Determining the safety and effectiveness of Tai Chi: a critical overview of 210 systematic reviews of controlled clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: This overview summarizes the best available systematic review (SR) evidence on the health effects of Tai Chi. METHODS: Nine databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Medline, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP), Sino-Med, and Wanfang Database) were searched for SRs of controlled clinical trials of Tai Chi interventions published between Jan 2010 and Dec 2020 in any language. Effect estimates were extracted from the most recent, comprehensive, highest-quality SR for each population, condition, and outcome. SR quality was appraised with AMSTAR 2 and overall certainty of effect estimates with the GRADE method. RESULTS: Of the 210 included SRs, 193 only included randomized controlled trials, one only included non-randomized studies of interventions, and 16 included both. Common conditions were neurological (18.6%), falls/balance (14.7%), cardiovascular (14.7%), musculoskeletal (11.0%), cancer (7.1%), and diabetes mellitus (6.7%). Except for stroke, no evidence for disease prevention was found; however, multiple proxy-outcomes/risks factors were evaluated. One hundred and fourteen effect estimates were extracted from 37 SRs (2 high, 6 moderate, 18 low, and 11 critically low quality), representing 59,306 adults. Compared to active and/or inactive controls, 66 of the 114 effect estimates reported clinically important benefits from Tai Chi, 53 reported an equivalent or marginal benefit, and 6 an equivalent risk of adverse events. Eight of the 114 effect estimates (7.0%) were rated as high, 43 (37.7%) moderate, 36 (31.6%) low, and 27 (23.7%) very low certainty evidence due to concerns with risk of bias (92/114, 80.7%), imprecision (43/114, 37.7%), inconsistency (37/114, 32.5%), and publication bias (3/114, 2.6%). SR quality was often limited by the search strategies, language bias, inadequate consideration of clinical, methodological, and statistical heterogeneity, poor reporting standards, and/or no registered SR protocol. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest Tai Chi has multidimensional effects, including physical, psychological and quality of life benefits for a wide range of conditions, as well as multimorbidity. Clinically important benefits were most consistently reported for Parkinson's disease, falls risk, knee osteoarthritis, low back pain, cerebrovascular, and cardiovascular diseases including hypertension. For most conditions, higher-quality SRs with rigorous primary studies are required. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42021225708.

Tai Chi for health and well-being: A bibliometric analysis of published clinical studies between 2010 and 2020.

The objective of this bibliometric review was to identify the volume, breadth, and characteristics of clinical studies evaluating Tai Chi published between January 2010 and January 2020. Five English and four Chinese language databases were searched. Following independent screening, 1018 eligible publications representing 987 studies were identified, which was a three-fold increase from the previous decade. Most common were randomized controlled trials (548/987, 55.5 %), followed by systematic reviews (157/987, 15.9 %), non-randomized controlled clinical studies (152/987, 15.4 %), case series (127/987, 12.9 %) and case reports (3/987, 0.3 %) that were conducted in China (730/987, 74.0 %), followed by the United States of America (123/987, 12.5 %) and South Korea (20/987, 2.0 %). Study participants were mostly in the adult (55.2 %) and/or older adult (72.0 %) age groups. The top ten diseases/conditions were hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, knee osteoarthritis, heart failure, depression, osteoporosis/osteopenia, breast cancer, coronary heart disease and insomnia. A quarter of the studies enrolled healthy participants to evaluate the effects of Tai Chi on health promotion/preservation, balance/falls, and physiological/biomechanical outcomes. Yang style Tai Chi was the most popular, followed by Chen and Sun style. Tai Chi was mostly commonly delivered face-to-face by a Tai Chi instructor in group settings for 60 min, three times a week, for 12 weeks. Most studies (93.8 %) reported at least one outcome in favor of Tai Chi. Adverse events were underreported (7.2 %). Over half fell short of expected intervention reporting standards, signalling the need for Tai Chi extensions to existing guidelines.

Determination of phthalate esters in airborne particulates by heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalyzed aromatic hydroxylation fluorimetry.

The environmental contaminants phthalic acid esters (PAEs) were determined by aromatic hydroxylation fluorimetry combined with heterogeneous photo-Fenton process in the presence of vermiculite supported BiFeO3 (VMT-BiFeO3). In strong alkaline solution, PAEs were hydrolyzed into phthalates with no fluorescence, which then reacted with hydroxyl free radicals produced in photo-Fenton process catalyzed by VMT-BiFeO3 to form the fluorescent hydroxyl phthalates. The fluorescence intensity was proportional to the concentration of PAEs with the maximum excitation and emission wavelength of 300nm and 417nm, respectively. A good linear relationship can be obtained in the range of 3.8×10-7 to 4.8×10-5molL-1 for DEP with correlation coefficient of 0.9997, and the sensitivity of the method was high with detection limit of 5.43×10-8molL-1. The method has been successfully applied to determine total PAEs in airborne particulates with satisfactory results.

