1.Mechanisms of Sini San in Regulation of Gut Microbiota Against Depression and Liver Injury in CUMS Rats
Junling LI ; Yan ZHANG ; Lei WANG ; Fang QI ; Zhenzhen CHEN ; Tianxing CHEN ; Yuhang LIU ; Xueying WANG ; Xianwen TANG ; Yubo LI
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2026;32(3):33-40
ObjectiveTo explore the efficacy and mechanisms of Sini San in the treatment of depression and liver injury based on gut microbiota. MethodsThirty-two male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into a normal group, model group (M), Sini San group (MS, 2.5 g·kg-1), and fluoxetine group (MF, 2 mg·kg-1). Except for the normal group, rats in the other three groups were subjected to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS). After 8 weeks, the open-field test and sucrose preference test were conducted. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect serum corticosterone (CORT), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), Zonulin, interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in the hippocampus. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR) was used to detect hippocampal BDNF mRNA expression. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were measured using the ultraviolet lactate dehydrogenase method. The ultrastructure of the intestinal epithelium was observed by electron microscopy, and gut microbiota in rat feces were analyzed using 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing. ResultsCompared with the normal group, the sucrose preference of rats in the model group was significantly reduced (P0.01), whereas it was significantly increased in the Sini San group compared with the model group (P0.05). Compared with the normal group, hippocampal GABA protein levels and BDNF mRNA expression in the model group were significantly decreased (P0.05), and compared with the model group, both were significantly increased in the Sini San group (P0.05, P0.01). Compared with the normal group, serum LPS and Zonulin levels in the model group were significantly increased (P0.05, P0.01), and compared with the model group, Zonulin levels in the Sini San group were significantly decreased (P0.05). No obvious changes were observed in the ultrastructure of the jejunal mucosa among groups. Compared with the normal group, widened and blurred tight junctions, sparse and shortened microvilli, and mitochondrial swelling with cristae disruption in epithelial cells were observed in the ileal and colonic mucosa of the model group, which were markedly improved in the Sini San and fluoxetine groups. The results of 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing showed that Sini San improved CUMS-induced dysbiosis of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. Correlation analysis indicated that Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were significantly correlated with depression-related indicators, liver function, and intestinal mucosal permeability. ConclusionSini San exerts antidepressant and hepatoprotective effects by improving Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria and inhibiting the increase in intestinal mucosal permeability in CUMS rats.
2.Mechanisms of Sini San in Regulation of Gut Microbiota Against Depression and Liver Injury in CUMS Rats
Junling LI ; Yan ZHANG ; Lei WANG ; Fang QI ; Zhenzhen CHEN ; Tianxing CHEN ; Yuhang LIU ; Xueying WANG ; Xianwen TANG ; Yubo LI
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2026;32(3):33-40
ObjectiveTo explore the efficacy and mechanisms of Sini San in the treatment of depression and liver injury based on gut microbiota. MethodsThirty-two male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into a normal group, model group (M), Sini San group (MS, 2.5 g·kg-1), and fluoxetine group (MF, 2 mg·kg-1). Except for the normal group, rats in the other three groups were subjected to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS). After 8 weeks, the open-field test and sucrose preference test were conducted. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect serum corticosterone (CORT), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), Zonulin, interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in the hippocampus. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR) was used to detect hippocampal BDNF mRNA expression. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were measured using the ultraviolet lactate dehydrogenase method. The ultrastructure of the intestinal epithelium was observed by electron microscopy, and gut microbiota in rat feces were analyzed using 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing. ResultsCompared with the normal group, the sucrose preference of rats in the model group was significantly reduced (P<0.01), whereas it was significantly increased in the Sini San group compared with the model group (P<0.05). Compared with the normal group, hippocampal GABA protein levels and BDNF mRNA expression in the model group were significantly decreased (P<0.05), and compared with the model group, both were significantly increased in the Sini San group (P<0.05, P<0.01). Compared with the normal group, serum LPS and Zonulin levels in the model group were significantly increased (P<0.05, P<0.01), and compared with the model group, Zonulin levels in the Sini San group were significantly decreased (P<0.05). No obvious changes were observed in the ultrastructure of the jejunal mucosa among groups. Compared with the normal group, widened and blurred tight junctions, sparse and shortened microvilli, and mitochondrial swelling with cristae disruption in epithelial cells were observed in the ileal and colonic mucosa of the model group, which were markedly improved in the Sini San and fluoxetine groups. The results of 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing showed that Sini San improved CUMS-induced dysbiosis of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. Correlation analysis indicated that Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were significantly correlated with depression-related indicators, liver function, and intestinal mucosal permeability. ConclusionSini San exerts antidepressant and hepatoprotective effects by improving Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria and inhibiting the increase in intestinal mucosal permeability in CUMS rats.
