The efficacy and safety of agomelatine, sertraline, and escitalopram for senile post-stroke depression: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate the efficacy and safety of agomelatine, sertraline, and escitalopram for patients with senile post-stroke depression (SPSD, aged over 65 years). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 165 patients (aged over 65 years) with post-stroke depression (PSD) were recruited. These patients were randomly assigned to one of four groups and given an anti-depressant or a placebo as follows: group A (agomelatine in combination with conventional cerebrovascular disease medication) 48 patients; group B (sertraline in combination with conventional cerebrovascular disease medication) 47 patients; group C (escitalopram in combination with conventional cerebrovascular disease medication) 50 patients; and, a control group (conventional treatment alone) 20 patients. The efficacy of the different treatments was evaluated using the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Barthel index (BI) at one, two, four, and six weeks after treatment began. RESULTS: According to the HAMD, NIHSS score, and BI index, the patients who received one of the three antidepressant treatments showed significant improvement compared with the control group (p < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the three groups receiving anti-depressant medication (p > 0.05). Laboratory tests showed that the general adverse effects of the treatments were mild in all three groups, and patients generally tolerated the treatments. CONCLUSION: A decrease of HAMD and NIHSS scores and an increase in the BI index could be observed in the patients receiving agomelatine, sertraline, or escitalopram treatment. Thus, it would appear that the condition of SPSD in older patients can be improved with the use of either agomelatine, sertraline, or escitalopram.

[Studies on flavonoid glycosides of Sarcandra glabra].

OBJECTIVE: To in vestigate the chemical constituents of Sarcandra glabra and obtain a more comprehensive understanding on its effective components. METHOD: The constituents were isolated by various column chromatographic method and their structures were elucidated by physico-chemical properties and spectroscopic analysis. RESULT: Five flavonoid glycosides were isolated and identified as kaempferol-3-O-beta-D-glucuronide (1), quercetin-3-O-alpha-D-glucuronide (2), quercetin-3-O-beta-D-glucuronopyranoside methyl ester (3), 5, 7, 4'-trihydroxy-8-C-beta-D-glucopyranosyl flavanone (4), neoastilbin (5), 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid methyl ester (6), 3, 4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (7), isofraxidin (8). CONCLUSION: Compounds 1-6 were isolated from the genus Sarcandra for the first time. The glucuroide compounds compounds 1-3, were first isolated from the genus Sarcandra.

[Effects of Pyrene on Low Molecule Weight Organic Compounds in the Root Exudates of Five Species of Festuca].

Phytoremediation is an important measure to remove organic pollutants from contaminated soil, and the root secretion of plant is considered to be closely related to the mechanisms of phytoremediation of organic pollutants. It is in favor of revealing the mechanisms of remediation by studying the characteristics of root exudates of plants with phytoremediation potential under the stress of pollutants. In the present research, pyrene and five species of Festuca which have been testified to be tolerant to pyrene stress were selected as studied objects. A soil-cultivating experiment with rhizobag technique was conducted to investigate the effects of pyrene on low molecule weight organic compounds in the root exudates of plant species under five concentration levels of pyrene (10.19, 20.32, 40.36, 79.94,and 160.68 mg·kg-1,denoted by C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5,respectively) on day 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 of experiments. The results showed that the presence of vegetation significantly enhanced the dissipation of pyrene in the soil environment. This effect was especially marked with Festuca arundinacea, followed by those with Festuca mazzetiana, Festuca pubiglumis, and Festuca longiglumis, and that with Festuca stapfii was the lowest. During the whole experiments, the amounts of soluble sugar excreted by the five species of Festuca tested in root exudates were promoted with pyrene stress, then fluctuated with a stable trend along with the increase of stress concentration or the extension of stress period, which appeared to rise appreciably at relative low pyrene spiked (C1-C3) or earlier stress stage (30-40 d) and reduce at relative high pyrene spiked level (C3-C5) or later stress stage (40-70 d), and the highest amount of soluble sugars in root exudates occurred on day 50 of experiments with 40.36 mg·kg-1 pyrene treatment. The greater the phytoremediation potential of the plant species tested, the more obvious this trend wads. Compared with the control treatment (CK), pyrene stress promoted the root system of all five species of Festuca tested to release more low molecular weight organic acids, the stronger the restoration potential of plant species, the higher the concentration of pyrene stress under which the amount of organic acids in root exudates was increased to the peak value. Among the five species of Festuca tested, oxlic acid, acetic acid, lactic acid and malic acid were the main components of organic acids in root exudates, with a percentage of greater than 98.15% in all pyrene stress treatments, but there were traces of fumaric acid in the roots secretion of plant species with the stronger restoration potential. Data also indicated that 19 types of amino acids were found in root exudates of Festuca and the composition of amino acids in root exudates of Festuca was stable under all pyrene stress treatments, but the amino acid amount was different in root exudates under pyrene stress. The amount of all amino acids in those root exudates increased with increasing pyrene concentration, especially, the amount of threonine, serine, glycine, and alanine increased significantly among the 19 types of amino acids and the differences were significant among different treatments with different pyrene concentrations (P<0.05). However, proline, hydroxy proline and aspartic acid were always released in the form of functional group as a response to the pyrene stress, their contents soared quickly with the increase of stress concentration in soils, and the difference was significant among different treatments with different pyrene concentrations (P<0.05); the more the components of functional group participated in stress response, the stronger the restoration potential of plant species. These results indicated secretion characteristics of soluble sugar, low molecular weight organic acids and amino acids in the root system were closely related to their phytoremediation potential under the pyrene stress, the greater the phytoremediation potential, the more the amount of these low molecular weight secretions and the more complex these components, and the stronger the adaptability to polluted environment and the physiological plasticity to adapt to these contaminants.

