OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect and safety of Chinese medicine (CM) Fuzheng Huazhuo Decoction (FHD) in treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who persistently tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). METHODS: This retrospective cohort study was conducted at Shanghai New International Expo Center shelter hospital in China between April 1 and May 30, 2022. Patients diagnosed as COVID-19 with persistently positive SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results for ⩾8 days after diagnosis were enrolled. Patients in the control group received conventional Western medicine (WM) treatment, while those in the FHD group received conventional WM plus FHD for at least 3 days. The primary outcome was viral clearance time. Secondary outcomes included negative conversion rate within 14 days, length of hospital stay, cycle threshold (Ct) values of the open reading frame 1ab (ORF1ab) and nucleocapsid protein (N) genes, and incidence of new-onset symptoms during hospitalization. Adverse events (AEs) that occurred during the study period were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 1,765 eligible patients were enrolled in this study (546 in the FHD group and 1,219 in the control group). Compared with the control group, patients receiving FHD treatment showed shorter viral clearance time for nucleic acids [hazard ratio (HR): 1.500, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.353-1.664, P<0.001] and hospital stays (HR: 1.371, 95% CI: 1.238-1.519, P<0.001), and a higher negative conversion rate within 14 days (96.2% vs. 82.6%, P<0.001). The incidence of new-onset symptoms was 59.5% in the FHD group, similar to 57.8% in the control group (P>0.05). The Ct values of ORF1ab and N genes increased more rapidly over time in the FHD group than those in the control group post-randomization (ORF1ab gene: β =0.436±0.053, P<0.001; N gene: β =0.415 ±0.053, P<0.001). The incidence of AEs in the FHD group was lower than that in the control group (24.2% vs. 35.4%, P<0.001). No serious AEs were observed. CONCLUSION FHD was effective and safe for patients with persistently positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests. (Registration No. ChiCTR2200063956).
Humans ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/adverse effects* ; Retrospective Studies ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; COVID-19 Drug Treatment ; SARS-CoV-2/drug effects* ; COVID-19/virology* ; Adult ; Aged ; Treatment Outcome

Widespread utilization of glyphosate has led to environmental residues,posing potential threats to ecological systems and human health.Traditional methods for detection of glyphosate are limited by specialized equipment and operational techniques,resulting in inefficient responses.Therefore,it is urgent to develop a convenient,sensitive and accurate detection method for detection of glyphosate.Herein,a new naphthalenesulfonamide-based"Turn-on"fluorescent probe was synthesized using 2-chloroaniline and dansyl chloride as raw materials through a one-step process,which showed a good linear relationship between the glyphosate concentration in concentration range of 0.003-70 μmol/L and the fluorescence intensity(R2=0.995),with a detection limit of 2.73 nmol/L(S/N=3).Analytical techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry(HRMS)were used to investigate the interaction mechanism between the fluorescent probe and glyphosate.The results indicated that a nucleophilic substitution reaction occurred between the probe and the secondary amine(—NH—)of glyphosate,inducing a photoinduced electron transfer(PET)effect which enhanced the fluorescence intensity by 11.2 times.The probe showed good anti-interference ability towards coexisting metal ions,anions and pesticides in water.When applied to determination of glyphosate in the samples such as tap water,river water(Xiangxi River Reservoir),soil,soybeans,and corn,the spiking recoveries ranged from 94.7％to 109.9％,demonstrating the high accuracy and broad applicability of this detection method.A portable test strip based on this fluorescent probe was developed for rapid semi-quantitative analysis of glyphosate.The developed method was rapid,sensitive,and portable,providing theoretical and technical support for on-site measurement of environmental contaminants.

