To clone cDNA of human leptin gene and obtain leptin protein for future study on leptin binding proteins. The cDNA of human leptin with 6 x his-tag was cloned by over-hang extension PCR protocol using human genomic DNA as template, and subcloned into in vitro expression vector pIVEX2.3MCS, and the fusion protein was expressed in vitro by Rapid Translation System (RTS) (RTS500 cycle primer Kit and RTS500 ProteoMaster of Roche company). The apparent molecular weight(19.46 kD) and the immuno-specificity of the fusion protein were confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot, and the expressed fusion protein stayed mainly in the supernatant of the reaction mixture in soluble form. This work provides us solid basis for further study on new leptin-associated proteins.
Blotting, Western ; Cloning, Molecular ; DNA, Complementary ; genetics ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Humans ; Leptin ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism ; Molecular Weight ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo investigate the possible relationship between variation of coxsackievirus B3 (CoxB3) VP1 sequence from cerebrospinal fluid of children with severe and mild central nervous system (CNS) infection and damage to CNS in children from Shandong province.

METHODSThe enteroviruses were detected using VP1 typing and sequencing primer for enteroviruses from 73 enterovirus-infected cases confirmed by detection of cerebrospinal fluid by enteroviruses common primer. VP1 sequences (450 nucleotides) were determined and analyzed for 21 CoxB3 enteroviruses strains isolated in Qingdao and Binzhou, and were compared with that of BLAST search procedures from GeneBank in NCBI. The variation of VP1 gene and amino acids sequence of CoxB3 enteroviruses was analyzed for severe and mild CNS infection.

RESULTSThe nucleotide homogeneity of these CoxB3 appeared to be 97% - 99%, however, the homogeneity among different genotypes were 83% - 76%. Replacement of glutamine by histidine at amino acid locus 856 of VP1 CoxB3 was found in 4 cases with severe encephalitis. There were different variation in VP1 nucleotide sequence of CoxB3 in 3 cases with mild encephalitis and 14 cases with meningitis, but amino acids sequences had no regular variation. The modified Glasgow's coma score was below 7 in all the 4 cases with severe encephalitis. Of these 4 cases, 3 had consciousness disturbance for less than 3 days. Lethargy, restlessness and psychiatric symptoms were major manifestations, of whom 3 also had dysphagia, 1 had encephalatrophy obviously, Glasgow's coma score was 3, deep coma lasted for 9 days, and had concomitant fatal epileptic attacks. Of these 4 cases, 2 completely recovered, 1 had high muscle tone, 1 remained under anti-epileptic drug treatment at follow-up 6 months later.

CONCLUSIONThere were a small epidemic of CoxB3 CNS infection in children in 2005 in this area. The amino acid variation of CoxB3 VP1 possibly caused increased viral virulence and caused damage to CNS.

Amino Acid Sequence ; Base Sequence ; Capsid Proteins ; cerebrospinal fluid ; genetics ; Central Nervous System ; pathology ; virology ; Child ; Coxsackievirus Infections ; cerebrospinal fluid ; epidemiology ; virology ; Encephalitis ; virology ; Enterovirus B, Human ; genetics ; pathogenicity ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Molecular Sequence Data ; RNA, Viral ; genetics ; Virulence

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant tumor worldwise. The incidence rate of HCC is high and is easy to metastasis and recurrence, which seriously affects human health. Traditional chemical drugs have some challenges such as toxicity, side effects, and multidrug resistance, thus it is urgent to find new drugs and effective targets. Here we synthesized a novel chemical, protonic bis-phenanthroline (H-BP), and the antitumor effect was investigated in the study. The results showed that H-BP could selectively inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells and cause HCC apoptosis. And also, in HCC tumor-bearing mice, H-BP could effectively prevent the growth of tumor mass, even completely eliminate the tumor at medium dose (5 mg·kg^-1) and high dose (10 mg·kg^-1), and meanwhile H-BP has no significant effect on the body weight of mice. The experimental protocol was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Southwest University, and the experimental operation was strictly carried out in accordance with the ethical principles of animal use and care. Mechanism studies showed that H-BP induced HCC apoptosis was related to down-regulation the expression of pleomorphic adenoma gene like-2 (PLAGL2), a oncogene transcription factor, resulting in the down-regulation of PLAGL2 downstream proteins hypoxia inducible factor and β-catenin. This study not only introduces the dimerization method to form novel compounds that will provide a new approach for drug design, but also suggests that PLAGL2 may be an effective target in tumor therapy.

