The " liver disease affecting to the spleen" theory first appeared in Nanjing and was further elaborated in Jingui Yaolue. This theory encapsulates the traditional Chinese medicine principles of the " unity of the five viscera" and the " preventive treatment of disease" . The theory emphasizes that the spleen is the pivotal point where depression may progress from a functional disorder to an organic disease. The liver governs the emotions and qi flow, whereas the spleen is responsible for qi, blood, and body. In the early stages of the disease, emotional disorders and qi flow disorders primarily affect the liver, manifesting as depression or low mood. As the condition progresses, the liver (Wood) overacts on the spleen (Earth), disrupting liver and spleen functions and causing qi and blood disharmony. This stage is marked by fatigue and psychomotor retardation. Prolonged illness depletes qi and blood, eventually involving all five viscera, disrupting the harmony of the five spirits, and affecting both body and spirit. At this advanced phase, intense emotional distress or agitation often arises, accompanied by a heightened risk of suicide. The disease progression follows a dynamic " qi-blood-spirit" pattern, in which depression begins in the liver, characterized by qi stagnation, then affects the spleen, involving blood disharmony. In later stages, the disease eventually affects all viscera, with profound effects on both physical and mental health. Treatment strategies should align with the disease stage. Early intervention should focus on regulating the flow of qi, treating the liver, and strengthening the spleen. In the middle stages, qi and blood should be harmonized while promoting the harmonized functions of the liver and spleen. In the later stages, treatment should harmonize the five viscera to restore balance between body and spirit. Guided by this theory, integrating modern medical understanding of the progression of depression from emotional to somatic symptoms and adopting a stage-based approach to treatment in clinical practice can yield effective therapeutic outcomes for managing depression and related disorders.

The tumor microenvironment is a crucial factor in tumor occurrence and progression. The hypoxic microenvironment is widely present in tumor tissue and is a key endogenous factor accelerating tumor deterioration. The "blood stasis toxin" theory, as an emerging perspective in tumor research, is regarded as the unique "soil" in tumor progression from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) due to its dynamic evolution mechanism, which closely resembles the formation of the hypoxic microenvironment. Scientifically integrating TCM theories with the biological characteristics of tumors and exploring precise syndrome differentiation and treatment strategies are key to achieving comprehensive tumor prevention and control. This article focused on the hypoxic microenvironment of the tumor, elucidating its formation mechanisms and evolutionary processes and carefully analyzing the internal relationship between the "blood stasis toxin" theory and the hypoxic microenvironment. Additionally, it explored the interaction among blood stasis, toxic pathogens, and hypoxic environment and proposed micro-level prevention and treatment strategies targeting the hypoxic microenvironment based on the "blood stasis toxin" theory, aiming to provide TCM-based theoretical support and therapeutic approaches for precise regulation of the hypoxic microenvironment.
Humans ; Tumor Microenvironment/drug effects* ; Neoplasms/therapy* ; Animals ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Disease Progression ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal

OBJECTIVES: To study the effect of prophylactic phenytoin (PHT) or levetiracetam (LEV) on busulfan (BU) blood concentration in children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. METHODS: Pediatric patients conditioned with BU plus cyclophosphamide and fludarabine at the First People's Hospital of Chenzhou from September 2023 to February 2025 were retrospectively included. Patients were grouped by prophylactic antiepileptic regimen into PHT (n=24) and LEV (n=26). BU blood concentrations at the end of infusion (0 hour) and at 1, 2, and 4 hours post-infusion were compared between groups. RESULTS: At 0 hour post-infusion, BU blood concentrations did not differ significantly between groups (P>0.05). At 1, 2, and 4 hours post-infusion, BU blood concentrations were higher in the LEV group than in the PHT group (P<0.05). The area under the concentration-time curve from 0 to ∞ (AUC_0-∞) was greater in the LEV group (P<0.001), and the attainment rate of AUC_0-∞ was higher in the LEV group than in the PHT group (73% vs 21%, P<0.001). No significant differences were observed between groups in time to hematopoietic engraftment or in the incidence of BU-related adverse drug reactions (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS Compared with PHT, LEV prophylaxis is associated with higher BU blood concentration and a higher AUC_0-∞ attainment rate. There is no observed difference in BU efficacy or safety between PHT and LEV.
Humans ; Levetiracetam/therapeutic use* ; Busulfan/pharmacokinetics* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Male ; Female ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Phenytoin/pharmacology* ; Infant ; Retrospective Studies ; Anticonvulsants/pharmacology* ; Adolescent

