BACKGROUND:Mitochondrial autophagy is closely related to the occurrence and development of steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head(SONFH),but specific biomarkers and regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. OBJECTIVE:To identify the key biomarkers of mitochondrial autophagy in steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head using machine learning algorithms and to conduct an immune infiltration analysis. METHODS:The SONFH datasets GSE123568 and GSE74089 were downloaded from the GEO database,serving as the training and validation sets,respectively.Differentially expressed genes between SONFH and control groups were selected,and weighted gene co-expression network analysis was performed.Mitochondrial autophagy-related genes were obtained from MitoCarta3.0 and intersected with differentially expressed genes and module genes.Two machine learning algorithms were utilized to identify key genes of SONFH mitochondrial autophagy,and validated using an external validation set.CIBERSORT and immune infiltration analysis were employed to assess the proportion of immune cells,and ssGSEA was used to analyze the correlation between mitochondrial autophagy genes and immune cells. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Differential analysis identified a total of 1 163 differentially expressed genes,including 663 upregulated genes and 500 downregulated genes.Weighted gene co-expression network analysis identified 4 key modules,comprising 1 412 module genes.Intersection with mitochondrial autophagy genes yielded 39 intersecting genes as disease-related mitochondrial autophagy genes.Gene ontology enrichment analysis showed that the biological processes were mainly related to heme metabolism,mitochondrial transport,nucleotide bisphosphate metabolism and thioester metabolism,and the cellular components were mainly related to mitochondrial matrix,mitochondrial outer membrane,organelle outer membrane and mitochondrial inner membrane,and the molecular functions were mainly related to fatty acid ligase activity,iron-sulfur cluster binding,and cofactor A ligase activity.Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis mapped out a total of six pathways,which were mainly related to fatty acid degradation,mitochondrial autophagy,butyric acid metabolism,fatty acid biosynthesis and cofactor biosynthesis.Through LASSO regression and RFE-SVM algorithm analysis,four intersecting genes(ALDH5A1,FBXL4,MCL1,and STOM)were identified.The receiver operating characteristic curves of the four core genes and the diagnostic column chart validation set were all greater than 0.9.The occurrence and development of SONFH were related to immune cells such as dendritic cells,bone marrow-derived suppressor cells,regulatory T cells,and central memory CD8 T cells.To conclude,the four key mitochondrial autophagy genes ALDH5A1,FBXL4,MCL1,and STOM play a crucial role in the progression of SONFH through osteoclast differentiation and immune mechanisms.Additionally,all four genes have good disease prediction efficacy and can serve as biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of SONFH.

Inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)is a chronic,nonspecific inflammatory condition of the intes-tine.However,its pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms remain elusive.The primary therapeutic goal for IBD is to achieve complete restoration of the intestinal mucosa.Despite various treatment strategies available in clinical practice,options to effectively promote mucosal healing remain limited.Macrophages play a pivotal role in maintaining intestinal ho-meostasis,modulating inflammatory responses,and facilitating mucosal healing.This review explores the significance and regulatory mechanisms of macrophages in intestinal mucosal healing,with particular emphasis on modulating macrophage phenotypic switching in the treatment of IBD.Furthermore,this review provides a theoretical basis for precision medicine in IBD treatment,highlighting valuable insights for more targeted therapeutic approaches.

