A novel analytical method was developed in this study by combining online solid phase extraction with ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(Online SPE-UPLC-MS/MS)for simultaneous determination of 50 kinds of steroid hormones in surface water.Specifically,after high-speed centrifugation of 4 mL water samples,the supernatant was directly injected into an Oasis HLB online SPE column for enrichment and purification.Subsequently,the target compounds were transferred to the analytical column via valve switching for separation and analysis.The chromatographic separation was performed on a Thermo Acclaim RSLC C18 column(100 mm×2.1 mm,2.2 μm),using a mobile phase composed of 5 mmol/L ammonium fluoride aqueous solution and acetonitrile.Mass spectrometric detection was conducted in positive ion mode,utilizing multiple reaction monitoring(MRM)with quantification achieved by the internal standard method.The method validation demonstrated that the limits of detection(LOD)for the 50 kinds of steroid hormones ranged from 0.02 to 0.50 ng/L,while the limits of quantification(LOQ)were between 0.08 and 1.67 ng/L.The average recoveries in surface water samples at spiked concentrations of 5,20 and 200 ng/L were between 74.1％and 119％,with relative standard deviations(RSDs)of 0.2％to 9.9％.This method was applied to analyze 11 surface water samples collected from sites surrounding a pharmaceutical and chemical industrial park.A total of 44 kinds of steroid hormones were detected,with concentrations ranging from 0.11 to 88.6 ng/L,revealing the presence of hormone contamination in the environmental waters surrounding industrial areas.Compared with the traditional offline SPE methods,the proposed online SPE technique significantly reduced sample volume requirements and pretreatment time,while minimizing the loss of target compounds during the pretreatment process.Moreover,compared to reported online SPE techniques,this method achieved high-throughput analysis of multiple classes of steroid hormones,with lower detection limits and higher recoveries.Overall,this method provided rapid sample preparation,high sensitivity,and excellent stability,making it suitable for the direct analysis of trace steroid hormones in surface water.

Through a compound induction method, combined with neurobehavioral, macroscopic characterization and objective pathological evaluation indicators, a murine depression model of liver depression transforming into fire syndrome was constructed and confirmed. The model was constructed using a combination of sleep deprivation, light exposure, and alternate-day food deprivation. Evaluation was conducted at three levels: face validity, constructs validity, and predictive validity. The establishment of the liver depression transforming into fire syndrome depression model was further validated through the counterproof of traditional Chinese medicine formulas. In terms of face validity, compared to the control group, mice in the model group exhibited typical depressive symptoms in neurobehavioral assessments; the general observation of the model group mice reveals disheveled and lackluster fur, along with delayed and easily agitated responses. Additionally, there is a substantial increase in water consumption. In the sleep phase detection of mouse, the model group showed a significant increase in the proportion of time spent in the wake phase during sleep, accompanied by a significant decrease in the proportions of time spent in both non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep phases. There are significant differences in physiological indicators such as average blood flow velocity, blood flow rate, tongue, urine, and claw color (r values) in the internal carotid artery. Structural validity demonstrated that levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), dopamine (DA), and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the hippocampus of model mice decreased significantly, while acetylcholine (ACh), tryptophan (Try), and glutamic acid (Glu) levels increased significantly. Treatment with Danzhi Xiaoyao San led to varying degrees of restoration in the aforementioned neurotransmitters. In terms of predictive validity, the antidepressant paroxetine effectively ameliorated depressive behaviors in the model mice, and the classic formula Danzhi Xiaoyao San demonstrated varying degrees of improvement in depression-related indicators. In conclusion, this study has established a novel animal model of liver-stagnation with the fire depression, thereby expanding the repertoire of traditional Chinese medicine depression models. This development contributes to the diversification of melancholic syndrome models in Chinese medicine, offering a broader spectrum of options for scientific exploration, efficacy evaluation, and drug screening in the future prevention and treatment of depression with traditional Chinese medicine. Animal experiments were conducted with the approval and supervision of the Animal Ethics Committee of Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ethics number: 20230313040).

