Functional dyspepsia （FD） is a prioritized disease category where traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） demonstrates distinct therapeutic advantages. The current western medicine treatment for FD is mainly based on proton pump inhibitors and prokinetic agents， with digestive enzymes， probiotics and antidepressants serving as adjuvant medication， yet such therapies still have certain limitations. TCM treatment for FD includes oral administration of Chinese herbal formulas and Chinese patent medicines， as well as external TCM therapies such as acupuncture and moxibustion， acupoint application， hot medicinal compress therapy， rubbing with ointment， medicinal iontophoresis， auricular acupoint therapy and tui na （Chinese medical massage）. The combined treatment of FD with integrated TCM and western medicine can significantly improve clinical effectiveness and reduce adverse reactions. The common mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of both TCM and western medicine revolve around the core pathological processes of FD， mainly focusing on restoring gastrointestinal motility， regulating the levels of brain-gut peptides， modulating intestinal microecology， and ameliorating inflammatory status. The differential mechanisms lie in the precise targeting feature of western medicine versus the holistic-regulating and multi-target characteristics of TCM， and the two approaches exert a synergistic effect to enhance efficacy. This paper proposes to leverage the advantages of TCM in holistic regulation and the strengths of western medicine in targeted treatment， so as to provide personalized and comprehensive treatment regimens for FD patients.

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) plays a crucial role in regulating many physiological processes. Activating the AhR-CYP1A1 axis has emerged as a novel therapeutic strategy against various inflammatory diseases. Here, a practical in situ cell-based fluorometric assay was constructed to screen AhR-CYP1A1 axis modulators, via functional sensing of CYP1A1 activities in live cells. Firstly, a cell-permeable, isoform-specific enzyme-activable fluorogenic substrate for CYP1A1 was rationally constructed for in-situ visualizing the dynamic changes of CYP1A1 function in living systems, which was subsequently used for discovering the efficacious modulators of the AhR-CYP1A1 axis. Following screening of a compound library, LAC-7 was identified as an efficacious activator of the AhR-CYP1A1 axis, which dose-dependently up-regulated the expression levels of both CYP1A1 and AhR in multiple cell lines. LAC-7 also suppressed macrophage M1 polarization and reduced the levels of inflammatory factors in LPS-induced bone marrow-derived macrophages. Animal tests showed that LAC-7 could significantly mitigate DSS-induced ulcerative colitis and LPS-induced acute lung injury in mice, and markedly reduced the levels of multiple inflammatory factors. Collectively, an optimized fluorometric cell-based assay was devised for in situ functional imaging of CYP1A1 activities in living systems, which strongly facilitated the discovery of efficacious modulators of the AhR-CYP1A1 axis as novel anti-inflammatory agents.

Notum, a negative feedback regulator of the Wnt signaling, has emerged as a promising target for treating glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP). This study showcases an efficient strategy for discovering the anti-Notum constituents from herbal medicines (HMs) as novel anti-GIOP agents. Firstly, a rapid-responding near-infrared fluorogenic substrate for Notum was rationally engineered for high-throughput identifying the anti-Notum HMs. The results showed that Bu-Gu-Zhi (BGZ), a known anti-osteoporosis herb, potently inhibited Notum in a competitive-inhibition manner. To uncover the key anti-Notum constituents in BGZ, an efficient strategy was adapted via integrating biochemical, phytochemical, computational, and pharmacological assays. Among all identified BGZ constituents, three furanocoumarins were validated as strong Notum inhibitors, while 5-methoxypsoralen (5-MP) showed the most potent anti-Notum activity and favorable safety profiles. Mechanistically, 5-MP acted as a competitive inhibitor of Notum via creating strong hydrophobic interactions with Trp128 and Phe268 in the catalytic cavity of Notum. Cellular assays showed that 5-MP remarkably promoted osteoblast differentiation and activated Wnt signaling in dexamethasone (DXMS)-challenged MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts. In dexamethasone-induced osteoporotic mice, 5-MP strongly elevated bone mineral density (BMD) and improved cancellous and cortical bone thickness. Collectively, this study constructs a high-efficient platform for discovering key anti-Notum constituents from HMs, while 5-MP emerges as a promising anti-GIOP agent.

