New drugs for the treatment of osteogenesis imperfecta: Research advances / 国际药学研究杂志

Osteogenesis imperfecta(OI)is a genetic bone disease characterized by increased bone fragility and recurrent bone fractures. It belongs to orphan diseases of which the diagnosis and treatment are facing challenges. The effective treatments targeting at the underlying causes are still unavailable. Recently, many agents have been demonstrated to increase bone mineral density, improve bone microstructures, and reduce the incidence of fractures. Herein, we review the progress in new drugs for the treatment of OI.

Comparative and path analysis between underground tuber yield and agronomic traits in cultivation provenances of Gastrodia elata f. glauca from Zhaotong / 中国中药杂志

To provide guidance for quality control and variety breeding of Gastrodia elata f. glauca cultivated form in Zhaotong, nine agronomic traits of G. elata f. glauca cultivation form were measured and the traits were analyzed using multiple comparison,correlation analysis, multiple stepwise regression analysis and path analysis. The results of multiple comparison and analysis showed that the number of dot ring and the length-width ratio of tuber were no different in G. elata f. glauca cultivation form. The coefficient of variation about the single tuber fresh weigh, ring spacing and belly button diameter was about 20%. The coefficient of variation about the length of the tuber, the width of the tuber, the thickness of the tuber, the length-width ratio of tuber and the number of dot ring was near 10%. The correlation analysis results showed that the single tuber fresh weigh and the length,the width and the thickness of the tuber were extremely significant positive correlated. The results of multiple stepwise regression analysis and path analysis showed that the length, the width and the thickness of the tuber were the main factors affecting the fresh weight of single tuber,which were the best agronomic traits on high yield of G. elata f. glauca. The length of the tuber,the width of the tuber and the thickness of the tuber, which would be used as indicators of the characteristics of high yield varieties in Zhaotong. The number of dot ring and the length-width ratio of tuber, which would be selected as quality control indicators of the genuine Chinese medicinal materials in Zhaotong.

Urine metabonomic study on long-term use of total ginsenosides in rats / 中国中药杂志

Due to its effect of systems regulation and promotion on body, Ginseng is always referred to be long-term used as a dietary supplement. But it was still unclear about its target of the tonic effects and also the side-effects long-term use may bring. Urine metabolomic method is suitable for long-term studies of pharmaco-dynamics, pharmacology and toxicology of traditional Chinese medicine because of its characteristics of non-invasive and monitoring the whole-body metabolism. This study was designed to detect the dynamic variation of rat urine metabolome along with a long-term administration of total ginsenosides using GC-TOF based metabolomic technology. Our result showed that either short-term or chronic administration of ginsenosides did not impact the rat urine metabolome significantly (as the PCA subgroup was not successful). By comparison, the short-term (1-3 w) dose of ginsenosides had the biggest metabolic influence including TCA cycle, catecholamines and neurotransmitter amino acids. Medium-term (6-10 w) dose had a gradually lower effect and long-term (27 w) dose almost had no effect. Our study indicates that both short and long-term administration of ginsenosides showed almost no obvious side-effect on the experimental animals.

Beneficial effects of natural Jeju groundwaters on lipid metabolism in high-fat diet-induced hyperlipidemic rats

BACKGROUND: Groundwater is believed to possess many beneficial effects due to its natural source of various minerals. In this study, we examined the effects of natural Jeju groundwater S1 (Samdasoo(TM)), S2 and S3 pumped up from different locations of Jeju Island, Korea, along with local tap water, on body weight gain, serum lipids and lipoproteins, and liver histopathology in high-fat diet-induced hyperlipidemic rats. MATERIALS/METHODS: Rats were randomly and equally divided into 6 groups. Different water samples were supplied to the hyperlipidemic rats as their daily drinking water and the widely-used anti-hyperlipidemic drug simvastatin was used as a positive control. Body weight, serum lipids and lipoproteins were measured weekly. Liver weight, liver index and liver histopathology were examined after the execution of the rats. RESULTS: After drinking Jeju groundwaters for two months, S2 but not S3 significantly reduced weight growth and serum triglycerides levels and increased high density lipoprotein-C (HDL-C) without affecting total cholesterol or LDL-C. S1 and particularly S2 significantly reduced the severity of liver hypertrophy and steatosis. All Groundwaters had much higher contents of vanadium (S3>S2>S1>>tap water) whereas S1 and S2 but not S3 markedly blocked autoxidation of ferrous ions. CONCLUSION: Jeju Groundwater S1 and particularly S2 exhibit protective effects against hyperlipidemia and fatty liver and hypothesize that the beneficial effect of Jeju Groundwaters may be contributed from blockade of autoxidation of ferrous ions rather than their high contents of vanadium.

