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: Humans are exposed to complex mixtures of environmental chemicals and other factors that can affect their health. Analysis of these mixture exposures presents several key challenges for environmental epidemiology and risk assessment, including high dimensionality, correlated exposure, and subtle individual effects. METHODS: We proposed a novel statistical approach, the generalized functional linear model (GFLM), to analyze the health effects of exposure mixtures. GFLM treats the effect of mixture exposures as a smooth function by reordering exposures based on specific mechanisms and capturing internal correlations to provide a meaningful estimation and interpretation. The robustness and efficiency was evaluated under various scenarios through extensive simulation studies. RESULTS: We applied the GFLM to two datasets from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). In the first application, we examined the effects of 37 nutrients on BMI (2011-2016 cycles). The GFLM identified a significant mixture effect, with fiber and fat emerging as the nutrients with the greatest negative and positive effects on BMI, respectively. For the second application, we investigated the association between four pre- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and gout risk (2007-2018 cycles). Unlike traditional methods, the GFLM indicated no significant association, demonstrating its robustness to multicollinearity. CONCLUSION GFLM framework is a powerful tool for mixture exposure analysis, offering improved handling of correlated exposures and interpretable results. It demonstrates robust performance across various scenarios and real-world applications, advancing our understanding of complex environmental exposures and their health impacts on environmental epidemiology and toxicology.
Humans ; Environmental Exposure/analysis* ; Linear Models ; Nutrition Surveys ; Environmental Pollutants ; Body Mass Index

Objective To develop a biological safety protection third-level(BSL-3)laboratory based on folding-modular shelters to solve the problems of the existing laboratories in space and function expansion,large-scale deployment and low-cost transportation.Methods The BSL-3 laboratory was composed of a folding combined shelter module,a ventilation and purification module,a power supply and distribution module,a monitoring and communication module,a control system module and an equipment module.The folding combined shelter module used a leveling base frame as the foundation and a lightweight panel as the enclosure mechanism,and was divided into an auxiliary area and a protection protected area;the ventilation and purification module was made up of an air supply unit and an air exhaust unit,the air supply unit was integrated with a fresh-air air conditioner and the exhaust unit was equipped with a main fan,a standby fan and a bag in/bag out filter;the control system module adopted a supervision mode of decentralized control and centralized management,which executed communication with the data server as the center and Profinet protocol and MODBUS-TCP.Results The BSL-3 laboratory proved to meet the requirements of relevant standards in internal microenvironment,airflow direction,airtightness,working condition and disinfection effect.Conclusion The BSL-3 laboratory is compatible with large-scale transport and deployment and facilitates reliable and safe experiments for epidemic prevention and control and cross-regional support.[Chinese Medical Equipment Journal,2024,45(3):41-46]

Objective:To retrospectively analyze the treatment status of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) in newly diagnosed patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in China.Methods:Data of chronic phase (CP) and accelerated phase (AP) CML patients diagnosed from January 2006 to December 2022 from 77 centers, ≥18 years old, and receiving initial imatinib, nilotinib, dasatinib or flumatinib-therapy within 6 months after diagnosis in China with complete data were retrospectively interrogated. The choice of initial TKI, current TKI medications, treatment switch and reasons, treatment responses and outcomes as well as the variables associated with them were analyzed.Results:6 893 patients in CP ( n=6 453, 93.6%) or AP ( n=440, 6.4%) receiving initial imatinib ( n=4 906, 71.2%), nilotinib ( n=1 157, 16.8%), dasatinib ( n=298, 4.3%) or flumatinib ( n=532, 7.2%) -therapy. With the median follow-up of 43 ( IQR 22-75) months, 1 581 (22.9%) patients switched TKI due to resistance ( n=1 055, 15.3%), intolerance ( n=248, 3.6%), pursuit of better efficacy ( n=168, 2.4%), economic or other reasons ( n=110, 1.6%). The frequency of switching TKI in AP patients was significantly-higher than that in CP patients (44.1% vs 21.5%, P<0.001), and more AP patients switched TKI due to resistance than CP patients (75.3% vs 66.1%, P=0.011). Multi-variable analyses showed that male, lower HGB concentration and ELTS intermediate/high-risk cohort were associated with lower cytogenetic and molecular responses rate and poor outcomes in CP patients; higher WBC count and initial the second-generation TKI treatment, the higher response rates; Ph + ACA at diagnosis, poor PFS. However, Sokal intermediate/high-risk cohort was only significantly-associated with lower CCyR and MMR rates and the poor PFS. Lower HGB concentration and larger spleen size were significantly-associated with the lower cytogenetic and molecular response rates in AP patients; initial the second-generation TKI treatment, the higher treatment response rates; lower PLT count, higher blasts and Ph + ACA, poorer TFS; Ph + ACA, poorer OS. Conclusion:At present, the vast majority of newly-diagnosed CML-CP or AP patients could benefit from TKI treatment in the long term with the good treatment responses and survival outcomes.

