Azabicyclo Compounds ; blood ; Chromatography, Gas ; Humans ; Piperazines ; blood ; Serum ; chemistry

The paper is aimed to establish a methods for identication of pearl powder and conch powder from different origins. Hermetic aluminum pan was used to encapsulate samples. The optimal testing conditions were: heating rate 10 degrees C x min(-1), sample weight 3 mg and nitrogen gas flow rate 40 mL x min(-1). The enthalpy values of pearl powder and conch powder was obvious different. Identication of pearl powder and conch powder by DSC is a practical method for its accuracy, convenience and practificality.
Animal Shells ; chemistry ; Animals ; Calorimetry, Differential Scanning ; methods ; China ; Discriminant Analysis ; Pinctada ; chemistry ; classification ; Powders ; chemistry

BACKGROUNDRapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) may be a risk factor for cognitive impairment in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, little is known regarding the relation between the severity of RBD and the different domains of cognitive impairment. The aim of this study was: (1) to investigate the domains of cognitive impairment in patients with PD and RBD, and (2) to explore risk factors for PD-mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) and the relationship between RBD severity and impairment in different cognitive domains in PD.

METHODSThe participants were grouped as follows: PD without RBD (PD-RBD; n = 42), PD with RBD (PD + RBD; n = 32), idiopathic RBD (iRBD; n = 15), and healthy controls (HCs; n = 36). All participants completed a battery of neuropsychological assessment of attention and working memory, executive function, language, memory, and visuospatial function. The information of basic demographics, diseases and medication history, and motor and nonmotor manifestations was obtained and compared between PD-RBD and PD + RBD groups. Particular attention was paid to the severity of RBD assessed by the RBD Questionnaire-Hong Kong (RBDQ-HK) and the RBD Screening Questionnaire (RBDSQ), then we further examined associations between the severity of RBD symptoms and cognitive levels via correlation analysis.

RESULTSCompared to PD-RBD subjects, PD + RBD patients were more likely to have olfactory dysfunction and their Epworth Sleepiness Scale scores were higher (P < 0.05). During neuropsychological testing, PD + RBD patients performed worse than PD-RBD patients, including delayed memory function, especially. The MCI rates were 33%, 63%, 33%, and 8% for PD-RBD, PD + RBD, iRBD, and HC groups, respectively. RBD was an important factor for the PD-MCI variance (odds ratio = 5.204, P = 0.018). During correlation analysis, higher RBDSQ and RBDQ-HK scores were significantly associated with poorer performance on the Trail Making Test-B (errors) and Auditory Verbal Learning Test (delayed recall) and higher RBD-HK scores were also associated with Rey-Osterrieth complex figure (copy) results.

CONCLUSIONSWhen PD-RBD and PD + RBD patients have equivalent motor symptoms, PD + RBD patients still have more olfactory dysfunction and worse daytime somnolence. RBD is an important risk factor for MCI, including delayed memory. Deficits in executive function, verbal delayed memory, and visuospatial function were consistently associated with more severe RBD symptoms.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Cognitive Dysfunction ; etiology ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Middle Aged ; Parkinson Disease ; complications ; REM Sleep Behavior Disorder ; complications

Objective To establish a method for direct orthotopic transplantation of human brain tumors into mouse brain and assess the parental characteristics of the xenografts. Methods Fresh tissues of human brain metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma and glioblastoma tissues subcutaneously implanted in nude mice were harvested and minced into pieces. A special trochar was used to inject the tissue pieces into the right caudate nuclei of nude mice through the burr hole in the mouse skull. The efficiency of tumorigenicity, survival time of tumor-bearing mice, histopathological features, expressions of tumor markers in the xenografts and MRI findings were observed. Results The metastatic lung adenocarcinoma and glioma xenografts were passaged for 6 and 13 generations in nude mice, and the average survival time of the tumor-bearing mice was 38.0±0.9 days and 19.0±1.3 days, respectively. The metastatic xenogratts were characterized by expressions of CEA and acid mucin without invasiveness to the normal recipient brain tissue, which were consistent with the features of the parental metastatic tumor. The glioma xenogratts exhibited deep invasiveness to the normal recipient brain tissue and high expression of EGFR, which were identical to the characteristics of the parental tumor. Conclusion Compared with stereotactic cell suspension injection, direct tumor tissue graft injection requires simple procedures and well maintains the characteristics of the parental tumor tissue in the xenograft in nude mice. This method well suits the purposes of establishing orthotopic xenotransplantation models of brain tumors in nude mice.

