Objective To investigate the protective effect of Indigo Naturalis on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in mice. Methods The mouse model of middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) was established using the filament ligation method. Mice were randomly divided into five groups: sham surgery, model, positive drug control, low-dose Indigo Naturalis, and high-dose Indigo Naturalis. After 7 d of drug administration, the relevant experiments were performed. Neurological function was assessed via behavioral scoring, balance beam test, forelimb grip strength, and tail lift test. Brain infarct volume was quantified using 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining. Histopathological changes and neuronal apoptosis were systematically analyzed through hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, Nissl staining, and TUNEL staining. Finally, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed to detect mRNA expression levels of inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and microglial polarization markers (CD32, CD206) in the mouse cerebral cortex. Results Compared with the model group, the neurological function scores of mice in the high-dose Indigo Naturalis group showed significant improvement, and the motor ability recovery in each drug-administration group was remarkable (P<0.05, P<0.01). The cerebral infarct volume in the high-dose Indigo Naturalis group was significantly reduced (P<0.05). Histological results revealed that Indigo Naturalis could alleviate pathological damage in brain tissue and reduce neuronal apoptosis (P<0.01). PCR results demonstrated that after treatment with Indigo Naturalis, the expression of inflammatory factors and CD32 was significantly downregulated (P<0.05, P<0.01), while the expression of CD206 was significantly upregulated (P<0.05). Conclusion Indigo Naturalis could improve motor function in mice with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury, and its effects might be related to regulating inflammatory responses and reducing neuronal damage.

Objective To explore the efficacy and underlying mechanism of Astragalus in the treatment of viral pancreatitis using network pharmacology,with confirmation of its efficacy and mechanism in cell experiments.Methods Astragalus and viral pancreatitis targets obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology(TCMSP)and GeneCards databases were combined to obtain intersection targets.GO functional enrichment and KEGG signaling pathway enrichment analyses of therapeutic targets were conducted using the Database for Annotation,Visualization,and Integrated Discovery(DAVID)database.The interactions between therapeutic targets were analyzed using the STRING database and Cytoscape 3.10.2,and the core therapeutic targets were screened.Molecular docking between the most effective therapeutic components and the core targets was performed using PyMOL 3.0 and AutoDock Tools 1.5.7.CVB3 was used to construct a viral pancreatitis cell model for verification of the core targets.Results Seventy-eight therapeutic targets were identified.Enrichment analyses revealed the possible involvement of pathways related to cancer,lipids and atherosclerosis,and PI3K-AKT signaling.AKT1,TP53,HIF1A,CASP3,IL-6,and MMP9 were identified as possible core targets.The result of cell experiments showed that the expression level of AMY was significantly increased in the model group(P＜0.05).The Astragalus injection group exhibited significantly decreased expression levels of AMY,AKT1,TP53,HIF1A,CASP3,IL-6,and MMP9 compared with the model group(P＜0.05).Conclusions Astragalus injection effectively treated viral pancreatitis,and its therapeutic mechanism may involve reduced expression levels of AKT1,TP53,HIF1A,CASP3,IL-6,and MMP9.

Myocardial infarction （MI） refers to an acute clinical syndrome of myocardial necrosis due to persistent ischemia and hypoxia， resulting from the sharp reduction or interruption of coronary blood flow. Nuclear factor κB （NF-κB） is the key factor in inducing inflammatory response， and it is involved in the production of pro-inflammatory factors and myocardial cell apoptosis. This article systematically describes the molecular regulation mechanism of the NF-κB signaling pathway in MI， and reviews the related research on the prevention and treatment of MI through the regulation of this signaling pathway by active ingredients and compound formulas from traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）. It has been found that active ingredients from TCM， such as ginsenoside Rg3， baicalein， curcumin， tanshinone ⅡA， gambogic acid， as well as compound formulas， including Qili qiangxin capsules， Yiqi huoxue decoction， Lingbao huxin dan， Danhong injection， Baoyuan decoction combined with Taohong siwu decoction， can improve myocardial fibrosis， alleviate inflammatory responses， and inhibit cardiomyocyte apoptosis by suppressing the NF-κB signaling pathway. Thereby， they achieve the goal of preventing and treating MI.