The study was purposed to investigate the possible mechanism of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) induced p16 gene demethylation and transcription regulation in the malignant lymphoma cell line-CA46. The induced growth inhibition of CA46 cells was assayed by growth curve and MTT; the DNA content of CA46 cells was analyzed by flow cytometry after being exposed to EGCG; the methylation status of the p16 gene in CA46 cell line before and after treatment with EGCG was detected by the nested-methylation specific PCR and DNA sequencing; the mRNA of p16 and DNA methyltransferases (DNMT3A and DNMT3B) gene were determined by RT-PCR. The results showed that in comparison with the control, all the 3 different concentration of EGCG were able to inhibit the growth of malignancy cell lines and increase the cell number in G(0)/G(1) phase. After treatment with EGCG for 48 hours, the methylation level was apparently attenuated in a concentration-dependent manner. Expression of p16 gene in untreated group was mild while in the treated groups it had been greatly strengthened, as compared with untreated group, the gray scale ratio of p16 to beta-actin 1 treated with EGCG (6, 12, 24) microg/ml was increased from (0.05 +/- 0. 01) to (0.19 +/- 0.03), (0.39 +/- 0.10), (0.85 +/- 0.09) respectively, exhibiting a significant difference (p < 0.05); as compared with the untreated group, after treatment with EGCG for 48 hours, the expressions of DNMT3A and DNMT3B were obviously down-regulated. It is concluded that EGCG can activate and up-regulate the expression of p16 gene mRNA which inhibits the proliferation of CA46 cell through inducing the G(0)/G(1) arrest by demethylation and/or by inhibiting DNMT3A and DNMT3B gene.
Catechin ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases ; metabolism ; DNA Methylation ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Genes, p16 ; Humans ; Lymphoma ; genetics ; Transcription, Genetic

Growth year is one of the important factors for the quality of Polygala tenufolia. In this study, primary metabolites and secondary metabolites were compared in 1, 2 and 3 years old P. tenufolia cultivated in Shaanxi Heyang. The samples were subjected to ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOF MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis, and the obtained data were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and other statistical analysis methods. In addition, content and correlation of different metabolites were also calculated. The results showed no significance between main component contents in 2 year-old and 3 year-old P. Tenufolia, but 1 year-old was statistically different. The contents of primary metabolites, such as fructose, sucrose, and choline increased as time goes on, while glycine and raffinose decreased. The contents of secondary metabolites, such as onjisaponin Fg, polygalasaponin XXVIII, polygalasaponin XXXII increased, while polygalaxanthone III and parts of oligosaccharide multi-ester including tenuifoliose A, tenuifoliose C, tenuifoliose C2 and tenuifoliose H decreased with the extension of the growth years. Growth years has important impact on the quality of P. tenuifolia and the existing growing years of commodity P. tenuifolia have its scientific evidence. This study supplied a new method for the quality evaluation of Chinese medicinal materials.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Mass Spectrometry ; Metabolomics ; Oligosaccharides ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Polygala ; chemistry ; Quality Control

OBJECTIVETo study inhibitory efficacy of combined gene therapy for malignant gliomas transfected with antisense human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT)/PTEN in vitro and in vivo.

METHODSTo construct two adenovirus recons which contained antisense hTERT and wild-type PTEN respectively with high performance homologous recombination system in bacteria. The two adenovirus recons were transfected into U251 human malignant glioma cells combinedly or respectively in vitro and in vivo. U251 cell proliferation in vitro was determined by MTT assay and flow cytometry, tumor growth in vivo was measured by the volume of glioma in nude mice. Telomerase activity was detected by telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay. Expression of hTERT and PTEN protein was detected by Western blotting methods.

RESULTSAfter transfection in vitro, the growth of U251 cells was inhibited significantly. The inhibitory effect was time-dependent. The strongest inhibition was observed in combined transfection group, at the 6th day, the survival rate was 37.6%, telomerase activity (only 28.8TPG) was inhibited significantly, hTERT protein expression was inhibited significantly too, which was 0.2106, but PTEN protein expression was increased significantly, which was 0.9630. In vivo, the growth of tumors was also effectively inhibited.

CONCLUSIONGrowth of malignant glioma cells is effectively inhibited after transfection with combined antisense hTERT and PTEN in vitro and in vivo.

