1.Strategic Optimization of CHO Cell Expression Platforms for Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing
Rui-Ming ZHANG ; Meng-Lin LI ; Hong-Wei ZHU ; Xing-Xiao ZHANG
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2026;53(2):327-341
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most established and versatile mammalian expression system for the large-scale production of recombinant therapeutic proteins, owing to their genetic stability, adaptability to serum-free suspension culture, and ability to perform human-like post-translational modifications. More than 70% of biologics approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rely on CHO-based production platforms, underscoring their central role in modern biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Despite these advantages, CHO systems continue to face three persistent bottlenecks that limit their potential for high-yield, reproducible, and cost-efficient production: excessive metabolic burden during high-density culture, heterogeneity of glycosylation patterns, and progressive loss of long-term expression stability. This review provides an integrated analysis of recent advances addressing these challenges and proposes a forward-looking framework for constructing intelligent and sustainable CHO cell factories. In terms of metabolic regulation, excessive lactate and ammonia accumulation disrupts energy balance and reduces recombinant protein synthesis efficiency. Optimization of culture parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, osmolarity, and glucose feeding can effectively alleviate metabolic stress, while supplementation with modulators including sodium butyrate, baicalein, and S-adenosylmethionine promotes specific productivity (qP) by modulating apoptosis and chromatin structure. Furthermore, genetic engineering strategies—such as overexpression of MPC1/2, HSP27, and SIRT6 or knockout of Bax, Apaf1, and IGF-1R—have demonstrated significant improvements in cell viability and product yield. The combination of multi-omics metabolic modeling with artificial intelligence (AI)-based prediction offers new opportunities for building self-regulating CHO systems capable of dynamic adaptation to environmental stress. Regarding glycosylation uniformity, which determines therapeutic efficacy and immunogenicity, gene editing-based glycoengineering (e.g., FUT8 knockdown or ST6Gal1 overexpression) has enabled the humanization of CHO glycan profiles, minimizing non-human sugar residues and enhancing drug stability. Process-level strategies such as galactose or manganese co-feeding and fine control of temperature or osmolarity further allow rational regulation of glycosyltransferase activity. Additionally, in vitro chemoenzymatic remodeling provides a complementary route to construct human-type glycans with defined structures, though industrial applications remain constrained by cost and scalability. The integration of model-driven process design and AI feedback control is expected to enable real-time prediction and correction of glycosylation deviations, ensuring batch-to-batch consistency in continuous biomanufacturing. Long-term expression stability, another critical challenge, is often impaired by promoter silencing, chromatin condensation, and random genomic integration. Molecular optimization—such as the use of improved promoters (CMV, EF-1α, or CHO endogenous promoters), Kozak and signal peptide refinement, and incorporation of chromatin-opening elements (UCOE, MAR, STAR)—helps maintain durable transcriptional activity, while site-specific integration systems including Cre/loxP, Flp/FRT, φC31, and CRISPR/Cas9 can enable single-copy, position-independent gene insertion at genomic safe-harbor loci, ensuring stable, predictable expression. Collectively, this review highlights a paradigm shift in CHO system optimization driven by the convergence of genome editing, synthetic biology, and artificial intelligence. The transition from empirical optimization to rational, data-driven design will facilitate the development of programmable CHO platforms capable of autonomous regulation of metabolic flux, glycosylation fidelity, and transcriptional activity. Such intelligent cell factories are expected to accelerate the transformation from laboratory-scale research to industrial-scale, high-consistency, and economically sustainable biopharmaceutical manufacturing, thereby supporting the next generation of efficient and customizable biologics manufacturing.
