Recent advances of γ-aminobutyric acid: Physiological and immunity function, enrichment, and metabolic pathway.

γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-protein amino acid which naturally and widely occurs in animals, plants, and microorganisms. As the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system of mammals, it has become a popular dietary supplement and has promising application in food industry. The current article reviews the most recent literature regarding the physiological functions, preparation methods, enrichment methods, metabolic pathways, and applications of GABA. This review sheds light on developing GABA-enriched plant varieties and food products, and provides insights for efficient production of GABA through synthetic biology approaches.

Therapeutic Observation of Electroacupuncture plus Nasal Irrigation for Upper Airway CoughSyndrome / 上海针灸杂志

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of electroacupuncture plus nasal irrigation in treating upper airway cough syndrome (UACS).Method A total of 114 UACS patients were randomized into 3 groups, 38 cases in each group. Group A was treated with acupuncture plus electrical stimulation with sparse-dense wave, group B was intervened by nasal irrigation with Shuang Huang Lian, and group C was treated with the two methods together. The clinical efficacies of the three groups were compared.Result The total effective rates were respectively 84.2%, 73.7% and 94.7% in group A, group B and group C. The total effective rate of group C was significantly different from that of group A and group B (P<0.05).Conclusion Electroacupuncture plus nasal irrigation can produce a more significant therapeutic efficacy compared to electroacupuncture or nasal irrigation alone.

Codon usage bias in the straw mushroom Volvariella volvacea / 生物工程学报

We analyzed the whole genome coding sequence of Volvariella volvacea to study the pattern utilization of codons by Codon W 1.4.2. As results, 24 optimal codons were identified. Moreover, the frequency of codons usage was calculated by CUSP program. We compared the frequency of codons usage of V. volvacea with other organisms including 6 modal value species (Homo sapiens, Saccharomys cerevisiae, Arabidopsis thalian, Mus musculus, Danio rerio and Drosophila melanogaster) and 4 edible fungi (Coprinopsis cinerea, Agaricus bisporus, Lentinula edodes and Pleurotus ostreatus). We found that there were less differences in 3 edible fungi (excluding Pleurotus ostreatus) than 6 modal value species, comparing with the frequency of codons usage of V. volvacea. With software SPSS16.0, cluster analysis which showed differences in the size of codon bias, reflects the evolutionary relationships between species, which can be used as a reference of evolutionary relationships of species. This was the first time for analysis the codon preference among the whole coding sequences of edible fungi, serving as theoretical basis to apply genetic engineering of V. volvacea.

Clinical Study on Treatment of Tourette's Syndrome with Acupuncture-Chinese Herbs Combination / 针灸推拿医学（英文版）

Objective: To observe the clinical effect on treatment of Tourette's syndrome with combination of acupuncture and Chinese herbs. Method: Sixty cases were randomly divided into acupuncture-Chinese group and western drug group, which have been treated with acupuncture plus modified Tranquilizing Liver-wind Decoction and orally taken holoperidol respectively.Result: Therapeutic effect comparison between the two groups showed a significant difference (P＜0.05).Conclusion: Combination of scalp acupuncture and Chinese herbs has good effect in treating Tourette's syndrome, with better result than western drug.