Observations on the Efficacy of Fire Needling plus Moxibustion in Treating Prurigo Nodularis / 上海针灸杂志

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of fire needling plus moxibustion in treating prurigo nodularis. Methods Ninety patients with prurigo nodularis were randomly allocated to treatment and control groups, 45 cases. The treatment group received fire needling plus moxibustion and the control group, external application of halometasone ointment. Skin lesions and pruritus were scored in the two groups before and after treatment. The clinical therapeutic effects were compared between the two groups. Results There were statistically significant pre-/post-treatment differences in the skin lesion score and the pruritus score in the two groups (P<0.01,P<0.05). There were statistically significant post-treatment differences in the skin lesion score and the pruritus score between the treatment and control groups (P<0.01). The total efficacy rate was 81.8% in the treatment group and 60.5% in the control group; there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05).Conclusion Fire needling plus moxibustion is an effective way to treat prurigo nodularis.

The research on CDK4 andβ-Catenin expression and clinic significance in glioma / 实用肿瘤学杂志

Objective To study the expression of CDK4 andβ-Catenin and their relevance in glioma. Methods We used immunohistochemistry to detect the expression of CDK4 andβ-Catenin in forty-five glio-ma tissues and eight normal tissues.According to the classification standard of WHO in 2000 classify and grade the tissues.Results There were significant differences of CDK4 andβ-Catenin expressions between normal tis-sues and glioma tissues(P<0.01).The expression of CDK4 and β-Catenin had positive correlation with the pathological grades of glioma and histological type and increased(P <0.05).Furthermore,the expression of CDK4 was positively correlated with the expression ofβ-Catenin in glioma(r=0.52,P<0.01).Conclusion The increased expression of CDK4 andβ-Catenin may have correlation with malignant change of glioma and oc-curance of glioblastoma,and their combination is expected to become an important indicator in assessing malignant glioma.

Brain activity in using heuristic prototype to solve insightful problems.

When confronted with a real-world problem, heuristic knowledge and experience can guide the solution of a specific technical problem as the key step toward innovation. In particular, a heuristic prototype must be used correctly to cue the technical problem that exists in a particular situation. The present study selected an innovative paradigm and scientific innovation materials to investigate the neural basis of insight induced by heuristic prototypes using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The day prior to undergoing fMRI scanning, participants were asked to solve 42 difficult technical problems that scientists might have already encountered but were unknown to the participants. In the subsequent fMRI experiment, the same participants were randomly presented with 84 prototypes classified into two types: related prototypes (RPs), which were useful for solving previously encountered problems, and unrelated prototypes (UPs), which sometimes did not contribute to problem solving. While being scanned, participants were asked to assess whether a prototype is relevant to any of the technical problems. This study comprised two conditions: solving technical problems when presented with a related heuristic prototype and failing to solve technical problems using unrelated heuristic prototypes. The authors assumed that the regions significantly activated by the RP condition, compared with the UP condition, reflected brain activity related to the role of heuristic prototypes in scientific insight. fMRI data showed that the left dorsolateral prefrontal gyrus (left DLFPC, BA9) and the left angular gyrus (left AG, BA39) were more significantly activated when presented with RPs than with UPs. The results suggest that the DLPFC may be involved in the automatic retrieval of technical problems and breaking of mental sets. Moreover, the left AG may be involved in forming novel associations between technical problems and related prototypes.

Brain mechanisms of valuable scientific problem finding inspired by heuristic knowledge.

Heuristics through the application of heuristic knowledge to the creation of imitation devices may be one of the most common processes in scientific innovation. In particular, heuristics suggests that innovation includes the automatic activation of heuristic knowledge and formation of novel associations between heuristic knowledge and problem situations. In this study, 76 scientific innovation problem situations were selected as materials. Among these, 36 contain related heuristic knowledge and 40 have no such information. Through functional magnetic resonance imaging, the learning-testing paradigm was used to explore the brain mechanisms of scientific problem finding inspired by heuristic knowledge. Participants were asked to find a problem on the basis of a given innovation problem situation. Two scenarios were presented: finding scientific problems with related heuristic knowledge and finding conventional problems without related heuristic knowledge. The authors assumed that the regions in the brain significantly activated by the finding scientific problems with related heuristic knowledge condition compared with the finding normal problems without related heuristic knowledge condition are relevant to the brain mechanisms of scientific problem finding inspired by heuristic knowledge. The first scenario more significantly activated the left precuneus and left angular gyrus than did the second scenario. These findings suggest that the precuneus is relevant to the successful storage and retrieval of heuristic knowledge and that the left angular gyrus is involved in the formation of novel associations between heuristic knowledge and problem situations for finding scientific problems.

Antiangiogenic effect of continuous low-dose chemotherapy on Lewis lung carcinoma / 中国肺癌杂志

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Recently a number of preclinical studies have sparked interest in the concept of exploiting conventional chemotherapeutic drugs as antiangiogenics. Such antiangiogenic activity is achieved by metronomic-dosing (low-dose) protocols. This new target may have some advantages in avoiding toxicity and resistance caused by chemotherapeutic drugs. This study is to test the efficacy of continuous low-dose cyclophosphamide (CTX) for antiangiogenic effect on Lewis lung carcinoma, and investigate its antitumor effect and toxicity.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>C57/BL6 mice bearing Lewis lung carcinoma were randomly divided into three groups, receiving low-dose metronomic (LDM) CTX, maximum tolerated dose (MTD) CTX therapy and saline respectively. Tumor growth, weight loss, peripheral white blood cell counts and survival of mice were monitored in each group. At the end of experiment, tumors were resected for immunohistochemical staining. Tumor microvascular density (MVD) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level were detected by immunohistochemical staining.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>MVD and VEGF expression of tumors were much lower in the mice received LDM CTX therapy than those in control group and MTD CTX group (P < 0.05). During the experiment, growth delays of tumor were found in the mice received LDM CTX therapy, without apparent body weight loss or leukopenia, and the survival of mice was remarkably prolonged, compared with mice received MTD CTX therapy (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The continuous low-dose regimen of CTX can significantly increase the therapeutic activity with decreased toxicity and prolonged animal survival for lung cancer. It may act as an antiangiogenic and lead to less drug resistance.</p>