The chemical constituents were systematically separated from the roots of Berberis polyantha by various chromatographic methods, including silica gel column chromatography, HP20 column chromatography, polyamide column chromatography, reversed-phase C_(18) column chromatography, and preparative high-performance liquid chromatography. The structures of the compounds were identified by physicochemical properties and spectroscopic techniques(1D NMR, 2D NMR, UV, MS, and CD). Four phenylpropanoids were isolated from the methanol extract of the roots of B. polyantha, and they were identified as(2R)-1-(4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-propanone-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(1), methyl 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzoate(2),(+)-syringaresinol(3), and syringaresinol-4-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(4). Compound 1 was a new compound, and other compounds were isolated from this plant for the first time. The anti-inflammatory activity of these compounds was evaluated based on the release of nitric oxide(NO) in the culture of lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced RAW264.7 macrophages. At a concentration of 10 μmol·L~(-1), all the four compounds inhibited the LPS-induced release of NO in RAW264.7 cells, demonstrating potential anti-inflammatory properties.
Plant Roots/chemistry* ; Animals ; Mice ; Berberis/chemistry* ; RAW 264.7 Cells ; Macrophages/immunology* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/isolation & purification* ; Nitric Oxide/metabolism* ; Molecular Structure ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents/isolation & purification*

BACKGROUND: Non-invasive computed tomography angiography (CTA)-based fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR) could become a gatekeeper to invasive coronary angiography. Deep learning (DL)-based CT-FFR has shown promise when compared to invasive FFR. To evaluate the performance of a DL-based CT-FFR technique, DeepVessel FFR (DVFFR). METHODS: This retrospective study was designed for iScheMia Assessment based on a Retrospective, single-center Trial of CT-FFR (SMART). Patients suspected of stable coronary artery disease (CAD) and undergoing both CTA and invasive FFR examinations were consecutively selected from the Beijing Anzhen Hospital between January 1, 2016 to December 30, 2018. FFR obtained during invasive coronary angiography was used as the reference standard. DVFFR was calculated blindly using a DL-based CT-FFR approach that utilized the complete tree structure of the coronary arteries. RESULTS: Three hundred and thirty nine patients (60.5 ±10.0 years and 209 men) and 414 vessels with direct invasive FFR were included in the analysis. At per-vessel level, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of DVFFR were 94.7%, 88.6%, 90.8%, 82.7%, and 96.7%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) was 0.95 for DVFFR and 0.56 for CTA-based assessment with a significant difference (P < 0.0001). At patient level, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV and NPV of DVFFR were 93.8%, 88.0%, 90.3%, 83.0%, and 95.8%, respectively. The computation for DVFFR was fast with the average time of 22.5 ± 1.9 s. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate that DVFFR was able to evaluate lesion hemodynamic significance accurately and effectively with improved diagnostic performance over CTA alone. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a critical disease in which coronary artery luminal narrowing may result in myocardial ischemia. Early and effective assessment of myocardial ischemia is essential for optimal treatment planning so as to improve the quality of life and reduce medical costs.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Shexiang Tongxin Dropping Pill (STDP) in treating stable angina patients with phlegm-heat and blood-stasis syndrome by exercise duration and metabolic equivalents. METHODS: This multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial enrolled stable angina patients with phlegm-heat and blood-stasis syndrome from 22 hospitals. They were randomized 1:1 to STDP (35 mg/pill, 6 pills per day) or placebo for 56 days. The primary outcome was the exercise duration and metabolic equivalents (METs) assessed by the standard Bruce exercise treadmill test after 56 days of treatment. The secondary outcomes included the total angina symptom score, Chinese medicine (CM) symptom scores, Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) scores, changes in ST-T on electrocardiogram and adverse events (AEs). RESULTS: This trial enrolled 309 patients, including 155 and 154 in the STDP and placebo groups, respectively. STDP significantly prolonged exercise duration with an increase of 51.0 s, compared to a decrease of 12.0 s with placebo (change rate: -11.1% vs. 3.2%, P<0.01). The increase in METs was significantly greater in the STDP group than in the placebo group (change: -0.4 vs. 0.0, change rate: -5.0% vs. 0.0%, P<0.01). The improvement of total angina symptom scores (25.0% vs. 0.0%), CM symptom scores (38.7% vs. 11.8%), reduction of nitroglycerin consumption (100.0% vs. 11.3%), and all domains of SAQ, were significantly greater with STDP than placebo (all P<0.01). The changes in Q-T intervals at 28 and 56 days from baseline were similar between the two groups (both P>0.05). Twenty-five participants (16.3%) with STDP and 16 (10.5%) with placebo experienced AEs (P=0.131), with no serious AEs observed. CONCLUSION STDP could improve exercise tolerance in patients with stable angina and phlegm-heat and blood stasis syndrome, with a favorable safety profile. (Registration No. ChiCTR-IPR-15006020).
Humans ; Double-Blind Method ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/adverse effects* ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Angina, Stable/physiopathology* ; Aged ; Syndrome ; Treatment Outcome ; Placebos ; Tablets

