Abstract: Objective　To investigate the impacts of vaccination with inactivated SARS-COV-2 vaccine on the clinical manifestations and serological responses of COVID-19 patients infected by Delta and Alpha variants. Methods　Clinical and experimental data of 341 confirmed SARS-COV-2 patients were collected from The Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University May 1- September 30, 2021. The subjects were divided into Delta and Alpha variant group according to virus variants, and were divided into vaccinated group and unvaccinated group according to whether they had received inactivated COVID-19 vaccine or not. The clinical manifestations and serological responses of patients with Delta and Alpha variant, and vaccinated and unvaccinated patients with Delta and Alpha variants were compared. Results　Totally 253 patients were infected with Delta variant (103 vaccinated and 150 unvaccinated patients), and 88 patients were infected with Alpha variant (21 vaccinated and 67 unvaccinated patients). The proportion of asymptomatic infection in Delta variants group was significantly lower than that in Alpha variants group (P<0.01). Delta variant group of vaccination rates and vaccine breakthrough infection rate was 40.7% (103/253) and 22.9% (58/253), were higher than Alpha variant group was 23.9% (21/88) and 8.0% (7/88), difference was statistically significant (χ2= 8.009, 9.484, P<0.01). The proportion of cough and fever in Delta variant group was higher than that in Alpha variant group (both P<0.01), the peak viral load was higher than that of Alpha variant group (P<0.01), the virus duration was longer than that of Alpha variant group (P<0.01), the levels of SAA, CRP and IFN were higher than those of Alpha variant group (all P<0.05), CD4+T cell count was lower than that of Alpha variant group (P<0.05), IgG and IgM levels were lower than those of Alpha variant group (both P<0.01). The proportion of moderate COVID-19 in the vaccinated group was lower than that in the unvaccinated group (P<0.01). In these two variants, the peak viral load of vaccinated group was lower than that of the unvaccinated group (both P<0.01), the duration of virus was shorter than that of unvaccinated group (both P<0.01). The levels of SAA, CRP and IL-6 in the vaccinated group were lower than those in the unvaccinated group (all P<0.05), CD4+T cell level was higher than that of unvaccinated group (both P<0.05), IgG and IgM level were higher than those in unvaccinated group (both P<0.05). Conclusions　Delta variant can lead to higher viral load and more severe disease course, which is associated with vaccine breakthrough infection. Inactivated vaccines for COVID-19 can reduce severe illness and death by reducing viral load, disease duration and inflammatory response through humoral and cellular immune mechanisms.

The compatibility of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) formulae containing enormous information, is a complex component system. Applications of mathematical statistics methods on the compatibility researches of traditional Chinese medicines formulae have great significance for promoting the modernization of traditional Chinese medicines and improving clinical efficacies and optimizations of formulae. As a tool for quantitative analysis, data inference and exploring inherent rules of substances, the mathematical statistics method can be used to reveal the working mechanisms of the compatibility of traditional Chinese medicines formulae in qualitatively and quantitatively. By reviewing studies based on the applications of mathematical statistics methods, this paper were summarized from perspective of dosages optimization, efficacies and changes of chemical components as well as the rules of incompatibility and contraindication of formulae, will provide the references for further studying and revealing the working mechanisms and the connotations of traditional Chinese medicines.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; statistics & numerical data ; Data Interpretation, Statistical ; Drug Incompatibility ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

OBJECTIVEDividing the mandible into lower part of mandibular ramus, mandibular angle, mandibular body, chin, we designed subarea ostectomy for reduce the width of anterior, body, posterior part of of the lower face.

METHODSCombide with splitting ostectomy of the out layer of mandible, ostectomy of inferior border of mandible and augmentation of the chin, re-shape the mandibular angle, body, and chin, corrected the un-beauty of the lower face and side-face.

RESULTSFrom May 2003 to August 2005 , a total of twenty-three patients have been operated on by this method with satisfactory results.

CONCLUSIONSSubarea ostectomy of mandible is more effective in re-shaping the whole lower face.

Adult ; Face ; surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Mandible ; surgery ; Osteotomy ; methods ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures ; methods

OBJECTIVETo inhibit the expression of beta-catenin and investigate the effect of the beta-catenin gene on Jurkat and K562 cells.

