Search

Figure S1, Schematic diagrams of the esophageal wall after submucosal saline injection (SSI); Figure S2, Receiver operating characteristic curves of submucosal saline injection followed by endoscopic ultrasound and endoscopic ultrasound only for distinguishing T1a and T1b esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; Table S1, The diagnostic performance of submucosal saline injection followed by EUS (SSI+EUS) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in sub-staging T1 stage esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; Table S2, The diagnostic performance of submucosal saline injection followed by EUS (SSI+EUS) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in sub-staging T1 stage esophageal squamous cell carcinoma among patients without postoperative atypical hyperplasia.

Atrial fibrosis induced by aging is one of the main causes of atrial fibrillation (AF), but the potential molecular mechanism is not clear. Acetyltransferase p300 participates in the cellular senescence and fibrosis, which might be involved in the age-related atrial fibrosis. Four microarray datasets generated from atrial tissue of AF patients and sinus rhythm (SR) controls were analyzed to find the possible relationship of p300 (EP300) with senescence and fibrosis. And then, biochemical assays and in vivo electrophysiological examination were performed on older AF patients, aging mice, and senescent atrial fibroblasts. The results showed that (1) the left atrial tissues of older AF patients, aging mouse, and senescence human atrial fibroblasts had more severe atrial fibrosis and higher protein expression levels of p300, p53/acetylated p53 (ac-p53)/p21, Smad3/p-Smads, and fibrosis-related factors. (2) p300 inhibitor curcumin and p300 knockdown treated aging mouse and senescence human atrial fibroblasts reduced the senescence ratio of atrial fibroblasts, ameliorated the atrial fibrosis, and decreased the AF inducibility. In contrast, over-expression of p300 can lead to the senescence of atrial fibroblasts and atrial fibrosis. (3) p53 knockdown decreased the expression of aging and fibrosis-related proteins. (4) Co-immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence showed that p53 forms a complex with smad3 and directly regulates the expression of smad3 in atrial fibroblasts. Our findings suggest that the mechanism of atrial fibrosis induced by aging is, at least, partially dependent on the regulation of p300, which provides new sights into the AF treatment, especially for the elderly.

Hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida Bunge. var. major) is an edible and medicinal fruit that is very common in food and traditional Chinese medicine. Corosolic acid (CA), a pentacyclic triterpenoid, which is an active component of hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida Bunge. var. major), has been exhibiting various pharmacological activities such as antidiabetic, antibacterial, anticancer, antiinflammatory, and antioxidant effects. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of CA on non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in mice induced by 60 kcal% high-fat diet (HFD) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4 ). CA lowered liver index and serum AST, ALT, TG, and TC levels compared to those in the model group. Histological analyses of the liver tissues of mice treated with CA revealed significantly decreased number of lipid droplets and alleviated inflammation and fibrosis. CA inhibited the transcripts of pro-fibrogenic markers (including α-SMA, collagen I, and TIMP-1) and the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (including TNF-α, IL-1β, caspase-1, and IL-6) associated with hepatic fibrosis, and NF-κB translocation and TGF-β1/Smad2 and AMPK pathways. In addition, CA reduced lipid accumulation via the regulation of AMPK and NF-κB activation in FFA-induced steatotic HepG2 cells. CA also decreased α-SMA, collagen I expressions, and Smad2 phosphorylation, which were reduced by TGF-β1 treatment in LX2 cells. Our results suggested that CA ameliorated NASH through regulating TGF-β1/Smad2, NF-κB, and AMPK signaling pathways, and CA could be developed as a potential health functional food or therapeutic agent for NASH patients.