Purpose::Mannitol is one of the first-line drugs for reducing cerebral edema through increasing the extracellular osmotic pressure. However, long-term administration of mannitol in the treatment of cerebral edema triggers damage to neurons and astrocytes. Given that neural stem cell (NSC) is a subpopulation of main regenerative cells in the central nervous system after injury, the effect of mannitol on NSC is still elusive. The present study aims to elucidate the role of mannitol in NSC proliferation.Methods::C57 mice were derived from the animal house of Zunyi Medical University. A total of 15 pregnant mice were employed for the purpose of isolating NSCs in this investigation. Initially, mouse primary NSCs were isolated from the embryonic cortex of mice and subsequently identified through immunofluorescence staining. In order to investigate the impact of mannitol on NSC proliferation, both cell counting kit-8 assays and neurospheres formation assays were conducted. The in vitro effects of mannitol were examined at various doses and time points. In order to elucidate the role of Aquaporin 4 (AQP4) in the suppressive effect of mannitol on NSC proliferation, various assays including reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, and immunocytochemistry were conducted on control and mannitol-treated groups. Additionally, the phosphorylated p38 (p-p38) was examined to explore the potential mechanism underlying the inhibitory effect of mannitol on NSC proliferation. Finally, to further confirm the involvement of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase-dependent (MAPK) signaling pathway in the observed inhibition of NSC proliferation by mannitol, SB203580 was employed. All data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 software (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL). The statistical analysis among multiple comparisons was performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Turkey's post hoc test in case of the data following a normal distribution using a Shapiro-Wilk normality test. Comparisons between 2 groups were determined using Student's t-test, if the data exhibited a normal distribution using a Shapiro-Wilk normality test. Meanwhile, data were shown as median and interquartile range and analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test, if the data failed the normality test. A p < 0.05 was considered as significant difference. Results::Primary NSC were isolated from the mice, and the characteristics were identified using immunostaining analysis. Thereafter, the results indicated that mannitol held the capability of inhibiting NSC proliferation in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner using cell counting kit-8, neurospheres formation, and immunostaining of Nestin and Ki67 assays. During the process of mannitol suppressing NSC proliferation, the expression of AQP4 mRNA and protein was downregulated, while the gene expression of p-p38 was elevated by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, immunostaining, and western blotting assays. Subsequently, the administration of SB203580, one of the p38 MAPK signaling pathway inhibitors, partially abrogated this inhibitory effect resulting from mannitol, supporting the fact that the p38 MAPK signaling pathway participated in curbing NSC proliferation induced by mannitol.Conclusions::Mannitol inhibits NSC proliferation through downregulating AQP4, while upregulating the expression of p-p38 MAPK.

【Objective】 To analyze the expression of lncRNA SNHG25 in prostate cancer and its significance, so as to explore the biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets for the diagnosis and prognosis of this disease. 【Methods】 Based on the TCGA database, differential, survival, and clinical correlation analyses of SNHG25 were performed.SNHG25 expression in prostate cancer was analyzed in the UALCAN database to determine its relationship with the clinical and pathological characteristics.The lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA correlation analysis was performed.The relevant ceRNA regulatory network was constructed.Prostate cancer samples were divided into high and low SNHG25 expression groups, and differential SNHG25 related genes were filtered and then enriched. 【Results】 SNHG25 expression was significantly upregulated in prostate cancer specimens compared to normal prostate specimens (P<0.001), and the progression-free survival of the low SNHG25 expression group was significantly longer than that of the high SNHG25 expression group (P<0.001).There were no significant differences in age, T-stage and N-stage between the two groups, and there was no significant correlation between the expression of SNHG25 and Gleason score (P>0.05).Regulatory networks of SNHG25/miR-330-3p/DLX1 and RPL22L1 were constructed. 【Conclusion】 SNHG25 is highly expressed in prostate cancer tissues and correlated with poor prognosis.SNHG25 expression does not significantly correlate with age, T-stage, N-stage, and Gleason score.SNHG25/miR-330-3p/DLX1 and RPL22L1 regulatory networks may play an important role in the development of prostate cancer.SNHG25 may become a biomarker and potential therapeutic target for prostate cancer.

