Parietochloris incisa is an arachidonic acid rich snow green alga. The main physiological profiles, such as ash free dry weight (AFDW), chlorophyll, carotenoid, protein and total fatty acids (TFA), in this alga expose...Parietochloris incisa is an arachidonic acid rich snow green alga. The main physiological profiles, such as ash free dry weight (AFDW), chlorophyll, carotenoid, protein and total fatty acids (TFA), in this alga exposed to old culture supernatant (OCS) at the decline phase or its crude ethyl acetate extracts (CEAE) were investigated by using tubular photobioreactors of different diameters. Results showed that both OCS and CEAE had strong inhibitory effect on the above physiological parameters. The longer the culture was exposed to OCS and the more CEAE were added into the algal culture, the more the above physiological properties were inhibited. Arachidonic acid (AA), the dominant component of fatty acids in this alga, was also seriously inhibited with respect to total TFA, AFDW of cell mass, or culture volume, due to a probable reduction of enzymes activities catalyzing chain elongation from C18:1ω9 to AA. These results incontestably evidenced that some CEAE dissolving substances existing in OCS, like auto inhibitors, inhibited P. incisa growth through feedback. Hence, any efficient removal of auto inhibitors from algal culture to decrease their bioactivity could be good for maximal production of desired products like AA.展开更多
AIM: To elucidate the differences in somatic, psycho-logical and biochemical pattern between the subtypes of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). METHODS: Eighty IBS patients, 30 diarrhoea pre-dominant (D-IBS), 16 constipa...AIM: To elucidate the differences in somatic, psycho-logical and biochemical pattern between the subtypes of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). METHODS: Eighty IBS patients, 30 diarrhoea pre-dominant (D-IBS), 16 constipation predominant (C-IBS) and 34 alternating IBS (A-IBS) underwent physi-otherapeutic examinations for dysfunctions in body movements and awareness and were compared to an apparently healthy control group (AHC). All groups an-swered questionnaires for gastrointestinal and psycho-logical symptoms. Biochemical variables were analysed in blood. RESULTS: The D-IBS group showed less body aware-ness, less psychological symptoms, a more normal sense of coherence and psychosocial rating as well as higher C-peptide values. C-IBS had a higher degree of body dysfunction and psychological symptoms, as well as the lowest sense of coherence compared to controls and D-IBS. They also demonstrated the most elevated prolactin levels. A-IBS had the lowest degree of body disturbance, deteriorated quality of life and affected bi-ochemical pattern. All subtypes had higher pain scores compared to controls. In addition they all had signifi -cantly increased triglycerides and elevated morning cortisol levels, however, without statistical signifi cance compared with the controls.CONCLUSION: IBS subtypes showed different pro-files in body awareness, somatic and psychological symptoms and in biochemical variables. D-IBS differed compared to the other groups by lowered body aware-ness, less psychological symptoms and a higher sense of coherence and elevated C-peptide values. C-IBS and A-IBS subtypes suffered more from depression and anxiety, associated with a lower quality of life. These differences may be important and will be taken into account in our treatment of these patients.展开更多
Patients older than 65 years are the fastest growing segment of the cancer population. It is estimated that within 20 years over 75% of cases and 85% of deaths from colorectal cancer (CRC) will be in this setting. Con...Patients older than 65 years are the fastest growing segment of the cancer population. It is estimated that within 20 years over 75% of cases and 85% of deaths from colorectal cancer (CRC) will be in this setting. Concerns about cancer treatment in the elderly relate to comorbidities, which increase proportionally with age, physiological changes associated with aging which may influence drug metabolism and toxicity, and diminishing life expectancy, which particularly impacts decisions surrounding the benefits of adjuvant therapies. Over the last 10 years, significant improvements in the treatment of advanced CRC with combination therapy have been made. The randomized trials which have defined these improvements did not exclude elderly patients. However, the median age of patients in these trials has generally been approximately 60 years. Thus, it appears that some degree of selection is involved with younger and presumably fitter patients being the subjects in most of the pivotal trials. The availability of new molecularly targeted agents and newly improved existing agents has expanded the range of treatment options available. This variety gives greater flexibility in dealing with different subsets of patients, such as the elderly. However, some fit elderly patients seem to tolerate combination therapy reasonably well, while studies on unfit elderly subjects are needed.展开更多
