1.Research on The Role of Dopamine in Regulating Sleep and Wakefulness Through Exercise
Li-Juan HOU ; Ya-Xuan GENG ; Ke LI ; Zhao-Yang HUANG ; Lan-Qun MAO
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2025;52(1):88-98
Sleep is an instinctive behavior alternating awakening state, sleep entails many active processes occurring at the cellular, circuit and organismal levels. The function of sleep is to restore cellular energy, enhance immunity, promote growth and development, consolidate learning and memory to ensure normal life activities. However, with the increasing of social pressure involved in work and life, the incidence of sleep disorders (SD) is increasing year by year. In the short term, sleep disorders lead to impaired memory and attention; in the longer term, it produces neurological dysfunction or even death. There are many ways to directly or indirectly contribute to sleep disorder and keep the hormones, including pharmacological alternative treatments, light therapy and stimulus control therapy. Exercise is also an effective and healthy therapeutic strategy for improving sleep. The intensities, time periods, and different types of exercise have different health benefits for sleep, which can be found through indicators such as sleep quality, sleep efficiency and total sleep time. So it is more and more important to analyze the mechanism and find effective regulation targets during sleep disorder through exercise. Dopamine (DA) is an important neurotransmitter in the nervous system, which not only participates in action initiation, movement regulation and emotion regulation, but also plays a key role in the steady-state remodeling of sleep-awakening state transition. Appreciable evidence shows that sleep disorder on humans and rodents evokes anomalies in the dopaminergic signaling, which are also implicated in the development of psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia or substance abuse. Experiments have shown that DA in different neural pathways plays different regulatory roles in sleep behavior, we found that increasing evidence from rodent studies revealed a role for ventral tegmental area DA neurons in regulating sleep-wake patterns. DA signal transduction and neurotransmitter release patterns have complex interactions with behavioral regulation. In addition, experiments have shown that exercise causes changes in DA homeostasis in the brain, which may regulate sleep through different mechanisms, including cAMP response element binding protein signal transduction, changes in the circadian rhythm of biological clock genes, and interactions with endogenous substances such as adenosine, which affect neuronal structure and play a neuroprotective role. This review aims to introduce the regulatory effects of exercise on sleep disorder, especially the regulatory mechanism of DA in this process. The analysis of intracerebral DA signals also requires support from neurophysiological and chemical techniques. Our laboratory has established and developed an in vivo brain neurochemical analysis platform, which provides support for future research on the regulation of sleep-wake cycles by movement. We hope it can provide theoretical reference for the formulation of exercise prescription for clinical sleep disorder and give some advice to the combined intervention of drugs and exercise.
2.Severity Assessment Parameters and Diagnostic Technologies of Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Zhuo-Zhi FU ; Ya-Cen WU ; Mei-Xi LI ; Ping-Ping YIN ; Hai-Jun LIN ; Fu ZHANG ; Yu-Xiang YANG
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2025;52(1):147-161
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an increasingly widespread sleep-breathing disordered disease, and is an independent risk factor for many high-risk chronic diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, arrhythmias and diabetes, which is potentially fatal. The key to the prevention and treatment of OSA is early diagnosis and treatment, so the assessment and diagnostic technologies of OSA have become a research hotspot. This paper reviews the research progresses of severity assessment parameters and diagnostic technologies of OSA, and discusses their future development trends. In terms of severity assessment parameters of OSA, apnea hypopnea index (AHI), as the gold standard, together with the percentage of duration of apnea hypopnea (AH%), lowest oxygen saturation (LSpO2), heart rate variability (HRV), oxygen desaturation index (ODI) and the emerging biomarkers, constitute a multi-dimensional evaluation system. Specifically, the AHI, which measures the frequency of sleep respiratory events per hour, does not fully reflect the patients’ overall sleep quality or the extent of their daytime functional impairments. To address this limitation, the AH%, which measures the proportion of the entire sleep cycle affected by apneas and hypopneas, deepens our understanding of the impact on sleep quality. The LSpO2 plays a critical role in highlighting the potential severe hypoxic episodes during sleep, while the HRV offers a different perspective by analyzing the fluctuations in heart rate thereby revealing the activity of the autonomic nervous system. The ODI provides a direct and objective measure of patients’ nocturnal oxygenation stability by calculating the number of desaturation events per hour, and the biomarkers offers novel insights into the diagnosis and management of OSA, and fosters the development of more precise and tailored OSA therapeutic strategies. In terms of diagnostic techniques of OSA, the standardized questionnaire and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) is a simple and effective method for preliminary screening of OSA, and the polysomnography (PSG) which is based on recording multiple physiological signals stands for gold standard, but it has limitations of complex operations, high costs and inconvenience. As a convenient alternative, the home sleep apnea testing (HSAT) allows patients to monitor their sleep with simplified equipment in the comfort of their own homes, and the cardiopulmonary coupling (CPC) offers a minimal version that simply analyzes the electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. As an emerging diagnostic technology of OSA, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) adeptly pinpoint respiratory incidents and expose delicate physiological changes, thus casting new light on the diagnostic approach to OSA. In addition, imaging examination utilizes detailed visual representations of the airway’s structure and assists in recognizing structural abnormalities that may result in obstructed airways, while sound monitoring technology records and analyzes snoring and breathing sounds to detect the condition subtly, and thus further expands our medical diagnostic toolkit. As for the future development directions, it can be predicted that interdisciplinary integrated researches, the construction of personalized diagnosis and treatment models, and the popularization of high-tech in clinical applications will become the development trends in the field of OSA evaluation and diagnosis.
