OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Chinese medicine (CM) in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China. METHODS: A multi-center retrospective cohort study was carried out, with cumulative CM treatment period of ⩾3 days during hospitalization as exposure. Data came from consecutive inpatients from December 19, 2019 to May 16, 2020 in 4 medical centers in Wuhan, China. After data extraction, verification and cleaning, confounding factors were adjusted by inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), and the Cox proportional hazards regression model was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 2,272 COVID-19 patients were included. There were 1,684 patients in the CM group and 588 patients in the control group. Compared with the control group, the hazard ratio (HR) for the deterioration rate in the CM group was 0.52 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.41 to 0.64, P<0.001]. The results were consistent across patients of varying severity at admission, and the robustness of the results were confirmed by 3 sensitivity analyses. In addition, the HR for all-cause mortality in the CM group was 0.29 (95% CI: 0.19 to 0.44, P<0.001). Regarding of safety, the proportion of patients with abnormal liver function or renal function in the CM group was smaller. CONCLUSION This real-world study indicates that the combination of a full-course CM therapy on the basic conventional treatment, may safely reduce the deterioration rate and all-cause mortality of COVID-19 patients. This result can provide the new evidence to support the current treatment of COVID-19. Additional prospective clinical trial is needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of specific CM interventions. (Registration No. ChiCTR2200062917).
Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; COVID-19/epidemiology* ; COVID-19 Drug Treatment ; Aged ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/methods* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/adverse effects* ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Treatment Outcome ; China/epidemiology* ; Adult

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Chinese patent medicines in the treatment of insomnia by frequency network Meta-analysis. Randomized controlled trials of Chinese patent medicines for insomnia were retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, EMbase and Cochrane Library databases from the time of database establishment to October 2020. The quality of the included RCTs was evaluated according to the Cochrane bias risk standard, and the data was analyzed by RevMan 5.3 and Stata/MP 15.1. A total of 11 kinds of Chinese patent medicines in 27 RCTs were included. According to Meta-analysis, in term of the effective rate, Tianmeng Liquid, Zaoren Anshen Capsules, Shumian Capsules, Shensong Yangxin Capsules, Shenqi Wuweizi Tablets, Shugan Jieyu Capsules, Anshen Bunao Liquid and Qiye Anshen Tablets combined with nonbenzodiazepine drugs(NBZDs) were superior to NBZDs alone. In term of the improvement of Pittsburg sleeping quality index(PSQI) score, Tianmeng Liquid, Shumian Capsules, Shensong Yangxin Capsules, Bailemian Capsules, Shenqi Wuweizi Tablets, Shugan Jieyu Capsules, Yangxue Qingnao Granules and Yindan Xinnaotong Capsules combined with NBZDs were superior to NBZDs alone. In terms of the safety, Shumian Capsules, Shensong Yangxin Capsules, Shenqi Wuweizi Tablets and Qiye Anshen Tablets combined with NBZDs were superior to NBZDs alone. In terms of the avoidance of dizziness and headache, Qiye Anshen Tablets combined with NBZDs were superior to NBZDs alone. The results of Network Meta-analysis indicated that in term of the effective rate, top three optimal medication regimens were NBZDs combined with Shugan Jieyu Capsules, combined with Zaoren Anshen Capsules and combined with Shensong Yangxin Capsules in the order from high to low. With the respect of improvement of PSQI score, top three optimal medication regimens were NBZDs combined with Yangxue Qingnao Granules, combined with Tianmeng Liquid and combined with Yindan Xinnaotong Capsules in the order from high to low. In terms of the safety, top three optimal medication regimens were NBZDs combined with Qiye Anshen Tablets, combined with Shensong Yangxin Capsules and combined with Shenqi Wuweizi Tablets in the order from high to low. In terms of the avoidance of dizziness and headache, top three optimal medication regimens were NBZDs combined with Qiye Anshen Tablets, combined with Zaoren Anshen Capsules and combined with Shumian Capsules in the order from high to low. In terms of the avoidance of fatigue, top three optimal medication regimens were NBZDs combined with Shensong Yangxin Capsules, combined with Shumian Capsules and combined with Qiye Anshen Tablets in the order from high to low. In conclusion, Chinese patent medicines combined with NBZDs can effectively alleviate the symptoms of insomnia with a high safety. However, the conclusion of this study needs to be verified by more high-quality studies because of the low methodological quality of the included studies.
China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Humans ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Network Meta-Analysis ; Nonprescription Drugs ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders/drug therapy*

