ObjectiveTo assess the clinical efficacy and regulation of skin microbiota in children with atopic dermatitis and damp-heat accumulation syndrome treated by Zhaqu Xiaofeng Powder （楂曲消风散， ZXP）. MethodsNinety children were randomized into a treatment group and a control group， each with 45 children. The treatment group received ZXP orally， while the control group received levocetirizine hydrochloride syrup， both for 4 weeks. The atopic dermatitis severity index （SCORAD）score， visual analog scale （VAS）score for itching， children dermatology life quality index （CDLQI）score， and traditional Chinese medicine syndrome score were assessed before and after 2- and 4-week treatment. Simultaneously， adhering to the principles of sample size in microbial sequencing， 25 children were randomly selected from each group （total 50 children）； skin samples were collected before and after treatment， and skin specimen DNA was extracted for 16S rRNA gene amplifier sequencing； the skin microbiota levels were detected， and the distribution of bacteria， diversity of flora， and differences between groups were compared. ResultsThere were five drop-outs in each group， and 40 cases in each group were included in final analysis. After 2- and 4-week treatment， both groups showed a significant reduction in SCORAD scores， VAS scores， and CDLQI scores， and more reductions were shown after 4-week treatment than 2-week treatment （P＜0.01）. The SCORAD score， VAS score， and CDLQI score of the treatment group were significantly lower than those in the control group after 4-week treatment （P＜0.01）. The scores of upset， thirsty， poor appetite， short red urine， and dry stool were reduced in the treatment group （P＜0.05）， while the scores of thirsty， poor appetite， short and red urine decreased after treatment （P＜0.05）. After 4 weeks of treatment， among the differential genera with abundances ＞0.5% in the treatment group， The cumulative relative abundances of Staphylococcus aureus， Streptococcus_mitis， Escherichia coli and Gemella_haemolysans in the treatment group were downregulated after treatment； in the control group， there was a relative cumulative decrease in the abundance of Streptococcus_mitis. The control group had reduced relative abundance of Streptococcus_mitis， Escherichia coli， Staphylococcus aureus and Gemella_haemolysans， after treatment （P＜0.05）. Alpha diversity analysis revealed an increase in both Chaol index and Shannon index after treatment （P＜0.05）， while there was no significant difference in Chaol index and Shannon index in the control group before and after treatment （P＞0.05）. Higher Chaol index and Shannon index were found in the treatment group （P＜0.05）. Beta diversity analysis showed that there were significant differences in the microbial community structure at the lesion site between the treatment group and the control group before treatment. The microbial community structure in the treatment group was similar after treatment， while there was no significant change in the microbial community structure in the control group before and after treatment. There were significant structure differences of key bacteria genus in both groups before and after treatment. ConclusionZXP used in the treatment of pediatric atopic dermatitis （AD）with the syndrome of damp-heat accumulation， has shown efficacy in reducing the severity of skin lesions， alleviating itching， and enhancing the quality of life in children. This modulation aims to decrease the abundance of pathogenic bacteria while promoting the colonization of beneficial bacteria， thereby altering the skin microbiota and contributing to the treatment of pediatric AD.

OBJECTIVE: To screen the serum biomarkers in workers occupationally exposed to titanium dioxide nanoparticles(TiO_2 NPs) using metabolomics technology. METHODS: Using a typical sampling method, 56 workers who have occupationally exposed to TiO_(2 )in a TiO_2 NPs manufacturer were selected as the exposure group and 44 employees without occupational exposure to TiO_2 were selected as the control group. The high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry technology was used to perform non-targeted metabolomics detection. The difference in serum metabolite profiles of the TiO_2 NPs exposure group and the control group were analyzed. Key differential metabolites and potential biomarkers were screened. The sensitivity and specificity of biomarkers were assessed through receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve.RESULTS: We detected a total of 1 492 mass spectrum peaks in serum samples by serum metabolomics analysis, and 413 well-matched metabolites were obtained after annotation and identification. The results of principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis showed that a total of 296 differentially expressed metabolites were found in the serum of individuals of the exposure group compared with the control group(all P<0.01). Among them the relative expression of metabolites increased in 265 species and decreased in 31 species. The ROC analysis results showed that the area under the ROC curve of five metabolites exceeded 0.900, and these metabolites included tanacetol A,(5 E)-2-hydroxy-4-oxobenzopenta-5-en-1-ylacetic acid, triterpene saponins organic compounds, 9,10,13-trihydroxystearic acid, and liquoric acid. The multiple linear regression analysis showed that the relative expression of all the five metabolites were positively correlated with occupational exposure to TiO_2 NPs after adjusting for the influence of confounding factors such as gender, age, body mass index, smoking and drinking(all P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Occupational exposure to TiO_2 NPs could induce changes in serum metabolite profiles. The metabolites represented by tanacetol A in serum can be used as potential biomarkers for indicating occupational exposure to TiO_2 NPs.

