Background: A simple superoposterior approach to thoracic transforaminal epidural injections (TFEIs) under ultrasonographic guidance was proposed to reduce zoster-associated pain (ZAP) involving multiple thoracic nerves and the likelihood of transitioning to postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Methods: Patients were prospectively enrolled. Primary endpoints were the burden of illness (BOI) scores and epidural contrast spread. Secondary endpoints included number of needle insertion attempts, sensory blockade, hemodynamic changes, procedure time, radiation dose, adverse events, rescue analgesics, PHN incidence and EuroQoL 5-Dimension scores. Results: Thirty-five injections were performed in 27 patients. Median levels of cephalad-caudad epidural contrast spread were 3, 4, and 5 ml following injections of 2, 3, and 4 ml. Dorsal epidural spread was observed at levels 3, 4, and 5, whereas concurrent ventral spread was observed at levels 2, 3, and 4. BOI scores at 30–180 days significantly decreased (mean difference: −25.3, 95% CI [−57.4 to 6.6], P = 0.005), accounting for reduced rescue analgesic requirements and PHN occurrence and improved EuroQoL 5-Dimension scores. Median sensory blockade at 5 min post-procedure was at level 2, 3, and 4 after 2, 3, and 4 ml of therapeutic injectate. No significant hemodynamic changes were noted at 15 min post-injection. No serious adverse events were observed. Conclusions Spread of thoracic epidural contrast to all involved nerves was confirmed using this novel technique. Simplified needle placement reduced the technical difficulty and risk of complications. It might be a promising alternative approach for ZAP.

Background: A simple superoposterior approach to thoracic transforaminal epidural injections (TFEIs) under ultrasonographic guidance was proposed to reduce zoster-associated pain (ZAP) involving multiple thoracic nerves and the likelihood of transitioning to postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Methods: Patients were prospectively enrolled. Primary endpoints were the burden of illness (BOI) scores and epidural contrast spread. Secondary endpoints included number of needle insertion attempts, sensory blockade, hemodynamic changes, procedure time, radiation dose, adverse events, rescue analgesics, PHN incidence and EuroQoL 5-Dimension scores. Results: Thirty-five injections were performed in 27 patients. Median levels of cephalad-caudad epidural contrast spread were 3, 4, and 5 ml following injections of 2, 3, and 4 ml. Dorsal epidural spread was observed at levels 3, 4, and 5, whereas concurrent ventral spread was observed at levels 2, 3, and 4. BOI scores at 30–180 days significantly decreased (mean difference: −25.3, 95% CI [−57.4 to 6.6], P = 0.005), accounting for reduced rescue analgesic requirements and PHN occurrence and improved EuroQoL 5-Dimension scores. Median sensory blockade at 5 min post-procedure was at level 2, 3, and 4 after 2, 3, and 4 ml of therapeutic injectate. No significant hemodynamic changes were noted at 15 min post-injection. No serious adverse events were observed. Conclusions Spread of thoracic epidural contrast to all involved nerves was confirmed using this novel technique. Simplified needle placement reduced the technical difficulty and risk of complications. It might be a promising alternative approach for ZAP.

Background: A simple superoposterior approach to thoracic transforaminal epidural injections (TFEIs) under ultrasonographic guidance was proposed to reduce zoster-associated pain (ZAP) involving multiple thoracic nerves and the likelihood of transitioning to postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Methods: Patients were prospectively enrolled. Primary endpoints were the burden of illness (BOI) scores and epidural contrast spread. Secondary endpoints included number of needle insertion attempts, sensory blockade, hemodynamic changes, procedure time, radiation dose, adverse events, rescue analgesics, PHN incidence and EuroQoL 5-Dimension scores. Results: Thirty-five injections were performed in 27 patients. Median levels of cephalad-caudad epidural contrast spread were 3, 4, and 5 ml following injections of 2, 3, and 4 ml. Dorsal epidural spread was observed at levels 3, 4, and 5, whereas concurrent ventral spread was observed at levels 2, 3, and 4. BOI scores at 30–180 days significantly decreased (mean difference: −25.3, 95% CI [−57.4 to 6.6], P = 0.005), accounting for reduced rescue analgesic requirements and PHN occurrence and improved EuroQoL 5-Dimension scores. Median sensory blockade at 5 min post-procedure was at level 2, 3, and 4 after 2, 3, and 4 ml of therapeutic injectate. No significant hemodynamic changes were noted at 15 min post-injection. No serious adverse events were observed. Conclusions Spread of thoracic epidural contrast to all involved nerves was confirmed using this novel technique. Simplified needle placement reduced the technical difficulty and risk of complications. It might be a promising alternative approach for ZAP.