Triple-negative breast cancer is therapeutically challenging due to the low expression of tumor markers and 'cold' tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment. Here, we present a dual-targeting peptide-drug conjugate (PDC) for tumor inhibition. Our PDC efficiently and selectively delivers cytotoxic Monomethyl Auristatin E (MMAE) into tumor cells via C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) and folate receptor 1 (FOLR1) for synergistic inhibition of growth and metastasis. Our results show that the dual-targeting PDC has potent antitumor activity in cultured human cells and several murine transplanted tumor models without apparent toxicity. The combination of dual-targeting PDC and radiotherapy modulates the tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment by increasing CD8⁺ T cell infiltration and attenuating the proportion of myeloid-derived suppressor and regulatory T cells. Therefore, our dual-targeting PDC represents a promising new strategy for cancer therapy that rebalances the immune system and promotes tumor regression.

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP), whose etiology is influenced by genetic and clinical risk factors, considerably impacts women's quality of life. However, the genetic underpinnings in non-European populations and comprehensive risk models integrating genetic and clinical factors remain underexplored. This study constructed the first polygenic risk score (PRS) for POP in the Chinese population by utilizing 20 disease-associated variants from the largest existing genome-wide association study. We analyzed a discovery cohort of 576 cases and 623 controls and a validation cohort of 264 cases and 200 controls. Results showed that the case group exhibited a significantly higher PRS than the control group. Moreover, the odds ratio of the top 10% risk group was 2.6 times higher than that of the bottom 10%. A high PRS was significantly correlated with POP occurrence in women older than 50 years old and in those with one or no childbirths. As far as we know, the integrated prediction model, which combined PRS and clinical risk factors, demonstrated better predictive accuracy than other existing PRS models. This combined risk assessment model serves as a robust tool for POP risk prediction and stratification, thereby offering insights into individualized preventive measures and treatment strategies in future clinical practice.
Humans ; Female ; Pelvic Organ Prolapse/epidemiology* ; Middle Aged ; Risk Assessment/methods* ; China/epidemiology* ; Multifactorial Inheritance ; Aged ; Risk Factors ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Case-Control Studies ; Adult ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Genetic Risk Score ; East Asian People

In order to achieve the purpose of rapid detection of duck astrovirus type 1(DAstV-1),specific primers were designed based on the conservative region of ORF1a which belonged to DAstV-1(WF1202 strain).A real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR(qPCR)detective method for DAstV-1 was established.Clinical samples were detected by the qPCR method and the positive samples were used for virus isolation and identification.Results showed that the detection limit of the established method was 4.64×103 copies/μL,which was 10 times higher than the normal RT-PCR method.In addition,no cross-reactions were found with other common infectious disease pathogens in poultry,indicating that the qPCR method had good specificity.What's more,the coef-ficient of variations(Cv)in intra-and inter-assays were 0.85％-2.85％and 0.21％-2.94％,re-spectively,both less than 3％,indicating that the qPCR method had a good repeatability.Using this method,35 tissue samples from different duck farms in 10 provinces from 2020 to 2022 were detected for DAstV-1.Results showed that the positive rate was 25.71％(9/35),and the coinci-dence rate was 94.29％when compared with the normal RT-PCR method.A positive sample ran-domly taken for the virus isolation through duck embryo passage,and the allantoic fluid was col-lected and then was verified by the qPCR method and inoculated with 1-day-old healthy ducklings for the animal regression experiment.The infected ducklings suffered from transient disease but did not die.The liver tissues were all positive with DAstV-1 when detected by qPCR.Meanwhile,autopsy showed that there were slight changes in the livers,and the histopathological observation showed that the liver cells were steatosis.These findings indicated that the isolated DAstV-1 strain had weak pathogenicity and might be a low virulent strain.To sum up,the qPCR detection method of DAstV-1 was successfully established in this work,and could provide technical support for clini-cal diagnosis,isolation and identification,and molecular epidemiology monitoring of DAstV-1.

