Multifunctional manipulation of red blood cells using optical tweezers.

Serving as natural vehicles to deliver oxygen throughout the whole body, red blood cells (RBCs) have been regarded as important indicators for biomedical analysis and clinical diagnosis. Various diseases can be induced due to the dysfunction of RBCs. Hence, a flexible tool is required to perform precise manipulation and quantitative characterization of their physiological mechanisms and viscoelastic properties.

[Relationship between programmed cell death and myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury and new perspectives of traditional Chinese medicine intervention].

Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury(MIRI) is an urgent problem in clinical treatment. As cardiomyocytes are terminal cells, MIRI-induced cardiomyocyte death will irreversibly damage the structure and function of the heart. In previous studies, apoptosis was considered to be the only way to regulate cell death, while necrosis could not be regulated.

Nuanxin capsule enhances cardiac function by inhibiting oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial dependent apoptosis through AMPK/JNK signaling pathway.

Objective: Oxidative stress and apoptosis play critical roles in the pathogenesis of heart failure (HF).Nuanxin capsule (NX) is a Chinese medicine that has outstanding protective effects on HF. The present study aimed to elucidate whether NX could protect HF against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis through intrinsic mitochondrial pathway.

Anti-HIV/SIV activity of icariin and its metabolite anhydroicaritin mainly involve reverse transcriptase.

AIDS, a serious fatal disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is an epidemic disease for which no effective vaccine has been established. The current therapeutic interventions for AIDS have limited efficacy because they are unable to clear HIV infections and the continuous occurrence of resistant HIV strains. Therefore, the exploitation of new drugs to prevent the spread of AIDS remains a high priority.

[Comparison of TaqMan and Allglo probe in fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR detection of simian immunodeficiency virus].

Objective: To compare the sensitivity and reproducibility of Allglo and TaqMan probe in the detection of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) using fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR (QPCR).

Methods: The reference sample of SIV was diluted to 6 gradient concentrations; at each concentration 12 samples were tested to analyze the variations within batches, and each sample was tested for 12 times for analysis of variations between batches by QRT-PCR using TaqMan probe and Allglo probe. The results of QPCR using the two probes were analyzed with ABI7300 PCR system software.