ObjectiveTo study the chemical constituents of Painong powder and the constituents absorbed into blood after oral administration to rats by ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-electrostatic field orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry （UPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS）. MethodsUPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS was employed for mass spectrometry data acquisition. The chemical constituents of Painong Powder and the constituents absorbed into blood were characterized and identified via Xcalibur 4.2 and Compound Discoverer v3.3.1 （CD） based on retention time， accurate molecular weights， secondary fragmentation ions， and comparison with reference standards and literature reports. ResultsA total of 176 chemical compounds， including 56 flavonoids， 42 triterpenoid saponins， 23 monoterpenes， 7 coumarins， 5 tannins， and other 43 compounds were identified from Painong powder. 49 components were identified in the rat plasma after oral administration of Painong powder， including 33 prototype constituents and 16 metabolites. The major metabolic pathways included hydrolysis in phase Ⅰ metabolic reactions， as well as methylation， sulfation， and glucuronidation in phase Ⅱ metabolic reaction. ConclusionThe method comprehensively identified the chemical constituents of Painong powder both in vitro and in vivo， and may provide a reference for the study of quality control and clinical applications.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder that severely affects the health of the elderly, marked by its incurability, high prevalence, and extended latency period. The current approach to AD prevention and treatment emphasizes early detection and intervention, particularly during the pre-AD stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which provides an optimal “window of opportunity” for intervention. Clinical detection methods for MCI, such as cerebrospinal fluid monitoring, genetic testing, and imaging diagnostics, are invasive and costly, limiting their broad clinical application. Speech, as a vital cognitive output, offers a new perspective and tool for computer-assisted analysis and screening of cognitive decline. This is because elderly individuals with cognitive decline exhibit distinct characteristics in semantic and audio information, such as reduced lexical richness, decreased speech coherence and conciseness, and declines in speech rate, voice rhythm, and hesitation rates. The objective presence of these semantic and audio characteristics lays the groundwork for computer-based screening of cognitive decline. Speech information is primarily sourced from databases or collected through tasks involving spontaneous speech, semantic fluency, and reading, followed by analysis using computer models. Spontaneous language tasks include dialogues/interviews, event descriptions, narrative recall, and picture descriptions. Semantic fluency tasks assess controlled retrieval of vocabulary items, requiring participants to extract information at the word level during lexical search. Reading tasks involve participants reading a passage aloud. Summarizing past research, the speech characteristics of the elderly can be divided into two major categories: semantic information and audio information. Semantic information focuses on the meaning of speech across different tasks, highlighting differences in vocabulary and text content in cognitive impairment. Overall, discourse pragmatic disorders in AD can be studied along three dimensions: cohesion, coherence, and conciseness. Cohesion mainly examines the use of vocabulary by participants, with a reduction in the use of nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adjectives in AD patients. Coherence assesses the ability of participants to maintain topics, with a decrease in the number of subordinate clauses in AD patients. Conciseness evaluates the information density of participants, with AD patients producing shorter texts with less information compared to normal elderly individuals. Audio information focuses on acoustic features that are difficult for the human ear to detect. There is a significant degradation in temporal parameters in the later stages of cognitive impairment; AD patients require more time to read the same paragraph, have longer vocalization times, and produce more pauses or silent parts in their spontaneous speech signals compared to normal individuals. Researchers have extracted audio and speech features, developing independent systems for each set of features, achieving an accuracy rate of 82% for both, which increases to 86% when both types of features are combined, demonstrating the advantage of integrating audio and speech information. Currently, deep learning and machine learning are the main methods used for information analysis. The overall diagnostic accuracy rate for AD exceeds 80%, and the diagnostic accuracy rate for MCI also exceeds 80%, indicating significant potential. Deep learning techniques require substantial data support, necessitating future expansion of database scale and continuous algorithm upgrades to transition from laboratory research to practical product implementation.

