[Methods and key points of literature collation and mining of classic prescriptions in ethnic medicine].

The systematic collation and mining of ethnic medicine literature is the key to the screening and textual research of classic prescriptions. This study focused on the textual research of such key issues as the source of prescriptions, the translation of minority languages into Chinese characters and their corresponding medical terms, the original plants of drugs, and the standard dosage. It is believed that the methods and experience of textual research of classic prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) can be utilized by the ethnic medicine. At the same time, the prominent problems unique to ethnic medicine cannot be neglected.(1)Attention should be paid to extraterritorial traditional medical literature in the textual research of the source of prescriptions. For instance, Indian medical literature is the source of many classic prescriptions in Tibetan medicine, Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine the source of those in Uygur and Hui medicine, and ancient Indian Buddhist classics the source of those in Dai medicine.(2)The translation and comparison of medical terms in different language systems requires the cooperation of linguists, historians, and medical experts, the combination of historical research, historical linguistics and clinical research methods, and the use of cross-language comparison. In recent years, the related research achievements like multiple translated and annotated versions of classical literature in ethnic medicine and their respective terminology standards have been constantly emerging.(3)In textual research of the original plants of drugs, the following two points deserve attention: one is that the same drug is used in different ethnic medical systems, but there are differences in the understanding of drug properties and active parts; the other is that the original plants of the same drug vary in different ethnic medical systems.(4)The derivation of some classic prescriptions in ethnic medicine from foreign classics results in the difference among measurement systems. In addition, the detailed dosage fails to be covered in some ethnic literature, so the dosage standard should be determined depending on clinical practice and expert consensus.

Comparative analysis of type 2 diabetes-associated gut microbiota between Han and Mongolian people.

Due to the different rates of diabetes in different ethnic groups and the structural differences in intestinal microbiota, this study evaluated the changes in diabetes-related intestinal microbiota in two ethnic groups. Fifty-six stool samples were collected from subjects from the Han and Mongolian ethnic groups in China, including participants without diabetes (non-diabetic, ND) and with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The 16S rDNA gene V3 + V4 area was extracted from microbiota, amplified by PCR, and used to perform high-throughput sequencing and screen differential microbiota associated with ethnicity. The results showed that there were 44 T2D-related bacterial markers in the Han subjects, of which Flavonifractor, Alistipes, Prevotella, Oscillibacter, Clostridium XlVa, and Lachnospiracea_incertae_sedis were most closely related to diabetes. There were 20 T2D-related bacterial markers in the Mongolian subjects, of which Fastidiosipila and Barnesiella were most closely related to diabetes. The common markers of T2D bacteria in the two ethnic groups were Papillibacter and Bifidobacterium. There were 17 metabolic pathways with significant differences between the ND and T2D groups in the Han group, and 29 metabolic pathways in the Mongolian group. The glutamatergic metabolic pathway was the only common metabolic pathway in two ethnic groups. The composition and function of diabetes-related bacteria were significantly different among the different ethnic groups, which suggested that the influence of ethnic differences should be fully considered when studying the association between diabetes and bacteria. In addition, the common bacterial markers found in diabetic patients of different ethnic groups in this study can be used as potential targets to study the pathogenesis and treatment of diabetes.

Methods and key points of literature collation and mining of classic prescriptions in ethnic medicine / 中国中药杂志

The systematic collation and mining of ethnic medicine literature is the key to the screening and textual research of classic prescriptions. This study focused on the textual research of such key issues as the source of prescriptions, the translation of minority languages into Chinese characters and their corresponding medical terms, the original plants of drugs, and the standard dosage. It is believed that the methods and experience of textual research of classic prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) can be utilized by the ethnic medicine. At the same time, the prominent problems unique to ethnic medicine cannot be neglected.(1)Attention should be paid to extraterritorial traditional medical literature in the textual research of the source of prescriptions. For instance, Indian medical literature is the source of many classic prescriptions in Tibetan medicine, Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine the source of those in Uygur and Hui medicine, and ancient Indian Buddhist classics the source of those in Dai medicine.(2)The translation and comparison of medical terms in different language systems requires the cooperation of linguists, historians, and medical experts, the combination of historical research, historical linguistics and clinical research methods, and the use of cross-language comparison. In recent years, the related research achievements like multiple translated and annotated versions of classical literature in ethnic medicine and their respective terminology standards have been constantly emerging.(3)In textual research of the original plants of drugs, the following two points deserve attention: one is that the same drug is used in different ethnic medical systems, but there are differences in the understanding of drug properties and active parts; the other is that the original plants of the same drug vary in different ethnic medical systems.(4)The derivation of some classic prescriptions in ethnic medicine from foreign classics results in the difference among measurement systems. In addition, the detailed dosage fails to be covered in some ethnic literature, so the dosage standard should be determined depending on clinical practice and expert consensus.

