Efficacy and safety of acupuncture for polycystic ovary syndrome: An overview of systematic reviews / 中西医结合学报

BACKGROUND@#Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the primary cause of anovulatory infertility, bringing serious harm to women's physical and mental health. Acupuncture may be an effective treatment for PCOS. However, systematic reviews (SRs) on the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for PCOS have reported inconsistent results, and the quality of these studies has not been adequately assessed.@*OBJECTIVE@#To summarize and evaluate the current evidence on the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for PCOS, as well as to assess the quality and risks of bias of the available SRs.@*SEARCH STRATEGY@#Nine electronic databases (Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, Chongqing VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, and China Biology Medicine disc) were searched from their establishment to July 27, 2022. Based on the principle of combining subject words with text words, the search strategy was constructed around search terms for "acupuncture," "polycystic ovary syndrome," and "systematic review."@*INCLUSION CRITERIA@#SRs of randomized controlled trials that explored the efficacy and (or) safety of acupuncture for treating patients with PCOS were included.@*DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS@#Two authors independently extracted study data according to a predesigned form. Tools for evaluating the methodological quality, risk of bias, reporting quality, and confidence in study outcomes, including A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2), Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews (ROBIS), Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses for Acupuncture (PRISMA-A), and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE), were used to score the included SRs.@*RESULTS@#A total of 885 studies were retrieved, and 11 eligible SRs were finally included in this review. The methodological quality of 2 SRs (18.18%) was low, while the other 9 SRs (81.82%) were scored as extremely low. Four SRs (36.36%) were considered to be of low risk of bias. As for reporting quality, the reporting completeness of 9 SRs (81.82%) was more than 70%. Concerning the confidence in study results, 2 study results were considered to have a high quality of evidence (3.13%), 14 (21.88%) a "moderate" quality, 28 (43.75%) a "low" quality, and 20 (31.24%) considered a "very low" quality. Descriptive analyses suggested that combining acupuncture with other medicines can effectively improve the clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) and ovulation rate, and reduce luteinizing hormone/follicle-stimulating hormone ratio, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and body mass index (BMI). When compared with medicine alone, acupuncture alone also can improve CPR. Further, when compared with no intervention, acupuncture had a better effect in promoting the recovery of menstrual cycle and reducing BMI. Acupuncture was reported to cause no adverse events or some adverse events without serious harm.@*CONCLUSION@#The efficacy and safety of acupuncture for PCOS remains uncertain due to the limitations and inconsistencies of current evidence. More high-quality studies are needed to support the use of acupuncture in PCOS.

Effect of p-coumaric acid on olfactory bulbectomy induced depression-like behaviors and its AMPA receptor mechanism in mice / 中国药理学通报

Aim To investigated the effect of p-CA on depression-like behaviors of mice of olfactory bulbectomy and its possible mechanism. Methods The olfactory bulbectomy (OBX) model of mice was established by an operation of olfactory bulbectomy. The behaviors of the mice were detected by the forced swimming test and the tail suspension test. Results The depression-like behavior in the forced swimming and tail suspension test and the in the open field test significantly increased in OBX mice; however, p-CA improved the depres- sion-like behavior in the forced swimming and tail sus pension test and the hyper-locomotor activity in open field test in OBX mice. Moreover, treatment with AMPA receptor antagonist NBQX blocked this improving effect of p-CA. While, treatment with AMPA receptor agonist CX546 enhanced this improving effect of p-CA. Conclusions P-CA improves depression-like behaviors of OBX mice, and AMPA receptors may mediate this effect.

Metabolism alternation of schisandra chinensis in carbon tetrachloride-intoxicated rats and patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

OBJECTIVE To study the pharmacokinetics change of schisandra chinensis under the pathological condition of liver dysfunction for safe and rational use of herbal medicines. METHODS The metabolism of four effective lignans from schisandra chinensis(SC), schisandrin,schisantherin A, deoxyshisandrin and γ-schisandrin was studied using microsomes from patients with advanced hepato-cellular carcinoma. In situ intestinal and hepatic perfusions were conducted to clarify the contributions from impairments of gut and liver on the pharmacokinetics of the four schisandra lignans in CCl4-intoxi-cated rats.The metabolism in rat and human liver microsomes and transport in Caco-2 monolayer cell model were studied to reveal the key factors for the in vivo disposition of the four lignans. RESULTS When SC alcoholic extract was orally administrated to CCl4-intoxicated rat for a short term (4 d), the pharmacokinetics of four active SC lignans was significantly changed while its hepatoprotective effect was not obviously observed.The plasma concentrations of the four schisandra lignans were dramatical-ly elevated compared with the control.The Cmax,AUC and MRT were all increased or prolonged signif-icantly while parameter CLz/F was obviously reduced in rat pretreated with CCl4. In hepatic perfusion study and liver microsomes incubation,it was found that the hepatic metabolism of the four lignans was markedly decreased mainly due to the activity reduction of multiple CYP450 isoenzymes involved the metabolism, which, eventually, might lead to the alternation of their pharmacokinetic profiles in CCl4-intoxicated rats or patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. CONCLUSION The pharmacoki-netic studies of SC components in pathological situation of liver dysfunction are expected to provide useful data for rational and safe application of SC preparations in clinic or further pharmacological and toxicological research.

Effect of CCL19/CCR7 on the central nervous system function / 国际药学研究杂志

The chemokine CCL19 and its receptor CCR7 are widely expressed in the body by several types of cells,including neutrophils,macrophages and glial cells.The CCL19/CCR7 signaling pathway participates in the process of inflammation,homing of lymphocytes as well as the physiological function.Recently,more and more attention has been focused on the role of CCL19/CCR7 in the nervous system and related diseases such as multiple sclerosis and cerebral ischemia.However,the effect of CCL19/CCR7 on the central nervous system(CNS)is not clear.This paper reviews the relations of CCL19/CCR7 to the CNS,in hope of sheding light on the significance of CCL19/CCR7 for the nervous system.

Salvianolic acid A alleviate the brain damage in rats after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion through Nrf2/HO-1 pathway / 药学学报

The aim of present study is to investigate the protective effects and mechanism of salvianolic acid A (SAA) on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats. The model was established with middle cerebral artery occlusion and reperfusion (MCAO/R) with ischemia for 1.5 h and reperfusion for 24 h in adult male SD rats. After the behavior assessment, TTC assay was used to calculate the infarct volume of rat brain; the distribution of Nrf2 in nuclear and cytoplasm and expression of HO-1 were detected by Western blot. The PC12 cells injury model was established with oxygen-glucose deprivation for 6 h and reintroduction for 24 h. Cell viability was determined with MTT assay, and the expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 were detected through immunofluorescence staining. The mechanisms were investigated in PC12 cells with Nrf2 knocking down by siRNA. SAA (10 and 20 mg·kg-1) significantly reduced the neuronal damage in MCAO/R model, and SAA (0.5 and 5 μmol·L-1) increased cell viability in PC12 cells injury model. Meanwhile, the nuclear translocation of Nrf-2 and the expression of HO-1 were increased in PC12 cell and rats brain. SAA exhibited anti-cerebral ischemia-reperfusion effects. The mechanism may be related to activation of Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway, which promotes the synthesis and nuclear translocation of Nrf2 to enhance the expression of the antioxidant protein HO-1.