Purpose: To examine whether submucosal saline injection (SSI) can improve traditional endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) accuracy in distinguishing between T1a and T1b stage esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Experimental Design: Patients with T1N0M0 stage ESCC (n = 180) ages 18 to 85 years were enrolled between February 14, 2012 to June 4, 2018 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (Guangdong, China). They were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either EUS examination after 3–5 mL SSI or EUS only examination. All the patients were referred to thoracic surgeons to receive endoscopic resection (ER) or esophagectomy 5 to 10 days after EUS examination. Standard EUS criteria were used to preoperatively stage the ESCC cases, and surgical pathology reports after referral were used to postoperatively stage the cases. The primary endpoint was the diagnostic accuracy of T1b staging [defined as the sum of the true positive (T1b) and true negative (T1a) cases divided by the total number of cases]. Results: Among the per-protocol population, the SSI+EUS group (n = 81) was superior to the EUS-only group (n = 85) in terms of the diagnostic accuracy for T1b staging [93.8% (95% confidence interval (CI), 88.6–99.1) vs. 65.9% (95% CI, 55.8–76.0); P < 0.001]. The positive predictive value of SSI+EUS for diagnosing T1b ESCC reached 90.9% (95% CI, 81.1–100), which was significantly superior to that of EUS only [0.576 (0.450-0.702), P = 0.001]. Conclusions: SSI significantly improves the diagnostic accuracy of EUS in distinguishing between T1a and T1b ESCC, which might help avoid unnecessary esophagectomy and diagnostic ER.

Corosolic acid (CA) is the main active component of Lagetstroemia speciosa and has been known to serve as several different pharmacological effects, such as antidiabetic, anti-oxidant, and anticancer effects. In this study, effects of CA on the hepatic lipid accumulation were examined using HepG2 cells and tyloxapol (TY)-induced hyperlipidemia ICR mice. CA significantly inhibited hepatic lipid accumulation via inhibition of SREBPs, and its target genes FAS, SCD1, and HMGCR transcription in HepG2 cells. These effects were mediated through activation of AMPK, and these effects were all abolished in the presence of compound C (CC, an AMPK inhibitor). In addition, CA clearly alleviated serum ALT, AST, TG, TC, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, and obviously attenuated TY-induced liver steatosis and inflammation. Moreover, CA significantly upregulated AMPK, ACC, LKB1 phosphorylation, and significantly inhibited lipin1, SREBPs, TNF-[Formula: see text], F4/80, caspase-1 expression, NF-[Formula: see text]B translocation, and MAPK activation in TY-induced hyperlipidemia mice. Our results suggest that CA is a potent antihyperlipidemia and antihepatic steatosis agent and the mechanism involved both lipogenesis and cholesterol synthesis and inflammation response inhibition via AMPK/SREBPs and NF-[Formula: see text]B/MAPK signaling pathways.

Large numbers of chemosensory genes have been identified in the peripheral sensory organs of the pest

Ginsenoside Re is a protopanaxatriol-type saponin extracted from the berry, leaf, stem, flower bud, and root of Panax ginseng. In recent years, ginsenoside Re (Re) has been attracting attention as a dietary phytochemical. In this review, studies on Re were compiled by searching a combination of keywords, namely “pharmacology,” “pharmacokinetics,” and “toxicology,” in the Google Scholar, NCBI, PubMed, and Web of Science databases. The aim of this review was to provide an exhaustive overview of the pharmacological activities, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity of Re, focusing on clinical evidence that has shown effectiveness in specific diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, nervous system diseases, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Re is also known to eliminate virus, enhance the immune response, improve osteoporosis, improve skin barrier function, enhance intracellular anti-oxidant actions, regulate cholesterol metabolism, alleviate allergic responses, increase sperm motility, reduce erectile dysfunction, promote cyclic growth of hair follicles, and reduce gastrointestinal motility dysfunction. Furthermore, this review provides data on pharmacokinetic parameters and toxicological factors to examine the safety profile of Re. Such data will provide a theoretical basis and reference for Re-related studies and future applications.

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of artemether emulsion in patients with papulopustular rosacea.Methods: A total of 130 (randomized 1:1) were externally administered either artemether e...

