Some phytoestrogen-containing Chinese herbs have both estrogenic and antiestrogenic activity. With the development of phgtoestrogen study and the application of herbs in breast cancer, phytoestrogen-containing herbs become the hot researches, but consensus is hampered by conflicting data from various in vitro and in vivo experiments. This article will address the effects of some kinds of herbs on breast cancer cell proliferation, the mechanism and their biological activity. The review will focus on 3 popular botanical herb: Angelica sinensis (dong quai) , Salvia miltiorrhiza (dan-shen root) and ginseng.

Objective To evaluate the effect of Jianpi Bushen Formula(Formula for Invigorating Spleen and Nourishing Kidney) combined with moxibustion on quality of life(QOL) and maturation degree of vaginal exfoliate cells(MDVEC) in premature ovarian failure(POF) patients.Methods Totally 55 POF patients were randomized into treatment group(33 cases,treated by Jianpi Bushen Formula with moxibustion) and control group(22 cases,treated by Premarine).Menopause-specified quality of life(MENQOL) was adopted to evaluate QOL of the patients.Maturation index(MI) and maturation value(MV) were applied to evaluate MDVEC.Results The scores of MENQOL of both groups were improved and the effect of the treatment group(except sexual life dimension) was superior to that of the control group(P

Animals ; Animals, Newborn ; Chronic Disease ; Daunorubicin ; adverse effects ; Disease Models, Animal ; Heart Failure ; chemically induced ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Objective To investigate the effects of cognitive interventions (CIs) in the context of communi- ty based rehabilitation (CBR) on cognitive deficits (CDs) in stroke patients.Methods Ninety-two stoke patients with CDs were randomly divided into a CI group and a control group.All patients were treated with conventional CBR.In addition,the patients in the CI group were also treated with special intervention therapy.The patients in both groups were assessed with the neurological and cognitive status examination (NCSE) for cognitive functioning, the FCA for motor function and the BI for their ability in the activities of daily living.Results The NCSE,FCA and BI scores in the cognitive intervention group after treatment were significantly higher than those before treatment and also significantly higher than those in the control group after treatment.Conclusion CIs can not only improve CDs,but also enhance recovery of motor function and ADL.

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical features of children with adenovirus pneumonia and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the mediacal data of 7 children with adenovirus pneumonia and HLH from March to September, 2019. RESULTS: The age of these children ranged from 11 months to 5 years, and among these children, 5 were aged <2 years and 5 were boys. None of these children had underlying diseases. All children were hospitalized due to persistent high fever and cough, and the peak temperature of fever was 39°C to 41°C. With disease progression, 7 children developed hepatomegaly and 6 developed splenomegaly. Routine blood test results showed reductions in two or three lineages of blood cells, with increases in serum ferritin (SF), C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Phagocytosis of blood cells was observed in 6 children. Radiological examination of lungs showed pneumonia changes. All 7 children were diagnosed with human adenovirus type 7 infection based on pathogenic metagenome detection. No abnormality was found by HLH gene detection and the children were diagnosed with secondary HLH. All children received intravenous immunoglobulin. Among these children, 4 received dexamethasone and etoposide chemotherapy, 3 received dexamethasone alone, and 4 received plasma exchange. Of the 7 children, 2 died and 5 were recovered. Compared with those who survived, the children who died had significantly greater reductions in the three lineages of blood cells and significantly greater increases in serum levels of CRP, PCT, SF, and LDH. CONCLUSIONS The children with adenovirus pneumonia and HLH have main clinical features of persistent high fever, progressive reductions in two or three lineages of peripheral blood cells, and involvement of other organ systems, including hepatosplenomegaly. Significant increases in serum levels of CRP, PCT, SF, and LDH may suggest a poor prognosis.
Adenoviridae ; Child, Preschool ; Etoposide ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulins, Intravenous ; Infant ; Lymphohistiocytosis, Hemophagocytic ; Male ; Retrospective Studies

