Research Progress in Pharmacologic Action and Mechanism of Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma ;Extract for Treating Alzheimer’s Disease / 中国中医药信息杂志

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has become one of the worldwide critical diseases which seriously threaten the health of the elderly. Exploring and developing medicine with high efficiency and low toxicity for AD patients is one of the vital medicine issues. Traditional Chinese medicine has high research and development value in the prevention and treatment of AD. Currently, increasing researches have proved that Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma, as a kind of traditional and valuable Chinese herbal medicine, shows effects on improving learning and memorizing ability and prevention and treatment of AD. This article reviewed Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma extract improving symptoms of AD and its mechanism of action in detail, with a purpose to provide references for Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma extract improving learning and memorizing ability and prevention and treatment of AD in clinic.

Study on cognitive ability and mental health status of the empty-nest elders in urban area of Beijing / 国际中医中药杂志

Objective To investigate the cognitive ability and mental health status of the empty-nest elderly people lived in urban area of Beijing.Methods We recruited subjects from 8 communities in Beijing.1067 people were investigated,including 839 empty-nest elderly subjects and 228 not empty-nest elderly subjects.We used demography questionnaire and mental health scale to assess the cognitive ability and mental health of these elders.Results The subjects in the empty-nest elderly having high education,well-condition marriage and being male were more than those in the other group (T or x2=10.769,2.009,159.523,P＜0.05).There was no significant difference in the global cognition between the two groups (F=5.541,P＞0.05).Among language ability,working memory,attention and executive function,the differences between these two groups were significant (F=7.203,4.436,8.806,P＜0.05).Compared with normal elderly subjects,empty-nest elderly subjects had higher scores in face scale and GDS scale (F=5.541,5.578,P＜0.05).Conclusion There are remarkable cognitive ability and mental health differences between empty-nest and not empty-nest elders.

Derivatization of Oligosaccharides and Analysis by Matrix-assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight-Mass Spectrometry / 分析化学

A derivatization method for the determination of oligosaccharides with high sensitivity by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry(MALDI-TOF-MS) based on a labeling regent 1-(4-Cyanophenyl)-4-piperidinecarbohydrazide(CPH) was proposed. The hydrazones were generated by the reaction of the reducing ends of oligosaccharides and the hydrazide of CPH. The derivatives were directly analyzed by MALDI-TOF-MS. Reaction conditions such as reaction temperature, concentration of acetic acid and excess ratio of CPH regent were optimized. When the oligosaccharides reacted with 100 time excess of CPH at 100 ℃ and in 0.125% acetic acid (V/V), the yield was highest. The results showed the derivatization with CPH increased the sensitivity of MS detection and this method was suitable for the analysis of oligosaccharides′ compositions.

N-Terminal Cyclization of Peptides in LargE-scale Protein Identification Based on Biological Mass Spectrometry / 分析化学

Biological mass spectrometry has been developed for the largE-scale protein identification. The successful identification of protein in proteomic study is based on an effective match of MS data to the sequence in database. Because of the diversity and heterogeneity of protein modification, the experimental data obtained by mass spectrometry does not match the theoretical value sometimes, which makes about 90 percent or more of the tandem mass spectra not be effectively identified. This has become one of the most important technique issues to be resolved in current proteome research. The N-terminal cyclization of peptides, as one of a variety of modification introduced in sample preparation, has been preliminarily studied in this work. The result showed that N-terminal cyclization occurred at the most of the glutamine(Q) or carbamoylmethyl-cysteine(CAM_C) residues and the reaction is often incomplete or partial, both types of peptides could often exist in its respective state at the same time, and the behavior of modified peptides in revered phase chromatography is also changed. The success rate of protein identification could be obviously improved if adding the N-terminal cyclization modification in the database searching. These results will be very helpful in the mass spectrometric data analysis of proteomic study.