Chemical warfare agents and chemical terrorism agents have been identified as one of the major threats to human survival and national security currently. The key to dealing with these threats is the effective medical countermeasures of which specific antidotes take center stage. In the past decade,real or potential chemical threats which has sparked regional conflicts,terrorist activities or chemical accidents intentionally or unintentionally have increased the investment in antidotes research and development worldwide. Here,we introduced the research status on medical countermeasures against chemical threat by giving an overview of the United States ″Countermeasures Against Chemi?cal Threats(CounterACT)Program″,and then the recent research progress in antidotes against nerve agents,sulfur mustard and cyanide toxicities were reviewed.

Vesicular glutamate transporters(VGLUTs)package specifically glutamate into synaptic vesicles in the presynaptic terminal for subsequent release into the synaptic cleft.VGLUT1 and VGLUT2 together label all glutamatergic neurons,are highly specific markers of glutamatergic neurons and their axon terminals.VGLUT1 and VGLUT2 are respectively the neurochemical marker of cortico-cortical projection and thalamo-cortical projection.VGLUT3 is also expressed in cholinergic interneurons,serotoninergic neurons,subsets of GABAergic interneurons in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex.The disfunction of VGLUTs can lead to the abnormal excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate,resulting in many nervous system disease.In order to give a clue for prevention and therapy of these diseases,this paper reviews the disfunction of VGLUTs effects on Alzheimer's disease(AD),Parkinson's disease(PD),schizophrenia,depressive disorder,epilepsy and deafness.

Alzheimer′s disease(AD)is one of the neurodegenerative diseases.Now it seriously threatens the life of the elderly.The pathogenesis of AD is not clear,thus there is no cure for this disease.The current treatment can′t reverse the pathological change of the disease or prevent the development of the disease,and the symptoms of the AD patients can only be partly improved.In recent years,the application of RNAi technology to the inhibition of the expression of the AD-related genes provides a new method for the treatment of AD.This article mainly introduces the application of the RNAi technology to AD.

Aim To disclose the molecular mechanism of Liuwei Dihuang decoction(LW)enhances the cognitive function of central nervous system, the effects of Liuwei Dihuang decoction on the differential expression genes in the hippocampus of senescence-accelerated mouse was studied. Methods There were 8 gene expression patterns, such as SAMP8 and SAMR1, SAMP8 as negative control and SAMR1 as positive control, huperzine A-treated SAMP8 and SAMP8 as negative control, LW-treated SAMP8 and SAMP8 as negative control, were compared and assessed by use of the differential expression cDNA microarray of the hippocampus of SAMP8 and SAMR1. The response genes of LW were compared. Results LW had significant modulating effects on some of the gene expressions. Expressions of genes, such as DUSP12, NSF, STUB1, CaMKⅡ?, AMFR, UQCRFS1 and other 11 novel genes without any functional clues changed significantly. These genes involved in the protein-tyrosine phosphatase family, the AAA(ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities)gene family, the serine/threonine protein kinases family, ubiquitin ligase, mitochondrial function and so on. Conclusions These results suggested LW effects on the cognitive impairments might be multi-mechanism and these genes might be the potential gene targets for LW effects on the impairments.

NG-nitro-D-arginine (D-NNA) produced pressor responses in rats by acting via chiral inversion intoNG-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA), an inhibitor of nitro oxide synthase. The present investigation aimed to study the roleof the D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) in chiral inversion of D-NNA and the relationship between DAAO activitieson various D-amino acids and their inversion rate. Benzoate (400 mg/kg) or creatinine (400 mg/kg), two inhibitorsof DAAO, blocked D-NNA-induced pressor responses in rats. Furthermore, the addition of the pure DAAOsignificantly potentiates L-NNA production rate in kidney homogenates by approximately 2-folds. The in vivo andin vitro results suggested that DAAO plays an essential role in the pressor responses elicited by D-NNA.Moreover, crude DAAO solution from the kidney showed marked selection (the maximal ratio of Kcat/Km wasnearly 15 times) on different D-amino acids that exhibited similar chiral inversion rate in vivo, suggesting that otherenzymes, such as transaminase, are also required for the entire process of D-NNA chiral inversion.

Objective To compare the clinical effectivness of the treatment by open surgery and by therapeutic endoscopy for common bile duct(CBD) stones.Methods The randomised controlled trails on the open surgery or therapeutic endoscopy for CBD stones were identified by electronic-searching and hand-searching,meta-analysis was conducted using the methods recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration.Data of 407 patients included in 6 high-quality randomized controlled trials were meta-analyzed using in fixed effect model.Results Compared with endoscopic stone extraction technique,open surgery had retained stones after primary intervention rate(OR 0.39,95% CI 0.25 to 0.75,P=0.003) and additional procedures rate(OR 0.33,95% CI 0.19 to 0.60,P=0.0002) with statistical significance.But open surgery made no significant difference in postoperative complication rate(Peto OR 1.10,95% CI 0.69 to 1.76,P=0.67).Conclusion Current evidence suggests that there is no significant difference between open surgery and therapeutic endoscopy in preoperative complications,but open surgery is superior to therapeutic endoscopy in stone clearence rate.

Survivin is a member of the IAP family, which has been shown to localize to various components of the mitotic apparatus. Survivin is not only an apoptosis inhibitor, but a mitotic regulator as well. Survivin is Absolutely undetectable in normal tissues, but over-expressed in all the most common human cancers. Survivin is considered as an important target in cancer treatment, and the research on its molecular antagonists has gained encouraging achievements.

D-amino acids were believed to have no function in higher organisms several years ago. Recently, D-serine was proved to be synthesized by astrocytes in vivo and be released to work as an effective coagonist at the “glycine-binding” site of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors in central nervous system. In this paper, the synthesis, metabolism and function of D-serine were reviewed briefly.

RNA dot blot hybridization was employed to investigate the alterations in C-myc, C-H-ras transcript levels in bone marrow and peripheral blood cells from 24 patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia. 10 cases of normal bone marrow cells were used as control. We found that the positive rates and intensities of expression of C-myc and C-H-ras in acute nonlymphocytic leukemia were hipher than those of normal control. The C-myc and C-H-ras expressed simultaneously in 10 patients. After having been cultured 5 days with RA and low dose Ara-C combined with low dose Harr, the C-myc transcipt level of C-myc in acute nonlymphocytic leukemia was decreased obviously.

Autocrine motility factor (AMF) plays an important role in the stimulation of the migration and motility of cells, especially the generation, migration and angiogenesis of tumor. Recently, it has been found that AMF has three isoforms, ATX-t, ATX-m and PD-I alpha. The PD-I alpha isoform is specifically expressed in the brain, which plays extensive functions in nervous system, such as regulating neural development and differentiation, promoting neurotrauma repair, inducing neuropathic pain, even contributing neurodegeneration under some circumstances. This indicates the close relationship of AMF/AMFR and the pathophysiology of the nervous system. This paper mainly reviews the function of AMF and AMFR and its possible mechanism in the nervous system.