In order to make clear the packing mechanism of the BmNPV polyhedra, a polyhedrin gene negative recombinant baculovirus, vBmBac(polh-)-5B-EGFP, expressing EGFP was constructed, and used to infect BmN cells jointly with wild-type BmNPV. Fluorescent microscopic observation demonstrated that EGFP and polyhedrin were expressed simultaneously, and the EGFP expression and polyhedra formation occurred in most of the jointly infected cells. Analysis of the purified polyhedra from jointly infected BmN cells showed that the foreign proteins were present in the polyhedra. The results indicated that BmNPV polyhedrin could incorporate proteins other than viral proteins into the polyhedra. It implies that a nonspecific recognition mechanism exists in the embedment of BmNPV polyhedra.
Animals ; Bombyx ; Gene Expression ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Nucleopolyhedrovirus ; genetics ; physiology ; Viral Structural Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Virus Assembly

OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression profiles of serum Golgi protein-73 (GP73) in liver cirrhosis and primary hepatic carcinoma (PHC) and determine its clinical value for differential diagnosis.

METHODSSerum protein expressions of GP73 and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and chemiluminescence assay, respectively, in patients with PHC (n=80), liver cirrhosis (n=65), and healthy controls (n=50). Inter-group changes were assessed by Kruskal-Wallis test, and significance of these differences was assessed by Mann-Whitney test. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency and determine the cut-off values for GP73 and AFP. Sensitivity and specificity were compared by the Chi-squared test. Correlation between serum GP73 expression and clinical parameters was determined by Spearman's rank correlation analysis.

RESULTSThe PHC group showed significantly higher serum GP73 (282.0 mug/L) than the liver cirrhosis group (211.8 mug/L) and control group (58.3 mug/L) (H = 93.30, P less than 0.01). For differential diagnosis of PHC and liver cirrhosis, the cut-off value was 318.1 mug/L for GP73 and 13.4 mug/L for AFP. Sensitivity of GP73 was lower than AFP (45% (36/80) vs. 65% (52/80); X2 = 8.02, P less than 0.05). Specificity of GP73 was lower than AFP but no significance was found (83.1% (54/65) vs. 87.7% (57/65); X2=0.27, P more than 0.05). The areas under the ROC curves were not significantly different between GP73 and AFP (0.65 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.54~0.72) vs. 0.75 (95% CI: 0.67~0.83); Z = 1.88, P more than 0.05). The area under the ROC curves increased but not significantly (0.80 (95% CI: 0.73~0.88) vs. 0.75 (95% CI: 0.67~0.83); Z=2.61, P more than 0.05). Serum GP73 was correlated with liver cirrhosis (r=0.27), vascular invasion (r=0.29), and TNM staging (r=0.27) (all P less than 0.05), but not with sex (r=0.13), age (r=0.10), enhanced AFP (> 13.4 mug/L; r=0.03), tumor size (r=0.18), or distant metastasis (r=0.04), all P less than 0.05.

CONCLUSIONSerum GP73 and AFP have comparable diagnostic efficiency, but the sensitivity of AFP is superior for differential diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and primary hepatic carcinoma. Elevated serum GP73 may be correlated with liver tumor load and aggressiveness.

Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; diagnosis ; Case-Control Studies ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; diagnosis ; Liver Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Male ; Membrane Proteins ; blood ; Middle Aged ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Transcriptome ; alpha-Fetoproteins ; metabolism

Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a member of genetically conserved heat shock protein family. As an important molecular chaperone in eukaryotic cells, HSP90 plays a key regulatory role in maintaining cellular protein homeostasis. HSP90 clients encompass a wide range of proteins, thus HSP90 is involved in diverse biological process. With the deeper study, it is found that HSP90 takes an important part in the development and metastasis of cancer,and has become a promising target for the study of anticancer biology. We review the progress of HSP90 as molecular chaperone and its relationship with cancer.

