Objective: To investigate applicability for Boston naming test (30 items) (BNT) in Chinese elderly and identify effect for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's dementia(AD) using BNT. Methods:100 normal elderly, 38 amnesic MCI, 34 mild AD and 38 moderate AD were evaluated by neuropsychological tests (include BNT, mini mental state examination and auditory verbal memory test, etc). MMSE total score of 4 groups were 28.4?1.5, 26.1?2.6, 20.7?1.7, and 15.6?3.3, respectively. Results: Age, sex, level of education were found to be significant factors affecting overall scores of spontaneous naming in normal elderly group. Spontaneous naming score for participants of elementary, high school and college groups were 22.2?3.3, 25.5?2.5 and 26.3?1.8, respectively. Scoring of male participants higher than that of females. Spontaneous naming score of 4 groups were 24.9?3.0, 20.9?3.6, 18.7?4.0 and 15.7?4.2, respectively. As cut-off ≤22 score of spontaneous naming of BNT, the sensitivities for MCI, mild AD and moderate AD were 61%, 79% and 95% respectively; the specificities were all around 81%. Selective impairment of unfamiliar items occurred MCI and mild AD and hold of familiar item across diagnostic groups. Semantic cue naming and recognition ability by BNT showed there was progressive damage in AD patients, but less than that of spontaneous naming of BNT. Conclusion: The ability of naming is influenced by age, gender and educational level. Patients with MCI or mild AD have impairment in naming.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome is of high variation,which results in persistent infection of HCV and increases the incidence of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.Following the successful paradigm established for HIV protease inhibitors,HCV NS3-4A serine protease has been selected as the main target for the development of small molecule antiviral agents.In this article,we review recent progress in the discovery and development of HCV NS3-4A protease inhibitors,and discuss their antiviral activities,pharmacokinetic properties,side effects and resistance profiles.

【Objective】To observe the anti-depression effect of Shugan Hewei Granules(SHG) on mice with behavioral despair.【Methods】Kunming mice were randomized into 5 groups: model group,low-,moderate-and high-dose SHG groups(in the dosages of 0.25,0.5 and 1.0 g?kg-1?d-1respectively) and chloropromazine(CP) group.Tail suspension test and forced swimming test were used to investigate immobility time of mice.【Results】Moderate-and high-dose SHG shortened the immobility time obviously during tail suspension test and forced swimming test(P

Objective To investigate surgical technique and clinical efficacy of Sky bone ex- pander kyphoplasty in the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral body compression fractures.Methods Eighteen cases with osteoporotic vertebral body compression fractures were treated with Sky bone expander kyphoplasty from August 2004 to November 2005.Under the local anesthesia,3.5-5ml of bone cements were injected into each pathologic vertebral body through unipedicle approach after reduction procedure was done with Sky bone expander.Results The postoperative follow-up ranged from 3 to 11 months, with an average of 4.5 months.Back pain was effectively relieved after the operation in all cases.No complications occurred.Conclusion The Sky bone expander kyphoplasty has the advantages of safe- ty,easy operation,minimal invasion,effective restoration of the vertebral body height and fast relief of pain.

Objective To identify differently expressed genes and pathways between Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) cartilage and healthy cartilage,and to explore the mechanism of articular cartilage lesions of KBD.Methods Cartilage specimens were collected from 9 patients with KBD and 9 healthy controls.Total RNA was extracted from cartilage specimens,and transcribed into cDNA.KBD and control groups were labeled by Cy3 and Cy5,respectively.Agilent genome-wide microarray was applied to compare the expression profile of KBD cartilage and healthy cartilage.The microarray data was analyzed by single gene and pathway expression analysis to identify differently expressed genes and pathways between KBD and healthy controls.Results ①Tweenty nine genes were significantly up-regulated in KBD group (averaged ratio =6.68 + 1.98,P ＜ 0.05),mainly involved in apoptosis,metabolism,extracellular matrix,cytoskeleton and cell movement.Additionally,extracellular matrix-related FBLN1 gene was down-regulated in KBD group(ratio =0.14 + 0.06,P ＜ 0.05).②Five apoptosis and 6 hypoxia-related pathways presented higher expression levels in KBD compared to healthy controls(all P＜ 0.05).Conclusions We find significant expression differences of apoptosis and hypoxia-related genes and pathways between KBD cartilages and healthy cartilages,suggesting that hypoxia might contribute to chondrocytes apoptosis of KBD.Further studies may be needed to investigate the relationship between hypoxia and articular cartilage lesions of KBD.

