OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the dynamic changes of glucocorticoid (GC) dose and the feasibility of GC discontinuation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients under the background of Chinese medicine (CM). METHODS: This multicenter retrospective cohort study included 1,196 RA patients enrolled in the China Rheumatoid Arthritis Registry of Patients with Chinese Medicine (CERTAIN) from September 1, 2019 to December 4, 2023, who initiated GC therapy. Participants were divided into the Western medicine (WM) and integrative medicine (IM, combination of CM and WM) groups based on medication regimen. Follow-up was performed at least every 3 months to assess dynamic changes in GC dose. Changes in GC dose were analyzed by generalized estimator equation, the probability of GC discontinuation was assessed using Kaplan-Meier curve, and predictors of GC discontinuation were analyzed by Cox regression. Patients with <12 months of follow-up were excluded for the sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: Among 1,196 patients (85.4% female; median age 56.4 years), 880 (73.6%) received IM. Over a median 12-month follow-up, 34.3% (410 cases) discontinued GC, with significantly higher rates in the IM group (40.8% vs. 16.1% in WM; P<0.05). GC dose declined progressively, with IM patients demonstrating faster reductions (median 3.75 mg vs. 5.00 mg in WM at 12 months; P<0.05). Multivariate Cox analysis identified age <60 years [P<0.001, hazard ratios (HR)=2.142, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.523-3.012], IM therapy (P=0.001, HR=2.175, 95% CI: 1.369-3.456), baseline GC dose ⩽7.5 mg (P=0.003, HR=1.637, 95% CI: 1.177-2.275), and absence of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs use (P=0.001, HR=2.546, 95% CI: 1.432-4.527) as significant predictors of GC discontinuation. Sensitivity analysis (545 cases) confirmed these findings. CONCLUSIONS RA patients receiving CM face difficulties in following guideline-recommended GC discontinuation protocols. IM can promote GC discontinuation and is a promising strategy to reduce GC dependency in RA management. (Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, No. NCT05219214).
Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid/drug therapy* ; Glucocorticoids/therapeutic use* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Retrospective Studies

Aim To explore the mechanism of Jiawei Shaofu Zhuyu decoction in antagonizing endometriosis fibrosis by regulating mitophagy.Methods After the animal model was constructed,the syndrome was evalu-ated by general condition,organ water content and ther-mal imaging.The curative effect was evaluated by the weight of ectopic focus and the degree of adhesion.The pathological changes were compared using HE stai-ning,transmission electron microscopy,Masson and Sir-ius red staining.The expression of PINK1 and Parkin was detected by immunohistochemistry.The expression of mRNA and protein was determined by qPCR and Western blot,and the level of serum ROS was detected by ELISA.Results The autonomic activity of model mice was weakened,the water content of organs rose,and the temperature of limbs and lower abdomen was reduced by thermal imaging.HE staining showed obvi-ous hyperplasia of ectopic epithelium and glands.Transmission electron microscopy showed mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum structure damage,and nor-mal autophagy structure disappeared.Masson and Siri-us red staining showed increased collagen deposition;immunohistochemistry showed decreased expression of PINK1 and Parkin in ectopic foci.qPCR and Western blot showed that the expression of PINK1,Parkin,Bec-lin1,LC3 mRNA and protein in ectopic foci of model mice decreased,the expression of p62 mRNA and pro-tein increased,and serum ROS increased.The syn-drome performance of model mice was improved after the intervention of Jiawei Shaofu Zhuyu decoction;the inflammatory infiltration of ectopic foci was relieved,the morphology of mitochondria and endoplasmic retic-ulum was restored,and normal autophagy structure ap-peared.The degree of collagen deposition and fibrosis was reduced;the mRNA and protein expression of PINK1,Parkin,Beclin1 and LC3 increased.The ex-pression of p62 mRNA and protein decreased,and the level of ROS decreased.Conclusions Jiawei Shaofu Zhuyu decoction can improve the fibrosis of ectopic le-sions in mice with endometriosis of cold-dampness sta-sis syndrome,which may be related to the regulation of mitophagy.

Endometriosis(EMs)is a common estrogen-depend-ent clinical disease with the pathological characteristics of malig-nant tumors,which has great impact on women's physical and mental health.In recent years,experimental exploration has re-vealed that ectopic foci are in a hypoxic environment outside the uterine cavity,and mitochondria,as the"functional factories"of the cells,play an important role in the process of planting and in-vasion,and the mitochondrial quality control system,which in-cludes mitochondrial oxidative stress,kinetics,autophagy,bio-genesis and calcium homeostasis,is a key mechanism for the e-quilibrium of the mitochondrial function.The mitochondrial quality control system,including mitochondrial oxidative stress kinetics,autophagy,biogenesis and calcium homeostasis,is a key mechanism for mitochondrial functional balance.Therefore,to clarify the role of the mitochondrial quality control system in the development of EMs with the help of rational and rigorous experi-mental and clinical studies can not only help to clarify the patho-genesis of the disease,but also explore the key targets in the prevention and treatment of the disease.Therefore,this article summarizes the research progress of mitochondrial quality control system in endometriosis,with a view to providing reference and theoretical basis for the etiology,pathogenesis and prevention strategies of EMs.

