Resin foraging dynamics in Varroa destructor-infested hives: a case of medication of kin?

t Social insects have evolved colony behavioral, physiological, and organiza. tional adaptations (social immunity) to reduce the risks of parasitization and/or disease transmission. The collection of resin from various plants and its use in the hive as propolis is a clear example of behavioral defense. For Apis mellifera, an increased propolis content in the hive may correspond to variations in the microbial load of the colony and to a downregulation of an individual bee's immune response. However, many aspects of such antimicrobial mechanism still need to be clarified. Assuming that bacterial and fungal infection mechanisms differ from the action of a parasite, we studied the resin collection dynamics in Varroa destructor-infested honeybee colonies. Comparative experiments involving hives with different mite infestation levels were conducted in order to assess the amount of resin collected and propolis quality within the hive, over a 2-year period (2014 and 2015). Our study demonstrates that when A. mellifera colonies are under stress because of Varroa infestation, an increase in the number of resin foragers is recorded, even if a general intensification of the foraging activity is not observed. A reduction in the total polyphenolic content in propolis produced in infested versus uninfested hives was also noticed. Considering that different propolis types show varying levels of inhibition against a variety of honey bee pathogens in vitro, it would be very important to study the effects against Varroa of two diverse types of propolis: from Varroa-free and from Varroa-infested hives.     

Ants medicate to fight disease

Parasites are ubiquitous, and the ability to defend against these is of paramount importance. One way to fight diseases is self‐medication, which occurs when an organism consumes biologically active compounds to clear, inhibit, or alleviate disease symptoms. Here, we show for the first time that ants selectively consume harmful substances (reactive oxygen species, ROS) upon exposure to a fungal pathogen, yet avoid these in the absence of infection. This increased intake of ROS, while harmful to healthy ants, leads to higher survival of exposed ants. The fact that ingestion of this substance carries a fitness cost in the absence of pathogens rules out compensatory diet choice as the mechanism, and provides evidence that social insects medicate themselves against fungal infection, using a substance that carries a fitness cost to uninfected individuals.     

Self-regulatory treatment of headache in the elderly

We examined the utility of various combinations of relaxation, cognitive coping, and feedback in an uncontrolled series of 16 older headache patients (aged 60 to 77) diagnosed as having tension, mixed, or migraine headache. At 1-month follow-up, statistically and clinically significant reductions were observed in both overall headache activity and medication intake; 10 patients (63%) were more than 50% improved in both headache reduction and medication reduction. Female headache suffers were more improved than males. These results are inconsistent with our past findings with geriatric headache sufferers but consistent with other, more recent favorable findings. The efficacy of nondrug treatment for geriatric headache clearly warrants further attention.This research was supported in part by a grant from NINDS, NS-23440.     

Huma should be Linum usitatissimum,not Sesamum indicum—With special reference to the source of confusion of names for traditional Chinese medicine and the written time and author of Shên Nung Pên Ts’ao Ching

The confusion of Huma (胡麻) in Chinese history was discussed after an introduction of Chih Wu Ming Shi T’u K’ao of the Qing Dynasty and its author—Wu Qijun’s contribution to Chinese botany. The morphological characters and distribution of Huma and Jusheng (巨胜) documented in ancient Chinese literature were comparatively studied. Simultaneously, other questions about the Chinese medicament and medicine were inspected in the backgrounds of historical development and social stratum differentiation. We concluded that the earliest recorded Huma in Chinese literature should be Linum usitatissimum. The Chinese name for this plant has been used by the folks until well into modern times. Jusheng (巨胜) should be Sesamum indicum. The reason for the confusion of these two names was also explored. It was further inferred that the confusion of names for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) originated in the similarity of their property and function while the difference of their morphology and distribution was not taken seriously. We also concluded that Shên Nung Pên Ts’ao Ching was forged by TAO Hongjing (陶弘景) in his Collected Commentaries on Pên Ts’ao Ching but attributed to an ancient author, Shennong (神农). In this book TCM was classified by their property and function, which became the root cause of the confusion of Chinese names for TCM from then on. Some suggestions were also given for the development of Chinese materia medica in the future.     

The presence of conifer resin decreases the use of the immune system in wood ants

Abstract.  1. Wood ants ( Formica paralugubris ) incorporate large amounts of solidified conifer resin into their nest, which reduces the density of many bacteria and fungi and protects the ants against some detrimental micro-organisms. By inducing an environment unfavourable to pathogens, the presence of resin may allow workers to reduce the use of their immune system.
2. The present study tested the hypothesis that the presence of resin decreases the immune activity of wood ants. Specifically, three components of the humoral immune defences of workers kept in resin-rich and resin-free experimental nests (antibacterial, lytic, and prophenoloxidase activities) were compared.
3. The presence of resin was associated with reduced bacterial and fungal densities in nest material and with a small decrease in worker antibacterial and lytic activities. The prophenoloxidase activity was very low in all workers and was not affected by the presence of resin.
4. These results suggest that collective medication with resin reduces pathogen pressure, which in turn decreases the use of the inducible part of the immune system. More generally, the use of plant secondary compounds might be an efficient and economical way to fight pathogens.     

