Arrhythmia is a common complication of cardiovascular diseases and a risk factor for human health. Especially, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation may not only exacerbate original heart diseases, but also cause cardiac sudden death which has been an mportant death reason in China. However, anti-arrhythmic drugs nowadays cannot effectively treat these arrhythmias, with an efficiency of only 30%-60%, which indicates that our knowledge about arrhythmias is limited. Hence, to explore the potential mechanism, look for novel targets, and develop drugs with multiple-channel action are the focus of the research direction. Recent studies displayed that the atrial-specific potassium channels such as IKur and IKAch were involved in atrial fibrillation, which provided a prospective target for atrial fibrillation treatment. Calcium leak, gap junction protein and autoantibody against ICaL channel were shown to participate in arrhythmogenesis. These findings provided a theoretical basis for the development of more effective anti-arrhythmic drugs. Remarkably, as a kind of mportant RNA regulating gene expression, microRNA (miRNA) was shown to possess anti-arrhythmic activities which may prevent cardiac sudden death. miR-1, miR-133 and miR-590 regulated the arrhythmia in various types of animal models. Because of the multiple-gene regulation actions of miRNA, it has the potential to be developed as novel anti-arrhythmic target.

Objective:To analyze the therapeutic effect and safety of finasteride on aged patients with isolated systolic hypertension (ISH)complicated benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).Methods:A total of 84 aged ISH + BPH pa-tients admitted from Jun 2011 to May 2013 were selected.According to medication plan,they were divided into fin-asteride group (n=44)and routine treatment group (n=40,only received routine treatment because they cannot use finasteride).Course of treatment was all six months.International prostate symptom score (IPSS),quality of life (QOL) questionnaire score,prostate-specific antigen (PSA),incidence rate of acute urinary retention,maximum u-rinary flow rate (Qmax),postvoid residual urine (PRV),prostate volume (PV)and incidence rate of adverse reac-tions were compared between two groups.Results:Compared with routine treatment group,there were significant reductions in IPSS [(13.2±2.4)scores vs.(9.4±1.1)scores],PRV [(21.4±4.6)ml vs.(9.0±2.3)ml],PV [(36.8±3.8)ml vs.(29.5±3.0)ml],PSA [(2.45±0.74)μg/L vs.(1.26±0.48)μg/L]and incidence rate of acute urinary retention (17.50% vs.9.09%),P<0.05 or <0.01,and significant increase in Qmax [(10.2±2.4) ml vs.(13.7±3.8)ml]and QOL score [(3.1±1.0)scores vs.(4.7±1.5)scores]in finasteride group (P<0.05). There were no significant difference in incidence rates of adverse reactions between two groups,P>0.05 all.Con-clusion:Therapeutic effect of finasteride is significant and adverse reactions don’ t increase significantly in aged pa-tients with isolated systolic hypertension complicated benign prostatic hyperplasia.

In this paper, the effects of the blend of nanoparticles and microneedle matrix materials on the mechanical properties of dissolving microneedles were studied mainly, so as to construct microneedles with excellent mechanical properties. Different kinds of nanoparticles (calcium carbonate, hydroxyapatite, silica), particle sizes (20, 60, 100 nm) and the proportion of prescription (2%, 6%, 10%) were blended with the matrix material [polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), poly(1-vinylpyrrolidone-co-vinyl acetate)(PVP/VA)] to form dissolving microneedles. The effects of nanoparticles on the elastic modulus and hardness of the microneedles were investigated using a nanoindenter. The results showed that the elastic modulus and hardness of PVP microneedles were significantly improved by nano-calcium carbonate (P < 0.001), and the elastic modulus and hardness of PVP/VA microneedles were significantly improved by nano-hydroxyapatite (P < 0.001). When the particle size of hydroxyapatite was 20 nm, the elastic modulus of PVP/VA microneedles was (10.6 ± 1.0) GPa, and the hardness was (0.47 ± 0.06) GPa. As the size of the nanoparticles increases, the mechanical performance of the microneedles decreases. When the mass proportion of nano-hydroxyapatite increased from 2% to 6%, the elastic modulus and hardness of the microneedles were significantly improved (P < 0.001), but the effect of continue increasing the proportion of nanoparticles on the microneedles was not significant. The nano-enhanced PVP/VA dissolving microneedles has no irritant effect on intact skin and has a slight irritation to damaged skin, but they disappear completely after 72 h. Animal experiments have been approved by the Laboratory Animal Welfare and Ethics Committee of Zhejiang University of Technology. Therefore, the nano-enhanced dissolving microneedles has good biological safety. To sum up, it is necessary to select the appropriate kind of nanoparticle, particle size, and prescription ratio when microneedles constructing with a given matrix material, so as to effectively improve its mechanical performance.

Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of T-SPOT.TB in patients with fever.Methods T-SPOT.TB was carried out in 456 febrile patients who had no determined reason for fever or who could not be excluded from infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.These patients were followed up for their final clinical diagnosis and the diagnostic value of T-SPOT.TB was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results In the present study,85 patients were clinically diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) (including 34 cases of pulmonary TB,24 cases of TB infection defined as T-SPOT.TB positive without TB lesion,but effective with anti-TB treatment,10 cases of tuberculous pleurisy and 17 cases of other extrapulmonary TB) and 371 patients had no definite evidence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (including 42 cases of suspected TB and 329 cases of other diseases).T-SPOT.TB had a high sensitivity of 84.3％ in TB patients and a high negative predictive value of 94.2 ％,but the specificity was 68.1％ and the positive predictive value was 41.4 ％.The Kappa value was 0.380 and the area under ROC curve was 0.762 (95％CI:0.707-0.817).T-SPOT.TB had a higher sensitivity in extrapulmonary TB than in pulmonary TB (88.2 ％ vs 78.1 ％),with the negative predictive values of 95.3 ％ and 92.6 ％,Kappa values of 0.438 and 0.299,and the areas under ROC of 0.791 (95 ％ CI:0.724-0.857) and 0.719 (95％CI:0.623-0.815),respectively.Ninety-nine cases were T-SPOT.TB positive out of 329 patients diagnosed with other diseases.Conclusions T-SPOT.TB test can be used as a method for TB diagnosis in patients without obvious TB lesions.Due to its relatively high negative predictive value,T-SPOT.TB can be used to rule out infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Adult ; Ethylene Glycol ; poisoning ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult

