The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory of "treating heart and brain diseases with same methods (Nao Xin Tong Zhi: NXTZ)" has great significance to the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It has been proven effective by a great deal of clinical researches. However, the underlying mechanism for this theory is still unclear. To provide insights into the potential mechanism of "NXTZ", this study attempts to deeply investigate the mechanism from two representative cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, coronary heart disease (CHD) and cerebral apoplexy. First, various data resources were integrated to obtain different types of biomedical entities including drugs, targets, pathways and diseases. Then, three different approaches including text mining, biological network and enrichment analysis were utilized to recognize the potential common features between CHD and cerebral apoplexy, and the corresponding functions of drugs which could treat both diseases, thus unveiling the mechanism of NXTZ.
Brain ; drug effects ; Coronary Artery Disease ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; Databases, Bibliographic ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Heart ; drug effects ; Humans ; Stroke ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism

Objective: To observe the inhibitory effect of scopolamine(Spm) and chlopromazine (Clo) on withdrawal syndromes in morphine dependent rats. Methods: The intensity of withdrawal syndromes on the model of morphine dependent rats was recorded after single or muiltiple subcutaneous administration(sc) of Spm and Clo at different doses. Results: Withdrawal syndromes were markedly decreased when single Spm 1 mg/kg and Clo 0.5 mg/kg combined with morphine were injected (P<0.05). Spm+Clo(sc) had much stronger effects on inhibiting withdrawal syndromes after intraperitoneal (ip) naloxone in morphine dependent rats (P<0.01). Conclusion: Spm can act on Ach-receptor and relieve morphine withdrawal syndromes. Clo may have a synergistic action with Spm via α2-receptor in the locus coeruleus of the rat brain stem.

A novel high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of 4-O- methylhonokiol in rabbit plasma and was applied to its pharmacokinetic investigation. Plasma samples were treated by one-fold volume of methanol and acetonitrile to remove the interference proteins. A reverse phase column of SHIM- PACK VP-ODS （150 mm ×4.6 mm, 5.0 μm） was used to separate 4-O-methylhonokiol in the plasma samples. The detection limit of 4-O-methylhonokiol was 0.2 μg/L and the linear range was 0. 012 - 1. 536 mg/L. The good extraction recoveries were obtained for the spiked samples （84.7%, 89.3% and 87.7% for low, middle and high concentrations of added standards, respectively）. The relative standard deviation of intra-day and inter-day precisions was in the range from 0.6% to 13.5%. The pharmacokinetic study of 4-O-methylhonokiol was made and the results from the plasmaconcentration curve of 4-0-methylhonokiol showed a two-apartment open model. This work developed a sensitive, stable and rapid HPLC method for the determination of 4-O-methylhonokiol and the developed method has been successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of 4-O-methylhonokiol.

Objective:To observe the disinfection efficiency of N-doped nano-TiO2 on the curing light-guide rods.Methods:50 light-guide rods from 6 dental clinics were included,the bacteria adhesion on the light-guide rods before and after disinfection with N-doped nano-TiO2 was investigated using ATP bioluminescence method.Results:The RLU value of light-guide rods exposed to the air was 51 -649 before the use of N-doped nano-TiO2 disinfection,after spraying N-doped nano-TiO2 ,the RLU value of light-guide rods was 0 -6(P <0.01 ).Conclusion:N-doped nano-TiO2 has significant sterilization effect on the curing light-guide rods.

Objective To compare the effect of nursing students acting as social volunteers to participate in gerontological nursing practice teaching with traditional practice teaching mode, and promote the reform of teaching mode in nursing practice. Methods Students of two classes from department of nursing, medical college of Wuhan University of Science and Technology were selected as research objects. In class one nursing students acted as social volunteers to participate in gerontological nursing practice teaching (the experimental group), In class two nursing students took practice in geriatric wards according to traditional practice mode(the control group). The practice effect was compared between two groups. Results The average final grade of the experimental group was 86.50, and 78.51 in the control group. Ridit analysis revealed that, setting class one as the experimental group, R=0.796 8,95% confidence interval was 0.715 1-0.878 4, in the control group, R =0.500 0. The investigation showed that the experimental group and the control group were different in moral elevation aspect, teaching level, capability improving aspect and employment promotion aspect, the difference was significant (P<0.01). Conclusions The mode of nursing students acting as social volunteers to participate in gerontological nursing practice teaching has advantage over traditional practice teaching, and it can gain satisfying teaching effect.

OBJECTIVE: To discuss whether a reduced dose of CsA was allowed yet without increase risk of rejection, and whether the incidence of CsA-related side effects be reduced while the curative effects be enhanced by combined use of Cyclosporine (CsA), prednisone and Mycophenolate Mofetil (MMF) in patients after renal transplantation. METHODS: In this comparative study, 213 renal allograft recipients receiving routine dose of CsA were compared with 176 cases receiving low dose CsA. RESULTS: The two groups showed no significant differences in renal function, incidence of rejection and human/kidney survival rate. However, the low dose CsA group showed a better total curative efficacy and significantly fewer incidences of ADRs. CONCLUSION: CsA, MMF and Pred used concomitantly in patients after renal transplantation allows for a reduced dose of CsA yet without increase the risk of acute rejection if with enough dose of MMF.

