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Background Current treatment for functional dyspepsia (FD) has limited and unsustainable efficacy. Probiotics have the potential to alleviate FD; However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the effect and mechanism of probiotics in alleviating FD. Methods A randomized, positive-drug and placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted; 200 FD patients were randomly divided into four groups (placebo, positive control [proton pump inhibitors, PPI] or Bifidobacterium lactis BL-99 [low, high doses]). The clinical response rates in 8-week treatment, 2-week follow-up and 6-week questionnaire survey periods were recorded. Faecal microbiota and metabolites were assessed by metagenomics, un-target and target metabolomics technology. Results The clinical response rate for BL-99_high [43 (95.6%) of 45] group was significantly higher than that for placebo [28 (62.2%) of 45, P = 0.001], BL-99_low [36 (76.6%) of 47, P = 0.019] or positive control group [34 (70.8%) of 48, P = 0.006] after an 8-week treatment. In particular, BL-99_high group was still higher than that for placebo or positive control group after 2-week follow-up and 6-week questionnaire survey periods. Further metagenomic and metabolomics studies found that PPI significantly decreased the gut microbiota diversity, induced the cluster of Escherichia enterotype and decreased butyrate contents. Interestingly, BL-99 converted the gut microbiota enterotype from Bacteroidetes (Alistipes finegoldii, Alistipes shahii) to Firmicutesc (Roseburia intestinalis, Roseburia inulinivorans) and Escherichia enterotype was not clustered after 8-week treatment, which activates carbohydrate esterase activity, and increases faecal and serum butyrate levels. Conclusion BL-99 sustainably alleviated FD symptoms by altering the taxonomic composition and functional potential of the FD microbiome. Trial registration Chictr.org.cn ChiCTR2000041430.

Cloud contamination is a common phenomenon in the optical remote sensing field, which limits their application in land surface studies and causes the waste of satellite images. This letter presents a new framework for removing thin clouds from visible images based on multiscale dark channel prior (MDCP). The cloud removal of cloudy images (target images) is carried out with the assistance of a different temporal cloudless image (reference image) from the perspective view of multiscale transform (MST). In order to make it more suitable for the application of thin cloud removal, two improvements are made to this traditional fusion method. For one thing, a dark channel prior module is integrated into the low-frequency component of the target image in the framework of MST. For another, we choose the weighted average for high-frequency components and sparse representation (SR) for low-frequency components as fusion rules. After the fusion process, the modified Laplacian sharpening whose model is optimized is carried out. The performance of MDCP was evaluated with both simulated and real cloudy images. Experimental results show that the proposed MDCP has a good performance.

Probiotics could improve cognitive functions in patients with neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, but the effects on cognitive function in healthy older adults without cognitive impairment need further study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of

Background Women with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) or antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) are at high risk for obstetric complications, including recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). However, effective treatments for RPL are lacking. Objective This study aimed to reveal the function and underlying mechanism of hyperoside (Hyp) in RPL associated with antiphospholipid antibodies (aCLs). Methods The pregnant rats ( N = 24) were divided randomly into four groups: normal human-IgG (NH-IgG); aCL-pregnancy loss (aCL-PL); aCL-PL + Hyp (40 mg/kg/day); aCL-PL + low molecular weight heparin (LMWH, 525 μg/kg/day). HTR‐8 cells were treated with 80 μg/mL aCL to establish the cell models of miscarriage. Results In pregnant rats, aCL-IgG injection raised the abortion rate of embryos, while Hyp treatment inhibited the effects. Additionally, Hyp inhibited the platelet activation and uteroplacental insufficiency caused by aCL. In vivo and in vitro experiments further suggested that Hyp suppressed aCL-induced inflammation and apoptosis by downregulating NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome-related factors and decreasing apoptotic rates. After aCL administration, Hyp therapy downregulated the expression of purinergic ligand-gated ion channel 7 (P2X7), which is reported to induce cytokine release and apoptosis. Furthermore, we found that the treatment of 3′-O-(4-Benzoyl) benzoyl-ATP (BzATP, an agonist of the P2X7 receptor) reversed the inhibitory effects of Hyp on cell function. Conclusions Hyp exerts protective effects on aCL-induced pregnancy loss by preventing platelet activation-mediated P2X7/NLRP3 pathway. Therefore, Hyp may provide a feasible pharmaceutical strategy for the treatment of RPL.

