AIM:To investigate the effect of dopamine ( DA) on the glutamate ( Glu)-uptake ability of astro-cytes, and the role of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-excitatory amino acid transporter 2(EAAT2) pathway in this process .METHODS:Extracellular Glu levels in DA-treated primary cortical astrocytes ( PCAs) were measured by a fluorimetric method .The relative expression of EAAT 2 and mTOR at mRNA and protein levels was measured by RT-qPCR and Western blot .PCAs stimulated with or without DA in the presence or absence of mTOR antagonist rapamycin or mTOR agonist MHY1485 were used to determine the expression of mTOR and EAAT 2, and Glu content in the culture supernatant was also measured.RESULTS: The expression of mTOR in DA-treated PCAs was decreased, the expression of EAAT2 was also decreased .Extracellular Glu levels of DA-treated PCAs were elevated significantly .When the PCAs were stimula-ted with DA in the presence of rapamycin , the expression of EAAT2 was decreased , and the levels of extracellular Glu was significantly increased.In the presence of MHY1485, the expression of EAAT2 was elevated, and significant decrease in the levels of extracellular Glu was also observed .CONCLUSION:DA interacts with mTOR-EAAT2 pathway to reduce the Glu-uptake ability of the astrocytes , and causes extracellular Glu accumulation , ultimately destroys the function of astro-cytes.

OBJECTIVE To explore the efficacy of Sour Jujube Seed Decoction combined with Huanglian Wendan Decoction on adult chronic insomnia and its effect on hypnotic withdrawal.METHODS 187 patients with chronic insomnia were included for anal-ysis,including 102 in the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)group and 85 in the western medicine group.The TCM group was trea-ted with Sour Jujube Seed Decoction combined with Huanglian Wendan Decoction,while the western medicine group was treated with benzodiazepine under the consideration of doctor.The intervention period was 1 month,with assessments using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI)conducted before and after the intervention.Follow-up evaluations were performed at 3 months and 6 months re-spectively after the intervention.RESULTS There was no significant difference between the two groups at baseline.After the inter-vention,the PSQI scores of patients in both groups were significantly improved(P<0.01).Among them,the TCM group was better than the western medicine group in the improvement of sleep quality and sleeping pills,total PSQI score reduction(P<0.01).The re-sults of linear regression analysis showed that after controlling for confounding factors,the regression coefficients of the TCM group in two different models were1.821 and 1.922 respectively,and the former was statistically significant(P<0.05).By screening patients who took hypnotics at baseline in the TCM group and comparing them with those in the western medicine group,the influencing factors of hypnotic withdrawal were analyzed.During the 3-month follow-up,25 out of 39 patients in the TCM group and 17 out of 80 patients in the western medicine group had hypnotic withdrawal(χ2= 19.25,P<0.001);during the 6-month follow-up,23 of the 39 patients in the TCM group and 18 of the 79 patients in the western medicine group had hypnotic withdrawal(χ2= 13.53,P<0.001),the with-drawal rate of patients in the TCM group was significantly higher than that in the western medicine group.Further regression analysis showed that after adjusting for confounding factors,the results showed that the western medicine group had a significantly higher rate of not withdrawal than the TCM group at 3 months(OR=5.50,95%CI:2.30～13.72)and 6 months(OR=6.43,95%CI:2.54～17.77),and the results were statistically different(P<0.05).CONCLUSION Sour Jujube Seed Decoction combined with Huangli-an Wendan Decoction is effective in treating adult chronic insomnia and assisting in hypnotic withdrawal.