Objective To explore the effects of treating schizophrenia due to stagnation of phlegm and qi with Shugan-qingzhang formula. Methods 85 patients with schizophrenia were randomly recruited into a control group and a treatment group. The treatment group was treated with Shugan-qingzhang formula, and the control group was treated with oral risperidone. Clinical effects of both groups were evaluated by positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) and symptom rating scale. Adverse drug reaction was evaluated by treatment emergent symptom scale (TESS). Results Score of PANSS was significantly changed after the treatment in both groups (F treatment group=4.86, t'treatment group= 17.88, v'treatment group=59, P treatment group＜0.01; F control group=4.27, t' control group=18.76, v' control group=59, P control group＜0.01); scores of PANSS in the treatment group were significantly better than the control group at the second and forth weak (F 2weeks= 1.02, t 2weeks=2.50, P 2weeks＜0.05; F 4weeks= 1.04, t 4weeks=3.55, P 4 weeks＜0.01), while no significant difference at the sixth week between the two groups (F=0.92, t=0.91, P＞0.05); There was no statistical difference of PANSS score between the two groups in terms of western medicine curative effects (x2=0.05, P＞0.05), but significant difference in terms of TCM curative effects (x2=36.26, P＜0.01); There was also statistic difference of adverse drug reaction between the two groups (x2= 8.17, P＜0.01). Conclusion Shugan-qingzhang formula can control symptoms of schizophrenia due to stagnation of phlegm and qi in a certain period.

Sphingolipids, especially ceramide and S1P, are structural components of biological membranes and bioactive molecules which participate in diverse cellular activities such as cell division, differentiation, gene expression and apoptosis. Emerging evidence demonstrates the role of sphingolipids in hepatocellular death, which contributes to the progression of several liver diseases including ischaemia-reperfusion liver injury, steatohepatitis or hepatocarcinogenesis. Furthermore, some data indicate that the accumulation of some sphingolipids contributes to the hepatic dysfunctions. Hence, understanding of sphingolipid may open up a novel therapeutic avenue to liver diseases. This review focuses on the progress in the sphingolipid metabolic pathway with a focus on hepatic diseases and drugs targeting the sphingolipid pathway.

Danshen is one of the traditional Chinese herbal medicines and nas a long history or being used clinically in the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions such as coronary heart disease and angina pectoris. Tanshinone IIA is a derivative of phenanthrene-quinone isolated from Danshen. It has been reported to be the major bioactive compound of Danshen and has diverse biological effects. Recent studies demonstrated that tanshinone IIA had neuroprotective effects on experimental ischemic stroke through its antiinflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-apoptosis effects and its inhibitory effect on excitatory amino acid toxicity. In this review, we summarized all the recent progresses on the protective effect of tanshinone IIA on cerebral ischemic stroke. Hopefully, this article will throw some light on further study and application of tanshinone IIA.

Neurodegenerative disease is characterized by progressive loss of neurons in specific brain regions that results in neuronal dysfunction of the central nervous system. Although the pathological mechanism is not fully established, the activation of glial cells mediated neuroinflammation appears to be involved. Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) is originally described as intracellular chaperone, which plays an important role in protein quality control in cells. However, recent study showed that up-regulation of HSP70 had anti-inflammatory effects in the brain. HSP70 protected neurons from damage and improved neurological function by decreasing inflammatory response as indicated by inactivation of glial cells and inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokine release. So it is of great significance to find new compounds targeting at HSP70 as neuroprotective agents to delay the progress of neurodegenerative disease. This review will focus on the role of HSP70 in neuroinflammation and the recent advances in using HSP70 as a target for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease.

The aim of this study is to investigate the protective effect of N-[2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethyl]-2-(2, 5-dimethoxyphenyl)-3-(3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl)acrylamide (FLZ), a novel synthetic squamosamide cyclic derivative, against Parkinson's disease (PD) model mice induced by the inflammatory bacterial endotoxin, lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and the neurotoxin 1-methy-4-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). C57/BL mice were ip injected LPS (5 mg x kg(-1)) once. One week following the LPS injection, mice received a subcutaneous injection of MPTP (25 mg x kg(-1)) once daily for 2 days. Eight weeks later, FLZ (25, 50 and 75 mg x kg(-1)) was orally administered to mice once daily for 60 days. The motor ability of the mice was evaluated by rod climbing test and footprint test. The dopamine (DA) levels in mouse striatum were determined by high performance liquid chromatography system. The tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive cells were showed by immunohistochemical analysis. FLZ treatment significantly improved motor dysfunction of mice challenged by LPS plus MPTP. The increase of TH-positive cell numbers and elevation of DA levels may be contributed to the beneficial effects of FLZ on motor behavior. This study showed FLZ has significant therapeutic effect on LPS plus MPTP induced chronic PD model, which indicates its potential as a new candidate drug to treat PD.

