Improvement of Post-Surgery Constipation in Patients with Fractures by Lactobacillus rhamnosus JYLR-127: A Single-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial.

The high prevalence of constipation after fracture surgery brings intolerable discomfort to patients on the one hand, and affects post-surgery nutrient absorption on the other hand, resulting in poor prognosis. Given the acknowledged probiotic properties of Lactobacillus rhamnosus, 100 fracture patients with post-surgery constipation were centrally enrolled and administered orally with L. rhamnosus JYLR-127 to assess the efficacy of probiotic-adjuvant therapy in alleviating post-fracture constipation symptoms. The results showed that L. rhamnosus JYLR-127 improved fecal properties, promoted gastrointestinal recovery, and relieved constipation symptoms, which were mainly achieved by elevating Firmicutes (p < 0.01) and descending Bacteroidetes (p < 0.001), hence remodeling the disrupted intestinal microecology. In addition, blood routine presented a decrease in C-reactive protein levels (p < 0.05) and an increase in platelet counts (p < 0.05) after probiotic supplementation, prompting the feasibility of L. rhamnosus JYLR-127 in anti-inflammation, anti-infection and hemorrhagic tendency prevention after fracture surgery. Our study to apply probiotics in ameliorating constipation after fracture surgery is expected to bless the bothered patients, and provide broader application scenarios for L. rhamnosus preparations.

Calcium ions promote migrasome formation via Synaptotagmin-1.

Migrasomes, organelles crucial for cell communication, undergo distinct stages of nucleation, maturation, and expansion. The regulatory mechanisms of migrasome formation, particularly through biological cues, remain largely unexplored. This study reveals that calcium is essential for migrasome formation. Furthermore, we identify that Synaptotagmin-1 (Syt1), a well-known calcium sensor, is not only enriched in migrasomes but also indispensable for their formation. The calcium-binding ability of Syt1 is key to initiating migrasome formation. The recruitment of Syt1 to migrasome formation sites (MFS) triggers the swelling of MFS into unstable precursors, which are subsequently stabilized through the sequential recruitment of tetraspanins. Our findings reveal how calcium regulates migrasome formation and propose a sequential interaction model involving Syt1 and Tetraspanins in the formation and stabilization of migrasomes.

Edible traditional Chinese medicines improve type 2 diabetes by modulating gut microbiotal metabolites.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disorder with intricate pathogenic mechanisms. Despite the availability of various oral medications for controlling the condition, reports of poor glycemic control in type 2 diabetes persist, possibly involving unknown pathogenic mechanisms. In recent years, the gut microbiota have emerged as a highly promising target for T2DM treatment, with the metabolites produced by gut microbiota serving as crucial intermediaries connecting gut microbiota and strongly related to T2DM. Increasingly, traditional Chinese medicine is being considered to target the gut microbiota for T2DM treatment, and many of them are edible. In studies conducted on animal models, edible traditional Chinese medicine have been shown to primarily alter three significant gut microbiotal metabolites: short-chain fatty acids, bile acids, and branched-chain amino acids. These metabolites play crucial roles in alleviating T2DM by improving glucose metabolism and reducing inflammation. This review primarily summarizes twelve edible traditional Chinese medicines that improve T2DM by modulating the aforementioned three gut microbiotal metabolites, along with potential underlying molecular mechanisms, and also incorporation of edible traditional Chinese medicines into the diets of T2DM patients and combined use with probiotics for treating T2DM are discussed.

The phosphatidylinositol (4,5)-bisphosphate-Rab35 axis regulates migrasome formation.

Migrasomes are recently discovered organelles, which are formed on the ends or branch points of retraction fibers at the trailing edge of migrating cells. Previously, we showed that recruitment of integrins to the site of migrasome formation is essential for migrasome biogenesis. In this study, we found that prior to migrasome formation, PIP5K1A, a PI4P kinase which converts PI4P into PI(4,5)P2, is recruited to migrasome formation sites. The recruitment of PIP5K1A results in generation of PI(4,5)P2 at the migrasome formation site. Once accumulated, PI(4,5)P2 recruits Rab35 to the migrasome formation site by interacting with the C-terminal polybasic cluster of Rab35. We further demonstrated that active Rab35 promotes migrasome formation by recruiting and concentrating integrin α5 at migrasome formation sites, which is likely mediated by the interaction between integrin α5 and Rab35. Our study identifies the upstream signaling events orchestrating migrasome biogenesis.

