Objective To study antibiotic resistance phenotypes and genotypes of extended spectrum ?-lactamases (ESBLs) and AmpC ?-lactamase-producing Klebsiella oxytoca isolated from specimens of respiratory tract in children.Methods Bacterial isolates were identified by API or VITEK32. Agar dilution was used for antibiotic susceptibility test,and ESBLs and AmpC were detected by confirmatory test recommended by CLSI/NCCLS and by 3-aminophenylboronic acid (APB) disk potentiation test, respectively.Microarray was used to determine the genotypes of ESBLs and AmpC ?-lactamases.Genotypes of Klebsiella oxytoca were determined by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)- PCR.Results ESBLs were positive in 129 out of 165 isolates (78.2%).Both ESBLs and AmpC ?- lactamases were positive in 16 out of 165 isolates (9.7%).AmpC ?-lactamase alone producer was not detected in term of phenotype and genotype.CTX-M was the most common type of ESBLs and DHA was the only type of AmpC ?-lactamase in these isolates.Most antibiotic resistant strains of Klebsiella oxytoca possessed the same genotype by ERIC-PCR.Although all strains were susceptible to carbpenem,Klebsiella oxytoca with ?-lactamases were more resistant to other antibiotic agents than those without ?- lactamases.Conclusions There is high prevalence of ESBLs production among Klebsiella oxytoca isolated from children in Urumqi.The main genotypes of ESBLs and AmpC ?-lactamases are CTX-M and DHA.

AIM: To study apoptosis and bcl-2 mRNA gene expression of cardiomyocytes in donor hearts of immature rabbits underwent prolonged protection by 11, 12-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (11, 12-EET), and further probe into the possible mechanisms. METHODS: 24 isolated immature rabbit hearts were performed to the model in a Langendorff perfusion apparatus and randomly assigned to normal control group,ST control group and EET group. The isolated rabbit hearts in ST control group and EET group were stored for 24 hours with 4 ℃ hypothermia, and underwent 30 minutes of reperfusion (37 ℃). TUNEL and in situ hybridization (ISH) methods were applied in the present study and apoptotic cells and bcl-2 mRNA gene expression were observed. RESULTS: The numbers of apoptotic cardiomyocytes in ST group and EET group were higher than that in normal control group, and the numbers of apoptotic cardiomyocytes were significantly decreased in EET group and bcl-2 mRNA positive expression were higher than that in ST control group, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: There were apoptosis during the prolonged protection of donor heart in our study, and we proved that: ①11,12-EET could decrease cardiomyocyte apoptosis significantly. ②Up-regulation of the bcl-2 mRNA expression in cardiomyocytes may be one of the mechanism responsible for inhibition of cardiomyocyte apoptosis by 11, 12-EET.

Objective To identify serum biomarkers for rheumatoid arthritis(RA)by protein finger- print pattern. Methods One hundred and forty-one serum samples of 90 RA patients, 20 systemic lupus ery- thematosus(SLE)patients, and 31 healthy individuals were randomly divided into training set(n=93, 60 RA patients, 13 SLE patients and 20 healthy individuals)and test set(n=48, 30 RA patients, 7 SLE patients and 11 healthy individuals). They were detected by surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight- mass spectrometry(SELDI-TOF-MS). The protein fingerprint pattern obtained from SELDI-TOF was trained by a multi-layer artificial neural network(ANN)to establish a diagnostic model. Results The detective mod- el obtained by ANN was used to detect the 48 unknown serum samples. The sensitivity and specificity for RA detection was 90% and 90.9% respectively. Conclusion In comparison with traditional methods, SELDI- TOF-MS could identify new serum biomarkers in RA. Combined with ANN, it provides high sensitivity and specificity for RA diagnosis.

AIM To determine the dynamic changes of monoamine neurotransmitters and their metabolites in various brain regions of cerebral ischemia reperfusion mice. METHODS Concentrations of monoamine neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT) and metabolites were determined by HPLC-ECD on d 0,1,3,5 and d 20 after cerebral ischemia reperfusion by common carotid artery occlusion. RESULTS The cerebral ischemia reperfusion mice showed decreased concentrations of NE, MHPG, DA, DOPAC, 5-HT and 5-HIAA in various brain regions, especially in hippocampus. CONCLUSION Several neuron systems play an important role in neurons damage of cerebral ischemia reperfusion, especially the NE and DA in hippocampus which is sensitive to the ischemia damage. The data offer useful guides for clinical treatments of cerebral ischemia diseases.

AIM To explore pharmacokinetics of Berberine in YL2000 in normal and febrile rats. METHODS The levels of Berberine in plasma were measured through HPLC and secondary parameters were obtained by fitting the dose time data of Berberine making use of 3P87 programme. RESULTS In normal and febrile rats, the plasma concentration of Berberine was peaked at (3 4?0 3) h vs (0 3?2 1) h( P

Simvastatin is a hypolipidemic drug that inhibits hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMGCoA) reductase to control elevated cholesterol,or hypercholesterolemia.Previous studies have shown that simvastatin may attenuate inflammation in ischemia-reperfusion injury and sepsis.Herein,we hypothesized that simvastatin may prevent rats from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced septic shock.In our study,rats were divided into a saline group,an LPS group and an LPS plus simvastatin group.Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were pretreated with simvastatin (1 mg/kg) for 30 min before the addition of LPS (8 mg/kg),with variations in left ventricular pressure recorded throughout.Ninety min after LPS injection,whole blood was collected from the inferior vena cava,and neutrophils were separated from the whole blood using separating medium.The neutrophils were then lysed for Western blotting to detect the levels of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1).In addition,mesentery microcirculations of inlet diameter,outlet diameter and blood flow rate were measured in all three groups.The results indicated that simvastatin significantly promoted heart systolic function and increased the level ofuPA while simultaneously inhibited the expression of PAI-1 as compared with LPS group.Moreover,simvastatin reversed the LPS-induced inhibition of mesentery microcirculation.Taken together,it was suggested that simvastatin can effectively protect the rats from LPS-induced septic shock.

