Biomolecular condensates are formed through phase separation of biomacromolecules such as proteins and RNAs. These condensates exhibit liquid-like properties that can futher transition into more stable material states. They form complex internal structures via multivalent weak interactions, enabling precise spatiotemporal regulations. However, the use of inconsistent and non-standardized terminology has become increasingly problematic, hindering academic exchange and the dissemination of scientific knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the terminology related to biomolecular condensates in order to clarify concepts, promote interdisciplinary cooperation, enhance research efficiency, and support the healthy development of this field.

ObjectiveTo clarify whether epigallocatechin gallate （EGCG） is involved in the clearance of amyloid β-protein （Aβ） and autophagy induction by microglia， so as to explore the potential mechanisms of EGCG in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease （AD）. MethodsSix-month-old APP/PS1 mice were randomly divided into model and EGCG groups， with some additional wild type （WT） mice as the control group， each group consisting of 15 mice. The EGCG group received continuous gavage administration［5 mg/（kg·d）］ for 8 weeks， followed by the open field test and Y-maze to assess the learning and memory abilities of the mice. Thioflavin-S staining was used to evaluate the content and distribution of amyloid β-protein （Aβ）in the brain parenchyma of the mice， and immunofluorescence was employed to detect the expression levels of Aβ_1-42， glial fibrillary acidic protein （GFAP）， and ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 （Iba1） in the hippocampal tissue of the mice. Additionally， N9 mouse microglial cells were induced with 20 µmol/L Aβ_1-42， and the cell viability was measured after treatment with different concentrations of EGCG （5 µmol/L， 10 µmol/L， 20 µmol/L）. Western blotting was used to detect the levels of Aβ_1-42， low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1（LRP1）， receptor for advanced glycation endproducts （RAGE）， amyloid precursor protein （APP）， insulin degrading enzyme （IDE）， neprilysin （NEP）， microtubule associated protein 1 hydrogen chain 3（LC3）-Ⅱ/LC3-Ⅰ， phosphatidylinositol 3-hydroxy kinase（PI3K）， p-PI3K， protein kinase B （AKT）， p-AKT， mammalian target of rapamycin （mTOR）， p-mTOR， and histone deacetylase 6（HDAC6）. Finally， through the co-culture of microglial cells and neuronal SH-SY5Y cells， cell viability and Caspase-3 levels were measured to verify the protective effect of EGCG-mediated Aβ clearance on neurons. ResultsEGCG increased the activity time and frequency of APP/PS1 mice in the central area of the open field （P<0.05）， and enhanced the percentage of alternation in the Y-maze test （P<0.01）； EGCG reduced Aβ deposition in the hippocampal tissue of APP/PS1 mice and increased the number of microglia； in vitro experiments showed that EGCG improved the survival rate of Aβ-induced N9 cells （P<0.01）， upregulated RAGE activity （P<0.05）， and promoted the internalization and phagocytosis of Aβ （P<0.01）. ECGC activated microglial autophagy by downregulating the level of HDAC6 （P<0.05）， inhibiting the phosphorylation of PI3K， AKT， mTOR （P<0.001）， and increasing the LC3-Ⅱ/LC3-I ratio （P<0.001）； EGCG improved the survival rate of SH-SY5Y cells （P<0.05） and reduced the activity of Caspase-3 （P<0.01） by clearing Aβ_1-42 through microglia， and had a protective effect on neurons. ConclusionEGCG activates microglial autophagy to clear Aβ by targeting and inhibiting the HDAC6-PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis.

