Aim To investigate the direct effects and mechanism of carvedilol on HERG channel stably expressing in human embryonic kidney-293(HEK293) cells.Methods Whole-cell patch-clamp technique was used to record HERG current and kinetic curves in single cells.Western blot methods were used to investigate the expression of HERG channel in different concentration of carvedilol.Result Carvedilol decreased HERG current in a concentration-dependent manner with an IC50 539.6 nmol?L-1,Hillslope-0.64.The time constants of onset of inactivation and deactivation were accelerated.Other kinetcs(activation,inactivation,recovery from inactivation)had no significant changes.Based on western result,carvedilol had no effect on the generation and trafficking of HERG protein.Conclusion Carvedilol inhibits the transfected HERG channels by influencing the open state which is the probable anti-arrhythmic mechanism.There is no relationship between carvedilol and HERG channel expression.

Objective To conduct a case-control study on the association of the nucleotide polymorphisms in the promoter region of the matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) gene with phenotype of esophageal cancer. Methods All subjects were unrelated residents in northern regions of China. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis was used to determine the MMP-9 genotypes. Results The overall distribution of genotypes in the patients was not different from that in the controls (OR=0.77, 95% CI=0.45-1.34; P=0.36). There were no significant differences between the patients and the control subjects in terms of the distributions of sex and age, smoking status, alcohol dependence, pickled diet status, or history of environmental exposure. The patients were further examined with stratifications by age, sex, grade, depth of tumor invasion, lymphatic invasion, venous invasion and TNM staging. The results showed no pronounced association among the stratifications. Conclusion There is no significant association between the MMP-9 single nucleotide polymorphism genotypes and phenotype of esophageal cancer.

ObjectiveTo study the value of the exfoliative cytology of prostatic fluid obtained from patients with elevated PSA in prostate cancer diagnosis.MethodsProstatic fluid was obtained from 130 patients with elevated PSA before prostate biopsy and then the Wright's stain and cytological class were done.Each cytological class and patient's age,PSA,total prostate volume,prostatic fluid volume and the number of leukocyte in the prostatic fluid were recorded.The relationship of leukocyte number and patient's age,PSA and prostate volume was analyzed by Spearman correlation test.ResultsProstate biopsy pathology results showed that there were 77 (59.2％) cancer cases and 53 (40.8％) non-cancer cases.Patient numbers in cytological class 1 to 5 were 28 (21.5％),32 (24.6％),22 (16.9％),36 (27.7％),12(9.2％),respectively.The prostate fluid cytology had a specificity of 100％ and high sensitivity of 62.5％(10/16) in patients with PSA≥20 μg/L.PSA value had significant difference between class 1,2,3,4and 5.Significant correlation was found among the prostatic fluid volume,total leukocyte number and prostate volume.Prostate volume,leukycyte density and total leukycyte number was significant higher in noncancer patients than in prostate cancer patients.ConclusionsThe exfoliative cytology of prostatic fluid is a valuable method in detecting prostate cancer,particularly in patients with high PSA levels.It has the advantages of non-invasion and less injury than prostate biopsy.There is a relationship between elevated PSA value and high leukocyte numbers.

The prevalence of liver and intestinal fluke infections was determined by surveying inhabitants of Hengxuan, Fusui, and Shanglin villages which were known to be endemic for liver flukes in Guangxi, China in May 2010. A total of 718 people were examined for helminth eggs by the Kato-Katz thick smear technique, ultrasonography, immunoaffinity chromatography, and DNA sequencing. The overall egg positive rate was found to be 59.6% (28.0-70.6%) that included mixed infections with liver and intestinal flukes. Cases showing higher than 20,000 eggs per gram of feces (EPG) were detected between 1.3% and 16.2%. Ultrasonographic findings exhibited overall 28.2% (72 of 255 cases) dilatation rate of the intrahepatic bile duct. Clonorchis sinensis infection was detected serologically in 88.3% (38 of 43 cases) among C. sinensis egg positive subjects by the immunoaffinity chromatography using a specific antigen for C. sinensis. For differential diagnosis of the liver and intestinal flukes, more precise PCR and nucleotide sequencing for copro-DNA were performed for 46 egg positive cases. Mixed infections with C. sinensis and Metagonimus yokogawai were detected in 8 of 46 egg positive cases, whereas 29 specimens were positive for Haplorchis taichui. Ultrasonographic findings and immunoaffinity chromatography results showed usefulness, even in a limited way, in figuring out of the liver fluke endemicity.
Animals ; China/epidemiology ; Chromatography, Affinity ; Clonorchiasis/*epidemiology/parasitology/ultrasonography ; Clonorchis sinensis/genetics/immunology/*isolation & purification ; Coinfection ; DNA, Helminth/chemistry/genetics ; Feces/parasitology ; Female ; Heterophyidae/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Humans ; Intestines/*parasitology ; Liver/*parasitology ; Parasite Egg Count ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Trematode Infections/*epidemiology/parasitology/ultrasonography

OBJECTIVETo develop a RT-PCR method for a rapid and sensitive detection of Salmonella in poultry samples.

