The roles of sphingosine-1-phosphate and its receptor in Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and novel antibiotics discovery / 药学学报

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) infection remains a major public health problem of global concern, largely due to antibiotics resistance, persistence and immune evasion. Sphingolipid bioactive molecules are involved in several important pathophysiological processes. Sphingosine-1-phosphate is a key product of sphingolipid metabolism, and can play a role in two manners: autocrine and/or paracrine. Sphingosine-1-phosphate regulates T cells and a variety of antigen-presenting cells during M. tuberculosis infection, promotes antigen processing and expression in monocytes, is involved in the maturation of phagolysosome, regulates Ca2+ homeostasis, participates in the autophagy of macrophages, inhibits the survival and proliferation of M. tuberculosis within host cells, and effectively reduces the necrosis of the mouse lungs infected by M. tuberculosis. Injection of 20 nmol per mouse sphingosine-1-phosphate inhibited up to 47% of mycobacterial growth in the lung and spleen of mice infected by M. tuberculosis. In this paper, sphingosine-1-phosphate, its receptors and regulatory network were reviewed, and the specific mechanism of sphingosine-1-phosphate inhibiting the survival of M. tuberculosis-infected host cells was elaborated. This will provide novel insights into the new targets for tuberculosis prevention and treatment.

Effects of Tuoli Xiaodu Powder on healing of wound in diabetic rats with skin ulcer and its mechanism / 中草药

Objective: To study the possible mechanism of Tuoli Xiaodu Powder and disassembled prescriptions for the healing of wound in diabetic rats with skin ulcer. Methods: Totally 200 male SD rats were randomly divided into control group, model group, tuo disassembled prescription group, tou disassembled prescription group, and whole prescription group. The diabetes rat model was established using caudal vein injection of Streptozotocin (STZ) and the skin ulcer model was prepared by "back drilling" method. The rats in each group were given different prescriptions and corresponding physiological saline. The healing conditions of ulcer were observed on days 5, 8, 11, and 14 after treatment. The structural changes of granulation tissue were observed by HE staining. Expression of Tie-2, Ang-1, and Ang-2 in the granulation tissues of the wound were detected by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Results: The healing rate of each treatment group was higher than that of the DM group at all the time (P < 0.05); The healing rate of the tou group was higher than that of the tuo group and whole group on day 5 after treatment (P < 0.05); The healing rate of the whole group was higher than that of the tuo and tou group (P < 0.05). The expression of Ang-1 and Tie-2 was increased and that of Ang-2 was decreased in the whole group compared with the DM group (P < 0.05). Expression of Ang-2 in the tou group was significantly decreased on days 5 and 8 after treatment (P < 0.05). Expression of Ang-1 and Tie-2 in the tuo group was increased on days 11 and 14 after treatment (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The increased expression of Ang-1 and Tie-2 in the granulation tissue and the decreased expression of Ang-2 maybe the mechanism through which the Tuoli Xiaodu Powder promoting wound healing.

Effect of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome on arterial stiffness / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the effect of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) on brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (b-aPWV) in untreated diagnosed patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>This study involved 24 consecutive male patients with newly diagnosed untreated OSAHS (aged 39.13±8.31 years) and 22 normal male individuals (aged 39.59±10.86 years) matched for age and body mass index. Carotid and extremities ultrasound were performed in all the subjects, and none of them had atherosclerosis, arterial calcification, or aneurysm. No subject had a history of hypertension, coronary heart disease or stroke. All the subjects underwent arterial stiffness evaluation by means of b-aPWV measurements.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The b-aPWV in OSAHS patients was significantly higher than that in normal subjects (1346.86±123.48 vs 1237.91±84.46, P<0.01), and the rate of positive b-aPWV in OSAHS patients was significantly higher (13/24 vs 1/22, P<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The value and positive rate of b-aPWV in OSAHS patients are higher than those in normal people, suggesting increased arterial stiffness in OSAHS patients.</p>

A total of 362 HLA different haplotypes and HLA recombination haplotypes based on analysis of their family pedigree in Chinese partial Han populations / 中国实验血液学杂志

This study was aimed to discover the novel HLA recombination haplotypes and investigate the distribution of haplotypes in Chinese Han population. Based on the HLA-A, B, DRB1 typing results of 179 family members, 791 haplotypes were assigned by the mode of inheritance. The results showed that a total of 4 novel recombinant haplotypes in HLA-DRB1 locus region were observed in 4 families, which ratio of paternal to maternal chromosomes was 3:1. The recombination ratio between HLA-DRB1 and HLA-A or B loci was 0.92% (4/433). There were a total of 362 kinds of HLA-A, -B, -DRB1 haplotypes to be confirmed in Chinese Han partial population. A33-B58-DR17, A2-B46-DR9, A30-B13-DR7, A11-B13-DR15, A11-B75-DR12 and A2-B46-DR14 were the most common haplotypes that was consistent with the distribution of HLA alleles in unrelated donors. There were A1-B63-DR12, A29-B46-DR15, A1-B61-DR10, A34-B35-DR9, A29-B54-DR4, A23-B13-DR16 and A34-B62-DR15 haplotypes and so on, which were rare haplotypes not yet reported in Chinese. It is concluded that the HLA-A-B-DRB1 haplotypes would be confirmed by analysis of their family pedigree. The results obtained in this study are basic data for study of Chinese anthropology, organ transplantation and disease correlation analysis.

Clinical observation on catgut implantation at acupoint for treatment of general paroxysmal epilepsy / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To search for an effective method for treatment of general paroxysmal epilepsy.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred cases were randomly divided into a treatment group of 50 cases treated with catgut implantation at Dazhui (GV 14), Jinsuo (GV 8), Fenglong (ST 40), etc., and a control group of 50 cases treated with oral administration of sodium valproate.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The scores for epilepsy after treatment significantly improved in the both groups (P<0.05); the total effective rate was 94.0% in the treatment group and 82.0% in the control group with a significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Catgut implantation at acupoint has a definite therapeutic effect on general paroxysmal epilepsy with no adverse effect.</p>