Background Deoxynivalenol (DON), a priority contaminant for food safety risk monitoring, is produced by Fusarium spp. infesting crops, and its common derivatives are 3-acetyl-DON (3A-DON) and 15-acetyl-DON (15A-DON), which have been shown to possess gastrointestinal toxicity, immunotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, and cytotoxicity. Due to the stable physicochemical properties of the DON family of toxins (DONs), they cannot be effectively removed during food processing, thus following the food chain, entering the human body, and posing health risks. Objective To understand the contamination status of DONs in commercial foods (cereals and bakery products) in Shanghai in 2022–2023, and to assess the exposure risk of DONs in pregnant women by combining their dietary consumption data. Methods Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to determine the contamination level of DONs in 1 100 food samples (cereals and baked goods) collected in 2022 and 944 samples collected in 2023 from Shanghai. The dietary monitoring data of pregnant women in Shanghai from 2016 to 2017 were adopted. The monitoring employed the food frequency questionnaire distributed among pregnant women through a combination of online telephone enquiry and offline on-site face-to-face survey to estimate their food consumption levels. An exposure assessment model was established to calculate the exposure level to DONs, and the probability distribution of the DONs exposure level in the pregnant women group in Shanghai was obtained by applying @Risk 7.5 software and simulating the calculation according to the Monte Carlo principle. With reference to the tolerable daily intake (TDI) of DONs [1.00 µg·(kg·d)⁻¹] proposed by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, the risk of exposure to DONs from commercial cereals and bakery products in pregnant women in Shanghai was assessed. Results DONs were detected in cereal and bakery samples collected in 2022 and 2023 with different levels of contamination. The level of DONs in cereal foods in 2023 (mean: 36.33 µg·kg⁻¹) decreased compared to 2022 (mean: 23.64 µg·kg⁻¹). However, the positive rate (71.67%) and level (mean: 51.22 µg·kg⁻¹) of DONs in bakery products increased significantly compared with 2022 (positive rate: 10.00%, mean: 24.39 µg·kg⁻¹). The mean consumption of cereals in 783 pregnant women was 222.48 g·d⁻¹ and the mean consumption of bakery products was 36.07 g·d⁻¹, and there was no statistically significant difference in the intake of all types of cereals and bakery products across the early, middle, and late stages of pregnancy. The modelled intakes of DONs via commercial cereals and bakery products for pregnant women in Shanghai were calculated to be 0.20 and 0.57 µg·(kg·d)⁻¹ in 2022 for the mean level and the 95th percentile level, respectively, and 0.16 µg·(kg·d)⁻¹ and 0.35 µg·(kg·d)⁻¹ in 2023, respectively. The results of the health risk assessment showed that pregnant women in Shanghai had 2.6% and 1.4% probability of exposure to DONs from cereal consumption in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Conclusion The risk of exposure of pregnant women in Shanghai to DONs via commercial cereals and bakery products is relatively low (1.4%-2.6%). However, considering the physical sensitivity of pregnant women, they should avoid consuming moldy grains and appropriately reduce intake of bakery products.

This study explored the potential therapeutic targets and mechanisms of Danggui Shaoyao San(DSS) in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease(AD) through transcriptomics and metabolomics, combined with animal experiments. Fifty male C57BL/6J mice, aged seven weeks, were randomly divided into the following five groups: control, model, positive drug, low-dose DSS, and high-dose DSS groups. After the intervention, the Morris water maze was used to assess learning and memory abilities of mice, and Nissl staining and hematoxylin-eosin(HE) staining were performed to observe pathological changes in the hippocampal tissue. Transcriptomics and metabolomics were employed to sequence brain tissue and identify differential metabolites, analyzing key genes and metabolites related to disease progression. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR) was employed to validate the expression of key genes. The Morris water maze results indicated that DSS significantly improved learning and cognitive function in scopolamine(SCOP)-induced model mice, with the high-dose DSS group showing the best results. Pathological staining showed that DSS effectively reduced hippocampal neuronal damage, increased Nissl body numbers, and reduced nuclear pyknosis and neuronal loss. Transcriptomics identified seven key genes, including neurexin 1(Nrxn1) and sodium voltage-gated channel α subunit 1(Scn1a), and metabolomics revealed 113 differential metabolites, all of which were closely associated with synaptic function, oxidative stress, and metabolic regulation. RT-qPCR experiments confirmed that the expression of these seven key genes was consistent with the transcriptomics results. This study suggests that DSS significantly improves learning and memory in SCOP model mice and alleviates hippocampal neuronal pathological damage. The mechanisms likely involve the modulation of synaptic function, reduction of oxidative stress, and metabolic balance, with these seven key genes serving as important targets for DSS in the treatment of AD.
