As Chinese medicine has been focused great attention, many approaches of Chinese medicine production such as the choice of Chinese medicine materials, processing, inspection are also discussed by medicine researchers both at home and abroad. This paper showed the view of the three aspects and indicated application of fingerprint in Chinese medicine inspection.

AIM:To develop the method for analyzing bulleyacinitine A in plasm from mice through the treatment of subcutaneous injection of bulleyacinitine A by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry(LC-MS/MS).METHODS:50 ?L mouse plasma sample added zolpidem as internal standard and pH 9.2 buffer solution was extracted with ethylether,followed by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometric detection.The mobile phase was consisted of methanol-buffer solution(85∶15)(buffer solution consisted of 20 mmol/L ammonium acetate and 0.1% formic solution).The flow rate was 300 ?L per minute.The separation column was C_ 18 column.The electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry and the multiple reaction monitoring mode were applied to detecting the bulleyacinitine A in plasma.RESULTS:The assay was linear from 0.1 to 1 000 ng/mL.The recovery rate was more than 80%.CONCLUSION:The method could be used to detect bulleyacinitine A level in mouse plasma,which offers advantages of sensitiveness,specificity and simpleness.

AIM:To develop the HPLC fingerprinting of Gynostemma pentaphyllum and evaluate the quality of different sources of G.pentaphyllum by fractal expression and wavelet analysis based on similarity calculation.METHODS:Flavones of G.pentaphyllum were extracted by using methanol and the HPLC fingerprint analysis on an HPLC/DAD system was developed.The signal of chromatogram was decomposed into components at different resolution by wavelet transform.Furthermore,the fractal dimensions of these components were computed for similarity calculation.RESULTS:With the optimized extraction and analytic tool,the fingerprint of G.pentaphyllum was developed.The similarity was effective in evaluating the quality of G.pentaphyllum.CONCLUSION:To describe a fingerprint profile by factors based on fractal and wavelet transform was a more objective method.G.pentaphyllum from Zhejiang province can be used as a substituent for raw drug from Ankang,Shanxi province.

Sixty cases of type 2 diabetes with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), 46 cases of type 2 diabetes without DPN and 50 healthy persons were recruited. Plasma homocysteine (Hcy), serum folic acid, vitamin B 12 levels and the mutations of Hcy metabolism related enzyme-methyhenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) were assayed in individuals in this study. The results showed that high Hcy, low folic acid and vitamin B 12 levels are related with DPN in the patients with type 2 diabetes. The mutation of MTHFR C677T is associated with diabetes, but not with DPN.

Objective To construct five shRNA-expression plasmids and to investigate the expression of Smad2 in TGF-?/ Smads signal transduction treated with shRNA-expression plasmid.Methods Five shRNA-Smad2 DNA sequences from mRNA sequence of mouse Smad2 gene were designed and synthesized.DNA oligonucleotides encoding an appropriate shRNA were inserted to shRNA expression vector respectively.Five shRNA-Smad2 expression plasmids were obtained and then transfected into NIH/3T3 cells.The suppressed expression of Smad2 was assessed by RT-PCR and Western-blotting.Results The shRNA-expression plasmid numbered 2.4 could markedly reduce the expression of Smad2.The suppression effect of the RNAi-pool composed of four different plasmids was more obvious than that of any single.Conclusion The shRNA-expression plasmids were successfully constructed,which could specifically and effectively suppress the expression of Smad2.The method of using a mixture of RNAi plasmids to improve the RNAi efficiency was established.

OBJECTIVE:To study pharmacognosy of Melilotus officinalis.METHODS:Qualitative identification of M.officinalis was conducted in respects of morphology,macroscopic characters,microscopic identification,UV spectra for medicinal extracts and IR spectra for medicinal powder.RESULTS:Nineteen bundles of rays were distributed in the radial bundle of root cross section of M.officinalis.The main vein vascular bundle of leaf cross section had a palisade tissue passing over it.The pith of the cross section of the stem occupied 4/5 of the whole cross section.The cross section of the leafstalk was heart-shaped,and unequal vascular bundles arranged in a triangular array.There were glandular hairs,which consist of three cells,and unicellular non glandular hairs in leaf epidermis.The crystal fibers of calcium oxalate crystals and infinitive blowhole were found in the leaves;glandular hairs and non glandular hairs could be found in the leafstalk under tissue dissociation;verrucous like protuberance and threaded catheter were found on the surface.The UV spectrum of extract and two order derivative IR spectrum of the medicinal powder showed obvious characteristics.CONCLUSIONS:Established method can be used for pharmacognostic identification of M.officinalis.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate curative effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients by the transfusion of other convalescent plasma. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 18 patients with severe and critical COVID-19, who were hospitalized in the ICU of Xianghu Branch of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University from February 1 to March 15, 2020. Patients were subdivided into an experimental group (=6, who had transfused the plasma) and an observation group (=12, who had no plasma transfusion). Basic clinical data and prognosis indexes of these two groups were compared. Moreover, for the experimental group, the dynamic changes of blood oxygen saturation before and after the transfusion, the changes of lymphocyte absolute value 48 hours after the transfusion, and the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleic acid were analyzed. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in age, gender, blood type and other basic clinical data between the two groups (all >0.05).There were no significant differences in ventilator machine weaning time, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) weaning time, body temperature recovery to normal time, and hospitalization days between these two groups (all >0.05). For the experimental group, before, during and after the convalescent plasma transfusion, the blood oxygen saturation of all 6 patients at all time (1, 6, 8, 12, 24, 36, and 48 h) was more than 90%, and there was no significant fluctuation. There were 3 patients whose absolute value of lymphocyte was increased 48 hours after the transfusion, and the remaining was decreased. There were 5 patients whose SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection turned negative 48 hours after the transfusion, accounting for 83.3%. CONCLUSIONS Transfusion of convalescent plasma will not affect outcomesof COVID-19 patients, which can neutralize SARS-CoV-2 in patients and reduce the loading capacity of SARS-CoV-2.
Betacoronavirus ; Blood Component Transfusion ; China ; Coronavirus Infections ; therapy ; Humans ; Immunization, Passive ; Pandemics ; Plasma ; Pneumonia, Viral ; therapy ; Retrospective Studies