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current status of antibiotic use for very and extremely low birth weight (VLBW/ELBW) infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of Hunan Province. METHODS: The use of antibiotics was investigated in multiple level 3 NICUs of Hunan Province for VLBW and ELBW infants born between January, 2017 and December, 2017. RESULTS: The clinical data of 1 442 VLBW/ELBW infants were collected from 24 NICUs in 2017. The median antibiotic use duration was 17 days (range: 0-86 days), accounting for 53.0% of the total length of hospital stay. The highest duration of antibiotic use was up to 91.4% of the total length of hospital stay, with the lowest at 14.6%. In 16 out of 24 NICUs, the antibiotic use duration was accounted for more than 50.0% of the hospitalization days. There were 113 cases with positive bacterial culture grown in blood or cerebrospinal fluid, making the positive rate of overall bacterial culture as 7.84%. The positive rate of bacterial culture in different NICUs was significantly different from 0% to 14.9%. The common isolated bacterial pathogens Klebsiella pneumoniae was 29 cases (25.7%); Escherichia coli 12 cases (10.6%); Staphylococcus aureus 3 cases (2.7%). The most commonly used antibiotics were third-generation of cephalosporins, accounting for 41.00% of the total antibiotics, followed by penicillins, accounting for 32.10%, and followed by carbapenems, accounting for 13.15%. The proportion of antibiotic use time was negatively correlated with birth weight Z-score and the change in weight Z-score between birth and hospital discharge (r=-0.095, -0.151 respectively, P<0.01), positively correlated with death/withdrawal of care (r=0.196, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Antibiotics used for VLBW/ELBW infants in NICUs of Hunan Province are obviously prolonged in many NICUs. The proportion of routine use of third-generation of cephalosporins and carbapenems antibiotics is high among the NICUs.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Birth Weight ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Extremely Low Birth Weight ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: To detect the preoperative chemoradiotherapy sensitivity molecular characteristics of rectal cancer by transcriptome second generation sequencing. METHODS: The clinicopathological data of 30 patients with locally advanced rectal cancer were collected prospectively, including 9 indicators (general conditions, imaging data before radiotherapy and chemotherapy, pathological data of biopsy before radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and tumor differentiation degree, etc.), in order to analyze the correlation between them and tumor regression grading (TRG) after radiotherapy and chemotherapy for rectal cancer. At the same time, frozen specimens of colonoscopy biopsy before neoadjuvant therapy were collected from these 30 patients, and transcriptome second-generation sequencing was performed for bioinformatics analysis to screen out the genes that might drive the radio chemotherapy sensitivity of rectal cancer. RESULTS: Among the 30 patients with rectal cancer, 9 had complete pathological remission, 12 had partial remission, and 9 had poor remission. The degree of pathological TRG remission after radiotherapy and chemotherapy for rectal cancer was negatively correlated with the preoperative MRI T stage (P=0.046), and positively correlated with preoperative MRI rectal cancer extravascular invasion (EMVI) (P=0.003). Transcriptome second-generation sequencing of the obtained 217 transcripts (P<0.05) for signal pathway enrichment analysis, and multiple cell signal transduction pathways related to antigen presentation could be found. The high expression of HSPA1A, HSPA1B and EXOSC2 was positively correlated with postoperative pathological remission (P<0.05). The high expression of DNMBP, WASH8P, FAM57A, and SGSM2 was positively correlated with postoperative pathological remission (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Preoperative NMR detection of extra-tumoral vascular invasion (EMVI-positive) in patients with rectal cancer was significantly better than that of EMVI-negative patients after chemoradiotherapy. Patients with high expressions of HSPA1A, HSPA1B and EXOSC2 had poor postoperative pathological remission, while patients with high expressions of genes, such as DMNMB, WASH8P, FAM57A, and SGSM2 had good postoperative pathological remission. Based on the molecular characteristics of rectal cancer radiotherapy and chemotherapy, attempts to block or enhance the molecular pathways associated with chemosensitivity of rectal cancer, are to be made to further explore new candidate therapeutic targets that can increase the sensitivity of radiotherapy and chemotherapy for rectal cancer.
Chemoradiotherapy ; Exosome Multienzyme Ribonuclease Complex ; Humans ; Neoadjuvant Therapy ; Neoplasm Staging ; RNA-Binding Proteins ; Rectal Neoplasms/therapy* ; Retrospective Studies ; Transcriptome ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the prevention effect of diabetic retinopathy of Jiangtang Xiaozhi Recipe (, JXR) in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats.

METHODSSprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into normal control group and diabetic group. Rats in the diabetic group were induced by intraperitoneal administration of STZ (50 mg/kg), and subdivided into 5 groups. Rats in the diabetic control group were given saline; four treatment groups were given metformin (300 mg/kg), JXR (2, 4 and 8 g/kg) respectively for 8 weeks, while rats in the normal control group were injected with citrate buffer and given the same volume of vehicle. Body weight and food intake were measured every week. The hypoglycaemic effects were determined by testing fasting blood glucose (FBG) every other week, and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), insulin, and glucagon at the end of the treatment. The preventive effects of JXR on STZ-induced diabetic rats were determined by histopathological examination with hematoxylin and eosin staining, and periodic acid-schiff staining. The effects were further evaluated by serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA).

RESULTSHigh-dose JXR significantly reduced FBG and HbA1c level at the 8th week of administration (P<0.01, P<0.05). JXR significantly increased insulin level (P<0.05), and decreased glucagon level (P<0.05). JXR showed the antioxidant defense with increased SOD activity and decreased MDA contents in diabetic rats. Histopathological studies revealed that there were no basement membrane thickening and mild destruction in the treated groups. Morphometric measurements of retina microvascular showed that acellular capillary and capillary density decreased in treated rats while pericyte and endothelial cell increasing after the treatment.

CONCLUSIONJXR have protective effect of diabetic retinopathy and its mechanism may be associated with the obvious hypoglycemic and antioxidant effect.

Aim To investigate the protective effect of astragaloside IV (AS-Ⅳ) on human retinal pigment epithelium injury induced by methylglyoxal (MGO), and explore its molecular mechanism.Methods The injury of ARPE-19 cells was induced by MGO and the cell viability was measured by CCK-8 method.The morphology of cell nucleus was analyzed by Hoechst 33342 staining and the cell apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry to detect labbled Annexin V-FITC/PI.JC-1 staining and fluorescence probe DCFH-DA were employed to evaluate the change of mitochondrial membrane potential and reactive oxygen species (ROS).The levels of SOD, MDA, caspase-9 and caspase-3 were determined by respective kits.Western blot was used to analyse the expression of Bcl-2, Bax and PARP.Results AS-Ⅳ could significantly inhibit the decrease of cell viability induced by MGO, improve the morphology of cell nucleus, reduce the ARPE-19 cell apoptosis rate and the level of ROS and MDA, and increase the activity of SOD.Furthermore, AS-Ⅳ could enhance mitochondrial membrane potential, the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax and the expression of PARP, and inhibit the activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3.Conclusion AS-Ⅳ may protect ARPE-19 cells from the injury induced by MGO by increasing the antioxidant ability of ARPE-19 cells and inhibiting cell apoptosis.

BACKGROUND:Autologous tissue-engineered bone marrow mesenchymal stem cel s (BMSCs) transplantation is one of the most common methods of treating early osteonecrosis of femoral head, but now there is stil no any special-purpose grafter available in the market. Such surgical transplantation is a laborious, time-consuming and tedious process, which goes against its clinical promotion. OBJECTIVE:To develop a supporting, efficient, special-purpose grafter, to solve the difficulty in stem cel s transplantation during core decompression of femoral head. METHODS:CAD software was used to perform solid modeling for this special-purpose grafter and print them by three-dimensional (3D) fast printing technology. The performance of this special-purpose grafter was tested by femoral head core decompression combined with BMSCs transplantation. It was compared with traditional surgical instrument in terms of duration of operation, intraoperative blood loss, visual analogue scale (VAS) of stem cel/biological fiber col agen complex omission amount and doctor’s satisfaction score. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1) A kind of special-purpose grafter was developed by 3D printing technology rapidly. (2) Compared with the control group, duration of operation, intraoperative blood loss, VAS scores and doctor’s satisfaction scores were significantly improved in the trial group (P<0.05). (3) CAD software combined with 3D printing technology is a highly efficient means for front-line clinicians to perform independent development. The research and development of this special-purpose grafter provides a perfect solution to the laborious, time-consuming and tedious process of cel/biological col agen fiber transplantation.