METHODSThe RT-PCR method was established and its specificity was testified on the basis of invA gene. Serial 10-fold diluted pure suspension culture of CMCC 50041 was detected by RT-PCR, the standard curve was constructed and the amplification efficiency was calculated. Artificially contaminated experiment was done, six artificially-inoculated samples containing final concentration of Salmonella CMCC 50041 (1, 10, 10(2), 10(3), 10(4), 10(5) and 10(6) CFU per 25 g poultry samples) were prepared respectively. All the samples were incubated for 0, 4, 8, 12 and 18 h and the DNA was extracted for RT-PCR detection, meanwhile by PCR detection and the traditional method. The sensitiveness and specificity were compared among the three methods. At the same time, 16 samples of retail whole poultry were collected from markets and detected by the above three methods as well, and thereby to further compare the positive detection among the three methods.

RESULTSThe established RT-PCR method was specific for the detection of Salmonella. The sensitivity was 5.2×10(3) CFU/ml for pure Salmonella culture without enrichment. Correlation coefficients of standard curves constructed using the Ct versus log value of concentration of Salmonella showed good linearity over a 8-log dynamic range (5.2×10(3)-5.2×10(10) CFU/ml), with the R(2) at 0.999. RT-PCR detection limit for artificially contaminated samples after enriching for 12 h was 1 CFU/25 g sample, which was the same with the limit of PCR and 10 times more sensitive than the limit of traditional method. Standard curve of sample after enrichment for 12 h was established. Seven of 16 samples were detected positive by RT-PCR, which were also tested positive by PCR, while only five samples were positive by traditional method. The positive ones were quantitatively analyzed using standard curve of sample and determined the initial Salmonella numbers of CFU/25 g.

CONCLUSIONThe established RT-PCR technology was simple, rapid, sensitive and specific, which was suitable to quickly detect Salmonella in poultry samples.

Objective:To compare the preliminary clinical efficacy of iodized oil embolization and improved microspheres injection embolization in patients with hepatic metastasis from gastrointestinal tumors.Methods:In total 100 patients with hepatic metastasis from gastrointestinal tumors were perspective enrolled from July 2015 to July 2017 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology. The patients were randomly divided into iodized oil group (45 cases) and microspheres group (55 cases) using random number table. The patients in iodized oil group were firstly received regular perfusion chemotherapy, then underwent the embolization with Iodized oil and epirubicin emulsifier. As for the microspheres group, the patients were received epirubicin and microspheres perfusion and embolization alternately after the same regular perfusion chemotherapy. The post-operation complications were observed. The effective rate of tumor controling at each time point was compared between two groups using χ 2 test. Kaplan-Meier method was used to perform the survival analysis. Log-rank test was used to compare the survival rate between two groups. Results:The operation was successfully performed in all the patients, without severe complications found. The follow up time was 18.7±3.4 months. The tumor control rates of 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after operation in the iodine oil group were 71.1% (32/45), 68.9% (31/45), 51.1% (23/45), 28.9% (13/45), 6.7% (3/45) respectively; while in microspheres group were 90.9% (50/55), 89.1% (49/55), 72.7% (40/55), 49.1% (27/55), 23.6% (13/55), respectively. The tumor control rate in microspheres group was superior to that in iodine oil group ( P<0.05). The median lifetime was 12 months and 17 months for iodine oil group and microspheres group respectively, with significant difference (χ2=8.238, P=0.004) found between two groups. As for the microspheres group, the liver abscess was found in one week after operation in 4 patients, who were cured after drainage and anti-inflammatory treatment. Conclusion:The improved microspheres injection embolization is an effective method for the hepatic metastasis from gastrointestinal tumors and superior to iodized oil embolization in tumor controlling, which may prolong the median survival time.

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of 125I seed implantation combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) in the treatment of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (PHC).Methods 156 patients who had unresectable PHC seen from January 2012 to December 2015 in our unit were randomly assigned into the study group (76 patients) and the control group (80 patients).The study group of patients were treated with intra-hepatic implantation of 125I seed + TACE,and the control group of patients were treated with three dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) + TACE.After ra diotherapy the two groups of patients underwent 2 to 3 times TACE treatment.The biomarker levels were compared between the two groups before and after treatment,and the short-term efficacy,clinical safety and 1 year survival rates were assessed.Results The success rates of the treatment for the two groups were both 100％.Patients in the study group were implanted with 1 016 125I seeds,with an average of (13.7 ± 2.5) seeds per patient.The two groups had no significant difference on short-term efficacy (P ＞ 0.05).The DCR,ORR and 1 year survival rates in the study group were 63.2％,92.1％,55.5％,and they were 61.3％,90.0％,58.1％ in the control group,respectively.There were no significant differences between these 2 groups (P ＞ 0.05).At 1 month after treatment,the two groups had no significant differences onAFP,IGF-Ⅱ and IGFBP-2 [(5.08±0.85) μg/L vs.(5.12 ±0.79) μg/L,(4.77 ±0.58) μg/L vs.(4.86 ±0.53) μg/L,(4.98 ±0.67) μg/L vs.(5.04 ±0.71) μg/L] (P＞0.05).There were no signif-icant differences on chemotherapy drug toxicities between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05).The incidence of radi-ation hepatitis in the study group was 1.3％,while the incidences of radiation dermatitis,hepatitis,gastriculcer in the control group were 5.0％,8.8％,2.5％,respectively.The radiation dermatitis incidence inthe study group was significantly lower than that of the control group (P ＜ 0.05).In the study group,2 pa-tients (2.6％) had their 125I seed slightly moved.Conclusion The short-term efficacy of 125I seed implan-tation plus TACE in the treatment of PHC is no less than the 3DCRT + TACE regimen,but with less radia-tion side effects.