Distribution Characteristics of Spermophilus dauricus in Manchuria City in China in 2015 through '3S' Technology.

Plague is a virulent infectious disease in China. In this study, '3S' technology was used to perform spatial autocorrelation analysis and spatial interpolation analysis for Spermophilus dauricus (S. Dauricus, a species of ground squirrel) captured in Manchuria City in 2015. The results were visually inspected. During the two-month (May to July) plague surveillance in 2015, 198 S. dauricus individuals were captured in the study area in Manchuria City (48 monitoring areas) by using a day-by-day catching method. Spatial autocorrelation was conducted using the ArcGIS software, and the following significantly different results were obtained: Moran's I=0.228472, Z-score=2.889126, and P<0.05. Thus, a spatial aggregation was observed. In 2015, the distribution of S. dauricus diminished from west to east and from north to south of Manchuria. Geo Detector software was used to analyze the habitat factors affecting the spatial distribution of S. dauricus. This highly clustered species mainly exists in suburban communities, construction sites, and areas surrounding factories. In future studies, plague surveillances should be performed in areas around Manchuria and Zhalainuoer.

[Research progress in roles of high-risk human papillomavirus E2 protein].

High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is the principal cause of various cancers including cervical cancer, anal cancer, vulvar cancer, and some head and neck cancers. In the viral life cycle, by interacting with both viral and host DNA and proteins, the HPV E2 protein plays a pivotal role in viral transcriptional regulation and DNA replication, and it is also associated with modification of various cellular processes, including host gene transcription, RNA processing, apoptosis, ubiquitination, and intracellular trafficking, to create a convenient environment for a replicative cycle of the virus and contribute to the HPV pathogenesis. Elucidating the roles of E2 protein throughout the viral life cycle will improve our understanding of the viral life cycle and pathogenesis and help us identify novel antiviral agents with therapeutic potential. This article reviews the research progress in the structure, roles, and activity of high-risk HPV E2 protein, particularly that of HPV-16.

Human papillomavirus genotype distribution in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grades 1 or worse among 4215 Chinese women in a population-based study.

PURPOSE: To estimate the burden of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical disease among sexually active women in a sample of Chinese women. METHODS: A multicenter, population-based study was conducted between May 2006 and April 2007. A total of 4215 sexually active women aged 17-54 years were surveyed from five geographical sites representing both urban and rural areas: Beijing, Shanghai, Shanxi, Henan and Xinjiang. Women were referred for colposcopy on the basis of results of Pap testing and HPV screening. HPV genotyping of the CIN1+ specimens was performed with INNO-LiPA. Attribution of HPV types to lesions was estimated using a fractional contribution approach. RESULTS: 13.3% of the women (559/4215) were referred for colposcopy; 4.3% (183/4215) of these were diagnosed with CIN1+. Of the latter, 88.5% (162/183) were typed and 94.4% (153/162) were HPV-positive. HPV16 was the most prevalent type in lesions in both urban and rural settings. Combined, HPV16 and 18 were attributable to 71.4% of HPV-positive CIN2+ lesions. In addition, HPV31, 33, 52 and 58 were prevalent in CIN1+ lesions, with HPV33, 52, and 58 combined accounting for 24.1% CIN2+ lesions. Though prevalent, HPV31 always occurred as a co-infection with another HPV type and therefore was attributed minimal causality. CONCLUSIONS: HPV16 and 18 are associated with the majority of cervical lesions in Chinese women from which this population-based sample was drawn. In addition, other HPV types, such as 33, 52, and 58, also play an important role in cervical disease.

Prevalence of type-specific human papillomavirus and pap results in Chinese women: a multi-center, population-based cross-sectional study.

