1.The Effects of Tai Chi Training on Bone Density,Bone Turnover Markers,and Heart Rate Variability in High-Risk Osteoporosis Population
Jiaming LIN ; Chao LI ; Wei ZHAO ; Jun ZHOU ; Xiaoying CHEN ; Xiangyu XI ; Haijun HE ; Baohong MI ; Yuefeng CHEN ; Weiheng CHEN
Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2025;66(15):1566-1571
ObjectiveTo explore the effects of the Tai Chi training on bone density, bone turnover markers, and heart rate variability for people with high-risk osteoporosis, and to provide evidence for the prevention of osteoporosis at early stage. MethodsSixty-six cases of people with high risk of osteoporosis were included, and they were divided into 33 cases each in the intervention group and the control group using the random number table method. The control group received osteoporosis health education three times a week, and the intervention group received Tai Chi training under the guidance of a trainer three times a week for 40 mins each time on the basis of the control group, and both groups were intervened for 12 weeks. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to measure the bone density of L1~L4 vertebrae, bilateral femoral necks and bilateral total hips in the two groups before and after the intervention; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to determine bone turnover markers before and after the intervention, including pro-collagen type Ⅰ pro-amino-terminal prepropyl peptide (P1NP) and β-collagen type Ⅰ cross-linking carboxy-terminal peptide (β-CTX). Seven cases with good compliance in the intervention group were selected. After wearing the heart rate sensor, they successively performed Tai Chi training and walking activities recommended by the guideline for 20 mins each, and the heart rate variability (HRV) during exercise was collected, including time-domain indexes such as standard deviation of normal sinus intervals (SDNN), root-mean-square of the difference between adjacent RR intervals (RMSSD), frequency-domain metrics such as low-frequency power (LF), high-frequency power (HF), and low-frequency/high-frequency power ratio (LF/HF), as well as nonlinear metrics such as approximate entropy (ApEn), sample entropy (SampEn). ResultsFinally, 63 cases were included in the outcome analysis, including 30 cases in the intervention group and 33 cases in the control group. After the intervention, the differences of L1~L4 vertebrae, bone density of bilateral femoral neck and bilateral total hip in the intervention group were not statistically significant when compared with those before intervention (P>0.05), while the bone density of all parts of the control group decreased significantly compared with that before intervention (P<0.05), and the difference in the bone density of the L1~L4 vertebrae, bilateral femoral neck, and the right total hip before and after the intervention of the intervention group was smaller than that of the control group (P<0.05). The differences in P1NP and β-CTX between groups before and after intervention was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Compared with walking exercise, LF decreased, HF increased and LF/HF decreased during Tai Chi exercise (P<0.05); the time domain indexes and non-linear indexes between groups had no statistically significant difference (P>0.05). ConclusionTai Chi exercise can maintain lumbar, hip, and femoral bone density and improve sympathetic/parasympathetic balance in people at high risk for osteoporosis, but cannot significantly improve bone turnover markers.
2.Epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: Insights from the past two years.
Jian WAN ; Jiaming ZHOU ; Zhuo WANG ; Dan LIU ; Hao ZHANG ; Shengmao XIE ; Kaichun WU
Chinese Medical Journal 2025;138(7):763-776
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is a chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract with unknown etiology. The cause of IBD is widely considered multifactorial, with prevailing hypotheses suggesting that the microbiome and various environmental factors contribute to inappropriate activation of the mucosal immune system in genetically susceptible individuals. Although the incidence of IBD has stabilized in Western countries, it is rapidly increasing in newly industrialized countries, particularly China, making IBD a global disease. Significant changes in multiple biomarkers before IBD diagnosis during the preclinical phase provide opportunities for earlier diagnosis and intervention. Advances in technology have driven the development of telemonitoring tools, such as home-testing kits for fecal calprotectin, serum cytokines, and therapeutic drug concentrations, as well as wearable devices for testing sweat cytokines and heart rate variability. These tools enable real-time disease activity assessment and timely treatment strategy adjustments. A wide range of novel drugs for IBD, including interleukin-23 inhibitors (mirikizumab, risankizumab, and guselkumab) and small-molecule drugs (etrasimod and upadacitinib), have been introduced in the past few years. Despite these advancements, approximately one-third of patients remain primary non-responders to the initial treatment, and half eventually lose response over time. Precision medicine integrating multi-omics data, advanced combination therapy, and complementary approaches, including stem cell transplantation, psychological therapies, neuromodulation, and gut microbiome modulation therapy, may offer solutions to break through the therapeutic ceiling.
