Sedative and Hypnotic Effects and Transcriptome Analysis of Polygala tenuifolia in Aged Insomnia Rats / 中国结合医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To study the sedative and hypnotic effects and underlying mechanisms of Polygala tenuifolia (PT) on treating aged insomnia rats.@*METHODS@#Sixty Sprague-Dawley male rats were divided into 6 groups by a random number table, including control group, model group, diazepam group (0.92 mg/kg), as well as PT low-, medium- and high-dose groups (0.0875, 0.175, 0.35 g/kg, respectively), 10 rats in each group. Aged insomnia rat model was established with subcutaneous injection of D-galactose for 42 days and then intraperitoneal injection of para-chlorophenylalanine for 3 days. PT and diazepam were respectively given to aged insomnia rats by intragastric administration for 7 days after model establishment. Then the rats were investigated by body weight, Morris water maze test, pentobarbital test, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and transcriptome sequencing.@*RESULTS@#Compared with the model group, PT increased the body weight, improved memory ability, and prolonged pentobarbital-induced sleep time of aged insomnia rats (P<0.01 or P<0.05). The medium dose of PT also increased the neurotransmitter levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and decreased the level of Glu in the hippocampus of aged insomnia rats (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Twenty-four differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were overlapped among model group, medium-dose PT group, and diazepam group in transcriptome analysis. Fuom and Pcp2 were down-regulated by the treatment of medium-dose PT (P<0.01 or P<0.05). The metabolic pathways of PT were relatively less than diazepam (91 vs. 104).@*CONCLUSIONS@#The sedative and hypnotic effects of PT in aged insomnia rats might be related to neuro, metabolism pathways, especially through GABAergic signaling pathway. It provided more effective herb choice for the treatment of senile insomnia.

Effect of Acupuncture and Moxibustion plus Zushima on Serum VEGF and bF GF in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis / 上海针灸杂志

Objective To investigate the effect of acupuncture and moxibustion plus Zushima on serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (b FGF) in patients with knee osteoarthritis.Method Two hundred and thirty-six patients with knee osteoarthritis were allocated, using a random number table, to two groups, 118 cases each. The control group was treated with Celecoxib and the observation group, with acupuncture and moxibustion plus Zushima. The therapeutic effects, and pre-treatment and post-treatment VAS scores and WOMAC scores and serum VEGF and bFGF levels were compared between the two groups of patients. The adverse reaction incidences were compared between the two groups of patients. Result The total efficacy rate was 87.3％ in the control group and 94.9％ in the observation group and was significantly higher in the observation group than in the control group (P<0.05). There were no statistically significant pre-treatment differences in the VAS score and WOMAC score between the two groups (P>0.05). The VAS score and WOMAC score decreased significantly in both groups after treatment (P<0.05). After treatment, there was no statistically significant difference in the VAS score between the two groups (P>0.05) but the WOMAC score was significantly lower in the observation group than in the control group (P<0.05). There were no statistically significant pre-treatment differences in VEGF and bFGF between the two groups (P>0.05). After treatment, VEGF and bFGF decreased significantly in both groups (P<0.05) and were significantly lower in the observation group than in the control group (P<0.05). The adverse reaction incidence was3.4％ in the control group and 1.7％ in the observation group with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P> 0.05). Conclusion Acupuncture and moxibustion plus Zushima can reduce inflammatory reactions, inhibit synovial angiogenesis, and effectively relive the pain, and improve articular functions in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

Impact of application time of aspirin and clopidogrel on platelet aggregation in patients with acute coronary syndrome / 中华心血管病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the impact of various application time of aspirin and clopidogrel on the circadian rhythm changes of platelet aggregation in patients with acute coronary syndrome.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Patients with acute coronary syndrome were divided into day-time (8:00) and night-time (20:00) medication group (n = 15 each). After plasma concentration reached steady state, platelet aggregation was assessed at 5 time points within 24 hours with a mobile four-channel whole blood impedance aggregometer. The platelet aggregation was induced by ADP and arachidonic acid. Thereafter, the two groups were exchanged and platelet aggregation was assessed in the same way post plasma steady state.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Arachidonic acid-induced platelet aggregation was the highest at 10:00 Am [(7.96 +/- 3.64) ohm] and the lowest at 0:00 [(6.12 +/- 3.29) ohm, P > 0.05] in day-time group. Platelet aggregation was the highest at 20:00 [(9.40 +/- 5.39) ohm] and the lowest at 10:00 [(5.46 +/- 3.93) ohm], P < 0.05). ADP-induced platelet aggregation was the highest at 10:00 and the lowest at 16:00 in day-time group (P > 0.05) and was the highest at 20:00 and the lowest at 10:00 in night-time group (P > 0.05). Platelet aggregation induced by two inducers was significantly higher at 10:00 in day-time group compared to values in night-time group (all P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Taking aspirin and clopidogrel at 20:00 was superior to taking the same medications at 8:00 for inhibiting peak platelet aggregation in the morning.</p>

Clinical observation on the endocrinal and immune functions in subjects with yin-deficiency constitution / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the relationship between yin-deficiency constitution (YDC) and biochemical indexes by way of observing the endocrinal and immune functions in subjects with YDC.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>On the basis of epidemiological investigation, 60 subjects with YDC and 50 with gentle constitution (GC) were selected according to the pertinent criteria. From each subject, 8 mL of fasting venous blood was drawn at 8:00-9:00 in the morning, with the serum separated by centrifugation 3 000 r/min for 5 min and preserved at -70 degrees Celsius in a freezer. Serum levels of corticosterone, cortisol, adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH), cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), throtropic stimulation hormone, interleukin 1beta (IL-1beta) and interleukin 2 (IL-2) were detected by double-antibody sandwich ELISA; cAMP/cGMP ratio was calculated, and the difference between the two constitutions in terms of these indexes was analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Serum FT3 was 4.16 + or - 1.38 pmol/L in subjects with YDC, which was higher than that in subjects with GC (3.71 + or - 0.55 pmol/L), but levels of cortisol (124.58 + or - 45.36 ng/mL), ACTH (58.92 + or - 14.55 pg/mL), cGMP (66.00 + or - 18.02 pmol/mL) and FT4 (12.33 + or - 3.12 pmol/L) in YDC were lower than those in GC (13.43 + or - 2.31 pmol/L), showing significant difference (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>YDC is related to some extent with the disturbances in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis, cyclic nucleoside system and immune function.</p>

Effect of acidity of drugs on the prediction of human oral absorption by biopartitioning micellar chromatography / 西安交通大学学报·英文版

Biopartitioning micellar chromatography (BMC) is a potentially high throughput and low cost alternative for in vitro prediction of drug absorption, which can mimic the drug partitioning process in biological systems. In this paper, a data set of 56 compounds representing acidic, basic, neutral and amphoteric drugs from various structure classes with human oral absorption (HOA) data available were employed to show the effect of acidity of drugs in oral absorption prediction. HOA was reciprocally correlated to the negative value of the capacity factor (kBMC) determined by BMC at pH 7.4 and 6.5. The relationships between kBMC and the corresponding HOA values of all compounds were rather poor, but the correlations were improved when the acidity of drugs was taken into consideration. Moreover, the proposed models allowed obtaining of good predictive values for both highly and poorly absorbed compounds. It is demonstrated that the constructed models derived from compounds with the same kind of charge property are of more practically meaningful and rigorous.