Background: Visceral white adipose tissue (vWAT) inflammation is a critical pathology of obesity-caused heart damage and is closely associated with adipocyte endoplasmic reticulum (ER) dysfunction. Serine (or cysteine) peptidase inhibitor, clade A, member 3C (Serpina3c) has been identified as an adipokine with anti-vWAT inflammatory effects. However, it remains unclear whether Serpina3c deficiency promotion of vWAT inflammation involves adipocyte ER dysfunction and whether it further contributes to heart damage in obesity. Methods: Wild type and Serpina3c knockout (Serpina3c–/–) mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks. An adeno-associated virus (AAV) was injected locally into epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT) of Serpina3c–/– mice to induce eWAT-adipocyte- specific overexpression of Serpina3c (AAV-Serpina3c) or knockdown of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (AAV-shHIF1α). In vitro experiments were performed in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Results: Serpina3c–/– mice exhibited more severe eWAT, serum and heart inflammation after HFD feeding. Consistently, these adverse phenotypes were mitigated in AAV-Serpina3c and AAV-shHIF1α mice. Mechanistically, ER oxidoreductase 1α (Ero1α) and protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) family members PDIA3 and PDIA4 were found to be target genes of HIF1α. In the obese mice, Serpina3c deficiency caused adipocyte more hypertrophy, and activated HIF1α-Ero1α/PDI mediated ER overoxidation and ER stress in eWAT. Subsequently, this led to increased adipocyte apoptosis and chemokine production and decreased adiponectin expression, which promoted macrophage infiltration and M1 polarization in eWAT, thus exacerbating eWAT inflammation and ultimately facilitating serum and distal heart inflammation. Conclusion These findings indicate that Serpina3c is a significant regulator of adipocyte ER redox homeostasis, thus highlighting Serpina3c as a potential therapeutic target for obesity-related eWAT inflammation and heart damage.

Colorectal cancer(CRC)is one of the most common malignant life-threatening tumors,with serious impacts on patient quality of life.Src homology 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase(SHP2)has recently become a hot topic in the field of cancer research,and has demonstrated a close relationship with CRC.SHP2,encoded by the PTPN11 gene,is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase commonly present in various tissues and cells of the human body.Existing research shows that SHP2 plays a crucial role in regulating CRC and colitis-associated colon cancer(CAC),and the emergence of SHP2 allosteric inhibitors has identified SHP2 as a potential new therapeutic target for patients with CRC.Here we review the structure of SHP2 and its roles in CRC and CAC.

