Objective:To investigate the inhibitory effect of Xiaojianzhong Granule(XJZG)on food allergy(FA)and related mecha-nisms in terms of gut microbiota,zonula occluden-1(ZO-1),and Occludin.Methods:A total of 24 specific pathogen-free female BALB/c mice were randomly divided into normal group,model group,prevention group,and treatment group,with 6 mice in each group.The mice in the prevention group were given XJZG by gavage at a standard dose of 5.85 g/kg/day from 3 days before the first challenge till 4 hours before the last challenge;the mice in the treatment group were given XJZG at the double dose for 3 days based on the allergy score;the mice in the other groups were given an equal volume of distilled water by gavage.At the end of the experiment,al-lergy score and anal temperature were measured;flow cytometry was used to measure eosinophils and mast cells in mesenteric lymph nodes(MLNs);toluidine blue staining was performed for mast cells in jejunal tissue;immunohistochemistry was used to measure the expression of ZO-1 and Occludin;16S rRNA sequencing was per-formed to analyze the microbiota in the intestinal content;high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to measure the content of short-chain fatty acids(SCFAs)in jejunal lavage fluid.Results:Compared with the model group,the prevention group and the treatment group had significant reductions in al-lergy score(P=0.000,P=0.000),anal temperature(P=0.002,P=0.000),the proportion of eosinophils and mast cells in MLNs(P<0.05),and mast cell infiltration in jejunal tissue(P=0.000,P=0.000).Compared with the normal group,the model group had signifi-cant increases in the relative abundances of Erysipelaceae and Turicibacter,while the prevention group and the treatment group had disappearance of Erysipelaceae and Turicibacter and an increase in the relative abundance of Porphyromonadaceae.Compared with the normal group,the model group had a significant reduction in the content of propionate in jejunal lavage fluid(P=0.014),and compared with the model group,the prevention group had a significant increase in the content of propionate in jejunal lavage fluid(P=0.024),as well as a significant increase in the treatment group(P=0.008).In the model group,the expression of ZO-1 was downregulated(P=0.010),and the expression of Occludin was significantly downregulated(P=0.002),while the expression of ZO-1 and Occludin re-turned to normal levels in the prevention group and the treatment group(P=0.001,P=0.013;P=0.025,P=0.015).Conclusion:XJZG can change the composition and abundance of gut microbiota,increase the concentration of SCFAs,upregulate the expression of ZO-1 and Occludin,promote the repair of intestinal barrier,and inhibit food allergy.

Many efforts have been made to understand excitotoxicity and develop neuroprotectants for the therapy of ischemic stroke. The narrow treatment time window is still to be solved. Given that the ischemic core expanded over days, treatment with an extended time window is anticipated. Bestrophin 1 (BEST1) belongs to a bestrophin family of calcium-activated chloride channels. We revealed an increase in neuronal BEST1 expression and function within the peri-infarct from 8 to 48 h after ischemic stroke in mice. Interfering the protein expression or inhibiting the channel function of BEST1 by genetic manipulation displayed neuroprotective effects and improved motor functional deficits. Using electrophysiological recordings, we demonstrated that extrasynaptic glutamate release through BEST1 channel resulted in delayed excitotoxicity. Finally, we confirmed the therapeutic efficacy of pharmacological inhibition of BEST1 during 6-72 h post-ischemia in rodents. This delayed treatment prevented the expansion of infarct volume and the exacerbation of neurological functions. Our study identifies the glutamate-releasing BEST1 channel as a potential therapeutic target against ischemic stroke with a wide time window.

Pulmonary embolism is the cardiovascular disease caused by endogenous or exogenous emboli blocking the pulmonary artery system. Pulmonary embolism is clinically very common and has a high recurrence rate. Its etiology is complicated. Pulmonary embolism recurrence can be caused by many factors, which affect its prognosis. Complicated diseases, residual thrombosis, anticoagulation therapy and respiratory disorders are the main factors that lead to pulmonary embolism recurrence. Some blood test indicators can also reflect the recurrence of pulmonary embolism. This paper reviews the risk factors and prevention strategies of pulmonary embolism recurrence, with the purpose of reducing recurrence rate, improving prognosis and thereby providing objective evidence for clinical practice.