Purpose Jatrorrhizine (JAT) is a natural protoberberine alkaloid, possesses detoxification, bactericidal and hypoglycemic activities. However, its anti-cancer mechanism is not clear. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of JAT through which inhibits colorectal cancer in HCT-116 and HT-29 cells. Methods MTT assay and colony formation assay were used to check the cell proliferation ability. Cell apoptosis and cell cycle were measured by Hoechst 33342 staining and flow cytometry, respectively. Cell migration and invasion were detected by scratch wound healing assay and trans-well assay, respectively. Further, expression of related proteins was examined via Western blotting and the in vivo anti-cancer effect of JAT was confirmed by nude mice xenograft model. Results The research showed that JAT inhibited the proliferation of HCT-116 and HT-29 cells with IC50 values of 6.75±0.29 μM and 5.29±0.13 μM, respectively, for 72 hrs. It has also showed a time dependently, cell cycle arrested in S phase, promoted cell apoptosis and suppressed cell migration and invasion. In addition, JAT inhibited Wnt signaling pathway by reducing β-catenin and increasing GSK-3β expressions. Increased expression of E-cadherin, while decreased N-cadherin, indicating that JAT treatment suppressed the process of cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In HCT-116 nude mice xenograft model, JAT inhibited tumor growth and metastasis, and induced apoptosis of tumor cells. Conclusion This study demonstrated that JAT efficiently inhibited colorectal cancer cells growth and metastasis, which provides a new point for clinical treatment of colorectal cancer.

The micro-sized materials have low processing difficulty, which ought to be more suited for practical applications. Here, a novel micron-sized NiCo2O4 pompon is first obtained by the synergistic effect observed in the co-template method. The obtained product has a larger specific surface area of 109.62 m2/g and higher pore volume of 0.30 cm3/g than that of blank sample. Aided by the unique morphological superiority, it exhibits high specific capacitance of 2201.7 F/g at 2 A/g, good rate performance of 1296.8 F/g even at 20 A/g, and desirable cyclic stability of 14.2% degradation over 3000 continuous cycles at 10 A/g. The performance is better compared to most NiCo2O4 electrodes in similar reports. The co-templates controlled synthesis shows advantages of simpleness, practicality and high efficiency, and should bring high application value in electrode synthesis.

Background: Re-Du-Ning inhalation solution (RIS) is a novel preparation derived from the Re-Du-Ning injection, which has been clinically used to treat respiratory diseases such as pneumonia for more than twenty years in China. However, scant reports have been issued on its anti-inflammatory mechanisms. Aim: we investigated the suppressive effect of RIS on inflammatory mediators and explored the underlying mechanism of action. Methods: RIS freeze dried powder was characterized by HPLC analysis. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage was selected as the cell model. The cell viability was determined by using the MTT assay. Moreover, the production of nitric oxide (NO) was measured by the Griess reaction. The protein secretions from inflammatory mediators were determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The protein levels and enzyme activities were examined by Western blotting. The nuclear translocation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), AP-1, and IRF3 was further explored by immunofluorescence assay. Results: the viability of the RAW 264.7 cells was not significantly changed after 24 h incubation with RIS concentration up to 400 μg mL−1. The RIS remarkably reduced the production of NO and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and downregulated the expression of iNOS and COX-2. The concentrations of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α) and chemokines (MCP-1, CCL-5, and MIP-1α) in the culture medium were significantly decreased by the RIS treatment. Furthermore, the phosphorylation of IκB-α, IKKα/β, TBK1, ERK, p38, JNK, NF-κB, AP-1, and IRF3 was downregulated by the RIS treatment. The nuclear translocation of NF-κB, AP-1, and IRF3 was also inhibited after the RIS treatment. Conclusion: the suppressive effect of RIS is associated with the regulated NF-κB, AP-1, and IRF3 and their upstream proteins. This study provides a pharmacological basis for the application of RIS in the treatment of inflammatory disorders.

To analyze the expression of pro-platelet basic protein and transcription factor activating enhancer binding protein 4 genes in non-small cell lung cancer and the prognostic value. 94 patients with non-small cell lung cancer undergoing lung cancer resection in our hospital from January 2015 to January 2016 were selected as study subjects and pro-platelet basic protein and transcription factor activating enhancer binding protein 4 messenger RNA expressions in cancer tissues and paracancerous tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry and other methods. The relationship between different levels of pro-platelet basic protein and transcription factor activating enhancer binding protein 4 messenger RNA expression levels and clinicopathological characteristics of patients was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves, used for survival analysis. Transcription factor activating enhancer binding protein 4 was lower in non-small cell lung cancer tissues than in paraneoplastic tissues (p

