Effects of Angelica dahurica

The main objective of wound treatments is to restore the functional skin properties and prevent infection. Traditional Chinese medicine provides alternative anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and wound healing therapies. Both Angelica dahurica extract (AE) and Rheum officinale extract (RE) possess antimicrobial activity. In this study, AE and RE were applied in wound treatment to investigate their healing effects. Thirty Sprague-Dawley rats with dorsal full-thickness skin excision were divided into normal saline (NS), AE, RE, AE plus RE (ARE), and Biomycin (BM) groups. The treatment and area measurement of wounds were applied daily for 21 days. Wound biopsies and blood samples were obtained for histology examinations and cytokine analysis. Results showed that wound contraction in ARE group was significantly higher than that in NS and BM groups (P 0.05), and plasma TGF-β1 levels were significantly lower than those in the NS group on days 3-4 (P < 0.05). In conclusion, ARE accelerates wound healing during inflammation and proliferation phases

Analysis of Resistance to Clarithromycin and Virulence Markers in Helicobacter pylori Clinical Isolates from Eastern Taiwan

AbstractObjectiveLittle information is available concerning the relationships between clarithromycin resistance and virulence marker genes (iceA, cagA and vacA) in Helicobacter pylori isolated in Taiwan. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible association between clarithromycin resistance and genotypes of the virulence markers on clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori isolates obtained in eastern TaiwanMaterials and MethodsThe genotypes of the virulence marker genes (iceA, cagA and vacA) were analyzed by PCR, and the 23S rDNA region from 18 clarithromycin-resistant clinical isolates of H. pylori was amplified by PCR and sequenced.ResultsPoint mutations were found to occur in all isolates. Two isolates had A2143G, six had T2182C, one had C2227T, six had A2143G plus T2182C, and three had heterozygous alleles. The latter included a wild-type allele (A2143) plus (i) an A2143G, (ii) an A2143G plus an A2223G, and (iii) an A2143G plus a T2182C. The prevalence of the marker genes cagA, iceA1, iceA2, and both iceA1 and iceA2, in the isolates was 95.5%, 66.9%, 7.5%, and 25.6%, respectively. The vacAs1 allele was detected in all isolates, whereas the m1 and m2 alleles were found in 44.4% and 55.6% of the isolates, respectivelyConclusionThere were no significant associations between clarithromycin resistance and the presence of the cagA gene, vacA allele mosaicism, and the iceA genotypes. The most notable finding of our study was that the C2227T single mutation in 23S rDNA could also be related to the high clarithromycin minimal inhibitory concentrations in clinical isolates from eastern Taiwan

Age Effects on Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Response Inhibition: An MEG Study

Inhibition, the ability to suppress irrelevant information, thoughts or movements, is crucial for humans to perform context-appropriate behaviors. It was suggested that declined cognitive performance in older adults might be attributed to inhibitory deficiencies. Although previous studies have shown an age-associated reduction in inhibitory ability, the understanding regarding its cortical spatiotemporal maps remained limited. Thus, we used a whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) to elucidate the age effects on response inhibition, and to explore the brain activation differences in high- and low-performing seniors. We recruited 22 younger and 22 older adults to participate in the visual Go/No-go task. Both behavioral performance and neuromagnetic responses to No-go stimuli were analyzed. The behavioral results showed that the older adults made more false alarm (FA) errors than the younger adults did. The MEG results showed that the seniors exhibited declined cortical activities in middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and delayed activation in MTG, prefrontal cortex (PFC) and pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA). Furthermore, among the older adults, more recruitment of the left PFC was found in the high-performers than in the lower-performers. In conclusion, age-related deficiencies in response inhibition were observed in both behavioral performance and neurophysiological measurement. Our results also suggested that frontal recruitment plays a compensatory role in successful inhibition

Synthesis and structure-activity relationship studies of novel 3,9-substituted α-carboline derivatives with high cytotoxic activity against colorectal cancer cells

In our continued focus on 1-benzyl-3-(5-hydroxymethyl-2-furyl)indazole (YC-1) analogs, we synthesized a novel series of 3,9-substituted α-carboline derivatives and evaluated the new compounds for antiproliferactive effects. Structure activity relationships revealed that a COOCH or CHOH group at position-3 and substituted benzyl group at position-9 of the α-carboline nucleus were crucial for maximal activity. The most active compound, , showed high levels of cytotoxicity against HL-60, COLO 205, Hep 3B, and H460 cells with IC values of 0.3, 0.49, 0.7, and 0.8 μM, respectively. The effect of compound on the cell cycle distribution demonstrated G2/M arrest in COLO 205 cells. Furthermore, mechanistic studies indicated that compound induced apoptosis by activating death receptor and mitochondria dependent apoptotic signaling pathways in COLO 205 cells. The new 3,9-substituted α-carboline derivatives exhibited excellent anti-proliferative activities, and compound can be used as a promising pro-apoptotic agent for future development of new antitumor agents

