[Research on function of Feilike Mixture in stopping cough, eliminating phlegm and relieving asthma based on animal experiments and network pharmacology].

This study observed the pharmacological effects of Feilike Mixture(FLKM) in stopping cough, eliminating phlegm, and relieving asthma through animal experiments, and explored its mechanism using network pharmacology. The antitussive effect was detected by citric acid-induced guinea pig cough model, the expectorant effect by mouse phenol red excretion experiment and lipopolysaccharide-induced mucus hypersecretion rat model, and the antiasthmatic effect by histamine phosphate-induced guinea pig asthma model. The chemical components of FLKM were collected by TCMSP, TCMID, TCMIP, and BATMAN-TCM databases and literature search, and the potential active components were screened through ADMETlab 2.0. The targets of FLKM were obtained by STITCH, SwissTargetPrediction, and TCMSP, and the symptom targets of cough, phlegm, and asthma were acquired through SymMap database. After taking the intersection of FLKM targets and symptom targets, this study used the OECloud tool to perform Gene Ontology(GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) enrichment analysis. RESULTS:: demonstrated that FLKM 0.43-1.74 g·kg~(-1) reduced the number of coughs in guinea pigs within 3 min(P<0.05, P<0.01), and FLKM 6-12 g·kg~(-1) increased the tracheal phenol red excretion in mice(P<0.01). Moreover, FLKM 2-8 g·kg~(-1) inhibited the number of goblet cells(P<0.05, P<0.01), and FLKM 7-11.2 g·kg~(-1) prolonged the incubation period of asthma(P<0.05). A total of 115 potential active components and 910 targets of FLKM were obtained through network pharmacological analysis. FLKM had 27, 12, and 7 targets for stopping cough, eliminating phlegm, and relieving asthma, respectively. The GO and KEGG enrichment analysis found that there were commonalities and characteristics, among which cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and infectious disease-related signaling pathway were shared. FLKM has a good effect of stopping cough, eliminating phlegm, and relieving asthma through animal experiments and network pharmacology.

Determination of vitamin D and analysis of risk factors for osteoporosis in patients with chronic pain.

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency is common in patients with chronic pain and healthy people, but the difference between the two has not been reported; thus, whether there is a relationship between vitamin D deficiency and chronic pain remains to be confirmed. Osteoporosis is a common disease in chronic pain disorders. Understanding the relationship between vitamin D and osteoporosis will provide a basis for the rational supplementation of vitamin D to prevent osteoporosis, and to understand the risk factors of bone mass change to provide a new treatment plan for early prevention of osteoporosis. AIM: To determine 25 hydroxy vitamin D (25OHD) level in patients with chronic pain to clarify its clinical significance. The relationship between vitamin D and bone mineral density (BMD) and the risk factors for bone mass change were also evaluated. METHODS: In this study, 184 patients with chronic pain were included in the study group, and 104 healthy individuals who underwent routine health checkups during the same period were included in the control group. 25OHD level was detected in both groups by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. According to the BMD test results, the patients in the study group were further classified into three subgroups: Normal BMD group, reduced BMD group, and osteoporosis group. Age, sex, ethnicity, living altitude, body mass index, 25OHD level, parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcium (Ca) and phosphorus levels were analyzed statistically in both groups. RESULTS: The vitamin D level in the study group was lower than that in the control group at 53.8% vs 57.7%, with no significant difference between the two groups. The proportion of patients with severe vitamin D deficiency in the study group was higher than that in the control group. The mean age was greater in the osteoporosis subgroup, and the youngest in the normal BMD subgroup. Vitamin D level in the osteoporosis subgroup was lower than that in the other two subgroups, and was not specific for the diagnosis of bone mass reduction and osteoporosis. The above results were analyzed statistically and showed significant differences (P < 0.05). There was a positive correlation between age and BMD in patients with chronic pain (R = 0.567, P < 0.001). Age, PTH and Ca were risk factors for bone mass reduction, while age, ethnicity and altitude were risk factors for osteoporosis. CONCLUSION: Vitamin D deficiency is a common phenomenon in patients with chronic pain, and severe vitamin D deficiency is not uncommon. Vitamin D level is not a risk factor for bone mass reduction and osteoporosis. Bone mass reduction is correlated with age, PTH and Ca, while osteoporosis is correlated with age, ethnicity and altitude.

