Animals ; Cardiovascular System ; chemistry ; Female ; Group II Phospholipases A2 ; blood ; Group IV Phospholipases A2 ; blood ; Group V Phospholipases A2 ; blood ; Group X Phospholipases A2 ; blood ; Male ; RNA, Messenger ; genetics ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

BACKGROUNDNitric oxide (NO) synthesized by endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) plays an important role in both the regulation of endothelial function and the control of blood pressure. Up to now, there has been conflicting data regarding the association between three clinically relevant polymorphisms (T-786C, intron4b/a and G894T) of the eNOS gene and essential hypertension.

METHODSTo examine the contribution of the three eNOS gene polymorphisms to the development of hypertension in the northern Han Chinese, a case-control study including 503 hypertensive cases and 490 age-, gender-, and area-matched controls recruited from the International Collaborative Study of Cardiovascular Disease in Asia (InterASIA) was conducted. Genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP).

RESULTSThe T-786C and intron4b/a polymorphisms were observed in significant linkage disequilibrium (D' = 0.87, P < 0.001). The minor allele frequencies of these three polymorphisms in healthy controls were much lower than those of Caucasians (9.3% vs 39.6% - 42.0%, 8.9% vs 15.0% - 16.0% and 10.9% vs 34.5% - 34.9% for -786C, intron4a and 894T, respectively). Genotype distributions and allele frequencies of the three polymorphisms did not differ between cases and controls (all P > 0.05). In addition, none of the eight estimated haplotypes significantly increased or decreased the risk of hypertension before or after adjustment for several known risk factors.

CONCLUSIONThe study results suggest that the three eNOS gene polymorphisms are unlikely to be major genetic susceptibility factors for essential hypertension in the northern Han Chinese population.

Adult ; Aged ; China ; ethnology ; Female ; Haplotypes ; Humans ; Hypertension ; enzymology ; genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III ; genetics ; Polymorphism, Genetic

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy and safety of an adjuvant chemotherapy regimen: XELOX (Capecitabine puls Oxaliplatin) used after curative resection for stage III colorectal cancer.

METHODSFrom Jan. 1998 to Jan. 2004, 256 cases with stage III colorectal cancer randomized received de Gramont, modified FOLFOX4 (mFOLFOX4) and XELOX regimens. The 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared within the three groups and relative prognosis factors within mFOLFOX4 and XELOX groups. Therapeutic adverse events were recorded and analyzed with Kaplan-Meier test.

RESULTS98, 87 and 71 cases were respectively enrolled in the de Gramont, mFOLFOX4 and XELOX groups, mFOLFOX4 and XELOX had superior efficacy compared with de Gramont regimen. The two former could significantly improve 3-year DFS (79.7% vs. 66.2%, P = 0.015; 81.5% vs. 66.2%, P = 0.004) and medium survival time (40.2 mon vs. 37.8 mon, P = 0.024; 41.4 mon vs. 37.8 mon, P = 0.014). Meanwhile they could respectively decrease the ratio of recurrence risk by 18.0% (P = 0.024) and 21.0% (P = 0.003). The relative benefit of mFOLFOX4 versus XELOX didn't differ for 3-year DFS [hazard ratio (HR): 0.84, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.79-1.12, P = 0.13] and OS (HR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.84-1.06, P = 0.54). In the analysis of DFS in relative prognosis factors, XELOX had a better trend of survival advantage. mFOLFOX4 had higher adverse events within these regimens, especially in grade 3 or 4 neutropenia and peripheral neurologic adverse events.

CONCLUSIONXELOX maintains its efficacy and safety ratio in advanced colorectal cancer. Patients have good tolerance and compliance. The regiment is deserves to be applied in clinical treatment. Oxaliplatin;

Adult ; Aged ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Capecitabine ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Colonic Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; pathology ; surgery ; Deoxycytidine ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Fluorouracil ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Leucovorin ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neutropenia ; chemically induced ; Organoplatinum Compounds ; administration & dosage ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Rectal Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; pathology ; surgery ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Young Adult

