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This research was to analyze the effect of flavored Tongxie Yaofang on diarrheal irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by the situation of intestinal microecology. The treatment mechanism was analyzed, so as to provide a more effective treatment method for patients clinically. 60 IBS patients were selected as the research objects and were divided according to the different treatment methods. For the control group (n = 20 cases), oral pinaverium bromide tablets were given. For the treatment group (n = 40 cases), the flavored Tongxie Yaofang decoction was given in addition to conventional treatment. The curative effects on the two groups of patients were evaluated in combination with the changes in intestinal microecology. With the syndrome score, the total effective rate of the treatment group (92.5%) was obviously superior to the control group (80%) ( P < 0.05 ). The clinical symptoms such as abdominal pain, abdominal distension, and diarrhea in the treatment group were significantly relieved after treatment in contrast to the control group ( P < 0.05 ). Intestinal Bifidobacterium, Escherichia coli, and Bifidobacterium/Escherichia coli (B/E) ratio were all greatly higher than those in the control group ( P < 0.05 ). In summary, flavored Tongxie Yaofang had a good effect in improving the symptoms of patients with diarrheal IBS and improved the microflora of Bifidobacterium and Escherichia coli in the intestinal tract of patients.

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is a common malignant tumor. The aim of the present study was to analyze the application value of serum pepsinogen (PG), carbohydrate antigen 72-4 (CA72-4), and gastrin-17 (G-17) detection in the screening, diagnosis, and evaluation of early gastric cancer. METHODS: In total, 122 patients with gastric cancer treated in our hospital from January 2018 to January 2021 were selected as the gastric cancer group and subdivided into the early gastric cancer (group A) and advanced gastric cancer (group B) groups. Sixty-five patients with benign gastric disease treated in the same hospital during the same period were selected as the control group, and 122 healthy people who underwent physical examination during the same period were allocated to the control group. The differences in the levels of G-17, PGI, PGII, PGI/PGII, and CA72-4 were compared; receiver-operating characteristic curves were drawn; and the efficacy of different factors in the diagnosis of early gastric cancer was calculated. RESULTS: G-17, PGI, and PGI/PGII levels in the gastric cancer group were significantly lower than those in the healthy group, and CA72-4 was significantly higher than that in the healthy group (P0.05). G-17, PGI, and PGI/PGII levels in groups A and B were significantly lower than those in the control group. CA72-4 in groups A and B was significantly higher than that of the control group, and was highest in group B (P

A large amount of unstructured data are being continuously generated by mobile applications, e.g., Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, due to the popularity of smart devices, e.g., iPad, iWatch and smartphone. These data are undoubtedly of great value but need to be first well stored and then analyzed. Nevertheless, traditional relational database management system (RDBMS) is not well qualified for this job. As a result, NoSQL databases are proposed and become very popular. Judging from the present situations, RDMBSs play a better role in managing relational data, and thus application developers have to face the situation of co-existence of both RDBMS and NoSQL databases, and knowing the details of the underlying data distributions and structures of different databases. To this end, in this paper, we aim to propose a unified, transparent query engine, as a middleware, called "ZQL", by using MySQL and Hive as underlying two exemplary databases, however its usage goes far beyond these two databases. ZQL aims to support application development by hiding the specific details of both NoSQL databases and RDBMS. Finally, extensive experimental results show the effectiveness and functionalities of the proposed and implemented ZQL middleware.

Fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) is a member of the FGFR family of receptor tyrosine kinases, and plays important roles in a variety of biological functions such as cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, angiogenesis, tissue repair, and tumorigenesis. The human FGFRs share a high degree of sequence homology between themselves, as well as with their murine homologs. Consequently, it has been suggested that it may be difficult to prepare monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that are specific for the individual receptor types. In this communication, we report on the development and characterization of a panel of anti-human FGFR4 MAbs that were generated in mice using a rapid immunization protocol. Using a modified rapid immunization at multiple sites (RIMMS) protocol with the soluble extracellular domain of human FGFR4 (FGFR4-ECD), the immunized mice developed high levels of polyclonal IgG to the immunogen within 13 days of the first immunization. The lymph node cells isolated from the immunized animals were then fused with mouse myeloma cells for hybridoma generation. Use of an efficient hybridoma cloning protocol in combination with an ELISA screening procedure allowed for early identification of stable hybridomas secreting antihuman FGFR4 IgG. Several identified MAbs specifically reacted with the FGFR4 protein without binding to the other human isoforms (FGFR1, FGFR2, and FGFR3). As evaluated by BIAcore analysis, most anti-FGFR4 MAbs displayed high affinities (8.6 x 10(8) approximately 3.9 x 10(10) M) to FGFR4. Furthermore, these MAbs were able to bind to FGFR4 expressed on human breast tumor cell lines MDA-MB-361 and MDA-MB-453. Taken together, the results demonstrate that the RIMMS strategy is an effective approach for generating class-switched, high-affinity MAbs in mice to evolutionarily conserved proteins such as human FGFR4. These MAbs may be useful tools for further investigation of the biological functions and pathological roles of human FGFR4.

Tonsils seem to be the ideal source for lymphocytes seeding to the mucosa of the respiratory tract. The distribution and engraftment of human lymphocytes injected into mice with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) are not well understood. C.B-17 SCID mice were injected intraperitoneally with human tonsillar mononuclear cells (hu-TMC). The hu-TMC-SCID mouse chimeras were subsequently tested for the appearance and distribution of human lymphocytes tagged with H33342 and immunoglobulin-secreting cells in various systemic and mucosal immunocompetent tissues. This was done by fluorescence microscopy of tissue sections for cells supravitally stained before transfer and by an enzyme-linked immunospot assay using cells isolated from murine organs. Most importantly, engraftment of hu-TMC proved to be dependent on the presence of anti-Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antibody in the donor. hu-TMC engrafted, in decreasing numbers, in the following systemic organs: peritoneal cavity, liver, spleen and bone marrow. Among mucosal tissues tested, hu-TMC were seen in lungs, but not in the intestines. The engraftment of hu-TMC in the lung was more extensive than that in the spleen. These studies demonstrate that hu-TMC engraft in a variety of murine tissues. The striking preference of hu-TMC for the lungs when compared to intestines suggests selective engraftment among distinct mucosal tissues. The hu-TMC-SCID mouse chimera promises to be a unique animal model to study human-mucosa-associated lymphoid cells and EBV-related lymphomagenesis and B cell tumor progression.

Tissue factor (TF) plays an important, physiological role in hemostasis. Recent studies have demonstrated the over-expression of TF in a number of solid tumor types and its pathological roles in angiogenesis and tumor metastasis. In this study, we report the development and characterization of a panel of murine MAbs that are specific for human TF, but do not inhibit TF-mediated blood coagulation. By using a modified repetitive immunizations at multiple sites (RIMMS) protocol in conjunction with an efficient hybridoma cloning procedure, anti-TF MAbs were generated within a relatively short time frame of 5-6 weeks. Following primary screening by ELISA, the binding of the MAbs to the native form of human TF was demonstrated in flow cytometry using a stable cell line expressing human TF. Several of these TF-specific MAbs did not inhibit blood coagulation in a blood coagulation assay and bound with high affinity (0.5-2 nM) to human TF in BIAcore analyses. Importantly, this study represents an independent evaluation of the RIMMS strategy for MAb generation and demonstrates that class-switched, high-affinity MAbs can be generated rapidly and reliably using RIMMS.

There is considerable interest in developing immunotherapeutic approaches to elicit tumor-specific CTL responses in cancer patients. Epitope-based approaches aim to deliver the antigenic peptides or epitopes recognized by CTLs rather than the intact tumor antigen. Many tumor-associated proteins are nonmutated self proteins for which the dominant peptide epitopes are usually poorly immunogenic. The subdominant epitopes, however, can elicit robust T cell responses if optimized for their ability to bind to class I MHC molecules. Only the epitopes for a few tumor antigens expressed in human cancers have been defined to this level, mainly for technical reasons. The means to rapidly screen and characterize the binding of epitopes derived from complex tumor-associated antigens is an important enabling technology. Here, we have used the high-throughput technology iTopia to identify those peptides derived from the tumor-associated antigen survivin that bind 8 class I alleles. A library of overlapping nonamers spanning the length of the survivin protein was initially screened for peptides capable of binding each allele. Nineteen HLA-A*0201, zero HLA-A*0101, seven HLA-A*0301, twelve HLA-A*1101, twenty-four HLA-A*2402, six HLA-B*0702, six HLA-B*0801, and eight HLA-B*1501 binding peptides were identified based on an arbitrary cutoff. Peptides capable of binding a given allele were further characterized by their affinity for MHC class I molecules and by the rate of dissociation of the complex. This information should help guide functional studies and future epitope-based immunotherapies.

