Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a non-invasive, high temporal-resolution technique for monitoring brain activity. However, affected by the volume conduction effect, EEG has a low spatial resolution and is difficult to locate brain neuronal activity precisely. The surface Laplacian (SL) technique obtains the Laplacian EEG (LEEG) by estimating the second-order spatial derivative of the scalp potential. LEEG can reflect the radial current activity under the scalp, with positive values indicating current flow from the brain to the scalp (“source”) and negative values indicating current flow from the scalp to the brain (“sink”). It attenuates signals from volume conduction, effectively improving the spatial resolution of EEG, and is expected to contribute to breakthroughs in neural engineering. This paper provides a systematic overview of the principles and development of SL technology. Currently, there are two implementation paths for SL technology: current source density algorithms (CSD) and concentric ring electrodes (CRE). CSD performs the Laplace transform of the EEG signals acquired by conventional disc electrodes to indirectly estimate the LEEG. It can be mainly classified into local methods, global methods, and realistic Laplacian methods. The global method is the most commonly used approach in CSD, which can achieve more accurate estimation compared with the local method, and it does not require additional imaging equipment compared with the realistic Laplacian method. CRE employs new concentric ring electrodes instead of the traditional disc electrodes, and measures the LEEG directly by differential acquisition of the multi-ring signals. Depending on the structure, it can be divided into bipolar CRE, quasi-bipolar CRE, tripolar CRE, and multi-pole CRE. The tripolar CRE is widely used due to its optimal detection performance. While ensuring the quality of signal acquisition, the complexity of its preamplifier is relatively acceptable. Here, this paper introduces the study of the SL technique in resting rhythms, visual-related potentials, movement-related potentials, and sensorimotor rhythms. These studies demonstrate that SL technology can improve signal quality and enhance signal characteristics, confirming its potential applications in neuroscientific research, disease diagnosis, visual pathway detection, and brain-computer interfaces. CSD is frequently utilized in applications such as neuroscientific research and disease detection, where high-precision estimation of LEEG is required. And CRE tends to be used in brain-computer interfaces, that have stringent requirements for real-time data processing. Finally, this paper summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of SL technology and envisages its future development. SL technology boasts advantages such as reference independence, high spatial resolution, high temporal resolution, enhanced source connectivity analysis, and noise suppression. However, it also has shortcomings that can be further improved. Theoretically, simulation experiments should be conducted to investigate the theoretical characteristics of SL technology. For CSD methods, the algorithm needs to be optimized to improve the precision of LEEG estimation, reduce dependence on the number of channels, and decrease computational complexity and time consumption. For CRE methods, the electrodes need to be designed with appropriate structures and sizes, and the low-noise, high common-mode rejection ratio preamplifier should be developed. We hope that this paper can promote the in-depth research and wide application of SL technology.

Objective: To investigate the association between expression levels of potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily Q member 1 (KCNQ1) gene and gout, so as to provide the basis for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of gout. Methods: A total of 179 patients diagnosed with gout at the outpatient department of Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital were enrolled in the case group, while 179 healthy individuals matched by age (within 5 years) were selected as the control group. Demographic information, lifestyle, dietary intake and biochemical blood indicators were collected through questionnaires and laboratory tests. The relative expression levels of KCNQ1 gene mRNA were quantified using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of KCNQ1 gene mRNA levels in distinguishing gout. The association between the relative expression level of KCNQ1 gene mRNA and gout, the interaction effects of the relative expression levels of KCNQ1 gene mRNA with dietary intake and biochemical blood indicators on gout were analyzed using a multivariate conditional logistic regression model. Results: There were 112 males (62.57%) and 67 females (37.43%) in the case group, with a mean age of (41.32±10.12) years. There were 98 males (54.75%) and 81 females (45.25%) in the control group, with a mean age of (40.24±7.62) years. The mRNA expression levels of the KCNQ1 gene were higher in the case group compared to the control group (P<0.05). The area under the ROC curve was 0.897 (95%CI: 0.865-0.928). Multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that KCNQ1 gene mRNA expression levels were positively associated with gout risk (OR=1.430, 95%CI: 1.171-1.747). Significant interactions were observed between KCNQ1 mRNA expression and seafood intake (OR=2.107, 95%CI: 1.175-3.779), KCNQ1 gene mRNA expression and uric acid levels (OR=2.373, 95%CI: 1.366-4.119), as well as between uric acid levels and seafood intake (OR=2.321, 95%CI: 1.159-4.678). Conclusion The expression levels of the KCNQ1 gene may increase the risk of gout and further increase the risk through interaction with seafood intake and uric acid levels.