Purpose: Given the long history of investigation into cancer and its relevance to the lymph node (LN), it would be meaningful to plot the trends of research on cancer-related LN. Methods: Queries such as “cancer,” “lymph node,” and “cancer and lymph node” were submitted to PubMed to collect articles on cancer and LN published between 1945 and 2017. The collected articles were then extracted by an automatic web crawler and examined through informetrics and linguistic analysis. Results: The number of articles related to cancer was 2,795,476 and 127,897 articles (4.6%) were found to be relevant to LN. With regard to cancer types, breast cancer was the most studied (37%), followed by gastric cancer (17%). With regard to the subjects in which the surgeon is interested, LN metastasis (57%) was found to be the topic most discussed, followed by LN dissection (22%) and sentinel LN (17%). Publications on LN metastasis gradually increased over time from 1988 to 2017 although those on sentinel LN and LN dissection have stagnated since the early 2000s. Conclusion Although research on cancer was abundant, only a small portion was dedicated to investigating its relevance to LN. Western countries had led the research on cancer-related LN, but Asian countries began to participate as major players, expanding their contributions. While LN metastasis, one of the major cancer-related LN topics, showed a steady increase, those involved in oncologic surgery such as LN dissection and sentinel LN did not.

A clonorchiasis case in a captive leopard cat, Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus, was confirmed by ultrasonographic findings and egg morphologies found in the bile juice sample in the Korea. The leopard cat was introduced from the wild habitat of Gyeongsangnam-do, to Cheongju Zoo in Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea in August 2014. Physical examinations were basically performed for quarantine and check-up health. The cat was comparatively good in health except anorexia. The cyst-like bile duct dilation and the increased echogenicity of gall bladder wall and hepatic parenchyma were observed by ultrasonography. Ultrasound-guided needle biopsy was conducted for collecting bile juice and the specimens were observed under light microscope. The numerous small trematode eggs were detected in the bile juice sample of the light microscopy. The eggs were 25–33 (28±3) μm by 18–22 (20±1) μm in size and showed typical characteristics of Clonorchis sinensis egg, i.e., a dominantly developed operculum, shoulder rim and dust-like wrinkles in surface. To treat the liver fluke infection, 20 mg/kg of praziquantel was orally administered only once to the case. Follow-up studies including fecal examinations were conducted during 2 years after treatment. But no more eggs were detected from the case. In the present study, we described the first clonorchiasis case of leopard cat, which was confirmed by ultrasonographic findings and egg morphologies from the bile juice sample in Korea.
Animals ; Anorexia ; Bile ; Bile Ducts ; Biopsy, Needle ; Cats ; Chungcheongbuk-do ; Clonorchiasis ; Clonorchis sinensis ; Ecosystem ; Eggs ; Fasciola hepatica ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gyeongsangnam-do ; Korea ; Microscopy ; Ovum ; Panthera ; Physical Examination ; Praziquantel ; Quarantine ; Republic of Korea ; Shoulder ; Ultrasonography ; Urinary Bladder

Heat shock protein A9 (HSPA9), a member of the heat shock protein family, is a putative receptor for Tembusu virus (TMUV). By using Western blot and co-immunoprecipitation assays, E protein domains I and II were identified as the functional domains that facilitate HSPA9 binding. Twenty-five overlapping peptides covering domain I and domain II sequences were synthesized and analyzed by using an HSPA9 binding assay. Two peptides showed the capability of binding to HSPA9. Dot blot assay of truncated peptides indicated that amino acid residues 19 to 22 and 245 to 252 of E protein constitute the minimal motifs required for TMUV binding to HSPA9. Importantly, peptides harboring those two minimal motifs could effectively inhibit TMUV infection. Our results provide insight into TMUV-receptor interaction, thereby creating opportunities for elucidating the mechanism of TMUV entry.
Blotting, Western ; Heat-Shock Proteins ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Immunoprecipitation ; Peptides ; Protein Structure, Tertiary