OBJECTIVE: Baicalein has been reported to have wide therapeutic effects that act through its anti-inflammatory activity. This study examines the effect and mechanism of baicalein on sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy (SIC). METHODS: A thorough screening of a small library of natural products, comprising 100 diverse compounds, was conducted to identify the most effective drug against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated H9C2 cardiomyocytes. The core target proteins and their associated signaling pathways involved in baicalein's efficacy against LPS-induced myocardial injury were predicted by network pharmacology. RESULTS: Baicalein was identified as the most potent protective agent in LPS-exposed H9C2 cardiomyocytes. It exhibited a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on cell injury and inflammation. In the LPS-induced septic mouse model, baicalein demonstrated a significant capacity to mitigate LPS-triggered myocardial deficits, inflammatory responses, and ferroptosis. Network pharmacological analysis and experimental confirmation suggested that hypoxia-inducible factor 1 subunit α (HIF1-α) is likely to be the crucial factor in mediating the impact of baicalein against LPS-induced myocardial ferroptosis and injury. By combining microRNA (miRNA) screening in LPS-treated myocardium with miRNA prediction targeting HIF1-α, we found that miR-299b-5p may serve as a regulator of HIF1-α. The reduction in miR-299b-5p levels in LPS-treated myocardium, compared to the control group, was reversed by baicalein treatment. The reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, and dual-luciferase reporter gene analyses together identified HIF1-α as the target of miR-299b-5p in cardiomyocytes. CONCLUSION Baicalein mitigates SIC at the miRNA level, suggesting the therapeutic potential of it in treating SIC through the regulation of miR-299b-5p/HIF1-α/ferroptosis pathway. Please cite this article as: Zhou WY, Du JK, Liu HH, Deng L, Ma K, Xiao J, Zhang S, Wang CN. Baicalein attenuates lipopolysaccharide-induced myocardial injury by inhibiting ferroptosis via miR-299b-5p/HIF1-α pathway. J Integr Med. 2025; 23(5):560-575.
Flavanones/pharmacology* ; Animals ; MicroRNAs/genetics* ; Lipopolysaccharides ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit/genetics* ; Ferroptosis/drug effects* ; Mice ; Myocytes, Cardiac/metabolism* ; Signal Transduction/drug effects* ; Rats ; Male ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Cardiomyopathies/etiology* ; Cell Line ; Sepsis/complications*

OBJECTIVE: To investigate chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection's effect on gestational liver function, pregnancy and delivery complications, and neonatal development. METHODS: A total of 157 HCV antibody-positive (anti-HCV[+]) and HCV RNA(+) patients (Group C) and 121 anti-HCV(+) and HCV RNA(-) patients (Group B) were included as study participants, while 142 anti-HCV(-) and HCV RNA(-) patients (Group A) were the control group. Data on biochemical indices during pregnancy, pregnancy complications, delivery-related information, and neonatal complications were also collected. RESULTS: Elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) rates in Group C during early, middle, and late pregnancy were 59.87%, 43.95%, and 42.04%, respectively-significantly higher than Groups B (26.45%, 15.70%, 10.74%) and A (23.94%, 19.01%, 6.34%) ( P < 0.05). Median ALT levels in Group C were significantly higher than in Groups A and B at all pregnancy stages ( P < 0.05). No significant differences were found in neonatal malformation rates across groups ( P > 0.05). However, neonatal jaundice incidence was significantly greater in Group C (75.16%) compared to Groups A (42.25%) and B (57.02%) ( χ ² = 33.552, P < 0.001). HCV RNA positivity during pregnancy was an independent risk factor for neonatal jaundice ( OR = 2.111, 95% CI 1.242-3.588, P = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS Chronic HCV infection can affect the liver function of pregnant women, but does not increase the pregnancy or delivery complication risks. HCV RNA(+) is an independent risk factor for neonatal jaundice.
Humans ; Female ; Pregnancy ; Adult ; Pregnancy Complications, Infectious/epidemiology* ; Retrospective Studies ; Pregnancy Outcome ; Infant, Newborn ; Viremia/virology* ; Hepatitis C ; Hepacivirus/physiology* ; Hepatitis C, Chronic/virology* ; Young Adult ; Alanine Transaminase/blood*

Objective:To assess the efficacy of different fusion strategies involving the convolutional block attention module (CBAM) and Unet for automatic pancreas segmentation in enhanced CT images of patients with acute pancreatitis.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on 1 158 patients with acute pancreatitis admitted to the Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College between January 1st, 2016 and July 30th, 2021. Among them, 141 patients with first-episode acute pancreatitis were randomly categorized into mild, moderate, and severe cases. The test set comprised 5 mild and 15 severe cases, while the remaining 126 cases were used for training. Within the training set, 20% of the data was randomly allocated as the validation set. Different fusion paths of the CBAM and Unet networks were trained, utilizing the Dice similarity coefficient, Hausdorff distance (HD), and pixel accuracy (PA) as evaluation metrics. The model demonstrating the best performance on the validation set was selected and evaluated on the test set. Additionally, the Unet model was combined with the attention gate attention mechanism (AttentionUnet) in the skip connection, and the ResBlock replaced the original convolution module (ResUnet) in the Unet network. Moreover, the skip connection branch module of feature extraction was integrated with CBAM (ResUnet_CBAM) for comparison.Results:Unet_CBAM achieved better results on the test set with a Dice value of 80.06%, a HD value of 3.765 9 and a PA value of 0.992 3, all surpassing other fusion strategies. The segmentation accuracy of the pancreatic region in CT images of acute pancreatitis patients was notably enhanced compared to Unet and its related variant networks.Conclusions:The Unet network integrated into CBAM after skip connection can better perform pancreatic segmentation on enhanced CT images of patients with acute pancreatitis and can effectively improve the efficiency of relevant personnel in pancreatic segmentation on enhanced CT images of patients with acute pancreatitis.

