Skeletal muscle atrophy refers to a pathological condition characterized by muscle fiber atrophy as well as decreased muscle mass and muscle strength induced by various predisposing factors. It falls under the category of “flaccidity syndrome” in traditional Chinese medicine， and its pathogenesis is mainly associated with disturbed protein homeostasis， mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress injury. Active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine exerts synergistic regulatory effects via multiple pathways， thus possessing unique advantages in the clinical prevention and treatment of skeletal muscle atrophy. This paper reviews the mechanisms by which active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine alleviate skeletal muscle atrophy. Existing studies have demonstrated that such active ingredients can ameliorate skeletal muscle atrophy through multiple approaches： regulating protein metabolic balance （geniposide， matrine， schisandrin A， etc.） and oxidative stress （astragaloside Ⅳ， Gastrodia elata polysaccharide， Angelica sinensis polysaccharide， etc.）， improving mitochondrial function （parthenolide， berberine， curcumin， etc.）， facilitating myogenesis and myogenic differentiation （cucurbitacin Ⅱb， saikosaponin A， saikosaponin D， etc.）， suppressing inflammatory response （ursolic acid， triptolide， emodin， etc.）， ameliorating insulin resistance （akebiasaponin D， etc.）. In the future， active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine are expected to achieve breakthroughs in clinical treatment for skeletal muscle atrophy， providing novel ideas and strategies for the prevention and treatment of degenerative disorders.

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder. Cellular drug screening represents a key approach in the preclinical discovery of AD therapeutics. Moreover, selecting an appropriate cellular model is essential for exploring the mechanisms underlying AD pathogenesis. Objective: This study aimed to establish a progressive strategy integrating cell model construction, monomer evaluation, and effective component group-based drug discovery for the development of novel therapeutics targeting AD. Methods: A novel AD12 cell line stably expressing the double-transgenic genes amyloid precursor protein (APP)695/presenilin 1(PS1)-ΔE9 was first constructed and subjected to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. The resulting LPS-induced neuroinflammatory response was characterized using metabolomic analysis. Subsequently, 16 alkaloids derived from traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) were screened with the LPS-AD12 cell model. Molecular docking was then performed to assess the binding affinity of benzoylaconitine (BAC) with APP and PS1 proteins. A targeted metabolomics approach focusing on amino acids and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle was applied to BAC-treated LPS-AD12 cells. Finally, aconite extract was administered to five-familial-AD-mutations(5xFAD) transgenic mice, and therapeutic efficacy was evaluated through phenotypic and metabolomic analyses. Results: LPS stimulation induced neuroinflammation in AD12 cells, characterized by elevated levels of interleukin-6, amyloid-β (Aβ ), and PS1. The primary metabolic pathways affected in AD12 cells included alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism, as well as arginine biosynthesis. Notably, BAC significantly reduced the levels of Aβ and interleukin-6 in LPS-AD12 cells. Furthermore, molecular docking analyses revealed a strong binding affinity of BAC with APP and PS1 proteins. Targeted metabolomics analysis indicated that the pharmacological activity of BAC was primarily associated with its anti-inflammatory effects, modulation of the cholinergic signaling pathway, and regulation of energy metabolism. Behavioral experiments in 5xFAD mice, together with immunofluorescence assessments of brain tissues (amyloid-β, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1), demonstrated that aconite extract treatment significantly alleviated AD-related symptoms. In addition, metabolomics-based mechanistic analyses revealed that serine, acetylcholine, ornithine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid exhibited consistent trends in both brain tissue and serum samples from treated mice. Conclusion: This study established a novel AD12 cell model and an effective, reliable LPS-induced cell-based screening system. Additionally, we proposed a new drug discovery strategy integrating cell model construction, monomer evaluation, and effective component group-based drug discovery. This screening system has the potential to accelerate the identification of anti-AD agents and provides a feasible framework for subsequent in-depth investigations into new drug development from TCM, thereby contributing to the modernization of TCM-derived therapeutics.