Aim To explore the mechanism of Jiawei Shaofu Zhuyu decoction in antagonizing endometriosis fibrosis by regulating mitophagy.Methods After the animal model was constructed,the syndrome was evalu-ated by general condition,organ water content and ther-mal imaging.The curative effect was evaluated by the weight of ectopic focus and the degree of adhesion.The pathological changes were compared using HE stai-ning,transmission electron microscopy,Masson and Sir-ius red staining.The expression of PINK1 and Parkin was detected by immunohistochemistry.The expression of mRNA and protein was determined by qPCR and Western blot,and the level of serum ROS was detected by ELISA.Results The autonomic activity of model mice was weakened,the water content of organs rose,and the temperature of limbs and lower abdomen was reduced by thermal imaging.HE staining showed obvi-ous hyperplasia of ectopic epithelium and glands.Transmission electron microscopy showed mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum structure damage,and nor-mal autophagy structure disappeared.Masson and Siri-us red staining showed increased collagen deposition;immunohistochemistry showed decreased expression of PINK1 and Parkin in ectopic foci.qPCR and Western blot showed that the expression of PINK1,Parkin,Bec-lin1,LC3 mRNA and protein in ectopic foci of model mice decreased,the expression of p62 mRNA and pro-tein increased,and serum ROS increased.The syn-drome performance of model mice was improved after the intervention of Jiawei Shaofu Zhuyu decoction;the inflammatory infiltration of ectopic foci was relieved,the morphology of mitochondria and endoplasmic retic-ulum was restored,and normal autophagy structure ap-peared.The degree of collagen deposition and fibrosis was reduced;the mRNA and protein expression of PINK1,Parkin,Beclin1 and LC3 increased.The ex-pression of p62 mRNA and protein decreased,and the level of ROS decreased.Conclusions Jiawei Shaofu Zhuyu decoction can improve the fibrosis of ectopic le-sions in mice with endometriosis of cold-dampness sta-sis syndrome,which may be related to the regulation of mitophagy.

Endometriosis(EMs)is a common estrogen-depend-ent clinical disease with the pathological characteristics of malig-nant tumors,which has great impact on women's physical and mental health.In recent years,experimental exploration has re-vealed that ectopic foci are in a hypoxic environment outside the uterine cavity,and mitochondria,as the"functional factories"of the cells,play an important role in the process of planting and in-vasion,and the mitochondrial quality control system,which in-cludes mitochondrial oxidative stress,kinetics,autophagy,bio-genesis and calcium homeostasis,is a key mechanism for the e-quilibrium of the mitochondrial function.The mitochondrial quality control system,including mitochondrial oxidative stress kinetics,autophagy,biogenesis and calcium homeostasis,is a key mechanism for mitochondrial functional balance.Therefore,to clarify the role of the mitochondrial quality control system in the development of EMs with the help of rational and rigorous experi-mental and clinical studies can not only help to clarify the patho-genesis of the disease,but also explore the key targets in the prevention and treatment of the disease.Therefore,this article summarizes the research progress of mitochondrial quality control system in endometriosis,with a view to providing reference and theoretical basis for the etiology,pathogenesis and prevention strategies of EMs.