Tumor drug resistance is an important problem in the failure of chemotherapy and targeted drug therapy, which is a complex process involving chromatin remodeling. SWI/SNF is one of the most studied ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes in tumorigenesis, which plays an important role in the coordination of chromatin structural stability, gene expression, and post-translation modification. However, its mechanism in tumor drug resistance has not been systematically combed. SWI/SNF can be divided into 3 types according to its subunit composition: BAF, PBAF, and ncBAF. These 3 subtypes all contain two mutually exclusive ATPase catalytic subunits (SMARCA2 or SMARCA4), core subunits (SMARCC1 and SMARCD1), and regulatory subunits (ARID1A, PBRM1, and ACTB, etc.), which can control gene expression by regulating chromatin structure. The change of SWI/SNF complex subunits is one of the important factors of tumor drug resistance and progress. SMARCA4 and ARID1A are the most widely studied subunits in tumor drug resistance. Low expression of SMARCA4 can lead to the deletion of the transcription inhibitor of the BCL2L1 gene in mantle cell lymphoma, which will result in transcription up-regulation and significant resistance to the combination therapy of ibrutinib and venetoclax. Low expression of SMARCA4 and high expression of SMARCA2 can activate the FGFR1-pERK1/2 signaling pathway in ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma cells, which induces the overexpression of anti-apoptosis gene BCL2 and results in carboplatin resistance. SMARCA4 deletion can up-regulate epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by activating YAP1 gene expression in triple-negative breast cancer. It can also reduce the expression of Ca²⁺ channel IP3R3 in ovarian and lung cancer, resulting in the transfer of Ca²⁺ needed to induce apoptosis from endoplasmic reticulum to mitochondria damage. Thus, these two tumors are resistant to cisplatin. It has been found that verteporfin can overcome the drug resistance induced by SMARCA4 deletion. However, this inhibitor has not been applied in clinical practice. Therefore, it is a promising research direction to develop SWI/SNF ATPase targeted drugs with high oral bioavailability to treat patients with tumor resistance induced by low expression or deletion of SMARCA4. ARID1A deletion can activate the expression of ANXA1 protein in HER2+ breast cancer cells or down-regulate the expression of progesterone receptor B protein in endometrial cancer cells. The drug resistance of these two tumor cells to trastuzumab or progesterone is induced by activating AKT pathway. ARID1A deletion in ovarian cancer can increase the expression of MRP2 protein and make it resistant to carboplatin and paclitaxel. ARID1A deletion also can up-regulate the phosphorylation levels of EGFR, ErbB2, and RAF1 oncogene proteins.The ErbB and VEGF pathway are activated and EMT is increased. As a result, lung adenocarcinoma is resistant to epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). Although great progress has been made in the research on the mechanism of SWI/SNF complex inducing tumor drug resistance, most of the research is still at the protein level. It is necessary to comprehensively and deeply explore the detailed mechanism of drug resistance from gene, transcription, protein, and metabolite levels by using multi-omics techniques, which can provide sufficient theoretical basis for the diagnosis and treatment of poor tumor prognosis caused by mutation or abnormal expression of SWI/SNF subunits in clinical practice.

OBJECTIVE: To explore clinical efficacy of autologous platelet-rich plasma(PRP) in treating Rockwood type Ⅲ acromioclavicular dislocation. METHODS: From January 2019 to July 2021, 32 patients with Rockwood type Ⅲ acromioclavicular dislocation were treated with minimally invasive adjustable titanium plate internal fixation, and were divided into PRP group and control group according to whether PRP treatment was performed, with 16 patients in each group. In PRP group, there were 10 males and 6 females, aged from 28 to 47 years old with an average of (36.75±7.14) years old;the time from injury to surgery ranged from 1 to 31 h with an average of (26.13±3.98) h;5 patients on the left side and 11 patients on the right side;PRP was injected once during operation and the 4th and 8th weeks after operation respectively. In control group, there were 8 males and 8 females, aged from 30 to 52 years old with an average of (38.50±5.48) years old; the time from injury to surgery ranged from 1 to 29 h with an average of (25.48±3.11) h;7 patients on the left side and 9 patients on the right side; minimally invasive surgical treatment was performed. Visual analogue scale(VAS) was used to evaluate pain and Constant-Murley score for shoulder joint function was used to evaluate the recovery of shoulder joint movement function before operation and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after operation respectively. RESULTS: All patients were followed up for 12 to 28 months with an average of (18.3±5.2) months. All incisions patients healed well without adverse events such as infection. Postoperative VAS of PRP group at 1, 3, and 6 months were (5.5±1.2), (3.7±1.6), and (2.4±1.2), respectively, while were lower than those of control group (6.6±1.4), (4.9±1.1), and (3.7±1.3), respectively;and had statistical differences between two groups (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in VAS between two groups before operation and 12 months after operation (P>0.05). Postoperative Constant-Murley scores of PRP group at 1, 