Efficacy of Rituximab in the Treatment of Pemphigus Vulgaris: A Meta-analysis.

Background: Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) accounts for about 80% of all patients with pemphigus, and is the type with the most serious condition and the worst prognosis among autoimmune bullous diseases. Glucocorticoid and immunosuppressor are the main treatment method for PV. Methods: The computer retrieves four databases obtain controlled trials on the effects of Rituximab in patients with pemphigus vulgaris. After a rigorous literature quality evaluation, data analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. Results: 7 studies were ultimately included in this meta-analysis. 6 studies reported the Remission rate of the test group and the control group, which was significantly higher (OR:2.26; 95% Cl: 1.80,2.82; P < .01) than the control group. Meta-analysis showed that the improvement of the Recurrence rate was significantly lower than the control group (OR:0.36; 95% Cl: 0.20,0.67; P < .01). Meta-analysis showed that the Adverse reactions was no significant statistical significance than the control group (OR:0.82; 95% Cl: 0.53,1.28; P = .383). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that Rituximab may be effective in patients with pemphigus vulgaris, which will bring light for patients and doctors. And the above conclusions need to be verified by more high-quality studies.

Effects of Lycium barbarum L. Polysaccharides on Vascular Retinopathy: An Insight Review.

Vascular retinopathy is a pathological change in the retina caused by ocular or systemic vascular diseases that can lead to blurred vision and the risk of blindness. Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBPs) are extracted from the fruit of traditional Chinese medicine, L. barbarum. They have strong biological activities, including immune regulation, antioxidation, and neuroprotection, and have been shown to improve vision in numerous studies. At present, there is no systematic literature review of LBPs on vascular retinal prevention and treatment. We review the structural characterization and extraction methods of LBPs, focus on the mechanism and pharmacokinetics of LBPs in improving vascular retinopathy, and discuss the future clinical application and lack of work. LBPs are involved in the regulation of VEGF, Rho/ROCK, PI3K/Akt/mTOR, Nrf2/HO-1, AGEs/RAGE signaling pathways, which can alleviate the occurrence and development of vascular retinal diseases in an inflammatory response, oxidative stress, apoptosis, autophagy, and neuroprotection. LBPs are mainly absorbed by the small intestine and stomach and excreted through urine and feces. Their low bioavailability in vivo has led to the development of novel dosage forms, including multicompartment delivery systems and scaffolds. Data from the literature confirm the medicinal potential of LBPs as a new direction for the prevention and complementary treatment of vascular retinopathy.

The clinical application value of phase angle of six parts in nutritional evaluation of tumor patients.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore the clinical application value of phase angle (PA) of six parts in the nutritional evaluation and construct a prediction model for diagnosing malnutrition of tumor patients. METHODS: A total of 1129 patients with malignant tumors were analyzed retrospectively. The age, sex, tumor location and body mass index (BMI) of the patients were collected, and PA of six parts was measured. The Patient Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) was used to evaluate the nutritional status of each patient. RESULTS: According to the PG-SGA, 66.5% (n = 750) of the patients were evaluated as malnourished. Patients under the age of 65 had higher PA values. The PA value of men was higher than that of women (except PA-RL). In different disease groups, the PA-RA and PA-TR values were significantly different. In our study, PA value increases with BMI and decreases with PG-SGA (except PG-SGA 0-1 group). Multivariate regression analysis indicates that the age (HR = 1.051, 95% CI 1.037-1.066, P < 0.001), BMI (HR = 0.885, 95% CI 0.849-0.924, P < 0.001), and PA-WB (HR = 0.615, 95% CI 0.546-0.692, P < 0.001) were independent significant predictors associated with malnutrition. The AUC of the prediction model is 0.7631 (p < 0.001), indicating that the model including age, BMI, and PA-WB has certain diagnostic value for the diagnosis of malnutrition. CONCLUSION: The PA-WB is an independent prognostic factor of malnutrition. The prediction model constructed by age, BMI, and PA-WB can be used as a useful tool for nutritional evaluation of tumor patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Trial No.: ChiCTR2100047858.

Understanding of Diabetes in Tibetan, Mongolian, Miao, Dai, Uygur, and Yi Medicine and Collation of Prevention and Cure Medicines.