Heart disease is the deadliest disease and one of leading causes of death worldwide. Machine learning is playing an essential role in the medical side. In this paper, ensemble learning methods are used to enhance the performance of predicting heart disease. Two features of extraction methods: linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and principal component analysis (PCA), are used to select essential features from the dataset. The comparison between machine learning algorithms and ensemble learning methods is applied to selected features. The different methods are used to evaluate models: accuracy, recall, precision, F-measure, and ROC.The results show the bagging ensemble learning method with decision tree has achieved the best performance.

The aim of this paper is to present and study topological properties of D α -derived, D α -border, D α -frontier, and D α -exterior of a set based on the concept of D α -open sets. Then, we introduce new separation axioms (i.e., D α − R 0 and D α − R 1 ) by using the notions of D α -open set and D α -closure. The space of D α − R 0 (resp., D α − R 1 ) is strictly between the spaces of α − R 0 (resp., α − R 1 ) and g − R 0 (resp., g − R 1 ). Further, we present the notions of D α -kernel and D α -convergent to a point and discuss the characterizations of interesting properties between D α -closure and D α -kernel. Finally, several properties of weakly D α − R 0 space are investigated.

Corosolic acid (CA) is the main active component of

Multiway join queries incur high-cost I/Os operations over large-scale data. Exploiting sharing join opportunities among multiple multiway joins could be beneficial to reduce query execution time and shuffled intermediate data. Although multiway join optimization has been carried out in MapReduce, different design principles (i.e., in-memory Big Data platforms, Flink) are not considered. To bridge the gap of not considering the optimization of Big Data platforms, an end-to-end multiway join over Flink, which is called Join-MOTH system (J-MOTH), is proposed to exploit sharing data granularity, sharing join granularity, and sharing implicit sorts within multiple join queries. For sharing data, our previous work, Multiquery Optimization using Tuple Size and Histogram (MOTH) system, has been introduced to consider the granularity of sharing data opportunities among multiple queries. For sharing sort, our previous work, Sort-Based Optimizer for Big Data Multiquery (SOOM), has been introduced to consider the implicit sorts among join queries. For sharing join, additional modules have been tailored to the J-MOTH optimizer to optimize sharing work by exploiting shared pipelined multiway join among multiple multiway join queries. The experimental evaluation has demonstrated that the J-MOTH system outperforms the naive and the state-of-the-art techniques by 44% for query execution time using TPC-H queries. Also, the proposed J-MOTH system introduces maximal intermediate data size reduction by 30% in average over Hadoop-like infrastructures.

Background Enlarged retropharyngeal lymph nodes (RLNs) are very common in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) undergoing radiotherapy. The most suitable treatment option for enlarged RLNs depends on the pathological results. However, RLN sampling is difficult and imminent in the clinic setting. We recently developed a novel minimally invasive technique termed endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) for sampling RLN tissues sufficient for pathological or cytological diagnosis. Methods We enrolled 30 post-radiotherapy patients with NPC with suspected RLN metastasis detected via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The EUS probe was introduced into the nasopharynx via the nostrils, and EUS was then used to scan the retropharyngeal space and locate the RLN in the anterior carotid sheath. EUS-FNA was subsequently performed. The safety and efficacy of using EUS-FNA to sample the RLN tissues were assessed. Results Strips of tissue were successfully sampled from all patients using EUS-FNA. Of the 30 patients, 23 were confirmed to have cancer cells in the biopsied tissues via pathology or cytology examinations with 1 EUS-FNA biopsy session. The seven cases without confirmed cancer cells were subsequently reanalyzed by using another EUS-FNA biopsy session, and two more cases were confirmed possessing cancer cells. The other five patients without confirmed cancer cells were closely followed with MRI every month for 3 months. After follow-up for 3 months, three patients were still considered cancer-free due to the presence of RLNs with stable or shrinking diameters. The rest two patients who showed progressive disease underwent a third EUS-FNA biopsy procedure and were further confirmed to be cancer cell-positive. In the whole cohort reported here, the EUS-FNA procedure was not associated with any severe complications. Conclusion EUS-FNA is a safe and effective diagnostic approach for sampling tissues from the RLNs in patients with suspected recurrent NPC.

