Alanine Transaminase ; blood ; Animals ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; blood ; Carbon Tetrachloride ; toxicity ; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury ; drug therapy ; Female ; Liver ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Male ; Malondialdehyde ; metabolism ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Silymarin ; administration & dosage ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use

Bronchitis ; diagnosis ; Diagnostic Errors ; Humans ; Infant ; Male

Objective　To explore the role of acute infection of Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn) in respiratory diseases. Methods　Microimmunofluorescence test was used to detect IgG antibodies for Cpn in serum obtained from 93 inpatients and PCR was used to test Cpn in detection of Cpn DNA in throat specimens from 55 of the 99 patients. Results　Acute Cpn infection was diagnosed in 35.5% of the respiratory diseases. Antibodies for Cpn (titer of ≥512) were present in 47.6% of the pneumonia group, which may suggest that during 1998 to 1999, Cpn caused an epidemic in Beijing. They were also present in 50% of asthma group, 50.0% of pulmonary heart disease group and 26.3% of lung cancer group. Only five patients (9.1%) were positive by PCR. There exists discrepancy between serological and PCR results. Conclusion　Detection of IgG antibodies for Cpn conduces to diagnosis of acute Cpn infection and give advice for appropriate therapy.

Systems biology is a new field in biology that aims at system-level understanding of biological systems. Based on the remarkable progress from molecular biology, systems biology focuses its research on investigating the biological systems to form their entirety. Considering the trend of TCM modernization and the coherence on the point of holism between systems biology and TCM, a comprehensive way for the research of TCM modernization was referred, which involves a new concept, componentomics.
Drug Combinations ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; trends ; Models, Biological ; Neural Networks (Computer) ; Systems Biology ; methods ; trends

Rutaecarpine (Rut) is a type of indole quinazoline alkaloid exracted from Ruticarpum. Studies showed that Rut has a wide range of pharmacological effects, such as anti-hypertension, anticancer, anti-inflammation, anti-thrombus formation. Currently, many scholars are committed to developing it into a new antihypertensive and anti-inflammatory drug with all new mechanisms. But studies found that Rut is a highly fat-soluble drug with low water and oil solubility. Its high insolubility is the main obstacle in its oral absorption and application, which greatly reduced its bioavailability. Therefore, hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD) was used as the inclusion material to prepare Rut-HP-beta-CD inclusion complex in this experiment, in order to increase its water solubility and bioavailability. In this experiment, the inclusion complex was prepared by the stirring-freeze-dry method. The preparation process was optimized by the orthogonal test, with the inclusion rate as the index, and molar ratio between host and guest molecules, inclusion temperature, time and stirring speed as the impacting factors. Moreover, the inclusion complex was verified by detecting the apparent solubility, thin layer chromatography, microscopic identification, melting point detection and dissolution study. The results showed that under the conditions of the molar ratio between Rut and HP-beta-CD of 1: 1, temperature at 60 degrees C, inclusion time of 4h and stirring speed at 600 r x min(-1), the inclusion rate of Rut-HP-beta-CD reached 91.04%. Therefore, the preparation process of Rut-HP-beta-CD inclusion under the optimum conditions is simple and feasible, with a highest inclusion rate and reproducibility, and could significantly improve Rut's solubility and bioavailability, and provide a reliable experimental basis for its clinical application.
2-Hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin ; Alkaloids ; chemistry ; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; methods ; Drug Carriers ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Rutaceae ; chemistry ; Solubility ; beta-Cyclodextrins ; chemistry

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the therapeutic effect of Liujunzi decoction combined with Zuojin pills in treating the radioactive duodenitis and their mechanism, and compare with clinical routine acid suppressants combined with mucous membrane protective preparations to study the mechanism of their efficacy.

METHODAccording to the study of Williams J P and characteristics of duodenitis, and by reference to the radiation enteritis modeling standard, we took the lead in establishing the mouse radioactive duodenal injury model. The model mice were randomly divided into the control group (n = 26), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) group (n = 16) and the western medicine (oral administration with famotidine 0.5 mL + almagate suspension 0.3 mL per mouse, once a day) group (n = 16). After the standard administrating, such objective indexes as general condition, weight, changes in health score, pathology and expression of inflammatory factors were observed to evaluate the efficacy.

RESULTThe radioactive duodenitis model of mice was successfully established with 12 Gy. Mice in the control group suffered from weight loss, anorexia, low fluid intake, loose stools, and occasionally mucous bloody stool, poor spirit, dim fur, lack of exercise and arch back. Mice in drug intervention groups were generally better than those in the pure irradiation group. The IL-6, IL-1beta, TNF-alpha mRNA expressions in spleen and mesenteric lymph node tissues in TCM and western medicine groups showed a declining trend compared with the control group. Their concentrations in peripheral blood serum also slightly changed. The TCM group revealed notable advantage in reducing inflammatory factors. The microscopic observation showed that a better mucosa repair in intervention groups than the pure irradiation group. The improved Chiu's scoring method showed a statistical significance in the difference between TCM and western medicine groups (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONLiujunzi decoction combined with Zuojin pills could treat acute radiation enteritis, regulate organic immunity, and inhibit acute injury, promote local tissue repair, with the potential to resist such adverse effects as radiation intestinal fibrosis. The regulation of inflammatory factor release is one of efficacy generation mechanisms.

