Objective To investigate the therapeutic efficacy of Chinese medicine of Wusheng Tincture for external application in treating cancer pain, and to observe its effect on the quality of life ( QOL) of cancer patients. Methods Eighty-three cancer pain patients were randomized into treatment group (N=42) and control group (N=41). Except 5 cases dropping out for the itch of skin, a total of 78 cases finished the treatment, 40 in the treatment and 38 in the control group. The patients were given the corresponding medicine according to the classification of numerical rating scale ( NRS) scores. In the control group, the patients were treated following the three-step analgestic ladder issued by World Health Organization ( WHO). The treatment group was given external application of Wusheng Tincture on the painful regions based on the same three-step analgestie ladder treatment as that of the control group, the treatment course lasting 7 days. The rating scale NRS scores and QOL scores were observed for the assessment of therapeutic effect and QOL of the two groups. Results (1) On medication day 7, NRS scores in both groups were decreased as compared with those one day before treatment (P<0.01), but the differences between the two groups were insignificant (P>0.05) . (2) The total effective rate of the treatment group was 82.5%, and that of the control group was 68.4%, the difference being significant between the two groups ( P<0.05) . For mild-pain patients, the therapeutic effect of the treatment group was better than that of the control group (P<0.05) . However, the difference of the therapeutic effect for patients with moderate and severe pain was insignificant between the two groups ( P>0.05) . ( 3) On medication day 7, QOL scores were much lower in both groups than those one day before medication, the difference being significant ( P<0.01) . However, the difference of QOL scores between the two groups was insignificant after medication (P>0.05) . Conclusion External application of Wusheng Tincture may have certain therapeutic effect in treating patients with mild cancer pain, but fails in enhancing the effect for patients with moderate and severe pain, either in improving the QOL of cancer pain patients when used together with WHO three-step analgestic ladder.

In recent years, gene engineering is developing rapidly and many recombinant proteins have been expressed. The use of plant bioreactor to express specific pharmaceutical proteins provides a new way for the prevention and treatment of some important diseases in human beings. Nowadays, chloroplast genetic transformation and expression system has become a research hotspot in plant bioreactor. Higher plant chloroplasts have unique advantages in the expression of recombinant proteins due to their special structures and inherited characteristics: such as high expression, site-specific integration, and the maternal inheritance characteristics of exogenous genes. The maternal inheritance of chloroplast is helpful for biological safety of transgene escaping by pollens. Many important pharmaceutical proteins have been successfully expressed in plant chloroplasts. As a chloroplast transformation model of higher plants, tobacco has made significant progress in the expression of pharmaceutical proteins, such as vaccine antigens, antibodies, and other important recombinant proteins. Chloroplast genetic transformation in higher plants also provides new techniques and methods for the study of chloroplast gene expression and regulation mechanisms. In order to provide a new idea for the development of chloroplast expression platform and the expression of important pharmaceutical proteins, this review outlined the progress of chloroplast genetic transformation system in higher plants, including the chloroplast transformation principle, vector construction, expression of recombinant proteins and important pharmaceutical proteins, and the effects of recombinant proteins expression on plant metabolism and traits.

Ganoderma lucidum is a valuable medical macrofungus with a myriad of diverse secondary metabolites, in which triterpenoids are the major constituents. This paper introduced the germplasm resources of genus Ganoderma from textual research, its distribution and identification at the molecular level. Also we overviewed G. lucidum in the components, the biological activities and biosynthetic pathways of ganoderic acid, aiming to provide scientific evidence for the development and utilization of G. lucidum germplasm resources and the biosynthesis of ganoderic acid.