Remote sensing images contaminated by clouds cannot be used for target recognition, image classification, and other applications, which leads to a lot of remote sensing data being wasted. We propose a low-rank and sparse constrained dark channel prior for cloud removal in remote sensing image sequence (LRSC-DCP). The sparse and low-rank constraints are used to find the position of thick clouds and remove thick clouds in cloud-contaminated images respectively. The remaining thin clouds can be eliminated by the dark channel prior. We compare the algorithm proposed in this article with the dark channel prior. Experimental results prove that the proposed method has better performance.

Long-wave infrared (LWIR) images have important applications in retrieving land surface temperature. However, LWIR images are often inevitably suffered from stripe noise, a special type of spatial domain fixed pattern noise. This paper proposes a novel spectral separation algorithm for LWIR image destriping. Specifically, since the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) bands contain both radiant and reflective energy, we use MWIR as reference images to remove the stripe noise in the LWIR bands. We formulate the spectral separation problem as a convex optimization problem, where the difference between LWIR and the radiant component of MWIR, and the difference between the visible and near infrared (VNIR) image and the reflective component of MWIR are regularized to exploit the similarities between the corresponding bands. The obtained radiant component is then utilized to recover the LWIR band. Experimental results using Gaofen-5 datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has good performance in removing the stripe noise.

The cloud-contaminated phenomenon in the field of remote sensing has a serious impact on image processing so that a large number of images are unusable. To achieve cloud removal for single visible image, we propose a novel method based on modified dark channel prior with multiple scale (MDCPMS). In the structure of multiple scale, the cloudy image is firstly decomposed into high-frequency and low-frequency components. The former is uniformly amplified to enhance its weak contour, and the latter is processed by modified dark channel prior (DCP), whose estimation of atmospheric light is optimized for better cloud removal. Finally, the cloud-removed image is obtained through multi-scale reconstruction. Experimental results show that the proposed MDCPMS obtains a significant performance with slightest color distortion and is closest to the corresponding real image, compared with DCP and nonlocal method.

Anticardiolipin antibody (aCL), an important characterization of antiphospholipid syndrome, shows an intense association with vascular endothelial injury. Hyperoside is a flavonoid extracted from medicinal plants traditionally used in Chinese medicines, displaying anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-oxidative properties in various diseases. Recent studies have shifted the focus on the protective effects of hyperoside on vascular endothelial injury. However, little is known about the mechanisms involved. In the present study, we investigated the effect of hyperoside on aCL-induced injury of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in vitro. Our data illustrated that aCL induced HUVEC injury via inhibiting autophagy. Hyperoside reduced aCL-induced secretion of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-8 and endothelial adhesion cytokines TF, ICAM1, and VCAM1 in HUVECs. Additionally, hyperoside activated autophagy and suppressed the mTOR/S6K and TLR4/Myd88/NF-κB signaling transduction pathways in aCL-induced HUVECs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effect of hyperoside on aCL-induced injury, as well as offer insights into the involved mechanisms, which is of great significance for the treatment of antiphospholipid syndrome.

1. The pharmacokinetics (PKs) analysis of compounds absorbed after the oral administration of Si-Ni-San (SNS) decoction to functional dyspepsia (FD) patients was designed to detect whether the effects were similar to prokinetics administered to healthy rats, without ethical limitation. 2. First, the absorbed compounds, liquiritigenin (L), naringenin (N) and hesperitin (H) in the plasma were identified by UPLC-MS/MS following the oral administration of SNS decoction to subjects with FD. Next, the natural ratio of LNH in the SNS decoction was determined by UPLC. Third, gastric emptying and intestinal transit after the oral administration of LNH, in combination or alone, was compared with those observed after SNS administration in healthy rats. Additionally, the clinical PKs of LNH was studied. 3. The prokinetic efficacy of LNH administered at their natural ratios (7.5:5:1) increased dose-dependently and was better than the observed efficacy when administered alone in rats. Analysis of the clinical PK parameters, calculated using a one-compartment model, showed that the C

In this paper, we propose a broadband coherent matched-field processing (MFP) algorithm to solve multi-source localization problems in shallow water scenarios. The proposed algorithm combines the matched-phase coherent processor with the sparse recovery technique from compressive sensing (CS) theory. A greedy sparse recovery algorithm is adopted to iteratively locate multiple sources using a matched-phase coherent processor. At each iteration of the greedy algorithm, the data is processed coherently using the phase descent search (PDS) algorithm, rather than the incoherent methods used in many sparse recovery algorithms, such as the classical orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm. The phase shifts between different frequencies are estimated and compensated, such that the performance can be greatly enhanced. The proposed algorithm is applied to simulated data, synthesized data, and data collected in the SWellEx-96 shallow water experiment. The result provides sparse localization information that matches the ground truth source locations in the simulation and the source trajectory calculated from the Global Positioning System (GPS) information from the experiment.