Diabetes seriously endangers human health and causes a huge economic burden. With the improvement of people's living standard, the prevalence of diabetes is getting higher and higher, and age is becoming younger. It is an increasingly serious global problem. Therefore, it is imperative to find the drugs to treat diabetes. Ethnic medicine is an important part of the world's medicinal treasure house and has its own unique system. This study systematically combined the theoretical understanding of the prevention and treatment of diabetes of Tibetan, Mongolian, Miao, Dai, Uygur, and Yi people by searching the existing literature studies published until 2021, library collection resources (related ethnic monographs, medical books, standards of medicinal materials, etc.), CNKI, PubMed, and other databases and collected and sorted the relevant medicines. A total of 112 kinds of ethnic medicines for the prevention and treatment of diabetes have been discovered, including plant medicines (105 kinds), animal medicines (6 kinds), and fungal medicines (1 kind). The composition of family and genus, medicinal parts, and life forms of medicinal plants were analyzed, and the number of drugs used in the prevention and treatment of diabetes in each ethnic group was statistically analyzed. The results showed that Rosaceae was at the top of the list, and the drugs used in underground parts accounted for 33.90% of the total, and the medicinal plants were mainly herbaceous, and the Mongolians have the largest number of diabetes medicines. In addition, CNKI, PubMed, and other databases selected "medicinal materials name," "diabetes," and "hypoglycemia" as keywords, the top 30 medicinal materials reported in existing literature were listed, and their Chinese name, the Latin name of the original plant, family and genus, nationality used, medicinal parts, and active ingredients related to the prevention and treatment of diabetes were introduced in detail. Among the 30 medicines, Astragalus membranaceus, Pueraria lobata, and Coptis chinensis are the most commonly used. Through literature research, this study summarized the existing theories of ethnic medicine for the prevention and treatment of diabetes, collected and sorted out ethnic medicine, clarified the potential mechanism of ethnic medicine, and provided effective data compilation. Ethnic medicine has a long history of treating diabetes, and there are abundant medicinal materials, to provide a new idea and basis for treating diabetes.

Tibetan Medicines for the Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy.

As an important part of the traditional Chinese medicine system, Tibetan medicine has its unique treatment methods for diabetes mellitus and its complications. Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most serious diabetic microvascular diseases. Tibetan medicine believes that the occurrence of DN is closely related to renal function changes, and it can be effectively prevented and treated by improving renal lesions. In this paper, we consult ancient books of Tibetan medicine and summarize the medicines that treat kidney disease in the Tibetan medicine system. The Chinese name, English name, and Latin name of these drugs were searched as keywords in the online database. Thirty-four drugs were found for the treatment of DN. The most commonly used were Amomum kravanh, Terminalia chebula, and Tribulus terrestris, and we introduced the traditional uses and modern pharmacological activities of these drugs. The results indicate that Tibetan medicines for kidney disease could be used as potential candidate drugs for DN; they would expand the range of medications for DN and provide a new idea for the treatment of DN.

Structural characteristics and immunopotentiation activity of two polysaccharides from the petal of Crocus sativus.

The current experiments were designed to explore the structural features and immunopotentiation activity of two homogeneous polysaccharides PCSPA and PCSPB prepared from Crocus sativus petals using DEAE-Sephadex A-50 and Sephadex G200 column chromatography. The structures of PCSPA and PCSPB were systematically characterized using extensive chemical and spectroscopic methods including colorimetry, HPGPC-RID, GC-MS, Smith degradations, methylation, solvolytic desulfation, UV, FT-IR, NMR, SEM, and AFM. The average molecular weights of PCSPA and PCSPB were 1.98 × 106 and 2.53 × 106 Da, respectively. PCSPA consisted of Gal, Rha, Ara, and Xyl in the molar ratio of 16:5:7:3, while PCSPB were composed of Gal, Glc, Man, Rha, Ara, and Xyl with molar ratio of 16:2:7:19:15:16. Both polysaccharides contained sulfonic and acetyl groups. PCSPA and PCSPB significantly activated RAW264.7 cells by enhancing the phagocytic activity, up-regulating the expression of surface molecules, promoting the production and mRNA expression of cytokines and chemokines via MAPK and NF-κB pathway.

Recent advances in plasmonic Prussian blue-based SERS nanotags for biological application.