PURPOSE: To estimate the burden of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among sexually active women in China. METHODS: We conducted a multi-center, population-based study between May 2006 and April 2007. A total of 4,215 women aged 17-54 years were surveyed from five geographical sites: Beijing, Shanghai, Shanxi, Henan, and Xinjiang. Direct endocervical exfoliated cells were collected from consenting participants for Sure Path liquid-based cytology (BD) and HPV testing. HPV testing was performed with Hybrid Capture II (Qiagen) with high-risk and low-risk probes, and Linear Array (Roche) was utilized for HPV genotyping. RESULTS: Approximately 11 % of the study population had a cytological abnormality (ASCUS or worse). HPV prevalence in the entire study population was 14.3 % (age-standardized to the world standard female population 14.5 %). The most prevalent types found were HPV16 (2.9 %), HPV52 (1.7 %), HPV58 (1.5 %), HPV33 (1 %), and HPV18 (0.8 %). Patterns of HPV prevalence differed by age, geographic region, and cytology findings. However, HPV16 was predominant among all grades of cytological abnormalities for all areas. CONCLUSIONS: Although HPV18 appeared to be less frequent among population-based samples of China, given the high prevalence of HPV 16 and 18 in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) or worse pap abnormalities, prophylactic HPV16/18 vaccines should substantially reduce the burden of cervical cancer in China.

Detection of human papillomavirus genotypes associated with mucopurulent cervicitis and cervical cancer in Changchun, China.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and genotype distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among Chinese patients with mucopurulent cervicitis (MPC) or cervical cancer (CC). METHODS: In total, 191 cases of CC (n=66), acute MPC (n=84), and healthy cervix controls (n=41) were initially included; samples were collected between May 21, 2008, and October 9, 2011. Cervical specimens were screened for HPV using a nested polymerase chain reaction assay and DNA sequencing. RESULTS: Overall prevalence of HPV infection was 20.0% in the control group, 53.3% in the MPC group, and 93.8% in the CC group. The predominant genotype detected in all 3 groups was the oncogenic variant HPV 16 (87.7%, 18.7%, and 10.0% in the CC, MPC and control specimens, respectively). The second most frequent genotype among patients with MPC was HPV 58. This variant is also oncogenic and was detected at a higher rate in the MPC group (9.3%) than in the control (2.5%) and CC (1.5%) groups. CONCLUSION: Infection with HPV was prevalent among Chinese women with MPC or CC. Furthermore, the high prevalence of oncogenic genotypes observed among HPV-positive patients with MPC suggests that this group is at increased risk of developing CC.

Discrimination of cinnamon bark and cinnamon twig samples sourced from various countries using HPLC-based fingerprint analysis.

A simple and efficient HPLC method was developed to evaluate the quality of traditional herbal medicines made from cinnamon bark (CB) and cinnamon twig (CT). Seven major bioactive ingredients in 56 samples (24 CB and 32 CT) collected from China, Vietnam, and Indonesia were separated and quantified. The method was validated following the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. A fingerprint analysis method to discriminate between CB and CT using major component content levels was developed. The discrimination process included the use of similarity indices and partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Classification accuracy by the PLS-DA method was about 98%. The pattern analysis method was specific and could be readily used for the comprehensive evaluation of cinnamon samples. Therefore, an HPLC fingerprint in combination with pattern analysis provides a very flexible and reliable method for quality assessment of herbal drugs.

Distribution of human papillomavirus genotypes in archival cervical lesions in eastern inner Mongolian autonomous region, China.

INTRODUCTION: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main etiologic factor for cervical cancer (CC). To investigate the prevalence of HPV types in archival CC and its precursors collected form Tongliao area, which is located in the east of Inner Mongolian autonomous region, China, and compare the genotype distribution of HPV in cervical lesions between Han Chinese and Mongolian. METHODS: The infections of HPV in a total of 175 cases of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples, including 71 low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), 27 high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL), and 77 CC were detected by the combination of consensus primers nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and type-specific primers nested PCR. RESULTS: Overall, HPV prevalence was 93.5% in CC, 92.6% in HSIL, and 63.4% in LSIL. Human papillomavirus 16 was the most predominant HPV type in all cervical lesions, detected in 83.1% of CC, 77.8% of HSIL, and 33.8% of LSIL. Human papillomavirus 45 was the second most predominant HPV type in CC (16.9%) and HSIL (11.1%). Human papillomavirus 33 was the second most predominant HPV type in LSIL (8.5%). Human papillomavirus 18, equal with HPV 45, was the second most common type in Mongolian CC (15.6%), whereas in Han Chinese specimens, no HPV 18 was found. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of HPV 45 in CC and HSIL in Tongliao area were relatively higher than other regions of China. Comparing the distribution of HPV types in Han Chinese and Mongolian, the prevalence of HPV 18 in CC from Mongolian was significantly higher than that in Han Chinese.

Profile of physical status and gene variation of human papillomavirus 58 genome in cervical cancer.