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) combined with lower cervical fracture is often categorized into unstable fracture, with a high incidence of neurological injury and a high rate of disability and morbidity. As factors such as shoulder occlusion may affect the accuracy of X-ray imaging diagnosis, it is often easily misdiagnosed at the primary diagnosis. Non-operative treatment has complications such as bone nonunion and the possibility of secondary neurological damage, while the timing, access and choice of surgical treatment are still controversial. Currently, there are no clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of AS combined with lower cervical fracture with or without dislocation. To this end, the Spinal Trauma Group of Orthopedics Branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association organized experts to formulate Clinical guidelines for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis combined with lower cervical fracture in adults ( version 2024) in accordance with the principles of evidence-based medicine, scientificity and practicality, in which 11 recommendations were put forward in terms of the diagnosis, imaging evaluation, typing and treatment, etc, to provide guidance for the diagnosis and treatment of AS combined with lower cervical fracture.

Osteoporosis （OP） is a systemic metabolic bone disease characterized by bone microstructure degeneration and bone mass loss， which has a high prevalence and disability rate. Effective prevention and treatment of OP is a major difficulty in the medical community. The nature of OP is that multiple pathological factors lead to the imbalance of human bone homeostasis maintained by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Ferroptosis is a non-apoptotic cell death pathway， and its fundamental cause is cell damage caused by iron accumulation and lipid peroxidation. Studies have shown that ferroptosis is involved in and affects the occurrence and development of OP， which leads to OP by mediating the imbalance of bone homeostasis. Ferroptosis is an adjustable form of programmed cell death. The intervention of ferroptosis can regulate the damage degree and death process of osteoblasts and osteoclasts， which is beneficial to maintain bone homeostasis， slow down the development process of OP， improve the clinical symptoms of patients， reduce the risk of disability， and improve their quality of life. However， there are few studies on ferroptosis in OP. Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） is a medical treasure with unique characteristics and great application value in China. It has been widely used in China and has a long history. It has the multi-target and multi-pathway advantages in the treatment of OP， with high safety， few toxic and side effects， and low treatment cost， and has a significant effect in clinical application. The intervention of TCM in ferroptosis to regulate bone homeostasis may be a new direction for the prevention and treatment of OP in the future. This article summarized the regulatory mechanisms related to ferroptosis， discussed the role of ferroptosis in bone homeostasis， and reviewed the current status and progress of active ingredients in TCM compounds and monomers in the regulation of OP through ferroptosis， so as to provide a theoretical basis for the participation of TCM in the prevention and treatment of OP in the future.

AIM To investigate the mechanism of triterpenoids quillaic acid and gypsogenin-3-O-glucuronide from Psammosilene tunicoides on tunicamycin-induced rheumatoid arthritis fibroblasts-like synoviocytes(RA-FLS)via the endoplasmic reticulum pathway.METHODS The research objects of tunicamycin-induced RA-FLS intervened with quillaic acid and gypsogenin-3-O-glucuronide had their cell proliferation activity detected;their level of tumor nerosis factor-α(TNF-α)detected by ELISA;their apoptosis detected by flow cytometry;their cell migration ability detected by Transwell experiment;their expressions of transcription activator 6(ATF-6),glucose regulatory protein 78(GRP78),C/EBP homologous protein(CHOP),cysteine protease protein-12(caspase-12)and anti-apoptosis Bcl-2 protein detected by Western blot;and their mRNA expressions of ATF-6,GRP78 and CHOP detected by RT-qPCR.RESULTS Compared with the model group,each group intervened with quillaic acid or gypsogenin-3-O-glucuronide displayed decreased levels of TNF-α(P＜0.01);weakened cell proliferation and migration ability(P＜0.01);increased apoptosis rate(P＜0.01);decreased protein expressions of ATF-6 and Bcl-2(P＜0.05,P＜0.01);and increased protein expressions of CHOP and caspase-12(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).In addition,decreased GRP78 protein expression in the low and medium dose groups(P＜0.05,P＜0.01);decreased mRNA expression of ATF-6,GRP78(P＜0.01)and increased CHOP mRNA expression(P＜0.01)in the medium dose groups of quillaic acid and gypsogenin-3-O-glucuronide were observed as well.CONCLUSION Quillaic acid and gypsogenin-3-O-glucuronide may play a protective role in rheumatoid arthritis by inhibiting the proliferation and migration of RA-FLS,inducing apoptosis and reducing the secretion of related inflammatory factors via endoplasmic reticulum signal pathway.