1.Mechanism of acupuncture for chronic blunt injury of lumbar muscle based on IGF-1/PI3K/AKT pathway.
Qun CHEN ; Dongmei WANG ; Zhengyu YANG ; Xiulian ZHENG ; Jianping LIN ; Shaoqing CHEN
Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion 2025;45(12):1759-1769
OBJECTIVE:
To explore the effect and mechanism of acupuncture at "Weizhong" (BL40) on microcirculation of paravertebral skeletal muscle in rats with chronic blunt injury of lumbar muscle based on the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1)/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) pathway.
METHODS:
Forty-eight SPF-grade SD rats were randomized into a blank group (8 rats) and a modeling group (40 rats). Chronic blunt injury model was established by weight impact method in the modeling group. Forty rats were successfully modeled, and were randomly divided into a model group, an acupuncture at Weizhong group (Weizhong group), an acupuncture at non-acupoint group (non-acupoint group), an inhibitor group, and an inhibitor+acupuncture at Weizhong group (inhibitor+Weizhong group), 8 rats in each group. In the Weizhong group and the inhibitor+Weizhong group, acupuncture was applied at bilateral "Weizhong" (BL40). In the non-acupoint group, acupuncture was applied at non-acupoints, i.e. points 0.5 cm inward from bilateral "Weizhong" (BL40). The acupuncture intervention was delivered 20 min each time, once a day for continuous 2 weeks. In the inhibitor group and the inhibitor+Weizhong group, intraperitoneal injection of IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) inhibitor was given once a day, at a dosage of 2 mg/100 g, for continuous 2 weeks. Before modeling and on the 1st, 7th and 14th days of intervention, the body mass was measured. Before and after modeling, and after intervention, the limb grip strength and paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) were measured. After intervention, the morphology of psoas muscle was observed by HE staining; the ultrastructure of psoas muscle capillaries was observed by electron microscopy; the levels of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) were detected by ELISA; and the protein and mRNA expression of IGF-1, IGF-1R, PI3K, AKT of psoas muscle was detected by Western blot and real-time PCR.
RESULTS:
Compared with the blank group, in the model group, the body mass on the 7th and 14th days of intervention, the limb grip strength, and the PWT of left and right hind feet were decreased (P<0.001, P<0.01); the skeletal muscle cells showed enlarged intercellular space, loosely arranged and irregularly shaped, the capillaries in the psoas muscle tissues were edematous, and the lumen of the blood vessels was obviously atrophied; the levels of serum VEGF and eNOS were decreased (P<0.001); in psoas muscle, the protein expression of IGF-1 and IGF-1R, as well as the p-PI3K/PI3K, p-AKT/AKT values were decreased (P<0.001), the mRNA expression of IGF-1, IGF-1R, PI3K and AKT was decreased (P<0.001, P<0.05). Compared with the model group, in the Weizhong group, the body weight was increased on the 7th and 14th days of intervention (P<0.001), the limb grip strength and the PWT of the left and right hind feet were increased (P<0.001, P<0.01); the arrangement of the skeletal muscle cells was relatively tight and the intercellular space was reduced, the blood vessels tended to be regular and the structure of the basement membrane was continuous, while the lumens of blood vessels were collapsed locally; the levels of serum VEGF and eNOS were increased (P<0.001); in psoas muscle, the protein expression of IGF-1 and IGF-1R, as well as the p-PI3K/PI3K, p-AKT/AKT values were increased (P<0.001), the mRNA expression of IGF-1, IGF-1R, PI3K and AKT was increased (P<0.001, P<0.01). Compared with the model group, in the inhibitor group, the body mass was decreased on the 7th and 14th days of intervention (P<0.05, P<0.01); the limb grip strength and the PWT of the left hind foot were decreased (P<0.01, P<0.001); the intercellular space of skeletal muscle cells was larger, the nuclei of the cells and erythrocytes were scattered in the intercellular space, the damage of the capillaries in the muscular tissues was serious, the collagen fibers were sparsely distributed and disorganized; the levels of serum VEGF and eNOS were decreased (P<0.001, P<0.01); in psoas muscle, the protein expression of IGF-1 and IGF-1R, as well as the p-PI3K/PI3K and p-AKT/AKT values were decreased (P<0.01, P<0.05, P<0.001), the mRNA expression of IGF-1, IGF-1R, PI3K, and AKT was decreased (P<0.01, P<0.001, P<0.05). Compared with the Weizhong group, in the non-acupoint group and the inhibitor+Weizhong group, the body mass was decreased on the 7th and 14th days of intervention (P<0.001, P<0.01), the limb grip strength was decreased (P<0.001); the morphology of muscle cell was relatively poor, with generally irregular, there was mild collapse and atrophy in the vascular lumen, and mild edema in the endothelial cells; the levels of serum VEGF and eNOS were decreased (P<0.001); in psoas muscle, the protein expression of IGF-1 and IGF-1R, as well as the p-PI3K/PI3K and p-AKT/AKT values were decreased (P<0.01, P<0.001), the mRNA expression of IGF-1, IGF-1R, PI3K, and AKT was decreased (P<0.001, P<0.01, P<0.05). Compared with the Weizhong group, the PWT of the left hind foot was decreased in the non-acupoint group (P<0.001), and PWT of the left and right hind feet was decreased in the inhibitor+Weizhong group (P<0.001).
CONCLUSION
Acupuncture at "Weizhong" (BL40) promotes lumbar muscle repair in chronic low back pain, its mechanism may be related to the activation of the IGF-1/PI3K/AKT pathway, thereby improving the microcirculation.
Animals
;
Insulin-Like Growth Factor I/genetics*
;
Acupuncture Therapy
;
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
;
Rats
;
Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/genetics*
;
Male
;
Humans
;
Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism*
;
Signal Transduction
;
Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases/genetics*
;
Wounds, Nonpenetrating/metabolism*
;
Acupuncture Points
2.Review on methods for fatigue driving detection
Xue LI ; Xiaoxia LIU ; Piqiang GONG ; Dongmei LIN ; Fuming CHEN
Chinese Journal of Medical Physics 2025;42(5):632-639
Fatigue driving is a major cause of traffic accidents,which poses a great threat to public safety and property.In order to reduce the losses caused by fatigue driving,many researchers have devoted themselves to the study about fatigue driving,such as driver behavior monitoring,brainwave monitoring,eye tracking and facial expression analysis.Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages.Behavioral monitoring reflects the fatigue state by analyzing the driver's driving habits and facial expression,which is easy to operate but prone to be affected by the external environment.Brainwave monitoring is more accurate and can detect the fatigue state in real time,but the equipment is complicated and costly,which limits its large-scale application.The detection based on eye-tracking and facial expression analysis also has a certain potential for application,but errors may occur under different light conditions.Herein the review introduces the effects of fatigue on driving ability and compares the research results of various fatigue driving detection methods by searching,collating,analyzing and summarizing the relevant literatures at home and abroad.Various detection methods are analyzed and summarized,and it is pointed out that the fatigue driving detection method based on multi-feature information fusion will become a research hotspot.
3.Automatic sleep staging method based on CNN-BiGRU and multi-head self-attention mechanism
Xiaoli ZHANG ; Xizhen ZHANG ; Dongmei LIN ; Fuming CHEN
Chinese Journal of Medical Physics 2025;42(4):496-504
The study aims to address the issues of class imbalance in sleep EEG data and gradient vanishing or explosion phenomena that may occur when deep networks extract more features.An improved adaptive synthetic sampling technique is firstly employed to perform data augmentation on the minority classes of sleep EEG data.Subsequently,convolutional neural networks and residual networks are utilized to learn data features,while a 3-layer bidirectional gated recurrent network is applied to explore deep temporal information and establish correlations between different sleep stages,enabling automatic feature learning and sleep cycle extraction.Finally,a multi-head self-attention mechanism is adopted to enhance the model's focus on critical parts of the sequence,thereby completing the classification of various sleep stages.Experimental results show that according to the AASM sleep staging criteria,the automatic sleep staging model integrating CNN-BiGRU and multi-head self attention achieves an overall accuracy of 90.77%and a Kappa coefficient of 0.88 on the Sleep-EDF-20 dataset after data class balancing,with the precision of N1 stage reaching 87.1%.On the Sleep-EDFx dataset,the model attains an MF1 score of 0.84 while maintaining a precision of 77.2%for N1 stage classification.These metrics demonstrate significant improvements in performance as compared with CNN-BiGRU model tested on the original dataset.When benchmarked against other related studies,the proposed architecture exhibits superior sleep stage classification accuracy.These findings collectively validate the effectiveness and generalization capability of the proposed method.
