1.Clinical comparison on the effects of escitalopram and amitriptyline in treating depression patients with suicide-related symptoms
Gengyi CHEN ; Zhensong GAO ; Zhengxiong CHEN
Chinese Journal of Behavioral Medicine and Brain Science 2014;23(4):338-340
Objective To explore the effects and safety of escitalopram on suicide-related symptoms for depression patients controlled with amitriptyline.Methods Depression patients with suicide-related symptoms were randomly grouped.The study group(n=35) were treated with escitalopram 10 mg/d to 20 mg/d and the control group(n=33) were done with amitriptyline 75 mg to 250 mg daily.Both groups with psychotherapy were carried out for 8 weeks' observation.The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) and Clinical Global Impression-severity of illness (CGI-SI) were tested and suicide-related examined before and after 1,2,4,6 and 8 weeks'treatment.The Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale (TESS) was checked at 4th week to evaluate safety.Results In the study group,the incidence of wishing to die (97.1%),suicidal attempts (91.4%),suicidal ideations (88.6%),suicidal plans (80.0%),hopelessness (71.4%) and suicidal behavior (54.3%) was similar to the control group(97.0%,97.0%,90.9%,87.9%,72.7% and 54.5%,respectively,x2 =0.00-0.94,P>0.05).The incidence of suicide-related symptoms showed significantly lower after treatment than before (P<0.01).At 1st week treatment,the incidences of hopelessness (37.1%),suicidal plans (45.7%) and suicidal ideations (48.6%)showed significantly lower in the study group than those in the control group(63.6%,72.7% and 75.8%,respectively,x2 =4.77,5.12,5.32,P< 0.05).The study group showed significantly lower side-effects (11.4%) at 4th weeks' treatment than the control group(62.9%,x2 =21.95,P<0.01).Conclusion The effects of escitalopram on suicide-related symptoms for depression patients is similar to amitriptyline but with faster effect and higher safety.
2.Study on quality of life of 200 adult patients with epilepsy
Cheng CUI ; Chun-liang LIN ; Sen-mei LI ; Chaowu YANG ; Zhengxiong CHEN ; Cailai QIN ; Weihong LIN ; Chuqing LIN
Chinese Journal of Rehabilitation Theory and Practice 2002;8(5):300-301
ObjectiveTo investigate the quality of life (QOL) of the epilepsy patients and the factors affected the QOL.Methods200 cases were investigated using the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory 10 (QOLEI-10) and the Washington Psychosocial Seizure Investigate (WPSI). 200 healthy persons were chosen as normal control group. ResultsThe QOL of the patient group were significantly poor as compared with that of normal control group(P<0.01). The factors that the patients always faced with were disability in the attack control, short in money, unemployment, restriction of movement, disability in intercommunication, psychological disorder (depress, strain, anxiety, dread, shame feel, cognitional dysfunction, etc.), as well as the difficult to get professional curtains, taking medicine improperly and side effects of the medicine. Conclusions The factors mentioned, which were usually neglected by many doctors, do affect the QOL of epilepsy patients, and hinder the epilepsy treatment effectively.
3.Optimization of heparosan synthetic pathway in Bacillus subtilis 168.
Linpei ZHANG ; Hao WANG ; Zhengxiong ZHOU ; Guocheng DU ; Jian CHEN ; Zhen KANG
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2017;33(6):936-945
Heparosan is the start point for chemoenzymatic synthesis of heparin and it is of great significance to efficiently synthesize heparosan in microorganisms. The effects of overexpressing key enzyme genes of the UDP-glucuronic acid (UDP-GlcUA) pathway (pgcA, gtaB and tuaD) or the UDP-N-acetyl-glucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc) pathway (glmS, glmM and glmU) on the heparosan production and molecular mass were analyzed in the constructed heparosan-producing Bacillus subtilis ((1.71±0.08) g/L). On this basis, heparosan production was increased to (2.89±0.11) g/L with the molecular mass of (75.90±1.18) kDa through co-overexpressing the tuaD, gtaB, glmU, glmM and glmS genes in shake flask cultivation. In the 3 L fed-batch fermentation, heparosan production was improved to (7.25±0.36) g/L with the molecular mass of (46.66±2.71) kDa, providing the potential for heparosan industrial production.