Objective To explore the changes of the hippocampal formation and the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of aged female Long-Evans rat. Methods The hippocampal formation and the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of 5 young (6-month old), 5 middle-aged (18-month old) and 6 aged (28-month old) female Long-Evans rats were quantitatively investigated with the stereological techniques and transmission electronic microscope technique. Results There were no significant changes in the volume of hippocampal formation, the volume density, the total volume, the length density and the mean diameter of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation among young, middle-aged and aged rats. When compared to that of young rats, the total length of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of middle-aged rats was significantly increased by 63.6%. When compared to that of middle-aged rats, the total length of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of aged rats was significantly decreased by 47.5%. When compared to that of young rats, the total length of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of aged rats was non-significantly decreased by 13.8%. Conclusion Although the reason why the total length of the myelinated nerve fibers in the hippocampal formation of middle-aged rats was longer than that of young rats needs further investigations, the present results together with our previous findings in white matter and cortex further suggest that there are age-related changes of the myelinated nerve fibers in the normal aged brains.

Objective To investigate the effective regimen to treat the hepatitis C virus (HCV) recurrence after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Methods The clinical data of 4 cases of HCV recurrence after OLT were retrospectively analyzed. Of the 4 cases, there were 3 cases of HCV related liver cirrhosis and 1 case of HCV related liver cirrhosis in combination with hepatocellular carcinoma. The immunosuppression regimen as FK506, MMF and corticosteroids was used after OLT. As soon as HCV recurrence was confirmed by liver biopsy during 8 to 12 weeks after OLT, pegylated interferonα-2a (PEG-IFNα-2a) and ribavirin (RIB) were used for 48 weeks. PEG-IFNα-2a was started at a dose of 180 μg per week subcutaneously and RIB at a dose of 1000 mg per day orally, respective-ly. Blood routine, liver and kidney function test, HCV-RNA and transplanted liver biopsy were per-formed when necessary and biochemical response, sustained virologic response and histological re-sponse were tested in due time. Remits All of the 4 cases except for 1 achieved sustained virologic re-sponse and the liver function was as normal as before. The histological activity index was improved significantly for both inflammatory activity and fibrosis according to liver biopsy in 0, 48, 72 week srespectively. Case 4 was given corticosteroids for consecutively 3 days when acute rejection was veri-fied by liver biopsy and the condition improved. None of them stopped treatment or withdrew from them directly. Conclusion The combination of PEG-IFNα-2a and RIB was an effective regimen to treat the HCV recurrence after OLT and the side effects could be overcame easily.

Objective To study the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spiral CT in thyroid microcarcinoma (TMC), in order to improve the diagnostic accuracy of TMC. Methods The preoperative imaging manifestations of MRI and spiral CT in 68 TMC patients who were confirmed by surgical pathology were retrospectively analyzed, and the diagnostic accordance rates were compared between the independent and the combined diagnosis. Results The diagnostic accordance rates of MRI and spiral CT in TMC were 73.53%(50/68) and 66.18%(45/68). The diagnostic accordance of combined MRI and spiral CT in TMC was 88.24%(60/68). The diagnostic accordance rate of combined MRI and spiral CT was significantly higher than that of independent examine, and there was statistical difference (P<0.05). The lesion detection rate of MRI was significantly higher than that of spiral CT:95.59% (65/68) vs. 83.82% (57/68), but the calcification lesion detection rate of spiral CT was significantly higher than that of MRI: 85.42% (41/48) vs. 4.17% (2/48), and there were statistical differences (P<0.05 or <0.01). There were no statistical differences in the detection rates of irregular shape lesions, boundary indistinct/coarse lesion, signal/uneven density lesions and cervical lymph node metastasis between MRI and spiral CT (P>0.05). Conclusions Spiral CT is superior to MRI in the micro-calcification detection, and MRI, with a high resolution of soft tissue, can display the lesions of surrounding tissue organs and neck lymph node metastasis better. The combined examine can increase the diagnostic accuracy of TMC.

Objective To determine the neuronal damage or loss and gliosis at the cellular level in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3/Machado-Joseph disease(SCA3/MJD), and evaluate the potential use of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and protein S 100 B(S100B) serum concentrations as biochemical markers. Methods Serum concentrations of NSE and S100B were measured in 102 SCA3/MJD patients and 100 healthy subjects matched by sex and age. The correlations between both markers and age, age of onset, disease duration, CAG repeat size, scores of international cooperative ataxia rating scale(ICARS), and scale for the assessment and rating of ataxia(SARA) were analyzed. Results Compared with the healthy controls, patients with SCA3/MJD had higher NSE serum concentrations [(6.95±2.83)ng/mL vs (4.83±1.70) ng/mL, P<0.05] and higher S100B serum concentrations [(0.07±0.06) ng/mL vs (0.05±0.02) ng/mL, P<0.05]. In the SCA3/MJD patients group, NSE levels presented a positive correlation with age, disease duration, ICARS scores and SARA scores, whereas S100B levels did not correlate with age, age of onset, disease duration, ICARS scores and SARA scores. CAG repeat size did not correlate with the NSE levels and S100B levels in different age groups of SCA3/MJD patients. Conclusion Serum NSE might be a useful marker to monitor disease progression and represent the degree of severity of a certain disease. Elevated S100B serum concentrations in patients compared to healthy controls may suggest an application of this protein as a peripheral marker of brain impairment in SCA3/MJD.