Effects of butyl alcohol extract of Baitouweng Decoction on Candida albicans adhesion based on pH-mutant strains under acidic conditions / 中草药

Objective: To investigate the effect and mechanism of butyl alcohol extract of Baitouweng Decoction (BAEB) on adhesion of Candida albicans based on pH signaling pathway. Methods: Spot assay method was used to detect the sensitivity of pH mutants to BAEB under acidic conditions. XTT assay was used to detect the effect of BAEB on metabolic activity of pH mutants. The effect of BAEB on the adhesion activity of pH mutants was observed by fluorescence microscopy. The effect of BAEB on hydrophobicity of pH mutant was determined by n-octane inclusion method. The effect of BAEB on the expression of adhesion genes related to pH mutants was detected by qRT-PCR. Results: Under acidic conditions, spot assay observation showed that pH mutants were less sensitive to BAEB, 512 μg/mL BAEB interfered with pH mutants for 24 h and 48 h, there was no significantly decrease in bacterial colony. XTT assay showed that the metabolic activity of WT, PHR2 complementation, rim101/rim101 and RIM101 complementation was significantly inhibited in 512 μg/mL BAEB, and there was no significantly difference in the inhibition of phr2/phr2 metabolic activity. Fluorescence microscopy showed that the cell adhesion activity of WT, PHR2 complementation, rim101/rim101, RIM101 complementation was significantly inhibited in 512 μg/mL BAEB, the cell adhesion activity of phr2/phr2 had no obvious effect in 512 μg/mL BAEB. The n-octane inclusion method showed that the effect of 512 μg/mL BAEB on the cell surface hydrophobicity of WT, phr2/phr2, PHR2 complementation, rim101/rim101, RIM101 complementation was not significant. The qRT-PCR assay showed that the adhesion genes of pH mutants was inhibited in 1024 μg/mL BAEB. Conclusion: Under acidic conditions, the Candida albicans pH mutants was inhibited by BAEB to a certain extent.

Mechanism of butyl alcohol extract of Baitouweng Decoction (BAEB) on Candida albicans biofilms based on pH signal pathway / 中国中药杂志

This study aimed to investigate the effect of butyl alcohol extract of Baitouweng Decoction( BAEB) on Candida albicans biofilms based on pH signal pathway. The morphology of biofilms of the pH mutants was observed by scanning electron microscope. The biofilm thickness of the pH mutants was measured by CLSM. The biofilm activity of the pH mutants was analyzed by microplate reader.The biofilm damage of the pH mutants was detected by flow cytometry. The expression of pH mutant biofilm-related genes was detected by qRT-PCR. The results showed that the deletion of PHR1 gene resulted in the defect of biofilm,but there were more substrates for PHR1 complementation. BAEB had no significant effect on the two strains. RIM101 gene deletion or complementation did not cause significant structural damage,but after BAEB treatment,the biofilms of both strains were significantly inhibited. For the biofilm thickness,PHR1 deletion or complementation caused the thickness to decrease,after BAEB treatment,the thickness of the two strains did not change significantly. However,RIM101 gene deletion or complementation had little effect on the thickness,and the thickness of the two strains became thinner after adding BAEB. For biofilm activity,PHR1 deletion or complementation and RIM101 deletion resulted in decreased activity,RIM101 complementation did not change significantly; BAEB significantly inhibited biofilm activity of PHR1 deletion,PHR1 complemetation,RIM101 deletion and RIM101 complemetation strains. For the biofilm damage,PHR1 gene deletion or complementation,RIM101 gene deletion or complementation all showed different degrees of damage; after adding BAEB,the damage rate of PHR1 deletion or complementation was not significantly different,but the damage rate of RIM101 deletion or complementation was significantly increased. Except to the up-regulation of HSP90 gene expression,ALS3,SUN41,HWP1,UME6 and PGA10 genes of PHR1 deletion,PHR1 complementation,RIM101 deletion,and RIM101 complementation strains showed a downward expression trend. In a word,this study showed that mutations in PHR1 and RIM101 genes in the pH signaling pathway could enhance the sensitivity of the strains to the antifungal drug BAEB,thus inhibiting the biofilm formation and related genes expression in C. albicans.

