ObjectiveTo elucidate the chemical composition of the reference sample of Jinshui Liujunjian and its distribution characteristics in blood and tissues of rats. MethodsUltra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry（UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS） was used to detect the reference sample solution， plasma， and tissue samples of Jinshui Liujunjian under positive and negative ion modes， respectively. Qualitative Analysis 10.0 software and a self-constructed database were employed for primary mass spectrum matching.Compound identification was further validated by comparing retention times， secondary mass spectral fragments， reference standards， and literature data to deduce fragmentation pathways. ResultsA total of 122 compounds were identified in the reference sample of Jinshui Liujunjian， including 47 flavonoids， 5 amino acids， 13 iridoids， 16 triterpenoid saponins， etc.， of which 42 compounds were confirmed by comparison with reference substances. A total of 21 prototype components were identified in blood components； 50 prototype components were identified in different tissues， among which 13， 10， 7， 21， 11， 6， 14， and 40 prototype components were identified in the heart， liver， spleen， lung， kidney， brain， large intestine， and stomach， respectively. Among them， 7 compounds such as ferulic acid， glycyrrhizic acid， and nobiletin were exposed in the target organs of lung and kidney. ConclusionThis study elucidates the material basis of the reference samples of Jinshui Liujunjian， primarily composed of flavonoids and triterpenoid saponins， along with their in vivo distribution characteristics. These findings provide a scientific basis for establishing quality evaluation indicators and offer references for subsequent pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic investigations.

ObjectiveTo elucidate the chemical composition of the reference sample of Jinshui Liujunjian and its distribution characteristics in blood and tissues of rats. MethodsUltra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry（UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS） was used to detect the reference sample solution， plasma， and tissue samples of Jinshui Liujunjian under positive and negative ion modes， respectively. Qualitative Analysis 10.0 software and a self-constructed database were employed for primary mass spectrum matching.Compound identification was further validated by comparing retention times， secondary mass spectral fragments， reference standards， and literature data to deduce fragmentation pathways. ResultsA total of 122 compounds were identified in the reference sample of Jinshui Liujunjian， including 47 flavonoids， 5 amino acids， 13 iridoids， 16 triterpenoid saponins， etc.， of which 42 compounds were confirmed by comparison with reference substances. A total of 21 prototype components were identified in blood components； 50 prototype components were identified in different tissues， among which 13， 10， 7， 21， 11， 6， 14， and 40 prototype components were identified in the heart， liver， spleen， lung， kidney， brain， large intestine， and stomach， respectively. Among them， 7 compounds such as ferulic acid， glycyrrhizic acid， and nobiletin were exposed in the target organs of lung and kidney. ConclusionThis study elucidates the material basis of the reference samples of Jinshui Liujunjian， primarily composed of flavonoids and triterpenoid saponins， along with their in vivo distribution characteristics. These findings provide a scientific basis for establishing quality evaluation indicators and offer references for subsequent pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic investigations.

Objective To study the spatial distribution of the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in Hubei Province and its influencing factors, so as to improve the theoretical basis for scientific development of tuberculosis prevention and control measures in the future. Methods The data of reported incidence of tuberculosis and related influencing factors in various counties and districts of Hubei Province in 2020 were collected. Global Moran's I index, hotspot analysis and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model analysis were used to calculate the spatial autocorrelation of the incidence of tuberculosis, and to analyze the influencing factors affecting the incidence rate of tuberculosis. Results There were obvious regional differences in the space distribution of the incidence rate of tuberculosis. Hot spot analysis showed positive spatial correlation and obvious clustering. The GWR model (AICc=784.251) in this study had higher AICc value compared to the ordinary least squares regression (OLS) model (AICc=804.2585). The GWR model showed that the increase in the proportion of the population aged 65 and above and the proportion of the ethnic minority population had a significant promoting effect on the increase of the incidence rate of tuberculosis, and there was significant spatial heterogeneity. The effect of PM_2.5 concentration on the incidence rate of pulmonary tuberculosis varied in different regions, and the degree of effect was also different. Conclusion The proportion of people aged 65 and above and the proportion of ethnic minorities may significantly influence the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis. The effect of PM_2.5 concentration varies in different regions, so targeted measures should be formulated according to the situation in different regions.

