Eikenella corrodens isolated from pleural effusion: A case report.

BACKGROUND: The bacterium Eikenella, classified as a gram-negative member of the phylum Proteobacteria, is distinguished by its rarity, corrosive nature, facultative anaerobic properties, and conditional pathogenicity. It represents the sole species within its genus-Eikenella corrodens (E. corrodens)-and can be found colonizing both human and animal oral and nasopharyngeal regions. Additionally, it occasionally inhabits the gastrointestinal or urogenital tracts. However, its slow growth rate can be attributed to its high nutritional requirements. However, there is an uneven distribution of construction and diagnostic capacity in China which poses undeniable challenges for the clinical examination and analysis of this case, especially in the basic hospitals. CASE SUMMARY: Here we presented a case of empyema associated with E. corrodens infection in a 67-year-old male patient without any previous history of infectious diseases in our primary hospital in Dongguan district of China. The patient was admitted due to recurrent worsening cough, sputum production, and dyspnea for 3 d, which had persisted for over 20 years. Moreover, the patient experienced a one-hour episode of unconsciousness. Upon admission, immediate comprehensive examinations were conducted on the patient which subsequently led to his admission to the intensive care unit. Meanwhile, the patient presented with drowsiness and profuse sweating along with bilateral conjunctival edema observed during initiation of non-invasive ventilation, suggesting empyema. A significant amount of coffee-colored malodorous pleural fluid was drained during the procedure above and sent to the laboratory department for inspection. Finally, laboratory culture results confirmed the presence of E. corrodens infection in the pleural fluid sample. The patient received antimicrobial therapy until died on day 22 in the hospital. CONCLUSION: In this report, we presented a case of empyema associated with E. corrodens infection. Multiple courses of morphological examination, viable culture analysis, and biochemical identification revealed its difficulties in detecting distinctive characteristics, as well as a detection model worth promoting. It's just that there were still certain deficiencies in terms of morphological assessment, biochemical identification, and drug susceptibility testing.

Modified Da-chai-hu Decoction regulates the expression of occludin and NF-κB to alleviate organ injury in severe acute pancreatitis rats.

Modified Da-chai-hu Decoction (MDD), a traditional Chinese medicinal formulation, which was empirically generated from Da-chai-hu decoction, has been utilized to treat severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) for decades. The aim of the present study was to explore its potential organprotective mechanism in SAP. In the present study, rat SAP model was induced by retrograde injection of 3.5% sodium taurocholate into the biliopancreatic duct, MDD (23.35 g/kg body weight, twelve times the clinical dose) were orally given at 2 h before and 10 h after injection. At 12 h after model induction, blood was taken from vena cava for analysis of amylase, diamine oxidase (DAO), pulmonary surfactant protein-A (SP-A), and C-reactive protein (CRP). Histopathological change of pancreas, ileum and lung was assayed by H&E staining, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity were determinated using colorimetric assay, and the expressions of occludin and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) were detected by real-time RT-PCR and western blot, respectively. In addition, the tissue concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results showed that in SAP rats, MDD significantly alleviated histopathological damage, depressed the MPO activity and the concentrations of TNF-α, IL-1ß, and MCP-1 of pancreas, ileum and lung, and reduced the serum levels of amylase [(3283.4 ± 585.5) U·L-1vs (5626.4 ± 795.1)U·L-1], DAO [(1100.1 ± 334.3) U·L-1vs (1666.4 ± 525.3) U·L-1] and CRP [(7.6 ± 1.2) µg·mL-1vs (17.8 ± 3.8) µg·mL-1]. However, the serum SP-A concentration [(106.1 ± 16.6) pg·mL-1vs (90.1 ± 14.9) pg·mL-1] was elevated when treated SAP rats with MDD. Furthermore, MDD increased the occludin expression and reduced the NF-κB expression in pancreas, ileum and lung of SAP rats. Our findings suggested that MDD administration was an effective therapeutic approach for SAP treatment. It could up-regulate occludin expression to protect intercellular tight junction and down-regulate NF-κB expression to inhibit inflammatory reaction of pancreas, ileum and lung.

