Zhao Cuilan, an Expert Who Struggles Against Blood Diseases

ON a winter night in 1949, in a small village in northeast China, a daughter-in-law of Blacksmith Wen gave birth to twins. It was a difficult labor, and the midwife ended up using a steelyard hook, which stabbed the babies’ skulls. The mother and her twins did not survive.

Prevalence of Tick Infestations and Tick-Borne Diseases in Cattle in Cameroon

Ticks induce huge production and economic losses in the livestock industry and create serious environmental, animal and human health problems. The study was carried out to characterize tick species and determine the prevalence of tick infestation and tick-borne diseases in cattle in Cameroon. Tick and blood samples were collected from a total of 742 animals and analyzed to determine the type of tick and haemoparasites using standard procedures. Overall, four tick species namely Amblyomma variegatum (75.09%), Rhipicephalus microplus (19.43%), Rhipicephalus decoloratus (0.88%) and Hyalomma marginatum (0.18%) and six blood disease agents including Anapalasma marginale (11.29%), Ehrlichia ruminantium (3.52%), Babesia bovis (1.32%), Babesia major (0.44%), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (0.29%) and Dermatophilus congolensis (3.37%). Various co-infections were recorded and the predominant associations were Amblyomma variegatum-Rhipicephalus microplus (4.06%) and Amblyomma variegatum-Hyalomma marginatum (0.36%);Anaplasma-Ehrlichia (12%), Anaplasma-Dematophylus (8%), Babesia-Anaplasma-Ehrlichia (14%) and Babesia-Anaplasma-Ehrlichia-Dermato-phylus (5%). Breed, sex, age and locality significantly influenced the rate of tick infestation while locality, breed and age significantly influenced the detection of blood disease agents in the study.

Protocol to study the effects of AMPK-mTOR/PINK-Parkin dual signaling pathways on the formation of coronary heart disease showing blood stasis symptom pattern based on traditional Chinese medicine theory of“heart governing blood and vessels”

In this study,we aim to combine gene transfection techniques with the modeling methods previously employed by the research group to deeply investigate the corresponding theories of traditional Chinese medicine regarding“myocardial energy metabolism”and“aortic thrombosis”.Our goal is to elucidate the biological mechanism underlying the occurrence and development of coronary heart disease with blood stasis syndrome from the perspectives of“heart and vessels”and“Qi(in traditional Chinese medicine,it refers to the most fundamental and subtle substances that constitute the human body and maintain life activities.At the same time,it also has the meaning of physiological function.In terms of traditional Chinese medicine,Qi and different words are used together to express different meanings)and blood”.The research content is divided into four modules as follows:1.establishment of an animal model of coronary heart disease with blood stasis syndrome through fibrinogen overexpression.2.Investigation of the mitochondrial quality control system in coronary heart disease with blood stasis syndrome under fibrinogen overexpression.3.Study of platelet autophagy in coronary heart disease with blood stasis syndrome under fibrinogen overexpression.4.Examination of the relationship between the AMPK-mTOR pathway and metabolism in platelet autophagy of coronary heart disease with blood stasis syndrome under fibrinogen overexpression.Ninety-six Sprague Dawley rats will be randomly assigned to the following groups:control group,model group,fibrinogen group and adeno-associated virus group.All rats will undergo a 14-week model construction process,and modern molecular biology methods will be employed to evaluate the model and examine relevant research indicators.The obtained data will be analyzed according to a predefined statistical analysis plan.

Bioinformatics Analysis Raises Candidate Genes in Blood for Early Screening of Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson＇s disease （PD） is a typical degenerative disease, which is characterized by the most obvious symptoms of movement dysfunction, including shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement and difficulty in walking and gait. This disease can not be clearly identified through laboratory tests at present, thus application of high-throughput technique in studying the expression profiles of PD helps to find the genetic markers for its early diagnosis. Studies on expression profiles of neurodegenerative diseases have revealed the novel genes and pathways involved in the progress of illness. In this study, the expression profiles of PD in blood were compared, showing that 181 differentially expressed genes （DEG） exhibit a similar expression trend both in patients and in normal controls.