Humans
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Inflammatory Bowel Diseases/therapy*
3.Boosting with Omicron-specific mRNA vaccine or historical SARS-CoV-2 vaccines elicits discriminating immune responses against Omicron variants.
Yi WU ; Xiaoying JIA ; Namei WU ; Xinghai ZHANG ; Yan WU ; Yang LIU ; Minmin ZHOU ; Yanqiong SHEN ; Entao LI ; Wei WANG ; Jiaming LAN ; Yucai WANG ; Sandra CHIU
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2025;15(2):947-962
Booster vaccinations are highly recommended in combating the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant and its subvariants. However, the optimal booster vaccination strategies and related immune mechanisms with different prior vaccinations are under-revealed. In this study, we systematically evaluated the immune responses in mice and hamsters with different prime-boost regimens before their protective efficacies against Omicron were detected. We found that boosting with Ad5-nCoV, SWT-2P or SOmicron-6P induced significantly higher levels of neutralization activities against Omicron variants than CoronaVac and ZF2001 by eliciting stronger germinal center (GC) responses. Specifically, SOmicron-6P induced even stronger antibody responses against Omicron variants in CoronaVac and Ad5-nCoV-primed animals than non-Omicron-specific vaccines but with limited differences as compared to Ad5-nCoV and SWT-2P. In addition, boosting with a specific vaccine has the potential to remodel the existing immune profiles. These findings indicated that adenovirus-vectored vaccines and mRNA vaccines would be more effective than other types of vaccines as booster shots in combating Omicron infections. Moreover, the protective efficacies of the vaccines in booster vaccinations are highly related to GC reactions in secondary lymphatic organs. In summary, these findings provide timely important information on prime-boost regimens and future vaccine design.
4.Effects of Yixintai on Lipid Metabolism and Protein Expressions of CPT-1 and CD36 in Rats with Heart Failure
Yingli ZHOU ; Xi LUO ; Ziwei YIN ; Huizhen ZHENG ; Jiaming WEI ; Ziyan WANG ; Chengxin LIU ; Ya LI ; Zhihua GUO
Chinese Journal of Information on Traditional Chinese Medicine 2025;32(12):82-88
Objective To observe the effects of Yixintai on lipid metabolism and the protein expressions of CPT-1 and CD36 in rats with heart failure;To explore the mechanism of its treatment of heart failure.Methods 106 out of 120 SD rats were selected to establish the heart failure model induced by myocardial infarction by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery,and 14 rats were selected as the sham-operation group.The successful model rats were randomly divided into model group,trimetazidine group and Yixintai low-,medium-and high-dosage groups,with 14 rats in each group.The administration group was given corresponding drugs by gavage once a day for 4 weeks.LVEF,LVFS,LVIDd and LVIDs were measured by color doppler ultrasonography,the contents of ANP,BNP,LA and FFA in serum were detected by ELISA,the contents of TG,TC,LDL and HDL were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer,HE and Masson staining were used to observe the morphology of myocardial tissue,the expressions of CPT-1 and CD36 protein in myocardial tissue were detected by Western blot.Results Compared with the sham-operation group,LVEF and LVFS in the model group decreased(P<0.05),the LVIDs and LVIDd increased(P<0.05);the contents of serum ANP,BNP,LA,FFA,TG,TC and LDL increased(P<0.05),while the content of HDL decreased(P<0.05),with myocardial edema,irregular arrangement of myocardial fibers,increased inflammatory cell infiltration and collagen fiber deposition;the protein expressions of CPT-1 and CD36 in myocardial tissue decreased(P<0.05).Compared with the model group,the LVEF and LVFS in Yixintai each dosage groups and trimetazidine group increased(P<0.05),LVIDs and LVIDd decreased(P<0.05);the contents of ANP,BNP,LA,FFA,TG,TC and LDL in serum of Yixintai medium-and high-dosage groups and trimetazidine group decreased(P<0.05),the content of HDL increased(P<0.05);myocardial edema was improved,inflammatory cell infiltration was reduced,collagen fiber deposition was reduced,and the protein expressions of CPT-1 and CD36 in myocardial tissue increased(P<0.05).Conclusion Yixintai may improve myocardial energy metabolism and treat heart failure by increasing the expression of CPT-1 and CD36 protein in myocardial tissue and promoting fatty acid β oxidation.
