Objective To investigate the effects on the renal function and the clinical symptoms of patients with aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN) treated with the Chinese herbal medicine, Jiaweifuzilizhongtang. Method Twenty-seven patients with AAN were treated with Jiaweifuzilizhongtang. The indexes, such as blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (SCr), endogenous creatinine clearance rate (CCr), twenty-four-hour proteinuria quantitate (24 h Upo), ?-N-acetyglocosamidase (NAG), Urine Osmol (Uosm), erythrocyte (RBC), hemoglobin (HB) and so on, were observed before and after treatment, and the score of patients’ symptoms including aversion to cold and cold limbs, lassitude and weakness, poor appetite and anorexia, nausea and vomiting, pale complexion, was also calculated. Result Compared with that of treatment bebore, the renal function of patients after treatment was significantly improved (P

OBJECTIVETo discuss the changes in Wnt pathway inhibiting factors in esophageal precancerosis lesions induced by methyl benzyl nitrosamine (MBNA) and the effect of Gexia Zhuyu decoction.

METHODWistar rats were subcutaneously injected with MBNA (3.5 mg x kg(-1) for twice per week to establish the model. Since the 1st day after the model establishment, they were orally administered with Gexia Zhuyu decoction (16, 8 mg x kg(-1)). At the 10th week, esophageal tissues were collected to observe the pathological changes of esophageal mucosa, detect SFRP1, sFRP4, Axin1, Axin2 and GSK-3β mRNA levels.by fluorescent quantitation PCR analysis and β-catenin protein level by Western blotting.

RESULTBeing induced by MBNA, rats in the model group showed slight atypical hyperplasia in the histopathological examination. Compared with the normal group, Gexia Zhuyu decoction dose high and low groups showed no significant pathomorphological and histological changes. The model group showed lower gene transcription levels of esophageal tissues sFRP1, sFRP4, Axin1 and Axin2 (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) and higher β-catenin protein expression level (P < 0.01) than the normal control group. The Gexia Zhuyu decoction low dose group showed higher gene transcription levels of esophageal tissues sFRP1, sFRP4, Axin1 and Axin2 (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) and lower β-catenin protein expression level (P < 0.01) than the normal control group.

CONCLUSIONUp-regulated β-catenin protein level and down-regulated Wnt pathway could enhance Wnt pathway activity of MBNA-induced esophageal precancerous lesions. Gexia Zhuyu decoction could down-regulate the β-catenin protein level and up-regulate the transcription level of Wnt pathway inhibiting factors, but could not block MBNA-induced esophageal precancerosis lesions.

Animals ; Axin Protein ; genetics ; metabolism ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; Esophageal Diseases ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; pathology ; Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 ; genetics ; metabolism ; Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta ; Humans ; Male ; Necrosis ; Nitrosamines ; adverse effects ; Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Wnt Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Wnt Signaling Pathway ; drug effects

Objective To obtain the short peptides from phage-displayed random peptide library through screening the epitope of monoclonal antibody against tumor necrosis factor(TNF-?). Methods Anti-TNF-? was used to immunoscreen a phage random peptide library of 12 amino-acidresidues displayed as a fusion to protein Ⅲ of filamentous phage M13. The positive clones were obtained by three rounds of biopanning, and the reactivity of each clone binding to anti-TNF-? was examined by double-antibody sandwich ELISA and Dot-ELISA. Mixed positive phage clones were used to detect the serum from SLE patients and healthy persons by Dot-ELISA. Results The eluted phages were enriched nearly 100 fold through three rounds of biopanning, 7 phage clones from the third round biopanning were randomly selected and 5 clones of them could bind to the anti-TNF-?. The binding rate of mixed clones with SLE patients was significantly higher than that of healthy persons. Conclusion The phage display technique can be applied to study the anti-TNF-? antigenic peptides, and these epitopes provide the potential for developing immunodiagnostic reagents of vaccines.

