Objective:To explore the effects of different polymers on in vitro biomimetic mineralization of small intestinal submucosa(SIS)scaffolds,and to evaluate the physicochemical properties and bio-compatibility of the SIS scaffolds.Methods:The SIS scaffolds prepared by freeze-drying method were im-mersed in simulated body fluid(SBF),mineralized liquid containing polyacrylic acid(PAA)and mine-ralized liquid containing PAA and polyaspartic acid(PASP).After two weeks in the mineralized solu-tion,the liquid was changed every other day.SBF@SIS,PAA@SIS,PAA/PASP@SIS scaffolds were ob-tained.The SIS scaffolds were used as control group to evaluate their physicochemical properties and bio-compatibility.We observed the bulk morphology of the scaffolds in each group,analyzed the microscopic morphology by environment scanning electron microscopy and determined the porosity and pore size.We also analyzed the surface elements by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDX),analyzed the struc-ture of functional groups by Flourier transformed infrared spectroscopy(FTIR),detected the water ab-sorption rate by using specific gravity method,and evaluated the compression strength by universal me-chanical testing machine.The pro-cell proliferation effect of each group of scaffolds were evaluated by CCK-8 cell proliferation method.Results:Under scanning electron microscopy,the scaffolds of each group showed a three-dimensional porous structure with suitable pore size and porosity,and crystal was observed in all the mineralized scaffolds of each group,in which the crystal deposition of PAA/PASP@SIS scaffolds was more regular.At the same time,the collagen fibers could be seen to thicken.EDX analysis showed that the characteristic peaks of Ca and P were found in the three groups of mineralized scaffolds,and the highest peaks were found in the PAA/PASP@SIS scaffolds.FTIR analysis proved that all the three groups of mineralized scaffolds were able to combine hydroxyapatite with SIS.All the scaf-folds had good hydrophilicity.The compressive strength of the mineralized scaffold in the three groups was higher than that in the control group,and the best compressive strength was found in PAA/PASP@SIS scaffold.The scaffolds of all the groups could effectively adsorb proteins,and PAA/PASP@SIS group had the best adsorption capacity.In the CCK-8 cell proliferation experiment,the PAA/PASP@SIS scaffold showed the best ability to promote cell proliferation with the largest number of living cells observed.Con-clusion:Compared with other mineralized scaffolds,PAA/PASP@SIS scaffolds prepared by mineralized solution containing both PAA and PASP have better physicochemical properties and biocompatibility and have potential applications in bone tissue engineering.

Objective To evaluate the maturity and metabolic status of heterotopic ossification(HO)by single-photon emission computed tomography(SPECT)/CT fusion bone imaging.Methods The clinical and SPECT/CT fusion bone imaging data of 57 patients with HO confirmed by pathology or follow-up were analyzed retrospectively.HO was graded by CT,and the characteristics of radioactive concentration of HO were analyzed.Results Of 57 cases,single lesion in 52 cases,and multiple lesions in 5 cases,with a total of 63 lesions,mostly located in the hip joint(55.6%,35/63)and thigh(19.0%,12/63).There were 41 lesions in the middle stage and 22 lesions in the late stage.In the visual evaluation of SPECT/CT fusion bone imaging,the middle stage lesions were mostly clumps or flakes,with moderate or high radioactive concentration(75.6%,31/41),furthermore,the concentration range was larger than or equal to the total or limited range of CT ossification(21/41,50.1%),with high concentration mainly located in the mixed areas of ossification density.The concentration of the late stage lesions was mostly non-radioactive(72.7%,16/22).Conclusion SPECT/CT fusion bone imaging can show the range,degree and maturity of HO radioactive concentration,and can accurately locate the area with osteoblastic activity,which provides scientific basis for the selection of surgical timing.

