In recent years, preoperative therapy has become the standard procedure to improve radical resection rate and local control for advanced rectal cancer. Tumor responses to chemoradiotherapy, however, vary considerably, thus increasing the demand for both functional and morphologic radiologic evaluation of response to chemoradiotherapy to distinguish responders from nonresponders. MR imaging is considered the most accurate tool for the primary staging of tumor extent, and can be used to evaluate the efficacy of chemoradiotherapy. Functional imaging modalities including DW-MRI and PET-CT have shown promising prospect in the early evaluation of the response of rectal cancer to preoperative chemoradiotherapy. However, wide clinical application will take some time.
Chemoradiotherapy ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Rectal Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; radiotherapy ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Treatment Outcome

This paper aimed to investigate the botanical origins of Isatidis Radix and Isatidis Folium, and clarify the confusion of its classification. The second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of ribosomal DNA, the chloroplast matK gene of 22 samples from some major production areas were amplified and sequenced. Sequence assembly and consensus sequence generation were performed using the CodonCode Aligner. Phylogenetic study was performed using MEGA 4.0 software in accordance with the Kimura 2-Parameter (K2P) model, and the phylogenetic tree was constructed using the neighbor-joining methods. The results showed that the length of ITS2 sequence of the botanical origins of Isatidis Radix and Isatidis Folium was 191 bp. The sequence showed that some samples had several SNP sites, and some samples had heterozygosis sites. In the NJ tree, based on ITS2 sequence, the studied samples were separated into two groups, and one of them was gathered with Isatis tinctoria L. The studied samples also were divided into two groups obviously based on the chloroplast matK gene. In conclusion, our results support that the botanical origins of Isatidis Radix and Isatidis Folium are Isatis indigotica Fortune, and Isatis indigotica and Isatis tinctoria are two distinct species. This study doesn't support the opinion about the combination of these two species in Flora of China.
Chloroplasts ; genetics ; DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic ; methods ; DNA, Plant ; genetics ; DNA, Ribosomal Spacer ; genetics ; Genes, Plant ; genetics ; Isatis ; classification ; genetics ; Phylogeny ; Plant Leaves ; genetics ; Plants, Medicinal ; classification ; genetics ; Species Specificity

AIM: To investigate the angiogenesis effect and protective mechanism of cordycepin on rhesus macaque choroid- retinal endothelial ( RF/ 6A) cell line cultured in high glucose condition.
METHODS: Cultured RF/ 6A cells were divided into normal control group, high glucose group and high glucose (HG) + different concentration cordycepin groups (HG+ 10μ g/ mL group, HG+ 50μ g/ mL group, HG+ 100μ g/mL group). The cell proliferation was assessed using cholecystokinin octapeptide dye after treated for 48h. The cell migration was investigated by a Transwell assay. The tube formation was measured on Matrigel. Furthermore, the impact of cordycepin on high glucose - induced activation of VEGF and VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) was tested by Western blot analysis.
RESULTS: Compared with normal control group, cell viability markedly increased in high glucose group ( P <0. 05). Cordycepin inhibited RF/ 6A cell proliferation in a dose- dependent fashion: 10. 2 ± 0. 9%, 23. 4 ± 1. 5% and 31. 1±1. 2% inhibition as the concentrations of cordycepin were 10, 50 and 100μ g/ mL, respectively. The difference had statistically significant (P<0. 05) compared with high glucose group. The number of cell migration were 55. 6±2. 70, 87. 4 ± 2. 40, 65. 4 ± 2. 7, 57. 8 ± 2. 38, 62. 4 ± 2. 77 in normal control group, high glucose group and HG+10μ g/mL group, HG + 50μ g/ mL group, HG + 100μ g/ mL group respectively. Migration of RF/ 6A conspicuously increased in high glucose group ( P < 0. 05) compared with normal control group; while showing a gradually reducing trend with the increase of cordycepin dose and a statistically significant difference compared with high glucose group (P<0. 05). The number of tube formation were 18. 7±2. 08, 25. 7 ± 1. 52, 19. 9 ± 1. 57, 16. 3 ± 2. 51, 5. 67 ± 1. 72 in the abovementioned group. Similarly showing a gradually reducing trend with the increase of cordycepin dose and a statistically significant difference with high glucose group (P< 0. 05). In addition, the number of tube formation of RF/ 6A in high glucose group significant increased compared with normal control group ( P < 0. 05 ). The expression of VEGF and VEGFR-2 dramaticlly increased in high glucose group vs normal control group, oppositely gradually decreased with the increase of cordycepin concentrations, and had a statistically significant difference vs high glucose group (P<0. 05).
CONCLUSION: Cordycepin can suppress the proliferation, migration and tubu formation of RF/ 6A in high glucose condition, might via inhibiting expression of VEGF and VEGFR-2.