Objective:To explore the levels of regulatory T cells(Tregs)and cytokines IL-35,TGF-β and IL-10 in peripheral blood of hemophilia A(HA)patients with F Ⅷ inhibitor and their clinical significance.Methods:43 HA patients admitted to the Hematology Department of the Affiliated Hospital of North China University of Science and Technology from October 2019 to December 2020 were selected,including 6 cases with F Ⅷ inhibitor and 37 cases without FⅧ inhibitor.In addition,20 healthy males who underwent physical examinations were selected as healthy controls.Flow cytometry was used to detect the levels of CD4+CD25+CD127-Tregs in peripheral blood of the HA patients and healthy controls,and ELISA assay was used to detect the expression levels of IL-35,TGF-β and IL-10 in serum,and their differences between different groups were compared.Results:Compared with the healthy control group,the level of Tregs in HA patients was decreased,and the level of Tregs in the FⅧ inhibitor positive group was the lowest,the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).There was no significant difference in the expression level of Tregs in HA patients of different severity levels.The serum IL-35,TGF-β,and IL-10 levels in both FⅧ inhibitor negative and positive groups were significantly lower than those in healthy control group,and those in FⅧ inhibitor positive group were significantly lower than those in FⅧ inhibitor negative group(all P＜0.05).Conclusion:The decrease of Tregs,IL-35,TGF-β,and IL-10 levels in HA patients may be related to the formation of FⅧ inhibitors.

Objective:To explore the differential impact of the alignment between service capability and job satisfaction on job performance among primary general practitioner,and to provide a reference for enhancing their job performance.Methods:A survey was conducted with 620 primary general practitioner using questionnaires.The relationships among service capability,job satisfaction,and job performance were analyzed using polynomial regression and response surface analysis methods.Results:Under the condition of"service capability—job satisfaction alignment,"compared to the scenario of"low service capability—low job satisfaction,"primary general practitioner with"high service capability—high job satisfaction"demonstrated significantly higher job performance(a1=0.875,P＜0.001;a2=-0.068,P＞0.05).In the misalignment condition,compared to"low service capability—high job satisfaction,"those with"high service capability—low job satisfaction"also showed higher job performance(a3=0.265,P＜0.001;a4=-0.064,P＞0.05).Conclusion:Both service capability and job satisfaction significantly influence job performance among primary general practitioner,with service capability being a key factor for achieving high work performance.It is essential to enhance the service capability of primary general practitioner and adopt multiple strategies to improve job satisfaction,thereby effectively boosting work performance.

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]

Objective To summarize the reasons and management strategies of reoperation after oblique lateral interbody fusion(OLIF),and put forward preventive measures.Methods From October 2015 to December 2019,23 patients who under-went reoperation after OLIF in four spine surgery centers were retrospectively analyzed.There were 9 males and 14 females with an average age of(61.89±8.80)years old ranging from 44 to 81 years old.The index diagnosis was degenerative lumbar intervertebral dics diseases in 3 cases,discogenie low back pain in 1 case,degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis in 6 cases,lumbar spinal stenosis in 9 cases and degenerative lumbar spinal kyphoscoliosis in 4 cases.Sixteen patients were primarily treated with Stand-alone OLIF procedures and 7 cases were primarily treated with OLIF combined with posterior pedicle screw fixation.There were 17 cases of single fusion segment,2 of 2 fusion segments,4 of 3 fusion segments.All the cases underwent reoperation within 3 months after the initial surgery.The strategies of reoperation included supplementary posterior pedicle screw instrumentation in 16 cases;posterior laminectomy,cage adjustment and neurolysis in 2 cases,arthroplasty and neuroly-sis under endoscope in 1 case,posterior laminectomy and neurolysis in 1 case,pedicle screw adjustment in 1 case,exploration and decompression under percutaneous endoscopic in 1 case,interbody fusion cage and pedicle screw revision in 1 case.Visu-al analogue scale(VAS)and Oswestry disability index(ODI)index were used to evaluate and compare the recovery of low back pain and lumbar function before reoperation and at the last follow-up.During the follow-up process,the phenomenon of fusion cage settlement or re-displacement,as well as the condition of intervertebral fusion,were observed.The changes in in-tervertebral space height before the first operation,after the first operation,before the second operation,3 to 5 days after the second operation,6 months after the second operation,and at the latest follow-up were measured and compared.Results There was no skin necrosis and infection.All patients were followed up from 12 to 48 months with an average of(28.1±7.3)months.Nerve root injury symptoms were relieved within 3 to 6 months.No cage transverse shifting and no dislodgement,loosening or breakage of the instrumentation was observed in any patient during the follow-up period.Though the intervertebral disc height was obviously increased at the first postoperative,there was a rapid loss in the early stage,and still partially lost after reopera-tion.The VAS for back pain recovered from(6.20±1.69)points preoperatively to(1.60±0.71)points postoperatively(P＜0.05).The ODI recovered from(40.60±7.01)％preoperatively to(9.14±2.66)％postoperatively(P＜0.05).Conclusion There is a risk of reoperation due to failure after OLIF surgery.The reasons for reoperation include preoperative bone loss or osteoporosis the initial surgery was performed by Stand-alone,intraoperative endplate injury,significant subsidence of the fusion cage after surgery,postoperative fusion cage displacement,nerve damage,etc.As long as it is discovered in a timely manner and handled properly,further surgery after OLIF surgery can achieve better clinical results,but prevention still needs to be strengthened.

