Microbial community in human gut: a therapeutic prospect and implication in health and diseases

The interest in the working and functionality of the human gut microbiome has increased drastically over the years. Though the existence of gut microbes has long been speculated for long over the last few decades, a lot of research has sprung up in studying and understanding the role of gut microbes in the human digestive tract. The microbes present in the gut are highly instrumental in maintaining the metabolism in the body. Further research is going on in this field to understand how gut microbes can be employed as potential sources of novel therapeutics; moreover, probiotics have also elucidated their significant place in this direction. As regards the clinical perspective, microbes can be engineered to afford defence mechanisms while interacting with foreign pathogenic bodies. More investigations in this field may assist us to evaluate and understand how these cells communicate with human cells and promote immune interactions. Here we elaborate on the possible implication of human gut microbiota into the immune system as well as explore the probiotics in the various human ailments. Comprehensive information on the human gut microbiome at the same platform may contribute effectively to our understanding of the human microbiome and possible mechanisms of associated human diseases.     

微生物-肠-脑轴与神经系统疾病的研究进展

肠道微生物对神经系统疾病 (如帕金森病、抑郁症和阿尔兹海默症等) 的治疗具有辅助治疗的作用。其主要通过神经通路、免疫通路以及微生物代谢物等途径在肠-脑轴的作用下影响大脑功能和宿主行为。因此,文中结合国内外的研究进展,就微生物-肠-脑轴在神经系统疾病中的主要作用进行探讨,以期为神经退行性疾病的治疗提供新思路。     

Systemic Injection of Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells in Mice with Chronic EAE

Neural stem/precursor cells (NPCs) are a promising stem cell source for transplantation approaches aiming at brain repair or restoration in regenerative neurology. This directive has arisen from the extensive evidence that brain repair is achieved after focal or systemic NPC transplantation in several preclinical models of neurological diseases.These experimental data have identified the cell delivery route as one of the main hurdles of restorative stem cell therapies for brain diseases that requires urgent assessment. Intraparenchymal stem cell grafting represents a logical approach to those pathologies characterized by isolated and accessible brain lesions such as spinal cord injuries and Parkinson''s disease. Unfortunately, this principle is poorly applicable to conditions characterized by a multifocal, inflammatory and disseminated (both in time and space) nature, including multiple sclerosis (MS). As such, brain targeting by systemic NPC delivery has become a low invasive and therapeutically efficacious protocol to deliver cells to the brain and spinal cord of rodents and nonhuman primates affected by experimental chronic inflammatory damage of the central nervous system (CNS).This alternative method of cell delivery relies on the NPC pathotropism, specifically their innate capacity to (i) sense the environment via functional cell adhesion molecules and inflammatory cytokine and chemokine receptors; (ii) cross the leaking anatomical barriers after intravenous (i.v.) or intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection; (iii) accumulate at the level of multiple perivascular site(s) of inflammatory brain and spinal cord damage; and (i.v.) exert remarkable tissue trophic and immune regulatory effects onto different host target cells in vivo.Here we describe the methods that we have developed for the i.v. and i.c.v. delivery of syngeneic NPCs in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), as model of chronic CNS inflammatory demyelination, and envisage the systemic stem cell delivery as a valuable technique for the selective targeting of the inflamed brain in regenerative neurology.     

120例胶囊内镜检查的结果分析

目的:对胶囊内镜检查的安全性、检查结果及诊断价值进行讨论分析。方法:对2011年1月~2013年4月在我院进行胶囊内镜检查的120例患者及健康体检者的临床病例资料进行回顾性分析。结果:所有受检者均顺利完成检查,不明原因消化道出血、慢性腹痛及健康查体者的检出率分别为82.76%、59.26%及40.90%,结肠镜检查阴性者中检出结肠息肉4例,肠易激综合征患者中检出小肠器质性疾病4例。结论:胶囊内镜检查安全无痛苦,对于不明原因消化道出血及慢性腹痛患者的诊断优于传统检查方法,对于区分功能性胃肠病及器质性疾病以及小肠疾病的筛查有一定的参考价值。