BACKGROUND: The use of inserted sham acupuncture as a placebo in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is controversial, because it may produce specific effects that cause an underestimation of the effect of acupuncture treatment. OBJECTIVE: This systematic survey investigates the magnitude of insert-specific effects of sham acupuncture and whether they affect the estimation of acupuncture treatment effects. SEARCH STRATEGY: PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched to identify acupuncture RCTs from their inception until December 2022. INCLUSION CRITERIA: RCTs that evaluated the effects of acupuncture compared to sham acupuncture and no treatment. DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS: The total effect measured for an acupuncture treatment group in RCTs were divided into three components, including the natural history and/or regression to the mean effect (controlled for no-treatment group), the placebo effect, and the specific effect of acupuncture. The first two constituted the contextual effect of acupuncture, which is mimicked by a sham acupuncture treatment group. The proportion of acupuncture total effect size was considered to be 1. The proportion of natural history and/or regression to the mean effect (PNE) and proportional contextual effect (PCE) of included RCTs were pooled using meta-analyses with a random-effect model. The proportion of acupuncture placebo effect was the difference between PCE and PNE in RCTs with non-inserted sham acupuncture. The proportion of insert-specific effect of sham acupuncture (PIES) was obtained by subtracting the proportion of acupuncture placebo effect and PNE from PCE in RCTs with inserted sham acupuncture. The impact of PIES on the estimation of acupuncture's treatment effect was evaluated by quantifying the percentage of RCTs that the effect of outcome changed from no statistical difference to statistical difference after removing PIES in the included studies, and the impact of PIES was externally validated in other acupuncture RCTs with an inserted sham acupuncture group that were not used to calculate PIES. RESULTS: This analysis included 32 studies with 5492 patients. The overall PNE was 0.335 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.255-0.415) and the PCE of acupuncture was 0.639 (95% CI, 0.567-0.710) of acupuncture's total effect. The proportional contribution of the placebo effect to acupuncture's total effect was 0.191, and the PIES was 0.189. When we modeled the exclusion of the insert-specific effect of sham acupuncture, the acupuncture treatment effect changed from no difference to a significant difference in 45.45% of the included RCTs, and in 40.91% of the external validated RCTs. CONCLUSION The insert-specific effect of sham acupuncture in RCTs represents 18.90% of acupuncture's total effect and significantly affects the evaluation of the acupuncture treatment effect. More than 40% of RCTs that used inserted sham acupuncture would draw different conclusions if the PIES had been controlled for. Considering the impact of the insert-specific effect of sham acupuncture, caution should be taken when using inserted sham acupuncture placebos in RCTs. Please cite this article as: Luo XC, Liu JL, Yao MH, Chen YM, Fan AY, Liang FR, Zhao JP, Zhao L, Zhou X, Zhong XY, Yang JH, Li B, Zhang Y, Sun X, Li L. Specific effect of inserted sham acupuncture and its impact on the estimation of acupuncture treatment effect in randomized controlled trials: A systematic survey. J Integr Med. 2025; 23(6):630-640.
Acupuncture Therapy/methods* ; Humans ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Placebo Effect ; Placebos ; Treatment Outcome

Colorectal cancer(CRC)is one of the most common malignant life-threatening tumors,with serious impacts on patient quality of life.Src homology 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase(SHP2)has recently become a hot topic in the field of cancer research,and has demonstrated a close relationship with CRC.SHP2,encoded by the PTPN11 gene,is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase commonly present in various tissues and cells of the human body.Existing research shows that SHP2 plays a crucial role in regulating CRC and colitis-associated colon cancer(CAC),and the emergence of SHP2 allosteric inhibitors has identified SHP2 as a potential new therapeutic target for patients with CRC.Here we review the structure of SHP2 and its roles in CRC and CAC.

Objective To understand the current status of the job competency of full-time healthcare-associated in-fection(HAI)management professionals in all levels and types of medical institutions across China,and provide in-formation and basis for professional training,competency improvement,and career planning.Methods The strati-fied sampling method was adopted to select HAI management professionals from medical institutions in 31 provin-cial-level administrative regions across the country as the research subjects.The designed content of questionnaire involved four parts,including the surveyed personnel's basic information,daily job competency assessment,satis-faction level towards the job,as well as opinions and suggestions on the management of full-time HAI management professionals.The assessment on daily job competency was divided into 13 dimensions,ranging from very incompe-tent to very competent in 5 levels.The scores of HAI management professionals with different professional back-grounds were compared and analyzed.Results A total of 8 709 valid questionnaires were collected,with 3 475 and 3 697 surveyed personnel from tertiary and secondary medical institutions,respectively,and 1 537 from primary or unclassified medical institutions.The overall average score for the competency assessment of full-time HAI manage-ment professionals was(4.17±0.80)points.The scores of professionals with different professional backgrounds,from high to low,were as follows:nursing([4.12±0.81]points),clinical medicine([4.07±0.86]points),pre-ventive medicine([3.93±0.92]points),laboratory medicine([3.88±0.93]points),pharmacy([3.86±0.94]points),and health management([3.85±0.95]points).For the core competency of HAI management professio-nals,such as monitoring and analyzing HAI cases,identifying and investigating HAI outbreaks,the assessment scores for professionals with medical backgrounds were the highest(both P＜0.05).For the basic work of HAI prevention and control,such as checking and guiding the implementation of rules and regulations,guiding occupa-tional protection,management and communication,and implementing HAI management training,professionals with a nursing background had the highest assessment scores(all P＜0.05).Full-time HAI management professionals were relatively satisfied with their training,while those with a background in preventive medicine had lower satisfac-tion with their training,career development,and job benefits(all P＜0.05).Conclusion There are significant differences in the competency of HAI management professionals with different professional backgrounds.It is nece-ssary to optimize division of labor and leverage the strengths,providing ideas and models for promoting the construction of a specialized and professional HAI management team.

