Otitis media is an infection of the middle ear mainly caused by bacteria, and current treatments rely heavily on antibiotics. However, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains seriously affects their efficacy. In our study, we found that extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from human natural killer cells (NKs) inhibit the proliferation of both standard and levofloxacin (LVX)-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, compared to LVX, EVs were more effective at reducing effusion and rescuing hearing thresholds in animal models. For LVX-sensitive strains, EVs were significantly more effective in terms of curative time but not curative rate. For LVX-resistant strains, EVs were significantly more effective in terms of both curative rate and curative time when applied alone or applied jointly with LVX. In summary, we found that NK EVs are highly effective in treating otitis media, providing an alternative approach for treating this common disease.
Killer Cells, Natural/metabolism* ; Exosomes/metabolism* ; Animals ; Humans ; Otitis Media/therapy* ; Staphylococcus aureus/drug effects* ; Disease Models, Animal ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology* ; Levofloxacin/pharmacology*

Objective To investigate the conventional MRI and DWI features of prostatic abscess.Methods 8 patients with path-ologically and clinically proved prostatic abscess who were performed MRI examination in our institution were enrolled in this study. Among them,2 patients underwent CT examination and 7 patients were performed DWI examination (b = 0 and 1 000 s/mm2 ). Their CT,conventional MRI and DWI features were retrospectively analyzed.The ADC value between prostatic abscess and normal prostate tissues were compared by using paired t test.Statistical significance was inferred at P <0.05.Results 2 patients with 3 fo-cal abscesses,2 patients with 2 focal abscesses,and 4 patients with only one focal abscess.4 abscesses perforated the prostate cap-sule and involved the fat gap in front of the rectum.Prostatic abscess showed low hypointensity on T1 WI,hyperintensity on T2 WI and DWI.2 focal abscesses with low signal areas consistent both on T1 WI and T2 WI of gas.The mean ADCs of prostatic abscess were (0.854±0.223)×10 -3 mm2/s ,which were significantly lower than those of prostate tissues (1.41 6±0.1 68 )×10 -3 mm2/s (P <0.05).Conclusion Prostatic abscess has characteristic feature on MRI,and shows restricted diffusion on DWI.MRI can clearly display their size,number and invasive condition of the circumambient organs.Thus should be considered as an optimal method in the diagnosis of prostatic abscess.