Organ-specific microenvironment modifies diverse functional and phenotypic characteristics of leukemia-associated macrophages in mouse T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Tumor-associated macrophages are widely studied in solid tumors. The distribution of macrophages in lymph node samples was found to be associated with the prognosis of lymphoma patients. However, the role of macrophages in leukemia and their functional and phenotypic characteristics in hematopoietic malignancies have not been defined. In this study, we examined the distribution and functional and phenotypic characteristics of macrophages in a Notch1-induced mouse model of T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). The distribution of macrophages in bone marrow (BM) and spleen, which are proposed as BM and spleen leukemia-associated macrophages (LAMs), were different during the development of leukemia. LAMs stimulated the proliferation of T-ALL cells and had higher migration activity. RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that gene expression profiles of BM and spleen LAMs showed considerable differences. RT-PCR analysis showed that LAMs expressed both M1- and M2-associated phenotypic genes, but they expressed much lower levels of TGF-ß1, VEGF-A, and CSF-1 than did tumor-associated macrophages from B16 melanoma. Furthermore, spleen LAMs more potently stimulated the proliferation of T-ALL cells compared with BM LAMs. Moreover, LAMs could be subdivided into M1-like (CD206(-)) and M2-like (CD206(+)) groups. Both CD206(+) and CD206(-) LAMs stimulated the proliferation of T-ALL cells, although CD206(+) LAMs expressed higher levels of most M1- and M2-associated genes. These results suggested the functional and phenotypic characteristics of LAMs, which were modified by organ specific microenvironments. Our results broaden our knowledge about macrophages in malignant microenvironments from solid tumors to leukemia.

[Expression of P2X family receptors in peritoneal macrophages of mouse with acute T lymphoblastic leukemia].

This study was aimed at exploring the expression pattern of P2X family receptors (P2XR) in peritoneal macrophages and their relationship with the activation states of macrophages in Notch1-induced mouse T-ALL model. After establishment of the leukemia model, F4/80(+) peritoneal macrophages, F4/80(+)CD206(+) M2-like and F4/80(+)CD206(-) M1-like peritoneal macrophages were sorted by flow cytometry based on F4/80 and CD206 surface markers. The expression of P2XR in each cell population was detected by real time RT-PCR. The results showed that macrophages,M1-like and M2-like macrophages moderately expressed P2XR except for P2X5R. The expression of P2XR varied with the development of leukemia. The expression of P2X1R and P2X7R in peritoneal macrophages increased steadily; the expression of P2X2R and P2X3R decreased at late stage of leukemia;the expression of P2X4R slightly decreased at intermediate stage;the expression of P2X6R kept unchanged. At intermediate stage of leukemia, the expression of P2XR in M1-like and M2-like peritoneal macrophages varied. M1-like macrophages expressed higher level of P2X1R than M2-like macrophages, whereas M2-like macrophages expressed higher level of P2X7R than M1-like macrophages, which suggested that the expression of P2XR were related to the activation states. It is concluded that the expression of P2XR in peritoneal macrophages from leukemia mice is related to the progression of leukemia and the activation states of macrophages, which lay a foundation for further studying the role of macrophages in the development of leukemia.

[Dual over-expression of P2X7 receptor and intracellular domain of Notch1 in leukemia cells].

This study aimed to construct the dual expression vectors of wide type or N187D mutant P2X7 receptor and intracellular domain of Notch1 (ICN1) linked by 2A peptide to coexpress them in leukemia cells so as to lay a foundation for further investigating the role of P2X7 in development of leukemia. Overlap PCR was used to construct the dual expression vectors encoding wide type or N187D mutant type P2X7 receptor and ICN1 linked by the self-cleaving 2A sequence. The results showed that stable expressing cell lines were obtained by retroviral infection followed by cell sorting after DNA sequence analysis. RT-PCR, Western blot, intracellular free calcium concentration analysis were used to verify the functionally successful construction of K562 cell line expressing P2X7 receptor alone or with ICN1. DNA sequence analysis revealed that all construction were right. The infection efficiency of packaged constructed virus ranged from 40% to 70% for K562 cells. Stable infected cell line was obtained by cell sorting. RT-PCR analysis revealed that P2X7 receptor and/or ICN1 could be detected at high level in their stable infected cell lines, respectively. Western blot analysis also showed that P2X7 receptor was highly expressed in cell line infected by virus with P2X7 receptor. Sustained increase in intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca(2+)]i) could be observed in K562 cells overexpressing either type of P2X7 receptor upon stimulation with BzATP. It is concluded that the wide type or N187D mutant P2X7 receptor and ICN1 are simultaneously and functionally over-express in leukemia cells, which lay a foundation for further studying the role of P2X7 receptor in the development of leukemia.