[Acupuncture combined with western medication in treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus with angina pectoris of coronary heart disease: a randomized controlled study].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the therapeutic effect on type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) complicated with angina pectoris of coronary heart disease between the combined therapy of acupuncture and western medication and the simple administration of western medication. METHODS: A total of 134 patients with T2DM and angina pectoris of coronary heart disease were randomly divided into two groups, i.e. an acupuncture plus medication group (67 cases, 3 cases dropped off) and a medication group (67 cases, 4 cases dropped off). The routine western medication was used according to symptoms in the patients of both groups. In the acupuncture plus medication group, on the base of medication, acupuncture was applied to Jianshi (PC 5), Quchi (LI 11), Neiguan (PC 6), etc. The needles were retained for 20 min in each treatment and 3 treatments of acupuncture were required weekly. The treatment was given consecutively for 8 weeks in the two groups. Separately, before and after treatment, the symptom scores of TCM were observed and the indexes were detected, including glycolipid metabolism [fasting plasma glucose (FPG), 2-h plasma glucose (2hPG), glucosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), triacylglycerol (TG) and total cholesterol (TC)], islet ß cell function [homeostasis model assessment-ß (HOMA-ß), homeostasis model assessment-IR (HOMA-IR), fasting insulin (FINS) and insulin sensitivity index (ISI)], cardiac function indexes [cardiac output (CO), early diastolic peak velocity/late diastolic peak velocity (E/A), left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDD) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)], as well as electrocardiogram QT dispersion (QTd). Besides, the clinical therapeutic effects were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: After treatment, the TCM symptom scores and the values of FPG, 2hPG, HbA1c, TG, TC, HOMA-IR, FINS, E/A and LVEDD as well as QTd were all lower than those before treatment in the two groups (P<0.05), and the levels of the above-mentioned indexes in the acupuncture plus medication group were all lower than those in the medication group (P<0.05). The values of HOMA-ß, ISI, CO and LVEF after treatment were higher than those before treatment in the two groups (P<0.05), and the levels of the above-mentioned indexes in the acupuncture plus medication group were all higher than those in the medication group (P<0.05). The total effective rate was 93.8% (60/64) in the acupuncture plus medication group, higher than 79.4% (50/63) in the medication group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The combined therapy of acupuncture and medication is effective in treatment of T2DM complicated with angina pectoris of coronary heart disease. Such therapy effectively improves glucolipid metabolism, islet ß cell function, cardiac function and myocardial blood supply. Its curative effect is better than the simple administration of western medicine.

CoQ10 improves meiotic maturation of pig oocytes through enhancing mitochondrial function and suppressing oxidative stress.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is essential to many fundamental biological processes. However, the effect of CoQ10 on meiotic maturation of pig oocytes still remains elusive. In the present study we aimed to understand the effects of CoQ10 on porcine oocyte maturation, by supplementing different concentrations of CoQ10 (25, 50 and 100 µM) into the maturation medium. We showed that CoQ10 at 50 µM had better capacity to promote the nuclear maturation of pig oocytes derived from both small and large antral follicles. Though the cleavage and blastocyst rates of parthenotes stayed stable, 50 µM CoQ10 treatment could accelerate the development of parthenotes to blastocyst stage, and increase the average cell number of blastocyst. For cumulus-oocyte complexes from large antral follicles categorized by the brilliant cresyl blue (BCB) test, 50 µM CoQ10 treatment could specifically promote the nuclear maturation of poor-quality oocytes in the BCB-negative group. Mitochondrial function of oocytes treated by 50 µM CoQ10 could be boosted, through increasing the levels of mitochondrial membrane potential, ATP production and CoQ6, and changing the pattern of mitochondrial distribution as well. Moreover, 50 µM CoQ10 treatment suppressed the level of reactive oxygen species and reduced the percentage of oocytes with early apoptosis signal. Taken together, CoQ10 could improve the meiotic maturation of pig oocytes, especially for poor-quality oocytes, mainly through enhancing mitochondrial function and suppressing oxidative stress to reduce apoptosis.