Preliminary study of abnormal increase of postexercise systolic blood pressure in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease

Objectives This study sought to evaluate the diagnostic value of abnormal increase of postexercise systolic blood pressure (SBP) for detecting coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with or without hypertension. Methods Treadmill exercise testing (TET) was conducted in 88 patients (40 CAD patients, 48 control subjects) with or without hypertension, each of whom underwent selective coronary angiography (CAG). The abnormal increase of postexercise SBP was defined as 10mmHg higher than earlier periods during the recovery phase (6 minutes) of exercise testing. Results The abnormal increase of postexercise SBP had higher sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for detecting CAD than those of ST - segment depression in patients with or without hypertension. Its accuracy increased with the severity of CAD while decreased in patients with hypertension, and the increase value of SBP had a positive correlation with the extent of coronary artery lesion. The combination of ST - segment depression and abnormal increase of postexercise SBP diagnosed CAD most accurately in patients with hypertension. Conclusions Abnormal increase of postexercise SBP may be a useful index for diagnosing CAD.

Autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in the patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors

Objective To evaluate the long-term therapeutic effects of autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (auto-PBSCT) on the treatment of hematological and solid tumors.Methods Fifty-one patients were recruited in this auto-PBSCT study, in which several potentially important parameters were studied including the optimal time for stem cell collection, the dose of stem cell reinfusion, the time of hematopoietic reconstitution, the disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS), complications related to transplantation, and maintenance chemotherapy after auto-PBSCT.Results After APBSCT, 3-year and 5-year survival rates of NHL were 83.3%; those of AML were 74.7%; those of MM were 37.9% and 19%; those of ALL were 40% and 0% respectively. Hematopoietic reconstitution was greatly promoted by granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). The mean time for patients' neutrophil to recover up to >0.5×109/L after APBSCT was 11.14 days in the group of the patients receiving G-CSF in contrast to 17.6 days in the group receiving no G-CSF. The most common complications of transplantation were fever, liver dysfunction and hypokalaemia, which were curable. No death was due to transplantation related complications.Conclusion Comparing with conventional chemotherapy, our study suggests that auto-PBSCT is a very important therapeutic option that can significantly improve the prognosis in the patients with hematological and solid tumors, especially in the patients with AML and NHL.

Clinical Observation of High Dose Cinobufocini inAttenuation and Treatment of Infeclion andGranulocytopenia during Combined Chemotherapyof Malignant Blood Disease

The use of high dose cinobufocini in attenuation and treatment of infection and granulocy-topenia during combined chemotherapy was observed in patients with malignant blood diseases. Thestudy was designed in such a way that each patient served also as part of the control group. The testgroup included 18 males and 12 temales , ranged in ages between 16 and 66(averaged 34). Sixty-two ex-periments were run on 20 patients with acute leukemia, 8 with malignant lymphoma and 2 with multiplemyeloma. The test group was treated with high dosages of cinobufocini. In each case , instances ot infec-tion were signiticantly decreased and the number of granulocytes was not markedly changed by the treat-ment. The results of this study suggest that high dosage cinobufocini therapy may significantly reduce therisk of infection and the degree and duration of granulocytopenia associated with chemotherapy for malig-nant blood diseases. AIso, high dosage cinobufocini therapy is simple, convenient and causes little or noside effects.

Metabolomic Profiling Reveals Distinct Patterns of Tricarboxylic Acid Disorders in Blood Stasis Syndrome Associated with Coronary Heart Disease

