This study identified 8 members including NjBIN2 of the GSK3 family in Nardostachys jatamansi by bioinformatics analysis. Moreover, the phylogenetic tree revealed that the GKS3 family members of N. jatamansi had a close relationship with those of Arabidopsis. RT-qPCR results showed that NjBIN2 presented a tissue-specific expression pattern with the highest expression in roots, suggesting that NjBIN2 played a role in root growth and development. In addition, the application of epibrassinolide or the brassinosteroid(BR) synthesis inhibitor(brassinazole) altered the expression pattern of NjBIN2 and influenced the photomorphogenesis(cotyledon opening) and root development of N. jatamansi, which provided direct evidence about the functions of NjBIN2. In conclusion, this study highlights the roles of BIN2 in regulating the growth and development of N. jatamansi by analyzing the expression pattern and biological function of NjBIN2. It not only enriches the understanding about the regulatory mechanism of the growth and development of N. jatamansi but also provides a theoretical basis and potential gene targets for molecular breeding of N. jatamansi with improved quality in the future.
Brassinosteroids/metabolism* ; Steroids, Heterocyclic/metabolism* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant/drug effects* ; Plant Proteins/metabolism* ; Phylogeny ; Nardostachys/metabolism* ; Plant Growth Regulators/pharmacology* ; Plant Roots/drug effects*

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.jpha.2023.08.006.].

OBJECTIVE: Humans are exposed to complex mixtures of environmental chemicals and other factors that can affect their health. Analysis of these mixture exposures presents several key challenges for environmental epidemiology and risk assessment, including high dimensionality, correlated exposure, and subtle individual effects. METHODS: We proposed a novel statistical approach, the generalized functional linear model (GFLM), to analyze the health effects of exposure mixtures. GFLM treats the effect of mixture exposures as a smooth function by reordering exposures based on specific mechanisms and capturing internal correlations to provide a meaningful estimation and interpretation. The robustness and efficiency was evaluated under various scenarios through extensive simulation studies. RESULTS: We applied the GFLM to two datasets from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). In the first application, we examined the effects of 37 nutrients on BMI (2011-2016 cycles). The GFLM identified a significant mixture effect, with fiber and fat emerging as the nutrients with the greatest negative and positive effects on BMI, respectively. For the second application, we investigated the association between four pre- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and gout risk (2007-2018 cycles). Unlike traditional methods, the GFLM indicated no significant association, demonstrating its robustness to multicollinearity. CONCLUSION GFLM framework is a powerful tool for mixture exposure analysis, offering improved handling of correlated exposures and interpretable results. It demonstrates robust performance across various scenarios and real-world applications, advancing our understanding of complex environmental exposures and their health impacts on environmental epidemiology and toxicology.
Humans ; Environmental Exposure/analysis* ; Linear Models ; Nutrition Surveys ; Environmental Pollutants ; Body Mass Index

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) poses a significant risk of neural damage during pregnancy. As the most prevalent intrauterine infectious agent in low- and middle-income countries, HCMV disrupts the development of neural stem cells, leading to fetal malformations and abnormal structural and physiological functions in the fetal brain. This review summarizes the current understanding of how HCMV infection dysregulates the Wnt signaling pathway to induce fetal malformations and discusses current management strategies.
Humans ; Cytomegalovirus Infections/virology* ; Wnt Signaling Pathway ; Pregnancy ; Female ; Cytomegalovirus/physiology* ; Pregnancy Complications, Infectious/virology* ; Congenital Abnormalities/virology* ; Animals

A major impedance to neuronal regeneration after peripheral nerve injury(PNI)is the activation of various programmed cell death mechanisms in the dorsal root ganglion.Ferroptosis is a form of pro-grammed cell death distinguished by imbalance in iron and thiol metabolism,leading to lethal lipid peroxidation.However,the molecular mechanisms of ferroptosis in the context of PNI and nerve regeneration remain unclear.Ferroportin(Fpn),the only known mammalian nonheme iron export protein,plays a pivotal part in inhibiting ferroptosis by maintaining intracellular iron homeostasis.Here,we explored in vitro and in vivo the involvement of Fpn in neuronal ferroptosis.We first delineated that reactive oxygen species at the injury site induces neuronal ferroptosis by increasing intracellular iron via accelerated UBA52-driven ubiquitination and degradation of Fpn,and stimulation of lipid peroxidation.Early administration of the potent arterial vasodilator,hydralazine(HYD),decreases the ubiquitination of Fpn after PNI by binding to UBA52,leading to suppression of neuronal cell death and significant ac-celeration of axon regeneration and motor function recovery.HYD targeting of ferroptosis is a promising strategy for clinical management of PNI.