Combination of haptoglobin and osteopontin could predict colorectal cancer hepatic metastasis.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to identify novel molecular markers for the early detection of colorectal cancer liver metastasis. METHODS: Genes related to hepatic metastasis were screened from the Oncomine database. The candidate markers were tested by immunohistochemistry, and their predictive accuracy was assessed by the cross-validation method and an independent test set. RESULTS: We got three datasets containing 2,973 genes that were highly expressed in primary colon cancer tissues compared with non-metastatic colon cancer tissues and identified 7 candidate molecules for immunohistochemical validation. A total of 213 colorectal cancer samples were randomly divided into a training set (113 cases) and a blind testing set (100 cases). In the training set, immunohistochemical analysis showed that HP, OPN, and PTGIS expression were significantly higher in the hepatic metastasis group than in the non-metastasis group. Logistic regression analysis showed that HP and OPN levels in primary tumors and lymph node metastasis status were the only significant (P<0.05) parameters for detecting liver metastasis. The predictive accuracy of markers was assessed by the cross-validation method and an independent test set. In leave-one-out cross-validation, the two markers combined with clinicopathologic features resulted in 91.2% sensitivity and 96.4% specificity for hepatic metastasis detection. In an independent test set, the combination achieved 94.5% sensitivity and 88.9% specificity for predicting the hepatic metastasis of colorectal cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that combined HP and OPN expression levels are significantly related to liver metastasis and prognosis, and, if this is validated, they could be used as accurate predictors of liver metastasis in colorectal cancer.

Overexpression of PTGIS could predict liver metastasis and is correlated with poor prognosis in colon cancer patients.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive ability of PTGIS for liver metastasis. Protein expression of PTGIS was analyzed on tissue microarray consisting of 117 CRC cases with liver metastasis (M1) and 104 cases of CRC without liver metastasis at least 5 years after resection of primary CRC (M0) by immunohistochemistry. Expression of PTGIS in 147 of 221 of primary lesions exhibited positive staining. Moreover, the PTGIS expression was significantly higher in CRC-M1 than CRC-M0 group. More importantly, the 87% (20/23) heterochronous metastatic cases showed positive staining for PTGIS. Collecting the primary and liver metastatic tumor samples from the same colon cancer patients, we tested the expression of PTGIS and revealed that the expression level of PTGIS in the hepatic metastases was noticeably higher than in the matched primary colon cancer tissues from the same patient in 9 out of 16 cases examined. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the expression of PTGIS and lymph node involvement were risk factors in colon cancer liver metastasis independent of the other variables. In leave-one-out validation model, the combination of PTGIS and lymph node involvement yielded the 89.7% satisfactory sensitivity and 83% specificity for detection of hepatic metastasis. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed a correlation between higher PTGIS expression levels and shorter overall survival times. In conclusion, our results suggest that PTGIS combined with lymph node involvement may be used as accurate predictors of liver metastasis in colorectal cancer.

Screening of endophytic fungi from Huperzia serrata for acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity and its taxonomic identification / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To screen out fungus strains with acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity from Huperzia serrata.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Endophytic fungi fermentation products from 59 H. serrata strains were stained with acetylcholinesterase hydrolyzed alpha-naphthaleneacetic ethyl ester and fast blue B salt, and screened for acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity with thin-layer chromatography-bioautography. Target strains were classified and identified through the sequence analysis on 18s rDNA and 5.8s rDNA combined with morphological characteristics.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Fungus strain LQ2F01 from H. serrata showed positive color reaction in the screening for acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity. The sequence analysis on 18s rDNA and 5.8s rDNA combined with morphological characteristics showed the strain LQ2F01 belonged to Acremonium.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Endophytic Fungi LQ2F01 from H. serrata shows identical acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity with the host plant, which is of great significance to the development of natural medicines and the studies on the relationship between the endophytic gungi and the host plant.</p>

Mannitol is an independent risk factor of acute kidney injury after cerebral trauma: a case-control study.

We retrospectively studied a random cohort of patients with cerebral trauma to investigate the risk factors of acute kidney injury (AKI) following cerebral trauma. AKI was determined using the RIFLE (risk, injury, failure, loss, or end-stage kidney) staging criteria. About 171 patients were chosen in the study, with 53 patients in AKI group and 118 patients without AKI in non-AKI group. By logistic regression analysis, univariate analysis revealed that age, hypertension, emergent surgery, systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), Glasgow coma score (GCS), sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, the respiration, coagulation, and cardiovascular components of the SOFA score, mechanical ventilation time, red blood cell transfusion, plasma transfusion, and the accumulative doses of furosemide, torsemide, and mannitol were significantly related to AKI after cerebral trauma. Logistic multivariate regression analysis showed that SOFA score [odds ratio (OR) = 1.516, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.222-1.881, p < 0.001], the accumulative doses of torsemide (OR = 0.016, 95% CI 1.002-1.031, p = 0.016), and the accumulative doses of mannitol (OR = 2.687, 95% CI 1.062-6.800, p = 0.037) were independent risk factors of AKI. This model had a good discrimination for AKI with an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.901 (p < 0.001). The accumulative doses of mannitol as a risk factor of AKI were identified by propensity score match (PSM) method. We concluded that AKI was a common complication in patients with cerebral trauma. SOFA score and the accumulative doses of torsemide and mannitol were independent risk factors of AKI following cerebral trauma.

