Astrocytes are a crucial type of glial cells in the central nervous system, not only maintaining brain homeostasis, but also actively participating in the transmission of information within the brain. Astrocytes have a complex structure that includes the soma, various levels of processes, and end-feet. With the advancement of genetically encoded calcium indicators and imaging technologies, researchers have discovered numerous localized and small calcium activities in the fine processes and end-feet. These calcium activities were termed as microdomain calcium activities, which significantly differ from the calcium activities in the soma and can influence the activity of local neurons, synapses, and blood vessels. This article elaborates the detection and analysis, characteristics, sources, and functions of microdomain calcium activities, and discusses the impact of aging and neurodegenerative diseases on these activities, aiming to enhance the understanding of the role of astrocytes in the brain and to provide new insights for the treatment of brain disorders.
Astrocytes/cytology* ; Humans ; Animals ; Calcium/metabolism* ; Calcium Signaling/physiology* ; Brain/physiology* ; Aging/physiology* ; Membrane Microdomains/physiology* ; Neurodegenerative Diseases/physiopathology*

BACKGROUND: Based on the China-VHD database, this study sought to develop and validate a Valvular Heart Disease- specific Age-adjusted Comorbidity Index (VHD-ACI) for predicting mortality risk in patients with VHD. METHODS & RESULTS: The China-VHD study was a nationwide, multi-centre multi-centre cohort study enrolling 13,917 patients with moderate or severe VHD across 46 medical centres in China between April-June 2018. After excluding cases with missing key variables, 11,459 patients were retained for final analysis. The primary endpoint was 2-year all-cause mortality, with 941 deaths (10.0%) observed during follow-up. The VHD-ACI was derived after identifying 13 independent mortality predictors: cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary artery hypertension, low body weight, anaemia, hypoalbuminaemia, renal insufficiency, moderate/severe hepatic dysfunction, heart failure, cancer, NYHA functional class and age. The index exhibited good discrimination (AUC, 0.79) and calibration (Brier score, 0.062) in the total cohort, outperforming both EuroSCORE II and ACCI (P < 0.001 for comparison). Internal validation through 100 bootstrap iterations yielded a C statistic of 0.694 (95% CI: 0.665-0.723) for 2-year mortality prediction. VHD-ACI scores, as a continuous variable (VHD-ACI score: adjusted HR (95% CI): 1.263 (1.245-1.282), P < 0.001) or categorized using thresholds determined by the Yoden index (VHD-ACI ≥ 9 vs. < 9, adjusted HR (95% CI): 6.216 (5.378-7.184), P < 0.001), were independently associated with mortality. The prognostic performance remained consistent across all VHD subtypes (aortic stenosis, aortic regurgitation, mitral stenosis, mitral regurgitation, tricuspid valve disease, mixed aortic/mitral valve disease and multiple VHD), and clinical subgroups stratified by therapeutic strategy, LVEF status (preserved vs. reduced), disease severity and etiology. CONCLUSION The VHD-ACI is a simple 13-comorbidity algorithm for the prediction of mortality in VHD patients and providing a simple and rapid tool for risk stratification.

Aim To investigate the role of metabolites of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in promoting the transdifferentiation of pancreatic α cells to β cells. Methods Male C57BL/6J mice were injected intraperitoneally with 60 mg/kg streptozocin (STZ) for five consecutive days to establish a type 1 diabetes (T1DM) mouse model. After two weeks, they were randomly divided into model groups and 97% EPA diet intervention group, 75% fish oil (50% EPA +25% DHA) diet intervention group, and random blood glucose was detected every week; after the model expired, the regeneration of pancreatic β cells in mouse pancreas was observed by immunofluorescence staining. The islets of mice (obtained by crossing GCG

Aim To express and purify recombinant hCGH-CTP fusion protein in high-density suspension culture of Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO-S), and to verify the lipid accumulation effect of rhCGH-CTP on 3T3-L1 mature adipocytes. Methods The recombinant protein expression vector (pcDNA3. 1-rhCGH-CTP) was constructed, achieved by fusing the human glycoprotein hormone beta 5/alpha 2 cDNA with CTP Linker. The expression plasmid was transiently transfected into the suspended CHO-S to express rhCGH-CTP protein and then purified, and the protein biological activity was verified. Intervention with 3T3-L1 mature adipocyte cells for 24 h was performed to detect the changes of intracellular triglyceride (TG) level. Results Western blot results showed that rhCGH-CTP protein was successfully expressed in CHO-S cells, and the yield was up to 715. 4 mg • L~ . The secreted protein was purified by AKTA pure system with higher purity that was up to 90% as identified by SDS-PAGE. In addition, the intracellular cAMP content of mature adipocytes with high expression of TSHR gene significantly increased after intervention with different concentrations of rhCGH-CTP protein by ELISA kit, indicating that rhCGH-CTP protein had biological activity. Oil red 0 staining showed that compared with the control group, the lipid content of mature adipocytes in the intervention groups with different concentrations of rhCGH-CTP protein significantly decreased (P < 0. 05) . Conclusions The rhCGH-CTP protein has been successfully expressed and purified with biological activity, and effectively reduce TG. This research provides an important theoretical basis for further revealing the physiological role of CGH protein and its potential application in clinical practice.

Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) have been widely used in regenerative medicine, but there is limited research on the stability of UC-MSCs formulation during production. This study aims to assess the stability of the cell stock solution and intermediate product throughout the production process, as well as the final product following reconstitution, in order to offer guidance for the manufacturing process and serve as a reference for formulation reconstitution methods. Three batches of cell formulation were produced and stored under low temperature (2-8 ℃) and room temperature (20-26 ℃) during cell stock solution and intermediate product stages. The storage time intervals for cell stock solution were 0, 2, 4, and 6 h, while for intermediate products, the intervals were 0, 1, 2, and 3 h. The evaluation items included visual inspection, viable cell concentration, cell viability, cell surface markers, lymphocyte proliferation inhibition rate, and sterility. Additionally, dilution and culture stability studies were performed after reconstitution of the cell product. The reconstitution diluents included 0.9% sodium chloride injection, 0.9% sodium chloride injection + 1% human serum albumin, and 0.9% sodium chloride injection + 2% human serum albumin, with dilution ratios of 10-fold and 40-fold. The storage time intervals after dilution were 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 h. The reconstitution culture media included DMEM medium, DMEM + 2% platelet lysate, 0.9% sodium chloride injection, and 0.9% sodium chloride injection + 1% human serum albumin, and the culture duration was 24 h. The evaluation items were viable cell concentration and cell viability. The results showed that the cell stock solution remained stable for up to 6 h under both low temperature (2-8 ℃) and room temperature (20-26 ℃) conditions, while the intermediate product remained stable for up to 3 h under the same conditions. After formulation reconstitution, using sodium chloride injection diluted with 1% or 2% human serum albumin maintained a viability of over 80% within 4 h. It was observed that different dilution factors had an impact on cell viability. After formulation reconstitution, cultivation in medium with 2% platelet lysate resulted in a cell viability of over 80% after 24 h. In conclusion, the stability of cell stock solution within 6 h and intermediate product within 3 h meets the requirements. The addition of 1% or 2% human serum albumin in the reconstitution diluent can better protect the post-reconstitution cell viability.

Chemotherapy-induced complications, particularly lethal cardiovascular diseases, pose significant challenges for cancer survivors. The intertwined adverse effects, brought by cancer and its complication, further complicate anticancer therapy and lead to diminished clinical outcomes. Simple supplementation of cardioprotective agents falls short in addressing these challenges. Developing bi-functional co-therapy agents provided another potential solution to consolidate the chemotherapy and reduce cardiac events simultaneously. Drug repurposing was naturally endowed with co-therapeutic potential of two indications, implying a unique chance in the development of bi-functional agents. Herein, we further proposed a novel "trilogy of drug repurposing" strategy that comprises function-based, target-focused, and scaffold-driven repurposing approaches, aiming to systematically elucidate the advantages of repurposed drugs in rationally developing bi-functional agent. Through function-based repurposing, a cardioprotective agent, carvedilol (CAR), was identified as a potential neddylation inhibitor to suppress lung cancer growth. Employing target-focused SAR studies and scaffold-driven drug design, we synthesized 44 CAR derivatives to achieve a balance between anticancer and cardioprotection. Remarkably, optimal derivative 43 displayed promising bi-functional effects, especially in various self-established heart failure mice models with and without tumor-bearing. Collectively, the present study validated the practicability of the "trilogy of drug repurposing" strategy in the development of bi-functional co-therapy agents.

Optimizing operation management mode is the core task to promote the high-quality development of public hospitals.Drawing on the typical experiences and practices of operation and management of representative in-ternational hospitals in the United States,the United Kingdom,Singapore and West China Hospital of Sichuan Univer-sity,Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Affiliated Xinhua Hospital,Jilin University China-Japanese Union Hospital of Jilin University,and carrying out a full range of comparative analyses.Put forward the new situation of China's public hospital operations and management to establish a"big operations management"concept.By iden-tifying the operation management role,rationalizing the operation management organization structure and training operation management compound talents to discuss stablishing a committee system,integrating multi-departmental resources to form a scientific and sound problem identificaiton,feedback,consultation and improvement of working mechanism,and promote the high-quality development of publit hospitals.