Compounds isolated from Epimedium include the total flavonoids of Epimedium , icariin, and its metabolites (icaritin, icariside I, and icariside II), which have similar molecular structures. Modern pharmacological research and clinical practice have proved that Epimedium and its active components have a wide range of pharmacological effects, especially in improving sexual function, hormone regulation, anti-osteoporosis, immune function regulation, anti-oxidation, and anti-tumor activity. To date, we still need a comprehensive source of knowledge about the pharmacological effects of Epimedium and its bioactive compounds on the male reproductive system. However, their actions in other tissues have been reviewed in recent years. This review critically focuses on the Epimedium , its bioactive compounds, and the biochemical and molecular mechanisms that modulate vital pathways associated with the male reproductive system. Such intrinsic knowledge will significantly further studies on the Epimedium and its bioactive compounds that protect the male reproductive system and provide some guidances for clinical treatment of related male reproductive disorders.
Male ; Epimedium/chemistry* ; Humans ; Genitalia, Male/drug effects* ; Flavonoids/therapeutic use* ; Animals

OBJECTIVES: To explore the mediating role of sleep duration in the relationship between depression symptoms and myopia among middle school students. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional research conducted using a stratified cluster random sampling method. A total of 1 728 middle school students were selected from two junior high schools and two senior high schools in certain urban areas and farms of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Questionnaire surveys and vision tests were conducted among the students. Spearman analysis was used to analyze the correlation between depression symptoms, sleep duration, and myopia. The Bootstrap method was employed to investigate the mediating effect of sleep duration between depression symptoms and myopia. RESULTS: The prevalence of myopia in the overall population was 74.02% (1 279/1 728), with an average sleep duration of (7.6±1.0) hours. The rate of insufficient sleep was 83.62% (1 445/1 728), and the proportion of students exhibiting depression symptoms was 25.29% (437/1 728). Correlation analysis showed significant negative correlations between visual acuity in both eyes and sleep duration with depressive emotions as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (with correlation coefficients of -0.064, -0.084, and -0.199 respectively; P<0.01), as well as with somatic symptoms and activities (with correlation coefficients of -0.104, -0.124, and -0.233 respectively; P<0.01) and interpersonal relationships (with correlation coefficients of -0.052, -0.059, and -0.071 respectively; P<0.05). The correlation coefficients for left and right eye visual acuity and sleep duration were 0.206 and 0.211 respectively (P<0.001). Sleep duration exhibited a mediating effect between depression symptoms and myopia (indirect effect=0.056, 95%CI: 0.029-0.088), with the mediating effect value for females (indirect effect=0.066, 95%CI: 0.024-0.119) being higher than that for males (indirect effect=0.042, 95%CI: 0.011-0.081). CONCLUSIONS Sleep duration serves as a partial mediator between depression symptoms and myopia in middle school students.
Humans ; Myopia/etiology* ; Male ; Female ; Depression/physiopathology* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Sleep ; Adolescent ; Students ; Child ; Time Factors ; Sleep Duration

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the association between body mass index (BMI) and mortality based on the 10-year population-based multicenter prospective study. METHODS: A general population-based multicenter prospective study was conducted at four sites in rural China between 2013 and 2023. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models and restricted cubic spline analyses were used to assess the association between BMI and mortality. Stratified analyses were performed based on the individual characteristics of the participants. RESULTS: Overall, 19,107 participants with a sum of 163,095 person-years were included and 1,910 participants died. The underweight (< 18.5 kg/m ²) presented an increase in all-cause mortality (adjusted hazards ratio [ aHR] = 2.00, 95% confidence interval [ CI]: 1.66-2.41), while overweight (≥ 24.0 to < 28.0 kg/m ²) and obesity (≥ 28.0 kg/m ²) presented a decrease with an aHR of 0.61 (95% CI: 0.52-0.73) and 0.51 (95% CI: 0.37-0.70), respectively. Overweight ( aHR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.67-0.86) and mild obesity ( aHR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.59-0.87) had a positive impact on mortality in people older than 60 years. All-cause mortality decreased rapidly until reaching a BMI of 25.7 kg/m ² ( aHR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.92-0.98) and increased slightly above that value, indicating a U-shaped association. The beneficial impact of being overweight on mortality was robust in most subgroups and sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSION This study provides additional evidence that overweight and mild obesity may be inversely related to the risk of death in individuals older than 60 years. Therefore, it is essential to consider age differences when formulating health and weight management strategies.
Humans ; Body Mass Index ; China/epidemiology* ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Prospective Studies ; Rural Population/statistics & numerical data* ; Aged ; Follow-Up Studies ; Adult ; Mortality ; Cause of Death ; Obesity/mortality* ; Overweight/mortality*

Idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (IDILI) has long posed a challenging and pivotal concern in pharmaceutical research. The complex composition of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has introduced a bottleneck in current research, hindering the elucidation of the component basis associated with IDILI in TCM. Using Epimedii Folium (EF) and Psoraleae Fructus (PF) as illustrative examples, this study endeavors to establish an in vitro evaluation model, providing a high-throughput and preliminary assessment method for screening components related to TCM-induced IDILI. A TNF-α-mediated HepG2 susceptible model was first established in this study, with the focus on the index components present in EF and PF. The release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the cell supernatant served as the detection index. A concentration-toxicity response curve was constructed, and the hepatotoxic components of EF and PF were identified utilizing the synergistic toxicity index. The LDH results unveiled the hepatotoxic effects of bavachin, backuchiol, isobavachin, neobavaisoflavone, psoralidin, isobavachalcone, icarisid I, and icarisid II on both normal and susceptible cells, categorizing these 8 components as both direct hepatotoxicity components and idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity components. Bavachin and neobavaisoflavone exhibited no hepatotoxicity on normal cells but demonstrated significant effects on susceptible cells, designating them as potential idiosyncratic susceptible hepatotoxicity components. The study further delineated that 10 EF components and 3 PF components were direct immune-promoting hepatotoxicity components. Additionally, 14 idiosyncratic immune-promoting hepatotoxicity components were identified, encompassing 10 EF components and 4 PF components, with neobavaisoflavone, bavachinin, and isobavachin being potential idiosyncratic susceptible immune-promoting hepatotoxicity components. Synergistic toxicity index results indicated that 13 idiosyncratic immune-promoting hepatotoxicity components (except anhydroicaritin) combined with bavachin demonstrated synergistic hepatotoxicity on susceptible cells. Notably, 3 idiosyncratic susceptible immune-promoting hepatotoxicity components combined with bavachin exhibited synergistic hepatotoxicity, with neobavaisoflavone displaying the highest synergistic toxicity index and bavachinin the lowest. In summary, this methodology successfully screens hepatotoxic and immune-promoting hepatotoxic components in EF and PF, distinguishing the types of components inducing hepatotoxicity, evaluating the hepatotoxicity degree of each component, and elucidating the synergistic relationships among them. Importantly, these findings align with the characteristics of IDILI. The method provides an effective model tool for the fundamental research of TCM-related IDILI components.

Objective To evaluate the bioequivalence of a single oral dose of ritonavir in fasted and fed conditions in healthy Chinese adult subjects with the test and reference formulations.Methods A single-center,open-label,randomized,single-dose,two-periods,two-sequence crossover design was used,and 64 subjects were enrolled in both the fasted and fed groups.The subjects received 100 mg of the test preparation or reference preparation orally per cycle,and the drug concentration of ritonavir in plasma was detected using the high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(HPLC-MS/MS)method.Pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated by a non-compartment model,and SAS 9.4 software was used for statistical analysis.Results Arithmetic mean values of the main pharmacokinetic parameters of the subject formulation of ritonavir tablets and the reference formulation in the fasting group:Cmax were(791.90±400.20)and(809.60±449.14)ng·mL-1;AUC0_t were(6 072.61±2 631.98)and(6 296.30±3 388.95)ng·h·mL-1;AUC0-∞ were(6 129.59±2 655.57)and(6 347.26±3 434.12)ng·h·mL-1,respectively.Arithmetic mean values of the main pharmacokinetic parameters of the subject formulation of ritonavir tablets and the reference formulation in the fed group:Cmax were(512.37±233.60)and(521.74±223.87)ng·mL-1;AUC0_t were(4 203.43±2 221.33)and(4 200.13±1 993.50)ng·h·mL-1;AUC0_∞ were(4 259.21±2 266.88)and(4 259.63±2 044.12)ng·h·mL-1.The 90％confidence intervals for the geometric mean ratios of Cmax,AUC0_t and AUC0_∞ of the prototype drug ritonavir in plasma after oral administration of 100 mg of the test and reference formulations of ritonavir tablets under fasting and fed conditions fell within the 80.00％to 125.00％equivalence interval.Conclusion The test and reference formulations of ritonavir tablets were bioequivalent under fasting and postprandial conditions.

