Objective: To investigate the activation level of NLRP3 inflammasome in immune thrombocytopenia ( ITP) and the effect of inhibiting NLRP3 mediated inflammasome activation on polarization and immune function of M1 macrophages. Methods : The expression of NLRP3 mRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and CD14 + monocytes of ITP patients (ITP group) and Control group (Control group) was detected by RT⁃qPCR. The levels of IL⁃1β and IL⁃18 in serum of the two groups were determined by ELISA. M0 macrophages (MDMs) from ITP group were divided into 4 groups : IgG control group ( IgG group) , MCC950 treatment group ( MCC950 group) , LPS , IFN⁃γ and IgG treatment group (LPS + IFN⁃γ + IgG group) and LPS , IFN⁃γ and MCC950 treatment group (LPS + IFN⁃γ + MCC950 group) ; mRNA and protein levels of M1 macrophage markers CD86 , iNOS and MCP⁃ 1 were detected by RT⁃qPCR and Western blot. Western blot was used to detect the expression of NLRP3 inflammasome associated protein , ASC , Cleaved caspase⁃1 and IL⁃ β . Flow cytometry was used to detect the phagocytosis of MDMs on platelets in each group , and CFSE was used to detect the proliferation of CD4 + T and CD8 + T. Results: Compared with the control group , the expression of NLRP3 mRNA in PBMC and CD14 + monocytes , and the concentration of IL⁃1β and IL⁃18 in serum of ITP group increased significantly ( P < 0. 05 ) . Platelet counts were negative correlated with NLRP3 mRNA expression in CD14 + monocyte and the concentration of IL⁃1β , IL⁃18 in serum in patients with ITP ( P < 0. 05) . Compared with IgG group , the mRNA and protein expressions of M1 macrophage markers CD86 , iNOS , MCP⁃1 , and the protein expression level of NLRP3 , ASC , cleaved caspase⁃1 and IL⁃ β , the platelet phagocytosis and the proliferation promoting ability of CD4 + T and CD8 + T cells significantly increased in LPS + IFN⁃γ + IgG group and LPS + IFN⁃γ + MCC950 group ( all P < 0. 05) . Compared with LPS + IFN⁃γ + IgG group , the above indexes significantly decreased in LPS + IFN⁃γ + MCC950 group (P < 0. 05) . Conclusion The activation level of NLRP3 inflammasome in ITP is abnormally elevated , which was related to the excessive M1 polarization of MDMs. Inhibiting NLRP3 mediated inflammasome activation could attenuate the M1 polarization and immune function of macrophages.

Drimane-type sesquiterpenoids are widely distributed in fungi. From the ethyl acetate extract of the earwig-derived Aspergillus sp. NF2396, seven new drimane-type sesquiterpenoids, named drimanenoids A-G (1-7), were isolated. Their structures were elucidated by diverse spectroscopic analysis including high-resolution ESI-MS, one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. Drimanenoids A-F (1-6) are new members of drimane-type sesquiterpenoid esterified with unsaturated fatty acid side chain at C-6. Drimanenoids C (3), D (4) and F (6) showed antibacterial activity against five types of bacteria with different inhibition diameters. Drimanenoid D (4) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against human myelogenous leukemia cell line K562 with an IC₅₀ value of 12.88 ± 0.11 μmol·L^-1.
Humans ; Polycyclic Sesquiterpenes ; Sesquiterpenes/chemistry* ; Aspergillus/chemistry* ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; Molecular Structure

Background/Aims: Some inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in remission suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)-like symptoms (IBD-IBS). The pathogenesis has not yet been elucidated. The study aim is to evaluate relationships among quality of life (QOL), psychological status, and visceral sensitivity, and explore the formation mechanism of IBD-IBS. Methods: Forty-seven patients with Crohn’s disease in remission, 24 ulcerative colitis in remission, 26 IBS, and 20 healthy controls were included in the study. The abdominal pain, QOL, anxiety, and depression were evaluated through questionnaires. Visceral sensitivity was measured by rectal balloon distension. The serum levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and nerve growth factor (NGF) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The expressions of tryptase, 5-HT, NGF, and related receptors in colonic tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry and western blot. Results: Prevalence of IBS-like symptoms in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis patients in clinical remission was 29.8% and 50.0%, respectively. The QOL was lower, the anxiety/depression scores were higher in IBD-IBS patients than those without IBS-like symptoms. Additionally, patients with IBD-IBS existed visceral hypersensitivity. Besides, abdominal pain was associated with poor QOL, visceral hypersensitivity, anxiety, and depression in IBD-IBS patients. The number of mast cells (MCs) and expressions of 5-HT, NGF, and related receptors were higher in IBD-IBS patients than those with no such symptoms. The serum levels of 5-HT and NGF positively correlated with abdominal pain and visceral hypersensitivity. Conclusion IBD-IBS patients may have low QOL and psychological abnormalities, as wells as visceral hypersensitivity which may be related to increased 5-HT and NGF levels released from activated mast cells.

