Circulating Levels of Inflammatory Cytokines in Patients with Psoriasis Vulgaris of Different Chinese Medicine Syndromes

Objective： To investigate whether the serum levels of inflammation-related cytokines might be different between the healthy individuals and the psoriatic patients diagnosed of three varied Chinese medicine （CM） syndromes [blood-stasis syndrome （BSS）, blood-dryness syndrome （BDS） and wind-heat syndrome （WHS）]. Methods： A total of 62 psoriatic patients were recruited and assigned to 3 groups according to their CM syndromes, including 27 patients of BSS, 21 of BDS and 14 of WHS. Another 20 sex- and age- matched healthy subjects were enrolled into the control group. Serum concentrations of multiple cytokines, including monocyte chemotactic protein-1 （MCP-1）, macrophage inflammatory protein-1α （MIP-1α）, soluble CD40 ligand （SCD40L）, tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α）, epidermal growth factor （EGF）, interleukin-8 （IL-8）, interleukin-17 （IL-17）, interferon γ inducible protein-10 （IP-10） and vascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF）, were measured by a multiplexed flow cytometric assay. Results： The circulating levels of MIP-1α, TNF-α, IL-8, and IP-10 were significantly increased in the psoriatic patients compared with the healthy controls （P〈0.01）. Male and female patients tended to have higher serum levels of MCP-1 and IP-10, respectively （P〈0.05）. Interestingly, compared with the control group, 6 out of the 9 cytokines （MCP-1, MIP-1α, TNF-α, EGF, IL-8 and IP-10） were substantially increased in the BSS group （P〈0.05 or P〈0.01）, whereas only MIP-1α and IL-8 levels were elevated in the BDS group （P〈0.05 or P〈0.01） concurrent with lowered concentrations of SCD40L and IL-17 （P〈0.05）. In the WHS group, MIP-1α was the only cytokine whose level was evidently increased （P〈0.01）, in contrast to IL-17 which was decreased as compared with the control （P〈0.05）. The psoriatic patients overall owned higher levels of MIP-1 a and IL-8 in the circulation which were comparable among the 3 groups of CM syndromes （P〈0.01）. In contrast, TNF-α level of the BSS group was the highest among the three （P〈0.01）, followed by the BDS and the WHS groups. Conclusions： The expression profiles of cytokines in the circulation might not be necessarily identical for psoriatic patients with different CM syndromes. Accordingly, the serum concentrations of certain cytokines could potentially be used as the ancillary indices for the clinical classification of psoriatic CM syndromes.

Clinical and Experimental Study on Shuanghua Aerosol (双花喷雾剂) in Treating Infantile Upper Respiratory Tract Infection

Objective: To study the effect and mechanism of Shuanghua aerosol (SHA) in treating infantile upper respiratory tract infection. Methods: In the clinical study, 276 patients were randomly divided into two groups. The treated group was treated with SHA and the control group was treated with Shuanghuanglian aerosol (SHLA, 双黄连气雾剂). In the experimental study, the effects of SHA on anti-inflammation and anti-virus were observed. Results: The clinical total effective rate of SHA was 99.03% and its cure rate 65.38%, while those of the SHLA were 94.11% and 44.12% respectively, significant difference was shown between the two groups (P<0.01). Experimental study showed that SHA could inhibit the xylol induced ear swelling and the egg white induced paw swelling in mice obviously, and inhibit the proliferation of influenza virus in rat's lung. Conclusion: SHA has obvious anti-inflammatory and anti-viral effect, and has good curative effect in treating infantile upper respiratory tract infection.