Basal Ganglia Diseases ; chemically induced ; therapy ; Child ; Humans ; Lamivudine ; adverse effects ; Male ; Palliative Care ; Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors ; adverse effects ; Treatment Outcome

Objective To evaluate the disease onset regions and spreading patterns in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)patients and related influencing factors.Methods We performed a prospective analysis of 1 58 ALS patients.The disease-onset was confirmed according to the patients’self-reports,neurological examination results and electromyogram study.We followed up 1 5 1 patients with the second or other affected body regions during the disease progression.Data were analyzed according to the different groups of onset regions.Results 1.In 94.3% (149/1 58)of the patients,the early motor manifestations were focally in the bulbar,upper or lower limbs.2.The region of onset was associated with signs of lower motor neuron (LMN)and upper motor neuron (UMN)involvement (P = 0.000 ).The LMN involvement was more distinctive in patients with bulbar onset (65.4%,1 7/26 )group.Patients with cervical onset more frequently showed pure LMN (47.9%,45/94 )or concomitant UMN (52.1%,49/94)signs in the affected limbs.The highest proportion of UMN and LMN signs in the affected lower limb was found in the lumbar onset (83.8%,31/37 )group.3.Spreading patterns:Rostral to caudal spreading pattern was more frequent in bulbar onset patients.For patients with limb onset,there were significant differences between spreading patterns and disease-onset regions (P =0.04).Circular (31.5%,28/89),horizontal (30.3%,31/89)and vertical (21.3%,1 9/89)spreading patterns were more frequent in cervical onset patients whereas circular (47.2%,1 7/36)spreading patterns were more frequent in lumbar onset patients.4.There was a strong association between the rate of progression and age of disease onset (P =0.01 1).Patients aged over 60 had a faster progression.Conclusion ALS is a focal process at motor axis along the spinal cord and cerebral cortex.Different disease-onset can cause different distribution of UMN and LMN signs.Therefore,special attention should be paid to the signs of disease-onset clinically.ALS does start focally and spreads to adjacent regions.Elder patients have a faster disease progression.

Background Clinical researches showed that antimicrobial-resistance of bacterium is gradually serious.It is very important to master pathogen distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility after eye surgery.Objective This study was to investigate the distribution and drug sensitivity of pathogenic bacteria from ocular operative infection in 3-year duration to provide a reference for reasonable selection of antibiotics.Methods Sixtyfive positive specimens were obtained from 65 patients due to postoperative infection in Department of Ophthalmology of Shenzhou Hospital and Shengjing Hospital from 2009 January through 2011 December.The pathogenic bacteria were isolated and then the drug sensitivity test of conventional antibiotics was performed.Results Among the 65 ophthalmic specimens,35 strains of Gram-positive bacteria were isolated with the constituent ratio 53.8％,and 15 strains of Gram-negative bacteria accounted for 23.1％.Fungus was found in 15 cases with the constituent ratio 23.1％.Staphylococcus epidermidis accounted for 42.9％ in Gram-positive bacteria,and Pseudomonas aeruginosa accounted for 33.3％ in Gram-negative bacteria.Aspergillus was the main component of fungus,which accounted for 60.0％ of the proportion 3 strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in 8 strains of Staphylococcus aureus,but no vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus (VRS) were seen.The in vitro drug sensitivity test showed that the main Gram-positive bacteria,Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus,were sensitive to linezolid,vancomycin,levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin with the sensitive rates ＞50.0％,and these bacteria were lowly sensitive to penicillin and erythromycin with the sensitive rates ≤30.0％.Pseudomonas aeruginosa appeared to be the main Gram-negative bacteria,showing a sensitive rate ≥ 80.0％ to tobramycin,amikacin,ceftazidime,cefepime,cefoperazone/sulbactam,piperacillin/tazobactam,imipenem and meropenem.Conclusions Staphylococcus epidermidis,Staphylococcus aureus,Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus are primary pathogens in ocular infection after operation.Antibiotics such as penicillin,erythromycin,levofloxacin,cefotaxime seem to be relatively high resistant to eye infection.To choose sensitive antibiotics timely and reasonably is a key to the prevention and control of ocular infection after operation.

