Effect of triptolide on expressions of Notch receptors and ligands in rats with adjuvant- induced arthritis and reduced pulmonary function / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effects of triptolide on Notch receptor and ligand expressions in rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Forty rats were randomly divided into normal control (NC) group, model (MC) group, methotrexate group and triptolide groups. Rat models of AA were established by an intradermal injection of 0.1 mL Freund's complete adjuvant into the right paw. Twelve days after the injection, the rats were treated with corresponding drugs for 30 days; the rats in NC group and MC group were given saline only. Paw edema volume (E), arthritis index (AI), pulmonary function, histomorphologies, and Notch receptor/ ligand expression in the lung tissue were analyzed after the treatments.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the NC group, E, AI, Notch3, Notch4, and Delta1 expressions in the lung tissues significantly increased while pulmonary function and pulmonary expressions of Notch1, Jagged1, and Jagged2 significantly decreased the model rats (P<0.01). Compared with the MC group, triptolide-treated rats showed significantly improved pulmonary functions, increased expressions of Notch1, Jagged1, and Jagged2 and decreased expressions of Notch3, Notch4, and Delta1 in the lungs (P<0.05, P<0.01); the therapeutic effect of triptolide was better than that of methotrexate.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Triptolide can reduce inflammatory reaction and immune complex deposition to improve joint and pulmonary symptoms in rats with AA possibly by up-regulating the expressions of Notch3, Notch4, and Delta1 and down-regulating the expressions of Jagged1, Jagged2, and Notch1.</p>

Chinese herbal medicine Xinfeng Capsule in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: study protocol of a multicenter randomized controlled trial / 中西医结合学报

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as a common systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease, affects approximately 1 in 100 individuals. Effective treatment for RA is not yet available because current research does not have a clear understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of RA. Xinfeng Capsule, a patent Chinese herbal medicine, has been used in the treatment of RA in recent years. Despite its reported clinical efficacy, there are no large-sample, multicenter, randomized trials that support the use of Xinfeng Capsule for RA. Therefore, we designed a randomized, double-blind, multicenter, placebo-controlled trial to assess the efficacy and safety of Xinfeng Capsule in the treatment of RA.</p><p><b>METHODS AND DESIGN</b>This is a 12-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter trial on the treatment of RA. The participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group at a ratio of 1:1. Participants in the experimental group will receive Xinfeng Capsule and a pharmaceutical placebo (imitation leflunomide). The control group will receive leflunomide and an herbal placebo (imitation Xinfeng Capsule). The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Criteria for RA will be used to measure the efficacy of the Xinfeng Capsule. The primary outcome measure will be the percentage of study participants who achieve an ACR 20% response rate (ACR20), which will be measured every 4 weeks after randomization. Secondary outcomes will include the ACR50 and ACR70 responses, the side effects of the medications, the Disease Activity Score 28, RA biomarkers, quality of life, and X-rays of the hands and wrists. The first four of the secondary outcomes will be measured every 4 weeks and the others will be measured at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment.</p><p><b>DISCUSSION</b>The result of this trial will help to evaluate whether Xinfeng Capsule is effective and safe in the treatment of RA.</p><p><b>TRIAL REGISTRATION</b>This trial has been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. The identifier is NCT01774877.</p>

Influential factors of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium on the study of association between gene polymorphism and disease / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective According to the data collected from gastric cancer families comparative study, the influence factors of Hardy-Weinberg (H-W) equilibrium in the association studies of gene polymorphism and disease were analyzed to reveal the reasons that affecting the equilibrium deviation in the group. Methods Varieties of risk genotype for gastric cancer were analyzed and detected with H-W equilibrium, genetic linkage disequilibrium analysis and Cochran-Armitage trend test. Results (1) Significant deviations from H-W equilibrium were observed in IL-1B-31, IL-IB-511, IL-IRN and TNF-A-308 of the cases and controls (P<0.01). MIF-173 tended to be equilibrium in the population. (2)Deviations from expectations of phenotypes combination probability were observed in two-site H-W χ2 tests (P< 0.01). (3)The Cochran-Armitage trend test showed that distribution of IL-1B-511 and IL-1RN were significantly different(P<0.05), suggesting that population stratification might have existed in the group. Conclusions (1)Affected by frequency-dependent selection, under the combination of linkage disequilibrium, mutations and interaction, genotype frequency of IL-1B-31, IL-1B-511, IL-1RN and TNF-A-308 showed deviation from H-W equilibrium in population. (2)Two-site genetic equilibrium test model seemed better to reflect the differences of phenotypic combination fitness. (3)Population stratification was another factor to express the deviation from H-W equilibrium.