Objective:To investigate the clinical manifestations and prognosis of severe coronal virus disease 2019(COVID-19)pneumonia combined with coronary artery disease(CAD)in the elderly.Methods:A total of 351 old patients(≥60 years)with severe COVID-19 pneumonia combined with CAD admitted to Tongji Hospital of Wuhan from February 2020 to March 2020 were enrolled in this retrospective study.The patients were divided into CAD group(n=52)and non-CAD group(n=299). The clinical data, the changes of blood tests and cardiovascular complications were observed.Results:Compared with non-CAD group, CAD group showed a longer time of stay in hospital[(12.3±2.6)d and(9.3±2.1)d, t=3.24, P=0.002], and higher incidence of cardiovascular complications, such as myocardial infarction(7.7% and 0.0%, χ2=21.6, P<0.001), heart failure(15.4% and 0.3%, χ2=34.7, P<0.001), arrhythmia(50.0% and 12.4%, χ2=24.45, P<0.001)and all-cause mortality(15.4% and 4.3%, χ2=7.94, P=0.005). The serum levels of interleukin-2 receptor, interleukin 6, CK-MB, cTnI, NT-proBNP, D-dimer and fibrinogen were higher in CAD group than in non-CAD group.The oxygenation index was significantly lower and the blood lactic acid level was higher in CAD group than in non-CAD group. Conclusions:The aged patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia combined with CAD show obvious inflammatory reaction, high incidence of cardiovascular complications and high mortality.

Objective:To analyze the detection rate of thyroid nodules and goiter in school-age children in different water iodine regions and investigate the difference of thyroid nodule and goiter in school-age children with different age, gender and body mass index (BMI) in Jiangsu Province.Methods:In 2017, three villages with water iodine values of 8.1, 51.2 and 115.4 μg/L (iodine deficient group, iodine appropriate group and iodine high group) were selected as survey sites in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, where the supply of iodized salt was suspended. One primary school was selected from each village, and children aged 8 to 10 years old (age balance, half male and half female) were selected from each primary school as the survey subjects. Urine sample were collected, urinary iodine level was determined, height and weight were measured, and neck B ultrasound was performed.Results:A total of 131, 140 and 138 school-age children aged 8 to 10 years old were investigated in the iodine deficient group, iodine appropriate group and iodine high group, respectively, with a total of 409 children. The detection rates of thyroid nodules were 6.9% (9/131), 15.0% (21/140) and 16.7% (23/138), respectively, and the detection rates of goiter were 1.5% (2/131), 1.4% (2/140) and 6.5% (9/138) in the three groups, respectively. There were statistically significant differences in the detection rates of thyroid nodules and goiter in different water iodine groups (χ 2 = 6.92, 6.37, P < 0.05). The detection rates of thyroid nodules in different age groups were 9.5% (12/126), 11.3% (16/142) and 17.7% (25/141), the differences were statistically significant (χ 2 = 9.05, P < 0.05). The detection rates of thyroid nodules were 11.6% (24/207), 14.4% (29/202), and 12.5% (39/313), 16.9% (14/83), 0/9 and 0/4 in the subjects of different gender and BMI, the differences were not statistically significant (χ 2 = 0.69, P > 0.05). The detection rates of goiter in the subjects of different gender, age and BMI were 1.4% (3/207), 5.0% (10/202); 2.4% (3/126), 6.3% (9/142), 0.7% (1/141); 1.6% (3/313), 4.8% (4/83), 3/9 and 1/4. The differences were statistically significant (χ 2 = 4.07, 7.66, P < 0.05). Conclusion:The detection rate of thyroid nodules in school-age children in different water iodine regions in Jiangsu Province may have a certain relationship with age, and the detection rate of goiter may have a certain relationship with age, gender and BMI.

Cardiac disease is the general term of diseases, caused by damage to the structure or abnormal function of the heart. Its morbidity and mortality have remained high, seriously threatening the lives and health of people. The tyrosine kinase receptor ErbB2 (also known as EGFR2 or HER2) was originally discovered for its oncogenic activity, however, recent studies have found that ErbB2 have protective effects in various heart diseases. Therefore, this article reviews the role and underlying mechanism of ErbB2 in myocardial infarction, myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure, doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxic injury and diabetic cardiomyopathy. Furthermore, this article also preliminarily discusses the application prospects, limitations and development directions of ErbB2 as a clinical diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for heart disease.