3, and 6 months were (64.09±11.61), (73.19±12.89), and (82.61±14.81) points, respectively, which were higher than those of control group were (52.32±17.42), (61.65±14.43), and (72.52±11.04) respectively;and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in Constant-Murley scores at 12 months after operation between two groups (P>0.05). In PRP group, there was no statistically significant difference at 6 months and 12 months after operation (P>0.05), while there were statistically significant differences at the other time points (1 month after operation compared with before operation, 3 months after operation compared with 6 months after operation, and 3 months after operation compared with 1 month after operation) (P<0.05). In control group, there was no statistically significant difference when comparing 1 month and 3 months after operation (P>0.05), while at the other time points (1 month after operation with before operation, 3 months after operation with 6 months after operation, and 6 months after operation with 12 months after operation), the differences were all statistically significant (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Adjustable titanium plate fixation combined with postoperative injection of PRP for the treatment of Rockwood type III acromioclavicular joint dislocation has effect of promoting the recovery of shoulder joint function and reducing pain.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Platelet-Rich Plasma ; Acromioclavicular Joint/surgery* ; Bone Plates ; Titanium ; Joint Dislocations/therapy* ; Fracture Fixation, Internal/methods*

OBJECTIVE: Blood culture remains the gold standard for diagnosing bloodstream infections. Clinical laboratories must ensure the quality of blood culture processes from receipt to obtaining definitive results. We examined laboratory analytical indicators associated with positive blood culture results. METHODS: Blood cultures collected from Peking Union Medical College Hospital between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2022, were retrospectively analyzed. The mode of transportation (piping logistics delivery vs. staff), source of blood cultures (outpatient/emergency department vs. inpatient department), rotation of personnel, and time of reception (8:00-19:59 vs. 20:00-07:59) were compared between blood culture-positive and -negative results. RESULTS: Between 2020 and 2022, the total positive rate of blood culture was 8.07%. The positive rate of blood cultures in the outpatient/emergency department was significantly higher than that in the inpatient department (12.46% vs. 5.83%; P < 0.0001). The time-to-detection of blood cultures was significantly affected by the delivery mode and personnel rotation. The blood culture positive rate of the total pre-analytical time within 1 h was significantly higher than that within 1-2 h or > 2 h ( P < 0.0170). CONCLUSION Laboratory analytical indicators such as patient source, transportation mode, and personnel rotation significantly impacted the positive detection rate or time of blood culture.
Blood Culture/statistics & numerical data* ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Emergency Service, Hospital/statistics & numerical data*

Intracellular overexpression of cytoglobin (Cygb) has been shown to reduce extracellular matrix deposition and promote liver fibrosis recovery, but its mechanism is not yet clear. This study constructed and expressed a fusion protein (TAT-Cygb) of cell penetrating peptide TAT and Cygb, to investigate the effect of fusion protein TAT-Cygb on regulating hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) ferroptosis. Cultured human hepatic stellate cells line (LX2) were treated with TAT-Cygb and erastin in vitro, respectively. The effects of ferroptosis phenotype in LX2 cells induced by TAT-Cygb, including cell viability, cell morphology, iron ion (Fe²⁺) content, lipid peroxidation product levels, and antioxidant system indicators, were investigated using trypan blue staining, transmission electron microscopy, Prussian blue staining, and reagent kits detection. After co-treatment with TAT-Cygb and ferrostain-1, the levels of Fe²⁺, reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde (MDA), 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) and glutathione (GSH) were measured by reagent kits. The protein expression levels of alpha smooth actin (α-SMA), collagen I and fibronectin were detected by Western blot, and the protein expression level of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and desmin relevant to fibrosis were observed by immunofluorescence. The results showed that TAT-Cygb could significantly reduce the viability of LX2 cells and trigger events relevant to ferroptosis, including promoting intracellular Fe²⁺ accumulation, and inducing mitochondrial morphological changes, and intensifying lipid peroxidation products accumulation, and decreasing the level of antioxidant indexes, which played a similar role as erastin; Fer-1 significantly weakened the increase in Fe²⁺, ROS, MDA, 4-HNE levels induced by TAT-Cygb, as well as the decrease in NADPH and GSH levels, while also weakening the TAT-Cygb-induced over-expression levels of α-SMA, collagen I and fibronectin, and TAT-Cygb-induced under-expression levels of EGFR and desmin. This cellular level study indicated that TAT-Cygb can induce ferroptosis of activated HSCs. This study revealed the potential mechanism of TAT-Cygb anti-liver fibrosis, and provided the experimental basis for further research on the molecular mechanism of TAT-Cygb realizing biological function by regulating the ferroptosis pathway.

