RESUMO
Purpose: Shumian capsule (SMC) is a patent Chinese herbal medicine that can soothe the liver and relieves depression, quiet the spirit. Here, we aimed to investigate the efficacy of SMC for treating insomnia using both scales and polysomnography (PSG). Patients and Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was performed. Twenty-six insomnia patients randomly received SMC (n = 11) or placebo (n = 15) for four weeks. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory (PSQI), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), 9-items Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), 7-items Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA) were applied at the baseline and the 2nd, 4th week after treatment. Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale was used to assess adverse reactions. We used PSG to record and analyze sleep features at baseline and after four weeks. Results: PSQI, ISI, PHQ-9, HAMD-17, and HAMA scores decreased significantly after SMC treatment. Also, the total sleep time, rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep latency, stage 2 sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep, and sleep efficiency improved significantly after SMC treatment. In the placebo group, the only significant change was the decrease of PHQ-9 at week-2. Furthermore, both SMC and placebo reported no adverse events. Conclusion: SMC could safely improve sleep quality with depression and anxiety remission in insomnia patients.
RESUMO
Drosophila melanogaster has been a widely used as a model system for its powerful genetic tools. However, it remains to be illustrated if Drosophila can be used to examine the biochemical and physiological metabolism of eicosanoids. Thus, the analysis on the metabolism of C20 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in Drosophila was implemented with high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Fatty acid (FA) analysis of the whole body, head, and thorax-abdomen in Drosophila showed C20 PUFA could only be found in Drosophila fed diets supplemented with eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and arachidonic acid (ARA), but not in Drosophila fed base diets. The C20 PUFA were found in abundance in the head. Drosophila fed ARA- and EPA-supplemented diets yielded 15S-hydroxy-5Z,8Z,11Z,13E-eicosatetraenoic acid [15(S)-HETE] and 15S-hydroxy-5Z,8Z,11Z,13E,17Z-eicosapentaenoic acid [15(S)-HEPE], respectively, while other sampled eicosanoids could not be detected. Similar results were obtained by incubating fly tissue supplemented with ARA or EPA. Furthermore, a genome sequence scan indicated that no gene encoding the key enzymes synthesizing eicosanoids were found in Drosophila. These findings demonstrate that Drosophila may possess a special lipid metabolic system, which is different from mammals.