Background: A simple superoposterior approach to thoracic transforaminal epidural injections (TFEIs) under ultrasonographic guidance was proposed to reduce zoster-associated pain (ZAP) involving multiple thoracic nerves and the likelihood of transitioning to postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Methods: Patients were prospectively enrolled. Primary endpoints were the burden of illness (BOI) scores and epidural contrast spread. Secondary endpoints included number of needle insertion attempts, sensory blockade, hemodynamic changes, procedure time, radiation dose, adverse events, rescue analgesics, PHN incidence and EuroQoL 5-Dimension scores. Results: Thirty-five injections were performed in 27 patients. Median levels of cephalad-caudad epidural contrast spread were 3, 4, and 5 ml following injections of 2, 3, and 4 ml. Dorsal epidural spread was observed at levels 3, 4, and 5, whereas concurrent ventral spread was observed at levels 2, 3, and 4. BOI scores at 30–180 days significantly decreased (mean difference: −25.3, 95% CI [−57.4 to 6.6], P = 0.005), accounting for reduced rescue analgesic requirements and PHN occurrence and improved EuroQoL 5-Dimension scores. Median sensory blockade at 5 min post-procedure was at level 2, 3, and 4 after 2, 3, and 4 ml of therapeutic injectate. No significant hemodynamic changes were noted at 15 min post-injection. No serious adverse events were observed. Conclusions Spread of thoracic epidural contrast to all involved nerves was confirmed using this novel technique. Simplified needle placement reduced the technical difficulty and risk of complications. It might be a promising alternative approach for ZAP.

Effective annotation of in vivo drug metabolites using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) remains a formidable challenge. Herein, a metabolic reaction-based molecular networking (MRMN) strategy is introduced, which enables the "one-pot" discovery of prototype drugs and their metabolites. MRMN constructs networks by matching metabolic reactions and evaluating MS² spectral similarity, incorporating innovations and improvements in feature degradation of MS² spectra, exclusion of endogenous interference, and recognition of redundant nodes. A minimum 75% correlation between structural similarity and MS² similarity of neighboring metabolites was ensured, mitigating false negatives due to spectral feature degradation. At least 79% of nodes, 49% of edges, and 97% of subnetworks were reduced by an exclusion strategy of endogenous ions compared to the Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS) platform. Furthermore, an approach of redundant ions identification was refined, achieving a 10%-40% recognition rate across different samples. The effectiveness of MRMN was validated through a single compound, plant extract, and mixtures of multiple plant extracts. Notably, MRMN is freely accessible online at https://yaolab.network, broadening its applications.

Objective To explore the differences in gut microbiota among different histopathologi-cal subtypes of lung cancer.Methods A total of 80 lung cancer patients admitted to the Department of Oncology and Hematology of Anqing First People's Hospital from February 2020 to February 2024 were selected as study subjects.Meanwhile,80 healthy volunteers who underwent physical examina-tions during the same period were selected as control group.According to pathological examination re-sults,the lung cancer patients were divided into three subgroups:lung squamous cell carcinoma group,lung adenocarcinoma group,and lung small-cell cancer group.The 16S ribosomal RNA(16S rRNA)sequencing technology was used to compare the differences in gut microbiota diversity and the characteristics of species relative abundance between lung cancer patients with different patho-logical grades and the control group.Results The proportion of patients with a family history of lung cancer was higher in different lung cancer subtypes than in the control group,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).The abundance-based coverage estimator(ACE)index,Simpson index,and Shannon index of patients with different lung cancer pathological subtypes were all lower than those in the control group,and the differences were statistically significant(P＜0.05).β-diver-sity analysis showed that there were significant differences in the variation of gut microbial community structure between the control group and lung cancer patients with different pathological types(P＜0.05).The results of LEfSe indicated that there were differences in gut characteristic microbiota among patients with different pathological subtypes.Specifically,Megamonas was enriched in the LUAD group,Butyrivibrio was enriched in the LSCC group,and Akkermansia was enriched in the SCLC group.Conclusion There are significant differences in the composition of gut microbiota between lung cancer patients and the normal population,and the gut microbiota of patients with different lung cancer pathological subtypes have distinct characteristics.These differences may provide new bio-markers and therapeutic strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.

Objective:This study is to investigate the relationship of parental anger expression and symptoms in children with oppositional defiant disorder(ODD).Methods:Forty-six children with ODD and 46 age-gender-matched normal children participated.The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,Fifth Edition(DSM-5),guided the diagnoses.Parental anger expression and children's anger management were assessed using the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 and Children Emotion Management Scales.Results:ODD symptoms were directly predicted by maternal anger index(AI)(β=0.13,P＜0.05)and anger expression-out(AX-O)(β=0.25,P＜0.05).Children's anger cope(AC)played a mediating function to maternal AI through ODD symptoms,occupying 13％of the total effect;their AC and anger dysregulation(AD)played a mediating function to maternal AX-Othrough ODD symptoms,accounting for 29％and 18％of the total effect,respectively.Conclusion:It sug-gests that anger cope and anger dysregulation in children with oppositional defiant disordermay may play a media-ting role between maternal anger expression and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms.

