Malnutrition and high nutrition risk exist in children with chronic diseases due to the prolonged course.Malnutrition can not only affect children's growth,but also can increase the risk of nutritionrelated complications,infection,time of hospitalization,hospital costs.Children with chronic diseases have inadequate intake and malabsorption,as well as the increased consumption caused by infection and inflammation.Different diseases need to be given special nutritional support and management,which help improve the clinical outcome and get well for children with chronic diseases.This review summarizes the progresses of nutritional status,nutrition risk assessment and nutritional management of children with chronic diseases.

Objective:To establish a HPLC fingerprint determination which could separate the main principles of alkaloids, flavonoids and iridoids in Huanglianjiedu Decoction. Methods: The HPLC method was used and chromatography conditions were C 18V column, binary or ternary solvent-delivery gradient elution and diode-array detector. Results: A HPLC fingerprint determination method was established, which could separate main principles of the three effective groups of Huanglianjiedu Decoction. Conclusion: The ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine consist of several effective groups with different chemicals and physical properties, compared with the plant standard extracts, further studies are required for establishing HPLC fingerprint.

Objective: To investigate the methylation level of NPTX2 gene in pancreatic cancer and assess its clinical value in diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Methods: We detected the mRNA expression and methylation levels of NPTX2 gene by qRT-PCR and quantitative methylation with SYBR Green in 10 primary pancreatic carcinoma tissues and the matched adjacent normal tissues. The methylation levels of NPTX2 gene were then detected and compared using the above-mentioned method in the whole blood of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and healthy volunteers. Results: The relative quantification (RQ) of NPTX2 expression in pancreatic carcinoma tissues was significantly lower than that in the adjacent tissues (0.276±0.263 vs 3.526±3.037, P = 0.001). The result of quantitive methylation indicated that the methylation index (MI) of the carcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that of the adjacent tissues ([9.02±7.52]% vs [1.28±0.98]%, P = 0.003). MI of NPTX2 gene was negatively correlated with RQ value (R= -0.552, P = 0.012). We also found that the MI of the whole blood DNA methylation of patients with pancreatic cancer was significantly higher than that of healthy volunteers ([1.80±1.76]% vs [0.84±0.45]%, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Our findings strongly suggest that NPTX2 gene is aberrantly hypermethyated in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Detection of MI of NPTX2 gene might be of great value for diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Objective: To observe the protection of Testudinis Carapax et Plastrum extracts (TCPE) on serum starvation-induced PC12 cell apoptosis and explore its mechanism. Methods: The PC12 apoptosis model was established by serum starvation for 3 d. The cells were randomly divided into four groups: control group, model group, low-dose and high-dose (3 and 30 μg/mL) TCPE groups. In the three days of the treatment, cell absorbance was determined by MTT, ratio of cell apoptosis was examined by Annexin V/PI double stain flow cytometry (FCM), Caspase-3, BMP4, BMPR-IA, and p-Smad1/5/8 signaling molecular expression were detected by Western blotting, and the anti-apoptotic effect of TCPE was observed after blocking BMPs signal pathway. Semi-quantitative analysis of bands was carried out by Bio-Rad Quantity One gel analysis system. Results: MTT and FCM analyses demonstrated that TCPE could increase PC12 cell viability and decrease their apoptotic ratios in a dose dependent manner. Western blotting results showed that TCPE could decrease Caspase-3 expression, promote the expression of BMP4, BMPR-IA, and p-Smad1/5/8. There was statistically significant difference between TCPE (3 and 30 μg/mL) groups and model group (P<0.05, P<0.01) in all above results. While TCPE had no effect on the expression of BMP2, BMP7, and BMPR-II. BMPR-IB hadn't been detected. The anti-apoptotic activity was partially mitigated by neutralizing BMP4 antibody. Conclusion: TCPE has the capacity to inhibit the apoptosis of PC12 induced by serum starvation in a dose dependent manner and its mechanism may be associated with partially activating and up-regulating the expression of BMP4 signaling pathway.

Cyclic peptide drugs have gradually become an emerging research direction due to their some favorable properties such as high-efficiency binding affinity, high selectivity, lower toxicity, and stable metabolism. In recent years, the number of cyclic peptide drugs under clinical research has continued to increase. Unlike the previous cyclic peptide drugs, which were mostly derived from natural products and their derivatives, these cyclic peptide drugs are designed by genetically encoded display technologies which are based on rational design and in vitro evolution (such as BT1718, PTG-300, POL6326, etc). Among them, phage display technology has some advantages such as mature research system, low cost, and simpler operation that make it well recognized and praised by the majority of researchers in this field. Here, we reviewed the recent progress of applying phage display technology to explore diverse cyclic peptide libraries, which, we believe, will contribute more valuable candidate cyclic peptide drugs in clinical research.