Ascorbic acid induces global epigenetic reprogramming to promote meiotic maturation and developmental competence of porcine oocytes.

L-ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) can enhance the meiotic maturation and developmental competence of porcine oocytes, but the underlying molecular mechanism remains obscure. Here we show the role of ascorbic acid in regulating epigenetic status of both nucleic acids and chromatin to promote oocyte maturation and development in pigs. Supplementation of 250 µM L-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate sesquimagnesium salt hydrate (AA2P) during in vitro maturation significantly enhanced the nuclear maturation (as indicated by higher rate of first polar body extrusion and increased Bmp15 mRNA level), reduced level of reactive oxygen species, and promoted developmental potency (higher cleavage and blastocyst rates of parthenotes, and decreased Bax and Caspase3 mRNA levels in blastocysts) of pig oocytes. AA2P treatment caused methylation erasure in mature oocytes on nucleic acids (5-methylcytosine (5 mC) and N 6 -methyladenosine (m6A)) and histones (Histone H3 trimethylations at lysines 27, H3K27me3), but establishment of histone H3 trimethylations at lysines 4 (H3K4me3) and 36 (H3K36me3). During the global methylation reprogramming process, levels of TET2 (mRNA and protein) and Dnmt3b (mRNA) were significantly elevated, but simultaneously DNMT3A (mRNA and protein), and also Hif-1α, Hif-2α, Tet3, Mettl14, Kdm5b and Eed (mRNA) were significantly inhibited. Our findings support that ascorbic acid can reprogram the methylation status of not only DNA and histone, but also RNA, to improve pig oocyte maturation and developmental competence.

[Advance in studies on long-circulating tumor targeted compound preparations].

Tumor has long been a hard-nut problem in the world medical field. The effect of the conventional drugs is very limited because of the intervention of multiple micro-environmental factors during the occurrence and progression of tumors. With the characteristics of high efficiency, low toxicity and multi-targets synergistic effect, the long-circulating tumor targeted compound preparations show its unique advantages in improving tumor microenvironment and enhancing the therapeutic effect of treatment, thus it has gradually become a hotspot of studies both at home and abroad. Through consulting a great number of professional literatures at home and abroad in recent years, the authors summarized the current studies in vitro and in vive on long-circulating tumor targeted compound preparations in different carriers, in the expectation of providing new ideas and methods for the development of long-circulating tumor targeted compound preparations.

Functional mimicry of the active site of glutathione peroxidase by glutathione imprinted selenium-containing protein.

For imitating the active site of antioxidant selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase (GPx), an artificial enzyme selenosubtilisin was employed as a scaffold for reconstructing substrate glutathione (GSH) specific binding sites by a bioimprinting strategy. GSH was first covalently linked to selenosubtilisin to form a covalent complex GSH-selenosubtilisin through a Se-S bond, then the GSH molecule was used as a template to cast a complementary binding site for substrate GSH recognition. The bioimprinting procedure consists of unfolding the conformation of selenosubtilisin and fixing the new conformation of the complex GSH-selenosubtilisin. Thus a new specificity for naturally occurring GPx substrate GSH was obtained. This bioimprinting procedure facilitates the catalytic selenium moiety of the imprinted selenosubtilisin to match the reactive thiol group of GSH in the GSH binding site, which contributes to acceleration of the intramolecular catalysis. These imprinted selenium-containing proteins exhibited remarkable rate enhancement for the reduction of H2O2 by GSH. The average GPx activity was found to be 462 U/micromol, and it was approximately 100 times that for unimprinted selenosubtilisin. Compared with ebselen, a well-known GPx mimic, an activity enhancement of 500-fold was observed. Detailed steady-state kinetic studies demonstrated that the novel selenoenzyme followed a ping-pong mechanism similar to the naturally occurring GPx.