美托洛尔在慢性阻塞性肺部疾病合并心血管疾病中的疗效观察

目的分析美托洛尔在慢性阻塞性肺部疾病(Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,COPD)合并心血管疾病的治疗效果,为今后改进治疗策略提供依据。方法将慢性阻塞性肺部疾病合并心血管疾病患者100例随机分为2组,治疗组使用包括美托洛尔辅助的常规治疗方法;对照组为不使用美托洛尔的常规治疗。观察期为半年,随访期间分析心功能分级症状、血压、心率、血氧饱和度以及再次住院率等临床指标变化,评估美托洛尔在治疗COPD并发心血管疾病中的临床安全性和有效性。结果治疗组中患者的心功能分级症状、血压、心率、血氧饱和度、再次住院率等较对照组有明显的改善,同时患者死亡率也明显下降。结论美托洛尔在治疗慢性阻塞性肺部疾病合并心血管疾病中的应用是安全、有效的,可明显改善心脏功能,降低患者再次住院率及死亡率。     

Circulating 16S RNA in Biofluids: Extracellular Vesicles as Mirrors of Human Microbiome?

The human body is inhabited by around 10¹³ microbes composing a multicomplex system, termed microbiota, which is strongly involved in the regulation and maintenance of homeostasis. Perturbations in microbiota composition can lead to dysbiosis, which has been associated with several human pathologies. The gold-standard method to explore microbial composition is next-generation sequencing, which involves the analysis of 16S rRNA, an indicator of the presence of specific microorganisms and the principal tool used in bacterial taxonomic classification. Indeed, the development of 16S RNA sequencing allows us to explore microbial composition in several environments and human body districts and fluids, since it has been detected in “germ-free” environments such as blood, plasma, and urine of diseased and healthy subjects. Recently, prokaryotes showed to generate extracellular vesicles, which are known to be responsible for shuttling different intracellular components such as proteins and nucleic acids (including 16S molecules) by protecting their cargo from degradation. These vesicles can be found in several human biofluids and can be exploited as tools for bacterial detection and identification. In this review, we examine the complex link between circulating 16S RNA molecules and bacteria-derived vesicles.