BACKGROUND: Diabetic foot is a complex condition with high incidence, recurrence, mortality, and disability rates. Current treatments for diabetic foot ulcers are often insufficient. This study was conducted to identify potential therapeutic targets for diabetic foot. METHODS: Datasets related to diabetic foot and diabetic skin were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified using R software. Enrichment analysis was conducted to screen for critical gene functions and pathways. A protein interaction network was constructed to identify node genes corresponding to key proteins. The DEGs and node genes were overlapped to pinpoint target genes. Plasma and chronic ulcer samples from diabetic and non-diabetic individuals were collected. Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were performed to verify the S100 calcium binding protein A9 (S100A9), inflammatory cytokine, and related pathway protein levels. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to measure epidermal layer thickness. RESULTS: In total, 283 common DEGs and 42 node genes in diabetic foot ulcers were identified. Forty-three genes were differentially expressed in the skin of diabetic and non-diabetic individuals. The overlapping of the most significant DEGs and node genes led to the identification of S100A9 as a target gene. The S100A9 level was significantly higher in diabetic than in non-diabetic plasma (178.40 ± 44.65 ng/mL vs. 40.84 ± 18.86 ng/mL) and in chronic ulcers, and the wound healing time correlated positively with the plasma S100A9 level. The levels of inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin [IL]-1, and IL-6) and related pathway proteins (phospho-extracellular signal regulated kinase [ERK], phospho-p38, phospho-p65, and p-protein kinase B [Akt]) were also elevated. The epidermal layer was notably thinner in chronic diabetic ulcers than in non-diabetic skin (24.17 ± 25.60 μm vs. 412.00 ± 181.60 μm). CONCLUSIONS S100A9 was significantly upregulated in diabetic foot and was associated with prolonged wound healing. S100A9 may impair diabetic wound healing by disrupting local inflammatory responses and skin re-epithelialization.
Calgranulin B/therapeutic use* ; Diabetic Foot/metabolism* ; Humans ; Datasets as Topic ; Computational Biology ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Animals ; Mice ; Protein Interaction Maps ; Immunohistochemistry

OBJECTIVE: Myocardial inflammation during myocardial infarction (MI) could be inhibited by regulating arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism. Recent studies demonstrated that Sini Decoction (SND) was identified to be an effective prescription for treating heart failure (HF) caused by MI. But the anti-inflammatory mechanism of SND remained unclear. The work was designed to investigate the anti-inflammatory mechanism of SND through the AA metabolism pathway in vitro and in vivo experiments. METHODS: An inflammatory injury model of H9c2 cells was established by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated macrophage-conditioned medium (CM). The MI model was built by the ligation of left anterior descending (LAD) branch of coronary artery in rat. Meanwhile, the rats were divided into five groups: sham group, MI group, MI + Celecoxib group, MI + low-dose SND group (SND-L) and MI + high-dose SND group (SND-H). Cardiac function, histopathological changes and serum cytokines were examined four weeks later. Western blot analysis was conducted to verify the key enzymes levels in the AA metabolic pathway, including phospholipase A2 (PLA2), cyclooxygenases (COXs) and lipoxygenases (LOXs). RESULTS: These in vivo results demonstrated that SND could improve the cardiac function and pathological changes of rats with MI, and regulate the key inflammatory molecules in the AA metabolism pathway, including sPLA2, COX-1, COX-2, 5-LOX and 15-LOX. In vitro, SND could decrease the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α and IL-6 and inhibit cell apoptosis in CM-induced H9c2 cells. Moreover, SND could protect H9c2 cells from the damage of CM by regulating nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) signal pathway and the expression of COX-2. CONCLUSION SND may be a drug candidate for anti-inflammatory treatment during MI by regulating the multiple targets in the AA metabolism pathway.

Extensive epigenetic reprogramming involves in memory CD8+ T-cell differentiation. The elaborate epigenetic rewiring underlying the heterogeneous functional states of CD8+ T cells remains hidden. Here, we profile single-cell chromatin accessibility and map enhancer-promoter interactomes to characterize the differentiation trajectory of memory CD8+ T cells. We reveal that under distinct epigenetic regulations, the early activated CD8+ T cells divergently originated for short-lived effector and memory precursor effector cells. We also uncover a defined epigenetic rewiring leading to the conversion from effector memory to central memory cells during memory formation. Additionally, we illustrate chromatin regulatory mechanisms underlying long-lasting versus transient transcription regulation during memory differentiation. Finally, we confirm the essential roles of Sox4 and Nrf2 in developing memory precursor effector and effector memory cells, respectively, and validate cell state-specific enhancers in regulating Il7r using CRISPR-Cas9. Our data pave the way for understanding the mechanism underlying epigenetic memory formation in CD8+ T-cell differentiation.
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/metabolism* ; Cell Differentiation ; Chromatin/immunology* ; Animals ; Mice ; Immunologic Memory ; Epigenesis, Genetic ; SOXC Transcription Factors/immunology* ; NF-E2-Related Factor 2/immunology* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Gene Regulatory Networks ; Enhancer Elements, Genetic

Proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) represent a promising class of drugs that can target disease-causing proteins more effectively than traditional small molecule inhibitors can, potentially revolutionizing drug discovery and treatment strategies. However, the links between in vitro and in vivo data are poorly understood, hindering a comprehensive understanding of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of PROTACs. In this work, ¹⁴C-labeled vepdegestrant (ARV-471), which is currently in phase III clinical trials for breast cancer, was synthesized as a model PROTAC to characterize its preclinical ADME properties and simulate its clinical pharmacokinetics (PK) by establishing a physiologically based pharmacokinetics (PBPK) model. For in vitro-in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE), hepatocyte clearance correlated more closely with in vivo rat PK data than liver microsomal clearance did. PBPK models, which were initially developed and validated in rats, accurately simulate ARV-471's PK across fed and fasted states, with parameters within 1.75-fold of the observed values. Human models, informed by in vitro ADME data, closely mirrored postoral dose plasma profiles at 30 mg. Furthermore, no human-specific metabolites were identified in vitro and the metabolic profile of rats could overlap that of humans. This work presents a roadmap for developing future PROTAC medications by elucidating the correlation between in vitro and in vivo characteristics.

Objective To explore the relationship between amyloid A(SAA)/C-reactive protein(CRP)and airway inflammation and disease severity in children with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma.Methods A total of 82 children with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma admitted to Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital from July 2020 to July 2023 were selected as the study objects,and were divided into mild group(23 cases)and moderate and severe group(59 cases)according to the disease severity at admission.SAA/CRP and airway inflammation indicators[interleukin-6(IL-6),procalcitonin(PCT)]in the two groups were compared.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of SAA/CRP for the disease severity of children with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma,and multivariate Logistic stepwise regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors for the disease severity of children with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma.Results The serum levels of IL-6 and PCT in the mild group were lower than those in the moderate and severe group(P＜0.05),and the serum SAA,CRP and SAA/CRP in the mild group were lower than those in the moderate and severe group(P＜0.05).SAA/CRP was positively correlated with IL-6 and PCT levels in children with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma(r=0.317,0.324,P=0.010,0.001).The area under the curve of SAA,CRP and SAA/CRP for diagnosing the disease severity of children with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma were 0.854,0.753 and 0.916,re-spectively.Family history of asthma(OR=3.622,95％CI:1.556～8.430),asthma control test score(OR=4.175,95％CI:1.652-10.550),SAA/CRP(OR=5.254,95％CI:2.108-13.097)were the risk factors for children with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma(P＜0.05).Conclusion The SAA/CRP in children with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma is related to airway inflammation,and has a certain value in evaluating the disease severity of children with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma.

