1.Development and evaluation of classification system for drug-related problems in China
Shuang ZOU ; Tingting LU ; Lei BAO ; Yun LIAO ; Ling LI ; Ping ZHANG
China Pharmacy 2026;37(3):371-376
OBJECTIVE To establish a Chinese drug-related problem (DRP) classification system applicable to pharmacist-led pharmaceutical care in China, providing pharmacists with an effective and practical tool for pharmaceutical care. METHODS A multi-stage process was employed to construct the DRP classification system, including literature review and analysis, comparison of existing classification systems, refinement of classification items and framework development, two rounds of standard case validation, expert discussion, and system revision. The Fleiss′ kappa test was used to calculate the consistency coefficient κ, assessing the reliability of pharmacists participating in evaluating the classification system. An electronic questionnaire comprising six items was employed to evaluate the system’s applicability. RESULTS The constructed Chinese DRP classification system comprised six sections [problem(including potential problems), DRP evaluation, cause (including possible causes of potential problems), intervention, acceptance of intervention and DRP status], with 24 primary codes and 96 secondary codes. In the first round of case validation, κ values exceeded 0.4 for all sections except “intervention” and “DRP status”. In the second round, κ values exceeded 0.4 for all sections. In the applicability evaluation of the classification system, positive ratings (“strongly agree” or “agree”) exceeded 85% for all items. Specifically, positive ratings for“the classification system can provide appropriate category selection”,“ the classification system is comprehensive”,“ the classification system is convenient to use” and “the classification system is highly satisfactory” exceeded 92%. CONCLUSIONS The Chinese DRP classification system developed demonstrates both high reliability and applicability, providing an effective and practical classification tool for pharmacists in China to conduct pharmaceutical care.
2.Randomized Double-blind Placebo-controlled Study on Clinical Efficacy and Mechanism of Shexiang Baoxinwan in Treating Stable Angina Pectoris Complicated with Anxiety and Depression in Coronary Artery Disease
Jie WANG ; Linzi LONG ; Zhiru ZHAO ; Feifei LIAO ; Jieming LU ; Tianjiao LIU ; Yuxuan PENG ; Hua QU ; Changgeng FU
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2025;31(13):159-169
ObjectiveTo evaluate the efficacy of Shexiang Baoxinwan in treating stable angina pectoris with Qi stagnation and blood stasis syndrome in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) complicated with anxiety and depression and explore its underlying mechanisms. MethodsThis study employed a randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled clinical trial design. Patients admitted to the hospital were randomly assigned to the observation group and the control group, with 52 patients in each group. Patients in the observation and control groups received Shexiang Baoxinwan and placebo, respectively, both in combination with conventional Western medication. The dose was 45.0 mg, three times daily, for a total duration of eight weeks. The primary outcome was the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) scores before and after treatment. Secondary outcomes included changes in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome score, the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), generalized anxiety disorder-7 (GAD-7), inflammatory markers [interleukin-18 (IL-18), interleukin-10 (IL-10), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), CD40, etc.], monoamine neurotransmitters [e.g., dopamine (DA)], vascular endothelial function markers [e.g., endothelin-1(ET-1)], adipokines, and ischemia-modified albumin (IMA). Adverse reactions were also recorded. ResultsA total of 92 patients completed the study, with 44 in the observation group and 48 in the control group. Compared with baseline, both groups showed significant decreases in PHQ-9, GAD-7, and TCM syndrome scores following treatment (P<0.05), along with a significant increase in SAQ scores (P<0.05). In the observation group, DA levels were significantly increased (P<0.05), while levels of IL-18, TNF-α, CD40, ET-1, and IMA were decreased (P<0.05). In contrast, the control group exhibited significantly increased CD40 levels (P<0.05). Compared with the control group after treatment, the observation group showed significant improvements in the SAQ dimensions of physical limitation, angina stability, treatment satisfaction, and disease perception, as well as in TCM syndrome score, PHQ-9 score, IL-18, CD40, ET-1, and IMA (P<0.05). No adverse reactions were observed in either group during treatment. ConclusionShexiang Baoxinwan can improve anxiety and depression, alleviate angina symptoms, and reduce TCM symptoms of Qi stagnation and blood stasis in CAD patients. The mechanism may involve anti-inflammation, improvement of vascular endothelial function, reduction of IMA, and increase of monoamine neurotransmitter levels.
