Objective To observe the effect of Xiaotan Hezhong Recipe on pancreatic fibrosis forming and the expression of related proteins in model rats of chronic pancreatitis. Methods Twenty-four Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal group, model group, pancreatin group and Chinese medicine group (n=6). Rats model were made by DDC solution intraperitoneal injection. Pancreatin group and Chinese medicine group were treated by intragastric administration with pancreatin and Xiaotan Hezhong Recipe, respectively. Body weight of rats was measured regularly. The rats were killed after 4 weeks, with pancreatic pathological detection and laminin, matrix metalloproteinase-1 detection. Results After intraperitoneal injection of DDC solution, pancreatic tissue fibrosis in different degree and inflammatory cell infiltration were found. Chinese medicine group was better than the model group in general conditions, body weight change, pancreatic pathological score and expression of laminin, matrix metalloproteinase-1, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion Xiaotan Hezhong Recipe can improve chronic pancreatitis rats generally and inhibit pancreatic fibrosis, its mechanism may be related with decreasing laminin expression and increasing the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-1.

Objective To evaluate the relationship between severity of airway obstruction and peripheral arterial stiffness in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Methods 81 COPD patients [aged (78.32 ± 6.98)yrs,73 males,8 females] from Jan 2008 to Oct 2012 were enrolledin Geriatric Department of Peking University First Hospital.All patients underwent spirometry and Holter evaluation,while age,sex,BMI,smoking pack-years,medical history,blood levels of lipid profiles,glucose,high sensitivity C reactive protein (hsCRP)and arterial oxygen pressure (PaO2)were recorded.The severity of airway obstruction was evaluated by spirometry.The patients were divided into two groups:mild/moderate group [forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1％) predicted ≥ 50 ％,n=51] and severe group (FEV1％ predicted ＜ 50％,n=30).24-hour average heart rate (HR)was assessed by holter.Arterial stiffness was assessed by the brachial ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV).The baPWV increment was considered to be a direct witness of arterial stiffness increase.Blood levels of lipid profiles,glucose,arterial oxygen pressure (PaO2)and hsCRP were compared between the two groups.Results Age,gender,smoking index,medical history of the two groups were matched.BMI was less in severe group than in mild/moderate group [(22.8± 4.2) kg/m2 vs.(25.3± 3.2) kg/m2,t=3.017,P＜0.05].24-hour average HR was higher in severe group than in mild/moderate group [(77.4± 12.7)bpm vs.(70.8± 9.6)bpm,t=-2.602,P＜0.05].The PaO2 was lower in severe group than in mild/moderate group [(74.6±13.0)mmHg vs.(82.4± 13.1)mmHg,t=2.456,P＜0.05].There were no differences in blood lipid profile and glucose levels between the two groups.76 patients (93.4％)were detected with peripheral arterial stiffness by baPWV＞14.00 m/s.baPWV was significantly increased in severe group as compared with mild/moderate group [(20.77 ± 3.71) m/s vs.(18.84 ± 1.88) m/s,t=-2.109,P＜0.05].hsCRP was significantly higher in severe group than in mild/moderate group [[(6.51±5.66)mg/L vs.(3.27±3.34)mg/L,t=-2.658,P＜0.01].Conclusions The morbidity of peripheral arterial stiffness is increased in patients with COPD.Progression of arterial stiffness is related to the severity of airway obstruction,which may be related to chronic inflammation,hypoxia,or excessive sympathetic activation.

Objective To explore the effect of clinical nursing path (CNP) on stroke patients. Methods 80 stroke patients were divided into control group and experimental group with 40 cases in each group. The control group received functional nursing, while the experimental group received care in accordance with the design of CNP map. Results The mastery rate of health knowledge and the satisfaction rate were higher, and the hospitalization time was shorter in the experimental group than in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion The implementation of CNP could increase the mastery degree of health knowledge, improve the satisfaction rate of patients for nursing service, and shorten the hospitalization time.

