Cardiovascular complications in malaria: a review / 中国中药杂志

Malaria, one of the major global public health events, is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among children and adults in tropical and subtropical regions(mainly in sub-Saharan Africa), threatening human health. It is well known that malaria can cause various complications including anemia, blackwater fever, cerebral malaria, and kidney damage. Conventionally, cardiac involvement has not been listed as a common reason affecting morbidity and mortality of malaria, which may be related to ignored cases or insufficient diagnosis. However, the serious clinical consequences such as acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, and malignant arrhythmia caused by malaria have aroused great concern. At present, antimalarials are commonly used for treating malaria in clinical practice. However, inappropriate medication can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cause severe consequences. This review summarized the research advances in the cardiovascular complications including acute myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, hypertension, heart failure, and myocarditis in malaria. The possible mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases caused by malaria were systematically expounded from the hypotheses of cell adhesion, inflammation and cytokines, myocardial apoptosis induced by plasmodium toxin, cardiac injury secondary to acute renal failure, and thrombosis. Furthermore, the effects of quinolines, nucleoprotein synthesis inhibitors, and artemisinin and its derivatives on cardiac structure and function were summarized. Compared with the cardiac toxicity of quinolines in antimalarial therapy, the adverse effects of artemisinin-derived drugs on heart have not been reported in clinical studies. More importantly, the artemisinin-derived drugs demonstrate favorable application prospects in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and are expected to play a role in the treatment of malaria patients with cardiovascular diseases. This review provides reference for the prevention and treatment of malaria-related cardiovascular complications as well as the safe application of antimalarials.

Potential therapies for COVID-19 cardiovascular complications using artemisinin and its derivatives intervene based on its cardiovascular protection / 中国中药杂志

Corona virus disease 2019(COVID-19) has brought untold human sufferings and economic tragedy worldwide. It causes acute myocardial injury and chronic damage of cardiovascular system, which has attracted much attention from researchers. For the immediate strategy for COVID-19, "drug repurposing" is a new opportunity for developing drugs to fight COVID-19. Artemisinin and its derivatives have a wide range of pharmacological activities. Recent studies have shown that artemisinin has clear cardiovascular protective effects. This paper summarizes the research progress on the pathogenesis the pathogenesis of COVID-19 in cardiovascular damage by 2019 novel coronavirus(2019-nCoV) virus from myocardial cell injury directly by 2019-nCoV virus,viral ligands competitively bind to ACE2 and then reduce the protective effect of ACE2 on cardiovascular disease, "cytokine storm" related myocardial damage, arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death induced by the infection and stress, myocardial injury by hypoxemia, heart damage side effects from COVID-19 drugs and summarizing the cardiovascular protective effects of artemisinin and its derivatives have activities of anti-arrhythmia, anti-myocardial ischemia, anti-atherosclerosis and plaque stabilization. Then analyzed the possible multi-pathway intervention effects of artemisinin-based drugs on multiple complications of COVID-19 based on its specific immunomodulatory effects, protective effects of tissue and organ damage and broad-spectrum antiviral effect, to provide clues for the treatment of cardiovascular complications of COVID-19, and give a new basis for the therapy of COVID-19 through "drug repurposing".

Effect of IL-1β and NLRP3 on the inflammatory response of acne vulgaris / 中南大学学报(医学版)

To investigate the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris, and to provide new ideas for non-antibiotic therapy for acne vulgaris.
 Methods: Normal human epidermal keratinocyte (NHEK) was exposed to Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) [multiplicity of infection (MOI)=10, 20, 30] for 12, 24, or 36 hours. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and real-time PCR were used to detect the protein and mRNA of IL-1β in NHEK. Three groups were set up as follows: A negative control group (no NHEK pretreatment), a positive control group (P. acnes was used to stimulate NHEK), and a siRNA group (pretreated NHEK with siRNA). ELISA, real-time PCR, and Western blotting were used to detect the protein, mRNA of IL-1β and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor containing pyrin domain 3 (NLRP3) in NHEK.
 Results: IL-1β of NHEK in the positive control group was significantly increased in a time and dose-dependent manner compared with the negative control group (P<0.05). After pretreating NHEK with siRNA, IL-1β level was decreased compared with the positive control group, but it was higher than that in the negative control group (P<0.05).
 Conclusion: P. ances can stimulate NHEK to secrete IL-1β, and the process is possibly involved in NLRP3. The inflammatory response induced by P. ances could be inhibited by suppressing the activity of NLRP3.

