ABSTRACT
In recent years, the State has intensified efforts to develop folk Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Shaanxi Province is a large province with rich TCM resources. However, the certificate holding rate of folk TCM in Shaanxi is low, the inheritance of medical skills is not optimistic; the core skills of folk TCM are lack of protection; the traditional folk diagnosis and treatment technology is lack of corresponding standards, and the clinical promotion is difficult, which makes the advantages of folk TCM not fully play. It was suggested that strengthen the assessment of Shaanxi Province’s real expertise, take measures to promote the inheritance, enhance the intellectual property protection of folk TCM in the province, intensify the research and formulation of local folk TCM screening and evaluation standards, and vigorously promote the clinical application of folk TCM in the province, so as to promote the inheritance, protection and development of folk TCM in Shaanxi Province.
ABSTRACT
Objective:To examine influencing factors for social support satisfaction among disabled elderly people at home in rural areas and to provide evidence for policies on further improving the level of social support and the quality of care for disabled elderly people.Methods:We conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey with 211 disabled elderly people, using a random sampling method in 6 villages and towns in the Southern, Northern and Guanzhong areas of Shaanxi province from June to October 2020.An ordinal logistic regression model was adopted to analyze influencing factors for social support satisfaction among the participants.Results:The survey results indicated that, of the 211 disabled elderly people, 49(23.22%)were unsatisfied with social support, 110(52.13%)were generally satisfied, and 52(24.65%)were satisfied.Ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that the degree of disability, the number of chronic diseases, with or without hospitalization in 2019, the most important daily caregiver, the time needed to the nearest medical institution, and relationships with family members were important factors influencing social support satisfaction for disabled elderly people(all P<0.05).For the elderly with disability, female, a low degree of disability, no hospitalization in 2019, the spouse as the most important caregiver, and a short time needed to the nearest medical institution tended to be associated with a high level of social support satisfaction( OR=2.07, 71.52, 30.75 and 19.22, respectively).Poor relationships with family members were associated with a low level of social support satisfaction( OR=0.39). Conclusions:The satisfaction of disabled elderly people with social support is at a moderate level.For elderly people with disability, the degree of disability, the number of chronic diseases, recent hospitalization, the most important daily caregivers, the time needed to the nearest medical institution, and relationships with family members are important influencing factors for social support satisfaction.
ABSTRACT
Cytomegalovirus retinitis (CMVR) is the most frequently encountered ocular opportunistic infection in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). In the absence of accurate diagnosis and effective treatment, CMVR can cause different degree of ocular injury and even blindness in AIDS patients. Therefore, the early diagnosis and timely treatment of CMVR is particularly important. This article aims to review the progress in research on the clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment drugs of CMVR.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the effects of inhibitory peptide of Staphylococcus epidermidis (SE) biofilm (briefly referred to as inhibitory peptide) on adhesion and biofilm formation of SE at early stage.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>By using peptide synthesizer, the inhibitory peptide was synthesized with purity of 96.8% and relative molecular mass of 874.4. (1) Solution of SE ATCC 35984 (the same below) was cultivated with inhibitory peptide in the final concentrations of 1-256 µg/mL, and the M-H broth without bacteria solution was used as blank control. The MIC of the inhibitory peptide against SE was determined (n=3). (2) Solution of SE was cultivated with trypticase soy broth (TSB) culture solution containing inhibitory peptide in the final concentrations of 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256 µg/mL (set as inhibitory peptide groups in corresponding concentration), and solution of SE being cultivated with TSB culture medium was used as negative control group. Growth of SE was observed every one hour from immediately after cultivation (denoted as absorbance value), and the growth curve of SE during the 24 hours of cultivation was drawn, with 3 samples in each group at each time point. (3) Solution of SE was cultivated with TSB culture solution containing inhibitory peptide in the final concentrations of 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256 µg/mL (set as inhibitory peptide groups in corresponding concentration), and solution of SE being cultivated with TSB culture medium was used as negative control group. Adhesive property of SE was observed after cultivation for 4 hours (denoted as absorbance value, n=10); biofilm formation of SE was observed after cultivation for 20 hours (denoted as absorbance value, n=10). (4) Solution of SE was cultivated with TSB culture solution containing inhibitory peptide in the final concentration of 128 µg/mL (set as 128 µg/mL inhibitory peptide group), and solution of SE being cultivated with TSB culture medium was used as negative control group. Adhesive property of SE and its biofilm formation were observed with confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM), and the sample numbers were both 3. Data were processed with one-way analysis of variance, LSD test, and Dunnett T3 test.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) The MIC of inhibitory peptide against SE exceeded 256 µg/mL. (2) There was no significant difference in the growth curve of SE between inhibitory peptide groups in different concentrations and negative control group. (3) After 4 hours of cultivation, the absorbance values of adhesive property of SE in 256, 128, 64, and 32 µg/mL inhibitory peptide groups were respectively 0.20 ± 0.04, 0.27 ± 0.03, 0.35 ± 0.04, and 0.40 ± 0.04, which were significantly lower than the absorbance value in negative control group (0.53 ± 0.10, P<0.05 or P<0.01); the absorbance value of adhesive property of SE in 16 µg/mL inhibitory peptide group was 0.47 ± 0.09, which was close to the absorbance value in negative control group (P>0.05). After 20 hours of cultivation, the absorbance values of biofilm formation of SE in 256, 128, and 64 µg/mL inhibitory peptide groups were respectively 0.49 ± 0.10, 0.68 ± 0.06, and 0.93 ± 0.13, which were significantly less than the absorbance value in negative control group (1.21 ± 0.18, P<0.05 or P<0.01); the absorbance values of biofilm formation in 32 and 16 µg/mL inhibitory peptide groups were respectively 1.18 ± 0.22 and 1.15 ± 0.26, which were close to the absorbance value in negative control group (with P values above 0.05). (4) CLSM showed that more adhering bacteria and compact structure of biofilm were observed in negative control group, but less adhering bacteria and loose structure of biofilm were observed in 128 µg/mL inhibitory peptide group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The inhibitory peptide can inhibit adhesion and biofilm formation of SE at early stage, but its structure still needs to be further modified.</p>
