Sister chromatid exchange in myelogenous cell of mice was measured to evaluate the effects of anti- mutation by the Chinese triditional medicine , Turtle shell and tortoise shell. The results showed both of them have significant anti-mutation activites.

Objective To study CT features of thymoma,so that to improve the accuracy of CT diagnosis and differential diagnosis.Methods 31 cases of thymomas proved by surgery and pathology were examined with conventional CT scans.CT findings of thymoma were analyzed.Results The lesions in 27 cases(87.1%)were located in the anterior upper and middle mediastinum.There were benign lesion in 11,including mass-cardiovascular interface(MCI) with convex type(8 cases),flatness type(1 cases) and concave type(2 cases).20 cases were malignant lesion,including MCI with cast type(18 cases) and concave type(2 cases).Irregular invasion to adjacent organs was found in 11 cases,others included pericardiac effusion(n=6),pericardial and mediastinal invasion(n=2),pleural effusion(n=4),pneumonia(n=2),lung,bone,mediastinal lymphadens metastasis(n=2) and liver,pancreas metastasis(n=1).Conclusion CT scans is of significant value in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of thymoma.

Abstract: Schistosomiasis is a serious major parasitic disease that threatens human life and health. A better understanding of the mechanism of host-schistosome interactions is the key to designing new prevention and control strategies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small non-coding RNA molecules, which lead to the degradation of the target messenger RNA (mRNA) or inhibition of its translation in a sequence-specific manner. Both schistosome and its host produce miRNAs, which can be secreted by extracellular vesicles (EVs). There is accumulating evidence that miRNAs from schistosome can be taken up by host cells, and finely manipulate the phenotype of host cells for their survival or pathogenesis in a cross-species manner, even inhibiting the growth and metastases of hepatoma cells. It is still unknown whether host free miRNAs can be taken up by schistosome, but this phenomenon is highly probable. miRNA-mediated cross-species regulation has emerged as a novel mechanism for host-schistosome interactions, and this review summarizes the advances in this regard.

In order to confirm the role that the 49th amino acid residue plays in enzymatic inactivity of Glutamine 49 phospholipase A2(Gln49-PLA2),site-directed mutagenesis of its 49th amino acid gene codon was conducted using PCR.Aspartic acid 49 phospholipase A2(Asp49-PLA2-Q49D-PLA2),the mutant of Gln49-PLA2 was expressed in E.coli with pET32a+ vector.The fusion protein,expressed as inclusion body,after being denatured,was on-column refolded and purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography(IMAC),and then cleaved by Factor Xa.The mature Q49D-PLA2 mutant was obtained by Hitrap SP cation exchange and Superdex 75 gel filtration chromatography,with the recovery rate of 1.3%,and the specific activity of the mature Q49D-PLA2 mutant was 72 U/mg.It has been demonstrated that the 49th glutamine amino acid residue is the main reason in enzymatic inactivity of Gln49-PLA2 and the results are helpful for denatured protein refolding,especially in rich disulfide bonds conditions.

The study on the effective core formulae (CEF) not only summarized traditional chinese medicine (TCM) treatment experience, but also helped reveal the underlying knowledge in the formulation of TCM prescriptions. The aim of the present paper was to investigate the method of data mining for the discovery of core effective formulae for lung cancer. In the present study, a prescription fingerprint approach was used to characterize the staged prescription information of patients. The D index was used to screen potential beneficial herbs. Then, based on a herbal compatibility network, the maximal clique searching algorithm (BK algorithm) and survival analysis were applied to discover CEF for lung cancer, and a mining analysis was made for the 322 cases from Longhua hospital. The correlation between prescriptions and survival time was analyzed by prescription fingerprints. Forty-three potentially beneficial herbs were obtained, and two CEFs were significant for the survival time by a parametric survival model based on lognormal distribution, the results were verified by a multivariate survival model. The rules of combination of the two CEFs basically conform to TCM onco-therapeutic theory of strengthening the body resistance and the actual conditions in clinic. All results showed that the established approach was feasible for discovering the core effective formulae for lung cancer and mining survival data for complex TCM onco-therapy.
Algorithms ; Data Mining ; Drug Prescriptions ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; mortality ; Survival Analysis

