Salvianolic acid b alleviating myocardium injury in ischemia reperfusion rats

Background: Salvia miltiorrhiza (SM) Bunge is one of the widely-used Chinese  medicinal herbs. Salvianolic acid B (Sal B), a bioactive compound isolated from the Chinese herb Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, has been reported to exhibit  anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidantive effects.Material and method: To study the cardioprotective effects of salvianolic acid B (Sal B) on acute myocardial ischemia reperfusion (MIR) injury rats, on the basis of this investigation, the possible mechanism of salvianolic acid B was elucidated. Male Sprague- Dawley rats (200–220 g) were randomly divided into five groups: sham-operated, MIR, MIR + Sal B (10 mg/kg/day, orally), MIR + Sal B (20 mg/kg/day, orally) and MIR + Sal B (30 mg/kg/day, orally). Before operation, the foregoing groups were pretreated with homologous drug once a day for 7 days, respectively. After twelve hours in MIR, the cardioprotective effects of SPJ were evaluated by infarct size, biochemical values, and the antioxidative and antiapoptotic relative gene expressions.Results: Sal B significantly improved heart function and decreased infarct size; remarkably decreased levels of serum TNF-α and IL-1β levels, increased contents of myocardium antioxidant enzymes activities; western blot results showed that Sal B ameliorate the increased Bax and caspase-3 protins expressions and decreased Bcl-2 proteins expression and ratios of Bcl-2 to Bax.Conclusion: In ischemic myocardium, oxidative stress caused the overgeneration and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which was central of cardiac ischemic injury. Sal B exerted beneficially cardioprotective effects on myocardial ischemia injury rats, mainly scavenging oxidative stress-triggered overgeneration and accumulation of ROS, alleviating myocardial ischemia injury and cardiac celldeath.Keywords: Immunity, Antioxidant, Ra

Sensitivity and specificity of the ankle–brachial index to diagnose peripheral artery disease: a structured review

The ankle—brachial index (ABI) is a simple, inexpensive diagnostic test for peripheral artery disease (PAD). However, it has shown variable accuracy for identification of significant stenosis. The authors performed a structured review of the sensitivity and specificity of ABI ≤ 0.90 for the diagnosis of PAD. MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane databases, Science Citation Index database, and Biological Abstracts database were searched for studies of the sensitivity and specificity of using ABI ≤ 0.90 for the diagnosis of PAD. Eight studies comprising 2043 patients (or limbs) met the inclusion criteria. The result indicated that, although strict inclusion criteria on studies were formulated, different reference standards were found in these studies, and methods of ABI determination and characteristics of populations varied greatly. A high level of specificity (83.3—99.0%) and accuracy (72.1—89.2%) was reported for an ABI ≤ 0.90 in detecting ≥ 50% stenosis, but there were different levels of sensitivity (15—79%). Sensitivity was low, especially in elderly individuals and patients with diabetes. In conclusion, the test of ABI ≤ 0.90 can be a simple and useful tool to identify PAD with serious stenosis, and may be substituted for other non-invasive tests in clinical practice

Association between High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein and N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide in Patients with Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Background. Prior study showed HCV-infected patients have increased serum N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide (NT-proBNP) and a possible left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. The objectives of the present paper were to investigate the characteristics of hs-CRP and its correlation with clinical profiles including NT-proBNP and echocardiographic variables in HCV-infected patients. Methods and Results. A total of 106 HCV-infected patients and 106 control healthy individuals were enrolled. The level of serum hs-CRP (median 1.023 mg/L, range 0.03∼5.379 mg/L) was significantly lower in all 106 patients than that in controls (median 3.147 mg/L, range 0.08~7.36 mg/L, P = 0.012). Although hs-CRP did not correlate significantly with NT-proBNP when all patients and controls were included (r = 0.169, P = 0.121), simple regression analysis demonstrated a statistically significant linear correlation between hs-CRP and NT-proBNP in HCV-infected patients group (r = 0.392, P = 0.017). Independent correlates of hs-CRP levels (R2 = 0.13) were older age (β′ = 0.031, P = 0.025) and NT proBNP (β′ = 0.024, P = 0.017). Conclusions. Although the level of serum hs-CRP decreased significantly, there was a significant association between hs-CRP and NT-proBNP in HCV-infected patients