Objective To investigate the osteogenic properties of a methacrylated gelatin(GelMA)/bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs)composite hydrogel applied to the skull defect area of rats and to provide an experi-mental basis for the development of bone regeneration biomaterials.Methods This study was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Nanjing University.A novel photocurable composite biohydrogel was developed by constructing photoinitiators[lthium phenyl(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl)phosphinate,LAP],GelMA,and BMSCs.The surface morphology and elemental composition of the gel were examined using scanning electron microscopy(SEM)and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDX).The compressive strength of the gel was evaluated using an electronic universal testing ma-chine.After in vitro culture for 1,2,and 5 days,the proliferation of the BMSCs in the hydrogels was assessed using a CCK-8 assay,and their survival and morphology were examined through confocal microscopy.A 5 mm critical bone de-ficiency model was generated in a rat skull.The group receiving composite hydrogel treatment was referred to as the Gel-MA/BMSCs group,whereas the untreated group served as the control group.At the 4th and 8th weeks,micro-CT scans were taken to measure the bone defect area and new bone index,while at the 8th week,skull samples from the defect ar-ea were subjected to H&E staining,van Gieson staining,and Goldner staining to evaluate the quality of bone regenera-tion and new bone formation.Results SEM observed that the solidified GelMA showed a 3D spongy gel network with uniform morphology,the porosity of GelMA was 73.41％and the pore size of GelMA was(28.75±7.13)μm.EDX results showed that C and O were evenly distributed in the network macroporous structure of hydrogel.The hydrogel compres-sion strength was 152 kPa.On the 5th day of GelMA/BMSCs culture,the cellular morphology transitioned from oval to spindle shaped under microscopic observation,accompanied by a significant increase in cell proliferation(159.4％,as determined by the CCK-8 assay).At 4 weeks after surgery,a 3D reconstructed micro-CT image revealed a minimal re-duction in bone defect size within the control group and abundant new bone formation in the GelMA/BMSCs group.At 8 weeks after surgery,no significant changes were observed in the control group's bone defect area,with only limited evi-dence of new bone growth;however,substantial healing of skull defects was evident in the GelMA/BMSCs group.Quan-titative analysis at both the 4-and 8-week examinations indicated significant improvements in the new bone volume(BV),new bone volume/total bone volume(BV/TV),bone surface(BS),and bone surface/total bone volume(BS/TV)in the GelMA/BMSCs group compared to those in the control group(P＜0.05).Histological staining showed continuous and dense formation of bone tissue within the defects in the GelMA/BMSCs group and only sporadic formation of new bone,primarily consisting of fibrous connective tissue,at the defect edge in the control group.Conclusion Photocur-ing hydrogel-based stem cell therapy exhibits favorable biosafety profiles and has potential for clinical application by inducing new bone formation and promoting maturation within rat skull defects.

Objective:To analyze clinical characteristics of primary pancreatic lymphoma (PPL) patients.Methods:Clinical features of 22 patients diagnosed as PPL admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2002 to May 2023 were analyzed retrospectively.Results:The median age was 56.4±13.3 years. The median time from onset to diagnosis was 1.0 (1.0, 3.0) months. The main clinical manifestations were abdominal pain (15/22), weight loss (14/22) and jaundice (10/22). Elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was observed in 15/20 (75%) patients. Only 2 (2/9, 22.2%) patients had increased CA199 levels and 2 (2/9, 22.2%) patients had increased CEA levels. The maximum tumor diameter was 5.0 (3.8, 6.9) cm. Contrast-enhanced CT mostly showed low enhancement lesions. Major pancreatic duct dilatation were rare on CT scan (4/20). Fifteen patients were confirmed by pancreatic pathology, of which 8 were obtained by surgery, 4 were obtained by CT or ultrasound-guided percutaneous biopsy, and 3 were obtained by EUS-FNA. The main pathological type was diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (14/22). 19 patients received chemotherapy, and 6 patients died with a median follow-up of 5.0 (1.5, 35.5) months.Conclusions:PPL is rare and easy to be misdiagnosed. Elevated LDH levels, normal tumor markers, and non-dilatation of main pancreatic duct are important diagnostic clues. It is important to obtain pathology by EUS-FNA and other methods for definite diagnosis.

