Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a pathological state in which the cardiac ejection fraction is insufficient to meet an individual's metabolic needs owing to changes in the cardiac structure or function. Various etiologies such as myocardial infarction and inflammation are implicated, and the main symptoms are dyspnea, lower limb edema, fatigue, and discomfort during rest or exercise. CHF is the primary outcome of cardiovascular disease, and the increasing morbidity and mortality rates highlight the significant risks of this condition. According to traditional Chinese medicine, the pathogenesis of CHF is deficiency of heart qi and heart yang, which predominantly affects the heart, but may also impede the function of other zang-organs such as the spleen and kidney, and aggravate the symptoms of heart failure. With technological advancements and enhanced awareness of health conditions and disease prevention, China has promoted traditional medicine practices such as medicine and food homology (MFH), which has received increasing attention in recent years. This concept stipulates that certain medicines and foods have the same origin; ergo, these foods have medicinal properties, with many being used in the prevention and treatment of CHF. However, the efficacy and safety of MHF substances have yet to be determined, and there is no consensus regarding the development of disease prevention and treatment strategies. This article therefore reviews the current evidence for MFH in the prevention and treatment of CHF by summarizing the therapeutic potential of this practice and discussing treatment strategies and aims to improve the understanding of Chinese medicine and food homologous substances in the treatment of this condition, as well as highlight the current literature and avenues for future research.

This article inherited and summarized the application of Professor Tang Xudong's"New Eight Principles in the Syndrome Differentiation and Treatment of Spleen and Stomach Diseases"(abbreviated as"New Eight Principles")in the field of chronic liver disease.It believed that chronic liver disease should be distinguished from the four aspects of"zangfu organs-qi and blood-deficiency and excess-cold and heat".The differentiation of zangfu organs is mainly focused on regulating the liver and spleen,while also taking into account other organs;the differentiation of qi and blood emphasizes the knowing of its excess and deficiency,and the administrative levels of the disease;the differentiation of deficiency and excess is based on the principle of qi-deficency and blood-stasis,and strengthens body resistance and eliminating evil;for the differentiation of cold and heat,liver-gallbladder dampness-heat syndrome is the most common,but do not forget the liver cold syndrome.On this basis,Tongjiang theory is used as the treatment legislation,making it easier to be mastered,and guiding the prescription and medication of chronic liver disease throughout the entire stage,which can achieve good efficacy.

Objective: To find out the differences in gene characteristics between cervical cancer patients with and without lymph node metastasis, and to provide reference for therapy. Methods: From January 2018 to June 2022, recurrent cervical cancer patients 39 cases with lymph node metastasis and 73 cases without lymph node metastasis underwent testing of 1,021 cancer-related genes by next-generation sequencing. Maftools software was used to analyze somatic single nucleotide/insertion-deletion variation mutation, co-occurring mutation, cosmic mutation characteristics, oncogenic signaling pathways. Results: EP300 and FBXW7 were significantly enriched in lymph node-positive patients.Lymph node-positive patients with EP300 or FBXW7 mutations had lower overall survival (OS) after recurrence. Both lymph node-positive and -negative patients had plenty of co-occurring mutations but few mutually exclusive mutations. Lymph node-positive cooccurring mutation number ≥6 had lower OS, while lymph node-negative co-occurring mutation number ≥3 had lower OS after recurrence. The etiology of SBS3 was defects in DNA double strand break repair by homologous recombination, which exclusively exist in lymph node-positive patients. There was no difference in median tumor mutation burden (TMB) between positive and negative lymph nodes, but TMB was significantly associated with PIK3CA mutation. Conclusion The somatic SNV/Indels of EP300 and FBXW7, SBS3 homologous recombination-mediated DNA repair defect were enriched in lymph node-positive patients.For lymph node-positive patients, EP300 or FBXW7 mutations predicted poor prognosis. No matter lymph node-positive or negative, more co-occurring mutation number predicted poor prognosis. PIK3CA mutation may account for the higher TMB and help identify patients who benefit from immunotherapy.

Objective: To find out the differences in gene characteristics between cervical cancer patients with and without lymph node metastasis, and to provide reference for therapy. Methods: From January 2018 to June 2022, recurrent cervical cancer patients 39 cases with lymph node metastasis and 73 cases without lymph node metastasis underwent testing of 1,021 cancer-related genes by next-generation sequencing. Maftools software was used to analyze somatic single nucleotide/insertion-deletion variation mutation, co-occurring mutation, cosmic mutation characteristics, oncogenic signaling pathways. Results: EP300 and FBXW7 were significantly enriched in lymph node-positive patients.Lymph node-positive patients with EP300 or FBXW7 mutations had lower overall survival (OS) after recurrence. Both lymph node-positive and -negative patients had plenty of co-occurring mutations but few mutually exclusive mutations. Lymph node-positive cooccurring mutation number ≥6 had lower OS, while lymph node-negative co-occurring mutation number ≥3 had lower OS after recurrence. The etiology of SBS3 was defects in DNA double strand break repair by homologous recombination, which exclusively exist in lymph node-positive patients. There was no difference in median tumor mutation burden (TMB) between positive and negative lymph nodes, but TMB was significantly associated with PIK3CA mutation. Conclusion The somatic SNV/Indels of EP300 and FBXW7, SBS3 homologous recombination-mediated DNA repair defect were enriched in lymph node-positive patients.For lymph node-positive patients, EP300 or FBXW7 mutations predicted poor prognosis. No matter lymph node-positive or negative, more co-occurring mutation number predicted poor prognosis. PIK3CA mutation may account for the higher TMB and help identify patients who benefit from immunotherapy.

