Natural herbal medicine Lianhuaqingwen capsule anti-influenza A (H1N1) trial: a randomized, double blind, positive controlled clinical trial / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>The 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infection is associated with the high risk of severe complications and is spreading more rapidly throughout the world than other reported seasonal influenzas. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the nature herbal medicine Lianhuaqingwen capsule (LHC) in patients infected with influenza A (H1N1) virus.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 244 patients aged 16 - 65 years confirmed with influenza A (H1N1) virus infection by the real time RT-PCR were randomized to one of two treatment groups of 122 patients each. Each group assigned to receive either LHC or Oseltamivir for five days and observation for seven days. The patients were enrolled within 36 hours of illness onset if they had an axillary temperature of ≥ 37.4°C and with at least one of the following symptoms: nasal obstruction, runny nose, cough, sore throat, fatigue, headache, myalgia, chills and sweating. The primary end point was the duration of illness.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of 244 patients, 240 (98.36%) patients with a median age 21 years completed the study between October 24, 2009 and November 23, 2009. There were no significant overall differences between LHC treated and Oseltamivir treated patients in the median duration of illness (LHC 69 hours vs. Oseltamivir 85 hours P > 0.05) or the median duration of viral shedding (LHC 103 hours vs. Oseltamivir 96 hours, P > 0.05). However, it was worthwhile to note that LHC significantly reduced the severity of illness and the duration of symptoms including fever, cough, sore throat, and fatigue (P < 0.05). Both study medications were well tolerated. No drug related serious adverse events occurred during the study.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Compared with Oseltamivir, LHC achieved a similar therapeutic effectiveness reduction of the duration of illness and duration of viral shedding. Therefore, LHC might be an alternative therapeutic measure for influenza A (H1N1) virus infections.</p>

The analysis of clinical character in different age patients suffered from A-H1N1 / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To describe the feature of different age patients with A-H1N1.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Cross-sectional study was performed in 95 patients who were confirmed to be infected with A-H1N1 from May, 2009 to July, 2009, in according to their age.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The average age of patients with A-H1N1 infection was 23.44 +/- 14.73. Accumulative prevalence in children and young adult reached 74.7% of total patients. There was a trend that the subclinical infection rate raised gradually from 0-15 years group to over 45 years group. The percent of lymphocyte in 0-15 years group was significantly higher than other age groups, P = 0.039. The average time of virus shedding were 6.5 +/- 2.10 days (from 2 days to 12 days) , and there were no significant difference in diverse age groups, P = 0.272. 13 out of 95 (13.7%) patients presented complications related with A-H1N1 infection, and 4 of 6 patients complicated with pneumonia were in the 0-15 years group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The distribution of age in A-H1N1 infection is markedly different from seasonal influenza, with more cases in school children and young adults and fewer cases in older adults. Flu-like symptoms in children were apparent and pneumonia was the major complication in children.</p>

E2F1 upregulates endogenous XRCC1 expression / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the regulatory effect and significance of transcription factor E2F1 on X-ray repair cross2 complementing 1 (XRCC1).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Saos2 cells were transfected with the E2F1 expression vectors (tet-E2F1) and mutated E2F1 expression vectors (tet-132E). XRCC1 promotor luciferase reporter vector was constructed and transfected into Saos2 cells together with E2F1, E2F2, E2F3 and E2F4 expression vectors at different amount. The cells were collected 36 hours post-transfection for luciferase assays and absorbance was read at 570 nm.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Cotransfection of increasing amounts of E2F1 expression vector with the XRCC1 promoter-luciferase reporter caused a dose-dependent increase in luciferase activation. In contrast, DNA binding incompetent E2F1 (132E) could not activate the XRCC1 promoter-luciferase reporter.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>E2F1 could upregulate endogenous XRCC1 expression and stimulate the XRCC1 promoter.</p>

Expression of K18, Ser-33 and Ser-52 phosphorylated K18 in HBV infected human liver disease and its significance / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression of K18, Ser-33 and Ser-52 phosphorylated K18 in HBV infected human liver disease and its significance.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The expression and localization of K18 and Ser-33, Ser-52 phosphorylated K18 in healthy liver tissue, in liver tissues of patients with post-HBV infection cirrhosis and severe chronic hepatitis were detected by histochemistry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>K18, Ser-33 and Ser-52 phosphorylated K18 were expressed in normal liver cells, in liver tissues of cirrhosis patients and severe chronic hepatitis cases. The expression of K18 in the liver cells from the 3 different sources had no significant difference in levels. Ser-33 and Ser-52 phosphorylated K18 were expressed in normal liver cells, in liver tissues of cirrhosis patients chronicity HBV hepatitis and severe chronic hepatitis cases. Ser-33 and Ser-52 located around cytoplasmic membrane, diffused into cytoplasm and expressed at a higher levels in cirrhosis and severe chronic hepatitis.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The expression levels of Ser-33 and Ser-52 phosphorylated K18 increased along with the progression of HBV infected human liver disease. The phosphorylation of K18 could be a marker of progression of HBV infected human liver disease.</p>

