Professor GUAN Ling's clinical experience in treating knee osteoarthritis with structure-based medical acupuncture / 中国针灸

This paper summarizes professor GUAN Ling's clinical experience in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) with structure-based medical acupuncture (SMA). Based on anatomy and biomechanics and through accurate physical examination, SMA adjusts the mechanical imbalance of muscles to relieve KOA dysfunction, and releases nerve compression to attenuate pain symptoms of KOA. In reference to traditional acupoint selection, and in association with painful areas and mechanical deduction, ashi points located at the rectus femoris, vastus intermedius, vastus medialis and vastus lateralis muscles, etc. are specially stimulated with acupuncture; and the rehabilitation training and health education are the adjuvant treatment for the patients.

Chemical Constituents from Citrus aurantium L / 中国药学杂志

OBJECTIVE: To study the chemical constituents of Citrus aurantium L. METHODS: Chromatographic techniques were employed for isolation and purification of the constituents and their structures were determined by spectral analysis and chemical evidence. RESULTS: Sixteen compounds were obtained and identified as pyrrolezanthine-6-methyl ether (1), methyl 3-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzoate (2), 3-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzoic acid (3), methyl 3,4-dihydroxybenzoate (4), methyl 3-(4-acetoxyphenyl)propanoate (5), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (6), scopoletin (7), 5-(hydroxymethyl)furan-2-carbaldehyde (8), hesperidin (9), naringin (10), gossypetin-8,3'-dimethylether-3-O-β-D-galactoside (11), 2-homoeriodictyol-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (12), 6-demethoxytangeretin (13), naringenin (14), 5,6,7,8,4'-pentamethoxyflavone (tangeretin) (15), and 5-O-desmethylnobiletin (16). CONCLUSION: Compounds 124811-13 are for the first time obtained from Citrus.

Immunological Effects of Total Flavones from Leaves of Choerospondias axillaris on Mice / 中草药·英文版

Objective: To investigate the effect of total flavones from the leaves of Choerospondias axillaris (TFLCA) on the immune function of normal mice and to provide the experimental basis for the reasonable application of C. axillaris. Methods: The carbon clearance method, cutaneous delayed hypersensitivity reaction method, serum hemolysin method, and index of immune organs were used to study the effect of TFLCA on the immune function of mice. Results: TFLCA could enhance the phagocytic function of mononuclear macrophage and the cutaneous delayed hypersensitivity reaction of mice, and increase the content of hemolysin antibody and the thymus index in mice. Conclusion: TFLCA could improve the celiac macrophage activity and specific immunity of mice, and TFLCA, consisting with the total flavones of Choerospondiatis Fructus (TFCF), has the effect on the immune function of mice. So both TFLCA and TFCF have the regulatory effects on the immune function of mice. © 2013 Tianjin Press of Chinese Herbal Medicines.

Effect of high-fat or high-glucose diet on obesity and visceral adipose tissue in mice / 中国医学科学院学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of high-fat or high-glucose diet on obesity and visceral adipose tissue in C57BL/6 mice.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Four-week-old C57BL/6 mice were allocated into normal diet group,high-fat diet group,and high-glucose diet group according to the random number table until 20 weeks old. Body weight,epididymal adipose tissue weight,blood leptin,fat infiltration in liver,M1/M2 macrophage subtypes,and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 mRNA in epididymal adipose tissues were measured.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with normal diet group,body weight,epididymal adipose tissue weight,and leptin concentration in high fat diet group at 20 weeks were significantly increased (P < 0.05),and oil red O staining showed more prominent adipocyte infiltration in liver in high-fat diet group than those in normal diet and high-glucose diet group. However,no apparent differences were seen in high-glucose diet group at 20 weeks in terms of body weight,epididymal adipose tissue weight and leptin concentration. In high-fat diet group,the macrophages infiltration in epididymal adipose tissue increased with time and the percentage of M2 macrophage decreased in high-fat diet group than that in high-glucose diet group(P<0.05). Compared with normal diet group,monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 mRNA expression increased significantly in high-fat diet group(P<0.05). In high-glucose group,however,no significant differences were discerned (P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>High-fat diet,rather than 60% high glucose diet,will lead to obesity and macrophage infiltration in adipose tissues.</p>

