Isoliquiritin exert protective effect on telencephalon infarction injury by regulating multi-pathways in zebrafish model of ischemic stroke.

BACKGROUND: Ischemic stroke is a multifactorial disease contributing to mortality and neurological dysfunction. Isoliquiritin (ISL) has been reported to possess a series of pharmacological activities including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, anti-depression, anti-neurotoxicity and pro-angiogenesis activities but whether it can be used for ischemic stroke treatment remains unknown. PURPOSE: The goal of this study is to explore its therapeutic effect on ischemic stroke and demonstrated the potential mechanism of ISL in zebrafish model. METHODS: Using the photothrombotic-induced adult zebrafish model of ischemic stroke, we visualized the telencephalon (Tel) and optic tectum (OT) infarction injury at 24 h post-light exposure for 30 min by TTC and H&E staining. The effect of ISL on neurological deficits was analyzed during open tank swimming by video tracking. The antioxidant activity against ischemia injury was quantified by SOD, GSH-Px and MDA assay. Transcriptome analysis of zebrafish Tel revealed how ISL regulating gene expression to exert protective effect, which were also been validated by real-time quantitative PCR assays. RESULTS: We found for the first time that the Tel tissue was the first damaged site of the whole brain and it showed more sensitivity to the brain ischemic damage compared to the OT. ISL reduced the rate of Tel injury, ameliorated neurological deficits as well as counteracted oxidative damages by increasing SOD, GSH-Px and decreasing MDA activity. GO enrichment demonstrated that ISL protected membrane and membrane function as well as initiate immune regulation in the stress response after ischemia. KEGG pathway analysis pointed out that immune-related pathways, apoptosis as well as necroptosis pathways were more involved in the protective mechanism of ISL. Furthermore, the log2 fold change in expression pattern of 25 genes detected by qRT-PCR was consistent with that by RNA-seq. CONCLUSIONS: Tel was highly sensitive to the brain ischemia injury in zebrafish model of ischemic stroke. ISL significantly exerted protective effect on Tel injury, neurological deficits and oxidative damages. ISL could regulate a variety of genes related to immune, apoptosis and necrosis pathways against complex cascade reaction after ischemia. These findings enriched the study of ISL, making it a novel multi-target agent for ischemic stroke treatment.

Curcumin mediates IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway to repair intestinal mucosal injury induced by 5-FU chemotherapy for colon cancer / 中国中药杂志

This study aims to investigate the potential mechanism of curcumin in mediating interleukin-6(IL-6)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3(STAT3) signaling pathway to repair intestinal mucosal injury induced by 5-fluorouracil(5-FU) chemotherapy for colon cancer. SD rats were intraperitoneally injected with 60 mg·kg~(-1)·d~(-1) 5-FU for 4 days to establish a model of intestinal mucosal injury. Then the rats were randomly divided into model group(equal volume of normal saline), curcumin low, medium and high dose groups(50, 100, 200 mg·kg~(-1)), and normal SD rats were used as control group(equal volume of normal saline). Each group received gavage administration for 4 consecutive days, and the changes of body weight and feces were recorded every day. After administration, blood was collected from the heart, and jejunum tissues were collected. The levels of serum interleukin-1β(IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) were detected by ELISA, and at the same time, the concentration of Evans blue(EB) in jejunum was measured. Hematoxylin-eosin(HE) staining was used to observe the pathological state of jejunum, and the length of jejunum villi and the depth of crypt were measured. The positive expression levels of claudin, occludin and ZO-1 were detected by immunohistochemistry. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of IL-6, p-STAT3, E-cadherin, vimentin and N-cadherin in jejunum tissues. The results showed that, curcumin significantly increased body weight and fecal weight(P<0.05 or P<0.01), decreased fecal score, EB concentration, IL-1β and TNF-α levels(P<0.05 or P<0.01) in rats. In addition, curcumin maintained the integrity of mucosal surface and villi structure of jejunum to a large extent, and reduced pathological changes in a dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile, curcumin could increase the positive expression of occludin, claudin and ZO-1(P<0.05 or P<0.01), repair intestinal barrier function, downregulate the protein expression of IL-6, p-STAT3, vimentin and N-cadherin in jejunum tissues(P<0.05 or P<0.01), and upregulate the protein expression of E-cadherin(P<0.05). Therefore, curcumin could repair the intestinal mucosal injury induced by 5-FU chemotherapy for colon cancer, and the mechanism may be related to the inhibition of IL-6/STAT3 signal and the inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT) process.