Background/Aims: Some inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in remission suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)-like symptoms (IBD-IBS). The pathogenesis has not yet been elucidated. The study aim is to evaluate relationships among quality of life (QOL), psychological status, and visceral sensitivity, and explore the formation mechanism of IBD-IBS. Methods: Forty-seven patients with Crohn’s disease in remission, 24 ulcerative colitis in remission, 26 IBS, and 20 healthy controls were included in the study. The abdominal pain, QOL, anxiety, and depression were evaluated through questionnaires. Visceral sensitivity was measured by rectal balloon distension. The serum levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and nerve growth factor (NGF) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The expressions of tryptase, 5-HT, NGF, and related receptors in colonic tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry and western blot. Results: Prevalence of IBS-like symptoms in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis patients in clinical remission was 29.8% and 50.0%, respectively. The QOL was lower, the anxiety/depression scores were higher in IBD-IBS patients than those without IBS-like symptoms. Additionally, patients with IBD-IBS existed visceral hypersensitivity. Besides, abdominal pain was associated with poor QOL, visceral hypersensitivity, anxiety, and depression in IBD-IBS patients. The number of mast cells (MCs) and expressions of 5-HT, NGF, and related receptors were higher in IBD-IBS patients than those with no such symptoms. The serum levels of 5-HT and NGF positively correlated with abdominal pain and visceral hypersensitivity. Conclusion IBD-IBS patients may have low QOL and psychological abnormalities, as wells as visceral hypersensitivity which may be related to increased 5-HT and NGF levels released from activated mast cells.

Objective: To investigate whether the combination of oral propranolol and topical 0.5% timolol maleate cream is more effective than oral propranolol alone for treating infantile hemangioma (IH). Methods: From September 2015 to July 2016, 14 patients with proliferative IH, visited the infantile hemangioma outpatient clinic of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery of Shanghai 9th People′s Hospital, were enrolled in this study. All patients took oral propranolol. Half of each IH lesion was treated with 0.5% timolol maleate cream. There were 5 male patients and 9 female patients, aged from 1.5 to 5.0 months. After 4 months of treatment, the color, size, extent, volume and the overall clinical outcomes of each lesion were measured, and the side effects were recorded. The therapeutic outcomes of oral propranolol alone and the combination of propranolol and timolol were analyzed and compared using Wilcoxon matched-pair signed-rank nonparametric tests. Results: Both oral propranolol alone and oral propranolol combined with topical 0.5% timolol maleate cream were proved to effectively improve the regression of IH with minor side effects. The color VAS score of oral propranolol alone group was 6.92±2.63, while the combination group was 6.88±2.33 (Z=0.043, P=0.966). The volume VAS score of oral propranolol alone group was 6.94±2.00, while the combination group was 6.98±2.11(Z=-0.051, P=0.959). Conclusions Oral propranolol combined with topical application of 0.5% timolol maleate could not increase the efficacy in the treatment of IH, compared with oral propranolol alone in the short-term observation.