METHODSsiRNA specifically knocking down the expression of beta-catenin was used to testify the function of beta-catenin in Jurkat and K562 cells. Real time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were performed respectively to testify the mRNA level and protein level of beta-catenin. Growth curve was determined by counting viable cells using trypan blue refusal-dyed method. The proliferation of cells was assayed by clonogenic counting and MTT method. The apoptotic cells were measured by Annexin V/PI staining. The cell cycle analysis was performed based on propidium iodide staining.

RESULTSCompared with the control group (transfected with siRNA directed against scramble gene), the survival, colonogenicity, and proliferation of the Jurkat and K562 cells were significantly decreased in experimental group transfected with beta-catenin siRNA. The colonogenicity was decreased from 31.9 +/- 5.55 (siRNA) to 25.0 +/- 5.13 (control) in Jurkat cells, and from 47.33 +/- 8.52 (siRNA) to 39.33 +/- 6.26 (control) in K562 cells (both P <0.05). The inhibition rate was (49.3 +/- 9.86)% (siRNA) and (15.1 +/- 6.55)% (control) respectively in Jurkat cells, and (39.4 +/- 7.56)% (siRNA) and (10.1 +/- 6.89)% (control) in K562 cells (both P <0.05). In addition, the apoptotic rate increased from (23.5 +/- 2.82)% (control group) to (55.9 +/- 2.22)% (experiment group) in Jurkat cells and from (14.9 +/- 8.54)% (control group) to (27.9 +/- 15.3)% (experiment group) in K562 cells. However, cell cycle analysis revealed no obvious phases change both in Jurkat and in K562 cells.

CONCLUSIONKnock-down of beta-catenin gene may decrease the proliferation, survival, and clonogenicity in Jurkat cells and K562 cells.

Apoptosis ; genetics ; physiology ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Cycle ; genetics ; physiology ; Cell Line ; Cell Proliferation ; Humans ; Jurkat Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; K562 Cells ; cytology ; metabolism ; RNA, Small Interfering ; genetics ; physiology ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; beta Catenin ; genetics ; metabolism ; physiology

OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression of beta-catenin in patients with leukemia and explore its significance in leukemias.

METHODSRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of beta-catenin in bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) from patients with leukemia. Immunocytochemistry was in some of patients to detect the distribution of beta-catenin at the same time. The clinical significance of beta-catenin was analyzed in combination with patients' clinical information.

RESULTSExpression of beta-catenin was statistically higher in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) samples than in normal donors (P = 0.001 and 0.016 respectively) and chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients (P = 0.001 and P = 0.008 respectively), while there was no statistic difference between AML and ALL patients (P = 0.58). In addition, beta-catenin expression in chronic phase CML patients was like that in normal donors (P = 0.49), but increased significantly in blast crisis and accelerated phase. Immunocytochemical analysis revealed that BMMNCs from normal donors expressed beta-catenin on the plasma membrane and cytoplasma, while those from acute leukemia expressed beta-catenin to varying degrees in the nucleus as well. The expression of beta-catenin gene statistically showed the highest level in M5 (n = 15) and the lowest level in M3 (n = 18). No clinical features, such as, age, initial WBC count, therapy response rate, blast cell numbers or cytogenetic risk was found to be correlated with the expression of beta-catenin excepting for CD34+ positive rate (P = 0.004) in AML.

CONCLUSIONAs a key mediator of Wnt signal transduction way, overexpression of beta-catenin in leukemia cells indicates that it might be aberrantly activated in acute leukemia, accelerated or blastic phase of CML.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Leukemia ; metabolism ; Male ; Middle Aged ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; beta Catenin ; metabolism

