Lithium(Li) salt is. a kind of effective drug commonly used in the treatment and prevention of mental disorders, but its active mechanism is still not well understood. Getting on for twenty years, many research have been reported on relationship between Li salt and second messenger system, especially the effect of Li salt on adenylate cyclase. Identical result is not obtained and there are few reports on brain calmodulin (CaM) activity change by Li salt. The aim of present expcri- ment is to determine the content of CaM in raet brain by phosphodiesterase (PED) method after chronic application of Li salt and discuss preliminary the molecular mechanism of Li salt action. The result showed that marked change has happened in the content of CaM in rat brain after chronic application of Li salt. It is ins-plied that Li salt brings its action into play probably by changing the content of CaM in rat brain

The annual incidence of prostate cancer (PCa) continually increases. New PCa immune therapy has become the fourth line antitumor treatment following surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. As the most promising research direction in cancer immunotherapy,immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as programmed cell death-1 and programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitors, block PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1 and then terminate the negative control signal to the T cell, thereby facilitating T cell recovery and reversal of tumor immune-escaping mechanism. These processes restore the capability of T cells for immune response and inhibit and kill tumor cells. This review summarizes the progress on the current application of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in PCa clinical trials.

Thyroglobulin antibody (TGA) production in vitro by cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) was measured by ELISA technique. PBMC from patients with AITD could synthesize and secret detectable amount of TGA. The average positive rate of TGA production in vitro was 31.25%. PBMC from the patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) could produce TGA more easily than that from the patients with Graves'disease (GD). The average positive rate was 44.19% in HT and 16.22% in GD. Pokeweed mitogen could increase TGA production, but soluable thyroglobulin could not stimulate TGA synthesis and secretion. Antithyroid drug methi-mazole had some inhibition effect on TGA production in vitro. A significant positive correlation between the serum TGA and the amount of TGA produced in vitro by PBMC from HT patients (r = 0.4, P

Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Teaching ; methods ; Terminology as Topic ; Translations

Mutual promotion, mutual assistance and mutual inhibition are commonly for the compatibility of Chinese herbs, but they are also existed among the acupoints. In the paper, the relevant literature on acupoint, compatibility was collected and the mutual promotion, mutual assistance and mutual inhibition relationships of acupoints were described. The laws of the above mentioned combinations, the theoretic evidences and modern researches were summarized briefly. The mutual promotion and mutual assistance refer to the coordination of acupoints, presenting the relationship of the primary and the secondary about the mutual assistance. Hereby, the acupoints could be divided into the simple assistant acupoints and the acupoints from the affected meridians. The mutual inhibition is used to describe the antagonism effect in acupoint combination. There are more researches on the mutual promotion of acupoint combination but less ones on the mutual inhibition and its mechanism is just hypothetic. It is very important to have the deep study on those compatibility relationships for the improvement of acupuncture efficacy and to elaborate the effect mechanism.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; history ; China ; History, Ancient ; Humans ; Medicine in Literature ; Meridians

Drug Compounding ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Terminology as Topic ; Translations

Objective To study the association among the color Doppler flow pattern, vascular distribution and the lymph nodes metastasis in breast carcinomas. Methods Sixty-eight patients with infiltrating mammary gland duct carcinoma were divided into the no-lymph-nodes-metastasis group (group I , 37 cases) and the lymph-nodes-metastasis group (group Ⅱ , 31 cases), group Ⅱ were subdivided into group Ⅱa (19 cases): lateral lymph nodes positive of pectoralis minor and group Ⅱ b (12 cases): rear of pectoralis minor and subclavian lymph node positive. Blood flow parameters [peak systoltc velocity (PSV),resistent index ( RI)] and vascular Alder grades were observed and measured with color Doppler ultrasound.The results were compared with the incidence of lymph node metastasis. Results PSV and RI were not significantly different between group Ⅰ and group Ⅱ (t = -0.19,-0.63,P＞ 0.05),and also between group Ⅱ a and group Ⅱ b (t =-1.12,-013,P ＞0.05). By using vascular Alder grades,there were no significant differences between group Ⅰ and group Ⅱ (x2= 0.46, P＞ 0.05 ), but the significant differences were observed between group Ⅱ a [10.5%(2/19) ,63.2%( 12/19) ,26.3%(5/19) in Alder Ⅰ , Ⅱ , Ⅲ grade] and group Ⅱ b [8.3%( 1/12), 16.7%(2/12),75.0%(9/12)in Alder Ⅰ , Ⅱ ,Ⅲ grade](x2 = 7.41,P＜0.05). Conclusion The pattern of blood flow has no correlation with lymph nodes metastasis, vascular Alder grades of carcinoma shows some relevance with the lymph nodes metastasis in the patients with infiltrating mammary gland duct carcinoma.