Objective To explore the efficacy and underlying mechanism of Astragalus in the treatment of viral pancreatitis using network pharmacology,with confirmation of its efficacy and mechanism in cell experiments.Methods Astragalus and viral pancreatitis targets obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology(TCMSP)and GeneCards databases were combined to obtain intersection targets.GO functional enrichment and KEGG signaling pathway enrichment analyses of therapeutic targets were conducted using the Database for Annotation,Visualization,and Integrated Discovery(DAVID)database.The interactions between therapeutic targets were analyzed using the STRING database and Cytoscape 3.10.2,and the core therapeutic targets were screened.Molecular docking between the most effective therapeutic components and the core targets was performed using PyMOL 3.0 and AutoDock Tools 1.5.7.CVB3 was used to construct a viral pancreatitis cell model for verification of the core targets.Results Seventy-eight therapeutic targets were identified.Enrichment analyses revealed the possible involvement of pathways related to cancer,lipids and atherosclerosis,and PI3K-AKT signaling.AKT1,TP53,HIF1A,CASP3,IL-6,and MMP9 were identified as possible core targets.The result of cell experiments showed that the expression level of AMY was significantly increased in the model group(P＜0.05).The Astragalus injection group exhibited significantly decreased expression levels of AMY,AKT1,TP53,HIF1A,CASP3,IL-6,and MMP9 compared with the model group(P＜0.05).Conclusions Astragalus injection effectively treated viral pancreatitis,and its therapeutic mechanism may involve reduced expression levels of AKT1,TP53,HIF1A,CASP3,IL-6,and MMP9.

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells(MDSCs)are a heterogeneous cell population in tumor immune microenviron-ment that can undergo amplification and aggregation in tumor patients and tumor-bearing animals,exerting immunosuppressive activi-ties.Recent studies have demonstrated the significant role of MDSCs in the occurrence,development and metastasis of liver cancer.This paper aims to review the research progress on MDSCs and hepatocellular carcinoma,exploring their involvement in hepatocellular carcinoma as well as potential therapeutic strategies.

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a hemorrhagic cerebrovascular disease with high incidence and mortality. Oxidative stress response plays an important role in the pathological and physiological processes of ICH, and is also a potential effective target for clinical treatment. In this paper, the pathogenesis of oxidative stress after ICH, mechanism of nerve and vascular injury in oxidative stress, and detection and treatment of oxidative stress are reviewed in order to provide references for basic research and clinical practice in ICH.

Depression is a mental disorder with high morbidity, disability and relapse rates. Ginkgo biloba extract (GBE), a traditional Chinese medicine, has a long history of clinical application in the treatment of cerebral and mental disorders, but the key mechanism remains incompletely understood. Here we showed that GEB exerted anti-depressant effect in mice through regulating gut microbial metabolism. GBE protected against unpredictable mild stress (UMS)-induced despair, anxiety-like and social avoidance behavior in mice without sufficient brain distribution. Fecal microbiome transplantation transmitted, while antibiotic cocktail abrogated the protective effect of GBE. Spatiotemporal bacterial profiling and metabolomics assay revealed a potential involvement of Parasutterella excrementihominis and the bile acid metabolite ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in the effect of GBE. UDCA administration induced depression-like behavior in mice. Together, these findings suggest that GBE acts on gut microbiome-modulated bile acid metabolism to alleviate stress-induced depression.
Humans ; Mice ; Animals ; Depression/drug therapy* ; Gastrointestinal Microbiome ; Plant Extracts ; Ginkgo biloba