Aged ; China ; Confusion ; drug therapy ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Medicine in Literature

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of pramipexole in treating restless legs syndrome (RLS).Methods A search for randomized,double-blind,and placebo-controlled clinical trials of pramipexole in treating moderate to severe RLS using CNKI,PubMed,Embase and Cochrane Library database was carried out. A meta-analysis of included clinical trials was performed with RevMan 5.0 software.The 2 outcomes that the weighted mean difference(WMD) of change from baseline in International RLS Study Group rating scale(IRLS) score and the relative risk (RR) of response based on the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) scale score were calculated for efficacy.Safety was assessed with RR of the adverse event (AE).Results A total of 5 clinical trials were included in this meta-analysis,of which 1776 patients were randomly assigned (945 on pramipexole,831 on placebo).The records of patients were pooled.Overall WMD were - 6.34 ( Z =12.76,P ＜ 0.01 ) for the change from baseline in IRLS score,and RR of response based on CGI-I were 1.65 (Z =10.39,P ＜0.01).The overall RR of pramipexole versus placebo were 1.14 ( Z =1.87,P =0.06 ) for AE.Conclusion To treat RLS,pramipexole is an effective and safe drug.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus has been considered as one of the most important foodborne bacterial pathogens.The loop-mediated isothermal amplification(LAMP) that amplifies DNA with high specificity and rapidity under an isothermal condition was applied for rapid detection of this pathogen for the first time.A set of four primers,two outer and two inner primers,was designed specifically to recognize the thermolabile hemolysin gene(tlh) of V.parahaemolyticus.The LAMP reaction mix was optimized.The most optimal reaction temperature and time of the LAMP assay for the tlh gene were 60℃ and 60min,respectively.Genomic DNAs from 28 bacterial strains including 14 V.parahaemolyticus strains were amplified using LAMP,and no amplicon was observed in other bacterial strains.The detection limit of this LAMP assay was around 90 fg of V.parahaemolyticus genomic DNA and 24 colonies forming units for pure cultures.In addition,this method was applied to detect artificially contaminated food samples,and the detection limit was 89 cfu/g for non-cultured artificially contaminated food samples.These results suggested that detection of V.parahaemolyticus by LAMP is an effective and low-cost procedure with high specificity and sensitivity that requires no specialized equipment.This assay is expected to become a valuable tool for rapid detection and identification of V.parahaemolyticus.

Viable but non-culturable state in bacterial cells as received uncultured microorganism has be- come the fundamental research issues in medical microbiology, epidemiology, general microbial ecology and sanitation quarantine since it was put forward in 1982. When in this state, bacterium are no longer able to grow and form colonies on conventional culture media, but maintain their patheogenicity, may become latent infection escaping detection to threaten enviroment and human security. With the development of modern molecular biology technique and metagenomics, it provide new research method and opportunity for uncul- tured microorganism in the environment. Recently, with the application of the metagenome technique, ge- netic fingerprinting technical etc, it becomes more and more popular. Simultaneously, along with this state become maturity in the laboratory. It provides a new research route for development and exploitation the uncultured microorganism.