Expression of p16 gene and Rb protein in gastric carcinoma and their clinicopathological significance.

AIM: To analyze the correlation between the protein expression of p16 and Rb genes in gastric carcinoma (GC), to investigate the role of p16 gene in invasion and lymph node metastasis of GC, and to examine the deletion and mutation in exon 2 of p16 gene in GC. METHODS: The protein expression of p16 and Rb genes was examined by streptavidin-peroxidase conjugated method (S-P) in normal gastric mucosa, dysplastic gastric mucosa and GC. The deletion and mutation of p16 gene were examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and polymerase chain reaction single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) respectively in normal gastric mucosa and GC. RESULTS: The positive rates of P16 and Rb protein expression respectively were 96% (77/80) and 99% (79/80) in normal gastric mucosa, 92% (45/50) and 80% (40/50) in dysplastic gastric mucosa, 48% (58/122) and 60% (73/122) in GC. The positive rates of P16 and Rb protein expression in GC were significantly lower than that in normal gastric mucosa and dysplastic gastric mucosa (P<0.05). The positive rate of P16 protein expression in mucoid carcinoma (10%, 1/10) was significantly lower than that in poorly differentiated carcinoma (51%, 21/41), undifferentiated carcinoma (58%, 15/26) and signet ring cell carcinoma (62%, 10/16) (P<0.05). The positive rates of P16 protein in 30 cases of paired primary and lymph node metastatic GC were 47% (14/30) and 17% (5/30) respectively, being significantly lower in the later than in the former (P<0.05). There was no mutation in exon 2 of p16 gene in the 25 freshly resected primary GCs. But five cases in the 25 freshly resected primary GCs displayed deletion in exon 2 of p16 gene. The positive rate of both P16 and Rb proteins was 16% (14/90), and the negative rate of both P16 and Rb proteins was 8% (7/90) in 90 GCs. The rate of positive P16 protein with negative Rb protein was 33% (30/90). The rate of negative P16 protein with positive Rb protein was 43% (39/90). There was reverse correlation between P16 and Rb expression in 90 GCs (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The loss protein expression of p16 and Rb genes is related to GC. The loss expression of P16 protein is related to the histopathologic subtypes and lymph node metastasis of GC. Expression of P16 and Rb proteins in GC is reversely correlated. The deletion but not mutation in exon 2 of p16 gene may be involved in GC.

[Inhalation of aerosolized perfluorocarbon combined with tetramethylpyrazine ameliorates hemodynamics and pulmonary histopathology in a porcine model of acute lung injury].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of inhalation of aerosolized perfluorocarbon combined with tetramethylpyrazine on the hemodynamics and histopathology in a porcine model of acute lung injury. METHODS: Normal adult pigs were subjected to saline lavage of the bilateral lungs to induce acute lung injury and randomized subsequently into 3 groups for treatment with inhalation of perfluorocarbon, combined inhalation of perfluorocarbon and tetramethylpyrazine, or inhalation of tetramethylpyrazine. The changes of mean arterial pressure (MAP), PetCO(2), mPAP, CVP and PAWP were recorded at different time points following the lung injury, and the lung tissues were sampled for histological observations. RESULTS: The MAP, mPAP, CVP and PAWP all increased significantly in the 3 groups after acute lung injury. Interventions with combined tetramethylpyrazine and perfluorocarbon inhalation significantly improved these indices as compared with inhalation of tetramethylpyrazine or perfluorocarbon alone (P<0.05). The pulmonary pathology was the mildest in the combined inhalation group, and the most severe in tetramethylpyrazine group. CONCLUSION: Combined inhalation of perfluorocarbon and tetramethylpyrazine can effectively improve the oxygenation, reduce pulmonary arterial pressure?and ameliorate lung pathology in pigs with acute lung injury.