Objective To study the effect of atorvastatin on serum levels of CRP,IL-6 and TNF-in patients with acute cerebral infarction.Methods 90 patients with acute cerebral infarction from March 2014 to March 2015 in the third people′s hospital of Huizhou were enrolled in the study.The control group received routine symptomatic treatment,and the observation group was treated with rosuvastatin on the basis of routine symptomatic treatment.The levels of serum CRP,IL-6 and TNF-α were observed before and after treatment in the two groups.After treatment,the neurological impairment was evaluated by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS),and the therapeutic effects of the two groups were compared.Results After treatment,CRP,TNF-α,IL-6 levels in observation group were (2.66±0.68)mg/L,(11.20±1.21)mg/L,(4.90±0.92)ng/L respectively,while (6.35±1.50)mg/L,(24.93±5.98)mg/L,(9.38±2.01)ng/L in control group.The three indicators of observation group were lower than those in control group,the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).The NIHSS score of observation group was (2.83±0.51)%,which was lower than that of control group[(6.91±1.21)%],the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05);the total efficiency of observation group was 95.55% (43/45),better than 71.11% in the control group (32/45),the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05).Conclusion Rosuvastatin can effectively reduce the levels of serum inflammatory factors CRP,IL-6 and TNF-α in patients with acute cerebral infarction,and effectively improve the therapeutic effect.

Polyethylenimine (PEI) is one of the most characterized non-viral vectors. It can condense DNA in a good manner and achieve high transfection efficiency. Minicircle DNA (mc-DNA) is a novel kind of supercoiled DNA which is devoid of bacterial backbone. mc-DNA is superior to conventional DNA for its higher transfection efficiency and longer time-span. In this study, we combined PEI and mc-DNA in gene delivery system. We investigated the physicochemical and biochemical effects of this non-viral system and further explore its potential in tumor gene therapy. mc-DNA was obtained by recombination of parental plasmid in the presence of L-arabinose, and complexed with PEI. The results of transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy showed that the particles were spherical and homogeneous. Through gel retardation assay and MTT assay, we found that there were no obvious differences in binding capability of PEI to mc-DNA and plasmid DNA, as well as in cytotoxicity. The results of dynamic light scattering showed that the size of PEI/mc-DNA was about 68 nm, a slight larger than that of PEI/plasmid DNA. Furthermore, the tumor cells transfected with mc-GFP showed higher GFP expression level than that of conventional plasmid. The same results were achieved in the cells treated with tumor-suppressor gene pten, assayed by RT-PCR and Western blot. It indicates that the system of PEI/minicircle DNA is promising in gene transfer.
DNA, Circular ; genetics ; Gene Transfer Techniques ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; genetics ; Nanoparticles ; chemistry ; PTEN Phosphohydrolase ; genetics ; Polyethyleneimine ; metabolism ; Transfection

Objective To investigate the expression level of transforming growth factorβ1 (TGF-β1) and interleukin 17 (IL-17) in patients with allergic conjunctivitis. Methods TGF-β1 and IL-17 expression levels in allergic conjunctivitis patients hospitalized in the author's hospital and a healthy population were detected to explore the expression level in all types of patients with allergic conjunctivitis. Results TGF-β1 and IL-17 levels were significantly higher in patients with allergic conjunctivitis than in healthy population (P<0.01). Among the four clinical subtypes of allergic conjunctivi-tis, vernal keratoconjunctivitis had the highest expression level of TGF-β1 and IL-17 in spring, followed by perennial allergic conjunctivitis and seasonal allergic conjunctivitis, and atopic keratoconjunctivitis had the lowest expression level. However, the differences among the four subtypes were not significant (P>0.05). Conclusion Patients with allergic conjunctivitis have higher TGF-β1 and IL-17 expression levels than normal healthy people. TGF-β1 and IL-17 ex-pression level vary in different subtypes of allergic conjunctivitis, vernal keratoconjunctivitis has higher expression level than other types in spring.