Hypertension is one of the risk factors for coronary heart disease. The present study investigated the mechanism of contractile dysfunction induced by serotonin (5-HT) in coronary artery in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Coronary arteries were isolated form SHRs and Wistar rats. Arterial ring contraction was measured using a multi myograph system. Intracellular calcium concentration was measured with a Ca2+ probe fluo-4/AM in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) isolated from coronary arteries. Signaling pathway-related proteins were assayed by western blotting. A 5-HT2A receptor blocker, sarpogrelate, completely eliminated coronary artery contraction induced by 5-HT. PLCβ inhibitor U73122 also significantly inhibited the response to 5-HT. Compared with the Wistar rats, serotonin (5-HT)- and CaCl2-induced coronary vasoconstriction in the SHRs was significantly reduced. Rho-associated protein kinase inhibitor Y27632, PKC inhibitor rottlerin, and L-type calcium channel blocker nifedipine inhibited the 5-HT-induced coronary artery contraction in a dose-dependent manner in SHRs and Wistar rats. However, the inhibitory effects were reduced in SHRs. In addition, store-operated Ca2+ (SOC) induced an obvious Ca2+ influx in coronary arterial smooth muscle cells, whereas SOC-mediated contraction was very slight in coronary arteries. At the same time, it was found that 5-HT2AR, IP3R, and Cav1.2 protein expression and PKCδ activity were decreased, and STIM1 and Orai1 were increased in VSMCs from coronary arteries of SHRs compared with Wistar rats. These results implicate calcium-handling dysfunction mediated by the 5-HT2A receptor and downstream signaling pathway might lead to a reduction in 5-HT-induced contraction in SHR coronary arteries.

Auranofin (AF) is used in clinic for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, repurposing of AF as an anticancer drug has just finished a phase I/II clinical trial, but the developmental toxicity of AF remains obscure. This study focused on its developmental toxicity by using zebrafish embryos. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to different concentrations (1, 2.5, 5, 10 μm) of AF from 2 h post-fertilization (hpf) to 72 hpf. At 72 hpf, two major developmental defects caused by AF were found, namely severe pericardial edema and hypopigmentation, when embryos were exposed to concentrations higher than 2.5 μm. Biochemical detection of oxidative stress enzyme combined with expressions of a series of genes related to oxidative stress, cardiac, metal stress and pigment formation were subsequently tested. The superoxide dismutase activity was decreased while malondialdehyde content was accumulated by AF treatment. The expression of oxidative stress-related genes (sod1, gpx1a, gst), pigment-related genes (mitfb, trp-1a) and one metal stress-related gene ctr1 were all decreased by AF exposure. The expressions of cardiac-related genes (amhc, vmhc) and one metal-related gene hsp70 were found to be significantly upregulated by AF exposure. These findings indicated the potential developmental toxicity of AF on zebrafish early development. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A quasi-amorphous inorganic-organic hybrid solid, which is comprised of poly(diallyldimethylammonium) polyelectrolyte cations with phosphomolybdates and denoted as PDDA/PMA, was prepared and characterized using elemental analysis, powder x-ray diffraction, IR spectrum, thermal and energy dispersive X-ray analyses. The PDDA/PMA exhibits multistep dielectric anomalies and dielectric relaxations. The dielectric anomaly around 353 K arises partially from the water trapped in the PDDA/PMA network releasing. The PDDA/PMA was further dried under vacuum at 373 K to give water-free sample PDDA/PMA-1. With water being removed, the broad anomaly peak around 353 K in the e′-T plot of PDDA/PMA changes into a platform in that of PDDA/PMA-1, indicating that the dielectric anomalies result from not only losing water but also the network disorder in PDDA/PMA-1. In addition, the platform strongly depends on the AC frequency in PDDA/PMA-1; the electric modulus and ion conductance analyses demonstrated that the dielectric relaxations at elevated temperature are related to the PMA ions displacing motion.

