Expert Consensus on Clinical Diseases Responding Specifically to Traditional Chinese Medicine：Membranous Nephropathy / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） is a great treasure house， exhibiting unique advantages in the treatment of some difficult and critical diseases. The incidence rate of membranous nephropathy has increased year by year in recent years， and has become the first cause of primary glomerular diseases. However， its pathogenesis is not clear. Modern medicine often uses immunosuppressive therapy， but it often faces the problems of high side effects and high recurrence rate. The China Association of Chinese Medicine （CACM） invited clinical experts of TCM and western medicine to fully discuss membranous nephropathy， which was later confirmed to be one of the clinical diseases responding specifically to TCM. Apart from summarizing the pathogenesis and clinical diagnosis and treatment of membranous nephropathy in both TCM and western medicine， this paper also detailed TCM cognition， syndrome differentiation， and therapeutic schemes of membranous nephropathy， aiming to improve the clinical remission rate of membranous nephropathy and provide reference for its clinical treatment.

TFEB regulation:new insight into treatment of kidney diseases / 中国病理生理杂志

Transcription factor EB(TFEB)is a member of the MiTF/TFE family and plays an important role in cell stress,metabolism,cancer and so on.There are relatively few studies on the role of TFEB in renal diseases.TFEB was initially found to be highly expressed in TFEB-fusion renal cell carcinoma and plays a key role in the development of re-nal cell carcinoma.Blocking the downstream signaling pathway activated by TFEB would be a promising treatment for TFEB-fusion renal cell carcinoma.On the contrary,the expression of TFEB in renal intrinsic cells is decreased in diabetic kidney disease,leading to a blockage in the autophagy-lysosome pathway.TFEB enhances the ability of cell stress and self-repair,and then delays the progress of diabetic kidney disease.In cystine nephropathy,TFEB expression is reduced in re-nal tubular epithelial cells and compensatory activation is insufficient as well.TFEB over-expression effectively eliminates intracellular cystine and repairs damaged lysosome,which is expected to alleviate or cure the Fanconi syndrome.In summa-ry,TFEB plays a key role in different kidney diseases,and targeted regulation of TFEB provides new hope for the treatment of kidney diseases.

Immune effects of specific CTLs response induced by dendritic cells pulsed with NY-ESO-1 peptide / 北京大学学报(医学版)

Objective:To exptore the potential of autologous dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with caner/ testis antigen NY-ESO-1 peptides in inducing specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTLs) response and an tineoplastic immune function of specific CTLs.Methods:Fifteen patients with Ⅱ to Ⅲ stage positive HLA-A0201 + and NY-ESO-1 + were enrolled in the Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences on the basis of preclinical experiments from November 2014 to October 2015,and their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) were isolated.The PBMCs were induced into DCs and pulsed with NY-ESO-1 peptide.The phenotypes of DCs were stained with antibodies against HLA-DR+ CD11c +,CD80 +,CD83 + and CD86 +,and subsequently analyzed by multichannel flow cytometry (FCM).The killing effects of CTLs pulsed with HLA-A0201-binding peptide NY-ESO-1 and the potential of autologous DCs pulsed with NY-ESO-1 peptides in inducing specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) responses were determined.The patients were administered two infusions of autologous CTLs for 1 time every two weeks.The total infusion was with 2 times.The immunological responses and clinical responses were examined in 1 week after the final administration.Results:The immunophenotype of DCs pulsed with NY-ESO-1 peptide was analyzed,HLA-DR+ CD11c+ cells (93.6％ ± 1.2％),CD80 + cells (87.3％ ± 3.6％),CD83 + cells (82.8％ ± 2.5％) and CD86 + cells (93.4％ ± 6.4％).PBLs isolated from patients primed by DCs pulsed with NY-ESO-1 peptide proliferated continuously and the proliferation index (PI) of the PBLs were analyzed.There was significant difference between the DCs loaded with polypeptides and those unloaded,though it could promote the proliferation of PBLs,but the PI was significantly lower than that of the DCs loaded with NY-ESO-1 peptide (P ＜ 0.05).The average percentage of special CTLs primed by DCs pulsed with NY-ESO-1 peptides was significantly higher than that in the control group (5.2％ ± 1.2％ vs.0.4％ ± 0.1％).CTLs induced by NY-ESO-1 pulsed DCs exerted a stronger killing effect on T2 cell line pulsed with NY-ESO-1 peptide than that in the control group at the ratio of E (effect) to T (target) as 30 ∶ 1,P ＜ 0.05.The cytokine levels in the patients' sera such as IFN-γ,IL-2 and IL-12 were increased after treatments [(132.9 ± 10.2) μg/Lvs.(46.4±3.1) μg/L;(101.3 ±6.4) μg/Lvs.(26.7 ±1.2) μg/L;(51.3 ±2.6) μg/L vs.(26.4 ± 1.1) μg/L;all P ＜ 0.05],and the percentages of antigen-specific CD8 + IFN-γ + increased in these patients (P ＜0.01).Conclusion:Auto-DCs pulsed with NY-ESO-1 peptides can in duce the proliferation of allogenic CTLs,which elicit specific immune responses ex vivo or in vivo,and boost anticancer immunity markedly.