BACKGROUND:The pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis has not yet been fully clarified,and recent studies have shown that mitophagy is associated with rheumatoid arthritis,but the key mechanisms need to be explored in depth.OBJECTIVE:To identify and validate the core interaction genes of mitophagy in rheumatoid arthritis using multiple machine learning algorithms and to analyze its immunoregulatory process.METHODS:The rheumatoid arthritis transcriptome expression dataset GSE15573 was retrieved from the GEO database as an independent training set,with the GSE97779 and GSE55235 collections used as independent validation sets.The differentially expressed genes of rheumatoid arthritis were screened using the training set,and"WGCNA"analysis was also performed.Then we downloaded the mitophagy-related genes from the"MitoCarta3.0"database,and intersected them with the differentially expressed genes of rheumatoid arthritis and the genes in the"WGCNA"analysis module to obtain the rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy-related genes,and then analyzed the related genes for functional enrichment to clarify the cellular pathways.Feature genes were initially identified using the"Random Forest"and"Lasso"algorithms.The overlapping genes from these two methods were further refined using the"GMM"algorithm to identify the core interaction genes between rheumatoid arthritis and mitophagy.A predictive model was then developed and validated using an external dataset.Finally,"CIBERSORT"was employed to analyze the proportions and interactions of immune cell subsets during immune infiltration,while"ssGSEA"was used to examine the associations between the rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy core interaction genes and immune cell subsets."ssGSEA"was also utilized to analyze the"GO"and"KEGG"biological pathways of the core interaction genes.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Totally 807 differentially expressed genes in rheumatoid arthritis were obtained by differential analysis,1 208 genes were selected from two feature modules by"WGCNA"analysis,1136 genes were sorted out from the MitoCarta 3.0 database,and 53 HUB genes were obtained from the intersection of the three genes as rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy related genes.(2)The results of functional enrichment analysis of related genes showed that the cellular processes were mainly related to mitophagy,peroxisome metabolism,cellular senescence,and necroptosis.(3)The three machine learning algorithms identified four rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy core interaction genes(DNAJA3,C12orf65,AKR7A2,and PDHB).The area under the curve of nomoscore was 0.989,and the area under the curve values of rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy core interaction genes verified by the receiver operating characteristic curve of external patient samples were all greater than 0.7.(5)Immunoregulatory analysis showed that the mitophagy process in rheumatoid arthritis was closely associated with memory B cells,M0 macrophages,activated memory CD4 T cells,and resting memory CD4 T cells.(6)The biological pathway analysis revealed that the core interaction genes were strongly associated with 821"GO"pathways(|cor|＞0.8,P＜0.001)and 48"KEGG"pathways(|cor|＞0.8,P＜0.001).The key biological processes identified were related to mitochondrial DNA metabolic process,mitochondrial DNA repair,mitochondrial DNA replication,mitochondrial genome maintenance,positive regulation of mitochondrial depolarization,and positive regulation of mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization involved in apoptotic signaling pathway.To conclude,DNAJA3,C12orf65,AKR7A2,and PDHB are the core interaction genes of the mitophagy process in rheumatoid arthritis,which play key roles in disease progression by participating in specific immune processes and have precise and predictive effects on the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.

BACKGROUND:The pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis has not yet been fully clarified,and recent studies have shown that mitophagy is associated with rheumatoid arthritis,but the key mechanisms need to be explored in depth.OBJECTIVE:To identify and validate the core interaction genes of mitophagy in rheumatoid arthritis using multiple machine learning algorithms and to analyze its immunoregulatory process.METHODS:The rheumatoid arthritis transcriptome expression dataset GSE15573 was retrieved from the GEO database as an independent training set,with the GSE97779 and GSE55235 collections used as independent validation sets.The differentially expressed genes of rheumatoid arthritis were screened using the training set,and"WGCNA"analysis was also performed.Then we downloaded the mitophagy-related genes from the"MitoCarta3.0"database,and intersected them with the differentially expressed genes of rheumatoid arthritis and the genes in the"WGCNA"analysis module to obtain the rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy-related genes,and then analyzed the related genes for functional enrichment to clarify the cellular pathways.Feature genes were initially identified using the"Random Forest"and"Lasso"algorithms.The overlapping genes from these two methods were further refined using the"GMM"algorithm to identify the core interaction genes between rheumatoid arthritis and mitophagy.A predictive model was then developed and validated using an external dataset.Finally,"CIBERSORT"was employed to analyze the proportions and interactions of immune cell subsets during immune infiltration,while"ssGSEA"was used to examine the associations between the rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy core interaction genes and immune cell subsets."ssGSEA"was also utilized to analyze the"GO"and"KEGG"biological pathways of the core interaction genes.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Totally 807 differentially expressed genes in rheumatoid arthritis were obtained by differential analysis,1 208 genes were selected from two feature modules by"WGCNA"analysis,1136 genes were sorted out from the MitoCarta 3.0 database,and 53 HUB genes were obtained from the intersection of the three genes as rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy related genes.(2)The results of functional enrichment analysis of related genes showed that the cellular processes were mainly related to mitophagy,peroxisome metabolism,cellular senescence,and necroptosis.(3)The three machine learning algorithms identified four rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy core interaction genes(DNAJA3,C12orf65,AKR7A2,and PDHB).The area under the curve of nomoscore was 0.989,and the area under the curve values of rheumatoid arthritis-mitophagy core interaction genes verified by the receiver operating characteristic curve of external patient samples were all greater than 0.7.(5)Immunoregulatory analysis showed that the mitophagy process in rheumatoid arthritis was closely associated with memory B cells,M0 macrophages,activated memory CD4 T cells,and resting memory CD4 T cells.(6)The biological pathway analysis revealed that the core interaction genes were strongly associated with 821"GO"pathways(|cor|＞0.8,P＜0.001)and 48"KEGG"pathways(|cor|＞0.8,P＜0.001).The key biological processes identified were related to mitochondrial DNA metabolic process,mitochondrial DNA repair,mitochondrial DNA replication,mitochondrial genome maintenance,positive regulation of mitochondrial depolarization,and positive regulation of mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization involved in apoptotic signaling pathway.To conclude,DNAJA3,C12orf65,AKR7A2,and PDHB are the core interaction genes of the mitophagy process in rheumatoid arthritis,which play key roles in disease progression by participating in specific immune processes and have precise and predictive effects on the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.

Inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)is a chronic,nonspecific inflammatory condition of the intes-tine.However,its pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms remain elusive.The primary therapeutic goal for IBD is to achieve complete restoration of the intestinal mucosa.Despite various treatment strategies available in clinical practice,options to effectively promote mucosal healing remain limited.Macrophages play a pivotal role in maintaining intestinal ho-meostasis,modulating inflammatory responses,and facilitating mucosal healing.This review explores the significance and regulatory mechanisms of macrophages in intestinal mucosal healing,with particular emphasis on modulating macrophage phenotypic switching in the treatment of IBD.Furthermore,this review provides a theoretical basis for precision medicine in IBD treatment,highlighting valuable insights for more targeted therapeutic approaches.

BACKGROUND:The etiology of osteoarthritis is varied and its pathogenesis is still unclear.As bioinformatics has been deepening in recent years,increasing studies have found that the aberrant expression of long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs)and microRNAs(miRNAs)in joint tissues may mediate the downstream signaling pathways involved in the development of osteoarthritis. OBJECTIVE:To review the mechanism of lncRNA in the development of osteoarthritis and the therapeutic effects of monomers and active compounds derived from traditional Chinese medicine that modulate lncRNA and downstream signaling pathways in osteoarthritis. METHODS:We searched CNKI,WanFang,VIP,and PubMed using the search terms of"long non-coding RNA,knee osteoarthritis,miRNA,chondrocytes,signaling pathway,and traditional Chinese medicine"in Chinese and English,respectively.The search time was from the inception of each database to March 2023.A total of 61 articles were included according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The pathogenesis of knee osteoarthritis involves a complex molecular regulatory network,including aberrant expression of lncRNAs and miRNAs in cartilage tissues,which may lead to apoptosis of chondrocytes,degradation of cartilage extracellular matrix,and production of large amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines.These changes interact with each other to cause degeneration of articular cartilage and progression of osteoarthritis.Therefore,further in-depth studies are needed to reveal the fine mechanisms of the molecular regulatory network.The mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of osteoarthritis mainly focuses on regulating the expression of lncRNA and miRNA,thereby alleviating chondrocyte apoptosis and extracellular matrix degradation,promoting cell proliferation,and slowing down the development of osteoarthritis.

Objective:To analyze the main active ingredients and mechanisms of action of clinically commonly used traditional Chinese medicine for anti-hepatic fibrosis based on network pharmacology.Methods:The traditional Chinese medicine system pharmacology analysis platform (TCMSP) and Swiss Target Prediction were employed to obtain the active ingredients and potential targets of 21 clinically commonly used traditional Chinese medicines. The GEO database was used to analyze the differential genes of liver fibrosis that resulted from hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, alcoholic liver disease, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.The therapeutic targets of traditional Chinese medicine were predicted by combining the key genes for the production and reversal of the extracellular matrix in liver fibrosis. The "drug-therapeutic target pathway" network was constructed using Cytoscape software to analyze the anti-fibrosis ingredients and mechanisms of action of traditional Chinese medicine. The effects of core ingredients were investigated in vitro on macrophages (THP-1) and hepatic stellate cells (LX2). The data were initially examined for normality and homogeneity of variance, and then a t-test was used to compare the data between the two groups. The one-way ANOVA method was used for multi- ingredient comparisons.Results:The 21 traditional Chinese medicines contained 355 monomer compounds, which corresponded to 315 recognized drug targets. The results showed that 57 genes were anti-fibrotic therapeutic targets based on the key links between liver fibrosis occurrence and regression.The results of the "drug-target-pathway network" association analysis showed that quercetin and kaempferol were the most core anti-liver fibrosis ingredients of various traditional Chinese medicine compounds, which mainly improved HBV, alcoholic liver disease, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and fibrosis progression by regulating and controlling PI3K-Akt, AGE-RAGE, MAPK, TNF, and IL-17 signaling pathways core genes such as TNF, AKT1, MMP9, BCL2, CCL2, CASP3, CXCL8, RELA, MYC, and STAT1. Cellular experiments showed that quercetin had a stronger ability to inhibit the release of proinflammatory factors IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α from inflammatory THP-1 cells than kaempferol. In contrast, kaempferol had markedly reduced the chemokine CCL2. Quercetin and kaempferol significantly inhibited THP-1-mediated LX2 cell proliferation, which was accompanied by significant decreases in α-SMA, collagen IA, and TGF-β, as well as increases in CASP3 and cleaved-CASP3, indicating both had a synergistic effect.Conclusion:Quercetin and kaempferol are the basic forms of traditional Chinese medicine compounds for liver fibrosis treatment, and it serve as a reference for the subsequent research and development of multi-target anti-hepatic fibrosis drugs.

