OBJECTIVE:To establish the method for the determination of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid in different medicinal parts of Tibetan medicine Pteocephalus hookeri,and compare the differences among the different parts. METHODS:The contents of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid from different medicinal parts(whole plant,aerial part,underground part)of P. hookeri were de-termined by UPLC-PDA. The separation was performed on Acquity UPLC HSS T3 column(150 mm×2.1 mm,1.8 μm)with mobile phase consisted of methanol-0.1 mol/L ammonium acetate(88:12,V/V)at the flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. The detection wavelength was set at 210 nm,and column temperature was 30 ℃. The sample size was 5 μL. RESULTS:The linear ranges of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid were 10.65-1065 μg/mL (r=0.9996) and 18.8-1880 μg/mL (r=0.9994),separately. The recoveries were 96.95%(RSD=1.24%,n=9) and 98.12%(RSD=2.13%,n=9),separately. RSDs of precision,stability and reproducibility tests were all less than 3%. The contents of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid from different medicinal parts in P. hookeri were in de-scending order of aerial part>whole plant>underground part;the average total content of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid from whole plants was 0.35%,the aerial part reached 0.56% and underground part was 0.09%. CONCLUSIONS:The method is rapid, accurate and reproducible,and it is suitable for the content determination of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid in different medicinal parts of Tibetan medicine P. hookeri. The contents of oleanolic acid and ursolic acid from aerial part of P. hookeri are higher than whole plant and underground part. It is suggested to use aerial parts of medicine.

OBJECTIVE:To explore the multi-component,multi-target,multi-channel mechanism of Tibetan medicine Ptero-cephalus hookeri in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS:The selected target compounds (10 chemical struc-tures of P. hookeri)were imported and stored by related software;target prediction and filtering were conducted by PharmMapper and DrugBank databases. The pathways of targets were acquired and analyzed by MAS 3.0 database. Finally P. hookeriactive com-ponent-targeting-pathwaynetwork was constructed by Cytoscape 3.4.0 software. RESULTS:The target information obtained in the PharmMapper database were compared with that of the DrugBank database for inflammation-related drugs,26 potential targets for the treatment of RA were obtained,in which MAPK14,RXRA,ALB,PDE4D,VDR may be the main potential target gene group in the treatment of RA. 57 functional pathways were obtained after 26 functional targets were annotated by pathway. In addition to 27 RA-related pathways,30 other pathways such as endocrine regulation and immune were involved. CONCLUSIONS:Base on the study of network pharmacology,P. hookeri plays the role in the treatment of RA by acting on inflammation,immune,endo-crine and related targets and pathways.

The aim of this study is to identify the present status of the scientific and technological personnel in the field of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) resource science. Based on the data from Chinese scientific research paper, an investigation regarding the number of the personnel, the distribution, their output of paper, their scientific research teams, high-yield authors and high-cited authors was conducted. The study covers seven subfields of traditional Chinese medicine identification, quality standard, Chinese medicine cultivation, harvest processing of TCM, market development and resource protection and resource management, as well as 82 widely used Chinese medicine species, such as Ginseng and Radix Astragali. One hundred and fifteen domain authority experts were selected based on the data of high-yield authors and high-cited authors. The database system platform "Skilled Scientific and Technological Personnel in the field of Traditional Chinese Medicine Resource Science-Chinese papers" was established. This platform successfully provided the retrieval result of the personnel, output of paper, and their core research team by input the study field, year, and Chinese medicine species. The investigation provides basic data of scientific and technological personnel in the field of traditional Chinese medicine resource science for administrative agencies and also evidence for the selection of scientific and technological personnel and construction of scientific research teams.
Bibliography of Medicine ; Biomedical Research ; manpower ; Databases, Factual ; Humans ; Laboratory Personnel ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; growth & development

Palpation is one of the major diagnostic methods in Chinese medicine. The article has summed up the current status, features and origins of various palpations in different acupuncture schools in the United States, including palpation on meridian, collaterals and acupoints in traditional Chinese acupuncture, abdominal palpation of Japanese acupuncture, pulse checking for couples in five-element acupuncture, palpation on tendon straps and muscle response testing in acupuncture physical medicine. Since great importance has always been attached on social psychological factors in all acupuncture schools of America, it is thus concluded that the interactive mechanism of diagnosis and treatment represented by palpation feedback examination is not only the manifestation of people oriented individualized treatment both physically and psychologically in America, but also a kind of inheritance and development of diagnosis and treatment in the modernization of TCM.
Acupuncture ; education ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Palpation ; methods ; United States

Whiplash injury is a relatively common injury of clinical acupuncture and moxibustion in the United States. The mechanism and clinical manifestation of whiplash injuries as well as its pathogenesis described in TCM were analyzed in this present article. The authors introduced the TCM syndrome differentiation of whiplash injuries and claimed that both the location and the stage of disease should be considered. For the different injury locations, the meridian musculature differentiation was applied to classify the whiplash injuries as Taiyang, Yangming, Shaoyang and Shaoyin Meridian syndromes. Considering the duration of the injury, qi stagnation and blood stasis types were classified in the acute stage and phlegm accumulation, insufficiency of the liver and kidney and qi and blood deficiencies types were classified during the chronic stage. An acupuncture protocol for whiplash injuries and typical cases were also introduced.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Whiplash Injuries ; diagnosis ; therapy