Metastasis is the main risk factor for poor prognosis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) .Chemokines are closely related to metastasis in the tumor microenvironment.CXCL8 is a cyto-kine-like secreted protein that plays key roles in the malignant development of a variety of tumors,but has not been elucidated in LSCC.In this paper,we elucidated the role of CXCL8 in LSCC cells and found miRNAs that targeted CXCL8,which may become new targets for the diagnosis and treatment of LSCC.Firstly,the GEPIA showed that CXCL8 was highly expressed in head and neck cancer (P<0.05).The real-time fluorescence quantification (qRT-PCR) found that CXCL8 was highly expressed in LSCC cells.The enzyme-linked immunoassay also found that CXCL8 was highly secreted in the superna-tant of LSCC cells (P<0.001) .Then,the CCK8 assay confirmed that knockdown of CXCL8 significant-ly inhibited the proliferation of FD-LSC-1 and AMC-HN8 cells (the average inhibition rate was 34.0％and 19.5％,respectively);The EdU assay also confirmed that knockdown of CXCL8 significantly inhibi-ted the proliferation of LSCC cells (P<0.05) .The transwell assay confirmed that knockdown of CXCL8 also significantly inhibited the migration and invasion of FD-LSC-1 cell (average inhibition rate was 40.0％,38.5％,respectively);Knockdown of CXCL8 also significantly inhibited the migration and inva-sion of AMC-HN8 cell (average inhibition rate was 37.5％,53.5％,respectively ) .The analysis of bioinformatics predicted that CXCL8 may be a target of miR-513b-5p.The dual luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR-513b-5p could bind to the CXCL8-3'UTR.QRT-PCR assay also confirmed that over-expression of miR-513b-5p could decrease the 60％ of the CXCL8 expression (P<0.01) .Cell function rescue assays found that overexpressed of CXCL8 could effectively reversed proliferation,migration and invasion of LSCC cells weakened by miR-513b-5p (P<0.05) .In summary,miR-513b-5p inhibited the proliferation,migration and invasion of LSCC cells by targeting CXCL8.

Objective To investigate the correlation between the expression of Toll-like receptor 4(TLR4)and chitosanase 3-like protein 1(CHI3L1)in colon cancer tissue and the prognosis of patients after radical surgery.Methods A total of 152 patients who underwent radical colon cancer surgery in our hospital from January 2017 to May 2018 were collected and divided into the good prognosis group(n=97)and the poor prognosis group(n=47)according to the 5-year survival status after surgery.Immunohistochemical staining was applied to detect the expression levels of TLR4 and CHI3L1 in colon cancer tissues and adjacent tissues;the correlation between the expression of TLR4 and CHI3L1 in colon cancer tissue and the prognosis of patients was analyzed,and the influencing factors for prognosis of colon cancer patients were analyzed.Results The positive expression rates of TLR4 and CHI3L1 in colon cancer tissues were obviously higher than those in adjacent tissues(P<0.05).The expression of TLR4 in colon cancer tissue was related to the degree of tumor differentiation,clinical staging,and lymph node metastasis of colon cancer patients(P<0.05),the expression of CHI3L1 was related to the tumor diameter,degree of tumor differentiation,clinical staging,and lymph node metastasis of colon cancer patients(P<0.05).Compared with the good prognosis group,the poor prognosis group had higher proportions of patients with poorly differentiated tumor,clinical stageⅢ,lymph node metastasis,and positive expression of TLR4 and CHI3L1(P<0.05).The 5-year survival rate of patient with TLR4 positive expression was 60.38%,which was lower than that of 86.84% of patients with TLR4 negative expression(χ2=9.104,P<0.05);the 5-year survival rate of patients with CHI3L1 positive expression was 58.06%,which was lower than that of 84.31% of patients with CHI3L1 negative expression(χ2=10.935,P<0.05).The positive expression of TLR4 and CHI3L1,poorly differentiated tumor,clinical stage Ⅲ,and lymph node metastasis were the independent risk factors for the prognosis of colon cancer patients(P<0.05).Conclusion TLR4 and CHI3L1 are related to the occurrence and clinicopathological features of colon cancer,and the positive expression of TLR4 and CHI3L1 in colon cancer tissues is not conducive to the prognosis of patients,so both of them are expected to become clinical treatment targets.