5.Analysis of transabdominal bowel ultrasound characteristics of immune checkpoint inhibitor-related colitis and their correlation with endoscopy
Qingyang ZHOU ; Li MA ; Hao TANG ; Xinyu LIU ; Yanlin ZENG ; Bo LU ; Qingli ZHU ; Bei TAN ; Jiaming QIAN
Chinese Journal of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 2025;09(1):67-73
Objective:To analyze the characteristics of transabdominal bowel ultrasound (TBUS) in immune checkpoint inhibitor-related colitis (IRC) and their correlation with endoscopic manifestations.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted. Clinical data from 10 patients with IRC treated at Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2022 to January 2024 were collected. The ulcerative colitis endoscopic index of severity (UCEIS) and Limberg classification were used to assess the severity of colonoscopy and TBUS examinations, respectively. Kendall's tau-b method was applied for correlation analysis between UCEIS scores and Limberg classification.Results:All the 10 patients were male with a median age of 65 years (59-74 years). The majority had lung cancer (8 patients) and all were in advanced stages, with 6 patients in stage Ⅲ and 4 in stage Ⅳ. They all received anti-programmed death 1 (PD-1) /anti-programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) combined with chemotherapy, among whom 2 patients were combined with anti-angiogenic drug treatment. The median time from the first immunotherapy to the onset of IRC was 1.50 (0.25-12.00) months; the median time from IRC treatment to clinical symptom relief to G1 was 2.45 (0.50-8.00) weeks. Nine patients were in the active phase, mainly G3 (8 patients) ; 1 was in the remission phase after treatment. TBUS showed that among the 9 active IRC patients, the entire colon was mainly involved (7 patients), with combined small intestine involvement (3 patients) ; the main manifestations were thickening of the bowel wall, with the thickest bowel wall being 7.0 (5.0-8.0) mm, mainly located in the sigmoid colon (3 patients) and descending colon (3 patients) ; increased bowel wall blood flow signals (Limberg classification 2-4) occurred in 7 patients; 3 active patients had perienteric fat wrapping, and 2 had blurred bowel wall stratification. The Kendall's tau-b correlation coefficient r between the entire colon UCEIS scores and Limberg classification was 0.891 ( P = 0.003), and the Kendall's tau-b correlation coefficient r between the colon segment UCEIS scores and Limberg classification was 0.690 ( P < 0.001) . Conclusion:During the active phase, the left colon of IRC is more severe in TBUS, which mainly manifests as the thickening bowel wall and increased blood flow signals, and the TBUS has good correlation with colonoscopy evaluation.
6.Natural course of ulcerative proctitis: a single-center retrospective study
Jiaming ZHOU ; Jian WAN ; Zhuo WANG ; Hao ZHANG ; Jingmin YU ; Kaichun WU
Chinese Journal of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 2025;09(3):193-198
Objective:To explore the natural course of ulcerative proctitis (UP) and the risk factors associated with disease extent progression.Methods:A retrospective cohort study was conducted, including UP patients who had undergoing prospective regisration in the Department of Gastroenterology, Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases, Air Force Medical University between January 2000 and May 2023. All patients were ≥ 18 years old at the time of diagnosis and followed up for more than one year. The disease extent in patients at diagnosis and during follow-up was assessed according to the Montreal classification. The clinical data were compared between the progression group and the non-progression group. The cumulative proportions of disease extent progression were analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method, and the risk factors associated with disease extent progression were analyzed with the Cox proportional hazards regression model.Results:A total of 184 UP patients were included, with a median follow-up time of 4.8 (2.8, 8.5) years. Among them, 96 were male (52.2%) and 88 were female (47.8%), with a median age at diagnosis of 39.1 (28.8, 49.7) years. At the time of diagnosis, 95 (51.6%) patients had moderate endoscopic manifestations and 64 (34.8%) had severe endoscopic manifestations, while only 25 (13.6%) patients had mild lesions. 116 patients (63.0%) experienced disease extent progression in a median time of 4.2 (1.8, 9.0) years. The cumulative proportions of disease extent progression in 1, 3, 5, and 10 years were 13.0%, 39.0%、56.7% and 78.3%, respectively. Cox regression analysis identified the use of 5-aminosalicylic acid as a protective factor against disease extent progression ( HR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.31 ~ 0.96, P = 0.035). During follow-up, only one patient (0.5%) underwent surgery. Five patients (2.7%) were diagnosed with dysplasia, and all of these patients had experienced disease extent progression before the development of dysplasia. Conclusions:Patients with UP had a high proportion of moderate-to-severe active endoscopic findings at diagnosis, and nearly two-thirds of patients experienced disease progression during follow-up, but the rates of colectomy and neoplasia were relatively low. 5-ASA was a protective factor against disease extent progression.
