Mechanism of Xiao Chaihutang in Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease： Based on Network Pharmacology and in vitro Experimental Verification / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ObjectiveTo investigate the potential mechanism of Xiao Chaihutang （XCHT） in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease （AD） based on network pharmacology and bioinformatics. MethodThe active components of XCHT and corresponding targets were retrieved from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform （TCMSP）， and the differentially expressed genes related to AD were searched from Gene Expression Omnibus （GEO）. Thereby， the common targets of XCHT and AD were yielded， followed by Gene Ontology （GO） term enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes （KEGG） pathway enrichment analysis of the common targets. The component-target network and protein–protein interaction （PPI） network were constructed. Furthermore， amyloid β-protein （Aβ）1-40 was used to induce AD in PC12 cells and then the AD cells were intervened with XCHT. Afterward， cell viability was detected by Cell Counting Kit-8 （CCK-8） assay and cell morphology was observed based on 4'，6-diamidino-2-phenylindole （DAPI） staining. Cell membrane potential was determined and apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry， and cellular immunofluorescence detects the expression of B-cell lymphoma-2 （Bcl-2）/Bcl-2-related X protein （Bax）. Moreover， immunofluorescence assay was performed. ResultA total of 190 active components and 41 anti-AD targets of XCHT were screened out. The key components included mairin， quercetin， berberine， protoporphyrin， 24-ethylcholest-4-en-3-one， and β-D-ribofuranoside， and the core targets were sigma non-opioid intracellular receptor 1 （SIGMAR1）， checkpoint kinase 1 （CHEK1）， protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 6 （PTPN6）， protein kinase C（PRKCH）， inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa B kinase subunit beta （IKBKB）， cathepsin D （CTSD）， cysteine aspartate protease-3 （Caspase-3）， Bax， and Bcl-2-like protein 1 （Bcl-2L1）. The anti-AD targets of XCHT were involved in 302 GO terms （P < 0.05）， particularly the regulation of neuronal cell apoptosis， and 73 KEGG pathways （P<0.05）. The major pathways and biological processes included the apoptosis pathway， virus infection pathway， lipid and atherosclerosis pathway， and cancer-related pathways. In the in vitro experiment， the model group demonstrated the decrease in cell survival rate （P<0.05）， increase in apoptosis rate （P<0.05）， and down-regulation of mitochondrial membrane potential and Bcl-2/Bax ratio compared with the blank control. Compared with the model group， XCFT group showed the increase in cell survival rate （P<0.05）， decrease in apoptosis rate （P<0.05）， and up-regulation of mitochondrial membrane potential and Bcl-2/Bax ratio. ConclusionBased on network pharmacology， this study reveals the multi-component， multi-target， and multi-pathway characteristics of XCHT in the treatment of AD， laying a foundation for further research on the material basis and mechanism of this prescription.

Present situation and thinking of comparative studies on effects of acupoints and non-acupoints / 中国针灸

The therapeutic effect of acupuncture is closely related to acupoints, and the specificity of acupoint indications is one of the key factors for regulatory and therapeutic effects of acupuncture. In recent years, a number of researches focusing on acupoint specificity have been done through comparison of the effects of acupoint and non acupoint. In this article, by analysis of recent 10 years' comparative studies of acupoints and non-acupoints, main problems in the existing researches are put forward including laying stress on the study of local effects, belittling the study on general effect; confused selection of acupoints and non-acupoints; lack of high-quality multi-central, ran domized and controlled trials with large sample; and the train of thought of the future research are probed.

Current situation and prospects of scale application in acupuncture research in China / 中国针灸

In recent years, the standardized scales have been increasingly adopted for acupuncture researches, making leaps in both quality and quantity. By analyzing the current situation of scale application in acupuncture researches in the past five years, the present paper points out the major problems at present, including inadequate use of the scale, insufficiency of the scale in reflecting the advantages and characteristics of acupuncture and moxibustion as well as lack of confirmatory test of reliability and validity of the scales, and probes into the future study thinking.

Prokaryotic Expression and Characteristics Reseach of Pinellia Ternate and Pinellia Pedatisecta Lectins / 中国生物工程杂志

Pinellia ternate and Pinellia pedatisecta lectins with biological functions could be obtained through procaryon expression.Their biological similarities and differences were analyzed and further experiments were conducted to discuss the agglutinative activity difference between polymer lectin and metamer lectin.The results showed that agglutinative activity of Pinellia pedatisecta was four times more than that of Pinellia ternate.The differences of the agglutinative activity and pharmacologic action were mainly because two site mutations of Pinellia pedatisecta in the third active site compared with the amino acids sequence in Pinellia ternate.In addition,the metamer lectin expressed by prokaryotic expression system did not agglutinate rabbit red blood cells.It conduct further discussion about the difference between two lectins and the difference between polymer lectin and metamer lectin.It would be applicable for solving the problem of lacking Pinellia resources.