Empathy is crucial for communication and survival for individuals. Whether empathy in pain contagion shows sex differences and its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we report that pain contagion can occur in stranger female rats, but not in stranger males. Blocking oxytocin receptors in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) suppressed pain contagion in female strangers, while oxytocin administration induced pain contagion in male strangers. In vitro, corticosterone reduces neuronal activation by oxytocin. During male stranger interactions, higher corticosterone decreased oxytocin receptor-positive neuronal activity in the ACC, suppressing pain contagion. These findings highlight the role of oxytocin in pain contagion and suggest that sex differences in empathy may be determined by the balance of oxytocin and corticosterone in the ACC. This study suggests an approach for the treatment of certain mental disorders associated with abnormal empathy, such as autism and depression.
Animals ; Oxytocin/pharmacology* ; Gyrus Cinguli/drug effects* ; Male ; Female ; Corticosterone/pharmacology* ; Empathy/drug effects* ; Sex Characteristics ; Receptors, Oxytocin/antagonists & inhibitors* ; Pain/psychology* ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Neurons/metabolism*

Retinal degenerative diseases characterized by irreversible photoreceptor apoptosis, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, are among the leading causes of severe visual impairment and blindness worldwide.Due to the neuronal nature of the mammalian retina, its regenerative ability is extremely limited.Damage or death of photoreceptors typically results in permanent vision loss.In recent years, optogenetic therapy has emerged as a novel neuromodulatory and vision restoration strategy, offering new hope for patients in advanced stages of these diseases.This approach involves using viral vectors, like adeno-associated viruses to deliver genes that encode light-sensitive proteins, such as microbial opsins or engineered rhodopsin variants, into surviving inner retinal neurons, such as bipolar or ganglion cells, thereby bypassing the degenerated photoreceptors and re-establishing light sensitivity and visual signaling.This review summarizes recent advances in the development of high-performance optogenetic tools, highlights findings from clinical trial at home and abroad, and discusses the therapeutic potential and translational prospects of optogenetics in treating inherited and degenerative retinal diseases.

Retinal degenerative diseases characterized by irreversible photoreceptor apoptosis, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, are among the leading causes of severe visual impairment and blindness worldwide.Due to the neuronal nature of the mammalian retina, its regenerative ability is extremely limited.Damage or death of photoreceptors typically results in permanent vision loss.In recent years, optogenetic therapy has emerged as a novel neuromodulatory and vision restoration strategy, offering new hope for patients in advanced stages of these diseases.This approach involves using viral vectors, like adeno-associated viruses to deliver genes that encode light-sensitive proteins, such as microbial opsins or engineered rhodopsin variants, into surviving inner retinal neurons, such as bipolar or ganglion cells, thereby bypassing the degenerated photoreceptors and re-establishing light sensitivity and visual signaling.This review summarizes recent advances in the development of high-performance optogenetic tools, highlights findings from clinical trial at home and abroad, and discusses the therapeutic potential and translational prospects of optogenetics in treating inherited and degenerative retinal diseases.

Objective:The SF-36 Scale was utilized to compare the differences in the dimensions of survival quality between subway microwave contact personnel and administrative personnel to provide a scientific basis for improving the quality of life of microwave contact personnel.Methods:In October 2023, 264 occupational personnel exposed to microwaves were selected as the microwave exposure group, and 104 administrative personnel not exposed to microwaves in a railroad enterprise were selected as the administrative control group. The self-administered basic data questionnaire and SF-36 Scale were applied to investigate the basic conditions, daily behaviors and survival quality of the research objects. And the microwave exposure doses of each post were measured. The differences in basic conditions, daily behaviors and survival quality of the microwave exposure group and the administrative control group were analyzed. And logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of survival quality in the microwave exposure group.Results:There were significant differences in gender, age, marital status, smoking status and sleep status between the microwave exposure group and the administrative control group ( P<0.05) . The microwave exposure group had lower scores than the administrative control group in the six dimensions of role physical, body pain, general health, vitality, social function, mental health and SF-36 average total score, and had higher score in reported health transition ( P<0.05) . The logistic regression analysis showed that the probability of low total SF-36 score in microwave exposure group with bachelor's degree or above was 0.46 times that of junior college degree (95% CI: 0.24-0.90, P=0.023) . The probability of low total SF-36 score in microwave exposure group with exercised 4 or more times per week was 4.27 times that of those who never or occasionally exercised (95% CI: 1.41-13.00, P=0.010) . The probabilities of low total SF-36 score in microwave exposure group with sleep light and dream, wake up in the middle night and hard to fall asleep were 11.04 and 7.38 times higher than those without sleep disturbance (95% CI: 3.35-36.32, P<0.001; 95% CI: 1.42-38.50, P=0.018) . The probability of low total SF-36 score in microwave exposure group with daily dose of 1.74 μW·h/cm 2 was 1.75 times that of the daily dose of 1.02 μW·h/cm 2 (95% CI: 1.08-3.82, P=0.008) . Conclusion:The education level, physical exercise, sleep status and microwave exposure dose are important factors affecting the survival quality of microwave exposed personnel. Occupational health education and behavioral life intervention should be strengthened to improve their survival quality.