BACKGROUND:The problem of intervertebral disc injury and degeneration has been studied in many ways.Many studies have shown that intervertebral disc injury and degeneration is driven by mechanical loading factors.However,the potential relationship between common phenotypes of intervertebral disc injury and degeneration and mechanical loading factors has been rarely summarized. OBJECTIVE:To summarize the types of common structural abnormalities exhibited by intervertebral disc injury and degeneration in the published literature,and sum up the potential links to the types of mechanical loading that lead to these structural abnormalities in in vitro and ex vivo experimental studies. METHODS:Using the terms"intervertebral disc failure,intervertebral disc injury,mechanical load,mechanical factor,load factor,biomechanics"as Chinese and English key words in PubMed,CNKI,and WanFang databases,articles related to intervertebral disc injury degeneration and mechanical load factors were retrieved.Literature screening was performed according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria,and 88 articles were finally included. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Common structural abnormalities of intervertebral discs include decreased intervertebral disc height,disc bulge,osteophyte formation,annulus fibrosus tear,intervertebral disc herniation or disc prolapse,endplate damage,Schmorl nodes and intervertebral disc calcification.Intervertebral discs are susceptible to mechanical load types such as compression,bending,axial rotation,and compound loads.(2)The compressive load mainly causes the decrease of the proteoglycan content and the water-binding ability of the intervertebral disc,leading to the decrease or swelling of the intervertebral disc and further damage and degeneration of the intervertebral disc.In addition,the excessive compressive load causes greater damage to the endplate.(3)Bending load and axial rotation load damage the annulus fibrosus more than the endplate,and prolonged or repeated bending loads can cause tearing of the fibrous annulus and herniation or prolapse of the intervertebral disc,while pure axial rotation loads can induce less damage to the intervertebral disc and only cause the tear of the annulus fibrosus.(4)However,when different load types act in combination,it is more likely to result in high stress on the disc and a greater risk of disc injury.(5)Injury and degeneration of the intervertebral disc present progressive structural damage,and early prevention and protection are particularly important in clinical practice.Future tissue engineering research can start with early repair of the intervertebral disc.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the in vitro inhibitory mechanism of berberine on the proliferation of tumor stem cells and evaluate its in vivo safety. METHODS Flow cytometry was used to select tumor stem cells from mouse skin melanoma B16F10 cells； CD44， CD133， Nanog homologous box protein （NANOG） and octamer-binding transcription factor 4 （OCT4） were used as indicators to characterize tumor stem cells. Tumor stem cells were divided into control group， all-trans retinoic acid （ATRA） group， and berberine group， and the CCK-8 method was used to detect the effects of berberine on the viability of tumor stem cells； flow cytometry was adopted to detect cell apoptotic rate， the proportion of CD44+/CD133+ and the positive cell rate of sex determining region Y box protein 2 （SOX2）； the morphological changes of tumor balls were recorded after treatment with berberine； the morphology of cell pyroptosis in each group was recorded， and the release rate of lactate dehydrogenase （LDH） was detected； Western blot assay was adopted to detect the expressions of pyroptosis-related protein gasdermin E （GSDME）， GSDME- N， caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-3. Preliminary evaluation of in vivo safety of berberine was conducted by using zebrafish embryo toxicity experiments. RESULTS Compared with B16F10 cells， the proportion of CD44+/CD133+ cells in tumor stem cells and the fluorescence intensity of NANOG and OCT4 were significantly increased （P＜0.000 1）. The half-inhibitory concentration of berberine to tumor stem cells was 50.98 μmol/L. Compared with the control group， the apoptotic rate of cells in the berberine group was significantly increased， while the proportion of CD44+/CD133+ cells and the rate of SOX2 positive cells were reduced significantly （P＜0.000 1）； tumor stem cell spheroids were atrophied， with partial cell death. After treatment with berberine， tumor stem cells exhibited swelling in their outermost layer， the release rate of LDH of cells was significantly increased and the release rate of LDH increased with increasing dose； the protein expressions of GSDME-N and cleaved-caspase-3 of cells in berberine 20， 40 μmol/L groups were significantly increased， and the protein expressions of GSDME and caspase-3 were significantly reduced （except for berberine 20 μmol/L group， P＜0.05）. The embryonic development of zebrafish treated with berberine was almost unaffected， and the survival rate of embryo reached 100%， with no obvious abnormalities observed. CONCLUSIONS Berberine has good activity against the proliferation of tumor stem cells， and its mechanism of action may be related to activating GSDME and promoting cell pyroptosis； berberine has good in vivo safety.

