Comparison of the efficacy of steroid-free versus classic steroid-containing regimens in primary membranous nephropathy.

Objective: To compare the efficacy of a steroid-free regimen with steroid-based treatment in managing primary membranous nephropathy (PMN) and investigate the potential benefits of steroid-free regimens in PMN therapy. Methods: This was a single-centre prospective cohort study. A total of 81 patients were divided into two groups according to their medication regimen: a rituximab (RTX)/tacrolimus (TAC) group (low-dose RTX combined with low-dose TAC group, without steroids, n = 31) and a prednisone (P)/TAC group (P combined with TAC group, n = 61). The changes in 24-h urine protein quantification, levels of blood albumin, blood creatinine, total cholesterol, triglyceride and fasting blood glucose as well as anti-phospholipase A2 receptor antibody titres were observed in both groups before treatment and after 1, 3, 6 and 12 months of treatment. Clinical remission (complete and partial remission), serological remission and recurrence were assessed in both groups after treatment, and the occurrence of adverse reactions was observed. Results: 1) Before treatment, there was no significant difference in baseline values between the two groups (p > 0.05). 2) After 12 months of treatment, the 24-h proteinuria and total cholesterol levels in the RTX/TAC group were significantly lower than those in the P/TAC group (p < 0.05). 3) After 6 months of treatment, the clinical remission rate of the RTX/TAC group was significantly higher than that of the P/TAC group (p < 0.05). After 12 months of treatment, the clinical remission rate of the RTX/TAC group was significantly higher than that of the P/TAC group (p < 0.05). (4) After 3, 6 and 12 months of treatment, serological remission rates in the RTX/TAC group were significantly higher than those in the P/TAC group (p < 0.05). During treatment, the anti-PLA2R antibody titres in the RTX/TAC group remained lower than those in the P/TAC group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The low-dose RTX combined with low-dose TAC steroid-free regimen induces serological remission in patients with PMN earlier than the classic regimen of P combined with TAC, and there was no significant difference in adverse effects between the two groups. Besides, the long-term clinical remission effect of low-dose RTX combined with low-dose TAC is better than that of P combined with TAC.

Trienomycin A-simplified analogs: Synthesis and anti-neuroinflammatory activity.

A series of novel trienomycin A (TA)-mimetic compounds (5a-p) have been designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their in vitro anti-neuroinflammatory and neuroprotective activities. Among them, compounds 5h, 5n, and 5o exhibits relatively strong NO inhibitory activity in LPS-activated BV-2 cells with the EC50 values of 12.4, 17.3, and 8.9 µM, respectively. Moreover, 5h showed evidently neuroprotective effect against H2O2-induced PC-12 cells without cytotoxicity at 20 µM. Overall, these compounds can provide a better understanding of the structure-activity relationship of TA and furnish research ideas for anti-neuroinflammatory and neuroprotective agents.

[Identification of Panax ginseng, P. notoginseng and P. quinquefolius admixture by multiplex allele-specific polymerase chain reaction].

To achieve a molecular method to identify Panax ginseng, P. notoginseng,P. quinquefolius and their admixture. The ITS,18S and matK sequences of Panax genus were analyzed to develop species-specific SNP marker. Three pairs of species-specific primers were designed to establish a multiplex allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (MAS-PCR) and the samples from different region were tested. The results showed that when the annealing temperature was 60 ℃ and the cycle number was 35, approximately 250, 500,1 000 bp specific band were obtained from P. ginseng, P. notoginseng and P. quinquefolius obtain, respectively. This method could also be used to authentificate admixture samples and could detect 0.5% percent of P. notoginseng or P. quinquefolius adulterated in P. ginseng, or 0.5% percent of P. ginseng or P. quinquefolius adulterated in P. notoginseng. The detect limit of P. ginseng in P. quinquefolius was 0.5% and P. notoginseng in P. quinquefolius was 1%. This results showed that the present method could be used as a promise method to identify Panax ginseng, P. notoginseng, P. quinquefolius and their admixture.

Effect of minimizing amount of template by addition of macromolecular crowding agent on preparation of molecularly imprinted monolith.

One of the main challenges in the preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) is the substantial initial amount of template needed because of the requirement of high load capacities for most applications. A new strategy of macromolecular crowding was suggested to solve this problem by reducing the amount of template in the polymerization recipe. In a ternary porogenic system of polystyrene (PS) (crowding agent), tetrahydrofuran, and toluene, an imprinted monolithic column with high porosity and good permeability was synthesized using a mixture of ellagic acid (template), acrylamide, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate. The effect of polymerization factors, including monomer-template molar ratio and the molecular weight and concentration of PS, on the imprinting effect of the resulting MIP monoliths was systematically investigated. At a high ratio of monomer-template (120:1), the greatest imprinting factor of 32.4 was obtained on the MIP monolith with the aid of macromolecular crowding agent. The PS-based imprinted monolith had imprinting even at the extremely high ratio of functional monomer to template of 1510:1. Furthermore, an off-line solid-phase extraction based on the ground MIP was conducted, and the purification recovery of ellagic acid from pomegranate-rind extract was up to 80 %. In conclusion, this approach based on macromolecular crowding is simple, and is especially valuable for those applications of MIP preparation for which a rare template is used.

[Experiment on inducing human dental pulp stem cells into neural-like cells].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the multi-differentiated capability of human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) obtained by cell-clone culture approach and to determine the appropriate induced medium. METHODS: The cloned isolation and expansion of hDPSCs were preinduced for 24 h, and were subsequently replaced with neural-inductive medium containing certain concentration of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), butylated hydroxyanisode (BHA), forskolin, P-mercaptoethanol (p-ME) and hydrocortisone for 4 days. Then induced cells were analyzed by morphological observation, immnocytochemical staining for non-specific esterase (NSE) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression, RT-PCR for GFAP mRNA. Meanwhile, the uninduced hDPSCs were used as negative control. RESULTS: The morphology of induced cells changed at the initial 12 h, and displayed a typical neuron-like cells at 24 h. There was a gradual increase in the number of these neuronal differentiated cells with continuous induction. Furthermore, immnocytochemical staining showed that the induced cell expressed NSE and GFAP, two marked enzymes of neuron cell. The GFAP mRNA was also detected in induced cells by RT-PCR assay. In contrast, the uninduced cells maintained its original appearance and had no expression on them. CONCLUSION: hDPSCs may possess potential of multiple-differentiation and may differentiate into neuron-like cells on certain inductive condition.