Objective: To investigate the positive rate for 2019-nCoV tests and co-infections in Wuhan district. Methods: A total of 8 274 cases in Wuhan were enrolled in this cross-sectional study during January 20 to February 9, 2020, and were tested for 2019-nCoV using fluorescence quantitative PCR. Both respiratory tract samples (nasopharynx, oropharynx, sputum and alveolar lavage fluid) and non-respiratory tract samples (urine, feces, anal swabs, blood and conjunctival sac swabs) were collected. If both orf1ab and N genes are positive, they are classified as nucleic acid test positive group; if both orf1ab and N genes are negative, they are classified as negative group; if single gene target is positive, they are classified as suspicious group. Individuals were divided into male group and female group according to sex. At the same time, 316 patients were tested for 13 respiratory pathogens by multiplex PCR. Results: Among the 8 274 subjects, 2 745 (33.2%) were 2019-nCoV infected; 5 277 (63.8%) subjects showed negative results in the 2019-nCoV nucleic acid test; and 252 cases (3.05%) was not definitive (inconclusive result). The age of cases with COVID-19 patients and inconclusive cases was significantly higher than that of cases without 2019-nCoV infection (40 vs 56, t=27.569, P<0.001; 52 vs 56, t=6.774, P<0.001). The positive rate of 13 respiratory pathogens multiple tests was significantly lower in 104 subjects who were positive for 2019-nCoV compared with those in subjects who were negative for 2019-nCoV test (5.77% vs 18.39%, χ²=24.105, P=0.003). Four types of respiratory tract samples and five types of non-respiratory tract samples were found to be positive for 2019-nCoV nucleic acid test. Conclusion The 2019-nCoV nucleic acid positive rate in male is higher than in female. Co-infections should be pay close attention in COVID-19 patients. 2019-nCoV nucleic acid can be detected in non-respiratory tract samples.

The outbreak of pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at the end of 2019 was a major public health emergency in human history. In a short period of time, Chinese medical workers have experienced the gradual understanding, evidence accumulation and clinical practice of the unknown virus. So far, National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China has issued seven trial versions of the "Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of COVID-19". However, it is difficult for clinicians and laymen to quickly and accurately distinguish the similarities and differences among the different versions and locate the key points of the new version. This paper reports a computer-aided intelligent analysis method based on machine learning, which can automatically analyze the similarities and differences of different treatment plans, present the focus of the new version to doctors, reduce the difficulty in interpreting the "diagnosis and treatment plan" for the professional, and help the general public better understand the professional knowledge of medicine. Experimental results show that this method can achieve the topic prediction and matching of the new version of the program text through unsupervised learning of the previous versions of the program topic with an accuracy of 100%. It enables the computer interpretation of "diagnosis and treatment plan" automatically and intelligently.
Betacoronavirus ; China ; Coronavirus Infections ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Humans ; Machine Learning ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Practice Guidelines as Topic

Objective To investigate the value of leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1 (ALDH1A1) in progression and prognosis of non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC),in order to find new targets for NSCLC-targeted imaging and radiation therapy.Methods Fresh tissues (n =24) and paraffin embedding tissues (n =109) of patients with NSCLC were collected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University between November 2009 and March 2012.Quantitative real time-PCR was used for the investigation of expression of LGR5 and ALDH1A1 mRNA in 24 NSCLC patients.Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used for detecting LGR5 and ALDH1A1 expressions in NSCLC tissues and adjacent normal tissues.Data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney u test,x2 test,Pearson correlation analysis,Kaplan-Meier method,Cox proportional hazards regression model.Results Compared with adjacent normal tissues,LGR5 and ALDH1A1 mRNA were frequently increased in NSCLC tissues (u values:150,74,both P＜0.01),and the expression of LGR5 and ALDH1A1 mRNA was significantly correlated (r=0.416,P＜0.05).Positive LGR5 and ALDH1A1 expression was defined in 28.44％ (31/109) and 41.28％ (45/109) of the NSCLC tumors,respectively.Further analysis indicated that 24 of the LGR5 positive samples (77.42％,24/31) expressed ALDH1A1 (r=0.388,P＜0.01).LGR5 and ALDH1A1 ex pressions in NSCLC with higher TNM stage were significantly higher than those in NSCLC with lower TNM stage (x2 values:4.64,5.24,both P＜0.05).Coexpression of LGR5 and ALDH1A1 in NSCLC with lymph node metastasis was higher than that in NSCLC without lymph node metastasis (x2=4.12,P＜0.05).High expression of LGR5 or ALDH1A1 was related to poor prognosis (x2 values:6.24,4.18,both P＜0.05),and NSCLC patients with coexpression of LGR5 and ALDH1A1 had a poorer prognosis than the others (x2 =10.63,P＜0.01).Both of them were independent risk factors of a poorer prognosis (corrected hazard ratio (95％ CI):2.361(1.106-5.037),2.306(1.101-4.830);both P＜0.05).Conclusions The expressions of LGR5 and ALDH1A1 are closely associated with the tumorigenesis,metastasis and poor prognosis of NSCLC.LGR5 and ALDH1A1 might be new targets for NSCLC-targeted tumor imaging and radiation therapy.