Epidemiological studies have shown that human papillomavirus 58 (HPV 58) is found at a relatively high frequency in east Asia and some regions of Central and South America. To investigate the physical status of HPV 58 and analyse sequence variations of HPV 58 in cervical cancer patients, the HPV 58 genome in 37 HPV 58-positive cervical cancer specimens collected from China were investigated by a mapping analysis based on nested PCR and nucleotide sequencing. A pure integrated genome was found in 78.4 % (29/37) of specimens, which is much higher than that found in previous studies. Multiple disruptions were first found among the integrated HPV 58 genomes in 51.7 % (15/29) of specimens. Among the 7824 bp of the HPV 58 genome, 119 (1.52 %) nucleotide positions were found to be variable, and 45 of them lead to amino acid changes. Phylogenetic analyses, based on partial L1 sequences of 14 variants isolated in previous studies and this study, show that two main groups were observed in HPV 58 variants, the prototype or prototype-like group and the non-prototype-like group.

Evaluation of high-risk human papillomaviruses type distribution in cervical cancer in Sichuan province of China.

BACKGROUND: Infection with high-risk human papillomavirus is an important factor associated with cervical cancer, and the distribution of HPV types varies greatly worldwide. Determination of type-specific HPV prevalence constitutes an important step towards the development of vaccines for the prevention of cervical cancer. METHODS: The human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes in 190 cervical cancer specimens taken from the Sichuan province, the most populous province of Southwest China, were detected by a combination of MY09/11 consensus primers PCR (MY09/11 PCR), type-specific primers one-step PCR (One-step TS PCR) and E6/E7 gene type-specific primers nested PCR (Nested TS PCR). The prevalence and distribution of HPV in patients with cervical cancer, especially for HPV types 16, 18, 52, 58 and 59, suspected to be most common in certain parts of China, was investigated. RESULTS: The HPV infection rates detected by MY09/11 PCR, One-step TS PCR and Nested TS PCR were 159 (83.7%), 145 (76.3%) and 172 (90.5%), respectively. The overall HPV prevalence was 93.2% (177/190). The positive specimens for HPV16, 18, 52, 58 and 59 detected by One-step TS-PCR were 111 (58.4%), 14 (7.4%), 6 (3.2%), 13 (6.8%) and 4 (2.1%), respectively. By Nested TS-PCR analysis, the detection rates of HPV16, 52, 58 and 59 were increased to 140 (73.7%), 30 (15.8%), 37 (19.5%) and 25 (13.2%), while only 4 (2.1%) additional specimens were found to be infected with HPV18. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrate that, besides HPV 16, which was found to be the most prevalent type, HPV types 58, 52 and 59 are more prevalent than HPV18 in women with cervical cancer in the Sichuan area of China.

HPV prevalence, E6 sequence variation and physical state of HPV16 isolates from patients with cervical cancer in Sichuan, China.

OBJECTIVES: Infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (hr-HPV) is an important factor associated with cervical cancer. The genetic mutation of HPV16 E6 and integration of HPV16 DNA in the cervical carcinoma tissues are considered important genetic changes in cervical lesion progression. But the studies of hr-HPV epidemiology are relatively less in the area of Sichuan, China. Therefore, we investigated the prevalence of 9 high-risk subtypes and analyzed the genetic mutation characteristic of HPV16 E6 and physical state of HPV16 DNA. METHODS: The fragments of L1 and E6 genes were amplified by PCR or nested PCR and then directly sequenced. Further, the multiplex PCR for HPV16 E2 and E6 genes was performed for detection of integration. RESULTS: HPV16, 58 and 18 were prominent, accounting for 78.6%, 20.0% and 9.7%, respectively in 145 isolates. E6 variants revealed that the European (EP) prototype and East Asia (EA) strain were 26 (23.0%) and 34 (30.1%), respectively. Furthermore, there were 14 base substitutions in E6 regions of the study group, of which 12 resulted in amino acid changes and the rest was silent mutation. Significantly, the 240G substitution exactly located the P53 degradation site. Overall, 8 of 114 (7.0%) isolates only contained integrated HPV16 DNA, 43 (37.7%) only contained episomal DNA and 63 (55.3%) contained both integrated and episomal DNA. The proportion of disruption of an intact E2 gene in the patients with cervical cancer is much lower than that in the previous studies. CONCLUSIONS: HPV16, 58 and 18 were mainly prevailing subtypes in patients with cervical cancer from Sichuan areas, China and EP/EA strains were predominant in these areas. Some mutations of E6 gene, which lead to the amino acid changes, may be more potentially carcinogenic and the proportion of disruption of an intact E2 gene is much lower.