Objective To evaluate the clinical application of stress/rest MPI in the patients with 50％-75％ coronary artery stenosis.Methods The criteria for patient selection were that the patients should have at least one main coronary artery with stenosis more than 50％,and the maximal stenosis should be less than 75％ according to CAG.The stress/rest MPI was performed in 2 weeks before or after CAG.A total of 244 patients (178 males,66 females) with mean age (57 ± 10) years were included in this study.Symptom restriction stress test was used and stress MPI was performed 1 - 1.5 h after 99Tcm-MIBI (925 MBq)injection at the exercise peak.Rest MPI was performed within 48 - 72 h after stress MPI.Myocardial ischemia was diagnosed when there was a reduced uptake or even a defect in 2 different tomographic sections or in the same part of a myocardium in the continuous 2 slices.When there was an irreversible reduced uptake or defect,myocardial infarction was given as the final diagnosis.No reduced uptake or defect in all slices was shown as normal.The impact of MPI images on the selection for optimal clinical therapy plans was also discussed.X2 test was used for statistical analysis.Results A total of 340 coronary arteries with stenosis 50％ - 75％ were found by CAG.According to stress/rest MPI results,207 patients (84.8％)presented normal,33 had myocardial ischemia,3 had myocardial infarction,and 1 had both myocardial infarction and ischemia.In abnormal MPI images,there were 61 ischemic segments and 9 infarct segments,which were associated with 43 stenotic arteries (23 LAD,10 LCX,and 10 RCA).Patients were divided into 2 groups according to the results of MPI:Group 1 with normal MPI (207/244,84.8％ ) and Group 2 with abnormal MPI (37/244,15.2％ ).In Group 1,9 patients underwent coronary artery revascularization (PTCA or CABG),and the others had medical treatment.Eight patients had PTCA and 29 patients had medical treatment in Group 2.There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups ( X 2 =11.9,P =0.001 ).Conclusion Stress-rest MPI may be an effective method to evaluate ischemia degree for patients with 50％ -75％ coronary artery stenosis and a useful indicator for the individual treatment.

OBJECTIVETo study the effects of drug plasma of musk and olibanum (DP-M&O) on the release of inflammatory cytokines from monocytes and the expressions of the proteins associated with inflammation of prostatic or endothelial cells induced by prostate antigen (PAg) stimulation.

METHODSWe prepared DP-M&O using SD rats and monocytes and PAgs using BALB/c mice. We pre-treated the monocytes with DP-M&O at the gradient concentrations of 0, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20% for 1 hour, activated them with PAgs, and then cultured them for 96 hours, followed by detection of the release of inflammatory cytokines. We co-cultured the prostate RWPE-1 cells with the endothelial EA. hy926 cells, pre-treated them with the same gradient concentrations of DP-M&O as above for 1 hour, activated with PAgs, and cultured for 96 hours. Then we determined the expression levels of the proteins associated with inflammation of RWPE-1 and EA. hy926 cells by Western blot.

RESULTSDP-M&O decreased the levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6, and IL-8 and increased that of IL-10 in a concentration-dependent manner. Significant differences were found between the 20% P-M&O and PAg groups in the release of the inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha (70.8 +/- 22.3 vs. 277.1 +/- 65.5, P < 0.01) , IL-113 (277.5 +/- 22.6 vs. 630.4 +/- 89.7, P <0.01), IL-6 (232.7 +/- 62.7 vs. 994.2 vs. 182.3, P < 0.01), IL-8 (227.3 +/- 79.2 vs. 769.3 +/- 284.1, P < 0.01), and IL-10 (640.2 +/- 201.2 vs. 271.1 +/- 55.8, P < 0.01). Compared with the PAg group, the 10 and 20% P-M&O groups showed remarkable decreases in the protein expression of MCP-1/CCL2 in the RWPE-1 cells (1.12 +/- 0.34 vs. 0.56 +/- 0.11 and 0.34 +/- 0.08) and that of VCAM-1 in the EA. hy926 cells (0.94 +/- 0.22 vs. 0.52 +/- 0.17 and 0.38 +/- 0.12) (P < 0.05 or 0.01).

CONCLUSIONThe compatibility of musk and olibanum can decrease the expression of MCP-1/CCL2 in prostate cells and VCAM-1 in vascular endothelial cells, blocking the adhesion of leucocytes and suppressing inflammatory response.

Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Cytokines ; metabolism ; Endothelial Cells ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated ; pharmacology ; Frankincense ; pharmacology ; Inflammation ; metabolism ; Interleukin-10 ; metabolism ; Interleukin-1beta ; metabolism ; Interleukin-6 ; metabolism ; Interleukin-8 ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Monocytes ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Prostate ; cytology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; metabolism ; Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 ; metabolism