Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other aging-related diseases have become an important public health issue in China. However, current clinical drugs have failed to reverse the pathological process of AD. The holistic approach of traditional Chinese medicine offers advantages in improving cognitive function in AD through multiple molecular pathways, and may have potential for preventing AD. This paper summarizes the effects of classical traditional Chinese medicine and its active components in the improvement of AD-related cognitive dysfunction and describes the functional targets and related molecular mechanisms. This may have significance for the prevention and treatment of AD through multi-target intervention.

The insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 1 (IGF2BP1) is a key regulator of mRNA metabolism and transport during development. Recent studies indicate that IGF2BP1 is aberrantly expressed in liver cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, ovarion cancer, breast cancer, etc.. IGF2BP1 expression is found to promote tumor cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and correlate with poor prognosis. Further understanding of the mechanism of IGF2BP1 in malignancy may provide new targeted therapy strategies.

BACKGROUND:The artificial joint has gone through nearly a century of history from the beginning of design to the clinical application. The forerunner of artificial joints is artificial hip joint. With the skiled technological application in clinic, the design, application and improvement of wrist, shoulder, knee and other artificial joints have been promoted. OBJECTIVE: To summarize the application progress and performance characteristics of artificial joint materials in exercise-induced articular cartilage injury. METHODS: PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed), Wanfang database (http://wanfangdata.com.cn/) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (http://www.cnki.net/) during 1980 to 2015 were retrieved by the first author. “Sports; Cartilage Injury; Artificial Joint” were taken as the key words in English and Chinese, respectively. Retrieved data were analyzed and summarized. The artificial joint materials commonly used at home and abroad were introduced and analyzed one by one. The clinical advantages and disadvantages of various materials were analyzed from the view of materials science. The surface treatment methods commonly used for artificial joints were described. The direction of the artificial joint research was pointed out from a development perspective. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The surface modification of titanium aloys can obtain surface ceramic layer with good performance, and can effectively improve the anti-wear properties of titanium aloys. The filing and modification of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene can obtain joint composites with good anti-wear properties that can effectively reduce the production of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene wear particles and the biological response induced by ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene wear particles. Further research and improvement of ceramic artificial joints wil be the future direction of development of artificial joints.

Objective To investigate the relation between the expression of Caspase recruitment domain-containing membrane-associated guanylate kinase protein 1 (CARMA1),clinicopathological features of gastrointestinal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma,diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL),and Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori) infection.Methods From January 1999 to March 2011,34 patients with DLBCL and 20 patients with MALT lymphoma were selected,and at same period 21 cases with reactive hyperplasia of gastrointestinal lymphoid tissue were enrolled in as control.The expression of CARMA1,Ki-67 and cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA) at protein level were examined by immunohistochemistry.The relative expression quantity of CARMA1 mRNA was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).The condition of H.pylori infection in 25 gastric lymphoma and 10 controls was detected by methylene boric acid and blue staining or semi-nested PCR.Chi-square test was used for counting data analysis,t test for measurement data.Multivariate COX regression analysis was implemented for survival analysis.Survival curve was drawn by Kaplan-Meier method and analyzed by Log-rank test.Results The relative expression quantity of CARMA1 mRNA of 28 patients with DLBLC (3.073±1.846) was higher than that of 14 patients with MALT lymphoma,and the difference was statistically significant (F 0.975,P＜ 0.05).The positive rate of CARMA1 expression at protein level of gastrointestinal lymphoma group (75.9 ％,41/54) was higher than that of control group (47.6％,10/21),and the difference was statistically significant (x2 =5.568,P＜0.05),and the positive rate of CARMA1 expression of MALT lymphoma group (11/20) was lower than that of DLBCL group (88.2％,30/34),and the difference was statistically significant (x2 =5.900,P＜0.05).Among 42 patients with gastrointestinal lymphoma who received surgery,the relative expression quantity of CARMA1 mRNA in cases with high proliferation (2.885±1.837) was higher than that in cases with low proliferation.The expression of CARMA1 mRNA in the cases at advanced stage of the disease (4.416± 1.010) was higher than that in cases at early stage,and the difference was statistically significant (F=3.317 and 2.972,both P＜0.05).Among 54 patients with gastrointestinal lymphoma,the positive rate of CARMA1 expression at protein level of patients with high proliferation (88.6％,31/35) was higher that that of patients with low proliferation (10/19),and the difference was statistically significant (x22 ＝ 6.847,P＜0.05).There were no significant differences in relative expression quantity of CARMA1 mRNA and the positive rate of CARMA1 expression at protein level between 11 gastric lymphoma patients without H.pylori infection and 14 gastric lymphoma patients with H.pylori infection (both P＞0.05).The positive rate of CARMA1 expression at protein level of CagA positive and CagA negative H.pylori infected gastric lymphoma patients was 11/11 and 2/3.The expression of CARMA1 at protein level was correlated with the prognosis of gastrointestinal lymphoma (RR＝4.160,P＜0.05).In the 29 cases of patients with gastrointestinal MALT lymphoma and 18 cases of patients with DLBCL who were followed up,the survival situation of gastrointestinal lymphoma patients with CARMA1 positive expression rate over 50％ was worse than that of patients with the rate less than 50％,and the difference was statistically significant (x2=5.383 and 4.028,both P＜0.05).Conclusions CARMA1 might be involved in the pathogenesis and progression of MALT and DLBCL; and it might be a related factor of poor prognosis.There was no correlation between the expression of CARMA1 and H.pylori infection in these two lymphomas.

