Investigation of aflatoxins,mycobiota,and toxigenic fungi during post-harvest handling of Ziziphi Spinosae Semen / 中国中药杂志

Ziziphi Spinosae Semen is one of the Chinese herbal medicine being susceptible to aflatoxins contamination. To investigate the sources of aflatoxins contamination and toxigenic fungi species on Ziziphi Spinosae Semen,32 samples were collected from multiple steps during the post-harvest processing in this study. Aflatoxins in these samples were determined by immunoaffinity column and HPLC coupled with post-column photochemical derivatization. The dilution-plate method was applied to the fungi isolation. The isolated fungi strains were identified by morphological characterization and molecular approaches. The results showed that aflatoxins were detected in 28 samples from every step during the processing of Ziziphi Spinosae Semen. Three samples were detected with aflatoxin B_1 and 2 samples with both aflatoxin B_1 and total aflatoxin exceeding the limit of Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Especially the samples from the washing step,with the highest detected amounts of AFB_1 and AFs were reached 94. 79,121. 43 μg·kg~(-1),respectively. All 32 samples were contaminated by fungi. The fungal counts on the newly harvested samples were 2. 20 × 10~2 CFU·g~(-1). Moreover,it increased as tphreocessing progresses,and achieved 1. 16×10~6 CFU·g~(-1) after washing. A total of 321 isolates were identified to 17 genera. Aspergillus flavus was the main source of aflatoxins during the processing and storage of Ziziphi Spinosae Semen. One isolate of A. flavus was confirmed producing AFB_1 and AFB_2. The fungal count was significantly increased by composting,and Aspergillus was the predominant genus after shell breaking. The contamination level of aflatoxins was increased by composting and washing.

The prevalence and distribution of ideal cardiovascular health behavior in employees of Kailuan Group cohort / 中华心血管病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the prevalence and distribution of ideal cardiovascular health behavior.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Health examination data between 2008 to 2009 from the employees of Kailuan Group were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 101 333 subjects took part in the health examination, subjects with previous myocardial infarction (n = 871), stroke (n = 2255), myocardial infarction and stroke (n = 162) and subjects with incomplete examination data (n = 9311) were excluded and 88 534 subjects were included for final analysis [mean age (50.6 ± 12.3) years, male 69 916]. (1) Body mass index (BMI), systolic and diastolic pressure, cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride were significantly higher in males than in females (all P < 0.05), women's income and the education lever were significantly higher than men (P < 0.05). (2) The distribution of ideal cardiovascular health behavior (smoking, BMI, physical exercise, salt intake) was 55.8%, 41.4%, 18.9% and 14.0% respectively among the population; the ideal cardiovascular factors (fasting blood glucose, TC, blood pressure) was 80.9%, 61.8% and 18.5%, respectively. (3) The subjects with distribution of seven, six, five, four ideal cardiovascular health behavior and factors was 0.1%, 1.9%, 9.1%, 20.3%, respectively. (4) Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that female, age < 55 and high education level were associated with the ideal cardiovascular health status with a RR value (95%CI) of 4.52 (4.32 - 4.72), 1.46 (1.39 - 1.53) and 2.23 (2.10 - 2.37), respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The prevalence of ideal cardiovascular health is extremely low in the study population, most persons were not in the ideal cardiovascular health behavior and factors and female, age < 55 and high education level are linked with ideal cardiovascular health status.</p>

Fragile X syndrome and epilepsy / 神经科学通报·英文版

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is one of the most prevalent mental retardations. It is mainly caused by the loss of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). FMRP is an RNA binding protein and can regulate the translation of its binding RNA, thus regulate several signaling pathways. Many FXS patients show high susceptibility to epilepsy. Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder which is characterized by the recurrent appearance of spontaneous seizures due to neuronal hyperactivity in the brain. Both the abnormal activation of several signaling pathway and morphological abnormality that are caused by the loss of FMRP can lead to a high susceptibility to epilepsy. Combining with the research progresses on both FXS and epilepsy, we outlined the possible mechanisms of high susceptibility to epilepsy in FXS and tried to give a prospect on the future research on the mechanism of epilepsy that happened in other mental retardations.