Objective To investigate the prediction of natural killer(NK)cells,and T helper cells(Th)cy-tokine levels for assisted reproductive pregnancy outcomes in high-risk human papillomavirus(HR-HPV)in-fected patients.Methods A total of 128 cases of HR-HPV infected patients who received assisted reproduc-tive treatment in a hospital from September 2021 to June 2023 were selected as the study objects,and were di-vided into normal pregnancy outcome group(n=87)and adverse pregnancy outcome group(n=41)accord-ing to their pregnancy outcomes.The clinical data,NK cell proportion,interleukin(IL)-2,IL-4,IL-6 and IL-10 levels before in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer treatment were collected and compared between the two groups.Spearman correlation analysis,univariate Logistic regression analysis and multiple Logistic regression analysis were used to screen out the risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes in HR-HPV infected patients receiving assisted reproduction.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve and area under the curve(AUC)were used to evaluate the predictive efficacy of risk factors alone and in combination for adverse preg-nancy outcomes in HR-HPV infected patients undergoing assisted reproduction.Results The age of the ad-verse pregnancy outcome group was significantly higher than that of the normal pregnancy outcome group,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).The proportion of NK cells and the level of IL-10 in the adverse pregnancy outcome group were significantly lower than those in the normal pregnancy outcome group,and the level of IL-6 was significantly higher than that in the normal pregnancy outcome group,with statistical significance(P＜0.05).Spearman correlation analysis showed that age and IL-6 level of HR-HPV infection were positively correlated with adverse pregnancy outcome after assisted reproduction(r=0.582,0.341,P＜0.001).The proportion of NK cells and the level of IL-10 were negatively correlated with adverse pregnancy outcomes after assisted reproduction(r=-0.459,-0.359,P＜0.001).Multivariate Logistic re-gression analysis showed that the proportion of NK cells,low level of IL-10 and high level of IL-6 in HR-HPV infected persons were risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes after assisted reproduction(P＜0.05).ROC curve analysis results showed that the AUC of NK cell ratio,IL-6 and IL-10 alone and in combination to predict adverse pregnancy outcome after assisted reproduction in HR-HPV infected patients were 0.784,0.711,0.660 and 0.876,respectively.The efficiency of combined prediction using the three indicators was higher than that of independent prediction(Z=3.006,3.211,3.716,P＜0.05).Conclusion The levels of NK cells and Th cytokines have important clinical significance in the prediction of assisted reproductive pregnancy outcome in HR-HPV infected patients.

OBJECTIVES: Verrucous epidermal nevus (VEN), seborrheic keratosis (SK), verruca plana (VP), verruca vulgaris (VV), and nevus sebaceous (NS) are common verrucous proliferative skin diseases with similar clinical appearances, often posing diagnostic challenges. Dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) can aid in their differentiation, yet their specific features under these tools have not been systematically described. This study aims to summarize and analyze the dermoscopic and RCM features of VEN, SK, VP, VV, and NS. METHODS: A total of 121 patients with histopathologically confirmed verrucous proliferative skin diseases were enrolled. Dermoscopy and RCM imaging was used to observe and analyze the microscopic features of these conditions. RESULTS: Under dermoscopy, the 5 diseases displayed distinct characteristics: VEN typically showed gyriform structures; SK was characterized by gyriform structures, comedo-like openings, and milia-like cysts; VP and VV featured dotted vessels and frogspawn-like structures; NS presented as brownish-yellow globules. RCM revealed shared features such as hyperkeratosis and acanthosis across all 5 diseases. Specific features included gyriform structures and elongated rete ridges in VEN; pseudocysts and gyriform structures in SK; evenly distributed ring-like structures in VP; vacuolated cells and papillomatous proliferation in VV; and frogspawn-like structures in NS. CONCLUSIONS These 5 verrucous proliferative skin conditions exhibit distinguishable features under both dermoscopy and RCM. The combination of these 2 noninvasive imaging modalities holds significant clinical value for the differential diagnosis of verrucous proliferative skin diseases.
Humans ; Dermoscopy/methods* ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Microscopy, Confocal/methods* ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Adolescent ; Keratosis, Seborrheic/pathology* ; Young Adult ; Warts/diagnosis* ; Child ; Aged ; Skin Diseases/pathology* ; Nevus, Sebaceous of Jadassohn/diagnosis* ; Skin Neoplasms/diagnosis* ; Child, Preschool