2.Strategic Optimization of CHO Cell Expression Platforms for Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing
Rui-Ming ZHANG ; Meng-Lin LI ; Hong-Wei ZHU ; Xing-Xiao ZHANG
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2026;53(2):327-341
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most established and versatile mammalian expression system for the large-scale production of recombinant therapeutic proteins, owing to their genetic stability, adaptability to serum-free suspension culture, and ability to perform human-like post-translational modifications. More than 70% of biologics approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rely on CHO-based production platforms, underscoring their central role in modern biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Despite these advantages, CHO systems continue to face three persistent bottlenecks that limit their potential for high-yield, reproducible, and cost-efficient production: excessive metabolic burden during high-density culture, heterogeneity of glycosylation patterns, and progressive loss of long-term expression stability. This review provides an integrated analysis of recent advances addressing these challenges and proposes a forward-looking framework for constructing intelligent and sustainable CHO cell factories. In terms of metabolic regulation, excessive lactate and ammonia accumulation disrupts energy balance and reduces recombinant protein synthesis efficiency. Optimization of culture parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, osmolarity, and glucose feeding can effectively alleviate metabolic stress, while supplementation with modulators including sodium butyrate, baicalein, and S-adenosylmethionine promotes specific productivity (qP) by modulating apoptosis and chromatin structure. Furthermore, genetic engineering strategies—such as overexpression of MPC1/2, HSP27, and SIRT6 or knockout of Bax, Apaf1, and IGF-1R—have demonstrated significant improvements in cell viability and product yield. The combination of multi-omics metabolic modeling with artificial intelligence (AI)-based prediction offers new opportunities for building self-regulating CHO systems capable of dynamic adaptation to environmental stress. Regarding glycosylation uniformity, which determines therapeutic efficacy and immunogenicity, gene editing-based glycoengineering (e.g., FUT8 knockdown or ST6Gal1 overexpression) has enabled the humanization of CHO glycan profiles, minimizing non-human sugar residues and enhancing drug stability. Process-level strategies such as galactose or manganese co-feeding and fine control of temperature or osmolarity further allow rational regulation of glycosyltransferase activity. Additionally, in vitro chemoenzymatic remodeling provides a complementary route to construct human-type glycans with defined structures, though industrial applications remain constrained by cost and scalability. The integration of model-driven process design and AI feedback control is expected to enable real-time prediction and correction of glycosylation deviations, ensuring batch-to-batch consistency in continuous biomanufacturing. Long-term expression stability, another critical challenge, is often impaired by promoter silencing, chromatin condensation, and random genomic integration. Molecular optimization—such as the use of improved promoters (CMV, EF-1α, or CHO endogenous promoters), Kozak and signal peptide refinement, and incorporation of chromatin-opening elements (UCOE, MAR, STAR)—helps maintain durable transcriptional activity, while site-specific integration systems including Cre/loxP, Flp/FRT, φC31, and CRISPR/Cas9 can enable single-copy, position-independent gene insertion at genomic safe-harbor loci, ensuring stable, predictable expression. Collectively, this review highlights a paradigm shift in CHO system optimization driven by the convergence of genome editing, synthetic biology, and artificial intelligence. The transition from empirical optimization to rational, data-driven design will facilitate the development of programmable CHO platforms capable of autonomous regulation of metabolic flux, glycosylation fidelity, and transcriptional activity. Such intelligent cell factories are expected to accelerate the transformation from laboratory-scale research to industrial-scale, high-consistency, and economically sustainable biopharmaceutical manufacturing, thereby supporting the next generation of efficient and customizable biologics manufacturing.
3.Beyond diagnostic accuracy: Economic and clinical considerations for NC-MRI in late HCC recurrence surveillance: Letter to the editor on “Non-contrast magnetic resonance imaging for detection of late recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma after curative treatment: a prospective multicenter comparison to contrast-enhanced computed tomography”
Qi-Feng CHEN ; Sui-Xing ZHONG ; Ming ZHAO
Clinical and Molecular Hepatology 2026;32(2):e175-e178
4.A Personalized Brain-computer Interface Paradigm and Decoding Method for The Objective Evaluation of Auditory Frequency Difference Limen
Sheng-Ye LI ; Xiao-Lin XIAO ; Shi-Hang YU ; Bei-Bei ZHANG ; Xing-Wei AN ; Min-Peng XU ; Dong MING
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2026;53(7):1927-1941