Development of a Personal Health Record System Based on USB Flash Drive and Web Service / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVE: The development of information communication technology (ICT) and the demand for managing the healthy lives of individuals are accelerating the informatization of the health and medical field. Considering this environment and the needs of the individual, this paper has designed and developed a web and mobile storage device-based personal health record (PHR) system that individuals can manage by themselves anywhere, anytime, whether on-line or off-line. Based on the experience of implementing the system, its development method, results, and relevant technical issues are described. SYSTEM DESIGN AND DESCRIPTION: This system is implemented to manage PHR, including vital signs and ingested/consumed calories for a lifetime by connecting a PHR-integrated web server to each hospital's information system, and the PHR programs installed in the individual's PC or USB flash memory drive. To achieve this, an interface module, web server system, and PHR viewer program for individuals are developed. RESULTS: When it is off-line, the PHR program is operated to inquire the data saved in the DB, and the self-measured information can be inputted. When it is on-line, it calls the web service function to inquire the medical information, including hospital visit history, prescription history, diagnosis result, image inspection result and medical treatment result. CONCLUSION: This system connects home and mobile healthcare to hospitals but minimizes information leakage because the data is not accumulated. By loading a plug & play, PHR viewer to an easy-to-carry mobile storage device, the systems supports a sustainable health management.

A Future of Medical Information System: Establishment of Hospital-oriented Personal Health Record

Personal Health Record (PHR) has recently been drawing attention due to the an ever-increasing interests of ubiquitous healthcare. Diverse approaches have been proposed to implement PHR at home and abroad. In this review, we propose a hospital-oriented PHR system for the future direction of medical information system. If a hospital-oriented PHR system is implemented, hospitals can increase the quality of medical care by providing personalized medical services to the individual patients and the reliability of health records in PHR can be significantly improved. For this purpose, we first investigate the definition of PHR and then address diverse issues to be tackled prior to implementation of the hospital-oriented PHR system.

The Consumers' Perceptions and Requirements for Personal Health Records in Korea / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to identify factors influencing the willingness of healthcare consumers to use personal health records (PHR) and to investigate the requirements for PHR services. METHODS: A face-to-face interview was conducted with 400 healthcare consumers from the 3rd-18th of July 2008 using a structured questionnaire. To identity factors affecting the willingness to use PHR and to pay for PHR services, logistic regression analysis was performed. To investigate the requirements for PHR services according to the willingness of the consumers to use PHR and to pay for PHR services, t-test analysis was conducted. RESULTS: Of the 400 healthcare consumers, 239 (59.8%) were willing to use PHR and 111 (27.8%) were willing to pay for PHR services. The willingness to use PHR was higher in the elderly, those with a disease, and those with experience to use health information on the Internet, and the willingness to pay for PHR services was higher in those with a relatively high income (p6,000,000 won and 4,500,000-6,000,000 won, respectively, than in those earning <1,500,000 won, and approximately 1.96 times (95% CI=1.18-3.27) higher in those with experience using health information on the Internet than in those without experience. The willingness to pay for PHR services was approximately 5.9 times (95% CI=1.84-19.06) higher in those with an income of 4,500,000-6,000,000 won than in those with an income <1,500,000 won (p<0.05). Demands for test results, medication history, family history, problem list, genetic information, clinical trial information, and social history were significantly higher in those with a willingness to use PHR and those with a willingness to pay for PHR services than in those without willingness to use PHR and those without a willingness to pay for PHR services (p<0.05). Compared to those without a willingness to pay for PHR services, those with a willingness to pay for PHR services showed a significantly higher demand for all the functions (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that healthcare consumers potentially have a considerable demand for PHR services, and although it is not recognized and used widely yet, PHR is an essential service. In order to enhance people's awareness of PHR and to promote people to use PHR services, we need efforts and initiatives to execute campaigns and education for people to ease access to the service, and to reduce the gap in service utilization skills.

The Personal Health Information Reference System based on e-P.O.Box Conception / 대한의료정보학회지

IT Strategic Headquarters of the Japanese government compiled the Priority Policy Program 2007, in which "Establishment of the structure for every citizen to be able to manage and utilize his health information by himself" and "Foundation of the e- Post-Office box for the realization of the social security service in aspects of people" are declared. For this purpose, a health information system is considered that delivers healthcare data to the server, where the data is to be individually self.administered by the owner. A patient can register his data, and download or reference it from any medical institution or home when necessary. We made a prototype system to realize such a personal health data referring system based on the e. post.office box concept. The system is to be used in field trial experiment with the staffs and students of Tokyo Institute of Technology using their ID Card. This prototype system is expected to be available for the policy suggestion in the realization of the e-P.O.Box stated in the Priority Policy Program of the government.