1.Mechanism of Aerobic Exercise in Delaying Brain Aging in Aging Mice by Regulating Tryptophan Metabolism
De-Man ZHANG ; Chang-Ling WEI ; Yuan-Ting ZHANG ; Yu JIN ; Xiao-Han HUANG ; Min-Yan ZHENG ; Xue LI
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2025;52(6):1362-1372
ObjectiveTo explore the molecular mechanism of aerobic exercise to improve hippocampal neuronal degeneration by regulating tryptophan metabolic pathway. Methods60 SPF-grade C57BL/6J male mice were divided into a young group (2 months old, n=30) and a senile group (12 months old, n=30), and each group was further divided into a control group (C/A group, n=15) and an exercise group (CE/AE group, n=15). An aerobic exercise program was used for 8 weeks. Learning memory ability was assessed by Y-maze, and anxiety-depression-like behavior was detected by absent field experiment. Hippocampal Trp levels were measured by GC-MS. Nissl staining was used to observe the number and morphology of hippocampal neurons, and electron microscopy was used to detect synaptic ultrastructure. ELISA was used to detect the levels of hippocampal Trp,5-HT, Kyn, KATs, KYNA, KMO, and QUIN; Western blot was used to analyze the activities of TPH2, IDO1, and TDO enzymes. ResultsGroup A mice showed significant decrease in learning and memory ability (P<0.05) and increase in anxiety and depressive behaviors (P<0.05); all of AE group showed significant improvement (P<0.05). Hippocampal Trp levels decreased in group A (P<0.05) and increased in AE group (P<0.05). Nidus vesicles were reduced and synaptic structures were degraded in group A (P<0.05), and both were significantly improved in group AE (P<0.05). The levels of Trp, 5-HT, KATs, and KYNA were decreased (P<0.05) and the levels of Kyn, KMO, and QUIN were increased (P<0.05) in group A. The activity of TPH2 was decreased (P<0.05), and the activities of IDO1 and TDO were increased (P<0.05). The AE group showed the opposite trend. ConclusionThe aging process significantly reduces the learning memory ability and increases the anxiety-depression-like behavior of mice, and leads to the reduction of the number of nidus vesicles and degenerative changes of synaptic structure in the hippocampus, whereas aerobic exercise not only effectively enhances the spatial learning memory ability and alleviates the anxiety-depression-like behavior of aging mice, but also improves the morphology and structure of neurons in hippocampal area, which may be achieved by the mechanism of regulating the tryptophan metabolic pathway.
2.Correlation of MET Status with Clinicopathological Features and Prognosis of Advanced Prostatic Acinar Adenocarcinoma
Weiying HE ; Wenjia SUN ; Huiyu LI ; Yanggeling ZHANG ; De WU ; Chunxia AO ; Jincheng WANG ; Yanan YANG ; Xuexue XIAO ; Luyao ZHANG ; Xiyuan WANG ; Junqiu YUE
Cancer Research on Prevention and Treatment 2025;52(8):698-704
Objective To explore the correlation of MET status in patients with advanced prostatic acinar adenocarcinoma with the clinical pathological parameters and prognosis. Methods The specimen from 135 patients with advanced prostatic acinar adenocarcinoma was included. The expression of c-MET protein was detected via immunohistochemistry, and MET gene amplification was assessed by fluorescence in situ hybridization. The relationships of c-MET expression and gene amplification with clinicopathological features and prognosis were analyzed. Results The positive expression rate of c-MET was 52.60% (71/135). Compared with the c-MET expression in adjacent tissues, that in tumor tissues showed lower heterogeneous expression. Among the cases, 1.71% (2/117) exhibited MET gene polyploidy, but no gene amplification was detected. Positive c-MET expression was significantly correlated with high Gleason scores and grade groups (P=
3.Abemaciclib plus non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant in women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer: Final results of the randomized phase III MONARCH plus trial.
