ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of yang-reinforcing and blood-activating therapy on the long-term prognosis for patients with dilated cardiomyopathy （DCM） of yang deficiency and blood stasis syndrome. MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted involving 371 DCM patients with yang deficiency and blood stasis syndrome. The yang-reinforcing and blood-activating therapy was defined as the exposure factor. Patients were categorized into exposure group （186 cases） and non-exposure group （185 cases） according to whether they received yang-reinforcing and blood-activating therapy combined with conventional western medicine for 6 months or longer. The follow-up period was set at 48 months， and the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to assess the cumulative incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events （MACE） in both groups. Cox regression analysis was used to explore the impact of yang-reinforcing and blood-activating therapy on the risk of MACE， and subgroup analysis was performed. Changes in traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndrome score， left ventricular ejection fraction （LVEF）， left ventricular fractional shortening （LVFS）， left ventricular end-diastolic diameter （LVEDD）， and Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire （MLHFQ） score were compared between groups at the time of first combined use of yang-reinforcing and blood-activating therapy （before treatment） and 1 year after receiving the therapy （after treatment）. ResultsMACE occurred in 31 cases （16.67%） in the exposure group and 47 cases （25.41%） in the non-exposure group. The cumulative incidence of MACE in the exposure group was significantly lower than that in the non-exposure group ［HR=0.559， 95%CI（0.361，0.895）， P=0.014］. Cox regression analysis showed that yang-reinforcing and blood-activating therapy was an independent factor for reducing the risk of MACE in DCM patients ［HR=0.623， 95%CI（0.396，0.980）， P=0.041］， and consistent results were observed in different subgroups. Compared with pre-treatment， the exposure group showed decreased TCM syndrome score and MLHFQ score， reduced LVEDD， and increased LVEF and LVFS after treatment （P＜0.05）； in the non-exposure group， TCM syndrome score decreased， LVEF and LVFS increased， and LVEDD reduced after treatment （P＜0.05）. After treatment， the exposure group had higher LVEF and LVFS， smaller LVEDD， and lower TCM syndrome score and MLHFQ score compared with the non-exposure group （P＜0.05）. ConclusionCombining yang-reinforcing and blood-activating therapy with conventional western medicine can reduce the risk of MACE in DCM patients with yang deficiency and blood stasis syndrome， meanwhile improving their clinical symptoms， cardiac function， and quality of life.

A 20-year-old male patient presented to the Department of Dermatology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital with complaints of an 8-year history of facial scarring, swelling of the lower limbs, and a 4-year history of scalp thickening. Physical examination showed thickening furrowing wrinkling of the skin on the face and behind the ears, ciliary body hirsutism, blepharoptosis, and cutis verticis gyrate. Both lower limbs were swollen, especially the knees and ankles. The skin of the palms and soles of the feet was keratinized and thickened. Laboratory examination using bone and joint X-ray showed periostosis of the proximal middle phalanges and metacarpals of both hands, distal ulna and radius, tibia and fibula, distal femurs, and metatarsals.Genetic testing revealed two variants in SLCO2A1, c.1658T > A and c.96+4A > C.Through multidisciplinary consultation, we confirmed the diagnosis of pachydermoperiostosis.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in clinical practice. It has a high prevalence and poor prognosis. The application of antiarrhythmic drugs and even surgery cannot completely treat the disease, and there are many sequelae. AF can be classified into the category of "palpitation" in Chinese medicine according to its symptoms. Acupuncture has a significant effect on AF. The authors find that an important mechanism of acupuncture in AF treatment is to regulate the cardiac vagus nerve. Therefore, this article intends to review the distribution and function of vagus nerve in the heart, the application and the regulatroy effect for the treatment of AF.
Atrial Fibrillation/physiopathology* ; Humans ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Vagus Nerve/physiology* ; Animals

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a highly aggressive hematologic malignancy with a poor prognosis, despite advancements in treatment. Many patients struggle with relapse or refractory disease. Investigating the role of the super-enhancer (SE) regulated gene ubiquitin-specific protease 20 (USP20) in T-ALL could enhance targeted therapies and improve clinical outcomes. Analysis of histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac) chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) data from six T-ALL cell lines and seven pediatric samples identified USP20 as an SE-regulated driver gene. Utilizing the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) and BloodSpot databases, it was found that USP20 is specifically highly expressed in T-ALL. Knocking down USP20 with short hairpin RNA (shRNA) increased apoptosis and inhibited proliferation in T-ALL cells. In vivo studies showed that USP20 knockdown reduced tumor growth and improved survival. The USP20 inhibitor GSK2643943A demonstrated similar anti-tumor effects. Mass spectrometry, RNA-Seq, and immunoprecipitation revealed that USP20 interacted with hypoxia-inducible factor 1 subunit alpha (HIF1A) and stabilized it by deubiquitination. Cleavage under targets and tagmentation (CUT&Tag) results indicated that USP20 co-localized with HIF1A, jointly modulating target genes in T-ALL. This study identifies USP20 as a therapeutic target in T-ALL and suggests GSK2643943A as a potential treatment strategy.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the value of ferroptose-related genes in the diagnosis and prediction of ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS: We used UC dataset from the GEO database to screen for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in UC. The DEGs related to ferroptositis were screened from the FerrDb database and their functions were analyzed. The hub genes were identified by constructing the protein-protein interaction network (PPI), the differences in immune infiltration levels between UC and the control group were evaluated using CIBERSORT, and the diagnostic values of the hub genes for UC were verified by using the training set. In a mouse model of UC, we examined the expression levels of the hub genes in the colon tissues of the mice using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR). RESULTS: We identified a total of 76 DEGs related to ferroptosis. Functional enrichment analysis showed that these genes were significantly enriched in ferroptosis and hypoxia pathways. The PPI network identified 10 hub genes, and 9 of them were highly expressed in UC. Analysis of immune cell infiltration showed that 27 cell types were significantly increased in UC (P<0.05), and the immune checkpoints-related genes had the strongest correlation with the hub gene PPARG (P<0.05). Verification analysis using the training set showed that P4HB, PPARG and STAT3 had the best predictive value for UC (P<0.05). In the UC mouse model, the expression of PPARG was significantly decreased and the expressions of P4HB and STAT3 were significantly increased in the colon tissues of the mice as compared with the normal mice. CONCLUSIONS Ferroptose-related genes have significant value for diagnosis and prediction of UC.
Colitis, Ulcerative/genetics* ; Animals ; Mice ; Ferroptosis/genetics* ; Humans ; Protein Interaction Maps ; Disease Models, Animal ; Gene Expression Profiling ; STAT3 Transcription Factor/genetics*