Efficacy and safety of vitamin D as adjuvant therapy for childhood pneumonia: a Meta analysis / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To study the efficacy and safety of vitamin D as an adjuvant therapy for childhood pneumonia through a systematic review.@*METHODS@#Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and Weipu Data were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of vitamin D as the adjuvant therapy for childhood pneumonia published up to August 2019. Literature screening, quality assessment, and data extraction were performed based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Revman 5.3 was used to perform the Meta analysis of outcome indicators.@*RESULTS@#A total of 7 RCTs with 1 527 children were included, with 762 children in the vitamin D adjuvant therapy group and 765 children in the control group. The results of the Meta analysis showed that vitamin D adjuvant therapy had no effect on recovery time (P=0.67), length of hospital stay (P=0.73), and time to relief of fever (P=0.43). Furthermore, it did not reduce the recurrence rate (P=0.14), rate of adverse events (P=0.20), and mortality rate (P=0.98) of childhood pneumonia.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Current evidence shows that vitamin D adjuvant therapy has no marked efficacy in the treatment of childhood pneumonia.

Phased Expression of Gene and Protein of NogoA and NgR in Rats with Spinal Cord Injury and Time Window of Electroacupuncture / 中国康复理论与实践

Objective To investigate the phased expression of gene and protein of NogoA and its receptor (NgR) that affects axon growth of spinal cord injury (SCI), and to explore the time window effect of electroacupuncture on SCI rats. Methods A total of 144 female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to sham operation group (group A, n=48) and model group (n=96). In the model group, Allen's method was used to establish SCI rats model, and they were further subdivided into model control group (group B, n=48) and electroacupuncture group (group C, n=48). Group C received electroacupuncture on Dazhui (GV14), Yaoyangguan (GV3), bilateral Ciliao (BL32) and Zu-sanli (ST36) with loose-tight wave, for 20 minutes every day, one day, seven days and 14 days after modeling. The rats at every interventional therapy time were randomly subdivided into two subgroups, which accepted sev-en or 14 days of treatment. Groups A and B were killed and the injured spinal cord tissue was extracted one day, three days, seven days, 14 days and 28 days after modeling, group C at the corresponding time. The hind limb motor function was assessed with BBB score before all of rats were killed. Four samples at every time in each group were randomly selected to detect the expression of mRNA and protein of NogoA and NgR at different stage of SCI using reverse transcription real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blotting. Results The BBB score began to increase 14 days after modeling, and significantly increased until 28 days after model-ing (P<0.05), compared with one day, three days and seven days after modeling in group B. The BBB score in-creased in group C than in group B at all the time points (P<0.05), except 14 days after electroacupuncture one day after modeling. The BBB score was higher as electroacupuncture intervening seven days and 14 days after modeling than that at one day after modeling in group C, and no significant difference was found between seven days and 14 days of treatment at either electroacupuncture time point (P>0.05). The expression of gene and pro-tein of NogoA and NgR in group B was in the increasing tendency after SCI, and was at the peak until 21 days af-ter modeling, and was higher in group B than in group A at each time point (P<0.01). The expression of gene and protein of NogoA decreased at all the time points in group C than in group B (P<0.05), except seven days of elec-troacupuncture intervening one day after modeling in the expression of NogoA mRNA (P>0.05). The expression of gene and protein of NogoA and NgR was lower as electroacupuncture intervening 14 days after modeling than one day after modeling in group C (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the expression of gene and protein of NogoA and NgR between electroacupuncture intervening 14 days and seven days after modeling, and seven days and one day after modeling (P>0.05); as well as between seven days and 14 days of treatment at each time point (P>0.05). Conclusion Elerctroacupuncture could improve the hind limb motor function, which may associate with the inhibition of the expression of gene and protein of NogoA and NgR in injured spinal cord of rats after SCI. Elerctroacu-puncture is effective in the treatment of SCI at the early time, however, it is much better in the recovery stage.

Characteristics of the Body Constitution and Syndrome Type of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in Primary Sj(o)gren's Syndrome (pSS) / 世界科学技术-中医药现代化

This study aimed at exploring the features of the body constitution and syndrome types of TCM in patients with pSS.General information of 60 patients with pSS was collected.Their TCM syndrome types and TCM body constitution types were examed,while the distribution of pSS syndrome types in terms of their body constitution was analyzed.Among 60 pSS patients,58 of them (96.67％) were female with the average age of 52 years and an average course of 63 months.Their usual residence was Xinjiang.Their most common first symptoms included thirst,dry eyes and joint pain,and the damage of skin and mucous membranes and blood system was rare.It was found that the syndrome of both qi and yin deficiency was the most common (48.33％),followed by the impregnation syndrome of heat and dampness (26.67％) and the syndrome of the weakness of spleen qi (25％) in pSS patients.Yin deficiency (58.33％) and yang deficiency (58.33％) in the body constitution of TCM accounted for decent proportions,followed by the constitutions of qi stagnation (48.33％),qi deficiency (45.00％),blood stasis (38.33％),phlegm-dampness (36.67％),damp-heat (18.33％),allergic (13.33％) and yin-yang harmony (1.67％).Those without the health education of pSS accounted for 51.11％ in cases of palindromia.In conclusion,yin deficiency and yang deficiency constitutions were most common,at most,the body constitution of both qi and yin deficiency,in pSS patients in accordance with TCM body constitution.Most pSS patients of palindromia didn't received professional health education of pSS.All the causes above suggested that we should make individualized treatment programs according to clinical syndrome types and the characteristics of TCM body constitution in pSS patients for strengthening the health management of pSS and improving their quality of life.

