OBJECTIVETo study the effect of aqueous extract of Taxus chinensis var. mairei (AETC) combined Erlotnib on the growth of A549 xenograft in nude mice and its mechanism.

METHODSThe xenograft model in nude mice was established by inoculating A549 cells subcutaneously. BALB/c nude mice bearing A549 xenograft were randomly divided into six groups, i.e., the low dose Erlotinib group (A) , the standard dose Erlotnib group (B) , the low dose Erlotinib combined AETC group (C), the standard dose Erlotnib combined AETC group (D), the AETC group (E), the control group (F), 12 in each group. Different medication was performed for 7 successive weeks after 24 h. One mL blood was withdrawn and tumor tissues taken. The tumor inhibition rate was calculated. The combined effect was analyzed by Jin's Formula [Q = Ea + b/(Ea + Eb-Ea x Eb) ]. mRNA and protein expression levels of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) in xenografts were detected using real-time RT-PCR and ELISA.

RESULTSCompared with Group F, the xenograft weight was obviously lowered in Group B-E (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). The q value was 0.92 in Group C and 0.96 in Group D, which was obtained by simple adding of the two drugs. Compared with Group F, EG- FR mRNA expression in Group D and E, COX-2 mRNA expression in Group A-E; Bcl-2 mRNA expression in Group B-D; COX-2 protein expression in Group B-E; Bcl-2 protein expression in Group C and D were obviously lowered with statistical difference (P < 0.05, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSAETC combined low dose and standard dose Erlotinib had synergistic effect on tumor inhibition. Its mechanism might be associated with down-regulating mRNA and protein expression levels of COX-2 and Bcl-2.

Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; pharmacology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cyclooxygenase 2 ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Enzyme Inhibitors ; pharmacology ; Erlotinib Hydrochloride ; pharmacology ; Heterografts ; Lung Neoplasms ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Nude ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor ; metabolism ; Taxus ; Transplantation, Heterologous

OBJECTIVE:To optimize the drug placement in the automated drug dispensing machine to improve work efficien-cy. METHODS:Based on the principle of the minimum time algorithm,the drug which would be used at a high frequency was placed in the drug storage tank nearest to the drug outlet. Meanwhile,the rule of drug use was drawn from the information on a large number of prescriptions,based on which the drugs correlated with each other were placed in the drug storage tanks that were adjacent. With daily time it takes to add drugs,average time it takes to make up a prescription and the maximum number of drugs stored as the evaluated indexes,the initial drug placement in the automated drug dispensing machine was optimized. The changes in the indexes within 3 months before and after the above-mentioned optimization were statically analyzed. RESULTS:After calculat-ing the three-dimensional sizes of the packages of drugs and the dispensing frequency data of the previous year,354 drugs were se-lected and placed in the nearer or farther storage tanks in the automated dispensing machine according to the dispensing frequency and the correlation among them. After the optimization of the placement,daily time it takes to add drugs reduced by 54 min(218 vs. 165 min)on average,average time it takes to make up a prescription reduced by 8 s(24 vs.16 s)and the maximum number of drugs stored increased by 1 333 boxes(13 113 vs. 14 446 boxes)on average. There was statistical significance in differences(P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS:The initial drug placement in the automated drug dispensing machine that was optimized by minimum time algorithm has reduced daily time it takes to add drugs and average time it takes to make up a prescription and increased the maximum number of drugs stored and thus improved work efficiency.

OBJECTIVETo make full use of the plant resources of Panax notoginseng, nutritional compositions and mineral elements were analyzed in aerial part of P. notoginseng from different areas in Yunnan.

METHODUsing the national standard method, water, ash, crude fat, crude fiber, crude protein and mineral elements were determined in aerial part of P. notoginseng from different growing areas.

RESULTResults showed that there were higher contents of crude fiber and crude protein, and lower content of crude fat in the stems and flowers of P. notoginseng. Meanwhile, a large number of mineral elements were determined in two locations of P. notoginseng, and the contents of Zn, Fe, Mn, Ca and Mg were obvious higher among these mineral elements.