7.Diagnostic value of fecal calprotectin for assessing endoscopic activity in ulcerative colitis: comparison with conventional inflammatory markers
Qianqian XIA ; Ye GUO ; Wei HAN ; Yuzhe ZHOU ; Xiaoyan TANG ; Hong LYU ; Huijun SHU ; Gechong RUAN ; Hong YANG ; Jiaming QIAN
Chinese Journal of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 2025;09(6):448-455
Objective:To evaluate the diagnostic performance of fecal calprotectin (FC) in predicting endoscopic activity of ulcerative colitis (UC), and to compare it with high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hsCRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) .Methods:A cross-sectional stydy was conducted. UC patients diagnosed at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between May 2023 and July 2025 were retrospective enrolled. Patients were divided into the endoscopically active group and endoscopic remission group according to endoscopic activity. FC levels were measured using latex-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (LETIA). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and logistic regression models were used to assess diagnostic efficacy. Subgroup analyses were conducted according to disease extent.Results:A total of 166 UC patients were enrolled, including 92 males and 74 females with the age of 40.00 (32.00, 52.00) years old and disease course 5.00 (2.00, 10.75) years. Forty-six patients were assigned to the active group, while the remaining 120 were assigned to the remission group. FC levels were significantly higher in the active group than in the remission group (620.72 μg/g vs. 29.00 μg/g, P < 0.001), with an AUC of 0.894 at a cutoff value of 122.54 μg/g. hsCRP and ESR had lower AUC (0.712 and 0.736, respectively). The combination of FC, hsCRP, and ESR slightly improved specificity (AUC 0.898). FC was strongly correlated with the endoscopic activity ( r =0.669, P < 0.001) but not with disease extent. Conclusions:FC measured by latex-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay had comparable diagnostic accuracy to ELISA-based methods commonly used abroad, and provided a reference cutoff value of 122.54 μg/g. FC outperforms hsCRP and ESR in assessing intestinal inflammation in UC and it is less affected by disease extent, making it a reliable non-invasive biomarker for UC monitoring.