Traditionally, differentiation of syndromes of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) mainly depends on the information obtained from four diagnosis methods. Now many physicochemical parameters are available in clinic. Th...Traditionally, differentiation of syndromes of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) mainly depends on the information obtained from four diagnosis methods. Now many physicochemical parameters are available in clinic. There exists great correlation between TCM syndromes and physicochemical parameters. The objective of the paper is to analyze the correlation between TCM syndromes and physicochemical parameters quantitatively. Correlation analysis has been widely studied and many analysis methods have been developed. Mutual information based on entropy can measure arbitrary dependence between variables. It has been applied to many kinds of fields, especially to pattern recognition. But most works are restricted to discrete variables and little work has been done to study the relation between discrete and continuous variables. A novel algorithm is proposed to calculate the mutual information between discrete and continuous variables. It is used to analyze the correlation between TCM syndromes and physicochemical parameters.展开更多
It is shown that flow of a blood in a passive elastic tube essentially unstable process accompanying with a flutter of a stream. Biophysical principles of neuroreflex regulation of an arterial bloodstream in cardiovas...It is shown that flow of a blood in a passive elastic tube essentially unstable process accompanying with a flutter of a stream. Biophysical principles of neuroreflex regulation of an arterial bloodstream in cardiovascular system are considered. It is shown that this regulation has dual-purpose character: reduction of the hydraulic resistance and maintenance stable no flutter stream of blood. The reasons of a primary arterial hypertension occurrence, and also some accompanying it physical and physiological phenomena are considered. The surgical method of treatment of the primary arterial hypertension, connected with denervation of renal arteries is substantiated.展开更多
Whereas global medicine and health care practices have improved the quality of people's lives, especially in the developing countries data abounds that local communities have been crippled by the same medical practis...Whereas global medicine and health care practices have improved the quality of people's lives, especially in the developing countries data abounds that local communities have been crippled by the same medical practises. Some societies in developing countries have become sources of specimen for clinical trials of biomedicine which is unaffordable to their citizens. This paper explores the neglect of traditional African medicinal innovations and research in favour of imported Western medicine perpetuated by the developed countries. The paper argues that global medicine and health care have neither utilized nor recognized the African Traditional Medicine (ATM) fully, despite the fact that cultures in developed world used and continue to utilize the indigenous medical knowledge. The paper further argues that instead of neglecting African Traditional Medicine, ATM and biomedicine can be more beneficial by blending them into a single system, through what we would call in this paper High-Performance Medical Research (HPMR). This would allow participation of communities to achieve both socio-eeonomic and medical knowledge growth rather than being a monopoly and preserve of developed organizations in the North. This paper proposes that HPMR should be a systematic and scientific approach for enhancing local people's participation in the development of medical ventures. This paper draws on secondary data on traditional African therapeutic practices by some local communities in East Africa combined with literature review on medical practice in Western societies.展开更多