Primary pulmonary synovial sarcoma is a rare lesion that occurs in 0.5% cases of lung malignancies. Chest computed tomography (CT) reveals a heterogeneously enhancing mass in the lobe or hilum of the lungs, frequently calcified and with pleural invasion. Involvement of the mediastinum in the course of primary pulmonary synovial sarcoma, in particular detection of a large mass in the mediastinum as the sole initial imaging manifestation, is extremely rare, which may contribute to a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis. The present case report describes an extremely rare case of a patient with primary pulmonary synovial sarcoma presenting with a large mass in the left upper mediastinum. A 59-year-old patient was admitted to the Department of Respiratory Medicine of Taizhou People's Hospital in May 2014, complaining of a persistent cough and blood sputum for 2 weeks. Following admission, a chest CT showed a large mass in the left upper mediastinum. Thoracoscopy was performed and revealed that the left pulmonary artery was engulfed by the mass, and thus surgical resection of the tumor was abandoned. The patient was definitively diagnosed with primary pulmonary synovial sarcoma following the histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis of biopsy specimens obtained via thoracoscopy. Following the final diagnosis, the patient was transferred to the Department of Oncology for chemotherapy treatments with ifosfamide and doxorubicin. Unfortunately, no partial regression was achieved after two rounds of chemotherapy, and the patient was lost to follow-up 3 months after the diagnosis was confirmed. The present case may promote the consideration of primary pulmonary synovial sarcoma in the differential diagnosis of patients who present with a large mass in the mediastinum.

Breast cancer is one of the most commonly occurring female malignant tumors. According to the 2012 GLOBOCAN statistics, produced by the International Agency for Research On Cancer ('IARC'), nearly 1.7 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer, with 522,000 related deaths: An increase in the incidence of breast cancer and associated mortality by nearly 18% from 2008. Metastasis is the final step in breast cancer progression, and represents the most common cause of mortality in patients with breast cancer. Therefore, a search for low-toxicity, safe and effective anti-breast cancer drugs in the form of natural compounds has become an intense focus of research. Baicalein, a widely used Chinese herbal medicine, has extensive antitumor activity. The present review briefly describes the research that has been performed on the association between baicalein and breast cancer metastasis, and further illustrates the influence of baicalein on the underlying mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis, adding a novel theory basis for baicalein antitumor research. In conclusion, baicalein may represent a promising target for the prevention and therapy of breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the catch-up growth of preterm infants within a corrected age of 6 months and the risk factors for extrauterine growth retardation (EUGR). METHODS: A total of 321 preterm infants who were discharged after treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit and had regular follow-up documents with complete follow-up records were enrolled. According to the Prenatal Health Care Norms in 2015, these infants were divided into low-risk group with 69 infants and high-risk group with 252 infants. The Z-score method was used to evaluate body weight, body length, and head circumference, and the catch-up growth of the preterm infants within a corrected age of 6 months was analyzed. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the risk factors for EUGR at the corrected age of 6 months. RESULTS: The percentage of preterm infants with Z scores of body weight, body length, and head circumference of < -2 (not reach the standard for catch-up growth) in both groups decreased gradually with increasing corrected age. At the corrected age of 6 months, the percentages of preterm infants whose body weight, body length, and head circumference did not reach the standard for catch-up growth in the low-risk group were reduced to 1.4% (1/69), 2.9% (2/69), and 1.4% (1/69) respectively, while in the high-risk group, these percentages were reduced to 1.2% (3/252), 1.6% (4/252), and 3.6% (9/252) respectively. The high-risk group had a significantly higher incidence rate of EUGR at the corrected age of 6 months than the low-risk group (28.2% vs 15.9%, P=0.039). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that multiple birth (OR=2.68, P=0.010), low birth weight (< 1 000 g: OR=14.84, P < 0.001; 1 000-1 499 g: OR=2.85, P=0.005), and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) (OR=11.41, P < 0.001) were risk factors for EUGR at the corrected age of 6 months, while nutritional enhancement after birth (OR=0.25, P < 0.001) reduced the risk of EUGR. CONCLUSIONS: Most preterm infants can achieve catch-up growth at the corrected age of 6 months. High-risk preterm infants have a high incidence rate of EUGR at the corrected age of 6 months. Multiple birth, low birth weight, and IUGR are risk factors for EUGR, while rational nutritional enhancement after birth can reduce the incidence rate of EUGR in preterm infants.