The reliability and reproducibility of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology is still a great challenge in bio-related analysis. Prussian blue (PB)-based SERS tags have attracted increasing interest for improving these deficiencies due to its unique Raman band (near 2156 cm-1) in the Raman-silent region, providing zero-background bio-Raman labels without interference from endogenous biomolecules. Moreover, the stable PB shell consisting of multiple layers of CN- reporters ensure a stable and strong Raman signal output, avoiding the desorption of the Raman reporter from the plasmonic region by the competitive adsorption of the analyte. More importantly, they possess outstanding multiplexing potential in biological analysis owing to the adjustable Raman shift with unique narrow spectral widths. Despite more attention having been attracted to the structure and preparation of PB-based SERS tags for their better biological applications over the past five years, there is still a great challenge for SERS suitable for applications in the actual environment. The biological applications of PB-based SERS tags are comprehensively recounted in this minireview, mainly focusing on quantification analysis, multiple-spectral analysis and cell-imaging joint phototherapy. The prospects of PB-based SERS tags in clinical diagnosis and treatment are also discussed. This review aims to draw attention to the importance of SERS tags and provide a reference for the design and application of PB-based SERS tags in future bio-applications.

Rapid quality control of medicine and food dual purpose plant polysaccharides by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry.

With their multiple biological activities and health benefit effects, polysaccharides from medicine and food dual purpose plants (MFDPPPs) have been extensively applied in many fields, including in medical treatments, stock farming, and cosmetics. However, to date, quality issues of MFDPPPs and technologies for the analysis of polysaccharides have posed challenges to chemists. Reported herein is a rapid and high-throughput quality control method for analyzing MFDPPPs, based on matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). For the analysis of illegally added and doped substances, ferroferric oxide nanoparticles were employed as the MALDI matrix to avoid small molecule interference. Qualitatively, high sensitivity was obtained for both illegal drugs and glucose. Quantitatively, the best linear response (R2 > 0.99) was attained in the concentration range from 0.005 to 1 mg mL-1 for glucose. For the analysis of polysaccharides, 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid/N-methylaniline was employed as the MALDI matrix to increase the detection sensitivity and mass range coverage. Furthermore, the established method was successfully applied to the analysis of supplements from Astragalus polysaccharides and Lentinan real samples, showing its potential in quality control for MFDPPPs.

[Study on effects of different habitat processing methods of Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma in rats with acute myocardial ischemia].

To investigate the effects of different habitat processing methods of Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma on acute myocardial ischemia induced by pituitrin in rats. In this experiment, the tail vein injection of pituitrin was used to induce acute myocardial ischemia in rats. Electrocardiograph(ECG) heart rate and ΔST changes were recorded, and the levels of creatine kinase isoenzyme(CK-MB), lactate dehydrogenase(LDH), superoxide dismutase(SOD) and malondialdehyde(MDA) in serum of rats were detected to comprehensively evaluate the effects of six processing methods of Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma on serum biochemical indexes of rats with acute myocardial injury. The ECG results showed that the Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma dried in a drying oven had a good effect on the improvement of heart rate and ΔST of electrocardiogram after ischemia, and all the other groups had some protective effects to different degrees. The results of biochemical indexes in serum of each group after ischemia showed that the activity of CK-MB decreased most significantly in Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma high-dose group with drying in a drying oven after sweating and losing weight in a drying oven, high-dose group with drying in the shade and low-dose group with drying in the shade. The activity of LDH decreased most significantly in Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma high-dose group with drying in the shade and low-dose group of drying in the shade. The activity of SOD increased most significantly in Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma low-dose group with drying in sun, low-dose group with drying in sun after sweating and losing weight in sun, and low-dose group with drying in a drying oven. The activity of MDA decreased most significantly in Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma low-dose group with drying in sun. The comprehensive scoring results showed that the highest score was obtained in Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma high-dose group with drying in the shade while the scores of other treatment groups were higher than that of the model group. It could be seen that the Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma dried in a drying oven had a good improvement effect on electrocardiograph indexes after acute myocardial injury, the Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma dried in the shade had a good improvement effect on serum myocardial enzymes after acute myocardial injury, and the other processing methods had a certain protective effect on myocardial injury. The six processing methods evaluated by pharmacodynamics showed that the Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma dried in the shade and dried in a drying oven had good efficacy.

Tangduqing Granules Attenuate Insulin Resistance and Abnormal Lipid Metabolism through the Coordinated Regulation of PPARγ and DGAT2 in Type 2 Diabetic Rats.

