OBJECTIVE To investigate the protective effect of total saponins from stems and leaves of Panax ginseng (GSLS) on cisplatin (CDDP)-induced kidney damage in mice and its possible mechanism. METHODS Thirty-two male ICR mice were randomly divided into normal control group, CDDP group, and GSLS(150 and 300)+CDDP groups. GSLS was administered to mice by oral gavage once a day for 7 d. On the 7th day, a single injection of CDDP 20 mg·kg-1 was given 1 h after GSLS 150 and 300 mg·kg-1 before GSLS 150 and 300 mg·kg-1 continued to be given for 3 d. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (CRE) , catalase (CAT) in renal tissue, reduced glutathione (GSH), tumor necrosis factorα(TNF-α) and interleukin 1β(IL-1β) of cisplatin induced mice were detected after 72 h. HE and PAS staining were used to observe the renal histopathological changes;While TUNEL and Hoechst33258 staining were employed to observe apoptosis in kidney tissues. RESULTS Compared with normal control group, CDDP group had a significant reduction in relative body mass (P<0.05), and the level of GSH and CAT in kidney tissues (P<0.05). The level of CRE, BUN, TNF-α, and IL-1βin serum and renal indexes significantly increased (P<0.05, P<0.01), especially BUN and CRE that respectively doubled and quadrupled. CDDP group developed glomerulus swelling, renal tubular expansion and epithelial cell necrosis. Trans?parent tube type of tube cavity appeared, the nucleus pycnosis disappeared, but renal interstitial edema and inflammatory cell infiltration appeared. There was a large amount of glycogen deposition and high expressions of TUNEL positive cells and Hoechst33258 positive cells. Compared with CDDP group, the levels of BUN and CRE in GSLS treatment group significantly decreased (P<0.05, P<0.01) in serum, glycogen deposition was reducted and apoptosis of renal tubular epithelial cells decreased in kidney tissues (P<0.05). The level of TNF-α, IL-1β(P<0.05) and the degree of renal tissue necrosis were significantly reduced (P<0.05) in CDDP+GSLS 300 group, but there was a significant increase in the level of CAT and GSH (P<0.05). CONCLUSION GSLS can protect against mouse kidney injury induced by cisplatin. The mechanism may be related to oxidation, reduced inflammation reaction and resistance to apoptosis.

Objective To investigate the effect of propofol on nNOS expression after focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in rats and the possible mechanism of protective effect of propofol on brain. Method Seventy-eight male Wistar rats, weighting 250 ~ 300 g, were randomly divided into 3 groups:(1)Sham operation group (S group, n=6) was performed with scham operation; (2) Ischemia-reperfusion group (group I-R, n=36) was subjected to 2-hour right middle cerebral artery occlusion and then reperfusion was followed, saline (1 mg/kg) was injected into the right lateral cerebral ventricle using microsyringe before reperfusion;(3) Propefol group (group P, n=36) was injected with propofol (1mg/kg) into the right lateral cerebral ventricle using microsyringe right after ischemia. Group I-R and group P were divided into 3 subgroups according to the reperfusion time: 1 h, 3 h and 6 h. The neurological function of all rats were tested before reperfusion. The cerebral infarction area of the whole brain was calculated with TIC staining (n=6). The pathological change of brain was observed from HE staining (n=6) and the nNOS protein expression was obtained by immuno- histochemical method (n=6). Results Compared with I-R group, the neurological function was better in group P(P

In order to clarify material basis of effective parts of liangxue tongyu prescription, blood-heat and blood-stasis rat model induced by dry yeast was established. The changes of rectal temperature, blood viscosity and plasma viscosity were used to evaluate the cooling-blood and activating-blood effects of liangxue tongyu prescription and its parts. Compared with the model group, the extract from liangxue tongyu prescription, its volatile oil and n-butanol part could significantly reduce rectal temperature (P<0.01), and also reduce blood viscosity and plasma viscosity to various degrees (P<0.01 or P<0.05). So volatile oil and n-butanol part were primarily identified as effective parts of liangxue tongyu prescription. By using GC-MS with normalization method of area to analyze volatile oil of liangxue tongyu prescription, 70 compounds were identified, accounting for about 92.54%, mainly as β-asarone, paeonol, α-asarone and shyobunone. 42 compounds such as peony glycosides, tannins, and iridoid glycosides were identified by HPLC-MS techniques and standard comparison. The study determined the effective parts of liangxue tongyu prescription and clarified the chemical composition providing the foundation for further studies on material basis of liangxue tongyu prescription.
Acetophenones ; chemistry ; Animals ; Anisoles ; chemistry ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry ; Oils, Volatile ; chemistry ; Rats ; Tannins ; chemistry

Objective To establish a molecular technique of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing to identify pathogenic fungi species from the fungal sinusitis tissues. Methods Total 270 sinusitis tissues samples were collected by endoscopic surgery from 2006 to 2008. The histopathology, organize spring clip culturation and ITS region (ITS region region of fungal rRNA, including ITS1-5. 8S rRNA-ITS2) sequencing were employed simultaneously. And then to evaluate the ITS sequencing as the tool for identification of pathogenic fungi directly from clinical samples. Results Of the 270 samples, histopathology positive rate was 80.0% (216/270) , organize spring clip positive rate was 80.0% (216/ 270), fungal culturation positive rate was 53.0% (143/270) , ITS region sequencing positive rate was 63. 0% [ (134 +28 +8)/270], There were 22 species and 6 genera identified by fungal culturation, and 32 species identified by ITS region sequencing. Conclusion ITS region sequencing will become a applicable tool in clinical laboratory in future.

