The aim of synthetic biology is to design artificial life systems. Such system is hoped to create a better production process with desired ability for bioproduction, biotransformation, adaption and environmental monitoring. However, to design a life system involves understanding the cellular regulation networks at multiple levels, in which the controls of protein level, subcelluar location, and activity are especially critical. Thus tuning protein expression has become essential tools in synthetic biology studies, such as part design, module assembly and compatibility optimization. Protein budget, just like budget for a factory, can be thought as the cost estimating criteria for an artificial cell factory. Protein budget control has provided a powerful optimization strategy for synthetic biology.
Artificial Cells ; metabolism ; Metabolic Engineering ; Metabolic Networks and Pathways ; genetics ; Protein Engineering ; Proteins ; economics ; metabolism ; Recombinant Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Synthetic Biology ; economics

Objective: To study 24-hour blood pressure variability (BPV) in essential hypertensives(EH) and to observe the effects of enalapril on BPV in the patients. Methods: BPV were evaluated in 132 EH patients (EH Ⅰ-Ⅱ group 90, EH Ⅲ group 42) using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and compared with 60 normal controls.45 EH Ⅰ-Ⅱ patients were treated with enalapril for 4 weeks by randomized single-blind study.The BPV were measured before and after treatment. Results: The SBPV and MAPV during 24-hour period, daytime or nighttime were significantly higher both EH Ⅰ-Ⅱ and EH Ⅲ than control group ( P 0.05).Conclusion:There was a significant increase in BPV(especially in SBPV) and in particular EH Ⅲ group than control group There was no effect in BPV with EH Ⅰ-Ⅱ group by enalapril treatment for 4 weeks.

BACKGROUND:Titanium materials have high mechanical strength, stable physical properties, good biocompatibility, and excelent corrosion resistance, which can be safely used in humans. OBJECTIVE:To compare the safety of mesh-like titanium aloy steel plateversus wire mesh in the repair of chest wal defects. METHODS:Eighteen patients with chest wal defects, 11 males and 7 females, with an age range of 19-65 years, were enroled. The 9 of 18 patients were subjected to repair with mesh-like titanium aloy steel plate, and the other 9 patients underwent wire mesh repair. At 1 week after repair, visual analog scale scores were measured in the two groups, and patient’s satisfaction on the thoracic appearance and incidence of complications were surveyed during the folow-up. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Al patients were folowed up for 1-7 years. During the folow-up, X-ray review displayed good thoracic stability and no fracture of titanium plate and wire mesh. Patients recovered wel from respiratory dysfunction, with unapparent chest wal deformity and high satisfaction rate of the thoracic appearance. Moreover, compared with the wire mesh group, the satisfaction rate of the thoracic appearance was significantly higher (P< 0.05), but the incidence of complications was significantly lower in the titanium plate group (P < 0.05). At 1 week after repair, the visual analog scale scores had no difference between the two groups (P> 0.05). These findings indicate that the mesh-like titanium plate has good biocompatibility and safety to effectively maintain the stability of the chest wal.

As an advanced quantitative technology for cells, flow cytometry, which can make multi-paramter quantitative analysis and sorting of individual cells or biological particles, has been widely used in immunology, oncology, hematology and other fields of medical research and clinical diagnosis in recent years.It can quantitatively detect the expression levels of cytokines and the distribution characteristics of cell subsets in the intraocular fluid.Compared with traditional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, cell morphology and immunohistochemistry, it has the advantages of simple operation, smaller sample size, higher sensitivity and higher throughput.Flow cytometry has been widely used in the detection and subgroup analysis of cytokines related to eye diseases, such as intraocular angiogenesis, intraocular lymphoma, retinopathy, cataract, uveitis, sarcoidotic uveitis, infectious intraocular inflammation, etc.Flow cytometry plays an increasingly important role in the pathogenesis research and targeted therapy of eye diseases.In this article, the application of flow cytometry in the examination of cytokines and cytology in ocular fluid for ocular diseases were reviewed.

BACKGROUND: Focal ischemic model made by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) is much similar to the process of onset in human cere bral infarction, whereas in the process of modeling some problems such as selection of nylon strand with improper diameter and inserted depth would result in modeling failure. OBJECTIVE: To improve MCAO model of focal cerebral infarction. DESIGN: Single-factor design, animal experiment. SETTING: Department of Pediatrics, Affiliated Maternal and Children's Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College. MATERIALS: The experiment was conducted in the Experimental Center of Guangdong Province from January. 2002 to March 2004. A total of 24 healthy Wistar rats were randomly divided into sham-operation group and model group with 10 rats in each group.METHODS: In rats of the model group, the common carotid artery (CCA) and external carotid artery (ECA) were isolated and ligated. A strand was inserted via the incision on CCA near the furcation between CCA and ECA as deep as possible with the depth of (2.0±0.2) mm. The diameter of nylon strand was 0.2 mm, the top of nylon strand was treated by melting paraffin. The interrupted time of blood circulation was 3 hours. Rats in the sham-operation group were treated by slightly drawing back the nylon strand to the CCA immediately after inserting.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ①Neurobehavioral rating: It was conducted at 3 and 12 hours after ischemia with the score ranged 0-4 points.The higher the score was, the severer the neural functional deficit was, 1-3 points signified successful modeling. ②Area of cerebral infarction: Rats wereexecuted at 12 hours after ischemia. Then, brains were quickly removed and stained with tetrazolium chloride (TTC). The percentage of cerebral infarction area was calculated. ③Observation on pathological changes under light microscope.RESULTS: All of 20 rats entered the final analysis.①Eight out of 10 rats in the model group represented contra lateral tumble or draw outward circles, positive Homer's syndrome can be seen in the ligated side (3 points);One rat was disable to completely extend the claws in the contra lateral side of ligation (1 point), one rat had no neural symptoms.②Some pathological changes can be seen in the model group such as swelled cerebral tissues in the ligated side, which were bigger than the contra lateral side and were in pale; The cortex, basal ganglia and thalamus in the ligated side after TTC staining were in pale, whereas the cerebral tissues in the sham-operation group were in red with clear border.③There was no infarct in the sham-operation group, and the percentage of cerebral infarction area in the model group was (22.40±4.52)%, the infarct area of rats in groups were fundamentally same.CONCLUSION: It is necessary to adapt the strand with appropriate diameter, inserted depth and interrupting time for successful modeling.