Herbs of activating blood circulation to remove blood stasis (ABCRBS) are a category of over 10% in the modern Chinese Pharmacopoeia. A new borderline discipline, biomechanopharmacology, is shaping by the efforts of a...Herbs of activating blood circulation to remove blood stasis (ABCRBS) are a category of over 10% in the modern Chinese Pharmacopoeia. A new borderline discipline, biomechanopharmacology, is shaping by the efforts of applying biomechanics in pharmacological studies of ABCRBS herbs. Biomechanics is involved in modeling of blood stasis syndrome (BSS) with mechanical force induced injury and model evaluation by shear stress monitoring for blood coagulation. Investigations showed that tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) contained in Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort and diallyl trisulfide (DT) extracted from garlic demonstrated inhibiting characteristics on vWF mediated platelet activation and thrombus formation occurring under high shear rates. The effect of TMP on shear-induced platelet aggregation might be due to inhibition of calcium channel activity since it showed significant inhibition on intracellular level of calcium demonstrated by laser confocal microscope. The combined effects of TMP and shear stress on rat cerebral microvascular endothelial cell (rCMEC) were investigated by various doses of TMP incorporated with different levels of shear stress generated by a rotational cone-plate rheometer. The results indicated that apoptosis of rCMECs could be restrained by a combination of medial level of shear stress with a suitable dose of TMP. To study the influences of shear stress, pressure and TMP on angiogenesis of vascular endothelial cell, cultured rCMEC was pretreated in a flow chamber with independent adjustment for levels of shear stress and pressure, and then 3D cultured on Matrigel. The results indicate that combined effects of shear stress, pressure and TMP may influence angiogenesis significantly. We believe that research on interactions among blood shear stress, secretion of endothelial cell, and pharmacodynamics will be an interesting area of biomechanopharmacology. Herbs of ABCRBS and their extracts for protecting endothelial cells to maintain their normal functions are expected.展开更多
As professional antigen presenting cells, dendritic cells(DCs) greatly determine the quality of the innate and adaptive immunities. Therefore, DC-based immunotherapy has been one of the hotspots in cancer immunotherap...As professional antigen presenting cells, dendritic cells(DCs) greatly determine the quality of the innate and adaptive immunities. Therefore, DC-based immunotherapy has been one of the hotspots in cancer immunotherapy in recent years. Although this unique therapeutic strategy has been approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration for prostate cancer treatment, the efficacy of DC-based immunotherapy remains to be further improved. Moreover, it is still not completely clear about the immunological basis of DCs, which is another hurdle for the progress of DC-based immunotherapy. Due to their unique physicochemical properties, nanomaterials have shown potentials in addressing these above mentioned problems and have provided important guidelines for optimizing DC-based immunotherapy. However, it is still at the starting stage for this emerging field and there are many critical questions in the rational design of this therapeutic strategy to be answered. Therefore, it is greatly necessary to review and analyze recent progresses in this field. In this review, we mainly focus on the development of various types nanoparticles for DC-based immunotherapy. The existed challenges in this field are also discussed.展开更多
文摘Parietochloris incisa is an arachidonic acid rich snow green alga. The main physiological profiles, such as ash free dry weight (AFDW), chlorophyll, carotenoid, protein and total fatty acids (TFA), in this alga exposed to old culture supernatant (OCS) at the decline phase or its crude ethyl acetate extracts (CEAE) were investigated by using tubular photobioreactors of different diameters. Results showed that both OCS and CEAE had strong inhibitory effect on the above physiological parameters. The longer the culture was exposed to OCS and the more CEAE were added into the algal culture, the more the above physiological properties were inhibited. Arachidonic acid (AA), the dominant component of fatty acids in this alga, was also seriously inhibited with respect to total TFA, AFDW of cell mass, or culture volume, due to a probable reduction of enzymes activities catalyzing chain elongation from C18:1ω9 to AA. These results incontestably evidenced that some CEAE dissolving substances existing in OCS, like auto inhibitors, inhibited P. incisa growth through feedback. Hence, any efficient removal of auto inhibitors from algal culture to decrease their bioactivity could be good for maximal production of desired products like AA.