ObjectiveThe frequency difference limen (FDL) serves as a fundamental metric utilized for effectively quantifying the precise perceptual capabilities of the central auditory system. However, traditional measurement methods rely heavily on the active behavioral responses of subjects and are consequently highly susceptible to the negative influence of confounding subjective factors. Furthermore, existing research paradigms frequently employ uniform stimulus configurations that overlook critical individual perceptual differences. Based on brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, this comprehensive study aims to establish an objective and quantitative evaluation method for auditory frequency discrimination by systematically analyzing and decoding the specific neural responses elicited at the exact threshold state. MethodsWe designed a personalized rapid serial auditory presentation (RSAP) paradigm customized based on each individual’s precise FDL. A cohort of eleven healthy participants was recruited to evaluate the paradigm using pure-tone sequences at a baseline frequency of 4 000 Hz. This experimental paradigm simulates a realistic auditory perception environment through the continuous presentation of acoustic stimuli, thereby allowing for an in-depth investigation into the specific neural representations evoked by weak frequency deviations at the threshold state. Given that auditory stimulus-evoked response features exhibit complex and differentiated spatiotemporal distribution patterns across multiple frequency domains, this study further deeply integrates the cross-scale feature interaction module with the dynamic spatiotemporal attention allocation strategy, innovatively proposing the Multi-Scale Spatial-Temporal Dual Attention Network (MS-STAMNet). Specifically, the network constructs parallel processing branches with multiple receptive fields and introduces a dynamic adaptive weighting strategy to precisely localize core neural activity signals, further deeply integrating multi-scale information through cross-branch feature information interaction to achieve robust single-trial decoding of weak auditory evoked responses. ResultsThe comprehensive electrophysiological data analysis demonstrated that subtle auditory frequency deviation stimuli presented at the threshold level successfully elicited pronounced N2 and P3 event-related potential features, reflecting pre-attentive mismatch detection and subsequent cognitive evaluation, which were prominently distributed over the frontal, central, and temporal regions of the scalp. In the complex time-frequency domain, the extracted neural response characteristics exhibited distinct, statistically significant event-related synchronization within both the low-frequency δ and θ frequency bands, which was simultaneously accompanied by a widespread, prominent event-related desynchronization within the higher α band. A comparative analysis of model performance demonstrated that MS-STAMNet achieved an average unweighted average recall (UAR) of (69.67±6.12)% and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.761 8±0.07, significantly outperforming the established baseline models such as EEGNet and PLNet. Furthermore, a distinct dissociation phenomenon was verified between neural decoding and behavioral performance through regression analysis (R2=0.016, P=0.709), indicating that this model can effectively capture the implicit features of subtle frequency deviations, even when they fail to trigger explicit conscious responses. Additionally, attention weight visualization analysis further reveals the highly accurate focus of the network on key features concentrated over the bilateral temporal and fronto-parietal regions. ConclusionThis study systematically and comprehensively uncovers the multi-dimensional spatiotemporal evolutionary patterns of complex neural responses processing subtle acoustic variations under long-sequence threshold auditory stimulation. Concurrently, it verifies the efficacy and robustness of the proposed MS-STAMNet architecture in accurately deciphering weak, single-trial electroencephalogram signals amidst complex background noise. Ultimately, these neurophysiological and algorithmic findings lay a solid theoretical and methodological foundation for the objective and quantitative evaluation of individual auditory cognitive capabilities in clinical applications, transcending the fundamental limitations of traditional behavioral paradigms and providing robust technical support for future auditory research and related clinical assessments.
5.The Neural Circuit Characteristics of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Over The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex for The Treatment of Migraine
Chen-Xia JIN ; Bo-Lin TAN ; Yang YE ; Ji-Qing HE ; Ling-Yan WANG ; Zhong-Ming GAO ; Yu-Jun WANG ; Hui-Li LIU ; Yong-Xing YAN ; Xian-Wei CHE
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2026;53(7):1953-1968