Study on antagonistic effect of liangxue huayu recipe on endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced L02 hepatocyte apoptosis and its mechanism / 中国中药杂志

Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) is a new pathway inducing cell apoptosis that has been discovered in recent years. This study focused on the protective effect of Liangxue Huayu recipe (LHR) on tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and D-GalN-induced hepatocyte apoptosis. It found that TNF-alpha and D-GalN could obviously inhibit hepatocyte proliferation, induce cell apoptosis, and significantly increase free calcium ions in cytoplasms, as well as protein expressions of ERS apoptosis-related signal molecules phosphorylated PERK, phosphorylated elF2alpha, cleaved Caspase-12, GRP78 and CHOP. After the administration of LHR of different concentrations, compared with the TNF-alpha/GalN injury group, LHR could significantly alleviated L02 hepatocyte proliferation, decreased cell apoptosis, inhibited growth of intracytoplasmic free calcium content, and gradually reduced the protein expressions of phosphorylated PERK, phosphorylated elF2alpha, cleaved Caspase-12, GRP78 and CHOP. These findings indicated that LHR has the inhibitory effect on TNF-alpha and D-GalN-induced hepatocyte apoptosis. Its mechanism may be related to down-regulation of ERS apoptosis-related signal molecules phosphorylated PERK, phosphorylated elF2alpha, cleaved Caspase-12, GRP78 and CHOP that maintain calcium homeostasis in endoplasmic reticulum.

[Effect of Xuebijing injection treatment on acute respiratory distress syndrome: a multicenter prospective randomized control clinical trial].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the therapeutic effect of Xuebijing injection on adult patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). METHODS: A multicenter prospective randomized control study was conducted at 10 intensive care units in Jiangsu province. A total of 172 early ARDS patients were randomly divided into Xuebijing treatment and control groups. All patients received routine therapy of ARDS while additional Xuebijing injection 100 ml was administered in the treatment group intravenously for 7 days. Lung injury score, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score, multiple organ dysfunction score (MODS) and PaO2/FiO2 of the patients was recorded before and after treatment. Mortality at 28 days and the duration of mechanical ventilation were compared between two groups. RESULTS: Ninety-one patients were assigned to receive Xuebijing injection and 81 patients as control; Mortality at Days 28 and 90, the duration of mechanical ventilation and ventilation free days showed no difference between two groups (P > 0.05). PaO2/FiO2 improved after randomization versus pre-treatment in all patients. There was no significant difference between two groups. Murray scores were not significantly different between two groups. In a subgroup analysis of patients with pulmonary infection, pulmonary contusion and extra-pulmonary cause, two groups had no difference in mortality at Day 28, mortality at Day 90, the duration of mechanical ventilation, ventilation free days and days of ICU stay (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The treatment of Xuebijing injection early in course of ARDS does not improve the mortality of ARDS patients. But it may improve lung function and oxygenation. Further studies are warranted.

Clinical study on prevention of recurrence of asthma in children by Xiaochuangao acupoint paste: treating winter diseases in summer / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To verify the clinical efficacy of Xiaochuangao acupoint paste (XAP) in treating asthma in children.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Ninety children patients with asthma were randomly assigned to three groups with 30 patients each, being treated with XAP, hormone and XAP combined with hormone, respectively. The changes of the lung function and the recurrence times during one-year follow-up were observed.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Group II (Hormone group) saw higher total effective rate (69.2%) than Group I (XAP group) (63.3%) , but with no statistic difference between these two groups. Group llI (XAP and Hormone) saw the highest total effective rate (93.1%), with significant statistic difference from the other two groups (P < 0.05). All three groups saw the significant increase of the levels of FEV1, FEV11/FVC and PEF after the treatments (P < 0.05), while no statistical difference of FEV1, FEV1/FVC, PEF were observed in the three groups before the treatments. After the treatments, statistic differences of FEV1, FEV1/FVC, PEF between Group Ill and Group II were observed (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>XAP played a role in preventing the recurrence of asthma in children. Combined with hormone, XAP showed better effects.</p>