4.Research progress in hepatotoxicity of toxic traditional Chinese medicines in 2025 edition of Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China
Lin XU ; Qiuyu HUANG ; Dongmei YAN
Chinese Journal of Pharmacology and Toxicology 2025;39(9):689-702
Toxic Chinese herbal medicines(TCHMs)both represent a unique class of therapeutic agents that exhibit both potent efficacy("using toxins to combat pathogens and often curing critical con-ditions")and pose safety concerns("potentially causing severe harm").Balancing clinical effectiveness with safe applications remains a priority of research for these substances.This review summarizes the hepatotoxic mechanisms,research progress,detoxification strategies and clinical challenges associated with TCHMs documented in the 2025 Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China(Volume Ⅰ)in the hope of providing evidence-based insights into the safe and rational clinical use of these hepatotoxic herbs.
5.Hotspots and trends in self-advocacy research among patients with chronic diseases: a CiteSpace-based analysis
Jiazhu LIU ; Dongmei LIN ; Rong LIU ; Hui LI ; Yunping QIAN ; Yanran FAN ; Limin MENG
Chinese Journal of Modern Nursing 2025;31(28):3828-3835
Objective:To explore the current research status, hotspots, and trends of self-advocacy among patients with chronic diseases, and to provide a reference for conducting research on self-advocacy in chronic diseases.Methods:A computer-based search was conducted in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, VIP, China Biology Medicine disc, and the Web of Science Core Collection for literature related to self-advocacy among patients with chronic diseases, with the time frame from database inception to October 1, 2024. The CiteSpace 6.3.R1 software was used to perform visual analysis on publication volume, countries, institutions, authors, keywords, and citation status.Results:A total of 721 articles were included in the study. The country with the largest number of publications related to self-advocacy among patients with chronic diseases was the United States. Authors and journals were mainly from the fields of psychology and sociology. Research hotspots mainly included women, cancer, breast cancer, quality of life (health-related quality of life), cancer screening, and individual experiences. Future research trends are expected to focus on influencing factors and theoretical research, impacts on medical decision-making, psychological and social support, as well as the development of scales and assessment tools of self-advocacy.Conclusions:Research on self-advocacy in China started relatively late. It is suggested that in the future, domestic scholars conduct multi-center and large-sample studies on self-advocacy among populations in different regions and with various types of chronic diseases.
6.Survey on knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding geriatric frailty syndrome among clinical nurses in a general hospital
Hong ZOU ; Dongmei LI ; Lin CHENG ; Yaqi GUAN ; Xiuhua DING
Chinese Journal of Modern Nursing 2025;31(35):4850-4855
Objective:To investigate the current status of clinical nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding geriatric frailty syndrome in a general hospital and to analyze the influencing factors.Methods:Using convenience sampling, 319 clinical nurses from the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, were recruited between May and September 2024. A KAP questionnaire on geriatric frailty syndrome was developed through literature review and the Delphi method. Data were collected with a demographic questionnaire and the KAP questionnaire. Multiple linear regression was performed to identify factors influencing KAP levels.Results:The finalized KAP questionnaire consisted of three dimensions and 27 items. Cronbach's α coefficients for the total scale and the knowledge, attitudes, and practices subscales were 0.974, 0.981, 0.974, and 0.967, respectively. The overall KAP score among 319 nurses was (96.65±20.83). The average scores for each dimension were (4.08±0.82) for attitudes, (3.84±0.84) for practices, and (3.12±1.00) for knowledge. Multiple linear regression indicated that age and positions were respective significantly influenced the total KAP score and attitudes score ( P<0.05) ; frailty-related training was also a significant factor for KAP score and dimension scores ( P<0.05) . Conclusions:Clinical nurses demonstrated a moderate overall KAP level regarding geriatric frailty syndrome, with relatively high attitudes but insufficient professional knowledge. Hospital managers should provide effective education and training for frontline nurses to improve KAP levels and to promote early identification, assessment, and intervention of geriatric frailty.
