1.Qiangjing Tablets Regulate CDK4-E2F Signaling Pathway to Delay Aging of Leydig Cells and Testicular Tissue in Rats
Xiucheng LAN ; Meijing WANG ; Jingyi ZHANG ; Junjun LI ; Liang DONG ; Xujun YU ; Fang YANG ; Degui CHANG
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2026;32(14):328-336
ObjectiveTo reveal the molecular mechanism by which the traditional Chinese medicine compound prescription Qiangjing tablets regulate the aging of the testicular tissue and Leydig cells in rats through the cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4)-early 2 factor (E2F) signaling pathway. MethodsFor the cell experiment, 2-month-old SPF-grade SD male rats were selected and randomly assigned into a blank control group (administrated with an equal volume of 0.9% sodium chloride injection) and a Qiangjing tablets group (20 rats in each group) according to body weight. The Leydig cell model of aging was established by treatment of TM3 cells with 100 μmol·L-1 H2O2, and the modeling performance was evaluated based on the levels of p16 and p21 determined by Western blot. The antioxidant NAC (1 mmol·L-1) was used as the positive control for eliminating reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cells were intervened with Qiangjing tablets-containing serum at low (2.5%), medium (5%), and high (10%) concentrations. The testosterone level in the cell supernatant was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the protein levels of CDK4, E2F1, and E2F2 were analyzed by Western blot. In the animal experiment, 19-month-old naturally aging rats were used as the model group, and 2-month-old rats as the young control group. The positive control group was subcutaneously injected with 5.21 mg·kg-1·d-1 testosterone propionate. Qiangjing tablets were administered by gavage at low, medium, and high doses of 0.72, 1.44, 2.88 g·kg-1·d-1, respectively. The general conditions of rats were observed, and the protein levels of CDK4, E2F1, and E2F2 in the testicular tissue were determined by Western blot. ResultsIn the cell experiment, compared with the blank control group, the model group showed upregulated expression of CDK4 and E2F1 (P<0.05) and slightly downregulated expression of E2F2. Compared with that in the model group, the expression of CDK4 was upregulated in the NAC group and the low-dose Qiangjing tablets group (P<0.05), slightly upregulated in the medium-dose Qiangjing tablets group, and downregulated in the high-dose Qiangjing tablets group (P<0.05). The NAC group showed downregulated expression of E2F1 (P<0.05) and E2F2, and the low-, medium-, and high-dose Qiangjing tablets groups showed downregulated expression of both E2F1 and E2F2 (P<0.05). Compared with that in the NAC group, the expression of CDK4 was upregulated in the low-dose Qiangjing tablets group and downregulated in the medium-dose and high dose (P<0.05) groups. The expression of E2F1 was down-regulated in all the three dose groups, with statistically significance in the high dose group (P<0.05), and that of E2F2 were downregulated in all the three dose groups (P<0.05). In the animal experiment, compared with the young control group, the model group exhibited downregulated expression of CDK4 (P<0.05) and slightly upregulated expression of E2F1 and E2F2. Compared with that in the model group, the expression of CDK4 decreased in the testosterone propionate group and the low-dose Qiangjing tablets group (P<0.05) but increased in the medium-dose (P<0.05) and high-dose groups. In addition, the expression of E2F1 decreased (P<0.05), and that of E2F2 was slightly elevated. Compared with that in the NAC group, CDK4 expression was elevated in the Qiangjing tablets groups, with statistical significance in the medium- and high-dose groups (P<0.05). Similarly, the E2F1 expression was also upregulated in the Qiangjing tablets groups, with statistical significance in the medium-dose group (P<0.05). The expression of E2F2 was downregulated in all the Qiangjing tablets groups. ConclusionQiangjing tablets delay the aging process of Leydig cells and testicular tissue by up-regulating the expression of CDK4 and lowering the levels of E2F1 and E2F2.
