This study investigated the effects and underlying mechanisms of vanillic acid(VA) against cardiac fibrosis(CF) induced by isoproterenol(ISO) in mice. Male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into control group, VA group(100 mg·kg~(-1), ig), ISO group(10 mg·kg~(-1), sc), ISO + VA group(10 mg·kg~(-1), sc + 100 mg·kg~(-1), ig), ISO + dynamin-related protein 1(Drp1) inhibitor(Mdivi-1) group(10 mg·kg~(-1), sc + 50 mg·kg~(-1), ip), and ISO + VA + Mdivi-1 group(10 mg·kg~(-1), sc + 100 mg·kg~(-1), ig + 50 mg·kg~(-1), ip). The treatment groups received the corresponding medications once daily for 14 consecutive days. On the day after the last administration, cardiac functions were evaluated, and serum and cardiac tissue samples were collected. These samples were analyzed for serum aspartate aminotransferase(AST), lactate dehydrogenase(LDH), creatine kinase-MB(CK-MB), cardiac troponin I(cTnI), reactive oxygen species(ROS), interleukin(IL)-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-18, and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) levels, as well as cardiac tissue catalase(CAT), glutathione(GSH), malondialdehyde(MDA), myeloperoxidase(MPO), superoxide dismutase(SOD), total antioxidant capacity(T-AOC) activities, and cytochrome C levels in mitochondria and cytoplasm. Hematoxylin-eosin, Masson, uranium acetate and lead citrate staining were used to observe morphological and mitochondrial ultrastructural changes in the cardiac tissues, and myocardial injury area and collagen volume fraction were calculated. Flow cytometry was applied to detect the relative content and M1/M2 polarization of cardiac macrophages. The mRNA expression levels of macrophage polarization markers [CD86, CD206, arginase 1(Arg-1), inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS)], CF markers [type Ⅰ collagen(Coll Ⅰ), Coll Ⅲ, α-smooth muscle actin(α-SMA)], and cytokines(IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-18, TNF-α) in cardiac tissues were determined by quantitative real-time PCR. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression levels of Coll Ⅰ, Coll Ⅲ, α-SMA, Drp1, p-Drp1, voltage-dependent anion channel(VDAC), hexokinase 1(HK1), NOD-like receptor protein 3(NLRP3), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein(ASC), caspase-1, cleaved-caspase-1, gasdermin D(GSDMD), cleaved N-terminal gasdermin D(GSDMD-N), IL-1β, IL-18, B-cell lymphoma-2(Bcl-2), B-cell lymphoma-xl(Bcl-xl), Bcl-2-associated death promoter(Bad), Bcl-2-associated X protein(Bax), apoptotic protease activating factor-1(Apaf-1), pro-caspase-3, cleaved-caspase-3, pro-caspase-9, cleaved-caspase-9, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1(PARP-1), and cleaved-PARP-1 in cardiac tissues. The results showed that VA significantly improved cardiac function in mice with CF, reduced myocardial injury area and cardiac index, and decreased serum levels of AST, CK-MB, cTnI, LDH, ROS, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-18, and TNF-α. VA also lowered MDA and MPO levels, mRNA expressions of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-18, and TNF-α, and mRNA and protein expressions of Coll Ⅰ, Coll Ⅲ, and α-SMA in cardiac tissues, and increased serum levels of IL-4 and IL-10, cardiac tissue levels of CAT, GSH, SOD, and T-AOC, and mRNA expressions of IL-4 and IL-10. Additionally, VA ameliorated cardiac pathological damage, inhibited myocardial cell apoptosis, inflammatory infiltration, and collagen fiber deposition, reduced collagen volume fraction, and alleviated mitochondrial damage. VA decreased the ratio of F4/80~+CD86~+ M1 cells and the mRNA expressions of CD86 and iNOS in cardiac tissue, and increased the ratio of F4/80~+CD206~+ M2 cells and the mRNA expressions of CD206 and Arg-1. VA also reduced protein expressions of p-Drp1, VDAC, NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1, cleaved-caspase-1, GSDMD, GSDMD-N, IL-1β, IL-18, Bad, Bax, Apaf-1, cleaved-caspase-3, cleaved-caspase-9, cleaved-PARP-1, and cytoplasmic cytochrome C, and increased the expressions of HK1, Bcl-2, Bcl-xl, pro-caspase-3, pro-caspase-9 proteins, as well as the Bcl-2/Bax and Bcl-xl/Bad ratios and mitochondrial cytochrome C content. These results indicate that VA has a significant ameliorative effect on ISO-induced CF in mice, alleviates ISO-induced oxidative damage and inflammatory response, and its mechanism may be closely related to the inhibition of Drp1/HK1/NLRP3 and mitochondrial apoptosis signaling pathways, suppression of myocardial cell inflammatory infiltration and collagen fiber deposition, reduction of collagen volume fraction and CollⅠ, Coll Ⅲ, and α-SMA expressions, thus mitigating CF.
Animals ; Isoproterenol/adverse effects* ; Male ; Mice ; Signal Transduction/drug effects* ; Vanillic Acid/administration & dosage* ; Dynamins/genetics* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Fibrosis/genetics* ; Apoptosis/drug effects* ; Mitochondria/metabolism* ; NLR Family, Pyrin Domain-Containing 3 Protein/genetics* ; Myocardium/metabolism* ; Humans

