OBJECTIVES: To observe the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) at "Neiguan" (PC 6) and "Zusanli"(ST 36) on the gastric emptying rate, the level of serotonin (5-HT) and the protein expression of motilin (MTL), ghrelin, substance P (SP) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in the antral tissue of the rats with functional dyspepsia (FD) and explore the effect mechanism of EA in treatment of FD. METHODS: A total of 21 SPF male SD rat pups were randomly divided into a normal group, a model group and an EA group, with 7 rats in each group. In the model group and the EA group, FD model was prepared by the gavage with 0.1% sucrose iodoacetamide solution combined with the modified small platform method. After the successful modeling, EA was applied to "Neiguan" (PC 6) and "Zusanli"(ST 36) in the rats of the EA group, with disperse-dense wave, 20 Hz/100 Hz in frequency, stimulated for 30 min, once daily, for 7 days consecutively. Before and after intervention, the general condition of the rats was observed in each group. After the completion of intervention, the gastric emptying rate was measured, the morphological changes of gastric antral tissue were observed using HE staining, the level of 5-HT was detected with ELISA method, and the protein expression of MTL, ghrelin, SP, and VIP was determined with Western blot method in the antral tissue of rats. RESULTS: In the normal group, the rats were in a good mental state, with lustrous fur, flexible movement and the increase of food intake and body mass. In the model group, the rats were poor in mental state, lack of lustre in fur, preference for the body curled up, reduced activity and response; and a part of rats had loose stool, obviously enlarged gastric body and gastric food retention. In the EA group, the general condition of rats, e.g. the mental state, food intake and activity, were improved, the gastric body got smaller obviously and the gastric food retention was reduced when compared with the model group. The antral structure was intact, the glands were rich and no injury of the gastric mucosa was found, e.g. inflammatory reaction and edema in the rats of each group. Compared with the normal group, the gastric emptying rate was decreased (P<0.01), 5-HT level was increased (P<0.01), the protein expression of MTL and ghrelin was reduced (P<0.01) and that of VIP was elevated (P<0.01) in the rats of the model group. The gastric emptying rate was increased (P<0.01), 5-HT level was decreased (P<0.01), and the protein expression of MTL and ghrelin was elevated (P<0.05, P<0.01) in the rats of the EA group when compared with those in the model group. CONCLUSIONS Electroacupuncture at "Neiguan" (PC 6) and "Zusanli"(ST 36) may effectively relieve gastric dysfunction, strengthen gastric motility and promote gastric emptying so as to alleviate the symptoms of dyspepsia in FD rats, and its mechanism may be related to the regulation of gastrointestinal hormones in the antral tissue.
Rats ; Male ; Animals ; Electroacupuncture ; Dyspepsia/therapy* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Ghrelin ; Gastrointestinal Hormones ; Serotonin ; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide ; Acupuncture Points

Buxrugulosides A-E, four lignan glycosides (1-4) and a protocatechuate derivative (5) featuring a rare (N, N-diethyl)methyl amino group at aromatic rings, were obtained from the aerial parts of Buxus rugulosa, which is famous for treating coronary heart disease. Their structures including absolute configurations were elucidated by HRMS, 1D and 2D NMR, and by comparing their CD data with previous reports. Compound 1 was a rare sesquilignan, and all of these compounds were the first example of lignans with (N, N-diethyl)methyl amino group.

