Objective To evaluate the short-term prediction of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and other cardiovascular risk biomarkers in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD).Methods We conducted a cohort survey in 296 consecutive MHD patients whose clinical data were retrospectively analyzed.Before MHD,hs-cTnT and other relative cardiovascular biomarkers were detected.The end point (all-cause death) and time of occurring were recorded in the next 13 months.The differences between survival and all-cause death were analyzed by t-test,Mann-Whitney test and x2 test.The best two percentile cutoff point was calculated by X-tile and the survival rate was calculated by Kaplan-Meier Logistic regression analysis was applied to analyze the odd ratio between high risk and non-high risk hs-cTnT group.Non-high risk group was divided into intermediate risk and low risk group based on the 99th percentile of hs-cTnT in healthy population,to further evaluate its short-term prediction value for MHD patients.The short-term significance of hs-cTnT was proved to be independently associated with all-cause death by Logistic regression analysis.Results The mean value of serum hs-cTnT in survival group was 0.05 (0.03～0.07) ng/mL,while in the death group it was 0.07 (0.04～0.14) ng/mL,which had statistical significance (P =0.027).The best two percentile cutoff of hs-cTnT in MHD patients was 0.1 ng/mL.The survival rate in high risk group (hs-cTnT＞0.1 ng/mL) is lower than it in non-high risk group (hs-cTnT≤0.1 ng/mL) (76.67％ vs.96.62％,P ＜0.05).The odd ratios for high risk group and non-high risk group was 7.288 (P＜ 0.001).Moreover,further grouping the non-high risk group by hs-cTnT =0.014 ng/mL,intermediate risk group (hs-cTnT＞0.014 ng/mL) group has lower survival rate than low risk group (hs-cTnT≤0.014ng/mL),while there wasn't any death case occurred in the low risk group.Conclusions Hs-cTnT is an independent risk factor to all-cause death.Thus hs-cTnT can be a strong indicator of short-term prediction and prognostic evaluation.

OBJECTVE:To investigate the clinical effect and safety of pregabalin combined with gabapentin in the treatment of central pain after cerebral infarction.METHODS:One hundred and fifty patients with central pain after cerebral infarction in our hospital from Jan.2010 to Dec.2015 in our department were randomly divided into group A,B,C,with 50 cases in each group.Group A was given Pregabalin capsule 75 mg,bid combined with Gabapentin capsule 0.1 g,tid;group B was given Pregabalin capsule 75 mg,bid;group C was given Gabapentin capsule 0.1 g,tid;3 groups were treated for 4 weeks.VAS score,NRS score,PSQI and SF-36 score were observed among 3 groups before and after treatment to evaluate clinical efficacies of 3 groups;the occurrence of ADR were recorded in 3 groups.RESULTS:The clinical total response rate of group A,B,C were separately 94.00％,74.00％,70.00％.The clinical total response rate of group A was significantly better than that of group B and C,with statistical significance (P＜0.05).After treatment,VAS score of group A,B,C were separately(3.87 ± 0.74),(5.10 ± 1.26),(5.03 ± 1.23);NRS score were separately (3.91 ± 0.88),(5.29 ± 1.25),(5.37 ± 1.30);VAS score and NRS score of group A were signifi cantly lower than group B,C and before treatment,with statistical significance (P＜0.05);PSQI score of group A,B,C were separately(4.03 ± 0.85),(5.92 ± 1.16),(5.83 ± 1.11);SF-36 score were separately (372.84 ± 73.25),(348.07 ± 60.54),(345.67 ± 59.72);PSQI score and SF-36 score of group A were significantly better than group B,C and before treatment,with statistical sig nificance (P＜0.05).There was no statistical significance in the incidence of ADR among 3 groups (P＞0.05).CONCLUSIONS:Compared with pregabalin and gabapentin alone,pregabalin combined with gabapentin in the treatment of central pain after cerebral infarction can efficiently relieve the perceived pain,improve sleep quality and daily life quality and not increase the risk of ADR;therefore,drug combination plan is recommended for patient with central pain after cerebral infarction,especially with poor effect of two single drug.

Objective:To investigate atrial fibrillation patients′illness perception during the blanking period after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) and to analyze its influencing factors, so as to provide a reference for improving patients′cognition of the disease and speeding up the rehabilitation process.Methods:This study was a cross-sectional survey. Convenience sampling method was adopted to select 320 patients with atrial fibrillation who were reexamined in the outpatient department during the blanking period after PVI from Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from Auguest 2022 to May 2023 as the research subjects. The General Information Questionnaire, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ), and the Control Attitudes Scale-Revised (CAS-R) were used for on-site investigation.Results:Totally 320 patients were included in this study, including 177 males and 143 females, aged (61.64 ± 10.74) years old. The total score of BIPQ was (42.98 ± 10.49) points, the total score of CAS-R was (27.20 ± 5.65) points. The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that age, resting heart rate, postoperative course, and perceived control were the influencing factors of illness perception ( F = 25.24, P<0.05). Conclusions:The illness perception of atrial fibrillation patients during the blanking period after PVI needs to be improved urgently. Medical staff should pay more attention to patients with old age, fast resting heart rate, short postoperative course, and low perceived control, and take effective measures to reduce negative illness perception and promote postoperative rehabilitation.