AIM To compare total sugar,total protein,total phenol,total flavonoid,calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside,liquiritin,lobetyolin,quercetin,isoferulic acid,hesperidin,glycyrrhizic acid contents and their antioxidant activities,hypoglycemic activities of big honey pill,small honey pill,water pill,concentrated pill,granule,mixture and decoction of Buzhong Yiqi Recipe.METHODS Anthraquinone-sulfuric acid method,Coomassie brilliant blue method,Folin-phenol colorimetry method,sodium nitrite-aluminum nitrate method and HPLC were adopted in the content determination of total sugar,total protein,total phenol,total flavonoid and seven constituents,respectively,after which the scavenging capacities,reducing powers on DPPH·free radical,ABTS+free radical,hydroxyl free radical,and inhibition capacity on α-glucosidase activity were detected.Subsequently,correlation analysis was performed.RESULTS Total sugar,total protein,total phenol and total flavonoid contents demonstrated significant differences among different dosage forms(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).Calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside,glycyrrhizin,codonoside and quercetin displayed the highest contents in the decoction,while those of isoferulic acid,hesperidin and glycyrrhizin were observable in the mixture.The water pill exhibited the strongest antioxidant activity,while those of the concentrated pill and mixture were weak;the big honey pill exhibited the strongest hypoglycemic activity,while that of the decoction was the weakest.Total protein,total phenol,total flavonoid and liquiritin contents displayed significant positive correlations between antioxidant activity(P＜0.05,P＜0.01),while hesperidin content displayed significant negative correlation between the latter(P＜0.05);total protein,calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside,codonoside and quercetin contents displayed significant negative correlations between hypoglycemic activity(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).CONCLUSION Active constituent contents and their biological activities of Buzhong Yiqi Recipe with different dosage forms exist differences,total sugar,total protein,total flavonoids,calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside,licorice glycoside,hesperidin,codonoside and quercetin can be taken as quality control indices for this prescription.

Objective:To evaluate the value of deep-inhaled breath-hold (DIBH)-30s scanning with total-body PET/CT under half-dose injection mode in improving the poor alignment of thoracic and upper abdominal tumors.Methods:Forty-six patients (28 males, 18 females, age (57.3±11.4) years) who underwent half-dose 18F-FDG total-body DIBH-30s PET/CT examination because of suspect or confirmed thoracic and upper abdominal tumors in Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center between October 2022 and February 2023 were analyzed retrospectively. SUV, standard deviation (SD) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the liver and mediastinal blood pool in free breath (FB)-8min, FB-30s and DIBH-30s PET images were measured; SUV of lesions, metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and tumor-to-background ratio (TBR) in DIBH-30s and FB-8min images were also measured; maximum diameter of contraposition offset and offset rate in coronal, transverse and sagittal directions of lesions in DIBH-30s and FB-8min images were calculated. Five-point Likert scale was used to score the overall image quality, image noise level and diagnostic confidence of fused images. Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test, Nemenyi test or Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the parameters of different groups. Results:Among the 46 patients, 38 successfully completed breath-holding collection, and 80 lesions were detected, including 37 in the lungs and 43 in the livers. The liver SUV max (3.40(3.15, 3.63), 3.44(3.06, 3.70)) and SD (0.36(0.32, 0.41), 0.35(0.30, 0.40)) in DIBH-30s group and FB-30s group were higher than those (SUV max: 2.73(2.45, 2.92), SD: 0.15(0.13, 0.17)) in FB-8min group ( H values: 49.79, 85.27, χ2 values: 3.26-3.65, all P<0.001). The SUV max and the SD of mediastinal blood pool in DIBH-30s group and FB-30s group were also higher ( H values: 9.31, 59.73, χ2 values: 2.13-2.75, all P<0.01), while SNR liver and SNR med in those 2 groups were lower ( H values: 87.90, 54.11, χ2 values: 3.36-5.47, all P<0.001). The image noise scores of DIBH-30s group and FB-30s group were lower than the score of FB-8min group (3(3, 3) vs 3(3, 4) vs 5(5, 5); H=93.02, χ2 values: 2.13, 2.23, all P<0.001). The overall image quality score and diagnostic confidence score of DIBH-30s group were higher than those of FB-30s group and FB-8min group ( H values: 70.13, 24.22, χ2 values: 2.11-2.48, all P<0.001). The SUV and TBR of lesions in DIBH-30s group were higher than those of FB-8min group ( Z values: from -3.82 to -2.44, all P<0.05), while the MTV, contraposition offset and offset rate were lower than those of FB-8min group ( Z values: from -6.20 to -3.18, all P<0.001). Conclusions:DIBH-30s scanning with total-body PET/CT can make the focus alignment more accurate, which is suitable for short-time collection or low drug administration activity. It has a unique value in improving the poor focus alignment of chest and upper abdomen tumors.

