Investigating acupoint selection and combinations of acupuncture for primary idiopathic tinnitus using data mining.

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is widely used in the treatment of tinnitus worldwide because of its good efficacy and safety. However, the criteria for selecting acupoint prescriptions and combinations have not been summarized. Therefore, data mining was used herein to determine the treatment principles and the most effective acupoint selection for the treatment of idiopathic tinnitus. METHODS: The clinical research literature of acupuncture in the treatment of idiopathic tinnitus from the establishment of the database to September 1, 2023 in China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Medical Journal Full-text Database, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases was retrieved and extracted. Microsoft Excel 2016 was used to establish the acupoint prescription database and the frequency statistics of acupoints, meridians and specific acupoints were carried out. IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 software was used for cluster analysis of acupoints, and IBM SPSS Modeler18.0 software was used for association rule analysis of acupoints. RESULTS: A total of 112 articles were included, involving 221 acupuncture prescriptions, including 99 acupoints, with a total frequency of 1786 times. The 5 most frequently used acupoints were Tinggong (SI19), Tinghui (GB2), Yifeng (TE17), Ermen (TE21), and Zhongzhu (TE3). The commonly used meridians were Sanjiao meridian of hand-shaoyang, Gallbladder meridian of foot-shaoyang and Small intestine meridian of hand-taiyang. The specific points are mostly Crossing point, Five-shu point and Yuan-primary point. The core acupoint combination of association rules was Ermen (TE21)-Tinggong (SI19)-Tinghui (GB2)-Yifeng (TE17), and 3 effective clustering groups were obtained by cluster analysis of high-frequency acupoints. CONCLUSION: In this study, the published literature on acupuncture treatment of idiopathic tinnitus was analyzed by data mining, and the relationship between acupoints was explored, which provided a more wise choice for clinical acupuncture treatment of idiopathic tinnitus.

[Anti-herpes simplex virus type â of tectorigenin derivative and effect on Toll-like receptors in vitro].

The study investigated the inhibitory effect and mechanism of tectorigenin derivative(SGY) against herpes simplex virus type Ⅰ(HSV-1) by in vitro experiments. The cytotoxicity of SGY and positive drug acyclovir(ACV) on African green monkey kidney(Vero) cells and mouse microglia(BV-2) cells was detected by cell counting kit-8(CCK-8) method, and the maximum non-toxic concentration and median toxic concentration(TC_(50)) of the drugs were calculated. After Vero cells were infected with HSV-1, the virulence was determined by cytopathologic effects(CPE) to calculate viral titers. The inhibitory effect of the tested drugs on HSV-1-induced cytopathy in Vero cells was measured, and their modes of action were initially explored by virus adsorption, replication and inactivation. The effects of the drugs on viral load of BV-2 cells 24 h after HSV-1 infection and the Toll-like receptor(TLR) mRNA expression were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR(RT-qPCR). The maximum non-toxic concentrations of SGY against Vero and BV-2 cells were 382.804 µg·mL~(-1) and 251.78 µg·mL~(-1), respectively, and TC_(50) was 1 749.98 µg·mL~(-1) and 2 977.50 µg·mL~(-1), respectively. In Vero cell model, the half maximal inhibitory concentration(IC_(50)) of SGY against HSV-1 was 54.49 µg·mL~(-1), and the selection index(SI) was 32.12, with the mode of action of significantly inhibiting replication and directly inactivating HSV-1. RT-qPCR results showed that SGY markedly reduced the viral load in cells. The virus model group had significantly increased relative expression of TLR2, TLR3 and tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 3(TRAF3) and reduced relative expression of TLR9 as compared with normal group, and after SGY intervention, the expression of TLR2, TLR3 and TRAF3 was decreased to different degrees and that of TLR9 was enhanced. The expression of inflammatory factors inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS), tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), and interleukin-1ß(IL-1ß) was remarkably increased in virus model group as compared with that in normal group, and the levels of these inflammatory factors dropped after SGY intervention. In conclusion, SGY significantly inhibited and directly inactivated HSV-1 in vitro. In addition, it modulated the expression of TLR2, TLR3 and TLR9 related pathways, and suppressed the increase of inflammatory factor levels.

Profiling complex volatile components by HS-GC-MS and entropy minimization software: An example on Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort.