Objective:To evaluate the effects of exposure of fine particle matter (PM 2.5) and ozone (O 3) in Beijing as the main pollutants on olfaction of SD rats. Methods:In October 16, 2018, twenty 8-week-old SD rats were randomly divided into two groups, 10 rats in the exposure group and 10 rats in the control group. They were fed in air pollutant exposure system and clean experimental environment respectively, and the concentrations of PM 2.5 and O 3 in each system were measured. The degree of olfaction damage of SD rats at different feeding time was assessed by using the buried food test (BFT). The difference of BFT time between the two groups was analyzed by performing the repeated measures analysis of variance. Results:The results showed that the concentrations of PM 2.5 and O 3 in the exposure group were (22.65±11.47) μg/m 3 and (12.36±5.87) μg/m 3, respectively, while those in the control group were both 0 μg/m 3. The repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the time of BFT in the exposure group was longer than that in the control group ( F=6.49, P=0.031). With the increase of feeding time, the time of BFT was prolonged ( F=61.69, P<0.001). Conclusion:Exposure to PM 2.5 and O 3in the atmosphere might lead to olfaction damage in rats.

Objective:To evaluate the effects of exposure of fine particle matter (PM 2.5) and ozone (O 3) in Beijing as the main pollutants on olfaction of SD rats. Methods:In October 16, 2018, twenty 8-week-old SD rats were randomly divided into two groups, 10 rats in the exposure group and 10 rats in the control group. They were fed in air pollutant exposure system and clean experimental environment respectively, and the concentrations of PM 2.5 and O 3 in each system were measured. The degree of olfaction damage of SD rats at different feeding time was assessed by using the buried food test (BFT). The difference of BFT time between the two groups was analyzed by performing the repeated measures analysis of variance. Results:The results showed that the concentrations of PM 2.5 and O 3 in the exposure group were (22.65±11.47) μg/m 3 and (12.36±5.87) μg/m 3, respectively, while those in the control group were both 0 μg/m 3. The repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the time of BFT in the exposure group was longer than that in the control group ( F=6.49, P=0.031). With the increase of feeding time, the time of BFT was prolonged ( F=61.69, P<0.001). Conclusion:Exposure to PM 2.5 and O 3in the atmosphere might lead to olfaction damage in rats.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of subchronic combined oral exposure of titanium dioxide nanoparticles and glucose on levels of serum folate and vitamin B₁₂ in young SD rats. METHODS: At first, the physical and chemical properties of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, such as particle size, shape, crystal form and agglomeration degree in solution system, were characterized in detail. Eighty 4-week-old young SD rats were randomly divided into 8 groups (10 rats in each group, half male and half female). The rats were exposed to titanium dioxide nanoparticles through intragastric administration at 0, 2, 10 and 50 mg/kg body weight with or without 1.8 g/kg glucose daily for 90 days. At last, the concentrations of serum folate and vitamin B₁₂ were detected. RESULTS: Titanium dioxide nanoparticles were anatase crystals, closely spherical shape, with an average particle size of (24±5) nm. In male young rats, compared with the control group, the serum folate concentration was significantly increased when exposed to titanium dioxide nanoparticles (10 mg/kg) and glucose. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). However, in female and male young rats, compared with glucose (1.8 g/kg) exposure group, titanium dioxide nanoparticles (50 mg/kg) and glucose significantly reduced the serum folate concentration. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Through statistical analysis of factorial design and calculation of interaction, obvious antagonistic effect was observed between titanium dioxide nanoparticles and glucose on the serum folate concentration in the young female SD rats. The combined oral exposure of titanium dioxide nanoparticles and glucose had little effect on the concentration of serum vitamin B₁₂ in the young SD rats, with no significant interaction between the two substances. It was only found that titanium dioxide nanoparticles (2 mg/kg) and glucose significantly increased the serum vitamin B₁₂ concentration, compared with glucose (1.8 g/kg) exposure group. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Subchronic combined oral exposure of titanium dioxide nanoparticles and glucose had an obvious antagonistic effect on serum folate concentrations in young SD rats.
Animals ; Female ; Folic Acid ; Glucose ; Male ; Metal Nanoparticles ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Titanium ; Vitamin B 12 ; Vitamins

