To summarize Prof. ZHANG Zhiyuan's clinical experience in using large doses of Fuzi （Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata）. The effect of Fuzi is based on its acrid and hot propoerties， warming and invigorating yang qi and running without guard. The application of large doses of Fuzi can be categorized into raw and processed， with common dosage ranging from 30 g to 60 g of raw Fuzi， and 15 g to 30 g， 30 g to 60 g of processed Fuzi. The quantity-effect relationship of the large dose of Fuzi is summarized as 15 g to 30 g of processed Fuzi could warm water， warm yang and eliminate timidity， as the treatment of asthma with deficiency cold phlegm， edema of yang deficiency， and panic and timidity of yang deficiency； 30 g to 60 g of processed Fuzi could tonify fire， warm the meridians and collaterals， assist yang to dispel cold and relieve pain， as the treatment of coldness in the limbs， abdominal pain， pain in the joints of the limbs， and loose stools due to deficient yang qi and exuberant internal yin cold； 30 g to 60 g raw Fuzi could restore yang to save from collapse， as the treatment of yang depletion after profuse sweating and vomiting. At the same time， different dosages of Fuzi were flexibly paired with other medicines， i.e.， 15 g to 30 g of processed Fuzi was paired with Mahuang （Ephedrae Herba） and Xixin （Asari Radix et Rhizoma） to assist yang to dispel coldness， 30 g to 60 g of processed Fuzi was paired with Baizhu （Atractylodis macrocephalae rhizoma） or Wuzhuyu （Euodiae Fructus） to warm yang and dispel dampness， and 30 g to 60 g of raw Fuzi was paired with Shanzhuyu （Corni Fructus） to tonify both yin and yang.

Objective:To analyze the clinical, genetic mutation characteristics, and treatment prognosis of type 2A hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) in China.Methods:Peripheral blood samples and clinical data of patients with primary iron overload were collected through the China Registry of Genetic/Metabolic Liver Disease from June 2015 to November 2023. HH-related genes were detected by Sanger sequencing. Clinical characteristics and gene mutation characteristics of HH patients carrying HJV gene mutations were analyzed.Results:Among the 37 cases with primary iron overload, ten cases (27.0%, 10/37) had detectable HJV gene mutations, which included four homozygous mutations, five compound heterozygous mutations, and one monoheterozygous mutation. p.Q6H and p.C321X (80.0%, 8/10) were the most common mutated sites. The average age of onset was 30.7±14.7 years. The age of diagnosis was 35.7±16.2 years, with male-to-female ratio of 7:3. Ferritin and transferrin saturation were (5 267±905) ng/ml, and 94.3%±1.2%, respectively. Magnetic resonance imaging showed iron overload in the liver, pancreas, and myocardium. Liver biopsy showed diffuse iron deposition within hepatocytes. All ten cases had elevated transaminases; one case (1/10, 10.0%) had liver cirrhosis; four cases (4/10, 40.0%) had heart failure and arrhythmia; five cases (5/10, 50.0%) had diabetes; six cases (6/10, 60.0%) had hypogonadism; six cases (6/10, 60.0%) had skin pigmentation; and six cases (6/10, 60.0%) had fatigue symptoms. All six cases underwent bloodletting therapy, and ferritin levels dropped to about 100 ng/ml. Two cases of oral administration of the iron chelator deferasirox did not meet the ferritin level standard, and one case died from acute heart failure following a confirmed diagnosis during hospitalization.Conclusion:The HJV gene may be one of the main pathogenic genes of HH in China. The p.Q6H and p.C321X mutations were one of the hotspot mutations. The onset age of HJV gene-related HH was between 20 and 30 years old, and their condition was severe. Therefore, early bloodletting treatment can have a favorable outcome.

Computed tomography (CT) examination is the major measure for detecting and diagnosis of foreign bodies in human body. Although CT has high sensitivity in diagnosis of foreign body, some interference factors may still lead to missed diagnosis or misdiagnosis. Here we report a rare case that a bamboo stick accidentally pierced into the left chest of a young man who was drunk and unware of this hurt. The patient experienced cough, chest pain, fever, hemoptysis, and was misdiagnosed as primary and secondary tuberculosis based on chest CT examinations at a local hospital, although no tubercular bacillus detected by sputum smear. He subsequently received anti-tuberculous treatments in the following three years, but no improvement of his symptoms was observed. Until one month before his death, the bamboo stick was detected by spiral CT examination as well as three-dimensional image reconstruction at another hospital. Postmortem examination revealed pneumonia, pulmonary infarction, and abscess as the causes of his death. We analyze the potential reasons of misdiagnosis in this case, aiming to provide reference for the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary inflammation associated with foreign body in the future.
Abscess ; Diagnostic Errors ; Humans ; Male ; Pneumonia ; Pulmonary Infarction ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary

Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; metabolism ; Neuroglia ; metabolism ; Neurons ; metabolism ; Peptide Fragments ; metabolism ; Peptides ; metabolism ; Proteins ; metabolism ; Rats

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect difference between acupuncture combined with western medication and simple western medication for Meniere's disease. METHODS: Ninety-six patients with Meniere's disease were randomly assigned into a combination group (48 cases, 12 cases dropping) and a medication group (48 cases, 9 cases dropping). Betastatin mesylate tablets (once 12 mg, 3 times a day) and mecobalamin tablets (once 0.5 mg, 3 times a day) were prescribed orally in the two groups. Acupuncture was used in the combination group, twice a week, 20 min a time, and the acupoints were Baihui (GV 20), Fengchi (GB 20), Tinggong (SI 19), Hegu (LI 4), Quchi (LI 11), Zusanli (ST 36), Fenglong (ST 40), Taichong (LR 3), Taixi (KI 3) and Tianshu (ST 25). All the treatment was given for continuous 12 weeks. The symptoms were observed by dizziness handicap inventory (DHI), tinnitus handicap inventory (THI), pure tone audiometry score and stuffy ear visual analogue scale (VAS). The effects were compared in the aspects of dizziness, hearing and activity. RESULTS: The scores of DHI, THI, pure tone audiometry and VAS scores after treatment were lower than those before treatment in the two groups (all <0.05), with lower scores of the above 4 indexes in the combination group after treatment (all <0.05). The difference values before and after treatment of the 4 indexes in the combination group were higher than those in the medication group (all <0.05). The effective rates of dizziness, hearing and activity in the combination group were 97.2% (35/36), 91.7% (33/36), 88.9% (32/36), which were better than 71.8% (28/39), 74.4% (29/39) and 69.2% (27/39) in the medication group (all <0.05). CONCLUSION Acupuncture combined with conventional medication achieve better effect than simple conventional medication.
Acupuncture Therapy ; Humans ; Meniere Disease ; therapy ; Tinnitus ; Treatment Outcome

Androgen receptor (AR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that plays a pivotal role in the development and progression of many severe diseases such as prostate cancer, muscle atrophy, and osteoporosis. Binding of ligands to AR triggers the conformational changes in AR that may affect the recruitment of coactivators and downstream response of AR signaling pathway. Therefore, AR ligands have great potential to treat these diseases. In this study, we searched for novel AR ligands by performing a docking-based virtual screening (VS) on the basis of the crystal structure of the AR ligand binding domain (LBD) in complex with its agonist. A total of 58 structurally diverse compounds were selected and subjected to LBD affinity assay, with five of them (HBP1-3, HBP1-17, HBP1-38, HBP1-51, and HBP1-58) exhibiting strong binding to AR-LBD. The IC values of HBP1-51 and HBP1-58 are 3.96 µM and 4.92 µM, respectively, which are even lower than that of enzalutamide (Enz, IC = 13.87 µM), a marketed second-generation AR antagonist. Further bioactivity assays suggest that HBP1-51 is an AR agonist, whereas HBP1-58 is an AR antagonist. In addition, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and principal components analysis (PCA) were carried out to reveal the binding principle of the newly-identified AR ligands toward AR. Our modeling results indicate that the conformational changes of helix 12 induced by the bindings of antagonist and agonist are visibly different. In summary, the current study provides a highly efficient way to discover novel AR ligands, which could serve as the starting point for development of new therapeutics for AR-related diseases.
Androgen Receptor Antagonists ; pharmacology ; Androgens ; metabolism ; pharmacology ; Biological Assay ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Drug Discovery ; methods ; Humans ; Ligands ; Male ; Molecular Docking Simulation ; Molecular Dynamics Simulation ; Phenylthiohydantoin ; analogs & derivatives ; pharmacology ; Principal Component Analysis ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Protein Binding ; physiology ; Protein Conformation ; drug effects ; Receptors, Androgen ; metabolism