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of pneumococcal meningitis(PM),and drug sensitivity of Streptococcus pneumoniae(SP)isolates in Chinese children.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on clinical information,laboratory data,and microbiological data of 160 hospitalized children under 15 years old with PM from January 2019 to December 2020 in 33 tertiary hospitals across the country.Results Among the 160 children with PM,there were 103 males and 57 females.The age ranged from 15 days to 15 years,with 109 cases(68.1% )aged 3 months to under 3 years.SP strains were isolated from 95 cases(59.4% )in cerebrospinal fluid cultures and from 57 cases(35.6% )in blood cultures.The positive rates of SP detection by cerebrospinal fluid metagenomic next-generation sequencing and cerebrospinal fluid SP antigen testing were 40% (35/87)and 27% (21/78),respectively.Fifty-five cases(34.4% )had one or more risk factors for purulent meningitis,113 cases(70.6% )had one or more extra-cranial infectious foci,and 18 cases(11.3% )had underlying diseases.The most common clinical symptoms were fever(147 cases,91.9% ),followed by lethargy(98 cases,61.3% )and vomiting(61 cases,38.1% ).Sixty-nine cases(43.1% )experienced intracranial complications during hospitalization,with subdural effusion and/or empyema being the most common complication[43 cases(26.9% )],followed by hydrocephalus in 24 cases(15.0% ),brain abscess in 23 cases(14.4% ),and cerebral hemorrhage in 8 cases(5.0% ).Subdural effusion and/or empyema and hydrocephalus mainly occurred in children under 1 year old,with rates of 91% (39/43)and 83% (20/24),respectively.SP strains exhibited complete sensitivity to vancomycin(100% ,75/75),linezolid(100% ,56/56),and meropenem(100% ,6/6).High sensitivity rates were also observed for levofloxacin(81% ,22/27),moxifloxacin(82% ,14/17),rifampicin(96% ,25/26),and chloramphenicol(91% ,21/23).However,low sensitivity rates were found for penicillin(16% ,11/68)and clindamycin(6% ,1/17),and SP strains were completely resistant to erythromycin(100% ,31/31).The rates of discharge with cure and improvement were 22.5% (36/160)and 66.2% (106/160),respectively,while 18 cases(11.3% )had adverse outcomes.Conclusions Pediatric PM is more common in children aged 3 months to under 3 years.Intracranial complications are more frequently observed in children under 1 year old.Fever is the most common clinical manifestation of PM,and subdural effusion/emphysema and hydrocephalus are the most frequent complications.Non-culture detection methods for cerebrospinal fluid can improve pathogen detection rates.Adverse outcomes can be noted in more than 10% of PM cases.SP strains are high sensitivity to vancomycin,linezolid,meropenem,levofloxacin,moxifloxacin,rifampicin,and chloramphenicol.[Chinese Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics,2024,26(2):131-138]

Accurate receptor/ligand binding free energy calculations can greatly accelerate drug discovery by identifying highly potent ligands. By simulating the change from one compound structure to another, the relative binding free energy (RBFE) change can be calculated based on the theoretically rigorous free energy perturbation (FEP) method. However, existing FEP-RBFE approaches may face convergence challenges due to difficulties in simulating non-physical intermediate states, which can lead to increased computational costs to obtain the converged results. To fundamentally overcome these issues and accelerate drug discovery, a new combined-structure RBFE (CS-FEP) calculation strategy was proposed, which solved the existing issues by constructing a new alchemical pathway, smoothed the alchemical transformation, increased the phase-space overlap between adjacent states, and thus significantly increased the convergence and accelerated the relative binding free energy calculations. This method was extensively tested in a practical drug discovery effort by targeting phosphodiesterase-1 (PDE1). Starting from a PDE1 inhibitor (compound 9, IC₅₀ = 16.8 μmol/L), the CS-FEP guided hit-to-lead optimizations resulted in a promising lead (11b and its mesylate salt formulation 11b-Mesylate, IC₅₀ = 7.0 nmol/L), with ∼2400-fold improved inhibitory activity. Further experimental studies revealed that the lead showed reasonable metabolic stability and significant anti-fibrotic effects in vivo.

Objective To construct the demand model of four types of medical resources including beds in hospi-tal,beds in intensive care unit(ICU),ventilators and medical human resources during the major infectious disease epidemic events,simulate and analyze the treatment of infectious diseases when different medical resources are in short supply.Methods Based on the susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered(SEIR)model,considering the infec-tivity of infected persons,the susceptibility of the population and the immunity of convalescents,the characteristics of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients and different clinical types,the"COVID-19 infection-hospitalization model"was constructed.By collecting and setting the parameters of disease transmission,clinical course and medical re-source shortage scenarios,an analysis model of allocation and supply of urban medical resources during infectious di-sease epidemic events was initially formed based on Anylogic platform,the supply and demand of medical resources during infectious disease events in different scenarios were analyzed.Results In the non-intervention scenario,the peak time of bed demand was on the 107th day,and the peak value was 160.92 beds per thousand people;the peak time of ventilator demand was on the 122nd day,and the peak value was 5.61 units per thousand people;the peak time of ICU bed demand was on the 117th day,and the peak value was 12.78 beds per thousand people;the peak time of the demand for medical human resources was on the 109th day,and the peak value was 151.12 persons per thousand persons.The simulation results suggested that there were some differences in the impact of different medi-cal resources on the outcome of medical treatment.Conclusion This study constructs an analytical tool for the allo-cation and supply of urban medical resources under the epidemic events of infectious diseases,and the results of mul-tiple simulation experiments suggest that bed resources and medical human resources play more important roles in the outcome of medical treatment.