Two patients who developed typical skin eruptions 24 hours after consumption of shiitake mushrooms are reported.Case 1:a 56-year-old woman suddenly developed widespread itching eruptions one day after intake of shiitake mushrooms.On examination,there were erythematous and edematous linear streaks (flagellate erythema) over the neck,trunk and limbs.Case 2:a 60-year-old man presented with edematous flagellate erythema over the trunk and limbs for four days.He reported intake of shiitake mushroom several days prior to the presentation.Pathological examination revealed focal parakeratosis,intracellular and intercellular edema in the prickle cell layer,severe edema of papillary dermis,evident widening of interfibrous spaces,dilation and congestion of capillaries in the superficial dermis with a mixed perivascular infiltrate of massive lymphocytes and sparse neutrophils.Both patients were diagnosed with shiitake dermatitis,and treated with prednisone and antihistamines.The lesions subsided after 3 and 4 days of treatment in patient 1 and 2 respectively.

RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) is a newly-developed method in transcriptome research, it can afford more accurate transcription information and be more quickly by using Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) technology. RNA-Seq has been widely used in various biological fields. Genuine traditional Chinese medicines (TCM), with good quality and therapeutic effect, were always praised highly and used by famous physicians. The geo-herbalism formation of TCM is based on the product of the gene expression at specific space and time. So it has been a research hotspot to analyze the mechanism of biosynthesis through RNA-Seq in the study on the secondary metabolism of medicinal plant. This article mainly illustrates the RNA-Seq and its advantages, it also discusses the potential application in genuine TCM, and it can provide useful information for other researchers.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Gene Expression Profiling ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Plants, Medicinal ; genetics ; RNA ; Sequence Analysis, RNA ; Transcriptome

Objective To investigate the effects of glucocorticoids o n the expression of Th1/Th2 cytokines at mRNA and protein levels in peripheral b lood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SL E). Methods Th1 cytokine (IFN-IL-10) in PBMCs fro m 48 patients with SLE were detected before and after treatment with glucocortic oids by RT-PCR for mRNA expression and ELISA for protein production. The systemi c lupus erythematosus activity measure (SLAM) scores of patients were compared b efore and after treatment. Results After treatment, the expression and product ion of IFN- versus 1.4094 pg/mL; P

Objective To analyse the relationship between T lymphocyte subsets and NK cells expression and dynamic changes in lung cancer patients 'peripheral blood and the occurrence and development of cancer,and investigate their clinical significances.Methods Flow cytometry was applied to detect 66 patients with lung cancer,60 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and 60 healthy persons peripheral blood CD+3,CD+3CD+8,CD+3CD+4,Th/Ts,CD+16CD+56 expression.Lung cancer group peripheral blood CD+3,CD+3CD+8,CD+3CD+4,Th/Ts,CD+16CD+56 expression were also detected on 3rd,7th and 20th day before and after chemotherapy.Results Lung cancer group CD+3,CD+3CD+4,Th/Ts,CD+16CD+56 expression decreased significantly [(54.23±10.37)％,(34.23±8.03)％,1.35±0.20,(25.18±4.34)％] and had significant differences compared with pulmonary tuberculosis group [(63.09±9.19)％,(39.46±12.74)％,1.51±0.41,(26.45±3.96)％] and healthy group [(69.68±8.31)％,(42.31±13.29)％,1.89±0.48,(29.44±2.51)％](P ＜ 0.05),but CD+3CD+8 expression showed no significant difference(P ＞ 0.05).In chemotherapy group,comparing with before chemotherapy,remission group CD+3,CD+3CD+4,Th/Ts and CD+16CD+56 expression decreased significantly (P ＜ 0.01)on 3rd day after chemotherapy,while CD+3CD+8expression increased significantly(P ＜ 0.01).On 7th day,each index recovered to the level of before chemotherapy basically.On 20th day,CD+3,CD+3CD+4,Th/Ts and CD+16CD+56 expression increased significantly(P ＜ 0.05)compared with before chemotherapy,while CD+3CD+8 expression significantly decreased(P ＜ 0.05).Chemotherapy unease group had no significant difference (P ＞ 0.05).Lung cancer of stage Ⅲ A and Ⅲ B compared with stage Ⅰ A,and lymph node metastasis in N3 group compared with N0 group,CD+3,CD+3CD+4,CD+3CD+8,Th/Ts and CD+16CD+56 expression had significant differences (P ＜ 0.05).Compared with their pathological types,each index had no significant difference(P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Monitoring the peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets and NK cells dynamic of lung cancer patients can guide the clinical diagnosis and treatment,and contribute to the assessment of immune function.

