Research progress on Astragalus active ingredient in treatment of hepatic fibrosis based on cell signaling pathway / 中国药理学通报

Hepatic fibrosis is present in most chronic liver disease processes, and there are no ideal anti-fibrotic drugs available. Astragalus has a long history of medicinal use, and its anti-fibrotic effects have been confirmed by modern studies. In this study we have searched the literature to identify the signaling pathways and mechanisms of action of Astragalus and its active ingredients on hepatic fibrosis in recent years, so as to provide the basis and ideas for the development of anti-fibrotic drugs and mechanisms of Astragalus. It is showed that the active ingredients of Astragalus act through regulating p38MAPK, TGF-pl/Smads,NF-

Mechanism of Gynostemma pentaphyllum in treatment of metabolism associated fatty liver disease based on network pharmacology and molecular docking / 中国中药杂志

The present study explored the mechanism of action of Gynostemma pentaphyllum in the treatment of metabolism associa-ted fatty liver disease(MAFLD) by network pharmacology and molecular docking. The main active components and action targets of G. pentaphyllum were collected from TCMSP. Disease-related targets were obtained from GeneCards, OMIM and TTD, and the common targets of the three databases were screened out, which were converted to the genes with standard names by UniProt. The drug-disease common target genes were obtained through Venn tool and uploaded to STRING for the construction of the protein-protein interaction(PPI) network. Cytoscape was used to construct and analyze the drug-active component-common target-disease network. The gene ontology(GO) analysis and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes(KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were performed on the common targets by DAVID. Pymol was adopted to perform molecular docking of active components and the common targets and predict their binding ability. Twenty-four active components(such as gypenosides, quercetin and sitosterol) of G. pentaphyllum were screened out. Ninety-two targets were obtained and 54 common targets were identified. Key targets included TNF, IL6, PTGS2, TP53, CCL2 and VEGFA. GO analysis on biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components and KEGG pathway analysis were performed, and the results indicated that NF-κB, PI3 K-Akt, TNF and HIF-1 signaling pathways were mainly involved. Molecular docking results showed that gypenosides and quercetin had a strong binding ability to TNF, IL6 and PTGS2. The findings of this study revealed that the therapeutic efficacy of G. pentaphyllum on MAFLD might be achieved by resisting inflammation and oxidative stress and improving insulin resistance, providing ideas and a theoretical basis for the development and application of G. pentaphyllum in the treatment of MAFLD.

Effect observation of a kind of assistant cleaner for oral care in clinical application / 中国医学装备

Objective: To explore the clinical effect of a kind of assistant cleaner for oral care of severe patients who couldn't eat through mouth. Methods: 80 patients who couldn't eat through mouth were divided into observation group (n=40 cases) and control group (n=40 cases). The oral cavity of patients of observation group were cleaned by using self-made assistant cleaner before oral care, and then cotton ball with physiological saline (NS) were used to scrub their oral cavity. While the patients of control group were directly scrubbed by using cotton ball with NS. The operation time and oral clean situation of the two groups were observed and recorded. Results: The preparing time before oral care of observation group was significantly longer than that of control group (t=4.282, P<0.05), while the operation time of oral care and total time of observation group was significantly shorter than that of control group (t=31.3, P<0.05). The method of observation group could more effectively clean oral peculiar smell, eliminate massive furred tongue and reduce residual sputum scab than that of control group. And it could significantly reduced complication of oral cavity than that of control group (t=32.111, P<0.05). Conclusion: The application of assistant cleaner before oral care not only can effectively improve oral hygiene condition for severe patients, but also can shorten the time of oral care of nurses for these patients and reduce the operation time of stoop. Therefore, it is a new method with advantage of saving time and saving labour.