Objective: To observe the efficacy of long-retaining scalp acupuncture plus interactive training in improving upper- extremity dysfunction in cerebral stroke patients. Methods: Ninety-five patients with upper-extremity dysfunction after cerebral stroke were randomized into two groups, with 48 cases in the treatment group and 47 cases in the control group. Conventional internal medicine treatment was offered to both groups. In both groups, Anterior Oblique Line of Vertex-temporal (MS 6, the middle 2/5) and Posterior Oblique Line of Vertex-temporal (MS 7, the middle 2/5) were selected from the same side of the brain lesion (the side apposing to the hemiplegic limb) for scalp acupuncture treatment. In the treatment group, the scalp acupuncture needles were retained for 7 h, in combination with interactive training, while the needles were also retained for 7 h in the control group but without interactive training. Prior to treatment and at 2-week and 4-week treatment, the two groups were scored using the functional test for the hemiplegic upper extremity-Hong Kong (FTHUE-HK) and simplified Fugl-Meyer assessment-upper extremity (FMA-UE). Results: The total effective rate was 97.9％ in the treatment group, higher than 74.5％ in the control group (P<0.01). The FTHUE-HK score was higher at 2-week and 4-week treatment than before treatment in both groups, presenting statistically significant intra-group differences (all P<0.001); the FTHUE-HK score was higher at 4-week treatment than at 2-week treatment in both groups, presenting statistically significant intra-group differences (both P<0.001). At 2-week and 4-week treatment, the FTHUE-HK score was higher in the treatment group than in the control group, showing significant between-group differences (both P<0.05). During the whole treatment process, the treatment group had higher FTHUE-HK scores compared with the control group, but there was no statistical significance comparing the change of the score between the two groups at 2-week treatment (P>0.05), while the between-group difference in the change of the score was statistically significant at 4-week treatment (P<0.05). The FMA-UE score was higher at 2-week and 4-weeks treatment than before treatment in both groups, presenting statistically significant intra-group differences (all P<0.001); the FMA-UE score was higher at 4-week treatment than at 2-week treatment in both groups, presenting statistically significant intra-group differences (both P<0.001). At 2-week and 4-week treatment, the FMA-UE was higher in the treatment group than in the control group, and the between-group differences were statistically significant (both P<0.01). The FMA-UE score rose gradually with the increase of treatment session, and there was statistical significance comparing the change of the score between the two groups at 2-week and 4-week treatment, respectively (both P<0.05). Conclusion: Long-retaining scalp acupuncture plus interactive training results in more significant efficacy than long-retaining scalp acupuncture alone in improving the upper-limb dysfunction after cerebral stroke and the advantage becomes more notable after 2-week consecutive treatment.

Aim To screen the differential microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles of different metastatic po-tential liver cancer cell lines,and predict miRNAs-reg-ulated target genes and their functions. Methods To-tal RNA was extracted and the miRNA expression pro-files were obtained by miRNA microarray chip hybrid-ization. The miRNAs whose expression had significant difference were selected by analyzing the miRNA difference expression profiles of the two different meta-static potential liver cancer cell lines, namely MHCC-97H(high-metastasis) and Hep3B(non-metastasis), which were compared with normal hepatocytes L02 re-spectively. Moreover, we analyzed the miRNA differ-ential expression profile between liver cancer cell lines MHCC-97H and Hep3B. The miRNAs were verified by qPCR and target genes were predicted by four softwares (TargetScan, miRanda, miRWalk, miRDB). To un-derstand the biological functions of predicted target genes, bioinformatics analysis was performed. Results The miRNA microarray results showed that the ex-pression of miR-192-5p and miR-215-5p significantly increased in liver cancer cell lines (MHCC-97H, Hep3B) when compared with normal hepatocytes L02, while miR-130a-3p and miR-196a-5p were significantly reduced; compared with Hep3B, the expression of miR-224-5p markedly increased in liver cancer cell line MHCC-97H, while miR-146a-5p, miR-483-3p and miR-200b-3p were significantly reduced. The re-sults of qRT-PCR were consistent with chip results. Conclusion There are differences of miRNA expres-sion profiles in different metastatic potential liver canc-er cell lines MHCC-97H, Hep3B, and they may par-ticipate in regulating the development and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma.

This study sought to evaluate the effects of Asiatic acid in LPS-induced BV2 microglia cells and 1-methyl-4-phenyl-pyridine (MPP⁺)-induced SH-SY5Y cells, to investigate the potential anti-inflammatory mechanisms of Asiatic acid in Parkinson’s disease (PD). SH-SY5Y cells were induced using MPP⁺ to establish as an in vitro model of PD, so that the effects of Asiatic acid on dopaminergic neurons could be examined. The NLRP3 inflammasome was activated in BV2 microglia cells to explore potential mechanisms for the neuroprotective effects of Asiatic acid. We showed that Asiatic acid reduced intracellular production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and altered the mitochondrial membrane potential to regulate mitochondrial dysfunction, and suppressed the NLRP3 inflammasome in microglia cells. We additionally found that treatment with Asiatic acid directly improved SH-SY5Y cell viability and mitochondrial dysfunction induced by MPP⁺. These data demonstrate that Asiatic acid both inhibits the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome by downregulating mitochondrial reactive oxygen species directly to protect dopaminergic neurons from, and improves mitochondrial dysfunction in SH-SY5Y cells, which were established as a model of Parkinson’s disease. Our finding reveals that Asiatic acid protects dopaminergic neurons from neuroinflammation by suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome activation in microglia cells as well as protecting dopaminergic neurons directly. This suggests a promising clinical use of Asiatic acid for PD therapy.
Cell Survival ; Dopaminergic Neurons ; In Vitro Techniques ; Inflammasomes ; Membrane Potential, Mitochondrial ; Microglia ; Mitochondria ; Neuroprotective Agents ; Reactive Oxygen Species

