ObjectiveTo observe the clinical efficacy and possible mechanisms of Xianglian Huazhuo Granules （香连化浊颗粒， XHG） in the treatment of chronic atrophic gastritis with intestinal metaplasia. MethodsA total of 140 patients with chronic atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group， with 70 cases in each group. The treatment group received 12.5 g of XHG orally， twice daily. The control group received 12.5 g of placebo orally， twice daily. Both groups were treated for 6 months. The traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） symptom scores， pathological types， serum tumor markers of the digestive system， and serum bile acids （TBA）， interleukin-23 （IL-23）， and Dickkopf-related protein 1 （DKK-1） levels were observed before and after treatment. Safety indicators and adverse events were recorded. After treatment， TCM syndrome efficacy and pathological types were evaluated， and patients were followed up for 18 months with gastric endoscopy and pathological results， which were compared with the results after treatment finished. ResultsTwo patients dropped out in the control group， and a total of 168 cases were included in the final analysis， 70 in the treatment group and 68 in the control group. The treatment group showed a significant reduction in TCM symptom scores， serum TBA， IL-23， and DKK-1 levels， and a significant increase in alpha-fetoprotein （AFP）， carbohydrate antigen 125 （CA125）， carbohydrate antigen 199 （CA199） levels； in the control group， carcinoembryonic antigen （CEA）， CA125， CA199 levels significantly increased （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）； and carbohydrate antigen 242 （CA242） level in both the treatment group and the control group decreased significantly （P＜0.01）. The treatment group had lower TCM symptom scores and lower levels of serum TBA， IL-23， and DKK-1 compared to the control group （P＜0.05）. The effective rate for TCM syndrome efficacy in the treatment group was 80.00% （56/70）， significantly higher than the 20.59% （14/68） in the control group （P < 0.05）. The effective rate for pathological classification in the treatment group was 72.73% （8/11） for mixed intestinal metaplasia， significantly better than 46.15% （6/13） in the control group （P＜0.05）. No adverse events were reported in either group. Among 40 patients who had a follow-up endoscopy after one year， 21 were from the treatment group， of whom 11 showed reduced intestinal metaplasia， 9 showed no significant changes， and 1 had worsened； while 19 patients in the control group had 4 with reduced intestinal metaplasia， 13 with no significant changes， and 2 with worsened conditions. No cancer was detected in either group. The treatment group showed significantly better improvement in intestinal metaplasia on follow-up gastric endoscopy pathology than the control group （P＜0.05）. ConclusionXHG can significantly improve the clinical symptoms in patients with chronic atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia and reduce the degree of mixed intestinal metaplasia. The mechanism may involve lowering serum TBA， DKK-1， and IL-23 levles， thus delaying the progression from inflammation to cancer.

Animal experiments are an essential component of life sciences and medical research. However, the external validity and reliability of individual animal studies are frequently challenged by inherent limitations such as small sample sizes, high design heterogeneity, and poor reproducibility, which impede the effective translation of research findings into clinical practice. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis represent a key methodology for integrating existing evidence and enhancing the robustness of conclusions. Currently, however, the application of systematic reviews and meta-analysis in the field of animal experiments lacks standardized guidelines for their conduct and reporting, resulting in inconsistent quality and, to some extent, diminishing their evidence value. To address this issue, this paper aims to systematically delineate the reporting process for systematic reviews and meta-analysis of animal experiments and to propose a set of standardized recommendations that are both scientific and practical. The article's scope encompasses the entire process, from the preliminary preparatory phase [including formulating the population， intervention， comparison and outcome （PICO） question, assessing feasibility, and protocol pre-registration] to the key writing points for each section of the main report. In the core methods section, the paper elaborates on how to implement literature searches, establish eligibility criteria, perform data extraction, and assess the risk of bias, based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis （PRISMA) statement, in conjunction with relevant guidelines and tools such as Animal Research： Reporting of in Vivo Experiments （ARRIVE) and a risk of bias assessment tool developed by the Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE). For the presentation of results, strategies are proposed for clear and transparent display using flow diagrams and tables of characteristics. The discussion section places particular emphasis on how to scientifically interpret pooled effects, thoroughly analyze sources of heterogeneity, evaluate the impact of publication bias, and cautiously discuss the validity and limitations of extrapolating findings from animal studies to clinical settings. Furthermore, this paper recommends adopting the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology to comprehensively grade the quality of evidence. Through a modular analysis of the entire reporting process, this paper aims to provide researchers in the field with a clear and practical guide, thereby promoting the standardized development of systematic reviews and meta-analysis of animal experiments and enhancing their application value in scientific decision-making and translational medicine.

