Objective Study the National Natural Science Foundation investment of traditional Chinese Medicine R&D investment in common illnesses to understand the total investment as well as researching areas, agency and disease. Methods Filtered research data of common illnesses from National Natural Science Foundation website database with keywords. Quantitative analysis was made with the obtained data. Results National Natural Science Foundation of China invested a total of more than 50 million RMB in common illness R&D, of which nearly 400 million RMB was invested to traditional Chinese medicine. Cancer R&D investment was the highest, bone diseases R&D investment was less than 0.1% of the total investment. Conclusion Total investment in common illness increased year by year, but the investment in traditional Chinese medicine ratio was still low.

Objective:To understand the state of Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn) infection in patients with coronary hear disease (CHD), and explore the relationship between Cpn infection and the gonesis and progressin of CHD.Methods:By means of PCR and ELISA, Cpn IgG antibody and nucleic acid were detected in 159 patients with CHD and 41 control subjects.Results:The positivity rate of Cpn DNA was 43 40%(69/159) in the patient group and 7 32%(3/41) in the control group, showing obvious difference between the two groups( P

AIM To investigate whether ginsenoside Rg1 can reverse chronic lead-induced impairment of long-term potentiation (LTP) in the CA1 region of rat hippocampus. METHODS Neonatal Wistar rats were exposed to lead from parturition to weaning via milk of dams whose drinking water (20 mL per day) contained 0.2% lead acetate. Field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSP) were recorded and LTP was induced in the CA1 region in rat hippocampal slices on postnatal 20-25 d. RESULTS In hippocampal slices from both control and lead-exposed rats, perfusion with ginsenoside Rg1 50 μmol·L-1 for 20 min induced enhancement of fEPSP (LTP), while the amplitude of LTP in lead-exposed rats was lower than that of controls. In hippocampal slices from chronic lead-exposed rats, LTP induced by high-frequency stimulation (HFS, 1s, 100 Hz) was significantly reduced, while perfusing with ginsenoside Rg1 (50 μmol·L-1) for 20 min increased the amplitudes of LTP induced by HFS by 47.1%. CONCLUSION Rg1 can increase basic synaptic transmission and partially reverse chronic lead-induced impairment of HFS-LTP.

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of berberine for the treatment of insulin resistance (IR) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).Methods Sixty PCOS-IR women were randomized into treatment group and control group,30 cases in each group.At the end of the trial,26 cases in the treatment group (4 cases dropped out) and 29 cases in the control group (one case dropped out) completed the trial.The treatment group was treated with berberine orally,and the control group was treated with metformin orally,the treatment for the two groups lasting 3 months.Before and after treatment,we observed the parameters of body mass index (BMI),homeostasis model of assessment for insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR),fasting plasma glucose (FPG),fasting insulin (FINS),2-hour postprandial glucose after oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT2hPG) and 2-hour postprandial insulin after OGTT (OGTT2hINS),blood lipid levels of total cholesterol (TC),triglyceride (TG),low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C),and sexual hormones of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH),luteotropic hormone (LH),testosterone (T) and LH/FSH ratio.Results BMI,HOMA-IR,TC,TG and LDL-C of the two groups were decreased after treatment (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01 compared with those before treatment),but the differences between the two groups were insignificant(P ＞ 0.05).Serum levels of T and LH as well as LH/FSH ratio in the treatment group were also decreased (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01 compared with those before treatment and those in the control group after treatment).Conclusion Berberine can improve HOMA-IR,decrease serum sexual hormones levels,and regulate the blood metabolism in PCOS-IR women,and its effect is similar to that of metformin.