Objective To investigate the clinical value of coronary computed tomography angiography(CCTA)based CT derived fractional flow reserve(CT-FFR)and ΔCT-FFR in improving the diagnostic efficiency for coronary abnormal hemodynamics in patients with severe calcification.Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of coronary artery disease(CAD)patients who underwent CCTA,CT-FFR,invasive coronary angiography(ICA)and FFR during hospitalization from January 2018 to June 2019 in Chinese PLA General Hospital.Severe calcification was defined as coronary artery calcium score(CACS)≥100 on single vessel level.A total of 107 CAD patients with 149 coronary arteries were included in the present study.The enrolled coronary arteries were assigned to CACS≥100 group(n=56)and CACS<100 group(n=93).CT-FFR was performed on the deep FFR platform based on machine learning(ML)algorithms and ΔCT-FFR was defined as CT-FFR difference between proximal and distal to the coronary lesion.The correlation and consistency between CT-FFR and FFR values were analyzed by Pearson and Bland-Altman methods.We attempted to analyze the incremental value of ΔCT-FFR for coronary functional evaluation,especial for coronary arteries with severe calcification,regarding FFR≤0.8 as the diagnostic gold standard.Comparison of receiver operating characteristic curves(ROC)between different diagnostic methods was presented by Delong test.Results Pearson and Bland-Altman analyses showed appreciable correlation(CACS≥100 group,r=0.71,P<0.01;CACS<100 group,r=0.73,P<0.01)and consistency(CACS≥100 group,Mean=-0.01,P=0.25;CACS<100 group,Mean=0,P=0.96)between CT-FFR and FFR values in both groups.FFR(0.80±0.08 vs.0.84±0.09,P=0.004)and CT-FFR(0.81±0.06 vs.0.85±0.06,P<0.001)levels were significant lower in CACS≥100 group than those in CACS<100 group,while ΔCT-FFR(0.14±0.06 vs.0.09±0.06,P<0.001)levels were significant higher in CACS≥100 group.Moreover,the diagnostic efficiency of CT-FFR in CACS≥100 group was inferior to that in CACS<100 group[AUC=0.792(95%CI 0.663-0.889)vs.AUC=0.929(95%CI 0.856-0.972),P=0.04],while it achieved significant improvement after ΔCT-FFR adjustment[AUC=0.876(95%CI 0.760-0.949)vs.AUC=0.792(95%CI 0.663-0.889),P=0.02]and was similar to that in CACS<100 group(P=0.37).Conclusion For coronary arteries with severe calcification,CT-FFR demonstrated significant incremental value in improving the diagnostic efficiency of coronary abnormal hemodynamics after ΔCT-FFR adjustment.

Lower-cost genotyping technology has promoted the generation of large genetic datasets with the evolving next-generation sequencing technology. The emergence of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has facilitated researchers’ understanding of common complex diseases. GWAS refers to finding the sequence variations present in the human genome and screening out disease-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). These SNPs are considered as the basis for assessing the stability of complex diseases. However, a single variation is not sufficient to assess an individual’s risk of disease. Polygenic risk score (PRS) is an emerging genetic data analysis method for quantitatively estimating an individual’s genetic risk for complex diseases by comprehensively considering multiple genetic variation sites. A single-value estimate of an individual’s genetic risk for a certain phenotype can be calculated as the cumulative impact of multiple genetic variants by building a PRS model. The finally expected risk score is weighted by the strength and direction of association of each SNP with the phenotype based on the number of alleles carried by each SNP. With the continuous development of various PRS calculation methods and the constant accumulation of genomic data, PRS has received widespread attention in the field of genetics. So far, quite a few studies at home and abroad have shown that PRS is valuable in risk prediction of different types of human traits or complex diseases, and its effectiveness has been further verified in clinical applications. At present, many studies have established PRS models based on GWAS summary statistics to quantify the genetic risk of susceptibility loci and clinical characteristics on diseases such as lung cancer, breast cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. The disease-susceptible populations can be recognized through comparing the relative risk and absolute risk of the disease in different risk groups according to the population risk stratification results. Additionally, individual-level genotype data and omics data can also be used as data sources for PRS analysis research, especially the latter can dynamically reflect the short-term or long-term effects of environmental factors on human gene expression, and has potential application value in building early warning models to assess health risks. Since the calculation of PRS involves a large amount of genomic data analysis, there are big differences in the methods for data selection, model building and validation. Different PRS construction methods and software have different performances in disease risk prediction, and even the performance of same algorithm varies across diseases. It is worth noting that the PRS model often needs to be re-evaluated and verified for different groups of people, because PRS is affected by race and region. This review combines currently published PRS-related research and algorithms to describe the basic principles of PRS, compares their construction and verification methods, and discusses their applications and prospects. As a powerful genetic risk assessment tool, PRS has great potential in analyzing the genetic code of complex diseases and achieving precise diagnosis and personalized treatment.