Objective:To compare the detection rate of genital Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) DNA between urine and urethral/cervical swab samples. Methods:From December 2018 to December 2019, a total of 1 475 outpatients were collected from sexually transmitted disease clinics in 7 medical institutions, such as Department of Venereology, Guangzhou Institute of Dermatology, including 1 118 males and 357 females. One urethral/cervical swab sample and one urine sample were collected successively from each patient. Real-time fluorescence-based PCR was performed to detect CT DNA in urine and urethral/cervical swab samples, and paired chi-square test was used to compare the positive rate of CT DNA between the 2 kinds of samples. Random- or fixed-effect meta-analysis was conducted for the test of heterogeneity and merging of positive rates of CT DNA in the urine and urethral/cervical swabs among 7 medical institutions.Results:The positive rate of CT DNA in the urine samples was significantly higher than that in the swab samples from 4 medical institutions (all P < 0.05) , while there was no significant difference in the positive rate of CT DNA between the 2 kinds of samples from 3 medical institutions (all P > 0.05) . The heterogeneity ( I2) estimates of the CT-DNA positive rate in urine and swab samples among different medical institutions were 78.6% (95% CI: 55.9% - 89.6%) and 73.7% (95% CI: 43.7% - 87.7%) , respectively; meta-analysis showed that the total merged positive rate of CT DNA in the urine samples was 10.8% (95% CI: 7.2% - 15.9%) , which was significantly higher than that in the swab samples (7.8%, 95% CI: 4.9% - 12.1%; χ2 = 39.2, P < 0.05) . Compared with the swab sample-based CT-DNA detection method, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and consistency rate of the urine sample-based CT-DNA detection method were 97.0% (128/132) , 96.3% (1 293/1 343) , 71.9% (128/178) , 99.7% (1 293/1 297) , and 96.3% (1 421/1 475) , respectively. The positive rate of CT DNA in the urine samples from 1 118 male patients was 11.0% (95% CI: 7.2% - 16.5%) , which was significantly higher than that in the swab samples (7.6%, 95% CI: 4.9% - 11.8%; χ2 = 34.3, P < 0.05) . There was no significant difference in the positive rate of CT DNA between the urine (11.9%, 95% CI: 7.7% - 17.9%) and cervical swab samples from 357 female patients (10.4%, 95% CI: 7.6% - 14.0%; χ2 = 3.2, P > 0.05) . Conclusions:The positive rate of CT DNA in urine samples is higher than or similar to that in urethral/cervical swab samples. The urine sample-based CT-DNA detection method has characteristics of convenience, non-invasiveness, painlessness and low cost, and is worthy of clinical promotion.

AlM: To investigate the effect of C. sinensis extracts on HBx (Hepatitis B virus X protein) induced cell proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation and the underlying mechanism in cultured human mesangial cells (HMCs). METHODS: Human mesangial cells were stable transfected with pCMV-HBx to establish an HBx over-expression model, and a control group was transfected with an empty vector. Cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay and DNA synthesis assay. Western blotting was used to measure the expression of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway-related proteins and extracellular matrix. RESULTS: HBx transfection induced cell proliferation, matrix accumulation. HBx-transfected mesangial cells had increased activity of the PI3K/Akt pathways, and treatment with C. sinensis suppressed this effect. CONCLUSlON: C.sinensis attenuates the HBx-induced human mesangial cell proliferation and matrix production in human mesangial cells via inhibition of the PI3K/Akt pathways.

Myxomas are the most frequent, cardiac benign cardiac tumors which often present with stroke caused by tumorous orthrombotic emboli. The treatment of embolic stroke due to cardiac myxoma is still a clinical and technical challenge. A 61-year-old man who had an embolic stroke in the left middle cerebral artery was admitted to the Third Poeple′s Hospital of Huizhou. The initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was 16. He received endovascular thrombectomy after intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) one hour after stroke onset. No intracranial hemorrhage developed. Pathological study of embolus showed a myxoma. A cardiac mass was found in the left atrium and removed surgically three weeks after stroke. Pathological study of the tumor showed a myxoma. At the one-month follow-up after excision of myxoma, the NIHSS score was 1 and the modified Rankin scale score was 0. No recurrence of embolism occurred after surgical resection. Endovascular thrombectomy after intravenous rt-PA (bridging therapy) for embolic stroke due to cardiac myxoma is safe and effective, and early resection of atrial myxoma can effectively avoid recurrence of cerebral infarction.