3.Intelligent handheld ultrasound improving the ability of non-expert general practitioners in carotid examinations for community populations: a prospective and parallel controlled trial
Pei SUN ; Hong HAN ; Yi-Kang SUN ; Xi WANG ; Xiao-Chuan LIU ; Bo-Yang ZHOU ; Li-Fan WANG ; Ya-Qin ZHANG ; Zhi-Gang PAN ; Bei-Jian HUANG ; Hui-Xiong XU ; Chong-Ke ZHAO
Ultrasonography 2025;44(2):112-123
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of an intelligent handheld ultrasound (US) device for assisting non-expert general practitioners (GPs) in detecting carotid plaques (CPs) in community populations.
Methods:
This prospective parallel controlled trial recruited 111 consecutive community residents. All of them underwent examinations by non-expert GPs and specialist doctors using handheld US devices (setting A, setting B, and setting C). The results of setting C with specialist doctors were considered the gold standard. Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and the features of CPs were measured and recorded. The diagnostic performance of GPs in distinguishing CPs was evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic curve. Inter-observer agreement was compared using the intragroup correlation coefficient (ICC). Questionnaires were completed to evaluate clinical benefits.
Results:
Among the 111 community residents, 80, 96, and 112 CPs were detected in settings A, B, and C, respectively. Setting B exhibited better diagnostic performance than setting A for detecting CPs (area under the curve, 0.856 vs. 0.749; P<0.01). Setting B had better consistency with setting C than setting A in CIMT measurement and the assessment of CPs (ICC, 0.731 to 0.923). Moreover, measurements in setting B required less time than the other two settings (44.59 seconds vs. 108.87 seconds vs. 126.13 seconds, both P<0.01).
Conclusion
Using an intelligent handheld US device, GPs can perform CP screening and achieve a diagnostic capability comparable to that of specialist doctors.
4.Exploration and Practice of a Comprehensive Model of"Teaching,Science and Ideology Trinity"to Enhance the Scientific Research Comprehensive Ability of Medical Students
Xiao-Hong YANG ; Chun-Hong HUANG ; Da-Ya LUO ; Wei-Feng ZHU ; Mu-Ying YING ; Yi JIANG ; Jing-Chong GUO ; Hao-Tang LIAO ; Xiao-Li TANG
Chinese Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2025;41(9):1360-1368
The integration of science and education is not only an important strategy for promoting social progress and technological development,but also a modern form of higher education aiming at cultivating innovative talents.Conducting scientific research training for undergraduate medical students is one of the important ways to cultivate their innovative abilities and comprehensive qualities.Our team proposed a"teaching,science,and ideology trinity"teaching model to comprehensively cultivate students' scientific research comprehensive abilities under the value orientation of ideological and political education by or-ganically integrating molecular biology experimental teaching with the scientific research training of under-graduate medical students.In this teaching activity,taking the experiment of gene polymorphism as an example,our team selected students with research potential from the whole grade and divided them into 4 project groups that were instructed by 4 teachers.The students were trained in the whole process of scien-tific research,including topic selection,project writing,experimental designing,application for research ethics,and project summary.Our team has always adhered to student-contentedness of educational con-cepts to stimulate students' intrinsic motivation throughout the teaching process.Students are the design-ers and implementers of the project,and teachers are only guides and promoters of learning.After this training,students not only became familiar with the writing and implementation of scientific research pro-jects,but also improved their literature reading,experimental designing,experimental skills,and prob-lem-solving abilities.More importantly,this teaching activity also cultivated students' awareness of re-search ethics and academic moral standards.