3.Key Points for Quality Management in Phase Ⅰ Clinical Trials of Anti-Tumor Drugs
Li GONG ; Bin LIAO ; Jie SHEN ; Juan ZHAO ; Yi GONG ; Xiaoxiao LU ; Huiyao YANG ; Sha LI ; Yongsheng LI
Cancer Research on Prevention and Treatment 2025;52(5):347-354
Phase Ⅰ clinical trials play a crucial role in the research and development of new drugs, serving as the initial studies to assess their safety, tolerability, effectiveness, and pharmacokinetic properties in humans. These trials involve uncertainties regarding safety and efficacy. Comprehensive management of all aspects of phase Ⅰ clinical trials for anti-tumor drugs is crucial to protect the rights and safety of participants. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the key points and precautions necessary for effective quality control throughout the process. The analysis is informed by guidelines such as the “Good Clinical Practice for Drugs” “Key Points and Judgment Principles for Drug Registration Verification” “Key Points and Judgment Principles for Supervision and Inspection of Drug Clinical Trial Institutions” and the standard operating procedures for quality control of the center. Topics discussed include informed consent, inclusion criteria, experimental drugs, biological samples, adverse events, and serious adverse events. The goal is to standardize quality control in phase Ⅰ clinical trials of anti-tumor drugs, ensure the authenticity and reliability of clinical trial data, and protect the rights and safety of participants.
4.Randomized Double-blind Placebo-controlled Study on Clinical Efficacy and Mechanism of Shexiang Baoxinwan in Treating Stable Angina Pectoris Complicated with Anxiety and Depression in Coronary Artery Disease
Jie WANG ; Linzi LONG ; Zhiru ZHAO ; Feifei LIAO ; Jieming LU ; Tianjiao LIU ; Yuxuan PENG ; Hua QU ; Changgeng FU
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2025;31(13):159-169
ObjectiveTo evaluate the efficacy of Shexiang Baoxinwan in treating stable angina pectoris with Qi stagnation and blood stasis syndrome in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) complicated with anxiety and depression and explore its underlying mechanisms. MethodsThis study employed a randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled clinical trial design. Patients admitted to the hospital were randomly assigned to the observation group and the control group, with 52 patients in each group. Patients in the observation and control groups received Shexiang Baoxinwan and placebo, respectively, both in combination with conventional Western medication. The dose was 45.0 mg, three times daily, for a total duration of eight weeks. The primary outcome was the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) scores before and after treatment. Secondary outcomes included changes in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome score, the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), generalized anxiety disorder-7 (GAD-7), inflammatory markers [interleukin-18 (IL-18), interleukin-10 (IL-10), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), CD40, etc.], monoamine neurotransmitters [e.g., dopamine (DA)], vascular endothelial function markers [e.g., endothelin-1(ET-1)], adipokines, and ischemia-modified albumin (IMA). Adverse reactions were also recorded. ResultsA total of 92 patients completed the study, with 44 in the observation group and 48 in the control group. Compared with baseline, both groups showed significant decreases in PHQ-9, GAD-7, and TCM syndrome scores following treatment (P<0.05), along with a significant increase in SAQ scores (P<0.05). In the observation group, DA levels were significantly increased (P<0.05), while levels of IL-18, TNF-α, CD40, ET-1, and IMA were decreased (P<0.05). In contrast, the control group exhibited significantly increased CD40 levels (P<0.05). Compared with the control group after treatment, the observation group showed significant improvements in the SAQ dimensions of physical limitation, angina stability, treatment satisfaction, and disease perception, as well as in TCM syndrome score, PHQ-9 score, IL-18, CD40, ET-1, and IMA (P<0.05). No adverse reactions were observed in either group during treatment. ConclusionShexiang Baoxinwan can improve anxiety and depression, alleviate angina symptoms, and reduce TCM symptoms of Qi stagnation and blood stasis in CAD patients. The mechanism may involve anti-inflammation, improvement of vascular endothelial function, reduction of IMA, and increase of monoamine neurotransmitter levels.
5.GSFM: A genome-scale functional module transformation to represent drug efficacy for in silico drug discovery.
Saisai TIAN ; Xuyang LIAO ; Wen CAO ; Xinyi WU ; Zexi CHEN ; Jinyuan LU ; Qun WANG ; Jinbo ZHANG ; Luonan CHEN ; Weidong ZHANG
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2025;15(1):133-150
Pharmacotranscriptomic profiles, which capture drug-induced changes in gene expression, offer vast potential for computational drug discovery and are widely used in modern medicine. However, current computational approaches neglected the associations within gene‒gene functional networks and unrevealed the systematic relationship between drug efficacy and the reversal effect. Here, we developed a new genome-scale functional module (GSFM) transformation framework to quantitatively evaluate drug efficacy for in silico drug discovery. GSFM employs four biologically interpretable quantifiers: GSFM_Up, GSFM_Down, GSFM_ssGSEA, and GSFM_TF to comprehensively evaluate the multi-dimension activities of each functional module (FM) at gene-level, pathway-level, and transcriptional regulatory network-level. Through a data transformation strategy, GSFM effectively converts noisy and potentially unreliable gene expression data into a more dependable FM active matrix, significantly outperforming other methods in terms of both robustness and accuracy. Besides, we found a positive correlation between RSGSFM and drug efficacy, suggesting that RSGSFM could serve as representative measure of drug efficacy. Furthermore, we identified WYE-354, perhexiline, and NTNCB as candidate therapeutic agents for the treatment of breast-invasive carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, and castration-resistant prostate cancer, respectively. The results from in vitro and in vivo experiments have validated that all identified compounds exhibit potent anti-tumor effects, providing proof-of-concept for our computational approach.