Animals ; Alzheimer Disease/genetics* ; Male ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/administration & dosage* ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Metabolomics ; Transcriptome/drug effects* ; Maze Learning/drug effects* ; Hippocampus/metabolism* ; Humans ; Disease Models, Animal ; Memory/drug effects*

Objective To observe the improvement of motor dysfunction and serum levels of C-reactive protein(CRP),blood glucose and blood lipid in post-stroke patients treated with scalp acupuncture at different needle retention time.Methods A total of 120 patients with motor dysfunction after stroke were randomly divided into control group,observation group 1 and observation group 2,with 40 cases in each group.The patients in the 3 groups were treated with scalp acupuncture,body acupuncture and routine rehabilitation exercise,once a day and 6 times a week,lasting for 2 weeks.The control group was given scalp acupuncture with retaining of needles for 30 minutes,the observation group 1 was given scalp acupuncture with retaining of needles for one hour,and the observation group 2 was given scalp acupuncture with retaining of needles for 2 hours.Before and after treatment,the 3 groups were observed in the changes of the scale scores of National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale(NIHSS),Fugl-Meyer Assessment(FM A),Berg Balance Scale(BBS)and modified Barthel Index(MBI),and the levels of laboratory indicators of peripheral blood CRP,fasting plasma glucose(FPG),total cholesterol(TC),triglyceride(TG),high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C)and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C).After treatment,the clinical safety of the three groups was evaluated.Results(1)After treatment,the scale scores of NIHSS in the three groups were lower(P＜0.01)and the scale scores FMA,BBS and MBI were higher than those before treatment(P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).The comparison of post-treatment scale scores showed that the differences among the three groups were statistically significant(P＜0.01).The intergroup comparison showed that the decrease of NIHSS score and the increase of FMA,BBS and MBI scores in the observation group 2 were significantly superior to those in the control group and the observation group 1(P＜0.01);the improvement of FMA score in the observation group 1 was significantly superior to that in the control group(P＜0.01),while the improvement of NIHSS,BBS and MBI scores tended to be superior to that in the control group without statistically significant differences(P＞0.05).The results indicated that the curative effect of scalp acupuncture plus exercise regimen was positively correlated with the duration of needle retention for scalp acupuncture.(2)After treatment,the laboratory indicator levels of CRP and FPG in the peripheral blood of the three groups,the levels of TG and LDL-C in the two observation groups and the level of HDL-C in the observation group 2 were improved compared with those before treatment(P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).Statistically significant differences were presented in the post-treatment levels of CRP and TG in peripheral blood among the three groups(P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).The intergroup comparison showed that the improvement of CRP and TG levels in the observation group 2 was significantly superior to that in the control group,and the improvement of CRP level in the observation group 2 was significantly superior to that in the observation group 1,the differences being statistically significant(P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).The TC level in the three groups after treatment did not differ from that before treatment,and there was no significant difference in TC level after treatment among the three groups either(P＞0.05).(3)During the treatment,no adverse reactions such as fainting,needle breaking and hematoma occurred in the three groups,the vital signs of the patients were stable,and there were no obvious abnormal changes in pulse,blood pressure and respiratory rate.Conclusion Scalp acupuncture can effectively improve the motor function of post-stroke patients in a pasitive time-effect relationship with the needle retention,and better the curative effect can be achieved by retaining of the needle for 2 h.

