OsRacD belonging to rice Rho family of the small GTP binding proteins,is a pivotal gene involved in rice photoperiod fertility conversion of photoperiod sensitive genic male sterile rice,which influences rice fertility via controlling the pollen tube growth.T20N site-directed mutation was introduced into its highly conserved G1 motif by PCR-mediated method to mimic its GDP-binding state based on the sequences alignment and conserved domains analysis.The prokaryotic expression vector of OsRacD and T20N-OsRacD were constructed,and the His6 tag fused proteins were expressed and purified from E.coli.After identified by Western blot,the GTP hydrolysis activities were detected.The results showed that the GTPase activities of T20N-OsRacD were significantly reduced comparing with that of OsRacD,suggested that OsRacD and T20N-OsRacD have different biochemical characteristics.

The diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer are being improved due to the popularized screening of prostate specific antigen. Advanced prostate cancer, in spite of its response to androgen deprivation therapy, may finally develop into castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and shorten the overall survival of the patients. Many efforts have been made by worldwide researchers for new approaches to the management of CRPC, including new hormonal therapy, cytotoxic chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and bone metastasis-targeted therapy. This paper reviews the emerging agents undergoing clinical evaluation and drugs that have received approval for the treatment of CRPC in order to provide doctors and patients with more treatment options for CRPC and improve the overall survival rate and quality of life of the patients.
Androgen Antagonists ; Bone Neoplasms ; prevention & control ; Humans ; Immunotherapy ; Male ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; blood ; Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant ; therapy ; Quality of Life

The silent cerebral infarct is an clinic symptom that is so slight or transitory as to be easily neglected. There are only neural symptoms and signs,but irresponsible infarct focus can be seen on image. The risk factors of silent cerebral infarct may be the same as those of symptomatic cerebral infarct. Such infarct is likely to influence the course, clinic symptom and prognosis of acute cerebral infarct and may foretell symptomatic cerebral infarct and deteriorate into pseudo-global paralysis or multi-infarcted dementia. Therefore elder who suffer from hypertension or diabetes and experience vertigo, headache, language barrier but without apparent signs and symptoms should receive cerebral CT or MRI. Minor or third-degree precautionary measures can be taken as a chief therapy for cerebral infarct. Alternatively vitamines B_6,B_(12) and folic acid can be supplied to reduce the chance of hyperhomocysteinemia. Headache is the initial symptom in silent brain infarct. Magnesium is effective when dehydration does not work.

Objective To explore the potential risk factors of schistosomiasis transmission so as to provide evidence for setting up the surveillance scheme of schistosomiasis prevention and control. Methods The schistosome infection of local inhabitants, mobile population and stock from endemic areas were investigated from 2002 to 2007 by using IHA or ELISA technique. The historical endemic reports of Chongqing City and the schistosomiasis cases, and the plants imported from schistosomiasis endemic areas and Oncomelania snails were investigated. The behavior of local inhabitants was also investigated. Results The investigated people included 5 112 local inhabitants, 1 455 mobile people from schistosomiasis endemic areas and 1 744 residents returned from the endemic areas. The sero-positive rates of them were 0.57%, 1.44% and 0.86%, respectively. Eighteen cases of imported schistosomiasis were found. There were many plants and stock imported from the schistosomiasis endemic areas. No imported snail was found. The farming of local inhabitants depended on the cattle chiefly. The rate of the harmless lavatories was 14.88%. The local residents had the habit of water contact. Conclusion There are potential risk factors for schistosomiasis transmission in the Three Gorges Reservoir areas. The local residents have potential risk behavior of getting infection of Schistosoma japonicum. The surveillance should be emphasized on the mobile population, imported plants and stock from endemic areas.

