Introduction: The diversity and dysregulation of intestinal microbiota is related to the pathology of epilepsy. Gut microbiota plays an important role in epilepsy, and regulating intestinal microbiota through exogenous intervention can alleviate symptoms. However, there are no studies about the effects of epilepsy-related diarrhea on gut microbiota.Methods: The diversity and dysregulation of intestinal microbiota is related to the pathology of epilepsy. Gut microbiota plays an important role in epilepsy, and regulating intestinal microbiota through exogenous intervention can alleviate symptoms. However, there are no studies about the effects of epilepsy-related diarrhea on gut microbiota. To evaluate changes in gut microbiota structure and composition in patients with epilepsy and associated diarrhea, the structure and composition of the fecal microbiota among patients with epilepsy (EP, 13 cases), epilepsy with diarrhea (ED, 13 cases), and probiotic treatments (PT, 13 cases), and healthy controls (CK, seven cases) were investigated and validated by utilizing high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing.Results: The results showed that the α-diversity indexes indicated that richness and phylogenetic diversity had no significant differences among groups. However, the variation of β-diversity indicated that the structure and composition of intestinal microbiota were significantly different among the CK, EP, ED, and PT groups (permutational multivariate analysis of variance, p-value = 0.001). Normalized stochasticity ratio and β-nearest taxon index indicated that stochastic mechanisms exerted increasing influence on community differences with epilepsy and associated diarrhea. ED microbiome alterations include increased Proteobacteria and decreased Actinobacteria and Firmicutes at the phylum level. Bifidobacterium was the core microbe in CK, EP, and PT, whereas it decreased significantly in ED. In contrast, Escherichia/Shigella was the core microbe in CK and ED, whereas it increased significantly in ED (Tukey’s multiple comparisons test, adjusted p-value <0.05). The association network in CK has higher complexity and aggregation than in the other groups. The EP network indicated high connectivity density within each community and high sparsity among communities. The bacterial community network of the ED had a more compact local interconnection, which was in contrast to that of PT. The top 7 microbial amplicon sequence variant–based markers that were selected by machine learning to distinguish the groups of epilepsy, probiotic treatments, and healthy infants had stronger discrimination ability. In addition, ASVs_1 (Escherichia/Shigella) and ASVs_3 (Bifidobacterium) had the most importance in the recognition.Discussion: Our research finally showed that infants with epilepsy, epilepsy with diarrhea, and probiotic treatments exhibit substantial alterations of intestinal microbiota structure and composition, and specific intestinal strains are altered according to different clinical phenotypes and can therefore be used as potential biomarkers for disease diagnosis.

Original Article A comprehensive analysis of listeriosis in 13 pregnant women and 27 newborns in Xi’an from 2011 to 2020 Lei Qu, Gai-Li Meng, Qi Wang, Liu Yang, Li-Bin Wang, Yun Xie

Osteoporosis, characterized by excessive osteoclast activation, is mediated through the RANKL/RANK/OPG signaling axis. While flavonoids from Eucommia ulmoides (EU) have demonstrated anti-osteoclastogenic activity, their atomic-level mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we investigated six EU-derived flavonoids (cyrtominetin, quercetin, syringetin, genistein, ombuin, and kaempferol) targeting RANKL using integrated computational approaches. Molecular docking revealed strong binding affinities (Total_Score > 4.0) for all compounds, with cyrtominetin exhibiting the highest affinity (-50.205 kJ/mol via MM-PBSA), primarily through hydrogen bonds with Gly178, His180, Lys181, and Asn295. Moreover, most flavonoids interacted with RANKL by forming strong hydrogen bonds with Gly178 and Asn295, exhibiting higher binding affinity that was identified as essential for the activity. All-atom molecular dynamics simulations (100 ns) confirmed complex stability, demonstrating: low RMSD fluctuations (< 4.0 Å) and compact Rg values (16.0–17.0 Å). Notably, binding free energy decomposition identified both electrostatic and van der Waals contributions as critical for stabilization. These results identify cyrtominetin as a promising lead compound for RANKL inhibition, providing structural insights for designing flavonoid-based therapeutics against osteoporosis.

Background: Pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) often have an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence and characteristics of GDM in Xi’an from 2015 to 2021 since the implementation of China’s “Two-Child policy” and to provide a clinical basis for the management of GDM. Methods: We analyzed the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) results of 152,836 pregnant women who underwent routine prenatal examination at the Northwest Women and Children’s Hospital from 2015 to 2021. Additionally, we analyzed the GDM prevalence and characteristics. Results: The prevalence of GDM in the Xi’an urban area was 24.66% and exhibited an increasing trend annually (χ2 for trend = 43.922, p < 0.001) and with age (χ2 for trend = 2527.000, p < 0.001). Consistent with this, the proportion of pregnant women aged 18–25 and 26–30 years decreased significantly with the annual growth (χ2 for trend = 183.279, p < 0.001 and χ2 for trend = 33.192, p < 0.001, respectively). The proportion of pregnant women aged 31–35 and 36–42 years increased gradually annually (χ2 for trend = 134.436, p < 0.001and χ2 for trend = 44.403, p < 0.001, respectively). Of the pregnant women diagnosed with GDM, 71.15% (65.05–74.95%) had abnormal fasting plasma glucose (FPG) values. The highest percentage of patients had a single abnormal OGTT value (68.31%; 65.77–70.61%), followed by two (20.52%; 18.79–22.55%) and three (11.17%; 10.11–11.85%) abnormal values (FPG and 1-h and 2-h plasma glucose (PG). Conclusion: The prevalence of GDM among pregnant women in Xi’an region was high, and it had a increasing trend over the period from 2015 to 2021. Notably, the proportion of elder pregnant women, aged 31–42 years, presented a significant rise after the implementation of the universal two-child policy. On the basis of the high incidence of GDM among elder pregnant women and the high rate of abnormal OGTT values (numbe ≥ 2) in pregnant women diagnosed with GDM, the management of GDM should be intensified, and relevant departments should pay more attention to pregnant women of advanced age.