Objective To investigate the effects of cinnamaldehyde,the main active component of cinnamon,on benzene-induced immune injury in mice and the related mechanism.Methods Forty male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into the control group,model group(benzene 500 mg/kg),cinnamaldehyde low,medium and high dose groups(5,25,50 mg/kg),with 8 mice in each group.Except the control group,mice in each group were treated with benzene by intragastric administration daily to induce immune and oxidative stress damage,but the intervention group was treated with cinnamaldehyde 5 times/week for 3 weeks.After medication,peripheral blood was collected 24 h after the last gavage for blood cell count,and the changes in body weight of mice in each group were observed.The pathological structure of the spleen and thymus was observed via hematoxylin-eosin(HE)staining.Peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs)of mice were extracted and the amounts of reactive oxygen species(ROS)and ATP in mitochondria were measured.Plasma levels of malondialdehyde(MDA)were measured using the barbituric acid method,the activity of glutathione peroxidase(GSH-PX)in plasmawith the dithiodinitrobenzoic acid methodand the activity of total superoxide dismutase(SOD)in plasma using the hydroxylamine method.Results After exposure to benzene,the body weight of the model group became lower(P<0.05).The spleen and thymus were damaged,and the indexes of the spleen and thymus were decreased(P<0.05).Counts of peripheral white blood cells and lymphocyteswere decreased(P<0.05).The activities of GSH and SOD in plasma were decreased(P<0.05),but the content of MDA was increased(P<0.05).The amount of mitochondrial ROS in PBMC was increased,while the ATP content was decreased(P<0.05).The weight of mice increased after treatment with cinnamaldehyde.The spleen and thymus tissues recovered well,and the indexes of the spleen and thymus were increased(P<0.05).Counts of peripheral white blood cells and lymphocytesin the high dose cinnamaldehyde group were increased(P<0.05).The activities of GSH and SOD in plasma were increased,while the content of MDA was decreased(P<0.05).The amount of mitochondrial ROS in PBMC was decreased,but the ATP content was increased(P<0.05).Treatment with cinnamaldehyde could alleviate the damage to the mitochondrial function of PBMC induced by benzene in mice,and 50 mg/kg was the best dose(P<0.05).The therapeutic effect of cinnamaldehyde had a dose-response relationship.Conclusion Cinnamaldehyde can inhibit benzene-induced immune injury and oxidative stress injury in mice by delivering an antioxidant effect and improving mitochondrial enhancement of PBMC.

