The quality of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) has been mainly evaluated based on chemical ingredients, yet recently more attentions have been paid on biological ingredients, especially for pill-based preparations. It is a key approach to establish a fast, accurate and systematic method of biological ingredient analysis for realization of modernization, industrialization and internationalization of TCMs. The biological ingredient analysis of TCM preparations could be abstracted as the identification of multiple species from a biological mixture. The metagenomic approach based on high-throughput-sequencing (HTS) and big-data-mining has been considered as one of the most effective methods for multiple species analysis of a biological mixture, which would also be helpful for the analysis of biological ingredients in TCMs. Simultaneous identification of diverse species, including the prescribed species, adulterants, toxic species, protected species and even the biological impurities introduced through production process, could be achieved by selecting appropriate DNA biomarkers, as well as applying large-scale sequence comparison and data mining. By this approach, it is prospective to offer an evaluation basis for the effectiveness, safety and legality of TCM preparations.
Biological Products ; chemistry ; Data Mining ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Metagenomics ; methods

Clinically being applied treatment against chronic hepatitis has three limitations: low response rates, severe adverse effects and a high rate of drug resistance. Hence, novel targets for antiviral therapy need to be developed so as to provide an armory of different strategies. During the replication of hepatitis B virus, the interaction of viral polymerase (P protein, also called P) and epsilonRNA is indispensable for the initiation of reverse transcription via protein priming and the pregenome RNA (pgRNA) packaging. Three strategies are currently developed for blocking P-epsilon interaction: heat shock protein inhibitors, epsilonaptamers and chemical compounds for blocking formation of P-epsilon complex. Previously, our group has for the first time worldwide in vitro screened several aptamers, which are able to interfere with the P-epsilon interaction. A strong inhibition against HBV was observed in vitro and in vivo experiments, respectively. In conclusion, the so far developed chemicals suppressing the P-epsilon interaction may bypass or overcome the viral resistance problems during clinic treatment and represent a highly attractive option for therapeutic intervention.
Animals ; Gene Expression Regulation, Viral ; Gene Products, pol ; antagonists & inhibitors ; genetics ; metabolism ; Hepatitis B ; therapy ; virology ; Hepatitis B virus ; enzymology ; genetics ; physiology ; Humans ; RNA, Viral ; genetics ; metabolism ; Virus Replication

No abstract available.
Humans ; Male* ; Smoke* ; Smoking*

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans ; Hypertension*

No abstract available.
Occupational Diseases*

No abstract available.
Heart*

No abstract available.
Pregnancy*

PURPOSE: Inidence of recurrent common duct stones reported approximately 20% for a second operation, and with even higher rate following subsequent reoperation. However, the factors contributing to recurrent stones have not well defined. Some authors have reported on association of juxtapapillary diverticula with recurrent biliary stones. We have studied to assess the clinical significance of coexisting PAD on recurrent common bile duct stones and to establish the rational operative procedure in primary or recurrent common duct stones with coexisting PAD. METHODS: Medical records of 456 consecutive patients (Feb. 1993~Aug. 2002) who performed ERCP for biliary symptoms were reviewed. We comparative study retrospectively have done between patients with and without PAD on recurrence of common duct stones and outcome of treatment. RESULTS: Incidence of PAD was 15.1% on ERCP, and increased in the old aged patients. Incidence of biliary stone in PAD group was higher than that of non-PAD group (73.9% vs. 50.6%), and gall stone involving common duct was more prevalent in PAD group than non-PAD group. PAD group showed higher stone recurrence rate (23.5% vs. 6.1%) and earlier recurrence following conventional treatment, and needs more multiple treatments, compared with non-PAD group. Intradiverticular papillae (IDP) type showed higher stone recurrence, compared with juxtapapillary diverticula (JPD) type (36.8% vs. 15.6%). CONCLUSION: PAD would be one of important contributing factors for development and recurrence of common bile ductstones. So rational operative procedure for primary or recurrent common duct stones with coexisting PAD should include extirpation of PAD, particulary in IDP type.
Bile ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde ; Common Bile Duct* ; Diverticulum* ; Gallstones ; Humans ; Incidence ; Medical Records ; Recurrence ; Reoperation ; Retrospective Studies ; Surgical Procedures, Operative

We performed case-control studies for the 1, 138 Korean adult men. According to the results of UGIS, we classified the gastritis into the erosive gastritis, superficial gastritis, and hypertrophic gastritis. And then, we selected controls among non-gastritis group after matching. Alcohol intake and smoking history was obtained by questionnaire. And we observed the effects of alcohol intake and smoking to the each gastritis. The results obtained were as follows; 1. Smokers had a risk of getting erosive gastritis more than twice (2.6) than non-smokers and there was dose-response relationships between smoking and erosive gastritis. Alcohol intake, however, had no significant relation with the erosive gastritis. 2. Both smoking and alcohol intake had no significant relations with superficial gastritis. 3. Smoking had no significant relation with hypertrophic gastritis, but dividing between those who drank more than 100gm of alcohol a week and those who drank less, we obtained the odds ratio of 3. 4 suggesting that there existed a significant relation between moderate or excessive alcohol intake and hypertrophic gastritis. 4. Among the gastritis patients, those who had erosive gastritis smoked most heavily, and those who had hypertrophic gastritis drank most excessively.
Adult* ; Case-Control Studies* ; Gastritis* ; Gastritis, Hypertrophic ; Humans ; Male ; Odds Ratio ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoke* ; Smoking*

In the course of immunoscreening of Clonorchis sinensis cDNA library, a cDNA CsRP12 containing a tandem repeat was isolated. The cDNA CsRP12 encodes two putative peptides of open reading frames (ORFs) 1 and 2 (CsRP12-1 and -2). The repetitive region is composed of 15 repeats of 10 amino acids. Of the two putative peptides, CsRP12-1 was proline-rich and found to have homologues in several organisms. Recombinant proteins of the putative peptides were bacterially produced and purified by an affinity chromatography. Recombinant CsRP12-1 protein was recognized by sera of clonorchiasis patients and experimental rabbits, but recombinant CsRP12-2 was not. One of the putative peptide, CsRP12-1, is designated CsPRA, proline-rich antigen of C. sinensis. Both the C-termini of CsRP12-1 and -2 were bacterially produced and analysed to show no antigenicity. Recombinant CsPRA protein showed high sensitivity and specificity. In experimental rabbits, IgG antibodies to CsPRA was produced between 4 and 8 weeks after the infection and decreased thereafter over one year. These results indicate that CsPRA is equivalent to a natural protein and a useful antigenic protein for serodiagnosis of human clonorchiasis.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Animals ; Antigens, Helminth/*genetics/isolation & purification ; Base Sequence ; *Cloning, Molecular ; Clonorchis sinensis/genetics/*immunology ; DNA, Helminth ; Gene Library ; Human ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Rabbits ; Recombinant Proteins ; *Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid ; Support, Non-U.S. Gov't