OBJECTIVETo research the regulating effects of different dosages of ginseng with hairy antler on the sexual dysfunction model of the gonad and the structure of shenyangxu male rats induced with adenine, and to look for the best compatible proportion of ginseng to hairy antler in the model.

METHODSHealthy male SD rats, 2 months of age and (220 +/- 20) g in weight, were randomly assigned to 13 groups: normal group, model group, ginseng group, hairy antler group and 9 different proportion groups of ginseng to hairy antler. Observations were made on the exterior syndrome, testosterone in sera, weight index of the prostate and seminal vesicle, and tissue changes of the testis in the experimental rat model.

RESULTSDosages of different proportions of ginseng to hairy antler had different improving effects on the exterior syndrome, testosterone in sera, weight index of the prostate and seminal vesicle, and tissue changes of the testis.

CONCLUSIONDifferent proportions of ginseng to hairy antler had different improving effects on the sexual dysfunction model of male rats induced with adenine, and the best compatible proportion of ginseng to hairy antler was 5 to 2, that is, 0.45 g ginseng to 0.18 g hairy antler or 0.90 g ginseng to 0.36 g hairy antler.

Adenine ; Animals ; Antlers ; Disease Models, Animal ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Panax ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological ; chemically induced ; drug therapy ; Testosterone ; blood

Tumor immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) present a dual nature, offering therapeutic benefits alongside possible toxic side effects. Despite their significant clinical advantages, immune-related adverse events (irAEs) are major concern. In particular, the multi-organ irAEs (MO-irAEs) caused by ICIs present complex clinical manifestations, affecting a high proportion of critically ill patients. There is a lack of clinical awareness and attention towards these adverse events, making management relatively difficult, thus potentially threatening the life of patients. Reasonable application of hormones and immune modulators, along with symptomatic and supportive treatment, as well as careful monitoring and long-term follow-up are crucial measures to control MO-irAEs. Clinical characteristics, peripheral blood indicators, and genetic predisposition can serve as predictive markers for MO-irAEs occurrence and progression to some extent. A comprehensive understanding of clinical features, intervention measures, prognosis, potential molecular mechanisms and predictive factors of MO-irAEs can help to effectively control MO-irAEs, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Objective:To investigate the prevalence of depressive disorders among school students aged 6-16 years in Beijing, the effect of age and gender on the prevalence, and the behavioral and emotional profiles of identified students with depressive disorders.Methods:The prevalence of depressive disorders in primary and secondary school students aged 6-16 years in Beijing from January 2012 to December 2014 was examined by a multistage stratified random sampling method.In the first stage, the Achenbach′s Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to identify high-risk children and adolescents.In the second stage, the high-risk group was further screened by Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI-KID), and then two psychiatrists made the final diagnosis according to the diagnostic criteria of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-Ⅳ). This study was a prospective epidemiological investigation.The effect of age and gender on the disease prevalence was analyzed by Chi- square test. Results:About 2.29% (234/10 215 cases) of the school students aged 6-16 years in Beijing had depressive disorders.The incidence of depressive disorders was 1.80% (106/5 866 cases) in boys and 2.94% (128/4 349 cases) in girls.There is an age effect on the prevalence of depression.As the age increases, the morbidity of depressive disorders increases.The age of 12 years was a critical turning point, and the peak incidence was reached at around the age of 15 years.The emotional and behavioral problems of patients with depressive disorders mainly include social problems, withdrawal depressed, anxiety and depressed, somatic complaints, and aggressive behavior.Conclusions:The prevalence of depressive disorders among school students aged 6-16 years in Beijing is 2.29%.Depressive disorders occur in primary and middle school students of all ages.More attention should be paid to the mood of students before and after the entrance exams for junior high school and senior middle school, especially the girls′ mood.In the process of screening, diagnosis and treatment of depressive disorders, the atypical symptoms of depression need to be paid more attention.

Immunotherapy represents the third revolution in the pharmacological treatment of tumors and has demonstrated considerable efficacy in the management of malignant solid tumors, including melanoma and lung cancer. By contrast, breast cancer is frequently categorized as a “cold tumor” because of its limited immunogenicity and immunoreactivity, which hinder research progress and clinical outcomes in immunotherapy. Only a small proportion of patients derive benefits from immunotherapeutic interventions, and the development of drug resistance remains a concern. In this regard, novel strategies should be explored for converting immunologically inert “cold tumors” into immunologically active “hot tumors”, thereby expanding the population that will benefit from breast cancer immunotherapy. This study reviews new strategies to transform breast cancer from “cold tumor” to “hot tumor”. Strategies include enhancing the expression of tumor antigens, promoting immune infiltration, and reversing the immunosuppressive microenvironment. Results also emphasize the importance of comprehensive treatment to enhance systemic immunity.

Esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most lethal malignancies in the world and occurs at particularly higher frequency in China. While several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of germline variants and whole-genome or whole-exome sequencing studies of somatic mutations in ESCC have been published, there is no comprehensive database publically available for this cancer. Here, we developed the Chinese Cancer Genomic Database-Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (CCGD-ESCC) database, which contains the associations of 69,593 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with ESCC risk in 2022 cases and 2039 controls, survival time of 1006 ESCC patients (survival GWAS) and gene expression (expression quantitative trait loci, eQTL) in 94 ESCC patients. Moreover, this database also provides the associations between 8833 somatic mutations and survival time in 675 ESCC patients. Our user-friendly database is a resource useful for biologists and oncologists not only in identifying the associations of genetic variants or somatic mutations with the development and progression of ESCC but also in studying the underlying mechanisms for tumorigenesis of the cancer. CCGD-ESCC is freely accessible at http://db.cbi.pku.edu.cn/ccgd/ESCCdb.
Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; genetics ; China ; epidemiology ; Databases, Genetic ; Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma ; genetics ; Female ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genetic Variation ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Humans ; Internet ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; genetics ; User-Computer Interface

Objective To investigate the changes in eosinophil counts and the activation of microglial cells in the brain tissues of mice at different stages of Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection, and to examine the role of microglia in regulating the progression of angiostrongyliasis and unravel the possible molecular mechanisms. Methods Fifty BALB/c mice were randomly divided into the control group and the 7-d, 14-d, 21-day and 25-d infection groups, of 10 mice in each group. All mice in infection groups were infected with 30 stage III A. cantonensis larvae by gavage, and animals in the control group was given an equal amount of physiological saline. Five mice were collected from each of infection groups on days 7, 14, 21 d and 25 d post-infection, and 5 mice were collected from the control group on the day of oral gavage. The general and focal functional impairment was scored using the Clark scoring method to assess the degree of mouse neurological impairment. Five mice from each of infection groups were sacrificed on days 7, 14, 21 d and 25 d post-infection, and 5 mice from the control group were sacrificed on the day of oral gavage. Mouse brain tissues were sampled, and the pathological changes of brain tissues were dynamically observed using hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining. Immunofluorescence staining with eosinophilic cationic protein (ECP) and ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba1) was used to assess the degree of eosinophil infiltration and the counts of microglial cells in mouse brain tissues in each group, and the morphological parameters of microglial cells (skeleton analysis and fractal analysis) were quantified by using Image J software to determine the morphological changes of microglial cells. In addition, the expression of M1 microglia markers Fcγ receptor III (Fcgr3), Fcγ receptor IIb (Fcgr2b) and CD86 antigen (Cd86), M2 microglia markers Arginase 1 (Arg1), macrophage mannose receptor C-type 1 (Mrc1), chitinase-like 3 (Chil3), and phagocytosis genes myeloid cell triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (Trem2), CD68 antigen (Cd68), and apolipoprotein E (Apoe) was quantified using real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) assay in the mouse cerebral cortex of mice post-infection. Results A large number of A. cantonensis larvae were seen on the mouse meninges surface post-infection, and many neuronal nuclei were crumpled and deeply stained, with a large number of bleeding points in the meninges. The median Clark scores of mouse general functional impairment were 0 (interquartile range, 0), 0 (interquartile range, 0.5), 6 (interquartile range, 1.0), 14 (interquartile range, 8.5) points and 20 (interquartile range, 9.0) points in the control group and the 7-d, 14-d, 21-d and 25-d groups, respectively (H = 22.45, P < 0.01), and the median Clark scores of mouse focal functional impairment were 0 (interquartile range, 0), 2 (interquartile range, 2.5), 7 (interquartile range, 3.0), 18 (interquartile range, 5.0) points and 25 (interquartile range, 6.5) points in the control group and the 7-d, 14-d, 21-d and 25-d groups, respectively (H = 22.72, P < 0.01). The mean scores of mice general and focal functional impairment were all higher in the infection groups than in the control group (all P values < 0.05). Immunofluorescence staining showed a significant difference in the eosinophil counts in mouse brain tissues among the five groups (F = 40.05, P < 0.000 1), and the eosinophil counts were significantly higher in mouse brain tissues in the 14-d (3.08 ± 0.78) and 21-d infection groups (5.97 ± 1.37) than in the control group (1.00 ± 0.28) (both P values < 0.05). Semi-quantitative analysis of microglia immunofluorescence showed a significant difference in the counts of microglial cells among the five groups (F = 17.66, P < 0.000 1), and higher Iba1 levels were detected in mouse brain tissues in 14-d (5.75 ± 1.28), 21-d (6.23 ± 1.89) and 25-d infection groups (3.70 ± 1.30) than in the control group (1.00 ± 0.30) (all P values < 0.05). Skeleton and fractal analyses showed that the branch length [(162.04 ± 34.10) μm vs. (395.37 ± 64.11) μm; t = 5.566, P < 0.05] and fractal dimension of microglial cells (1.30 ± 0.01 vs. 1.41 ± 0.03; t = 5.266, P < 0.05) were reduced in mouse brain tissues in the 21-d infection group relative to the control group. In addition, there were significant differences among the 5 groups in terms of M1 and M2 microglia markers Fcgr3 (F = 48.34, P < 0.05), Fcgr2b (F = 55.46, P < 0.05), Cd86 (F = 24.44, P < 0.05), Arg1 (F = 31.18, P < 0.05), Mrc1 (F = 15.42, P < 0.05) and Chil3 (F = 24.41, P < 0.05), as well as phagocytosis markers Trem2 (F = 21.19, P < 0.05), Cd68 (F = 43.95, P < 0.05) and Apoe (F = 7.12, P < 0.05) in mice brain tissues. Conclusions A. cantonensis infections may induce severe pathological injuries in mouse brain tissues that are characterized by massive eosinophil infiltration and persistent activation of microglia cells, thereby resulting in progressive deterioration of neurological functions.