Objective To assess the clinical efficacy ofMaxing-Shigan decoction in patients with severe pneumonia due to phlegm-heat obstructing the lung.Methods Sixty patients with severe pneumonia in the TCM Department of Dalian Municipal Central Hospital from January to December 2013 were randomly divided into a control group and a treatment group by random number table method, 30 in each group. The control group was treated with anti-infection, fluid infusion and mechanical ventilation. On the basis of treatment in the control group, the treatment group was also givenMaxing-Shigan decoction through nasogastric gavage. The mean arterial pressure (MAP), lactic acid (Lac) and PaO2/FiO2 were compared before and after the treatment in both groups. The scores of the Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS) and the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHEⅡ) were compared between the two groups.Results The total effective rate in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group (80.0%vs.73.3%;χ2=4.800,P=0.029). In both groups, MAP (treatment group: 102.4 ± 11.9 mmHgvs. 70.4 ± 6.4 mmHg, t=12.972,P=0.000; control group: 101.2 ± 12.5 mmHgvs. 69.8 ± 6.6 mmHg,t=12.1672,P=0.000), PaO2/FiO2 (treatment group: 265.4 ± 19.7 mmHgvs. 78.6 ± 10.5 mmHg,t=45.833,P=0.000; control group: 124.8 ± 13.4 mmHg vs. 79.1 ± 11.1 mmHg;t=14.385,P=0.000) after the treatment were significantly higher than before the treatment, and the Lac level were significantly lower (treatment group: 1.04 ± 0.42 mmol/Lvs. 6.37 ± 2.27 mmol/L,t=12.65, P=0.000; control group: 3.88 ± 1.45 mmol/Lvs. 6.39 ± 2.32 mmol/L,t=5.025,P=0.000). The improvements in Lac (t=10.304,P=0.000) and PaO2/FiO2 (t=32.323,P=0.000) in the treatment group were superior to the control group. The scores of the CPIS (treatment group: 2.2 ± 1.5vs. 6.7 ± 1.7,t=10.872,P=0.000; control group: 4.5 ± 2.7 vs. 6.8 ± 1.8,t=3.882,P=0.000) and APACHEⅡ(treatment group: 5.3 ± 2.1vs. 13.8 ± 3.8,t=10.723,P=0.000; control group: 9.3±3.5vs. 13.7 ± 3.5,t=4.869,P=0.000) after the treatment were significantly lower than before the treatment in both groups, and the changes of CPIS (t=4.079,P=0.000) and APACHEⅡ(t=5.368,P=0.000) in the treatment group were greater than those in the control group.ConclusionsMaxing-Shigan decoction has definite therapeutic effects for severe pneumonia due to phlegm-heat obstructing the lung..

Objective To investigate therapeutic effect of the Banxia-Baizhu-Tianma decoction combined with simvastatin for phlegm and blood stasis obstructing hyperlipidemia. Methods A total of 120 patients with phlegm and blood stasis obstructing hyperlipidemia from Dalian central hospital from June 2010 to December 2013 were divided into 2 groups according to random digits table:60 patients in a control group treated with simvastatin 20 mg/d,and 60 patients in a treatment group treated with Banxia-Baizhu-Tianma decoction on the basis of the control group. After 6 weeks treatments, the clinical efficacy, serum levels of total cholesterol(TC), triglyceride(TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C), high sensitive C reactive protein(hs-CRP),high mobility group protein B1(HMGB1), alanine aminotransferase(ALT), γ-glutamyl transpeptidase(γ-GT), interleukin 8(IL-8)and superoxide dismutase(SOD) were evaluated in both groups. Results The total effective rate was 91.7%(55/60) and 73.3%(44/60) in the treatment group and the control group, respectively, with significant difference (χ2=5.772, P<0.05). After treatment, the serum levels of TC, TG, HDL-C, hs-CRP, HMGB1 in both groups were significantly lower than those before the treatment (in the treatment group t value were 12.355, 5.984, 32.825, 13.806, 14.661 and in the control group t value were 7.553, 2.177, 3.064, 10.281, 9.019, P<0.05 or P<0.01), LDL-C concentration significantly increased (t in the treatment group=3.382, P<0.01;t in the control group =2.388, P<0.05). After the treatment, the serum levels of TC, TG, HDL-C, hs-CRP, and HMGB1 in the treatment group were lower than those in the control group (t value were 7.173, 3.418, 2.377, 3.967, 8.352, P<0.05 or P<0.01);there was no significant difference in LDL-C concentration between the two groups (t=1.630, P=0.106);the levels of ALT, GT, IL-8 and SOD in the treatment group showed significant difference compared with those before the the treatment (t value were 19.053, 9.592, 12.909, 10.377, P<0.01), while in the control group, exceptγ-GT, other parameters showed significant difference after the treatment compared with before the treatment (t value were 2.253, 5.876, 3.266, P<0.05). Compared with the control group, these parameters in the treatment group were significantly different after the treatment(t value were 27.872, 10.244, 6.954, 6.145, P<0.01). Conclusions Banxia-Baizhu-Tianma decoction combined with simvastatin has good lipid-lowering effect. It may significantly lower inflammatory factor levels, reduce inflammation, and enhance antioxidant capacity.

