Search

To assess the effect and safety of Huannao Yicong Formula (还脑益聪方, HYF) in the treatment of patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Sixty patients with mild-tomoderate AD were evenly randomized into HYF group and donepezil group with the random number method. Patients in the HYF group took 5 g of HYF granules twice daily and 5 mg placebo of donepezil once daily. Patients in the donepezil group took 5 mg donepezil once daily and 5 g placebo of HYF granules twice daily. The intervention lasted for 6 months. Clinical researchers, participants and statisticians were blinded to the treatment assignment throughout the study. The primary outcomes were scores of Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) and Chinese Medicine Symptom Scale (CM-SS). The secondary outcomes were scores of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test and Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE). The serum levels of acetylcholinesterase (AchE) and amyloid-β protein 42 (Aβ42) were detected with enzymelinked immunosorbent assay kits. The scale assessments were conducted at baseline, the 3rd and 6th months of treatment, respectively. Biochemistry tests were conducted at baseline and the 6th month of treatment. A total of 52 patients completed the trial, 28 in HYF group and 24 in donepezil group. Compared with the baseline, HYF and donepezil signifificantly decreased the total scores of ADAS-Cog and CM-SS, and signifificantly increased the scores of MoCA and MMSE after 6-month treatment (all P

Objective To observe the effects of Huannao Yicong Formula (还脑益聪方, HYF) on learning and memory and it’s regulating effect on γ-secretase related anterior pharynx defective 1 (APH-1), presenilin enhancer-2 (PEN-2) signaling pathway, so as to discuss and further clarify the mechanism of HYF on Alzheimer’s disease.

To investigate the effects and underlying mechanisms of Panax quinquefolium saponin (PQS) on energy deficiency in hypoxia-reperfusion (H/R) induced cardiomyocytes. The H/R injury involved hypoxia for 3 h and then reperfusion for 2 h. Cardiomyocytes recruited from neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) were randomly divided into control, H/R, H/R+compound C (C.C), H/R+PQS, and H/R+C. C+PQS groups. BrdU assay, lactase dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage and early apoptosis rate were evaluated to assess cell damages. Contents of high energy phosphate compounds were conducted to detect the energy production. Protein expression levels of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase a (AMPKα), glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4), phosphate fructose kinase 2 (PFK2), fatty acid translocase/cluster of differentiation 36 (FAT/CD36), and acetyl CoA carboxylase 2 (ACC2) in the regulatory pathways were measured by Western blotting. Immunofluorescence staining of GLUT4 and FAT/CD36 was used to observe the mobilization of metabolic transporters. PQS (50 mg/L) pretreatment significantly alleviated H/R-induced inhibition of NRVMs viability, up-regulation of LDH leakage, acceleration of early apoptosis, and reduction of energy production (P

Huannao Yicong Decoction (还脑益聪方, HYD), an effective herbal formula against Alzheimer's disease (AD), has been proven to have neuroprotective action in amyloid β-protein1-42 (Aβ1-42)-induced rat model. This study was designed to characterize mechanisms by which HYD leads to suppression of inflflammation and apoptosis in the brains of Aβ1-42-induced rat. A total of 72 rats were divided into 6 groups, which were referred to as: sham operation group, model group, donepezil-treated group, HYD low-dose group (HYDL), HYD middle-dose group (HYDM) and HYD high-dose group (HYDH). Rats in HYDL, HYDM and HYDH were injected with Aβ1-42 at the CA1 region of hippocampus to form AD model and were fed the HYD extract at different dose of 3.78, 7.56 and 18.90 g crude drug/kg. The behavioral changes of rats were evaluated by Morris water maze (MWM) before sacrififice. Pathological changes of the brain tissue were evaluated using hematoxylin eosin (HE) staining. The levels of interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were measured by radioimmunoassay. The levels of Aβ and proteins that are associated with apoptosis such as B-cell lymphoma-2 protein (Bcl-2), Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax), cysteine-aspartic protease (caspase)-3, -8, -9 and -12 in serum were measured by immunohistochemistry. Compared with the sham operation group, the spatial learning and memory abilities of AD rats were signifificantly decreased (P