Objective: To find out the differences in gene characteristics between cervical cancer patients with and without lymph node metastasis, and to provide reference for therapy. Methods: From January 2018 to June 2022, recurrent cervical cancer patients 39 cases with lymph node metastasis and 73 cases without lymph node metastasis underwent testing of 1,021 cancer-related genes by next-generation sequencing. Maftools software was used to analyze somatic single nucleotide/insertion-deletion variation mutation, co-occurring mutation, cosmic mutation characteristics, oncogenic signaling pathways. Results: EP300 and FBXW7 were significantly enriched in lymph node-positive patients.Lymph node-positive patients with EP300 or FBXW7 mutations had lower overall survival (OS) after recurrence. Both lymph node-positive and -negative patients had plenty of co-occurring mutations but few mutually exclusive mutations. Lymph node-positive cooccurring mutation number ≥6 had lower OS, while lymph node-negative co-occurring mutation number ≥3 had lower OS after recurrence. The etiology of SBS3 was defects in DNA double strand break repair by homologous recombination, which exclusively exist in lymph node-positive patients. There was no difference in median tumor mutation burden (TMB) between positive and negative lymph nodes, but TMB was significantly associated with PIK3CA mutation. Conclusion The somatic SNV/Indels of EP300 and FBXW7, SBS3 homologous recombination-mediated DNA repair defect were enriched in lymph node-positive patients.For lymph node-positive patients, EP300 or FBXW7 mutations predicted poor prognosis. No matter lymph node-positive or negative, more co-occurring mutation number predicted poor prognosis. PIK3CA mutation may account for the higher TMB and help identify patients who benefit from immunotherapy.

Background: Cervical cancer is still present a major public health problem, especially in developing countries. In International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics 2018, allowing assessment of retroperitoneal lymph nodes by imaging and/or pathological findings and, if deemed metastatic, the case is designated as stage IIIC (with r and p notations). Patients with lymph node metastases have lower overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS), and survival after recurrence, especially those who have unresectable macroscopical positive lymph nodes. Retrospective analysis suggests that there may be a benefit to debulking macroscopic nodes that would be otherwise difficult to sterilize with standard doses of radiation therapy. However, there are no prospective study reporting that resecting macroscopic nodes before concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CCRT) would improve PFS or OS of cervical cancer and no guidelines for surgical resection of bulky lymph nodes. The CQGOG0103 study is a prospective, multicenter and randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating lymph node dissection on stage IIICr of cervical cancer. Methods Eligible patients are histologically confirmed cervical squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, adeno-squamous cell carcinoma. Stage IIICr (confirmed by computed tomography [CT]/magnetic resonance imaging/positron emission tomography/CT) and the short diameter of image-positive lymph node ≥15 mm. 452 patients will be equally randomized to receive either CCRT (pelvic external-beam radiotherapy [EBRT]/extended-field EBRT + cisplatin [40 mg/m2] or carboplatin [the area under curve=2] every week for 5 cycles + brachytherapy) or open/minimally invasive pelvic and para-aortic lymph node dissection followed by CCRT. Randomization is stratified by status of para-aortic lymph node. The primary endpoint is PFS. Secondary endpoints are OS and surgical complications. A total of 452 patients will be enrolled from multiple hospitals in China within 4 years and followed up for 5 years.

Objective To investigate the clinical value of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) combined with gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT)/aspartate aminotransferase (AST) ratio in the diagnosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods A total of 352 subjects who received treatment or underwent physical examination in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from January 15 to June 15, 2020, were enrolled, among whom there were 86 healthy controls (HC group), 68 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB group), 69 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC group), and 129 patients with HCC (HCC group), and a retrospective analysis was performed for the serological test results of all subjects. An analysis of variance was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data between multiple groups, and the least significant difference t -test was used for further comparison between two groups; the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison of continuous data with skewed distribution between multiple groups, and the Nemenyi method was used for further comparison between two groups. A binary logistic regression analysis was used to calculate predictor variables; a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted for AFP, GGT/AST, and the predictor variables used alone or in combination, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity were calculated; the Z test was used for comparison of AUC. Results The HCC group had significantly higher GGT/AST ratio and AFP than the other groups (all P < 0.05). The ROC curve analysis showed that AFP combined with GGT/AST ratio had a significantly higher AUC than AFP alone in the HCC group vs the LC group, the HCC group vs the HC+CHB+LC groups, and the HCC group vs the CHB+LC groups ( Z =2.684, 2.241, and 2.415, P =0.007, 0.025, and 0.016). Conclusion AFP combined with GGT/AST ratio can improve the clinical diagnostic performance of HBV-related HCC and thus has a certain diagnostic value.

