In this paper, we designed to investigate the frequencies of tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (TNFR2) polymorphisms at nt587 and nt694 in south Chinese SLE patients and healthy individuals and explore whether genetic variants in TNFR2 gene is involved in the pathogenesis of SLE. The results showed that the nt587G allele frequency was 21.1% in the 128 SLE patients and the allele frequency was 13.0% in the 135 healthy individuals, the former was significantly higher than the latter in the allele frequency (P ＜ 0.05). People with the nt587 G variant showed high risk to SLE. The frequency of nt694 was slightly but not statistically significantly increased in SLE patients compared with healthy controls(16.0% versus 11.9%, P= 0.149). These results indicate that the polymorphism at nt587 of TNFR2 is associated with the south Chinese SLE patients. The polymorphism at nt694 is not associated with SLE.

BACKGROUNDTo evaluate treatment effectiveness and safety of bicyclo tablets in children with chronic hepatitis B or C.

METHODSA randomized controlled trial was conducted in 148 children with chronic hepatitis B or C for evaluating safety, tolerability, and efficacy of treatment with bicyclo tablets or Hugan tablets. Children in therapy group were treated with bicyclo tablets and control group treated with Hugan tablets.

RESULTS(1) ALT and AST level decreased more prominently in therapy group than in control group (P<0.01). (2) Bicyclo was more effective than Hugan tablets (P<0.01). (3) Symptoms were ameliorated more prominently in bicyclo group than in control group (P<0.01). (4) Both groups had no significant adverse events.

CONCLUSIONSatisfactory therapeutic effect and safety were obtained with bicyclo tablets in children with chronic hepatitis B or C.

Adolescent ; Biphenyl Compounds ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; drug therapy ; Hepatitis C, Chronic ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Tablets ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo investigate the efficacy and safety of ademetionine for treatment of cholestatic or mixed-type drug-induced liver disease (DILD) in children.

METHODSThe children with DILD were divided into the treated group and control group. Yinzhihuang Granule was orally administered and Compound Glycyrrhizin Injection intravenously given in patients of both groups. Those patients in the treated group were additionally treated with intravenous infusion of 250-1000 mg ademetionine for 28 d. The incidence of pruritus and adverse effects as well as biochemical parameters in all the patients and compared between the 2 groups. For statistical analysis, Chi2 test was used for between-group comparison and t test for processing the data.

RESULTS1) Before treatment, severe pruritus was found in 17 and 16 children in the treated and control group, respectively. Two weeks after the treatment, the symptom was significantly relieved in 14 and 3 patients in the treated and control group, respectively (Chi2 = 4.52, P < 0.05). 2) As for comparisons between the 2 groups, a P value of 0.0014 for AST level was found 4 weeks, 0.045 and 0.007 for disappearance and recovery rate of jaundice, 0.0014 and 0.0006 for decrease in TBA level and 0.0003 for gammaGT level 2 and 4 weeks after the treatment.

CONCLUSIONIntravenous administration of ademetionine is safe in children with DILD and it can effectively alleviate pruritus, promote the recovery of various biochemical parameters and fasten liver functional recovery in these children. Therefore, ademetionine can be widely used for treatment of intrahepatic cholestasis in children.

Adolescent ; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury ; drug therapy ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; S-Adenosylmethionine ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo discuss the efficacy of Leucogen tablets treatment lessen the hematological reaction and raise the efficacy therapy of interferon in chronic hepatitis B treated with PEG-alpha interferon and alpha interferon.

METHODSA total of 395 patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) inpatients from January 2002 to February 2011. Group: All the patients were assigned to A or B according as during the treatment added Leucogen tablets or not.

RESULTS(1) All of 35.9% patients had neutrophil counts decrease under 1 x 10(9)/L, A group had 29.6%, B had 42.8% patients, P = 0.01; neutrophil counts < or = 0.75 x 10(9)/L A group had 12.6% ,B group had 26.4%, P = 0.02; neutrophil counts < or = 0. 5 x 10(9)/L A group had 4.8%, B group had 16.4%, P = 0.04. (2) A group had 8.2% patients interferon-alpha dose decreased, all the patient finished the period of therapy. B group had 23.3% patients interferon-alpha dose decreased, 2.1% of patients had paused. A group had 40.3% of patients interferon-alpha beyond conventional dose, B group had only 5.2%. (3) All of 9.8% patients had hematoblast decrease under 100 x 10(9)/L, A group had 8.7%, B had 11.1% patients; hematoblast < or = 80 x 10(9)/L A group had 5.3%, B group had 7.9%; hematoblast < or = 50 x 10(9)/L A group had 1.0%, B group had 2.6%. A group had the trend of reducing hematoblast decrease. (4) At the end of therapy A group had 67.4% patients HBVDNA < 100IU/ml, 54.3% e antigen negative, 40.7% e antigen conversed; B group had 53.9%, 41.2%, 26.9%, P was respectively 0.02, 0.01, 0.01.