Objective:To explore the clinical characteristics of neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) in patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and to study their prognostic value in the acute and subacute phases.Methods:This study is a retrospective case series analysis. Clinical and pathological data of 52 patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis who underwent endovascular treatment in the Department of Neurosurgery, Tianjin Huanhu Hospital from June 2019 to June 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 20 males and 32 females, with an age of (40.1±13.6) years(range:18 to 66 years). Forty-five healthy physical examinees were included in the control group. High-resolution MRI was used to stage the thrombus, with 11 cases in the acute group, 28 cases in the subacute group, and 13 cases in the chronic group. Thrombus specimens were obtained through endovascular treatment, and the fluorescence intensity of NET in peripheral blood at different time points was analyzed by immunofluorescence contrast,including the double-stranded DNA structure and adhesion protein components (citrolinated histone H3 (CitH3), myeloperoxidase-DNA complex(MPO-DNA), neutrophil elastase (NE)). The NET markers were determined by ELISA. Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the NET markers in peripheral blood of patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in the acute and subacute phases and the volume of venous sinus thrombus, the degree of venous sinus recanalization after treatment, and the discharge modified Rankin scale(mRS)score. The accuracy of NET markers in predicting the prognosis of patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis was analyzed by drawing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and calculating the area under the curve (AUC).Results:The results of immunofluorescence staining and ELISA showed that no NET structure was formed in the peripheral blood of the control group, while CitH3, MPO-DNA and NE levels in the peripheral blood of CVST patients were increased, among which the acute stage group was the highest, followed by the subacute group, and the chronic group was the lowest. Spearman correlation analysis showed that CitH3, MPO-DNA and NE levels in peripheral blood of patients in acute group and subacute group were positively correlated with thrombus volume and mRS score at discharge ( P<0.05). The levels of CitH3 and MPO-DNA in peripheral blood of patients with complete venous sinus recanalization were lower than those of patients with partial venous sinus recanalization ( P<0.01). ROC curve analysis results showed that MPO-DNA and NE had no predictive ability for the prognosis of CVST patients ( P values were 0.614 and 0.324, respectively), and the AUC of CitH3 was 0.800 (95% CI: 0.638~0.962, P=0.032), the best cut-off value was 13.5 μg/L, the sensitivity was 100%, and the specificity was 58.8%. Conclusions:A large number of NET are formed in patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in acute stage. Patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in acute stage and subacute stage with high peripheral blood NET content has a low rate of complete sinus revascularization and poor neurological function recovery after treatment.

AIM:To investigate the effects of cigarette smoke exposure during adolescence on the inflammato-ry response mediated by microglia in the prefrontal cortex of mice,and its impact on learning and memory functions in adulthood.METHODS:72 two-week-old healthy male Kunming mice,with each weighing(11.0±1.5)g,were random-ly divided into control and cigarette exposure groups(n=36 per group).The mice in the cigarette exposure group were pas-sively exposed to 6 cigarettes daily for 10 weeks.At three time points of 4-week-old(infancy),8-week-old(adoles-cence),and 12-week-old(adulthood),six mice were selected from each group to have their neurobehavioral and patholog-ical changes examined.In particular,the step-down test,three-chamber social interaction test,and novel object recogni-tion test were used to detect changes in learning and memory abilities and cognitive behavior.Immunofluorescence testing was performed to detect the morphology,number of synapses,and expression of inflammatory factor apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD(ASC)around the microglial cells in the prefrontal cortex of mice in each group.Western blot was performed to assess the expression levels of synaptophysin(SYP)and postsynaptic density protein-95(PSD-95)in the cerebral cortex of mice in each group.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)was performed to detect the protein expression of tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α),interleukin 1β(IL-1β),and IL-6 in the prefrontal cor-tex.RESULTS:(1)In the step-down test,the latency of mice at 8 and 12 weeks of age was significantly shortened,and the number of errors was significantly increased in the cigarette exposure group compared with the age-matched control group(P＜0.01).In addition,the social recognition time and exploration time for novel objects were prolonged(P＜0.05).(2)Immunofluorescence assays revealed that exposure to cigarette smoke in mice,at both 8 and 12 weeks of age,resulted in a reduction of SYP-positive puncta within the prefrontal cortex.Concurrently,there was an observed increase in the number of Iba1-positive microglia,which exhibited an activated phenotype,as well as an elevation in ASC-positive puncta in proximity to the microglia.Western blot further revealed reduced expression of synaptophysin protein SYP and PSD-95 in the cerebral cortex of the mice at 8 and 12 weeks of age in the cigarette exposure group(P＜0.05).(3)ELISA showed increased levels of inflammatory factors TNF-α,IL-1β,and IL-6 in the prefrontal cortex of the mice at 8 and 12 weeks of age in the cigarette exposure group(P＜0.05).CONCLUSION:Exposure to cigarette smoke during adoles-cence in mice may result in the enhanced secretion of inflammatory factors through the activation of microglia in the pre-frontal cortex.This activation can alter microglial function and induce synaptic damage,consequently impairing learning,memory,and cognitive abilities in adulthood.