Dengue virus (DENV) is the most rapidly transmitted mosquito-borne pathogen, which is the main cause of seasonal outbreaks of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever in tropical and subtropical regions, and may cause serious life-threatening diseases. There is an urgent need to develop effective vaccines or antiviral therapies. In this paper, we found that a podocarpane-type diterpenoid, (3α,5β,10α)-13-methoxypodocarpa-8,11,13-triene-3,12-diol (MPTD), isolated from the stems and leaves of Aleurites moluccana, showed good effect against DENV. The anti-DENV activity of MPTD against four different DENV serotypes was studied by plaque assay. The cytotoxicity of MPTD in Vero and Huh7 cells was tested by MTT assay. qRT-PCR and Western blot assays were used to investigate the anti-DENV activity of MPTD at RNA and protein levels, respectively. The results showed that MPTD greatly reduced the virus titer in DENV infected Vero cells, and its 50% effective concentration (EC₅₀) for DENV (1–4) were 2.72 ± 0.39, 10.99 ± 5.18, 18.72 ± 0.21, and 0.48 ± 0.28 μmol·L^-1, respectively. The results showed that MPTD inhibits DENV RNA level and the expression of E protein. In addition, MPTD may inhibit the early stage of DENV replication and exert antiviral activity. Further studies showed that the inhibitory effect of MPTD against DENV infection is not targeting the viral entry stage. Therefore, MPTD has a significant anti-dengue virus effect, and is an anti-DENV compound with potential application value.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the risk factors affecting hemorrhagic cystitis(HC) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(allo-HSCT). METHODS: The clinical data of 153 patients underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University from January 2010 to December 2018 were selected and retrospectively analyzed. The incidence, median time and treatment outcome of HC should be observed. Multivariate analysis was used to observe the risk factors of HC in patients, including sex, age, diagnosis, disease status before transplantation, transplantation type, ATG and CTX in the pretreatment scheme, stem cell source, neutrophil and platelet implantation time; CMV, EBV and BKV infection, and acute graft-versus-host disease(aGVHD). RESULTS: Among 153 patients underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, 25 (16.34%) patients had HC, the median occurance time was 31 days, all patients achieved complete remission after treatment, no bladder irritation and bladder contracture were left. The results of univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the type of transplantation, ATG, CMV viremia before treatment, aGVHD (r=1.036, 3.234, 3.298 and 2.817, respectively) were the independent risk factors of HC. CONCLUSION The urinary BKV detections in the patients with HC are positive, mainly occured during the period from day +13 to days +56. HLA haplotype, pretreatment including ATG, and CMV viremia, and aGVHD are the independent risk factors for HC after allo-HSCT.
Cystitis/etiology* ; Graft vs Host Disease ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation/adverse effects* ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

BACKGROUND: Coronary atherosclerotic plaque could go through rapid progression and induce adverse cardiac events. This study aimed to evaluate the impacts of smoking status on clinical outcomes of coronary non-target lesions. METHODS: Consecutive patients with coronary heart disease who underwent two serial coronary angiographies were included. All coronary non-target lesions were recorded at first coronary angiography and analyzed using quantitative coronary angiography at both procedures. Patients were grouped into non-smokers, quitters, and smokers according to their smoking status. Clinical outcomes including rapid lesion progression, lesion re-vascularization, and myocardial infarction were recorded at second coronary angiography. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was used to investigate the association between smoking status and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 1255 patients and 1670 lesions were included. Smokers were younger and more likely to be male compared with non-smokers. Increase in percent diameter stenosis was significantly lower (2.7 [0.6, 7.1] % vs. 3.5 [0.9, 8.9]%) and 3.4 [1.1, 7.7]%, P = 0.020) in quitters than those in smokers and non-smokers. Quitters tended to have a decreased incidence of rapid lesions progression (15.8% [76/482] vs. 21.6% [74/342] and 20.6% [89/431], P = 0.062), lesion re-vascularization (13.1% [63/482] vs. 15.5% [53/432] and 15.5% [67/431], P = 0.448), lesion-related myocardial infarction (0.8% [4/482] vs. 2.6% [9/342] and 1.4% [6/431], P = 0.110) and all-cause myocardial infarction (1.9% [9/482] vs. 4.1% [14/342] and 2.3% [10/431], P = 0.128) compared with smokers and non-smokers. In multivariable analysis, smoking status was not an independent predictor for rapid lesion progression, lesion re-vascularization, and lesion-related myocardial infarction except that a higher risk of all-cause myocardial infarction was observed in smokers than non-smokers (hazards ratio: 3.00, 95% confidence interval: 1.04-8.62, P = 0.042). CONCLUSION Smoking cessation mitigates the increase in percent diameter stenosis of coronary non-target lesions, meanwhile, smokers are associated with increased risk for all-cause myocardial infarction compared with non-smokers.