BACKGROUND: It has been widely reported that the most types of cancer are probably originated from cancer stem cells (CSCs) which are subpopulations of tumor cells. Recent studies also suggested that lung cancer could arise from CSCs. However, the phenotypic characteristics of CSCs in lung cancer have not been precisely described.OBJECTIVE: To systematically analyze the expression of the most common CSC markers in cell line A549.METHODS: A549 cells were cultured for 1 week under the condition of conventional high glucose. After that, flow cytometry was used to assess the expression of putative stem cell markers, including CD133, CD24, CD44 and ABCG2.Cells were then sorted according to the expression of CD44 and CD24 markers by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and characterized using their sphere-forming capacity in serum free medium supplemented with several growth factors.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A549 cells expressed the CSC markers CD44 and CD24 at 64.23％ and 58.62％,whereas the expression of both ABCG2 and CD133 was around 0.9％. Double-positive CD44/133 populations were rare.CD44+/CD24+ and CD44+/CD24- subpopulations respectively exhibited 54.64％ and 23.38％ expression. CD44+/CD24+ and CD44+/CD24- subsets were sorted by FACS. Both isolated subpopulations formed spheres in the serum free medium supplemented with basic fibroblast growth factor and epidermal growth factor. However, there was no significant difference in the sphere formation efficiency among CD44+/CD24+ and CD44+/CD24- subsets as well as A549 cells. Our findings suggest that CD44 and CD24 cannot be considered as potential markers for isolating lung CSCs in cell line A549, and further investigation using in vivo assays is required.

Background and purpose: The previous work of this study has showed that the treatment of liver cancer cells with emodin could induce endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and apoptosis. Given the cross-talk between ER stress and autophagy, this study aimed to investigate whether blockage of autophagy, a defense mechanism against environmental stress, could improve the killing effect of emodin on liver cancer cells. Methods: The CYTO-ID auto-phagy detection kit and Western blot were used to determine autophagy in liver cancer cells. After combined treatment with chloroquine (CQ) and emodin, cancer cell survival was analyzed by ATPlite assay and clonogenic assay. Apoptosis was detected by both flow cytometry analysis and Western blot. Results: Autophagy could be induced in liver cancer cells after treatment with emodin. Inhibition of autophagy significantly increased growth-inhibitory effect of emodin on both HepG2 and Huh7 cancer cells. The combination treatment with CQ and emodin promoted remarkable apoptosis in liver cancer cells, evidenced by the increase in the percentage of cells in sub-G1 phase and the higher expression lever of cleaved caspase-3. Conclusion: Therapeutically targeting autophagy is capable of enhancing cytotoxicity of emodin in liver cancer cell lines.

Objective To investigate the expression of lymphotoxin-β and its receptor in the skin of a mouse model of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD).Methods BALB/c female mice at 6 to 8 weeks of age were randomly divided into the experiment group (n =15) and normal control group (n =10).Topical 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB,0.5％) was used to establish a model of ACD in the experiment group followed by challenge with DNFB (0.2％) at the right external ear on the 6th day.The normal control mice remained untreated.The right external ear was resected from all of the mice 24 hours after the challenge and divided into 2 parts for the measurement of mRNA and protein expressions of lymphotoxin-β and lymphotoxin-βreceptor by fluorescence-based real-time quantitative PCR and immunohistochemistry,respectively.Results The median mRNA expression levels of lymphotoxin-β and lymphotoxin-β receptor were 3.630 and 1.148respectively in the experimental mice,with the interquartile range being 1.187 and 0.617 respectively,and were both 1.000 in the control mice with the interquartile range being both 0.000.There was a significant difference between the experimental and control group in the mRNA expression levels of lymphotoxin-β and lymphotoxin-β receptor (P ＜ 0.01 ).Immunohistochemistry showed a significant increase in the expression of lymphotoxin-β and lymphotoxin-β receptor proteins in the experimental group compared with the control group (P ＜ 0.01 ).Conclusion There is an increment in the mRNA and protein expressions of lymphotoxin-β and lymphotoxin-β receptor in the lesions of ACD in mice.

