Distinct Effects of Non-absorbed Agents Rifaximin and Berberine on the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Dysbiosis-induced Visceral Hypersensitivity in Rats

Background/Aims@#Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is accepted as a disorder of gut-brain interactions. Berberine and rifaximin are non-absorbed antibiotics and have been confirmed effective for IBS treatment, but there is still lack of direct comparison of their effects. This study aims to compare the effect of the 2 drugs on the alteration of gut-brain axis caused by gut microbiota from IBS patients. @*Methods@#Germ-free rats received fecal microbiota transplantation from screened IBS patients and healthy controls. After 14 days’ colonization, rats were administrated orally with berberine, rifaximin or vehicle respectively for the next 14 days. The visceral sensitivity was evaluated, fecal microbiota profiled and microbial short chain fatty acids were determined. Immunofluorescence staining and morphological analysis were performed to evaluate microglial activation. @*Results@#Visceral hypersensitivity induced by IBS–fecal microbiota transplantation was relieved by berberine and rifaximin, and berberine increased sucrose preference rate. Microbial α-diversity were reduced by both drugs. Compared with rifaximin, berberine significantly changed microbial structure and enriched Lachnoclostridium. Furthermore, berberine but not rifaximin significantly increased fecal concentrations of acetate and propionate acids. Berberine restored the morphological alterations of microglia induced by dysbiosis, which may be associated with its effect on the expression of microbial gene pathways involved in peptidoglycan biosynthesis.Rifaximin affected neither the numbers of activated microglial cells nor the microglial morphological alterations. @*Conclusions@#Berberine enriched Lachnoclostridium, reduced the expression of peptidoglycan biosynthesis genes and increased acetate and propionate. The absence of these actions of rifaximin may explain the different effects of the drugs on microbiota-gut-brain axis.

"Sentinel or accomplice": gut microbiota and microglia crosstalk in disorders of gut-brain interaction

Abnormal brain-gut interaction is considered the core pathological mechanism behind the disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBI), in which the intestinal microbiota plays an important role. Microglia are the "sentinels" of the central nervous system (CNS), which participate in tissue damage caused by traumatic brain injury, resist central infection and participate in neurogenesis, and are involved in the occurrence of various neurological diseases. With in-depth research on DGBI, we could find an interaction between the intestinal microbiota and microglia and that they are jointly involved in the occurrence of DGBI, especially in individuals with comorbidities of mental disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This bidirectional regulation of microbiota and microglia provides a new direction for the treatment of DGBI. In this review, we focus on the role and underlying mechanism of the interaction between gut microbiota and microglia in DGBI, especially IBS, and the corresponding clinical application prospects and highlight its potential to treat DGBI in individuals with psychiatric comorbidities.

Analysis on the Implementation of Comprehensive School Health Evaluation in Liaoning Province / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To understand the Implementation of Comprehensive Evaluation of School Health (GB/T 18205-2012) and associated factors, so as to provide rationalization proposals for future revision of standards.@*Methods@#A questionnaire survey was conducted on 436 schools, 56 health supervision agencies and 55 disease control agencies in Liaoning Province, and the main contents include the investigation of awareness rate, training, application, rationality and application of evaluation items and indicators.@*Results@#Totally 44 supervision agencies and 29 CDCs had independent school health departments, with significant differences in faculty equipment ( t =8.53， P <0.05). The standard was trained in 100% of municipal supervision agencies, 22.50% of district and county level, 46.15% of municipal CDC ,50.00% of district county CDC; 61.54% of municipal and 45.00% of district and county supervision agencies conducted evaluations in accordance with this standard, 53.85% of the municipal CDC, 60.00% of county CDC jointly completed the standard; 30.77% of municipal and 52.50% of district and county supervisory bodies informed the educational administration of the results of the comprehensive evaluation.@*Conclusion@#The establishment of school health professional departments and the training of management objects affect the implementation of comprehensive evaluation of school health, so it is necessary to combine the actual work to modify some of the important indicators, and strengthen the application of comprehensive evaluation results.

Health supervision of school based myopia prevention and control / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To explore the associated factors in the implementation of the "random" sampling inspection of the lighting institutions in kindergartens, outofschool training institutions and primary and secondary schools in 2019 (Supervision Letter [2019] No. 314 of National Health Office) (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), and to provide reference for better implementation of the Plan.@*Methods@#A survey of schoolbased myopia prevention and control was conducted in 23 provincial, municipal and countylevel health supervision institutions in China. The main contents of the survey focused on the introduction, implementation and implementation of the program.@*Results@#The implementation of the "plan" was significantly associated with the specific work organized and coordinated by the health administrative department, clear responsibility of various departments, and collaboration with educational institutions[OR(95%CI)=1.57(1.05-2.36), 0.05(0.03-0.10), 0.31(0.19-0.52), 0.03(0.01-0.09), 0.12(0.04-0.37), P<0.05]. It was also associated with independent school health supervision department, one and two fulltime school health supervision staff equipment, onsite quick inspection of health supervision institutions, school selfexamination[OR=1.87(1.33-2.62), 0.62(0.40-0.97), 2.37(1.82-3.09), 1.62(1.09-2.40), P<0.05].@*Conclusion@#The program needs to be implemented through multiple departments and is associated with multiple factors. It is of great importance to strengthen multisector collaboration and clarify the responsibility of various departments for the health supervision of schoolbased myopia prevention and control.

Tracking evaluation of "General Provisions of Safety and Health for Writing Boards" / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To evaluated the application of General Provisions of Safety and Health for Writing Boards(GB 28231-2011), and to provide basis for the revision and improvement of the standard.@*Methods@#From June to October 2018, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 852 people engaged in the evaluation, use and production of writing boards in 8 districts of Beijing, Liaoning and Jiangsu. The contents of the survey include the awareness, implementation of the standard and evaluating the use of various parameters in the standard by personnel from different institutions.@*Results@#The overall awareness ratio of the standard among staffs from health, education and enter prise was 78.26%. For the nominal size of the writing board and the vertical distance between the lower edge and the platform, the reasonableness considered lower by health professionals(62.50%, 37.50%) than that of education professionals(90.00%, 90.00%) and enterprise staffs(90.00%, 90.00%)(P<0.05); For the frequency and reasonableness of the nine parameters such as gloss and adhesion, the perception of each institution were significantly different(P<0.05), with proportion of professionals in health lower than experts in education and enterprise. For the two parameters of color and light resistance, each institution considered the maneuverability was not strong(P>0.05).@*Conclusion@#Propagation and implement is still needed to strengthen comprehension, because different institutions have different understandings towards the standard. There are still some problems waiting to be solved, such as different standard limits, poor enforceability of two parameters which are writing board color and light resistance.