Chengde Medical University

Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) is a major pathogen threatening sericulture, yet the role of gut microbiota in strain-specific resistance remains poorly understood. This study compared three silkworm strains with high (Xinjiu, XJ), intermediate (An3, A3), and low (Zhenchixian, ZCX) resistance to BmNPV. Protein assays showed that the resistant XJ strain exhibited the lowest viral EGFP and VP39 expression and highest survival, whereas the susceptible ZCX strain displayed the opposite trend. Shotgun metagenomics revealed strain-specific microbial responses to infection. XJ and A3 maintained significantly higher alpha diversity and more dynamic beta diversity clustering than ZCX, with infection inducing increased microbial gene abundance and emergence of unique taxa in XJ. Taxonomic profiling showed XJ enriched in Firmicutes and beneficial fungal taxa such as Mucoromycota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Zoopagomycota, alongside reductions in Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria following infection. At finer resolution, resistant strains were enriched in beneficial bacterial classes (Bacilli, Alphaproteobacteria, Opitutae) and fungal classes (Agaricomycetes, Saccharomycetes), with cooperative co-occurrence networks linking these taxa and antagonizing pathogens. In contrast, ZCX was dominated by Gammaproteobacteria, Actinomycetia, and Hydrogenophilalia, consistent with dysbiosis and susceptibility. Functional analysis demonstrated pronounced metabolic reprogramming in resistant strains, especially XJ, with coordinated activation of carbohydrate, amino acid, nucleotide, and lipid metabolism, forming tightly integrated functional networks. Together, these findings reveal that silkworm resistance to BmNPV is associated with microbiome diversity, restructuring toward beneficial taxa, and synergistic metabolic pathways, offering new insights for probiotic-based antiviral strategies.

Analyzing the rhizosphere microbial community structure of Atractylodes chinensis from different regions and its correlation with the accumulation of main medicinal active ingredients, this study aims to explore the impact of rhizosphere soil microorganisms on the effective components of A. chinensis, providing a scientific basis for the high-quality and high-yield cultivation of A. chinensis.

The rhizosphere soil of three-year-old A. chinensis was used as the research object. High-throughput sequencing technology was employed to analyze the rhizosphere bacterial and fungal community structures. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect the contents of atractylodin, atractylon, β-eudesmol, and atractylenolide III in the medicinal materials. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to explore the relationship between soil microbial communities and the active ingredients. α-diversity results showed that the Yaowangmiao village (YWM) microbial community had the highest richness and diversity, while Xingzhoucun (XZC) had the lowest, and Beiwushijiazi village (BWSJZ) had the lowest fungal community diversity and richness. PCoA analysis at the phylum level indicated that soil bacterial communities were more dispersed than fungal communities among different regions. The bacterial community in XZC significantly differed from other regions, while fungal communities in BWSJZ and Ximiaogong village (XMG) showed considerable differences from other regions. The content of active ingredients in different regions showed that Yuzhangzi village (YZZ) and BWSJZ had higher content and better quality of medicinal materials according to the content of atractylodesin specified in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission. The dominant bacterial phylum in the rhizosphere soil of YZZ was Acidobacteriota, and the dominant genus was RB41. In BWSJZ, Acidobacteriota was the dominant bacterial phylum, with Arthrobacter and unclassified_f_Vicinamibacteraceae as dominant genera; the dominant fungal phylum was Basidiomycota, with Tausonia as the dominant genus. Different bacterial and fungal communities synergistically promoted or inhibited the synthesis of four active ingredients.

In short, this provides a theoretical basis for the distribution of soil rhizosphere microbial communities in the cultivation of A. chinensis and offers a reference for the cultivation of A. chinensis medicinal materials.

Early identification of patients at high risk of poor prognosis after thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is essential for optimizing clinical management. This study aimed to develop and internally validate a prognostic nomogram integrating clinical and laboratory variables. This retrospective study included 286 AIS patients treated with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator between January 2022 and August 2024. Patients were categorized into favorable (modified Rankin Scale ≤ 2, n = 198) and poor prognosis groups (modified Rankin Scale > 2, n = 88) based on outcomes at 90 days post-treatment. Clinical data, including demographic information, comorbidities, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores, and laboratory parameters (e.g., white blood cell [WBC] count, neutrophil count, and D-dimer levels), were collected. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified independent predictors of poor prognosis. A nomogram was developed to predict prognosis, with performance evaluated through receiver operating characteristic analysis, Bootstrap resampling (n = 1000), and calibration curves. Clinical utility was assessed using decision curve analysis. Multivariate analysis identified 5 independent predictors of poor prognosis: diabetes (odds ratio [OR] = 6.511, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.667–24.605, P  = .008), admission NIHSS score (OR = 1.354, 95% CI: 1.097–1.565, P  = .001), WBC count (OR = 1.459, 95% CI: 1.114–1.786, P  = .002), neutrophil count (OR = 1.402, 95% CI: 1.037–1.758, P  = .022), and D-dimer level (OR = 2.088, 95% CI: 1.360–2.988, P  = .001). The nomogram showed excellent discrimination (AUC = 0.896), good calibration (Hosmer–Lemeshow, P  = .856), and clinical utility. Internal validation yielded a concordance index of 0.728. This retrospective study suggests that diabetes, NIHSS score, WBC count, neutrophil count, and D-dimer levels may be useful predictors of poor prognosis in thrombolysed AIS patients. A nomogram based on these factors showed good discriminative ability and clinical utility. Further prospective, multicenter validation is needed to confirm its applicability in routine practice.