基金Grants from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden
文摘AIM: To elucidate the differences in somatic, psycho-logical and biochemical pattern between the subtypes of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). METHODS: Eighty IBS patients, 30 diarrhoea pre-dominant (D-IBS), 16 constipation predominant (C-IBS) and 34 alternating IBS (A-IBS) underwent physi-otherapeutic examinations for dysfunctions in body movements and awareness and were compared to an apparently healthy control group (AHC). All groups an-swered questionnaires for gastrointestinal and psycho-logical symptoms. Biochemical variables were analysed in blood. RESULTS: The D-IBS group showed less body aware-ness, less psychological symptoms, a more normal sense of coherence and psychosocial rating as well as higher C-peptide values. C-IBS had a higher degree of body dysfunction and psychological symptoms, as well as the lowest sense of coherence compared to controls and D-IBS. They also demonstrated the most elevated prolactin levels. A-IBS had the lowest degree of body disturbance, deteriorated quality of life and affected bi-ochemical pattern. All subtypes had higher pain scores compared to controls. In addition they all had signifi -cantly increased triglycerides and elevated morning cortisol levels, however, without statistical signifi cance compared with the controls.CONCLUSION: IBS subtypes showed different pro-files in body awareness, somatic and psychological symptoms and in biochemical variables. D-IBS differed compared to the other groups by lowered body aware-ness, less psychological symptoms and a higher sense of coherence and elevated C-peptide values. C-IBS and A-IBS subtypes suffered more from depression and anxiety, associated with a lower quality of life. These differences may be important and will be taken into account in our treatment of these patients.
文摘Patients older than 65 years are the fastest growing segment of the cancer population. It is estimated that within 20 years over 75% of cases and 85% of deaths from colorectal cancer (CRC) will be in this setting. Concerns about cancer treatment in the elderly relate to comorbidities, which increase proportionally with age, physiological changes associated with aging which may influence drug metabolism and toxicity, and diminishing life expectancy, which particularly impacts decisions surrounding the benefits of adjuvant therapies. Over the last 10 years, significant improvements in the treatment of advanced CRC with combination therapy have been made. The randomized trials which have defined these improvements did not exclude elderly patients. However, the median age of patients in these trials has generally been approximately 60 years. Thus, it appears that some degree of selection is involved with younger and presumably fitter patients being the subjects in most of the pivotal trials. The availability of new molecularly targeted agents and newly improved existing agents has expanded the range of treatment options available. This variety gives greater flexibility in dealing with different subsets of patients, such as the elderly. However, some fit elderly patients seem to tolerate combination therapy reasonably well, while studies on unfit elderly subjects are needed.
基金The research has been supported by National Basic Research Program of China(973 Grant 2003CB517106) MOSTProjects (No.2004DFB02100)
文摘Traditionally, differentiation of syndromes of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) mainly depends on the information obtained from four diagnosis methods. Now many physicochemical parameters are available in clinic. There exists great correlation between TCM syndromes and physicochemical parameters. The objective of the paper is to analyze the correlation between TCM syndromes and physicochemical parameters quantitatively. Correlation analysis has been widely studied and many analysis methods have been developed. Mutual information based on entropy can measure arbitrary dependence between variables. It has been applied to many kinds of fields, especially to pattern recognition. But most works are restricted to discrete variables and little work has been done to study the relation between discrete and continuous variables. A novel algorithm is proposed to calculate the mutual information between discrete and continuous variables. It is used to analyze the correlation between TCM syndromes and physicochemical parameters.
文摘It is shown that flow of a blood in a passive elastic tube essentially unstable process accompanying with a flutter of a stream. Biophysical principles of neuroreflex regulation of an arterial bloodstream in cardiovascular system are considered. It is shown that this regulation has dual-purpose character: reduction of the hydraulic resistance and maintenance stable no flutter stream of blood. The reasons of a primary arterial hypertension occurrence, and also some accompanying it physical and physiological phenomena are considered. The surgical method of treatment of the primary arterial hypertension, connected with denervation of renal arteries is substantiated.