Objective:To analyze the clinical features and laboratory indicators in patients with solid malignant tumor-associated venous thromboembolism(Ta-VTE),and to study the risk factors for Ta-VTE.Methods:The hospitalized patients with VTE in Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital from January to December 2020 were enrolled,and they were divided into Ta-VTE group and pure VTE group based on the presence or absence of solid malignant tumor.The differences in clinical data and laboratory indicators between the two groups were analyzed,and the indicators with significant differences were included in logistic regression model to analyze the risk factors of Ta-VTE.Results:A total of 288 patients with VTE were included in this study,including 64 cases in Ta-VTE group and 224 cases in pure VTE group,respectively.There were significant differences in the following indexes between the two groups,including the hospitalization time(14.20±15.29 d vs 10.05±6.90 d,t=3.112,P=0.002),pain(35.94％vs 65.18％,x2=17.554,P=0.000),recent surgery(75.00％vs 37.50％,X2=28.196,P=0.000),D-dimer[2.8(0.92,7.55)μg/ml vs 5.69(2.25,13.91)μg/ml,Z=-2.710,P=0.007],PLR[198.59(139.54,312.16)vs 149.76(114.08,233.66),Z=-2.924,P=0.003]and TBIL[10.90(7.63,15.68)μmol/Lvs 12.90(9.33,18.28)μmol/L,Z=-2.066,P=0.039].There was no significant difference in the other indicators(P＞0.05).The result of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that elevated PLR(OR=1.003,95％CI:1.000-1.006,P=0.027),recent surgery(OR=4.312,95％CI:2.093-8.885,P=0.000)and prolonged hospitalization(OR=1.037,95％CI:1.002-1.074,P=0.038)were independent risk factors for Ta-VTE.However,pain(OR=0.274,95％CI:0.133-0.564,P=0.000)was a protective factor.Conclusion:Elevated PLR level,recent surgery and prolonged hospital stay are independent risk factors for Ta-VTE patients,and rational use of these indicators is helpful for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of Ta-VTE patients.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Chinese medicine (CM) in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China. METHODS: A multi-center retrospective cohort study was carried out, with cumulative CM treatment period of ⩾3 days during hospitalization as exposure. Data came from consecutive inpatients from December 19, 2019 to May 16, 2020 in 4 medical centers in Wuhan, China. After data extraction, verification and cleaning, confounding factors were adjusted by inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), and the Cox proportional hazards regression model was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 2,272 COVID-19 patients were included. There were 1,684 patients in the CM group and 588 patients in the control group. Compared with the control group, the hazard ratio (HR) for the deterioration rate in the CM group was 0.52 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.41 to 0.64, P<0.001]. The results were consistent across patients of varying severity at admission, and the robustness of the results were confirmed by 3 sensitivity analyses. In addition, the HR for all-cause mortality in the CM group was 0.29 (95% CI: 0.19 to 0.44, P<0.001). Regarding of safety, the proportion of patients with abnormal liver function or renal function in the CM group was smaller. CONCLUSION This real-world study indicates that the combination of a full-course CM therapy on the basic conventional treatment, may safely reduce the deterioration rate and all-cause mortality of COVID-19 patients. This result can provide the new evidence to support the current treatment of COVID-19. Additional prospective clinical trial is needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of specific CM interventions. (Registration No. ChiCTR2200062917).
Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; COVID-19/epidemiology* ; COVID-19 Drug Treatment ; Aged ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/methods* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/adverse effects* ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Treatment Outcome ; China/epidemiology* ; Adult