Animals ; Cobalt Radioisotopes ; adverse effects ; Drug Interactions ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Duodenitis ; blood ; drug therapy ; Interleukin-1beta ; blood ; Interleukin-6 ; blood ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mucous Membrane ; drug effects ; radiation effects ; Radiation Injuries, Experimental ; blood ; drug therapy ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; blood

Background and purpose: Ursolic acid is widely present in spica prunellae, hedyotis diffusa and other heat antidotes. The growth of a variety of tumor cells can be inhibited and induced apoptosis by ursolic acid.This study was aimed to investigate the effect and possible mechanisms of UA on inducing apoptosis of human gastric carcinoma BGC823 cells. Methods: The MTT assay was used to detect the antiproliferative effect of UA on BGC823 cells. Flow cytometry was used to detect cell cycle and apoptosis of BGC823 cells. The expression level of bcl-2 and bax gene was investigated by real time-polymerase chain reaction (real time-PCR). Results: UA inhibited the proliferation of BGC823 cells in a dose and time-dependent way. After treatment by UA for 24. 48 and 72 h, the IC_(50) of BGC823 was 36.88, 34.72, and 32.18 μmol/L, respectively. UA could signifcantly induce apoptosis of BGC823 cells and block cells at G_2/M phase. UA could increase the expression of bax gene and decrease the expression of bcl-2 gene in a dose and time-dependent way. Conclusion: UA could induce apoptosis and inhibit the proliferation of BGC823 cells in a dose and time-dependent way. It could arrest cell cycle of BGC823 cells at G_2/M phase. Its mechanisms might be associated with the up-regulation of bax gene and down-regulation of bcl-2 gene.

Objective To investigate whether resting state-fMRI (RS-fMRI) based on local consistency (ReHo), am?plitude low-frequency fluctuate (ALFF) and fALFF can add meaningful information on preoperative localization of epilepto?genic zone in patients with malformations of cortical development (MCD). Methods Ten epilepsy patients with MCD were studied with RS-fMRI using a 3.0 T scanner. The resting state data were preprocessed and analyzed using SPM8 and REST to generate the activation map. Abnormal ReHo, ALFF and fALFF related blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal changes were compared to video EEG (VEEG),PET,MRI findings and the final result of a comprehensive evaluation-de?fined epileptogenic zone. For operated patients, postoperative resection and histology were compared to BOLD responses. Re?sults The results of spike localization of RS-fMRI were consistent with VEEG, PET, MRI findings and final comprehensive evaluation-defined epileptogenic zone in 6, 8, 6, 7 of 10 investigations. Six operated patients (including two negative results of MRI examination) revealed local abnormal changes but not visible on structural MRI, which was confirmed cortical malfor?mations by pathology after operation (2 heterotopia and 4 cortical dysplasia). Conclusion RS-fMRI may help to delineate the epileptic focus in epilepsy patients with MCD.

Objective To study sleeping conditions and relevant factors for insomnia in the elderly people aged 60 years and over in the community of Shanghai,China.Methods A cross-sectional study on sleeping condition by questionnaire was conducted among 2789 elderly people aged 60 years and over during July to October 2005 in seven neighborhood committees of Jing'an District,Shanghai,China,with cluster sampling.Results Totally,2304 elderly people completed the study questionnaire with a response rate of 82.61%.Prevalence of insomnia was 14.84% (342/2304) in the elderly.Logistic regression analysis showed that age increasing (OR=1.02),female (OR=2.20),drinking before sleeping (OR=2.98), room light (OR=3.89),noise (OR=1.95),diabetes (OR=1.82),hypertension (OR=1.49),stroke (OR=1.65),osteoporosis (OR=1.76) and number of afflicted chronic diseases (OR=1.43) all were risk factors for insomnia in the elderly (P

A white-rot fungi Rigidoporus sp.W-1 which could produce laccase was isolated. The fermentation conditions in shaking flasks were investigated. The optimal carbon source was wheat bran and (NH 4) 2SO 4 was the optimal nitrogen source. The components of the medium were optimized by orthogonal experiment. When W-1 was cultured under the optimum conditions, the activity of laccase could get to 7.1U/mL in 7 days.A great amount of crude laccase could be obtained by adding fresh medium to the 7 days old mycelium.