Objective To investigate the improvement effect and mechanism of marmesin on cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease(AD)mice.Methods Fifty mice were randomly divided into five groups:blank group,model group,low-and high-dose marmesin groups and donepezil(positive drug)group,with 10 mice in each group.After 21 days of continuous administration,except for the blank group,the mice in other groups were given intraperitoneal injection of scopolamine to establish the AD model.Network pharmacology was used to construct the protein-protein interaction(PPI)network of common targets of marmesin in the treatment of AD,and gene ontology(GO)and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)enrichment analysis were performed to provide further research direction.The cognitive function of AD model mice was evaluated by Morris water maze,open field test and new object recognition test.Nissl staining was used to observe the damage of hippocampal neurons.The levels of acetylcholine(Ach),acetylcholine transferase(ChAT),acetylcholinesterase(AChE),reactive oxygen species(ROS),malondialdehyde(MDA)and catalase(CAT)in hippocampus of mice were detected by kit.The protein expression levels of interleukin 6(IL-6),interleukin 1β(IL-1 β),tumor necrosis factor α(TNF-α),nuclear factor E2-related factor 2(NRF2),silent information regulator homologous protein 3(SIRT3),Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1(KEAP1),quinone oxidoreductase 1(NQO1)and heme oxygenase 1(HO-1)in hippocampus were detected by Western Blot.Results Compared with the model group,the latency of Morris water maze test was significantly shortened in the high-dose marmesin group,the time of entering the target area in the open field new object test and the movement distance in the central area of the open field were prolonged,the number of neurons in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 regions was significantly increased,the levels of ChAT and Ach in the hippocampus were significantly increased,AChE level was significantly decreased,CAT level was significantly increased,ROS and MDA levels were significantly decreased,TNF-α expression level was decreased,SIRT3 and HO-1 expression levels were increased,and KE AP1 protein expression level was decreased,the differences being statistically significant(P＜0.05 or P＜0.01 or P＜0.001).Conclusion Marmesin can effectively improve the learning and memory impairment of AD mice,and its mechanism may be related to the activation of NRF2/SIRT3 signaling pathway,thereby alleviating oxidative stress level and neuroinflammation,and repairing cholinergic neuron function.

Patients with severe trauma require an extremely timely treatment and transfusion plays an irreplaceable role in the emergency treatment of such patients. An increasing number of evidence-based medicinal evidences and clinical practices suggest that patients with severe traumatic bleeding benefit from early transfusion of low-titer group O whole blood or hemostatic resuscitation with red blood cells, plasma and platelet of a balanced ratio. However, the current domestic mode of blood supply cannot fully meet the requirements of timely and effective blood transfusion for emergency treatment of patients with severe trauma in clinical practice. In order to solve the key problems in blood supply and blood transfusion strategies for emergency treatment of severe trauma, Branch of Clinical Transfusion Medicine of Chinese Medical Association, Group for Trauma Emergency Care and Multiple Injuries of Trauma Branch of Chinese Medical Association, Young Scholar Group of Disaster Medicine Branch of Chinese Medical Association organized domestic experts of blood transfusion medicine and trauma treatment to jointly formulate Chinese expert consensus on blood support mode and blood transfusion strategies for emergency treatment of severe trauma patients ( version 2024). Based on the evidence-based medical evidence and Delphi method of expert consultation and voting, 10 recommendations were put forward from two aspects of blood support mode and transfusion strategies, aiming to provide a reference for transfusion resuscitation in the emergency treatment of severe trauma and further improve the success rate of treatment of patients with severe trauma.