Objective To investigate the effect of sodium fluoride(NaF) on proliferation, differentiation and the mRNA expression of osteoprotegerin (OPG) and receptor activator of nuclear factor κβ ligand (RAN KL) of mouse osteoblasts. Methods Osteoblasts were isolated from calvarias of Kunming mice born in 1 - 2 d and cultured. Various concentrations of NaF(0, 10-8, 10-7, 10-6, 10-5, 10-4, 10-3mol/L) were added to the culture medium, the proliferation and activity of alkaline phosphatase(ALP) was determined after 72 h or 120 h. The expression of OPG mRNA and RANKL mRNA was analyzed by semi-quantification RT-PCR. Difference among groups was analyzed by One-Way AN0VA. Difference between two groups was analyzed by LSD-t test. Results There was significant difference in cell proliferation among groups after 72 h(F = 13.806, P < 0.05). Compared with control group(0.434 ± 0.010) , the proliferation was significantly induced in 10-7 - 10-4 mol/L groups treated osteoblasts (0.448 ± 0.010, 0.453 ± 0.013, 0.454 ± 0.016, 0.449 ± 0.018, all P< 0.05), and was significantly suppressed in 10-3 mol/L group(0.401 ± 0.009, P < 0.05). There was statistic difference in the activity of ALP among groups(F = 9.021, P < 0.05). Compared with control group (1.677 ± 0.682), the activity of ALP significantly increased in 10-7 - 10-5 mol/L groups[ (2.447 ± 0.756) × 106, (2603 ± 0.183) × 106, (2.687 ± 0.886) × 106 U/L, P < 0.05 or P < 0.01 ] and significantly decreased in 10-4 mol/L group[ (1.479 ± 0.366) × 106 U/L, P < 0.05 ]. There was significant difference in the expression of OPG mRNA among groups(F = 11.299, P< 0.05). Compared with control group (1.000 ± 0.000), the expression of OPG mRNA was significantly increased in 10-7 - 10-4 mol/L groups( 1.058 ± 0.027, 1.053 ± 0.026, 1.088 ± 0.055, 1.069 ± 0.008, P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) , while significantly decreased in 10-3 mol/L group (0.941 ± 0.029, P< 0.05). There was no difference in RANKL mRNA expression among groups (F= 1.311, P> 0.05). The ratio of RANKL/OPG decreased with increasing doses of fluoride and increased in 10-4, 10-3 mol/L groups, but there was no difference between groups(F = 1.376, P> 0.05). Conclusions A biphasic pattern of proliferation and differentiation has been induced in mouse osteoblasts, which manifests stimulation effect in low doses and suppression in higher doses. Low doses of sodium fluoride suppress differentiation and maturation of osteoblasts by increasing expression of OPG mRNA, while high doses of sodium fluoride enhance differentiation and maturation of osteoblasts by decreasing expression of OPG mRNA.

The objective of this study was to assess the clinical evidence for or against mood stabilizers as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We searched 5 databases from their inception to January 2010. Five randomized clinical trials of mood stabilizers to treat human patients suffering from AD were included. These trials assessed the effectiveness of mood stabilizers as an adjunct treatment to conventional anti-dementia drugs on behavioral and psychological symptoms, especially on agitation. Methodological quality was assessed using the Jadad score. The results suggested a significant effect in favor of placebo on the Mini-Mental Status Examination [n=270, weight mean difference (WMD), -0.89; 95% confidence intervals (CIs) -1.69 to -0.09, P=0.03] and on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory total (NPI total) (n=51, WMD, 3.71; 95% CIs 0.15 to 7.26, P=0.04). There were no significant differences in change scores on total Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS total), NPI/BPRS agitation, Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory total and Physical Self Maintenance Scale between mood stabilizers and placebo. Only one of these studies was free of methodological limitations (Jadad score=5). In conclusion, based on the existing evidence, mood stabilizers are ineffective or even harmful as a treatment for AD.

The quarantine inspection and acceptance of laboratory animals is an important work, which can protect animals from pollution, occurrence and spread of diseases in the surounding area, and it is the key point to realize the quality standardization of laboratory animals.Beagle dogs are acknowledged widely as specialized laboratory dogs which is widely employed in experiments of drug safety evaluation because of the good genetic stability, environmental adaptability, disease resistance and consistency testing in the experiments.Establishment of standard operating procedures of beagle dog quarantine acceptance check for drug GLP organization tests, refining technical points, strengthen the technical training of quarantine officers, and efforts to improve the level of quarantine are needed to finally ensure the quality of laboratory animals.