Studies have shown that women's menopause caused by permanent cessation of ovarian function is closely related to lipid metabolism disorders. Er-xian Decoction has been used in the clinical treatment for gynecological diseases and has a good effect on diseases related to reduced sex hormone function. In this study, metabolomics was performed on bilateral ovariectomized model rats within 12 weeks after modeling to mimic the physiological state of menopausal women in different menopausal stages and Er-xian Decoction dosed model rats. The results of liver oil red O staining sections showed lipid metabolic disorder of bilateral ovariectomized model rats and the regulating effects of Er-xian Decoction. 46 potential biomarkers (6 steroid hormones, 3 sphingolipids, 11 phospholipids and 26 glycerides) in plasma and 32 potential biomarkers (1 steroid hormones, 20 phospholipids and 11 glycerides) in liver were obtained based on lipidomics analysis. Then, we analyzed the differential metabolic pathways and construct the lipid metabolism network significantly regulated by Er-xian Decoction. The results provided valuable information for in-depth understanding of the gradual changes on lipid metabolism disorders under menopausal conditions and the characteristics and mechanisms of compound Er-xian Decoction's regulatory effects. The study complied with the procedures established by the Animal Experiment Ethics Committee of the Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and passed the animal experiment ethics examine (No. 00000918).

OBJECTIVETo explore the mechanisms involved in the ligustrazine alleviation of the pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) in patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) associated with chronic cor pulmonale (CCP) during exacerbation.

METHODSSeventy patients of COPD and CCP with acute exacerbation were randomly and equally divided into control group and treatment group. The control group received standard treatment with antibiotics, antiasthmatic and expectorant medications, and oxygenation; and the ligustrazine treatment group received ligustrazine treatment (80 mg/d; i.v.; for 2 weeks) in addition to the standard treatment. Before and at the end of 2 week treatment, the clinic responses of the two regimens were evaluated, plasma levels of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and nitric oxide (NO) were determined; arterial oxygen partial pressure (PaO2, mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP), outflow tract of right ventricle (RVOT), and internal diameter of right ventricle (RV) were measured.

RESULTSGood clinic benefits were achieved in both the standard and ligustrazine regimens, plasma level of ET-1, values of mPAP, RV and RVOT decreased significantly, plasma level of NO and PaO2 values decreased (all P < 0.01 vs pre-treatment to all parameters). Compared with the control group, ligustrazine greatly enhanced the clinic efficacy from 77.1% to 97.1% (P < 0.05), and also resulted in more significant changes of all these parameters (P < 0.01 vs control group for all parameters). For both groups, the levels of plasma ET-1 were positively correlated with values of mPAP, RVOT, and RV (r = 0.710, 0.853, and 0.766, respectively, all P = 0.000), and negatively correlated with plasma NO and PaO2 (r = - 0.823, and - 0.752, respectively, all P = 0.000).

CONCLUSIONLigustrazine is effective in treating pulmonary artery hypertension during acute exacerbation of COPD and CCP in patients from the plateau area. The observed changes in the plasma levels of NO and ET-1 in response to ligustrazine treatment suggest that ligustrazine may act through the selective effect on pulmonary blood vessels to enhance the synthesis and release of NO and suppress those of ET-1 from lung vascular endothelial cells, thus reducing pulmonary artery pressure and decreasing pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Altitude ; Blood Gas Analysis ; Chronic Disease ; Endothelin-1 ; blood ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; drug therapy ; Nitric Oxide ; blood ; Pulmonary Artery ; physiopathology ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; drug therapy ; Pyrazines ; therapeutic use ; Respiration

Near-infrared (NIR) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy was used to analyze the impact of multi-class particle size of Chinese material medica (CMM) based on the spectral characteristics in overtone and combination region. Several types of CMM (60, 80, 100,120 mesh) were subjected to NIR spectra analysis. Spectral reproducibility was examined after sample repackage. The result showed that the effects of particle size on the NIR spectra were different according to different bands, in the combination region and first combination-overtone region. Spectroscopy intensity was proportional to the particle size and influence of particle size was greater as the wavelength increased. While in the second combination-overtone region, it was inversely proportional to particle size. To the sampling loading error, the result indicated that when the mesh number was larger than 60 mesh, the error was small. The appropriate particle size was clarified to guarantee the accuracy and reliability of NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy in CMM.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; Materia Medica ; analysis ; Particle Size ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ; methods

Acupuncture Therapy ; California ; International Cooperation ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; trends ; United States

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy of late accelerated hyperfractionated conformal radiotherapy (LACF) combined with capecitabine on esophageal carcinoma.

METHODSOne hundred and sixty eight patients of esophageal cancer were randomly divided into 3 groups, including the radiotherapy alone group (CF) which received conventional conformal radiotherapy to a total of 60 - 66 Gy, LCAF group which received conventional fractionated conformal radiotherapy during the first two-thirds of the treatment to a dose about 40 Gy/20F/4W, then followed by late accelerated hyperfractionated conformal radiotherapy, twice daily radiotherapy at 1.3 Gy per fraction to a total dose about 64 - 69 Gy, and LCAF + C group (late accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy combined with capecitabine), in which patients were treated as the same as the LCAF group, except that they were treated with capecitabine (1.5 g po bid) from beginning of the radiotherapy to the end.