6.Neurokinin 1 receptor inhibition alleviated mitochondrial dysfunction via restoring purine nucleotide cycle disorder driven by substance P in acute pancreatitis.
Chenxia HAN ; Lu LI ; Lin BAI ; Yaling WU ; Jiawang LI ; Yiqin WANG ; Wanmeng LI ; Xue REN ; Ping LIAO ; Xiaoting CHEN ; Yaguang ZHANG ; Fengzhi WU ; Feng LI ; Dan DU ; Qing XIA
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2025;15(6):3025-3040
Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a life-threatening gastrointestinal disorder for which no effective pharmacological treatments are currently available. One of the pharmacological targets that merits further research is the neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R), which is found on pancreatic acinar cells and responds to the neuropeptide substance P (SP) that participates in AP. Although a few studies have stated the involvement of SP/NK1R in neurogenic inflammation in AP development, the regulatory mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we found that following activation of NK1R by SP, β-arrestin1, a scaffold protein of NK1R, down-regulated transcription of Adss, Adsl, and Ampd in the purine nucleotide cycle, thereby inhibiting mitochondrial function through fumarate depletion. Interestingly, we identified magnolol as a new and natural NK1R inhibitor with a non-nitrogenous biphenyl core structure. It exhibited a beneficial effect on AP by restoring purine nucleotide cycle metabolic enzymes and fumarate levels. Our study not only provides new therapeutic strategies, leading compounds, and drug translation possibilities for AP, but also provides important clues for the study of downstream mechanisms driven by SP in other diseases.
7.Psychological stress-activated NR3C1/NUPR1 axis promotes ovarian tumor metastasis.
Bin LIU ; Wen-Zhe DENG ; Wen-Hua HU ; Rong-Xi LU ; Qing-Yu ZHANG ; Chen-Feng GAO ; Xiao-Jie HUANG ; Wei-Guo LIAO ; Jin GAO ; Yang LIU ; Hiroshi KURIHARA ; Yi-Fang LI ; Xu-Hui ZHANG ; Yan-Ping WU ; Lei LIANG ; Rong-Rong HE
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2025;15(6):3149-3162
Ovarian tumor (OT) is the most lethal form of gynecologic malignancy, with minimal improvements in patient outcomes over the past several decades. Metastasis is the leading cause of ovarian cancer-related deaths, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Psychological stress is known to activate the glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1), a factor associated with poor prognosis in OT patients. However, the precise mechanisms linking NR3C1 signaling and metastasis have yet to be fully elucidated. In this study, we demonstrate that chronic restraint stress accelerates epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis in OT through an NR3C1-dependent mechanism involving nuclear protein 1 (NUPR1). Mechanistically, NR3C1 directly regulates the transcription of NUPR1, which in turn increases the expression of snail family transcriptional repressor 2 (SNAI2), a key driver of EMT. Clinically, elevated NR3C1 positively correlates with NUPR1 expression in OT patients, and both are positively associated with poorer prognosis. Overall, our study identified the NR3C1/NUPR1 axis as a critical regulatory pathway in psychological stress-induced OT metastasis, suggesting a potential therapeutic target for intervention in OT metastasis.