2.Traxcess-14 Microguidewire-Assisted Electrocoagulation as a Therapeutic Option for Basilar Artery Pseudoaneurysm: A Case Report
Zifeng DAI ; Junjun ZHANG ; Jianfei ZHANG ; Fanyong GONG ; Shengjun ZHOU
Neurointervention 2026;21(1):53-57
Basilar artery pseudoaneurysm (BAPA) is an extremely rare yet life-threatening intracranial vascular lesion, characterized by insidious clinical onset and a remarkably high mortality risk upon rupture. In this case report, we describe a patient who was admitted to our department with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Emergency digital subtraction angiography performed on admission revealed no vascular anomalies. One month after SAH onset, a comprehensive multimodal imaging evaluation ultimately confirmed the diagnosis of BAPA. Given the technical challenges in conventional management for this specific case, Traxcess-14 microguidewire-assisted endovascular electrocoagulation was performed as a last-resort therapy. Finally, follow-up imaging at 6 months demonstrated complete resolution of BAPA. Thus, we propose that Traxcess-14 microguidewire-assisted endovascular electrocoagulation may serve as a potential salvage treatment for highly selective BAPA cases in which conventional therapeutic approaches are unfeasible or have failed.
3.Efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant sintilimab plus chemotherapy for locally advanced resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Liji CHEN ; Junjun HUANG ; Hongmei MA ; Shifa ZHANG ; Dongbao YANG ; Jiuhe SUN ; Hongfeng LIU ; Kaize ZHONG ; Haibo CAI
Chinese Journal of Clinical Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2026;33(07):1071-1078
Objective To observe the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant sintilimab combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of patients with locally advanced resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods Clinical data were collected from patients with locally advanced resectable ESCC who received neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy followed by surgical treatment at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Jining No.1 People's Hospital from April 2020 to April 2022. The endpoints included major pathological response (MPR), pathological complete response (pCR), R0 resection rate, safety, and postoperative survival. Results A total of 43 patients with ESCC who received at least one cycle of neoadjuvant immunotherapy before surgery were included. Among them, there were 31 males and 12 females with a median age of 65 years (interquartile range: 58-69). All patients successfully completed the surgery without any surgical delays. The pCR rate was 14.0% (6/43), the MPR rate was 58.1% (25/43), and the R0 resection rate was 97.7% (42/43). Patients exhibited reliable safety during neoadjuvant therapy and postoperatively. The 2-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were 90.7% and 81.4%, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank test revealed lower recurrence rates and better survival in the MPR patients compared to the non-MPR patients. Conclusion The combination of neoadjuvant sintilimab and chemotherapy in the treatment of patients with locally advanced resectable ESCC has demonstrated significant clinical efficacy, while also being safe and reliable.
4.Application of fractal dimension CONVLSTM model in predicting the number of influenza cases in Hefei City
Sheng ZHANG ; Junjun MAO ; Weiling CHENG
Journal of Public Health and Preventive Medicine 2025;36(1):8-12
Objective To develop a multivariate modeling and prediction approach using the data of influenza incidence, meteorological factors and PM2.5 variables in Hefei City, and to provide new insights into multivariate modeling and prediction methods. Methods PM2.5 data were transformed into fractal dimension data and, along with meteorological data, were incorporated into a ConvLSTM model. The performance of this model was compared with traditional ARIMAX and multivariate LSTM models. Results The ARIMAX model's testing set Mean Absolute Error (MAE) was 95.75, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was 176.72, and Index of Agreement (IA) was 0.396642. The multivariate LSTM model's testing set MAE was 22.18, RMSE was 43.06, and IA was 0.974611. For the fractal dimension-based ConvLSTM model, the testing set MAE was 17.37, RMSE was 32.25, and IA was 0.988149. Conclusion The fractal dimension effectively captures the complexity and self-similarity of PM2.5 concentration, providing the model with richer feature information. The fractal dimension-based ConvLSTM model significantly outperforms the traditional ARIMAX model and the multivariate LSTM model in prediction accuracy and can be used for predicting the number of influenza cases.
5.Combined analysis of differential miRNAs between amniotic fluid exosomes and placenta in Down syndrome fetuses
Yaqin Zhang ; Zhongrui Ma ; Yuan Qian ; Junjun Li ; Xingli Deng
Acta Universitatis Medicinalis Anhui 2025;60(6):1140-1148
Objective :
To analyze the differential expression profile of miRNAs in amniotic fluid exosomes of fetu- ses with Down syndrome (DS) and provide insights for identifying novel biomarkers for the prenatal diagnosis of DS .