Objective: To understand and analyze the incidence of club drug abuse and influencing factors in men who have sex with men (MSM) in Qingdao, and provide reference for the AIDS prevention and intervention in this population. Methods: From March 2017 to July 31, 2022, MSM who did not abuse club drug were recruited by snowball sampling of MSM social organizations in Qingdao, a prospective cohort was established, and a follow-up survey was conducted every 6 months. The survey collected the information about the MSM's demographic characteristics, sexual characteristics, club drug abuse and others. The incidence of club drug abuse was the outcome dependent variable and the interval between the recruitment into the cohort and the incidence of club drug abuse was the time dependent variable. Cox regression analysis was conducted to identify the influencing factors for club drug abuse. Results: A total of 509 MSM were recruited at baseline survey, and 369 eligible MSM were enrolled in this cohort. A total of 62 MSM began to abuse club drug during the study period, and the cumulative follow-up time was 911.54 person-years, the incidence of club drug abuse was 6.80/100 person-years. All the club drug abusers shared drugs with others in the first club drug abuse, and 16.13% (10/62) had mix-use of club drugs. The multivariate Cox proportional risk regression analysis showed that being students (aHR=2.17, 95%CI: 1.15-4.10), receiving no HIV testing or receiving 1 HIV testing during past 6 months (aHR=4.57, 95%CI:1.80-11.60; aHR=5.15, 95%CI: 2.83-9.36), having sex only with regular sexual partners during past 6 months (aHR=4.75,95%CI:2.32-9.75), having more than 4 homosexual partners (aHR=1.70, 95%CI:1.01-2.87) and abuse of club drug of sexual partners during past 6 months (aHR=12.78, 95%CI:3.06-53.35) were significantly associated with club drug abuse in the MSM. Conclusions: The incidence of club drug abuse was at a high level in the MSM cohort in Qingdao, indicating a high risk for HIV infection. Being student, receiving less HIV testing, having sex only with regular sexual partners, having more homosexual partners and abuse of club drug of sexual partners during past 6 months were risk factors for the incidence of club drug abuse in the MSM. Targeted surveillance and intervention measures should be strengthened to reduce the risk of club drug abuse in MSM.
Male ; Humans ; Homosexuality, Male ; Cohort Studies ; Illicit Drugs ; Incidence ; HIV Infections ; Prospective Studies ; Sexual and Gender Minorities ; Substance-Related Disorders

Humans ; Stroke, Lacunar ; Mendelian Randomization Analysis ; Leukocytes ; Telomere/genetics* ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

As an important model animal, fruit fly is characterized by outstanding genetic characteristics, relatively perfect nervous system, rapid reproduction, and low cost. Thus, it has been applied in the research on neuropsychiatric disorders in recent years, showing great potential in life science. The incidence of neuropsychiatric disorders has been on the rise, and the disorders have high disability rate and low case fatality rate. The global drug demand for such diseases is second only to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. At the moment, the demand of the drugs for the diseases have been rising, and it is an urgent task to develop related drugs. However, the research and development of the drugs are time-intensive and have a high failure rate. A suitable animal model can help shorten the time for drug screening and development, thereby reducing the cost and failure rate. This study reviews the application of fruit flies in several common neuropsychiatric disorders, which is expected to provide new ideas for the research and application of the model animals in traditional Chinese medicine.
Animals ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use* ; Models, Animal ; Cerebrovascular Disorders

Humans ; Female ; Deep Learning ; Ovarian Neoplasms/genetics* ; Carcinoma, Ovarian Epithelial/genetics* ; Neural Networks, Computer ; RNA