To interpret the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory by the network technology, in order to promote the modernization and programming of studies on compatibility of TCMs. In this paper, efforts were made to express the direct interactions between drugs through the herb-pair network, analyze the community characteristics of the network and its relations with blood-Qi theory, and study the expression of blood-Qi theory on the herb-pair network through prescriptions. According to the findings, the herb-pairs network showed a strong community structure characteristics; Each community is composed of a series of herb pairs with close correlations, and either blood efficacy or Qi efficacy but not both of them. Based on that, the 386 single TCM ingredients involved by the herb-pair network were divided into three types of communities: Blood (B) community, Qi (Q) community and uncertain community. According to the statistical results of 262 prescriptions mapped onto the three types of communities, if a prescription contains single herbs of the Q community, the probability that it contains single herbs o the B community is 99.84%; Meanwhile, there are 140 prescriptions containing single herbs of both the Q community and the B community. The result is completely coincident with the TCM Blood-Qi theory that single herbs belong to both Q and B communities or the B community, because Qi regulation leads to blood regulation, but not vice versa. For example, a patient with hemorrhage due to trauma or blood-heat, Qi tonifying prescriptions may aggravate hemorrhage. In this paper, authors found high-recognition macroscopic network numerical characteristics to network data reference for judging rationality of new prescriptions, and proved human blood and Qi relations from the perspective of data analysis.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

Cytotoxic T lymphowcytes (CTL) play a major role in host anti-tumor immune responses. A major obstacle to the application of adoptive immunotherapy in the treatment of human maligancy is the inability to generate enough activated CTLs since the cytotoxic T cell undergoes activation induced apoptosis during destroying tumor cells. It is important to study how to limit activaton induced apoptosis of T cell so as to maximize the number of CTL and to enhance the tumor cytotoxicity. We have used CD3-induced Jurkat cell line as an activated T cell apoptosis model and introduced the anti-sense ICE cDNA into Jurkat T cells with retroviral vector. The effect on apoptosis of Jurkat cell induced by anti-CD3 or anti-Fas monoclonal antibody was evaluated after transfection with antisense human ICE. We found that the level of ICE expression in Jurkat cell transduced by the vector decreased and apoptosis was minimized in antisense ICE-transfected Jurkat cell after anti-CD3 or anti-Fas treatment. These results suggest that antisense blocking of ICE expression can partially inhibit Jurkat cell apoptosis induced by anti-CD3 or anti-Fas. Thus, applying antisense blocking of ICE to gene therapy may block the apoptosis of activated T cells, furthennore, enhance the antitumor effect.

Objective To study the effects of D-glucosamine hydrochloride on the apoptosis of gastric carcinoma cell line SGC-7901 and its mechanism.Methods SRB assay was used to examine the effects of D-glucosamine hydrochloride on the growth inhibition of SGC-7901.The cell-cycle and expression of cytochrome-C were observed by flow cytometry,the concentrations of intracellular Ca2+ was determined by CLSM and the expressions of cyclinB1,calcinerin were investigated by Western-Blot.Results D-glucosamine hydrochloride could block SGC-7901 cell-cycle at S phase of cell division,increase the concentration of intracellular Ca2+ and decrease the expression of cyclinB1,the expressions of calcinerin and cytochrome-c were increased respectively.Conclusion Block of cell-cycle may be one of the mechanism of inducing cell apoptosis by D-glucosamine hydrochloride.

Objective　To study the toxicity of Tripterygium Hypolaucun (Level) Hutch (THH). Methods　The flow cytometry technique was used to measure the micronucleus (MN) formation and cell apoptosis of Jurkat, CHE and NIH3T3 cell lines induced by THH. Results　THH could induce micronucleus formation and cell apoptosis of Jurkat, CHE and NIH3T3 cell lines. Quite similar changes were observed in three cell lines, but the Jurkat cells showed more sensitive than others. It was only 25 μl/plate THH that induced the high peak of MN formation at various time points, and only 50 μl/plate that induced the high peak of cell apoptosis. Conclusion　The result indicates that THH has stronger toxicity to Jurkat cells than to CHE and NIH3T3 cells.

Age-related white matter changes are considered as a manifestation of arteriolosclerotic small vessel disease and are associated with advanced age and vascular risk factors.White matter changes have been recognized as one of the manifestations of cerebral small vessel disease.They are the pathological basis of cognitive impairment and functional loss in the elderly.Studies have shown that when white matter changes develop to a certain extent,there will be many clinical symptoms,including cognitive impairment,dementia,depression,gait disturbances,and urinary incontinence,and they are associated with the increased risks of stroke and death.