Objective To study the incidence of visuospatial impairment in patients with Parkinson's disease(PD)and its related factors.Methods Visuospatial impairment was assessed in 107 PD patients from 6 hospitals in Guangzhou during the period from April to June 2007 using cube copying test.The motor,neuropsyehiatric,and cognitive symptoms and the activities of daily life(ADL)of the patients were evaluated using Hoehn-Yahr scale,Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Score-Ⅱ (UPDRS-Ⅱ),UPDRS-Ⅲ,UPDRS-Ⅳ,Hamilton Anxiety Scale(HAMA),Hamilton Rating Scale of Depression(HRSD),Fuld Object-Memory Evaluation(FONt),Rapid Verbal Retrieval Test(RVR),Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Block Design(WISC-BD),Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Digid Span(WAIS-DS),Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE),and Neuropsychiatric Inventory(NPI).Spearman correlation analysis was performed to analyze the bivariate correlation between the visual-spatial ability and the related factors,and binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify the factors related to visual-spatial disorder.Results Visuospatial impairment was found in 59 of the 107 patients(55.14%).Logistic regression analysis identified the Hoehn-Yahr stage and duration after disease onset as the risk factors,while RVR and WISCoBD as the protective factors for visuospatial impairment.Conclusion The Hoehn-Yahr stage,duration from disease onset,speech fluency,and image recognition and construction ability are related to visuospatial impairment in the PD patients.The visuospatial ability of the PD patients can be improved by relieving their motor symptoms and trainings for speech and image recognition and construction abilities.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the skills of using dust mask in the dust-exposed workers in civil metal ship manufacturing enterprises. METHODS: A total of 123 dust-exposed workers in a civil metal ship manufacturing enterprise were selected as the research subjects using convenience sampling method. Dust Mask Using Situation and Maintenance Questionnaire was used to investigate the use of dust masks, and the tightness of using dust mask was measured by the tightness tester. RESULTS: The median, and the 0 th-100 th percentiles[M(P_0-P_(100))] of the dust mask use time in the workers was 3.0(1.0-3.0) months, and the M(P_0-P_(100)) of filter element use time was 1.0(0.5-2.0) workdays. The subjects did not disinfect the masks after use. Only 36.6%(45/123) of workers regularly cleaned dust masks during use. There was 62.6%(77/123) of workers who failed to correctly perform negative pressure air tightness check by themselves. A total of 112 workers carried out tightness test, and the pass rate of those who passed the tightness test for the first time was 62.5%(70/112). The median, and the 25 th and 75 th percentiles [M(P_(25), P_(75))] of fit factor(FF) in the 70 qualified workers was 835.0(503.0, 1 635.0). After retests, the overall tightness test pass rate was 66.1%(74/112), and the M(P_(25), P_(75)) of FF in the 74 qualified workers was 786.0(477.7, 1 532.2). The reasons for failure of tightness test were the mismatch of the mask and face size, wrong wearing methods and long beard. CONCLUSION: Some of the dust-exposed workers in the civil metal ship manufacturing enterprises did not use the dust mask correctly. The dust mask configuration and the use and maintenance training should be strengthened, and the tightness test should be carried out regularly to improve workers′ skills in using dust masks.

As an important substitute for agarwood, mountain-agarwood, belonging to the family Oleaceae, comes from the root, stem and thick branch of Syringa pinnatifolia, which has a wide range of application in Inner Mongolia, China. It has good clinical efficacy in the use of cardiovascular diseases. However, the formation speed of mountain-agarwood is extremely slow, and its cultivated seedlings have low resin content. Therefore, how to speed up the formation of mountain-agarwood and increase the resin content is a hot research topic in this field. In this work, 16 S rDNA amplicon sequencing method was used to systematically analyze the bacterial communities of different samples of mountain-agarwood. Our data revealed that the samples of mountain-agarwood had more obvious species diversity than the ones of non-mountain-agarwood, especially the wild mountain-agarwood samples. By analysis of bacterial community composition and species abundance, Sphingomonas, Modestobacter and unidentified Cyanobacteria genus were three dominant bacterial genera in all samples. In addition, there are two identified genera of dominant bacteria, namely Actinoplanes and Microbacterium in both wild and cultivated mountain-agarwood, by bacterial community composition and species richness analysis. Meanwhile, Roseomonas was the dominant bacterial genus in both wild and cultivated non-mountain-agarwood samples. Our work could provides basic data for exploring the mechanism of the mountain-agarwood formation, and help to exploit resource of endophytic bacteria reasonably.
Bacteria ; genetics ; China ; DNA, Ribosomal ; Resins, Plant ; Thymelaeaceae

This paper aimed to explore the mechanism of the split components of Phytolaccae Radix by means of network pharmaco-logy. Based on the theoretical hypothesis of the nature and taste of traditional Chinese medicine, the chemical components of the separated components of Phytolaccae Radix were selected by using Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database(TCMSP) and Traditional Chinese Medicines IntegratedDatabase(TCMID) databases in combination with related literatures. Relevant target analysis was carried out based on PubChem and SwissTargetPrediction databases. Targets corresponding to disease were excavated based on GeneCards for each split component, corresponding potential targets were obtained through mapping the target set of target compounds to disease targets. GO biological process analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed on the mapped targets with the help of DAVID database. Based on Cytoscape software and the corresponding efficacy, the network diagram of "medicinal material-split components-compound-target-pathway" was constructed to explore the mechanism of different efficacy of the separated components of Cytoscape. And the target purgation and diuretic mapping was used as the target of the traditional efficacy of smoothening secretion for the first time. The study explored esculentoside component, fatty oil component and phenolic acid component, a total of 30 target compounds and 301 corresponding targets, involving 44 potential targets for "anti-inflammatory", 50 potential targets for "immunoregulation", 52 potential targets for "smoothening secretion", 28 potential targets for "antibacterial activity", 28 potential targets for "antiviral effect", and 29 potential targets for "antitumor effect". Topological analysis revealed 14 key gene targets such as MAPK8, MAPK14, EGFR and PTGS2. A total of 684 GO entries and 235 KEGG pathways were obtained through bioinformatics enrichment analysis, mainly involving TNF signaling pathway, NF-kappaB signaling pathway and MAPK signaling pathway. This study revealed the multi-component, multi-target, and multi-channel action mechanism of the split components of Phytolaccae Radix, which provided certain basis for the next step to clarify the split components of Phytolaccae Radix through the method of system biology, and injected new content and significance into the study of properties and flavors theory.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Signal Transduction ; Software