Cembranoid diterpenes from soft coral Sinularia sp / 中国中药杂志

A soft coral Sinularia sp., collected from the South China Sea, was selected to investigate the bioactive and chemical constituents. The EtOAc fraction were isolated by repeatedly silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography to obtain lobophytolide A (1), 3-dehydroxylpresinularolide B (2), sarcophine (3), 3 beta-acetoxyisolobophytolide (4), Crassocolide D (5), (3E,7E,11E)-6-acetoxy-3,7,11,15(17)-cembratrien-16,14-olide (6). The structures of compounds 1-6 were determined on the basis of spectroscopic data analysis. All compounds were tested against a small panel of human tumor cell lines. And these compounds were obtained for the first time from this coral.

Proliferation apoptotic influence of crocin on human bladder cancer T24 cell line / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the proliferation, apoptosis and mechanisms on T24 cell of transitional cell carcinoma of bladder (TCCB) by crocin.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>MTT assay was used to evaluate the proliferation of T24 cells. The changes of cell cycle and cell apoptotic percentage were measured by flow cytometry. T24 cells were inoculated into BALB/c nude mice to establish model of carcinoma of bladder. The mice were randomly divided into control group and experimental group. After treatment with 50 mmol x L(-1) crocin, the inhibited growth of tumor was observed. Electronic microscope was used to observe the morphological changes. The expressions of Bcl-2, Bax, Survivin and Cyclin D1 were detected by immunohistochemistry.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The growth of T24 cells was remarkably inhibited after treatment of crocin. Flow cytometric profiles revealed that crocin led to the increase of the cells in G0/G1 phase, the percentage of cell apoptosis was also increased. Crocin could inhibit the growth of BALB/c xenograft tumor. The morphology changes of cell apoptosis were observed. Bcl-2, Cyclin D1 and survivin expressions determined by immunohistochemical staining were down-regulated after treatment with Bax expression up-regulated.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Crocin exerts both in vitro and in vivo anti-cancer effect on TCCB T24 cell line. The mechanisms may change tumour cell cycle and induce tumour cell apoptosis by down-regulating the expression of Bcl-2, Survivin, Cyclin D1 and up-regulating the expression of Bax.</p>

Influence of crocin on gene expression profile of human bladder cancer cell lines T24 / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the changes of gene expression profile in transitional cell carcinoma of bladder T24 cell after crocin treatment, in order to find the possible crocin targets.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The bladder cancer T24 cell line was treated with crocin. MTT assay was adopted to determine the inhibition rate for selecting the best effect time and concentration of crocin. Differentially expressed genes on groups with or without treatment of crocin were screened with high throughout cDNA microarray. One up-regulated gene p21(WAF1) and one down-regulated gene cyclinD1 were selected to undergo analysis by the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Moreover, immunocytochemical method was used to evaluate p21(WAF1) and cyclinD1 protein expression.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The growth of T24 cells was inhibited remarkably following a marked positive correlation between crocin concentration, time and inhibitor rate. When 3 mmol x L(-1) crocin treated T24 cells for 48h, the difference was significant compared with the control group (P < 0.05). Crocin induced wide changes of the gene expression profile of T24 cells. A total of 836 genes were up-regulated or down-regulated by more than 2 times, which were involved cell cycle controlling, DNA cell apoptosis, replication factor, and so on. The mRNA expression of p21(WAF1) and cyclinD1 detected by RT-PCR were in accordance with cDNA microarray data. The results of immunocytochemical method showed that p21(WAF1) and cyclinD1 protein expression were consistent with those mRNA expression.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Crocin can induce the significant alteration of gene expression profile of T24 cell. It is suggested that the widly konwn anti-tumor effects of crocin are medicated at least in part by regulating the cell cycle controlling gene expression.</p>

Antimicrobial resistance of gram-positive pathogenic bacteria isolated from children's respiratory tract infection / 中国小儿急救医学