Objective To compare the expression profile of mycotoxin-related environmental response genes (MERGs) in the articular cartilage of patients with Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) and healthy controls,and explore the relationship between MERG and KBD.Methods Articular cartilage specimens were collected from 9 healthy human subjects and 9 adult KBD patients.Agilent microarray was used to evaluate the expression levels of MERG in cartilage specimens,and the expression ratios of MERG between KBD and healthy controls were calculated.GSEA software was used to calculate the NES scores and P values of gene ontology(GO).Results ①T-2 toxin,deoxynivalenol,zearalenone,aflatoxin B1,fumonisin B1 and ochratoxin A related 15 MERGs presented expression differences between KBD and healthy controls(ratios ＞ 2.0 or ＜ 0.5).Thirteen MERGs were up-regulated in KBD,including BAX,BCL2,COL5A2,FER1L3,GSTT2,IGFBP2,IGFBP4,PDE8B,SOCS3,THBS1,TMSL8,VGLL3 and TUBB2A (ratio ＞ 2.0).Two MERGs,POSTN and FABP4,were down-regulated in KBD (ratio ＜ 0.5).The 15 MERGs were involved in various biological processes; such as collage synthesis,apoptosis,metabolism,growth & development and so on.②Mycotoxin related 4 apoptosis GOs and 5 growth & development related GOs were up-regulated in KBD compared to healthy controls(NES ＞ 0),including ANTI_APOPTOSIS,REGULATION_OF_PROGRAMMED_CELL_DEATH,APOPTOSIS_GO,REGULATION_OF_APOPTOSIS,ORGAN_MORPHOGENESIS,ANATOMICAL_STRUCTURE_DEVELOPMENT,ORGAN_DEVELOPMENT,SYSTEM_DEVELOPMENT and REGULATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL_PROCESS (NES ＞ 0 and P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions There are multiple mycotoxins related environmental response genes presenting significant expression difference between KBD cartilage and normal cartilage.Mycotoxin can affect the expression of MERGs in KBD articular cartilage,which might lead to dysfunction of chondrocytes,and articular cartilage lesions.

Microvesicles (MVs) are the heterogeneous mixtures of vesicles. MVs released by leukemia cells constitute an important part of the leukemia microenvironment. MVs might act as important reservoirs of microRNAs (miRNAs). It is worth evaluating whether MVs possess some unique miRNA contents that are valuable in understanding the pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated the miRNA expression patterns of Nalm-6-derived MVs, Jurkat-derived MVs and normal cell-derived MVs using miRNA microarrays. The potential target genes regulated by differentially expressed miRNAs were also predicted and analyzed. Results demonstrated that 182 miRNAs and 166 miRNAs were differentially expressed in Nalm-6-MVs and Jurkat-MVs, respectively. Many oncogenes, tumor suppressors and signal pathway genes were targeted by these aberrantly expressed miRNAs, which might contribute to the development of B-ALL or T-ALL. Our findings expanded the potential diagnostic markers of ALL and provided useful information for ALL pathogenesis.