On the base of the idea of traditional Chinese medicine as "disease prevention", the mode and the protocol of the moxibustion intervention for the group under quarantine after close contact with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were explored. The group under quarantine after close contact with COVID-19 was taken as the subjects. By the non-contact physician-patient communication network platform co-developed by China Association of Acupuncture-Moxibustion, Hunan Provincial Association of Acupuncture-Moxibustion, Data Center of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences and Yuge Medicine Company, an exploratory randomized controlled trial was designed. A total of 100 cases were included and randomized into a moxibustion group and a conventional intervention group, 50 cases in each one. In the moxibustion group, moxibustion intervention was used. In the conventional intervention group, the conventional observation was adopted without moxibusiton intervention applied. The outcomes included the symptoms changes, e.g. anxiety, emotional disturbance, fatigue, headache and diarrhea, as well as whether quarantine release and the case confirmed or not, etc. The results were evaluated before intervention, in 14 days of intervention and 2 weeks after intervention separately. In this research, on the base of internet plus technology and with the internet communication platform adopted, through mobile phone WeChat App, it was to implement the subject screen, the random allocation and the instruction of moxibustion intervention as well as the quality control of patient's diary and data collection. It is anticipated that the significance and the implementation mode of moxibustion intervention can be assessed preliminarily for the group under quarantine after close contact with COVID-19.
Acupuncture Therapy ; methods ; Betacoronavirus ; China ; Coronavirus Infections ; therapy ; Humans ; Moxibustion ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; therapy ; Quarantine

Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics, therapeutic options and risk factors of mortality in patients with carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) bloodstream infection, and to provide evidence for clinical treatment option and prognosis evaluation of CRAB bloodstream infections. Methods:A retrospective study was carried out in 224 patients with confirmed diagnosis of CRAB bloodstream infection during the period from January 2012 to December 2017 in West China Hospital, Sichuan University. The patients were divided into the death group and the survival group according to the survival status 28 days after collecting blood samples. The clinical features and therapeutic options of antibacterial drugs were reviewed. Student′s t test was used for analyzing normally distributed data and Mann-Whitney U test for non-normal data.Chi-square test was used for categorical variables. Univariate and multivariate logistic analysis were used to analyze the risk factors of mortality associated with CRAB bloodstream infection. Results:Among 224 cases of CRAB bloodstream infection, 121 cases died (54.02%). These patients were mainly in intensive care unit (ICU) and hematology department. The common underlying diseases were severe acute pancreatitis and severe cardiovascular events. The interleukin (IL)-6 level (median (interquartile range)) in the death group (480.40 ng/L (1 432.95 ng/L)) was higher than that of the survival group (107.05 ng/L (263.08 ng/L)), the difference was statistically significant ( Z=4.526, P<0.01). The procalcitionin (PCT) levels in the death group and the survival group were 3.81 μg/L (17.26 μg/L) and 2.12 μg/L (12.74 μg/L), respectively, with no difference between the two groups ( P>0.05). The death rate of empirical treatment with a single or more non-active antimicrobial agents was 57.14% (64/112), that of monotherapy with active agent was 45.68% (37/81), and that of combination therapy with at least one active drug was 64.52% (20/31). The differences had no statistical significance ( P=0.130). The logistic regression analysis showed that the risk factors of mortality associated with CRAB bloodstream infection were renal dysfunction (odds ratio ( OR)=2.181, P=0.024) and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS; OR=20.376, P<0.01). Conclusions:The fatality rate of patients with CRAB bloodstream infection is high. These patients with renal dysfunction or MODS have poor prognosis. In addition to early effective antibacterial therapy, individual comprehensive treatment should be implemented in order to improve the curative effect.