5.Effects of LINC00626 on proliferation,apoptosis and drug resistance of colorectal cancer SW480 cells
Liang LI ; Hao QIANG ; Shui-ri WANG ; Fu-long YU ; Song WANG ; Hui YUAN ; Ya-ru YANG ; Zhi-ning LIU
Chinese Pharmacological Bulletin 2025;41(10):1900-1905
Aim To investigate the high expression of LINC00626 in colorectal cancer,and explore the effects of LINC00626 on the proliferation,apoptosis,and drug sensitivity of colorectal cancer SW480 cells,as well as its underlying mechanisms.Methods Flu-orescence in situ hybridization(FISH)was used to de-tect the expression levels of LINC00626 in 38 colorec-tal cancer tissues and their corresponding adjacent nor-mal tissues.The JASPAR database was utilized to pre-dict co-expressed genes and their possible binding sites.Cell transfection technology was employed to knockdown LINC00626.Western blot and qRT-PCR techniques were used to verify the transfection efficien-cy.CCK-8 assay,cell apoptosis and necrosis staining,and Western blot were used to detect the changes in the proliferation,apoptosis,drug sensitivity,and ap-optotic proteins of SW480 cells,respectively.Results The FISH results indicated that LINC00626 was highly expressed in colorectal cancer tissues(P<0.05).The expression of LINC00626 was not associat-ed with the age or gender of patients,but was related to the TNM stage and the presence of lymph node me-tastasis($ P<0.05 $).The results of CCK-8 assay and cell apoptosis and necrosis staining showed that af-ter knockdown of LINC00626,the proliferation ability of SW480 cells decreased,the apoptosis level in-creased,and the drug resistance decreased(P<0.05).Western blot results showed that with the de-crease in the expression level of LINC00626,the ex-pression of caspase-3 protein decreased,the expression of cleaved caspase-3 protein increased,and the expres-sion of Bcl-2 protein decreased(P<0.05).Conclu-sions LINC00626 is highly expressed in colorectal cancer and is associated with the TNM stage and the presence of lymph node metastasis.LINC00626 can af-fect the proliferation,apoptosis,and drug sensitivity of SW480 cells and alter the expression of apoptotic pro-teins.
6.Application of In-fusion Cloning Technology as a Teaching Example in the Molecular Biology Laboratory(A National First-class Undergraduate Course)
Jing LUO ; Ya-Nan LI ; Yi-Di WANG ; Dong YANG ; Li TONG ; Hong-Yu SHEN ; Yan-Xia YIN
Chinese Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2025;41(10):1552-1558
In-fusion cloning technology,as a revolutionary and efficient molecular biology tool,has been applied in multiple research fields such as basic biology,biotechnology,and biomedicine.In this article,we introduce a teaching reform project suitable for undergraduate students in the course of"Molecular Bi-ology Laboratory",which utilizes in-Fusion cloning technology to construct a prokaryotic expression vector for alkaline phosphatase mutant genes.Through specific teaching cases,we systematically explored the design and implementation of experimental projects,and focused on analyzing the key and difficult points of the teaching content.Our teaching practice has found that the implementation of this educational re-form project has achieved very good results in enhancing students' core biological literacy,bioinformatics skills,research thinking,and innovation abilities.At the same time,the application of this technology can significantly improve the quality of experimental teaching,providing new ideas and practical refer-ences for promoting the reform and innovation of National First-Class Courses.
7.Effect of different radiation field designs on the dose of treating middle and lower esophageal cancer in intensity modulated radiotherapy
Hao WANG ; Qi DING ; Feng GUO ; Yantao GONG ; Genxiang CHEN ; Ya CHE ; Yinghong REN ; Yunyi YANG ; Yi LI
China Medical Equipment 2025;22(1):2-6,57
Objective:To design two kinds of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans with different radiation field distributions,and to compare the dose differences of that at the dose of target region and organs at risk (OAR) for middle and lower esophageal cancer,so as to provide a reference for the design of IMRT plan. Methods:The data of 17 patients with middle and lower esophageal cancer who received IMRT at Shangluo Central Hospital from November 2022 to May 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. IMRT plans with different radiation fields for Plan 1 and Plan 2 were designed for each patient. The angles of radiation field for Plan 1 were 0°,80°,120°,160° and 200°,and those for Plan 2 were 30°,130°,180°,230° and 330°,respectively. The prescribed dose to the planning target volume (PTV) was 60 Gy/30 F. The differences in dosimetric parameters between the two plans were compared. Results:There were no statistically significant differences in the dose parameters of 2%,98%,50% target dose (D2%,D98%,D50%),homogeneity index (HI),conformity index (CI) and monitor unit between the two groups (P>0.05). There were no significant differences in V5 of dual lungs,the mean dose (Dmean) of heart,and the maximum dose (Dmax) of spinal-cord between two groups (P>0.05). The volume percentage (V10,V20,V30) of dual lungs received radiation doses of 10,20 and 30 Gy,and the mean dose (Vmean) of lung in the Plan1 group reduced respectively 7.44%,21.16%,10.09% and 5.31% than those in the Plan2 group,and the differences of them were statistically significant (t=-5.845,-7.729,-2.247,-3.960,P<0.05). Heart V10 and V20 in the Plan1 group decreased respectively by 7.23% and 5.78%,with statistical significance (t=-4.376,-3.523,P<0.01),while V30 and V40 of Plan 1 increased respectively by 2.7% and 4.92%,without statistical significance (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in heart Dmean between the Plan1 group and the Plan2 group (P>0.05). Conclusion:Both two methods of distribution field can meet the clinical requirements,and Plan1 has more advantages in protecting organs at risk under the premise of meeting the requirements of target region.