Objective To investigate the correlation between the expression of purinergic ligand-gated ion channel 7 receptor(P2X7R)and connective tissue growth factor(CTGF)in serum and cognitive function and clinical symptoms in patients with schizophrenia.Methods A total of 160 patients with schizophrenia who were diagnosed and treated in Department of Mental Intensive Care of Wuhan Wudong Hospital from January 2021 to January 2023 were collected as the observation group,and 160 healthy volunteers who underwent physical examinations were collected as the control group for the study.According to the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale(PANSS),patients were evaluated for their clinical and psychiatric symptoms(positive and negative symptoms,general pathological symptoms,and additional symptoms).The patients were grouped into a high score group(PANSS total score≥70 points,n=72)and a low score group(PANSS total score＜70 points,n=88).MATRICS consensus cognitive battery(MCCB)was applied to evaluate the cognitive abilities of patients;enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)was applied to detect serum P2X7R and CTGF levels.Spearman method was applied to analyze the correlation between serum P2X7R,CTGF levels and PANSS scores,and MCCB scores in patients with schizophrenia.Results Compared with the control group,the serum levels of P2X7R(610.71±107.83ng/L vs 384.78±80.62 ng/L)and CTGF(1.85±0.36μg/L vs 1.40±0.21μg/L)in the observation group were increased,with differences of statistical significance(t=21.226,13.658,all P＜0.05).The scores of variety items of MCBB of patients with schizophrenia in the observation group were lower than those in the control group,with differences of statistical significance(t=14.845～24.862,all P＜0.05),the positive symptom score(21.10±3.42score),negative symptom score(23.37±5.03 score),general pathological symptom score(39.48±8.11score),additional symptom score(8.26±1.22 score),and PANSS total score(92.21±12.50score)of schizophrenia patients in the high group were higher than those in the low group(13.65±3.04,15.62±3.91 score,30.14±6.15 score,5.20±0.94score,64.61±5.30score),with differences of statistical significance(t=14.576,10.964,8.280,17.915,18.764,all P＜0.05).The serum levels of P2X7R and CTGF in patients with schizophrenia in the high group were higher than those in the low group,with differences of statistical significance(t=12.233,5.923,all P＜0.05).The levels of serum P2X7R and CTGF in patients with schizophrenia were positively correlated with PANSS score(r=0.464～0.580,all P＜0.05),and negatively correlated with MCCB score[r=-0.603～-0.439,all P＜0.05].Conclusion The serum levels of P2X7R and CTGF in patients with schizophrenia are elevated,they are closely related to the clinical symptoms and cognitive function of patients.

Microbial fuel cells(MFCs)offer a potential solution for sustainable electricity generation by directly converting organic matter in wastewater into electrical energy.However,MFCs face challenges in practical applications,such as low bacterial loading capacity and relatively poor efficiency of extracellular electron transfer(EET)between the anode and the electrochemically active biofilm.In this study,a green and efficient microwave-assisted method combined with high-temperature annealing was successfully employed to prepare iron-based nanoparticle-modified carbon cloth(Fe3C/Fe@CC).This composite material exhibited excellent biocompatibility and electrocatalytic activity.When used as an anode material for MFCs,the Fe3C/Fe@CC-based MFCs demonstrated superior performance,achieving a power density of 2209 mW/m2,which was a 17%increase compared to MFCs with pure carbon cloth anodes(1933 mW/m2).This enhancement was primarily attributed to the effective improvement in EET efficiency between the microbes and the electrode,the increased electrochemically active surface area,and the promotion of the enrichment of the exoelectrogen Geobacter.This study utilized microwave assistance and high-temperature annealing to achieve rapid preparation of highly conductive composite anodes,providing a universal method for the large-scale production of anodes for MFCs.

Objective To design a medical alliance nursing collaborative management system based on block chain to provide technical support for nursing collaborative management.Methods A medical alliance system was designed based on the five-layer technical architecture of consortium blockchain,which used Linux system for establishing a Fabric development environment and network configuration,smart contract and Java language software development kit for realizing user interface operation,Bootstrap and Jquery technologies for constructing the front-end Web interface,Spring Boot for constructing the back-end interface.There were five functional modules for consortium blockchain member management,business management,data storage and sharing,patient medical record management and platform supervision involved in the system,which were developed with the technologies of encryption algorithm,hash operation,smart contract,consensus mechanism and etc.Results The system developed contributed to improving the mechanism for quality nursing resource sinking and continuous nursing care,reconfiguring the point incentive mechanism,promoting the collaborative development of nursing symbiotic network and enabling multi-node interactions to form a synergistic synergy.Conclusion The system developed conforms to the development trend of integrated care service of medical alliance,enhances the core competitiveness of nursing care and provides references for formulating blockchain solutions applicable to medical alliance scenarios.[Chinese Medical Equipment Journal,2024,45(3):47-55]