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac arrhythmia in the elderly. This study aimed to evaluate urban-rural disparities in its prevalence and management in elderly Chinese. METHODS: Consecutive participants aged ≥ 65 years attending outpatient clinics were enrolled for AF screening using handheld single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) from April 2017 to December 2022. Each ECG rhythm strip was reviewed from the research team. AF or uninterpretable single-lead ECGs were referred for 12-lead ECG. Primary study outcome comparison was between rural and urban areas for the prevalence of AF. The Student's t-test was used to compare mean values of clinical characteristics between rural and urban participants, while the Pearson's chi-square test was used to compare between-group proportions. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the association between AF and various patient characteristics. RESULTS: The 29,166 study participants included 13,253 men (45.4%) and had a mean age of 72.2 years. The 7073 rural participants differed significantly (P ≤ 0.02) from the 22,093 urban participants in several major characteristics, such as older age, greater body mass index, and so on. The overall prevalence of AF was 4.6% (n = 1347). AF was more prevalent in 7073 rural participants than 22,093 urban participants (5.6% vs. 4.3%, P < 0.01), before and after adjustment for age, body mass index, blood pressure, pulse rate, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and prior medical history. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified overweight/obesity (OR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.17-1.54) in urban areas and cigarette smoking (OR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.20-2.17) and alcohol consumption (OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.04-1.93) in rural areas as specific risk factors for prevalent AF. In patients with known AF in urban areas (n = 781) and rural areas (n = 338), 60.6% and 45.9%, respectively, received AF treatment (P < 0.01), and only 22.4% and 17.2%, respectively, received anticoagulation therapy (P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS In China, there are urban-rural disparities in AF in the elderly, with a higher prevalence and worse management in rural areas than urban areas. Our study findings provide insight for health policymakers to consider urban-rural disparity in the prevention and treatment of AF.

Immunotherapy has emerged as a revolutionary approach to treat immune-related diseases. Dendritic cells (DCs) play a pivotal role in orchestrating immune responses, making them an attractive target for immunotherapeutic interventions. Modulation of gene expression in DCs using genome editing techniques, such as the CRISPR-Cas system, is important for regulating DC functions. However, the precise delivery of CRISPR-based therapies to DCs has posed a significant challenge. While lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have been extensively studied for gene editing in tumor cells, their potential application in DCs has remained relatively unexplored. This study investigates the important role of cholesterol in regulating the efficiency of BAMEA-O16B lipid-assisted nanoparticles (BLANs) as carriers of CRISPR/Cas9 for gene editing in DCs. Remarkably, BLANs with low cholesterol density exhibit exceptional mRNA uptake, improved endosomal escape, and efficient single-guide RNA release capabilities. Administration of BLAN_mCas9/gPD-L1 results in substantial PD-L1 gene knockout in conventional dendritic cells (cDCs), accompanied by heightened cDC1 activation, T cell stimulation, and significant suppression of tumor growth. The study underscores the pivotal role of cholesterol density within LNPs, revealing potent influence on gene editing efficacy within DCs. This strategy holds immense promise for the field of cancer immunotherapy, offering a novel avenue for treating immune-related diseases.

OBJECTIVE: miR-34c-3p is down-regulated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The biological role of miR-34c-3p in NPC and its underlying mechanisms are unknown and were explored in this study. METHODS: Flow cytometry and immunohistochemical staining were employed to detect cluster of differentiation 86 (CD86) and cluster of differentiation 206 (CD206) expression; quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blotting were employed to examine mRNA expression and protein levels; cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) and transwell assays were employed to assess cell proliferation, migration, and invasion; and hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was employed to assess pathological changes in tumor tissues. RESULTS: Our results revealed that the miR-34c-3p mimic markedly inhibited M2 polarization of macrophages by targeting SLC7A11, and M2 macrophages transfected with the miR-34c-3p mimic inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of NPC cells. The in vivo experiments further confirmed that miR-34c-3p mimics blocked tumor growth and reduced inflammatory infiltration in tumor tissues. CONCLUSION This study provides novel insights into the pathogenesis of NPC and a new treatment strategy.
MicroRNAs/metabolism* ; Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma/genetics* ; Humans ; Animals ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/genetics* ; Macrophages/physiology* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Mice ; Cell Proliferation ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Cell Movement ; Male ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Mice, Nude ; Female