ObjectiveMigraine is a leading neurological disorder and the fourth most common cause of years lived with disability worldwide, affecting nearly 116 million individuals. Although pharmacological treatments are available, their efficacy is often limited by side effects and variable response rates. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) offers a safe, non-invasive alternative for migraine management. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms, particularly how rTMS modulates local cortical excitability and distributed pain-related circuits, remain poorly understood. Elucidating these mechanisms is essential for optimizing treatment protocols and improving clinical outcomes. MethodsThis study employed concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) to investigate neuroplastic and neurocircuitry mechanisms of DLPFC-rTMS in migraine. Study 1 compared 30 migraineurs and 28 healthy controls to identify abnormalities in TMS-evoked potentials (TEPs) and significant current density (SCD) within sensory-discriminative regions including the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and posterior insula (pINS), cognitive-affective regions including the anterior insula (aINS) and midcingulate cortex (MCC), and a descending modulatory region, the periaqueductal gray (PAG). Study 2 used a single-blind, crossover, sham-controlled design in 34 healthy participants. Each participant received both active (10 Hz, 80% RMT, 1 500 pulses) and sham DLPFC-rTMS in counterbalanced order. TMS-EEG and cold pain tolerance were assessed before and after each session. ResultsIn Study 1, migraineurs showed a significantly less negative N120 amplitude compared to healthy controls (P=0.027, Cohen’s d=0.60), indicating local intracortical disinhibition. No group differences were observed for N40, P60, or P180 components. At the source level, migraineurs exhibited significantly higher SCD in the S1, pINS, aINS, and MCC (allQ<0.05), but not in the ventroposterior thalamus (vpTHAL), mediodorsal thalamus (mdTHAL), or PAG. In Study 2, active rTMS significantly reduced SCD from pre- to post-stimulation in the S1, aINS, and MCC (all Q<0.05). Sham stimulation also reduced SCD in the S1 (Q<0.05) but not in the aINS or MCC. Although no significant group-level analgesic effect was observed between active and sham conditions (P=0.107), correlation analyses revealed that greater SCD reductions in the S1 and MCC were significantly associated with higher post-rTMS pain tolerance (R=-0.487 and -0.495, both Q<0.01) and larger improvements in pain tolerance(R=-0.487 and -0.451, both Q<0.05). No such correlations were found following sham stimulation, suggesting that the behavioural relevance of neural changes is specific to active rTMS. ConclusionThis study provides novel evidence that migraineurs exhibit both local neuroplastic abnormalities (reduced N120 amplitude) and hyperactivity in key pain-processing regions (S1, pINS, aINS, MCC). A single session of DLPFC-rTMS reduced hyperactivity in the aINS, MCC, and S1. Notably, greater reductions in the S1 and MCC were associated with improved pain tolerance. These findings identify distinct cortical circuitries, particularly within the cognitive-affective pain network, that may serve as potential biomarkers for optimizing rTMS treatment in migraine and other chronic pain conditions. Future studies should validate these results in patient populations experiencing spontaneous migraine attacks and explore multi-session or accelerated rTMS protocols.
7.Clinical and genetic characteristics of 3 cases of holocarboxylase synthetase deficiency and literature review
Li-Ming ZHANG ; Wei YANG ; Ying-Xian ZHANG ; Hai-Hua YANG ; Xiao-Lei LI ; Qian-Ying LI ; Jian-Wei YANG ; Jun-Mei YANG ; Yong-Xing CHEN
Medical Journal of Chinese People's Liberation Army 2025;50(8):984-990
Objective To explore the clinical and genetic characteristics of children with holocarboxylase synthetase(HLCS)deficiency.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 3 children with HLCS deficiency who were admitted to Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University from December 2014 to January 2024.Relevant literature indexed in CNKI,Wanfang Data,PubMed and other databases was reviewed to summarize the clinical characteristics and HLCS gene mutations of children with HLCS deficiency.Results All 3 children were male,with onset age of 4-6 months.The main clinical manifestations included shortness of breath,vomiting,diarrhea,and poor mental state,and partial cases were complicated by growth retardation and neurological symptoms.Laboratory tests showed metabolic acidosis in all cases,blood amino acid and acylcarnitine profiles as well as urinary organic acid analysis suggested multiple carboxylase deficiency.Genetic testing revealed compound heterozygous mutation in the HLCS gene of all 3 children,among which the c.1892delT(p.L631X)mutation was previously unreported.According to the guidelines of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics(ACMG),the c.1892delT(p.L631X)mutation was rated as pathogenic mutation(PVS1+PM2_supporting+PM3).Biotin supplementation was effective in all cases.Literature review included 27 English literatures and 29 Chinese literatures,reporting a total of 133 children with HLCS deficiency caused by HLCS gene mutation.Common clinical manifestations included metabolic acidosis,skin lesions,vomiting,feeding difficulties,dyspnea,diarrhea,and neurological symptoms,etc.Conclusions Blood amino acid and acylcarnitine profiles,urine organic acid analysis,and gene testing are helpful for the diagnosis of HLCS deficiency.Timely biotin supplementation leads to a good prognosis.The mutation of HLCS gene is considered as the genetic etiology of HLCS deficiency in 3 children,among which the c.1892delT(p.L631X)mutation is a newly discovered mutation.