BACKGROUND: Spicy food consumption has been reported to be inversely associated with mortality from multiple diseases. However, the effect of spicy food intake on the incidence of vascular diseases in the Chinese population remains unclear. This study was conducted to explore this association. METHODS: This study was performed using the large-scale China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) prospective cohort of 486,335 participants. The primary outcomes were vascular disease, ischemic heart disease (IHD), major coronary events (MCEs), cerebrovascular disease, stroke, and non-stroke cerebrovascular disease. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to assess the association between spicy food consumption and incident vascular diseases. Subgroup analysis was also performed to evaluate the heterogeneity of the association between spicy food consumption and the risk of vascular disease stratified by several basic characteristics. In addition, the joint effects of spicy food consumption and the healthy lifestyle score on the risk of vascular disease were also evaluated, and sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the reliability of the association results. RESULTS: During a median follow-up time of 12.1 years, a total of 136,125 patients with vascular disease, 46,689 patients with IHD, 10,097 patients with MCEs, 80,114 patients with cerebrovascular disease, 56,726 patients with stroke, and 40,098 patients with non-stroke cerebrovascular disease were identified. Participants who consumed spicy food 1-2 days/week (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.95, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = [0.93, 0.97], P <0.001), 3-5 days/week (HR = 0.96, 95% CI = [0.94, 0.99], P = 0.003), and 6-7 days/week (HR = 0.97, 95% CI = [0.95, 0.99], P = 0.002) had a significantly lower risk of vascular disease than those who consumed spicy food less than once a week ( Ptrend <0.001), especially in those who were younger and living in rural areas. Notably, the disease-based subgroup analysis indicated that the inverse associations remained in IHD ( Ptrend = 0.011) and MCEs ( Ptrend = 0.002) risk. Intriguingly, there was an interaction effect between spicy food consumption and the healthy lifestyle score on the risk of IHD ( Pinteraction = 0.037). CONCLUSIONS Our findings support an inverse association between spicy food consumption and vascular disease in the Chinese population, which may provide additional dietary guidance for the prevention of vascular diseases.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Prospective Studies ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Vascular Diseases/etiology* ; Risk Factors ; China/epidemiology* ; Adult ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Cerebrovascular Disorders/epidemiology* ; East Asian People

BACKGROUND: The American Heart Association (AHA) introduced the concept of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) health and stage, reflecting the interaction among metabolism, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and the cardiovascular system. However, the association between CKM stage and the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has not been validated. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term CVD risk associated with CKM health metrics and CKM stage using data from a population-based cohort study. METHODS: In total, 5293 CVD-free participants were followed up to around 13 years in the Chinese Multi-provincial Cohort Study (CMCS). Considering the pathophysiologic progression of CKM health metrics abnormalities (comprising obesity, central adiposity, prediabetes, diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia, CKD, and metabolic syndrome), participants were divided into CKM stages 0, 1, and 2. The time-dependent Cox regression models were used to estimate the cardiovascular risk associated with CKM health metrics and stage. Additionally, broader CVD outcomes were examined, with a specific assessment of the impact of stage 3 in 2581 participants from the CMCS-Beijing subcohort. RESULTS: Among participants, 91.2% (4825/5293) had at least one abnormal CKM health metric, 8.8% (468/5293), 13.3% (704/5293), and 77.9% (4121/5293) were in CKM stages 0, 1, and 2, respectively; and 710 incident CVD cases occurred during a median follow-up time of 13.3 years (interquartile range: 12.1 to 13.6 years). Participants with each poor CKM health metric exhibited significantly higher CVD risk. Compared with stage 0, the hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval [CI]) for CVD incidence was 1.31 (0.84-2.04) in stage 1 and 2.27 (1.57-3.28) in stage 2. Significant interactive impacts existed between CKM stage and age or sex, with higher CVD risk related to increased CKM stages in participants aged <60 years or females. CONCLUSION These findings highlight the contribution of CKM health metrics and CKM stage to the long-term risk of CVD, suggesting the importance of multi-component recognition and management of poor CKM health in CVD prevention.
Humans ; Female ; Male ; Cardiovascular Diseases/etiology* ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Cohort Studies ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic/metabolism* ; Aged ; Risk Factors ; Metabolic Syndrome/metabolism* ; China ; East Asian People