3.COVID-19 outcomes in patients with pre-existing interstitial lung disease: A national multi-center registry-based study in China.
Xinran ZHANG ; Bingbing XIE ; Huilan ZHANG ; Yanhong REN ; Qun LUO ; Junling YANG ; Jiuwu BAI ; Xiu GU ; Hong JIN ; Jing GENG ; Shiyao WANG ; Xuan HE ; Dingyuan JIANG ; Jiarui HE ; Sa LUO ; Shi SHU ; Huaping DAI
Chinese Medical Journal 2025;138(9):1126-1128
4.Molecular characterization of FGFR fusion in a large real-world population and clinical utility of bidirectional fusion.
Xinyi ZHANG ; Jing ZHAO ; Ling MA ; Yitong TIAN ; Jiaguang ZHANG ; Hejian ZHENG ; Junling ZHANG ; Runyu HE ; Luhang JIN ; Jing MA ; Mengli HUANG ; Xiao LI ; Xiaofeng CHEN
Chinese Medical Journal 2025;138(12):1510-1512
5.Guideline-driven clinical decision support for colonoscopy patients using the hierarchical multi-label deep learning method.
Junling WU ; Jun CHEN ; Hanwen ZHANG ; Zhe LUAN ; Yiming ZHAO ; Mengxuan SUN ; Shufang WANG ; Congyong LI ; Zhizhuang ZHAO ; Wei ZHANG ; Yi CHEN ; Jiaqi ZHANG ; Yansheng LI ; Kejia LIU ; Jinghao NIU ; Gang SUN
Chinese Medical Journal 2025;138(20):2631-2639
BACKGROUND:
Over 20 million colonoscopies are performed in China annually. An automatic clinical decision support system (CDSS) with accurate semantic recognition of colonoscopy reports and guideline-based is helpful to relieve the increasing medical burden and standardize the healthcare. In this study, the CDSS was built under a hierarchical-label interpretable classification framework, trained by a state-of-the-art transformer-based model, and validated in a multi-center style.
METHODS:
We conducted stratified sampling on a previously established dataset containing 302,965 electronic colonoscopy reports with pathology, identified 2041 patients' records representative of overall features, and randomly divided into the training and testing sets (7:3). A total of five main labels and 22 sublabels were applied to annotate each record on a network platform, and the data were trained respectively by three pre-training models on Chinese corpus website, including bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT)-base-Chinese (BC), the BERT-wwm-ext-Chinese (BWEC), and ernie-3.0-base-zh (E3BZ). The performance of trained models was subsequently compared with a randomly initialized model, and the preferred model was selected. Model fine-tuning was applied to further enhance the capacity. The system was validated in five other hospitals with 3177 consecutive colonoscopy cases.
RESULTS:
The E3BZ pre-trained model exhibited the best performance, with a 90.18% accuracy and a 69.14% Macro-F1 score overall. The model achieved 100% accuracy in identifying cancer cases and 99.16% for normal cases. In external validation, the model exhibited favorable consistency and good performance among five hospitals.
CONCLUSIONS
The novel CDSS possesses high-level semantic recognition of colonoscopy reports, provides appropriate recommendations, and holds the potential to be a powerful tool for physicians and patients. The hierarchical multi-label strategy and pre-training method should be amendable to manage more medical text in the future.
Humans
;
Colonoscopy/methods*
;
Deep Learning
;
Decision Support Systems, Clinical
;
Female
;
Male
6.Integrated evidence chain-based effectiveness evaluation of traditional Chinese medicines (Eff-iEC): A demonstration study.
Ye LUO ; Xu ZHAO ; Ruilin WANG ; Xiaoyan ZHAN ; Tianyi ZHANG ; Tingting HE ; Jing JING ; Jianyu LI ; Fengyi LI ; Ping ZHANG ; Junling CAO ; Jinfa TANG ; Zhijie MA ; Tingming SHEN ; Shuanglin QIN ; Ming YANG ; Jun ZHAO ; Zhaofang BAI ; Jiabo WANG ; Aiguo DAI ; Xiangmei CHEN ; Xiaohe XIAO
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2025;15(2):909-918
Addressing the enduring challenge of evaluating traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), the integrated evidence chain-based effectiveness evaluation of TCMs (Eff-iEC) has emerged. This paper explored its capacity through a demonstration study that evaluated the effectiveness evidence of six commonly used anti-hepatic fibrosis Chinese patent medicines (CPMs), including Biejiajian Pill (BP), Dahuang Zhechong Pill (DZP), Biejia Ruangan Compound (BRC), Fuzheng Huayu Capsule (FHC), Anluo Huaxian Pill (AHP), and Heluo Shugan Capsule (HSC), using both Eff-iEC and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system. The recognition of these CPMs within the TCM academic community was also assessed through their inclusion in relevant medical documents. Results showed that the evidence of BRC and FHC received higher assessments in both Eff-iEC and GRADE system, while the assessments for others varied. Analysis of community recognition revealed that Eff-iEC more accurately reflects the clinical value of these CPMs, exhibiting superior evaluative capabilities. By breaking through the conventional pattern of TCMs effectiveness evaluation, Eff-iEC offers a novel epistemology that better aligns with the clinical realities and reasoning of TCMs, providing a coherent methodology for clinical decision-making, new drug evaluations, and health policy formulation.
