Catalpol,an iridoid glucoside isolated from Rehmannia glutinosa,has gained attention due to its potential use in treating cardio-cerebrovascular diseases(CVDs).This extensive review delves into recent studies on catalpol's protective properties in relation to various CVDs,such as atherosclerosis,myocardial ischemia,infarction,cardiac hypertrophy,and heart failure.The review also explores the compound's anti-oxidant,anti-inflammatory,and anti-apoptotic characteristics,emphasizing the role of vital signaling pathways,including PGC-1a/TERT,PI3K/Akt,AMPK,Nrf2/HO-1,estrogen receptor(ER),Nox4/NF-κB,and GRP78/PERK.The article discusses emerging findings on catalpol's ability to alleviate diabetic cardiovascular complications,thrombosis,and other cardiovascular-related conditions.Although clinical studies specifically addressing catalpol's impact on CVDs are scarce,the compound's established safety and well-tolerated nature suggest that it could be a valuable treatment alternative for CVD patients.Further investigation into catalpol and related iridoid derivatives may unveil new opportunities for devising natural and efficacious CVD therapies.

Helicobacter pylori(Hp)is a gram-negative bacterium which colonizes the stomach and duodenum,and can cause diseases such as gastritis,peptic ulcers and stomach cancer.Gastric cancer associated with Hp is one of the most common human malignancies,the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide,and a serious threat to human health,so the eradication of Hp is particularly important.However,with the abuse of antibiotics,the drug resistance of the bacteria has also been greatly improved,and the previous research schemes have gradually revealed drawbacks,while Chinese medicine treatment has unique advantages such as low recurrence rate,few side effects,and not easy to produce drug resistance.It is of great significance to make full use of the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine and continuously study new treatment plans for the eradication of Hp.This article mainly reviews the pathological mechanism,treatment progress and traditional Chinese medicine treatment of Hp.

Objective To analyse the clinical efficacy of liver transplantation and summarize the clinical experience of perioperative management in patients with hepatic coma. Methods Clinical data of 22 patients with hepatic coma undergoing liver transplantation were retrospectively analyzed. The perioperative conditions of the recipients were observed, including operation time, warm/cold ischemia time of donor liver, intraoperative anhepatic phase of the recipients, intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative blood transfusion, early postoperative blood drug concentration and incidence of postoperative complications. The survival situation of the recipients and the influencing factors of clinical prognosis were analyzed. Results The operation time of 22 recipients was 8 (6-12) h, the warm ischemia time of donor liver was 4 (2-6) min, the cold ischemia time was 7 (5-10) h, intraoperative anhepatic phase of recipients was 80 (55-120) min, intraoperative blood loss was 1 139 (400-4 000) mL and intraoperative blood transfusion was 1 440 (0-3 600) mL.The blood concentration of tacrolimus (FK506) fluctuated between 6 and 11 ng/mL at postoperative one week. Six recipients died after liver transplantation including 1 case of primary graft liver failure, 2 cases of severe infection, 1 case of severe cerebral edema caused by cerebral hemorrhage and 2 cases of multiple organ failure. The postoperative 1 month and 1 year survival rates of hepatic coma recipients were 82% and 77%. Conclusions Liver transplantation can significantly improve the survival rate of patients with hepatic coma. Preoperative decreasing blood ammonia, controlling postoperative infection, improving renal function and formulating precise individualized immunosuppression therapy according to immune status play a pivotal role in enhancing the survival rate.

