Gene Targeting ; Humans ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit ; pharmacology ; Neoplasm Invasiveness ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; physiopathology

OBJECTIVE To investigate the pathogenic causes of community acquired pneumonia(CAP) in the elderly and to guide experience antibiotic therapy.METHODS An etiological study was performed on 204 elder patients with CAP in the Cadres Medical Department of Beijing Shijitan Hospital from May 2005 to Apr 2008.The count scores were by CURB-65 scoring system.RESULTS Pathogens were identified in 204 patients: there were Mycoplasma pneumoniae(42,20.6%),Streptococcus pneumoniae(30,14.7%),Haemophilus influenzae(24,11.8%),Chlamydia pneumoniae(17,8.3%),Klebsiella pneumoniae(14,6.9%),Escherichia coli(7,3.4%),Pseudomonas aeruginosa(5,2.5%),Staphylococcus aureus(4,2.0%),Legionella pneumophila(2,1.0%),and Acinetobacter baumannii(1,0.5%).The score,by CURB-65 scoring system,of mixed infected patients was higher than single infections.CONCLUSIONS Atypical pathogens have important role in elderly CAP,the most common pathogenare Gram-negative bacilli,S.aureusand fungi.Mixed infection couldn′t be ignored.

To explore the effect of quercetin on the proliferation and apoptosis of HeLa cells, HeLa cells were incubated with quercetin at different concentrations. Cell viability was evaluated by MTT assay, cell apoptosis was detected by Annexin-V/PI double labeled cytometry and DNA ladder assay. Cell cycle was flow cytometrically determined and the morphological changes of the cells were observed under a fluorescence microscope after Hoechst 33258 staining and the apoptosis-related proteins in the HeLa cells were assessed by Western blotting. The results showed that quercetin significantly inhibited the growth of HeLa cells and induced obvious apoptosis in vitro in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Moreover, quercetin induced apoptosis of HeLa cells in cell cycle-dependent manner because quercetin could induce arrest of HeLa cells at G0/G1 phase. Quercetin treatment down-regulated the expression of the PI3K and p-Akt. In addition, quercetin could down-regulate expression of bcl-2, up-regulate Bax, but exerted no effect on the overall expression of Akt. We are led to conclude that quercetin induces apoptosis via PI3k/Akt pathways, and quercetin has potential to be used as an anti-tumor agent against human cervix cancer.

Objective: By observing the differences in Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index (WOMAC) and visual analog scale (VAS) scores in moxibustion treatment for moderate-to-severe primary knee osteoarthritis (KOA) with moxa of different storage years (3-year moxa and 1-year moxa from Qichun, Huanggang City, Hubei Province, China) through a randomized clinical trial, to objectively evaluate the differences in therapeutic efficacy of moxibustion with moxa of different storage years. Methods: A total of 63 patients with moderate-to-severe KOA who met the inclusion criteria were randomized into moxibustion group 1 and moxibustion group 2 by central randomization method, with 32 cases in moxibustion group 1 and 31 cases in moxibustion group 2. Moxibustion group 1 was treated with moxa stored for 3 years, and moxibustion group 2 was treated with moxa stored for 1 year. Dubi (ST 35), Neixiyan (EX-LE 4) and Heding (EX-LE 2) were selected in both groups, and the treatment lasted 20 min per time, 3 times a week. The immediate efficacy was compared after 6 times of treatment, and long-term efficacy was compared at follow-up 4 weeks after the end of treatment. Results: During the treatment, there were 2 dropouts in moxibustion group 1, and 1 dropout in moxibustion group 2. The total effective rate in the two groups was 83.3％ and 60.0％, respectively. Followed up at 4 weeks after the end of treatment, the total effective rate in the two groups was 80.0％ and 66.7％, respectively. There were no statistical differences between the two groups (both P>0.05). After treatment and 4 weeks after the end of treatment, the WOMAC and VAS scores in both groups decreased significantly compared with those before treatment (all P<0.01); the scores of stiffness item of WOMAC in moxibustion group 1 were lower than those in moxibustion group 2 (both P<0.05); there were no statistical differences in the scores of pain item and dysfunction item of WOMAC, and VAS scores between the two groups (all P>0.05). Conclusion: Moxibustion with moxa of different storage years (stored for 3 years and 1 year) both can improve the pain, stiffness and motor function in patients with moderate-to-severe KOA. While moxa stored for 3 years has a better therapeutic efficacy in improving stiffness of the knee joint than that stored for 1 year.