The characteristic fingerprint of conventional dairy Nanhanshuishi was established by X-ray diffraction (XRD), based on similarity of caculation on public peaks by MATLAB software, and the feasibility of new dairy technology of microwave method was explored between XRD and the dissolution rate in artificial simulation gastric juices. The result showed that similarity of shared peak in XRD of conventional dairy Nanhanshuishi was > 95%, This XRD characteristic fingerprint of conventional dairy Nanhanshuishi had strong specificity, could be used to provide a reference for identification and quality evaluation. This study also showed that the similarity of microware dairy products and conventional dairy products was good, and the sample of microwave 15 min was the best, and new dairy method by the microwave could replace the traditional method.
Animals ; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; instrumentation ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Medicine, Tibetan Traditional ; Microwaves ; Milk ; chemistry ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Quality Control ; X-Ray Diffraction

AIMTo study the effect of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene mediated by retroviral vector on the proliferation of cultured aortic vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) of rat and the possibility of iNOS gene therapy for vessel graft restenosis.

METHODSEx vitro VSMC were transfected by different viral titer of viral supernatant. The expression of the retroviral iNOS transgene was examined by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Nitric oxide (NO) release from infected cells was determined by Griess reaction. The inhibition of iNOS transgenosis on the proliferation of VSMC was detected by modified MTT assay.

RESULTSmRNA and protein of transferred iNOS gene were detected 48 hours post-gene transfer within the transfected cells. Levels of iNOSmRNA and protein in PLXSN-iNOS infected cells were positively correlated with viral titer of viral supernatant. PLXSN-treated VSMC showed no evidence of iNOS mRNA and protein. Transfection of PLXSN-iNOS into cultured VSMC resulted in a dose-dependent increase in NO production. And iNOS transgenosis significantly inhibited proliferation of VSMC. The inhibition effect was positively correlated with viral titer of viral supernatant.

CONCLUSIONiNOS gene could be quickly and effectively transferred into cultured VSMC by retroviral vector and its expression could significantly inhibit the proliferation of cultured VSMC. Retrovirus-mediated gene transfer of iNOS might play an important role in prevention of restenosis.

Animals ; Cell Proliferation ; Cells, Cultured ; Genetic Therapy ; Genetic Vectors ; genetics ; Graft Occlusion, Vascular ; prevention & control ; Male ; Myocytes, Smooth Muscle ; cytology ; enzymology ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II ; genetics ; metabolism ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Retroviridae ; genetics ; metabolism ; Transfection

The influence of low tube voltage in dual source CT (DSCT) coronary artery imaging on image quality and radiation dose and its application value in clinical practice were investigated. Totally, 300 cases of chest pain with low body mass index (BMI <18.5 kg/m(2)) subjected to DSCT coronary artery imaging were prospectively enrolled. The heart rate in all patients were greater than 65/min. The retrospective ECG gated scanning mode and simple random sampling method were used to assign the patients into groups A, B and C (n=100 each). The patients in groups A, B and C experienced 120-, 100-, and 80-kV tube voltage imaging respectively, and the image quality was evaluated. The CT volume dose index (CTDIvol) and dose length product (DLP) were recorded, and the effective dose (ED) was calculated in each group. The image quality scores and radiation doses in groups were compared, and the influence of tube voltage on image quality and radiation dose was analyzed. The results showed that the excellent rate of image quality in groups A, B and C was 95.69%, 94.72% and 96.33% respectively with the difference being not statistically significant among the three groups (P>0.05). The CTDIvol values in groups A, B and C were 51.35±12.21, 21.28±7.13 and 6.34±3.34 mGy, respectively, with the difference being statistically significant (P<0.05). The ED values in groups A, B and C were 9.27±1.63, 4.56±2.29 and 2.29±1.69 mSv, respectively, with the difference being statistically significant (P<0.05). It was suggested that for the patients with low BMI, the application of DSCT coronary artery imaging with low tube voltage can obtain satisfactory image quality, and simultaneously, significantly reduce the radiation dose.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy(HCM)is the second commonest cardiac muscle disease affecting children and adolescents and is a leading cause of sudden death in young athletes. HCM is highly heterogeneous in pediatric population,and currently the precision diagnosis of the etiology of the disease faces enormous challenges. In addition,prospective and randomized controlled clinical studies in the diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of pediatric HCM are extremely rare. Evidence-based consensus or guidelines needs to be developed urgently for personalized risk assessment and treatment,as well as standardized family management and genetic counseling.

Today, the understanding of the sequence and structure of biologically relevant targets is growing rapidly and researchers from many disciplines, physics and computational science in particular, are making significant contributions to modern biology and drug discovery. However, it remains challenging to rationally design small molecular ligands with desired biological characteristics based on the structural information of the drug targets, which demands more accurate calculation of ligand binding free-energy. With the rapid advances in computer power and extensive efforts in algorithm development, physics-based computational chemistry approaches have played more important roles in structure-based drug design. Here we reviewed the newly developed computational chemistry methods in structure-based drug design as well as the elegant applications, including binding-site druggability assessment, large scale virtual screening of chemical database, and lead compound optimization. Importantly, here we address the current bottlenecks and propose practical solutions.
Computational Biology ; Drug Design ; Drug Discovery ; High-Throughput Screening Assays ; Molecular Docking Simulation ; Molecular Dynamics Simulation ; Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship

The present condition in the acupoint term translation was analyzed and its existent problems in this area were discussed in this paper. The authors suggested that in translating the terms of acupoints, the translation on the meaning of the acupoints should be added, in this way, it can not only keep the integrity in acupoint translation, but also make the inheritance of the Chinese precious culture of Traditional Chinese Medicine further available.
Acupuncture Points ; Animals ; Culture ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Translating