7.Family participatory multisensory support programme based on the enriched environment theory in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit
Jiaying WANG ; Mei LIN ; Dongmei XU ; Zhirong HUANG ; Songmei YANG ; Ting HUANG ; Liling HUANG ; Yujuan LI ; Xin DENG
Chinese Journal of Practical Nursing 2025;41(4):241-250
Objective:To explore the application effect of family participatory multisensory support programme based on the theory of enriched environment on preterm infants and their mothers in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).Methods:A historical comparative study was conducted. One hundred and sixteen pairs of preterm infants and their mothers admitted to NICU, Affiliated Hospital of Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities from March to October 2023 were selected by convenience sampling method and divided into control group and experimental group according to the time of admission. The control group was given routine care, while the experimental group implemented a family participatory multisensory support programme based on the enriched environment theory on the basis of the control group. The amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) scores and the Chinese version of Parent-Child Interaction Feeding Scale (PCI-FS-C) scores before and after intervention, the Gesell developmental quotients at 40 weeks and 3 months of gestational age, the Chinese version of Maternal Attachment Inventory (CMAI) scores of preterm mothers on the day of discharge and 1 and 3 months after discharge were compared between the two groups.Results:A total of 105 pairs of premature infants and their mothers were included, 52 premature infants of control group, 29 males and 23 females; 53 premature infants of experimental group, including 32 males and 21 females. Before intervention, there were no significant differences in aEEG scores and PCI-FS-C scores between the two groups (all P>0.05). After intervention, the scores of aEEG and PCI-FS-C in the experimental group were (10.91 ± 2.18) and (12.62 ± 1.32) points, respectively, which were higher than (9.67 ± 1.94) and (10.42 ± 1.45) points in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant ( t=3.06, 8.15, both P<0.05). The Gesell developmental quotient were (54.03 ± 9.73), (55.17 ± 11.19), (57.20 ± 11.04), (53.60 ± 9.74), (55.17 ± 10.11) at 40 weeks of gestational age, and (77.15 ± 11.55), (76.62 ± 9.90), (72.76 ± 11.90), (81.47 ± 10.01), (76.51 ± 12.25) at 3 months of gestational age, respectively, which were higher than the control group (49.70 ± 9.07), (49.06 ± 8.61), (52.41 ± 9.01), (49.28 ± 8.78), (50.07 ± 12.52), and (71.10 ± 11.87), (69.02 ± 12.53), (65.77 ± 12.24), (75.08 ± 11.08), (68.63 ± 10.89), the differences were statistically significant ( t values were 2.30-3.49, all P<0.05). The CMAI scores of preterm mothers in the experimental group were (82.81 ± 12.85), (87.70 ± 10.29), (95.91 ± 8.76) points on the day of discharge and 1 and 3 months after discharge, respectively, which were higher than (68.71 ± 14.15), (82.04 ± 11.87), (90.98 ± 11.13) points of the control group, the differences were statistically significant ( t=5.35, 2.61, 2.52, all P<0.05). Conclusions:The family participatory multisensory support programme based on the theory of enriched environment can accelerate the maturation of brain electrical activity in preterm infants and promote brain function and neurobehavioural development; meanwhile, it improves maternal sensitivity and promotes the establishment of mother-infant attachment relationship in preterm infants.