Objective To determine if fetal stem cells can enter the maternal circulation during pregnancy and re-pair the injuries of maternal heart.Methods C57 female mice at the age of 6-8 weeks were randomly assigned to three groups:sham control, surgery without pregnancy, and surgery with pregnancy ( n=8,eath group) .The control sham group was developed by opening and closing of the chest.The other two groups underwent heart surgery.The myocardial infarc-tion ( MI) model was induced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery.Half of the surgical mice mated with e-GFP transgenic male mice, and another half group was not.Electrocardiogram ( ECG) and echocardiographic images were recorded at pre-operation, post-operation and postpartum.The collected data were used to evaluate the heart function. The GFP expression was detected by immunohistochemistry and q-PCR.Results When compared with the sham group, both the ischemia surgery groups with and without pregnancy, the ECG ST segment was significantly increased.This meas-urement indicated that the myocardial ischemia surgery was successful, and no significant difference in the ST segments be-tween two ischemia surgery groups was found.However, when ECG was measured in the surgical mice after postpartum, their myocardial ischemia was dramatically improved when compared with that of the ischemia surgery only mice.Echocar-diographic images also indicated that both the surgery groups had myocardial ischemia, however, no significant difference was observed in the pregnant mice before and after postpartum.The order of the cardiac function indexes from high to low was the sham group, surgery with pregnancy group, and surgery with no pregnancy group;in particular, the cardiac func-tion of pregnancy group was significantly enhanced compared with that of the surgery with no pregnancy group (P<0.05). More importantly, both immunofluorescence and q-PCR results showed that the embryonic stem cell translocation through circulation system with GFP expression in the heart of pregnancy group, while negative in other two groups.Conclusions Embryonic stem cells can be transferred into the maternal circulation of pregnant mice, and play a role in the repairing of their cardiac injuries.

Aged ; Bone Density Conservation Agents ; adverse effects ; Female ; Humans ; Organometallic Compounds ; adverse effects ; Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal ; drug therapy ; Stevens-Johnson Syndrome ; chemically induced ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Thiophenes ; adverse effects

Chemical investigation of the whole plants of Valeriana hardwickii has led to the isolation of 11 flavones and 2 monoterpe- noids by using various chromatographic techniques including column chromatography on silica gel and Sephadex LH-20, preparative TLC, and preparative HPLC. Their structures were identified by spectroscopic data analysis as syzalterin (1), 6-methylapigenin (2), 5-hydroxy-7,4'-dimethoxyflavone (3), genkwanin (4), acacetin (5), apigenin (6), quercetin (7), tricin (8), (-)-farrerol (9), sosakuranetin (10), 5,3',4'-trihydroxy-7-methoxyflavanone (11), (-)-bornyl ferulate ( 12) , and (-)-bornyl caffeate ( 13). All compounds were isolated from this plant for the first time, while compounds 1, 9-13 were obtained from this genus for the first time.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Molecular Structure ; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization ; Valerian ; chemistry

According to the correlative analyses on Chinese medicine essence, dosage forms and quality control level, it expounds the precise concept of Chinese medicine, and its quality advantages and characteristics in this paper, furthermore discusses how to achieve the ideal drugs and Chinese medicine quality precision in expectation. Base on the Chinese medicine essence, using the concept of nature medicine and its drug system to construct Chinese medicine effective material basis and its drugs, with the correlative analyses of whole view and reductionism, the problems of uncertainty quality of original natural medicinal resources and preparations may well be solved, and further with the macroscopic to microcosmic construction of drug system, the precision in expectations of Chinese medicine quality and higher production lever may well be achieved.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; standards ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Precision Medicine ; Quality Control

AIM: To make a comparison between 64-multidetector computed tomography (64-MDCT) and coronary angiography (CAG) for assessing the clinical significance of coronary lesions and the coincidence rate of these two methods. METHODS: From May 2005 to July 2006, totally 85 patients, who were suspected or diagnosed as coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, were performed with both 64-MDCT and CAG in the General Hospital of Chinese PLA. They included 64 males and 21 females, aged 41-83 years, with a mean of 61 years. Informed consents were obtained from all the patients. Coronary artery stenosis was detected with the stenosis rate of diameter method and area method, which was calculated by 64-MDCT and analysis software for vessels. Coronary luminal diameter was evaluated as normal, mild stenosis (25%-49%), mild-moderate stenosis (50%-74%), moderate-severe stenosis (75%-94%), severe stenosis (95%-99%), and occlusion (100%). RESULTS: The 64-MDCT images were evaluated for the existence of occlusions or significant stenosis (≥50% lumen reduction) in native coronary arteries. Its coincidence rate with CAG was 89% in left coronary artery main stem, 93% in left anterior descending coronary artery, 68% in left circumflex coronary artery, and 48% in right coronary artery. CONCLUSION: The 64-MDCT has a high diagnostic accuracy in detecting coronary artery stenosis, and is identical with CAG in the assessment of left coronary artery main stem and left anterior descending coronary artery. Thus it is potential for the clinical application on the evaluation of coronary artery stenosis, qualitative and quantitative detection of coronary atherosclerotic plaque.

Objective: To investigate the effect of aqueous extract of Radix et Rhizome Rhodiolae on expressions of HIF-1?, HIF-1? and VEGF in human umbilical vein endothelial cells(HUVECs) exposed to hypoxia. Methods: The effect of different treatment time and concentrations of aqueous extract of Radix et Rhizome Rhodiolae on cellular proliferation were determined with XTT colorimetric assay. The mRNA and protein expressions of HIF-1?, HIF-1? and VEGF were analyzed respectively by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction with SYBR Green I and Western blot. Three groups were studied: normoxia control group, hypoxia control group, Radix et Rhizome Rhodiolae treatment group. Results: The optimal condition of Radix et Rhizome Rhodiolae treatment were 24h and 10?g/mL. The protein levels of HIF-1?, HIF-1? and VEGF were elevated by hypoxia (P