Objective:The haplotypes of Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) can be divided into centromeric and telomeric ones. As the terminal gene at the centromeric end, KIR3DP1 plays an important role in stabilizing the haplotype structure. This study aimed to analyze the distribution of KIR3DP1 gene haplotypes among Han Chinese population in Zhejiang in order provide a basis for further analyzing the role of KIR3DP1 in the KIR haplotypes. Methods:A total of 166 unrelated blood donors from Zhejiang were collected (Blood donation period: March 2020 to August 2020), and genotyping was performed by next-generation sequencing based on exon capture. The copy number and allelic frequency of the KIR3DP1 gene and the distribution of centromeric haplotypes were statistically analyzed. This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Zhejiang Blood Center (Ethics No.: 2023-001). Results:The KIR3DP1 gene was positive for all individuals but with different copy numbers. Among these, 4 cases (2.4%) had only 1 copy, 156 cases (94.0%) had 2 copies, and 6 cases (3.6%) had 3 copies. A total of 10 KIR3DP1 alleles were found in the population, which could be classified into the KIR3DP1*001-L type, KIR3DP1*003-L type, and KIR3DP1 full deletion type. The KIR3DP1*003-L type allele was linked to the Cen- A01 and Cen- B01 types, and the KIR3DP1*001-L type allele and the KIR3DP1 deletion type were only present in the Cen- B02 type haplotype. Conclusion:This study has derived a high-resolution distribution map of the KIR3DP1 gene in the Han population from Zhejiang, and found that the KIR3DP1 alleles showed different linkage with the centromeric haplotypes, which has provided a basis for further studying the role of KIR3DP1 in genetic immunity.

OBJECTIVE: The haplotypes of Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) can be divided into centromeric and telomeric ones. As the terminal gene at the centromeric end, KIR3DP1 plays an important role in stabilizing the haplotype structure. This study aimed to analyze the distribution of KIR3DP1 gene haplotypes among Han Chinese population in Zhejiang in order provide a basis for further analyzing the role of KIR3DP1 in the KIR haplotypes. METHODS: A total of 166 unrelated blood donors from Zhejiang were collected (Blood donation period: March 2020 to August 2020), and genotyping was performed by next-generation sequencing based on exon capture. The copy number and allelic frequency of the KIR3DP1 gene and the distribution of centromeric haplotypes were statistically analyzed. This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Zhejiang Blood Center (Ethics No.: 2023-001). RESULTS: The KIR3DP1 gene was positive for all individuals but with different copy numbers. Among these, 4 cases (2.4%) had only 1 copy, 156 cases (94.0%) had 2 copies, and 6 cases (3.6%) had 3 copies. A total of 10 KIR3DP1 alleles were found in the population, which could be classified into the KIR3DP1*001-L type, KIR3DP1*003-L type, and KIR3DP1 full deletion type. The KIR3DP1*003 L type allele was linked to the Cen-A01 and Cen-B01 types, and the KIR3DP1*001*L type allele and the KIR3DP1 deletion type were only present in the Cen-B02 type haplotype. CONCLUSION This study has derived a high-resolution distribution map of the KIR3DP1 gene in the Han population from Zhejiang, and found that the KIR3DP1 alleles showed different linkage with the centromeric haplotypes, which has provided a basis for further studying the role of KIR3DP1 in genetic immunity.
Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Alleles ; China/ethnology* ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Haplotypes/genetics* ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods* ; East Asian People/genetics* ; Receptors, KIR/genetics*

Objective:To evaluate the role of a single PET-CT scan in predicting survival and prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who did not undergo surgery but received radiotherapy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the data of 23 NSCLC patients treated at the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences from May 2022 to June 2024. All patients were pathologically confirmed, received neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy, did not undergo surgery for various reasons, and instead received radiotherapy. Each patient underwent only one PET-CT scan after neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy and before radiotherapy. According to the maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max) on PET-CT, patients were divided into the low-uptake group (SUV max < 8, n=12) and high-uptake group (SUV max ≥ 8, n=11). Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method with survival curves plotted. Univariate analysis of influencing factors of survival was conducted using the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Clinical characteristics and survival outcomes of the two groups were compared, including progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results:The 1-year PFS rates were 100% in the low-uptake group, 54.5% in the high-uptake group. This difference was statistically significant ( P=0.007). The 1-year and 2-year OS rates were both 100% in the low-uptake group, the 1-year and 2-year OS rates were both 90.9% in the high-uptake group, with no statistically significant difference ( P=0.394). Univariate Cox analysis identified age as an independent factor affecting PFS. Conclusions:For NSCLC patients who did not undergo surgical resection but received radiotherapy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy, a single PET-CT scan before radiotherapy has potential value in predicting PFS. However, clinical studies with larger sample size and longer follow-up are required to evaluate its predictive value for OS.