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a key transcription factor on hypoxia responses in mammalian tissues. HIF-1 plays as a positive factor in solid tumor and leads to hypoxia-driven responses that enhance its downstream gene expression for tumor growth and survival. LXY6099 was obtained by the structural modification and optimization of manassantin A (MA) as a high potent HIF-1 inhibitor. Antitumor activity of LXY6099 was observed in this study. LXY6099 with an IC50 value of 2.46 x 10(-10) mol x L(-1) showed more sensitive inhibition activity to HIF-1 than that of MA detected by reporter gene assay (> 100 folds). It showed strong inhibition on the growth of human solid tumor cell lines. Furthermore, LXY6099 exhibited significant antitumor activity against established human tumor xenografts in nu/nu mice with treatment of MX-1 breast cancer. Thus, LXY6099 as a novel HIF-1 inhibitor could be further developed into anti-cancer agents.
Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; Breast Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Heterografts ; Humans ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 ; metabolism ; Lignans ; pharmacology ; Mice, Nude

The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility of wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) modified liposome as a vehicle for ophthalmic administration. Liposome loaded with 5-carboxyfluorescein (FAM) was prepared by lipid film hydration method. WGA was thiolated and then conjugated to the surface of the liposome via polyethylene glycol linker to constitute the WGA-modified and FAM-loaded liposome (WGA-LS/FAM). The amount of thiol groups on each WGA molecule was determined, and the bioactivity of WGA was estimated after it was modified to the surface of liposome. The physical and chemical features of the WGA-modified liposome were characterized and the ocular bioadhesive performance was evaluated in rats. The result showed that each thiolated WGA molecule was conjugated with 1.32 thiol groups. WGA-LS/FAM had a mean size of (97.40 +/- 1.39) nm, with a polydispersity index of 0.23 +/- 0.01. The entrapment efficacy of FAM was about (2.95 +/- 0.21)%, and only 4% of FAM leaked out of the liposome in 24 h. Erythrocyte agglutination test indicated that after modification WGA preserved the binding activity to glycoprotein. The in vivo ocular elimination of WGA-LS/FAM fitted first-order kinetics, and the elimination rate was significantly slower than that of the unmodified liposome, demonstrating WGA-modified liposome is bioadhesive and suitable for ophthalmic administration.
Absorption, Physicochemical ; Adhesiveness ; Administration, Ophthalmic ; Animals ; Drug Carriers ; Eye ; metabolism ; Fluoresceins ; chemistry ; Liposomes ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; pharmacokinetics ; Male ; Particle Size ; Polyethylene Glycols ; chemistry ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Wheat Germ Agglutinins ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; pharmacokinetics

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of augmentative locking compression plate combined with bone graft in treating aseptic femoral shaft nonunion after intramedullary nailing.

METHODSTwenty-one cases with aseptic femoral shaft nonunion after intramedullary nailing from January 2007 to January 2013 were treated,including 18 males and 3 females with a mean age of 37.7 years (ranged from 23 to 64 years). The mean period of nonunion after surgery was 23.9 months (ranged from 9 to 62 months). According to Weber-Cech classification,10 of those 21 cases were hypertrophic nonunion,7 were atrophic, and 4 had oligotrophic fracture nonunion. All patients retained the original intramedullary nail, and applied with augmentation plating of 6 to 8 holes locking compression plate, unicortical fixation with 2 to 3 locking screws in the proximal or distal end, with simultaneous autologous iliac bone grafting. After treatment,all patients were allowed to partial weight-bearing until full weight-bearing according to the radiological results. All patients were followed up and were evaluated with clinical and imaging results.

RESULTSAll patients were followed up from 8 to 24 months, averaged (13.5±3.5) months,which showed clinical union at 4 to 8 months, averaged (6.0±1.0) months and radiological solid union at 7 to 12 months, averaged (9.1±1.5) months. No such complications as infection,hardware loosening or breaking were found.

CONCLUSIONAugmentative locking compression plate(LCP) combined with bone graft for aseptic femoral shaft nonunion after intramedullary nail has a satisfied clinical efficacy. It's an useful and simple method.