Objective To explore the application effect of enteral nutrition-related diarrhea in postoperative esophageal cancer patients.Methods Based on literature search and expert meeting,a management process for enteral nutrition-associated diarrhea in postoperative esophageal cancer patients was constructed.A convenience sampling method was used to select a total of 68 patients with enteral nutrition-related diarrhea after esophageal cancer surgery admitted to the thoracic surgery department of a tertiary A cancer hospital in Jiangsu Province.Among them,patients admitted from January 2022 to December 2022 were set as an experimental group.The experimental group was implemented the management process for enteral nutrition-associated diarrhea in postoperative esophageal cancer patients.Those admitted from January 2021 to December 2021 were set as a control group with routine nursing.Then,the time of stopping diarrhea,the King's of Stool Chart(KSC-Tr)diarrhea score,and abnormal incidence of nutrition-related indexes,electrolytes abnormalities(low sodium,low potassium,and low calcium)were compared between 2 groups.Results The time of stopping diarrhea,KSC diarrhea score after 3 days of intervention and the time to achieve target feeding volume of the experimental group were lower than those in the control group,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).There were no significant differences in hemoglobin,albumin,prealbumin after 3 days of intervention,the incidence of electrolyte abnormalities(low sodium,low potassium,and low calcium)after 3 days of intervention,and the BMI index after 7 days of intervention between 2 groups(P＞0.05).Conclusion The management process for enteral nutrition-associated diarrhea in postoperative esophageal cancer patients can reduce the time of diarrhea,improve the severity of diarrhea,and shorten the time to achieve the target feeding,but has no significant change in the incidence of electrolyte abnormalities.

Orodispersible films (oral dispersible films), a novel form of oral solid dosage forms, are widely used for patients with dysphagia and those with uncontrollable autonomic behavior. In this study, suvorexant orodispersible film was prepared by hot melt extrusion technology, and the disintegration time, mechanical properties, in vitro dissolution and pharmacokinetics were evaluated, compared with other orodispersible films and commercially available tablets Belsomra. All experiments were approved by the Committee on the Management and Use of Laboratory Animals of Academy of Military Medical Sciences (IACUC-DWZX-2024-504). The results showed that the dissolution rate of suvorexant orodispersible film was faster and the mechanical strength was better than that of other commercially available orodispersible film, which could meet the needs of storage and transportation. Differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction results showed that suvorexant was dispersed within the orodispersible film in an amorphous state. The in vitro dissolution of the film was observed to be four times faster than that of the commercial tablets, achieving complete dissolution within five minutes. Pharmacokinetic evaluations in Beagle dogs revealed that the self-formulated orodispersible film exhibited no significant differences in the area under the blood concentration-time curve when compared with Belsomra. However, the film showed a faster onset of action, with a peak time that was twice as rapid, and a maximum blood concentration that was twice as high as that of Belsomra. Leveraging hot melt extrusion technology, the suvorexant orodispersible film offers a straightforward, continuous production process with consistent quality. It serves as an excellent platform for the development of solvent-free film preparations tailored for patients with special needs.

The rheological properties of drug and carrier materials have a wide range of guiding significance for the formulation and process development of solid dispersions. In this study, the rheological properties of materials with different drug carrier ratios were systematically studied with suvorexant as the model drug and copovidone as the carrier material, which provided a sufficient basis for determining the formulation and process of solid dispersions. The optimal suvorexant-copovidone ratio obtained by oscillating temperature scanning was 1∶4. If the ratio is greater than 1∶ 4, the glass transformation temperature of the material will increase significantly, and the solubilization effect of the solid dispersion will show a downward trend. The results of oscillation temperature scanning and oscillation temperature sweep can show that when the extrusion temperature is greater than 150 ℃, the viscosity of the material is less than 10 000 Pa·s, and the melt can be extruded smoothly, and the best extrusion temperature of 160-180 ℃ can be obtained by combining the dissolution results. Finally, the dissolution of suvorexant tablets guided by rheological property studies in multiple media is similar to that of the commercially available tablets Belsomra. Therefore, rheological studies can screen and optimize the formulation and process of suvorexant solid dispersions at the mechanism level, which is of great significance to improve the success rate of R&D and shorten the R&D cycle of solid dispersions prepared by hot melt extrusion.

