Haze Exposure Changes the Skin Fungal Community and Promotes the Growth of Talaromyces Strains.

Haze pollution has been a public health issue. The skin microbiota, as a component of the first line of defense, is disturbed by environmental pollutants, which may have an impact on human health. A total of 74 skin samples from healthy students were collected during haze and nonhaze days in spring and winter. Significant differences of skin fungal community composition between haze and nonhaze days were observed in female and male samples in spring and male samples in winter based on unweighted UniFrac distance analysis. Phylogenetic diversity whole-tree indices and observed features were significantly increased during haze days in male samples in winter compared to nonhaze days, but no significant difference was observed in other groups. Dothideomycetes, Capnodiales, Mycosphaerellaceae, etc. were significantly enriched during nonhaze days, whereas Trichocomaceae, Talaromyces, and Pezizaceae were significantly enriched during haze days. Thus, five Talaromyces strains were isolated, and an in vitro culture experiment revealed that the growth of representative Talaromyces strains was increased at high concentrations of particulate matter, confirming the sequencing results. Furthermore, during haze days, the fungal community assembly was better fitted to a niche-based assembly model than during nonhaze days. Talaromyces enriched during haze days deviated from the neutral assembly process. Our findings provided a comprehensive characterization of the skin fungal community during haze and nonhaze days and elucidated novel insights into how haze exposure influences the skin fungal community. IMPORTANCE Skin fungi play an important role in human health. Particulate matter (PM), the main haze pollutant, has been a public environmental threat. However, few studies have assessed the effects of air pollutants on skin fungi. Here, haze exposure influenced the diversity and composition of the skin fungal community. In an in vitro experiment, a high concentration of PM promoted the growth of Talaromyces strains. The fungal community assembly is better fitted to a niche-based assembly model during haze days. We anticipate that this study may provide new insights on the role of haze exposure disturbing the skin fungal community. It lays the groundwork for further clarifying the association between the changes of the skin fungal community and adverse health outcomes. Our study is the first to report the changes in the skin fungal community during haze and nonhaze days, which expands the understanding of the relationship between haze and skin fungi.

Integrated in silico formulation design of self-emulsifying drug delivery systems.

The drug formulation design of self-emulsifying drug delivery systems (SEDDS) often requires numerous experiments, which are time- and money-consuming. This research aimed to rationally design the SEDDS formulation by the integrated computational and experimental approaches. 4495 SEDDS formulation datasets were collected to predict the pseudo-ternary phase diagram by the machine learning methods. Random forest (RF) showed the best prediction performance with 91.3% for accuracy, 92.0% for sensitivity and 90.7% for specificity in 5-fold cross-validation. The pseudo-ternary phase diagrams of meloxicam SEDDS were experimentally developed to validate the RF prediction model and achieved an excellent prediction accuracy (89.51%). The central composite design (CCD) was used to screen the best ratio of oil-surfactant-cosurfactant. Finally, molecular dynamic (MD) simulation was used to investigate the molecular interaction between excipients and drugs, which revealed the diffusion behavior in water and the role of cosurfactants. In conclusion, this research combined machine learning, central composite design, molecular modeling and experimental approaches for rational SEDDS formulation design. The integrated computer methodology can decrease traditional drug formulation design works and bring new ideas for future drug formulation design.

Thermal Extrusion 3D Printing for the Fabrication of Puerarin Immediate-Release Tablets.

Thermal extrusion (TE) 3D printing is a thermoplastic semisolid-based rapid prototyping process, which is capable of building complex structures. The aim of this study was to manufacture rapid-release puerarin tablets without solvent through TE 3D printing. Novel rapid-release tablets were fabricated with polyethylene glycol (PEG 4000) as the carrier at appropriate puerarin/PEG 4000 ratios, assessed through differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), solubility, and dissolution tests. The novel structures of 3D-printed tablets with five different values were formed by printing paths, which established a flexible way of adjusting in vitro drug release. An obvious acceleration (85% of cumulative release about 7.5 min at the soonest) was observed for the tablets with internal structural design. It was inferred that puerarin formed simple eutectic mixtures with PEG 4000 and that puerarin dispersed into the carrier based on DSC and X-Ray powder diffraction (XRD). This highlights the combined advantage of PEG as a soluble polymer with TE 3D printing and provides a suitable system for rapid puerarin release.