Objective To investigate the correlation of human epididymis protein 4(HE4)with proteinuria in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).Methods A total of 147 T2DM patients from January 2020 to July 2023 in Jiujiang NO.l People's Hospital were enrolled in observation group.According to the severity of proteinuria,observation group was divided into three groups:Normal albuminuria group(101 cases),microalbuminuria group(25 cases),and massive albuminuria group(21 cases).50 healthy examinees with gender and age matching during the same period were selected as control group.HE4 levels and clinical indicators in each group were compared and analyzed.Correlation between HE4 and proteinuria was analyzed by using univariate and multivariate linear regression.Results The correlation network diagram reveals that HE4 functions was a pivotal node linking serum albumin,urinary microalbumin,urinary microalbumin-to-creatinine ratio(UACR),and renal function biomarkers.Compared to control group,HE4 levels significantly elevated in observation group(P＜0.01).Both univariate and multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrate a positive correlation between HE4 and UACR.Logistic regression analysis shew that after adjusting for confounding factors including age,gender,estimated glomerular filtration rate(eGFR),albumin(ALB),blood urea nitrogen(BUN),serum creatinine(SCr),uric acid(UA),lactate dehydrogenase(LDH)etc.elevated HE4 levels was a risk factor for proteinuria(OR=1.110,95％CI:1.005-1.226).Conclusion Elevated HE4 levels in patients with T2DM is positivly correlated with UACR.Increase its level increases the risk of proteinuria in T2DM patients.

Obesity has been identified as one of the risk factors for male sexual dysfunction, and it also has a certain impact on fertility. For people with obesity, sexual function is an important aspect of quality of life, but it is often overlooked. Society's stigma against obesity exacerbates the psychological stress of patients with obesity and negatively affects sexual function. Current studies have found that bariatric surgery can reduce body weight and improve sexual function in patients with obesity, and obesity-related gonadal dysfunction is also improved or even subsided after surgery. However, attention needs to be paid to postoperative body mass management and mental health status of patients to prevent postoperative body mass recovery and reversal of sex hormones and sexual function. In addition, there is still controversy about the change in sperm quality after bariatric surgery, and there is a lack of research data on sexual function and sperm parameters and mechanisms after bariatric surgery. Therefore, this article reviews the latest research progress of bariatric surgery and sexual dysfunction, as well as related mechanisms and sperm parameters, to provide a reference for bariatric surgery in patients with obesity with sexual dysfunction.

Obesity has been identified as one of the risk factors for male sexual dysfunction, and it also has a certain impact on fertility. For people with obesity, sexual function is an important aspect of quality of life, but it is often overlooked. Society's stigma against obesity exacerbates the psychological stress of patients with obesity and negatively affects sexual function. Current studies have found that bariatric surgery can reduce body weight and improve sexual function in patients with obesity, and obesity-related gonadal dysfunction is also improved or even subsided after surgery. However, attention needs to be paid to postoperative body mass management and mental health status of patients to prevent postoperative body mass recovery and reversal of sex hormones and sexual function. In addition, there is still controversy about the change in sperm quality after bariatric surgery, and there is a lack of research data on sexual function and sperm parameters and mechanisms after bariatric surgery. Therefore, this article reviews the latest research progress of bariatric surgery and sexual dysfunction, as well as related mechanisms and sperm parameters, to provide a reference for bariatric surgery in patients with obesity with sexual dysfunction.