1.Reassessing the gold standard: The role of AI-powered urinalysis in diagnosing urinary tract infections.
Philippine Journal of Pathology 2026;11(1):37-44
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections worldwide, requiring timely and accurate diagnosis to guide appropriate therapy and reduce antimicrobial resistance. Although urine culture remains the diagnostic gold standard, its prolonged turnaround time and susceptibility to pre-analytical variability limit its clinical efficiency. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have positioned urinalysis as a promising alternative diagnostic approach, utilizing machine learning and deep learning algorithms for automated analysis and prediction. This review synthesizes current evidence on AI applications in urinalysis for UTI diagnosis, examining computational techniques, diagnostic performance, clinical integration, limitations, and future directions. The literature demonstrates that AI-powered urinalysis can achieve diagnostic accuracy comparable to urine culture, with high sensitivity and specificity while reducing diagnostic time. Integration of AI into clinical workflows has the potential to enhance decision-making, streamline laboratory processes, and support antimicrobial stewardship. However, challenges related to data heterogeneity, algorithm interpretability, validation, and regulatory requirements remain significant barriers to widespread adoption. Overall, AI-driven urinalysis represents a transformative opportunity to complement the existing diagnostic standard and advance more rapid, efficient, and personalized approaches to UTI management.
Human ; Artificial Intelligence ; Urinalysis ; Urinary Tract Infections ; Machine Learning ; Deep Learning
2.MolP-PC: a multi-view fusion and multi-task learning framework for drug ADMET property prediction.
Sishu LI ; Jing FAN ; Haiyang HE ; Ruifeng ZHOU ; Jun LIAO
Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines (English Ed.) 2025;23(11):1293-1300
The accurate prediction of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) properties represents a crucial step in early drug development for reducing failure risk. Current deep learning approaches face challenges with data sparsity and information loss due to single-molecule representation limitations and isolated predictive tasks. This research proposes molecular properties prediction with parallel-view and collaborative learning (MolP-PC), a multi-view fusion and multi-task deep learning framework that integrates 1D molecular fingerprints (MFs), 2D molecular graphs, and 3D geometric representations, incorporating an attention-gated fusion mechanism and multi-task adaptive learning strategy for precise ADMET property predictions. Experimental results demonstrate that MolP-PC achieves optimal performance in 27 of 54 tasks, with its multi-task learning (MTL) mechanism significantly enhancing predictive performance on small-scale datasets and surpassing single-task models in 41 of 54 tasks. Additional ablation studies and interpretability analyses confirm the significance of multi-view fusion in capturing multi-dimensional molecular information and enhancing model generalization. A case study examining the anticancer compound Oroxylin A demonstrates MolP-PC's effective generalization in predicting key pharmacokinetic parameters such as half-life (T0.5) and clearance (CL), indicating its practical utility in drug modeling. However, the model exhibits a tendency to underestimate volume of distribution (VD), indicating potential for improvement in analyzing compounds with high tissue distribution. This study presents an efficient and interpretable approach for ADMET property prediction, establishing a novel framework for molecular optimization and risk assessment in drug development.
Deep Learning
3.Short-Term Lag Effects of Climate-Pollution Interactions on Cardiopulmonary Hospitalizations: A Multi-City Predictive Study Using the AE+LSTM Hybrid Model in Japan.
Yi Jia CHEN ; Fan ZHAO ; Qing Yang WU ; Yukitaka OHASHI ; Tomohiko IHARA
Biomedical and Environmental Sciences 2025;38(11):1378-1387
OBJECTIVE:
To assess the short-term lag effects of climate and air pollution on hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and to develop deep learning-based models for daily hospital admission prediction.
METHODS:
A multi-city study was conducted in Tokyo's 23 wards, Osaka City, and Nagoya City. Random forest models were employed to assess the synergistic short-term lag effects (lag0, lag3, and lag7) of climate and air pollutants on hospitalization for five cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and two respiratory diseases (RDs). Furthermore, we developed hybrid deep learning models that integrated an autoencoder (AE) with a Long Short-Term Memory network (AE+LSTM) to predict daily hospital admissions.
RESULTS:
On the day of exposure (lag0), air pollutants, particularly nitrogen oxides (NO x), exhibited the strongest influence on hospital admissions for CVD and RD, with pronounced effects observed for hypertension (I10-I15), ischemic heart disease (I20), arterial and capillary diseases (I70-I79), and lower respiratory infections (J20-J22 and J40-J47). At longer lags (lag3 and lag7), temperature and precipitation were more influential predictors. The AE+LSTM model outperformed the standard LSTM, improving the prediction accuracy by 32.4% for RD in Osaka and 20.94% for CVD in Nagoya.
CONCLUSION
Our findings reveal the dynamic, time-varying health risks associated with environmental exposure and demonstrate the utility of deep learnings in predicting short-term hospital admissions. This framework can inform early warning systems, enhance healthcare resource allocation, and support climate-adaptive public health strategies.