Xichun HU ; Qingyuan ZHANG ; Tao SUN ; Yongmei YIN ; Huiping LI ; Min YAN ; Zhongsheng TONG ; Man LI ; Yue'e TENG ; Christina Pimentel OPPERMANN ; Govind Babu KANAKASETTY ; Ma Coccia PORTUGAL ; Liu YANG ; Wanli ZHANG ; Zefei JIANG
Chinese Medical Journal 2025;138(12):1477-1486
BACKGROUND:
In the interim analysis of MONARCH plus, adding abemaciclib to endocrine therapy (ET) improved progression-free survival (PFS) and objective response rate (ORR) in predominantly Chinese postmenopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer (ABC). This study presents the final pre-planned PFS analysis.
METHODS:
In the phase III MONARCH plus study, postmenopausal women in China, India, Brazil, and South Africa with HR+/HER2- ABC without prior systemic therapy in an advanced setting (cohort A) or progression on prior ET (cohort B) were randomized (2:1) to abemaciclib (150 mg twice daily [BID]) or placebo plus: anastrozole (1.0 mg/day) or letrozole (2.5 mg/day) (cohort A) or fulvestrant (500 mg on days 1 and 15 of cycle 1 and then on day 1 of each subsequent cycle) (cohort B). The primary endpoint was PFS of cohort A. Secondary endpoints included cohort B PFS (key secondary endpoint), ORR, overall survival (OS), safety, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).
RESULTS:
In cohort A (abemaciclib: n = 207; placebo: n = 99), abemaciclib plus a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor improved median PFS vs . placebo (28.27 months vs . 14.73 months, hazard ratio [HR]: 0.476; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.348-0.649). In cohort B (abemaciclib: n = 104; placebo: n = 53), abemaciclib plus fulvestrant improved median PFS vs . placebo (11.41 months vs . 5.59 months, HR: 0.480; 95% CI: 0.322-0.715). Abemaciclib numerically improved ORR. Although immature, a trend toward OS benefit with abemaciclib was observed (cohort A: HR: 0.893, 95% CI: 0.553-1.443; cohort B: HR: 0.512, 95% CI: 0.281-0.931). The most frequent grade ≥3 adverse events in the abemaciclib arms were neutropenia, leukopenia, anemia (both cohorts), and lymphocytopenia (cohort B). Abemaciclib did not cause clinically meaningful changes in patient-reported global health, functioning, or most symptoms vs . placebo.
CONCLUSIONS:
Abemaciclib plus ET led to improvements in PFS and ORR, a manageable safety profile, and sustained HRQoL, providing clinical benefit without a high toxicity burden or reduced quality of life.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02763566).
Humans
;
Female
;
Fulvestrant/therapeutic use*
;
Breast Neoplasms/metabolism*
;
Aminopyridines/therapeutic use*
;
Benzimidazoles/therapeutic use*
;
Middle Aged
;
Aromatase Inhibitors/therapeutic use*
;
Aged
;
Receptor, ErbB-2/metabolism*
;
Adult
;
Letrozole/therapeutic use*
;
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use*
;
Anastrozole/therapeutic use*
4.Synergistic neuroprotective effects of main components of salvianolic acids for injection based on key pathological modules of cerebral ischemia.
Si-Yu TAN ; Ya-Xu WU ; Zi-Shu YAN ; Ai-Chun JU ; De-Kun LI ; Peng-Wei ZHUANG ; Yan-Jun ZHANG ; Hong GUO
China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica 2025;50(3):693-701
This study aims to explore the synergistic effects of the main components in salvianolic acids for Injection(SAFI) on key pathological events in cerebral ischemia, elucidating the pharmacological characteristics of SAFI in neuroprotection. Two major pathological gene modules related to endothelial injury and neuroinflammation in cerebral ischemia were mined from single-cell data. According to the topological distance calculated in network medicine, potential synergistic component combinations of SAFI were screened out. The results showed that the combination of caffeic acid and salvianolic acid B scored the highest in addressing both endothelial injury and neuroinflammation, demonstrating potential synergistic effects. The cell experiments confirmed that the combination of these two components at a ratio of 1∶1 significantly protected brain microvascular endothelial cells(bEnd.3) from oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation(OGD/R)-induced reperfusion injury and effectively suppressed lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced neuroinflammatory responses in microglial cells(BV-2). This study provides a new method for uncovering synergistic effects among active components in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and offers novel insights into the multi-component, multi-target acting mechanisms of TCM.