Changes and significance of peripheral blood fibrinogen level in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate variations and significance of plasma fibrinogen in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Totally 148 patients with SARS were divided into the following groups: initial stage group (44 cases) and after the initial stage group (104 cases), common type group (87 cases) and severe type group (61 cases), unilobar lung involvement group (49 cases), bilobar lung involvement group (53 cases) and diffuse lung involvement group (46 cases). The values of plasma fibrinogen of the 148 SARS patients were analyzed and compared among the different groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The mean value of plasma fibrinogen (x +/- SD, 522.29 +/- 154.87 mg/dl) of the 148 cases was higher than the normal value (p less than 0.01). There were significant differences between the initial stage and after initial stage groups, between the common and severe type groups, and among the unilobar, bilobar and diffuse lung involvement groups (p less than 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>theses results suggested that elevation of peripheral blood fibrinogen in SARS patients may play an important role in development and progress of the disease and its treatment.</p>

Use of glucocorticoid in treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome cases / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the effect of glucocorticoid in the treatment for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Clinical data of 70 patients with SARS admitted to Youan Hospital in Beijing during March to May, 2003 were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) Sixty-three of 70 cases of SARS recovered and seven cases died, with a case-fatality ratio of 10%. (2) Average length of hospital stay was 16.9 days for the all 70 cases, and 16.8 days for the 11 cases without glucocorticoid treatment, without statistical significance (F = 1.018, P = 0.39). (3) The other 59 cases were administered with 40 mg to 640 mg of methylprednisolone daily. (4) Average hospital stay was 15 days for the 23 cases with lower dose of 40 mg to 80 mg methylprednisolone daily, 18.5 days for the 27 cases with medium dose of 120 mg to 240 mg daily, and 17.9 days for the nine cases with higher dose of 320 mg to 640 mg daily (F = 1.018, P = 0.39).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Earlier use of glucocorticoid therapy with suitable doses could alleviate their clinical symptoms, improve their clinical courses, and promote the absorbance of infiltration in their lungs on chest-X-ray films for the cases with SARS. However, current clinical data showed that glucocorticoid therapy could not shorten the length of hospitalization for the cases with SARS.</p>

Clinical features of severe acute respiratory syndrome in forty-one confirmed health care workers / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the clinical features of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Forty-one medical care workers (aged 23 - 55 years, with a average of 32 years; men/women = 8/32) who were admitted to our hospital and diagnosed with SARS during March and April, 2003 were retrospectively analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Thirteen of all the patients were physicians and the rest were nurses. The disease was mainly transmitted through air droplet in a short distance, and overwork induced tiredness was involved in disease stimulation. Seventy-three percent of the patients presented fever as their first symptom. Ten patients complained inertia and myalgia. One patient showed no clinical symptoms, and bilateral infiltrates was found in his chest X-ray. Among the 41 cases, 6 (15%) were diagnosed as severe type. At the first week, the counts of white blood cells (WBCs), lymphocyte and platelets were (4.4 +/- 1.5) x 10(9)/L, 0.22 +/- 0.12 and (143 +/- 37) x 10(9)/L, which were significantly lower when compared with those at the 2nd to 4th week. Abnormal liver function was found in 27 cases (mostly with elevated serum ALT), with 70% occurred at the 3rd or 4th week. In terms of CT, 30 patients (73%) showed pathological changes in lungs, and bilateral lung involvement was found in 35.59%. Of 36 cases treated with steroids, 86% received middle or low dosage (80 - 240 mg/d). Artificial ventilation was used for twenty-seven patients, and air pipe mechanical ventilation was used for 1 case. Mortality in this study was 5%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Inertia and myalgia may be the earlier symptoms of health care workers with SARS include, which are parallel to CT manifestations. There is no objective index for the assessment of the severity of the disease at early stage. The medicine associated toxicities may be the main reason of liver lesions. damages. Middle or low dosage of steroid was reasonable to be used as early as possible.</p>