To explore the method of establishing a cell model of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes, HepG2 cells were induced by human serum of liver-depression and spleen-deficiency syndrome(LDSDS) to establish a cell model of LDSDS in this research. The concentration of cells, the content of human serum in culture medium and the growth characteristics of model-cell (cell growth curve, the survival rate and apparent morphology were investigated by MTT assay and microscopy. Evaluation of syndrome cell model: metabolomics was used to analyze the human serum of normal individuals and patients with LDSDS, and cell models induced by these serums, respectively. We obtained the difference metabolites from serums and cell models of LDSDS, respectively; then compared the biomarkers from two metabolomics and their metabolic pathways, to verify that the reliability and applicability of the model. Metabolomics data were collected by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS, and then all data were analyzed by multivariate statistical (PCA，OPLS-DA). The results showed that, model cells have the characteristics of normal growth, slow proliferation and stable morphological structure inducted by 10% serum of LDSD in 24-72 h. There were the same 19 difference metabolites which from the human serum of normal individuals and patients with LDSDS, and cell models induced by these serums; including 9 metabolic pathways that play an important role in maintaining normal physiological activities of the human body, such as lipids, amino acids, nucleotides, and energy metabolism etc. It was shown that the established syndrome cell model can reflect the biological basis of LDSDS to some extent. This research provides a reference method for the establishment of TCM syndrome cell model.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of baicalein on the protein expression of SATB1 in the MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell line. MDA-MB-231 cells were treated with various concentrations of baicalein (0, 10, 20, 40 µM). Following treatment, a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay and wound healing assay were used to detect the changes in cell proliferation and migration. In addition, western blot analysis was performed to detect the changes in the protein expression levels of SATB1 in the MDA-MB-231 cell line. With the prolongation of administration time and the increase in drug concentration, the inhibitory effect of baicalein on the proliferation and migration of MDA-MB-231 cells gradually increased in a time- and dose-dependent manner (P

Pharmacometabolomics is a new and rapidly growing field in life science, which use metabolomics for studying drug effects and variation in drug response. Recently, it has been widely used in individualized medicine research. The research process of pharmacometabolomic can be divided into three parts: metabolomic study of baseline samples, drug response analysis after drug administration and statistical analysis. By combining the baseline information on metabotype of an individual with the drug response phenotype after drug exposure, pharmacometabolomic method can be used to predict the efficacy and toxicity of drugs, which providing the theoretical basis for individualized medical treatment. In this paper, we give an overview of present studies in the application of pharmacometabolomics for predicting the individualized drug response. Besides, we also summarized the specific research processes and pharmacometabolomic methods.

To establish an HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) method for the simultaneous content determination of gallic acid, (+)-catechin, (－)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate, isolindleyin, 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone, emodin, chrysophanol, physcion, aloe-emodin, rhein, lindleyin, 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone-4'-O-β-D-(2″-O-galloyl-6″-O-cinnamoyl)-glucopyranoside, sennoside A and sennoside B in Rhei Radix et Rhizoma. The analysis was performed on Agilent Zorbax SB-C₁₈ (4.6 mm×150 mm, 5 μm) with 0.05% phosphoric acid solution (A) - acetonitrile (B) as mobile phase for gradient elution. The flow rate was 1 mL•min⁻¹, with column temperature of 40 ℃ and the wavelength was set at 268 nm. All calibration curves showed good linearity (r0.999 9) within the concentration range. Both the intra- and inter-day precision for 14 analytes was less than 3.1%, with the mean recovery at the range of 91.80%-104.1%. Meanwhile, quantitative determination was carried out for 10 qualified samples from Rheum palmatum and 10 qualified samples from R. tanguticum, respectively. It was found that the content of 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone and aloe-emodin were higher in the R. tanguticum and R. palmatum, respectively, and the content of all the compounds was different in each sample. The established HPLC method for simultaneous content determination of 14 compounds from Rhei Radix et Rhizoma could be used for quantitative assessment and quality control of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a serious public health issue. This study was undertaken to better understand the relationship between JE distribution and environmental factors in China. JE data from 2005 to 2010 were retrieved from National Notifiable Disease Report System. ArcGIS, remote sensing techniques, and R software was used to exhibit and explore the relationship between JE distribution and environmental factors. Our results indicated that JE cases were mostly concentrated in warm-temperate, semitropical and tropical zones with annual precipitation400 mm; Broad-leaved evergreen forest, shrubs, paddy field, irrigated land, dryland, evergreen coniferous forest, and shrubland were risk factors for JE occurrence, and the former five were risk factors for counties with high JE incidence. These findings will inform the effective allocation of limited health resources such as intensive vaccination, surveillance and training in areas with high environmental risk factors.

