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The aim of this study was to investigate drug interactions of L‐dopa/carbidopa with catechin and green tea essence in rabbits following the simultaneous administration via an intramuscular injection of catechin or via an intragastric route for green tea essence with L‐dopa/carbidopa. The results indicated that catechin at doses of 10, 20 and 50 mg/kg increased the area under the plasma concentration–time curve from time zero to the time of the last quantifiable concentration (AUC0–t) of L‐dopa by about 69, 78 and 42%, respectively. The metabolic ratios of the AUC0–t for 3‐O‐methyldopa (3‐OMD)/L‐dopa significantly decreased by about 56, 68 and 76% (P < 0.05), respectively. In addition, a single dose of 5/1.25 mg/kg L‐dopa/carbidopa was co‐administrated with 150 mg/kg green tea essence via an intragastric route with an oral‐gastric tube. Comparing the related pharmacokinetic parameters of L‐dopa, the clearance and metabolic ratio of L‐dopa decreased by 20 and 19% (P < 0.05), respectively. In conclusion, catechin and green tea essence can significantly affect the metabolism of L‐dopa by the catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) metabolic pathway. Catechin can enhance L‐dopa bioavailability, and both catechin and green tea essence decreased 3‐OMD formation. Therefore, catechin and green tea essence may increase L‐dopa efficacy for Parkinson's disease treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) have been increasingly investigated for use in a wide range of applications due to their unique physicochemical properties including high hydrophobicity, heat and electrical insulation, resistance to oxidation, and hydrogen storage capacity. They are also valued for their possible medical and biomedical applications including drug delivery, use in biomaterials, and neutron capture therapy. Chemical graph theory provides different tools to investigate different properties of nanotubes. Tools like topological invariants are useful to associate an appropriate number with a networks through which we can guess different hidden properties of under consideration network. There are more then 150 topological indices present in history, but no one gives use perfect result in predicting properties of networks. So there is always a room to introduce some new invariants that help us to gain better results. In this paper, we will introduce some new topological indices and polynomials, namely, Maxmin indices and Maxmin polynomials and, calculate results for three different boron nanotubes, boron triangular nanotube BT[p, q], boron‐α nanotube BT(X)[p, q] and boron‐α nanotube BT(Y)[p, q]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Objective: The cholinergic deficit is thought to underlie progressed cognitive decline in Alzheimer Disease. The lineage reprogramming of somatic cells into cholinergic neurons may provide strategies toward cell‐based therapy of neurodegenerative diseases. Methods and results: Here, we found that a combination of neuronal transcription factors, including Ascl1, Myt1l, Brn2, Tlx3, and miR124 (5Fs) were capable of directly converting human brain vascular pericytes (HBVPs) into cholinergic neuronal cells. Intriguingly, the inducible effect screening of reprogramming factors showed that a single reprogramming factor, Myt1l, induced cells to exhibit similarly positive staining for Tuj1, MAP2, ChAT, and VAChT upon lentivirus infection with the 5Fs after 30 days. HBVP‐converted neurons were rarely labeled even after long‐term incubation with BrdU staining, suggesting that induced neurons were directly converted from HBVPs rather than passing through a proliferative state. In addition, the overexpression of Myt1l induced the elevation of Ascl1, Brn2, and Ngn2 levels that contributed to reprogramming. Conclusions: Our findings provided proof of the principle that cholinergic neurons could be produced from HBVPs by reprogramming factor‐mediated fate instruction. Myt1l was a critical mediator of induced neuron cell reprogramming. HBVPs represent another excellent alternative cell resource for cell‐based therapy to treat neurodegenerative disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a structural design of graphitic carbon nitride (CN) for use as an active photocatalyst in H2 evolution reactions. The active photocatalyst is synthesized by subjecting a CN sample to consecutive annealing and ammonia treatments. The CN sample is produced through urea condensation. The annealing treatment destroys the polymeric CN to form a defective polymeric layer framework incorporating 1,3,4,6,7,9,9b‐Heptaazaphenalene‐2,5,8‐triamine (melem) oligomers. The annealed CN exhibits a wide absorption range in visible light because the distorted structure causes conjugation of the π‐orbital with a nitrogen nonbonding state. The subsequent ammonia treatment of the annealed CN repairs the nitrogen vacancies and bridges the polymeric framework and melem oligomers. The repaired and bridged sample (N‐aCN) provides viable pathways for charge separation and transport, and active amino sites are introduced in the sample for electron injection in order to produce H2. When Pt is deposited, the CN and N‐aCN samples catalyze H2 evolution from aqueous triethanolamine solution at quantum yields of 3.7 and 17%, respectively, under 420 nm monochromatic irradiation. The high activity of N‐aCN demonstrates that the oligomer‐incorporated polymeric layer framework effectively harvests light and mediates charge transport in CN materials for photoenergy conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Preventing stroke through endovascular treatment with vertebral artery stent remains a great challenge due to the occurrence of an in-stent restenosis. Materials & Methods In this study, a retrospective analysis was conducted in 90 patients who had been treated with VAS between 2004 and 2011 in Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital. Patients were followed up at 3 months, 6 months,and 1 year after VAS treatment and annually thereafter. For each time point, neurological function tests, vessel ultrasound and computer tomography angiography were performed to preliminarily