Citropten alleviates acute and recurrent colitis via blockage of NF-κB and JAK/STAT3 pathways.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, which is characterized by inflammation, with many symptoms including diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloody stool, and weight loss. It is difficult to completely cure and promising therapeutic drug candidates are urgently needed. Citropten, a coumarin-like compound found in traditional Chinese medicine such as Finger Citron Fruit, notopterygium root and citrus peel, has been shown to inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells, protect against depression and suppress the production of inflammatory mediators. In this study, we demonstrated that citropten could alleviate dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced acute and recurrent colitis in mice, with significant improvement in body weight loss, disease activity index, shortened colon length and histological changes. Moreover, citropten dramatically decreased the production of pro-inflammatory mediators in colon tissues and effectively suppressed the proportion of Th17 cells in spleen. Mechanism investigations revealed that citropten significantly inhibited the activation of NF-κB and JAK/STAT3 signaling pathways, thus leading to decreased inflammation, Th17 cells and alleviative colitis. These findings provide novel insights into the anti-colitis effect of citropten, which may be a promising drug candidate for treatment of IBD.

[Investigation on prevalence rate of essential tremor in population aged 55 years old and above in Kashkar, between 2008 and 2009].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence and clinical feature of essential tremor (ET) in a community cohort of the elderly in Kashkar. METHODS: By using a door-to-door, two-phase screening approach, some 2834 residents of Hans ethnicity were investigated form 2008 to 2009. RESULTS: In this study, 184 ET patients were found. The prevalence rate of ET was 6.49%. The prevalence rate was increased with age and higher in men (8.45%) than in women (4.59%), especially in people aged above 75 years old. The prevalence rate of ET was 7.26% in illiterate people, followed by 7.27%, 5.81%, 5.58% and 9.37% in those having received primary, junior, senior high school and college. The ratio of windowed people in ET patients was 15.21%, higher to the ratio of windowed people in total number. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence rate of ET increased with age, but not influenced by education.

[Performance improvement of sequencing batch reactor (SBR) treating digested piggery wastewater by addition of raw wastewater].

When digested piggery wastewater was directly treated with a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) process, the efficiency was low with COD removal about 10% and NH4+ -N removal about 70%. The effluent COD concentration was higher than 1000 mg/L and effluent NH4+ -N concentration was 200 mg/L or so. The working state of the reactor was unstable and its performance deteriorated gradually during operation. After adding no-digested piggery wastewater (raw wastewater) to digested piggery wastewater in the influent, the reactor performance was significantly improved with COD removal higher than 80% and NH4+ -N removal up to 99%. The effluent COD concentration was in the range of 250 mg/L to 350 mg/L and effluent NH4+ -N concentration was lower than 10 m/L. The working stability of the reactor was greatly increased. After adding raw wastewater, the ratio of BOD5 to COD in the influent was raised from 0.19 to 0.54, and the ratio of BOD5 to TN was raised from 0.28 to 2.04, which implied an increase of carbon source for microbial growth and denitrification. The elevated denitrification resulting from the increase of carbon source not only promoted the removal of total nitrogen, but also stabilized the pH value by supplementing alkalinity to treatment system.