Objective To explore the predictive markers of senescence-associated secretory phenotype(SASP)in osteoarthritis(OA).Methods OA datasets were screened by the Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO)database,while SASP-related genes were collected by PubMed.Three machine learning algorithms,including least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO),support vector machines recursive feature elimination(SVM-RFE),and random forest(RF),were used to screen the candidate predictive markers of SASP genes in OA,and the OA prediction model was constructed using the overlapping genes identified by the machine learning algo-rithms.CIBERSORT was used to explore the degree of peripheral blood immune cell infiltration in OA versus normal samples.The miRNA-transcription factor-mRNA regulatory network of the model genes was predicted using Cytoscape.The most valuable genes of the predic-tion model were experimentally verified by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR)in OA rats and normal control rats(n= 6 per group).Results One OA dataset was screened by the GEO database,and 125 OA-related SASP genes were isolated.A total of seven intersection genes were obtained by the three machine learning algorithms.The area under the curve of the prediction model was 0.891.The CIBERSORT immune infiltration results showed a significant difference in plasma cell infiltration level between OA and normal samples(P= 0.001 3).The RT-qPCR results showed that the expression level of TNFRSF1Awas significantly higher in the OA versus normal group(P<0.0001).Conclusion TNFRSF1Ais highly expressed in OA and may be a potential predictive marker for it.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the silencing effect of gene encoding peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) on the expression of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) by constructing vectors for RNA interference in RAW264.7 cells.

METHODSThe pSUPER-EGFP vectors were used to transcribe functional small interfering RNA (siRNA). Four pairs of oligonucleotides (64 nt) targeting PPARgamma gene were inserted into the downstream of the H1 promotor, with their veracity confirmed by double digestion and sequencing. Western blotting and immunofluorescence assay were used to examine the silencing effect of PPARgamma gene in RAW264.7 cells. Meanwhile, the TNFalphalevel was determined by Sandwich ELISA.

RESULTSCompared with other recombinant pSUPER-EGFP vectors (R-pSUPER.EGFP), R-pSUPER.EGFP2 induced the best silencing effect on the expression of PPARgamma in RAW264.7 cells, which played an obvious inhibitory role in down-regulating the TNFalphaexpression after the curcumin and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation.

CONCLUSIONSPPARgamma-pSUPER-EGFP inducing a silencing effect on the expression of PPARgamma can efficiently play a negative role in controlling the inflammatory responses of RAW264.7 cells.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of low molecular peptide of Mycobacterium tuberculosis heat-resistant antigen (Mtb-HAg-10k) on the production of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) in peripheral blood T cells and test the feasibility of differential diagnosis between pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) by assessing the number of Mtb-HAg-10k-stimulated IFN-γ-producing T cells.

METHODSPeripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were separated from the peripheral blood of 10 healthy adults, 6 individuals with LTBI and 13 patients with PTB. The PBMCs were cultured in the presence of Mtb-HAg-10k obtained by ultrafiltration centrifugation, with Mtb-HAg and phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) as the controls. The proportions of TNF-α- and IFN-γ-producing cells in the T cell subsets were detected by flow cytometry (FCM), and the number of IFN-γ-producing cells from patients with PTB and LTBI was detected with ELISPOT.

RESULTSFlow cytometry showed that Mtb-HAg-10k exposure resulted in a significantly higher proportion of TNF-α-producing γδT cells than that of IFN-γ-producing γδT cells in the PBMCs (P<0.01). Compared with the PBMCs exposed to PHA, the PBMCs exposed to Mtb-HAg-10k exhibited a significantly greater proportion of γδT cells that produced both TNF-α and IFN-γ (P<0.01) but a significantly lower proportion of αβT cells producing both TNF-α and IFN-γ (P<0.01). Mtb-HAg-10k exposure of the PBMCs caused a significant reduction in the number of IFN-γ-producing cells as compared with Mtb-HAg and PHA treatments (P<0.01), and this reduction was more obvious in PBMCs from patients with PTB than in those from individuals with LTBI (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONMtb-HAg-10k can markedly induce γδT cells in the PBMCs to produce TNF-α and IFN-γ, and detection of the number of IFN-γ-producing cells in the PBMCs following Mtb-HAg-10k stimulation helps in the differential diagnosis between pulmonary tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis infection.

Humans ; Receptors, Chimeric Antigen ; Immunotherapy, Adoptive ; Hematologic Neoplasms/therapy* ; Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy

OBJECTIVETo discuss the application of MRI in indirect temporomandibular joint injury without condylar fracture.

METHODSMRI examination on temporomandibular joint was conducted in 28 patients with indirect injury to temporomandibular joint without condylar fracture. The scanning sequence included T(1)WI, PDWI on oblique sagittal section at both open and closed mouth positions, and T(1)WI, T(2)WI on oblique coronal section. The MRI appearance was analyzed by 2 senior radiologists.

RESULTSAmong the 56 temporomandibular joints of 28 patients, 35 joints exhibited pathological changes on MRI, in which there were 9 bone injuries, 21 articular disc dislocation, 24 intracapsular hematocele and hydrops.

CONCLUSIONSMRI can clearly reveal bone injury, articular disc dislocation as well as articular capsule abnormality in the indirect injury of temporomandibular joint without condylar fracture. It is highly advocated in clinical use.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Maxillofacial Injuries ; diagnosis ; Middle Aged ; Temporomandibular Joint ; injuries