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the immunological mechanisms underlying spermatogenetic malfunction in patients with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) based on bioinformatics and machine learning, and to screen out the key genes associated with spermatogenesis failure. METHODS: NOA-related datasets were obtained from the GEO database, and the differentially expressed genes identified by differential analysis and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). A model of spermatogenesis scoring was established for analysis of the immunological microenvironment and cell interaction networks related to spermatogenesis failure. The key genes were screened out by machine learning, followed by analysis of their correlation with T cells and macrophages. An NOA mouse model was constructed for validation of transcriptome sequencing. RESULTS: Seventy-five differentially expressed genes were identified for the establishment of the spermatogenesis scoring model. The low spermatogenesis score group showed a higher infiltration of the immune cells, with an increased proportion of T cells and macrophages and a correlation of cell interaction signals with immunity. SOX30, KCTD19, ASRGL1 and DRC7 were identified by machine learning as the key genes related to spermatogenesis, with down-regulated expressions in the NOA group, and their expression levels negatively correlated with the infiltration of T cells and macrophages. The accuracy of the spermatogenesis scoring and machine learning models, as well as the trend of the expression levels of the key genes, was successfully validated with the transcriptome sequencing data on the NOA mouse testis. CONCLUSION The development of NOA is closely associated with enhanced immunological microenvironment in the testis. T cells and macrophages may play important roles in spermatogenesis failure. SOX30, KCTD19, ASRGL1 and DRC7 are potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of NOA.
Male ; Azoospermia/genetics* ; Machine Learning ; Animals ; Computational Biology ; Mice ; Humans ; Spermatogenesis/genetics* ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Macrophages/immunology* ; Gene Regulatory Networks ; T-Lymphocytes/immunology* ; Transcriptome

GJ-4 is crocin enrichments extracted from Gardenia jasminoides J. Ellis, and our previous studies have shown that GJ-4 significantly improved learning and memory impairment induced by Aβ in mice. Herein, a memory deficit model was developed by injecting okadaic acid (OA) into the lateral ventricle of mice, and the neuroprotection and underlying mechanism of GJ-4 on neuronal injury caused by Tau hyperphosphorylation were investigated. The Animal Care & Welfare Committee, Institute of Materia Medica, CAMS & PUMC has approved all procedures (No.00000318). GJ-4 at different doses was intragastric administration to mice for 16 days. Step-down test and Morris water maze test showed that GJ-4 could significantly improve OA-induced memory impairment in mice, and reduced the loss of Nissl bodies in the hippocampus of mice. GJ-4 could also decrease the phosphorylation level of Tau protein at Ser396, Thr231 and Ser404 via increasing protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity and inhibiting glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) activity. Besides, further researches indicated that GJ-4 could inhibit the level of oxidative stress in the brain of OA mice, reduce neuronal apoptosis and inhibit the neuroinflammation mediated by activation of astrocytes in the hippocampus of mice, and eventually achieve its effects in improving learning and memory impairment in mice. According to these findings, we anticipated that GJ-4 might be a potential therapeutic drug for Alzheimer's disease.

Objective:To explore clinical value of nucleic acid detection for hepatitis B virus (HBV) screening in hospitalized patients.Methods:This cross-sectional study collected and analyzed plasma samples from patients admitted to 10 domestic medical institutions from July 2021 to December 2021. Serological immunoassay and nucleic acid screening were used to simultaneously detect hepatitis B markers such as hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb), hepatitis B e Antigen (HBeAg), hepatitis B e antibody (HBeAb), hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb),and HBV DNA. Statistical analysis was performed on the serology, nucleic acid test results and clinical information of the patients.Results:Of the 8 655 collected samples, HBsAg was positive in 216 (2.50%) samples,HBV DNA was positive in 238 (2.75%) samples ( P>0.05); 210 (2.43%) samples were positive for both HBsAg and HBV DNA, 28 (0.32%) were HBsAg negative and HBV DNA positive, 6 cases (0.07%) were HBsAg positive and HBV DNA negative. Conclusion:These results indicate that the HBV DNA testing is equally effective as hepatitis B virus serological detection for hepatitis B virus screening in hospitalized patients.

