ObjectiveTo investigate the prevalence of preoperative malnutrition and nutrition support among gastrointestinal cancer patients.MethodsA retrospective study was conducted based on the nutritional status and nutrition support of 336 gastrointestinal cancer patients who received elective radical surgery in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from April to December 2009.ResultsMalnutrition was found in 34.6％ gastric cancer patients,23.8 ％ colorectal cancer patients,and 23 ％ esophageal and cardiac cancer patients.The patients with worse nutritional status were given longer duration of nutrition support and higher energy intake.Conclusion Malnutrition occurs in gastrointestinal cancer patients,yet sometimes treated with inappropriate nutrition support.

Objective To investigate the pathogens and their drug resistance of neonatal skin infection in Maternal-Neonatal Unit to provide evidence for rational selection of antibiotics.Methods Secretions of skin lesions from newborns with skin infections delivered in Maternal-Neonatal Unit,Department of Obstetrics of Beijing Daxing People's Hospital from Jan.2009 to Dec.2010 were collected,cultured and identified for bacterial serotype.Antibiotic resistances of pathogens were determined.Enumeration data was presented by frequency and rate.The difference between groups was compared with Chi-square test.Results Two hundred and six newborn skin infection cases were diagnosed,which accounted for 2.3％ of all newborns (n=9131) delivered in the hospital during the study period.Two types of skin infection were identified,impetigo (n=192,93.2％) and omphalitis (n=14,6.8％).Totally 154 pathogens were found,including 95 (61.7％) Gram-positive cocci and 59 (38.3 ％) Gram-negative bacilli.The major pathogens among Gram-positive cocci were Staphylococcus aureus (45/154, 29.2％), followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus haemolyticus.Staphylococcus was sensitive to Cefazolin,Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and Piperacillin/tazobactam,while resistant to Penicillin,Ampicillin and Erythromycin.The major pathogens among Gram-negative bacilli were Enterobacter cloacae (19/154,12.3％),followed by Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae.Drug resistance rate of Gram-negative bacilli was high in penicillin,aminoglycosides and cephalosporins,while they were sensitive to piperacillin/tazobactam,Ampicillin/sulbactam,carbapenems and Quinolones.Conclusions Gram-positive cocci are the main pathogens of neonatal skin infection in the Maternal-Neonatal Unit,and among which Staphylococcus aureus is the major pathogen.Multi-drug resistance is common in the identified pathogens.Attentions should be paid to use antibiotics reasonably according to drug sensitivity test.

Swabbing samples were routinely collected from health care workers ( HCW) contacting newborns in Obstetrics Department of our hospital on every Wednesday during January to December 2015. Total 495 samples from nasal vestibule and 483 samples from hands of HCW were collected for bacterial culture.The carrying status of methicillin-resistant staphylococccus aureus ( MRSA) was analyzed.The results showed that the average carrying rate of MRSA in the nasal vestibule was 8.1%(40/495) and that in hands was 5.0(24/483)(χ2 =3.871, P<0.05).The MRSA detection rate of nasal vestibular samples in the second quarter was the highest [12.2%(17/139)], while that of hands samples was highest in the first quarter [ 15.3%( 15/98 ) ] . The study indicates that carrying rate of MRSA in health care workers contacting newborns of our hospital is high , and the training and monitoring should be strengthened among health workers to reduce the MRSA carrying rate .

Total 1 452 newborns were home visited within 28 d after birth during January 2016 to December 2016,and 27 cases of skin infections were found.Umbilical inflammation was more common (11 cases),followed by folliculitis (9 cases) and impetigo (7 cases).Samples were collected for bacterial culture and identification from the skin of infected newborns,the hands and nasal cavity of family baby caretakers,and household articles,including faucets,mobile phones,toilet buttons and so on.The pathogens identified were Staphylococcus aureus in 20 cases (including 2 methicillin-resistant strains) and Escherichia coli in 7 cases.The isolation of Staphylococcus aureus in household articles was significantly correlated with newborns infected with Staphylococcus aureus (x2=678.808,P＜0.01);and the isolation of Staphylococcus aureus from family baby caretakers was also significantly associated with neonatal Staphylococcus aureus infection (x2=820.396,P＜0.01).In 7 cases of Escherichia coli infection,the Escherichia coli were detected from samples of baby caretakers or household articles.The study suggests that the awareness of baby caretakers and home hygiene are important to reduce neonatal skin infections.