Hepatic stellate cells(HSCs)are essential drivers of fibrogenesis.Inducing activated-HSC apoptosis is a promising strategy for treating hepatic fibrosis.18beta-glycyrrhetinic acid(18β-GA)is a natural com-pound that exists widely in herbal medicines,such as Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch,which is used for treating multiple liver diseases,especially in Asia.In the present study,we demonstrated that 18β-GA decreased hepatic fibrosis by inducing the apoptosis in activated HSCs.18β-GA inhibited the expression of α-smooth muscle actin and collagen type Ⅰ alpha-1.Using a chemoproteomic approach derived from activity-based protein profiling,together with cellular thermal shift assay and surface plasmon reso-nance,we found that 18β-GA covalently targeted peroxiredoxin 1(PRDX1)and peroxiredoxin 2(PRDX2)proteins via binding to active cysteine residues and thereby inhibited their enzymatic activities.18β-GA induced the elevation of reactive oxygen species(ROS),resulting in the apoptosis of activated HSCs.PRDX1 knockdown also led to ROS-mediated apoptosis in activated HSCs.Collectively,our findings revealed the target proteins and molecular mechanisms of 18β-GA in ameliorating hepatic fibrosis,highlighting the future development of 18β-GA as a novel therapeutic drug for hepatic fibrosis.

The composition of serum is extremely complex,which complicates the discovery of new pharmaco-dynamic biomarkers via serum proteome for disease prediction and diagnosis.Recently,nanoparticles have been reported to efficiently reduce the proportion of high-abundance proteins and enrich low-abundance proteins in serum.Here,we synthesized a silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticle and devel-oped a highly efficient and reproducible protein corona(PC)-based proteomic analysis strategy to improve the range of serum proteomic analysis.We identified 1,070 proteins with a median coefficient of variation of 12.56％using PC-based proteomic analysis,which was twice the number of proteins iden-tified by direct digestion.There were also more biological processes enriched with these proteins.We applied this strategy to identify more pharmacodynamic biomarkers on collagen-induced arthritis(CIA)rat model treated with methotrexate(MTX).The bioinformatic results indicated that 485 differentially expressed proteins(DEPs)were found in CIA rats,of which 323 DEPs recovered to near normal levels after treatment with MTX.This strategy can not only help enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of disease and drug action through serum proteomics studies,but also provide more pharmacodynamic biomarkers for disease prediction,diagnosis,and treatment.

Sepsis is characterized by a severe and life-threatening host immune response to polymicrobial infection accompanied by organ dysfunction.Studies on the therapeutic effect and mechanism of immunomod-ulatory drugs on the sepsis-induced hyperinflammatory or immunosuppression states of various im-mune cells remain limited.This study aimed to investigate the protective effects and underlying mechanism of artesunate(ART)on the splenic microenvironment of cecal ligation and puncture-induced sepsis model mice using single-cell RNA sequencing(scRNA-seq)and experimental validations.The scRNA-seq analysis revealed that ART inhibited the activation of pro-inflammatory macrophages recruited during sepsis.ART could restore neutrophils'chemotaxis and immune function in the septic spleen.It inhibited the activation of T regulatory cells but promoted the cytotoxic function of natural killer cells during sepsis.ART also promoted the differentiation and activity of splenic B cells in mice with sepsis.These results indicated that ART could alleviate the inflammatory and/or immunosuppressive states of various immune cells involved in sepsis to balance the immune homeostasis within the host.Overall,this study provided a comprehensive investigation of the regulatory effect of ART on the splenic microenvironment in sepsis,thus contributing to the application of ART as adjunctive therapy for the clinical treatment of sepsis.

Lianhuaqingwen (LHQW) capsule, a herb medicine product, has been clinically proved to be effective in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia treatment. However, human exposure to LHQW components and their pharmacological effects remain largely unknown. Hence, this study aimed to determine human exposure to LHQW components and their anti-COVID-19 pharmacological activities. Analysis of LHQW component profiles in human plasma and urine after repeated therapeutic dosing was conducted using a combination of HRMS and an untargeted data-mining approach, leading to detection of 132 LHQW prototype and metabolite components, which were absorbed