Interleukin-27 affects IFN-gamma and IL-4 activities in children with asthma / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the effect of interleukin (IL)-27 on INF and IL-4 activities in children with asthma.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The levels of IFN-gamma and IL-4 in culture supernatants of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 23 asthmatic children were measured using ELISA. PBMCs were cultured with recombinant IL-27 (5 ng/mL or 0.5 ng/mL) for 12 hrs in vitro.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>IFN-gamma levels in both 5 ng/mL and 0.5 ng/mL IL-27 treatment groups (85.9+/-12.2 and 8.9+/-2.3 microg/L, respectively) increased compared with those in the cytokine stimulated control group (P<0.01, P<0.05 respectively). The group treated with 5 ng/mL IL-27 had decreased significantly IL-4 levels compared with the cytokine stimulated control group (15.0+/-1.9 microg/L vs 77.0+/-15.6 microg/L; P<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>IL-27 may be involved in the pathogenesis of asthma. It may affect Th1/Th2 cell activities and might be a new option for the treatment of asthma.</p>

Observation on therapeutic effect of acupuncture at Fengchi (GB 20) at different stages on pseudobulbar palsy / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the therapeutic effect of acupuncture at different stages on pseudobulbar palsy. Methods Two hundred and forty cases of pseudobulbar palsy were divided into 4 groups according to different courses of disease, i.e. group I, the course within 10 days; group II, between 10-30 days; group III, between 1-3 months; group IV, between 3-6 months. They were treated with acupuncture at Fengchi (GB 20) for 2 courses, and then their therapeutic effects were ohserved.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The effective rate was 100.0% in the group I, 96.7% in the group II, 83.3% in the group III and 76.7% in the group IV, with a significant difference among the 4 groups (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Acupuncture at Fengchi (GB 20) at any stage has therapeutic effect on pseudohulbar paisy, hut the earlier treatments, the better the therapeutic effects.</p>

Proceedings of new drug delivery systems and their applications in the traditional Chinese drugs / 中国中药杂志

By referred to a lot of data, some new drug delivery systems(DDSs) including the Sustained and Controlled DDS, the Targeted DDS, the Transdermal DDS, the Bioadhensive DDS, the PowderJect DDS and the Self-Emulsifying DDS and their applications in TCD since 2000, will be summarized and some latest DDSs in the world including drug-eluting stents, gene therapy carrier system, biological chip, biomolecular motor-powered nanodevice and nanotrap will be also introduced in this paper. The objective of this paper is to introduce the new DDSs proceedings of and their applications in the Traditional Chinese Drugs(TCDs) and to provide some references for the pharmaceutics of TCD. For several recent years, the great success have been achieved in studying the new DDS application in the change of preparation of TCD by the investigators at home, but there is a large difference between at home and at board. So it is necessary to make a greater advance. During the modernization of TCD, there is an effective way that the new drug delivery systems(DDSs) will be applied in the change of the preparation of TCD.