APC-associated B7 and ETC-1 /B7-2 are two major costimulatory molecules for full activation of T lymphocytes during auto- and allogeneic immune responses. In this report, we further examine the role of the two molecules in murine CD4+T cell activation and anergy development. As suggested in antibody blocking studies, optimal activation of CD4+ T cells in response to anti-CD3 stimulation requires collaborative signaling through the two molecules. Simultaneous blockade of B7 and ETC-1 /B7-2 renders CD4+ T cells unresponsive to anti-CD3 restimulation. PCR analysis and cytokine reconstitution studies show that the observed unresponsiveness is correlated to a significant reduction of Th1- type cytokine production, suggesting B7 and ETC-1/B7-2-mediated costimulatory signaling may be specifically active in regulation of the function of the Th1 subset.

The B cell surface molecule designated B7 has been shown to be expressed by activated human B cells and monocytes and to be a ligand for the CD28 and CTLA-4 molecules on T cells. B7/CD28 interactions can provide a second signal to T cells (in addition to occupancy of the T cell antigen receptor) that is needed for T cell activation. COS cells transfected with the mouse homologue of B7 have been demonstrated to provide a stimulatory signal to murine and human T cells. In this report we describe a rat anti-mouse B7 mAb designated 1G10. Scatchard and/or FACS analyses utilizing 1G10 demonstrated that B7 was not expressed on resting splenic T cells or B cells, but could be induced at high levels on B cells cocultured with a syngeneic I-Ak-restricted autoreactive T cell hybridoma. Furthermore, activation of B cells with dibutyryl-cAMP (db-cAMP), a second messenger for class II MHC signaling, or with LPS induced the expression of B7 and the two agents showed additive effects. In contrast to B cells, freshly isolated mouse peritoneal macrophages constitutively expressed B7. Antibody-blocking experiments indicated that anti-B7 antibody partially inhibited T cell proliferative responses to primary antigenic stimulation but had no effect on the responses of previously activated T cells to antigenic restimulation.

One of the major problems using man-mouse chimeras is still the difficulty to demonstrate unequivocally engraftment of human cells in murine tissues. Using supravital labelling of human leukocytes with the Hoechst dye H33342, it was possible to demonstrate directly their engraftment and to assess their distribution in the tissues of the severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice. The human cells can be traced for a period of 4-5 weeks. In contrast to earlier reports, combined marker and labelled-cell studies suggest that T-cell surface marker CD3 with reported specificity for human lymphocytes are indeed found, also in man-mouse chimeras, only on human cells. The ratio of B and T cells of human origin changes significantly after transfer into SCID mice and differs among various SCID tissues. The simple staining procedure using the supravital nuclear dye H33342 opens new possibilities for the study of cellular interactions and host responses of the human immunoreactive cells in an increasingly well-characterized animal model.

Hepatic granulomatous lesions were induced in mice by a single intraperitoneal injection of 3 mg of disrupted Streptococcus pyogenes cell-wall material. Mice carrying the H-2 b or H-2 k haplotypes were highly susceptible to the induction and three weeks after the injection produced numerous granulomas. In contrast, mice of the H-2 d haplotype were resistant and produced only a few hepatic granulomas. Resistance was inherited as a dominant trait and in the backcross generation segregated together with the H-2 d phenotype. Testing of the H-2-recombinant mice indicated that the putative gene(s) determining resistance/susceptibility is located to the right of the S and to the left of the D region. Thes location corresponds to the recently described gene cluster consisting of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and lymphotoxin genes and several BAT sequences. The known effect of TNF on granuloma formation in mice is consistent with a possible effect of TNF genes, and their variants, on S. pyogenes-inducibility of hepatic granulomas in mice.