Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Disease Models, Animal ; Enterocolitis, Necrotizing ; chemically induced ; Female ; Male ; Platelet Activating Factor ; toxicity ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sulfalene ; toxicity ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; toxicity

OBJECTIVETo explore the therapeutic effects of amiodarone and metoprolol, either alone or in combination, on chronic heart failure (CHF) complicated by ventricular arrhythmia.

METHODSA total of 110 NYHA class II-III patients with CHF complicated by ventricular arrhythmia were randomly divided into amiodarone group, metoprolol group and amiodarone + metoprolol group. The therapeutic effects was evaluated at the end of the 1-year follow-up.

RESULTSAmiodarone, metoprolol and their combination produced statistically different therapeutic effects (P<0.05). Compared with amiodarone and metoprolol used alone, amiodarone combined with metoprolol resulted in significant cardiac function improvement (P<0.05) and ventricular arrhythmia control (P<0.01). During the 1-year follow-up, the readmission rate and cardiac event rate in the amiodarone + metoprolol group were significantly lower than those in amiodarone group (P<0.01) and metoprolol group (P<0.05). The adverse reaction rates in the 3 groups were similar (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe combination of amiodarone and metoprolol produces better effect than amiodarone or metoprolol alone in the treatment of CHF complicated by ventricular arrhythmia.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists ; therapeutic use ; Adult ; Amiodarone ; therapeutic use ; Anti-Arrhythmia Agents ; therapeutic use ; Chronic Disease ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Female ; Heart Failure ; complications ; drug therapy ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Male ; Metoprolol ; therapeutic use ; Tachycardia, Ventricular ; drug therapy ; etiology ; physiopathology ; Treatment Outcome ; Ventricular Premature Complexes ; drug therapy ; etiology

To evaluate changes in quality- of- life of adults with concomitant exotropia before and after surgery.
●METHODS:A retrospective cohort method was used in this research. Sixty - five patients with concomitant exotropia ( ranged from 18 - 30 years) were enrolled. Quality of life was studied with 2 different questionnaires [the Adult Strabismus - 20 ( AS - 20) and the MOS 36 -item Short - Form health survey ( SF - 36 )], which patients completed preoperatively and at 3mo postoperatively.
●RESULTS: With the AS - 20, 3mo after surgery, the mean psychosocial and visual function scores of AS- 20 improved significantly (P<0. 01). Similarly, with the SF-36, the mean score in 7 of 8 areas improved significantly ( P < 0. 01 ), including physiological function, role limitations due to physiological health, general health, vitality, social function, role limitations due to emotional problems, mental health and the overall mean score. However, with respect to bodily pain, no significant improvement was found after surgery(P>0. 05).
● CONCLUSlON: Surgical treatment of concomitant exotropia in adults gives a highly significant improvement in quality - of - life scores. We should pay more attention to the impact of strabismus on quality of life clinically to improve the outcome of the surgery.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the correlation of the deleted azoospermia (DAZ) gene copy related to gr/gr and b2/b3 deletions in the AZFc region with male spermatogenic impairment.

METHODSThis study included 121 infertile men with different de- grees of spermatogenic impairment and 95 healthy donors from the sperm bank. Using PCR, PCR-RFLP, and Y chromosome specific sequence tagged sites (STS) , we analyzed the association of DAZ gene copy deletions related to gr/gr and b2/b3 deletions in the AZFc region with spermatogenic impairment.

RESULTSThere were 15 cases of gr/gr deletion (12. 40% ) and 6 cases of b2/b3 deletion (4.96%) in the infertility group as compared with 13 cases of gr/gr deletion (13.68%) and 1 case of b2/b3 deletion (1.05%) in the control. Analysis of the DAZ-specific single nucleotide variant (SNV) loci revealed 11 gr/gr-DAZI/DAZ2 deletions (9.09%), 4 gr/gr-DAZ3/DAZ4 deletions (3.31%), and 6 b2/b3-DAZ1/DAZ2 deletions (4.96%) in the infertile men in comparison with 3 gr/ gr-DAZ1/DAZ2 deletions (3.16%), 10 gr/gr-DAZ3/DAZ4 deletions (10.53%), and 1 b2/b3- DAZ3/DAZ4 deletion (1.05%) in the control.

CONCLUSIONPartial deletions of gr/gr and b2/b3 exist in both healthy men and male patients with different degrees of spermatogenic impairment and cannot be considered as a risk factor for spermatogenesis impairment. However, deletions of different DAZ duplicons in gr/gr and b2/b3 deletions have different effects on spermatogenesis. DAZ1/DAZ2 instead of DAZ3/DAZ4 deletions might be associated with spermatogenesis impairment.