Objective To evaluate the protective value of cardioplegia solution plus metformin in different cardiac arrest time and concentration of metformin in isolated rat hearts .Methods There were 36 male Sprague–Dawley rats divided into six groups randomly, according to the duration of cardioplegic arrest(30 min or 60min) and the concentrations of metformin(50μmol/L or 100 μmol/L) .Langendorff-perfused Sprague-Dawley rat hearts were perfused for 20 minutes with Krebs-Henseleit buffer followed by 30 or 60 minutes of crystalloid cardioplegia or plus metformin (50 or 100 μmol/L) and 60 minutes of reperfu-sion.The left ventricular performance was recorded at 5 time points.The expressions of AMPKαand phosphorylation of AMPKαwere detected by western Blot.The changes of myocardial mitochondria were observed under transmission electron mi-croscope.Results There were no significant differences in Con(A), 50(A) and 100(A) groups in LVDP, ±dp/dtmax and HR.Compared with Con(B) group subjected to 60 minutes of ischemia followed by 60 minutes of reperfusion, the 100(B) group significantly improved myocardial performance , and the ratio of p-AMPKα/AMPKαwas the highest in all 6 groups.The structure of myocardial mitochondria in 100(B) group was better protected than that of Con(B) group.Conclusion These findings suggested that the left ventricular performance was protected in rat heart perfused by cardioplegia plus 100 μmol/L after 60 minutes cardioplegic arrest .The mechanism may be the activation of AMPK and the protection of structures of myocardial mitochondria.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation and analyze the characteristics of balance function in patients with type 2 diabetes, and to find out the importance of proprioception, vision and vestibular in postural control. METHOD: All subjects were divided into two groups, 37 normal individuals, 33 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. All were assessed by computerized posturography under six upright stance.conditions: including standing on the firm surface and foam with eyes open and closed. RESULT: (1) On anteroposterior,the scores of proprioception, vision and vestibular were 93.96 ± 7.95, 80.22 ± 16.24, 70.87 ± 20.99, the normal were 98.00 ± 2.18, 91.44 ± 6.01, 80.44 ± 7.81. There were significances between diabetes mellitus group and normal control group (P < 0.05) respectively. (2) On lateral, the scores of vision and vestibular were 80.39 ± 12.60, 73.96 ± 16.04, and the normal were 92.11 ± 4.50, 83.18 ± 9.45. There were significances with P < 0.05 between diabetes mellitus group and normal control group. However, there was no obvious difference in proprioception scores between the two groups. (3) The limit of stability of normal group were (176.47 ± 44.13) mm²; diabetic group was (143.13 ± 62.30) mm². There was statistical significance between the group with P < 0.05. (In diabetic patients, there was no significant difference between the no dizziness group and the dizziness group of the scores of proprioceptive, visual, vestibular as well as stable limits, P > 0.05. CONCLUSION The balance function of patients with type 2 diabetes decreased. It is the main characteristic that the vision and vestibular decreased more significantly in the postural control.
Case-Control Studies ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; physiopathology ; Dizziness ; complications ; Humans ; Postural Balance ; Proprioception ; Vertigo ; complications ; Vestibule, Labyrinth ; physiopathology ; Vision, Ocular

Physical exercise of moderate intensity is becoming readily accepted as an adjunct therapy to enhance curative effects of chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer. In this study, we investigated the putative effect of physical exercise on inhibition of breast cancer and the possible mechanism therein involoved. Balb/c female mice were transplanted with BCAP-37 breast xenografts and randomly assigned to four groups: (a) saline control, (b) exercise-only, (c) DHAQ-loaded NPs, (d) exercise + DHAQ-loaded NPs. The mice in exercise groups performed progressive wheel running up to 15 m/min for 30 minutes, 6 d/wk for 4 weeks. Tumor growth delay was significantly longer in the DHAQ-loaded NPs group and the exercise + DHAQ-loaded NPs groups compared with that in the control group (P < 0.05; P < 0.01, respectively). Tumor volume and the value of hemoglobin (HGB) showed significant difference between the DHAQ-loaded NPs and exercise + DHAQ-loaded NPs groups (P < 0.05), suggesting that physical exercise of moderate intensity can significantly induce an influence of DHAQ-loaded NPs on delay in tumor growth, and can enhance the anti-tumor efficacy of DHAQ-loaded PLA-PLL-RGD NPs. It is a contributor to adjuvant therapy for breast cancer.
Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; Drug Carriers ; administration & dosage ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Exercise Therapy ; Female ; Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental ; therapy ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mitoxantrone ; administration & dosage ; Nanoparticles ; administration & dosage ; Random Allocation

significantly increased (all P < 0.01). Following SREBP-1 was down-regulated by siRNA, high glucose-stimulated TGF-β1 and FN protein expressions were decreased by 17.9% and 24.6% ,respectively(all P<0.01).