Perovskite oxynitride solid solutions of LaTaON2-CaTaO2N with greatly enhanced photogenerated charge separation for solar-driven overall water splitting

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51972233, 51825204, 21633009) and Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (Grant No. 19ZR1459200) for funding. The work was supported by Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (14DZ2261100) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. G.L. thanks Newton Advanced Fellowship.The search for solar‐driven photocatalysts for overall water splitting has been actively pursued. Although metal oxynitrides with metal d0/d10‐closed shell configuration are very promising candidates in terms of their visible light absorption, they usually suffer from serious photo‐generated charge recombination and thus, little photoactivity. Here, by forming their solid solutions of LaTaON2 and CaTaO2N, which are traditionally considered to be inorganic yellow‐red pigments but have poor photocatalytic activity, a class of promising solar‐driven photocatalysts La1‐xCaxTaO1+yN2‐y (0 ≤ x, y ≤ 1) are explored. In particular, the optimal photocatalyst with x = 0.9 has the ability of realizing overall water splitting with stoichiometric H2/O2 ratio under the illumination of both AM1.5 simulated solar light and visible light. The modulated key parameters including band structure, Ta bonding environment, defects concentration, and band edge alignments revealed in La0.1Ca0.9TaO1+yN2‐y have substantially promoted the separation of photogenerated charge carriers with sufficient energetics for water oxidation and reduction reactions. The results obtained in this study provide an important candidate for designing efficient solar‐driven photocatalysts for overall water splitting.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Five-Year Clinical Outcomes After XIENCE PRIME Everolimus Elution Coronary Stent System (EECSS) Implantation

Background/aim: This study was aimed at evaluating 5-year effectiveness and safety in participants after XIENCE PRIME Everolimus Elution Coronary Stent System (EECSS) implantation. Materials and methods: From December 2013 to May 2014, 108 patients (127 lesions) were treated with the XIENCE PRIME EECSS. The entire follow-up included annual assessments for 5 years after treatment or until one of the clinical endpoints was reached. We evaluated the 5-year clinical outcomes with Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox regression model. Results: Nearly three-quarters of the participants were men (76.8%), and the average age was 65.6 ± 10.8 years. Bifurcation lesions accounted for 96.1% (122 lesions), and left main lesions accounted for 3.9% (five lesions), with a total count of 127 lesions. The cumulative rate of major adverse cardiac events was as follows: 1 year, 1.9%; 2 year, 4.0%; and 5 year, 10.0%. No definite or probable stent thrombosis was observed, and the rate of target lesion failure was only 3.3% over 5 years. The cumulative rate of major bleeding eventually increased to only 4.4%. Conclusions: The 5-year clinical outcomes were favorable in patients treated with XIENCE PRIME EECSS, and the incidence of stent thrombosis and target lesion failure was relatively low. The incidence of major bleeding gradually increased but remained moderate

A yolk-albumen-shell structure of mixed Ni-Co oxide with an ultrathin carbon shell for high-sensitivity glucose sensors

Altres ajuts: ICN2 is funded by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. Part of the present work has been performed in the framework of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Materials Science PhD program. TZ has received funding from the CSC-UAB PhD scholarship program.Non-enzymatic glucose sensors based on different Co-Ni-C composite materials were developed by pyrolysis of bimetallic or single metal based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The structure and composition of the resulting materials were explored by XRD, nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms, SEM, HRTEM and STEM-EELS. The electrochemical performance of the bimetallic MOF derived novel yolk-albumen-shell structure of Ni-Co@C (YASNiCo@C) stands out from these materials. The YASNiCo@C electrode exhibited a sensitivity of 1964 μA cm-2 mM-1 with the detection limit of 0.75 μM, a linear range from 5 μM to 1000 μM and good stability for the detection of glucose. These promising electrochemical performances prove that YASNiCo@C is a promising material for glucose sensors. Moreover, the strategy outlined in this work for the design of MOF based nanomaterials can also be used beyond glucose sensors