Ineffectiveness of Skin Tests in Predicting Allergic Reactions Induced by Chinese Herbal Injections / 中国结合医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To evaluate whether skin tests are suitable to predict the allergy reactions induced by Chinese herbal injections (CHIs).@*METHODS@#The skin tests including skin prick tests (SPT), intradermal tests (IDT) and provocation tests including subcutaneous tests and intravenous tests were administered to 249 healthy subjects and 180 allergic patients for 3 CHIs, including ginkgolide injection, diterpene ginkgolide meglumine injection and Salvianolate lyophilized injection. The results of the provocation tests were used as the "gold standard" to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the skin tests.@*RESULTS@#The results did not show any significant differences between the healthy and allergy groups in both skin tests and provocation tests (P>0.05). The specificities of SPT and IDT were 0.976 and 0.797, respectively, and the sensitivities of both SPT and IDT were 0.@*CONCLUSION@#Skin tests are insufficient to predict the likelihood of allergic reactions resulting from CHIs. (ChiCTR-CPC-15006921).

Mechanism of Huanglian Ejiao Tang on Prevention and Treatment of Myocardial Injury Induced by Anthracycline Chemotherapy Drugs / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective: To observe the preventive and therapeutic effect of Huanglian Ejiao Tang on myocardial injury induced by anthracycline chemotherapeutic drugs in all kinds of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Method:We chosen all kinds of cancer patients with combined use of anthracycline chemotherapy drugs in our hospital, 21 days as one cycle. The cardiac toxicity reaction was observed after three continuous chemotherapy cycles. A total of 64 patients who met the dialectical criteria of "imbalance between heart-Yang and kidney-Yin" were randomly divided into treatment group (32 cases) and control group (32 cases). Patients in treatment group were treated with Chinese medicine Huanglian Ejiao Tang based on original chemotherapy regimen, adding and subtracting Chinese medical materials according to the symptoms. Patients in control group continued to maintain the original chemotherapy regimen, and both two groups of patients continued to receive 3 cycles of continuous chemotherapy. By comparing the cardiac function classification and cardiac function tolerance between the 3 cycles and 6 cycles of two groups of patients after chemotherapy; changes of echocardiography index, QTc interval, creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB), Myoglobin (MYO), cardiac troponin I (cTNI)and nitrogenous terminal-pro-brain natriuretic peptide(NT-pro-BNP) concentration value were compared between two groups; and the concentrations of adrenaline (E), norepinephrine (NE) and angiotensin Ⅱ(AngⅡ) were observed and compared; meanwhile, the correlation analysis was carried out at the same time. Result:After 6 cycles of chemotherapy in Chinese medicine treatment group, degree of cardiac function classification and the 6 minute walking heart function tolerance were significantly better than those at the 3 cycles of chemotherapy (PPPPPConclusion:Huanglian Ejiao Tang can reduce the excitability of the symppthetic nervous system (SNS) and renin-angiotensin system(RAS) in human body and inhibit the release level of NE, E and AngⅡ by effect of "invigorating the kidney and clearing the heart". It has a certain preventive and treatment effect on the cardiac toxicity of patients with the cumulative use of anthracycline chemotherapy. To a certain extent, it can inhibit myocardial injury, improve cardiac function and reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events.

Expert consensus on the design and implementation of clinical safety centralized monitoring study of Chinese medical injection / 中国中药杂志

Along with the increase of clinical application, the safety of traditional Chinese medicine gained more and more attentions. In particular, the safety evaluation of Chinese medical injections has become a mandatory task should be completed by pharmaceutical companies under the supervision of China Food and Drug Administration(CFDA). Due to the weak foundation of previous studies, the safety issues of Chinese medical injections have not been fully understood, and lack of scientific and rational risk management programs. Clinical safety centralized monitoring(CSCM) is an important method for post-market safety evaluation of Chinese medicine. Due to the lack of appropriate norms and procedures, the quality of similar research is uneven, and the results vary. Combined with practical experience with experts' suggestions, we developed this expert consensus on the design and implementation of CSCM from three stages (design, implementation and report) with 20 technical points, which will provide technical support for future CSCM studies.

