Real-world evidence of a novel tetravalent immunoglobulin Y effectiveness and safety in patients with the refractory Helicobacter pylori infection.

BACKGROUND: Refractory Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection inevitably increase the difficulty of drug selection. Here, we described our experience with the use of a novel tetravalent IgY against H. pylori for the treatment of patients with refractory H. pylori infection. METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned to receive the standard quadruple therapy (amoxicillin, clarithromycin, omeprazole and bismuth potassium citrate ) for 2 weeks or 250 mg of avian polyclonal IgY orally twice a day for 4 weeks. The binding efficacy of IgY to H. pylori antigens was detected by western blotting13. C-urea breath test was performed to evaluate the eradication therap's efficacy. The side effects of IgY were evaluated via various routine tests. The questionnaire was used to gather clinical symptoms and adverse reactions. RESULTS: Western blot analysis showed that tetravalent IgY simultaneously bind to VacA, HpaA, CagA and UreB of H. pylori. Tetravalent IgY had an eradication rate of 50.74% in patients with refractory H. pylori and an inhibition rate of 50.04% against DOB (delta over baseline) of 13C-urea. The symptom relief rate was 61.76% in thirty-four patients with clinical symptoms, and no adverse reactions were observed during tetravalent IgY treatment period. CONCLUSIONS: Polyclonal avian tetravalent IgY reduced H. pylori infection, and showed good efficacy and safety in the treatment of refractory H. pylori infection patients, which represented an effective therapeutic option of choice for patients with refractory H. pylori infection.

Lysosome-Specific Coumarin-Based Fluorescent Bioprobes for in Vivo Polarity Sensing and Cancer Treatment.

About 90% of cancer deaths worldwide are caused by the spread of cancer cells from the primary tumor to distant organs (metastasis). Therefore, there is an urgent need for an early diagnosis and treatment before cancer metastasis occurs. Lysosomes have emerged as attractive targets for cancer diagnosis and treatment because polar defects in lysosomes can induce apoptosis and cell death. Coumarin is a known polar-sensitive dye with good biocompatibility; because of this, we constructed two fluorescent probes of coumarin derivatives with the "D-π-A" structure, CouN-1 and CouN-2, through three simple reactions. In molecular design, due to morpholine's prominent lysosomal targeting characteristics, it was used as both lysosomal targeting motifs and an electron donor (D), while coumarin was used as an electron acceptor (A). The experimental results strongly proved that CouN-1 and CouN-2 have a good linear relationship with the polarity change of Δf = 0.209-0.308. In addition, both in vitro and in vivo imaging results have shown that CouN-1 and CouN-2 can specifically identify and monitor tumor sites. In the cell uptake and apoptosis experiments, the two probes also showed a strong antiproliferation effect on cancer cells. All of these characteristics demonstrated the potential of these two polarity-sensitive biological probes, CouN-1 and CouN-2, in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Dissolved organic matter evolution can reflect the maturity of compost: Insight into common composting technology and material composition.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) can clearly reflect composting components changes, thus it is supposed to indicate the humification process during composting. To demonstrate this, three compost mixtures and two techniques were arranged. DOM evolution was detected by three spectral techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the crystal structure substances decreased gradually during the composting, including cellulose, struvite, sylvine, quartz, and calcite; Specifically, the struvite was found, which was conducive to the fixation of nitrogen and phosphorus. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy (3D-EEM) further showed that pig manure-based mixtures, added cabbage, and windrow composting are beneficial to sugar, protein, fulvic acid, and soluble microbial by-products decompose and humic acids produce. This process was closely related to the change of physical-chemical parameters (temperature; pH; moisture content; and NH4+-N content) and maturity index (C/N ratio, E4/E6 and GI). Therefore, DOM evolution could quickly reflect the maturity process of compost. In subsequent research, the quantitative analysis of DOM components can be considered to modify DOM spectral parameters, or to build a model, so as to achieve rapid evaluation of compost maturity.

Fungal community succession contributes to product maturity during the co-composting of chicken manure and crop residues.

The succession of the fungal community during the co-composting of chicken manure and crop residues and its role in relation to compost maturity was deciphered using Illumina sequencing and FUNGuild (Fungi + Functional + Guild) tool. In the maturation phase of composting, the relative abundance of pathogenic and symbiotrophic fungi decreased by 68%-85% and 145%-622%, respectively, as compared to the initial phase, which showed 574%-720% increase in the saprotrophic guild. The pathogenic and saprotrophic fungi abundance was correlated to compost maturity represented by germination index and humic spectroscopic ratio (p < 0.05). Random forest analysis and structural equation modeling elucidated the positive effects of the aforementioned fungal taxa on compost maturity, and these effects were mediated by the micro-environmental variables, such as temperature, NH4+-N/NO3--N ratio and total organic carbon content. Our study outlines the importance of fungal community succession for improving composting performance and efficiency.

Community-level dormancy potential regulates bacterial beta-diversity succession during the co-composting of manure and crop residues.

This study aimed to disclose the bacterial diversity succession during the co-composting of manure and crop residues and to provide new insight into the role of community-level dormancy potential in diversity succession. Illumina sequencing and PICRUSt-estimated metagenomes were used for this purpose. The bacterial richness and phylogenetic diversity decreased in the early and middle stages of composting and were maintained to a stable status in the late stage. Both composting phases and raw materials impacted the aforementioned alpha diversity significantly, while the composting phases had a greater (80%-94%) impact than the raw materials (1%-18%). Bacterial beta-diversity succession exhibited selectivity as the composting proceeded, and the dominant taxa changed into salt- and heat-resistant genera such as Bacillus, Glycomyces, and Halocella. Meanwhile, Georgenia, Actinomadura, and Ruminofilibacter were identified as the dominant predictor taxa of bacterial community succession in composting. Roughly, the abundance of genes underlying dormancy strategies, including sporulation factors (spo0A gene), toxin-antitoxin systems (dinJ/yafP, mazF/E, hipA/O, and relA/E genes), and resuscitation-promoting factors (rpfC gene), increased as composting proceeded and reached the highest in the thermophilic or maturation phases. Co-occurring relationships between bacterial communities and genes underlying dormancy strategies in different composting phases comprised multiple associations dominated by positive edges (50%-97%). The stability in genes underlying dormancy strategies and aggregate dormancy potential had a positive linear correlation with that in bacterial beta diversity (R2 = 0.26-0.42; P < 0.05), but not related significantly to that in richness and phylogenetic diversity. This study highlighted the importance of understanding how community-level dormancy strategies mediated microbial succession in composting to better predict compost maturity and product quality.