Adenoviridae ; genetics ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; Blotting, Western ; Brain Neoplasms ; pathology ; therapy ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; DNA, Antisense ; genetics ; metabolism ; Flow Cytometry ; Genetic Therapy ; methods ; Glioma ; pathology ; therapy ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Mice ; Mice, Nude ; Microscopy, Fluorescence ; PTEN Phosphohydrolase ; genetics ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Telomerase ; genetics ; metabolism ; Transfection ; Tumor Burden ; Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Objective To learn the pension willingness and influencing factors of empty-nest elderly in Hangzhou City. Methods A total of 1000 empty-nest elderly in Hangzhou, taking a formal hosusehold registration, living≥1 year, age≥ 65 years old, were selected from two urban districts and three suburbs by multi-stage simple random sampling, and were surveyed with questionnaires. The data was analyzed by logistic regression model to study the influencing factors of pension willingness. Results A total of 992 valid questionnaires were collected and the effective rate was 99.20%. There were 407 (41.03%) , 365 (36.79%) , 208 (20.97%) and 12 (1.21%) people in the 992 empty-nest elderly, choosing their children's support, social pension insurance, personal pension and other old-age methods. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that, the empty-nest elderly who worried about pension costs (OR=3.007, 95%CI:1.751-5.155), and the greatest wish was physical health (OR=4.404, 95%CI:1.461-13.276), family harmony (OR=7.724, 95% CI: 2.158-27.646), children work smoothly (OR=4.811, 95%CI: 1.203-19.246) . The lower health score (OR=0.982, 95% CI: 0.965-0.999), choosing their children's support as their pension willingness were relatively high, and the empty-nest elderly who worried about pension costs (OR=2.058, 95%CI: 1.267-3.344), the original occupation for the staff (OR=2.353, 95% CI: 1.091-5.078) , city household registration (OR=0.546, 95% CI:0.349-0.856) . The lower the health score (OR=0.979, 95%CI: 0.966-0.993) choose social pension insurance as their pension willingness would be relatively high pension. Conclusion The influencing factors of the pension willingness of the empty-nest elderly were worried about pension costs, the greatest wish, and health status, urban and rural household registration.

The study was aimed to explore the relationship between patterns of methylation or deletion and the development of acute leukemia, and further to clarify the possible mechanism in the development of adult acute leukemia. Nested methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (n-MSP) was adopted to analyze p16 gene methylation or deletion patterns in 82 adult acute leukemia patients with different subtypes and stages. The results indicated that rate of p16 gene methylation was 39.0% in 82 adult acute leukemia patients, among them, 41.4% in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and 33.3% in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). It were found that 36.6% of de novo AL patients and 54.5% of relapsed AL patients developed the hypermethylation of p16 gene. Out of the 82 patients, 6 seemed to have deletion of p16 gene, including 1 AML (1.7%) and 5 ALL (20.8%). There were no hypermethylation or deletion of p16 gene in the 16 controls. It is concluded that methylation of p16 gene may play a more important role than homozygous deletion of p16 gene in the leukemogenesis and progression of adult acute leukemia.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Base Sequence ; CpG Islands ; genetics ; DNA Methylation ; DNA, Neoplasm ; genetics ; Female ; Genes, p16 ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; genetics

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of epigallocatechin-3-galate (EGCG) on acute monocytic leukemia cell line U937 and its relevant mechanism. The viability of U937 cells were assayed by SRB method. The cell cycle of U937 cells was analyzed by flow cytometry. The mRNA and protein expression of p16 gene were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. Methylation level of U937 cells was analyzed by n-MSP. The mRNA expression of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), DNMT3A and DNMT3B genes were analyzed by RT-PCR. The results showed that EGCG could inhibit the growth of U937 cells significantly in dose-and time-dependent manners (r=0.71), and induce the G0/G1 arrest of U937 cells in dose-dependent manner. EGCG could up-regulate the mRNA and protein expression of P16 gene in U937 cells in dose-dependent manner. EGCG could down-regulate the methylation level of p16 gene in U937 cells in dose-dependent manner. EGCG could down-regulate the mRNA expression of DNMT3A, DNMT3B genes, while did not influence the mRNA expression of DNMT1 gene. It is concluded that EGCG can up-regulate the mRNA and protein expression of p16 gene by demethylation or/and by inhibiting DNMT3A and DNMT3B genes, leading, in turn, to G0/G1 arrest and growth inhibition of U937 cells.
Catechin ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferase 1 ; DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases ; metabolism ; DNA Methylation ; Gene Expression Regulation, Leukemic ; Genes, p16 ; Humans ; Leukemia, Monocytic, Acute ; genetics ; U937 Cells

To study the chemical constituents of Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim., chromatographic methods such as D101 macroporous resin, silica gel column chromatographic technology, Sephadex LH-20, octadecylsilyl (ODS) column chromatographic technique and preparative HPLC were used and nine compounds were isolated from a 95% (v/v) ethanol extract of the plant. By using spectroscopic techniques including 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 1H-1H COSY, HSQC and HMBC, these compounds were identified as 5-ethoxymethyl-1-carboxyl propyl-1H-pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde (1), 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (2), chrysoeriol (3), 4'-hydroxyscutellarin (4), vanillic acid (5), alpha-spinasterol (6), beta-D-glucopyranosyl-a-spinasterol (7), stigmast-7-en-3beta-ol (8), and adenosine (9), separately. Among them, compound 1 is a new compound, and compounds 3, 4 and 5 are isolated from the genus Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim. for the first time.
Apigenin ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Flavones ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Fruit ; chemistry ; Glucuronates ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Molecular Structure ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Pyrroles ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Trichosanthes ; chemistry ; Vanillic Acid ; chemistry ; isolation & purification