To observe the effect of Huannao Yicong Prescription (还脑益聪方, HNYC, a Chinese medical compound) extract on β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) metabolic signal transductionrelated protein kinase C (PKC), tyrosine amyloid protein kinase (TrKA), and glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) in brain tissue of transgenic mouse dementia model induced by APP. Sixty dementia model transgenic 3-month-old mice induced by APP695V717I were randomly allocated in four groups: the model group (A), the Donepezil (0.65×10−3 g·kg−1·−1)-treated group (B), and the two HNYC-treated groups (C and D) with high dosage (2.8 g·kg-1·−1) and low dosage (1.4 g·kg−1·−1) of HNYC extract, respectively, 15 mice in each group. Besides, a normal control group was set up with 15 C57BL/6J mice with the same age and genetic background as the model mice. The drugs for treatment were administered once a day by dissolving in equal-volume distilled water through gastric infusion, continued for 6 months, to mice in group A and to normal control group equal-volume distilled water was administered instead. Spatial learning and memory capacity of mice were observed by Morris water maze; their one-time escape response memory capacity was tested by diving platform; and changes of PKC, TrkA, and GSK-3 levels in hippocampus and cortex of brain were detected by Western blotting. HNYC extract showed significant effects on increasing the time of model mice for swimming through the flat roof and the swimming time and path in the fourth quadrant P

To examine the effect of the zedoary essential component-eluting stent (ZES) on a porcine coronary neointimal formation.ZES, sirolimus-eluting stents (SES), and bare metal stents (BMS) were randomly implanted in three different major epicardial vessels in 36 balloon-injured pigs. Coronary angiography, optical coherence tomography, and histomorphological analysis were used to determine antihyperplasia effects.ZES and SES had a significantly larger lumen diameter and area, and reduced diameter and area of stenosis in arteries at 30 and 90 days compared with arteries implanted with BMS (P0.01). Histomorphometric analysis showed moderate inflammatory responses, such as infiltration of mononuclear cells, lymphocytes, and multinucleated giant cells in some arteries with SES compared with ZES (P0.05). Injury scores were not different among the three groups at 30 and 90 days. The endothelialization score in the SES group was 2.69 ± 0.42 at 30 days and 2.83 ± 0.39 at 90 days compared with the ZES and BMS groups (both were 3.00 ± 0.00 at either 30 or 90 days, P0.05). Well developed endothelium was observed in the ZES group, while incomplete endothelium and inflammatory cells were observed with stent struts partly naked at the vessel lumen in the SES group.The ZES inhibits neointimal hyperplasia with good endothelia coverage in the porcine balloon injury coronary model.

To evaluate the clinical effects of Chinese medicine (CM) on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with a prospective cohort study.A total of 334 AMI patients from January 2007 to March 2009 were consecutively enrolled, and were assigned to a treatment group (169 cases) treated with combined therapy (CM for at least one month and Western medicine) and a control group (165 cases) with Western medicine alone. Clinical data including age, gender, smoking, medical history, infarction area, heart functional classification, CM syndrome scores, blood-stasis syndrome score, primary end-point (death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and revascularization) and secondary end-point (ischemic stroke, rehospitalization due to angina, heart failure and shock), were collected. CM syndrome scores, blood-stasis syndrome score, primary end-point and secondary end-point were collected during the 6-month follow-up. Kaplan-Meier method was used for the survival analysis. The multifactor analysis was analyzed by Cox proportional hazards regression.At the end of 6-month the CM syndrome score and bloodstasis syndrome score in the treatment group were lower than those in the control group (P0.01), especially the symptoms of chest pain, spontaneous perspiration and insomnia. Rehospitalization rate due to angina during the 6-month follow-up in the treatment group (2.96%) was lower than that in the control group (7.88%, P0.05). Kaplan- Meier survival curve showed that event-free cumulated survival of rehospitalization due to angina during the 6-month follow-up in the treatment group was higher than that in the control group (Log rank 4.700, P=0.03). Cox regression analysis showed that heart dysfunction [hazard ratio (HR)=1.601, 95% CI=1.084-2.364, P=0.018] and diabetes mellitus (HR=1.755, 95% CI=1.031-2.989, P=0.038) were hazard factors to end-point, whereas CM (HR 0.405, 95% CI=0.231-0.712, P=0.002), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI, HR=0.352, 95% CI=0.204-0.607, P0.001) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (HR=0.541, 95% CI=0.313-0.936, P=0.028) were protective factors.CM therapy could decrease CM syndrome scores and blood-stasis syndrome score, reduce the rehospitalization rate during 6-month follow-up due to angina. Heart dysfunction and diabetes mellitus were hazard factors to end-point, whereas CM, PCI and ACE inhibitors were protective factors.