Objective To investigate the expressions of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and brain natrium peptide (BNP) in patients with diastolic heart failure (DHF),and to explore the correlation between plasma levels of TGF-β1,BNP and TGF-β1/BNP with parameter of diastolic function,diastolic dysfunction and New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification of cardiac function.Methods Hospitalized patients with DHF from October 2016 to November 2017 in Beijing Chaoyang Hospital were selected as subjects.At the same time,the age-and gender-matched non-heart failure hospitalized patients were selected as the control.The diastolic function index (E/e') was measured using cardiac ultrasound spectral Doppler and tissue Doppler methods.The diastolic dysfunction classification was evaluated according to the American Society of Echocardiography guidelines.Cardiac function was evaluated with NYHA classification.The levels of plasma TGF-β1 and BNP were measured with method of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).The correlation between the indicators was analyzed and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn.Results A total of 186 patients were enrolled,including 114 patients as DHF group [54 males and 60 females,mean age (70.75 ± 11.45) years old] and 72 cases as control group [41 males and 31 females,mean age (68.74 ± 10.86) years old].The levels of TGF-β1 [(77.68 ± 42.31) ng/L] and BNP [(1 153.84 ± 564.96) ng/L] in patients with DHF were significantly higher than those of the control group [(18.76 ± 13.70),(264.07 ± 179.43) ng/L,t =15.62,13.77,P ＜ 0.01].Pearson correlation analysis showed that level of plasma TGF-β1 had a significant liner correlation with index E/e' (r =0.582,P ＜ 0.01),level of plasma BNP had a low-degree liner correlation with index E/e' (r =0.261,P ＜ 0.01),and TGF-β1/BNP had no correlation with index E/e' (r =0.081,P ＞ 0.05).Spearman correlation analysis showed that the levels of TGF-β1 and BNP were significantly correlated with diastolic dysfunction grading (r =0.473,0.417,P ＜ 0.01),while TGF-β1/BNP had no correlation with diastolic dysfunction grading (r =0.062,P ＞ 0.05).Plasma TGF-β1 and BNP had low-degree correlation with NYHA classification of heart failure (r =0.309,0.326,P ＜ 0.01),TGF-β1/BNP had no correlation with NYHA classification of heart failure (r =0.011,P ＞ 0.05).Logistic analysis showed that both plasma TGF-β1 and BNP were independent predictors of DHF (OR =1.264,2.283,P ＜ 0.05 or ＜ 0.01).The area under ROC curve (AUC) of BNP for prediction of DHF was 0.937 ± 0.064,and TGF-β1 was 0.597 ± 0.042.AUC areas of BNP and TGF-β1 were significantly different (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions The expressions of plasma TGF-β1 and BNP in patients with DHF are higher than those without DHF.The levels of plasma TGF-β1 and BNP are significantly correlated with index E/e',diastolic dysfunction grading and NYHA classification.Both elevated BNP and TGF-β1 levels are independent predictors of DHF.Both plasma BNP and TGF-β1 have auxiliary diagnostic value on DHF and the diagnostic value of plasma BNP is greater than plasma TGF-β1.

Animals ; Base Pairing ; Binding Sites ; CCCTC-Binding Factor ; metabolism ; Consensus Sequence ; Humans ; Mutation ; Nucleotide Motifs

Objective To investigate the clinical value of dynamic glucose monitoring in the middle and late pregnant women with diabetes mellitus,and the related clinical and nursing measures.Methods One hundred admitting cases of the middle and late pregnant women with diabetes mellitus were grouped according to the random number table,50 cases of the control group were treated with finger tip blood glucose monitoring and conventional treatment,50 cases of dynamic blood glucose monitoring and comprehensive clinical and nursing intervention for the observation group.The blood glucose control situation with different time,the incidence of hypoglycemia,the actual control range of the glycosylated hemoglobinblood and the length of hospital stay and so on were evaluated in two groups.Results The incidence of hypoglycemia in the observation group was 6.0％ (3/50),the control group was 24.0％ (12/50),the difference was statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).In the early morning,after breakfast 2 h,before and after lunch 2 h,before and after dinner 2 h and before bed and other different time,the blood glucose level with the observation group was lower than that in the control group (P ＜ 0.05).At the same time,in the blood glucose effective controlling time,hospitalization time,the observation group was better than the control group (P ＜ 0.05).The blood glucose level and the detection range of the glycosylated hemoglobin were also detected in the safe state for outpatient follow-up after hospital discharge.Conclusions The intervention of dynamic blood glucose monitoring and comprehensive clinical and nursing measures in middle and late pregnant women with diabetes mellitus is conducive to control blood glucose level timely and accurately and to improve their prognosis.It is the key to the success of the future obstetric prevention and diagnosis and treatment of the disease,and is recommended clinical popularization.

This survey included 59 secondary researches of traditional pharmaceutical patent literatures. The analysis was made on statistical indicator of the amount of annual papers, authors, institutions, published journals and re-search contents. The survey revealed that in the field of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the number of sec-ondary research of patent literature was on the increase, and the degree of concern of TCM patent was far more than others. This survey not only assisted the understanding of current condition of TCM patent literatures, but also held its development trend in order to apply it in the studies.