Electroacupuncture-induced neuroprotection against focal cerebral ischemia in the rat is mediated by adenosine A1 receptors

The activation of adenosine A1 receptors is important for protecting against ischemic brain injury and pretreatment with electroacupuncture has been shown to mitigate ischemic brain insult. The aim of this study was to test whether the adenosine A1 receptor mediates electroacupuncture pretreatment-induced neuroprotection against ischemic brain injury. We first performed 30 minutes of electroacupuncture pretreatment at the Baihui acupoint（GV20）, delivered with a current of 1 mA, a frequency of 2/15 Hz, and a depth of 1 mm. High-performance liquid chromatography found that adenosine triphosphate and adenosine levels peaked in the cerebral cortex at 15 minutes and 120 minutes after electroacupuncture pretreatment, respectively. We further examined the effect of 15 or 120 minutes electroacupuncture treatment on ischemic brain injury in a rat middle cerebral artery-occlusion model. We found that at 24 hours reperfusion,120 minutes after electroacupuncture pretreatment, but not for 15 minutes, significantly reduced behavioral deficits and infarct volumes. Last, we demonstrated that the protective effect gained by 120 minutes after electroacupuncture treatment before ischemic injury was abolished by pretreatment with the A1-receptor antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine（1 mg/kg, intraperitoneally）. Our results suggest that pretreatment with electroacupuncture at the Baihui acupoint elicits protection against transient cerebral ischemia via action at adenosine A1 receptors.

ERG11 mutations associated with azole resistance in Candida albicans isolates from vulvovaginal candidosis patients

Objective: To investigate the azole susceptibility of Candida albicans(C.albicans)from vulvovaginal candidosis patients and to analyze the relationship between ERG11 gene mutations in these isolates and azole resistance.Methods: Three hundred and two clinical isolates of Candida species were collected.Azole susceptibility was tested in vitro in microdilution studies. The ERG11 genes of 17 isolates of C. albicans(2 susceptibles, 5 dose-dependent resistants and 10 resistants) were amplified and sequenced.Results: Of the 302 isolates collected, 70.2% were C. albicans, of which 8.5%, 3.8% and4.2% were resistant to fluconazole, itraconazole and voriconazole, respectively. In total,27 missense mutations were detected in ERG11 genes from resistant/susceptible dosedependent isolates. Among them, Y132 H, A114 S, and Y257 H substitutions were most prevalent and were known to cause fluconazole resistance. G464 S and F72 S also have been proved to cause fluconazole resistance. Two novel substitutions(T285A, S457P) in hotspot regions were identified.Conclusions: Twenty seven mutations in the ERG11 gene were identified in azoleresistant C. albicans isolates, which indicated a possible relation with the increase in resistance to azole drugs and the recurrence of vulvovaginal candidosis. The relationship of two novel substitutions(T285A, S457P) with fluconazole resistance needs to be further verified by site-directed mutagenesis.

Biodiversity variability of macrobenthic in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea between 2001 and 2011

In this study, we compared the biodiversity and ecological status of macrobenthos between 2001 and 2011 in terms of species composition, dominant species, abundance, biomass, diversity, and secondary productivity of macrobenthos in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea. The results indicate that the species abundances, biomass, and diversity in spring 2011 were all lower than those in autumn 2000 and spring of 2001. Most of the dominant species have changed from 2001 to 2011, with the exception of the echinoderm Ophiura sarsii vadicola that was dominant in these years. Small-sized animal species have increased possibly due to gradual environment deterioration such as the pollution and the climate warmer.