AIMThe simplified preparative method and formulation for atenolol monolithic osmotic pump tablets were investigated.

METHODSThe core tablets with an indentation were compressed by the punch with a needle. Osmotic pump tablets were prepared by coating the indented tablets. Similarity factor was used to evaluate formulation of osmotic pump tablets.

RESULTSThe formulation of core tablets and the composition and thickness of coating membrane showed marked effects on drug release. Orifice size of core tablets in the range of 1.00 - 1.14 mm scarcely affected drug release.

CONCLUSIONThe preparation of osmotic pump tablets was simplified with the exempting of laser drilling. The atenolol monolithic osmotic pump tablets could deliver drug constantly for 24 h.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Atenolol ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Delayed-Action Preparations ; Drug Carriers ; Osmosis ; Polyethylene Glycols ; chemistry ; Tablets ; Technology, Pharmaceutical ; methods

OBJECTIVETo characterize the prevalence of influenza B virus infection in infants and young children in Beijing.

METHODSMDCK cell culture, indirect fluorescence assay (IFA) and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay were used to isolate and identify type B influenza viruses from clinical samples collected from outpatients and inpatients who visited the Affiliated Children's Hospital because of acute respiratory infections from Nov. 2000 to Jun. 2006.

RESULTSOut of 10,770 clinical samples collected during this surveillance period, 384 (3.57%, 384/10,770) were positive for influenza B viruses. Circulation of influenza B viruses was revealed in the later epidemic season of influenza viruses each year. The detection rate for influenza B virus was higher than 10% each year during the survey, except in the period from 2003--2004 which was 2.91%. The highest detecting rate was 23.69% of the specimens collected in Mar. 2006. During the period of this study, most of the influenza B virus were identified from children who visited the outpatient department of the Affiliated Children's Hospital. Among those outpatients who were positive for influenza B, 77.6% (264/340) were older than 3 years of age, whereas the inpatients positive for influenza B, 66.0% (29/44) were under 3 years of age. Coinfection of influenza B virus with other respiratory viruses was not common, only one of the influenza B virus positive specimen was found also positive for influenza A3. There was no significant difference in positive rate between influenza virus B and A3. A significantly higher positive rate of influenza B virus than that of influenza A3 virus was seen from Sep. 2005 to May 2006 (23.9% vs 1.1%). B/Yamagata/16/168 lineage viruses were dominant during 2000--2002, and B/Victoria/2/87 lineage viruses became dominant during 2002--2003. After 2003, co-circulation of Victoria and Yamagata lineages of influenza B viruses was identified with predominance of Yamagata lineage viruses, while Victoria lineage viruses predominated during the 2005--2006 epidemic season.

CONCLUSIONInfluenza B viruses were identified from February to May in every influenza season during this surveillance period of 2000--2006. Most of the positive specimens were those collected from outpatient department. Victoria and Yamagata lineages of influenza B viruses co-circulated in Beijing, China in recent years.

Adolescent ; Age Distribution ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Influenza B virus ; classification ; isolation & purification ; Influenza, Human ; epidemiology ; virology ; Male ; Prevalence

Objective To explore the regulation of berberine on the expressions of CDK4 and cyclin D1 in the neurons after the focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion and the potential protective mechanism of berberine to neurons. Methods Fifty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into berberine-treated group (n=15), normal control group (n=5), sham-operated group (n=15) and vehicle-treated group (n=15). The model of focal cerebral ischemia was constructed using middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) method. At 1, 3, 5 d after 1 hour ofischemia, the expressions and distributions of Bcl-2, cyclin D1 and CDK4 in each group were detected by immunohistochemistry, and morphological changes of brain were observed by HE staining. Results HE staining showed that in the berberine-treated group, the number of neurons was decreased less than that in vehicle-treated group at reperfusion 3 and 5 d. For the result of immunohistochemistry for Bcl-2 positive neurons, there was no obvious difference between berberine-treated group and vehicle-treated group at reperfusion 1 d (P>0.05),however, the number of the Bcl-2 positive cells in berberine-treated group at reperfusion 3 and 5 was significantly increased (P<0.01), and the numbers of cyclin D 1 and CDK4 positive cells were decreased as compared with those in the vehicle-treated group. Conclusions In the rat focal ischemia model,berberine can inhibit the neural expressions of cyclin D1 and CDK4 in the penumbra, that indicates berberine may have the potential of neural protection. The possible mechanism is that berberine can decrease the neural expression ofcyclin D1 and prevent it from entering the nucleus, thereby blocking the cascade reaction and suppressing the apoptosis mediated by cyclin D1.

OBJECTIVETo clone the genes encoding the structural proteins VP1-VP4 of enterovirus 71 and investigate the immunogenicity of the expressed recombinant proteins.

