We extracted Astragalosides (AS) from Astragalus membranaceus, a nature herb using as a Chinese traditional medicine, and postulated Astragalosides would exert beneficial effect in myocardial injury by preserving both energy metabolism and Ca2+ homeostasis. Sprague-Dauley (SD) rats were injected with isoproterenol (ISO) s.c. at a dose of 5mg/kg/day consecutively for two days. Astragalosides and trimetazidine were treated to isoproterenol-administrated rats by injecting i.p. at a dose of 5mg/kg/day one day prior to isoproterenol and lasted for 8 days, respectively. The histological changes were alleviated in isoproterenol-damaged SD rats treated with astragalosides. Compared with those in isoproterenol group, myocardial intracellular [Ca2+]i was decreased, L-type Ca2+ density and sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ load were improved by astragalosides administration. Meanwhile myocardial ATP content was increased, phosphocreatine (PCr) was decreased in the same group. In conclusion, astragalosides is expected to be an efficacious treatment for myocardial injury by regulating intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis and energy metabolism.

An anodic stripping voltammetric method for the determination of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) at a MCM-41 mesoporous material modified carbon paste electrode (MCM-MCPE) was investigated. The test was based on the dual monoclonal antibody “sandwich” principle using colloidal gold as a labeled substrate. Four main steps were carried out to obtain the analytical signal, i.e. electrode preparation, immunoreaction, silver enhancement, and anodic stripping voltammetric detection. The anodic stripping peak current increased linearly with the concentration of cTnI over the range of 0.8–5.0 ng/ml. A detection limit of 0.5 ng/ml was obtained. The established method was applied to detect cTnI in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) samples using routine enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay (ELISA) for comparison analysis, and good results were obtained.

Aims: To investigate whether patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) possessed high levels of platelet-monocyte aggregates (PMAs) and related circulating biomarkers.Methods: 74 ACS patients, 58 stable angina pectoris (SAP) patients and 46 control patients without coronary artery disease were selected and their PMAs were measured by flow cytometry. Their plasma IL-6, IL-8, MCP-1, soluble CD40L and soluble P-selectin were also measured simultaneously by flow cytometry. Results: Patients with ACS exhibited higher level of PMAs compared with SAP patients and the control. Furthermore, the levels of IL-6, IL-8, MCP-1, soluble CD40L, soluble P-selectin and CRP were also significantly higher in ACS patients than in SAP patients and the control group. However, there were no significant difference in the levels of IL-8, sCD40L, sP-selectin and CRP between SAP patients and the control group. Correlation analysis showed that high levels of IL-6 and sP-selectin were significantly correlated with PMAs. Logistic analysis further demonstrated that the presence of elevated CRP, IL-6 and PMAs level each confers an increased risk of ACS. Conclusion: Elevated levels of PMAs and related circulating biomarkers might indicate the unstable coronary syndrome in ACS patients, and the levels of PMAs, CRP and IL-6 could be used for monitoring and guiding the early intervention of ACS patients.