In current clinical practice, various dermal templates and skin substitutes are used to enhance wound healing. However, the role of wound commensal microbiome in regulating scaffold performance and the healing process remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the influence of both natural and synthetic scaffolds on the wound commensal microbiome and wound repair in three distinct models including diabetic wounds, burn injuries, and germ-free (GF) wounds. Remarkably, synthetic electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds were observed to positively promote microbiome diversity, leading to enhanced diabetic wound healing compared to the natural scaffolds Integra® (INT) and MatriDerm® (MAD). In contrast, both natural and synthetic scaffolds exhibited comparable effects on the diversity of the microbiome and the healing of burn injuries. In GF wounds with no detectable microorganisms, a reversed healing rate was noted showing natural scaffold (MAD) accelerated wound repair compared to the open or the synthetic scaffold (PCL) treatment. Furthermore, the response of the wound commensal microbiome to PCL scaffolds appears pivotal in promoting anti-inflammatory factors during diabetic wound healing. Our results emphasize that the wound commensal microbiome, mediated by different scaffolds plays an important role in the wound healing process.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive malignancy predominantly managed via chemotherapy. Our clinical sample analysis revealed a significant correlation between elevated CD24 expression in TNBC tumor cells and patient survival rates. We developed a novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), named HN03, consisting of an antibody with engineered cysteines for site-specific conjugation with a low toxic nitric oxide (NO) precursor as its payload through a novel Pt(IV)-mediated bioorthogonal self-cleavable linker. HN03 specifically targets tumor cells expressing high levels of CD24, concurrently generating cisplatin and releasing NO upon activation. HN03 also exhibited potent in vitro and in vivo antitumor activity. It significantly reduced tumor growth at various doses, prevented tumor metastasis, with markedly lower toxicity than traditional chemotherapy agents. We found that a key mechanism of its action involved inducing apoptosis and endoplasmic reticulum stress, substantially decreasing the number of M2-type macrophages. Overall, HN03 stands out as a promising therapeutic option for TNBC, offering a targeted treatment with reduced side effects and the potential for improved outcomes. Furthermore, using Pt(IV) in the linker and an NO precursor as the payload enhances the versatility of the Antibody-NO donor Conjugate (ANC), offering new avenues for the design of the next generation of ADCs.

OBJECTIVES: To construct an intelligent analysis model for classifying fetal orientation during intrapartum ultrasound videos based on multi-feature fusion. METHODS: The proposed model consists of the Input, Backbone Network and Classification Head modules. The Input module carries out data augmentation to improve the sample quality and generalization ability of the model. The Backbone Network was responsible for feature extraction based on Yolov8 combined with CBAM, ECA, PSA attention mechanism and AIFI feature interaction module. The Classification Head consists of a convolutional layer and a softmax function to output the final probability value of each class. The images of the key structures (the eyes, face, head, thalamus, and spine) were annotated with frames by physicians for model training to improve the classification accuracy of the anterior occipital, posterior occipital, and transverse occipital orientations. RESULTS: The experimental results showed that the proposed model had excellent performance in the tire orientation classification task with the classification accuracy reaching 0.984, an area under the PR curve (average accuracy) of 0.993, and area under the ROC curve of 0.984, and a kappa consistency test score of 0.974. The prediction results by the deep learning model were highly consistent with the actual classification results. CONCLUSIONS The multi-feature fusion model proposed in this study can efficiently and accurately classify fetal orientation in intrapartum ultrasound videos.
Humans ; Female ; Ultrasonography, Prenatal/methods* ; Pregnancy ; Fetus/diagnostic imaging* ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Video Recording

Objective:Discipline construction is the key and effective method for the high-quality development of hospitals. This study summarized the practical and valuable experience of discipline construction with the support of the ″Sanming Project of Medicine″ in Shenzhen, to provide a worthy reference for similar projects and hospital specialty development.Methods:Taking the introduction of the hematology-oncology team of the Canadian Children′s Hospital as an example, we analyzed the background, the process, and the effectiveness of discipline construction of hematology and oncology of Shenzhen Children′s Hospital under the support of the ″Sanming Project of Medicine″, and explored the common rules for rapid specialty development.Results:Through the implementation of two levels supporting policies from cities and hospitals and quantifiable and verifiable annual progressive program, the adoption of the international advanced medical management mode and concepts, and the transformation and application of cutting-edge clinical technologies, we successfully built the largest pediatric hematologic oncology diagnosis and treatment center in South China and the largest pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant center in China. By executing a multi-level talent developing program, the number of specialists with MD and PhD degrees increased by 6.5 times, and 23 doctors and nurses were trained abroad, leading to the development of provincial key clinical specialties and municipal key scientific research platforms.Conclusions:This project concluded the beneficial experience of introducing high-level overseas medical teams to boost discipline construction, including internationally advanced medical concepts and management modes, tiered talent cultivation schemes, the construction of clinical and basic research platforms, etc., providing references for the rapid improvement of discipline construction in terms of health care for other hospitals in Shenzhen and similar cities.