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a novel metabolic regulator of glucose and lipid, which is safe, effective and independent on insulin. FGF21 is considered as a prospective anti-diabetic drug. The aim of this study was to express recombinant h-FGF21 in periplasmic space of Escherichia coli. The pET27b plasmid was used to create the expression vectors of h-FGF21 with a PelB secretion signal. The ph-FGF21 (periplasmic expression of h-FGF21) was successfully expressed in the periplasm of E. coli BL21 (DE3), and soluble ph-FGF21 was isolated by disruption of the outer membrane. After twice of ion exchange chromatography, the purity of ph-FGF21 was above 95% in an analysis with a gray analysis software. The molecular weight of ph-FGF21 was about 20 kDa in SDS-PAGE and Western blotting analysis. The activity of ph-FGF21 and ih-FGF21 (intracellular expression of h-FGF21) was observed in vitro in the glucose uptake assay in HepG2 cells. The activity was observed in type 2 diabetic db/db mice after short or long-term treatments. The results suggest that the ph-FGF21 has a consistent activity with ih-FGF21 in vitro and in vivo.

Objective To evaluate the incidence and risk factors of postoperative delirium in patients post permanent pacemaker implantation.Methods Patients underwent permanent pacemaker implantation in our department from September 2013 to February 2015 were included in this study.Delirium was measured by the confusion assessment method on the first three postoperative days.All the patients were divided into the postoperative delirium group and the non-delirium control group according to whether new onset delirium was diagnosed.Risk factors significantly associated with postoperative delirium detected by univariate analysis were entered into multivariable analysis to define the independent predictors of postoperative delirium.Results A total of 225 patients were enrolled in this study.The incidence of postoperative delirium was 5.3％.Patients developing postoperative delirium were older ((83 ± 5) years vs.(74 ± 11) years,P =0.002),had a significantly higher incidence of blood pressure fluctuations (58.3％ (7/12) vs.4.7％ (10/213),P＜0.001),hyponatremia (25.0％ (3/12) vs.5.2％ (11/213),P=0.030) and had higher systolic blood pressure ((157 ± 35) mmHg vs.(136 ± 22) mmHg,1 mmHg =0.133 kPa,P =0.007).However,patients developing postoperative delirium had lower preoperative average heart rate ((47 ± 18)bpm vs.(58 ± 15)bpm,P =0.007).Muhiple regression analysis showed that advanced age (OR =2.984,95 ％ CI:1.226-7.624,P =0.016) and blood pressure fluctuations (OR =27.393,95％ CI:6.735-111.417,P ＜0.001) are the independent risk factors for pacemaker patients with postoperative delirium.Conclusion Advanced age and blood pressure fluctuations are independent risk factors of postoperative delirium in patients post permanent pacemaker implantation.

Objective To construct PES1 shRNA stable expression cell lines in tongue squamous cell carcinoma ( TSCC) cells and to study the effect of knockdown of PES 1 on the growth of TSCC cells .Methods Recombinant lentivirus carrying PES1 shRNA was packaged and obtained in 293T cells.TSCC cells (Tca8113, SCC6 and SCC15) were infected with the lentivirus and selected for stable cells .PES1 expression was identified by Western blot .The effect of inhibition of PES1 on the growth and cell cycle of TSCC cells was detected by growth curve and flow cytometry .Results TSCC cells stably expressing PES1 shRNA were constructed.Knockdown of PES1 inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell cycle ar-rest at G0/G1 phase.Knockdown of PES1 inhibited expression of cyclin D1 in TSCC cells.Conclusion Inhibition of PES1 results in reduced cell proliferation , cell cycle arrest at G 0/G1 phase and reduction of cyclin D 1 expression in TSCC cells . PES1 may be a target for TSCC gene therapy .