Animal DNA Typing and Its Research Progress in Forensic Medicine / 法医学杂志

With the advance of molecular biology, DNA analysis technology has been widely applied in forensic science. Non-human DNA analysis can be used in some special cases and has unique forensic value to provide investigation clues and trial basis. Animal DNA typing plays a more prominent role in the detection of all kinds of non-human DNA related cases and is the main content of forensic non-human DNA analysis. This paper reviews the development history, present situation, advantages and disadvantages of animal DNA typing according to its technology, characteristic, challenges facing forensic science application scenarios, and also its future development.

The effect of intravesical hyaluronic acid therapy on urodynamic and clinical outcomes among women with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: Treatment of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is often delayed because of a lack of objective data during diagnosis. This study was conducted to determine the clinical validity of using urodynamic studies to investigate the effect of intravesical hyaluronic acid (HA) treatment among women with IC/BPS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty patients with IC/BPS undergoing 6-month intravesical instillation of HA were recruited. Pretreatment evaluation involved a urinalysis and urinary culture, urinary cytology, a 3-day voiding diary, and cystoscopy with hydrodistention of the bladder. Urodynamic study was performed before and after HA treatment. Symptomatic changes were assessed using a questionnaire covering lower urinary tract symptoms, the O'Leary-Sant symptom index and problem indexes (ICSI and ICPI), and the visual analog scale for pain and urgency. Patient demographics, urinary symptoms, ICSI/ICPI scores, pain and urgency scores, and urodynamic results before and after HA treatment were compared. RESULTS: Urinary frequency, nocturia, urgency, pelvic pain, bladder capacity, ICSI, and ICPI were significantly improved after HA treatment. Comparing urodynamic parameters, the volumes at first desire to void (FDV) and maximum cystometric capacity were significantly increased after HA treatment. Before HA treatment, a negative correlation existed between the ICSI and ICPI and urodynamic parameters, including maximum flow rate and bladder capacity, but there were no significant correlations after treatment. Before HA treatment, a negative correlation was discovered between nocturia and FDV. However, after HA treatment, there were no significant correlations between urinary symptoms and urodynamic parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the improvement of urinary symptoms of IC/BPS after HA treatment is associated with increased FDV and maximum cystometric capacity. The value of FDV and the frequency of nocturia after treatment may become useful objective indicators for prognosis of IC/BPS.

DNA Barcode Technology and Its Application Prospects in Forensic Medicine / 法医学杂志

Traditional species identification has gone through five stages -- morphology, cytology, biochemistry, immunology and molecular biology. At present, the use of DNA technology for species identification has become a research hotspot. In the use of DNA for species identification, the presentation and application of DNA barcode is of epoch-making significance. With the successful application of new technology in species identification, forensic species identification has also made corresponding development, and is expected to play an important role in forensic related fields. This paper briefly describes the general situation and principles of DNA barcode technology as well as its advantages and limitations when applied to biological classification, and discusses the future significance and feasibility of DNA barcode technology in forensic applications, in order to provide new ideas for future forensic identification.

Hsp90ß inhibitors prevent GLT-1 degradation but have no beneficial efficacy on absence epilepsy.

The loss of glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) is associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). A recent study reported that Hsp90ß interacted with GLT-1 and recruited it to 20S proteasome for degradation. Therefore, inhibiting Hsp90ß may be a new strategy for treating epilepsy. So far, no studies have shown whether the inhibition of Hsp90ß had therapeutic effects on absence epilepsy. Using a model of absence epilepsy, we demonstrated that 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17AAG) and Ganetespib (STA9090) had no therapeutic effect. Although this is a negative result, it also has a meaningful exploration value for whether Hsp90 inhibitors have therapeutic effects on other epilepsy types.