Objective To observe the clinical effects of Xie's Feiai No.1 formula on patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and its influence on body immune system, VEGF (blood vessel endothelia growth factor) and CYFRA21-1 (keratoprotein 21-1). Methods 650 cases of advanced NSCLC were randomized into a treatment group and chemotherapy group, with 350 cases and 300 cases in each group respectively. The treatment group was administrated with Xie's Feiai No.1 formula, while the chemotherapy group was treated with chemotherapy ofGP plan/TP plan. Both groups were treated for 2 months. Results The short-term effective rate was 56.57% in the treatment group, which was superior to 44.33% (P<0.01) in the chemotherapy group; Steady rate KPS score improvement was 85.14% in the treatment group, which was also higher than 27.00% (P<0.01) in the chemotherapy group; besides the levels of total T cell, adjuvant T cell and NK cell in the treatment group were higher than the chemotherapy group, while the levels of Ts cell, VEGF and CYFRA21-1 int the treatment group were lower than the chemotherapy group. Long-term efficacy observation showed that the survival rate of 117 cases with advanced NSCLC was 83.59% in one year and 46.27% in three years in the treatment group, both significantly higher than those in the chemotherapy group (P<0.01).Conclusion Xie's Feiai No.l formula can increase NSCLC patients' survival time, improve quality of life, strengthen immunological function and restrain tumor cells' activities.

Spinocerebellar ataxias are a high clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative disorders, usually belongs to autosomal dominant hereditary cerebellar ataxia. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 5 (SCA5) is one of the extremely rare subtypes and caused by heterozygous mutation of SPTBN2 gene. A case of infant-onset SCA5 patient is reported, mainly manifested as global developmental delay, ataxia and dysarthria, carrying the heterozygous missense variant c.1438C>T (p. Arg480Trp) in the SPTBN2 gene. This mutation may have an important impact on functional regions of the β-Ⅲ spectrin, leading to the occurrence of disease.

Objective·To develope an auditory brainstem implant(ABI)vocoder based on cochlear implant(CI)vocoder characteristics and ABI electrode array topology,and to verify its reliability.Methods·An"n-of-m"coding strategy CI/ABI vocoder was constructed based on MATLAB.Within each frame,only the envelopes of the n channels with the highest energy were selected.The interaction coefficient(IC)(range:1?3),channel numbers(range:5?22),and electrode array topology(CI/ABI)were adjustable parameters,allowing for the synthesis of simulated speech.Psychoacoustic evaluation was employed,recruiting normal hearing subjects to perform closed-set simulated phoneme perception.The phoneme recognition accuracy(20 vowel questions/condition,11 consonant questions/condition)was compared with the corresponding conditions of CI and ABI from reference literature to determine the IC value of the vocoder and verify its reliability.Results·The vocoder successfully synthesized all test stimuli.In the closed-set CI-simulated speech recognition,the simulated vowel and consonant recognition accuracy for IC2 and IC3 conditions showed no significant difference compared to the accuracy reported in the CI reference literature(P＞0.05).The difference in vowel and consonant accuracy between IC2 and the literature was smaller than that between IC3 and the literature(vowel|d|=1.6%vs.20%,consonant|d|=8.4%vs.9.9%),thus determining the optimal interaction coefficient of this model as 2.Subsequently,when modifying the electrode array topology to ABI,it was found that the simulated phoneme recognition accuracy for a 16-channel ABI was significantly lower than that for the 16-channel CI group,consistent with the reported literature.The simulated vowel and consonant accuracy within the 5?8 channel range for ABI showed no significant difference(P＞0.05),also aligning with the trend reported in the literature.Conclusion·A CI/ABI vocoder based on"n-of-m"coding strategy is established and the optimal IC is determined.The established ABI encoder has been evaluated for high reliability through psychoacoustic experiments.It provides suitable technical means for validating ABI-specific coding strategies.