Objective:To establish an ultrasound radiomics model by integrating clinical, pathological, and conventional ultrasound features with radiomics characteristics, and to explore its clinical value in predicting endocrine resistance in hormone receptor(HR)-positive breast cancer.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on 478 patients with HR-positive breast cancer from January 2017 to December 2021 in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, of which 430 were resistant and 48 were sensitive. The clinical, pathological and immunohistochemical data and ultrasound images were collected.Firstly, the propensity score was used to process and match the data. Secondly, Logistic regression was used to screen clinical, pathological, and conventional ultrasound features associated with endocrine resistance. Then, PyRadiomics was used to extract the radiomic features of grayscale ultrasound images, and a series of methods such as Lasso regression were used to screen the radiomic features related to endocrine resistance. Seven machine learning methods such as random forest were used to build a radiomics model. Finally, clinical, pathological and ultrasound features were added to establish a clinical pathological model, a clinical pathological ultrasound model, a clinical pathological radiomics model and a combined model of the four features, and the model effectiveness was evaluated.Results:①Propensity score matching: 96 patients were matched, including 48 patients in the drug-resistant group and 48 patients in the sensitive group. ②Screening clinical pathological conventional ultrasound features related to endocrine resistance: lymph node metastasis, tumor diameter, posterior echo attenuation, and growth orientation were independent predictors of endocrine resistance (all P<0.05). ③Screening radiomics features related to endocrine resistance: 18 features such as Dependence Entropy. ④Establishing radiomics model: the machine learning model of random forest method (AUC=0.80) performed best. ⑤Radiomics model integrating clinical, pathological and conventional ultrasound features: the AUC of the clinical pathological model was 0.70, the AUC of the clinical pathological ultrasound model was 0.78, the AUC of the clinical pathological radiomics model was 0.82, and the AUC of the combined model was 0.86. Conclusions:The radiomics model established by the random forest method performs best in predicting endocrine resistance in HR-positive breast cancer. The model that integrates multiple features performs best in assessing endocrine resistance.which is expected to provide an objective basis for clinicians to predict endocrine resistance in HR-positive breast cancer.

Objective:To explore the clinical characteristics of neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) in patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and to study their prognostic value in the acute and subacute phases.Methods:This study is a retrospective case series analysis. Clinical and pathological data of 52 patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis who underwent endovascular treatment in the Department of Neurosurgery, Tianjin Huanhu Hospital from June 2019 to June 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 20 males and 32 females, with an age of (40.1±13.6) years(range:18 to 66 years). Forty-five healthy physical examinees were included in the control group. High-resolution MRI was used to stage the thrombus, with 11 cases in the acute group, 28 cases in the subacute group, and 13 cases in the chronic group. Thrombus specimens were obtained through endovascular treatment, and the fluorescence intensity of NET in peripheral blood at different time points was analyzed by immunofluorescence contrast,including the double-stranded DNA structure and adhesion protein components (citrolinated histone H3 (CitH3), myeloperoxidase-DNA complex(MPO-DNA), neutrophil elastase (NE)). The NET markers were determined by ELISA. Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the NET markers in peripheral blood of patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in the acute and subacute phases and the volume of venous sinus thrombus, the degree of venous sinus recanalization after treatment, and the discharge modified Rankin scale(mRS)score. The accuracy of NET markers in predicting the prognosis of patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis was analyzed by drawing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and calculating the area under the curve (AUC).Results:The results of immunofluorescence staining and ELISA showed that no NET structure was formed in the peripheral blood of the control group, while CitH3, MPO-DNA and NE levels in the peripheral blood of CVST patients were increased, among which the acute stage group was the highest, followed by the subacute group, and the chronic group was the lowest. Spearman correlation analysis showed that CitH3, MPO-DNA and NE levels in peripheral blood of patients in acute group and subacute group were positively correlated with thrombus volume and mRS score at discharge ( P<0.05). The levels of CitH3 and MPO-DNA in peripheral blood of patients with complete venous sinus recanalization were lower than those of patients with partial venous sinus recanalization ( P<0.01). ROC curve analysis results showed that MPO-DNA and NE had no predictive ability for the prognosis of CVST patients ( P values were 0.614 and 0.324, respectively), and the AUC of CitH3 was 0.800 (95% CI: 0.638~0.962, P=0.032), the best cut-off value was 13.5 μg/L, the sensitivity was 100%, and the specificity was 58.8%. Conclusions:A large number of NET are formed in patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in acute stage. Patients with severe cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in acute stage and subacute stage with high peripheral blood NET content has a low rate of complete sinus revascularization and poor neurological function recovery after treatment.