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of the growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) and the procalcitonin (PCT) in sepsis.Methods:A total number of 137 patients with sepsis (considered as the sepsis group) and 59 patients with inflammatory infection but not diagnosed as sepsis (the non-sepsis group) received treatment in intensive care unit of Renming Hospital of Wuhan University were collected from July 2020 to January 2021, and 62 cases of healthy physical examination (control group) were simultaneously chosen as control. Sepsis patients were divided into two groups (death group [ n=48] and survival group [ n=89]) according to their 28-day′s survival. The serum levels of GDF15, PCT, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were examined, and the levels of each index, was dynamically monitored on the 1st, 3rd and 7th day after admission. The differences of the two indicators between different groups were compared by non-parametric test. The correlation between GDF15 and PCT was analyzed by Spearman correlation test. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of the two indicators for sepsis. Results:The levels of GDF15 in the sepsis group, non-sepsis group and control group were 3.22 (1.39, 6.31) μg/L, 0.84 (0.21, 1.66) μg/L and 0.11 (0.09, 0.13) μg/L, respectively. The levels of PCT were 13.10 (1.99, 50.25) μg/L, 0.24 (0.13, 0.68) μg/L and 0.05 (0.03, 0.10) μg/L, respectively. The levels of CRP were 115.80 (26.40, 184.07) mg/L, 24.20 (11.30, 53.20) mg/L and 0.50 (0.50, 2.76) mg/L, respectively. The levels of IL-6 were 68.26 (21.59, 255.46) ng/L, 33.20 (10.81, 89.27) ng/L and 8.82 (7.33, 11.23) ng/L, respectively. The levels of IL-10 were 11.30 (5.88, 25.50) ng/L, 9.34 (5.65, 16.90) ng/L and 4.94 (4.31, 5.31) ng/L, respectively. The GDF15, PCT, CRP and IL-6 of the sepsis group were significantly higher than those of the non-sepsis group (The U values were 67.681, 86.034, 44.164 and 38.934, respectively, with P values less than 0.05) and the control group (The U values were 136.475, 138.667, 120.701 and 100.886, respectively, with P values less than 0.001). There was no significant difference in IL-10 between sepsis group and nonsepsis group, but it was higher than that of control group ( U=80.221, P<0.001). There was a positive correlation between GDF15 and PCT in patients with sepsis, and the spearman correlation coefficient was 0.234 ( P=0.006). The GDF15 of the death group and the survival group were 5.49 (3.60, 8.25) μg/L and 2.03 (1.06, 3.69) μg/L, and the PCT levels were 26.45 (11.23, 94.25) μg/L and 9.08 (1.33, 22.75) μg/L, respectively. GDF15 and PCT in the death group were significantly higher than those in the survival group ( U values were 3 305.500 and 3 060.000, respectively, and P values were both less than 0.001). The GDF15 and PCT levels in the death group were higher than those in the survival group on the 1st, 3rd and 7th day of dynamic monitoring ( P<0.05), however, the level of CRP and IL-10 were not significantly different ( P>0.05). The level of IL-6 in the death group was not significantly different from that of the death group on 1st day, but was higher than that of the survival group on the 3rd and 7th day ( P<0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of GDF15, PCT, CRP, IL-6 and IL-10 alone and in the combined diagnosis of sepsis were 0.899, 0.938, 0.874, 0.789, 0.698 and 0.962, respectively. The combined detection of AUC was better than a single index; the GDF15, PCT, CRP, IL-6 and IL-10 alone and combined detection of sepsis prognosis AUC were 0.774, 0.716, 0.522, 0.623, 0.520 and 0.839, respectively, the combined detection of AUC is also better than single index. Conclusions:GDF15 and PCT have good clinical reference value in the differential diagnosis and prognosis of sepsis. The combination of indicators has a higher clinical value. GDF15 may become a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of sepsis.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has become a widely used method in the field of microbial identification. Its obvious advantages including rapidity, great accuracy and high throughput attract many researchers to investigate its potential for usage in other microbiological fields. Currently, several studies have reported MALDI-TOF MS-based analysis of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, which can identify the specific heterogeneous spectrum peaks related to drug resistance through simple visual analysis of the spectrum or more complex analysis of the entire spectrum using informatics methods and statistical approaches. Therefore, MALDI-TOF MS has become a potential tool for detecting antibiotic resistance in bacteria. This review mainly summarized the progress in MALDI-TOF MS-based analysis of bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world, and the study on the regulatory mechanisms of the invasion and migration of HCC is of great significance to clinical diagnosis and treatment. Circular RNA (circRNA), as an important member of the non-coding RNA family, plays the role of microRNA (miRNA) sponge in hepatocytes due to its highly stable circular structure. It also plays an important role in HCC progression by regulating miRNA or promoting the expression of target genes through the competitive endogenous RNA mechanism. This article explores the mechanism of action of circRNA in the pathogenesis of HCC, so as to help with the screening for diagnostic markers of HCC and the development of effective therapeutic targets for HCC.