Renoprotective effect of alprostadil in combination with statins in patients with mild to moderate renal failure undergoing coronary angiography / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>The role of alprostadil and statins in contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) is controversial. The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of combined therapy with alprostadil and statins in protecting renal function and preventing contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) in patients undergoing coronary angiography.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 156 consecutive patients with mild to moderate renal failure who underwent coronary angiography were enrolled in our study, and randomly categorized into two groups. In the statins group, 80 patients were treated with statins before and after coronary angiography. In the alprostadil plus statins group, 76 patients were treated with statins and alprostadil before and after coronary angiography. Serum creatinine (SCr), serum cystatin (CysC) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) were detected after administration of contrast media, and adverse events were evaluated within six months.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In both groups, the SCr, CysC and NGAL significantly increased after coronary angiography and peaked at 48, 24 and 6 hours, respectively. SCr, CysC and NGAL were significantly lower in the alprostadil plus statins group than in the statins group (P < 0.05). The incidence of CIN in the alprostadil plus statins group was slightly lower than in the statins group. The incidence of adverse events within six months in the alprostadil plus statins group was significantly lower than in the statins group (P = 0.034).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Intravenous alprostadil in combination with oral statins is superior to statins alone for protecting renal function in patients with mild to moderate renal dysfunction who undergo coronary angiography, and can reduce the incidence of adverse events seen within six months.</p>

Predictive value of serum uric acid on cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in urban Chinese patients / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>The association between increased serum uric acid (SUA) levels and cardiovascular risk has been debated for decades. Several large studies have provided conflicting results regarding the clinical significance of elevated SUA levels in cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cerebrovascular disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between SUA and CVD and all-cause mortality and their potential diagnostic value.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 3570 in-patients ranging in age from 56 to 95 years (mean (67.36 +/- 11.36) years) were selected from 20 hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai. A carefully designed questionnaire was used to gather baseline data of each patient. All patients were divided into two main groups according to their SUA levels: high SUA and normal SUA groups. Serum indices and other important parameters were measured.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with normal SUA group, high SUA group had significant difference in systolic blood pressure (SBP), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), body mass index (BMI), and age (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). High SUA prevailed in female and patients with history of essential hypertension, while history of smoking and diabetes showed no significant difference between two groups. All-cause and CVD mortality occurred more frequently in high SUA group than in normal SUA group. In the accumulative survival analysis, high SUA group had lower survival rate than normal SUA group both in CVD and all-cause mortality. COX regression analysis indicated that the history of smoking, age and high SUA were independent risk factors for the development of CVD.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>These preliminary observations suggest that patients with high SUA levels would face higher risk of mortality. SUA measurement may be applied as a routine predictor for clinical assessment.</p>

Construction of a drug screening model based on transcription regulation of STAT3 / 中国药理学通报

AIM: To find small molecule organic mimetics of G-CSF, according to the transcription regulating effect of the important transcription factors-STAT3 (signal transducers and activators of transcription3) in hematopoiesis growth factor's signal transductional passageway, we established a drug screening model targeting transcription regulating of STAT3. METHODS: A recombinat vector pTKS3-CAT was constructed. Then pTKS3-CAT and pTK-Hyg were transfected into NFS-60 cells expressing G-CSF receptor with lipofectamine 2000. Cells derived from hygromycin-resistant colonies were tested for CAT activity, and positive colonies were isolated. At the same time, the sensitivity and the specialty of the model were tested. RESULTS: A dose-dependent expression of CAT gene with half-maximal induction by rhG-CSF at 0.044 nmol·L-1 was observed. After treating with rhEPO CAT activity couldn't be tested. CONCLUSION: The expression of CAT gene could be strongly induced by its special ligands in drug screening model. This model can be used to assay CAT from extracts of cells grown with CAT-ELISA method in microtiter wells and then to screen small molecular compounds with G-CSF-like activity.