconstruction in the last 8 years. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fifty-two patients diagnosed with nasal defect were retrospectively examined between 2011 and 2018. All of them performed under local anesthesia and received 1-staged surgical method. RESULTS: In the authors' patients, the mean size of the defect was 2.16 cm. Nine patients were treated by nasolabial flap, and 30 patients were treated by local flap. The modified auricular composite tissue flap was used in 5 patients. There were no major postoperative complications. All patients were satisfied with aesthetically nasal contours as well as inconspicuous scars when follow-up. CONCLUSION: Single-staged reconstruction is still considered the first choice for nasal defect. The design of flap depends on the surrounding condition and the size of defect. Locoregional flaps are still considered as an ideal choice for nasal reconstruction in most patients. O-Z flap and modified auricular free flap could be an option for large-sized defect of nasal alar and nasal tip.

Experimental Evidence of the Benefits of Acupuncture for Alzheimer's Disease: An Updated Review.

As the global population ages, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is also increasing. At present, there are no widely recognized drugs able to ameliorate the cognitive dysfunction caused by AD. The failure of several promising clinical trials in recent years has highlighted the urgent need for novel strategies to both prevent and treat AD. Notably, a growing body of literature supports the efficacy of acupuncture for AD. In this review, we summarize the previously reported mechanisms of acupuncture's beneficial effects in AD, including the ability of acupuncture to modulate Aß metabolism, tau phosphorylation, neurotransmitters, neurogenesis, synapse and neuron function, autophagy, neuronal apoptosis, neuroinflammation, cerebral glucose metabolism, and brain responses. Taken together, these findings suggest that acupuncture provides therapeutic effects for AD.

[Quality assessment of randomized controlled trials on wenxin granule for treatment of atrial fibrillation].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the statement on randomized controlled trials on Wenxin granule for treatment of atrial fibrillation and to judge whether those trials could offer high quality evidence or not, thus improve design level and quality. METHOD: RCTs were searched from home and abroad about atrial fibrillation treated with Wenxin granule, which reported before October, 2010. Jadad scale and CONSORT statement were used. RESULT: There were 66 RCTs retrieved that met inclusion criteria. Using Jadad rating scale, only 2 literatures gain score 4 and 1 literature gains score 3, 54 literatures gain score 2, 7 literatures gain score 1, 2 literatures gain score 0. Only 2 literatures described random number table as the method of grouping. None of the RCTs was reported the allocation concealment. Only 1 literature was used blinding. Fifty-nine literatures were mentioned the lost to follow-up conditions. According to the CONSORT standards, only six literatures (9.1%) mentioned the method of generating the random sequence. Four literatures (6.1%) were quasi-random. Nineteen literatures (28.8%) had inclusion criteria. Six literatures (9.1%) had the follow-up record. Fifty one literatures (77.3%) described the adverse events. None had the estimation of the sample size, intention-to-treat analysis and stratified analysis. None had the ethical approval or informed consent. CONCLUSION: The quality of clinical trials of Wenxin granule in treating atrial fibrillation needs to be improved.

[Isolation and structure identification of flavonol glycoside from Lysimachia christinae Hance].

AIM: To isolate and prepare chemical standards. METHODS: Flavonol glycoside and rhamnonic acid gamma-lactone were isolated from whole plants of Lysimachia christinae Hance. with 95% ethanol and purified by silica gel column chromatography. UV, IR, MS, 1HNMR, 13CNMR, DEPT, HMQC, HMBC were used for the structural identification. RESULTS: Two compounds were obtained. They were identified as rhamnonic acid gamma-lactone (I) and kaempferol-3-O-alpha-L-rhamnosyl (1-->2)-beta-D-xyloside (II). CONCLUSION: Compound I was isolated from this genus for the first time. Compound II is a new compound named as lysimachiin.