Objective To explore the clinical effect of manipulation treatment combined with auricular point sticking on vertebral artery cervical spondylopathy. Methods 120 patients with vertebral artery cervical spondylopathy were randomly divided into 3 groups, 40 cases in each. The comprehensive group received manipulation treatment and auricular point sticking. The manipulation treatment group received manipulation treatment only and the auricular point sticking group received auricular point sticking only. The peak systolic velocity (Vp), end diastolic peak flow velocity (Vd), mean peak flow velocity (Vm) of the vertebral-basilar artery were checked before and after treatment. Results The clinical cure rates (80%) was higher in the comprehensive group than in the manipulation treatment group (52.5%) and in the auricular point sticking group (47.5%) (P<0.01). The Vp, Vd, Vm in 3 groups improved obviously after treatment (P<0.05), especially in the comprehensive group (P<0.01). Conclusion Manipulation treatment with auricular point sticking is more effective on vertebral artery cervical spondylopathy than simply manipulation treatment or auricular point sticking.

As an important material in pharmaceutical and chemical industry, β-alanine was mainly produced by chemical methods. L-aspartate-α-decarboxylase could catalyze the α-decarboxylation from L-aspartate to β-alanine. Determinations for specific activities of PanDs from Escherichia coli, Corynebacterium glutamicum and Bacillus subtilis were performed in this study (0.98 U/mg, 7.52 U/mg and 8.4 U/mg respectively). The optimal temperature and pH of PanDs from C. glutamicum and B. subtilis were 65 degrees C, pH 6.5 and 60 degrees C, pH 6.5 respectively. According to our research, PanD from B. subtilis could be more appropriate for industrial application because of the higher activity and thermostability when compared to PanDs from E. coli and C. glutamicum which had been the most studied. We also analyzed and discussed the special post-translation self-cleavage phenomenon and the mechanism based inactivation.
Bacillus subtilis ; enzymology ; Bacterial Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Corynebacterium glutamicum ; enzymology ; Escherichia coli ; enzymology ; Glutamate Decarboxylase ; genetics ; metabolism ; Industrial Microbiology ; Temperature ; beta-Alanine

Objective: To explore the genetic basis for a pedigree affected with Marfan syndrome (MFS). Methods: Clinical data of the patients was collected.With genomic DNA extracted from peripheral blood samples, potential mutation was detected by targeted exome sequencing.Candidate variants were validated by Sanger sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. Results: Targeted exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing revealed a missense c. 649T>C(p.Trp217Arg) variant in the exon 7 of FBN1 gene, which was unreported previously.Bioinformatics analysis suggested that the variant can cause amino acid replacement and affect the structure and function of fibrillin-1. Conclusion A novel missense variant of the FBN1 gene was identified, which probably underlies the autosomal dominant MFS in this pedigree.