screen the vessel stenosis. Digital subtraction angiography was used to verify the narrow sign on CTA or ultrasound. Clinical features of each patient including clopido-grel metabolization genes ( CYP2 C19, CYP3A4, and P2 Y12) were recorded with purpose to investigate the possible risk factors for the development of ISR. Results Single factor analysis dem-onstrated that hyperlipidemia ( P < 0.05) and CYP2 C19 ( P < 0.01) loss-of-function geno-type increased the likelihood of ISR. A multiple logistic cox regression analysis also showed that stroke patients with hyperlipidemia ( HR 3.719, 95% CI: 1.094-12.637, P = 0.035), and CYP2 C19 loss-of-function genotype ( HR 2.959, 95% CI: 1.325-6.610, P = 0.008) were more likely to suffer from ISR. Furthermore, CYP2 C19 alleles were mainly divided into three groups: wt/wt ( CYP2 C19 *1/*1), wt/m ( CYP2 C19 *1/*2 and *1/*3), and m/m ( CYP2 C19 *2/*2,*2/*3 and*3/*3). Recurrent rate of ischemic stroke in m/m and wt/m groups was higher than the wt/wt group ( OR: 0.141, 95% CI: 0.016-1.221, P = 0.042). Conclusion The study leads to the conclusion that hyperlipidemia and CYP2 C19 impotency are possible risk factors for the development of ISR in VAS-treated patients with ischemic. Moreover, VAS-treated patients with CYP2 C19 impotency were susceptible to recurrent stroke during our 54-month follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE MRI) has been used to study tumor response to treatment for many years. In this study, the modified full width at half-maximum (mFWHM), calculated from the wash-in slope histogram, is proposed as a parameter for the evaluation of changes in tumor heterogeneity which respond to radiotherapy. Twenty-five patients with brain tumors were evaluated and divided into the nonresponder group ( n = 11) and the responder group ( n = 14) according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). All selected tumors were evaluated by mFWHM ratios of post- to pre-therapy (the ratio was defined as the therapeutic mFWHM ratio, TMR). The changes in kurtosis of the histograms and the averaged Ktrans within a tumor were also calculated for comparison. The receiver operating characteristic analysis and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to examine the diagnosis ability. The TMR values were significantly higher in nonresponders than in responders ( p < 0.001). When compared with the other two parameters, the proposed method also demonstrated better sensitivity and specificity. When adopting the TMR for the estimation of prognosis after therapy, there was a significant difference between the population survival curves. In conclusion, the derived mFWHM reflects tumor heterogeneity, and the ability to depict patient survival probability from TMR corresponds well with that from RECIST. The results reveal that, in brain tumors, progression may be exhibited not only by tumor size, but also by tumor heterogeneity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To determine the incidence of needle tract seeding after fine needle aspiration (FNA) or percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) and compare iatrogenic or spontaneous soft tissue metastasis (STM) by hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) postradiotherapy (RT) in responses. Methods: From November 1997 to January 2006, those who presented with STM by HCC after our invasive procedures or developed spontaneously were enrolled into this retrospective study. Metastatic lesions could be divided into procedure related (PR), which were located at the liver span and were related to invasive procedures, and non-procedure related (NPR), which were in extrahepatic areas. STM was treated with an electron or photon beam. Results: A total of 39 HCC cases with developed STM were referred for RT, including 17 in the PR group and 22 in the NPR group. During the same period, a total of 18 227 person-times of FNA or PEI were performed on these HCC patients. The overall incidence of HCC with STM that was caused by invasive procedures was estimated at 0.13%. According to the Cox' regression model, the initial treatment modality influences the time duration after the initial diagnosis of HCC when STM has not occurred. None of these patients' soft tissue tumor increased in size during RT. The PR group had lower rates of bone metastasis ( P=0.003) and coexisting extrahepatic metastasis ( P=0.011) and a longer survival rate ( P=0.003) than the NPR group. The estimated rates of 18-gauge and 22-gauge needle-induced HCC-related STM were 0.60% and 0.11%, respectively ( P=0.064). Conclusion: The PR group bears a better prognosis than the NPR group post-RT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented to a special issue addressing data acquisition and processing techniques for biology and medicine, noting articles on topics such as processing of electroencelphalogram (EEG), the use of electromyography (EMG), and a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm.

Electrical impedance is one of the most frequently used parameters for characterizing material properties. The resistive and capacitive characteristics of tissue may be revealed by electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) as electrical biopsy. This technique could be used to monitor the sequelae after irradiation. In this study, rat intestinal tissues after irradiation were assessed by EIS system based on commercially available integrated circuits. The EIS results were fitted to a resistor-capacitor circuit model to determine the electrical properties of the tissue. The variations in the electrical characteristics of the tissue were compared to radiation injury score (RIS) by morphological and histological findings. The electrical properties, based on receiver operation curve (ROC) analysis, strongly reflected the histological changes with excellent diagnosis performance. The results of this study suggest that electrical biopsy reflects histological changes after irradiation. This approach may significantly augment the evaluation of tissue after irradiation. It could provide rapid results for decision making in monitoring radiation sequelae prospectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]