[Cloning and expression of the extracellular region of human LIGHT gene in E.coli.].

AIM: To construct a recombinant prokaryotic expression vector containing the extracellular region of human LIGHT gene and perform the express in E.coli. METHODS: Total RNA was extracted from human immature bone marrow-derived dendritic cells. The extracellular region of human LIGHT gene was amplified by RT-PCR and cloned into pET32a(+) vector, the recombinant plasmid was identified by restriction endonuclease digestion analysis and DNA sequencing. After the recombinant plasmid was transformed into E.coli BL21 and induced with IPTG, the expressed protein was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot. RESULTS: A 543 bp of the extracellular region of human LIGHT gene was obtained and the sequence was confirmed correct by DNA sequencing. SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis showed that a protein with molecular weight of 41 000 was expressed in E.coli BL21. CONCLUSION: The extracellular region of LIGHT gene is cloned successfully and expressed in E.coli BL21 and the elementary expression conditions were obtained, which lays a basis on the further functional research of LIGHT.

B7-DC-silenced dendritic cells induce stronger anti-HBV immunity in transgenic mice.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a noncytopathic DNA virus and is the pathogen of acute and chronic hepatitis. Interferon and nucleotide analogues such as lamivudine and adefovir are the current treatment strategies of HBV infection; however, it is still a serious disease. Therefore, the development of new therapeutic options against HBV is needed. In the present study, we have investigated whether the vectors carrying short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting the murine B7-DC gene could silence the expression of B7-DC and analyzed the function of gene-modified dendritic cells (DCs) by mixed lymphocyte reaction. The results demonstrated that two shRNA vectors efficiently suppressed the expression of B7-DC. The MLR assay showed that shRNA-B7-DC-transfected DCs induced markedly higher allogeneic lymphocyte proliferation than transfected DCs with the vector plasmid pAS and untreated DCs at all dilutions. The most efficient shRNA plasmid vector against B7-DC was then used to silence the expression of B7-DC on DCs, the gene-modified DCs were pulsed with HBV-specific peptides, and HBV transgenic mice were immunized. After three rounds of immunization, the splenocytes were stimulated in vitro and tested for cytotoxicitic T lymphocyte activity, while the sera were used to detect the level of HBsAg and HBV DNA. The data demonstrated that blockade of B7-DC on DCs augmented the cytolytic activity induced by immunization with peptide-pulsed DCs and significantly reduced the concentration of serum HBsAg and HBV DNA, suggesting that silencing of B7-DC is of potential value in DC-based therapy of HBV infection.

[Construction and expression of prokaryotic vector encoding extracellular region of murine B7-DC].

AIM: To construct a prokaryotic expression vector for the extracellular domain of murine B7-DC(B7-DC(ECD)) gene, and to express the gene in E.coli BL21. METHODS: The total RNA was extracted from murine immature bone marrow-derived dendritic cells and the extracellular fragment of B7-DC cDNA was amplified by RT-PCR. The recombinant plasmid pET32a(+)-B7-DC(ECD) was constructed by cloning the extracellular fragment of B7-DC cDNA into the prokaryotic expression vector pET32a(+). After the recombinant plasmid was identified by restriction endonuclease digestion analysis and DNA sequencing, pET32a(+)-B7-DC(ECD) was transformed into E.coli BL21 through IPTG induction to express the target protein, and the protein was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot. RESULTS: A 582 bp of extracellular fragment B7-DC cDNA was obtained and the sequence was confirmed right by DNA sequencing. SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis showed that a protein with molecular weight of 41 000 was expressed in E.coli BL21. CONCLUSION: The extracellular fragment of B7-DC is successfully cloned into pET32a (+) and expressed in E.coli BL21, which lays a foundation for the further functional research of B7-DC.

Therapeutic potential of dendritic cell-based immunization against HBV in transgenic mice.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) transgenic mice that express HBV envelope proteins represent a model of chronic HBV infection suitable for the development of therapeutic immunization strategies. To address immunologically therapeutic effects induced by peptide-pulsed DCs, HBV transgenic mice were immunized with peptide-pulsed DCs, and the mice were killed after three times of immunization and the splenocytes were stimulated in vitro and detected by IFN-gamma ELISPOT and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity. The data demonstrated that HBV-specific CD8+ T cell response could be induced and CD8+ T cells had specific CTL activity. Furthermore, ELISA and fluorescent quantitative PCR were performed to detect the level of serum HBsAg and HBV DNA and the results demonstrated that HBV-specific peptide-pulsed DCs could significantly reduce the concentration of serum HBsAg and HBV DNA. The serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activities were measured and no significant differences were observed between the different groups, which indicated that no hepatocellular injury occurred. Taken together, the data strongly demonstrated that CD8+ T cell responses and antiviral immunity were elicited in HBV transgenic mice, suggesting that peptide-pulsed DCs could elicit an effective antiviral immunity.