Brain Ischemia/metabolism*
;
Neuroprotective Agents/pharmacology*
;
Animals
;
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/administration & dosage*
;
Benzofurans/pharmacology*
;
Mice
;
Drug Synergism
;
Caffeic Acids/pharmacology*
;
Polyphenols/pharmacology*
;
Humans
;
Alkenes/pharmacology*
;
Endothelial Cells/drug effects*
;
Depsides
5.Research progress in machine learning in processing and quality evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces.
Han-Wen ZHANG ; Yue-E LI ; Jia-Wei YU ; Qiang GUO ; Ming-Xuan LI ; Yu LI ; Xi MEI ; Lin LI ; Lian-Lin SU ; Chun-Qin MAO ; De JI ; Tu-Lin LU
China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica 2025;50(13):3605-3614
Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) decoction pieces are a core carrier for the inheritance and innovation of TCM, and their quality and safety are critical to public health and the sustainable development of the industry. Conventional quality control models, while having established a well-developed system through long-term practice, still face challenges such as relatively long inspection cycles, insufficient objectivity in characterizing complex traits, and urgent needs for improving the efficiency of integrating multidimensional quality information when confronted with the dual demands of large-scale production and precision quality control. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, machine learning can deeply analyze multidimensional data of the morphology, spectroscopy, and chemical fingerprints of decoction pieces by constructing high-dimensional feature space analysis models, significantly improving the standardization level and decision-making efficiency of quality evaluation. This article reviews the research progress in the application of machine learning in the processing, production, and rapid quality evaluation of TCM decoction pieces. It further analyzes current challenges in technological implementation and proposes potential solutions, offering theoretical and technical references to advance the digital and intelligent transformation of the industry.
Machine Learning
;
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/standards*
;
Quality Control
;
Medicine, Chinese Traditional/standards*
;
Humans
6.Mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine treatment of hepatic fibrosis by restoring circadian rhythms.
Meng-Ru ZHANG ; Ruo-Nan JIANG ; Shu-Hua XIONG ; Hong-Yan WU ; De-Song KONG ; Li CHEN
China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica 2025;50(16):4407-4414
Hepatic fibrosis is a key pathological process in the development of chronic liver disease to cirrhosis, and its core mechanism involves the activation of hepatic stellate cells(HSC) and abnormal deposition of extracellular matrix(ECM). Although existing treatments, such as antiviral drugs, can delay disease progression, they have the problem of single therapeutic targets and cannot reverse fibrosis. Accordingly, multidimensional intervention strategies are urgently needed. Recent studies have shown that circadian rhythm disorders aggravate hepatic fibrosis by regulating metabolism, immunity, and inflammation. Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) plays a unique role in restoring the circadian clock via multi-target and holistic regulation. This paper establishes a three-dimensional network by systematically integrating biological clock, metabolism, and immunity for the first time to elucidate the scientific connotation of the theory of time-concerned treatment of TCM, and proposes a new strategy for the development of time-targeted compound prescriptions, providing innovative ideas for the treatment of hepatic fibrosis.
Humans
;
Liver Cirrhosis/metabolism*
;
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use*
;
Circadian Rhythm/drug effects*
;
Animals
;
Medicine, Chinese Traditional
;
Hepatic Stellate Cells/drug effects*
7.Dorsally displaced distal radial double-column Die-punch fractures by dorsal approach external fixator combined with Kirschner wires.