Clinical observation of effects of Modified Sijunzi Decoction on the intestinal mucosal barrier of giant colon children patients / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study whether Modified Sijunzi Decoction (MSD) has protective effects on the intestinal mucosal barrier function of giant colon children.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty-two giant colon children patients were randomly assigned to two groups. Patients in the treatment group (16 cases) took MDS after cleaning edema, while cleaning enema was given to those in the control group 10 days before operation. The affected colon tissues were cut out during the radical correction and made into slices. The secreted immunoglobulin A (SIgA) level of colonic mucosal lamina propria plasma cells ws detected using immunohistochemical assay. The colonic mucosal gland density was detected under the light microscope. The tight junction between the colon epitheliums, the epithelium microvilli, the morphologies of organelles such as mitochondria, and endoplasmic reticulum, etc. were observed under the electron microscope.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The average number of colonic mucosal glands and the SigA value of submucosal lamina propria plasma cells were higher in the treatment group than in the control group under the high power field. Compared with the control group, more intact morphologies of organelles were observed under the electron microscope.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>MSD could strengthen the intestinal mucosal barrier function of giant colon children and play certain roles in protecting its functions through improving the proliferation of the intestinal mucosa cells and maintaining the integrity of the bowel mucosa, as well as enhancing the local intestinal immunity.</p>

Analysis on therapeutic effect of selective acupoint-injection on scissors gait in children of cerebral palsy / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effect of selective acupoint-injection on scissors gait in 60 children of cerebral palsy.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty children of scissors gait were classified hypermyotonia and hypomyotonia according to muscular tension and femoral angle, and treated with injection into lateral acupoints, medial acupoints and lateral-medial acupoints of the lower limbs, respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The total effective rate was 87.5% for the hypermyotonia treated with injection into lateral acupoints of the lower limbs, and 100.0% for the hypomyotonia treated with injection into the medial acupoints of the lower limbs, and 80.0% for the patient treated with lateral-medial acupoints.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The causes of forming scissors gait for children of cerebral palsy should be analyzed and different acupoints should be selected for different causes, and different acupoints have different therapeutic effects.</p>

Study on chemical constituents from Delphinium honanense var. piliteram / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the chemical constituents from Delphinium honanense var. piliteram.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The constituents were isolated and purified with chromatographic methods, identified by NMR, MS and IR.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Six compounds were isolated and elucidated as siwanine E (1), isoatisine (2), 12-epi-napelline (3), acontine (4), ajadelphinine (5) and beta-sitosterol (6).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Compounds 1-6 are all isolated from the plant for the first time.</p>

A new norditerpenoid alkaloid from Aconitum taipaicum / 药学学报

To investigate the chemical constituents of the roots of Aconitum taipaicum, silica gel column chromatography was used for the isolation and purification of compounds. A new norditerpenoid alkaloid, isodelelatine (1), along with five known alkaloids, atisine (2), delfissinol (3), liangshanine (4), hypaconitine (5) and delelatine (6) were isolated and identified. The structure of the new compound was elucidated on the basis of spectral data.

Brief analysis on scientifity of the international scalp acupuncture / 中国针灸

By comparing and analyzing the similarity among the international scalp acupuncture, JIAO's scalp acupuncture and ZHU's scalp acupuncture, it is believed that the international scalp acupuncture is a combination of traditional acupuncture and other scalp acupuncture on the basis of channel theory of TCM, and this combination is worthy of discussion. However JIAO's scalp acupuncture lacks scientific evidence. So, the international scalp acupuncture following most contents of JIAO's scalp acupuncture is worthy of discussion.

Effects of tea polyphenols on cell proliferation and hTERT of human Tca8113 cell lines / 中华口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effects of tea polyphenols (TP) on cell proliferation and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The experiment was divided into tea polyphenols 0.100 g/L, tea polyphenols 0.050 g/L and blank control groups. The inhibitory ratio of cell proliferation was assayed with MTT, and hTERT mRNA was detected by RT-PCR, and hTERT protein analyzed by Western-blotting. The data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Student-Newman-Keuls of SPSS 11.0 for windows.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Cell proliferations were significantly inhibited after exposure to TP. The proliferation inhibiting rate of TP 0.025, 0.050, 0.100, 0.200 g/L on Tca8113 cell at 72 h was 69.75% +/- 3.24%, 63.17% +/- 3.19%, 50.35% +/- 4.21% and 34.75% +/- 3.71%, respectively (F = 270.19, P < 0.05). At the end of 72 h, the hTERT mRNA expression in TP 0.100 g/L, 0.050 g/L and control group were 0.32 +/- 0.05, 0.41 +/- 0.04, 0.72 +/- 0.05, respectively (P < 0.05). The Western-blotting assay showed that hTERT protein was also decreased by tea polyphenols compared to control group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Tea polyphenols could inhibit the proliferation of Tca8113 cells and expression of the hTERT mRNA and protein in Tca8113 cell lines. This effect might be one of the mechanisms for anticancer function of tea polyphenols.</p>