Objective:To study the main active components and potential mechanism of the treatment of ovarian cancer by Scutellariae Barbatae Herba - Cremastrae Pseudobulbus Pleiones Pseudobulbus based on network pharmacology and in vitro cell experiments.Methods:TCMSP and SwissTargetPrediction databases were used to retrieve and collect the active components and targets of Scutellariae Barbatae Herba - Cremastrae Pseudobulbus Pleiones Pseudobulbus, and four databases including GeneCards, OMIM, DrugBank and DisGeNET were used to search the targets related to ovarian cancer. After screening the common potential targets of Scutellariae Barbatae Herba - Cremastrae Pseudobulbus Pleiones Pseudobulbus and ovarian cancer, the STRING database was used to realize the construction of PPI network interacting with the proteins of the two common targets. DAVID database was used for GO and KEGG enrichment analysis. Cytoscape 3.9.0 software was used to construct the "active component-target-pathway" network. Finally, the key targets and pathways were validated in vitro. MTT method was used to detect the proliferation inhibition rate of human ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells with different concentrations of Quercetin and sitosterol. Human ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells were divided into control group, Quercetin group and sitosterol group according to the random number table method. After corresponding drug intervention for 48 hours, the effects of Quercetin and sitosterol on SKOV3 cell cloning ability were detected by clone formation experiment, the levels of Akt1, VEGFA, Caspase-3 mRNA in each group were detected by PCR, and the protein expressions of PI3K, Akt, p-Akt, Caspase-3, and VEGFA in cells were detected by Western blot.Results:Through screening, 29 effective chemical components in Scutellariae Barbatae Herba and 3 effective chemical components in Cremastrae Pseudobulbus Pleiones Pseudobulbus were obtained, including 2 components in total. 291 drug-related targets, 1969 potential targets of ovarian cancer were acquired. There were 137 common targets of "Scutellariae Barbatae Herba - Cremastrae Pseudobulbus Pleiones Pseudobulbus" and the drug-disease intersection of ovarian cancer. Through GO functional analysis, 930 items were obtained, involving 722 biological processes, 76 cellular components and 132 molecular functions. KEGG enrichment analysis involved 169 signaling pathways, including tumor pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, P-53 signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, etc. In vitro experiment results showed that cell proliferation inhibition rate increased and cell cloning ability decreased in Quercetin and sitosterol groups; The levels of Akt1 and VEGFA mRNA in Quercetin group and sitosterol group decreased ( P<0.01 or P<0.05), the expression of Caspase-3 mRNA and protein increased ( P<0.01), and the expressions of PI3K, p-Akt and VEGFA protein decreased ( P<0.01). Conclusion:Scutellariae Barbatae Herba - Cremastrae Pseudobulbus Pleiones Pseudobulbus inhibits the occurrence and development of ovarian cancer through multi target and multi pathway synergistic effects, and can induce SKOV3 cell apoptosis by regulating the expressions of key genes such as AKT1, VEGFA, Caspase-3, and PI3K/Akt pathway.

Objective:To observe the effect of Zengmian Yiliu （ZMYL） formula and its effective components （PAWU） on the growth inhibition of ovarian cancer stem cell transplanted tumor in nude mice and the Notch signal receptor （Notch） / Notch signal ligand 1 （Jagged1） signal pathway in tumor tissue. Method:Ovarian cancer stem cells were cultured in serum-free suspension to establish the transplanted tumor model of ovarian cancer stem cells in nude mice， and then divided into model group， ZMYL group （36 g·kg^-1）， PAWU group （5.8 g·kg^-1）， cisplatin （DDP） group （2.5 g·kg^-1）， and PAWU （5.8 g·kg^-1） + DDP group （2.5 mg·kg^-1）.After successful modeling， the drugs were given by gavage for 21 days.To observe the effect of Zengmian Yiliu decoction and its effective components on tumor weight in nude mice， the morphological changes of tumor cells were observed under light microscope， immunohistochemistry and real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction（Real-time PCR）were used to detect the expressions of Notch 1， Jagged1， Hairy and enhancer of split 1 （Hes1） protein and mRNA in tumor tissues. Result:The tumor inhibition rates of ZMYL， PAWU， DDP and combination groups were 35.91%， 32.94%， 57.65% and 69.05%， respectively.Compared with the model group， the tumor weight of ZMYL group， PAWU group， DDP group and combination groups decreased significantly （P<0.05）.Compared with PAWU group， the tumor weight of combination groups decreased significantly （P<0.05）.Immunohistochemistry showed that compared with the model group， the positive expressions of Notch1， Jagged1 in ZMYL group， PAWU group， DDP group and combination groups were down-regulated （P<0.05），and the positive expressions of Hes1 in ZMYL group， DDP group and combination groups were down-regulated （P<0.05）.Compared with combination groups， the positive expressions of Notch1， Jagged1 and Hes1 in ZMYL group， PAWU group， DDP group were up-regulated （P<0.05）. Real time PCR showed that compared with the model group， the expressions of Notch1 mRNA in ZMYL group， PAWU group， DDP group and combination groups decreased significantly （P<0.05）.Compared with model group， the expressions of Jagged1 and Hes1 mRNA in ZMYL group， PAWU group and combination groups decreased significantly （P<0.05）.Compared with DDP group， the expressions of Notch1， Jagged1 and Hes1 mRNA in combination groups decreased significantly （P<0.05）. Conclusion:The growth of ovarian cancer stem cells transplanted in nude mice can be inhibited by Zengmian Yiliu formula and its effective components.The effective components have a significant synergistic effect in the combination with cisplatin.Its mechanism is correlated to the inhibition of Notch/Jagged1 signaling pathway activation.