Objective:To explore the clinical phenotype and genetic characteristics of a Chinese pedigree affected with Spastic paraplegia type 5A (SPG5A).Methods:A pedigree suspected for Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) at Henan Children′s Hospital on August 15 2022 was selected as the study subject. Clinical data of the pedigree was collected. Peripheral blood samples were collected from members of the pedigree. Following extraction of genomic DNA, trio-WGS was carried out, and candidate variant was verified by Sanger sequencing.Results:The child, a 1-year-old boy, had presented with microcephaly, hairy face and dorsal side of distal extremities and trunk, intellectual and motor development delay, increased muscle tone of lower limbs, hyperreflexes of bilateral knee tendons, and positive pathological signs. His parents and sister both had normal phenotypes. Trio-WGS revealed that the child has harbored a homozygous c. 1250G>A (p.Arg417His) variant of the CYP7B1 gene, for which his mother was heterozygous, the father and sister were of the wild type. The variant was determined to have originated from maternal uniparental disomy (UPD). The result of Sanger sequencing was in keeping with the that of trio-WGS. SPG5A due to maternal UPD of chromosome 8 was unreported previously. Conclusion:The child was diagnosed with SPG5A, a complex type of HSP, for which the homozygous c. 1250G>A variant of the CYP7B1 gene derived from maternal UPD may be accountable.

Objective:To analyze the growth characteristics of different genotypes of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in different cell lines, and to provide scientific basis for the selection of cell lines in the study of JEV.Methods:BHK-21, Vero, C6/36, PK-15, DF-1, N2a, SH-sy5y and MDCK cell lines were selected. The proliferation ability of genotype 1 (NX1889 strain), genotype 3 (P3 strain) and genotype 5 (XZ0934 strain) JEV in these cell lines was evaluated by plaque assay and RT-qPCR.Results:Significant cytopathogenic effects (CPE) were observed in BHK-21, Vero, C6/36, DF-1, N2a and PK-15 cell lines across all three JEV genotypes. However, no significant differences in CPE characteristics were observed within the same cell line. SH-sy5y and MDCK cell lines did not show significant CPE, but virus proliferation was detected in SH-sy5y cell line, while MDCK cell line were found to be insensitive to JEV. No significant difference was observed in the proliferation curves of G1, G3 and G5 JEV in BHK-21, Vero and SH-sy5y cell lines. In C6/36 and PK-15 cell lines, the titer of G1 JEV was higher than that of G3 and G5. In DF-1 cell line, G5 demonstrated a higher titer than the other two genotypes, whereas in N2a cell line, G5 showed a lower titer than the other two.Conclusions:There are differences in the proliferation of three different genotypes of JEV in different cell lines, which can provide reference for the study of JEV in different directions.

ObjectiveTo employ the effective components and antiarrhythmic mechanism of Wenxin Granules （WXKL） by cell membrane chromatography （CMC） and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry （UPLC-Q-TOF/MS）， combined with network pharmacology. MethodIn this study， the CMC/UPLC-Q-TOF/MS technique was employed to identify the components in WXKL that could specifically bind to myocardial cell membranes. By utilizing databases such as SwissTarget Prediction and GeneCards， the targets of WXKL's effective components and arrhythmia-related targets were mined. Cytoscape software was used to construct a "component-target-disease" network. Gene ontology（GO） function and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes（KEGG） pathway enrichment analyses were carried out， and molecular docking of key components and targets was performed. Finally， further verification was conducted through in vivo experiment of rats. ResultA total of 39 effective components were identified in WXKL. These included 13 components derived from Panax notoginseng， 15 components from Codonopsis pilosula， seven components from Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma， one component from Succinum， one component from Polygonatum odoratum， one component shared by both P. odoratum and C. pilosula， and one component shared by both Panax notoginseng and C. pilosula. Network pharmacology predicted that WXKL had 16 core antiarrhythmic targets and 79 related pathways， mainly involving adrenergic signaling in cardiomyocytes， cyclic guanosine monophosphate （cGMP）/protein kinase G （PKG）， calcium signal， cyclic adenosine monophosphate （cAMP）， interleukin （IL）-17， mitogen-activated protein kinase （MAPK）， and tumor necrosis factor （TNF） signaling pathways. The results of in vivo experiment of rats showed that WXKL significantly improved the expression of β₁-adrenergic receptor （β₁-AR）， cAMP， TNF-α， and calcium voltage-gated channel subunit alpha 1C （CACNA1C）. ConclusionWXKL can exert its antiarrhythmic effects through multiple components， multiple targets， and multiple pathways. This study provides a scientific basis for explaining the potential pharmacodynamic substance foundation and mechanism of action of traditional Chinese medicine in treating arrhythmia.