Objective:To evaluate the qualitative and localization diagnostic value of PET/CT in chronic sternal median incision infection after heart surgery and the guiding function of PET/CT image in debridement .Methods:Twenty‐one patients with chronic sternal median incision infection admitted to our hospital from February 2015 to December 2015 underwent PET/CT examinations within one week prior to surgery were selected .Detection of extent of sternal wound infection and localization diagnoses of costal chondritis were conducted by using PET/CT and CT ,and the results were compared with the diagnosis results during surgery .The qualitative and localization diagnostic value of PET/CT in chronic sternal median incision infection were evaluated .Debridement was guided by the PET/CT images .Patients were followed up for 6‐16 months after operation ,and the debridement and reconstructive surgery effect on chronic sternal median incision infection was evaluated . Results:There were 20 cases of sternal osteomyelitis ,18 cases of mediastinitis ,and 9 cases of costal chondritis .Accuracies of PET/CT in above diagnoses were all 100% .Sensitivity ,specificity ,positive predictive value ,negative predictive value ,and accuracy of PET/CT in localizing involved costal cartilages were 85 .71% ,99 .74% ,96 .00% ,98 .99% ,and 98 .81% , respectively .Sensitivity , negative predictive value , and accuracy of PET/CT in localizing involved costal cartilages were significantlyhigherthanthoseofCT(Pvalueswere0.002,0.008,and0.01).Curerateofpatientswithcostalchondritisafter first debridement operation was 85 .7% .Conclusions:PET/CT is of high accuracy in qualitative diagnosis and localization compared with CT in chronic sternal median incision infection after heart surgery , which is promising in guidance of debridement operation .

Objective To analyze the antigen recognition sites of commercial and homemade antibodies against aquaporin(AQP)9,and to identify the application effect.Methods Western blotting was used to compare the efficacy of three commercial antibodies and self-made antibody in identifying AQP9 genotypes.The antigen recognition sites of four antibodies and their specificities in practical applications were analyzed.Results Western blotting showed that protein bands of three commercial antibodies were detected in both WT and Aqp9-/-mice.The keyhole limpet hemocyanin(KLH)conjugated synthetic peptides corresponding to the three commercial antibodies were derived from rat,human and human,respectively.And The sequences of these three synthetic peptides were different from those of mice.AQP3/7 and AQP9 have similar molecular weight and were expressed in the liver with high homology.An obvious band of self-made antibody was observed at the 27 kD position in WT mice,but no band was observed at the corresponding position in Aqp9-/-mice.Conclusion Commercial antibodies 1 and 3 can be used to assist in the identification of genotypes in Aqp9-/-mice.Homemade antibodies can accurately identify genotypes at the protein level.

