High-Voltage, Pulsed Electric Fields Eliminate Pseudomonas aeruginosa Stable Infection in a Mouse Burn Model

Electro-antibacterial therapy (EAT) to enhance intracellular bacteria clearance in pancreatic cancer cells

Intratumoral bacteria have been implicated in driving tumor progression, yet effective treatments to modulate the tumor microbiome remain limited. In this study, we investigate the use of electroporation in combination with metronidazole to enhance the clearance of intracellular Fusobacterium nucleatum within pancreatic cancer cells. We explore various parameters, including electric field strength, pulse width, and pulse number to assess the permeability of pancreatic cancer cells infected with F. nucleatum, compared to non-infected cells of the same type. We subsequently quantify the clearance of intracellular bacteria when these pulsing schemes are applied to a suspension of infected pancreatic cancer cells in the presence of metronidazole. Our results reveal distinct differences in cell permeability between infected and non-infected cells, identifying a unique biophysical marker for host cells infected with F. nucleatum. We demonstrate that the combinatorial use of electroporation and metronidazole significantly enhances the delivery of metronidazole into host cells, leading to more effective clearance of intracellular F. nucleatum compared to independent treatments; we term this novel approach Electro-Antibacterial Therapy (EAT). EAT holds promise as an innovative strategy for addressing intratumoral bacteria in pancreatic cancer, other malignancies, and potentially treatment-resistant infections, offering new avenues for therapeutic intervention.

Extendable high gain low current/high pulse modified quadratic-SEPIC converter for water treatment applications

Substantial attention has been drawn over the past few years by high step-up dc-dc converters owing to their applications in a wide range. Apart from renewable energy applications, high voltage/ high pulse converters are efficiently used in water treatment applications. The converter suggested a combination of Quadratic and SEPIC converters with a diode-capacitor cell. This topology generates high-voltage repetitive pulses with a single semiconductor switch and reduced component count. The stress across the components is less than the high-gain converters reported in the literature. The topology has an extendable feature by increasing the number of diode-capacitor cells without affecting the stress. The superiority of the high pulse generating topology is validated with a similar converter in the literature. This paper discusses the nL5 simulator results for the proposed rated topology required for water treatment. A scaled-down 50 W prototype is tested for various input voltages to generate high voltage pulse, and the analytical study is validated.

Effects of vitamin C combined with rbFGF on inflammatory factors and oxygen environment in patients with high-voltage electrical burns

To investigate the effect of vitamin C combined with recombinant basic fibroblast growth factor (rbFGF) on inflammatory factors and oxygen environment in patients with high-voltage electrical burns. A retrospective analysis of 98 patients with high-voltage electrical burns admitted to our hospital from January 2021 to April 2022. A total of 98 patients were divided into research group and control group, including 49 cases treated with vitamin C combined with rbFGF and 49 cases treated with only rbFGF. The disappearance time of clinical symptoms, wound healing rate, area of granulation tissue growth, level of inflammatory factors, oxygen environment were compared between two groups after one and three courses of treatment. After treatment, the disappearance time of erythema, pain, swelling, blisters, exudate symptoms, wound healing time, scab formation time, and hospitalisation time in the research group were significantly better than those in control group (P < .05). There was no significant difference in the wound healing rate and area of granulation tissue growth between the two groups after one course of treatment (P > .05), while it is significantly better than those in control group after three courses of treatment (P < .05). The inflammatory factors, succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) scores in research group were significantly better than that in control group after three courses of treatment (P < .05). Vitamin C combined with rbFGF may be worthy to reduce inflammatory factors, regulate oxygen environment, which can be popularised and applied in clinical practice.