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects and related mechanisms of oral exposure titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) for 90 days on the intestinal and the gut microbiota of rats, through fecal metabolomics. METHODS: Twelve 4-week-old clean-grade Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly de-vided into 2 groups by body weight, treated with TiO₂ NPs at dose of 0 or 50 mg/kg body weight everyday respectively for 90 days. The solution of each infection was freshly prepared and shocked fully by ultrasonic. Characterization of the particle size, crystal form, purity, and specific surface area of TiO₂ NPs was conducted. And the fresh feces of the rats were collected on the 90th day. After lyophilized and hydrophilic phase extraction, ultra performance liquid chromatography-Q-exactive orbitrap-high-resolution mass spectrometry system (UPLC-QEMS) was utilized for non-targeted determination of fecal meta-bolites. The metabolites were identified and labeled through Compound Discoverer 3.0 software, and used for subsequent metabolomics analysis. Bioinformatics analysis was carried out including unsupervised principal component analysis and supervised orthogonal projection to latent structure discriminant analysis for the differential metabolites between the two groups. The differential metabolites were followed-up for Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the body weight of the rats was significantly reduced (P<0.05) in the treatment group. A total of 22 metabolites in fecal metabolomics showed significant changes. Among them, xanthine, 1-methyladenine, 3-hydroxypyridine, methionine sulfoxide, pyridoxine, 1,5-isoquinolinediol, N-acetylornithine, N-acetyl-D-galactosamine, L-citrulline, L-methionine, leucine, DL-tryptophan, L-ornithine, 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol, and L-glutamic acid totaled 15 metabolites increased significantly. N-acetylhistamine, D-pipecolinic acid, imidazolelactic acid, L-valine, 2,3,4,6-tetramethylpyrazine, caprolactam, and histamine totaled 7 metabolites decreased significantly. N-acetylhistamine, L-valine and methionine sulfoxide were changed more than 16 times. Analysis of KEGG pathway revealed that the two metabolic pathways arginine biosynthesis and aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis were significantly changed (false discover rate < 0.05, pathway impact > 0.1). CONCLUSION Oral exposure to TiO₂ NPs for 90 days could disrupt the metabolism of the intestine and gut microbiota, causing significant changes in metabolites and metabolic pathways which were related to inflammatory response, oxidative stress, glucose homeostasis, blood system and amino acid homeostasis in rat feces. It is suggested that the toxic effect of TiO₂ NPs on rats may be closely related to intestinal and gut microbiota metabolism.
Administration, Oral ; Animals ; Feces ; Metabolome ; Metal Nanoparticles ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Titanium

OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression of miR-550a-5p in bone marrow of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and to predict its target genes and function by bioinformatics analyses, so as to provide the evidence to furthre explore the role of miR-550a-5p and its target genes in pathogenesis of MDS.

METHODSReal-time PCR was used to detect the expression of miR-550a-5p in 54 MDS patients, 16 acute myeloid leukemia transformed from MDS (sfAML) and 19 healthy controls, and the correlation between the expression of miR-550a-5p and clinical pathologic characteristics of MDS, including chromosome, percentage of marrow blasts, absolute neutrophil count, platelet count and hemoglobin levels were analyzed. The sequence of miR-550 was searched in miRBase database. Target genes of miR-550a-5p were predicted by Microcosm,Miranda and Targetscan, and the predective results were collected, then the enrichment analyses of target gene function(GO) and signalling pathway(pathway of miR-550a-5p) were carried out by using gene ontology darabase and KEGG database.

RESULTSThe expression of miR-550a-5p in bone marrow of all MDS patients was higher than that in controls: the expression level of miR-550a-5p in low risk MDS and middl risk 1 MDS was 1.7 times of controls (P=1.23×10); the expression of miR-550a-5p in midde risk 2 MDS and high risk MDS was 1.9 times of controls (P=1.20×10); the expression of miR-550a-5p in tAML was 2.0 times of controls (P=5.61×10). The miR-550a-5p expression level was up-regulated gradually with the enhancement of disease risk of MDS, but there was no correlation between the expression level of miR-550a-5p and clinical pathologic characteristics of MDS(chromosome: Normal: 1.11±0.19, Abnormal:1.26±0.15, P>0.05; Percentage of Marrow Blasts: r=0.29,P=0.07; absolute neutrophil count: r=-0.02,P=0.89; hemoglobin level: r=0.09,P=0.57; platelet count: r=0.25,P=0.08). The sequence of miR-550 was conservative among different species, and the prediced results indicated that there were 19 target genes in intersection. The functions of target genes were enriched in regulation of stress-activated cascade, MAPK pathway, regulation of muscle organ development, regulation of protein homodimerization activity and other biological processes; they participated in some molecular functions including enzyme activity, combination processes of some molecules as protein, cAMP and domain existed in cell junction, synapse, coated vesicle, dendrite and other cellular components. Two of them-PDLIM2 and PSME1 were selected which might play a role in pathologic mechanism of MDS regulated by miR-550a-5p.

CONCLUSIONThe expression of miR-550a-5p in bone marrow of MDS patients increases specifically, and miR-550a-5p may play a role in the pathogenesis of MDS through regulation of target genes, PDLIM2 and PSME1.