Objective:To explore the risk factors of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT), and optimize the treatment strategy. Methods:From May 2015 to March 2019, patients undergoing OLT and suffering from postoperative PCP were selected into PCP group ( n=8). Using the propensity score matching method, controls without postoperative PCP were selected from concurrent OLT patients at a ratio of 1: 4 ( n=32). Clinical data were collected and counted for analyzing the risk factors of PCP post-OLT. Results:During this period, 385 cases of OLT were performed. The incidence of PCP was 2.1% (8/385). PCP group were all males with an average age of (52.63±12.99)(27-69) years. PCP has an average onset time of (19.88±13.22)(9-50) weeks post-OLT. There were benign liver disease ( n=2) and malignant liver tumor ( n=6). All operative approaches were modified camel OLT. Univariate analysis revealed significant differences in rejection, peripheral blood lymphocyte count and percentage of peripheral blood lymphocyte after OLT ( P<0.05) and no significant differences existed in other factors ( P>0.05). Logistic regression analysis indicated that a lower count of peripheral blood lymphocyte post-OLT was an independent risk factor for postoperative PCP. Conclusions:A lower count of peripheral blood lymphocyte post-OLT elevates the risk of PCP. For high-risk patients, prophylaxis with TMP-SMX (trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole) may effectively lower the incidence of PCP post-OLT.

Objective:We proposed a Mingdao immune score system(MISS)to evaluate recipient's immune status after liver transplantation.Methods:From January 2017 to June 2019, retrospective analysis was conducted for 89 recipients of liver transplantation. Age/gender-matched 385 healthy controls(HC)were selected. The percentages of 30 lymphocyte subgroups of patients and HC were measured by flow cytometry. The score of each individual was calculated with our proposed MISS method. And drug concentrations and relevant clinical data were collected.Results:The normal MISS value of a healthy person was 0 score according to our criterion. In this study, the value of MISS for HC was distributed in a nearly normal fashion(-0.73±4.02). When the data from patients at different timepoints were compared, the MISS value started with -1.21±7.42 pre-operation, then declined sharply down to -8.95±8.05 at 1 month and jumped to -4.50±7.80 at 3 months. Afterward it stabilized at -4.18±7.83 between 3~12 months post-operation and finally reached -2.00±5.51 at 1 year ( P<0.05). Patients with acute rejection had higher MISS values than those without acute rejection, ( P<0.05). No significant correlation existed between blood drug concentrations and MISS values ( P>0.05). Conclusions:Our proposed MISS method may reflect the whole immune status. It is useful to manage the application of immunosuppressants in conjunctions with blood drug concentrations and liver graft function.

Sucrose non-fermenting-1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2) is a specific Ser/Thr protein kinase in plants. SnRK2 can regulate the expression of downstream genes or transcription factors through phosphorylation of substrates to achieve stress resistance regulation in different tissue parts, and make plants adapt to adverse environment. SnRK2 has a small number of members and a molecular weight of about 40 kDa, and contains a conserved N-terminal kinase domain and a divergent C-terminal regulatory domain, which plays an important role in the expression of enzyme. This review summarized the recent research progresses on the discovery, structure, and classification of SnRK2, and its function in response to various stresses and in regulating growth and development, followed by prospecting the future research direction of SnRK2. This review may provide a reference for genetic improvement of crop stress resistance.
Abscisic Acid ; Arabidopsis Proteins/genetics* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Growth and Development ; Plants/genetics* ; Protein Kinases ; Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases/genetics* ; Stress, Physiological/genetics*

Background::Although some well-established oncogenes are involved in cancer initiation and progression such as prostate cancer (PCa), the long tail of cancer genes remains to be defined. Goosecoid ( GSC) has been implicated in cancer development. However, the comprehensive biological role of GSC in pan-cancer, specifically in PCa, remains unexplored. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of GSC in PCa development. Methods::We performed a systematic bioinformatics exploration of GSC using datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas, Genotype-Tissue Expression, Gene Expression Omnibus, German Cancer Research Center, and our in-house cohorts. First, we evaluated the expression of GSC and its association with patient prognosis, and identified GSC-relevant genetic alterations in cancers. Further, we focused on the clinical characterization and prognostic analysis of GSC in PCa. To understand the transcriptional regulation of GSC by E2F transcription factor 1 ( E2F1), we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Functional experiments were conducted to validate the effect of GSC on the tumor cellular phenotype and sensitivity to trametinib. Results::GSC expression was elevated in various tumors and significantly correlated with patient prognosis. The alterations of GSC contribute to the progression of various tumors especially in PCa. Patients with PCa and high GSC expression exhibited worse progression-free survival and biochemical recurrence outcomes. Further, GSC upregulation in patients with PCa was mostly accompanied with higher Gleason score, advanced tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. Mechanistically, the transcription factor, E2F1, stimulates GSC by binding to its promoter region. Detailed experiments further demonstrated that GSC acted as an oncogene and influenced the response of PCa cells to trametinib treatment. Conclusions::GSC was highly overexpressed and strongly correlated with patient prognosis in PCa. We found that GSC, regulated by E2F1, acted as an oncogene and impeded the therapeutic efficacy of trametinib in PCa.