In observational studies, herbal prescriptions are usually studied in the form of "similar prescriptions". At present, the classification of prescriptions is mainly based on clinical experience judgment, but there are some problems in manual judgment, such as lack of unified criteria, labor consumption, and difficulty in verification. In the construction of a database of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), our research group tried to classify real-world herbal prescriptions using a similarity matching algorithm. The main steps include 78 target prescriptions are determined in advance; four levels of importance labeling shall be carried out for the drugs of each target prescription; the combination, format conversion, and standardization of drug names of the prescriptions to be identified in the herbal medicine database; calculate the similarity between the prescriptions to be identified and each target prescription one by one; prescription discrimination is performed based on the preset criteria; remove the name of the prescriptions with "large prescriptions cover the small". Through the similarity matching algorithm, 87.49% of the real prescriptions in the herbal medicine database of this study can be identified, which preliminarily proves that this method can complete the classification of herbal prescriptions. However, this method does not consider the influence of herbal dosage on the results, and there is no recognized standard for the weight of drug importance and criteria, so there are some limitations, which need to be further explored and improved in future research.
Humans ; COVID-19 ; Algorithms ; Databases, Factual ; Prescriptions ; Plant Extracts

OBJECTIVES: To establish an analytical method for half sibling testing involving common three relatives' participation. METHODS: Based on the half sibling testing scenarios with the known biological mother, grandfather or uncle, and two unidentified controversial half siblings participating, two opposing hypotheses were set. Lineage reconstruction according to Mendel's law of heredity was carried out, and the calculation formula of the half sibling kinship index was derived. Verification of actual cases was carried out and the results were compared with duo half sibling testing. RESULTS: In the scenarios of the known biological mother, grandfather and uncle participating in half sibling testing, the kinship calculation formulae of 54, 91 and 99 genotype combinations for kinship index calculation were deduced respectively. The actual cases showed higher kinship indexes in trio half sibling testing compared with duo half sibling testing. CONCLUSIONS It is beneficial to obtain more genetic information for family reconstruction and improvement of the strength of genetic evidence for half sibling testing by adding known relatives.
Female ; Humans ; Siblings ; Genotype ; Mothers ; Microsatellite Repeats

Objective To develop plantar force model of patellofemoral pain (PFP), so as to provide theoretical references for the assessment of PFP rehabilitation. Methods The case-control study was conducted, and a total of 126 patients with PFP and 126 healthy controls matched by gender and age were enrolled in the study. The participants were tested for plantar force and pressure during level walking, and twelve plantar regions were divided and recorded. Whether the participants suffered PFP was analyzed as dependent variable, meanwhile the peak force and peak pressure in 12 plantar regions of participants at selected speed during level walking were analyzed as independent variables. Conditional logistic regression (CLR) equations of peak force and peak pressure with PFP were established, respectively. The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the corresponding equations was derived, and the area under ROC curve was calculated to analyzed the validity of different equations on PFP assessment. Results The CLC equation of peak force in 12 plantar regions of the participants with FFP was constructed, and only peak force of lateral heel was in the equation. The CLC equation of peak pressure in each plantar region included medial heel, midfoot, 1st and 2nd metatarsals. Meanwhile, the area under ROC curve of the pressure equation was larger than that of the force equation. Conclusions Peak force and pressure at different plantar regions can be used to assess PFP during level walking, and peak pressure is more effective for assessment.

Biomarkers, Tumor ; Humans ; Sarcoma, Synovial/surgery* ; Stomach

Objective: To explore the heterogeneity and correlation of clinical phenotypes and genotypes in children with disorders of sex development (DSD). Methods: A retrospective study of 1 235 patients with clinically proposed DSD in 36 pediatric medical institutions across the country from January 2017 to May 2021. After capturing 277 DSD-related candidate genes, second-generation sequencing was performed to analyzed the heterogeneity and correlation combined with clinical phenotypes. Results: Among 1 235 children with clinically proposed DSD, 980 were males and 255 were females of social gender at the time of initial diagnosis with the age ranged from 1 day of age to 17.92 years. A total of 443 children with pathogenic variants were detected through molecular genetic studies, with a positive detection rate of 35.9%. The most common clinical phenotypes were micropenis (455 cases), hypospadias (321 cases), and cryptorchidism (172 cases) and common mutations detected were in SRD5A2 gene (80 cases), AR gene (53 cases) and CYP21A2 gene (44 cases). Among them, the SRD5A2 mutation is the most common in children with simple micropenis and simple hypospadias, while the AMH mutation is the most common in children with simple cryptorchidism. Conclusions: The SRD5A2 mutation is the most common genetic variant in Chinese children with DSD, and micropenis, cryptorchidism, and hypospadias are the most common clinical phenotypes. Molecular diagnosis can provide clues about the biological basis of DSD, and can also guide clinicians to perform specific clinical examinations. Target sequence capture probes and next-generation sequencing technology can provide effective and economical genetic diagnosis for children with DSD.
3-Oxo-5-alpha-Steroid 4-Dehydrogenase/genetics* ; Child ; China/epidemiology* ; Cryptorchidism/genetics* ; Disorders of Sex Development/genetics* ; Female ; Genital Diseases, Male ; Genotype ; Humans ; Hypospadias/genetics* ; Male ; Membrane Proteins/genetics* ; Penis/abnormalities* ; Phenotype ; Retrospective Studies ; Steroid 21-Hydroxylase/genetics*

