Effect of TCM rehabilitation program on activities of daily living in patients with post-stroke limb spasticity: An observational study.

BACKGROUND: Stroke is a neurological disease with many common complications that reduce the activities of daily living and the quality of life of patients. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) rehabilitation techniques, scalp acupuncture, and TCM can relieve spasticity symptoms and recovery from physical obstacles is significant. METHODS: Three hundred twenty-one patients with post-stroke limb spasticity were randomly divided into trial and control groups, with 159 and 162 patients in the trial and control groups, respectively. The control group received basic treatment combined with modern rehabilitation techniques, whereas the trial group received basic treatment combined with TCM, Tuina, and scalp acupuncture with kinesiotherapy. The treatment course in both groups was 4 weeks. The Modified Ashworth Scale, magnetic resonance imaging, and Stroke Specific Quality of Life Scale were used to evaluate limb spasticity, activities of daily living, and quality of life, respectively. PASW 18.0 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: With a longer treatment period, the improvement in limb spasticity was greater in the trial group than in the control group (P < .05). Similarly, improvements in activities of daily living and quality of life were better in the trial group than in the control group (P < .05). CONCLUSION: The TCM rehabilitation program using Tongjing Tiaoxing combined with scalp acupuncture and kinesiotherapy can effectively treat spasticity symptoms in stroke patients and improve their activities of daily living and quality of life.

Propionate poses antivirulence activity against Botrytis cinerea via regulating its metabolism, infection cushion development and overall pathogenic factors.

Botrytis cinerea is a devastating pathogen causing gray mold in fruits and vegetables if not properly managed. Although the mechanisms remain unclear, we previously revealed that the safe food additive calcium propionate (CP) could suppress gray mold development on grapes. The present study reports that sub-lethal dose of CP (0.2 % w/v) could allow growth with substantial reprograming the genome-wide transcripts of B. cinerea. Upon CP treatment, the genes related to fungal methylcitrate cycle (responsible for catabolizing propionate) were upregulated. Meanwhile, CP treatment broadly downregulated the transcript levels of the virulence factors. Further comparative analysis of multiple transcriptomes confirmed that the CP treatment largely suppressed the expression of genes related to development and function of infection cushion. Collectively, these findings indicate that CP can not only reduce fungal growth, but also abrogate fungal virulence factors. Thus, CP has significant potential for the control of gray mold in fruit crops.

Compartmentalization of Melanin Biosynthetic Enzymes Contributes to Self-Defense against Intermediate Compound Scytalone in Botrytis cinerea.

In filamentous fungi, 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) melanin is a major component of the extracellular matrix, endowing fungi with environmental tolerance and some pathogenic species with pathogenicity. However, the subcellular location of the melanin biosynthesis pathway components remains obscure. Using the gray mold pathogen Botrytis cinerea, the DHN melanin intermediate scytalone was characterized via phenotypic and chemical analysis of mutants, and the key enzymes participating in melanin synthesis were fused with fluorescent proteins to observe their subcellular localizations. The Δbcscd1 mutant accumulated scytalone in the culture filtrate rather than in mycelium. Excessive scytalone appears to be self-inhibitory to the fungus, leading to repressed sclerotial germination and sporulation in the Δbcscd1 mutant. The BcBRN1/2 enzymes responsible for synthesizing scytalone were localized in endosomes and found to be trafficked to the cell surface, accompanied by the accumulation of BcSCD1 proteins in the cell wall. In contrast, the early-stage melanin synthesis enzymes BcPKS12/13 and BcYGH1 were localized in peroxisomes. Taken together, the results of this study revealed the subcellular distribution of melanin biosynthetic enzymes in B. cinerea, indicating that the encapsulation and externalization of the melanin synthetic enzymes need to be delicately orchestrated to ensure enzymatic efficiency and protect itself from the adverse effect of the toxic intermediate metabolite.IMPORTANCE The devastating gray mold pathogen Botrytis cinerea propagates via melanized conidia and sclerotia. This study reveals that the sclerotial germination of B. cinerea is differentially affected by different enzymes in the melanin synthesis pathway. Using gene knockout mutants and chemical analysis, we found that excessive accumulation of the melanin intermediate scytalone is inhibitory to B. cinerea. Subcellular localization analysis of the melanin synthesis enzymes of B. cinerea suggested two-stage partitioning of the melanogenesis pathway: the intracellular stage involves the steps until the intermediate scytalone was translocated to the cell surface, whereas the extracellular stage comprises all the steps occurring in the wall from scytalone to final melanin formation. These strategies make the fungus avert self-poisoning during melanin production. This study opens avenues for better understanding the mechanisms of secondary metabolite production in filamentous fungi.

Community structure and role analysis in biological networks.

Complex network analysis has received increasing interest in recent years, which provides a remarkable tool to describe complex systems of interacting entities, particular for biological systems. In this paper, we propose a methodology for identifying the significant nodes of the networks, including core nodes, bridge nodes and high-influential nodes, based on the idea of community and two new ranking measures, InterRank and IntraRank. The results show the significant nodes form a small number in biological networks, and uncover the relative small number of which has advantage for reducing the dimensions of the network and possibly help to define new biological targets.