Adult ; Bone Nails ; adverse effects ; Bone Plates ; Bone Transplantation ; Female ; Femoral Fractures ; complications ; surgery ; Follow-Up Studies ; Fracture Fixation, Intramedullary ; adverse effects ; Fractures, Ununited ; complications ; surgery ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postoperative Complications ; etiology ; surgery ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

Quantitative NMR (qNMR) is a technology based on the principle of NMR. This technology does not need the references of the determined components, which supplies a solution for the problem of reference scarcity in the quantitative analysis of traditional Chinese medicines. Moreover, this technology has the advantages of easy operation, non-destructiveness for the determined sample, high accuracy and repeatability, in comparison with HPLC, LC-MS and GC-MS. NMR technology has achieved quantum leap in sensitivity and accuracy with the development of NMR hardware. In addition, the choice of appropriate experimental parameters of the pre-treatment and measurement procedure as well as the post-acquisition processing is also important for obtaining high-quality and reproducible NMR spectra. This review summarizes the principle of qHNMR, the various experimental parameters affecting the accuracy and the precision of qHNMR, such as signal to noise ratio, relaxation delay, pulse width, acquisition time, window function, phase correction and baseline correction, and their corresponding optimized methods. Moreover, the application of qHNMR in the fields of quantitation of single or multi-components of traditional Chinese medicines, the purity detection of references, and the quality analysis of foods has been discussed. In addition, the existing questions and the future application prospects of qNMR in natural product areas are also presented.
Biological Products ; chemistry ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; methods ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Reproducibility of Results

BACKGROUND:Xenogeneic ligament is readily available, which has ligament scaffold structure and is conducive to tissue ingrowth and creeping substitution. After processing, the xenogeneic ligament, with the presence of good growth scaffold function, can be completely eliminated antigenicity that can cause immune rejection. OBJECTIVE:To study the feasibility of biological xenogeneic ligament graft instead of alogeneic ligament graft for reconstruction of goat anterior cruciate ligament. METHODS: Twenty-four healthy adult goats were randomly divided into A, B, C groups, and then, the left knee joints of goats were removed to establish animal models of anterior cruciate ligament injury in the three groups. After the establishment of the tibia and femoral bone tunnel, groups A, B, C were respectively transplanted with biological xenogeneic ligament graft combined with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels, biological xenogeneic ligament graft alone, and alogenic ligament. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After implantation, no rejection but good biocompatibility was found in the group A, in which, the transplanted ligament as a functional scaffold for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, and new tissues in-grew and replaced the scaffold under intraarticular environment to form the new ligament with good bone tendon healing. However, there were no differences in histology, immune response, biomechanical findings between groups A and C. Additionaly, in the group A, the host tissues were found to grow into the scaffold and establish a micro-circulation. These findings indicate that xenogeneic ligament combined with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cels can accelerate the establishment of micro-circulation and promote the growth of ligaments, especialy improve the ligament revascularization significantly, but has no influence on the biological characteristics of the ligament.

Objective To study the influencing factors of the colorants used in the placebo of herbal medicine.Methods The effect of pH value,temperature,and illumination and sterilization method on the coloring of the pigments like carmine,sunset yellow 60,brilliant blue 60 and caramel were investigated by determining the Lab value with the instrument.Results PH value of solution had effects on the coloring of carmine and sunset yellow 60,but no effects on the brilliant blue 60 and caramel.When pH values of the solutions were adjusted to 10,chromatic aberration values of carmine and sunset yellow 60 were 17.29 and 27.29,respectively; In the conditions of acidification,the color of carmine and sunset yellow 60 solutions were not changed much; short heating and illumination had no effects on all the four pigments,and all the chromatic aberration values were less than 1.5; 60Co-ray irradiation had great effects on the coloring,and the chromatic aberration values of carmine,sunset yellow 60,brilliant blue 60 and caramel solutions after 60Co-ray irradiation were 12.43,22.45,37.53 and 19.22,respectively; While autoclaving (121 ℃,20 min) would not change the color of solution,and all those chromatic aberration values were less than 1.5.Conclusion These colorants are suitable for the placebo preparation of Chinese medicine decoction,which is recommended to be added in the preparation of the final link.60Co-ray irradiation sterilization is forbidden.