OBJECTIVE To compare the cost-utility of eight programmed death 1(PD-1)/programmed cell death-ligand 1(PD-L1) inhibitor combination regimens for first-line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) from the perspective of Chinese healthcare system. METHODS Relevant data were derived from a published network meta-analysis and randomized controlled trails, a three-state Markov model was established to analyze the cost-utility of eight immunotherapy combinations. The robustness of results were validated through sensitivity analyses and a series of scenario analyses was also conducted. RESULTS The incremental cost-utility ratio(ICUR) of the sintilizumab plus chemotherapy group and the tislelizumab plus chemotherapy group were ￥125143.88/quality adjusted life year(QALY) and ￥189609.64/QALY, respectively, which were less than the willingness-to-pay(WTP) threshold of ￥257094/QALY, and all the ICURs of other PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor combination regimens exceeded the WTP threshold and were not economical. Scenario analyses found that even if the medical insurance reimbursement ratio reached 80%, the different combinations of pembrolizumab, nivolumab and atezolizumab were not economical. CONCLUSION Compared with other PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor combination regimens, sintilizumab plus chemotherapy and tislelizumab plus chemotherapy have cost-utility advantages in the first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC, which can provide a certain reference for selecting a reasonable treatment plan for NSCLC patients.

Pyran- and furanocoumarins are key representatives of tetrahydropyrans and tetrahydrofurans, respectively, exhibiting diverse physiological and medical bioactivities. However, the biosynthetic mechanisms for their core structures remain poorly understood. Here we combined multiomics analyses of biosynthetic enzymes in Peucedanum praeruptorum and in vitro functional verification and identified two types of key enzymes critical for pyran and furan ring biosynthesis in plants. These included three distinct P. praeruptorum prenyltransferases (PpPT1-3) responsible for the prenylation of the simple coumarin skeleton 7 into linear or angular precursors, and two novel CYP450 cyclases (PpDC and PpOC) crucial for the cyclization of the linear/angular precursors into either tetrahydropyran or tetrahydrofuran scaffolds. Biochemical analyses of cyclases indicated that acid/base-assisted epoxide ring opening contributed to the enzyme-catalyzed tetrahydropyran and tetrahydrofuran ring refactoring. The possible acid/base-assisted catalytic mechanisms of the identified cyclases were theoretically investigated and assessed using site-specific mutagenesis. We identified two possible acidic amino acids Glu303 in PpDC and Asp301 in PpOC as vital in the catalytic process. This study provides new enzymatic tools in the epoxide formation/epoxide-opening mediated cascade reaction and exemplifies how plants become chemically diverse in terms of enzyme function and catalytic process.

Objective:To analyze the implementation effects of a medical laboratory talent training program based on local colleges and universities' applied talent-oriented cultivation principal as well as students' interests and industry needs.Methods:Based on the design principals of clarifying the professional orientation, meeting the national standard, reconstructing the curriculum system, introducing the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, and multi-dimensional collaborative education, as well as the reverse design path of the outcome-based education concept, we have built a medical laboratory applied talent training system focusing on humanity education, solid foundation, broad employment, and good competency and in accordance with the "three complete education" strategy, along with measures including creating an applied teaching atmosphere, developing an applied curriculum teaching model, providing vocational guidance and improving vocational identity, and promoting education via evaluation. The system was applied to the training and practice of students of grades 2021 and 2022 majoring in medical laboratory technology. SPSS20.0 software was used for statistical analysis.Results:With the concept of application-oriented talent training and the "four-in-one" practical teaching model, students' skills were improved, and the training path was broadened. Compared with those trained with the original program (grades 2019-2020), the graduates trained with the new program (grades 2021-2022) showed a significantly decreased employment rate in medical laboratory jobs in medical institutions from 71.25% to 42.86% ( χ2=12.36, P<0.001), a significantly increased employment rate in in-vitro diagnostics industry from 3.75% to 17.14% ( χ2=7.44, P<0.05), and a significantly increased rate of applying for postgraduate education from 17.05% to 32.86% ( χ2=4.74, P<0.05). Conclusions:The medical laboratory talent training program based on the talent training principal of local colleges and universities combined with students' interests and industry needs can help improve the quality of talent training and broaden the employment path of graduates.