CONCLUSIONThis study showed that the stems and flowers of P. notoginseng were nutritious and suggested that the aerial part may be utilized as new resources foods.

Flowers ; chemistry ; Nutritive Value ; Panax notoginseng ; chemistry ; Plant Extracts ; analysis ; Plant Leaves ; chemistry ; Plant Stems ; chemistry ; Trace Elements ; analysis

Sanqi (Panax notoginseng) is a valuable unique herb, and is also one of the very fast developed varieties of traditional Chinese medicines in recent years with increasing role in traditional Chinese medicine industry. This paper summarized the main experience, industry development and present situation, pointed out the main problems existing in the industry development. On this basis, we put forward the targets and measures for the development of the Sanqi industry in to provide decision-making reference for the sustainable development of the Sanqi industry in China.
China ; Drug Industry ; economics ; trends ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; economics ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; economics ; trends ; Panax notoginseng ; chemistry ; growth & development

BACKGROUND: As dental implants, pure titanium and Ti-6Al-4V has achieved broad clinical applications, but they also contain toxic vanadium and aluminum element. Moreover, their elastic modulus is so high as to produce stress shield. OBJECTIVE: To examine the micro-hardness and elastic modulus of the self-made Ti-30Nb-8Zr-2Mo titanium alloy. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: An observational experiment was performed at the laboratory of College of Material Science and Engineering at Hebei University of Technology between March 2003 and February 2006. MATERIALS: Titanium alloy was prepared using titanium sponge (≥ 99% purify), niobium strip (≥ 99.9% purify), molybdenum powder (≥ 99% purify) and zirconium sponge (≥ 99.4% purify).METHODS: The micro-hardness of the specimens was determined after uniformly annealing, hot-forging and solution. Compression test was conducted on post-aging samples. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Hardness and stress-strain curve.RESULTS: The maximal alloy strength was obtained after solution under 800 ℃ for 0.5 hours. Post-aging alloy's hardness was improved significantly although little change occurred on solution alloy. Compressive strength of alloy samples was 1 054 MPa, while elastic modulus reached 16.5 GPa. CONCLUSION: Both micro-hardness and elastic modulus of the self-made Ti-30Nb-8Zr-2Mo titanium alloy have satisfied performance requirements for dental implant materials.

Withanolide A is a biologically active secondary metabolite occuring in roots and leaves of Withania somnifera. In the present study, adventitious roots from leaf explants of W. somnifera were induced for the production of withanolide-A by Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58C1 to obtain hair roots. Hair roots induction rate reached 30%. The withanolide A was determined by HPLC in different hair roots lines and different parts of W. somnifera. The average content of withanolide A in all hair roots lines were 1.96 times as high as that in wild-plant, the concentration of withanolide A in hair roots (1.783 mg x g(-1) dry weight) were 1.51 times as high as the roots of wild W. somnifera (1.180 mg x g(-1) dry weight), respectively. It is possible to obtain withanolide A from hair roots culture of W. somnifera.
Agrobacterium tumefaciens ; physiology ; Plant Extracts ; analysis ; biosynthesis ; Plant Roots ; chemistry ; growth & development ; metabolism ; microbiology ; Withania ; chemistry ; growth & development ; metabolism ; microbiology ; Withanolides ; analysis ; metabolism

Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Fever ; complications ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome ; blood ; complications ; pathology ; Humans ; Hypergammaglobulinemia ; blood ; Immunoglobulin M ; blood ; Male ; Pain ; complications

To construct retroviral vector carrying human interleukin-3 c0mplementary DNA(HuIL-3 cDNA) under control of human a-fetoprotein gene enhancer core sequence and human SV4O pro-moter. Methods and Results: HuIL-3 cDNA was inserted into polylinker site of retroviral vector pMNSMto construct retr0viral vector pMNS-IL-3, in which the transcription of HuIL-3 cDNA was drived by SV40early region promoter. Human Q-fetoprotein gene enhancer core sequence was released from plasmidpGEM. 7Zf-AFPe and inserted into the polylinker site of pMNSM. Then human interleukin-3 cDNA wasinserted int0 p0lylinker site to construct retroviral vector pMNSA-IL-3, in which HuIL-3 cDNA transcrip-tion was drived by SV40 early region promoter and enhanced by human a-fetoprotein enhancer core se-quence- Conclusion: The vectors are of significance for hepatoma-specific gene therapy.