Objective To investigate the impacts of body mass index (BMI) and age on in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment in infertile patients without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Methods A retrospective study of 1426 patients during Jun. 2001 - Nov. 2009 was carried out. Multiple regression was used to analyze the effects of BMI (low weight: BMI＜18.5 kg/m2, normal weight:BMI 18.5-23.99 kg/m2 and over weight-obesity: BMI≥24 kg/m2) and age (young: 20-34 years old, eld: 35-45 years old) on controlled ovarian stimulation (COH)[including:dose and duration of Gn, E2 level on day of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) administration, number of oocytes collected and full-grown follicles ],number of fertilization, cleavage, two-pronucleus, normal embryos and cryopreserved embryos and clinical pregnancy outcome. Results ( 1 ) Gn dose for the patients whose age were 35 and the above,had a positive correlation with age (P＜0.001), 12.70% of the total variation of Gn dose was related to age (standardized partial regression coefficient was 0.343). (2) Estradiol level on day of HCG administration had a negative correlation with BMI in overweight-obesity patients, and so were the patients whose age were 35 and above (P value respectively lower than 0.037 and 0.018). 0.80% of the total variation of estradiol (HCG day) is related to age and overweight-obesity while age took greater proportion (standardized partial regression coefficients were 0.066 and 0.058 respectively). (3)For older patients, age appeared to have negative relationships with duration of Gn and number of oocytes collected, full-grown follicles, fertilization, cleavage, two-pronucleus, normal embryos and cryopreserved embryos (P＜0.05). (4)Compared to young-normal weight patients, the odds ratio of pregnancy in eld-low weight and eld-overweight-obesity patients were 0.482 and 0.529 (P＜0.05)respectively. Conclusion Age, but not the BMI, had significant effects on IVF/ICSI treatment. It seems that factors as losing weight before IVF or ICSI treatment effective in reducing the dose of Gn.

Aim To study whether there was arterial heterogeneity and association with L-type calcium channel (LCC) in different parts of arteries in re-sponse to certain vasoconstrictor. Methods The aor-ta, renal arteries and coronary arteries were dissected from rats. Arterial ring contractions induced by pheny-lephrine (Phe), 5-hydroxyl tryptamine (5-HT) or U46619 in concentration-dependent manner were meas-ured using the Multi Myograph system and the response to nifedipne was observed. Results (1) Phe had no obvious effect on the tension of coronary artery,but in-duced concentration-dependent vasoconstriction in aor-ta and renal artery,and pEC50of aorta was significantly higher than that of renal artery (P<0.05). The inhi-bition rate of nifedipine on the aortic contractile re-sponses was significantly higher than that of renal arter-y (P<0.05). (2) The contraction induced by 5-HT on aorta was not obvious, but was significant on renal artery and coronary artery. The inhibitory rate of nife-dipine on coronary artery vasoconstriction was signifi-cantly higher than that of renal artery (P <0.05). (3) U46619 could induce aorta,renal artery and coro-nary artery concentration- dependent contraction, but the Emaxof them were both higher than that of renal ar-tery (P<0.05). And the pEC50of aorta was the lar-gest (P<0.05). Nifedipine significantly inhibited the contraction of aorta, renal artery and coronary artery induced by U46619 with the greatest inhibitory rate on the coronary artery vasoconstriction and minimal inhibi-tion on aortic vasoconstriction. Conclusions The re-sponse to certain vasoconstrictor is different among aor-ta, renal artery and coronary artery in rats, and the contraction mediated by L-type calcium channel is also different.

Coronary artery disease (CAD)is a major cause of death and disability worldwide, and consumes a considerable amount of medical resources every year.Clopidogrel is a first-line antiplate-let therapy for CHD, butit is associated with substantial variability in PK and pharmacodynamics re-sponse. To date, gene variants explain only a smallproportion of the variability.The study aimed to identify new genetic loci-modifying antiplatelet response to clopidogrel in Chinese patients with CAD by a systematic analysis combining antiplatelet effects and PK, and further to investigate the PON1 gene promoter DNA methylation and genetic variations possibly influencing clinical outcomes in pa-tients undergoing PCI. We identified novel variants in two transporter genes (SLC14A2rs12456693, ATP-binding cassette [ABC]A1 rs2487032) and in N6AMT1 (rs2254638) associated with P2Y12 reac-tion unit (PRU) and plasma active metabolite (H4) concentration. These new variants dramatically im-proved the predictability of PRU variability to 37.7％. The associations between these loci and PK pa-rameters of clopidogrel and H4 were observed in additional patients, and its function on the activation of clopidogrel was validated in liver S9 fractions (P<0.05). Rs2254638 was further identified to exert a marginal risk effect formajor adverse cardiac events in an independent cohort.Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that PON1methylation level at CpG site-161 (OR=0.95; 95％ CI=0.92–0.98;P<0.01)and the use of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors(OR=0.48;95％ CI=0.26–0.89;P<0.01) were associated with decreased risk of bleeding events. In conclusion, new genetic variants were systematically identified as risk factors for the reduced efficacy of clopidogrel treatment.The ab-normal expression of DNA methylation-regulating key genes in the pharmacokinetic and pharmacody-namics pathways of clopidogrel and aspirin may modify clinical outcomes in dual antiplatelet-treated pa-tients undergoing PCI.

