The neurotoxin peptide, hainantoxin-Ⅵ (HNTX- Ⅵ), has been isolated from the venom of Chinese tarantula Ornithoconus hainana by a combination of ion exchange chromatography and reverse phase HPLC. The toxin was found to contain 34 amino acid residues with 6 conserved cysteine residues. The effects of HNTX-VI on voltage-gated sodium channels were studied via whole-cell patch clamp techniques. Although several inhibitors of mammalian neuronal sodium channel activation (hainantoxin Ⅰ-Ⅴ) had been characterized from the same venom, the present study indicated that HNTX-Ⅵ had the ability to slow the inactivation kinetics of the sodium channels in Cockroach Periplaneta Americana dorsal unpaired median (DUM) neurons in a similar manner to δ-atractoxins. After HNTX-Ⅵ treatment, steady-state sodium channel inactivation became incomplete, leading to a non-inactivating component at potentials more positive than - 55 mV. The novel function of the tarantula toxin HNTX-Ⅵ not only supplies a useful tool for exploring the gating mechanisms of sodium channels but also provides theoretical foundations for exploiting novel and safe insecticides.

Objective To observe the effect of moxibustion on the learning ability and memory of rat models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the expression of amyloidβ protein (Aβ)-42, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-2, for unveiling the function and mechanism of moxibustion in treating AD.Method Forty-eight healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized into a sham-operation group, a model group, a Western medication group, and a moxibustion group, 12 rats in each group. The AD model rats were established by injection of Streptozotocin (STZ) into bilateral ventricles. From the 10th day after the operation, the moxibustion group started to receive moxibustion at Baihui (GV 20), Mingmen (GV 4), Changqiang (GV 1), and Guanyuan (CV 4); meanwhile, the Western medication group received Donepezil hydrochloride via intragastric administration. After 30-day treatment, the learning and memory ability was tested by using water maze, the hippocampal Aβ-42 was examined by immunohistochemical method, and the expression of hippocampal IL-1β and IL-2 was by double-antibody sandwich ELISA.Result Compared to the model group, moxibustion significantly down-regulated the levels of Aβ-42 (P<0.05) and IL-1β protein (P<0.05), up-regulated the level of IL-2 protein (P<0.05) in hippocampus, and markedly improved the learning and memory of AD rats (P<0.05).Conclusion Moxibustion can enhance the immunity and learning ability, which is plausibly related to the down-regulation of IL-1β, up-regulation of IL-2, and improvement of Aβ-42 in hippocampus.

We developed a portable non-specific low back pain measurement system EasiLBP and evaluated its performance in collecting EMG signals:during the wearer's movement without the assistance of a doctor, the collection of EMG signals by portable devices met problems such as large noise interference, difficulty in accurately calibrating the start and end points of the action interval, and imbalanced samples for feature recognition, et al. To challenge these problems, we proposed a small group-based noise removal method, a dynamic dual-threshold automatic method for identifying the start and end points of the motion interval, and a sampling method to balance group samples, respectively. Portable device and a medical EMG acquisition equipment Thought Technology FlexComp Infiniti 10 were used to perform EMG measurements on 15 patients with non-specific low back pain and 15 normal people. Clinical experiments and statistical analysis show that the portable EMG acquisition system has significant differences in EMG signal characteristics between normal people and non-specific low back pain patients, and it has good measurement consistency and accuracy with the medical EMG acquisition equipment.
Electromyography ; Humans ; Low Back Pain ; Motion ; Movement ; Pain Measurement