综合性医院肿瘤相关感染病原菌分布及耐药性分析

摘要 目的：通过对某院住院肿瘤患者感染的病原菌分布情况及耐药性分析，为肿瘤相关感染患者的经验性抗感染治疗提供参考。方法：对2015年细菌培养结果阳性的157例肿瘤内科住院患者的感染情况进行统计分析。结果：肿瘤内科患者的感染率为22.62%，分离出病原菌436株，其中革兰阴性菌占比58.26％，检出的金黄色葡萄球菌中MRSA的检出率为50%，粪肠球菌对万古霉素的敏感率为80%，屎肠球菌对万古霉素的敏感率为97.22%。主要G-杆菌中大肠埃希菌对阿米卡星耐药率1.79%，对碳青霉烯类、哌拉西林他唑巴坦耐药率为6.25%、26.79%；肺炎克雷伯菌对碳青霉烯类的耐药率25.58%-38.10%，对头孢哌酮舒巴坦耐药率15%。白色念珠菌对唑类耐药率<10%。结论：医院必须加强对常见细菌的耐药率的动态监测，降低细菌耐药率和多重耐药菌的产生。     

Cardiovascular Risk of Essential Hypertension: Influence of Class,Number, and Treatment-Time Regimen of Hypertension Medications

A number of observational studies have found that treated hypertensive patients, even those with controlled clinic blood pressure (BP), might have poorer prognosis than untreated hypertensives. Different trials have also shown that relatively low cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk cannot be achieved in high-risk hypertensive patients, leading to the belief they have a “residual CVD risk” that cannot be attenuated by conventional treatment. All these conclusions disregard the facts that the correlation between BP level and CVD risk is stronger for ambulatory than clinic BP and that the BP-lowering efficacy and effects on the 24-h BP pattern of different classes of hypertension medications exhibit statistically and clinically significant treatment-time (morning versus evening) differences. Accordingly, we evaluated the potential differential administration-time-dependent effects on CVD risk of the various classes of hypertension medications and the number of them used for therapy in the MAPEC (Monitorización Ambulatoria para Predicción de Eventos Cardiovasculares, i.e., Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring for Prediction of Cardiovascular Events) study, a prospective, open-label, blinded-endpoint trial on 2156 hypertensive patients (1044 men/1112 women), 55.6?±?13.6 (mean?±?SD) yrs of age, randomized to ingest all prescribed once-a-day hypertension medications upon awakening or the entire daily dose of ≥1 of them at bedtime. Ambulatory BP was measured for 48?h at baseline, and again annually or more frequently (quarterly) when adjustment of treatment was necessary to achieve ambulatory, i.e., awake and asleep, BP control. CVD risk according to the number and classes of medications used at the final evaluation was calculated by comparison with that of 734 normotensive subjects who were identically followed and remained untreated. After a median follow-up of 5.6 yrs, CVD risk of hypertensive patients randomized to ingest all medications upon awakening was progressively higher with increase in the number of medications (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 1.75, 2.26, 3.02, and 4.18 in patients treated with 1, 2, 3, and ≥4 medications daily, respectively; p?<?.001 compared with normotensive subjects). CVD risk was markedly lower in patients ingesting ≥1 medications at bedtime (HR: .35, 1.45, .94, and 2.28 with 1, 2, 3, and ≥4 medications daily, respectively), and even lower in patients ingesting all medications at bedtime (HR: .35, .39, .87, and .79 with 1, 2, 3, and ≥4 medications daily, respectively). Patients ingesting ≥1 medications at bedtime evidenced significantly lower CVD risk than those ingesting all medications upon awakening, independent of class. Greater benefits were observed for bedtime compared with awakening treatment with angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs) (HR: .29 [95% confidence interval, CI .17–.51]; p?<?.001) and calcium channel blockers (HR: .46 [95% CI: .31–.69]; p?<?.001). CVD risk was similar for all six classes of tested hypertension medications in patients randomized to ingest all of them upon awakening. Among patients randomized to ingest ≥1 medications at bedtime, however, ARBs were associated with significantly lower HR of CVD events than ingestion of any other class of medication also at bedtime (p?<?.017). We document significantly reduced CVD risk among hypertensive patients ingesting medications at bedtime, independent of the number of hypertension medications required to achieve proper ambulatory BP control. These findings challenge the current belief of “residual CVD risk,” as a bedtime-treatment regimen of current hypertension medications, even in risk-high patients, can reduce such risk. (Author correspondence: rhermida@uvigo.es)     

水蛭素联合阿霉素对人卵巢癌细胞株耐药性的实验观察

目的探讨水蛭素联合阿霉素对人卵巢癌细胞生长的影响。方法通过细胞培养后绘制生长曲线,了解联合用药对抑制癌细胞增殖及诱导凋亡的作用。结果水蛭素联合阿霉素具有杀伤人卵巢癌细胞的效果。结论水蛭素有可能作为临床抗癌和抑癌治疗的潜在辅助用药。