7.Circadian disruption by simulated shift work aggravates periodontitis via orchestrating BMAL1 and GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis.
Yazheng WANG ; Rui LI ; Qingyuan YE ; Dongdong FEI ; Xige ZHANG ; Junling HUANG ; Tingjie LIU ; Jinjin WANG ; Qintao WANG
International Journal of Oral Science 2025;17(1):14-14
Approximately 20% to 30% of the global workforce is engaged in shift work. As a significant cause of circadian disruption, shift work is closely associated with an increased risk for periodontitis. Nevertheless, how shift work-related circadian disruption functions in periodontitis remains unknown. Herein, we employed a simulated shift work model constructed by controlling the environmental light-dark cycles and revealed that shift work-related circadian disruption exacerbated the progression of experimental periodontitis. RNA sequencing and in vitro experiments indicated that downregulation of the core circadian protein brain and muscle ARNT-like protein 1 (BMAL1) and activation of the Gasdermin D (GSDMD)-mediated pyroptosis were involved in the pathogenesis of that. Mechanically, BMAL1 regulated GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis by suppressing NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome signaling through modulating nuclear receptor subfamily 1 group D member 1 (NR1D1), and inhibiting Gsdmd transcription via directly binding to the E-box elements in its promoter. GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis accelerated periodontitis progression, whereas downregulated BMAL1 under circadian disruption further aggravated periodontal destruction by increasing GSDMD activity. And restoring the level of BMAL1 by circadian recovery and SR8278 injection alleviated simulated shift work-exacerbated periodontitis via lessening GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis. These findings provide new evidence and potential interventional targets for circadian disruption-accelerated periodontitis.
Pyroptosis/physiology*
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ARNTL Transcription Factors/metabolism*
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Animals
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Periodontitis/etiology*
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Mice
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Phosphate-Binding Proteins/metabolism*
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Shift Work Schedule/adverse effects*
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Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/metabolism*
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Mice, Inbred C57BL
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Male
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Disease Models, Animal
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Gasdermins
8.lncRNA LINC02859 mediates Wnt pathway in N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine-induced gastric cancer
Xueling ZHANG ; Yong ZENG ; Ting WANG ; Jianding WANG ; Deng XIAO ; Junling WANG ; Chengyun LI
Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine 2024;41(10):1136-1143
Background Gastric carcinogenesis is a multifactorial and complex process, in which long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles as oncogenes or antioncogenes. Research has found that the expression of lncRNA LINC02859 is down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues and correlated with the degree of tumor differentiation and TNM stage, and also plays an important role in the development of malignant transformation of cells induced by environmental carcinogen N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), but its mechanism of action is still unclear. Objective To explore the role and potential regulatory mechanism of gastric cancer-associated lncRNA LINC02859 in MNNG-induced malignant transformation of human normal gastric mucosal cells (GES-1). Methods A total of 110 gastric cancer patients from a high incidence area of gastric cancer in Gansu Province were selected, and their cancer tissues and normal gastric mucosa tissues adjacent to the cancer were collected to detect the expression level of LINC02859 by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). High-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis of the tissues were used to identify the potential signaling pathways regulated by the genes co-expressed with LINC02859. GES-1 cells at 70%-80% cell fusion with low cell passage number and normal morphology were incubated with 0, 0.25 and 0.5 μmol·L−1 MNNG solution for 48 h and the LINC02859 expression level was detected. Cell proliferation activity was detected by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), clone formation was detected by plate clone formation assay, and cell migration ability was detected by scratch assay to evaluate the effects of MNNG on cell morphology and function. The expression levels of key proteins of Wnt signaling pathway were detected by RT-qPCR and Western blotting. Results The RT-qPCR results showed that LINC02859 was lowly expressed in the gastric cancer tissues compared with the paracancerous tissues, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The pathway enrichment analysis showed that LINC02859 potentially regulated the Wnt pathway. The in vitro malignant transformation assay suggested that after the MNNG exposure, the malignant cells of passage 5 (MC-5) had altered morphology, increased number of colony formation, and higher proliferation and migration ability than the control cells; compared with the normal GES-1 cells, LINC02859 gene expression levels were reduced in the 0.25 μmol·L−1 and the 0.5 μmol·L−1 MNNG-exposed GES-1 cells; the expression levels of key proteins of the Wnt pathway, transcription factor 7 (TCF7), Axis inhibitor (Axin1), phosphorylation of glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (p-GSK-3β), casein kinase 1 (CK1), and β-catenin, were elevated in the cells after 0.5 μmol·L−1 MNNG exposure (P < 0.05); whereas, overexpression of LINC02859 suppressed the activating effect of MNNG on the Wnt pathway. Conclusion LINC02859 is lowly expressed in the cancer tissues of gastric cancer patients. MNNG exposure induces morphological and functional changes in GES-1 cells, down-regulated expression of LINC02859, and activation of the Wnt signaling pathway; overexpression of LINC02859 inhibits the activation of the Wnt signaling pathway in the gastric carcinogenesis induced by MNNG exposure.