Glycosides are the active ingredients (AIs) of many Chinese herbs and have become hot spots along with the findings of their new functions,such as anti-inflammatory,antivirus,enhanced immunity and anti-cancer.It has been found that glycosides exert their effects by converting to aglycons or other AIs in vivo.Therefore,the transformation of glycosides to the corresponding AIs in vitro becomes very important to enhance their bioavailabilities.The microbial transformation has an unparalleled advantage in the transformation of Chinese herbs in vitro for its reaction specificity,less by-products,mild reaction conditions and environmental protection.This paper summarized and prospected researches of glycosides' microbial transformation.

AIM To prepare the andrographolide-loaded solid dispersions.METHODS Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) were used for the analysis of solid dispersions previously prepared from the mixture of andrographolide and PVPK30 (1 ∶ 9) in autoclave.In addition to the evaluation index of in vitro dissolution rate,the influencing factors of pressure,temperature and reaction time were taken into consideration for the preparation optimization by Box-Behnken method.RESULTS Andrographolide was totally dispersed in solid dispersions in an amorphous state,manifesting an inhibited crystal diffraction peaks' formulation.Under the optimal conditions of 21.26 MPa for pressure,40.76 ℃ for temperature,and 1.13 h for reaction time,the in vitro dissolution rate was 85.49％.CONCLUSION After andrographolide is made into solid dispersions,its in vitro dissolution rate is obviously increased.

AIM: To know the variations of the cytochrome b gene in cancer tissue, paracarinoma tissue and normal tissue and to inquire into the relationship between mutations of mitochondrial genome and carcinogenesis. METHODS: Cellular total DNA was extracted.The cytochrome b genes of three tissues were amplifyed with polymerase chain reaction(PCR). PCR products were analysed by DNA auto-sequencing method. RESULTS: The cytochrome b gene of cancer tissue had the C to G mutation at nt 14931, the C to G mutation at nt 15004 and the T to C mutation at nt15435,respectively. The cytochrome b gene of paracarinoma tissue had the A to C mutation at nt 15436. The cytochrome b gene of normal tissue had not mutation. CONCLUSION: Mitochondrial DNA mutations could be the endogenous factors that induce nuclear genome mutation. It could promoto carcinogenesis. The paracarinoma tissue was abnormal in DNA molecular level.

The woodchuck model is an excellent animal model to study hepadnaviral infection. The new progresses in this model made possible to examine the T-cell mediated immune responses in acute and chronic hepadnaviral infection. Recently, a new assay for cytotoxic T-cells based on detection of CD107 was established for the woodchuck model. In addition, new immunotherapeutic approaches based on combination of potent antiviral treatment and DNA-protein vaccines were proven to be useful for treatment of chronic hepatitis B.

Objective To evaluate the safety and feasibility of single-port laparoscopic surgery (SPLS) for chronic appendicitis.Methods Data of patients who had undergone either conventional threeport surgery (n =58) or SPLS (n =63) for chronic appendicitis between January 2010 and November 2012 were analyzed retrospectively.The short-term outcomes of these 2 operative modalities were compared.Results The overall satisfaction score of SPLS group was significantly higher than that of the three-port group (4.5 ±0.7) vs.(3.0 ±0.6),t =13.50,P =0.00,there was less frequent use of parenteral narcotics in SPLS patients (1.2 ± 0.5) vs.(2.1 ± 0.7) times,t =-8.25,P =0.00,length of operation time was the same in SPLS group (40 ± 10) vs.(37 ±9) minutes,t =1.94,P =0.055.There was not different in postoperative recovery (1.4 ± 0.6) vs.(1.6 ± 0.7) d,t =-1.82,P =0.072,nor different in perioperative complications and intraoperative blood loss between groups (12 ± 6) vs.(13 ± 6) ml,t =-1.50,P =0.137.Conclusions SPLS is both safe and feasible in the treatment of chronic appendicitis.

Objective To investigate the effects of heat-killed Staphylococcus aureus (HKSA) on the apoptosis and expression of iNOS and IL-1β in THP-1 monocytes in the presence of high concentration of glucose.Methods THP-1 cells were cultured in medium containing 25.0 mmol/L(HG) or 5.5 mmol/L (LG,control) D-glucose for 12 h-8 d.The THP-1 cells cultured for 6 d were extracted on the 0-48 h with or without HKSA,then apoptosis and expression of iNOS and IL-1β were examined.Apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry and expressions of IL-1β and iNOS were quantitated by real-time PCR.Results The expression of iNOS and IL-1β in THP-1 monocytes was increased significantly in the presence of high concentration of glucose for 12-48 h(P＜0.05),reaching the highest level at 24 h and returned to baseline after 4 d.The expression was significantly lower than that of control after 4-6 d.Apoptosis rate was also increased significantly after 48 h to 4 days.HKSA infection enhanced apoptosis,but inhibited the expression of iNOS and IL-1 β in the presence of high concentration of glucose.The expression of iNOS and IL-1β increased significantly at 6 h(P＜0.01),reaching the highest level at 12 h,but the levels were significantly lower than those in control groups (P＜0.05).Conclusion These data suggest that high concentration of glucose can interfere with the anti-bacterial function of monocytes by reducing their expression of iNOS and IL-1β and enhancing their apoptosis.