Humans
;
Hospitalization/statistics & numerical data*
;
Cardiovascular Diseases/epidemiology*
;
Japan/epidemiology*
;
Air Pollutants/analysis*
;
Air Pollution/adverse effects*
;
Cities/epidemiology*
;
Climate
;
Respiratory Tract Diseases/epidemiology*
;
Deep Learning
;
Male
4.Prediction of testicular histology in azoospermia patients through deep learning-enabled two-dimensional grayscale ultrasound.
Jia-Ying HU ; Zhen-Zhe LIN ; Li DING ; Zhi-Xing ZHANG ; Wan-Ling HUANG ; Sha-Sha HUANG ; Bin LI ; Xiao-Yan XIE ; Ming-De LU ; Chun-Hua DENG ; Hao-Tian LIN ; Yong GAO ; Zhu WANG
Asian Journal of Andrology 2025;27(2):254-260
Testicular histology based on testicular biopsy is an important factor for determining appropriate testicular sperm extraction surgery and predicting sperm retrieval outcomes in patients with azoospermia. Therefore, we developed a deep learning (DL) model to establish the associations between testicular grayscale ultrasound images and testicular histology. We retrospectively included two-dimensional testicular grayscale ultrasound from patients with azoospermia (353 men with 4357 images between July 2017 and December 2021 in The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China) to develop a DL model. We obtained testicular histology during conventional testicular sperm extraction. Our DL model was trained based on ultrasound images or fusion data (ultrasound images fused with the corresponding testicular volume) to distinguish spermatozoa presence in pathology (SPP) and spermatozoa absence in pathology (SAP) and to classify maturation arrest (MA) and Sertoli cell-only syndrome (SCOS) in patients with SAP. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs), accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were used to analyze model performance. DL based on images achieved an AUC of 0.922 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.908-0.935), a sensitivity of 80.9%, a specificity of 84.6%, and an accuracy of 83.5% in predicting SPP (including normal spermatogenesis and hypospermatogenesis) and SAP (including MA and SCOS). In the identification of SCOS and MA, DL on fusion data yielded better diagnostic performance with an AUC of 0.979 (95% CI: 0.969-0.989), a sensitivity of 89.7%, a specificity of 97.1%, and an accuracy of 92.1%. Our study provides a noninvasive method to predict testicular histology for patients with azoospermia, which would avoid unnecessary testicular biopsy.
Humans
;
Male
;
Azoospermia/diagnostic imaging*
;
Deep Learning
;
Testis/pathology*
;
Retrospective Studies
;
Adult
;
Ultrasonography/methods*
;
Sperm Retrieval
;
Sertoli Cell-Only Syndrome/diagnostic imaging*
5.Applications and perspectives of artificial intelligence in periodontology.
West China Journal of Stomatology 2025;43(5):620-627
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing in periodontology, bringing new opportunities to clinical diagnosis, risk assessment, personalized treatment planning, and remote patient care. Leveraging core technologies such as deep learning, machine learning, and natural language processing, AI significantly enhances the sensitivity of early periodontal disease detection and provides precise quantification of alveolar bone loss and soft tissue damage. AI facilitates multimodal data integration by synthesizing medical history, lifestyle factors, and imaging data, thereby offering enhanced accurate risk prediction and personalized therapeutic recommendations. By integrating remote monitoring with tailored health counseling, AI helps patients maintain adherence to self-care protocols, significantly improving their oral health-related quality of life and treatment satisfaction. Moreover, AI demonstrates considerable potential in periodontal research and education, particularly in large-scale data mining, virtual clinical case simulations, and natural language processing-assisted literature management. Nevertheless, challenges remain concerning model generalizability, data quality, ethical concerns, and interpretability. The advancement of multi-center big-data platforms is expected to foster a profound integration of AI and periodontology, propelling precision medicine and digital healthcare, enabling holistic management from prevention to long-term care, and enhancing diagnostic efficiency and patient health outcomes.
Humans
;
Artificial Intelligence
;
Periodontics/methods*
;
Periodontal Diseases/therapy*
;
Deep Learning
;
Precision Medicine
;
Quality of Life
6.Research progress in mutation effect prediction based on protein language models.
Liang ZHANG ; Pan TAN ; Liang HONG
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2025;41(3):934-948
Predicting protein mutation effects is a key challenge in bioinformatics and protein engineering. Recent advancements in deep learning, particularly the development of protein language models (PLMs), have brought new opportunities to this field. This review summarizes the application of PLMs in predicting protein mutation effects, focusing on three main types of models: sequence-based models, structure-based models, and models that combine sequence and structural information. We analyze in detail the principles, advantages, and limitations of these models and discuss the application of unsupervised and supervised learning in model training. Furthermore, this paper discusses the main challenges currently faced, including the acquisition of high-quality datasets and the handling of data noise. Finally, we look ahead to future research directions, including the application prospects of emerging technologies such as multimodal fusion and few-shot learning. This review aims to provide researchers with a comprehensive perspective to further advance the prediction of protein mutation effects.
