[Current situation of acupuncture and moxibustion patents in China and abroad].

The patents of acupuncture and moxibustion in China and abroad was analyzed, aiming to provide support for the innovative development of acupuncture industry. With the China Think Tank of Patent of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the PatSnap database as data sources, based on the mathematical statistics method, the application trend, legal status, patent types, transformation and distribution of major technical fields of acupuncture patents in China and abroad were analyzed. As a result, a total of 53,422 acupuncture patents were screened, involving 49 countries and 4 organizations. The patent types were mainly utility model patents. Although the application number of acupuncture patent had increased rapidly, the average patent conversion rate was generally low, approximately 4%. In the context of global economic integration, the acupuncture industry is developing at a high speed. It is suggested to take advantage of the "Belt and Road Initiative" to improve the international acceptance of acupuncture and moxibustion, adhere to the principle of attaching equal importance to the number and quality of patents, promote the in-depth cooperation of industry-university-research, and promote high-quality development of acupuncture and moxibustion.

Comparison of physical effect between two training methods for individuals with substance use disorder.

BACKGROUND: HIIT has recently been widely used for health promotion in healthy people and patients with chronic diseases. Exercise can help SUD reduce drug cravings, enhance mental health and return to normal life. However, whether HIIT can bring better physical rehabilitation benefits to individuals with SUD than MICT is unclear. The study aimed to compare the effects of HIIT versus MICT on the physical fitness of individuals with SUD. METHODS: One hundred twenty individuals with amphetamine-type stimulant dependence voluntarily participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to the HIIT group and MICT group. Both groups received training three times a week. The intervention lasted from January 2019 to December 2019. Physical fitness was assessed at the baseline, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months, including blood pressure (BP), vital capacity(VC), hand grip, push-up, sit-and-reach, one-leg standing with eyes closed and choice reaction time. The craving level was assessed using the Visual Analog Scale at baseline, 6 months and 12 months to see any change along with the improvement in physical fitness. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA was applied to analyse the differences in change by group (HIIT and MICT) and time (baseline, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months). RESULTS: The within-group factor displayed significant changes in the HIIT and MICT groups in terms of systolic BP (F (4,336) = 12.799, P < 0.001,η2 = 0.204), diastolic BP (F(4,336) = 9.495, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.16), VC (F(4,336) = 18.121, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.177), hand grip (F(4,336) = 34.815, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.293), sit-and-reach (F(4,336) = 13.871, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.142), push-up (F(4,336) = 28.805, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.255), one-leg standing with eyes closed (F(4,336) = 14.495, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.156) and choice reaction time (F(4,336) = 20.603, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.197). The craving level decreased after 12 months of intervention in both groups (F(2,168) = 11.25, P < 0.001, η2 = 0.118), but no significant differences in physical fitness and craving level were found in between groups and the interactions of group × time. CONCLUSIONS: After 12 months of intervention, physical fitness improved while craving level decreased in the two groups. These findings suggest that both HIIT and MICT have positive effects on individuals with SUD in terms of physical fitness. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ChiCTR1900022158 Chinese Clinical Trial Registry: Registered 27th March, 2019.

The Arabidopsis R-SNARE protein YKT61 is essential for gametophyte development.

Gametophyte development is a pre-requisite for plant reproduction and seed yield; therefore, studies of gametophyte development help us understand fundamental biological questions and have potential applications in agriculture. The biogenesis and dynamics of endomembrane compartments are critical for cell survival, and their regulatory mechanisms are just beginning to be revealed. Here, we report that the Arabidopsis thaliana SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor attachment protein receptor) protein YKT61 is essential for both male and female gametogenesis. By using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9)-based genome editing, we demonstrated that male and female gametophytes carrying YKT61 loss-of-function alleles do not survive. Specifically, loss of YKT61 function resulted in the arrest of male gametophytic development at pollen mitosis I and the degeneration of female gametophytes. A three-base-pair deletion in YKT61 in the ykt61-3 mutant resulted in a single-amino acid deletion in the longin domain of YKT61; the resulting mutant protein does not interact with multiple SNAREs and showed substantially reduced membrane association, suggesting that the N-terminal longin domain of YKT61 plays multiple roles in its function. This study demonstrates that Arabidopsis YKT61 is essential for male and female gametogenesis and sets an example for functional characterization of essential genes with the combination of Cas9-mediated editing and expression from a Cas9-resistant transgene.

PHAGE Study: Effects of Supplemental Bacteriophage Intake on Inflammation and Gut Microbiota in Healthy Adults.