Objective:To explore the effects of hyperoxic environments on renal metabolites to understand the potential mechanisms that contribute to pathologic retinal vascular neovascularization and renal injury through metabolomic studies in a mouse model of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) model.Methods:Sixteen C57/B6J mice pups born to day 7 (P7) were randomly and equally divided into an OIR model group and a normal control group using a randomized numerical table of mother mice.Mice were reared standardly from birth until day 7 (P7), then mice and their mother mice in the OIR group were placed in a hyperoxic (75±2)% chamber until day 12 (P12) and then reared normally.Mice in the normal control group were reared normally throughout.Mice in two groups were killed by carbon dioxide euthanasia on postnatal day 17 (P17). The mice retinal wholemount from the two groups were made and stained with isolectin B4 (IB4) to observe the morphology of retinal vessels, central non-perfusion area and pathological neovascularization.The kidney tissue of P17 mice was analyzed by liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer.After anticoagulant treatment, the whole blood of mice was centrifuged and precipitated, and the obtained plasma without cellular components was analyzed by targeted metabonomics.Mass spectral information was interpreted using metabolomics data processing software Progenesis QI v2.3.Overall differences in metabolic profiles were distinguished by unsupervised principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares analysis (OPLS-DA). The fold change and P values of metabolites were compared between the two groups.The variable importance of projection value>1 and P value<0.05 was used to screen out differential metabolites.Metabolic pathway enrichment analysis of differential metabolites was performed based on the KEGG database.The feeding and use of animals were strictly in accordance with the requirements of the Ethics Committee of Jinan University, and the research protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Jinan University (No.20200401-54). Results:The IB4 staining of retinal wholemounts showed that the retinal blood vessels were evenly distributed in the P17 mice from control group.The peripheral retinal vessels were tortuous and disordered with a large non-perfusion area in central region in P17 mice from OIR group, and a large number of neovascularization clusters were formed at the junction of the nonperfusion area and the vascular area of the retina, showing strong fluorescent staining.The relative area of retinal nonperfusion area in OIR group was (25.16±3.50)%, which was significantly larger than (0.63±0.30)% in normal control group ( t=12.07, P<0.001). The OPLS-DA parameter R2X cum (0.578), interpretation rate R2Y cum (0.978) and prediction rate Q2 cum (0.857) values were all greater than 0.5, indicating that the OPLS-DA model had a good predictive ability.A total of 26 main differential metabolites were found, among which 17 were up-regulated and 9 were down-regulated, including glycerophospholipids (PC 20∶4(5Z, 8Z, 11Z, 14Z)/0∶0, PC 22∶6(4Z, 7Z, 10Z, 13Z, 16Z, 19Z)/0∶0, PC 14∶1(9Z)/20∶2(11Z, 14Z), PE P-18∶0/20∶4(6E, 8Z, 11Z, 14Z)(5OH[S]), amino acid metabolites (arginine, ornithine, pipecolic acid, and hydroxylysine), purines (guanine, hypoxanthine, hydroxypurinol), and fatty acids (methyl 15-palmitate, 2, 6, 8, 12-tetramethyl-2, 4-tridecadien-1-ol), and so on.Differential metabolites were mainly enriched in ABC transporters (L-arginine, taurine, inositol, adenosine, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, L-glutamine), aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis (L-isoleucine, L-proline, L-arginine, L-histidine, L-glutamine), arginine biosynthesis (L-arginine, L-ornithine, L-glutamine) metabolic pathways.The plasma targeted metabonomics showed that the differential amino acid metabolites were mainly enriched in metabolic pathways such as aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, arginine biosynthesis and metabolism, and ABC transporters. Conclusions:ABC transporter, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, and arginine biosynthesis metabolic pathways in OIR mice may participate in the pathological changes of renal injury and neovascularization in retinopathy of prematurity.

AIM:To investigate the therapeutic effects of chrysin on nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH).METHODS:Eight-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into control group,model group,and chrysin group.The mice in control group were fed with normal diet,and those in model and chrysin groups were fed with methio-nine-and choline-deficient(MCD)diet.After 5 weeks of adaptation,the mice in chrysin group received chrysin treatment(20 mg/kg)by continuous lavage for 6 weeks,while those in control and model groups were given equal volume of saline.During the experiment,the health condition of the mice was monitored.Liver morphology was examined after the mice were sacrificed.Serum triglyceride(TG),total cholesterol(TC),low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C),high-den-sity lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C),alanine aminotransferase(ALT)and aspartate aminotransferase(AST)levels were measured using a biochemical analyzer.Liver tissue TG and TC levels were measured using assay kits.Liver cell damage and inflammation were assessed by hematoxylin-eosin(HE)staining and F4/80 immunohistochemistry staining.The ex-tent of liver lipid deposition was explored by oil red O staining.Masson staining and Sirius red staining were performed to assess liver fibrosis.Immunohistochemistry was performed to analyze the expression of fibrosis-related molecules.RE-SULTS:Compared with control group,the mice in model group showed significant decrease in body weight,liver wet weight,and liver volume.Serum TG,LDL-C,ALT and AST levels,as well as liver TG and TC levels were significantly elevated,and HDL-C levels were decreased in model group.Pathological staining showed significant inflammatory cell in-filtration,lipid deposition,and liver fibrosis.After the treatment with chrysin,increased body weight and liver weight,a reddish appearance of the liver,relatively smooth surface,and sharp liver edges were observed.Serum TG,LDL-C,AST and ALT levels,and liver TG levels were significantly reduced by chrysin.Inflammatory cell infiltration,lipid deposition,and liver tissue fibrosis were also significantly attenuated by chrysin.CONCLUSION:Chrysin shows a potential as a can-didate drug for the treatment of NASH by inhibiting hepatic steatosis,inflammation,and liver fibrosis.