Attention shapes what we see and what we act upon by allocating limited resources to certain parts of visual display in a selective and adaptive manner. While most previous studies in visual attention mainly focused on the attentional distribution over space or features, recent studies have revealed that temporal dynamics also plays a crucial function in visual attention. This paper reviews the representation, function and neural mechanism of temporal dynamics in visual attention from the following four aspects: (1) Tracking dynamic structure of external stimulus by attention; (2) Intrinsic dynamic characteristics of attention; (3) Time-based multiple object representation; (4) Relationship between visual dynamics and classical attentional phenomena. We propose that the dynamic structure and temporal organization are fundamental to visual attention, and the research on it might provide new solutions to many unresolved issues in visual attention research.
Attention ; Humans ; Visual Perception

The study is aimed to evaluate the anti-HIV-1 effect of chloroquine in combination with antihuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drugs, and inhibition of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) activation and type I interferon (IFN-I) production by Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) agonist stimulation. We investigated the anti-HIV-1_ⅢB, HIV-1_KM018 activity of chloroquine and chloroquine combined with rategrivir (RAL), enfuvirtide (T-20), indinavir (IDV) and efavirenz (EFV) in vitro by luciferase activity assay system and ELISA method for p24 antigen. We measured the effect of chloroquine on the activation of pDC in combination with RAL and IDV, respectively. Quantitative PCR was used to evaluate the activity of chloroquine in combination with RAL and IDV in the upregulation of interferon (IFN)-α and IFN-β. Chloroquine showed less cytotoxicity to C8166, TZM-bl and PBMC cells, and the 50% cytotoxic concentration values were 85.02 ±0.28, 73.67 ±5.10 and 91.84 ±4.10 μmol·L^-1, respectively. The anti-HIV-1_ⅢB activity of chloroquine combination with RAL, T-20, IDV and EFV were moderate in synergy, strong in synergy, additive and moderate antagonism, respectively. The anti-HIV-1_KM018 activity of chloroquine in combination with RAL, IDV were moderate synergy, minor synergy. There was no significant difference between the chloroquine monotherapy and chloroquine combined with RAL, IDV in the down-regulation of pDC activation and IFN-α, IFN-β expression levels. We have found that chloroquine combined with different anti-HIV drugs represent different degrees of synergism, antagonism or additive anti-HIV-1 effect. Chloroquine in combination with RAL and IDV did not have influence on the inhibitory effect of chloroquine on pDC activation and type I interferon secretion induced by TLR7 agonist. The results suggest that chloroquine may be used to enhance the therapeutic activities of anti-HIV medicines.

In this study, azvudine (FNC), hydrochloride salt of azvudine (FNC-HCl) and triphosphate azovudine (FNC-TP) were tested against DENV-Ⅱ recombinant virus (DENV-Ⅱ Luc⁺). The inhibitory activity of FNC, FNC-HCl and FNC-TP on DENVs were detected by plaque assay. The effect on the expression of DENV-Ⅱ envelope protein E was detected by Western blot; the inhibitory of DENV-Ⅱ viral RNA by compounds was detected by real-time quantitative PCR. MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity of the three compounds on Vero cells. The results showed that FNC, FNC-HCl and FNC-TP inhibited the viral replication by inhibition of renilla luciferase activity of DENV-Ⅱ Luc⁺. The 50% effective concentration (EC₅₀) of FNC, FNC-HCl and FNC-TP in the inhibition of DENVs replication were from 0.54-25.42 μmol·L^-1, while that of ribavirin was 40.78 ±1.02 μmol·L^-1 as the positive control. Western blot and real time quantitative PCR results showed that FNC, FNC-HCl and FNC-TP significantly inhibited the expression of DENV-Ⅱ E protein, and the replication of DENV-Ⅱ viral RNA. The 50% cytotoxic concentrations of FNC, FNC-HCl and FNC-TP were all greater than 3 000.00 μmol·L^-1. The results suggest that in vitro anti-DENVs activities of FNC, FNC-HCl and FNC-TP are superior to ribavirin, which are expected to become new candidates of anti-DENV drugs.