Progress on studies of impact on CYP450 enzymes activity of traditional Chinese medicine by Cocktail probe substrates approach / 中国中药杂志

Cocktail probe substrates approach is a fast, sensitive and high through put method to determine cytochrome P450 enzymes activity. It has been widely used to screen early drug development, analyze drug metabolism types and confirm the metabolism pathways, study drug-drug interactions, optimize clinical regimen, evaluate post marketing drugs and help liver/kidney pathological studies. This article reviewed characteristics of Cocktail probe substrates, focused on the application to traditional Chinese medicine to CYP450 system as follows: the metabolic pathway research of Chinese herb active ingredients; processing way and compatibility of medical herbs affect CYP450; find out the metabolic characteristic of Chinese patent medicine, study in pharmacy of national minority; do research in liver protective effect of traditional Chinese medicine and evaluate traditional Chinese medicine syndromes in animal models. This article make a summary of existing research results and also make a comparison of cocktail probe substrates approach application to western medicine and Chinese medicine.

Down-regulation of Ech1 decreases the adhesion ability of mouse hepatocarcinoma Hca-F cells / 中华肝脏病杂志

To examine the differential expression pattern of Ech1 protein in mouse Hca-F and Hca-P hepatocarcinoma cell lines with high and low rates of lymphatic metastasis, respectively, and to investigate the relationships between Ech1 expression and adhesion of Hca-F cells. Fluorescence two-dimensional difference in-gel electrophoresis (2D DIGE) and mass spectrometry were used to detect Ech1 expression. Ech1 gene silencing was achieved by stable transfection of Hca-F cells with a plasmid vector harboring short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting Ech1, pGPU6/GFP/Neo-shRNA-Ech1. Ech1 mRNA and protein expressions were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting analysis, respectively. Adhesive properties of cells were assessed by hematoxylin-eosin staining and fluorimetric detection of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Endogenous Ech1 protein level was remarkably higher in the highly metastatic Hca-F cell line than in the Hca-P cell line (2.7-fold by 2D DIGE; 1.5-fold by Western blotting). shRNA-induced silencing of Ech1 significantly reduced the adhesion ability of Hca-F cells, as evidenced by decreased absorbance values of fibronectin and collagen I (Hca-F cells vs. pGPU6/GFP/Neo-shRNA-Ech1 cells: 1.42+/-0.26 vs. 1.01+/-0.27 and 1.14+/-0.07 vs. 0.90+/-0.09, respectively; P less than 0.05). Down-regulation of Ech1 can inhibit the adhesive capacity of metastatic Hca-F cells.

Expression of enoyl CoA hydratase 1 reduces cell proliferation and migration in mouse hepatocarcinoma cells / 中华病理学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the expression of enoyl CoA hydratase 1 (ECH1) and the effect when down-regulation of ECH1 gene expression in mouse hepatocarcinoma cell.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Immunofluorescence was used for detecting the expression of ECH1, and stably transfected Hca-F cells with pGPU6/GFP/Neo-shRNA-ECH1 expression plasmids. Cell proliferation was assessed by Cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) assay. The Boyden-transwell assay (8 µm pore size) was performed to analyze the inhibitory effect of shRNA on Hca-F cell migration and invasion.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>ECH1 expression was obtained in the cytoplasm and upregulated expression in Hca-F cells than that in Hca-P cells. The down-regulation of ECH1 could inhibit the cell proliferation of Hca-F cells, decrease the number of cell pass through Transwell (27.07 ± 17.49) compared with scramble-negative (72.38 ± 18.83) and Hca-F controls (59.06 ± 30.33), decrease the migration capacities of Hca-F cells, increase the ratio of Hca-F cells in S phase (86.1%) compared with scramble-negative (75.8%) and Hca-F controls (66.2%) and decrease the ratio of G(1) phase (9.4%) compared with scramble-negative (24.2%) and Hca-F controls (30.3%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ECH1 serves as a potential critical factor attributes to tumor lymphatic metastasis.</p>

Clinical observation on chronic severe hepatitis B treated by principles of cooling-blood and detoxicating combined with clearing-heat and resolving-damp or combined with strengthening-Pi and warming-yang / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the therapeutic efficacy on chronic severe hepatitis B (CSH) patients of Yanghuang and Yinhuang syndrome type by principles of cooling-blood and detoxicating combined with clearing-heat and resolving dampness (PA) or with strengthening-Pi and warming-yang (PB), respectively.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Forty-three patients with CSH were randomly divided into two groups, group A (22 cases) treated with PA and group B (21 cases) with PB. The therapeutic efficacy, laying stress on the effect in eliminating jaundice, was observed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The efficacy in group B was effective in 19 cases (90.5%), and ineffective in 2 (9.5%), while in group A, effective in 16 (72.7%) and ineffective in 6 (27.3%). Levels of TBIL and ALT were significantly lower in both groups (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01), and the descending extent was greater, the thrombinogen activity was higher in group B than that in group A after treatment (P < 0.05), no significant difference in ALT was found between the two groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The efficacy of PB is better than that of PA on CSH with Yanghuang and Yinghuang syndrome.</p>