Objective To explore the age-related biological properties of bone-derived mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs)from mice of different age groups and their osteogenic differentiation induced by bone morphogenetic protein 2(BMP2).Methods Eight C57BL/6J mice were divided into a young group(4 weeks old,weighing 10～15 g,n=4)and an old group(12 months old,weighing 20～25 g,n=4),with half male and half female.MSCs were extracted from the whole bones of the 2 groups of mice.After the obtained cells were identified with flow cytometry for the surface markers,β-galactosidase staining was employed to compare the senescence level of BMSCs,MTT and EdU incorporation assays were conducted to compare the proliferation and self-renewal abilities of between the 2 groups.Western blotting was employed to analyze the expression of CyclinD1 and P21 in BMSCs.Then ALP staining,Alizarin Red staining and RT-qPCR were used to evaluate the osteogenic differentiation ability of the cells.RNA sequencing was performed to compare the differential gene expression in BMP2-induced BMSCs.Lastly,the sequencing results were re-confirmed by using flow cytometry.Results Flow cytometry showed that the sorted and cultured mouse BMSCs met the criteria for MSCs.The results of β-galactosidase staining indicated that the senescence level of BMSCs in the old group was significantly higher than that in the young group(P＜0.05).MTT and EdU doping experiments revealed that the cell viability and proliferation ability of BMSCs were significantly lower in the old group than the young group(P＜0.05).Western blotting displayed that the expression level of cell cycle protein CyclinD1 was lower,whereas that of cell cycle inhibitory factor P21 was significantly higher in the BMSCs from the old group than the cells from the young group(P＜0.05).ALP/Alizarin Red staining and RT-qPCR demonstrated that the BMSCs from the young group had stronger osteogenic differentiation capacity after BMP2 treatment when compared the cells of the old group(P＜0.05).RNA sequencing results displayed that the changing profile of CD51 expression was in opposite trends in the young and old BMSCs after BMP2 treatment.Finally,flow cytometry revealed that the percentage of CD51+cells within the CD45-cells was significantly higher in the young group than the old group.Conclusion The decrease in the percentage of CD51+cells among CD45-cells in aged BMSCs is closely associated with their decreased responsiveness to BMP2-induced osteogenic differentiation.

This study aims to gain insight into the DNA-specific recognition mechanism of c-Myb transcription factor during the regulation of cell early differentiation and proliferation. Therefore, we chose the chicken myeloid gene, mitochondrial import protein 1 (mim-1), as a target to study the binding specificity between potential dual-Myb-binding sites. The c-Myb-binding site in mim-1 is a pseudo-palindromic sequence AACGGTT, which contains two AACNG consensuses. Simulation studies in different biological scenarios revealed that c-Myb binding with mim-1 in the forward strand (complex F) ismore stable than that inthereverse strand (complex R). The principal component analysis (PCA) dynamics trajectory analyses suggested an opening motion of the recognition helices of R2 and R3 (R2R3), resulting in the dissociation of DNA from c-Myb in complex R at 330 K, triggered by the reduced electrostatic potential on the surface of R2R3. Furthermore, the DNA confirmation and hydrogen-bond interaction analyses indicated that the major groove width of DNA increased in complex R, which affected on the hydrogen-bond formation ability between R2R3 and DNA, and directly resulted in the dissociation of DNA from R2R3. The steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulation studies also suggested that the electrostatic potential, major groove width, and hydrogen bonds made major contribution to the DNA‍-specific recognition. In vitro trials confirmed the simulation results that c-Myb specifically bound to mim-1 in the forward strand. This study indicates that the three-dimensional (3D) structure features play an important role in the DNA-specific recognition mechanism by c-Myb besides the AACNG consensuses, which is beneficial to understanding the cell early differentiation and proliferation regulated by c-Myb, as well as the prediction of novel c-Myb-binding motifs in tumorigenesis.
Molecular Dynamics Simulation ; Consensus ; DNA ; Hydrogen