Effect of vitamin A supplementation on gut microbiota in children with autism spectrum disorders - a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Dysbiosis of gut microbiota are commonly reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and may contribute to behavioral impairment. Vitamin A (VA) plays a role in regulation of gut microbiota. This study was performed to investigate the role of VA in the changes of gut microbiota and changes of autism functions in children with ASD. RESULTS: Sixty four, aged 1 to 8 years old children with ASD completed a 6-month follow-up study with VA intervention. High-performance liquid chromatography was used to assess plasma retinol levels. The Autism Behaviour Checklist (ABC), Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) were used to assess autism symptoms. CD38 and acid-related orphan receptor alpha (RORA) mRNA levels were used to assess autism-related biochemical indicators' changes. Evaluations of plasma retinol, ABC, CARS, SRS, CD38 and RORA mRNA levels were performed before and after 6 months of intervention in the 64 children. Illumina MiSeq for 16S rRNA genes was used to compare the differences in gut microbiota before and after 6 months of treatment in the subset 20 of the 64 children. After 6 months of intervention, plasma retinol, CD38 and RORA mRNA levels significantly increased (all P < 0.05); the scores of ABC, CARS and SRS scales showed no significant differences (all P > 0.05) in the 64 children. Meanwhile, the proportion of Bacteroidetes/Bacteroidales significantly increased and the proportion of Bifidobacterium significantly decreased in the subgroup of 20 (all false discovery rate (FDR) q < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Bacteroidetes/Bacteroidales were the key taxa related to VA. Moreover, VA played a role in the changes in autism biomarkers. It remains unclear whether the VA concentration is associated with autism symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study protocol was peer reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of Children's Hospital, Chongqing Medical University in 2013 and retrospectively registered in Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) on November 6, 2014 (TRN: ChiCTR-ROC-14005442 ).

Effects of deqi on autonomic balance in adult tinnitus patients: study design of a randomized controlled trial.

Background. Recent reports suggest that a proportion of tinnitus patients suffer from mental illness. Autonomic nervous system plays a useful role in tinnitus therapy since electrical vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) has been frequently used to alleviate tinnitus-induced depression in clinic. heart rate variability (HRV), which is reflective of autonomic nervous system function, has been proved to be modulated by acupuncture. In the present study, we aim to compare the effect of deqi sensation on heart rate variability in adult tinnitus patients. Methods. Thirty participants are randomly assigned to verum acupuncture (creating deqi) or shallow acupuncture (not creating deqi) at Baihui (Du-20), Shenting (Du-24), Tinghui (GB-2), Waiguan (SJ-5), and Zulinqi (GB-41) for 3 weeks. The primary outcome measure is heart rate variability, which is measured at the first acupuncture, as well as the last acupuncture. Discussion. Completion of this trial will help to identify the role of deqi sensation in acupuncture effect for tinnitus and reveal an autonomic modulation mechanism for acupuncture effect. Trial Registration. This trial is registered with International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number ISRCTN58013563.

Discovery of diagnosis pattern of coronary heart disease with qi deficiency syndrome by the T-test-based adaboost algorithm.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is still the leading cause of death for adults worldwide. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a history of 1000 years fighting against the disease and provides a complementary and alternative treatment to it. Syndrome is the core of TCM diagnosis and it is traditionally diagnosed based on macroscopic symptoms as well as tongue and pulse recognitions of patients. Establishment of the diagnosis method in the microcosmic level is an urgent and major problem in TCM. The aim of this study was to establish characteristic diagnosis pattern for CHD with Qi deficiency syndrome (QDS). Thirty-four biological parameters were detected in 52 patients having unstable angina (UA) with or without QDS. Then, we presented a novel data mining method, t-test-based Adaboost algorithm, to establish highest prediction accuracy with the least number of biological parameters for UA with QDS. We gained a pattern composed of five biological parameters that distinguishes UA with QDS patients from non-QDS patients. The diagnosis accuracy of the patterns could reach 84.5% based on a 3-fold cross validation technique. Moreover, we included 85 UA cases collected from hospitals located in the north and south of China to further verify the association between the pattern and QDS. The classification accuracy is 83.5%, which keeps consistent with the accuracy obtained by the cross-validation technique. The association between a symptom and the five biological parameters was established by the data mining method and it reached an accuracy of ∼80%. These results showed that the t-test-based Adaboost algorithm might be a powerful technique for diagnosing syndrome in TCM in the context of CHD.

[Edaphic FTIR finger print and the area choice of Chinese herb culture].

UNLABELLED: In order to search for the difference of the soil of Chinese herb growth, and provide useful information for the area choice of Chinese herb culture, 53 soil samples were detected by FTIR. The results showed that all the samples have 8 peaks at 3,621, 3,425, 1,642, 1,435, 1,029, 878, 760 and 690 cm(-1), respectively, but the relative intensity is different. In addition, the peaks at 1,796, 2,982 and 2,874 cm(-1) show difference too. This can be used to distinguish soil in different area. The study also showed that soil in Tianshui and Dingxi of Gansu province are similar to that in Shanxi province. CONCLUSIONS: FTIR finger print of soil can provide useful information for the area choice of Chinese herb culture and transplantation and can be used in the study of soil.

[Study on proteomic specificity of unstable angina with qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: To seek the special plasma molecule in unstable angina (UA) patients of qi deficiency and blood stasis syndrome (QDBS) and method for explore the proteomic specificity of the disease. METHODS: LC-MS(E) analysis was performed in UA patients of QDBS or non-QDBS and in healthy persons after the 6 proteins with optimal abundance in plasma being removed by polyclonal antibody affinity column (product of Agilent Co. USA). RESULTS: Actin were found only expressed, and FN, ApoH and ANXA6 were found highly expressed in plasma of patients with UA-QDBS, suggesting they might be the special molecules for the disease. Moreover, as compared with health persons, SAA, CP, MYH11 and C6 showed high expression, and the 6 proteins, e.g. A1BG, ApoA4, GSN, HBB, HBD and TF, showed low expression in the plasma of UA-QDBS patients. CONCLUSION: UA-QDBS might belong to a kind inflammatory reaction. There are simultaneous existence of myocardial injury, blood coagulation factor abnormality, lipid metabolic disorder and oxygen transport obstacle in patients of UA-QDBS, they influence and interact mutually. The newly discovered differential proteins might provide clues for studying or discovering new protein targets of angina relieving drugs. The new technique of label free quantitative proteomics is an efficient method for bio-marker research of diseases and syndromes.