Based on the transcriptome data, we cloned the open reading frame of IiHCT gene from Isatis indigotica, and then performed bioinformatic analysis of the sequence. Further, we detected expression pattern in specific organs and hairy roots treated methyl jasmonate( MeJA) by RT-PCR. The IiHCT gene contains a 1 290 bp open reading frame( ORF) encoding a polypeptide of 430 amino acids. The predicted isoelectric point( pI) was 5.7, a calculated molecular weight was about 47.68 kDa. IiHCT was mainly expressed in stem and undetectable in young root, leaf and flower bud. After the treatment of MeJA, the relative expression level of IiHCT increased rapidly. The expression level of IiHCT was the highest at 4 h and maintained two fold to control during 24 h. In this study, cloning of IiHCT laid the foundation for illustrating the biosynthesis mechanism of phenylpropanoids in I. indigotica.
Acyltransferases ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism ; Amino Acid Sequence ; Cloning, Molecular ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Isatis ; chemistry ; classification ; enzymology ; genetics ; Models, Molecular ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Open Reading Frames ; Phylogeny ; Plant Proteins ; chemistry ; genetics ; metabolism ; Quinic Acid ; metabolism ; Sequence Alignment ; Shikimic Acid ; metabolism

OBJECTIVETo study EEG during simulated flight training, then to explore the situational character of mental fatigue of the pilots.

METHODSFifty male pilots were randomly choice to be recorded their EEG including rest,flight and recovery phase. Then the band waves of EEG were analysed among the three phase.

RESULTS(1) During flight, the amplitude of alpha, beta, SMR, theta, gamma waves tended to increase. These changes seemed obviously in SMR, theta waves. (2) After flight, all the amplitude of the waves declined except for beta wave of the right lobe,and most of them were still higher than those before flight (P < 0.05); (3) The right brain showed a higher cerebration than the left, especially in theta wave.

CONCLUSIONMental fatigue is started during the flight training, and the right lobe has a severe mental fatigue than the left. After flight, mental fatigue showed a slow recovery.

Objective To investigate clinical characteristics,quality of life,and psychological factors in functional dyspepsia (FD) patients with weight loss.Methods A multi-center and prospective investigation was conducted (Clinical trial registration number:ChiCTR-TRC-12001968) which recruited 1341 consecutive FD outpatients from three Guangdong hospitals according to Rome Ⅲ criteria between June and September in 2012.Of these,1057 patients with complete information were divided into group A as having weight loss more than 5％ (n =207) and group B as having weight loss less than 5％ (n =850).Nepean Dyspepsia Index-symptom checklist,appetite,Hamilton Rating Scale of Anxiety/Depression (HAMA/HAMD),Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI),Nepean Dyspepsia Index-quality of life,direct medical costs were used to compare the differences between the two groups.Results There were no significant differences in total scores of NDI-symptom checklist,the severity or bothersome items between two groups (t =-1.301、-0.918、0.138,P =0.193、0.359、0.890),but significant differences were observed in the frequence item and the rating of appetite as poor or very poor between two groups (t =-2.122,P =0.035 ;x2 =35.448,P =0.000 ;x2 =35.274,P =0.000).Significant differences were observed in the incidence of anxiety and depression and total scores of PSQI between the two groups (x2 =73.939,P =0.000;x2 =47.046,P =0.000 ; t =-4.904,P =0.000).Subscales scores of NDI-quality of life in group B were all significantly higher than those in group A (t =5.348、2.569、5.809、4.704,P =0.000、0.010、0.000、0.000).There were significant differences in the frequency of care-seeking and direct medical costs between the two groups (t =-4.860、-3.011,P =0.000、0.003).The frequency of gastroscopic examinations in group A was slightly higher than that in group B (t =-1.505,P =0.133).Conclusion FD patients with weight loss is not rare,and most of them have psychological disorders,loss of appetite and sleep disturbance.Moreover,care-seeking are more frequent,direct medical costs are more expensive,and impairment as assessed by NDI-QOL is more severe.Therefore,we should pay more attention to FD with weight loss in clinical setting.