Objective To investigate the identification role of plasma high sensitive Creactive protein (hs-CRP) and lipoprotein (a) (Lp [a]) levels in the diagnosis of patients with acute ischemic stroke according to the TOAST classification. Methods The levels of plasma hsCRP and Lp (a) in 82 acute stroke patients ( ＜24 hours) and 60 healthy controls were detected using immune scatter turbidimetry and immune transmission turbidity, and try to make use of Holter, ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance angiography/CT angiography/dagital subtraction angiography and other tests. Finally, they were classified according to the diagnostic criteria of the TOAST classification of ischemic stroke. Results There were significant differences in plasma hs-CRP and Lp (a) levels between all the subtypes of the acute ischemic sroke group and the control group (all P ＜0. 001). The the level of plasma hsCRP in patients with cardioembolism (CE) was highest. Hs-CRP could be used as a biological marker of CE subtype (odds ratio[OR] = 1. 84,95% confidence interval [CI] 1. 18-2. 85, P ＜ 0. 05). When its concentration was ＞ 3. 48 mg/L, the sensitivity and specificity of predicting CE were 89% and 83% respectively. The plasma level of the AT patients was highest, it could be used as a biological marker of AT subtype (OR = 1. 02, 95% CI 1. 01-1. 03, P＜0. 05); when its concentration was ＞ 183. 5 mg/L, the sensitivity and specificity of predicting AT were 87% and 85% respectively. Conclusions The plasma hs-CRP and Lp (a) levels of patients with acute ischemic stroke may provide some help for timely and accurate etiological typing.

Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Fatty Liver ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Phytotherapy ; methods ; trends

Objective To investigate the risk factors for carotid artery atherosclerosis in young and middle-aged patients with ischemic stroke and the effect of serum lipoprotcin(a) [(Lp (a)] level on young and middle-aged patients with ischemic stroke.Methods Patients with ischemic stroke between the ages of 18 to 55 were enrolled.Carotid artery ultrasonography was used to evaluate the degree of carotid artery atherosclerosis,and the concentrations of serum total cholesterol,triglycerides,high density lipoprotein cholesterol,low density lipoprotein cholesterol,very low density lipoprotein cholesterol,apolipoprotein A1,apolipoprotein B and Lp(a) were detected.According to the results of carotid ultrasound,the patients were divided into groups of without atherosclerosis,plaque without stenosis,and carotid artery stenosis.The demographic and clinical features were compared among the 3 groups.Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the independent risk factors for carotid artery atherosclerosis in young and middle-aged patients with ischemic stroke.Results A total of 106 patients with ischemic stroke (n =50 in the without atherosclerosis group,n =44 in the plaque without stenosis group,n =12 in the carotid artery stenosis group) were enrolled in the study.The constituent ratios of age (45.98 ±7.12,50.07 ±4.79,and 50.92 ± 1.83 years,respectively; F =7.169,P =0.001),hypertension (26.0％,47.7％ and 58.3％,respectively; x2 =6.862,P =0.032),diabetes mellitus (22.0％,45.5％ and 66.7％,respectively; x2 =10.729,P =0.005),hyperlipidemia (24.0％,40.1％ and 75.0％,respectively; x2=11.372,P=0.003) and smoking (34.0％,61.4％ and 75.0％,respectively;x2 =10.93,P=0.006),as well as the serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (1.03 ± 0.26,0.95 ± 0.26 and 0.76 ± 0.08 mmol/L,respectively; F=5.882,P =0.004) and Lp (a) (0.108 ± 0.044,0.155 ± 0.028 and 0.200 ± 0.011 g/L,respectively; F =41.556,P =0.000) levels had significant differences in the 3 groups.Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age ＞ 48 years (plaques without stenosis:odds ratio [OR] 2.89,95％ confidenee interval [CI] 1.20-6.96,P =0.018; carotid artery stenosis:OR 4.43,95％ CI 1.19-16.57,P =0.027),hypertension (plaque without stenosis:OR 2.60,95 ％ CI 1.09-6.18,P =0.031; carotid artery stenosis:OR 3.99,95％ CI 1.08-14.77,P =0.039),diabetes (plaque without stenosis:OR 2.96,95％ CI 1.21-7.23,P=0.018; carotid artery stenosis:OR 7.09,95％ CI 1.79-28.02,P =0.005),hyperlipidemia (plaque without stenosis:OR 2.19,95％ CI 0.91-5.31,P =0.082; carotid artery stenosis:OR 9.50,95％ CI 2.21-40.86,P =0.002),smoking (plaque without stenosis:OR 3.08,95％ CI 1.33-7.16,P =0.009; carotid artery stenosis:OR 5.82,95％ CI 1.39-24.38,P =0.016),and Lp (a) (plaque without stenosis:OR 4.38,95％ CI 1.76-10.90,P=0.001; carotid artery stenosis:OR 12.80,95％ CI 2.73-52.67,P =0.001) were the independent risk factors for carotid artery atherosclerosis in young and middle-aged patients with ischemic stroke.Conclusions Age,smoking hypertension,diabetes and Lp(a) were the independent risk factors for carotid artery atherosclerosis in young and middle-aged patients with ischemic stroke.