Acetyl-CoA C-acetyltransferase (AACT) is the first enzyme in the terpene synthesis pathway, catalyzed two units of acetyl-CoA to acetoacetyl-CoA. In order to study the tanshinone biosynthesis in Salvia miltiorrhiza, a novel AACT gene, SmAACT, was cloned using cDNA microarray and RACE strategy. The full length cDNA of SmAACT is 1 623 bp (accession No. EF635969), which contained a 1 200 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 399 amino acid protein. Nine introns were found in the genomic sequence. SmAACT was upregulated by YE and Ag+ elicitors both with cDNA microarray and quantitative RT-PCR analyses along with the accumulation of tanshinones. Sequence homology comparison and phylogenetic analysis all suggested that SmAACT belonged to the class of acetyl-CoA C-acetyltransferase. The transcription level of SmAACT was relatively higher in root than that in stem and leaf tissues. SNP analysis revealed that SmAACT was highly variable in the region of 6 to 9 introns with 33 SNPs in the 600 bp region, there are 5 SNPs in the cDNA region while they are all synonymous cSNPs. Some special genotypes were found in Salvia miltiorrhiza from different areas. SmAACT will be an useful gene for further analyze the mechanism of gene regulation among the tanshinones biosynthesis.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the changes of volt-ampere characteristics of Yuan-Primary acupoints in women before, during and after menstruation, and to find out the relationships between Qi-blood in human body and volt-ampere characteristics of acupoints, so as to develop a new method for quantitative analysis on changes of Qi-blood. METHODS: A high-sensitive detection system of volt-ampere characteristics of acupoint was applied to detecting the volt-ampere characteristics of Taiyuan (LU 9), Daling (PC 7) and Shenmen (HT 7) in healthy women before, during and after menstruation. RESULTS: The resistances on LU 9, PC 7 and HT 7 with some certain scan currents were quite different among the women before, during and after menstruation. For such changes, PC 7 was of the most obvious change, LU 9 was of the less and HT 7 was of the least. The total ratio of the scanning spots with significantly increasing changes of resistances on these three acupoints along with the menstrual process was 70.6%. CONCLUSION: The volt-ampere characteristics of acupoints vary with the menstrual process, which is of the acupoint specificity. The resistances on the acupoints increase with the menstrual process, and such results may be due to the blood loss during menstruation. The volt-ampere characteristics can be used as a quantitative index to study on the change of Qi and blood.

For thousands of years, moxibustion has been used for various diseases in China and other Asian countries. Despite the recent surge in Chinese herbal studies, few randomized controlled trials have been conducted on this modality, possibly due to the lacking of suitable double blinding methodology. This is a review of extant sham moxa devices and an introduction to a recently developed device that needs further validation.

Background and purpose:The prognosis of high grade gliomas remains poor, and multidisciplinary treatment strategy has been much investigated recently. This study was to explore the efficacy of Temozolomide as first-line treatment combined with radiotherapy and followed by adjuvant chemotherapy for the treatment of newly diagnosed high grade gliomas. Methods:18 patients who had been pathologically proven to be high grade gliomas were enrolled into the study. The patients received 40 Gy/20fractions for the whole brain and followed by 20Gy/10fractions as a boost to tumor bed. All of the patients were given daily oral temozolomide 75mg/ m2 during radiotherapy. 4 weeks after radiotherapy, all of the patients received 6 cycles of Temozolomide, each cycle lasted 5 days with 28 days interval between each cycles. 150 mg/m2 of temozolomide was given for the first cycle for five days,followd by 200 mg/m2 of drug for the rest of the cycles if no significant drug related toxicities were observed. Results:Median follow-up was 12.5 months, 11 cases had either recurrence or progression, 5 of them died from the disease. The median time for disease progression-free survival was 9.8 months (95% CI, 6.1~9.8months), the median time for overall survival was 14 months (95% CI, 8.5 ~ 19.5months), 1-year overall survival rate was 55.6% ,6-month progression-free survival rate was 81.8%. there were no severe temozolomide related toxicities. Conclusion: Concurrent temozolomide with radiotherapy and followed by 6 cycles of temozolomide in the treatment of high grade gliomas had better clinical efficacy, the patients tolerated the strategy well and no severe toxicities were observed.

China ; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ; Escherichia coli O157 ; classification ; genetics ; Genes, Bacterial ; Humans ; Molecular Typing ; Virulence

TheMeridian and Acupoint Science is a basic course in the major of acupuncture-moxibustion and tuina. We applied target-guided teaching method in teaching this course to evoke student's interest in studyingMeridian and Acupoint Science through initiative guidance, and boost student's initiative and enthusiasm by exhibiting the teaching targets. During the practice, we emphasized the specification of each unit target, around which we adopted various methods; meanwhile, we also focused on prompt evaluation, based on which necessary adjustments would be made to approach the targets. Teachers should act as guider, maintainer and promoter in class, rather than transmitter, to help students to study positively rather than passively listen. Via this kind of teaching reform, students not only obtained knowledge, but also enhanced their capability and feelings.