Fu-de JIAO ; Jing-Wei ZHANG ; Li-Mei ZHU ; Lin AN ; Yun-Qiang ZHUANG ; Jian-Ming CHEN
China Journal of Orthopaedics and Traumatology 2025;38(1):87-91
OBJECTIVE:
Investigating the clinical efficacy of treating dorsally displaced distal radial double-column Die-punch fractures using a dorsal approach external fixator combined with Kirschner wires.
METHODS:
Retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 15 patients with distal radial double-column Die-punch fractures treated with an external fixator combined with Kirschner wire between July 2020 and January 2023. There were 10 males and 5 females;6 cases on the left side and 9 on the right;age ranged from 22 to 76 years old. Recorded the preoperative and the final follow-up Cooney wrist function scores for the patients. The fracture healing time, and occurrence of complications were recorded.
RESULTS:
All 15 patients were followed up ranged from 12 to 16 months post-operation. All fractures achieved bony union, healing time ranging form 8 to 16 weeks. Not a single patient exhibited complications such as surgical site infection, fracture redislocation, or tendon injury. All individuals had their Kirschner wires and external fixation devices removed six weeks post-operatively and commenced rehabilitative therapy for wrist articulation. The Cooney wrist function scores at preoperative and ranged from 5 to 45 scores, at the latest follow-up ranged from 65 to 100 scores. At the final follow-up, the results were assessed as excellent in 10 patients, good in 4 patients, and fair in 1 patient.
CONCLUSION
The clinical efficacy of treating distal radial double-column Die-punch fractures using a dorsal approach external fixator combined with Kirschner wires is satisfactory.
Humans
;
Male
;
Female
;
Middle Aged
;
Adult
;
External Fixators
;
Bone Wires
;
Aged
;
Retrospective Studies
;
Radius Fractures/physiopathology*
;
Young Adult
;
Fracture Fixation/methods*
8.Research on prediction of fracture reduction fixator therapy based on multimodal multi-label method.
Hai-Yu LIU ; De-Long WANG ; Xing-Ping ZHANG ; Hong-de LI ; Yan SUN ; Xiao-Ping ZHANG
China Journal of Orthopaedics and Traumatology 2025;38(11):1164-1169
OBJECTIVE:
To construct a prediction model for fracture reduction fixator therapy using the multi-modal multi-label classification (MMC) method.
METHODS:
Medical record data of 818 orthopedic patients from 2019 to 2023 were collected. Medical image features were extracted using the VGG19 network, text features of TCM four diagnostic methods (Inspection, Auscultation & Olfaction, Inquiry, Palpation) were extracted via the MiniLM model, and clinical case features were extracted through a fully connected neural network. After fusing the multi-modal information, multi-label therapy prediction was achieved using a linear layer.
RESULTS:
Experimental results on the clinical multi-modal dataset showed that the MMC method performed excellently in terms of subset accuracy(SA), accuracy(Acc), precision, and F1-score, reaching 0.661, 0.856, 0.897, and 0.899 respectively. When the image modality and text modality were removed, the model performance decreased by an average of 8.1% and 2.4% respectively, while the hamming loss(HL) increased by 21.1% and 5.6% respectively.
CONCLUSION
The fracture reduction fixator therapy prediction model constructed in this study can effectively fuse multi-modal data, accurately predict personalized treatment plans for patients, and significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of treatment decisions. It provides a new solution for the digitalization and intellectualization of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) in fracture treatment and has important clinical application prospects.
Humans
;
Female
;
Male
;
Middle Aged
;
Fracture Fixation/methods*
;
Adult
;
Fractures, Bone/surgery*
;
Neural Networks, Computer
;
Medicine, Chinese Traditional
;
Aged
9.Prediction of testicular histology in azoospermia patients through deep learning-enabled two-dimensional grayscale ultrasound.