Objective To investigate the efficacy of the therapy of soothing liver and strengthening spleen(shortened as Shugan Jianpi therapy)in the treatment of active thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy(TAO)complicated with dry eye,and to provide a reference basis for clinical treatment.Methods A total of 108 patients with active TAO complicated with dry eye of liver depression and qi stagnation type were randomly divided into observation group and control group,54 patients in each group.Both groups were given conventional treatment for intervention of Graves'disease,and additionally the control group was given hormone shock therapy by intravenous injection of Methylprednisolone Sodium Succinate,and the observation group was treated with Chinese medicine prescription for soothing liver and strengthening spleen orally and intravenous injection of Methylprednisolone Sodium Succinate.The treatment period lasted for 12 weeks,and then the patients were followed up till to the 6th month.The changes of clinical activity score(CAS),proptosis,ocular surface disease index(OSDI),corneal fluorescein staining(FL),Schirmer I test(SIT)and tear film break-up time(BUT)in the two groups were observed before and after the treatment.After treatment,the clinical efficacy of the two groups was evaluated.Results(1)After 6 months of treatment,the total effective rate in the observation group was 94.44%(51/54)and that in the control group was 74.07%(40/54),and the intergroup comparison(tested by chi-square test)showed that the efficacy of the observation group was significantly superior to that of the control group(P＜0.05).(2)After treatment,the CAS,OSDI score and proptosis of the patients in the two groups were all lower than those before treatment(P＜0.01),and the reduction in the observation group was significantly superior to that in the control group(P＜0.01).(3)After treatment,the indicators of tear secretion function such as SIT,FL score and BUT of patients in the two groups were improved compared with those before treatment(P＜0.01),and the improvement in the observation group was significantly superior to that in the control group,the differences being all statistically significant(P＜0.01).Conclusion Shugan Jianpi therapy exerts certain clinical efficacy in treating patients with active TAO complicated with dry eye of liver depression and qi stagnation type,which can effectively relieve the proptosis,prolong the tear film break-up time,promote the secretion of tears and the repair of corneal epithelium,improve the visual function,and enhance the quality of life of the patients.

Objective To investigate the association of 13 single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP)sites in 6 phalange-bone development related genes[fibroblast growth factor receptor 2(FGFR2),indian hedgehog signaling molecule(IHH),Msh homeobox 1(MSX1),Runx family transcription factor 2(RUNX2),SRY-box transcription factor 9(SOX9),Wnt family member 5A(WNT5A)]with human index-ring finger length ratio(2D∶4D).Methods Digital cameras were used to take frontal photographs of the hands of 731 college students(358 males and 373 females)in Ningxia,and image analysis software was used to mark anatomical points and measure finger lengths of index(2th)and ring(4th);genotyping of 13 SNP sites(rs1047057,rs755793,rs41258305,rs3731881,rs3100776,rs12532,rs3821949,rs45585135,rs3749863,rs1042667,rs12601701,rs1829556,rs3732750)for 6 genes by multiplex PCR;One-Way ANOVA or independent sample t-test indirectly assessed the association between 2D∶4D and 13 SNP sites.Results Both left and right hand 2D∶4D were significantly higher in females than males in Ningxia college students(all P<0.01);no statistically significant differences in genotype and allele frequencies of the 13 SNP sites among different sexes(all P>0.05);among different sexes,male left hand 2D∶4D was significantly associated with the genotype of SOX9 gene rs12601701 site(P<0.05)and right hand 2D∶4D was significantly associated with the genotype of WNT5A gene rs1829556 site(P<0.05);the female right hand 2D∶4D was significantly associated with the MSX1 gene rs12532(P<0.01)and rs3821949(P<0.05)sites genotypes.Conclusion SOX9(rs12601701),WNT5A(rs1829556)and MSX1(rs12532 and rs3821949)gene polymorphisms may be associated with the formation of 2D∶4D in Ningxia population.