OBJECTIVES: To explore the optimal maintenance dose of caffeine citrate for preterm infants requiring assisted ventilation and caffeine citrate treatment. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical data of 566 preterm infants (gestational age ≤34 weeks) who were treated and required assisted ventilation and caffeine citrate treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit of 30 tertiary hospitals in Jiangsu Province of China between January 1 and December 31, 2019. The 405 preterm infants receiving high-dose (10 mg/kg per day) caffeine citrate after a loading dose of 20 mg/kg within 24 hours after birth were enrolled as the high-dose group. The 161 preterm infants receiving low-dose (5 mg/kg per day) caffeine citrate were enrolled as the low-dose group. RESULTS: Compared with the low-dose group, the high-dose group had significant reductions in the need for high-concentration oxygen during assisted ventilation (P=0.044), the duration of oxygen inhalation after weaning from noninvasive ventilation (P<0.01), total oxygen inhalation time during hospitalization (P<0.01), the proportion of preterm infants requiring noninvasive ventilation again (P<0.01), the rate of use of pulmonary surfactant and budesonide (P<0.05), and the incidence rates of apnea and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (P<0.01), but the high-dose group had a significantly increased incidence rate of feeding intolerance (P=0.032). There were no significant differences between the two groups in the body weight change, the incidence rates of retinopathy of prematurity, intraventricular hemorrhage or necrotizing enterocolitis, the mortality rate, and the duration of caffeine use (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS This pilot multicenter study shows that the high maintenance dose (10 mg/kg per day) is generally beneficial to preterm infants in China and does not increase the incidence rate of common adverse reactions. For the risk of feeding intolerance, further research is needed to eliminate the interference of confounding factors as far as possible.
Caffeine/therapeutic use* ; Citrates ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant, Premature ; Respiration, Artificial ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of Jiuwei Zhuhuang Powder (JWZH), a Tibetan patent medicine in treating upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) associated cough in children. METHODS: The study was a multicenter, randomized, open-label, controlled trial. A total of 142 children aged 2 to 14 years old, with URTI-associated cough within 48 h of onset, were randomly assigned to two groups at a 1:1 ratio by computer-generated randomization sequence. Children were treated with JWZH (1 to 1.5 g, twice to thrice daily) in the treatment group or conventional treatment (Pediatric Paracetamol, Artificial Cow-bezoar and Chlorphenamine Maleate Granules, 0.25 to 1 g, thrice daily) in the control group for 5 days. The primary endpoints were the time to cough resolution and 4-day cough resolution rate. The secondary endpoints were the daily improvement in symptom scores and cough resolution rate during the study period. RESULTS: A total of 138 children were included in the intention-to-treat analysis, with 71 cases in the treatment group and 67 cases in the control group. Compared with the conventional treatment, the children receiving JWZH had a shorter time to cough resolution [hazard ratio, 2.10; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.29-3.40; P=0.003]. The median time to cough resolution for children receiving JWZH was shorter than that of the conventional treatment (2 days vs. 3 days; P<0.001). The 4-day cough resolution rate in the JWZH group was higher than that of the control group (94.4% vs. 74.6%; risk difference: 19.8%, 95% CI: 8.1%-31.5%; relative risk: 1.265, 95% CI: 1.088-1.470; P=0.001). There were no statistically significant differences in the improvement of other symptoms caused by URTI (P>0.05). Adverse events was reported in 5.6% (4/71) and 4.5% (3/67) in participants of JWZH and PPACCM groups (P>0.05), respectively, which were all mild and resolved without treatment. CONCLUSION JWZH seemed to be a safe and effective therapy for URTI-associated cough in children. (Trial registration No. ChiCTR2000039421).
Child ; Cough/drug therapy* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Humans ; Nonprescription Drugs ; Powders ; Respiratory Tract Infections/drug therapy*