Objective:The SF-36 Scale was utilized to compare the differences in the dimensions of survival quality between subway microwave contact personnel and administrative personnel to provide a scientific basis for improving the quality of life of microwave contact personnel.Methods:In October 2023, 264 occupational personnel exposed to microwaves were selected as the microwave exposure group, and 104 administrative personnel not exposed to microwaves in a railroad enterprise were selected as the administrative control group. The self-administered basic data questionnaire and SF-36 Scale were applied to investigate the basic conditions, daily behaviors and survival quality of the research objects. And the microwave exposure doses of each post were measured. The differences in basic conditions, daily behaviors and survival quality of the microwave exposure group and the administrative control group were analyzed. And logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of survival quality in the microwave exposure group.Results:There were significant differences in gender, age, marital status, smoking status and sleep status between the microwave exposure group and the administrative control group ( P<0.05) . The microwave exposure group had lower scores than the administrative control group in the six dimensions of role physical, body pain, general health, vitality, social function, mental health and SF-36 average total score, and had higher score in reported health transition ( P<0.05) . The logistic regression analysis showed that the probability of low total SF-36 score in microwave exposure group with bachelor's degree or above was 0.46 times that of junior college degree (95% CI: 0.24-0.90, P=0.023) . The probability of low total SF-36 score in microwave exposure group with exercised 4 or more times per week was 4.27 times that of those who never or occasionally exercised (95% CI: 1.41-13.00, P=0.010) . The probabilities of low total SF-36 score in microwave exposure group with sleep light and dream, wake up in the middle night and hard to fall asleep were 11.04 and 7.38 times higher than those without sleep disturbance (95% CI: 3.35-36.32, P<0.001; 95% CI: 1.42-38.50, P=0.018) . The probability of low total SF-36 score in microwave exposure group with daily dose of 1.74 μW·h/cm 2 was 1.75 times that of the daily dose of 1.02 μW·h/cm 2 (95% CI: 1.08-3.82, P=0.008) . Conclusion:The education level, physical exercise, sleep status and microwave exposure dose are important factors affecting the survival quality of microwave exposed personnel. Occupational health education and behavioral life intervention should be strengthened to improve their survival quality.

This paper discussed how to set the limit of impurities in the quality standard when the impurities in small-molecular innovative drugs were metabolites.Firstly,through the analysis and interpretation of each relevant guideline,in combination with the review cases of FDA and EMA,found out the conditions for qualification of im-purity,and then establ ish the acceptable limit of impurities based on the test results of multiple batches,the incre-ments of production process and storage process.