Background::Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus is a common allergen causing allergic diseases in China. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of D. pteronyssinus extracts produced by Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) for the skin prick test (SPT) in the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy. Methods::A total of 910 subjects with allergic diseases were prescribed D. pteronyssinus SPT and specific sIgE (sIgE) test among the Outpatients of Department of Allergy, PUMCH from August 10, 2015 to August 30, 2017. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was performed according to the results of D. pteronyssinus-sIgE detection. The accuracy of D. pteronyssinus extracts used for SPT in the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy was evaluated under different cutoff values. Adverse events after SPT were recorded to evaluate safety. Results::There were 796 and 618 subjects in the full analysis set (FAS) and the per protocol set (PPS), respectively. The areas under the curve of FAS and PPS were 0.871 and 0.873, respectively. According to the ROC of PPS, the optimal and 95% specificity diagnostic cutoff values of D. pteronyssinus SPT mean wheal diameter were 3.25 and 3.75 mm, respectively. No adverse events occurred. Conclusion::The extracts of D. pteronyssinus for SPT were simple, highly accurate, and safe and should be considered for recommendation in the clinical diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the inhibitory effects of ursolic acid on interleukin-6 （IL-6）-mediated invasion and migration of breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells （hereinafter referred to as “231 cells”）. METHODS The effects of 20， 40， 80， 160 and 320 µmol/L ursolic acid on the proliferation rate of 231 cells were measured by CCK-8 method. The breast cancer 231 cells were divided into control group， model group and administration group. The migration and invasion abilities of cells were detected by scratch assay and Transwell assay. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction （q-PCR） assay and Western blot assay were used to detect the mRNA and protein expressions of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related makers such as E cadherin （E-cad）， matrix metalloprotein 2 （MMP2）， MMP9， vimentin （Vim）， CD44 molecule （CD44） and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A1 （ALDH1A1）. The phosphorylation levels of JAK2 and STAT3 in the Janus kinase 2/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 （JAK2/STAT3） signaling pathway （in terms of p-JAK2/JAK2 ratio and p-STAT3/STAT3 ratio） were detected by Western blot assay. RESULTS A low concentration of ursolic acid of 20 µmol/L （no significant inhibitory effect on cell proliferation ability） was selected as the subsequent administration concentration. Compared with the control group， the migration and invasion abilities of cells in the model group were significantly enhanced （P＜0.05）； compared with the model group， the migration and invasion abilities of cells in the administered group were significantly reduced （P＜0.05）. Compared with the control group， the relative mRNA and protein expressions of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related markers MMP9， MMP2， Vim， ALDH1A1 and CD44 were all elevated to different extents， and the mRNA and protein expressions of E-cad were all decreased to different extents in the model group cells， and part of the differences had statistical significance （P＜0.05）， the p-JAK2/JAK2 ratio and p-STAT3/STAT3 ratio were significantly increased in the model group （P＜0.05）； compared with the model group， the expressions of the above indicators were reversed to some extent in the administration group. CONCLUSIONS Ursolic acid blocks the activation of JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathwby the inflammatory factor IL-6， which ultimately interrupts the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells.