Ischemic stroke (IS) is a globally life-threatening disease. Presently, few therapeutic medicines are available for treating IS, and rt-PA is the only drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US. In fact, many agents showing excellent neuroprotection but no blood flow-improving activity in animals have not achieved ideal clinical efficacy, while thrombolytic drugs only improving blood flow without neuroprotection have limited their wider application. To address these challenges and meet the huge unmet clinical need, we have designed and identified a novel compound AAPB with dual effects of neuroprotection and cerebral blood flow improvement. AAPB significantly reduced cerebral infarction and neural function deficit in tMCAO rats, pMCAO rats, and IS rhesus monkeys, as well as displayed exceptional safety profiles and excellent pharmacokinetic properties in rats and dogs. AAPB has now entered phase I of clinical trials fighting IS in China.

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.

Objective:To investigate the inpact of thyroid cancer-derived cancer-associated fibroblasts(CAF) autophagy on papillary thyroid cancer(PTC).Methods:CAF and normal fibroblasts were isolated from cancerous and adjacent normal thyroid tissues from four PTC patients. Expressions of fibroblast activation protein(FAP) and α-smooth muscle actin in cells were assessed. Conditioned medium of CAF and normal fibroblasts were prepared and used to culture PTC cells. The effects of CAF and normal fibroblasts on survival, proliferation, migration, invasion and iodine uptake of PTC cells were evaluated through cell proliferation assay, cell scratch assay, cell invasion assay, and cell iodine uptake assay. The autophagy level of CAF was also evaluated. Autophagy inhibition and activation were used to regulate the autophagy of CAF, and then their effects on PTC cell proliferation, migration and invasion were further evaluated. The in vivo effect of CAF autophagy on PTC xenograft tumor growth was evaluated.Results:CAF exhibited higher FAP expression and basal autophagy levels. PTC cells co-cultured with CAF-conditioned media showed enhanced proliferation, migration, invasion, and reduced iodine uptake. Autophagy inhibition reduced these effects, while autophagy activation further promoted them. In vivo, inhibiting CAF autophagy suppressed tumor growth.Conclusions:CAF promotes PTC cell malignancy through autophagy activation, enhancing proliferation, migration, and invasion while reducing iodine uptake.

Objective:To investigate the efficacy and toxicity of blinatumomab in the first-line and second-line treatment of pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL).Methods:A multi-center retrospective cohort study was conducted to analyze clinical data from 323 pediatric B-ALL patients treated with blinatumomab across 14 hospitals in China from May 2021 to July 2023. Patients were divided into four groups based on the treatment phase and disease status when blinatumomab was used: relapsed/refractory group, post-consolidation minimal residual disease (MRD)-positive group, early MRD-positive group, and MRD-negative group. Blinatumomab for the relapsed/refractory group was considered as second-line treatment, while the other 3 groups as first-line treatment. The MRD negativity rate after treatment, the survival rates and the incidence of severe adverse events were compared across these groups. Patients who received blinatumomab for more than 7 days were included in the efficacy analysis. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method, and Log-Rank test was used to compare the survival rates among groups.Results:Among the 323 patients, 191 (59.1%) were male, with the age of 6.2 (3.9, 10.5) years. There were 117 patients in the relapsed/refractory group, 62 cases in the post-consolidation MRD-positive group, 43 cases in the early MRD-positive group, and 101 cases in the MRD negative group. In the relapsed/refractory group, the complete remission rate and MRD negativity rate after one course of blinatumomab were 71.4% (35/49) and 81.5% (75/92) for the 49 children without complete remission and the 92 children with flow cytometry-positive MRD, respectively. In the post-consolidation MRD-positive group, the MRD negativity rates after one course of blinatumomab were 100.0% (27/27), 12/16 and 9/19 for patients with MRD positivity detected by flow cytometry, polymerase chain reaction and next-generation sequencing, respectively. In the early MRD-positive group, the MRD negativity rates were 96.7% (29/30) and 9/9 for flow cytometry and next-generation sequencing, respectively. The 2-year overall survival rate and event-free survival rate for the 319 children evaluable for efficacy were (90.6±1.7)% and (87.6±1.9)%, respectively, with the relapsed/refractory group showing significantly lower overall survival rates and event-free survival rate compared to the other groups ( χ2=21.40, 26.21,both P<0.001). Grade 3 or higher adverse events occurred in 128 cases (39.6%), with hematological toxicity observed in 101 cases, while cytokine release syndrome (CRS), infection, and neurotoxicity occurred in 11, 26 and 8 cases, respectively. In addition, there were statistically significant differences in the grade 3 or higher CRS among the four groups ( χ2=8.03, P<0.05). Conclusion:Blinatumomab can clear MRD more effectively and achieve superior survival outcomes when used as first-line treatment for pediatric B-ALL, with less CRS.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis(IPF)and lung cancer(LC)pose a serious threat to human health,the prognosis of IPF is poor,the 5-year survival rate is low,and the incidence rate and mortality of LC are high.At present,IPF combined with LC(IPF-LC)has attracted much attention,but the pathogenesis is unclear.Epidemiology shows that,the risk of LC in IPF patients is 7 times than that of the general population,the incidence rate varies in different regions,which is related to smoking rate and diagnostic criteria.In terms of pathogenesis,chronic inflammation,angiogenesis,signaling pathways,aging,gene mutations,epithelial mesenchymal transition(EMT),and immune dysfunction are common pathogenic factors of both,and pathological changes such as smoking and pulmonary fibrosis increase the risk of LC.Thoroughly studying these mechanisms is of great significance for the early diagnosis,treatment strategy formulation,and improvement of patient prognosis of IPF-LC.

Objective:To investigate the predictive efficacy of Delta radiomics for the patholo-gical complete remission (pCR) of pancreatic cancer after total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT).Methods:The retrospective cohort study was conducted. The clinicopathological data of 263 patients with pancreatic cancer who were admitted to Henan Provincial People′s Hospital (Zhengzhou University People's Hspital) from January 2019 to September 2024 were collected. There were 166 males and 97 females, aged (56±12)years. All patients underwent TNT. The 263 patients were randomly divided into a training set of 184 cases and a test set of 79 cases using a 7∶3 random seed count. The training set was used to construct the prediction model, and the test set was used to validate the performance of the prediction model. Observation indicators: (1) postoperative and follow-up condi-tions; (2) imaging feature selection and model construction; (3) evaluation of predictive efficacy of different radiomic models. Comparison of measurement data with normal distribution between groups was conducted using the t test. Comparison of measurement data with skewed distribution between groups was conducted using the Mann-Whitney U test. Comparison of count data between groups was conducted using the chi-square test. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the survival rate and draw survival curve. The Log-rank test was used for survival analysis. The perfor-mance of the prediction model for pCR after TNT was evaluated using the receiver operator charac-teristic (ROC) curve, precision-recall (P-R) curve and Bootstrap method, along with the calculation of area under the curve (AUC), precision rate, recall rate, F1-score. Results:(1) Postoperative and follow-up conditions. All 263 patients underwent surgery after TNT, with pathological examination revealing 124 cases of pCR (86 cases in the training set, 38 cases in the test set) and 139 cases of non-pCR (98 cases in the training set, 41 cases in the test set), respectively. All 263 patients were followed up for 6(range, 3-12) months after surgery, of which 15 cases (4 cases of pCR and 11 cases of non-pCR) were lost to follow-up or died due to non-tumor reasons within 6 months after surgery. The postoperative 6-month recurrence-free survival rate of 124 pCR patients and 139 non-pCR patients were 80% and 50%, respectively, showing a significant difference between the two groups of patients ( χ2=22.84, P<0.05). (2) Imaging feature selection and model construction. Construction of the traditional radiology model: based on the response evaluation criteria in solid tumors 1.1, the Logistic regression model was constructed using the relative shrinkage (D%) as a predictive variable. The AUC of traditional radiology model was 0.72 [95% confidence interval ( CI) as 0.63?0.81] in the training set and 0.75 (95% CI as 0.66?0.84) in the test set, respectively. Construction of the Delta radiomics model: 10 non-zero coefficient features were selected. The Delta radiomics models were constructed by using the regularized Logistic regression, random forest, gradient boosting machine, and support vector machine algorithms through using selected features as input variables. (3) Evaluation of predictive efficacy of different radiomic models. The AUC of Delta radiomics model constructed by regularized Logistic regression algorithm in the test set for predicting pCR in pancreatic cancer after TNT was 0.90, higher than that of the random forest algorithm, gradient boosting machine algorithm, support vector machine algorithm (AUC as 0.81, 0.81, 0.83), and higher than that of the traditional radiology model (AUC as 0.72). Results of Bootstrap method revealed significant differences in the predictive efficacy of Delta radiomics model constructed by regularized Logistic regression algorithm compared to the Delta radiomics model constructed by random forest algorithm, gradient boosting machine algorithm, support vector machine algorithm and the tradi-tional radiology model (95% CI as 0.03?0.16, 0.03?0.16, 0.03?0.13, 0.08?0.29, P<0.05). The regularized Logistic regression algorithm within the Delta radiomics model demonstrated the best overall performance among the above models evaluated. Conclusion:Compared to the traditional radiology model, the Delta radiomics model offers superior efficacy in predicting pCR of pancreatic cancer after TNT, in which the regularized Logistic regression algorithm demonstrates the best overall performance metrics.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis(IPF)and lung cancer(LC)pose a serious threat to human health,the prognosis of IPF is poor,the 5-year survival rate is low,and the incidence rate and mortality of LC are high.At present,IPF combined with LC(IPF-LC)has attracted much attention,but the pathogenesis is unclear.Epidemiology shows that,the risk of LC in IPF patients is 7 times than that of the general population,the incidence rate varies in different regions,which is related to smoking rate and diagnostic criteria.In terms of pathogenesis,chronic inflammation,angiogenesis,signaling pathways,aging,gene mutations,epithelial mesenchymal transition(EMT),and immune dysfunction are common pathogenic factors of both,and pathological changes such as smoking and pulmonary fibrosis increase the risk of LC.Thoroughly studying these mechanisms is of great significance for the early diagnosis,treatment strategy formulation,and improvement of patient prognosis of IPF-LC.