CONCLUSIONLeucogen tablets treatment and prevention interferon-alpha-related neutrophil counts hematological reaction in CHB treated with alpha-interferon, and had the trend of reducing interferon-alpha-related hematoblast decrease, farther improved the efficacy of alpha-interferon treatment CHB.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Antiviral Agents ; adverse effects ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Interferon-alpha ; adverse effects ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neutropenia ; prevention & control ; Polyethylene Glycols ; adverse effects ; Recombinant Proteins ; adverse effects ; Tablets ; Thiazolidines ; therapeutic use

Quorum sensing of bacteria and its specific gene expression regulation have a very important role in bacterial biofilm formation. LuxS and agr are the key regulatory genes in quorum sensing of Staphylococcus epidermidis, and RNA Ⅲ is the effector molecule of agr system. In order to evaluate the effects of sodium houttuyfonate in combination with erythromycin on the transcription level of S. epidermidis, serial dilution method was used to determine the MIC of sodium houttuyfonate, erythromycin and vancomycin on S. epidermidis, and fluorescent quantitative PCR method was used to detect the transcription levels of luxS, agr/RNAⅢ in different time periods after treatment on S. epidermidis by sodium houttuyfonate in combination with erythromycin, vancomycin, and erythromycin alone. Our results showed that in treatment by 1/2MIC, 1/4MIC sodium houttuyfonate, 1/2MIC sodium houttuyfonate +1/2MIC erythromycin, 1/4MIC sodium houttuyfonate+1/4MIC erythromycin, and 1/8MIC sodium houttuyfonate+1/8MIC erythromycin for ATCC 35984, they could rapidly up-regulate the expression of luxS of S. epidermidis from the beginning as compared with negative control, with significant differences (P<0.05); furthermore, sodium houttuyfonate can still up-regulate the expression of luxS even after treatment for 6, 12 and 48 h. Sodium houttuyfonate in MIC and 1/2MIC concentration can significantly down-regulate the expression of agr (P<0.05); 1/2MIC sodium houttuyfonate+1/2MIC erythromycin, 1/4MIC sodium houttuyfonate+1/4MIC erythromycin, can also significantly down-regulate the expression of agr in 6 h, 12 h and 24 h(P<0.05). Sodium houttuyfonate in MIC, can significantly down-regulate the expression of RNA Ⅲ (P<0.05), and 1/2MIC sodium houttuyfonate+1/2MIC erythromycin can also significantly down-regulate the expression of RNAⅢ(P<0.05). Therefore, our presented results showed that sodium houttuyfonate in combination with erythromycin can rapidly up-regulate the transcription of luxS of S. epidermidis, and can down-regulate the expression of agr/RNA Ⅲ in certain concentrations, and suggested that sodium houttuyfonate in combination of erythromycin could inhibit mutual aggregation between S. epidermidis and biofilm bacteria, inhibit membrane nutrition and formation of water transport channels, prevent separation of bacterial cells in biofilm, and inhibit the formation of bacterial exotoxin of S. epidermidis.

The current study was designed to explore the brain protection mechanism of Xinglou Chengqi Decoction (XCD) based on gut microbiota analysis and network pharmacology. A transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model of mice was established, followed by behavioral evaluation, TTC and TUNEL staining. Additionally, to investigate the effects of gut microbiota on neurological function after stroke, C57BL/6 mice were treated with anti-biotic cocktails 14 days prior to ischemic stroke (IS) to deplete the gut microbiota. High-throughput 16S rDNA gene sequencing, metabonomics technique, and flow multifactor technology were used to analyze bacterial communities, SCFAs and inflammatory cytokines respectively. Finally, as a supplement, network pharmacology and molecular docking were applied to fully explore the multicomponent-multitarget-multichannel mechanism of XCD in treating IS, implicated in ADME screening, target identification, network analysis, functional annotation, and pathway enrichment analysis. We found that XCD effectively improved neurological function, relieved cerebral infarction and decreased the neuronal apoptosis. Moreover, XCD promoted the release of anti-inflammatory factor like IL-10, while down-regulating pro-inflammatory factors such as TNF-α, IL-17A, and IL-22. Furthermore, XCD significantly increased the levels of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), especially butyric acid. The mechanism might be related to the regulation of SCFAs-producing bacteria like Verrucomicrobia and Akkermansia, and bacteria that regulate inflammation like Paraprevotella, Roseburia, Streptophyta and Enterococcu. Finally, in the network pharmacological analysis, 51 active compounds in XCD and 44 intersection targets of IS and XCD were selected. As a validation, components in XCD docked well with key targets. It was obviously that biological processes were mainly involved in the regulation of apoptotic process, inflammatory response, response to fatty acid, and regulation of establishment of endothelial barrier in GO enrichment. XCD can improve neurological function in experimental stroke mice, partly due to the regulation of gut microbiota. Besises, XCD has the characteristic of "multi-component, multi-target and multi-channel" in the treatment of IS revealed by network pharmacology and molecular docking.
Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Molecular Docking Simulation ; Network Pharmacology ; Stroke/drug therapy*