Mutation
;
Proteins/chemistry*
;
Computational Biology/methods*
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Deep Learning
;
Protein Engineering
7.Intelligent mining, engineering, and de novo design of proteins.
Cui LIU ; Zhenkun SHI ; Hongwu MA ; Xiaoping LIAO
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2025;41(3):993-1010
Natural components serve the survival instincts of cells that are obtained through long-term evolution, while they often fail to meet the demands of engineered cells for efficiently performing biological functions in special industrial environments. Enzymes, as biological catalysts, play a key role in biosynthetic pathways, significantly enhancing the rate and selectivity of biochemical reactions. However, the catalytic efficiency, stability, substrate specificity, and tolerance of natural enzymes often fall short of industrial production requirements. Therefore, exploring and modifying enzymes to suit specific biomanufacturing processes has become crucial. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has played an increasingly important role in the discovery, evaluation, engineering, and de novo design of proteins. AI can accelerate the discovery and optimization of proteins by analyzing large amounts of bioinformatics data and predicting protein functions and characteristics by machine learning and deep learning algorithms. Moreover, AI can assist researchers in designing new protein structures by simulating and predicting their performance under different conditions, providing guidance for protein design. This paper reviews the latest research advances in protein discovery, evaluation, engineering, and de novo design for biomanufacturing and explores the hot topics, challenges, and emerging technical methods in this field, aiming to provide guidance and inspiration for researchers in related fields.
Protein Engineering/methods*
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Artificial Intelligence
;
Proteins/genetics*
;
Computational Biology
;
Machine Learning
;
Data Mining
;
Algorithms
;
Deep Learning
8.Synthetic promoters: theory, design, and prospects.
Peng PENG ; Minghai CHEN ; Qin LI ; Xian'en ZHANG
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2025;41(9):3351-3374
Synthetic promoters are novel promoters artificially designed and do not exist in nature. They can initiate the expression of target genes with specific regulatory modes, offering advantages such as high expression efficiency, precise regulation, and modularity. These features endow synthetic promoters with significant application potential in fields such as industrial production, environmental monitoring, and disease diagnosis and treatment. This paper reviews the basic structures, functions, and classification of promoters, discusses various regulatory elements that influence promoter functions, including enhancers, signal response elements, and transcription factors. Additionally, the conventional and deep learning-based strategies for designing synthetic promoters are summarized. Finally, the theoretical significance of synthetic promoters is emphasized, which is followed by an overview of their current applications, along with a rational discussion on the challenges and future development directions of synthetic promoters. Given the critical role of promoters in gene regulation, this article provides a review and outlook on the research progress of synthetic promoters, which holds reference value for the design of cellular gene circuits.
Promoter Regions, Genetic/genetics*
;
Transcription Factors/genetics*
;
Synthetic Biology/methods*
;
Gene Expression Regulation
;
Humans
;
Deep Learning
9.Revolutionizing pathology in the Philippines
Philippine Journal of Pathology 2025;10(2):52-62
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the landscape of pathology, particularly in resource-constrained settings like the Philippines. This narrative review explores the applications, challenges, and future potential of AI in digital image analysis for pathology practices. By synthesizing peer-reviewed literature from 2019 to 2024, the review highlights the role of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms in enhancing diagnostic accuracy, workflow efficiency, and clinical decision-making. AI-driven tools such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and transfer learning models have demonstrated significant success in tumor detection, biomarker evaluation, and predictive analytics, paving the way for personalized medicine. However, barriers such as limited annotated datasets, privacy concerns, and model interpretability hinder widespread adoption. The review emphasizes the need for ethical frameworks, workforce training, and infrastructure development to ensure equitable and effective integration of AI into pathology practices. By addressing these challenges, AI has the potential to improve diagnostic precision, expand access to healthcare, and modernize pathology services in the Philippines.
Human ; Artificial Intelligence ; Pathology ; Philippines ; Deep Learning ; Machine Learning
10.Research Progress and Prospects of Minimally Invasive Surgical Instrument Segmentation Methods Based on Artificial Intelligence.
Weimin CHENG ; Xiaohua WU ; Jing XIONG
Chinese Journal of Medical Instrumentation 2025;49(1):15-23
With the development of artificial intelligence technology and the growing demand for minimally invasive surgery, the intelligentization of minimally invasive surgery has become a current research hotspot. Surgical instrument segmentation is a highly promising technology that can enhance the performance of minimally invasive endoscopic imaging systems, surgical video analysis systems, and other related systems. This article summarizes the semantic and instance segmentation methods of minimally invasive surgical instruments based on deep learning, deeply analyzes the supervision methods of training algorithms, network structure improvements, and attention mechanisms, and then discusses the methods based on the Segment Anything Model. Given that deep learning methods have extremely high requirements for data, current data augmentation methods have also been explored. Finally, a summary and outlook on instrument segmentation technology are provided.
Artificial Intelligence
;
Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures/instrumentation*
;
Algorithms
;
Deep Learning
;
Humans
;
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted


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