Perforating ocular injury caused by acupuncture: A case report.

Acpuncture as a branch of traditional Chinese medicine is popular in China. It can regulate the running of meridian qi to stimulate the ocular nerve activity and increase blood supply. Periocular acupuncture treatment is very frequent, but it can lead to safety hazards that cannot be ignored. For instance, ocular trauma may develop if done improperly, resulting in impaired vision and even blindness. We report a rare case of perforating ocular injury caused by acupuncture.

Feeding on tea GH19 chitinase enhances tea defense responses induced by regurgitant derived from Ectropis grisescens.

Multiple isoforms of chitinases participate in plant defense against outside invaders. However, the functions of hydrolase family 19 (GH19) chitinases on pest control remain largely unknown. Here we reported the isolation and functional analysis of a gene CsChi19, which encodes a GH19 endochitinase protein of 332 amino acid residues from tea plant (Camellia sinensis). CsChi19 expression levels were upregulated in response to mechanical wounding, infestation by two important pests: the tea geometrid Ectropis grisescens and the tea green leafhopper Empoasca (Matsumurasca) onukii, a fungal pathogen Colletotrichum fructicola, and treatment with two phytohormones: jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid. CsChi19 was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli, and its catalytic function was further elucidated. The protein could hydrolyze colloidal chitin, and the optimum temperature and pH for its activity was 40°C and pH 5.0. CsChi19 were found to be toxic to tea pests when they were fed on artificial diets containing this protein. Interestingly, the regurgitant derived from E. grisescens fed with artificial diets containing CsChi19 protein induced stronger expression of CsMPK3, more JA burst, more accumulation of defense-related secondary metabolites, and more emission of volatiles than the regurgitant derived from E. grisescens fed only with artificial diets. Our results provide first evidence that CsChi19 is involved in mediating a novel defense mechanism of tea plant through altering the composition of the regurgitant.

Esculetin induces apoptosis in human gastric cancer cells through a cyclophilin D-mediated mitochondrial permeability transition pore associated with ROS.

Esculetin is a coumarin derivative from natural plants that has been commonly used as a folk medicine and has been reported to have beneficial pharmacological and biochemical activities; however, the mechanism by which esculetin prevents human gastric cancer cell growth is still largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of esculetin on human gastric cancer cells and explored the cell death mechanism. Our data indicated that esculetin inhibited the growth of human gastric cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner and apoptosis was the main cause of decreased cell viability in esculetin-treated cells. Additionally, esculetin treatment increased the activity of caspase-9 and caspase-3, and resulted in the appearance of the PARP cleavage product; and esculetin-induced cell death and apoptosis was decreased by pretreatment with CsA and NAC, but not BA; these results demonstrate that esculetin induced apoptosis via the caspase-dependent mitochondrial pathway in human gastric cancer cells in which cyclophilin D mediated the cytotoxic action by triggering the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore; and the generation of ROS not only was a consequence of mitochondrial dysfunction, but also triggered esculetin-induced apoptosis. These results reveal a novel mechanism of esculetin on gastric cancer cells and suggest that esculetin could be a novel agent in the treatment of gastric cancer.