To alleviate the shortage of excellent talents of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine has decided to cultivate a group of talents with strong theoretical foundation, rich practical experience and exquisite skills who would like to devote themselves to TCM technology research. The national talent training program for inheritance of characteristic TCM technology is a major breakthrough in the history of new China in the cultivation of high-level TCM technology talents. A retrospective analysis was performed on the national talent training program for inheritance of characteristic TCM technology hold in training bases from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong Province, Jiangsu Province, Anhui Province, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Heilongjiang Province, Yunnan Province, Sichuan Province, Shaanxi Province and Fujian Province. Based on the completion assessment work of 2014 and 2015 national talent training program for inheritance of characteristic TCM technology, and after knowledge exchange and discussion with the training subjects from 30 provinces and some teaching experts in the field of characteristic TCM technology, this paper summarizes the work of the national talent training program for inheritance of characteristic TCM technology. After trained in bases in China, training subjects' theoretical knowledge and practical skills as well as their comprehensive capacity have been greatly promoted. At the same time, there are also some problems and shortages. For example, characteristic TCM technology in some training bases is not prominent enough, some characteristic TCM technologies are not well inherited, and the affiliations of some training subjects do not pay enough attention to it. All of these problems should be solved and improved in future work.

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage after ischemia significantly influences stroke outcome. Compound LFHP-1c was previously discovered with neuroprotective role in stroke model, but its mechanism of action on protection of BBB disruption after stroke remains unknown. Here, we show that LFHP-1c, as a direct PGAM5 inhibitor, prevented BBB disruption after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) in rats. Mechanistically, LFHP-1c binding with endothelial PGAM5 not only inhibited the PGAM5 phosphatase activity, but also reduced the interaction of PGAM5 with NRF2, which facilitated nuclear translocation of NRF2 to prevent BBB disruption from ischemia. Furthermore, LFHP-1c administration by targeting PGAM5 shows a trend toward reduced infarct volume, brain edema and neurological deficits in nonhuman primate

Objective:To study a classifier used to classify arrhythmia electrocardiogram (ECG) signals under the inter-patient paradigm to improve the accuracy of automatic classification and solve the limitations of manual diagnosis of arrhythmia.Methods:A SVM+XGBoost ensemble classifier with four modules including preprocessing, feature extraction, support vector machine (SVM) training and ensemble classification was constructed. ECG signal was preprocessed, and R-R interval, high-order statistics, local binary patterns and wavelet components were used as features to train independent SVM classifiers. Then, XGboost algorithm was used to integrate independent SVM classifiers and output arrhythmia classification results. The integrated classifiers were trained and tested on MIT-BIH database.Results:The overall classification accuracy of the ensemble classifier for arrhythmia was 0.867 and the average sensitivity was 0.782.Conclusions:The proposed ensemble classifier can realize automatic and accurate classification of arrhythmia ECG signals under the inter-patient paradigm, and can be used for clinical auxiliary diagnosis.

To examine the expression of vasohibin-1, metastasis-associated in colon cancer-1 (MACC1) and KAI1 proteins in serous ovarian cancer and their clinical significance.
 Methods: In 124 specimens of serous ovarian cancer (serous ovarian cancer group) and 30 specimens of ovarian serous cystadenoma (ovarian serous cystadenoma group), the expression of vasohibin-1, MACC1 and KAI1 protiens were detected by immunohistochemistry ElivisionTM method.
 Results: In the serous ovarian cancer group, the positive rates of vasohibin-1 and MACC1 proteins were 48.4% and 58.1%, respectively, which were both higher than those in the ovarian serous cystadenoma group (10.0% and 13.3%, respectively); while the positive rate of KAI1 protein in the serous ovarian cancer group was 33.9%, which was lower than that in the ovarian serous cystadenoma group (86.7%), there were significant differences between the 2 groups (all P<0.05). In the serous ovarian cancer group, the expression of the 3 proteins were closely related to the pathological grade, Federation International of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage and pelvic lymph node metastasis (all P<0.05). The KAI1 protein was negatively correlated with the levels of vasohibin-1 and MACC1 (r=-0.500, -0.600, respectively, both P<0.01); while there was a positive correlation between the vasohibin-1 and the MACC1 (r=0.518, P<0.01). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the over-expression of vasohibin-1, MACC1 and the low-expression of KAI1 protein were related to the survival rates (all P<0.05). Multi-factor analysis showed that the expression of vasohibin-1, KAI1 protein and the FIGO stage were independent prognosis factors for radical operation of serous ovarian cancer (RR=2.185, 3.893, 0.413; 95% CI=1.263-3.779, 2.190-6.921, 0.251-0.681; all P<0.05).
 Conclusion: The up-regulation of vasohibin-1, MACC1 and down-regulation of KAI1 in serous ovarian cancer are related to the tumor differentiation, clinical stage, metastasis and prognosis. Combined detection of these indexes is useful in predicting the progression and prognosis of serous ovarian cancer.
Carcinoma, Ovarian Epithelial ; Cell Cycle Proteins ; Colonic Neoplasms ; Female ; Humans ; Kangai-1 Protein ; Neoplasm Staging ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Prognosis ; Trans-Activators ; Transcription Factors