Objective To study the expression of long noncoding RNA Homeobox D gene cluster antisense growth-associated long noncoding RNA(lncRNA HAGLR)and its downstream target genes in osteoporosis(OP)-tibial fracture(TF)rats,and to explore the effect and mechanism of lncRNA HAGLR on osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs).Methods A total of 30 SD female rats were randomly divided into the sham group,the OP group and the OP-TF group,with 10 rats in each group.Serum alkaline phosphatase(ALP)and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase(TRAP)levels of rats were detected by ELISA.Rats MSC cell line R7500 was induced by osteogenic differentiation induction medium and divided into the MSC group and the Osteogenic-MSC group.R7500 was individually transfected with pcDNA-HAGLR,pcDNA-NC,miR-19a-3p mimic,mimic negative control(NC mimic),miR-19a-3p inhibitor and negative control of miR-19a-3p inhibitor(NC inhibitor),and divided into corresponding groups.The dual luciferase gene report experiment was used to verify the targeting relationship between lncRNA HAGLR and miR-19a-3p and bone morphogenetic protein 2(BMP2)and miR-19a-3p.The expressions of lncRNA HAGLR and miR-19a-3p in each group were detected by qRT-PCR.The expressions of BMP2,ALP,collagen Ⅰ(COL-Ⅰ),osteocalcin(OCN),and osteopontin(OPN)were detected by Western blot.ALP staining and AR staining were used to detect the osteogenic differentiation ability of MSC.Results The serum ALP and TRAP levels in the OP group and the OP-TF group were higher than those in the sham group,and the differences were statistically significant(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in the expression levels of lncRNA HAGLR,miR-19a-3p or BMP2 of tibia tissue between the OP group and the sham group(P>0.05),while the expression levels of lncRNA HAGLR and BMP2 of tibia tissue in the OP-TF group were significantly lower than those in the sham group and the OP group(P<0.05),the expression level of miR-19a-3p of tibia tissue in the OP-TF group was higher than those in the sham group and the OP group(P<0.05).Compared with the MSC group,the expression level of lncRNA HAGLR in the Osteogenic-MSC group was significantly increased(P<0.05),while the expression of miR-19a-3p was decreased(P<0.05).The dual luciferase gene report experiment verified that lncRNA HAGLR has a targeting relationship with miR-19a-3p,and miR-19a-3p has a targeting relationship with BMP2.The expression level of miR-19a-3p in the pcDNA-HAGLR group was lower than that in the pcDNA-NC group(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in the expression level of lncRNA HAGLR between the miR-19a-3p mimic group and the NC mimic group(P>0.05).Compared with the NC mimic group,the expression level of BMP2 protein in the miR-19a-3p mimic group was decreased(P<0.05),while the expression level of miR-19a-3p was increased(P<0.05).The cells in the pcDNA-HAGLR group had stronger osteogenic differentiation ability and higher ALP activity than those in the pcDNA-NC group(P<0.05).The cells in the miR-19a-3p inhibitor group had stronger osteogenic differentiation ability and higher ALP activity than those in the NC inhibitor group(P<0.05).Conclusion The expression of lncRNA HAGLR and BMP2 is decreased and the expression of miR-19a-3p is increased in rats with tibial fracture.Overexpression of lncRNA HAGLR promotes osteogenic differentiation of rat MSCs by targeting the miR-19a-3p/BMP2 axis.