Objective:This multi-centre study was conducted to assess the efficacy of various preoperative/pre-transfusion screening methods for blood transmitted disease.Methods:From July 2021 to December 2021, plasma samples of patients admitted to 10 hospitals were collected for screening preoperative/pre-transfusion blood transmitted disease. Nucleic acid detection technology was used to detect hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)(1+2) RNA, and the results were compared with the immuno-serological methods. χ 2 test and Kappa test were used to analyze the efficacy of these two methods. Results:A total of 8 655 valid specimens were collected from 10 hospitals. There was a statistically significant difference in the positive detection rate of HCV between the two methods ( P<0.001). There was no significant difference in the positive detection rate of HBV and HIV assessed by the two methods ( P>0.05), but the number of positive cases detected by HBV DNA and HIV RNA (218 and 4 cases) was significantly higher than the corresponding serological results (216 and 2 cases). At the same time, there were HBV, HCV and HIV immuno-serological omissions by the immuno-serological methods, among which 28 cases were HBsAg negative and HBV DNA positive, 2 cases were HCV antibody negative and HCV RNA positive, and 2 cases were HIV antigen/antibody negative and HIV RNA positive. In addition, in the 66 samples with inconsistent results from the two detection methods, 83.3% (55/66), 68.2% (45/66), 63.6% (42/66) and 62.1% (41/66) of patients aged was>45 years, tumor, surgery and male, respectively. Conclusions:Compared with immuno-serological tests, nucleic acid tests have the advantage in terms of sensitivity on detecting HBV, HCV and HIV infection and could reduce missed detection. The risk of transmission can be reduced by adding HBV, HCV, and HIV nucleic acid tests to preoperative/pre-transfusion immuno-serological tests screening for patients over 45 years of age and tumor patients.

Objective:To compare the cost-effectiveness of hospitalized Chinese patients undergoing nucleic acid screening strategies for hepatitis B and hepatitis C, immunological screening strategy, and no screening strategy under different willingness to pay (WTP). The results might aid to decision-making for the optimal strategy.Methods:In this study, nucleic acid screening, immunological screening and no screening were used as screening strategies, and China′s GDP in 2021 (80 976 yuan) was used as the threshold of WTP to construct a Markov model. After introducing parameters related to the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B and C in inpatients, a cohort population of 100 000 inpatients was simulated by TreeAge Pro 2021 software, the total cost, total health effects, incremental cost-effectiveness ratio and average cost-effectiveness ratio of different screening strategies were calculated, and cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted. Univariate and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were used to assess the impact of parameter uncertainty on the final results.Results:Compared with the non-screening strategy, the incremental total cost of the hepatitis B immunological screening strategy for cohort patients was 11 049 536 yuan, and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was 24 762 yuan/quality-adjusted life years (QALY), while the total incremental cost of nucleic acid screening was 19 208 059 yuan, and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was 29 873 yuan/QALY; the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of nucleic acid screening and immunological screening was 45 834 yuan/QALY. Compared with the non-screening strategy, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of hepatitis C immunological screening strategy was 5 731 yuan/QALY, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of nucleic acid screening strategy was 8 722 yuan/QALY, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of nucleic acid screening and immunological screening was 45 591 yuan/QALY. The results of probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed that when the cost of nucleic acid testing exceeded 214.53 yuan, it was not cost-effective to perform hepatitis B nucleic acid screening under the WTP as 1 fold GDP. When the cost of nucleic acid testing exceeded 132.18 yuan, it was not cost-effective to conduct hepatitis C screening under the WTP as 1 fold GDP.Conclusions:Nucleic acid screening strategy can achieve more cost-effectiveness and is worthy of vigorous promotion. Compared with no screening, both the nucleic acid and immunological screening strategies are cost-effective, and hepatitis nucleic acid screening is the optimal strategy for hospitalized patients.