Bacteriophage therapy for drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections.

Drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus stands as a prominent pathogen in nosocomial and community-acquired infections, capable of inciting various infections at different sites in patients. This includes Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SaB), which exhibits a severe infection frequently associated with significant mortality rate of approximately 25%. In the absence of better alternative therapies, antibiotics is still the main approach for treating infections. However, excessive use of antibiotics has, in turn, led to an increase in antimicrobial resistance. Hence, it is imperative that new strategies are developed to control drug-resistant S. aureus infections. Bacteriophages are viruses with the ability to infect bacteria. Bacteriophages, were used to treat bacterial infections before the advent of antibiotics, but were subsequently replaced by antibiotics due to limited theoretical understanding and inefficient preparation processes at the time. Recently, phages have attracted the attention of many researchers again because of the serious problem of antibiotic resistance. This article provides a comprehensive overview of phage biology, animal models, diverse clinical case treatments, and clinical trials in the context of drug-resistant S. aureus phage therapy. It also assesses the strengths and limitations of phage therapy and outlines the future prospects and research directions. This review is expected to offer valuable insights for researchers engaged in phage-based treatments for drug-resistant S. aureus infections.

Grape Seed Proanthocyanidins Exert a Neuroprotective Effect by Regulating Microglial M1/M2 Polarisation in Rats with Spinal Cord Injury.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a highly disabling disorder for which few effective treatments are available. Grape seed proanthocyanidins (GSPs) are polyphenolic compounds with various biological activities. In our preliminary experiment, GSP promoted functional recovery in rats with SCI, but the mechanism remains unclear. Therefore, we explored the protective effects of GSP on SCI and its possible underlying mechanisms. We found that GSP promoted locomotor recovery, reduced neuronal apoptosis, increased neuronal preservation, and regulated microglial polarisation in vivo. We also performed in vitro studies to verify the effects of GSP on neuronal protection and microglial polarisation and their potential mechanisms. We found that GSP regulated microglial polarisation and inhibited apoptosis in PC12 cells induced by M1-BV2 cells through the Toll-like receptor 4- (TLR4-) mediated nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/serine threonine kinase (PI3K/AKT) signaling pathways. This suggests that GSP regulates microglial polarisation and prevents neuronal apoptosis, possibly by the TLR4-mediated NF-κB and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways.

[An intelligent stimulator based on electromyography feature extraction].

In order to improve the conventional stimulator with non-standard parameters and poor efficacy using the passive mode of the treatment, we developed an intelligent stimulator to combine biofeedback with functional electrical stimulation. Through the non-invasive measurement and feature extraction of electromyography signals, a value of root mean square can be obtained based on delta-sigma computational technique. In the newly designed stimulator, electromyography feature extraction and feedback control were used to intelligently control the rehabilitation treatment. Both bidirectional detection technologies for stimulated current and programmable interactive way using touchscreen were employed so that the treatment parameters can be accurately quantified and set up. The experiment showed that the design requirements were achieved.