Objective To explore the eating behaviors associated with refractory functional dyspepsia (RFD).Methods In this multicenter,prospective trial,1341 new outpatients with functional dyspepsia (FD) from three Guangdong hospitals who had been diagnosed according to the Rome Ⅲ criteria were enrolled from May to September in 2012.One hundred healthy volunteers were also enrolled as controls.A questionnaire was used to obtain data,and logistic regression analysis was used for analysis.Results ①RFD was diagnosed in 24.4％ of the FD patients.②Unhealthy eating behaviors were significantly greater in patients with RFD and non-RFD than in the normal controls.Patients with RFD skipped meals more often,ate extra meals,and preferred sweets and gasproducing foods (P ＜ 0.05).③A comparison among the non-RFD subtypes,showed that those with epigastric pain syndrome had a greater preference for spicy foods (47.5 ％ vs 35.7 ％,P ＜ 0.05),and those with postprandial distress syndrome had a greater preference for sweets(50.0％ vs 36.4％,P ＜ 0.05) and gas-producing foods (14.9％ vs 7.1％,P＜0.05).Those with both subtypes skipped more meals (30.1％ vs 17.0％,P ＜ 0.05),and ate extra meals (15.0％ vs 6.5％,P＜0.05).④Logistic regression analysis showed that meal skipping(95％ CI,1.177 ～2.272; P=0.003),eating extra meals (95％ CI,1.015 ～2.604; P =0.043),and a preference for sweets (95 ％ CI,1.040 ～ 1.757 ; P =0.024) and gas-producing foods (95 ％ CI,1.022 ～ 2.306 ; P =0.039) were risk factors for RFD.Conclusion Unhealthy eating behaviors,especially,meal skipping,eating extra meals,preferring sweets and gas-producing foods correlate with RFD and these behaviors may be the key reasons for the refractory characteristic of RFD.

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of urgent surgical correction for infra-cardiac total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage (TAPVD) in infants and children. Methods From July 2000 to April 2009, seventeen patients with infra-cardiac type of total anomalous pulmonary venous connection received surgical correction in our department. The age of patients ranged from 15 days to 3.7 months at admission, 9 patients ( 52.9 % ) were younger than 1 month of age. The mean body weight was (4.10 ±0.95) kg and was less than 5 kg in 15 patients (88.2%). Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) without cerebral perfusion was used in 13 patients (76%), and continuous hypothermic low-flow perfusion was used in4 (24%). Incisions on the left atrium and pulmonary veins were sutured without tension, and the width of the anastomosis was 2.5 to 4.0 cm. Results Urgent operations were performed in all patients and no early death occurred during surgery.Mean bypass time was 121.9 minutes ( ranging from 70 to 277 minutes) and mean aortic cross-clamp time was 44 minutes ( ranging from 30 to 74 minutes). 6 neonates had delayed wound closure after surgery and 4 had obvious pulmonary edema. Inhalation of nitric oxide was given to 5 cases for the management of significant postoperative pulmonary hypertension, while peritoneal dialysis was performed in 2 cases with temporary renal failure. Transient atrioventricular block of grade 3 occurred in 2patients and acute renal failure occurred in 2 cases. All patients were uneventfully discharged. The mean ventilation time was 45 h (ranging from 12 to 430 h). Mean duration in ICUs and hospitals were 15 days ( ranging from 4 to 40 days) and 22. 5days ( ranging from 10 to 42 days), respectively. During the period of follow up, one patient presented with pulmonary venous obstruction and recurrent pulmonary infection with increased flow speed at the site of anastomosis, pulmonary hypertension and tricuspid regurgitation on echocardiogram. No improvement was observed in the patient spite of medical treatment and he was lost during follow up one year after operation. 16 patients received postoperative follow up for 1 month to 9 years, mean (51.8 ± 35.0) months. Echocardiography, chest radiography, and ECG were performed during this period. As a result, most children had good cardiac function, with sinus rhythm on ECG and apparently reduced pulmonary congestion on radiography.No obstructive pulmonary venous return was observed on echocardiography. Most patients had good cardiac functions. Conclusion Corrective operation for infra-cardiac TAPVC on urgent basis may provide favorite outcomes. The prognosis is associated with the size of anastomosis between the pulmonary vein and left atrium, as large anastomosis may prevent the obstruction of pulmonary venous retum.