Diagnostic ions filter method was used to rapidly detect and identify the phenolic compounds in Rheum palmatum based on ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MSE). The representative authentic standards of phenolic compounds, including gallic acid, (+)-catechin, (－)-epicatechin, (－)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate and procyanidin B2, were subjected to analysis by UPLC-Q-TOF/MSE system with negative ion mode. Fragmentation patterns of each standard were summarized based on assigned fragment ions. The prominent product ions were selected as diagnostic ions. Subsequently, diagnostic ions filter was employed to rapidly recognize analogous skeletons. Combined with retention time, accurate mass, characteristic fragments and previous literature data, the structures of the filtered compounds were identified or tentatively characterized. A total 63 phenolic compounds (36 phenolic acid derivatives, 8 flavonoid derivatives and 19 tennis derivatives) in R. palmatum were identified, including 6 potential new compounds. The method of diagnostic ions filter could rapidly detect and identify phenolic compounds in R. palmatum This study provides a method for rapid detection of phenolic compounds in R. palmatum and is expected to complete the material basis of rhubarb.

To systematically evaluate the safety of Kudiezi injection. Databases such as Cochrane library, Medline, EMbase, Web of Science, Clinical Trials, CBM, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang and Chinese Clinical Trial Register were searched to collect the literature on all the study types of Kudiezi injection. Two researchers screened literature, assessed quality and extracted data according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. All studies were assessed by using internationally recognized methodological quality assessment tools or reporting quality evaluation criteria; Meta-analysis of adverse drug reaction/adverse events (ADR/AE) of Kudiezi injection was performed by using Stata 12.0 software. There were 411 clinical studies included, out of which 315 studies were analyzed finally. 18 072 patients in total used kudiezi injection, and there were 330 cases with ADRs and 13 cases with AEs. The most common ADR related system was the central and peripheral nervous system, with a weighted incidence of 2.9% [95%CI(0.022, 0.036)]. From the current evidence, the overall safety of Kudiezi injection was acceptable. Although data could be collected from all kinds of published reports, there are lack of mechanism experiments or observational studies with large samples of Kudiezi injection. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out further research on the safety of Kudiezi injection. Meanwhile, off label use of Kudiezi injection is common, so it is urgent for relevant governmental departments to formulate drug use specifications and provide better guidance for clinical drug use.

In order to reveal the properties of polar metabolome in inflammatory cells, we selected LPS-induced RAW264.7 inflammatory cell models as the carrier for the research of metabolic fingerprint analysis. In this study, an ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS)-based metabolomics protocol was optimized for the extraction of polar metabolites from RAW264.7 cell line. Then orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was used to process the metabolic data, and finally, a total of 17 metabolites were selected and identified. The results showed that MeOH-CHCl3-H2O (8∶1∶1) was chosen as the optimal extraction solvent to achieve higher number of chromatographic peaks, with the best relative extraction efficiency and stability. Comparing with the normal cells, the inflammatory cells presented an abnormal metabolism in protein, carbohydrate, nucleotide and phospholipids. In this study, a UPLC-Q-TOF/MS-based metabolomics protocol for the polar metabolites from RAW264.7 cell line was developed, which may provide important information for the study of mechanism of inflammation and the anti-inflammatory drugs.