8.Cross-sectional study of fecal calprotectin in predicting endoscopic activity in patients with Crohn's disease
Yuzhe ZHOU ; Qianqian XIA ; Ye GUO ; Wei HAN ; Xiaoyan TANG ; Hong LYU ; Huijun SHU ; Gechong RUAN ; Hong YANG ; Jiaming QIAN
Chinese Journal of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 2025;09(6):462-468
Objective:To evaluate the predictive efficacy of fecal calprotectin (FC) for endoscopic activity in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) .Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted and patients diagnosed as CD at Peking Union Medical College Hospital from June 2023 to September 2025 were enrolled consecutively. Data was collected including general information, laboratory tests [hemoglobin (HGB), platelet (PLT), FC, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and so on], and endoscopic results. FC levels were measured by latex-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (LETIA). Endoscopic activity was defined as the simplified endoscopic score for Crohn's disease (SES-CD) > 2. Patients were divided into the endoscopically active group and endoscopic remission group according to endoscopic activity, and the differences in clinical data between the two groups were compared. Spearman correlation analysis was used to assess the correlation between FC and endoscopic activity, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the predictive efficacy of FC, hsCRP and ESR for endoscopic activity, and the differences were compared.Results:A total of 90 CD patients were enrolled, including 65 males and 25 females with the age of 30 (22, 41) years old and disease course 4.0 (0.5, 8.0) years. Seventy-one patients (78.9%) had ileocolonic disease involvement (L3), and 55 patients (61.1%) were using biologics. Sixty-nine patients in endoscopic active phase were assigned to the endoscopically active group, while the remaining 21 were assigned to the endoscopic remission group. There were no statistically significant differences in general characteristics such as age and gender between the two groups (all P > 0.05). Compared with endoscopic remission group, HGB was significantly lower in the endoscopically active group, while PLT, hsCRP, ESR, and FC were moderataly higher (all P < 0.05). Among the 90 CD patients, FC levels were moderatly correlated with endoscopic activity (ρ = 0.494). ROC curve analysis indicated that the area under the curve for FC in predicting endoscopic activity was 0.836 (95% CI: 0.737-0.935), with a sensitivity of 0.725, specificity of 0.952, and accuracy of 0.778 at the optimal FC cutoff value of 153.8 μg/g. FC outperformed hsCRP and ESR. Conclusion:FC measured by LETIA demonstrates certain efficacy in predicting endoscopic activity in CD and will assist in efficient clinical monitoring of CD patients.
9.Research progress on anxiety and depression in inflammatory bowel disease
Jiaming ZHOU ; Jian WAN ; Dan LIU ; Wenfang HE ; Hao ZHANG ; Kaichun WU
Chinese Journal of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 2025;09(5):424-428
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, relapsing immune-mediated disease. Patients with IBD are at significantly increased risk of anxiety and depression, with possible mechanisms including genetic susceptibility, brain-gut axis and dysbiosis. This review summarizes the latest research progress on the epidemiology, risk factors, mechanisms and treatment of anxiety and depression in IBD patients.
10.Prediction of ischemic stroke incidence based on CNN-LSTM-Attention model
Jiaming Liu ; Xiao Zhou ; Fuyin Wang ; Xiao Sun ; Xiaoshuang Xia ; Xin Li
Acta Universitatis Medicinalis Anhui 2025;60(12):2353-2362
Objective:
To construct a deep learning model based on convolutional neural network(CNN)-long short term memory network(LSTM)-Attention to explore the correlation between meteorological and clinical factors and the incidence of ischemic stroke.
Methods:
A fusion model CNN-LSTM-Attention based on CNN, LSTM, and Attention was constructed by incorporating clinical data and meteorological data of ischemic stroke inpatients. The predictive performance of the model was evaluated by maximum prediction error and root mean square error(RMSE). The impact of different lag days on prediction performance was investigated by selecting lag periods ranging from 1 to 7 days.
Results:
In both short-term and long-term predictions, the CNN-LSTM-Attention fusion model(short-term: 1.5 and 0.6; long-term: 8.3 and 2.5) showed superior maximum prediction bias and RMSE compared to the LSTM model(short-term: 2.8 and 1.2; long-term: 19.5 and 5.5) and the CNN-LSTM model(short-term: 2.0 and 0.8; long-term: 11.2 and 3.3). After incorporating lag days, the maximum prediction deviation and RMSE for lags of 3 days(short-term: 0.7 and 0.4; long-term: 5.5 and 1.9) and 5 days(short-term: 0.8 and 0.3; long-term: 6.5 and 2.0) in both short-term and long-term forecasts were smaller than lags of 0 days(short-term: 1.5 and 0.6; long-term: 8.3 and 2.5). The maximum prediction deviation and RMSE in the short-term forecast were greater than lag 0 days for both lag 1 days(1.5 and 0.8) and lag 7 days(1.9 and 0.9). In the long-term forecast, the two indicators for lag 1 days(6.8 and 2.4) were lower than those for lag 0 days but higher than those for lag 3 days and 5 days. The maximum prediction deviation for lag 7 days(7.5) was lower than that for lag 0 days, but the RMSE(2.7) is higher than that for lag 0 days.
Conclusion
The established CNN-LSTM-Attention model demonstrates significant predictive value for the onset of ischemic stroke and can provide reference for the rational allocation of medical resources.


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