Rosiglitazone improves learning and memory impairment of 3 x Tg mice / 药学学报

This study is to investigate the protective effect of rosiglitazone (RSG) against learning and memory impairment of APP/PS1/tau transgenic mice. AD mice model was replicated by using 6-month APP/PS1/tau transgenic mice. The learning and memory ability of mice was evaluated by Morris water maze and Western blotting assays was applied to measure the phosphorylation and O-glycosylation of Tau and neurofilaments (NFs) protein. The results demonstrated that RSG could reverse the learning and memory deficits of 3 x Tg mice significantly. It was also found that RSG could suppress the hyperphosphorylation of Tau and NFs protein levels and increase the glycosylation expression of Tau and NFs proteins in 3 x Tg mice brain. Together, RSG ameliorates cognitive impairments of 3 x Tg mice via the alleviation of the hyperphosphorylated Tau and NFs proteins burden in the brain.

Promoting effect of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection on human laryngeal carcinoma HEp-2 cell adhesion and migration / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the effect of Chlamydia pneumoniae (C.pn) infection on human laryngeal carcinoma cell line HEp-2 cell adhesion and migration, to further clarify the role and mechanism of C.pn infection in tumor metastasis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>HEp-2 cells were infected with C.pn after the culture and propagation of C.pn. The cytopathic effect was observed by microscopy. Morphological characteristics of C.pn inclusions in HEp-2 cells were examined by fluorescence microscopy and acridine orange staining. The ultrastructural changes of C.pn inclusions in the HEp-2 cells were examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Cell adhesion assay was performed to investigate the effect of C.pn infection on the adhesion of HEp-2 cells to collagen I. Wound-healing assay and transwell assay were performed to explore the effect of C.pn infection on HEp-2 cell migration.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>At 72 h post-infection, C.pn infected-HEp-2 cells were swollen and partially desquamated. Numerous vacuoles (inclusions) were observed and C.pn inclusions occupied almost the whole cytoplasm of the HEp-2 cells. Grape-like C.pn inclusions were observed in the HEp-2 cells stained with acridine orange under a fluorescence microscope at 72 h after infection. Under TEM, there were more mature pear-shaped elementary bodies, but less larger and round reticulate bodies in the HEp-2 cells infected with C.pn for 72 h. In the cell adhesion assay, the A value in C.pn infection group was 0.669 ± 0.011, significantly higher than that in the control group (0.558 ± 0.005) at 2 h after infection (P < 0.001). The cell adhesion ratio in the C.pn infection group was 119.89%. The migration distance of C.pn infected-HEp-2 cells in the wound-healing assay was significantly longer than that of control cells at 24 h after infection (P < 0.05). HEp-2 cells infected with C.pn for 12 h migrated more than the control cells in the transwell assay (23.40 ± 2.41 vs 10.40 ± 1.67) (P < 0.001).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>C.pn infection can significantly promote HEp-2 cell adhesion to collagen I and migration of HEp-2 cells, indicating that C.pn infection may play an important role in promoting the metastasis of laryngeal cancer.</p>

The hypocalcemia effect of salmon calcitonin ultra-flexible liposomes after intranasal administration in rats / 药学学报