Insulin resistance (IR) is a vital hallmark of type 2 diabetes mellitus, which is characterized by an impaired ability of insulin to promote glucose uptake and utilization. Lipid deposition is closely associated with impaired insulin sensitivity. PPARγ plays an important role in glucose homeostasis, adipocyte differentiation, and insulin sensitivity. Likewise, DGAT2 also exerts a crucial role in integrating carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in the liver. The present study is aimed at evaluating a Chinese medicinal formula, Tangduqing granules (TDQ), with multifaceted actions against lipid and glucose metabolism disorder and IR of type 2 diabetes. An animal model of type 2 diabetes was developed by high-fat diet feeding plus low-dose streptozotocin injection. After oral administration of TDQ for 5 weeks, the effects on glucose and lipid metabolism and the underlying mechanism were evaluated by biochemical, histological, RT-PCR, and western blotting methods. The results showed that TDQ decreased fasting blood glucose, ameliorated glucose tolerance, and improved IR. Besides, TDQ regulated hyperlipidemia symptoms, decreased serum lipid levels and liver TG, and reduced hepatic steatosis in a type 2 diabetic rat model. Furthermore, TDQ reversed diabetes-induced decrease in the mRNA and protein expression of PPARγ and elevation in the mRNA and protein levels of DGAT2 in the liver. In addition, we showed that interference of TDQ ameliorated palmitate-induced glucose and lipid metabolic abnormalities in HepG2 cells. TDQ are, therefore, a potential Chinese medicinal formula that relieves IR and lipid metabolism disorder might be through promotion of PPARγ and decrease of DGAT2 expression.

Comparison of two different ecological floating bio-reactors for pollution control in hyper-eutrophic freshwater.

The use of ecological floating beds (EFBs) to control water pollution has been increasingly reported worldwide due to the severe situation of eutrophication in water bodies. In this study, two kinds of EFBs were set up under similar condition to compare their purification efficiency in hyper-eutrophic water. The conventional ecological floating bed (CEFB) was made of polystyrene foam board, and the enhanced ecological floating bio-reactor (EEFB) was designed as an innovative hollow, thin floating bed integrated with substrates of zeolite and limestone. The results showed that the EEFB increased treatment efficiency of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphate (TP), and ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) to 63.5%, 59.3%, and 68.0%, respectively. Plant accumulation was the main pathway for TN and TP removal in the CEFB. Microbial degradation played an increasingly important role in TN and TP removal in the EEFB. A higher concentration of nitrogen cycling bacteria was recorded in the EEFB than the CEFB (P < 0.05), suggesting that the substrates might enhanced the removal efficiency of the EEFB by promoting the growth of microorganisms rather than their absorption effect.

HOTHEAD-Like HTH1 is Involved in Anther Cutin Biosynthesis and is Required for Pollen Fertility in Rice.

The cuticle covering the outer surface of anthers is essential for male reproductive development in plants. However, the mechanism underlying the synthesis of these lipidic polymers remains unclear. HOTHEAD (HTH) in Arabidopsis thaliana is a presumptive glucose-methanol-choline (GMC) oxidoreductase involved in the biosynthesis of long-chain α-,ω-dicarboxylic fatty acids. In this study, we characterized the function of an anther-specific gene HTH1 in rice. HTH1 contains a conserved GMC oxidoreductase-like domain, and the sequence of HTH1 was highly similar to that of HTH in A. thaliana. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and in situ hybridization analyses showed that HTH1 was highly expressed in epidermal cells of anthers. Rice plants with HTH1 suppression through CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) and RNA interference (RNAi) displayed defective anther wall and aborted pollen. Disorganized cuticle layers in anthers and shriveled pollen grains were observed in HTH1-RNAi lines. The total amounts of long-chain fatty acids and cutin monomers in anthers of HTH1-RNAi lines were significantly reduced compared with the wild type. Our results suggested that HTH1 is involved in cutin biosynthesis and is required for anther development and pollen fertility in rice.

Structural characterization and immunomodulatory activity of a water soluble polysaccharide isolated from Botrychium ternatum.

As a folk medicine, Botrychium ternatum has been used for thousands of years in China. In the present work, a water soluble polysaccharide BTp1 was extracted and purified from B. ternatum. Based on the MALDI matrix 3-aminoquinoline-α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid, the molecular weight of BTp1 was determined to be 11638Da directly. Monosaccharide analysis showed that BTp1 was composed of arabinose (Ara). Combining enzymatic hydrolysis and subsequent MALDI-TOF analysis, a linear backbone of BTp1, consisted of (1→5)-linked α-l-Araf, was inferred quickly. Then according to NMR experiments, the whole structure of BTp1 was established. The repeating unit of BTp1 was deduced as a linear backbone with branches at O-2, O-3 and its neighboring O-2 positions terminated with (1→)-linked α-l-Araf, respectively. The immunomodulatory assay exhibited that BTp1 could significantly enhance the viability and promote the release of NO in RAW 264.7 cells, suggesting that BTp1 could be a potential immunomodulatory agent in pharmacological fields.

