The role of tonifying kidney decoction and acupuncture in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease: A network meta-analysis.

IMPORTANCE: As one of the chronic neurological degenerative diseases with the highest incidence of amnesia and dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD) carried out the clinical treatment based on the 2 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) of Chinese herbal compound and acupuncture (AP). With the vigorous development of TCM, doctors are facing the problem of choosing TCM or western medicine in clinical work. Hence there is an urge to make pairwise comparisons among these interventions to provide evidence for clinical practice. OBJECTIVE: The used efficacy of the 2 TCM methods and combined with donepeziline were compared to compile the best treatment through network meta-analysis. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with AD were included in the randomized clinical trial, who were treated with tonifying kidney decoction (TKD) or AP combined with donepezil hydrochloride (DH) as an intervention measure, while the control group was treated with DH. The total effective rate was the primary outcome, and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) score and activities of daily living (ADCS-ADL) scores were the secondary indicators. RESULTS: Eventually 30 studies reporting 2236 patients underwent TKD or AP combined with DH were enrolled. In terms of total efficiency, compared with TKD and DH, TKD + DH was significantly preferable. In addition, TKD were classified into 2 categories, namely tonifying kidney with reducing phlegm formulas (TKRP) and tonifying kidney with filling lean marrow (TKFLM). Regarding to MMSE score of TKD, of the 3 interventions, only TKRP + DH (standard mean difference [SMD] = 4.84, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.86-8.82) and TKFLM + DH (SMD = 3.93, 95% CI: 1.06-6.80) had significant efficacy over TKFLM (SMD = 4.25, 95%CI: -2.58 to 11.08). Although no difference between TKRP and other groups, its effectiveness was higher than TKFLM + DH and TKFLM (surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) = 61.5%). For the ADL score, compared with TKFLM + DH and DH, TKRP + DH had more effective (SUCRA = 70.2%). Regarding to the total effective rates, AP + DH was more statistically better than AP, and AP was statistically better than DH. CONCLUSION: TKD or AP in combination with DH are significantly superior in treating AD.

Antibacterial activity of lysozyme-loaded cream against MRSA and promotion of scalded wound healing.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infection, especially its drug-resistant bacterial infection, is a great challenge often faced by clinicians and patients, and it is also one of the most important threats to public health. Finding a safe and effective antibacterial agent is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of S. aureus infection. Lysozyme is known to have antibacterial effects against Gram-positive bacteria including S. aureus. Here, high-quality lysozyme with a purity of more than 99% and an activity of more than 60, 000 U/mg was prepared from egg white, which showed excellent antibacterial activity against three strains of S. aureus, especially against MRSA. Furthermore, an antibacterial cream loaded with lysozyme was prepared and tested in scald wound healing. The lysozyme-loaded cream exhibited the effect of preventing wound infection and promoting wound healing on scalds, and no toxicity was found in animal organs. Overall, lysozyme showed great application potential in the prevention and treatment of infections caused by S. aureus and scalded wound healing. The most remarkable discovery in this work is the unexpectedly powerful inhibitory effect of lysozyme on the drug-resistant bacterial, especially MRSA, which is usually very difficult to deal with using normal antibacterial drugs.