Objective To measure and comprehensively analyze the operation efficiency of coronary heart disease Center of National Regional Medical Center for Cardiovascular Disease from the dimensions of department service in-come,department service quality,department service efficiency and department service benefit,and put forward targeted operation management optimization strategies based on the analysis results.Methods The operation effective-ness evaluation index of CHD centers in sample hospitals from 2020 to 2022 was measured by the empirical re-search method from the overall level of the center and the level of clinical departments,and the scores were com-pared and analyzed.Results From 2020 to 2022,the operation effectiveness evaluation index of CHD centers in sam-ple hospitals showed a good trend,increasing from 80.57 points to 82.86 points.The 3-year average score was 81.74;Among them,the score rate of department service benefit dimension is higher,the average is 96.64％;The score rate of department service efficiency was lower,with an average of 68.53％.The departments with the lowest operational efficiency scores from 2020 to 2022 are all A2 departments,with 74.39,72.41 and 75.89 scores respec-tively,mainly due to the relatively low scores of A2 departments in the dimensions of department service revenue and department service efficiency.Conclusion The results of clinical department operation effectiveness evaluation can provide the evidence-based basis for hospital operation management,and hospitals can establish benchmarking management departments according to the evaluation results and take targeted measures to improve the comprehen-sive operation efficiency of departments.

Objective To strengthen nursing awareness and attention,and improve the quality of medication and nursing care,Meta-analysis was used to evaluate the occurrence of sodium-glucose transporter 2 inhibitor related ketoacidosis.Methods Relevant randomized controlled trials were searched in 6 databases,such as CNKI,PubMed,Embase,and the Clinical trial platform,and the literature was screened based on inclusion and exclusion criteria.The search time was from the establishment of databases to January 2023.Revman 5.4.1 was used for quality evaluation and Meta-analysis.Results 24 randomized controlled trials were included.The Meta-analysis results showed that sodium-glucose transporter 2 inhibitors increased the incidence of ketoacidosis(RR=2.52,95％CI[1.82,3.49],P＜0.001).Subgroup analysis showed that the sodium-glucose transporter 2 inhibitors increased the incidence of ketoacidosis in patients with type 2 diabetes(RR=2.42,95％CI[1.70,3.43],P＜0.001),cardiovascular disease(RR=2.32,95％CI[1.59,3.39],P＜0.001),and chronic kidney disease(RR=2.82,95％CI[1.73,4.58],P＜0.001).Cargliflozin(RR=3.21,95％CI[1.43,7.18],P=0.005),Daggliflozin(RR=2.73,95％CI[1.51,4.93],P＜0.001),and Sogliflozin(RR=1.92,95％CI[1.06,3.50],P=0.030)increased the incidence of ketoacidosis,while Engliflozin(RR=1.80,95％CI[0.79,4.11],P=0.160)did not have a significant effect.When the eGFR of patients≤60(mUmin/1.73m2)(RR=2.74,95％CI[1.63,4.60],P＜0.001),the duration of medication≤ 12 month(RR=3.31,95％CI[1.79,6.12],P＜0.001),or the duration of medication＞12 month(RR=2.19,95％CI[1.23,3.91],P=0.008),the sodium-glucose transporter 2 inhibitors increased the occurrence of ketoacidosis.Conclusion For patients receiving sodium-glucose transporter 2 inhibitors treatment regardless of whether they are complicated with diabetes,especially those with heart and kidney diseases,in the early and middle stages of medication,with eGFR ≤60 ml/(min·1.73m2),and those with other susceptibility factors,we should strengthen the observation of patients'medication,optimize medication care,and early identify and intervene in the occurrence of ketoacidosis.

Objective To clarify and analyze the reasons for failure in screening healthy menopausal female in a bioequivalence trial.Methods To summarize and clarify the data of 185 healthy menopausal female subjects participating in a bioequivalence trial of estradiol valerate conducted,and summarize the reasons for screening failure.Results The main reasons for screening failure include laboratory tests(32.04％),gynecological transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound(16.57％),vital signs(14.36％),chest computed tomography(CT,11.60％),and medical history/medication history(7.73％).Conclusion Screening failures in healthy menopausal female subjects were characterized mainly by abnormal gynecological transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound and non-compliance with basal hormone levels compared to generally healthy subjects.