Objective To investigate the effect of artesunate(ART)on neuroinflammation in depressed mice by regulating the cyclic guanosine monophosphate-adenosine monophosphate synthase(cGAS)-stimulator of interferon gene(STING)pathway.Methods Mice were divided into model group,control group,low-dose ART group,high-dose ART group,fluoxetine group,and high-dose ART+RocA(cGAS-STING pathway activator)group.Sugar solution consumption experiment and forced swimming experiment were applied to evaluate the depressive behavior of mice;HE staining microscopy was applied to detect pathological changes in hippocampal tissue;ELISA method was applied to detect the level of interleukin-6(IL-6),tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α),serotonin(5-HT)and dopa-mine(DA);TUNEL staining microscopy was applied to detect neuronal apoptosis;Western blot was applied to detect Bcl-2 associated X protein(Bax),p53,cGAS,and STING proteins.Results Compared to the control group,the mice in the model group exhibited neuronal pustule degeneration,the sugar water consumption rate,level of 5-HT and DA decreased,the rest time of forced swimming increased.The level of IL-6 and TNF-α,neuronal apoptosis rate,expression of Bax,p53,cGAS,and STING proteins all elevated(P＜0.05);Compared with model group,the damage to hippocampus neurons in the ART low-dose group,ART high-dose group and fluoxetine group neuronal pus-tular degeneration was alleviated,while sugar water consumption rate,5-HT,and DA levels increased,the rest time of forced swimming reduced,the level of IL-6 and TNF-α,neuronal apoptosis rate and the expression of Bax,p53,cGAS,and STING proteins reduced(P＜0.05);RocA reversed the improvement effect of high-dose ART on depression in mice.Conclusions ART inhibits neuroinflammation and neuronal apoptosis in depressed mice,and up-regulates amine neurotransmitters expression.The mechanism is potentially related to the blocking of cGAS-STING pathway.

AIM: Previous studies have suggested that big stick design (BSD) method can only be used in clinical trials of two treatments with equal proportion, which has good statistical performance and has become the recommended choice of randomized methods. This study expands BSD method, so that it can be applied to three groups, and provides more randomized methods for clinical trials. METHODS: On the basis of BSD method used in two treatments with equal proportion, the derivation conditional allocation probability of BSD method used in three treatments with equal proportion was carried out. BSD method was compared with simple randomization (SR) method, permuted block design (PBD) method and block urn design (BUD) method by Monte-Carlo simulation in balance and randomness. RESULTS: In terms of balance, PBD method was the best, followed by BUD method, BSD method, and SR method was the worst. In terms of randomness, SR method was the best, followed by BSD method, BUD method and PBD method. The comprehensive performance showed that BSD method was better than BUD method, PBD method and SR method. CONCLUSION: The expanded BSD method used in three treatments with equal proportion has good comprehensive performance, and it can be the recommended randomization method for clinical trials of three treatments with equal proportion.