The gut microbiota is increasingly recognized as an important modulator of human health. As such, there is a growing need to identify effective means of selectively modifying gut microbial communities. Bacteriophages, which were briefly utilized as clinical antimicrobials in the early 20th century, present an opportunity to selectively reduce populations of undesirable microorganisms. However, whether intentional consumption of specific bacteriophages affects overall gut ecology is not yet known. Using a commercial cocktail of Escherichia coli-targeting bacteriophages, we examined their effects on gut microbiota and markers of intestinal and systemic inflammation in a healthy human population. In a double-blinded, placebo-controlled crossover trial, normal to overweight adults consumed bacteriophages for 28 days. Stool and blood samples were collected and used to examine inflammatory markers, lipid metabolism, and gut microbiota. Reductions in fecal E. coli loads were observed with phage consumption. However, there were no significant changes to alpha and beta diversity parameters, suggesting that consumed phages did not globally disrupt the microbiota. However, specific populations were altered in response to treatment, including increases in members of the butyrate-producing genera Eubacterium and a decreased proportion of taxa most closely related to Clostridium perfringens. Short-chain fatty acid production, inflammatory markers, and lipid metabolism were largely unaltered, but there was a small but significant decrease in circulating interleukin-4 (Il-4). Together, these data demonstrate the potential of bacteriophages to selectively reduce target organisms without global disruption of the gut community.

Dietary supplementation with rice bran or navy bean alters gut bacterial metabolism in colorectal cancer survivors.

SCOPE: Heat-stabilized rice bran (SRB) and cooked navy bean powder (NBP) contain a variety of phytochemicals that are fermented by colonic microbiota and may influence intestinal health. Dietary interventions with these foods should be explored for modulating colorectal cancer risk. METHODS AND RESULTS: A randomized-controlled pilot clinical trial investigated the effects of eating SRB (30 g/day) or cooked navy bean powder (35 g/day) on gut microbiota and metabolites (NCT01929122). Twenty-nine overweight/obese volunteers with a prior history of colorectal cancer consumed a study-provided meal and snack daily for 28 days. Volunteers receiving SRB or NBP showed increased gut bacterial diversity and altered gut microbial composition at 28 days compared to baseline. Supplementation with SRB or NBP increased total dietary fiber intake similarly, yet only rice bran intake led to a decreased Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio and increased SCFA (propionate and acetate) in stool after 14 days but not at 28 days. CONCLUSION: These findings support modulation of gut microbiota and fermentation byproducts by SRB and suggest that foods with similar ability to increase dietary fiber intake may not have equal effects on gut microbiota and microbial metabolism.

Abietic acid attenuates allergic airway inflammation in a mouse allergic asthma model.

Abietic acid (AA), one of the terpenoids isolated from Pimenta racemosa var. grissea, has been reported to have anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. However, the anti-allergic effects of AA remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-allergic effects of AA in an ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma murine model. The model of mouse asthma was established by induction of OVA. AA (10, 20, 40mg/kg) was administered by oral gavage 1h after the OVA treatment on days 21 to 23. At 24h after the last challenge, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissues were collected to assess pathological changes, cytokines production, and NF-κB expression. The results showed that AA attenuated lung histopathologic changes, inflammatory cells infiltration, and bronchial hyper-responsiveness. AA also inhibited OVA-induced the nitric oxide (NO), IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and OVA-specific IgE production, as well as NF-κB activation. In conclusion, the current study demonstrated that AA exhibited protective effects against OVA-induced allergic asthma in mice and the possible mechanism was involved in inhibiting NF-κB activation.

Application of Data Mining Technology for Data Analysis of TCM Diagnosis and Treatment / 中国中医药信息杂志

Through several thousand years’ inheritance and development by Chinese people, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has formed its unique theoretic system, whose efficacy has been widely accepted. However, because TCM theory focuses on the relationships among syndromes, treatment and efficacy, instead of the cause-and-effect relationship explored by modern natural science, the scientificity of TCM has always been questioned. In recent years, because virtual-world clinical research mode and the concept of “big data” were emphasized, increasing researchers began to put their research emphasis on the correlativity between intervening measures of diseases and outcome indicators. This change and the advancement of computer data mining and analysis technology, bring great opportunities for the further development of TCM theory and practice. This article concluded data mining technology used in TCM diagnosis and treatment in recent years, such as clustering analysis, decision tree, Bayesian network, neural network and multi-instance learning, which showed how to apply these methods to reveal rules of TCM diagnosis and treatment from a large number of TCM syndrome data, find knowledge hidden in data, and show TCM effectiveness supported by data.