Deleted in Azoospermia 1 Protein ; Gene Deletion ; Gene Dosage ; Humans ; Male ; RNA-Binding Proteins ; genetics ; Spermatogenesis ; genetics

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common malignant tumors as well as a frequent cause of cancer-related mortality in men worldwide. The test of serum markers has dramatically improved the early diagnosis of PCa, but its underlying molecular mechanisms are not yet completely identified. Long noncoding RNA (IncRNA) is emerging as a new player in the PCa paradigm demonstrating its potential roles in both oncogenic and tumor suppressive pathways. LncRNA is frequently aberrantly expressed in the majority of PCa cases. This review highlights recent findings of the aberrant expression of lncRNA in PCa and discusses its novel roles in the diagnosis, prediction, prognosis, metastasis, and potential clinical treatment of PCa.
Humans ; Male ; Prognosis ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; RNA, Long Noncoding ; metabolism

Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) is a molecular genotyping method based on nucleotide sequencing. The procedure of this method characterizes isolates of bacterial species using the DNA sequencing of multiple housekeeping genes(usually seven). For each housekeeping gene, the different sequences present within a bacterial species are assigned as distinct alleles.For each isolate, the alleles at each of the loci define the allelic profile or sequence type (ST). MLST has the advantages of being robust (based on genetic data) and electronically portable to generate data that allow rapid and global comparisons between different laboratories. In this paper, the principle, method, data analysis, application, advantages and flaws of MLST are introduced.

Objective To study the characteristics of articles,citations and authors in Chinese Critical Care Medicine (Chin Crit Care Med).Methods The date about articles,citations and authors of Chin Crit Care Med from 2005 to 2006 were collected and analyzed in terms of bibliomertic parameters.Results There were 612 papers published in Chin Crit Care Med during 2 years and the papers with funded projects were accounted for 63.1%.The authors came from 30 provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government in China.The average number of articles per issue was 26;the paper density was 0.40 and the average period from the date of submission to publication was 5.2 months.Among these papers,87.6% were shared with co-authors,with cooperation rate of 4.40.The papers with citation were accounted for 85.1% and 95.9% of the citations in English came from journals.The Price's index was 58.2%.Conclusion The articles published in Chin Crit Care Med have high quality.It is one of the most important resources of information for researches in this field,and it is also a primary kernel journal in Chinese medicine field.

The formulation for sustained release tablet of Epinedium component was selected and the evaluation equation of in vitro release was established. The liquidity of component was improved with the help of colloidal silica aided by spray drying, which would be the main drug in the sustained release tablets. Dissolution was selected as an evaluation index to investigate skeletal material type, fillers, impact porogen, lubricants and other materials on the quality of sustained release tablet. The sustained release tablets were prepared by dry compression. Formulation of sustained release preparations was main drug 35%, HPMC K(4M) 20% and HPMC K(15M) 10% as skeleton material, MCC 31% as filler, PEG6000 2% as porogen and magnesium stearate 2% as lubricant. The sustained release tablets released up to 80% in 8 h. The zero order equation, primary equation and Higuchi equation could simulate the release characteristics of sustained release tablets in vitro, the correlation coefficients r were larger than 0.96. The primary equation was most similar in vitro release characteristics and its correlation coefficient r was 0.9950. The preparation method is simple and the results of formulation selection are reliable. It can be used to guide the production of Epimedium component sustained release preparations.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; methods ; Delayed-Action Preparations ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Epimedium ; chemistry ; Kinetics ; Tablets ; chemistry

Wuxistatin, a novel and potent statin, is converted from lovastatin by Amycolatopsis sp. CGMCC1149. In the bioconversion, lovastatin is firstly hydroxylated by a hydroxylase. To obtain the critical hydroxylase, a novel hydroxylase gene was isolated from Amycolatopsis sp. CGMCC1149 by Degenerate PCR and Self-Formed Adaptor PCR and expressed in Escherichia coli. BLAST sequence analysis revealed that the gene belonged to cytochrome P450 gene superfamily and could encode a 403-amino-acid protein with a molecular weight of 44.8 kDa. The secondary structure prediction result showed that this protein contained many typical functional regions of P450, such as oxygen binding site, ion-pair region and heme binding region. Meanwhile, a catalytic function verification system was constructed by NADH, ferredoxin and ferredoxin reductase which could catalyze lovastatin hydroxylation into the target product. These would be helpful for further studies in large-scale production of wuxistatin.
Actinomycetales ; enzymology ; genetics ; Amino Acid Sequence ; Butyrates ; metabolism ; Cloning, Molecular ; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System ; genetics ; metabolism ; Hydroxylation ; Industrial Microbiology ; Lovastatin ; metabolism ; Molecular Sequence Data

Scavenger receptor CD36 could bind and endocytose oxLDL into macrophages which were then differentiated into foam cells that constitute the atherosclerotic lesion core, and was considered to be a potential target to treat atherosclerosis. In the establishment of the compound library of berberine (BBR, 1) analogues, we discovered that 13-hexylberberine (2) showed an antagonistic activity against CD36. Taking 2 as the lead compound, 21 derivatives were synthesized and their antagonistic activities were evaluated via an ELISA-like high-throughput screening (HTS) model. The primary structure-activity relationships were studied. It was indicated that the introduction of suitable groups at the 2- and 3-position of the aromatic ring A or at the 9-position of the aromatic ring D could enhance the activity. Among the 21 studied compounds, 7g bearing a benzyloxyl group at the 9-position provided a highest CD36 antagonistic activity with the IC50 value of 7.7 micromol L(-1). Besides, its antagonistic activity was further verified with Sf9 insect cell HTS model. So berberine analogues are a new family of CD36 receptor antagonists and worthy to be studied further.