Graphical abstract, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread worldwide through person-to-person contact, causing a public health emergency of international concern. At present, there is no specific antiviral treatment recommended for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Liu Shen capsule (LS), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been proven to have a wide spectrum of pharmacological properties, such as anti-inflammatory, antiviral and immunomodulatory activities. However, little is known about the antiviral effect of LS against SARS-CoV-2. Herein, the study was designed to investigate the antiviral activity of SARS-CoV-2 and its potential effect in regulating the host’s immune response. The inhibitory effect of LS against SARS-CoV-2 replication in Vero E6 cells was evaluated by using the cytopathic effect (CPE) and plaque reduction assay. The number of virions of SARS-CoV-2 was observed under transmission electron microscope after treatment with LS. Proinflammatory cytokine expression levels upon SARS-CoV-2 infection in Huh-7 cells were measured by real-time quantitative PCR assays. The results showed that LS could significantly inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in Vero E6 cells, and reduce the number of virus particles and it could markedly reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-8, CCL-2/MCP-1 and CXCL-10/IP-10) production at the mRNA levels. Moreover, the expression of the key proteins in the NF-κB/MAPK signaling pathway was detected by western blot and it was found that LS could inhibit the expression of p-NF-κB p65, p-IκBα and p-p38 MAPK, while increasing the expression of IκBα. These findings indicate that LS could inhibit SARS-CoV-2 virus infection via downregulating the expression of inflammatory cytokines induced virus and regulating the activity of NF-κB/MAPK signaling pathway in vitro, making its promising candidate treatment for controlling COVID-19 disease.

Chaihu-Shugan-San (CSS), a classic Chinese formula, has long been used to treat depression. For a better and rational use of this formula, here, we investigated the comprehensive pharmacokinetic features of multiple ingredients from CSS using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) in depressed rats. Force swimming experiments were conducted to establish a rat model of depression. Prolonged immobility time, increased plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone, and decreased plasma 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) were confirmed in this model. Nine compounds from CSS, including ferulic acid, naringin, hesperidin, meranzin hydrate, glycyrrhizic acid, saikosaponin A, nobiletin, and hesperetin, were simultaneously determined in plasma samples. Sulfamethoxazole and schisandrin were used as internal standards. The separation was performed on a C18 column with gradient elution over 10 min, and detection was executed using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) in the positive ionization mode. The optimized MRM transitions showed no interference in rat plasma. Validation parameters were all in accordance with the current criterion. The established method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of these nine components after the oral administration of CSS to depressed rats. This study provides a chemical basis for the clinical application of this formula.

Background Currently, few herbal pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters have been applied successfully for therapeutic monitoring because of the complexity of consistency when there are multiple chemicals and efficacies. Purpose The present study aims to evaluate the herbal PK properties by investigating the PK parameters of the 8 absorbed bioactive compounds (ABCs), which can represent its parent herbal holistic efficacy, to achieve a PK therapeutic monitoring of herbs. Method First, we tested the hypothesis that the antidepressant and prokinetic effects and related anti-inflammation and anti-oxidation activity (APIO) by Fructus aurantii-Magnolia Bark (FM) formula are related to 8 compounds according to the absorbable evidence and the determined contents. Subsequently, stable and representative APIO from 8ABCs allowed us to develop a sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the simultaneous determination of 8 compounds following the oral administration of FM decoction (20 g/kg) in rats. Result: 8 compounds either including Meranzin hydrate (MH) or MH alone almost identically (8 compounds: 91.62–108.82%)or nearly(MH: 65.38–88.41%) replicated the parent formula FM in terms of efficacy for inducing APIO. Conclusion This unifying strategy shows how multi-herb formulas pharmacokinetic therapeutic monitoring can be achieved by the method we established.