Methods :
Amniotic fluid samples were collected from fetuses with DS and chromosomally normal fetuses . Exo- somes were isolated from the amniotic fluid and subjected to high-throughput sequencing. Differentially expressed miRNAs were identified , and target genes were predicted using TargetScan and miRanda. Target genes located on chromosome 21 were selected , and their biological functions and associated diseases were analyzed using Gene- Cards , HGNC , NCBI Gene , UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot , Ensembl , and OMIM databases . GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed to investigate the biological functions of the enriched genes .
Results :
A total of 59 differ- entially expressed miRNAs were identified , including 31 upregulated and 28 downregulated miRNAs . Based on a fold change > 2 and P < 0. 05 , 10 upregulated and 9 downregulated miRNAs with the highest expression levels were selected . Key miRNAs included hsa-let-7b-5p , hsa-let-7c-5p , hsa-let-7b-3p _ 1ss22CT , and hsa-miR-199b-5p , with BACH1 and IFNAR1 identified as their shared target genes . GO analysis revealed that the enriched target genes were primarily involved in protein binding , metal ion binding , transferase activity , DNA binding , transcriptional regulation by RNA polymerase Ⅱ , and nucleotide binding. KEGG pathway analysis indicated that the target genes were mainly associated with metabolic pathways , cancer-related pathways , the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway , and the Rap1 signaling pathway .
Conclusion
Differential expression of miRNAs in amniotic fluid exosomes was ob- served between DS fetuses and those with normal karyotypes . Combined analysis with placental miRNAs revealed hsa-miR-199b-5p as a common differentially expressed miRNA in both DS amniotic fluid and placenta. It is hypoth- esized that BACH1 and IFNAR1 , shared target genes of hsa-miR-199b-5p , hsa-let-7b-5p , hsa-let-7c-5p , and hsa- let-7b-3p_1ss22CT , may play a role in the pathogenesis of DS .
6.Association between age at first sexual intercourse and gynecologic malignant tumors: a Mendelian randomization study
JIANG Shudi ; GUO Ting ; LING Junjun ; REN Jie ; ZHANG Liang
Journal of Preventive Medicine 2025;37(5):516-520
Objective:
To examine the casual association between age at first sexual intercourse and gynecologic malignant tumors using Mendelian randomization (MR) approach.
Methods:
The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with age at first sexual intercourse were obtained from a meta-analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS), and the SNPs related to gynecologic malignant tumors (ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, cervical cancer), and their subtypes were sourced from the IEU OpenGWAS database. Using age at first sexual intercourse as the exposure and gynecologic malignant tumors as the outcome, a MR analysis was performed with the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method. Heterogeneity was assessed using Cochran's Q test, horizontal pleiotropy was evaluated using MR-Egger regression and MR-PRESSO test, and bias was examined using funnel plots.
Results:
The Mendelian randomization analysis demonstrated that younger age at first sexual intercourse was significantly associated with an increased risk of low-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (OR=0.553, 95%CI: 0.335-0.911), cervical cancer (OR=0.674, 95%CI: 0.466-0.974), endometrial cancer (OR=0.854, 95%CI: 0.730-0.999), and endometrioid carcinoma (OR=0.830, 95%CI: 0.690-0.998). No statistical association was found between the age at first sexual intercourse and ovarian cancer, high-grade serous ovarian cancer, mucinous ovarian cancer, endometrioid ovarian cancer, or non-endometrioid ovarian cancer (all P>0.05). Sensitivity analysis showed no evidence of undetected instrumental variable heterogeneity or horizontal pleiotropy (all P>0.05), and the funnel plot indicated no presence of bias.
Conclusion
Younger age at first sexual intercourse may be associated with an increased risk of certain gynecologic malignant tumors, highlighting the need to strengthen adolescent sex education.