Objective:To explore the main management points and ethical considerations of diabetic subjects involved in hypoglycemic drug clinical trials.Methods:Taking the subject management of a hypoglycemic drug clinical trial in Yuncheng Central Hospital as an example, the problems and measures in the subject management of diabetic patients were systematically discussed.Results:In hypoglycemic drug clinical trial that involving diabetic patients, ethical considerations regarding to the subjects' rights, safety and health should take into account in the whole process of subjects' recruitment, screening, enrollment and follow-up.Conclusions:Subject management taking into account of ethical consideration can better protect the safety and rights of subjects, enhance the compliance of subjects and improve the quality of drug clinical trials.

Objective:To analyze the prognosis of glucose metabolism and its impacting factors at 6-12 weeks postpartum in patients with abnormal blood glucose during pregnancy.Methods:In this cross-sectional study, a total of 192 patients with abnormal blood glucose during pregnancy enrolled and delivered in the maternity clinic of Daxing Teaching Hospital of Capital Medical University from December 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020 were collected. The 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was applied for diabetes screening at 6-12 weeks after delivery. According to the results of postpartum blood glucose, the patients were divided into two groups: postpartum normal blood glucose group (148 cases) and abnormal blood glucose group (44 cases). Hypothesis testing was used to compare the clinical data before, during and after the pregnancy between the two groups. Multi-factor logistic regression was performed to analyze the influencing factors of postpartum abnormal blood glucose in patients with abnormal blood glucose during pregnancy.Results:Among the 192 patients with abnormal blood glucose during pregnancy, the incidence of postpartum abnormal blood glucose was 22.92% (44/192), including 6 cases of diabetes mellitus (DM) (13.64%), 38 cases of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (86.36%). Neck circumference, waist circumference, multiparous women and insulin use during pregnancy in postpartum abnormal blood glucose group were all significantly higher than those in postpartum normal blood glucose group [34.25(33.00, 36.00) vs 33.55 (32.00, 35.00) cm, 87.00 (82.00, 93.00) vs 84.00 (78.00, 90.00) cm, 54.55% vs 37.16%, 18.18% vs 6.76%] (all P<0.05). Neck circumference ( OR=1.315, 95% CI: 1.026-1.685), multiparous women ( OR=2.261, 95% CI: 1.057-4.836), insulin use during pregnancy ( OR=3.767, 95% CI: 1.236-11.478) were positively correlated with the occurrence of postpartum abnormal blood glucose (all P<0.05). Conclusions:The incidence of postpartum abnormal blood glucose is high at 6-12 weeks postpartum in patients with abnormal blood glucose during pregnancy. Neck circumference, waist circumference, parity and insulin use during pregnancy are important impacting factors of postpartum abnormal blood glucose.

Objective To observe the effect of comprehensive rehabilitation combined with home-based direction on spastic cerebral palsy.Methods 42 children with spastic cerebral palsy were divided into treatment group (n=21) and control group (n=21). The treatment group accepted comprehensive rehabilitation and home adjusted. Their parents participated in the rehabilitation and received home-based direction.The control group resigned the rehabilitation for poverty or other reasons, without home adjusted. They were assessed with Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-88) and Activities of Daily Living of Cerebral Palsy before and 6 months after treatment. Results The scores of GMFM-88 and Activities of Daily Living of Cerebral Palsy improved in the treatment group after treatment (P<0.05), and improved more in the treatment group than in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion Rehabilitation training combined with home-based direction could improve the gross motor function and activities of daily living in children with spastic cerebral palsy.

