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The giant panda (GP) is the most precious animal in China. Gastrointestinal tract disease, especially associated with dysbiosis of gut microbiota, is the leading cause of death in GPs. Here, we performed 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing to investigate the gut microbiota of GPs having symptoms of anorexia. Results showed that gut microbiota of GP with anorexia had lower richness (Chao1 index) than the healthy GP. However, no significant differences in alpha diversity were observed. There is a significance in the microbial structure between anorexia and healthy GPs. The abundance of phylum Firmicutes (99.23% ± 7.1%), unidentified genus Clostridiales (24.75% ± 2.5%), was significantly higher in the subadult anorexia group (P < 0.01), and that of the unidentified genus Clostridiales (4.53% ± 1.2%) was also significantly higher in the adult anorexia group (P < 0.01). Weissella and Streptococcus were found to be decreased in both anorexia groups. The decreased abundance of Weissella (0.02% ± 0.0%, 0.08% ± 0.0%) and Streptococcus (73.89% ± 4.3%, 91.15% ± 7.6%) and increase in Clostridium may cause symptoms of anorexia in giant pandas. The correlation analysis indicated that there is a symbiotic relationship among Streptococcus, Leuconostoc, Weissella, and Bacillus which are classified as probiotics (r > 0.6, P < 0.05). Importantly, a negative correlation has been found between Streptococcus and unidentified_Clostridium in two groups (r > 0.6, P < 0.05). Our results suggested that Streptococcus might be used as probiotics to control the growth of Clostridium causing the anorexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periodontitis is a common chronic inflammatory disease of periodontal tissue, mostly concentrated in people over 30 years old. Statistics show that compared with foreign countries, the prevalence of periodontitis in China is as high as 40%, and the prevalence of periodontal disease is more than 90%, which must arouse our great attention. Diagnosis and treatment of periodontitis currently rely mainly on clinical criteria, and the exploration of the etiologic criteria is relatively lacking. We, therefore, have explored the pathogenesis of periodontitis from the perspective of immune imbalance. By predicting the fraction of 22 immune cells in periodontitis tissues and comparing them with normal tissues, we found that multiple immune cell infiltration in periodontitis tissues was inhibited and this feature can clearly distinguish periodontitis from normal tissues. Further, protein interaction network (PPI) and transcription regulation network have been constructed based on differentially expressed genes (DEGs) to explore the interaction function modules and regulation pathways. Three functional modules have been revealed and top TFs such as EGR1 and ETS1 have been shown to regulate the expression of periodontitis-related immune genes that play an important role in the formation of the immunosuppressive microenvironment. The classifier was also used to verify the reliability of periodontitis features obtained at the cellular and molecular levels. In conclusion, we have revealed the immune microenvironment and molecular characteristics of periodontitis, which will help to better understand the mechanism of periodontitis and its application in clinical diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]