Study on UPLC Fingerprints of Lianhua Qingwen Capsules / 中国中医药信息杂志

Objective To study and establish the UPLC fingerprints of Lianhua Qingwen Capsules. Methods The samples were separated with a Waters ACQUITY UPLC HSS T3 column (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.8 μm) by linear gradient elution. The wavelength for detection was set at 239 nm; mobile phase was set at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min;the column temperature was set at 30 ℃. Results UPLC fingerprints of Lianhua Qingwen Capsules were established with 32 common peaks. 9 of 32 common peaks were identified, including neochlorogenic acid (peak No.4, source from Lonicerae Japonicae Flos and Houttuyniae Herba), chlorogenic acid (peak No.6, source from Forsythiae Fructus, Lonicerae Japonicae Flos and Houttuyniae Herba), cryptochlorogenic acid (peak No.8, source from Lonicerae Japonicae Flos and Houttuyniae Herba), isoforsythiaside A (peak No.15, source from Forsythiae Fructus), forsythoside A (peak No.20, source from Forsythiae Fructus), quercitrin (peak No.23, source from Houttuyniae Herba), isochlorogenic acid C (peak No.24, source from Lonicerae Japonicae Flos), phillyrin (peak No.26, source from Forsythiae Fructus), glycyrrhizic acid (peak No.31, source from Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma). The similarities in 10 batches of Lianhua Qingwen Capsules samples were all above 0.96. Conclusion The method is with good precision, repeatability and stability, which can be used as a new means for the quality control of Lianhua Qingwen Capsules.

Finite element modeling of material property assignment based on CT gray value and its application in simulation of osteotomy for deformities / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore a new method for finite element modeling to achieve material property assignment based on in situ CT gray value in simulated osteotomies for deformities.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A CT scan dataset of the lower limb of a patient with extorsion deformity was obtained for three-dimensional reconstruction using Mimics software and preparing a solid model. In the CAD software, the parameters for osteotomy simulation were defined including the navigation axis, rotation angle and reference plane. The tibia model was imported to the FEA pre-processing software for meshing procedure and then exported to Mimics. All the segments of the tibia meshed model were assigned uneven material properties based on the relationship between CT gray values and material properties in the Mimics software. Finally, all the segments of the tibia model, reference axis and reference plane were assembled in the pre-processing software to form a full finite element model of a corrected tibia, which was submitted to resolver for biomechanical analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The tibia model established using our modeling method had inhomogeneous material properties based on CT gray values, and was available for finite element analysis for the simulation of osteotomy.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The proposed finite element modeling method, which retains the accuracy of the material property assignment based on CT gray value, can solve the reposition problem commonly seen in modeling via the routine method of property assignment and provides an efficient, flexible and accurate computational biomechanical analysis method for orthopedic surgery.</p>

Amphetamine inhibits the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-mediated responses by directly interacting with the receptor/channel complex.

Amphetamine (AMPH) induces behavioral sensitization and neurotoxicity primarily by enhancing the dopamine-mediated neurotransmission. However, the involvement of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor in AMPH-induced neuropathology is also known. Recent investigation has found that high concentration of dopamine could inhibit NMDA receptor-mediated responses by blocking the NMDA receptor channel. By virtue of the structure similarity between dopamine and AMPH, we determined whether d-AMPH and its analogs, l-AMPH and methamphetamine (MAMH), could affect the NMDA receptor-mediated [3H]N-[1-(2-thienyl)cyclohexyl] piperidine ([3H]TCP) binding in rat cortical membrane preparations and intracellular 45Ca2+ accumulation and cell death in the rat primary cortical cell cultures. AMPH concentration-dependently inhibited NMDA- and glycine-stimulated [3H]TCP binding and intracellular 45Ca2+ accumulation with two distinct potencies; a minor inhibition with high potency and a major inhibition with low potency. [3H]TCP binding suggested that the high-potency inhibition was produced by decreasing agonist-induced activation of the NMDA receptor channel. On the other hand, the low-potency inhibition was produced by competing with [3H]TCP binding in the NMDA receptor channel, like the action of noncompetitive antagonist of the NMDA receptor. However, AMPH analogs were less potent in inhibiting NMDA- and glycine-induced cultured cell death. Thus, this result indicates that AMPH could antagonize the NMDA receptor-mediated responses in vitro by two different mechanisms, probably, through directly interacting with two distinct sites on this receptor/channel complex.