BACKGROUND: Chitosan wound dressing has been extensively used in the treatment of wounds and burns, not only because of its bacteriastasis, hemostasis and promoting the wound healing, but also its good biocompatibility,biodegradability and biological functions.OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of chitosan wound dressing for deep second-degree burn, thereby providing clinical basis for its registration.METHODS: Sixty patients with deep second-degree burn were randomly allotted to two groups, and then subjected to the external application of chitosan wound dressing (experimental group) or chitosan biomedical dressing (control group),respectively. Then, the therapeutic efficacy was evaluated through healing time, recovering rate and pain scores, and the safety was evaluated through the incidence of adverse reactions and laboratory indexes before and after treatment.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: There were no significant differences in the wound healing time [(21.23±6.84) days vs.(23.77±4.26) days], recovery rate and pain scores between the experimental and control groups at 14, 21 and 28 days after treatment (P > 0.05). The blood routine, liver function and kidney function indexes before and after treatment did not differ significantly between groups. Additionally, neither adverse nor severe adverse events occurred in the two groups.These results indicate that the therapeutic efficacy and safety of the chitosan wound dressing are equivalent to the control product in the treatment of deep second-degree burn.

To study the effects of three different laser treatments (650 nm alone, 10.6 μm alone and combined laser of 650 nm and 10.6 μm) on experimental osteoarthritis of the knees in C57 black mice.

Objective To evaluate different detection methods in the diagnosis of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), and find the most quick and accurate one for the identification of new bunyavirus infection. Methods Real-time PCR and ELISA-IgM were used to detect serum samples of 158 patients with acute phase of SFTS, which were collected from the special monitoring system of SFTS in Henan Province in 2014. IgM and IgG antibodies were detected by ELISA in 109 acute and convalescent paired serum specimens. The differences of the positive rates were compared between the three methods, and the influence of the collected interval time on the detection results was analyzed. Results For 158 acute phase serum samples of SFTS patients, the positive rate detected by real-time PCR (76.58%) was higher than that of ELISA-IgM (47.47%), and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=34.13, P < 0.05). For 109 cases with acute and convalescent paired serum samples, there was no significant difference in the positive rates between ELISA-IgG ( 75.23%) and real-time PCR (72.48%) detections (χ2=0.18, P>0.05). In both the acute phase and convalescent phase, the positive rate of IgM was higher than that of IgG, and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=41.68 and 6.25, P<0.05). With the extension of collected interral time, the positive rates of IgM and IgG antibodies were both increased ( Z=6.42 and 10.08, P < 0.05). Conclusion Real-time PCR is the most sensitive method for the early diagnosis of the SFTS. ELISA-IgG is suitable for the detection of SFTS at recovery period. ELISA-IgM can be used as an assistant method to guide clinical diagnosis.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of 650 nm-10.6 μm combined laser in patients with knee Osteoarthritis (OA) and to determine whether the combined laser provides greater pain relief and improved function compared with red light. Methods: Forty-eight patients with knee OA were randomly allocated to two groups (24 per group), receiving 20 rain irradiation with 650 nm -10.6 μm combined laser or red light emitting diode respectively on point Dubi (ST 35) 3 times a week for the first course (2 weeks) and twice a week for the second one (4 weeks). The main outcome measures were WOMAC (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index) scores. In addition, patients' global assessment, adverse effects and validation of patient blinding were analyzed. Results: All the patients completed the first course, but 12 were lost during the second one. Due to the high dropout rate by the second course, only the data acquired from the first course could be analyzed. No differences of general data of patients and WOMAC scores were found in between-group comparison before treatment (P>0.05). The WOMAC scores of patients in both combined laser group and red light group reduced significantly compared to baseline by the end of the first course (P<0.01). There were no significant differences on the reduction rate of WOMAC scores between two groups (P>0.05). Neither the patients' global assessment nor the dropout rate showed statistical differences between two groups (P>0.05). There was no difference between two groups in patients correctly guessing the treatment assignment (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in the reduction rate of WOMAC scores and the patients' global assessment between patients who guessed their assignment (P>0.05). Conclusion: Both combined laser and red light irradiation are beneficial to patients with knee OA. But as the statistical indifferences between two groups, the authors can't conclude from this study whether the combined laser is more effective.