Objective To investigate the role of negative-regulatory factors of toll-like receptors (TLRs)signal pathways in immunological pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease(KD).Methods Thirty-two chil- dren with Kawasaki disease and 16 age-matched healthy children were studied.Reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR)and real-time PCR were used to evaluate the mRNA expression levels of toll-like receptor 4(TLR4), MD-2,MyD88,IRAK-4,TRAF6,T1/ST2,IRAK-M,Triad 3A,and proinflammatory factors such as IL-1?, IL-6,IL-8 and TNF-?,in peripheral blood monocytes/macrophages(MC).The expression of TLR4 protein in MC was analyzed by flow cytometry.Results①Compared with the control group,the mRNA levels of TLR4, MD-2,MyD88,IRAK-4 and TRAF6 in KD group were up-regulated significantly(P＜0.01),and the expression level of TLR4 protein was also found to be up-regulated in KD group during acute phase.It was detected that expression levels of TLR4 protein in KD with coronary artery lesion(KD-CAL~+)was significantly higher than that of KD without coronary artery lesion(KD-CAL-)[flow cytometry:(6.5?1.7)% vs(11.9_+2.4)%,P＜0.01].②The expression level of negative-regulatory factors such as IRAK-M and Triad3A were significantly up-regulat- ed in acute phase of Kawasaki disease,while the mRNA levels of IRAK-M and Triad3A in KD-CAL~+ group was found to be significantly lower than those of KD-CAL~- group(P＜0.01).No difference of T1/ST2 mRNA expres sion level was detected among all groups(P＞0.05).③The expressions of proinflammatory eytokines such as IL-1?, IL-6,IL-8 and TNF-?in monoeytes/macrophages during acute phase of Kawasaki disease were higher than those of the control group(P＜0.01),and expression of proinflammatory cytokines in KD-CAL~+ group was significantly higher than that of KD-CAL~- group.Conclusion Relative insufficient expression of negative-regulatory factors, such as IRAK-M and Triad3A,maybe correlate with immunological pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease.

Objective To analyze the characteristics of auditory verbal memory impairment in mild Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).Methods Auditory verbal memory test was performed in 72 patients with MCI,45 patients with mild AD,and 62 normal controls.Results Significant intergroup differences were found in total former five free recall and learning scores,The MCI subjects( 16.4?5.5,2.6?1.7)performed significantly more poorly than the normal control subjects(NC) (30.2?5.6,3.4?1.9),and mild AD categories (9.8?4.1,2.0?1.2) showed lower results than the MCI subjects(t=2.26,P

Objective To summarize the clinical features,neuroimaging findings and pathological characteristics of demyelinating pseudotumors(DPT)of the brain,and to differentiate it from glioma. Methods The clinical features,neuroimaging findings and pathological characteristics of 35 patients with demyelinating pseudotumors of the brain were summarized,and the diagnosis for 18 of them was confirmed by bioscopy.Results Demyelinating pseudotumors affected adults of both sexes.The onset age of patients ranged from 9 to 69 years old.There was no definite antecedent,and the clinical syndromes were atypical. Neuroimaging scans showed multiple lesions in cerebral hemisphere,while the lesion in brain stem and spinal cord was single.The symptom and neuroimaging were not parallel.While with many or large lesions, the symptoms and signs were less.The lesions were not enhanced on CT scan,but appeared round or patch enhancement on MRI scan.Nine patients with DWI all appeared high density.The myelin basic protein was useful for diagnosis.The typical pathological changes were demyelination,perivascular inflammatory infiltration and reactive gliosis.The Creutzfeuldt cells were also found in these patients.The lesions might become small or disappear after treatment,but could not serve as the criterion to exclude brain neoplasm. Conclusions DPT is a distinct demyelination disease entity,which is confusable with brain neoplasm.It is difficult to distinguish DPT from brain neoplasm with the clinical features and conventional neuroimaging scan.But DWI scan is useful.The pathological changes accord with demyelination,and Creutzfeuldt cells are also found.It is important to apply corticosteroid treatment or biopsy rather than being anxious to excise the lesions.