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly malignant solid tumor of the digestive system, characterized by rapid progression and difficulties of early diagnosis. Five-year survival rate of the patients is less than 9%. With the acceleration of global population aging and lifestyle change, the incidence of PDAC has been increasing annually. Currently, surgical treatment and chemotherapy remain the standard treatment options for PDAC patients. Early symptoms of PDAC are so undetectable that most patients miss the optimal opportunity for radical surgical resection. Even among those who undergo surgery, the high recurrence rate remains a major problem. PDAC is known for its unique tumor microenvironment. The cellular and non-cellular components in the tumor microenvironment account for as much as 90% of the tumor stroma, presenting many potential targets for PDAC therapy. Activated pancreatic stellate cells within PDAC tissue express specific proteins and secrete various cytokines and metabolites, which directly contribute to the proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of PDAC cells. These elements are critical in extracellular matrix production, connective tissue hyperplasia, immune tolerance, and drug resistance. Immune cells, such as macrophages and neutrophils, exert immunosuppressive and tumor-promoting roles in PDAC progression. The extracellular matrix, which serve as a natural physical barrier, induces interstitial hypertension and reduces blood supply, thereby hindering the delivery of drugs to the tumor. Additionally, it helps the metastasis and differentiation of PDAC cells, reducing the efficacy of clinical chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Although chemotherapeutic agents like gemcitabine have been used in the clinical treatment of PDAC for more than 20 years, the curative effect is obstructed by their poor stability in the bloodstream, low cellular uptake, and poor targeting. While small-molecule inhibitors targeting mutations such as KRAS^G12C, BRCA, and NTRK fusion have shown great potential for molecular targeted treatments and gene therapies of PDAC, their broader application is limited by side effects and restricted scope of patients. The advancement of nanotechnology brings new strategies for PDAC treatment. By virtue of unique size characteristics and actual versatility, different drug-delivery nanosystems contribute to overcome the dense stromal barrier, prolong the circulation time of therapeutics and realize precise PDAC treatment by targeted drug delivery. Clinical nanodrugs such as albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel) and irinotecan liposome greatly improve the pharmacokinetics of conventional chemotherapeutics and promote drug accumulation inside the tumor, thereby are applying to the first-line treatment of PDAC. It is noteworthy that none nanodrugs with active targeting design have been approved for clinical treatment yet, though many are in clinical trials. In this review, we discuss promising targeting strategies based on different nanodrug delivery systems for treatment of PDAC. One major nanostrategy focuses on the tumor cell targeting and its applications in chemotherapy, molecular targeting therapy, gene therapy, and immunotherapy of PDAC. Another nanostrategy targets the tumor microenvironment, which highlights the nanosystems specifically regulating pancreatic stellate cells, immune cells and the extracellular matrix. Recent progress of developing new nanotheraputics for breakthrough in the fight of PDAC are elaborated in this review. We also provide our perspectives on the challenges and opportunities in the field.