Activity of superior interferon α against HIV-1 in severe combined immunodeficient mice reconstituted with human peripheral blood leukocytes / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Interferon (IFN) can inhibit human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication in vitro and in clinic. However, IFN therapy for HIV infection was limited by its moderate antiviral efficacy and its frequent adverse effects. In the present study we evaluated the anti-HIV efficacy of a novel synthesized superior interferon α (sIFNα).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We performed in vitro experiments with HIV-1 IIIB infected MT4 cells, and evaluated in vivo anti-HIV efficacy of sIFNα in severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice reconstituted with human peripheral blood leukocytes (hu-PBL-SCID mice).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>We found that the 50% effective concentrations (EC(50)) of sIFNα against the replication of HIV-1 in MT4 cells was 0.06 ng/ml, representing stronger antiviral activity than interferon-α in vitro. In the hu-PBL-SCID mice, a dose-dependent protection pattern was observed: with 0.45 µg and 1.35 µg sIFNα daily treatments, parts of SCID mice were protected from HIV infection, whereas 2.25 µg sIFNα daily treatments resulted in a terminally complete protection.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>sIFNα shows good anti-HIV activity both in vitro and in SCID mice, may be a promising anti-HIV agent deserving clinical investigation, especially considering the potential of IFN-α to inhibit HIV replication in patients infected with drug-resistant variants or co-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV).</p>

Detection of aml-1/eto fusion gene in patients with acute myeloid leukemia by real-time quantitative RT-PCR / 中国实验血液学杂志

This study was aimed to construct the standard product for detecting the aml1/eto fusion gene by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RQ-RT-PCR), monitoring minimal residual disease (MRD) in the patents with AML-M(2). Having obtained the aml1/eto fusion gene from the patients by the RT-PCR with a pair of specific primers, the RNA standard product as 10(10) copies was gained after amplifying and transcribing in vitro and was used for detecting bone marrow and peripheral blood samples from 37 patients. The results indicated that the standard product constructed above displayed a standard curve which showed a linear correlation of the Ct with the log of the RNA concentration of each standard dilution. The average relative levels of aml1/eto fusion gene in the patients at diagnosis and the patients in relapse were higher than those in patients ongoing complete remission (CR) (p < 0.05). The relative level of aml1/eto fusion gene of the follow-up patients was higher at diagnosis, and lower in patients ongoing CR, then went up again at relapse. The patients whose relative level of aml1/eto fusion gene in CR decreased by 2 log even lower than at diagnosis had a lower risk of relapse. If the relative level of aml1/eto fusion gene kept increasing, the patients had a poor prognosis. It is concluded that RQ-RT-PCR is a sensitive, specific, reliable and reproducible method for monitoring aml1/eto fusion gene. Application of RQ-RT-PCR to detect aml1/eto fusion gene for monitoring MRD in AML-M(2) is helpful to assess the response of therapy and estimate the risk of relapse, RQ-RT-PCR may become an important method to decide the time for intensified therapy and prolong CR for patients.

An efficient tool for the construction of multiple-cistronic vectors: FMDV 2A / 生物工程学报

Recently, cancer therapy with mutiple genes has been attached with great attention. However, at present there is no efficient tool to construct multiple-cistrons. The large sizes and the imbalance in expression of most traditional tools, such as ribosome entry sites (IRESes),greatly block their wide employment in the construction of multiple cistronic gene therapy vectors. The self-cleaving peptide 2A from foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) has a very small size, and more importantly, high cleavage activity in artifical bicistron, which bring new hope for mutiple genes therapy stategy. In this article, the characteristics and cleavage activities of FMDV 2A will be elucidated,and we further outline its applications in cancer gene therapy.

Co-treatment with ethanol enhances the toxicity of 6-hydroxydopamine.

6-Hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) is a widely used neural toxin in the pathogenesis research of Parkinson's disease (PD). In this work, we have studied the effect of ethanol on the toxicity of 6-OHDA on PC12 cell and SK-N-SH cell. Ethanol alone had little toxicity to these cells. However, if using 40 microM 6-OHDA along with 400 mM ethanol on PC12 cell or SK-N-SH cell for 24h, there was much more cell loss than using 40 microM 6-OHDA alone when detected by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazal-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay or flow cytometric assay. The toxicity of 6-OHDA was enhanced only if using at least 200 mM ethanol, and the cell loss was increased with the increase of ethanol concentration. We had also found that ethanol could enhance the toxicity of 6-OHDA only when using ethanol and 6-OHDA at the same time, ethanol treatment either before or after 6-OHDA treatment did not show such effect. This effect of ethanol suggests that ethanol may contribute to the degeneration of dopaminergic cells.