Background: s/Aims: Sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a rare histological subtype of HCC characterized by extremely poor prognosis; however, its molecular characterization has not been elucidated. Methods: In this study, we conducted an integrated multiomics study of whole-exome sequencing, RNA-seq, spatial transcriptome, and immunohistochemical analyses of 28 paired sarcomatoid tumor components and conventional HCC components from 10 patients with sarcomatoid HCC, in order to identify frequently altered genes, infer the tumor subclonal architectures, track the genomic evolution, and delineate the transcriptional characteristics of sarcomatoid HCCs. Results: Our results showed that the sarcomatoid HCCs had poor prognosis. The sarcomatoid tumor components and the conventional HCC components were derived from common ancestors, mostly accessing similar mutational processes. Clonal phylogenies demonstrated branched tumor evolution during sarcomatoid HCC development and progression. TP53 mutation commonly occurred at tumor initiation, whereas ARID2 mutation often occurred later. Transcriptome analyses revealed the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) and hypoxic phenotype in sarcomatoid tumor components, which were confirmed by immunohistochemical staining. Moreover, we identified ARID2 mutations in 70% (7/10) of patients with sarcomatoid HCC but only 1–5% of patients with non-sarcomatoid HCC. Biofunctional investigations revealed that inactivating mutation of ARID2 contributes to HCC growth and metastasis and induces EMT in a hypoxic microenvironment. Conclusions We offer a comprehensive description of the molecular basis for sarcomatoid HCC, and identify genomic alteration (ARID2 mutation) together with the tumor microenvironment (hypoxic microenvironment), that may contribute to the formation of the sarcomatoid tumor component through EMT, leading to sarcomatoid HCC development and progression.

A single-center, randomized, double-blind, dose-controlled trial of modified Sini Powder in treating mild to moderate generalized anxiety disorder(GAD) in the patients with syndrome of liver depression transforming into fire was conducted at Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. A total of 80 patients with mild to moderate GAD and the syndrome of liver depression transforming into fire were included. Patients were assigned by the central randomization system at a ratio of 3∶1 into an observation group(n=60, receiving a conventional-dose of granules of modified Sini Powder) and a control group(n=20, receiving low-dose granules with the active ingredients being 50% of that in observation group). Assessments were conducted before treatment(baseline), after 2 weeks of introduction, after 2/4/8 weeks of treatment, and after 4 weeks of follow-up. The results were summarized as follows. In terms of primary outcome indicators, the observation group(62.2%) showed higher total response rate than the control group(26.6%)(P<0.05), and greater Hamilton anxiety scale(HAMA) score reduction after 8 weeks of treatment(P<0.05). In terms of secondary outcome indicators, the HAMA score(somatic anxiety score), traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) syndrome scores, Pittsburgh sleep quality index(PSQI) scale, and clinical global impression(CGI) scale score in the observation group showed a significant compared to the control group at each visit points(P<0.05). Adverse events occurred in 10 cases, including 9(16.9%) cases in the observation group and 1(6.6%) case in the control group. No adverse reaction was observed. In conclusion, conventional-dose modified Sini Powder demonstrated superior efficacy and favorable safety for mild and moderate GAD in the patients with the syndrome of liver depression transforming into fire over low-dose treatment.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Double-Blind Method ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/administration & dosage* ; Anxiety Disorders/drug therapy* ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult ; Powders ; Aged ; Liver/drug effects* ; Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Ginkgo biloba, an ancient relict plant, holds a lengthy medicinal tradition in China. The leaves and seeds of this remarkable species contain flavonoids, a class of active compounds that offer a multitude of pharmacological advantages. The understanding of the synthesis process of these flavonoids can be deepened substantially by elucidating their biosynthetic pathway and metabolic regulation mechanisms. This can thereby provide a foundation for achieving precise regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis, which is of great significance for improving the production efficiency and quality of flavonoids in G. biloba. This review comprehensively summarizes research advancements in metabolomics, genomics, and transcriptomics of flavonoids in G. biloba, aiming to establish a thorough academic framework. It examines key enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway of flavonoids in G. biloba and their functions, highlighting their crucial roles in flavonoid production. Additionally, it outlines transcriptional regulation mechanisms associated with flavonoid in G. biloba biosynthesis, focusing on transcription factors responsive to environmental cues and their regulatory networks that modulate flavonoid gene expression. These insights offer a theoretical foundation for precise control of G. biloba flavonoid production. By amalgamating these diverse research findings, this review aims to establish a robust theoretical groundwork for future studies on biosynthesis and efficient utilization of flavonoids in G. biloba.
Ginkgo biloba/chemistry* ; Flavonoids/biosynthesis* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Plant Proteins/genetics* ; Biosynthetic Pathways