OBJECTIVETo Explore a two-step culture system to generate a large number of dendritic cells (DC) differentiated from cord blood (CB) CD(34)(+) cells.

METHODSEnriched CB CD(34)(+) cells with immunoadsorption were primarily cultured in the presence of stem cell factor (SCF), Flt-3 ligand (FL), thrombopoietin (Tpo) and interleukin-3 (IL-3) for 7 (group I), 10 (group II) or 14 days (group III) respectively, and then further cultured with GM-CSF, IL-4 and TNF-alpha for 5 - 8 days to induce DC. The expansion and cell function were evaluated by flow cytometry (FCM) and mix-lymphocyte reaction (MLR), and detection of IL-12 in the supernatant by using ELISA.

RESULTSThe total nucleated cells with 53.39 +/- 20.59-, 307.17 +/- 119.59- and 1117.25 +/- 335.49-folds expansion could be respectively obtained after 7 - 14 days of expansion culture. After DC induction, CD(1a)(+) cells were 21.40 +/- 16.70-, 143.2 +/- 60.35- and 150.8 +/- 42.16-fold increase as compared to the initial nucleated cells. Comparing with that in group I, the CD(1a)(+) cells were much more in groups II and III; but there was no difference between the latter two groups (P > 0.05). The cultured cells in the three groups showed almost the same allo-stimulatory capability and IL-12 excretion when the second culture duration maintained 8 days, while the capability and excretion were greatly decreased when the duration shortened to 5 days (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONA plenty of functionally mature DC could be obtained from the CD(34)(+) cells in the two-step culture system of 7 - 10 days HSC expansion followed by 8 days DC induction.

Antigens, CD34 ; analysis ; Cell Differentiation ; Cells, Cultured ; Dendritic Cells ; cytology ; physiology ; Fetal Blood ; cytology ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; cytology ; Humans ; Interleukin-12 ; biosynthesis ; Lymphocyte Activation

This study was aimed to quantitatively detect the expression level of beta-catenin and bcr/abl in different phases of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and to analyze their potential relationship and significance in the progression of CML. First, the total RNA isolated from BMMNC of patients with CML and donors was reversely transcribed into cDNA. The real-time quantitative PCR method was used to analyze the expression level of beta-catenin and bcr/abl. The expression level of beta-catenin and bcr/abl in different phases of CML was compared and the correlation was analyzed between the two genes. The results showed that the beta-catenin gene in BMMNC of blast crisis of CML patients was expressed significantly higher than that in chronic phase (p < 0.001) and accelerated phase (p = 0.016) of CML patients and in normal donors (p = 0.004). The expression of bcr/abl in blast crisis of CML was statistically higher than that in chronic phase of CML (p = 0.001). The expression levels of beta-catenin and bcr/abl were correlated with each other in CML patients (r = 0.620, p < 0.001). It is concluded that the beta-catenin gene in blast crisis of CML patients express higher than that in chronic phase and accelerated phase of CML, and its expression level is correlated with the level of bcr/abl expression. The increased expression of beta-catenin may be account partly for the blast crisis of CML.
Adult ; Aged ; Bone Marrow Cells ; metabolism ; pathology ; Female ; Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl ; metabolism ; Humans ; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive ; genetics ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Tumor Cells, Cultured ; Young Adult ; beta Catenin ; metabolism