Neuroprotective effect of engineered Clostridiumbutyricum-pMTL007-GLP-1 on Parkinson's disease mice models via promoting mitophagy.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease with limited treatment and no cure, hence, broadening PD drug spectrum is of great significance. At present, engineered microorganisms are attracting increasing attention. In this study, we constructed an engineered strain of Clostridium butyricum-GLP-1, a C. butyricum (a probiotic) that consistently expresses glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1, a peptide-based hormone with neurological advantage) in anticipation of its use in PD treatment. We further investigated the neuroprotective mechanism of C. butyricum-GLP-1 on PD mice models induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine. The results indicated that C. butyricum-GLP-1 could improve motor dysfunction and ameliorate neuropathological changes by increasing TH expression and reducing the expression of α-syn. Moreover, we confirmed that C. butyricum-GLP-1 improved microbiome imbalance of PD mice by decreasing the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium at the genus level, improved gut integrity, and upregulated the levels of GPR41/43. Surprisingly, we found it could exert its neuroprotective effects via promoting PINK1/Parkin mediated mitophagy and attenuating oxidative stress. Together, our work showed that C. butyricum-GLP-1 improves PD by promoting mitophagy, which provides an alternative therapeutic modality for PD.

Postoperative Probiotics Administration Attenuates Gastrointestinal Complications and Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis Caused by Chemotherapy in Colorectal Cancer Patients.

The current study aims to evaluate the potential roles of taking probiotics postoperatively in attenuating the gastrointestinal complications and disturbed gut microbiota in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients undergoing chemotherapy. One hundred eligible CRC patients who were treated with radical surgery and needed to receive chemotherapy were recruited. Half of them were randomly assigned to the Probio group to take a probiotic combination from post-operation to the end of the first chemotherapeutic course. The other half of patients taking placebo instead were classified as the Placebo group. Gastrointestinal complications such as nausea, acid reflux, abdominal pain, abdominal distention, constipation, and diarrhea were recorded during chemotherapy. Fecal samples were collected preoperatively and after the first cycle of postoperative chemotherapy for 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) analysis. Results showed that probiotics administration could effectively reduce chemotherapy-induced gastrointestinal complications, particularly in diarrhea (p < 0.01). Additionally, chemotherapy also reduced the bacterial diversity indexes of the gut microbiota in CRC patients, which could be significantly increased by taking probiotics. Moreover, this chemotherapy caused significant changes in the composition of the gut microbiota, as indicated by decreased phylum levels of Firmicutes and increased Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia. In particular, several bacterial genera such as Akkermansia and Clostridium were significantly increased, while Prevotella, Lactobacillus, and Roseburia were decreased (p < 0.05). However, probiotic administration could effectively restore these taxa changes both at the phylum and genus levels, and mildly increase the genus levels of Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus, and Blautia. Furthermore, probiotics could also promote the production of SCFAs, particularly increasing acetate, butyrate, and propionate (p < 0.0001). These results support the beneficial effects of the probiotic interventions as novel alternative or complementary strategies in chemoprevention.

Correlation analysis between IL-35, IL-36γ, CCL27 and psoriasis vulgaris.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluating the serum level of IL-35, IL-36γ and CCL27 cytokines expression in patients with psoriasis and to explore their correlation with disease severity. To explore the role of these cytokines in the pathogenesis of psoriasis vulgaris and to guide clinical practice. METHODS: Thirty patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PV) were treated with routine drug treatment for7 weeks, and 30 healthy controls were used as control group. Peripheral blood of the PV group before and after treatment and control group were detected by double-antibody sandwich ELISA. The expression levels of IL-35, IL-36γ and CCL27 in peripheral blood were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: The expression of IL-35 in the peripheral blood of the pre-PV group (187.54 ± 172.41) was significantly lower than that of the control group (310.52 ± 174.22) and the PV treatment group (417.75 ± 47.07). The level of IL-36γ in peripheral blood of pre-PV group (295.11 ± 27.91) was higher than that of control group (155.40 ± 45.66) and PV treatment group (209.86 ± 27.91). The level of CCL27 in peripheral blood of patients pre-PV treatment (479.06 ± 285.80) was significantly higher than that of the control group (341.53 ± 98.72) and the group after PV treatment (316.56 ± 245.53). There was a negative correlation between IL-35 and IL-36γ levels in serum (r= -0.826, p < .001); IL-36γ was positively correlated with CCL27 level (r = 0.906, p < .001); IL-35 and CCL27 levels were negative correlation (r= -0.810, p < .001). CONCLUSION: IL-36γ and CCL27 may be involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis as a pro-inflammatory factor. IL-35 may be involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis as an anti-inflammatory factor.