METHODSThe VP1-VP4 cDNAs were amplified by RT-PCR from the extracted viral RNA and cloned into pMD19-T vector. The cloned VP1-VP4 genes were then inserted into the multi-cloning sites of plasmid pQE30a and expressed in E. coli M15 with IPTG induction. After washing with 8 mol/L urea and purification with Ni-affinity chromatography, the recombinant proteins obtained were tested for immunogenicity by Western blotting and ELISA using rabbit antisera against enterovirus 71 and Coxsackie Virus A16.

RESULTSThe recombinant VP1-VP4 proteins were highly expressed in E. coli M15 and the purified proteins could be specifically recognized by the rabbit sera against enterovirus 71.

CONCLUSIONThe expressed enterovirus 71 structural proteins show good immunogenicity and can be used for developing enterovirus 71 vaccine and detection kits.

Animals ; Capsid Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; immunology ; Cloning, Molecular ; Enterovirus A, Human ; genetics ; immunology ; Enterovirus Infections ; virology ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Immunogenetic Phenomena ; Mice ; Rabbits ; Recombinant Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; immunology

OBJECTIVETo characterize the prevalence and antigenic drift of influenza A viruses isolated during the period from 2001 to 2005 in infants and young children in Beijing.

METHODSMDCK cell culture, indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay were used to isolate and identify type A influenza viruses (H1N1 and H3N2) from clinical samples collected from outpatients and inpatients who visited the Affiliated Children's Hospital because of acute respiratory infections from Oct. 2001 to Aug. 2005. The HA1 regions of hemagglutinin gene of H3N2 isolates were amplified by using RT-PCR followed by sequencing.

RESULTSOut of 7338 clinical samples collected during this surveillance period, 347 (4.7%) were positive for influenza A viruses, including 48 (13.8%) of H1N1, 273 (78.7%) of H3N2 and 26 (7.5%) of subtype-unidentified influenza A viruses. Although there was a prevalence season of influenza A from October each year to April of next year during the 2001-2004 period, it was worth noting that a consecutive influenza A activity was detected from Aug. 2004 to Aug. 2005, when some influenza A viruses were detected even in summer. The positive rate of H3N2 was 14.2% in August, 2005, which was equal to that of the peak season of 2003-2004. H3N2 were predominant in most of the influenza seasons during the surveillance period, and H1N1 was detected only in the influenza seasons of the 2001-2002 and 2004-2005 along with H3N2. The positive rates for both H3N2 and H1N1 were higher in specimens from outpatients than those from inpatients. A total of 46.6% (110/236) of the H3N2 were detected from children younger than 2 years of age, and 14.0% (33/236) were from children older than 5 years, whereas, more H1N1 was found in children older than 5 years (48.0%, 12/31) than in those younger than 2 years (6.5%, 2/31) during a period from Nov. 2003 to Aug. 2005. Sequence analysis of the HA1 regions of hemagglutinin of H3N2 isolated in a series of years revealed amino acid changes in the HA1 domain of H3N2 isolates in the antigenic sites (A-E) each year.

CONCLUSIONH3N2 and H1N1 prevailed in each influenza season during the surveillance period in Beijing, and H3N2 strains were predominant. The data from all-year around surveillance of influenza in Beijing indicate that continuous surveillance throughout a year and use of both antigenic and molecular analysis will be more helpful for early identification of any antigenic variants as well as prevention and control of influenza by promoting development of vaccines.

Age Factors ; Animals ; Antigenic Variation ; genetics ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; epidemiology ; Dogs ; Female ; Hemagglutinin Glycoproteins, Influenza Virus ; genetics ; Humans ; Infant ; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype ; isolation & purification ; Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype ; isolation & purification ; Influenza A virus ; classification ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Influenza, Human ; virology ; Inpatients ; Male ; Outpatients ; Prevalence ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; virology ; Retrospective Studies ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Time Factors

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) has been proved to be a metabolic disease with high

Osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (OVCF) can lead to lower back pain and may be even accompanied by scoliosis, neurological dysfunction and other complications, which will affect the daily activities and life quality of patients. Vertebral augmentation is an effective treatment method for OVCF, but it cannot correct unbalance of bone metabolism or improve the osteoporotic status, causing complications like lower back pain, limited spinal activities and vertebral refracture. The post-operative systematic and standardized rehabilitation treatments can improve curative effect and therapeutic efficacy of anti-osteoporosis, reduce risk of vertebral refracture, increase patient compliance and improve quality of life. Since there still lack relevant clinical treatment guidelines for postoperative rehabilitation treatments following vertebral augmentation for OVCF, the current treatments are varied with uneven therapeutic effect. In order to standardize the postoperative rehabilitation treatment, the Spine Trauma Group of the Orthopedic Branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association organized relevant experts to refer to relevant literature and develop the "Guideline for postoperative rehabilitation treatment following vertebral augmentation for osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (2022 version)" based on the clinical guidelines published by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) as well as on the principles of scientificity, practicality and advancement. The guideline provided evidence-based recommendations on 10 important issues related to postoperative rehabilitation treatments of OVCF.