Objective To investigate the preparation and evaluation of animal models of depression associated with autoimmune thyroiditis,and to verify the NLRP3/Caspase-1/GSDMD pathway based on this condition.Methods 32 NOD.H-2H4 mice were randomly divided into a normal(N)group,depression(DP)group,autoimmune thyroiditis with depression(AIT+DP)group,autoimmune thyroiditis(AIT)group,with 8 animals in each group.The N group was fed normally,the DP group was subjected to chronic unpredictable mild stress(CUMS)for 5 weeks,the AIT group was given 0.05％sodium iodide water to establish an autoimmune thyroiditis model,and the AIT+DP group was subjected to 5 weeks of CUMS to establish the AIT animal model.We evaluated whether the mouse autoimmune thyroiditis model had been successfully prepared by observing the thyroid tissue structure,lymphocyte infiltration,and serum TGAb and TPOAb levels.Changes in body weight,sugar water preference rate,open field behavior(central quadrant time,central quadrant time proportion,standing rate,frequency of defecation,and hair grooming time),and hippocampal pathological changes were used to evaluate the depression status of the mice.When the model mice met the above-mentioned indicators related to depression and autoimmune thyroiditis,the AIT+DP animal model was considered successfully prepared.Results Compared with the levels in the N group,the AIT group's and AIT+DP group's serum TGAb and TPOAb levels were significantly increased(P＜0.01),and a large number of inflammatory cells had infiltrated the thyroid gland.The central quadrant time and central quadrant time proportion,standing rate,frequency of defecation,and hair grooming time were reduced to varying degrees in the DP group and AIT+DP group.In addition,the numbers of glial cells in the cerebral cortex increased and neuronal cells decreased,accompanied by some nuclear atrophy,and the expression levels of NLRP3,IL-1β,Caspase-1,and GSDMD-N significantly increased,especially in the AIT+DP group(P＜0.01).Conclusions 0.05％sodium iodide water and CUMS create autoimmune thyroiditis with depression model animals that better simulate the external performance and internal index changes of the diseases.These mice can provide an animal model reference for research into autoimmune thyroiditis with depression.

Objective To explore the effects of Buzhong Yiqi Decoction on PKCβ/Erk1/2/NF-κB signaling pathway in mice with autoimmune thyroiditis(AIT);To explore the mechanism of Buzhong Yiqi Decoction in the treatment of AIT.Methods Totally 808-week-old NOD.H-2h4 mice were randomly divided into control group,model group,TCM group and selenium yeast tablet group,with 20 mice in each group.The control group was fed with distilled water,and the other groups were given 0.05%sodium iodide for 8 weeks to establish AIT mice model.The medication groups were administered by gavage with corresponding drugs for 8 weeks.The morphology of thyroid tissue was detected by HE staining,ELISA was used to detected the contents of serum TGAb and TPOAb,RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression of PKCβ,Erk1/2,NF-κBp65,RORγt and IL-17 mRNA in thyroid tissue,the protein expressions of PKCβ,Erk1/2,NF-κBp65,RORγt and IL-17 in thyroid tissue were detected by Western blot.Results Compared with the control group,there were a large number of lymphocyte infiltration in thyroid tissue,and serum TGAb and TPOAb contents significantly increased(P<0.001),the expression of PKCβ,Erk1/2,NF-κBp65,RORγt and IL-17 mRNA and protein in thyroid tissue were significantly increased(P<0.001).Compared with the model group,the infiltration of lymphocytes in thyroid tissue of mice in TCM group and selenium yeast tablet group were alleviated,the contents of serum TGAb and TPOAb were significantly decreased(P<0.001),the mRNA and protein expressions of PKCβ,Erk1/2,NF-κBp65,RORγt and IL-17 in thyroid tissue were significantly decreased(P<0.001).There was no statistical significance in the indexes of TCM group and selenium yeast tablet group(P>0.05).Conclusion Buzhong Yiqi Decoction can regulate PKCβ/Erk1/2/NF-κB pathway,reduce inflammation in AIT mice and improve thyroid lymphocyte infiltration.