Citropten alleviates acute and recurrent colitis via blockage of NF-κB and JAK/STAT3 pathways.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, which is characterized by inflammation, with many symptoms including diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloody stool, and weight loss. It is difficult to completely cure and promising therapeutic drug candidates are urgently needed. Citropten, a coumarin-like compound found in traditional Chinese medicine such as Finger Citron Fruit, notopterygium root and citrus peel, has been shown to inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells, protect against depression and suppress the production of inflammatory mediators. In this study, we demonstrated that citropten could alleviate dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced acute and recurrent colitis in mice, with significant improvement in body weight loss, disease activity index, shortened colon length and histological changes. Moreover, citropten dramatically decreased the production of pro-inflammatory mediators in colon tissues and effectively suppressed the proportion of Th17 cells in spleen. Mechanism investigations revealed that citropten significantly inhibited the activation of NF-κB and JAK/STAT3 signaling pathways, thus leading to decreased inflammation, Th17 cells and alleviative colitis. These findings provide novel insights into the anti-colitis effect of citropten, which may be a promising drug candidate for treatment of IBD.

Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of infectious mononucleosis associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection in children in Beijing, China.

BACKGROUND: infectious mononucleosis (IM) is a self-limited disease, but a few cases may have severe complications. This retrospective study was to explore the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of IM associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection (EBV-IM) in children. METHODS: hospitalized patients with EBV-IM were enrolled during January 2005 to October 2008 in Beijing Children's Hospital Affi liated to Capital Medical University. All patients were divided into four groups: <1 year (group I), 1 to 3 years (group II), 3 to 6 years (group III), and ≥ 6 years (group IV). The epidemiology and clinical characteristics were compared among the four groups. RESULTS: totally 418 patients were enrolled, with 245 boys and 173 girls. Fever, lymphadenopathy and pharyngitis were three main manifestations of the patients. The incidences of hepatomegaly, splenomegaly and rash were higher in the patients aged below 6 years, and with age increment the incidences lowered. In contrast, the patients aged <1 year had the lowest incidence of tonsillopharyngitis. The total white blood cell count was higher in the infantile group than in the other groups (P=0.038). The infantile group had significantly lower levels of serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase than the older groups (P=0.007 and P=0.012 respectively). The percentage of CD4(+) T cell subset decreased and the percentage of CD8(+) T cell subset increased with age increment. CONCLUSIONS: the incidence of EBV-IM peaked in children at age of 4 to 6 years in Northern China. Most of the patients had the classic triad of fever, lymphadenopathy and pharyngitis. Clinical symptoms, signs, laboratory findings and complications of patients varied with ages.

[Study on the serological diagnosis of Epstein-Barr virus among patients with mononucleosis].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) specific antibodies detection and the diagnoses of infectious mononucleosis (IM) caused by EBV. METHODS: Single serum samples were collected from 220 inpatients with the diagnosis of IM between January 2005 and December 2006 in Beijing Children's hospital. The samples were detected for EBV-CA-IgM, EBV-CA-IgG, EBV-EA-IgG, EBV-NA-IgG and the avidity of EBV-CA-IgG by indirect immunofluorescent assay. RESULTS: The positive rate of EBV-CA-IgG, EBV-CA-IgM, EBV-EA-IgG and EBV-NA-IgG were 100%, 95.9%, 79.5% and 4.1% respectively. Low-avidity EBV-CA-IgG was detected in 204 patients (92.7%) with positive EBV-CA-IgM and EBV-CA-IgG,negative EBV-NA-IgG, low-avidity EBV-CA-IgG were the main pattern of EBV antibody in IM patients (84.6%). CONCLUSION: The existence of EBV specific antibody (CA-IgG, CA-IgM, EA-IgG, NA-IgG and avidity of CA-IgG) could add more information to identify the stage of EBV infection so as to provide more reliable serological evidence for the diagnosis of IM.