文摘Whereas global medicine and health care practices have improved the quality of people's lives, especially in the developing countries data abounds that local communities have been crippled by the same medical practises. Some societies in developing countries have become sources of specimen for clinical trials of biomedicine which is unaffordable to their citizens. This paper explores the neglect of traditional African medicinal innovations and research in favour of imported Western medicine perpetuated by the developed countries. The paper argues that global medicine and health care have neither utilized nor recognized the African Traditional Medicine (ATM) fully, despite the fact that cultures in developed world used and continue to utilize the indigenous medical knowledge. The paper further argues that instead of neglecting African Traditional Medicine, ATM and biomedicine can be more beneficial by blending them into a single system, through what we would call in this paper High-Performance Medical Research (HPMR). This would allow participation of communities to achieve both socio-eeonomic and medical knowledge growth rather than being a monopoly and preserve of developed organizations in the North. This paper proposes that HPMR should be a systematic and scientific approach for enhancing local people's participation in the development of medical ventures. This paper draws on secondary data on traditional African therapeutic practices by some local communities in East Africa combined with literature review on medical practice in Western societies.
基金The project is supported by NSFC(90209055,10272116).The authors are in—debted to Bin Li,Ligong Jiao,Dong Han,Zhigang Ouyang,Ruomei Qi,Yun You and Wen Li for their contributions tO the experimental researches
文摘Herbs of activating blood circulation to remove blood stasis (ABCRBS) are a category of over 10% in the modern Chinese Pharmacopoeia. A new borderline discipline, biomechanopharmacology, is shaping by the efforts of applying biomechanics in pharmacological studies of ABCRBS herbs. Biomechanics is involved in modeling of blood stasis syndrome (BSS) with mechanical force induced injury and model evaluation by shear stress monitoring for blood coagulation. Investigations showed that tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) contained in Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort and diallyl trisulfide (DT) extracted from garlic demonstrated inhibiting characteristics on vWF mediated platelet activation and thrombus formation occurring under high shear rates. The effect of TMP on shear-induced platelet aggregation might be due to inhibition of calcium channel activity since it showed significant inhibition on intracellular level of calcium demonstrated by laser confocal microscope. The combined effects of TMP and shear stress on rat cerebral microvascular endothelial cell (rCMEC) were investigated by various doses of TMP incorporated with different levels of shear stress generated by a rotational cone-plate rheometer. The results indicated that apoptosis of rCMECs could be restrained by a combination of medial level of shear stress with a suitable dose of TMP. To study the influences of shear stress, pressure and TMP on angiogenesis of vascular endothelial cell, cultured rCMEC was pretreated in a flow chamber with independent adjustment for levels of shear stress and pressure, and then 3D cultured on Matrigel. The results indicate that combined effects of shear stress, pressure and TMP may influence angiogenesis significantly. We believe that research on interactions among blood shear stress, secretion of endothelial cell, and pharmacodynamics will be an interesting area of biomechanopharmacology. Herbs of ABCRBS and their extracts for protecting endothelial cells to maintain their normal functions are expected.
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB932601, 2011CB911000)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51222203, 31300824, 51302180)+1 种基金the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20130005)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2013M530267)
文摘As professional antigen presenting cells, dendritic cells(DCs) greatly determine the quality of the innate and adaptive immunities. Therefore, DC-based immunotherapy has been one of the hotspots in cancer immunotherapy in recent years. Although this unique therapeutic strategy has been approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration for prostate cancer treatment, the efficacy of DC-based immunotherapy remains to be further improved. Moreover, it is still not completely clear about the immunological basis of DCs, which is another hurdle for the progress of DC-based immunotherapy. Due to their unique physicochemical properties, nanomaterials have shown potentials in addressing these above mentioned problems and have provided important guidelines for optimizing DC-based immunotherapy. However, it is still at the starting stage for this emerging field and there are many critical questions in the rational design of this therapeutic strategy to be answered. Therefore, it is greatly necessary to review and analyze recent progresses in this field. In this review, we mainly focus on the development of various types nanoparticles for DC-based immunotherapy. The existed challenges in this field are also discussed.