Aim To investigate the anti-neuroinflam-matory activities of dehydromiltirone and the underlying mechanisms in LPS-stimulated microglial cell line BV2 cells. Methods BV2 cells were pre-treated with de-hydromiltirone, then stimulated by LPS. The levels of nitric oxide( NO) were measured by Griess assay, and the concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines were measured by ELISA assay. Confocal fluorescence mi-croscopy was used to measure the expression of MAC-1, the biomarker of activated BV2 cells. The levels of-inducible nitric oxide synthase ( iNOS ) , cyclooxygen-ase-2 ( COX-2 ) , NF-κB and PI3 K/Akt were deter-mined by Western blot analysis. Results The treat-ment of dehydromiltirone significantly inhibited the pro-duction of NO, TNF-α and IL-6, attenuated the ex-pression of iNOS and COX-2 protein, and dampened the microglial activation in LPS-stimulated BV2 cells. The mechanistic study revealed that dehydromiltirone inhibited the phosphorylation of PI3 K and Akt in LPS-stimulated BV2 cells, and decreased NF-κB activation by suppressing the degradation of IκB. Conclusion dehydromiltirone shows significant anti-neuroinflamma-tory effects through inhibiting PI3 K/Akt phosphoryla-tion and then inhibiting NF-κB signaling pathway.

Objective:To evaluate the medical service quality of psychiatric hospitals in Beijing based on diagnostic related group (DRG), analyze the evaluation effect, for refences to constructe a DRG performance evaluation system suitable for psychiatric hospitals.Methods:This study extracted data such as the number of DRG groups, etc. of hospitalized patients in 14 tertiary and secondary psychiatric hospitals in Beijing from 2018 to 2020 from the Beijing inpatient medical performance evaluation platform, and analyzed data on DRG performance evaluation indicators, as well as the average length of hospital stay and average cost of DRG enrolled cases. All data were analyzed using descriptive research methods, and inter group comparisons were conducted using the Mann Whitney U-test. Results:From 2018 to 2020, the average number of DRG groups in tertiary hospitals (28) was higher than that in secondary hospitals (10) ( P<0.05), and the average CMI values of both were the same(1.79); The average cost consumption index (1.15) of tertiary hospitals was higher than that of secondary hospitals (0.65) ( P<0.05), while the average time consumption index (1.11) was slightly lower than that of secondary hospitals (1.30); The mortality rate of the low-risk group in tertiary hospitals (0.01%) was generally lower than that in secondary hospitals (0.88%), and the average percentage of DRG admitted inpatients (82.8%) was significantly higher than that in secondary hospitals (27.3%) ( P>0.05). The average length of stay and cost per case for DRG enrolled inpatients in tertiary and secondary hospitals were lower than the overall hospital discharge cases ( P<0.05). Conclusions:The number of DRG groups, CMI value, and low-risk mortality rate could be used for evaluating the medical service capacity and safety of psychiatric hospitals, but the cost and time consumption index could not objectively reflect the efficiency of hospital medical services. DRG performance evaluation indicators are more suitable for evaluating short-term hospitalization of psychiatric patients. The proportion of DRG enrolled cases might be a potential indicator for evaluating the service quality of psychiatric hospitals.

To establish an animal model of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) that would replicate the pathological process of ACLF in humans, rats were administered porcine serum (PS) for 11 weeks. Liver fibrosis was determined by pathological and biochemical assessments. The animals then were injected with d-galactosamine (d-gal) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The survival times of animals with cirrhosis and ACLF were determined over 48 h. Other animals were killed at 0, 4, 8 and 12 h after administration of d-gal/LPS. Liver injury was assessed by histopathological analysis and biochemical indices, and apoptosis was detected by Western blot and TUNEL analysis. After PS administration for 11 weeks the serum levels of hyaluronic acid and N-procollagen type III peptide increased significantly, and serious fibrosis and cirrhosis was observed at weeks 10 and 11. Cirrhotic rats were injected with d-gal/LPS to induced ACLF; the rate of mortality over 48 h was 80%. ALT and AST levels increased markedly at 4 h, but decreased significantly at 8 and 12 h post-treatment. The total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, and total bile acids levels increased markedly at 8 and 12 h. Clotting times, TNF-and IL-6 levels increased significantly, except for 12 h post-treatment. Apoptosis, inflammation and necrosis were elevated as determined by hematoxylin-eosin staining and TUNEL assays. BCL-2 levels decreased significantly, While BAX levels increased significantly. Cytochromeexpression peaked at 8 h post-d-gal/LPS treatment. In conclusion, an ACLF model induced by PS and d-gal/LPS was established and the underlying mechanisms of ACLF development were explored.