AIMTo study the bioactive constituents from the flower of Castanea mollissima Blume.

METHODSCompounds were isolated and purified by column chromatography on silica gel and polyamide. Structures were determined by various spectroscopic data,including UV, IR, 1H and 13CNMR, EIMS and FABMS, 1H-13C-COSY and HMBC.

RESULTSTwo compounds were isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of 95% ethanol extract and the structures were elucidated as kaempferol-3-O-[6"-(E)-p-coumaroyl]-alpha-D-mannopyranoside (1) and kaempferol-3-O-[6", 4"-di-(E)-p-coumaroyl]-alpha-D-mannopyranoside (2).

CONCLUSIONCompounds 1 and 2 are new compounds, named castanoside A and B respectirely.

Fagaceae ; chemistry ; Flowers ; chemistry ; Glucosides ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Kaempferols ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Mannosides ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Molecular Conformation ; Molecular Structure ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry

Most chemical medicines have polymorphs. The difference of medicine polymorphs in physicochemical properties directly affects the stability, efficacy, and safety of solid medicine products. Polymorphs is incomparably important to pharmaceutical chemistry, manufacturing, and control. Meantime polymorphs is a key factor for the quality of high-end drug and formulations. Polymorph prediction technology can effectively guide screening of trial experiments, and reduce the risk of missing stable crystal form in the traditional experiment. Polymorph prediction technology was firstly based on theoretical calculations such as quantum mechanics and computational chemistry, and then was developed by the key technology of machine learning using the artificial intelligence. Nowadays, the popular trend is to combine the advantages of theoretical calculation and machine learning to jointly predict crystal structure. Recently, predicting medicine polymorphs has still been a challenging problem. It is expected to learn from and integrate existing technologies to predict medicine polymorphs more accurately and efficiently.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the characteristics of circulating type II pre-dendritic cells (pDC2) and evaluate its role in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

METHODSThe quantitative alterations of pDC2 in 27 chronic HBV-infected patients as treated group and 15 healthy individuals as a control group were analyzed by using flow cytometry based on the comparison of CD4+/CD8+ ratios of T lymphocyte subsets between the two groups. The IFN-alpha-producing ability of pDC2 after incubation was determined by ELISA.

RESULTSThe percentage of pDC2 (0.096 +/- 0.086) from the peripheral blood in chronic HBV-infected patients were significantly lower than that (0.304 +/- 0.093) from the normal controls (P less than 0.001) while the CD4+/CD8+ ratios were higher than those in normal controls (P less than 0.01). The values of IFN-alpha-producing function and IL-12 of circulating pDC2 in chronic HBV-infected patients group were significantly lower than those in healthy subjects (P < 0.001). The percentage of pDC2 and CD4+/CD8+ ratios were higher in the patients positive for HBV DNA in sera than those in patients negative for HBV DNA in sera (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONThe decreased number of circulating pDC2 and IFN-alpha-producing function from peripheral blood in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection may result in the decline of host immune response, which may partially contribute to the disease progress of HBV infection and existence of viral genomic DNA in patient's sera.

Adolescent ; Adult ; CD4-CD8 Ratio ; Cell Count ; DNA, Viral ; blood ; genetics ; Dendritic Cells ; cytology ; immunology ; metabolism ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Hepatitis B virus ; genetics ; growth & development ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; immunology ; virology ; Humans ; Interleukin-12 ; biosynthesis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; T-Lymphocyte Subsets ; cytology ; immunology ; Young Adult

Cryptosporidium spp., ubiquitous enteric parasitic protozoa of vertebrates, recently emerged as an important cause of economic loss and zoonosis. The present study aimed to determine the distribution and species of Cryptosporidium in post-weaned and adult pigs in Shaanxi province, northwestern China. A total of 1,337 fresh fecal samples of post-weaned and adult pigs were collected by sterile disposable gloves from 8 areas of Shaanxi province. The samples were examined by Sheather's sugar flotation technique and microscopy atx400 magnification for Cryptosporidium infection, and the species in positive samples was further identified by PCR amplification of the small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene. A total of 44 fecal samples were successfully amplified by the nested PCR of the partial SSU rRNA, with overall prevalence of 3.3%. The average prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection in each pig farms ranged from 0 to 14.4%. Species identification by sequencing of SSU rRNA gene revealed that 42 (3.1%) samples were Cryptosporidium suis and 2 (0.15%) were Cryptosporidium scrofarum. C. suis had the highest prevalence (7.5%) in growers and the lowest in breeding pigs (0.97%). C. suis was the predominant species in pre-weaned and adult pigs, while C. scrofarum infected pigs older than 3 months only. A season-related difference of C. suis was observed in this study, with the highest prevalence in autumn (5.5%) and the lowest (1.7%) in winter. The present study provided basic information for control of Cryptosporidium infection in pigs and assessment of zoonotic transmission of pigs in Shaanxi province, China.
Animals ; China/epidemiology ; Cluster Analysis ; Cryptosporidiosis/*epidemiology/*parasitology ; Cryptosporidium/classification/genetics/*isolation & purification ; DNA, Protozoan/chemistry/genetics ; DNA, Ribosomal/chemistry/genetics ; Feces/parasitology ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; RNA, Ribosomal, 18S/genetics ; Seasons ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Swine ; Swine Diseases/*epidemiology/*parasitology