8.Progress of the application of deep learning in degenerative cervical myelopathy
Qian-Bo SONG ; Qian DU ; Yan ZENG ; Yuan-Ming LU ; Wen-Xing LIAO ; Dong ZHAO ; Guang-Ru CAO
Medical Journal of Chinese People's Liberation Army 2025;50(10):1256-1262
Degenerative cervical myelopathy(DCM)is a group of diseases caused by cervical spine degeneration that compresses the spinal cord.It is a major cause of spinal cord dysfunction in adults,and its incidence is increasing globally.In the late stage,DCM could lead to paralysis due to spinal cord injury,which makes rapid,effective,and accurate medical diagnosis clinically significant.Deep learning(DL)technology can assist physicians in the rapid and accurate diagnosis of DCM by analyzing and processing a large amount of imaging data to extract features of the affected regions.In recent years,DL algorithm models have been leveraged for DCM-related research,which has become a focal point of intelligent medical development.In this review,domestic and international literature is surveyed,and the research progress and application of DL technology in the auxiliary diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of DCM are systematically summarized,aiming to provide a reference for intelligent diagnosis in clinical practice.
9.CURRENT DISTRIBUTION OF AEDES AEGYPTI IN LEIZHOU PENINSULA,ZHANJIANG CITY,GUANGDONG PROVINCE
Rui-Peng LU ; Jin-Hua DUAN ; Yu-Wen ZHONG ; Hui DENG ; Jun WU ; Li-Ping LIU ; Wei-Xiong YIN ; Feng XING ; Hui HUANG ; Chang-Jie FU ; Zong-Jing CHEN ; Ming-Ji CHENG ; Sheng-Jun HU ; Ya-Ting CHEN ; Wen-Ting GUO ; Li-Feng LIN
Acta Parasitologica et Medica Entomologica Sinica 2025;32(1):16-21
Objective To investigate the status of population dynamics and distribution changes of Aedes aegypti in Guangdong Province.Methods Continuous monitoring was conducted from May 2018 to July 2024 in Wushi Town and Qishui Town,Leizhou City,Zhanjiang City,Guangdong Province.Additionally,a survey of the distribution of Ae.aegypti along the Leizhou Peninsula coast was carried out.Results The density of Ae.aegypti in Zhanjiang showed a gradual decline from 2018 to 2024.The last detection of adult Ae.aegypti in Wushi Town was in September 2021,and the last larva was found in October 2023.No Ae.aegypti was detected in Qishui Town during surveys from 2021 to 2024.A survey of 18 coastal villages in the Leizhou Peninsula revealed no detections of Ae.aegypti.Conclusions This study provides a basis for understanding the distribution and population density fluctuations of Ae.aegypti,assessing its invasion risk,and scientifically conducting relevant prevention and control efforts.
10.RODENT DENSITY IN THE GARRISONS OF LANZHOU CITY DURING 2014-2022
Jun GAN ; Jing ZUO ; Lin WANG ; Wei WANG ; Xing MENG ; Yong-Long ZHANG ; Qing-Ming SHI ; Xiao-Lei YE
Acta Parasitologica et Medica Entomologica Sinica 2025;32(1):34-38
Objective To investigate the density,species composition,and seasonal prevalence of domestic rodents in different habitats within Lanzhou garrisons,providing basic information for rodent prevention and control.Methods A total of 12 monitoring sites were sampled across urban,suburban,and rural residential areas from 2014 to 2022.Rodent density was monitored using the night-trapping method in the middle of odd-numbered months.Results From 2014 to 2022,346 domestic rodents were captured using 122 035 effective traps,with an average domestic rodent density of 0.28%.The highest domestic rodent density was 0.63%in 2016,and the lowest was 0.07%in 2020,showing significant differences across years,with an overall trend of initially decreasing and then increasing(χ2=136.555,P<0.001).The dominant species was Rattus norvegicus,accounting for 83.24%of the total rodents captured.Rattus norvegicus accounted for a relatively high proportion across different years,with a statistically significant difference in species composition(χ2=20.931,P<0.05).Rodent densities and species composition also varied significantly among the monitored habitats(P<0.001),with the highest densities observed in rural residential areas and the lowest in urban areas.Seasonal variation in rodent densities showed a bimodal pattern,with smaller peaks in January or March and a larger peak in July.Conclusions Domestic rodent density in Lanzhou garrisons has shown an upward trend in the past few years.Rodent control measures should focus on barracks in rural residential areas,with targeted interventions to reduce the risk of rodent-borne diseases.


Result Analysis
Print
Save
E-mail