Dopamine is the precursor of a variety of natural antioxidant compounds. In the body, dopamine acts as a neurotransmitter that regulates a variety of physiological functions of the central nervous system. Thus, dopamine is used for the clinical treatment of various types of shock. Dopamine could be produced by engineered microbes, but with low efficiency. In this study, DOPA decarboxylase gene from Sus scrofa (Ssddc) was cloned into plasmids with different copy numbers, and transformed into a previously developed L-DOPA producing strain Escherichia coli T004. The resulted strain was capable of producing dopamine from glucose directly. To further improve the production of dopamine, a sequence-based homology alignment mining (SHAM) strategy was applied to screen more efficient DOPA decarboxylases, and five DOPA decarboxylase genes were selected from 100 candidates. In shake-flask fermentation, the DOPA decarboxylase gene from Homo sapiens (Hsddc) showed the highest dopamine production (3.33 g/L), while the DOPA decarboxylase gene from Drosophila Melanogaster (Dmddc) showed the least residual L-DOPA concentration (0.02 g/L). In 5 L fed-batch fermentations, production of dopamine by the two engineered strains reached 13.3 g/L and 16.2 g/L, respectively. The residual concentrations of L-DOPA were 0.45 g/L and 0.23 g/L, respectively. Finally, the Ssddc and Dmddc genes were integrated into the genome of E. coli T004 to obtain genetically stable dopamine-producing strains. In 5 L fed-batch fermentation, 17.7 g/L of dopamine was produced, which records the highest titer reported to date.
Animals ; Dopa Decarboxylase/genetics* ; Dopamine/biosynthesis* ; Drosophila melanogaster/genetics* ; Escherichia coli/metabolism* ; Humans ; Metabolic Engineering

p-coumaric acid is an important natural phenolic compound with a variety of pharmacological activities, and also a precursor for the biosynthesis of many natural compounds. It is widely used in foods, cosmetics and medicines. Compared with the chemical synthesis and plant extraction, microbial production of p-coumaric acid has many advantages, such as energy saving and emission reduction. However, the yield of p-coumaric acid by microbial synthesis is too low to meet the requirements of large-scale industrial production. Here, to further improve p-coumaric acid production, the directed evolution of tyrosine ammonia lyase (TAL) encoded by Rhodotorula glutinis tal gene was conducted, and a high-throughput screening method was established to screen the mutant library for improve the property of TAL. A mutant with a doubled TAL catalytic activity was screened from about 10,000 colonies of the mutant library. There were three mutational amino acid sites in this TAL, namely S9Y, A11N, and E518A. It was further verified by a single point saturation mutation. When S9 was mutated to Y, I or N, or A11 was mutated to N, T or Y, the catalytic activity of TAL increased by more than 1-fold. Through combinatorial mutation of three types of mutations at the S9 and A11, the TAL catalytic activity of S9Y/A11N or S9N/A11Y mutants were significantly higher than that of other mutants. Then, the plasmid containing S9N/A11Y mutant was transformed into CP032, a tyrosine-producing E. coli strain. The engineered strain produced 394.2 mg/L p-coumaric acid, which is 2.2-fold higher than that of the control strain, via shake flask fermentation at 48 h. This work provides a new insight for the biosynthesis study of p-coumaric acid.
Ammonia-Lyases/genetics* ; Escherichia coli/genetics* ; Propionates ; Rhodotorula ; Tyrosine/genetics*

Metabolic engineering has been developed for nearly 30 years since the early 1990s, and it has given a great impetus to microbial strain breeding and improvement. Aromatic chemicals are a variety of important chemicals that can be produced by microbial fermentation and are widely used in the pharmaceutical, food, feed, and material industry. Microbial cells can be engineered to accumulate a variety of useful aromatic chemicals in a targeted manner through rational engineering of the biosynthetic pathways of shikimate and the derived aromatic amino acids. This review summarizes the metabolic engineering strategies and biosynthetic pathways for the production of aromatic chemicals developed in the past 30 years, with the aim to provide a valuable reference and promote the research in this field.
Biosynthetic Pathways ; Fermentation ; Metabolic Engineering ; Shikimic Acid