Objective To investigate the effects of rutaecarpine on the cerebral injury and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) level during focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats. Methods Rats were intravenously given three doses of rutaecarpine (50, 100 and 300?g/kg) or vehicle 30 minutes before experiment. Then the rats subjected middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2 hours, and neurological deficits scores were performed at 6, 12 and 24 hours after reperfusion. After the last test the animals were sacrificed, the infarct volumes were determined by TTC staining, and CGRP levels were measured by radioimmuoassay. Results Rutaecarpine significantly reduced infarct volume, and improved cerebral function in dose-dependent manner compared with vehicle. Rutaecarpine significantly inecreased brain CGRP levels after reperfusion as well. Conclusion Rutaecarpine has marked protective effects on ischemic brain damage in rats possibly by increasing CGRP release in the brain.

Objective:To observe the reliability and clinical implement of flexible ureteroscope combined with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy to treat the kidney stones with a diameter of more than 2cm. Methods:The diagnosed 80 cases of kidney stones (all with a diameter of more than 2cm) patients in our hospital were chosen, randomly divided into two groups, URL group and PCNL group,each of them with 40 cases. Surgical curative effect, operation time, postoperative complications, hospitalization days and the change of NGAL levels and the change of urine levels Kim-1 preoperative and postoperative blood 3 days of two groups were observed and compared. Results: Comparing with the PCNL group, the surgical curative effect, operation time and postoperative complications of the URL group have no significant difference, but the hospitalization days between are significantly different(t=8.433, P<0.05);In terms of NGAL, Kim-1, the postoperative 1d of PCNL group is significantly higher than preoperative, NGAL postoperative 1d of URL group is significantly higher than preoperative (t=3.319, P<0.05). Conclusion:It was reliable that flexible ureteroscope combined with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy to treat the kidney stones with a diameter of more than 2cm, lower complication rate, worthy of clinical.

Objective: To observe the effect of acupuncture on serum peptide YY (PYY) and nesfatin-1 in obese patients with insulin resistance. Methods: Ninety-eight obese patients with insulin resistance were divided into a control group and an observation group by the random number table method, with 49 cases in each group. The control group received exercise and dietary interventions, and the observation group received additional acupuncture treatment to the exercise and dietary interventions. The body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, fasting insulin (FINS), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and serum PYY and nesfatin-1 levels were compared before and after treatment. The efficacy was evaluated after treatment. Results: The total effective rate was significantly higher in the observation group than in the control group (P<0.05). After treatment, the BMI, body fat percentage, and serum TG and TC levels decreased significantly in both groups (P<0.05), and were significantly lower in the observation group than those in the control group (P<0.05). The FINS, FPG, HOMA-IR, and serum PYY and nesfatin-1 levels of the control group were not significantly changed after treatment (P>0.05). The FINS, FPG and HOMA-IR of the observation group decreased significantly after treatment (P<0.05), and were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). The serum PYY and nesfatin-1 levels of the observation group increased significantly after treatment (P<0.05), and were higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Based on exercise and dietary interventions, acupuncture is effective for obese patients with insulin resistance. It can reduce the BMI, body fat percentage, blood lipids, blood glucose, and serum insulin levels and improve insulin resistance. The action may be associated with the up-regulation of serum PYY and nesfatin-1.

Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pharyngitis ; therapy ; Young Adult

Isoprene is an important precursor of synthetic rubber material. In our previous study, metabolic engineered Escherichia coli strain (BW-01) was constructed and used to produce isoprene. Based on the theory of protein budget, using synthetic biology strategies including the increased copy number of genes and rare codons, we regulated the expression of key enzyme to improve isoprene production in Escherichia coli strain. Under shake-flask conditions, isoprene productivity of the engineered strain (BW-07) increased by 73% compared with BW-01, reached 761.1 mg/L. It provides a reference for further studies.
Butadienes ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Gene Dosage ; Hemiterpenes ; biosynthesis ; Industrial Microbiology ; Metabolic Engineering ; Mevalonic Acid ; Pentanes ; Synthetic Biology