A quartz crystal microbalance(QCM)-systematic evolution of ligands by the exponential en-richment(SELEX)technique was developed to screen out aptamers with high affinity for arsenic(Ⅲ).A random single strand DNA library was designed and fixed on the mercaptoethylamine-modified crystal plate with arsenic(Ⅲ)as the target,and the free aptamer was captured in the solution,and the QCM-SELEX screening method was constructed.After 6 rounds of screening,the secondary library was se-quenced with high throughput method,and the 6S1 dissociation coefficient Kd value was 0.36 μmol/L based on QCM resonance frequency.Using 6S1 as a probe,the QCM biosensor was constructed for the detection of arsenic(Ⅲ).The sensor has a good linear relationship in the range of 0.01 μmol/L～0.2μmol/L,and the detection limit of arsenic(Ⅲ)is 5.2 nmol/L(3σ),indicatinggood selectivity.

Objective: To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of anti-IgE monoclonal antibody (omazumab) in the treatment of allergic united airway disease (UAD) in the real-wold. Methods: Retrospective cohort study summarizes the case data of patients with allergic united airway disease who were treated with anti IgE monoclonal antibody (omalizumab) for more than 16 weeks from March 1, 2018 to June 30, 2022 in the Peking University First Hospital.The allergic UAD is defined as allergic asthma combined with allergic rhinitis (AA+AR) or allergic asthma combined with chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps (AA+CRSwNP) or allergic asthma combined with allergic rhinitis and nasal polyps (AA+AR+CRSwNP). The control of asthma was evaluated by asthma control test (ACT), lung function test and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO). The AR was assessed by total nasal symptom score (TNSS). The CRSwNP was evaluated by nasal visual analogue scale (n-VAS), sino-nasal outcome test-22 (SNOT-22), nasal polyps score (TPS) and Lund-Mackay sinus CT grading system. The global evaluation of omalizumab for the treatment of allergic UADwas performed by Global Evaluation of Treatment Effectiveness(GETE).The drug-related side effects were also recorded. Matched t test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to compare the score changes of IgE monoclonal antibody (omazumab) before and after treatment, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the influencing factors of IgE monoclonal antibody (omazumab) response. Results: A total of 117 patients with UAD were enrolled, ranging in age from 19 to 77 years; The median age of patients was 48.7 years; Among them, 60 were male, ranging from 19 to 77 years old, with a median age of 49.9 years; There were 57 females, ranging from 19 to 68 years old, with a median age of 47.2 years. There were 32 cases in AA+AR subgroup, 59 cases in AA+CRSwNP subgroup, and 26 cases in AA+AR+CRSwNP subgroup. The total serum IgE level was 190.5 (103.8,391.3) IU/ml. The treatment course of anti IgE monoclonal antibody was 24 (16, 32) weeks. Compared with pre-treatment, omalizumab increased ACT from 20.0 (19.5,22.0) to 24.0 (23.0,25.0) (Z=-8.537, P<0.001), increased pre-bronchodilator FEV1 from 90.2 (74.8,103.0)% predicted value to 95.4 (83.2,106.0)% predicted value (Z=-5.315,P<0.001), increased FEV1/FVC from 80.20 (66.83,88.38)% to 82.72 (71.26,92.25)% (Z=-4.483,P<0.001), decreased FeNO from(49.1±24.8) ppb to (32.8±24.4) ppb (t=5.235, P<0.001), decreased TNSS from (6.5±2.6)to (2.4±1.9) (t=14.171, P<0.001), decreased n-VAS from (6.8±1.2) to (3.4±2.0)(t=14.448, P<0.001), decreased SNOT-22 from (40.0±7.9) to (21.3±10.2)(t=15.360, P<0.001), decreased TPS from (4.1±0.8) to (2.4±1.0)(t=14.718, P<0.001) and decreased Lund-Mackay CT score from (6.0±1.3) to (3.1±1.6)(t=17.012, P<0.001). The global response rate to omalizumab was 67.5%(79/117). The response rate in AA+AR (90.6%,29/32) was significantly higher than that in AA+CRSwNP (61.0%,36/59) and AA+AR+CRSwNP (53.8%,14/26) subgroups (χ²=11.144,P=0.004). Only 4 patients (3.4%,4/117) had mild side effects. Conclusion: The real-world study showed favorable effectiveness and safety of anti-IgE monoclonal antibody for treatment of allergic UAD. To provide basis for preventing the progress and precise treatment of allergic UAD.
Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult ; Adult ; Aged ; Nasal Polyps/drug therapy* ; Omalizumab/therapeutic use* ; Rhinitis/drug therapy* ; Retrospective Studies ; Asthma/diagnosis* ; Rhinitis, Allergic/drug therapy* ; Sinusitis/drug therapy* ; Antibodies, Monoclonal/therapeutic use* ; Chronic Disease