Synthetic biology of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a new and developing subject based on the research of secondary metabolite biosynthesis for nature products. The early development of synthetic biology focused on the screening and modification of parts or devices, and establishment of standardized device libraries. Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H.Chen is one of the most famous medicinal plants in Panax species. Triterpene saponins have important pharmacological activities in P. notoginseng. Squalene epoxidase (SE) has been considered as a key rate-limiting enzyme in biosynthetic pathways of triterpene saponins and phytosterols. SE acts as one of necessary devices for biosynthesis of triterpene saponins and phytosterols in vitro via synthetic biology approach. Here we cloned two genes encoding squalene epoxidase (PnSE1 and PnSE2) and analyzed the predict amino acid sequences by bioinformatic analysis. Further, we detected the gene expression profiling in different organs and the expression level of SEs in leaves elicited by methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment in 4-year-old P notoginseng using real-time quantitative PCR (real-time PCR). The study will provide a foundation for discovery and modification of devices in previous research by TCM synthetic biology. PnSE1 and PnSE2 encoded predicted proteins of 537 and 545 amino acids, respectively. Two amino acid sequences predicted from PnSEs shared strong similarity (79%), but were highly divergent in N-terminal regions (the first 70 amino acids). The genes expression profiling detected by real-time PCR, PnSE1 mRNA abundantly accumulated in all organs, especially in flower. PnSE2 was only weakly expressed and preferentially in flower. MeJA treatment enhanced the accumulation of PnSEI mRNA expression level in leaves, while there is no obvious enhancement of PnSE2 in same condition. Results indicated that the gene expressions of PnSE1 and PnSE2 were differently transcribed in four organs, and two PnSEs differently responded to MeJA stimuli. It was strongly suggested that PnSEs play different roles in secondary metabolite biosynthesis in P. notoginseng. PnSE1 might be involved in triterpenoid biosynthesis and PnSE2 might be involved in phytosterol biosynthesis.

ERF family transcription factor (TF) represented ethylene-responsive protein which harbored a conserved AP2 domain. After searching the plant transcription factor database, a total of 75 unigenes was found which contained AP2 domain from the transcriptome dataset of Panax quinquefolius L. One unique sequence of ERF transcript, named as PqERF1, was cloned with entire open reading frame of 933 base pairs (bp). Protein prediction result indicated that the gene was localized in nucleus and had a conserved AP2 domain. PqERF1 gene could be induced by methyl jasmonate (MeJA) which was consistent to the inducing profile of triterpene ginsenosides. InterproScan prediction indicated that PqERF1 was probably a pathogenesis-related gene. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis demonstrated PqERF1 was with high identity and had relative close relationship to the NtERF4 (Nicotiana tabacum), PhERF12 (Petunia x hybrida) and DcERF1 (Daucus carota) which was related to plant defense, regulation of secondary metabolism and the flower senescence respectively. Therefore, the gene was likely involved in regulation of secondary metabolism, plant defense and physical processes which would provide gene resource for further study on secondary metabolite synthesis and molecular breeding of P. quinquefolius.

Objective To determine prevalence of dementia in diabetics and non-diabetics, and in different age and gender groups. Methods A case-control study was conducted among participants aged 50 and over in Jing' an temple community in Shanghai. Subjects in diabetics group were matched to non-diabetics groups for age and sex with 1:1 matching. Personal information and case history were collected through questionnaire. The subjects were screened for dementia using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Subjects that screened positively (indicated by an MMSE score below 19, 21 and 24 among those with illiteracy, elementary school and above junior middle school education, respectively) were subsequently examined by a series of neuropsychological tests. Based on all available information, a diagnosis of dementia was defined according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM )-Ⅳ criteria Results Prevalence of dementia of 4. 75% (23/484, 95% CI: 3. 03%-7.04%) in diabetics was higher than that of 2. 24% (11/490,95% CI: 1.13% -3.98%) in non-diabetics (X~2 = 4.54, P=0.03).Prevalence of dementia among diabetics in age groups of 60-69, 70-79 and 80 and above was 1.94% (2/103), 4. 43 % (9/203) and 14.12% (12/85, trend X~2 =18.04, P <0.01), and in non-diabetics was 1.43% (2/140), 2. 86% (6/210) and 5.00% (3/60, trend X~2 = 4.58, P=0.03), respectively.Prevalence of dementia among female and male in diabetics was 6.55% (19/299) and 2.06% (4/194) (X~2 = 5.18, P = 0.02), respectively, and in non-diabetics was 3.01% (9/299) and 1.05% (2/191).Conclusions Prevalence of dementia is significantly higher in diabetics than in non-diabetics, higher in women than men, and increases as age rises.