DNA genetic markers have always played important roles in individual identification, kinship analysis, ancestry inference and phenotype characterization in the field of forensic medicine. DNA methylation has unique advantages in biological age inference, body fluid identification and prediction of phenotypes. The majority of current studies independently examine DNA and DNA methylation markers using various workflows, and they use various analytical procedures to interpret the biological information these two markers present. Integrated methods detect DNA and DNA methylation markers simultaneously through a single experimental workflow using the same preparation of sample. Therefore, they can effectively reduce consumption of time and cost, streamline experimental procedures, and preserve valuable DNA samples taken from crime scenes. In this paper, the integrated detection approaches of DNA and DNA methylation markers on different detection platforms were reviewed. In order to convert methylation modifications to detectable forms, several options were available for pretreatment of genomic DNA, including digestion with methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme, affinity enrichment of methylated fragments, conversion of methylated or unmethylated cytosine. Multiplexed primers can be designed for DNA markers and converted DNA methylation markers for co-amplification. The schemes of using capillary electrophoresis platform for integrated detection add the pretreatment of genomic DNA on the basis of detecting DNA genetic markers. DNA and DNA methylation markers are then integrated by co-amplification. But the limited number of fluorescent options available and the length of amplicons restrict the type and quantity of markers that can be integrated into a panel. Pyrophosphate sequencing also supports integrated detection of DNA and DNA methylation markers. On this platform, due to the conversion of unmethylated cytosine to thymine after treatment with bisulfite, the methylation level of CpG site can be directly calculated using the peak height ratio of cytosine bases and thymine bases. Therefore, the methylation levels and SNP typing can be simultaneously obtained. However, due to the limited read length of sequencing, the detection of markers with longer amplicons is restricted. It is not conducive to fully interpret the complete information of the target sequence. Next-generation sequencing also supports integrated detection of DNA and DNA methylation markers. A preliminary experimental process including DNA extraction, pretreatment of genomic DNA, co-preparation of DNA and DNA methylation library and co-sequencing, has been formed based on the next-generation sequencing platform. It confirmed the feasibility of next-generation sequencing technology for integrated detection of DNA and DNA methylation markers. In field of biomedicine, various integrated detection schemes and corresponding data analysis approaches of DNA and DNA genetic markers developed based on the above detection process.Co-analysis can simultaneously obtain the genomic genetic and epigenetic information through a single analytic process. These schemes suggest that next-generation sequencing may be an effective method for achieving more accurate and highly integrated detection, helping to explore the potential for application in forensic biological samples. We finally explore the impact of interactions between sites and different pretreatment methods on the integrated detection of DNA and DNA methylation markers, and also propose the challenge of applying third-generation sequencing for integrated detection in forensic samples.

Objective To explore the clinical efficacy and safety of early surgical treatment for spinal thoracolumbar fracture without nerve injury.Methods The clinical data of 80 patients with spinal thoracolumbar fracture without nerve injury who were admitted to the department of spinal surgery in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed.According to the different operation timing,those who underwent surgery within 72 hours after fracture were included in the early operation group(n=41),and those who underwent surgery 72 hours to 2 weeks after fracture were included in the elective operation group(n=39).All operations were performed through the Wiltse approach for short-segment pedicle screw fixation on the injured vertebra.The operation time,intraoperative blood loss,hospital stay and incidence of complication of the two groups were compared.The visual analogue scale(VAS)scores,Oswestry disability index(ODI),compression rate of the anterior edge height of the injured vertebra,and the Cobb angle in the sagittal position of the injured vertebra before surgery,1 week after surgery and 1 year after surgery were compared between the two groups.The improvement rates of the anterior edge height compression and the Cobb angle in the sagittal position of the injured vertebra 1 week and 1 year after surgery were compared between the two groups.Results There was no significant difference in the operation time,intraoperative blood loss or total incidence of complications between the two groups(P>0.05).The hospital stay in the early operation group was shorter than that in the elective operation group,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).The VAS scores and ODI 1 week and 1 year after surgery of the two groups were better than those before surgery,and the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in the VAS scores or ODI at each time point before and after surgery between the two groups(P>0.05).The compression rate of the anterior edge height and Cobb angle in the sagittal position of the injured vertebra 1 week and 1 year after surgery in the two groups were lower/smaller than those before surgery,with statistically significant differences(P<0.05).There was no statistically significant difference in the compression rate of the anterior edge height or Cobb angle before surgery in the sagittal position of the injured vertebrae between the two groups(P>0.05).The compression rate of the anterior edge height and Cobb angle in the sagittal position of the injured vertebra 1 week and 1 year after surgery in the early operation group were lower/smaller than those in the elective operation group,and the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05).The improvement rates of the anterior edge height compression and the Cobb angle in the sagittal position of the injured vertebra 1 week and 1 year after surgery in the early operation group were better than those in the elective operation group,and the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05).Conclusion Early surgical treatment for spinal thoracolumbar fracture without nerve damage is safe,it can significantly shorten hospitalization time,obtain good fracture reduction quality and definite therapeutic effects.However,a comprehensive preoperative evaluation of the patients' condition is necessary to ensure surgical safety.