Objective Through detecting CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells(Treg)in the peripheral blood in children suffering autoimmune diseases and normal controls to learn about the changes of Tregs during the diseases and to acquire some references for clinical diagnosis and treatment.Methods The data were reviewed for CD4+CD25+ Treg cells of the 93 children diagnosed as pediatric autoimmune disease in Children′s Hospital Affiliated to Capital Institute of Pediatrics from Nov.2007 to Jun.2008.Thirty-five normal children in the contempora-neous physical examination were selected as the control group.The percentage of CD4+CD25+ Treg cells and CD4+ T cells to the total T cells were determined by flow cytometric method.Data of the JRA group(22 cases),SLE group(12 cases) and HSP group(12 cases),which were the first three according to the number of cases,were respectively compared with the controls.Independent-samples t test was performed for a statistic analysis with SPSS 11.5 software.Results 1.The percentages of CD4+CD25+ Treg cells to the total T cells and CD4+ T cells in the autoimmune diseases children[(6.14?3.21)% and(21.85?11.68)%,respectively] were both higher than those in the control group[(3.68?1.02)% and(12.83?3.61)%,respectively Pa

OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression of PTEN (phosphatase and tension homology deletion on chromosome 10, PTEN) and its pseudogene PTENP1 in acute leukemia (AL) and correlation between them, and to explore the role of PTENP1 on the PTEN expression in AL cells.

METHODSPTEN and PTENP1 mRNA expression were evaluated in bone marrow (BM) samples from 138 newly diagnosed AL patients and 15 healthy controls by quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). pCDH1-PTENP1 3'UTR-GFP lentivirus vectors were constructed. 293T cells were transfected by calcium phosphate precipitation to produce retrovirus. HL-60 cell line was infected with the retroviral vectors expressing pCDH1-GFP and pCDH1-PTENP1 3'UTR-GFP respectively. The flow cell sorter was used to sort the HL-60 with GFP positively expressed. The mRNA expression of PTEN and PTENP1 was detected by qRT-PCR, the expression of PTEN protein by western blot, and the impact of PTENP13'UTR on the proliferation of HL-60 cells by MTT assay.

RESULTSAML patients showed significantly lower PTEN and PTENP1 mRNA expression in BM compared to healthy controls. Correlation analysis showed that the expression of PTEN and PTENP1 mRNA were positively correlated (P < 0.05). The 108 cases of PTENP1(+) AML were classified according to the prognostic classification of 2011 NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in AML, there was no difference among different subgroups. HL-60 cell line was infected with the retroviral vectors expressing pCDH1-GFP (control group) and pCDH1-PTENP1 3'UTR-GFP respectively. Compared with the control group, PTENP1 mRNA level of HL-60 infected with the retroviral vectors expressing pCDH1-PTENP1 3'UTR-GFP increased significantly, and PTEN mRNA level also increased. While the PTEN protein level and the cell growth rate of the PTENP1 3'UTR group didn't change significantly.

CONCLUSIONPTEN and PTENP1 mRNA expression level of BM cells from AL patients is significantly lower. There is a positive correlation between expression of PTEN and PTENP1 mRNA. PTENP1 may regulate the expression of PTEN in mRNA level.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Female ; Gene Expression ; HL-60 Cells ; Humans ; Leukemia ; genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; PTEN Phosphohydrolase ; genetics ; Pseudogenes ; genetics ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; Transfection ; Young Adult