Atypical antipsychotic drugs have overcome the serious prolactin elevation and extrapyramidal symptoms of typical antipsychotic drugs, and become the first-line treatment for psychiatry. Studies have found that atypical antipsychotic drugs can modulate the immune inflammatory state of patients and affect their cognitive function, and there is increasing evidence suggesting that neuroimmune disorders may impair cognitive function in schizophrenia. This article reviews the progress of neuroimmune mechanisms of cognitive function in schizophrenia and the effect of atypical antipsychotic drugs on it.

Data processing and analysis has presented major bottlenecks in high-throughput metabolomics research. Bioinformatics tools emerged for performing these high-throughput datasets. These tools can preprocess complex high-dimensional datasets, detect and annotate metabolites, perform various statistical analysis and results interpretation. According to the workflow and methods of metabolomics data processing and analysis, this paper summarized some integral metabolomics softwares and compared the merit and demerit of four typical tools so that it can provide users with a reference guide to select softwares.

Objective: To learn the concentration of target genes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2 ) and the influencing factors in the confirmed cases with coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID-19 ) in Ningbo. Methods: Demographic information and clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 cases reported in Ningbo from January 21 to February 20, 2020 were collected through China Disease Control and Prevention Information System. The Ct values of ORF1ab and N of the cases were collected through Ningbo Center for Disease Control and Prevention and designated hospitals, and analyzed in terms of gender, age, severity, clinical classification, source of case, sampling time and specimen type. Results: There were 157 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 56 males ( 35.67% ) and 101 females ( 64.33% ). Sixty-seven cases ( 42.68% ) aged between 40 and 60 years old. The Ct values of ORF1ab and N in females were 29.96±5.28 and 30.38±4.90, which were higher than 27.56±4.94 and 28.03±4.88 in males ( P<0.05 ). The Ct values of ORF1ab and N were the lowest when sampled at 1-7 days after onset ( P<0.05 ), which were 27.84±4.80 and 28.35±4.65. The Ct values of ORF1ab ( rs=0.288, P=0.001 ) and N ( rs=0.296, P=0.001 ) were positively correlated with sampling time. The Ct values of ORF1ab in pharyngeal swab and sputum were 29.19±4.85 and 28.74±6.40, the Ct values of N in pharyngeal swab and sputum were 29.61±4.60 and 29.22±6.10, both without significant differences between different samples ( P>0.05 ). Conclusions Sampling time has a great influence on the Ct values of ORF1ab and N of SARS-CoV-2.

Antigen Rv2628 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is associated with latent tuberculosis infection. In this study, Rv2628 was prokaryotic expressed and purified, its immunological characteristics was evaluated with macrophage cell line RAW264.7 and BALB/c mice. The results show that Rv2628 was mainly expressed in form of inclusion body confirmed by SDS-PAGE, and could react with rabbit anti-H37Rv polyclonal antibody detected by Western blotting assay, indicating that the protein had an effective immunoreactivity. The interactions between Rv2628 and macrophage cell line RAW264.7 confirmed that it could effectively induce cells to produce pro-inflammatory cytokines, the relative expression level of IL-6 mRNA was higher than the control group in 1-12 h. BALB/c mice were subcutaneously immunized with Rv2628 protein, the production of IFN-gamma and IL-4 in the spleen cells was determined by Sandwich ELISA, in the Rv2628 immunized group, the level of IFN-gamma was significantly higher than that of IL-4 (P < 0.000 1). It indicated the protein induced Th1-tendency immune responses. At the same time, Rv2628(11-30) peptide used as coating antigen, the murine serum antibody titer detected by indirect-ELISA was 1:1 600, which demonstrated that Rv2628 could also induce humoral immune responses. In summary, Rv2628 could induce specific pro-inflammatory cytokines, affectively induce strongly Th1-tendency immune response and humoral response, it could be a potential target for developing subunit vaccine against TB. In addition, it laid foundation for probing the cross-talk between M. tb and host.
Animals ; Antibodies, Bacterial ; blood ; Antigens, Bacterial ; immunology ; Cell Line ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Interferon-gamma ; immunology ; Interleukin-4 ; immunology ; Interleukin-6 ; immunology ; Macrophages ; immunology ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Th1 Cells ; immunology ; Tuberculosis ; immunology

