Effect of Shugan Tiaoshen acupuncture combined with western medication on depression-insomnia comorbidity due to COVID-19 quarantine: a multi-central randomized controlled trial / 中国针灸

OBJECTIVE@#To observe the effect of Shugan Tiaoshen acupuncture (acupuncture for soothing the liver and regulating the mentality) combined with western medication on depression and sleep quality in the patients with depression-insomnia comorbidity due to COVID-19 quarantine, and investigate the potential mechanism from the perspective of cortical excitability.@*METHODS@#Sixty patients with depression-insomnia comorbidity due to COVID-19 quarantine were randomly divided into an acupuncture group and a sham-acupuncture group, 30 cases in each one. The patients of both groups were treated with oral administration of sertraline hydrochloride tablets. In the acupuncture group, Shugan Tiaoshen acupuncture was supplemented. Body acupuncture was applied to Yintang (GV 24+), Baihui (GV 20), Hegu (LI 4), Zhaohai (KI 6), Qihai (CV 6), etc. The intradermal needling was used at Xin (CO15), Gan (CO12) and Shen (CO10). In the sham-acupuncture group, the sham-acupuncture was given at the same points as the acupuncture group. The compensatory treatment was provided at the end of follow-up for the patients in the sham-acupuncture group. In both groups, the treatment was given once every two days, 3 times a week, for consecutive 8 weeks. The self-rating depression scale (SDS) and insomnia severity index (ISI) scores were compared between the two groups before and after treatment and 1 month after the end of treatment (follow-up) separately. The cortical excitability indexes (resting motor threshold [rMT], motor evoked potential amplitude [MEP-A], cortical resting period [CSP]) and the level of serum 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) were measured before and after treatment in the two groups.@*RESULTS@#After treatment and in follow-up, SDS and ISI scores were decreased in both groups compared with those before treatment (P<0.05), and the scores in the acupuncture group were lower than those in the sham-acupuncture group (P<0.05), and the decrease range in the acupuncture group after treatment was larger than that in the sham-acupuncture group (P<0.05). After treatment, rMT was reduced (P<0.05), while MEP-A and CSP were increased (P<0.05) in the acupuncture group compared with that before treatment. The levels of serum 5-HT in both groups were increased compared with those before treatment (P<0.05). The rMT in the acupuncture group was lower than that in the sham-acupuncture group, while MEP-A and CSP, as well as the level of serum 5-HT were higher in the acupuncture group in comparison with the sham-acupuncture group (P<0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#Shugan Tiaoshen acupuncture combined with western medication can relieve depression and improve sleep quality in the patients with depression-insomnia comorbidity due to COVID-19 quarantine, which is probably related to rectifying the imbalanced excitatory and inhibitory neuronal functions.

Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis by Bee-venom Acupuncture / 针刺研究

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical efficacy and safety of bee-venom acupuncture therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: A total of 120 cases of RA patients were randomized into bee-sting acupuncture group (treatment) and western medicine group (control) in accordance with the random number table. The patients of the control group were treated by oral administration of Methotrexate (10 mg, once a week) and Celecoxlb (0.2 g, once a day), and those of the treatment group treated by 5 to 15 bee stings of Ashi-points or acupoints according to different conditions and corporeity, and with the bee-sting retained for about 5 min every time, once every other day. The treatment lasted for 8 weeks. The therapeutic effect was assessed by examining symptoms and signs of the affected joints as morning stiffness duration, swollen/tender joint counts (indexes), handgrip strength, 15 m-walking time, visual analogue scale (VAS), Disease Activity Score including a 28-joint count (DAS 28), rheumatoid factor (RF), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (ACCPA); and for assessing the safety of bee-venom acupuncture, the patients' responses of fever, enlargement of lymph nodes, regional red and swollen, itching, blood and urine tests for routine were examined. RESULTS: Findings of DAS 28 responses displayed that of the two 60 cases in the control and bee-venom acupuncture groups, 15 and 18 experienced marked improvement, 33 and 32 were effective, 12 and 10 ineffective, with the effective rates being 80% and 83. 33%, respectively. No significant difference was found between the two groups in the effective rate (P>0.05). After the treatment, both groups have witnessed a marked decrease in the levels of morning stiffness duration, arthralgia index, swollen joint count index, joint tenderness index, 15 m walking time, VAS, RF, ESR, CRP and ACCPA, and an obvious increase of handgrip strength relevant to their own levels of pre-treatment in each group (P0.05). The routine blood test, routine urine test, routine stool test, electrocardiogram result, the function of liver and kidney and other security index were within the normal range, without any significant adverse effects found after bee-stinging treatment. CONCLUSION: Bee-venom acupuncture therapy for RA patients is safe and effective, worthy of popularization and application in clinical practice.