AIM To investigate the variation rules of main secondary metabolites in Hedysari Radix before and after rubbing strip.METHODS UPLC-MS/MS was adopted in the content determination of formononetin,ononin,calycosin,calycosin-7-glucoside,medicarpin,genistein,luteolin,liquiritigenin,isoliquiritigenin,vanillic acid,ferulic acid,γ-aminobutyric acid,adenosine and betaine,after which cluster analysis,principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis were used for chemical pattern recognition to explore differential components.RESULTS After rubbing strip,formononetin,calycosin,liquiritigenin and γ-aminobutynic acid demonstrated increased contents,along with decreased contents of ononin,calycosin-7-glucoside and vanillic acid.The samples with and without rubbing strip were clustered into two types,calycosin-7-glucoside,formononetin,γ-aminobutynic acid,vanillic acid,calycosin-7-glucoside and formononetin were differential components.CONCLUSION This experiment clarifies the differences of chemical constituents in Hedysari Radix before and after rubbing strip,which can provide a reference for the research on rubbing strip mechanism of other medicinal materials.

Objective:To understand the current status of the use of aspirin in perioperative period of thoracic surgery in China and the awareness of thoracic surgeons on the prevention and treatment of arterial thromboembolic diseases during the perioperative period.Methods:A survey was conducted among thoracic surgeons nationwide using an electronic questionnaire through a software platform from January 20, 2024 to February 29, 2024. The questionnaire mainly included three parts: basic information, aspirin use, and awareness of arterial thromboembolic diseases, with a total of 27 questions.Results:A total of 1318 valid questionnaires were collected, covering all 33 provincial administrative regions except Taiwan. 69.7%(919/1 318) of thoracic surgeons stopped using aspirin for all patients before surgery; differences could be found in the timing of aspirin withdrawal before surgery and resumption after surgery. 65.1%(858/1 318) of surgeons made perioperative medication decisions based on domestic guidelines or consensus, while 20.9%(276/1 318) of surgeons based their decisions on departmental or personal experience. 87.9%(1 159/1 318) of surgeons believed that it is necessary to develop guidelines for the prevention of arterial thromboembolic diseases in the perioperative period of thoracic surgery.Conclusion:The current use strategy of aspirin in the perioperative period of thoracic surgery in China shows a high degree of inconsistency, and there are also significant differences in the awareness of arterial thromboembolic diseases. It is necessary to establish guidelines for the prevention and treatment of arterial thromboembolic diseases in the perioperative period.

Objective To analyze the risk factors and survival status of Epstein-Barr virus(EBV)infection in pa-tients with aplastic anemia(AA)after haploid allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(Haplo-HSCT).Methods Clinical data of 78 AA patients who underwent Haplo-HSCT in the hematology department of a hospital from January 1,2019 to October 31,2022 were analyzed retrospectively.The occurrence and onset time of EBV viremia,EBV-related diseases(EBV diseases),and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders(PTLD)were ob-served,risk factors and survival status were analyzed.Results Among the 78 patients,38 were males and 40 were females,with a median age of 33(9-56)years old;53 patients experienced EBV reactivation,with a total inci-dence of 67.9％,and the median time for EBV reactivation was 33(13,416)days after transplantation.Among pa-tients with EBV reactivation,49 cases(62.8％)were simple EBV viremia,2 cases(2.6％)were possible EBV di-seases,and 2 cases(2.6％)were already confirmed EBV diseases(PTLD).Univariate analysis showed that age 1＜40 years old at the time of transplantation,umbilical cord blood infusion,occurrence of acute graft-versus-host disease(aGVHD)after transplantation,and concurrent cytomegalovirus(CMV)infection were independent risk fac-tors for EBV reactivation in AA patients after Haplo-HSCT.Multivariate analysis showed that concurrent CMV in-fection was an independent risk factor for EBV reactivation in A A patients after Haplo-HSCT(P=0.048).Ritu-ximab intervention before stem cell reinfusion was a factor affecting the duration of EBV reactivation(P＜0.05).The mortality of EBV viremia,EBV diseases,and PTLD alone were 8.2％,50.0％,and 100％,respectively.The 2-year overall survival rate of patients with and without EBV reactivation were 85.3％,and 90.7％,respectively,difference was not statistically significant(P=0.897).However,patients treated with rituximab had 2-year lower survival rate than those who did not use it,with a statistically significant difference(P=0.046).Conclusion EBV reactivation is one of the serious complications in AA patients after Haplo-HSCT,which affects the prognosis and survival of patients.