Objective: To analyze the course of disease and epidemiological parameters of COVID-19 and provide evidence for making prevention and control strategies. Methods: To display the distribution of course of disease of the infectors who had close contacts with COVID-19 cases from January 1 to March 15, 2020 in Guangdong Provincial, the models of Lognormal, Weibull and gamma distribution were applied. A descriptive analysis was conducted on the basic characteristics and epidemiological parameters of course of disease. Results: In total, 515 of 11 580 close contacts were infected, with an attack rate about 4.4%, including 449 confirmed cases and 66 asymptomatic cases. Lognormal distribution was fitting best for latent period, incubation period, pre-symptomatic infection period of confirmed cases and infection period of asymptomatic cases; Gamma distribution was fitting best for infectious period and clinical symptom period of confirmed cases; Weibull distribution was fitting best for latent period of asymptomatic cases. The latent period, incubation period, pre-symptomatic infection period, infectious period and clinical symptoms period of confirmed cases were 4.50 (95%CI:3.86-5.13) days, 5.12 (95%CI:4.63-5.62) days, 0.87 (95%CI:0.67-1.07) days, 11.89 (95%CI:9.81-13.98) days and 22.00 (95%CI:21.24-22.77) days, respectively. The latent period and infectious period of asymptomatic cases were 8.88 (95%CI:6.89-10.86) days and 6.18 (95%CI:1.89-10.47) days, respectively. Conclusion: The estimated course of COVID-19 and related epidemiological parameters are similar to the existing data.
COVID-19 ; Cohort Studies ; Contact Tracing ; Humans ; Incidence ; Prospective Studies

Objective: To investigate the correlation between CLOCK and BMAL1 genes and MEN2 medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). Methods: Thirteen cases with MEN2 MTC and thirteen cases with non-MEN2 MTC were selected who were treated in the Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital between January 2013 and September 2021. Clinical indicators such as blood calcitonin level, tumor diameter and metastatic lymph node of patients were collected. The expression differences of CLOCK and BMAL1 between MEN2 MTC and para-carcinoma tissue as well as between MEN2 MTC and non-MEN2 MTC were detected by immunohistochemistry and qPCR. The correlation between lymph node metastasis and CLOCK or BMAL1 expression was analyzed. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis combined with qPCR and correlation analysis was used to explore the expression regulation relationship between RET and circadian clock genes. The rhythm disorder of MEN2 cells was verified by lipopolysaccharide cell stimulation experiment after dexamethasone rhythm synchronization. Results: MEN2 MTC exhibited typical RET gene mutation. The mean blood calcitonin level, the tumor diameter and the number of metastatic lymph nodes of patients with MEN2 MTC were higher than those of patients with non-MEN2 MTC (t value was 2.76, 2.53, 2.26, all P<0.05). Immunohistochemical results showed that the expression levels of CLOCK and BMAL1 in MEN2 MTC were higher than those in non-MEN2 MTC, while negatively expressed in para-cancerous thyroid follicle. qPCR displayed that the expression of CLOCK gene in cancer tissues was higher than that in non-MEN2 MTC and para-cancerous tissues (t value was 2.68 and 2.86, all P<0.05); the expression of BMAL1 gene in MEN2 MTC was higher than that in non-MEN2 MTC and para-cancerous tissues (t value was 2.21 and 2.35, all P<0.05). Correlation analysis showed that the expression levels of CLOCK and BMAL1 genes were positively correlated with the number of lymph node metastases in patients with MEN2 MTC (r=0.65, P<0.001; r=0.52, P=0.005). PPI network analysis indicated that the expression of CLOCK gene was positively correlated with the abnormal expression of RET gene (r=0.96, P<0.001). With lipopolysaccharide to stimulate cultured cells in vitro after dexamethasone rhythm synchronization, the expressions of CLOCK and BMAL1 in MEN2 MTC cells (0.47±0.22 and 2.60±1.48) at 12 hours of synchronization were significantly lower than those in para-cancerous tissues (1.70±1.62 and 8.23±2.52), the difference was statistically significant(t=5.04, P=0.007; t=3.34, P=0.029). Conclusion: CLOCK and BMAL1 are correlated with the occurrence and development of MEN2 MTC, and may be potential targets for the development of new therapeutic strategies for MEN2 MTC.
ARNTL Transcription Factors/genetics* ; CLOCK Proteins/genetics* ; Calcitonin ; Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine/genetics* ; Dexamethasone ; Humans ; Lipopolysaccharides ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2a/genetics* ; Thyroid Neoplasms/surgery*