Anther-preferential expressing gene PMR is essential for the mitosis of pollen development in rice.

KEY MESSAGE: Phenotype identification, expression examination, and function prediction declared that the anther-preferential expressing gene PMR may participate in regulation of male gametophyte development in rice. Male germline development in flowering plants produces the pair of sperm cells for double fertilization and the pollen mitosis is a key process of it. Although the structural features of male gametophyte have been defined, the molecular mechanisms regulating the mitotic cell cycle are not well elucidated in rice. Here, we reported an anther-preferential expressing gene in rice, PMR (Pollen Mitosis Relative), playing an essential role in male gametogenesis. When PMR gene was suppressed via RNAi, the mitosis of microspore was severely damaged, and the plants formed unmatured pollens containing only one or two nucleuses at the anthesis, ultimately leading to serious reduction of pollen fertility and seed-setting. The CRISPR mutants, pmr-1 and pmr-2, both showed the similar defects as the PMR-RNAi lines. Further analysis revealed that PMR together with its co-expressing genes were liable to participate in the regulation of DNA metabolism in the nucleus, and affected the activities of some enzymes related to the cell cycle. We finally discussed that unknown protein PMR contained the PHD, SWIB and Plus-3 domains and they might have coordinating functions in regulation pathway of the pollen mitosis in rice.

Reducing N losses through surface runoff from rice-wheat rotation by improving fertilizer management.

To better understand N runoff losses from rice-wheat rotation and demonstrate the effectiveness of improved fertilizer management in reducing N runoff losses, a field study was conducted for three consecutive rice-wheat rotations. Nitrogen losses through surface runoff were measured for five treatments, including CK without N application, C200, C300 simulating the conventional practices, CO200, and CO300. Optimum N rate was applied for C200 and CO200, and 30% of chemical fertilizer was substituted with organic fertilizer for CO200 and CO300 with respect to C200 and C300, respectively. Rice season had higher runoff coefficients than wheat season. Approximately 52% of total N was lost as NH4+-N in rice season, ranging from 21 to 83%, and in wheat season, the proportion of NO3--N in total N averaged 53% with a variation from 38 to 67%. The N treatments lost less total N in rice season (1.67-10.7 kg N ha-1) than in wheat season (1.72-17.1 kg N ha-1). These suggested that a key to controlling N runoff losses from rice-wheat rotation was to limit NO3--N accumulation in wheat season. In both seasons, N runoff losses for C200 and CO300 were lower than those for C300. CO200 better cut N losses than C200 and CO300, with 64 and 57% less N in rice and wheat seasons than C300, respectively. Compared with the conventional practices, optimum N inputs integrated with co-application of organic and chemical fertilizers could reduce N runoff losses with a better N balance under rice-wheat rotation.

[Evaluation on reducing effect of eye drop on herpes simplex virus-I in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of herbal eye drop Reduqing (clearing toxic heat) on herpes simplex virus (HSV) on the cytopathic effect in cell culture in vitro. METHODS: The maximal non-toxic Reduqing eye drop concentration added to cell culture infected with 100 and 10TCID50 of herpes simplex virus? (HSV-1) to observe the inhibitory effect of the medicine on HSV-I induced cytopathic effect. RESULTS: The Reduqing eye drop at maximal non-toxic concentration could obviously inhibit the cytopatic effect induced by 100TCID50 and 10TCID50 HSV-I. No statistically significant difference was found when compared with 0.1% acyclovir eye drop (P>0.05), on cytopathic effect occurred with boty eye drops. However, there was significant difference when compared with control group(P<0.05). The inhibitory effect of concentrations of Reduqing at 500,000 and 63,000 microg/L was stronger than that of 2,000,000 and 1,000,000 microg/L (P 0.01). The maximal tolerable concentration of Reduqing eye drop by the cell was 2,000,000 microg/L (1:80 dilution), which was higher than that of 5,000 microg/L(1:400 dilution) acyclovir eye drop. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that Reduqing eye drop could markedly inhibit the cytopathic effects caused by HSV-I. The Reduqing eye drop showed remarkably low toxic effect to the cells as compared to acyclovir eye drop.