OBJECTIVES: To explore whether the antioxidant axis Nrf2/HO-1 is involved in the regulation of hippocampus injury induced by cypermethrin and its underlying mechanism. METHODS: Ten-week-old C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into control group and cypermethrin exposure groups with low, medium, and high exposure levels. After 21 days of oral gavage of corn oil (control) or cypermethrin, the levels of MDA, T-SOD, GSH-Px and CAT in the hippocampus of the mice were examined to evaluate the oxidative stress levels. HE staining was used to observe morphological changes of the hippocampal neurons. Western blotting, immunofluorescence staining and RT-qPCR were employed to detect the protein expressions and mRNA expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 and HO-1. RESULTS: Subacute oral exposure to cypermethrin significantly increased MDA level, decreased the activities of antioxidant enzymes T-SOD, GSH-Px and CAT, and induced neuronal damage in the CA1 and CA3 regions in the hippocampus of C57BL/6 mice. Cypermethrin exposure also caused Nrf2 protein translocation from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, accompanied by upregulated expression levels of the key antioxidant factor Nrf2 and its downstream target kinase HO-1. CONCLUSIONS Cypermethrin exposure dose-dependently causes oxidative damage in the hippocampus of C57BL/6 mice, which is regulated by the Nrf2/HO-1 antioxidant pathway.
Animals ; Pyrethrins/toxicity* ; NF-E2-Related Factor 2/metabolism* ; Hippocampus/cytology* ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Mice ; Oxidative Stress/drug effects* ; Neurons/pathology* ; Heme Oxygenase-1/metabolism* ; Signal Transduction ; Membrane Proteins

Metering unit is important component of medical service items and also serve as significant bases for scientifically estimating the costs of medical services.National Technical Specification of Medical Service Items(2023 Edition)has set up elements such as"metering unit"and"adjustment coefficient for resource consumption in special circumstances",which clearly stipulate the metering units of each medical service item and the multiples for discretionary increases or decreases in the overall resource consumption when special circumstances occur.These two elements are important references for the cost accounting in medical institutions.The project team has elaborated on the definitions,establishment principles and special circumstances of these two types of elements,namely"metering units"and"adjustment coefficient for resource consumption in special circumstances",providing references for the application of relevant governments and healthcare institutions.

The relative value of human resource consumption is a relative value scale of the workload and difficulty of medical personnel needed to provide medical service items.Based on"basic human resource consumption and time consumption","technical difficulty"and"risk level"of the medical service items,it is comprehensively calculated by"relative value indicator standardization","relative value indicator weight setting","relative value indicator calculation model construction",and"relative value indicator expert verification".By formulating the relative value of human resource consumption,it could be used in rationalizing the relative value scale of medical service items,promoting cost accounting in hospitals,and establishing a scientific and reasonable performance evaluation system as technical tools.

The assignment of the"item code"element in National Technical Specification of Medical Service Items(Version 2023)continues the classification framework and coding rules of National Specification of Medical Service Price Items(Version 2012).The project team experts are members of the WHO-Family of International Classifications(WHO-FIC)China Classification,Terminology and Standards Collaborating Center.The design concept of project coding is the same as that of the International Classification of Health Interventions(ICHI).Both adopt an alphanumeric characters hybrid coding classification method based on multi-axis classification,clarified the definition and scope of these four key classification axis which including anatomy system,anatomical site,surgical procedure and surgical approach,and optimize and update item property,sub-classifications and coding.Unified medical service item code can make contribution to the comparability of statistics related to health care items across regions,promote cross-regional healthcare and healthcare insurance settlement at the national level;improve its refined management level in hospital,and play an important role in performance management and data statistical analysis.