Influence of clamping stress and duration on the trauma of liver tissue during surgery operation.

BACKGROUND: Tissue grasping damage often occurs in minimally invasive surgery, which would increase the postoperative recovery time and the risk of surgical complications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between liver tissue trauma and compression stress magnitude and duration during tissue clamping operation. METHODS: The clamping experiments of liver tissues in vivo were conducted by using a universal soft tissue mechanical testing machine under different clamping stress magnitudes and durations. The rabbit liver was used to simulate human liver. A minimally invasive surgery grasper was used in these tests to simulate the real tissue-surgical operation condition. A pathological grading system was created to quantitatively assess the trauma within the liver tissue. The hyperbolic regression models were utilized to predict the trauma degree of liver tissue. FINDINGS: Obvious hyperemia, hemorrhage, hepatic capsule rupture and inflammatory cell infiltration appeared in the clamping sites of the liver. Assessment results indicated that the trauma degree increased nonlinearly with the increasing clamping stress and duration time. There exist safe thresholds, in which the severe trauma of the studied tissue can be avoided during grasping operation. INTERPRETATION: The results could provide the safety margins and the trauma prediction models for surgeons during grasping and palpation tasks in minimally invasive surgery.

Sensitivity to bortezomib of RPIM8226 cells after co-cultured with down-regulated Cav-1 expression HUVECs / 中华血液学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the sensitivity to bortezomib of RPMI8226 cells after co-cultured with down-regulated Caveolin (Cav)-1 expression of HUVECs by transfection with Cav-1 shRNA (HUVECs(Cav-1 low)).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Exposure to bortezomib with or without 50 nmol/L dexamethasone at different concentration, the proliferation of RPMI8226 was analyzed by MTT assay when it was cultured alone or co-cultured with HUVECs(Cav-1 low). Cav-1 expression was detected by using of Western blot and cell cycle, apoptosis and the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were analyzed by flow cytometry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Cav-1 expression was notably down-regulated in HUVECs(Cav-1 low) (0.2199±0.0288 vs 1.3195±0.2393) (P<0.01). The IC(50) of bortezomib for RPMI8226 cultured alone, co-cultured with HUVECs orHUVECCav- 1 low were 20 nmol/L, 50 nmol/L and 65 nmol/L, respectively. The percentages of G₀/G₁ phase in RPMI8226 cultured alone, co-cultured with HUVECs and HUVECs(Cav-1 low) were 28.49%, 30.41%, and 36.15% respectively. The protection of RPMI 8226 against apoptosis by HUVECs was demonstrated that the apoptosis/death rates were 66.8%, 10.7% and 8.6% in RPMI8226 cultured alone, co-cultured with HUVECs and HUVECs(Cav-1 low) after exposure to 20 nmol/L bortezomib for 24 h. RPMI8226 could induce the oxidative stress of HUVECs before and after co-culture. The ROS level was raised from 15.0% to 35.2% in RPMI8226, from 80.4% to 91.0% in HUVECs, and from 84.6% to 96.8% in HUVECs(Cav-1 low).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The down-regulated Cav-1 expression of HUVECs could promote proliferation and induce apoptosis of RMPI8226 cells, lead to G₀/G₁ phase arrest, and reduce the sensitivity to bortezomib.</p>

The role of emotions in risk communication.

We present two experiments investigating the role of emotions concerning technological and natural hazards. In the first experiment, technological hazards aroused stronger emotions, and were considered to be riskier than natural hazards. No differences were found between the texts versus audio presentations. However, the presence of pictures aroused stronger emotions and increased the perceived risk. Emotions play a mediating role between hazard types and perceived risk, as well as between pictures and perceived risk. The second experiment adopted real-world materials from webpages and TV. Emotions again play a mediating role between pictorial information and risk perception. Moreover, specific emotions were found to be associated with different types of action tendencies. For example, loss-based emotions (e.g., fear, regret) tend to lead to prevention strategies, whereas ethical emotions (e.g., anger) lead to aggressive behavior. We also find that loss-based emotions in the technical hazard scenario trigger more coping strategies (from prevention to retaliation) than in the natural hazard scenario.