8.Association between different types of tea intake and risk of COVID-19 infection:a two-sample Mendelian randomization study
Congzhi WANG ; Binghong BAO ; Ziyue ZHANG ; Kang ZHAO ; Yulu ZHANG ; Liu YANG ; Lin ZHANG ; Dongmei ZHANG ; Xiaoping LI ; Min WANG
Journal of Shenyang Medical College 2025;27(2):160-167
Objective:To investigate the relationship between different types of tea intake and COVID-19 infection.Methods:Data were retrieved from a genome-wide association study(GWAS),involving 447 485,and 64 949 people for single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs).Two-sample Mendelian randomization(MR)analysis was used to investigate the relationship of different types of tea intake with four subgroups of COVID-19 infected population,including COVID-19 infected population versus general population,COVID-19 hospitalized population versus general population,COVID-19 hospitalized population versus non-hospitalized population,and very severe respiratory confirmed population versus general population.Inverse-variance weighted(IVW)method was used as the main method of causal analysis.MR Egger intercept was used for pleiotropy test,and Cochran's Q-statistic was used for heterogeneity test.Results:Compared to the general population,tea intake decreased the incidence of COVID-19 in the infection population(IVW method,OR=0.806,95%CI:0.651-0.999),and the hospitalized population(IVW method,OR=0.533,95%CI:0.369-0.770).Additionally,the underlying pleiotropy was not found following the MR-Egger regression intercept(MR intercept=-0.002,P=0.667),and the Cochran's Q-statistic showed no heterogeneity(Q-statistic=52.712,P=0.057).Compared to the general population,the underlying pleiotropy in the hospitalized patients was not found by MR-Egger regression intercept(MR intercept=-0.001,P=0.909),and the Cochran's Q-statistic showed no heterogeneity(Q-statistic=25.214,P=0.945).However,green tea and herbal tea had no effect on COVID-19 infection.Conclusions:Overall tea intake reduces the risk of COVID-19 infection in the general population compared to COVID-19 infected and hospitalized populations,while green tea and herbal tea have no protective effect against COVID-19 infection.
9.Research progress in hepatotoxicity of toxic traditional Chinese medicines in 2025 edition of Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China
Lin XU ; Qiuyu HUANG ; Dongmei YAN
Chinese Journal of Pharmacology and Toxicology 2025;39(9):689-702
Toxic Chinese herbal medicines(TCHMs)both represent a unique class of therapeutic agents that exhibit both potent efficacy("using toxins to combat pathogens and often curing critical con-ditions")and pose safety concerns("potentially causing severe harm").Balancing clinical effectiveness with safe applications remains a priority of research for these substances.This review summarizes the hepatotoxic mechanisms,research progress,detoxification strategies and clinical challenges associated with TCHMs documented in the 2025 Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China(Volume Ⅰ)in the hope of providing evidence-based insights into the safe and rational clinical use of these hepatotoxic herbs.
10.Deep learning approaches for image-based classification of Alzheimer's disease
Piqiang GONG ; Zuojian YAN ; Xue LI ; Dongmei LIN ; Fuming CHEN
Chinese Journal of Medical Physics 2025;42(11):1420-1433
Alzheimer's disease(AD)is a progressive,irreversible neurodegenerative disorder characterized by gradual brain cell degeneration,leading to progressive decline in cognitive function and ultimately death.Early identification and intervention are critical to AD diagnosis.In recent years,deep learning has further advanced image-based AD classification methods and facilitated the application of deep models in the early AD diagnosis.To achieve accurate early diagnosis and subsequent classification of AD,researchers have integrated deep learning with magnetic resonance imaging to develop more precise models.By analyzing and synthesizing relevant domestic and international literature,this review introduces commonly used public datasets and evaluation criteria for AD,analyzes the application of magnetic resonance imaging in AD classification and its integration with deep learning methods,and highlights the roles of techniques such as convolutional neural networks,transfer learning,attention mechanisms,and multimodal approaches in AD classification.It also discusses the advantages,limitations,and developmental trends of deep learning in AD classification,aiming to provide new insights for the application of deep learning in AD research.

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