Cardiovascular disease, with high morbidity and mortality, has been threatening the health of human beings. Therefore, expecting to find a more effective therapeutic method, a plenty of researchers devote themselves to the study of the cardiovascular disease all the time. Since discovered on the heart, M3 receptor of muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAchR, M receptor) became a new starting point of the research of the cardiovascular disease. With more and more investigation, many people found that M3 receptor could protect the heart from kinds of cardiovascular disease, which may make it a new hopeful therapeutic point. So, expecting to give support to the reference and encouragement for the study of disease related to M3 receptor in future, this review expounds M3 receptor on the heart from the main following aspects: the effect on the heart, the influence on the cardiovascular disease and the mechanism of M3 receptor involved.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; prevention & control ; Heart ; physiology ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Receptor, Muscarinic M3 ; physiology

The morbidity of diabetes has been increasing rapidly in recent years. Delayed wound healing has become a common complication in diabetes, which seriously affects the orthobiosis of patients. Exploring and finding the molecular mechanisms of diabetic wound healing and the effective therapies to promote wound healing have important clinical significances. Stem cells transplant has become a research hotspot in accelerating diabetic wound healing. This article reviewed the present approaches concerning stem cells transplant in diabetic wound healing both at domestic and abroad, and looked forward the clinical therapy of stem cells on diabetic wound healing.
Diabetes Mellitus ; therapy ; Humans ; Stem Cell Transplantation ; Stem Cells ; Wound Healing

Humans ; Eosinophilia/diagnosis* ; Thrombosis/etiology* ; Heart Diseases/complications*

Objective To explore the changes of proteomic spectra from plasma of patients with lung cancer or benign lung diseases and health controls in order to establish a primary diagnosis model of lung cancer. Methods The proteomic spectra from plasma of 108 patients with lung cancer, 40 patients with benign lung diseases and 22 healthy individuals were analysed by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry ( SELDI-TOF-MS). The best decision tree model was established by cluster analysis and principal component analysis. Then the model was blindly validated by the protein of 21 patients with lung benign diseases and 47 patients with stage I lung cancer. Results Twenty-three significantly differentially expressed protein peaks were successfully detected (P <0.001). Blinded validation suggested that the accuracy for diagnosing lung cancer was 72. 06%, the sensitivity and specificity were 72. 34% and 71.43%, respectively, and the positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 85. 0% and 78. 95%, respectively. Conclusion SELDI-TOF-MS protein chip technology provides a new tool for the early diagnosis of lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the anti-pyroptotic effects of melatonin in atherosclerotic endothelium and to elucidate the potential mechanisms.METHODS ApoE-/-mice were randomly divid-ed into four groups (n=8): the normal-diet group (ND), the normal-diet group treated with melatonin (10 mg·kg-1)(ND+MLT),the high-fat-diet group(HFD),and the high-fat-diet group treated with melatonin (HFD+MLT).After 12 weeks,the expression levels of pyroptosis related genes including NLRP3,ASC, cleaved-caspase 1,GSDMD-N,IL-1β and IL-18 were examined in aortic endothelium by Western blotting, qRT-PCR and immunofluorescent staining.Besides,levels of MEG3 and miR-223 were also tested by qRT-PCR.The interaction between MEG3 and miR-223 was detected by luciferase assay.For in vitro study,human aortic endothelial cells(HAECs)were transiently transfected with miR-223 mimic,miR-223 inhibitor (AMO-223), MEG3-overexpressing plasmid or negative controls. After 6 h of transfection, the medium was replaced by fresh medium with or without ox-LDL(25 μg·mL-1)for 24 h and then treated with or without melatonin (10 μmol·L-1) for 48 h. Cell pyroptosis was evaluated by Hoechst 33342/PI staining and differentially expressed pyroptosis related genes. RESULTS Melatonin markedly reduced the atherosclerotic plaque in aorta of ApoE-/- mice. Meanwhile, melatonin also attenuated the expression NLRP3, ASC, cleaved-caspase1, NF-κB/GSDMD, GSDMD-N termini, IL-1β, and IL-18 in aortic endo-thelium.Consistent anti-pyroptotic effects were also observed in ox-LDL-treated HAECs.We found that lncRNAMEG3 enhanced pyroptosis in HAECs. Moreover, MEG3 acted as an endogenous sponge by sequence complementarity to suppress the function of miR-223 and to increase NLRP3expression and enhance endothelial cell pyroptosis. Furthermore, knockdown of miR-223 blocked the anti-pyroptotic actions of melatonin in ox-LDL-treated HAECs. CONCLUSION Melatonin prevents endothelial cell pyroptosis via MEG3/miR-223/NLRP3 axis in atherosclerosis and therefore melatonin replacement might be considered a new strategy for protecting endothelium against pyroptosis thereby for the treat-ment of atherosclerosis associated with pyroptosis.