Objective To investigate antirnierobial resistance of comlnon pathogenic bacteria isolated from children's respiratory tract in Beijng friendship Hospital during the period between January 2004 and December 2006.Methods Forty-nine strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae,fifty-five strains of Staphylococcus aureus and fifteen strains of Group A β-hemolytic streptococcus were isolated from children with community-acquired respiratory tract infeetion in pediatric department of Beijng Friendship Hospital.Kirby-Bauer agar dilution method Was used to determine the susceptibility to antimicrobial agents.Results Ninety percent of Streptococcus pneumoniae strains were resistant to erythromycin.Penicillin-non-susceptible streptococcus pneumoniae accounted for 10%,while 90% of which were multi-drug resistant.For Staphylococcus aureu strains,the resistant rates of ampicillin,penicillin and oxacfllin were 86%,82%,and 9% respectively,and serere multi-drug resistance was found.Eighty percent of the group A β-hemolytic streptococcus strains were resistant to erythromycin,however all remained sensitive to penicillin and ampicillin.Conclusion The antimicrobials resistant pathogenic bacteria isolated from children with respiratory tract infection have become a severe prdblem.The resistant rates of macrolides are high for Streptococcus and Group A β-hemolytic streptococcus.MeticiUin resistant staphylococcus aureus(MRSA)strains were found in the study.Severe multi-drug resistance was found.Non β-lactam antibiotics should be avoided when respiratory tract bacterial infection occurred in children.

Effect of Rehmannia glutinosa water extraction on insulin resistance and gene expression of resistin in type 2 diabetes mellitus rats / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of Rehmannia glutinosa water extraction (RGL) on adipose metabolic disorder and gene expression of resistin in type 2 diabetes mellitus rats.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The wistar rats model of 2-DM were induced by high calorie feeding and small dose injection of STZ. Rats were randomly divided into diabetic model group, diabetic model treated with RGL (2.4 g x kg(-1) x d(-1)), RGL (1.2 g x kg(-1) x d(-1)), RGL (0. 6 g x kg(-1) x d(-1)) and normal control group. The levels of FPG, FINS, TG, HDL, LDL, CH and IR were measured, and the mRNA expression of resistin was determined by RT-PCR, the protein expression measured by SDS-PAGD at the end of 8 weeks.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The gene expression of resistin in RGL group were lower than that of diabetic model (P < 0.01). The levels of FPG, FINS, TG, LDL, CH, IR in RGL group were lower than that of diabetic model (P < 0.05), and HDL were higher (P < 0.05). CONCLUDE: RGL can improve insulin resistance in the experimental 2-DM rats, can effectively ameliorate adipose metabolic disturbance and decline IR and FINS by increasing the gene expression of resistin.</p>

Changes of Serum Myocardial Zymogram in Children with Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Pneumonia and Its Clinical Significance / 实用儿科临床杂志

180 U/L.CK-MB raised in only 5 cases(15.6%),and the highest was 28 U/L.Of the 218 MPP patients,only the 5 patients(2.3%) with raised CK-MB levels could be diagnosed as myocardial damage complicated with MPP.Conclusions The abnormal ECG is more important than myocardial zymogram in the diagnosis of myocardial damage complicated with MPP.Only higher level of certain myocardial zymogram without abnormal ECG can not be diagnosed as myocardial damage if lack of clinic and other objective evidences for myocardial damage.In watching out for myocardial damage,excessive examinations and treatments shall be avoided if possible.

Th1/Th2 Balance in Children with Bronchiolitis / 实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To study the lymphocytes subsets including Th1 and Th2 cells in PBMC of children with bronchiolitis in acute period.Methods The present study enrolled 34 patients with bronchiolitis,23 of them were respiratory syncytial virus(RSV)and 11 non-RSV,and 22 age-matched normal infants.Fresh peripheral blood samples were treated and run through the flow cytometry.The percentage of lymphocytes subsets were acquired using simultest IMK-lymphcyte software.Results The results showed the percentage of CD3+ and CD4+ cells in bronchiolitis group was higher than that in control group(P

DISTRIBUTION OF MOLECULAR WEIGHT OF PEPTIDE PREPARED BY COMPLEX ENZYME AND THE TUMOR INHIBITION TEST / 营养学报

Objective To observe the molecular weight distribution of soybean peptides prepared by complex enzyme hydrolysation and tumor inhibitory effect in vivo or in vitro. Method The soybean protein was enzymolyzed to soybean peptides by Flavourzyme, Alealase and neutral protease, at(50-55)℃, followed by separation, absorption,affination, ultra centrifuge and spray drying. The soybean peptides were passed Sephadex G25 column at 0.5ml/min with 0.1mol/L Tris-HCl buffer. The fragment of fluid collected was determined by UV at 280nm and HPLC. Then the molecular weight distribution was calculated. The inhibitory effect on ansplant glioma (G422) at dose 1.25, 2.5 and 5g/kg bw (ig daily for 11 d) was tested in mice and in Hep-2 in vitro. Results The peptides contents in three batches were 54.6%, 51.9%, 51.8% respeclively. The molecular weight