Objective To investigate the literature characteristics and research topics on cardiovascular diseases in the occupational population quantitatively via a bibliometric analysis,and to provide a reference for the selection of research directions.Methods A search strategy was developed according to the words in Medical Subject Heading (MeSH),and PubMed database was searched for articles on cardiovascular diseases in the occupational population published from 2006 to 2015.The information of published year,authors,journals,and MeSH words was extracted,frequently used MeSH words were screened out,and a cluster analysis was performed for frequently used MeSH words.Results A total of 1 272 articles were found,and about 150 articles were published annually from 2011 to 2015.Most articles were published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine,and the author Tohr Nilsson had the highest number of published articles.The influencing factors mainly included occupational mental stress,smoking,and working system,and the health outcomes attracting the most attention were hypertension,hand-arm vibration,ischemic heart disease,and myocardial infarction.The articles were clustered into 5 types,and 5 hot topics were summarized.Conclusion The bibliometric analysis of cardiovascular diseases in occupational population shows that hypertension and hand-arm vibration are hot research topics,which can provide a reference to researchers.

Objective To investigate the literature characteristics and research topics on cardiovascular diseases in the occupational population quantitatively via a bibliometric analysis,and to provide a reference for the selection of research directions.Methods A search strategy was developed according to the words in Medical Subject Heading (MeSH),and PubMed database was searched for articles on cardiovascular diseases in the occupational population published from 2006 to 2015.The information of published year,authors,journals,and MeSH words was extracted,frequently used MeSH words were screened out,and a cluster analysis was performed for frequently used MeSH words.Results A total of 1 272 articles were found,and about 150 articles were published annually from 2011 to 2015.Most articles were published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine,and the author Tohr Nilsson had the highest number of published articles.The influencing factors mainly included occupational mental stress,smoking,and working system,and the health outcomes attracting the most attention were hypertension,hand-arm vibration,ischemic heart disease,and myocardial infarction.The articles were clustered into 5 types,and 5 hot topics were summarized.Conclusion The bibliometric analysis of cardiovascular diseases in occupational population shows that hypertension and hand-arm vibration are hot research topics,which can provide a reference to researchers.

OBJECTIVETo study the characteristics of viral spectrum and clinical features of children in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

METHODNasopharyngeal aspirate specimens (NPA) from 349 patients(1 from each) and 130 cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) specimens were collected from children who were admitted to the PICU of Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College. Additional 87 NPA specimens were collected from healthy children for routine examination on the physical examination center, and the clinical data were collected. Multiplex PCR was applied to detect 16 kinds of viruses from NPA and CSF. Fluorescence quantitative PCR was applied to detect 13 viruses from CSF and to analyze the clinical data of positive cases.

RESULTThere were 209 samples (59.9%) of the 349 NPA specimens were positive for viruses, which included 117 cases positive for human rhinovirus (HRV), 60 for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), 20 for influenza virus A (Inf A), 10 for adenovirus (ADV), 6 for parainfluenza virus type 3(PIV-3), 6 for human Boca virus (HBoV), 5 for influenza virus C(Inf C), 4 for parainfluenza virus type 4(PIV-4), 4 for human coronavirus-HKU1/OC43, 3 for influenza virus B (Inf B), 3 for WU Polyomavirus (WUPyV), 2 parainfluenza virus type 1(PIV-1), 2 human metapneumovirus (HMPV) and 1 human coronavirus-NL63/229E. But none from 87 healthy controls were positive for any respiratory virus. Among the 130 CSF specimens, in 58 cases the diagnosis was viral encephalitis. There were 22 samples (37.9%) among the 58 CSF specimens positive for viruses, which included 14 enterovirus (EV), 3 human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), 2 mumps virus, 1 coxsackie virus A16 (Cox-A16), 1 herpes simplex virus (HSV) and 1 human rhinovirus (HRV). The total positive rate was 63.3% (221/349) . Co-infection by at least 2 viral pathogens under study was observed in 45 of the 349 patients (12.9% of the total number of cases, 20.4% of the positives cases). The commonest pathogens in co-infected samples were WUPyV (100%) and HMPV(100%). The positive rate of virus peaked in the first 6 months of life, the rate in boys were higher than in girls and the peak season was summer. The numbers of none serious cases in the virus positive group were less than those in the virus negative group while the numbers of extremely serious cases in the virus positive group were higher than in the virus negative group.

CONCLUSIONViral pathogen is a major cause of infectious disease in pediatric critical illnesses and virus infection may lead to severe illness.

Acute Disease ; Age Distribution ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Coinfection ; virology ; Encephalitis, Viral ; epidemiology ; virology ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Influenza A virus ; isolation & purification ; Intensive Care Units, Pediatric ; Male ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA Viruses ; isolation & purification ; Respiratory Syncytial Viruses ; isolation & purification ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; epidemiology ; virology ; Rhinovirus ; isolation & purification ; Virus Diseases ; epidemiology ; virology