Objective To develop a multiplex allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) assay with three-color fluo-rescence labeling for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) SNP typing. Methods Based on the principle of AS-PCR, the primer sets were designed for 20 SNP located on the coding region of mtDNA and divided in-to 2 groups labeled with FAM and HEX fluorescence, respectively. A primer set included two forward (reverse) allelic specific primers with different sizes and a generic reverse (forward) primer. Blood sam-ples from 200 unrelated individuals were analyzed by AS-PCR and capillary electrophoresis. Three ran-dom samples at least for each SNP site were examined and verified by direct sequencing. The haplotype frequency was investigated. Results Distinct electropherograms of 200 blood samples were obtained suc-cessfully. The typing results of direct sequencing were identical to those obtained from AS-PCR. The minimum detectable DNA concentration was 0.2 pg under the system of 10μL. The sensitivity of the DNA concentrations ranged from 0.5 to 5 pg. The 200 individuals were assigned into 15 haplotype, and the haplotype diversity was 0.906 0. Conclusion AS-PCR is a simple, rapid and efficient method for mtDNA SNP typing, and can be applied to forensic practice.

Objective To evaluate efficacy and mechanism of Anluohuaxian pilule combined with interferon-γ in the treatment of schistosomal liver fibrosis. To preliminarily study on the relationship of pigment deposition in liver and schistosomal liver fibrosis. Methods Thirty Kunming mice were divided into the normal control group, the infection control group and the combination of Anluohuaxian pilule and Interferon-γ treated group. Schistosomal liver fibrosis model was established by infection with 40 Schistosoma japonicum cercariae. The treated group was treated by combination of Anluohuaxian pilule and Interferon-γ for 8 weeks. The changes of pigment deposition and hepatic egg granuloma in Schistosoma japonicum infected mice were observed. Expressions of collagen Ⅰ and Ⅲ were detected by immunohistochemistry. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 was detected by fluorescent polymerase chain reaetion(PCR). Histopathology and computer image analysis were applied to evaluate the change in the liver tissues. Results The amount of pigment deposition in liver was related to the expression of TGF-β1 mRNA (correlation coefficient = 0. 8). Compared to the infection control group, combination of Anluohuaxian pilule and Interferon-γ can lessen hepatic fibrosis(P<0.05). The combination therapy can also make pigment deposition less and hepatic granuloma smaller than the infection control group(P<0. 05). Conclusions Pigment deposition in liver is related to the expression of TGF-β 1. Combination of Anluohuaxian pilule and Interferon-γ can lessen hepatic fibrosis in mice infected with Schistosoma japonicum. It's one mechanism to of the combination therapy down-regulate the expression of collagen Ⅰ, Ⅲ and TGF-β 1.

High-performance liquid chromatographic coupled with variable wavelength detection (HPLC-VWD) has been developed for simultaneous determination of 5 analytes including ellagic acid, quercetin, kaempferol-3-O-beta-D-rutinoside, tiliroside and kaempferol, and high-performance liquid chromatographic with an evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD) has been established to determine goshonoside-F5 in extract of Rubi Fructus. Chromatographic separations were carried out on an Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18 column (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5.0 microm). All calibration curves of reference standards revealed good linearity (R2 > 0.999 5) within the concentration ranges tested. The method limits of detection ranged 0.297-90.144 ng and the method limits ofquantitation ranged 0.990-300.480 ng, respectively. Recoveries of 6 analytes were from 97.11% to 101.7%, with RSD less than 2.1%. The result shows that amounts of the 6 analytes in the samples from 16 localities were found to be different. The higher latitude of growing environment, the more ellagic acid in herb. The content of total flavonoids in sample from east localities were higher than that in middle and west localities, and the content of goshonoside-F5 in Bozhou, Anhui province was higher than others. This method was found to be simple, accurate, sensitive with good repeatability. Those results might serve as a sound foundation for further study, quality control and application of Rubi Fructus.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Ellagic Acid ; analysis ; Flavonoids ; analysis ; Geography ; Rosaceae ; chemistry