BACKGROUND: Treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) with herbs-partition moxibustion is of good intervenient effect, whether the effect is related to neutrophil apoptosis in the pathogenic process of UC?OBJECTIVE: To investigate the changes of neutrophil appptosis rate of rats with UC and the regulative effect of medicinal cake moxibustion. DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial based on SD rats.SETTING: Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian.MATERIALS: The experiment was completed from August 2002 to June 2003. A total of 30 healthy male SD rats of clean grade, weighing (140±20) g,provided by Experimental Animal Center of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, were at random divided into 2 groups: model building group (n=20) and normal control group (n=10).METHODS: Rat UC models were set up with immunological method. After the models were successively set up, four model rats and two normal rats were randomly selected for pathological observation of distal colon tissue. The rest models were divided as model group and herbs-partition moxibustion group with 8 rats for each, and the rest 8 normal rats were taken as control group. The rats of herbs-partition moxibustion group were given herbs-partition moxibustion at tian shu (ST-25) of both sides and qi hai (CV-6) points; the herbs cones was made from Radix Aeoniti Praeparata,Cortex Cinnamoni, and so on. About 90 mg moxa cone was put on the herbs cones for moxibustion, once a day, for 10 times. After treatment, all rats of the three group were executed, then the peripheral monocytes were isolated for cell culture. A 1:50 diluted supernatants of each group were taken, and the same volume of RPMI-1640 culture fluid was used as blank control group. They were respectively incubated together with neutrophils of peripheral blood of normal rats. The neutrophil apoptosis rates were measured by using flow cytometry.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Comparison of neutrophil apoptosis rates of rats in each group.RESULTS: Totally 20 rats in model group and 10 in normal control group were accepted. Then 4 rats in model group and 2 in normal group were sacrificed and observed with tissue pathology, and 16 and 8 rats entered the final analysis in model and normal control groups respectivelly. ① The neutrophil apoptosis rate of UC rats was significantly lower that that of rats in blank control group [(16.34±2.80) ％, (52.33±9.94) ％, q= -35.99, P＜ 0.01]; but there was no significant diffenence between normal control group [(48.79±11.33) ％] and blank control group, (P＞0.05). ② After treatment the neutrophil apoptosis rate of herbs-partition moxibustion group [(36.03±8.31) ％] was significantly higher than that of UC model group (q=19.69, P ＜ 0.01), but it was still lower than that of normal control group (q= -16.30, P ＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION: One of the main mechanism for herbs-partition moxibustion to treat UC might be regulating and/or reducing the inhibited state of neutrophil apoptosis in UC.

With the acceleration of aging process and the increase of average life in China, the number of disabled elderly in China is also growing rapidly, which undoubtedly brings a heavy care burden and pressure to families and society.Facing the great challenges brought by aging, the increasing evidences show that only by reducing the incidence of disease and disability from the source, improving the health level of the elderly, prolonging their healthy life and realizing healthy aging, we can fundamentally alleviate the great pressure brought by the aging society.The concept of motor function maintenance and health promotion of the elderly has become an important link and breakthrough to realize healthy aging and active health.Facing the requirements of active health medicine and the development trend of science and technology in the future, it is imperative to deeply study the motion characteristics and function maintenance of the elderly, and promote the development of sports medicine with innovative technologies such as internet, big data and artificial intelligence.In the future, we will continue to improve the assessment and maintenance system for motor function of the elderly, develop and optimize functional maintenance products that meet the exercise needs of the elderly, and actively build an elderly-friendly sports environment support system, thereby promoting the healthy China strategy and realize healthy aging to the greatest extent.

Cognitive impairment is a progressive disorder, it is important to early detect the risk and identify the disease to control its progression and reduce the burden of society. In recent years, the rapidly developing digital biomarkers of cognitive impairment have been used to compensate for the shortcomings of traditional cognitive assessment. This article reviews the research progress of digital biomarkers in the early identification of cognitive impairment for the elderly and to provide reference for improving diagnosis and treatment of this disorder.

Arginine kinase (AK) is a key enzyme in energy metabolism of invertebrates and plays an important regulatory role in the life activities such as growth and development, nutrition utilization, immune resistance and stress response. Arginine kinase of Bombyx mori (BmAK) is related to the energy balance and anti-NPV process, but there is little research on its molecular structure and enzymatic properties. We cloned the ORF sequence of BmAK gene, and analyzed chromosomal localization, genomic structure, mRNA structure, secondary and tertiary structure. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that AK was highly conserved in evolution. Soluble recombinant BmAK was obtained by prokaryotic expression, and purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The circular dichroism spectroscopy showed that BmAK contained α-helix structures, and its α-helix structures were relatively stable in the pH range between 5 and 10. Enzyme activity analysis showed that the optimum temperature of BmAK was 30 ℃ and the optimum pH of BmAK was 7.5. The optimal temperature of BmAK was 25 ℃. Between 15 ℃ and 30 ℃, the structure and activity of BmAK was relatively stable. The structure of BmAK was relatively stable at pH 7.0. Our findings reveal the structure and function of BmAK to develop novel green safe and environmentally friendly insecticides.

Protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP, EC 3.1.3.48) specifically catalyzes the removal of phosphate groups from phosphorylated tyrosine residues, resulting in protein dephosphorylation, thus regulates life activities such as cell growth, proliferation, differentiation and immunization. Protein tyrosine phosphatase h of Bombyx mori (BmPTP-h) is involved in the replication of nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) in Bombyx mori, but the structure and properties of BmPTP-h are little known so far. In this study, the coding sequence of BmPTP-h gene was cloned from the midgut of Bombyx mori, and its genomic structure, mRNA structure, sequence signature, secondary structure and the state in solution were analyzed. Homologous amino acid sequences alignment analysis indicated that BmPTP-h had a high similarity to PTP sequences of numbers of insect NPVs, implying that they may have a common ancestor and similar function. We constructed a prokaryotic expression vector, expressed and obtained the soluble recombinant BmPTP-h in Escherichia coli at 25 ℃, and purified BmPTP-h using Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. Gel filtration analysis showed that BmPTP-h was able to form aggregate and monomer in solution. Circular dichroism spectroscopy analysis showed that the recombinant BmPTP-h contained α-helix structure. Increasing temperature resulted in the unfolding of the α-helix structure of BmPTP-h and the decrease of the α-helix structure content of BmPTP-h. These studies provide a basis to better study the structure and regulation mechanism of BmPTP-h.

Basic helix loop helix (bHLH) transcription factor plays an important role in biological processes. Bmsage is a class of bHLH transcription factor highly expressed in the silk gland of Bombyx mori, which is not only involved in the developmental regulation of the silk gland cells at the embryonic period, but also plays a crucial regulatory role during the synthesis of silk protein. However, currently, much of the property and structure of Bmsage is still remained unknown. To study the property, structure and biological role of Bmsage, we constructed several prokaryotic expression vectors of Bmsage fused with NusA, MBP, SUMO, Trx and His tags, respectively, then screened and determined the best soluble expression vector and condition of Bmsage in Escherichia coli combining with the induction temperature and IPTG concentration, and further purified the recombinant Bmsage by Ni-column affinity chromatography according to the established expression condition and characterized its secondary structure using circular dichroism spectra. The results showed that NusA and MBP could significantly enhance the soluble expression of Bmsage in E. coli, but it was difficult to separate Bmsage from these tags. SUMO could not only increase the soluble expression of Bmsage in E. coli to a certain degree, but also be effectively separated from Bmsage. Other tags did not effectively promote the soluble expression of Bmsage in E. coli. Circular dichroism spectra showed that the purified Bmsage had well-defined α-helix structure in solution, indicating that SUMO may promote the correct folding of Bmsage into native-like structure. These work not only establish a foundation for further study of the property, structure and function of Bmsage, but also provide a reference for the expression and purification of other similar proteins.

[摘 要] 目的：体内外实验探讨木鳖子单体化合物对羟基桂皮醛[Momordica cochinchinensis(Lour.)Spreng.p-hydroxycinnamaldehyde，CMSP]对小鼠黑色素瘤移植瘤生长和转移的影响及其作用机制。方法：建立荷瘤小鼠动物模型，并将18只C57BL/6小鼠随机分成3组（每组6只）：对照组（腹腔注射0.1 ml生理盐水）、CMSP治疗组（分别腹腔注射0.1 ml 1、2 mg/ml CMSP），给药的第5天开始，每次给药前用卡尺分别测量和计算小鼠移植瘤的体积，实验结束后称量移植瘤的质量；H-E染色后光镜观察肝组织的病理学变化；免疫组织化学SP法观察移植瘤组织E-cadherin和vimentin蛋白的表达。采用细胞划痕和Transwell实验分别检测CMSP实验组（10、20 µg/ml）黑色素瘤B16细胞24、48 h的迁移能力，qPCR法检测CMSP处理24 h后B16细胞EMT相关mRNA表达，WB法检测CMSP处理B16细胞48 h后β-catenin、p-β-catenin（Ser675）、vimentin和E-cadherin蛋白的表达水平。结果：CMSP治疗组小鼠移植瘤平均体积和肿瘤质量明显降低（均P<0.05）；对照组小鼠肝脏中转移灶的数量明显多于CMSP（1、2 mg/kg）治疗组（均P<0.05），CMSP（2 mg/kg）处理组小鼠的肝组织内未发现明显转移灶。CMSP治疗组（1、2 mg/kg）移植瘤组织中E-cadherin蛋白表达水平明显高于对照组（均P<0.05），而vimentin蛋白表达显著低于对照组（均P<0.01）。体外实验中，CMSP实验组（10、20 μg/ml）B16细胞24、48 h后划痕愈合率较对照组均明显降低（均P<0.05）。20 μg/ml CMSP处理B16细胞24、48 h后穿过Transwell小室的细胞数较对照组则显著下降（均P<0.01）。CMSP（10、20 μg/ml）处理B16细胞后β-catenin mRNA表达水平较对照组明显降低（均P<0.01），E-cadherin mRNA表达水平则明显升高（均P<0.05），而vimentin mRNA表达水平在10 μg/ml处理组与对照组相比差异无统计学意义（P>0.05），20 μg/ml处理组则明显降低（P<0.01）。与对照组相比，CMSP实验组（10、20 μg/ml）处理B16细胞后β-catenin、p-β-catenin和vimentin蛋白表达均显著降低（均P<0.01），而E-cadherin蛋白表达则明显升高（均P<0.01）。结论：CMSP能够抑制小鼠黑色素瘤移植瘤的生长和转移，其作用机制可能与抑制wnt/β-catenin通路的活性相关。