[Effects of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway on learning and memory abilities in neonatal rats with hypoxic-ischemic brain damage].

Objective: To study the effects of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway inhibitor wortmannin on long-term learning and memory abilities in neonatal rats with hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD).

Methods: Forty-eight neonatal rats were randomly assigned to blank control (n=8), sham-operated (n=8), HIBD model (n=10), HIBD+DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide, n=8) and HIBD+wortmannin groups (n=8). Wortmannin (2 μL) was injected to the left hippocampus 30 minutes before HIBD inducement in the HIBD+wortmannin group.

A sex-specific association of common variants of neuroligin genes (NLGN3 and NLGN4X) with autism spectrum disorders in a Chinese Han cohort.

Background: Synaptic genes, NLGN3 and NLGN4X, two homologous members of the neuroligin family, have been supposed as predisposition loci for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and defects of these two genes have been identified in a small fraction of individuals with ASDs. But no such rare variant in these two genes has as yet been adequately replicated in Chinese population and no common variant has been further investigated to be associated with ASDs.

Methods: 7 known ASDs-related rare variants in NLGN3 and NLGN4X genes were screened for replication of the initial findings and 12 intronic tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped for case-control association analysis in a total of 229 ASDs cases and 184 control individuals in a Chinese Han cohort, using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry.

Verapamil exerts biphasic modulation on phenobarbital transport across the blood-brain barrier: evidence from an in vivo and in vitro study.

The aim of the study was to report a concentration-dependently biphasic effect of verapamil (VER) on the transport of phenobarbital (PB) across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in vitro and in vivo. The uptake of PB by rat brain microvessel endothelial cells (rBMECs) and transport of PB across the rBMEC monolayer from apical to basolateral and basolateral to apical were evaluated in the presence of VER. The effect of VER on PB pharmacological activity on the central nervous system (CNS) and brain distribution of PB in mice were further investigated.

High prevalence of plasmid-mediated 16S rRNA methylase gene rmtB among Escherichia coli clinical isolates from a Chinese teaching hospital.

Background: Recently, production of 16S rRNA methylases by Gram-negative bacilli has emerged as a novel mechanism for high-level resistance to aminoglycosides by these organisms in a variety of geographic locations. Therefore, the spread of high-level aminoglycoside resistance determinants has become a great concern.

Methods: Between January 2006 and July 2008, 680 distinct Escherichia coli clinical isolates were collected from a teaching hospital in Wenzhou, China.

Molecular characterization of Staphylococcus aureus isolates causing skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs).

Background: Staphylococcus aureus, particularly methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), is an important cause of pyogenic skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). The aim of present study is to investigate the molecular characteristic of Staphylococcus aureus isolates isolated from the pus samples from the patients with purulent skin and soft tissue infections in Wenzhou, China.

Combined effects of epileptic seizure and phenobarbital induced overexpression of P-glycoprotein in brain of chemically kindled rats.

Background And Purpose: The multidrug resistance of epilepsy may result from the overexpression of P-glycoprotein, but the mechanisms are unclear. We investigated whether the overexpression of P-glycoprotein in the brains of subjects with pharmacoresistant epilepsy resulted from both drug effects and seizure activity.

Experimental Approach: Kindled rats were developed by injecting a subconvulsive dose of pentylenetetrazole (33 mg.

Transplantation of MSCs in combination with netrin-1 improves neoangiogenesis in a rat model of hind limb ischemia.

Background: Similar to the neural network, the vascular network is formed from central axial structures that send sprouts along predetermined trajectories to their distal destinations. Indeed, recent evidence indicates that neuronal guidance factors and their receptors function as angiogenic regulators. As neural guidance cues, netrin-1 is the most extensively studied gene in the field of angiogenesis.

Evidence for programmed cell death and activation of specific caspase-like enzymes in the tomato fruit heat stress response.

The tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) fruit is the best available model to study the stress response of fleshy fruit. Programmed cell death (PCD) plays an important role in stress responses in mammals and plants. In this study, we provide evidence that PCD is triggered in the tomato fruit heat stress response by detection of the sequential diagnostic PCD events, including release of cytochrome c, activation of caspase-like proteases and the presence of TUNEL-positive nuclei.

Prevalence of 16S rRNA methylase genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from a Chinese teaching hospital: coexistence of rmtB and armA genes in the same isolate.

16S rRNA methylase-mediated high-level resistance to aminoglycosides has been reported recently in clinical isolates of Gram-negative bacilli from several countries. Twenty-one (6.2%, 21/337) of 337 isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae from a teaching hospital in Wenzhou, China, were positive for 16S rRNA methylase genes (3 for armA, 13 for rmtB, 5 for both armA and rmtB) and highly resistant to gentamicin, amikacin, and tobramycin (MICs, > or =256 microg/mL).

Anticoccidial kinase inhibitors: identification of protein kinase targets secondary to cGMP-dependent protein kinase.

Trisubstituted pyrrole inhibitors of the essential coccidian parasite cGMP dependent protein kinase (PKG) block parasite invasion and show in vivo efficacy against Eimeria in chickens and Toxoplasma in mice. An imidazopyridine inhibitor of PKG activity with greater potency in both parasite invasion assays and in vivo activity has recently been identified. Susceptibility experiments with a Toxoplasma knock-out strain expressing a complementing compound-refractory PKG allele ('T761Q-KO'), suggest a role for additional secondary protein kinase targets.

Demethylation of radiolabelled dextromethorphan in rat microsomes and intact hepatocytes.

Liver microsomal preparations are routinely used to predict drug interactions that can occur in vivo as a result of inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP)-mediated metabolism. However, the concentration of free drug (substrate and inhibitor) at its intrahepatic site of action, a variable that cannot be directly measured, may be significantly different from that in microsomal incubation systems. Intact cells more closely reflect the environment to which CYP substrates and inhibitors are exposed in the liver, and it may therefore be desirable to assess the potential of a drug to cause CYP inhibition in isolated hepatocytes.

Antiestrogenic and DNA damaging effects induced by tamoxifen and toremifene metabolites.

The antiestrogen, tamoxifen, has been extensively used in the treatment and prevention of breast cancer. Although tamoxifen showed benefits in the chemotherapy and chemoprevention of breast cancer, epidemiological studies in both tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients and healthy women indicated that treatment caused an increased risk of developing endometrial cancer. These troubling side effects lead to concerns over long-term safety of the drug.

Inhibition of cellular enzymes by equine catechol estrogens in human breast cancer cells: specificity for glutathione S-transferase P1-1.

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are a family of detoxification isozymes that protect cells by conjugating GSH to a variety of toxic compounds, and they may also play a role in the regulation of both cellular proliferation and apoptosis. We have previously shown that human GST P1-1, which is the most widely distributed extrahepatic isozyme, could be inactivated by the catechol estrogen metabolite 4-hydroxyequilenin (4-OHEN) in vitro [Chang, M., Shin, Y.