A follow-up study on newer anti-epileptic drugs as add-on and monotherapy for partial epilepsy in China / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Recently, new anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) have been more frequently selected to treat epilepsy. In the present study, we evaluated the dynamic changes of efficacy and safety of three newer AEDs for treating partial epilepsy in China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Patients were collected sequentially and were divided into three groups which accepted oxcarbazepine (OXC), lamotrigine (LTG) or topiramate (TPM) therapy. Each group included monotherapy and add-on therapy subgroups. We followed all patients for one year and recorded the indexes of efficacy and safety in detail.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 909 patients finished the follow-up observation. No significant difference was found in proportion of patients with > or = 50% reduction, > or = 75% reduction and 100% seizure reduction in the LTG and OXC groups between the first and the second six months. In the TPM group there was a statistical difference between the first and the second six months in proportion of patients with > or = 50% reduction (P = 0.002), > or = 75% reduction (P < 0.0001) and 100% seizure reduction (P = 0.009) in the monotherapy subgroup, and about > or = 75% reduction and 100% seizure reduction in the add-on therapy subgroup (P < 0.0001). The efficacy between the add-on and monotherapy subgroups showed a statistical difference. The safety of the three newer AEDs was good.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The three newer AEDs all showed good efficacy and tolerability for partial epilepsy. And the efficacy can be maintained for at least one year.</p>

Effect of synapsin-Ⅰ antisense oligonucleotide on neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells in vitro / 中华神经科杂志

Objective To investigate the role of synapsin-I in the differentiation of the embryonic stem cells (ESC) into the neuron,and to seek a controllable point for the ESC neural differentiation in vitro.Methods Neural differentiation of ESC was induced with the "five step approach",synapsin-I antisense oligonucleotides (AS ONs) was employed to inhibit the synapsin-I expression at different stages. At different time points,morphology,differentiation efficiency and neural specific markers were compared among the normal group and the transfected groups.A tumor cell line called PC12 cell was compared with the ESC at the same time.Results After the synapsin-I AS ONs were used in ESC differentiation, considerable decreases of neurite growth rate and neural precursor cells (nestin (+)) percentage were observed at Stage 3(68.5%?4.2% vs 76.2%?5.1% and 75.8%?4.9%,P