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic efficacy of targeted biopsy combined with regional systematic biopsy in prostate cancer(PCa)in patients with prostate imaging reporting and data system v2.1(PI-RADS v2.1)4-5.Methods:From January 2023 to October 2023,patients who underwent prostate biopsy for the first time with total prostate specific antigen(tPSA)≤20 ng/mL and had a multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging(mpMRI)PI-RADS of 4-5 in Peking University First Hospital were prospectively collected.All the patients underwent transrectal ultrasound-guided cognitive fusion tar-geted biopsy(3 cores)followed by systematic biopsy(12 cores).Various hypothetical biopsy schemes were defined based on different biopsy sites.The detection effectiveness of targeted biopsy combined with regional systematic biopsy and other biopsy schemes for prostate cancer were compared using Cochran's Q and McNemar tests.Results:A total of 255 patients were enrolled,of whom 204(80.0％)were de-tected with prostate adenocarcinoma and 187(73.3％)were clinically significant with prostate cancer(csPCa).The detection rate of PCa with targeted biopsy was significantly lower than that of targeted biopsy combined with 12-core system biopsy(77.3％vs.80.0％,P=0.016),and 71.4％(5/7)of the missed patients was csPCa.There was no significant difference in the detection rate between targeted biopsy combined with 4-core regional system biopsy and 12-core system biopsy(P＞0.999),and 1 case of csPCa and clinically insignificant prostate cancer(cisPCa)were missed.There was no significant difference in the detection rate of PCa between targeted combined regional system biopsy and targeted combined lateral or traditional 6-core system biopsy and the number of cores were reduced.Missed diag-nosis of targeted biopsy was correlated with the maximum diameter of the lesion(OR=0.086,95％CI:0.013-0.562,P=0.010).For the patients with PI-RADS 5,only 1 case of PCa was missed in 122 cases by targeted biopsy alone.For patients with PI-RADS 4,6 PCa cases were missed among the 133 patients with targeted biopsy alone,and 1 case of csPCa and cisPCa were missed by targeted biopsy com-bined with regional system biopsy.The statistics of positive core counts for different biopsy schemes indi-cated that targeted combined regional systematic biopsy had a higher proportion of positive cores second only to targeted biopsy alone.Conclusion:Targeted biopsy combined with regional systematic biopsy has high diagnostic efficacy in patients with PI-RADS 4-5 and can be considered as one of the improved schemes for combined biopsy.Targeted biopsy alone is also a feasible option for patients for patients with a PI-RADS score of 5.

Cushing syndrome(CS)is an endocrine-metabolic disorder characterized by hypercortisolism.Elevated cortisol levels can induce a hypercoagulable state,increasing the risk of venous thromboembolism(VTE).Both pituitary-origin Cushing disease(CD)and adrenal-origin non-adrenocorticotropic hormone(ACTH)-dependent CS are primarily treated with surgery.The dual impact of surgery and the underlying disease further elevates the risk of VTE,potentially leading to pulmonary embolism,which poses a severe threat to patient survival.Additionally,CS patients in a hypercoagulable state have a higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases and VTE,and even mortality compared with the general population.Untreated active CS patients have a 17.8-fold increased risk of VTE compared to the general population.In recent years,the relationship between the hypercoagulable state in CS and VTE has garnered increasing attention from clinicians.A better understanding of the clinical epidemiological characteristics,pathophysiological mechanisms,and clinical prevention and treatment of VTE and pulmonary embolism in CS can provide valuable references for the standardized use of prophylactic anticoagulant therapy in CS patients.

RNAs are involved in the crucial processes of disease progression and have emerged as powerful therapeutic targets and diagnostic biomarkers. However, efficient delivery of therapeutic RNA to the targeted location and precise detection of RNA markers remains challenging. Recently, more and more attention has been paid to applying nucleic acid nanoassemblies in diagnosing and treating. Due to the flexibility and deformability of nucleic acids, the nanoassemblies could be fabricated with different shapes and structures. With hybridization, nucleic acid nanoassemblies, including DNA and RNA nanostructures, can be applied to enhance RNA therapeutics and diagnosis. This review briefly introduces the construction and properties of different nucleic acid nanoassemblies and their applications for RNA therapy and diagnosis and makes further prospects for their development.