Isolation and functional analysis of tobacco MARs / 生物工程学报

Two new MAR segments (M14 and M17) were cloned from tobacco genome. Both of the sequences contained several typical consensus sequences of MARs, which were different from the original MAR sequence, such as 90%AT-box, A-box, T-box, the base unpairing regions (BUR), autonomously replicating sequences (ARS), the consensus sequence for topoisomerase II, MAR recognition sequence (MRS), origin of replication (ORI), curved DNA motifs and ATATTT et al. To investigate the effects of these two sequences on gene expression in transgenic plants, 3 plant expression vectors were constructed with uidA gene coding beta-glucuronidase (GUS) which were flanked on one side and on both sides by the MARs we obtained. These plant expression vectors with one or two MARs were transformed into tobaccos via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method, with the plant expression vector pCAMBIA2301 without MAR and wild type tobacco as controls. GUS histochemical staining results showed that the uidA gene expressed stably in transgenic tobaccos. Quantitative detection of GUS activity showed that the MARs could increase GUS expression levels in vivo in contrast to the controls, wherever they were flanked on one side or both sides of uidA gene. The vector ligated with MARs in the same direction on both sides of uidA could increase the GUS expression level much better than both vectors which just ligated with single MARs on one side. The former one increased the average GUS activity for 3.14 folds, but 1.56 and 2.43 folds for the latter two vectors with single MARs respectively contrasting to the pCAMBIA2301 control. But the expression differences among individual transformants were still obvious. Therefore, it was concluded that the DNA sequences we obtained in this experiment were two novel MARs and could enhance gene expression in vivo. In the meanwhile, although the numbers of the MARs typical motifs in M14 were more than in M17, especially the 90% AT box which had been considered to be the highest correlative motif with binding strength in vitro, the enhancement of gene expression was lower yet, which implied no correlation between improvement of gene expression and binding strength between MARs and nuclear matrix in vitro.

Feedback-insensitive anthranilate synthase gene as a novel selectable marker for soybean transformation / 生物工程学报

Because of the concern about escape of antibiotic- or herbicide-resistant transgenes from transgenic crops, selectable marker genes from plant origin would be an alternative choice for plant transformation. In this study, a feedback-insensitive anthranilate synthase gene ( ASA2 ) cloned from a tobacco cell line was tested for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of axis tissue of soybean mature embryo, with a tryptophan analogue 5-methyltryptophan (5-MT) as the selective agent. Southern blot analysis of the To transgenic lines confirmed the integration of the ASA2 gene into the soybean genome. Northern blot analysis showed the ASA2 gene was also expressed in the leave tissue, and the free tryptophan content in the leaf tissue of transgenic soybean was about 59% to 123% more than that in the wild type. PCR analysis of the T1 progeny showed that the transgene was inherited in a Mendelian fashion. All these results indicate that this feedback-insensitive ASA2 gene can be used as a selectable marker gene for plant transformation. This work also demonstrated that the ASA2 gene coding for the a-subunits from one plant (tobacco) can interact with the n-subunits of a heterologous plant (soybean) to form an active anthranilate synthase enzyme. The use of this feedback-insensitive gene as a novel selectable marker for plant transformation is also discussed.