9.Differences in Chemical Composition of Polygonatum cyrtonema Rhizome Before and After Processing Based on UPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap MS Analysis
Cuijiao REN ; Yangfei DING ; Jingji LI ; Shuaishuai LI ; Pengfei LI ; Wei ZHANG ; Hongsu ZHAO ; Fengqing XU ; Chuanshan JIN ; Junling LIU
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2024;30(24):183-189
ObjectiveUltra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-electrostatic field orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap MS) was used to analyze the differences in chemical components between raw products and wine-processed products of Polygonatum cyrtonema rhizome. MethodUPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap MS was used to analyze the chemical compositions of P. cyrtonema rhizome before and after processing, and the effective response ions were extracted after raw data processing, and the differential compounds before and after processing were screened combined with multivariate statistical analysis and according to the conditions of variable importance in the projection(VIP) value>1, P<0.05, fold change(FC)>2 or FC<0.5, based on the retention time, quasi-molecular ions, fragment ions and other information, the components were identified in combination with the control products and the literature, and the significant difference compounds were identified by clustering thermal analysis and relative quantitative analyzed, in order to clarify the change rule of the main components in P. cyrtonema rhizome before and after processing. ResultA total of 72 differential constituents between raw products and wine-processed products were identified, including 15 alkaloids, 12 organic acids, 12 amino acids, 6 flavonoids, 4 saccharides and 23 others. There were a total of 18 significantly different components, among which 13 compounds, including L-malic acid, lactic acid and 9,12,13-trihydroxy-10-octadecenoic acid, showed an increasing trend in content after wine processing, 5 compounds such as trans-3-indoleacrylic acid, L-arginine, D-tryptophan, showed a decreasing trend after processing. ConclusionThe chemical components of P. cyrtonema rhizome are significantly different before and after processing, mainly organic acids, saccharides, amino acids, flavonoids and alkaloids, which can lay the foundation for the in-depth study of the processing mechanism of Polygonati Rhizoma.
10.Salvage radical surgery in early-stage colorectal cancer patients undergoing non-curative endoscopic resection
Shuo FENG ; Weidong DOU ; Yingchao WU ; Guowei CHEN ; Tao WU ; Yong JIANG ; Pengyuan WANG ; Jixin ZHANG ; Yunlong CAI ; Long RONG ; Junling ZHANG ; Xin WANG
Chinese Journal of General Surgery 2024;39(2):81-85
Objective:To evaluate whether additional radical surgery is necessary following non-curative endoscopic resection of early colorectal cancer.Method:Clinicopathological data in 104 patients following non-curative endoscopic resection of early colorectal coucer at the Department of General Surgery, Peking University First Hospital between Jan 2011 and Dec 2021.Results:Lymph node metastasis and/or residual cancer was found in 23 patients (22%), including 12 cases of lymph node metastasis, 7 cases of residual cancer and 4 patients with both residual cancer and lymph node metastasis. Univariate analysis indicated that vascular infiltration, positive vertical margin, and female gender were risk factors for lymph node metastasis. Risk factors for residual cancer were tumors ≥2 cm in size, negative lift sign, infiltration depth of ≥1 000 μm, and positive horizontal and vertical margins. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that vascular invasion, positive vertical margins, and being female were independent risk factors for lymph node metastasis, while positive vertical margins was independent risk factor for residual cancer. Salvage surgery lasted for a median of 184 (156-233) minutes, with an estimated blood loss of 50 (20-100) ml and an average postoperative hospital stay of 9 (8-11) days. Seven cases of Clavein-Dindo Ⅱ or higher complications were observed, including pulmonary embolism in 1 case , anastomotic leakage in one, lymphatic fistula in one, bowel obstruction in 2 cases and urinary tract infection in 2 cases.Conclusion:Salvage surgery is mandatory for early endoscopic non-curative resection of colorectal cancer.

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