The research on biopharmaceutics classification system of Chinese materia medica( CMMBCS) should be finally implemented to the holistic research level of traditional Chinese medicine compounds,while the overall biopharmaceutical properties of traditional Chinese medicine compounds are not only the sum of solubility and permeability of each component. In this study,Gegen Qinlian Tablets was used as the research object,and the contents of 12 representative components,i.e. puerarin,daidzin,baicalin,daidzein,wogonoside,baicalein,wogonin,glycyrrhizic acid,coptisine hydrochloride,epiberberine,berberine hydrochloride and palmatine hydrochloride,were simultaneously determined by HPLC to obtain the mass weight of each component. The in vitro lipopolysaccharide( LPS)-induced RAW264. 7 cells inflammation model was established to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of 12 representative components and obtain the efficacy weight of each component. In order to obtain the number of doses and effective permeability coefficient which can represent the overall biopharmaceutical properties of Gegen Qinlian Tablets,mass weight was combined with efficacy weight to integrate the solubility and permeability data of each component determined by typical shake flask method and in situ single pass intestinal perfusion model respectively. The results indicated that Gegen Qinlian Tablets should be categorized Ⅳ drug of the CMMBCS with low solubility and low permeability.
Anti-Inflammatory Agents ; pharmacology ; Biopharmaceutics ; classification ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; classification ; pharmacology ; Materia Medica ; classification ; Tablets

BACKGROUND: Youzhi artificial intelligence (AI) software is the AI-assisted decision-making system for diagnosing skin tumors. The high diagnostic accuracy of Youzhi AI software was previously validated in specific datasets. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of diagnostic capacity between Youzhi AI software and dermatologists in real-world clinical settings. METHODS: A total of 106 patients who underwent skin tumor resection in the Dermatology Department of China-Japan Friendship Hospital from July 2017 to June 2019 and were confirmed as skin tumors by pathological biopsy were selected. Dermoscopy and clinical images of 106 patients were diagnosed by Youzhi AI software and dermatologists at different dermoscopy diagnostic levels. The primary outcome was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of the Youzhi AI software with that of dermatologists and that measured in the laboratory using specific data sets. The secondary results included the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, F-measure, and Matthews correlation coefficient of Youzhi AI software in the real-world. RESULTS: The diagnostic accuracy of Youzhi AI software in real-world clinical settings was lower than that of the laboratory data (P < 0.001). The output result of Youzhi AI software has good stability after several tests. Youzhi AI software diagnosed benign and malignant diseases by recognizing dermoscopic images and diagnosed disease types with higher diagnostic accuracy than by recognizing clinical images (P = 0.008, P = 0.016, respectively). Compared with dermatologists, Youzhi AI software was more accurate in the diagnosis of skin tumor types through the recognition of dermoscopic images (P = 0.01). By evaluating the diagnostic performance of dermatologists under different modes, the diagnostic accuracy of dermatologists in diagnosing disease types by matching dermoscopic and clinical images was significantly higher than that by identifying dermoscopic and clinical images in random sequence (P = 0.022). The diagnostic accuracy of dermatologists in the diagnosis of benign and malignant diseases by recognizing dermoscopic images was significantly higher than that by recognizing clinical images (P = 0.010). CONCLUSION The diagnostic accuracy of Youzhi AI software for skin tumors in real-world clinical settings was not as high as that of using special data sets in the laboratory. However, there was no significant difference between the diagnostic capacity of Youzhi AI software and the average diagnostic capacity of dermatologists. It can provide assistant diagnostic decisions for dermatologists in the current state.

Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolius have similar bioactive components and morphological characteristics, but they are known to have different medicinal values, high-sensitive and accurate method is expected to identify the sources of ginseng products and evaluate the quality, but with a huge challenge. Our established UHPLC-TOF/MS method coupled with orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) model based on 18 ginsenosides was applied to discriminate the sources of raw medicinal materials in ginseng products, and nested PCR strategy was used to discover 6 novel single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites in functional dammarenediol synthase (DS) gene for genetic authentication of P. ginseng and P. quinquefolius for the first time. OPLS-DA model could identify the sources of raw ginseng materials are real or not. SNP markers were applied to identify ginseng fresh samples as well as commercial products, and proved to be successful. This established molecular method can tell exact source information of adulterants, and it was highly sensitive and specific even when total DNA amount was only 0.1 ng and the adulteration was as low as 1%. Therefore, this study made an attempt at the exploration of new type SNP marker for variety authentication and function regulation at the same time, and the combination of chemical and molecular discrimination methods provided the comprehensive evaluation and authentication for the sources of ginseng herbs and products.