Aim This study aims to investigate the therapeutic effect and underlying mechanism of Todda-lia asiatica in the treatment of ischemic stroke(IS),utilizing network pharmacology,molecular docking technology,and animal experiments.Methods To screen the chemical components of Toddalia asiatica and its targets related to IS,a database was utilized.A protein-protein interaction(PPI)network was con-structed,followed by KEGG pathway enrichment anal-ysis.Molecular docking was performed to investigate the interaction between the components and target pro-teins.Finally,the effects of the drug on the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and autophagy were validated through animal experiments.We established a middle cerebral artery occlusion(MCAO)rat model and di-vided the rats into the model group,Donepezil hydro-chloride group,Toddalia asiatica group,and sham op-eration group randomly.Observed the pathological changes in neurons of the rat hippocampal and cortical regions induced by the drug,performed immunohisto-chemical analysis to detect and localize mTOR expres-sion,and used Western blot to assess the expression levels of PI3K,p-PI3K,AKT,p-AKT,mTOR,as well as autophagy markers(LC3-Ⅱ and p62).Re-sults A total of 22 active ingredients from Toddalia asiatica,including AKT1 and MAPK3,were identified through screening.Additionally,194 signaling path-ways,such as PI3K/AKT and MAPK,were analyzed.The active compounds in Toddalia asiatica demonstra-ted stable binding affinity with targets associated with ischemic stroke.The results of the animal experiment indicated that,compared to the sham-operated group,the neuronal distribution in the hippocampal and corti-cal regions of the model group rats became sparser and more disorganized.There was a decrease in the number of Nissl bodies and cytoplasmic vacuolization.The ex-pression of mTOR-positive cells in the hippocampal and cortical regions was reduced.Additionally,the ex-pression levels of p-PI3K,p-AKT,mTOR,and p62 in the rat hippocampal tissue decreased(P＜0.05,P＜0.01),while the expression of LC3-Ⅱ increased(P＜0.01).Compared with the model group,the rats in the Toddalia asiatica and the Donepezil hydrochloride groups effectively improved the aforementioned indica-tors in rats.Conclusions Network pharmacology a-nalysis has revealed the promising potential of Toddalia asiatica in treating ischemic stroke,attributed to its di-verse components,targets,and pathways.The animal experiment showed that Toddalia asiatica can protect the neuronal structure in the hippocampal and cortical regions,which may be related to the inhibition of ex-cessive autophagy mediated by the PI3 K/AKT/mTOR pathway.

The assessment of adverse drug events is an important basis for clinical safety evaluation and post-marketing risk control of drugs,and its causality assessment is gaining increasing attention.The existing methods for assessing the causal relationship between drugs and the occurrence of adverse reactions can be broadly classified into three categories:global introspective methods,standardized methods,and probabilistic methods.At present,there is no systematic introduction of the operational details of the various methods in the domestic literature.This paper compares representative causality assessment methods in terms of definition and concept,methodological steps,industry evaluation and advantages and disadvantages,clarifies the basic process of determining the causality of adverse drug reactions,and discusses how to further improve the adverse drug reaction monitoring and evaluation system,with a view to providing a reference for drug development and pharmacovigilance work in China.

Background/Aims: The histological characteristics and natural history of precirrhotic primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) with portal hypertension (PH) are unclear. Our aim was to clarify the prevalence, risk factors, and histological characteristics of precirrhotic PBC patients with PH. Methods: This retrospective study compared the clinical features, histological characteristics, and response to ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) between the PH and non-PH groups of precirrhotic PBC patients. Results: Out of 165 precirrhotic PBC patients, 40 (24.2%) also had PH. According to histological stage 1, 2 and 3 disease, 5.3% (1/19), 17.3% (17/98), and 45.8% (22/48) of patients also had PH, respectively. Precirrhotic PBC with PH was significantly positively correlated with bile duct loss, degree of cytokeratin 7 positivity, and degree of fibrosis in the portal area, but significantly negatively correlated with lymphoid follicular aggregation. Compared to the non-PH group, patients in the PH group showed a higher prevalence of obliterative portal venopathy, incomplete septal fibrosis, portal tract abnormalities and non-zonal sinusoidal dilatation (p<0.05). In addition, patients with PH were more likely to present with symptoms of jaundice, ascites, epigastric discomfort, a poorer response to UDCA, and more decompensation events (p<0.05). High alkaline phosphatase levels, low white blood cell counts, high Mayo scores, and high FIB-4 index values were risk factors for precirrhotic PBC with PH. Conclusions Approximately 24.2% of precirrhotic PBC patients have PH, which is histologically related to the injury of bile ducts. High alkaline phosphatase levels, low white blood cell counts, high Mayo scores, and high FIB-4 index values are associated with increased risk of precirrhotic PBC with PH.