Objective： To investigate the underlying metabolomic profiling of coronary heart disease（CHD） with blood stasis syndrome（BSS）. Methods： CHD model was induced by a nameroid constrictor in Chinese miniature swine. Fifteen miniature swine were randomly divided into a model group（n=9） and a control group（n=6）, respectively according to arandom number table. After 4 weeks, plasma hemorheology was detected by automatic hemorheological analyzer, indices including hematocrit, plasma viscosity, blood viscosity, rigidity index and erythrocyte sedimentation rate; cardiac function was assessed by echocardiograph to detect left ventricular end-systolic diameter（LVED）, left ventricular end-diastolic diameter（LVEDd）, ejection fraction（EF）, fractional shortening（FS） and other indicators. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry（GC-MS） and bioinformatics were applied to analyze spectra of CHD plasma with BSS. Results： The results of hemorheology analysis showed significant changes in viscosity, with low shear whole blood viscosity being lower and plasma viscosity higher in the model group compared with the control group. Moreover, whole blood reduction viscosity at high shear rate and whole blood reduction viscosity at low shear rate increased significantly（P〈0.05）. The echocardiograph results demonstrated that cardiac EF and FS showed significant difference（P〈0.05）, with EF values being decreased to 50% or less. The GC-MS data showed that principal component analysis can clearly separate the animals with BSS from those in the control group. The enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes biological pathways results suggested that the patterns involved were associated with dysfunction of energy metabolism including glucose and lipid disorders, especially in glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, galactose metabolism and adenosine-triphosphate-binding cassette transporters. Conclusion： Glucose metabolism and lipid metabolism disorders were the major contributors to the syndrome classification of CHD with BSS.

Relationship between Two Blood Stasis Syndromes and Inflammatory Factors in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome

Objective： To investigate the relationship between inflammatory factors and two Chinese medicine（CM） syndrome types of qi stagnation and blood stasis（QSBS） and qi deficiency and blood stasis（QDBS） in patients with acute coronary syndrome（ACS）. Methods： Sixty subjects with ACS, whose pathogenesis changes belongs to qi disturbance blood stasis syndrome, were divided into 2 groups： 30 in the QSBS group and 30 in the QDBS group. The comparative analysis on them was carried out through comparing general information, coronary angiography and inflammatory factors including intracellular adhesion molecule-1（ICAM-1）, chitinase-3-like protein 1（YKL-40） and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2（Lp-PLA2）. Results： Compared with the QSBS group, Lp-PLA2 and YKL-40 levels in the QDBS group showed no-significant difference（P〉0.05）; ICAM-1 was significantly higher in the QDBS group than in the QSBS group in the pathological processes of qi disturbance and blood stasis syndrome of ACS（P〈0.05）. Conclusion： Inflammatory factor ICAM-1 may be an objective basis for syndrome typing of QSBS and QDBS, which provides a research direction for standardization research of CM syndrome types.

Role of long non-coding RNAs in normal and malignant hematopoiesis

Long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)are defined as a class of nonprotein-coding transcripts greater than 200 nucleotides in length,which have diverse functions in development and diseases including hematopoiesis.Recent advances have revealed that lncRNAs regulate hematopoietic development at almost every stage,including differentiation of the myelocyte,lymphocyte,and erythrocyte.Abnormal regulation of the lncRNAs may block aspects of blood development,which can lead to different types of hematopoietic disorders.These findings highlight the role of lncRNAs as potential therapeutic tools in malignant hematopoiesis.In this review,we summarize recent progress in the study of functional lncRNAs associated with blood development,as well as dysregulated lncRNAs involved in diverse blood diseases by interacting with crucial susceptibility genes in different pathways.In addition,we discuss genome-wide studies on lncRNAs,which are helpful for genome screening and in-depth functional study of lncRNAs associated with blood development and disease.

Ultrastructural alterations of megakaryocytes in thrombocytopenia:A review of 43 cases

Thrombocytopenia is a frequent occurrence in a variety of hematopoietic diseases;however,the details of the mechanism leading to low platelet count remain elusive.Megakaryocytes are a series of progenitor cells responsible for the production of platelets.Alterations in megakaryocytes in the bone marrow are a causative factor resulting in thrombocytopenia in varied diseases.Based on ultrastructural analysis of incidentally encountered megakaryocytes in 43 patients with blood diseases marked by low platelet counts,electron micrographs demonstrated that aberrant megakaryocytes predominated in idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura,aplastic anemia,and myelodysplastic syndrome;autophagy,apoptosis,and cellular damage in megakaryocytes were a prominent feature in aplastic anemia.On the other hand,poorly differentiated megakaryocytes predominated in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia(AMKL)although damaged megakaryocytes were seen in non-AMKL acute leukemia.This paper documents the ultrastructural alterations of megakaryocytes associated with thrombocytopenia and reveals distinctive features for particular blood diseases.A comment is made on future avenues of research emphasizing membrane fusion proteins.