Protective Effect of Ethanol Extracts of Hericium erinaceus

We investigated the effects of Hericium erinaceus (HEE) on alloxan induced diabetic neuropathic pain in laboratory rats. Alloxan induced diabetic rats were administered orally HEE. After 6 weeks of treatments, treatment with HEE 40 mg/kg in diabetic animals showed significant increase in pain threshold and paw withdrawal threshold and significant decrease in serum glucose and urine glucose. We also observed a significant increase in lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), Lipid peroxidation (LPO), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, glutathione reductase (GR) activity, catalase (CAT) activity, Na+K+ATPase activity, and glutathione S transferase (GST) activity along with significant decreased levels of glutathione (GSH) content in diabetic rats. The total antioxidant status (TAOS) in the HEE-treated groups was significantly lower than that in the alloxan-treated group. HEE can offer pain relief in diabetic neuropathic pain. The improvement in diabetic state after HEE treatment along with the antioxidant activity could be the probable way by which it had alleviated diabetic neuropathy

Purification, Characterization and Antitumor Activities of a New Protein from Syngnathus acus, an Officinal Marine Fish

Discovery and development of new antitumor agents from abundant marine fish are attracting an increasing interest. In the present study, we extracted and purified a novel antitumor protein Syngnathusin from the whole body of Syngnathus acus L., a precious marine fish traditionally used for tumors. Syngnathusin was comprised of 16 kinds of amino acids, mainly acidic amino acids. Its molecular weight was 67.3 kDa and its isoelectric point was 4.57. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of Syngnathusin was determined to be Lys-Arg-Asp-Leu-Gly-Phe-Val-Asp-Glu-Ile-Ser-Ala-His-Tyr and showed no significant homology with the known proteins. Syngnathusin could significantly inhibit the growth of A549 and CCRF-CEM cells. However, the obvious proliferation inhibition against human non-tumor cell lines was not observed. Flow cytometry, morphologic assessment and comet assay revealed that Syngnathusin could induce apoptosis in A549 and CCRF-CEM cells and strongly cooperated with MTX. Syngnathusin could inhibit the growth of S180 tumor transplanted in mice. Syngnathusin may be developed as a novel, selective and effective antineoplastic agent

Clinicopathological characteristics and survival outcomes in Paget disease: a SEER populationâ based study

The objective of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics and survival outcomes of Paget disease (PD), Paget disease concomitant infiltrating duct carcinoma (PDâ IDC), and Paget disease concomitant intraductal carcinoma (PDâ DCIS). We identified 501,631 female patients from 2000 to 2013 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. These identified patients included patients with PD (n = 469), patients with PDâ IDC (n = 1832), and patients with PDâ DCIS (n = 1130) and infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) (n = 498,076). Then, we compared the clinical characteristics of these patients with those who were diagnosed with IDC during the same period. The outcomes of these subtypes of breast carcinoma were different. Based on the overall survival, the patients with PDâ IDC had the worst prognosis (5â year survival rate = 84.1%). The PDâ DCIS had the best prognosis (5â year survival rate = 97.5%). Besides, among patients with Paget disease, the one who was married had a better prognosis than who were not. And, according to our research, the marital status was associated with the hormone receptor status in patients with PDâ IDC. Among three subtypes of Paget disease, patients with PDâ IDC had the worst prognosis. Besides, patients who were unmarried had worse outcomes. And the marital status of patients with PDâ IDC is associated with hormone status. The observation underscores the importance of individualized treatment.Patients with PDâ IDC have the worst prognosis. And the marital status of PDâ IDC patients is associated with hormone status and HER2 status. The observation underscores the importance of individualized treatment.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144702/1/cam41475.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144702/2/cam41475_am.pd

Reconstruction and Functional Annotation of P311 Protein–Protein Interaction Network Reveals Its New Functions

P311 is a highly conserved multifunctional protein. However, it does not belong to any established family of proteins, and its biological function has not been entirely determined. This study aims to reveal the unknown molecular and cellular function of P311. OCG (Overlapping Cluster Generator) is a clustering method used to partition a protein-protein network into overlapping clusters. Multifunctional proteins are at the intersection of relevant clusters. DAVID is an analytic tool used to extract biological meaning from a large protein list. Here we presented OD2 (OCG + DAVID + 2 human PPI datasets), a novel strategy to increase the likelihood to identify biological functions most pertinent to the multifunctional proteins. The principle of OD2 is that OCG prepares the protein lists from multifunctional protein relevant overlapping clusters, for a functional enrichment analysis by DAVID, and the similar functional enrichments, which occurs simultaneously when analyzing two human PPI datasets, are supposed to be the predicted functions. By applying OD2 to two reconstructed human PPI datasets, we supposed the function of the P311 in inflammatory responses, cell proliferation and coagulation, which were confirmed by the following biological experiments. Collectively, our study preliminarily found that P311 could play a role in inflammatory responses, cell proliferation and coagulation. Further studies are required to validate and elucidate the underlying mechanism

Effects of Preventive Acupuncture and Moxibustion on Fat Accumulation, Blood Lipid, and Uterus E

Objective. To observe the effect of preventive acupuncture and moxibustion on blood lipid of menopause rats. Methods. Seventy 10-month-old SD rats with estrous cycle disorders were divided into three control groups and four treatment groups (n=10/group) and another ten 3.5-month-old female SD rats were chosen as young control group. Preventive acupuncture and moxibustion were applied at Guanyuan (CV 4). Body weight growth rate has been recorded. Plasma total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and high density lipoprotein (HDL) levels and uterus E2 level were measured. Results. Compared to young control group, plasma TC and LDL increased and uterus E2 reduced significantly in 12-month-old control group. Compared to 12-month-old control group, plasma TC and LDL level and body weight growth rate decreased while HDL level increased remarkably in preventive acupuncture 12-month-old group. Compared to 14-month-old control group, plasma TC level and body weight growth rate decreased remarkably in preventive moxibustion 14-month-old group. Conclusions. Preventive acupuncture and moxibustion can significantly decrease the plasma TG and LDL, increase the plasma HDL, and prevent fat accumulation. Our finding suggests that preventive acupuncture and moxibustion have beneficial effects on blood lipid. Different treatment effects were found between preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

Molecular Ecology of Pyrethroid Knockdown Resistance in Culex pipiens pallens Mosquitoes

Pyrethroid insecticides have been extensively used in China and worldwide for public health pest control. Accurate resistance monitoring is essential to guide the rational use of insecticides and resistance management. Here we examined the nucleotide diversity of the para-sodium channel gene, which confers knockdown resistance (kdr) in Culex pipiens pallens mosquitoes in China. The sequence analysis of the para-sodium channel gene identified L1014F and L1014S mutations. We developed and validated allele-specific PCR and the real-time TaqMan methods for resistance diagnosis. The real-time TaqMan method is more superior to the allele-specific PCR method as evidenced by higher amplification rate and better sensitivity and specificity. Significant positive correlation between kdr allele frequency and bioassay-based resistance phenotype demonstrates that the frequency of L1014F and L1014S mutations in the kdr gene can be used as a molecular marker for deltamethrin resistance monitoring in natural Cx. pipiens pallens populations in the East China region. The laboratory selection experiment found that L1014F mutation frequency, but not L1014S mutation, responded to deltamethrin selection, suggesting that the L1014F mutation is the key mutation conferring resistance to deltamethrin. High L1014F mutation frequency detected in six populations of Cx. pipens pallens suggests high prevalence of pyrethroid resistance in Eastern China, calling for further surveys to map the resistance in China and for investigating alternative mosquito control strategies