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an, intractable inflammatory autoimmune disease characterized by T-cell infiltration to the colon. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), owing to their immunosuppressive capabilities, have the potential to rescue IBD. But the therapeutic effectiveness of MSCs is sometime thwarted by their variable immunomodulatory ability in vivo. In the present study, we produced engineered MSCs that secrete interleukin10 (IL-10) and evaluated their therapeutic potential in IBD mouse model. The MSCs maintained the phenotype and cell proliferation rate after overexpression of IL-10 by lentivirus (LV) infection. Immune cells and MSCs in vitro co-culture systems exhibited that relative to unmodified MSCs, immune cells co-cultured with IL-10-overexpressing MSCs had significantly lower numbers of T helper 1 cells (Th1) and T helper 17 cells (Th17) (P<0.05), the content of TNF-α in the supernatant of macrophage cells co-cultured with MSCs overexpressing IL-10 was significantly decreased (P<0.0001). Tail vein injection of the IL-10 overexpressing MSCs achieved a better therapeutic effect in the dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induced colitis mouse model than that of the unmodified MSCs, as indicated by colon length, disease activity index (DAI) and colonic cytokines expression. The experimental results were statistically different (P>0.05). Overall, LV induced MSCs overexpressing IL-10 might be a promising alternative therapeutic option for the treatment of IBD.

Based on the serum medicinal method, this study aims to investigate the migrating components of Yougui Yin in the blood after intragastric administration, and to provide reference for the basic research of its pharmacodynamics. The kidney deficiency rat model was replicated by adenine method. Normal rats and model rats were administered orally for a single gavage of Yougui Yin. The components in blood were rapidly analyzed and identified by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) and multiple reaction monitoring(MRM), and the migrating components in blood of Yougui Yin were explored by multivariate statistical analysis. The results showed that there were 42 characteristic peaks in the plasma of normal rats by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS technology and 13 chemical components were identified, including 6 alkaloids, 2 flavonoids, 2 triterpenoid saponins, 1 iridoid, 1 phenylpropanoid and 1 monoterpenoid. There were 22 characteristic peaks in the plasma of kidney-deficiency rats, and 12 chemical components were identified, including 2 iridoids, 6 alkaloids, 2 flavonoids, 1 monoterpenoid and 1 triterpenoid saponin. Verbascoside, isoacteoside, acteoside, pinoresinoldiglucoside, loganin and morroniside were identified by MRM both in the plasma of normal rats and kidney-deficiency rats. Compared with 85 monomer components in Yougui Yin, 17 common prototype components were found by UPLC-MS in the plasma of normal rats and kidney deficiency rats, including verbascoside, isoacteoside, acteoside, rehmapicrogenin derived from Rehmanniae Radix Praeparata, pinoresinol diglucoside and geniposidic acid from Eucommiea Cortex, loganin and morroniside derived from Corni Fructus, mesaconine, benzoylmesaconine, benzoylaconitine, benzoylhypacoitine, mesaconitine, aconitine derived from Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata, liquiritin, isoliquiritin and glycyrrhizic acid derived from Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma. Thirty-one metabolites of medicinal ingredients not found in the plasma of adenine-induced kidney deficiency rats were also detected in the plasma of normal rats. Twelve metabolites of medicinal materials not found in the plasma of normal rats were detected in the plasma of kidney deficiency rats. The results of the study provide reference for explaining the material basis and mechanism of Yougui Yin in the treatment of kidney deficiency.
Adenine ; Animals ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/toxicity* ; Kidney ; Rats ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry ; Technology