Investigation on the Transformation of Absorbed Oxygen at ZnO {101Ì 0} Surface Based on a Novel Thermal Pulse Method and Density Functional Theory Simulation.

Absorbed oxygen plays a key role in gas sensing process of ZnO nanomaterials. In this work, the transformation of absorbed oxygen on ZnO (101̅0) and its effects on gas sensing properties to ethanol are studied by a novel thermal pulse method and density functional theory (DFT) simulation. Thermal pulse results reveal that the absorbed O2 molecule dissociates into two individual oxygen adatoms by extracting electrons from ZnO surface layers when temperature is above 443 K. The temperature at which absorbed O2 molecule begins to dissociate is the lowest working temperature for gas sensing. DFT simulation demonstrates the dissociation process of O2 at ZnO (101̅0) surface, and the activation energy (Ea) of dissociation is calculated to be 351.71 kJ/mol, which suggests that the absorbed O2 molecule is not likely to dissociate at room temperature. The reactions between ethanol and absorbed O2 molecule, as well as reactions between ethanol and O adatom, are also simulated. The results indicate that ethanol cannot react with absorbed O2 molecule, while it can be oxidized by O adatom to acetaldehyde and then to acetic acid spontaneously. Mulliken charge analysis suggests electrons extracted by O adatom return to ZnO after the oxidation of ethanol.

Long-term performance of rapid oxidation of arsenite in simulated groundwater using a population of arsenite-oxidizing microorganisms in a bioreactor.

A population of arsenite-oxidizing microorganisms enriched from the tailing of the Shimen realgar mine was used to generate biofilms on the surfaces of perlites. This bioreactor is able to completely oxidize 1100 µg/L As(III) dissolved in simulated groundwater into As(V) within 10 min; after 140 days of operation, approximately 20 min were required to completely oxidize the same concentration of As(III). Analysis for the 16S rRNA genes of the microbial community showed that Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria are dominant in the reactor. Six different bacterial strains were randomly isolated from the reactor. Function and gene analysis indicated that all the isolates possess arsenite-oxidizing activity, and five of them are chemoautotrophic. Further analysis showed that a large diversity of AioAs and two types of RuBisCOs are present in the microbial community. This suggests that many chemoautotrophic arsenite-oxidizing microorganisms were responsible for quick oxidation of arsenite in the reactor. We also found that the reactor is easily regenerated and its number is readily expanded. To the best of our knowledge, the arsenite-oxidizing efficiency, which was expressed as the minimum time for complete oxidization of a certain concentration of As(III) under a single operation, of this bioreactor is the highest among the described bioreactors; it is also the most stable, economic and environment-friendly.

Two ancestral APETALA3 homologs from the basal angiosperm Magnolia wufengensis (Magnoliaceae) can affect flower development of Arabidopsis.

APETALA3 (AP3) homologs are involved in specifying petal and stamen identities in core eudicot model organisms. In order to investigate the functional conservation of AP3 homologs between core eudicots and basal angiosperm, we isolated and identified two AP3 homologs from Magnolia wufengensis, a woody basal angiosperm belonging to the family Magnoliaceae. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses revealed that both genes are clade members of the paleoAP3 lineage. Moreover, a highly conserved motif of paleoAP3 is found in the C-terminal regions of MAwuAP3_1/2 proteins, but the PI-derived motif, usually present in AP3/DEF-like lineage members, is missing. Semi-quantitative and real time PCR analyses showed that the expression of MAwuAP3_1/2 was restricted to tepals and stamens. However, the MAwuAP3_1 expression was maintained at a high level during the rapid increased in size of tepals and stamens, while MAwuAP3_2 mRNA was only detected at the early stage of tepal and stamen development. Furthermore, the expression of MAwuAP3_1/2 in transgenic Arabidopsis causes phenotypic changes which partly resemble those caused by ectopic expressions of the endogenous AP3 gene. Moreover, the 35S::MAwuAP3_1/2 transgenic Arabidopsis can be used partially to rescue the loss-of-function ap3 mutant (ap3-3) of Arabidopsis. These findings call for a more comprehensive understanding of the B-functional evolution from basal angiosperm to core eudicot clades.