Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is widely used in the treatment of Mycoplasma pneumoniae Pneumonia (MPP) in East Asia. However, our current understanding of the underlying molecular mechanism remains dispersive and promiscuous. In this study, a systematic pharmacological approach combined with literature data mining was applied for drug similarity evaluation, drug half-life evaluation, oral bioavailability prediction, drug target exploration, Gene Ontology (GO) analysis, KEGG pathway enrichment and network construction, thus providing the rationale for its clinical performance. Five mostly studied herbs, including Ephedra Herba, Amygdalus communis Vas, Platycodon grandiforus, Licorice and Scutellariae Radix, were selected from the literature. Total ninety-three active ingredients, which are expected to be the effective components for MPP treatment, were screened out. Interrelationship between active compounds, drug targets and signaling pathways were analyzed to reveal the therapeutic effect of TCM in detail. Of importance, we found that TNF, β2AR and PTGS2 play pivotal role in TCM mediated MPP inhibition. And mechanistically, epithelial apoptosis (defensive barrier function), GPCR signaling (symptom amelioration) and immune pathways (innate signaling and adaptive Th17 response) are critically involved. Our work, achieved through systematic pharmacology and data mining, enlarges the knowledge of TCM in MPP therapy, and could provide valuable insights for further drug discovery studies.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) is an important human pathogen that mainly affects children causing general and severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (G/SMPP). In the present study, a comprehensive immune response data (33 cytokines) was obtained in school-age children (3–9 years old) during MPP, aiming to analyze the immune response patterns during MPP. At acute phase, changes of cytokines were both detected in GMPP (24/33) and SMPP (23/33) groups compared to the healthy group (p < 0.05), with 20 identical cytokines. Between MPP groups, the levels of 13 cytokines (IL-2, IL-10, IL-11, IL-12, IL-20, IL-28A, IL-32, IL-35, IFN-α2, IFN-γ, IFN-β, BAFF, and TSLP) were higher and three cytokines (LIGHT, OPN and CHI3L1) were lower in the SMPP group than in the GMPP group (p < 0.05). Function analysis reveals that macrophage function (sCD163, CHI3L1) are not activated in both MPP groups; difference in regulatory patterns of T cells (IL26, IL27, OPN, LIGHT) and defective activation of B cells (BAFF) were detected in the SMPP group compared to the GMPP group. Besides, the level of osteocalcin; sIL-6Rβ and MMP-2 are both decreased in MPP groups at acute and convalescent phases compared to the healthy group, among which the levels of sIL-6Rβ and MMP-2 showed negative correlations (p < 0.1) to the application of bronchial lavage in SMPP group, indicating their roles in the development of MPP. At the convalescent phase, more cytokines recovered in GMPP (18) than SMPP (11), revealing better controlled immune response during GMPP. These results reveal different immune response patterns during GMPP and SMPP. In addition, the differentiated cytokines may serve as potential indicators of SMPP; early intervention on immune response regulations may be helpful in reducing the severity of SMPP.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is one of the most common causes of community-acquired respiratory tract infections (RTIs). We aimed to investigate the prevalence of M. pneumoniae infection, antibiotic resistance and genetic diversity of M. pneumoniae isolates across multiple centers in Beijing, China. P1 protein was detected by Nested PCR to analyze the occurrence of M. pneumoniae in pediatric patients with RTI. M. pneumoniae isolates were cultured and analyzed by Nested-PCR to determine their genotypes. Broth microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antibiotics. Out of 822 children with RTI admitted to 11 hospitals in Beijing, 341 (41.48%) were positive for M. pneumoniae by Nested PCR and 236 (69.21%) samples had mutations in 23S rRNA domain V. The highest proportion of M. pneumoniae positive samples was observed in school-age children (118/190; 62.11%) and in pediatric patients with pneumonia (220/389; 56.56%). Out of 341 M. pneumoniae positive samples, 99 (12.04%) isolates were successfully cultured and the MIC values were determined for 65 M. pneumoniae strains. Out of these, 57 (87.69%) strains were resistant to macrolides, and all 65 strains were sensitive to tetracyclines or quinolones. M. pneumoniae P1 type I and P1 type II strains were found in 57/65 (87.69%) and 8/65 (12.31%) of cultured isolates, respectively. Overall, we demonstrated a high prevalence of M. pneumoniae infection and high macrolide resistance of M. pneumoniae strains in Beijing. School-age children were more susceptible to M. pneumoniae, particularly the children with pneumonia. Thus, establishment of a systematic surveillance program to fully understand the epidemiology of M. pneumoniae is critical for the standardized use of antibiotics in China.

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a global parasitic zoonosis caused by Echinococcus granulosus. The disease is highly endemic in western China, especially in Tibetan areas, because of poor economic development and hygiene conditions, limited community knowledge of CE, a large scale of dogs, and home slaughtering of livestock. Although many researchers have analyzed risk factors of CE transmission in Tibetan Plateau, there are rare reports of knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of residents about CE in Tibetan communities. In our current study, community based cross-sectional study was conducted in three townships in Xiahe County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures of Gansu Province from May to September 2013. A total of 972 participants originating from Tibetan communities of 31 villages in the 3 townships were registered and data were collected using structured questionnaires. From the total of 972 study participants (457 males and 515 females), 65.9% heard of the disease CE. Most of them (96.1%) would like to accept CE inspection. About half of the peoples feed their dogs often and major of them do not play with the dogs. Risk factors included resident, knowing dog could be infected, knowing eating could be route of infection, oldest dog's age, usually feed your dog by self, feed dogs with internal organs. In general our findings showed that most of residents had positive attitude toward treatments of the disease, but their practice about disease prevention and control was low. Therefore, our study called for continued and strengthened education of changing the life style, especially the behaviors related to dogs.

This paper retrospectively analysed the prevalence of macrolide-resistantMycoplasma pneumoniae(MRMP) in some parts of China. Between January 2013 and December 2019, we collected 4,145 respiratory samples, including pharyngeal swabs and alveolar lavage fluid. The highest PCR-positive rate of M. pneumoniae was 74.5% in Beijing, the highest resistance rate was 100% in Shanghai, and Gansu was the lowest with 20%. The highest PCR-positive rate ofM. pneumoniaewas 74.5% in 2013, and the highest MRMP was 97.4% in 2019; the PCR-positive rate ofM. pneumoniaefor adults in Beijing was 17.9% and the MRMP was 10.48%. Among the children diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), the PCR-positive and macrolide-resistant rates ofM. pneumoniaewere both higher in the severe ones. A2063G in domain V of 23S rRNA was the major macrolide-resistant mutation, accounting for more than 90%. The MIC values of all MRMP to erythromycin and azithromycin were ≥ 64 μg/ml, and the MICs of tetracycline and levofloxacin were ≤ 0.5 μg/ml and ≤ 1 μg/ml, respectively. The macrolide resistance varied in different regions and years. Among inpatients, the macrolide-resistant rate was higher in severe pneumonia. A2063G was the common mutation, and we found no resistance to tetracycline and levofloxacin.