8.Current status and prospects of minimally invasive surgical treatment for gastric cancer
Minhua ZHENG ; Luyang ZHANG ; Junjun MA ; Xuan ZHAO
Chinese Journal of Surgery 2025;63(11):992-997
Over the past three decades years, the treatment of gastric cancer has shifted from traditional open surgery to minimally invasive surgery. Cutting-edge technologies such as three-dimensional and 4K ultra-high-definition imaging systems, indocyanine green fluorescence navigation, and robotic surgical systems have been widely used in clinical practice, facilitating precise intraoperative anatomy and lymph node dissection. For early gastric cancer, endoscopic submucosal dissection, as the standard surgical procedure, can improve the 5-year survival rate and reduce the local recurrence rate. For locally advanced gastric cancer, neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with minimally invasive surgery has increased the R0 resection rate and improved the prognosis of patients. For advanced gastric cancer, conversion therapy combined with minimally invasive surgery has brought hope for extended survival to patients with stage Ⅳ disease, and the application of immune checkpoint inhibitors has further promoted the progress of advanced gastric cancer treatment. With the advancement of technology and the improvement of policies, artificial intelligence and 5G remote surgery have become important directions in the minimally invasive surgical treatment of gastric cancer. In the future, it is necessary to accumulate evidence through multi-center prospective studies, optimize the evaluation of function-preserving surgery, develop cross-platform artificial intelligence tools, conduct cost-benefit analyses, and resolve ethical and legal disputes to promote the development of minimally invasive surgical treatment of gastric cancer towards precision and intelligence, achieving a dual improvement in efficacy and accessibility.
9.Mechanism of nitidine chloride against Talaromyces marneffei,determined through network pharmacology
Meng ZHANG ; Wudi WEI ; Baili ZHAN ; Xiaotao HE ; Xiaoting XIE ; Junjun JIANG ; Li YE ; Hao LIANG
Chinese Journal of Zoonoses 2025;41(7):675-681
This study was aimed at exploring the mechanism underlying the effects of nitidine chloride against Talaromyces marnef-fei through network pharmacology analysis.We collected NC and TM action targets from various databases;constructed a protein-protein interaction(PPI)network by using common drug and disease targets;and performed KEGG pathway and GO enrichment analy-ses.In vitro cellular experiments were conducted to test the antibacterial ability of NC at various concentrations,qPCR was used to de-tect the mRNA expression of genes in the target pathway,and WB was used to examine the expression of proteins associated with tar-get signaling pathways in cells.We identified 153 target genes for NC and 2 095 target genes for TM,among which 23 targets over-lapped.By integrating the PPI network with KEGG enrichment analysis,we selected key target genes in the MAPK signaling pathway,such as FLT1,FLT3,CD38,and PRF1.The CFU results indicated that NC had favorable antibacterial capability.Moreover,qPCR demonstrated that NC downregulated the mRNA expression of FLT1,FLT3,and RPS6KA3,and upregulated the mRNA expression of MAP3K8.WB findings indicated that NC downregulated the expression of RSK2,VEGF,and FLT3 proteins,and upregulated the ex-pression of MAP3K8 protein.NC may exert its anti-TM effects by downregulating the expression of RSK2,VEGF,and FLT3 proteins,thereby inhibiting MAPK pathway activation.The potential targets and signaling pathways underlying NC's anti-TM action may pro-vide new insights to guide the clinical application of NC.
10.Scoping review of assessment tools for taste disorders in head and neck cancer patients
Ailin ZHANG ; Junjun CAO ; Xinyao YANG ; Xue LIU ; Lili HOU
Chinese Journal of Modern Nursing 2025;31(34):4651-4658
Objective:To summarize assessment tools for taste dysfunction in patients with head and neck cancer and provide a reference for clinical evaluation by healthcare professionals.Methods:A computer-based search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, China Biology Medicine disc, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, and VIP for literature on taste dysfunction in head and neck cancer from database inception to May 10, 2025.Results:A total of 31 articles were included: five on tool development, three on tool validation, five on cross-cultural adaptation, and 18 on tool application.A total of 16 assessment tools were identified overall: ten subjective instruments and six objective instruments. Reliability and validity were most commonly examined using internal consistency reliability and criterion-related validity.Conclusions:A wide variety of tools exist for assessing taste dysfunction in patients with head and neck cancer. Tool selection should be based on clinical context and patient characteristics. Future work should develop disease-specific, locally adapted instruments aligned with the features of head and neck cancer.


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