Effects of pulverized oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) on diarrhea incidence, growth performance, immunity, and microbial composition in piglets.

BACKGROUND: Pleurotus ostreatus mushroom (POM) is an edible mushroom with rich nutritional components and vital pharmacological properties. The present study comprised 100 cross-bred piglets, weaned at 28 days old, who were randomly assigned to four POM diets with five replicates per diet and five piglets per pen. RESULTS: POM supplementation (P < 0.05) decreased the incidence of diarrhea, and also increased the average daily feed intake and average daily gain of pigs. Fecal acetate, butyrate and propionate increased with the addition of POM. Interleukin-2, immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin M, tumor necrosis factor-α and immunoglobulin A increased (P < 0.05) with the addition of POM. The 16S rDNA sequencing results showed that the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were the dominant microbial strains in the fecal samples, irrespective of POM supplementation. Shannon diversity, whole tree phylogenetic diversity, observed species and Chao1 analysis exhibited significant variation in species richness across the treatments. Principal coordinates analysis showed a significant (P < 0.1) increase in the microbial communities amongst all of the treatment groups. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study suggest that the supplementation of POM in the diet of piglets might increase feed consumption, gut microbial composition and diversity, as well as short-chain fatty acids synthesis, consequently preventing the occurrence of diarrhea and increasing the growth of piglets. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Prebiotic effects of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) fiber on cecal bacterial composition, short-chain fatty acids, and diarrhea incidence in weaning piglets.

Dietary alfalfa fiber (AF) is conceived to modulate gut microbial richness and diversity to improve the health and growth of weaning piglets. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prebiotic effects of AF on diarrhea incidence, the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and microbiota composition in weaning piglets. This study utilized 100 crossbred piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) with a body weight of 8.42 ± 1.88 kg randomly assigned to the following treatments: 0.00% AF meal (A), 6.00% of AF meal (B), 12.00% AF meal (C), and 18.00% AF meal (D). The cecum samples were used to determine microbial community composition and diversity through high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing. The results of this study show that the lowest average daily gain (ADG) was observed in treatment D, and the highest ADG was recorded in treatment C. However there was no significant difference between the treatment groups and the control. The average daily feed intake (ADFI) was significantly higher in treatment C compared to the other treatments. The feed conversion ratio was high in the control group compared to the AF treated groups. The highest diarrhea incidence was observed in treatment A and the lowest diarrhea incidence was observed in treatment C and D. The highest acetate and propionate levels were observed in treatment B, but there was no significant difference between the treatment groups and the control. The supplementation of AF significantly increased the butyrate level in treatment D compared with treatments A and B but was not significantly different from treatment C. The Observed_species richness and Simpson diversity values of the cecum bacterial composition in the AF fed piglets were higher than the control. In addition, the Chao 1 richness and Shannon diversity increased with an increase in AF supplementation, reaching a plateau at treatment B and C, then decreasing at treatment D. The Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Tenericutes, Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Spirochaetae, Actinobacteria, Fibrobacteres, Saccharibacteria, Synergistetes, Chlamydiae, Elusimicrobia, Deferribacteres, Fusobacteria, and others were relatively abundant in all treatments. The Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were the dominant phyla, accounting for 98% of all reads. AF treatment decreased the Bacteroidetes phylum and increased the Firmicutes phylum compared with treatment A. Therefore, the dietary inclusion of AF may decrease diarrhea incidence, increase cecal bacterial composition and richness, and consequently improve the growth performance of weaning piglets.

Novel Biosynthesis, Metabolism and Physiological Functions of L-Homoarginine.

L-Homoarginine (hArg) ((2S)-amino-6-Carbamimidamidohexanoic acid) is a non-essential cationic amino acid that may be synthesised from the lysine catabolism or the transamination of its precursor (Arginine: Arg). These processes involve the use of the ornithine transcarbamoylase (OTC), an enzyme from the urea cycle or the arginine: glycine amidinotransferase (AGAT), an enzyme from the creatine biosynthesis pathway. These enzymes are tissue-specific, hence they synthesised L-hArg in animals and human organs such as the liver, kidneys, brains, and the small intestines. L-hArg plays some important roles in the pathophysiological conditions, endothelial functions, and the energy metabolic processes in different organs. These functions depend on the concentrations of the available LhArg in the body. These different concentrations of the L-hArg in the body are related to the different disease conditions such as the T2D mellitus, the cardiovascular and the cerebrovascular diseases, the chronic kidney diseases, the intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and the preeclampsia (PE) in pregnancy disorders, and even mortality. However, the applications of the L-hArg in both human and animal studies is in its juvenile stage, and the mechanism of action in this vital amino acid is not fully substantiated and requires more research attention. Hence, we review the evidence with the perspective of the LhArg usage in the monogastric and human nutrition and its related health implications.

Effects of Astragalus membranaceus fiber on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, microbial composition, VFA production, gut pH, and immunity of weaned pigs.

Astragalus membranaceus is an herbaceous perennial plant, growing to about 2 feet tall, with sprawling stems and alternate leaves about 12-24 leaflets. In total, 24 cross bred (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) piglets weaned at 4 weeks with an average body weight of 10.84 ± 1.86 kg, were divided into four groups and randomly assigned to dietary treatments containing different AMSLF levels (0.00%, 2.50%, 5.00%, and 7.50%). The piglets in the control group (0.00% AMSLF) were fed basal diet and other treatment groups were fed basal diet in addition to 2.50%, 5.00%, and 7.50% pulverized AMSLF. The results indicated that supplementation with AMSLF significantly (p < 0.05) decreased diarrheal incidence in piglets. There was significant difference between treatment in terms of ADFI, ADG and FCR. Both 5.00% and 7.50% treatments significantly increased growth performance. The digestibility of gross energy and dry matter increased (p > 0.05) with increasing AMSLF level. The level of blood IL-2 and TNF-α were significantly affected by AMSLF supplementation with 7.50% AMSLF group having higher (p < 0.05) IL-2 and TNF-α levels than the other treatment groups. The 16SrDNA sequencing results from the four treatments showed that the potentially active bacterial microbial population and diversity in pig cecum were dominated by the phyla Bacteriodetes and Firmicutes regardless of the AMSLF supplementation. The Shannon diversity, PD whole tree diversity indices and Chao analyses exhibited significant variability in species richness across the treatments. The principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) showed significant (p < 0.1) differences between bacterial communities in all treatment groups. Results from the current study suggested that AMSLF supplementation increased composition of bacterial microbiota in pig gut. In conclusion, dietary supplements with AMSLF could potentially be used to prevent diarrheal incidence and improved pig production.

Interactions of Dietary Fibre with Nutritional Components on Gut Microbial Composition, Function and Health in Monogastrics.

The relation between dietary fibre and the well-being of human and other monogastrics has recently became a hot topic as shown by the increasing number of publications of the related research. The aim of this review is to describe - through a logical approach - the scientific suggestion linking possible benefits of dietary fibre on nutritional components and their effect on the gastrointestinal composition in relation to disease conditions in humans and animals. Dietary fibre plays a key role in: influencing blood glucose or insulin concentrations, stool bulkiness, reducing the pH within the digestive tract, synthesising volatile fatty acids (VFA), reducing intestinal transit time, stimulating growth of intestinal microbes, and constructively enhancing various blood parameters. The available literature suggests that fibre influences the bioavailability of nutrients and maintains the host's well-being by controlling disorders and disease prevalent with a Western way of living such as constipation and diarrhoea, diabetes, obesity, gastrointestinal inflammation, atherosclerosis, and colon cancer. Although there are some studies demonstrating that dietary fibre may be effective in the prevention and treatment of these disorders, the mechanisms involved are yet to be understood.

Potential targets prediction of apigenin via virtual screening / 重庆医学

Objective To predict the potential targets of apigenin by virtual screening .Methods The targets preliminarily forecast by PharmMapper ,were validated by associating data mining and Autodock Vina in PyRx 0 .8 .Subsequently ,receptor‐ligand interactions were analyzed by Discovery Studio 3 .5 .Results The virtual screening by PharmMapper indicated that apigenin coupled well with the disease‐related targets including insulin receptor ,estradiol 17‐beta‐dehydrogenase 1 ,and cathepsin K .According to the data mining ,insulin receptor was found in related experimental researches ,while the other two had few reports previously .And then ,the interactions between apigenin and the target proteins were analyzed by Autodock Vina and Discovery Studio Visualizer 3 .5 ,involving hydrogen bonds ,electrostatic forces ,van der Waals forces etc .Conclusion The most potential targets of apigenin were insulin receptor ,while 17‐beta‐dehydrogenase 1 and cathepsin K were also possible .

The antitumor effect of snake venom toxins and its application in medical field / 药学实践杂志

Objective To discuss the antitumor effect of snake venom toxins and its application in medical field .Methods To review the research progress of composition ,the antitumor effect and mechanism of snake venom toxins .Results It was demonstrated that the snake venom toxins can stop various tumor cells from growing ,and have the functions of killing the tumor cells ,inducing cell death ,and inhibition of angiogenesis .Conclusion It is an important direction in antitumor drug re-search and development to deeply research the composition and the mechanisms of action of the snake venom toxins .

Research advance of selective inhibitor of tumornecrosis factor receptor / 药学实践杂志

TNF signaling pathway was a valuable target ,and anti-TNF drugs were successfully used to treat autoim-mune and inflammatory diseases .But this therapy abrogate some beneficial TNF signaling ,leading to increased risk of infection and malignancy ,and the onset of new auto-immune diseases .Inhibiting the soluble TNF/TNFR1 axis while saving the benefi-cial transmembrane TNF/TNFR2 signaling untouched was a new approach .Because it inhibited the pathological effects of TNF and reduced the side effects ,and opened the way for the treatment of other diseases in which TNFR2 inhibition was detrimen-tal .The significance of the selective inhibition of TNFR1-mediated signaling pathways for TNF-related diseases was discussed and the mechanism of TNF identification TNFR was clarified ,which might provide new ideas for the design of new drugs .