Jia-Ying HU ; Zhen-Zhe LIN ; Li DING ; Zhi-Xing ZHANG ; Wan-Ling HUANG ; Sha-Sha HUANG ; Bin LI ; Xiao-Yan XIE ; Ming-De LU ; Chun-Hua DENG ; Hao-Tian LIN ; Yong GAO ; Zhu WANG
Asian Journal of Andrology 2025;27(2):254-260
Testicular histology based on testicular biopsy is an important factor for determining appropriate testicular sperm extraction surgery and predicting sperm retrieval outcomes in patients with azoospermia. Therefore, we developed a deep learning (DL) model to establish the associations between testicular grayscale ultrasound images and testicular histology. We retrospectively included two-dimensional testicular grayscale ultrasound from patients with azoospermia (353 men with 4357 images between July 2017 and December 2021 in The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China) to develop a DL model. We obtained testicular histology during conventional testicular sperm extraction. Our DL model was trained based on ultrasound images or fusion data (ultrasound images fused with the corresponding testicular volume) to distinguish spermatozoa presence in pathology (SPP) and spermatozoa absence in pathology (SAP) and to classify maturation arrest (MA) and Sertoli cell-only syndrome (SCOS) in patients with SAP. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs), accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were used to analyze model performance. DL based on images achieved an AUC of 0.922 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.908-0.935), a sensitivity of 80.9%, a specificity of 84.6%, and an accuracy of 83.5% in predicting SPP (including normal spermatogenesis and hypospermatogenesis) and SAP (including MA and SCOS). In the identification of SCOS and MA, DL on fusion data yielded better diagnostic performance with an AUC of 0.979 (95% CI: 0.969-0.989), a sensitivity of 89.7%, a specificity of 97.1%, and an accuracy of 92.1%. Our study provides a noninvasive method to predict testicular histology for patients with azoospermia, which would avoid unnecessary testicular biopsy.
Humans
;
Male
;
Azoospermia/diagnostic imaging*
;
Deep Learning
;
Testis/pathology*
;
Retrospective Studies
;
Adult
;
Ultrasonography/methods*
;
Sperm Retrieval
;
Sertoli Cell-Only Syndrome/diagnostic imaging*
10.Clinical features and immunotherapy for children with loss-of-function/gain-of-function mutations in the STAT gene: an analysis of 10 cases.
Hong-Wei LI ; Yan-Hong WANG ; Shang-Zhi WU ; Bi-Yun ZHANG ; Shi-Hui XU ; Jia-Xing XU ; Zhan-Hang HUANG ; Cheng-Yu LU ; De-Hui CHEN
Chinese Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics 2025;27(8):951-958
OBJECTIVES:
To investigate the clinical features of children with STAT gene mutations, and to explore corresponding immunotherapy strategies.
METHODS:
A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 10 children with STAT gene mutations who were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, from October 2015 to October 2024. Exploratory immunotherapy was implemented in some refractory cases, and the changes in symptoms, imaging manifestations, and cytokine levels were assessed after treatment.
RESULTS:
For the 10 children, the main clinical manifestations were recurrent rash since birth (7/10), cough (8/10), wheezing (5/10), expectoration (4/10), and purulent nasal discharge (4/10). Genotyping results showed that there was one child with heterozygous loss-of-function (LOF) mutation in the STAT1 gene, four children with heterozygous LOF mutation in the STAT3 gene, and five children with heterozygous gain-of-function (GOF) mutation in the STAT3 gene. Two children with LOF mutation in the STAT3 gene showed decreased interleukin-6 levels and improved clinical symptoms and imaging findings after omalizumab treatment. Three children with GOF mutation in the STAT3 gene achieved effective disease control after treatment with methylprednisolone (0.5 mg/kg per day). Two children with GOF mutation in the STAT3 gene received treatment with JAK inhibitor and then showed some improvement in symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS
STAT gene mutation screening should be considered for children with recurrent rash and purulent respiratory tract infections. Targeted immunotherapy may improve prognosis in patients with no response to conventional treatment.
Humans
;
Male
;
Immunotherapy
;
Female
;
Child, Preschool
;
Child
;
Gain of Function Mutation
;
Retrospective Studies
;
Infant
;
Loss of Function Mutation
;
STAT Transcription Factors/genetics*

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