Objective To study the activation of TLRs/NF-κB signal pathway and production of different functional cytokines during invasive pulmonary aspergillosis( IPA) , in order to probe the pathogene-sis of IPA. Methods Mouse were randomly divided into normal, normal + inoculated with Aspergillus fumigatus( normal inoculation group), and immune suppression + inoculation with Aspergillus fumigatus (IPAmodel group) , the mouse were killed at different time points after inhaling Aspergillus fumigatus spores by nose. Removing the lung tissue in a sterile manner and making pathological section respectively, counting Aspergillus fumigatus colony, dynamiclly detecting the expression of TLR2, TLR4 mRNA, variation of NF-κB p65 protein, pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β and anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10 levels in the lung tissue by RT-PCR and Western blot method during Aspergillus fumigatus infection in mouse. Results (1) When it's 72 h after inhaling Aspergillus fumigatus by nose, IPA model emerged severe lung tissue inflammation, and generated a large number of hyphae, meanwhile, burthen of Aspergillus fumigatus was higher than normal inoculation group at each time point. (2)Compared with the normal inoculation group, IPA group whose TLR2 mRNA was low expression at early stage of infection (24 h), and emerged high expression at late stage of infection (120 h, 144 h); and TLR4 mRNA has been at a state of low expression in the infection process; NF-κB p65 suddenly increased at early stage of infection(24 h) and then continued to decline. (3) After infected by Aspergillus fumigatus in normal mouse, proinflammatory cytokine TNF-α, IL-1β in lung exhibited high expression at the early stages of infection, and the highest expression levels appeared at 48 h or 72 h, then decreased and recovered to normal level. And the expression level of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 rised at late stage of infection; The IP A mouse released a lot of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 at early stage of infection, which significantly reduced at late stage, and released pro-inflammatory cyto-kines TNF-α, IL-1β at slow and low level. Conclusion The abnormal activation of TLRs/NF-β signaling pathway caused the loss of dynamic balance between pro-inflammatory cytokines and anti-inflammatory cytokines, leading to the occurrence and development of IPA.

Objective To investigate the effects of siRNA targeting CD 147 gene on the expression of CD147 in melanoma cell line A375, and on proliferation of these cells. Methods Previously prepared recombinant plasmid pSUPER/CD147 siRNA was used. In this study, the recombinant was transfected into the A375 cells. The mRNA expression of CD147 was measured by semi-quantitive RT-PCR, the proliferation of the cells by MTT assay. Results After the transfection with pSUPER/CD147 siRNA1 and pSU-PER/CD147 siRNA2, the mRNA expression of CD147 in the A375 cells was significantly down-regulated by 90.81% (P

Objective To study the telomerase activity,the keratinocyte apoptosis in condyloma ac-cuminatum(CA)and the correlation between them.Methods CA specimens from30patients were stud-ied,and compared with normal tissue and tumor cell lines.Telomerase activity was detected with telomeric repeat amplification polymerase chain reaction(TRAP)-ELISA.Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase(TdT)-mediated biotin dUTP nick end-labeling(TUNEL)was used to evaluate apoptotic cells.Results Increased telomerase activity was detected in27(90%)patients with CA,with A 450 ranging between0.50and2.76(mean1.3022).Apoptotic keratinocytes were found in24out of30CA cases(80%).A statistically signifi-cant inverse correlation was found between telomerase activity and apoptotic index(r =-0.52,P=0.004).Conclusion Keratinocyte telomerase is activated in condyloma acuminata,which is correlated with the downregulation of apoptosis,thus they might be involved in the pathogenesis of CA.