This article describes the preparation of salmon calcitonin ultra-flexible liposomes and their hypocalcemia effect after intranasal administration in rats. Both the conventional liposomes and ultra-flexible liposomes were prepared by rotary evaporation-sonication and extrusion. The morphology of ultra-flexible liposomes was observed with transmission electronic microscope. The size and size distribution and their zeta potential were determined by dynamic light scattering. The mean size of ultra-flexible liposomes with DC-Chol was no more than 120 nm, while the mean size of the conventional liposomes was 256.5 nm. The results showed the content of sodium deoxycholate have significant effect on the mean particle size of liposomes. The ultra-flexible liposomes were intranasal administrated at the dose of 5.0 microg x kg(-1); the concentration of serum calcium was determined by OCPC method. The results showed that the salmon calcitonin solution only slightly lowered serum calcium levels and the conventional liposomes could improve the effect of decreased serum calcium level (D%), and the ultra-flexible liposomes had the best effect on the decreased serum calcium level, and the hypocalcemia effect was correlated with the content of sodium deoxycholate which was present in the liposomes. Moreover the ciliotoxicity of ultra-flexible nanoliposomes on nasal mucocilia was investigated with the electron microscope scanning. The results showed that the ultra-flexible liposomes markedly reduced the ciliotoxicity of sodium deoxycholate on nasal mucous. Thereby the ultra-flexible liposomes significantly enhanced the hypocalcemia effect of serum calcium after intranasal administration in rats. The ultra-flexible liposomes could be an effective carrier for intranasal delivery of the peptide and protein drugs.

Study on intraspecific genetic diversity in different plant populations of Pogostemon cabli / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the genetic polymorphism and intraspecific genetic differentiation of different populations of Pogostemon cablin, and find out the effective method to distinguish DNA fingerprint of different populations of P. cablin.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Five plant populations of P. cablin were analyzed by RAPD markers. PopGen 32 software for clustering analysis and calculating. Fourteen of the 80 random primers were tested to possess the stronger detecting effect of polymorphous character.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>A total of 84 bands was amplified by the 10 primers, among them 17 bands were monomorphic. 67 of them were polymorphic. The results indicated that the genetic variations existed within the different plant populations of the same species.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>It is feasible by RAPD technique with specifically primer to analyze the genetic diversity and identify 5 plant populations of P. cablin. RAPD technique has provided a new path for identification and classification of P. cablin genetic germplasm.</p>

Expression of interleukin -12 and correlation between interleukin -12 and eosinophils in nasal mucosa in allergic rhinitis mice / 中国耳鼻咽喉头颈外科

OBJECTIVE To observe the expres-sion of interleukin-12 and eosinophils in the nasal mu-cosa of allergic rhinitis mice. METHODS Thirty nine male BALB/c mice,6～8 weeks old,were randomly divided into three groups: control group,allergic rhinitis (AR)group, and Budesonide treatment group. Al-lergic rhinitis model in mice were established by using ovalbumin intraperitoneal immunization and nasal anti-gen challenge. The nasal mucosa obtained from mice of three groups were stained routinely by HE and im-munohistochemical method to observe the distribu-tion and expression of interleukin-12 and eosinophils. RESULTS The expression of eosinophils in the nasal mucosa of AR group was significantly higher than con-trol group(P

Effect of budesonide on eosinophils and histamine in nasal mucosa of guinea pig with allergic rhinitis / 中国临床药理学与治疗学

AIM: To build an allergic rhinitis model to evaluate the effect of budesonide on the eosinophils and histamine in nasal mucosa in allergic rhinitis guinea pig.METHODS: 33 guinea pigs were randomly divided into three groups: natural controlled group,allergic rhinitis(AR) group and budesonide treatment group.Allergic rhinitis model in guinea pigs were built by using toluene-2,4-disocyanate(TDI) nasal immunization and challenge.The indexes of clinical symptoms,pathomorphological diagnosis and content of histamine in mucosa were used to evaluate the potency of budesonide when used to treat allergic rhinitis.RESULTS: The expression of eosinophils and the content of histamine in nasal mucosa in AR group both were significantly higher than that of in natural controlled group(respectively,P(0.05)).CONCLUSION: Budesonide could effectively reduce the expression of eosinophils and content of histamine in nasal mucosa,but it is invalid in releasing the symptoms of AR in guinea pig.The reason of this phenomenon may be concerned with the method of model building.