To investigate the profile of gene expression in Salvia miltiorrhiza and elucidate its functional gene, 454 GS FLX platform and Titanium regent were used to produce a substantial expressed sequence tags (ESTs) dataset from the root of S. miltiorrhiza. A total of 46 722 ESTs with an average read length of 414 bp were generated. 454 ESTs were combined with the S. miltiorrhiza ESTs from GenBank. These ESTs were assembled into 18 235 unigenes. Of these unigenes, 454 sequencing identified 13 980 novel unigenes. 73% of these unigenes (13 308) were annotated using BLAST searches (E-value < or = 1e-5) against the SwissProt, KEGG TAIR, Nr and Nt databases. Twenty-seven unigenes (encoding 15 enzymes) were found to be involved in tanshinones biosynthesis, and 29 unigenes (encoding 11 enzymes) involved in phenolic acids biosynthesis. Seventy putative genes were found to encode cytochromes P450 and 577 putative transcription factor genes. Data presented in this study will constitute an important resource for the scientific community that is interested in the molecular genetics and functional genomics of S. miltiorrhiza.

Glycyrrhizin is the major bioactive compound in Glycyrrhiza uralensis. Farnesyl-diphosphate synthase (FPS) is one of the major enzymes involved in the glycyrrhizin biosynthetic. We cloned the full length of FPS coding sequence based on the transcriptome data of G. uralensis. The FPS gene of G. uralensis (GlyurFPS) is 1029 bp, coding 342 amino acid. The homology between the sequence of its protein and that of the FPS in Cicer arietinum, Medicago sativa, Medicago truncatula, Glycine max, Lotus japonicus was of 94%, 94%, 93%, 93% and 92%, respectively. Plant FPS gene is very conservative, therefore the phylogenetic tree is same with the plant classification consistent.

Objective To investigate the effect of multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment including ex-utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT) procedure to improve the prenatal survival rate of fetus with neck mass.Methods Multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment model were carried out in four pregnancy women with fetal neck mass from September 2007 to February 2010.The model included prenatal assessment and monitoring,EXIT procedure during cesarean section,neonatal reassessment and surgical treatment by the cooperation of obstetricians,neonatologists,children surgeons,sonographers and anesthetists.Results All patients underwent cesarean section after 37gestational weeks.Mean delivery time was 37+4 weeks (37-38+3 weeks); mean birth weight was 2972 g (2600-3250 g); mean operation time was 4 min (2-7 min).The gestational age of primary diagnosis of fetal neck mass was 24-34 gestational weeks.After delivery,the size of neck mass was from 3.0 cm × 2.0 cm × 1.0 cm to 6.2 cm× 5.8 cm × 6.8 cm.The tracheal compression and displacement were found by color doppler ultrasound scan and magnetic resonance imaging in all cases.Two of them were completed with polyhydramnios and the others with normal volume of amniotic fluid.EXIT procedure was successfully carried out during cesarean section.Neonatal reassessment showed the trachea of three infants were obviously compressed and lapsed by enhanced CT; the infants relied on mechanical ventilation after birth and underwent operation on day 6 to 8.Tracheal impression was not presented in one infant and trachea cannula was removed on the second day,operation was not performed.All of those infants had good outcomes.Conclusions The multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment model,including EXIT procedure,is a safe,efficient and feasible strategy,which is necessary for fetus with neck mass.