Effect of Zhuang Jing Decoction on Learning and Memory Ability in Aging Rats.

With the average life span of humans on the rise, aging in the world has drawn considerable attentions. The monoamine neurotransmitters and neurotrophic factors in brain areas are involved in learning and memory processes and are an essential part of normal synaptic neurotransmission and plasticity. In the present study, the effect of Zhuang Jing Decoction (ZJD) on the learning and memory ability in aging rats was examined in vivo using Morris water maze. Furthermore, the levels of monoamine neurotransmitters and neurotrophic factors in brain were detected by high-performance liquid chromatography with a fluorescence detector and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. These data showed that oral administration with ZJD at the dose of 30 g·kg(-1) exerted an improved effect on learning and memory ability in aging rats. The results revealed that ZJD could effectively adjust the monoamine neurotransmitters and neurotrophic factors, restore the balance of the level of monoamine neurotransmitters and neurotrophic factors in brain, and finally attenuate the degeneration of learning and memory ability. These findings suggested that ZJD might be a potential agent as cognitive-enhancing drug in improving learning and memory ability. It may exert through regulating the levels of monoamine neurotransmitters and neurotrophic factors in brain, which demonstrated that ZJD had certain antiaging effects.

XRCC7 rs#7003908 Polymorphism and Helicobacter pylori Infection-Related Gastric Antrum Adenocarcinoma.

The X-ray repair cross-complementing group 7 (XRCC7) plays a key role in DNA repair that protects against genetic instability and carcinogenesis. To determine whether XRCC7 rs#7003908 polymorphism (XRCC7P) is associated with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection-related gastric antrum adenocarcinoma (GAA) risk, we conducted a hospital-based case-control study, including 642 patients with pathologically confirmed GAA and 927 individually matched controls without any evidence of tumours or precancerous lesions, among Guangxi population. Increased risks of GAA were observed for individuals with cagA positive (odds ratio (OR) 6.38; 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.03-8.09). We also found that these individuals with the genotypes of XRCC7 rs#7003908 G alleles (XRCC7-TG or -GG) featured increasing risk of GAA (ORs 2.80 and 5.13, resp.), compared with the homozygote of XRCC7 rs#7003908 T alleles (XRCC7-TT). GAA risk, moreover, did appear to differ more significantly among individuals featuring cagA-positive status, whose adjusted ORs (95% CIs) were 15.74 (10.89-22.77) for XRCC7-TG and 38.49 (22.82-64.93) for XRCC7-GG, respectively. Additionally, this polymorphism multiplicatively interacted with XRCC3 codon 241 polymorphism with respect to HCC risk (ORinteraction = 1.49). These results suggest that XRCC7P may be associated with the risk of Guangxiese GAA related to cagA.