Subject(s)
Humans , Bacterial Adhesion , Biofilms , Microscopy, Confocal , Peptides , Staphylococcus epidermidis , Genetics , Metabolism , PhysiologyABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the curative efficacy of Chinese medicine vs. western medicine in the treatment of diabetes. METHODS:The randomized controlled trials(RCTs) comparing western medicine with traditional Chinese medicine alone or combination of Chinese medicine and western medicine in the treatment of diabetes were systematically evaluated. Meta-analysis of the cited trials was performed by evidence-based medicine method with Revman 4.2 software for statistical analysis. RESULTS:A total of 14 RCTs met our inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference between traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in clinical efficacy in the treatment of diabetes; however,the diabetic patients treated with integrated Chinese medicine and western medicine showed much better efficacy than those treated with western medicine alone. CONCLUSION:Treatment of diabetes with traditional Chinese medicine plus western medicine has more advantages; however,this conclusion remains to be confirmed further by studies of high quality given the low quality in test methodology.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:To probe into the tendency and influencing factors of the drug expenses of the inpatients in our hospital.METHODS:The total drug expense,the antibiotic expense and its proportion in the total of the inpatients in our hospital were analyzed statistically in this retrospective study.RESULTS:During 2003～2007,the average daily total drug expense per inpatient was 371.77 yuan with average annual growth rate of 11.94%;the average daily antibiotics cost per inpatient was 110.35 yuan with average annual growth rate of 11.92%.Both the drug expense and antibiotic expense were correlated positively with the consumer price index (CPI).And the proportion of antibiotic expense in the total drug cost remained stable at about 29.68%.CONCLUSION:The average daily drug cost and antibiotic expenses per inpatient between 2003 and 2007 fluctuated yet with upward trend on the whole,and the proportion of antibiotic expense in the total drug cost remained stable.
ABSTRACT
The development of immunotoxin DT386-GMCSF, a fusion protein which bears the N-terminal 386 amino acids of diphtheria toxin and human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and targets the GM-CSF receptor (GM-CSFR), has provided a promising alternative therapy to the acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, the poor expression of the protein in E.coli is still a bottleneck which limits the industrial production. To identify the critical down-regulating factors on the expression of DT386-GMCSF, a series of truncated mutants of DT386-GMCSF at the C-terminal of GM-CSF were generated and expressed in E.coli. The results showed that the encoding sequences for the L114 of the GM-CSF dramatically impact the expression of DT386-GMCSF. On this basis, a serial of mutants integrating amino acid substitutes were generated. The results revealed that the expression level of the mutant DF123GVT, which harbors the amino acids 1-123 of GM-CSF whose L114L115V116 was substituted with G114V115T116, was evidently higher than that of the DT386-GMCSF, whereas the specific cytotoxicity to blast recovered from mice injected with HL60, a cell line highly expresses the GM-CSFR, was similar. These results have provided an important basis for the future development of the immunotoxins targeting the GM-CSFR.
ABSTRACT
Diphtheria toxin A fragment (DTA) is an essential catalytic domain of diphtheria toxin (DT)-based immunotoxin. DTA protein and its antibodies play an important role in the studies on toxicology, purification and identification of DT-based immunotoxins. In this paper, DTA was expressed and purified from E. coli. After Q-Sepharose FF chromatography and (Ni+)-Sepharose affinity chromatography, 6 x His-DTA fusion protein with 90% purity was achieved. Using the purified DTA as antigen to immunize BalB/c mice, 2 hybridoma cell lines (designated as 3B6 and 3B9, respectively) secreting monoclonal antibodies (McAbs) against DTA were established. Investigations showed that both McAbs were characterized as IgG1 with titers of 1: 10(6). The binding of the McAbs to DTA was competitively inhibited by horse sera against DT. The fact that anti-DTA McAbs could be used in western blot analysis and affinity chromatography purification of DT-based immunotoxins implied that they will be useful agents in the studies on DT-based immunotoxins.
Subject(s)
Animals , Female , Mice , Antibodies, Bacterial , Genetics , Antibodies, Monoclonal , Genetics , Chromatography, Affinity , Diphtheria Toxin , Allergy and Immunology , Escherichia coli , Genetics , Immunotoxins , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Peptide Fragments , Allergy and Immunology , Plasmids , Recombinant Fusion ProteinsABSTRACT
Acyl Coenzyme A Oxidase(ACO) is the rate-limiting enzyme of the ?-oxidation of dicarboxylic acid in Candida tropicalis . Using strains with low Acyl Coenzyme A Oxidase activity to produce dicarboxylic acid on an industrial scale will facilitates the improvement of the yield and purity of dicarboxylic acid. In this research, we improved the method of Allain, so as to determine the activity of Acyl Coenzyme A Oxidase from Candida tropicalis easily and correctly. This method can be used as quantity criterion in the screen of industrial strains of dicarboxylic acid production, and this work established the basic of character study of Acyl Coenzyme A Oxidase. We determined the activities of Acyl Coenzyme A Oxidase from a series of Candida tropicalis strains with different ability of dicarboxylic acid production, and found the obvious relationship of ACO activity and ability of acid production.