8.Quality evaluation of Rubi Fructus based on UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS,HPLC fingerprints and content determination
Shu-wan LI ; Yang-zhen LIAO ; Long-fei WANG ; Ya-qin ZHAO ; Jia-he FAN ; Yuan WEI ; Zhen OUYANG
Chinese Traditional Patent Medicine 2025;47(4):1077-1084
AIM To evaluate the quality of Rubi Fructus.METHODS UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS was adopted in the component identification,after which the HPLC fingerprints were established,cluster analysis,principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis were used for chemical pattern recognition.and the contents of chlorogenic acid,ferulic acid,ellagic acid,isoquercitrin,kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside,astragalin,tiliroside quercetin,kaempferol were determined.RESULTS Total 34 constituents were identified.There were 19 common peaks in the fingerprints for 31 batches of medicinal materials with the similarities of more than 0.8.Wild varieties and cultivated varieties,and medicinal materials from different producing areas could be distinguished;4 principal components demonstrated the accumulative variance contribution rate of 84.142%;8 differential components were screened,2 of which were ellagic acid and astragalin.Ellagic acid and astragalin displayed higher contents in the wild varieties than those in the cultivated varieties(P<0.05,P<0.01).CONCLUSION UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS,HPLC fingerprints combined with content determination can be used for the quality control of Rubi Fructus.
9.Research on the construction of evaluation index system for Huimin Insurance:Based on entropy weight TOPSIS method
Yang LIU ; Min-jiang GUO ; Ya-zi LI ; Xiao-juan ZHANG
Chinese Journal of Health Policy 2025;18(2):1-7
Objective:To build an evaluation index system for Huimin Insurance and provide reference for promoting the steady and sustainable development of Huimin Insurance.Methods:The evaluation indicators were initially constructed through literature analysis method and further revised and improved.The entropy weight TOPSIS method was used to evaluate and analyze 84 Huimin Insurance products with complete evaluation indicator data in 21 provinces across the country.Results:The constructed evaluation index system for Huimin Insurance includes 4 first-level indicators,10 second-level indicators and 28 third-level indicators.The weights of the first-level indicators,from high to low,are the sustainability indicator of Huimin Insurance(0.335 0),the guarantee ability indicator(0.235 1),the fairness indicator of participation in insurance(0.229 9)and the guarantee level indicator(0.200 0).The evaluation results show that the top ranked products are mainly concentrated in Zhejiang and Guangdong.Conclusion:The evaluation results of the entropy weight TOPSIS method are suitable for the comprehensive evaluation of Huimin Insurance and are comprehensive and scientific.They can be used to evaluate the operation and development of Huimin Insurance products,laying a good foundation for further evaluation of the sustainability of Huimin Insurance.
10.Effect of self-compassion-based writing on prosocial behavior in college students with different self-construals
Qingyang LI ; Guiqin REN ; Rui WANG ; Ya YANG ; Yanting LIU
Chinese Mental Health Journal 2025;39(5):454-459
Objective:To explore the effect of self-compassion-based writing on prosocial behavior in college students with different self-construals.Methods:A total of 182 college students were recruited,and the Self-Con-structional Scales were used to determine the self-construal types(independent or interdependent).Participants were then assigned to either a self-compassion-based writing group(n=91)or a non-self-compassion daily writing group(n=91)and completed writing tasks according to the respective instructions.Prosocial behavior was evaluated with the Prosocial Tendencies Measure(PTM),situational judgment tests,and donation amounts.Results:The evaluation results from the PTM showed that prosocial behavior was significantly higher in individuals with interdependent self-construal compared to those with independent self-construal(P<0.001),the main effect of the group type was not statistically significant(P>0.05).The evaluation results from situational judgment tests showed that prosocial behavior was significantly higher in individuals with interdependent self-construal compared to those with independ-ent self-construal(P<0.001),the self-compassion-based writing group demonstrated significantly more prosocial behavior than the non-self-compassion daily writing group(P<0.05).The evaluation results from donation a-mounts showed that the main effect of self-construal type was not statistically significant(P>0.05),the self-com-passion-based writing group demonstrated significantly more prosocial behavior than the non-self-compassion daily writing group(P<0.05).Conclusion:Compared to daily writing,self-compassion-based writing could effectively increase prosocial behavior in college students,regardless of their self-construal type.

Result Analysis
Print
Save
E-mail