8.Inhibitory effect of Xinhui tangerine peel polysaccharides on mouse skin fibroblasts and its mechanism based on TGF-β1/Smad3 pathway
Jingnan LIANG ; Wei LU ; Yingyi LIAO ; Wenjiao XIAN
Journal of Xi'an Jiaotong University(Medical Sciences) 2025;46(2):333-338
Objective To explore the inhibitory effect of Xinhui tangerine peel polysaccharides on the mouse skin fibroblasts so as to understand the underlying molecular mechanism.Methods We separated and purified the components of tangerine peel polysaccharides from Xinhui tangerine peel.C57BL/6 mouse skin fibroblasts were isolated and cultured for the cellular experimental study.We set up a blank control group(normal culture)and low-,medium-and high-dose experimental groups(50,100 and 200 μg/mL tangerine peel polysaccharides).After 24 hours of treatment,cell survival rate was assessed by CCK-8 assay.The mRNA and protein expression levels of collagen type Ⅰ(Col1a1),collagen type Ⅲ(Col1a3),TGF-β1 and ACTA2 in fibroblasts were examined by RT-qPCR and Western blotting.Smad3 was examined by Western blotting.Results The cell survival rate in the blank control group,the medium-and high-dose experimental groups was 100%,(90.54±6.74)%,and(78.90±4.24)%,respectively.The relative expression level of Col1a1 protein was 1.13±0.15,0.57±0.16,and 0.48±0.05,respectively;the relative expression level of Col3a1 protein was 0.81±0.13,0.49±0.11 and 0.50±0.03;the relative expression level of TGF-β1 protein was 1.11±0.15,0.60±0.13,and 0.33±0.11;the relative expression level of p-Smad3/Smad3 proteins was 0.96±0.05,0.75±0.06 and 0.71±0.03.The mRNA expression level of Col1a1 was 1.01±0.17,0.58±0.11,and 0.52±0.12;the mRNA expression level of Col3a1 was 1.01±0.12,0.56±0.19,and 0.65±0.14;the expression level of ACTA2 mRNA was 1.01±0.13,0.24±0.04,and 0.22±0.07;the mRNA expression level of TGF-β1 was 1.00±0.09,0.50±0.10,and 0.49±0.15.The relative expression levels of p-Smad3/Smad3 proteins were 0.86±0.06,0.66±0.06,0.55±0.13,0.43±0.09,0.35±0.06,and 0.27±0.12,respectively,after time-related treatment with high-dose tangerine peel polysaccharides.The above indicators in medium-and high-dose tangerine peel polysaccharide groups showed statistically significant differences compared to those in the blank control group(P<0.05).Conclusion Tangerine peel polysaccharides can inhibit the cell proliferation and the synthesis of keloid-related genes on fibroblasts by inhibiting TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway.
9.Downregulation of FKBP4 inhibits the malignant progression of non-small cell lung cancer by blocking the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway
Juping LU ; Jun HU ; Yongming DENG ; Shufang LIAO
Practical Oncology Journal 2025;(3):184-190
Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whether downregulation of FK506 binding protein 4(FKBP4)could inhibit the malignant progression of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)by blocking the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.Methods NSCLC A549,H1975,H358 and PC-9 cell lines,as well as human bronchial epithelial cells(HBE)were routinely cul-tured.The expression of FKBP4 in these cells was detected by qRT-PCR,and NSCLC cell lines with the most significant different ex-pression of FKBP4 compared with HBE cells was screened.FKBP4 siRNA and NC siRNA were transfected into A549 cells,which were divided into the si-FKBP4 group and NC group.CCK-8 assay was used to detect the proliferative ability of si-FKBP4 group and NC group,flow cytometry was used to detect the apoptosis rate,scratch healing assay was used to detect the migration ability,Transwell assay was used to detect the invasion ability,and Western blot was used to detect the total and phosphorylation protein expression of PI3K and its downstream effectors Akt and mTOR.Results The expression of FKBP4 in A549 cells,H1975 cells,H358 cells and PC-9 cells were significantly higher than those in HBE cells(P<0.05),and its expression in A549 cells was the highest(P<0.001).Downregulation of FKBP4 could inhibit the proliferation,invasion and migration of A549 cells and promote the apoptosis of A549 cells(P<0.001).In addition,downregulation of FKBP4 also could inhibit the phosphorylation of PI3K,Akt and mTOR,resulting in bloc-king the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.Conclusion Downregulation of FKBP4 can inhibit the proliferation,invasion and mi-gration of NSCLC cells by blocking the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway,and promote the apoptosis of NSCLC cells.
10.Glycosylated ceramide-related metabolic enzymes and atherosclerosis
Xin TAN ; Qiang WEI ; Yuan-hong LIAO ; Jing-kun LU
Chinese Pharmacological Bulletin 2025;41(6):1005-1010
Atherosclerosis is an arterial lesion involving abnor-mal lipid metabolism and an inflammatory response,and is the initiating factor of many cardiovascular and cerebrovascular dis-eases.Glycosylated ceramides are derivatives of ceramide mole-cules with a glycosylated group attached,which not only affect the structural integrity of cell membranes,but also regulate apop-tosis,inflammation and lipid metabolism,and disorders of glyco-sylated ceramide metabolism are closely related to the occurrence and progression of atherosclerosis.This review focuses on the specific functions of the glycosylated ceramide-related metabolic enzymes glucose ceramide synthetase,glucosylceramide syn-thetase,lactose ceramide synthetase,and galactosidase in athero-sclerosis,as well as their important effects on the development of atherosclerosis.Targeted therapeutic strategies for these meta-bolic enzymes,related drug development and significant potential in atherosclerosis prevention and treatment are also reviewed.

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