[Features of Syndrome Patterns of Chinese Medicine in Elderly AIDS Patients in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region].

Objective To observe the features of syndrome patterns of Chinese medicine (CM) in elderly human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome ( HIV/AIDS) patients in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Methods According to a case-control study, a clinical question- naire was designated in elderly HIV/AIDS patients older than 50 years and healthy examinees with age and sex match. Their syndrome information of CM were collected from designated medical institutions in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from October 2013 to April 2014. Analyses of syndrome factors were conducted using WF-I[A Diagnosis and Treatment System of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Auxilia- ry). The disease location of CM and nature of diseases were compared between elderly HIV/AIDS patients and the controls. The features of syndrome patterns of CM in elderly HIV/AIDS patients were summarized. Results A total of 417 elderly HIV/AIDS patients and 362 examinees were enrolled. In elderly patients with HIV/AIDS, established syndrome factors of disease nature were qi deficiency, yang deficiency, yin deficiency, blood deficiency, dampness, and phlegm , and established syndrome factors of disease loca- tion included Shen, Fei, Pi, and Gan. There were statistical differences in established syndrome factors of disease location or nature between elderly patients with HIV/AIDS and the controls (P <0. 05). Conclu- sions Elderly HIV/AIDS patients were characterized by deficiency of qi, yang, yin, and blood in Shen, Fei, Pi, and Gan, as well as endogenous production of pathogenic factors such as dampness and phlegm. Intermingled deficiency and excess was dominated in elderly HIV/AIDS patients, and mainly man- ifested as deficiency syndrome.

Curcumin inhibits melanogenesis in human melanocytes.

Plant derived compounds, as potentially safe and effective skin lightening agents (SLAs), have attracted great attention from many researchers. Curcumin is a plant-derived polyphenol, which has been reported to suppress melanogenesis in B16 melanoma cells. However, little is known about whether curcumin affects melanogenesis in cultured human melanocytes. In addition, the molecular mechanism for the antimelanogenic effects of curcumin remains largely unknown. The present study assessed the effects of curcumin on melanin synthesis, cellular tyrosinase activity, the expression of melanogenesis-related proteins (microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF), tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein 1 and 2 (TRP-1, TRP-2)), and activation of melanogenesis-regulating signals including phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/ glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK 3ß), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p38 MAPK in human melanocytes. The results showed that the melanin content and tyrosinase activity, as well as the expression of melanogenesis-related proteins in human melanocytes, were significantly inhibited by curcumin in a dose dependent manner. In addition, PI3K/Akt/ GSK 3ß, ERK and p38 MAPK were activated by curcumin, while inhibitors of these signals attenuated the inhibitory effects of curcumin on melanogenesis. These results suggest that curcumin inhibits melanogenesis in human melanocytes through activation of Akt/GSK 3ß, ERK or p38 MAPK signaling pathways.

The effect of COX-2 inhibitor on capecitabine-induced hand-foot syndrome in patients with stage II/III colorectal cancer: a phase II randomized prospective study.

PURPOSE: Hand-foot syndrome (HFS) is a common adverse event that can be induced by capecitabine. It is hypothesized that capecitabine (Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.) based chemotherapy can cause overexpression of COX-2 in tumor and healthy tissue, which finally induced HFS in hands and feet. Based on this, we believed that a selected COX-2 inhibitor (celecoxib, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals LLC) could ease HFS. We designed a prospective clinical study to test the hypothesis. METHODS: From August 2008 to January 2010, 110 patients with stage II/III colorectal cancer who were eligible for adjuvant chemotherapy were enrolled in the study and divided into 4 groups by random, but 9 patients did not finish at least 4 cycles of chemotherapy. There were sixteen patients in capecitabine group, and fifteen patients in capecitabine and celecoxib group. Thirty-four patients were in XELOX (capecitabine plus oxaliplatine) group, and thirty-six patients in XELOX+ celecoxib group. All 101 patients finished chemotherapy and follow-up interviews. RESULTS: The group that had received capecitabine and celecoxib had a significantly reduced frequency of  >grade 1 hand-foot syndrome (29 vs. 72% P < 0.001), and >grade 2 (11.76% vs. 30% P = 0.024). Five patients experienced grade 3 HFS in capecitabine group and only 1 patient had grade 3 HFS in capecitabine and celecoxib group. There were 5 patients in capecitabine group who refused to go on chemotherapy because of HFS, but there was none in capecitabine and celecoxib group. CONCLUSIONS: From the result of this study, we could learn that celecoxib could reduce HFS that was induced by capecitabine. So we recommend that celecoxib can be used in capecitabine-based chemotherapy.