Background: and Purpose Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is common in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Early recognition OH is required with sensitive assessments. The purpose of this study was to determine whether blood pressure (BP) changes during exercise can predict the occurrence of OH in PD. Methods: This prospective cohort study included 80 consecutive patients with PD. All patients agreed to participate in a baseline evaluation and cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET).According to the initial active standing test (AST), those without OH (PD-nonOH) at baseline had their AST results followed up for 6 months. The main outcome was defined as whether patients without OH at baseline would develop OH after 6 months. Logistic regression analysis was applied to identify the relevant variables. A nomogram was constructed based on clinical features and identified variables. The concordance index (C-index) and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the accuracy and predictive ability of the nomogram, respectively. Results: CPET results indicated that peak load, peak heart rate, heart rate recovery at 1 min, and systolic BP change (ΔSBP) were lower in those with OH than in the PD-nonOH group (p<0.05) at baseline. Logistic regression analysis indicated that peak load and ΔSBP during CPET had significant effects on OH (p<0.05). Age, sex, peak load, and ΔSBP were used to construct the nomogram model (C-index=0.761). The prediction model had an AUC of 0.782 (95% confidence interval=0.649–0.889) and a specificity and sensitivity of 70.0% and 81.8%, respectively. Conclusions This study has identified predictive factors for OH development in patients with PD. CPET could be used as a complementary examination to identify patients at a high risk of OH.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of acupuncture at Huiyin (CV 1) and oral administration of western medication in treatment of chronic severe functional constipation (CSFC). METHODS: A total of 64 patients with CSFC were randomly divided into an acupuncture group (32 cases, 5 cases dropped off) and a western medication group (32 cases, 4 cases dropped off). Both groups were given routine basic treatment. The acupuncture group was treated by directly puncture of 20-30 mm at Huiyin (CV 1), once a day for the first 4 weeks, 5 times a week, once every other day for the next 4 weeks, 3 times a week, totally for 8 weeks. The western medication group was treated with 2 mg prucalopride succinate tablets orally before breakfast every day for 8 weeks. The average number of weekly spontaneous bowel movement (SBM) of the two groups were observed before treatment and 1-8 weeks into treatment. The constipation symptom score before and after treatment, and in follow-up of 1 month after treatment, as well as quality of life [patient assessment of constipation quality of life questionnaire (PAC-QOL) score and the proportion of patients of PAC-QOL score difference before and after treatment≥1] before and after treatment were compared in the two groups. The clinical effects of the two groups were evaluated after treatment and in follow-up. RESULTS: Compared before treatment, the average number of weekly SBM in the two groups was increased 1-8 weeks into treatment (P<0.05). The average number of weekly SBM in the acupuncture group was less than that in the western medication group 1 week into treatment (P<0.05), and the average number of weekly SBM in the observation group was more than that in the western medication group 4-8 weeks into treatment (P<0.05). The scores of constipation symptom after treatment and in follow-up and scores of PAC-QOL after-treatment in the two groups were lower than those before treatment (P<0.05), and those in the acupuncture group were lower than the western medication group (P<0.05). The proportion of patients of PAC-QOL score difference before and after treatment≥1 in the acupuncture group was higher than that in the west medication group (P<0.05). The total effective rates after treatment and in follow-up in the acupuncture group were 81.5% (22/27) and 78.3% (18/23), respectively, which were better than 42.9% (12/28) and 43.5% (10/23) in the western medication group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Acupuncture at Huiyin (CV 1) can effectively increase the number of spontaneous defecation in patients with CSFC, reduce constipation symptoms, improve the quality of life, and the effect after treatment and in follow-up is better than oral western medication.
Humans ; Quality of Life ; Treatment Outcome ; Acupuncture Points ; Constipation/therapy* ; Acupuncture Therapy

Anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) is one of the key enzyme in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway, and its catalytic activity is important for the synthesis of plant anthocyanin. In this study, specific primers were designed according to the transcriptome data of Lonicera japonica Thunb., and the CDS, gDNA and promoter sequences of ANR genes from Lonicera japonica Thunb. and Lonicera japonica Thunb. var. chinensis (Wats.) Bak. were cloned. The results showed that the CDS sequences of LjANR and rLjANR were 1 002 bp, the gDNA sequences were 2 017 and 2 026 bp respectively, and the promoter sequences were 1 170 and 1 164 bp respectively. LjANR and rLjANR both contain 6 exons and 5 introns, which have the same length of exons and large differences in introns. The promoter sequences both contain a large number of light response, hormone response and abiotic stress response elements. Bioinformatics analysis showed that both LjANR and rLjANR encoded 333 amino acids and were predicted to be stable hydrophobic proteins without transmembrane segments and signal peptides. The secondary structures of LjANR and rLjANR were predicted to be mainly consisted of α-helix and random coil. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis showed that LjANR and rLjANR had high homology with Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis, Camellia sinensis and Camellia oleifera, and were closely related to them. The expression levels of LjANR and rLjANR were the highest in flower buds and the lowest in roots. The expression patterns at different flowering stages were similar, with higher expression levels in S1 and S2 stages and then gradually decreased until reaching the lowest level in S4 stage, after a slow increase in S5 stage, the expression levels decreased again. The expression levels of ANR genes in the two varieties showed significant differences in roots, S2 and S5 stages, while the differences in stems, flower buds, S1, S3 and S6 stages were extremely significant. The prokaryotic expression vector pET-32a-LjANR was constructed for protein expression. The target protein was successfully expressed of about 59 kD. This study lays a foundation for further study on the function of ANR gene and provides theoretical guidance for breeding new varieties of Lonicera japonica Thunb.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the risk factors for neonatal asphyxia in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture and establish a nomogram model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted with 613 cases of neonatal asphyxia treated in 20 cooperative hospitals in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture from January to December 2019 as the asphyxia group, and 988 randomly selected non-asphyxia neonates born and admitted to the neonatology department of these hospitals during the same period as the control group. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify risk factors for neonatal asphyxia. R software (4.2.2) was used to establish a nomogram model. Receiver operator characteristic curve, calibration curve, and decision curve analysis were used to assess the discrimination, calibration, and clinical usefulness of the model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia, respectively. RESULTS: Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that minority (Tujia), male sex, premature birth, congenital malformations, abnormal fetal position, intrauterine distress, maternal occupation as a farmer, education level below high school, fewer than 9 prenatal check-ups, threatened abortion, abnormal umbilical cord, abnormal amniotic fluid, placenta previa, abruptio placentae, emergency caesarean section, and assisted delivery were independent risk factors for neonatal asphyxia (P<0.05). The area under the curve of the model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia based on these risk factors was 0.748 (95%CI: 0.723-0.772). The calibration curve indicated high accuracy of the model for predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia. The decision curve analysis showed that the model could provide a higher net benefit for neonates at risk of asphyxia. CONCLUSIONS The risk factors for neonatal asphyxia in Hubei Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture are multifactorial, and the nomogram model based on these factors has good value in predicting the risk of neonatal asphyxia, which can help clinicians identify neonates at high risk of asphyxia early, and reduce the incidence of neonatal asphyxia.
Infant, Newborn ; Humans ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Female ; Nomograms ; Retrospective Studies ; Cesarean Section ; Risk Factors ; Asphyxia Neonatorum/etiology*

Objective: To investigate the association of plasma vitamin B₁₂ level with plasma uric acid level among the elderly over 65 in 9 longevity areas of China. Methods: The elderly over 65 years old with complete information on plasma vitamin B₁₂ and plasma uric acid from Healthy Aging and Biomarkers Cohort Study (2017 to 2018) were recruited in this study. Information on socio-demographic characteristics, life styles, diet intake, and health status were collected by questionnaire and physical examination; and fasting venous blood was collected to detect the levels of plasma vitamin B₁₂, uric acid and other indicators. Multiple linear regression models were used to analyze the association of plasma vitamin B₁₂ level per interquartile range increase with plasma uric acid level. The association trend of plasma vitamin B₁₂ level with plasma uric acid level was described by restrictive cubic splines fitting multiple linear regression model. Multiple logistic regression models were used to analyze the association of plasma vitamin B₁₂ level stratified by quartiles with hyperuricemia. Results: A total of 2 471 participants were finally included in the study, the age was (84.88±19.76) years old, of which 1 291 (52.25%) were female. The M (Q₁, Q₃) level of plasma vitamin B₁₂ was 294 (203, 440) pg/ml and the plasma uric acid level was (341.01±90.46) μmol/L. A total of 422 participants (17.08%) were defined with hyperuricemia. The results of multiple linear regression model showed that there was a positive association of plasma vitamin B₁₂ level with plasma uric acid level after adjustment for covariates (P<0.05). An IQR increase in plasma vitamin B₁₂ (237 pg/ml) was associated with a 6.36 (95%CI: 2.00-10.72) μmol/L increase in the plasma uric acid level. The restrictive cubic splines curve showed a positive linear association of log-transformed plasma vitamin B₁₂ with uric acid level (P<0.001). Conclusion: There is a positive association of plasma vitamin B₁₂ level with plasma uric acid level among the elderly over 65 years old in 9 longevity areas of China.
Humans ; Female ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Male ; Vitamin B 12 ; Uric Acid ; Cohort Studies ; Hyperuricemia ; Vitamins ; Folic Acid