A Study of Antibioactivity of Nanosilver Colloid and Silver Ion Solution

The colloidal silver solution was successfully prepared in dielectric fluid by using electrical spark discharge (ESD) without any surfactants. It does not require the toxic chemical agents in the process, which may affect the effectiveness of nanosilver colloid as an antibacterial agent. Nanocolloidal silver produced by ESD is characterized as low cost, zero environmental pollution, continuous, and rapid mass production process. In order to test the effect of antibioactivity, nanosilver dough was tested; the silver nanofluid was prepared by ESD machine, made into dough at different concentrations, and fermented for three hours in order to observe changes in the diameter of the dough. The results showed that the effect of effectiveness of nanosilver at the concentration of 100 ppm was weak, whereas the effect of 60 ppm silver ion (100 ppm AgNO3) was significant, as the dissociation rate of silver ion concentration correlates to the antibioactivity

Preparation of Ag/Cu/Ti Nanofluids by Spark Discharge System and Its Control Parameters Study

This study selected silver, copper, and titanium as the research objects to explore the relationship between nanofluids properties and electrical discharge machining (EDM) processes. Regarding the products, UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) was applied to measure the concentration distribution of nanofluids; zeta-size analysis is applied for measuring nanometal particles’ Zeta-Potential and the size distribution of metallic particles in the fluid. Finally, various instruments, including scanning electron microscope (SEM), were applied to observe the shape, size, and composition ratio of metal particles after processing. According to the experimental results, the control of the discharge pulse time, in addition to affecting the concentration of metallic liquid and temperature in the process, affects the size of the metal particles after the process. As the resistivity of silver and copper is very low, at about 15×10-9 Ω·m, if TON is set to between 10~50 μs, good preparation efficiency can be obtained. The resistivity of titanium is 420×10-9 Ω·m, which is much larger than that of silver or copper. Hence, TON should be set to approximately 100 μs to achieve a good discharge success rate

Do beta-adrenergic blocking agents increase asthma exacerbation? A network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Beta-adrenergic blocking agents (abbreviated as beta-blockers) have been used for treating various cardiovascular diseases. However, the potential for asthma exacerbation is one of the major adverse effects of beta-blockers. This study aimed to compare the level of risk for an asthma attack in patients receiving various beta-blockers. We searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of either placebo-controlled or active-controlled design. The current network meta-analysis (NMA) was conducted under a frequentist model. The primary outcome was the incidence of asthmatic attack. A total of 24 RCTs were included. Overall NMA revealed that only oral timolol [risk ratio (RR) = 3.35 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04–10.85)] and infusion of propranolol [RR = 10.19 (95% CI 1.29–80.41)] were associated with significantly higher incidences of asthma attack than the placebo, whereas oral celiprolol [RR = 0.39 (95% CI 0.04–4.11)], oral celiprolol and propranolol [RR = 0.46 (95% CI 0.02–11.65)], oral bisoprolol [RR = 0.46 (95% CI 0.02–11.65)], oral atenolol [RR = 0.51 (95% CI 0.20–1.28)], infusion of practolol [RR = 0.80 (95% CI 0.03–25.14)], and infusion of sotalol [RR = 0.91 (95% CI 0.08–10.65)] were associated with relatively lower incidences of asthma attack than the placebo. In participants with a baseline asthma history, in addition to oral timolol and infusion of propranolol, oral labetalol, oxprenolol, propranolol, and metoprolol exhibited significantly higher incidences of asthma attack than did the placebo. In conclusion, oral timolol and infusion of propranolol were associated with a significantly higher risk of developing an asthma attack in patients, especially in those with a baseline asthma history, and should be avoided in patients who present a risk of asthma

Association of HLA class I with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection

BACKGROUND: The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system is widely used as a strategy in the search for the etiology of infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders. During the Taiwan epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), many health care workers were infected. In an effort to establish a screening program for high risk personal, the distribution of HLA class I and II alleles in case and control groups was examined for the presence of an association to a genetic susceptibly or resistance to SARS coronavirus infection. METHODS: HLA-class I and II allele typing by PCR-SSOP was performed on 37 cases of probable SARS, 28 fever patients excluded later as probable SARS, and 101 non-infected health care workers who were exposed or possibly exposed to SARS coronavirus. An additional control set of 190 normal healthy unrelated Taiwanese was also used in the analysis. RESULTS: Woolf and Haldane Odds ratio (OR) and corrected P-value (Pc) obtained from two tails Fisher exact test were used to show susceptibility of HLA class I or class II alleles with coronavirus infection. At first, when analyzing infected SARS patients and high risk health care workers groups, HLA-B*4601 (OR = 2.08, P = 0.04, Pc = n.s.) and HLA-B*5401 (OR = 5.44, P = 0.02, Pc = n.s.) appeared as the most probable elements that may be favoring SARS coronavirus infection. After selecting only a "severe cases" patient group from the infected "probable SARS" patient group and comparing them with the high risk health care workers group, the severity of SARS was shown to be significantly associated with HLA-B*4601 (P = 0.0008 or Pc = 0.0279). CONCLUSIONS: Densely populated regions with genetically related southern Asian populations appear to be more affected by the spreading of SARS infection. Up until recently, no probable SARS patients were reported among Taiwan indigenous peoples who are genetically distinct from the Taiwanese general population, have no HLA-B* 4601 and have high frequency of HLA-B* 1301. While increase of HLA-B* 4601 allele frequency was observed in the "Probable SARS infected" patient group, a further significant increase of the allele was seen in the "Severe cases" patient group. These results appeared to indicate association of HLA-B* 4601 with the severity of SARS infection in Asian populations. Independent studies are needed to test these results