RESULTSThe short-term results of the 3 groups were 74.0%, 85.5% and 95.2%, respectively (P = 0.006). The local control rates at 1, 3 and 5 years were 64.0%, 30.0%, 24.0% in the CF group, 81.8%, 65.5%, 58.2% in the LCAF group and 90.1%, 77.8%, 74.6% in the LCAF+C group, respectively. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates of the 3 groups were 58.0%, 20.0%, 8.0%; 78.2%, 36.4%, 17.0% and 85.7%, 55.6%, 30.2%, respectively. The effect of LCAF+C group was better than that of LCAF group and CF group. The incidence of acute tracheitis and acute esophagitis in the LCAF+C group and LCAF group was higher than that in the CF group, but there was no stastistically significant difference between the 2 groups. There was no statistically significant difference in distant metastasis in the 3 groups.

CONCLUSIONSCapecitabine, as an effective chemosensitizater combined with late accelerate hyperfractionated radiotherapy can improve the short-term results of treatment of esophageal cancer. The value of this combined treatment in distant metastasis reqires further study in the clinic.

Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic ; therapeutic use ; Capecitabine ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; mortality ; pathology ; therapy ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Deoxycytidine ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Dose Fractionation ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; mortality ; pathology ; therapy ; Esophagitis ; etiology ; Fluorouracil ; analogs & derivatives ; therapeutic use ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Radiation Pneumonitis ; etiology ; Radiotherapy, Conformal ; adverse effects ; methods ; Remission Induction ; Survival Rate

Adult ; Calcinosis ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Humans ; Inhibins ; metabolism ; Male ; Orchiectomy ; S100 Proteins ; metabolism ; Sertoli Cell Tumor ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Testicular Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Testis ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Vimentin ; metabolism

The on-line monitor for the changes in the content of baicalin in Scutellariae Radix formula particles during the extraction process was conducted by using near infrared spectroscopy (NIR). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used as a reference method. Kennard-Stone (KS) was used to divide sample sets, so as to compare different pretreatment methods. The synergy interval partial least squares (SiPLS) was used to screen out modeling wave band to establish partial least-squares models. The relative error method was applied to predict forecast set samples of Scutellariae Radix in three extraction phases. The results showed that the model established by Savitzky-Golay smoothing with 11 points (SG11 points) was the best, with the root mean square with cross validation (RMSECV), root mean square error of correction (RMSEC) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of baicalin of 0.092 7, 0.134 4 and 0.114 8, respectively, the determination coefficient R2 of greater than 0.99, and the relative error of baicalin content of less than 5%. This indicates that the on-line near infrared reflectance spectroscopy could be applied in on-line monitor and quality control of the extraction process of Scutellariae Radix formula particles.
Automation ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; standards ; Quality Control ; Scutellaria baicalensis ; chemistry ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ; methods

The definition of critical quality attributes of Chinese materia medica ( CMM) was put forward based on the top-level design concept. Nowadays, coupled with the development of rapid analytical science, rapid assessment of critical quality attributes of CMM was firstly carried out, which was the secondary discipline branch of CMM. Taking near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as an example, which is a rapid analytical technology in pharmaceutical process over the past decade, systematic review is the chemometric parameters in NIR model evaluation. According to the characteristics of complexity of CMM and trace components analysis, a multi-source information fusion strategy of NIR model was developed for assessment of critical quality attributes of CMM. The strategy has provided guideline for NIR reliable analysis in critical quality attributes of CMM.
Materia Medica ; standards ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; standards ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ; methods

Near-infrared (NIR) was used as rapid analysis method to identify the sulfur fumigated Puerariae Lobatae Radix. NIR spectra of the cross-sectional and longitudinal selection of samples were acquired. Principal component analysis was conducted. The samples were randomly selected. The different pretreatment methods were compared. Discriminant models were established for every type of spectra to calculate the recognition rate. The orthogonal test and nonparametric test were used to test data normality. The result showed that absorbance values of different sections were different due to the different structure, and the raw spectra were analyzed by PCA method. The result founded that the cumulative contribution rate was arrived at 99.2% while the PC numbers were arrived at 3. The pretreatment method based on the MSC + 1D + Savitzky-Golay was the best to establish the model. For the 50 models constructed with cross-section and longitudinal spectra and total spectra, the recognition rate were (94.4 ± 0.66)%, (94.4 ± 0.66)%, (95.3 ± 0.65)%, respectively, and no difference was observed. The NIR method could be used to identify the sulfur fumigated Puerariae Lobatae Radix.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; methods ; Discriminant Analysis ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Fumigation ; Pueraria ; chemistry ; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared ; Sulfur ; chemistry

Cucumber mosaic virus was detected from infected Basella rubra L. with the indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Total RNA was extracted from infected leaves and the cDNAs of coat protein gene of CMV-Ba were obtained by RT-PCR. The amplified cDNA fragments were then cloned into pMD 18-T vector and sequenced,the result showed that the CP gene was 657 nucleotides in length. This sequence was aligned with the obtained CP gene and some CMV strains or isolates of subgroup Ⅰ and subgroup Ⅱ in GenBank using DNA MAN software. The results showed that CMV-Ba shared 90.9%~93.8% and 76.1%~76.9% identity with the known CP genes of subgroup Ⅰ and Ⅱ respectively in nucleotide level,on the other hand,amino acids deduced from CMV-Ba CP gene shared 92.7%~97.7% and 72.4%~78.1% identity with the known CP protein of subgroup Ⅰ and Ⅱ,respectively. This suggested that CMV-Ba CP gene belongs to CMV subgroupⅠ.