Objective:To evaluate the test-retest reliability and validity of Chinese version of World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview version 3.0(CIDI-3.0)by community-based study.Methods:Among 202 subjects from Dalian city,with the clinician-administered Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV(SCID),102 patents were diagnostic as mood disorder,anxiety disorder,schizophrenia or psychotic disorder and so on.All of the patients and the other 100 subjects without mental disorders as the control group were interviewed blindly by CIDI-3.0 to test the validity of CIDI-3.0.Ten patients among them were interviewed twice independently in a 7-day interval to evaluate the reliability of CIDI-3.0.Results:(1)For the screen section,the sensitivity values of different mental disorders ranged from 60.4% to 93.1%,while the specificity values from 33.6% to 92.7%.The positive predictive values were from 60.1% to 95.1%,and the negative predictive values were from 68.1% to 93.7%.(2)For different mental disorders,the specificity values ranged from 97.1% to 98.9%,while the sensitivity values were from 33.3% to 70.3%.Positive predict values were from 66.7% to 95.7%,and negative predictive values were from 87.7% to 95.4%.(3)The consistency was 0.78 in any mental disorder.(4)For test-retest reliability,kappa values ranged from 0.737 to 1.0.Conclusion:By clinical reappraisal,the Chinese version of CIDI-3.0 has satisfied validity and reliability.The screen section has high sensitivity,while the diagnostic sections have high specificities.That indicates that CIDI-3.0 is acceptable as a validated instrument for community survey on mental disorders.

Objective To explore the characteristics and influencing factors of cognitive dysfunction in patients with essential tremor (ET).Methods We recruited ET patients diagnosed by the Department of Neurology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi`an Jiaotong University and healthy volunteers who matched the ET patients in age, gender and education level for the study.We recorded all the patients` demographic information, tremor degree, and family history based on the family tree.All the participants were tested by MMSE, MoCA, ADL, HAMD and HAMA.Results There were 88 ET patients and 63 normal subjects included in the study.According to MMSE, 31.82％ of the patients had cognitive dysfunctions, with orientation, short-term memory, calculation ability, language skills, retelling, reading comprehension, three-level command and drawing being significantly lower than those of the healthy volunteers (P<0.01);orientation was the most serious damage in cognitive function domain (K=0.624, S=0.726);three-level command was the least serious damage (K=0.274, S=0.319).According to MoCA, 86.36％ of the ET patients had cognitive dysfunction higher than normal people (P<0.05);visual space and execution, clock drawing task, naming, attention, 100-7, language skills, abstract thinking and orientation were significantly lower than normal people (P<0.01);the most serious damage in cognitive function domain was visual space and execution (K=0.651, S=0.786); the least serious damage cognitive function domain was “100-7” (K=0.406, S=0.484). Education level and age affected cognitive dysfunction (P<0.05). ADL scores showed negative correlation with cognitive function (correlation =－0.375 and －0.383, respectively; P<0.001). After the effects of anxiety and depression were excluded, onset age and tremor grading were correlated with cognitive dysfunction (P<0.05). When the above factors were put into binary Logistic regression model, education level was found to be contributed to the model (P<0.05).Conclusion Patients with ET widely suffer from cognitive impairment. Age, education level, daily life disability, age of onset, and tremor degree classification can affect cognitive dysfunction.

Objective To study the clinical characteristics and curative effects of pancreatic cystade- nocarcinoma in order to improve its diagnostic and therapeutic accuracy.Methods A retrospective analysis was done on the clinical materials of 13 cases of pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma hospitalized in Shanxi Cancer Hospital from 1990 to 2006.Results The preoperative diagnosis were as follows:pancreatic cystadenocarci- noma 6 cases,pancreatic cystadenoma 2 cases,pancreatic cancer 1 case,pancreatic pseudocyst 4 cases.The misdiagnosis rate was 53.8 %.Surgical operation was done on the 13 cases,and 10 of them were treated by radical operation.A 5-year follow-up was done on 6 still alive cases,and 1 of them lived over 11 years.3 cases were treated by palliative operation,and all of them died within 3 years.Conclusion Since there is no specific clinical manifestations of pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma,it is very difficult to get an accurate preop- erative diagnosis.Radical operation is the most effective therapeutic methods.

Hepatitis B virus infection is a serious threat to human life and health. The approved anti-HBV drugs including interferons and nucleos(t)ide analogues have serious adverse effect, rebound phenomena after drug withdrawal, and drug resistance. And the cccDNA cannot be completely eliminated by both of them, which is the reason why a complete cure for hepatitis B cannot be achieved. Therefore, developing anti-HBV drugs directly targeting protein or nucleic acid of HBV remains a current public health priority. Based on the analysis of representative literature from the last decade, this article reviews recent developments in small molecule inhibitors directly targeting HBV from a medicinal chemistry perspective.