Psychobiotics are a special class of probiotics that have a beneficial effect on human mental health. During the last decade, convincing evidence has emerged that the gut microbiome influences mental health, cognitive abilities (learning and memory), and behavioral processes through neurological, metabolic, hormonal, and immunological signaling pathways. This review provides available information on the mechanisms of regulation of neuroimmune axes by the microbiota, describes the schemes of interaction of the microbiota with the intestinal nervous system and the brain-gut axis, the effect on behavior, cognitive functions and emotions, and discusses the evidence base and current views on the use of psychobiotics as a safe and effective therapeutic alternative to classic psychotropic drugs in depressive and anxiety disorders, stress, autism spectrum disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions.
The objective: to determine factors influencing treatment efficacy in patients with multiple (MDR) and extensive (XDR) drug resistant tuberculosis. Subjects and methods. The medical files of 107 tuberculosis patients (men – 75, women – 32) were analyzed, 17 of them were HIV positive. Those 107 patients were registered for treatment as per chemotherapy (CT) regimens IV-V in 2017 in Kaluga Region. 99 (92.5%) patients suffered from tuberculosis with lung tissue destruction. 60.7% (65 patients) had MDR, while 20.8% (22 patients) had XDR. Only 58.2% of patients had MDR TB confirmed by polymerase chain reaction before treatment start.Results. In 24 months, the effective course of treatment was registered in 64/107 (59.8%). The highest level of effective treatment was expectedly registered among new cases – 21/30 (70%); and the lowest level was among patients starting chemotherapy again after treatment interruption – 4/10 (40%), p > 0.05. Among 64 patients with effective treatment course, 25 (39.1%) had surgery and 39 (60.9%) had chemotherapy only. Surgical activity among the cohort of 2017 made 26/107 (24.3%). The effective treatment outcome was achieved in 8 (47%) out of 17 patients with TB/HIV co-infection, and among HIV negative patients it was reached in 56/90 (62.2%), p > 0,05.
Recent studies have strongly confirmed the health benefits of a variety of probiotic microorganisms. However, some issues regarding the use of probiotics currently remain unresolved or ambiguous. This article highlights some controversial issues of probiotic use in clinical practice such as regulatory status of probiotics, co-administration of probiotics and antibiotics, potential impact of probiotics on antimicrobial resistance emergence and spread, dosing and duration of probiotic use, contraindications and some other debatable topics.
Despite the continuous improvement of approaches to antimicrobial therapy and the emergence of new highly effective antibiotics, severe bacterial infections being a significant cause of morbidity and mortality remain a top of mind issue for clinicians. Immediate initiation of the effective antibiotic therapy is an essential component of the successful treatment of serious bacterial infections, and therefore, special attention should be paid to the timely diagnosis. Measurements of biomarkers of inflammation (C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, presepsin, proadrenomedullin) in combination with clinical evaluation are important at first for the diagnosis of bacterial infection, and after that these can help to assess the clinical response to therapy and determine the time-point of antibiotics withdrawal. This review presents the characteristics of the main markers of inflammation, discusses the situations when determination of biomarkers is appropriate, and also provides modern clinical recommendations and algorithms regarding the use of these diagnostic markers in the management of patients with bacterial infections.
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