Objective To investigate the serum amyloid A (SAA) and interleukin-18(IL-18)concentration in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its macrovascular complications, and study the relation between them. Methods ELISA was used to assay serum SAA and IL-18 levels in 65 T2DM patients (including 31 cases with macrovascular complications) and 30 healthy controls. Results Serum SAA and IL-18 levels [(3.09±0.96)mg/L, (98.8±36.4)ng/L]were significantly elevated in patients with T2DM as compared with those in control subjects [(1.06±0.45)mg/L, (58.9±15.6)ng/L](P<0.05). There was significant difference of SAA and IL-18 levels between T2DM patients with [(6.34±1.52) mg/L,(141.2±48.3)ng/L]and without macrovascukar complications [(2.65±0.39)mg/L, (80.2±20.1)ng/L](P < 0.05).Univariate linear regression analysis showed significant positive correlations between serum IL-18 with SAA (r =0.615, P<0.05), SAA, IL-18 and fasting blood glucose (FBG) had mutual positive correlations (r=0.312, 0.428, P< 0.05, respectively). Conclusions In patients with T2DM, serum SAA and IL-18 concentration is greater than in non-diabetic subjects. SAA and IL-18 play important roles in the initiation and development of T2DM. The study suggests that SAA and IL-18 might be an important independent risk factor.

Objective: To evaluate the cold and hot characteristics of Curcumae longae Rhizoma, Curcumae Radix and Curumae Rhizoma, and study the relationship between the content of curcumin in the three herbs and the hot and cold characteristics.Methods: MTT assay was used to investigate the effect of the three herbs on the growth of SGC-7901 in vitro.Trypan-blue staining was used to analyze the cytotoxicity, and the content of curcumin was detected by HPLC.Results: Curcumae longae Rhizoma and Curumae Rhizoma could promote the proliferation of SGC-7901 at the dose of 5 μg·ml-1 and showed hot characteristics;Curcumae Radix could inhibit the growth and proliferation of SGC-7901 within the concentration range of 5-800 μg·ml-1.Trypan-blue staining showed the three herbs had no cytotoxicity on SGC-7901.The content of curcumin in Curcumae Longae Rhizoma, Curcumae Radix and Curumae Rhizoma was 4.88%, 0.15% and 0.042%, respectively.Conclusion: The content of curcumin in the three herbs affects the hot and cold characteristics, and curcumin may be the important material basis for the hot and cold characteristics.

Thirteen of 4-anilinoquinazoline derivatives with imine groups at position 6 of quinazoline ring were synthesized and their antitumor activities were evaluated by MTT assay and Western blotting analysis. Among these compounds, 13a-131 were reported first time. The MTT assay was carried out on three human cancer cell lines (A549, HepG2 and SMMC7721) with EGFR highly expressed. Among the tested compounds, 13i and 13j exhibited notable inhibition potency and their IC50 values on three cell lines were equivalent to or less than those of gefitinib. Compound 14, without imine group substituted, displayed excellent inhibitor potency only on A549 cell line. Compounds 14 and 13j were chosen to perform Western blotting analysis on A549. The results showed that both of the compounds could inhibit the expression level of phosphorylated EGFR remarkably. It was concluded that the inhibitor potency of compound 14 was almost equivalent to that of gefitinib and the inhibitor potency of 13j was better than that of gefitinib.