Objective:To evaluate the data quality of Shenzhen Type 1 Diabetes Alliance (SZT1D), and to provide a basis for evaluation and improvement for the continuous improvement of data quality.Methods:From December 2018 to July 2021, 697 first-visit type 1 diabetes (T1DM) patients (including 501 in Shenzhen and 196 out-of-Shenzhen) and 120 re-visited T1DM patients (including 113 in Shenzhen and 7 out-of-Shenzhen) who were registered by SZT1D in collaborative research platform network of China Type 1 Diabetes Alliance (hereinafter referred to as China T1D). The data quality was evaluated from three dimensions: data completion, accuracy and revisit. The data completion degree was evaluated by the overall data completion degree and the key indicator completion degree; the data accuracy was evaluated by the probability of abnormal blood glucose value; the patient′s return visit was evaluated by the return visit rate.Results:The main characteristics of T1DM in SZT1D were young and middle-aged adults [age: (34.4±17.1)years] with thin body [BMI: (19.80±3.52)kg/m 2)], half of male and female patients [proportion of male: 52.4%(365/697)]; the main types of diagnosis were classical T1DM [65.22%(150/230)] and latent autoimmune diabetes in adults(LADA) [26.08%(60/230)], and the fasting blood glucose (FPG) [(10.93±6.98)mmol/L] and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA 1c) [(10.63±3.01)%] were high. The average completion rate of the overall data of the first diagnosed patients in SZT1D was only 60% [(62.9±31.5)%]: the number of patients with overall data completion ≥80% in SZT1D was only 50.2%(350/697); the number of patients with overall data completion ≥80% in Shenzhen was less than that outside Shenzhen [44.3%(222/501) vs 65.3%(128/196), P<0.001]. The key indicators with better completion rate of first-visit were disease course [76.2%(531/697)], age of onset [75.8%(528/697)], family history of diabetes [74.9%(522/697)], etc., but none of them had a completion rate of more than 80%, and the diabetes self-management behavior assessment questionnaire and scale score were completely missing; the frequency of daily blood glucose monitoring [46.1%(231/501) vs 64.3%(126/196), P<0.001], current insulin regimen [44.3%(222/501) vs 63.3%(124/196), P<0.001], number of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) since the onset of the disease [45.7%(229/501) vs 64.8%(127/196), P<0.001] and the number of symptomatic hypoglycemia in the past 1 month [39.3%(197/501) vs 63.8%(125/196), P<0.001] were higher in Shenzhen than those reported outside Shenzhen. In addition, the probability of abnormal FPG and postprandial glucose (PPG) [5.2%(24/466); 3.8%(19/236)] were low. The revisit rate was not high [17.2%(120/697)], and the revisit rate in Shenzhen was higher than that outside Shenzhen [22.6%(113/501) vs 3.6%(7/196), P<0.001]. The first revisit rate was 16.2%(113/697) and the second revisit rate was seriously insufficient [1.0%(7/697)]. Conclusions:The data quality of T1DM patients recorded by SZT1D needs to be further improved. Improving the information interconnection between China-T1D and SZT1D, employing quality control personnel and building a systematic data quality evaluation analysis and feedback mechanism are methods to promote the comprehensive, accurate and efficient input of T1DM data and continuously improve the evaluation methods to improve the overall data quality.

Objective:To investigate the prevalence and characteristics of mcr genes in clinical isolates of Aeromonas spp. in our hospital, and provide reference for clinical analysis of the prevalence and expression of colistin resistance genes. Methods:Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect mcr genes in 183 Aeromonas spp. strains. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of colistin and polymyxin against mcr-positive Aeromonas spp. were detected by micro broth dilution method. Broth conjugation and filter mating conjugation were performed. Whole genome sequencing was used to analyze the genetic environment of mcr-3 gene in Aeromonas spp.. A recombinant Escherichia coli ( E. coli) DH5α-pGEM-T: : p mcr-3 strain was constructed to verify the expression of mcr-3 gene. Results:The positive rate of mcr-3 gene in 183 strains of Aeromonas spp. was 2.19% (4/183). No mcr-1 or mcr-2 gene was detected among these isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility test showed that four mcr-3-carrying Aeromonas hydrophilia ( A. hydrophilia) strains were sensitive to colistin and polymyxin (MIC<2 μg/ml). Conjugation experiments indicated that mcr-3 gene could not be transferred between strains. Whole-genome sequencing analysis suggested that the mcr-3 genes carried by the A. hydrophilia isolates belonged to mcr-3.2 and mcr-3-like variants, and no adjacent transfer element was detected upstream and downstream. The recombinant E. coli DH5α-pGEM-T: : p mcr-3 strain was sensitive to colistin (MIC=2 μg/ml). Conclusions:The clinical isolates of A. hydrophilia in our hospital carried mcr-3 gene, but does not exhibit colistin resistance, and no evidence supported the transfer of mcr-3 gene for the time being.