Volatile oil, as an important bioactive fraction of medicinal herbs, is comprised of a diversity of compounds. At present, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is one of the mainstream approaches to profiling these complex components. However, GC-MS faces the major bottleneck in data analysis, such as co-elution of more than one compound, and interference caused by high background noise; this usually makes an operator have to spend a lot of time and effort in optimizing experimental conditions. Taking Chuanxiong Rhizoma (the dry rhizome of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort., abbreviated as "CR") as an example, this study is intended to provide a feasible, quick and cost-effective solution for compound identification based on the chemometric method of entropy minimization (EM) algorithm. Ten batches of geo-authentic CR and eight batches of adulterants including Fuxiong (FX), Shanchuanxiong (SCX) and Cnidii Rhizoma (CNR) were determined by headspace GC-MS. FX and SCX were rhizomes of L. chuanxiong but subjected to improper harvest time. CNR was the dried rhizome of Cnidium officinale Makino. The co-eluting and overlapping peaks and low-concentration peaks with high background were precisely reconstructed by EM algorithm, and then the reconstructed pure mass spectra of each component were compared with the ion fragment information in NIST library for qualitative identification. EM algorithm proves to be capable of delivering results with increased accuracy and high confidence. Moreover, by the GC-MS approach established in this work, the volatile chemical profiles of FX, SCX, and CNR, were quite distinct from those of geo-authentic CR, suggesting that the adulterants should not be confused with CR in clinical practice and pharmaceutical industry. In brief, the advanced EM algorithm is envisioned to be applied to a variety of medicinal herbs, enabling rapid and accurate identification of volatile phytochemicals.

Ginsenosides from stems and leaves of ginseng prevent ethanol-induced lipid accumulation in human L02 hepatocytes.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of ginsenosides from stems and leaves of ginseng on ethanol-induced lipid deposition in human L02 hepatocytes. METHODS: L02 cells were exposed to ethanol for 36 h and treated with or without ginsenosides. The viability of L02 cells was evaluated by methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide assay and the triglyceride (TG) content was detected. Lipid droplets were determined by oil red O staining. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the mitochondrial membrane potential were tested by flow cytometry. The ATP level was measured by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography. The expression of cytochrome p450 2E1 (CYP2E1) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) was detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting, respectively. RESULTS: Ethanol exposure resulted in the increase of TG level, lipid accumulation and ROS generation, and the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP production in the cells. However, ginsenosides significantly reduced TG content (9.69±0.22 µg/mg protein vs. 4.93±0.49 µg/mg protein, P<0.01), and ROS formation (7254.8±385.7 vs. 5825.2±375.9, P<0.01). Meanwhile, improvements in mitochondrial membrane potential (10655.33±331.34 vs. 11129.52±262.35, P<0.05) and ATP level (1.20±0.18 nmol/mg protein vs. 2.53±0.25 nmol/mg protein, P<0.01) were observed by treatment with ginsenosides. Furthermore, ginsenosides could down-regulate CYP2E1 expression (P<0.01) and upregulate PPARα expression (P<0.01) in ethanol-treated cells. CONCLUSIONS: Ginsenosides could prevent ethanol-induced hepatocyte steatosis in vitro related to the inhibition of oxidative stress and the improvement of mitochondrial function. In addition, the modulation of CYP2E1 and PPARα expression may also play an important role in the protective effect of ginsenosides against lipid accumulation.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging and immunohistochemical study of hypothalamic function following oral glucose ingestion in rats.

BACKGROUND: The hypothalamus plays a central role in the regulation of metabolism by sensing metabolic demands and releasing regulatory neurotransmitters. This study investigated the response of the hypothalamus to glucose ingestion in rats by blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) and immunohistochemical techniques to determine the role of the hypothalamus in glyco-regulation during disturbances in carbohydrate metabolism. METHODS: The signal intensity of the hypothalamus was monitored by fMRI for 60 minutes after oral glucose intake in 48 healthy rats (age 14 months), which included 24 normal weight rats (weighing (365 +/- 76.5) g) and 24 overweight rats (weighing (714 +/- 83.5) g). Then, 12 rats (6 normal, 6 overweight) underwent a repeat fMRI scan after consuming an equivalent amount of water without glucose on a separate day. The procedure for fMRI with water intake was the same as for glucose ingestion. fMRI data was processed using time cluster analysis and intensity averaging method. After fMRI, the expression of neuropeptide Y (NPY) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in the hypothalamus of all rats was determined by immunohistochemistry. Positive cells for NPY or 5-HT were counted. RESULTS: There was a transient, but significant, decrease in fMRI signal intensity in all rats (mean (3.12 +/- 0.78)%) in the hypothalamus within 19.5 - 25.5 minutes of oral glucose ingestion. In overweight rats, the decrease in signal intensity in response to the glucose ingestion was more markedly attenuated than that observed in normal weight rats ((2.2 +/- 1.5)% vs (4.2 +/- 0.7)% inhibition, t = 2.12, P < 0.05). There was no significant response in the hypothalamus after oral water ingestion. The percentage of NPY positive cells in obese rats were slightly lower than those in control group (21% vs 23%, t = 0.71, P > 0.05); but there was no significant difference between the two groups; the percentage of 5-HT positive cells in obese rats were significantly lower than those in the control group (22% vs 31%, t = 3.25, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: There is a transient, but significant, decrease in BOLD signal intensity in the hypothalamus following glucose ingestion, which is similar to that observed in humans. The response of the hypothalamus to glucose ingestion was different in overweight and normal weight rats. The percentage of NPY positive cells in obese rats were lower than those in the control group, although this difference was not statistically significant. The percentage of 5-HT positive cells in obese rats was significantly lower than those in the control group.