Objective:To investigate the efficacy of a predictive model for differentiating benign and malignant renal tumors based on CT radiomic features and clinical features.Methods:A retrospective study was conducted on 1 395 patients with renal tumors admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from December 2011 to December 2021, including 842 males and 553 females. The median age was 55 (44, 59) years, and the median tumor diameter was 3.6 (2.7, 4.6) cm. All patients underwent contrast-enhanced CT scaning before surgery, and radiomic features were extracted from non-contrast, arterial, and venous phase images. Prediction models for distinguishing benign and malignant renal tumors were constructed using five machine learning algorithms (logistic regression, support vector machine, neural network, random forest, and extreme gradient boosting), and these models were then ensembled to construct a stacking classifier. All patients underwent partial nephrectomy, and they were divided into a training group (941 cases, December 2011 to June 2020) and a validation group (454 cases, July 2020 to December 2021) based on the date of surgery. A clinical-radiomic model was developed by combining the result of stacking classifier, clinical features and CT report results, and its predictive performance was evaluated in the validation group.Results:The radiomic signature based on the combined features and five machine learning algorithms(AUC 0.835-0.844) showed higher accuracy in predicting benign and malignant renal tumors compared to single phases (AUC 0.744-0.831). After integrating the five machine learning algorithms, the AUC of the three-phase combined radiomic model in the validation group improved to 0.847(95% CI 0.802-0.892). The clinical-radiomic model, incorporating radiomic features, clinical features, and CT report results, achieved a significantly higher AUC in the validation group compared to radiologists [0.919(95% CI 0.889-0.950)vs. 0.835(95% CI 0.786-0.883), P<0.01]. Conclusions:The predictive model integrating CT radiomics features, clinical characteristics, and CT report results demonstrates excellent discriminative ability in distinguishing benign and malignant renal tumors.

Objective:To investigate the miRNA-mRNA regulatory network in a rat model of Tourette syndrome(TS)using transcriptomic technology and to screen key signaling pathways and potential traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)candidates for intervention.Methods:A TS rat model was established using iminodipropionitrile(IDPN).RNA sequencing was performed to identify differentially expressed miRNAs and mRNAs in the brain tissues of TS rats.Bioinformatics analysis was applied to construct interaction networks,and network pharmacology was further employed to screen potential TCM compounds.Results:After 7 days of IDPN modeling,the model group exhibited motor and stereotypical behavioral changes,with behavioral scores greater than 3 points.Hema toxylin-eosin(HE)staining revealed irregular neuronal nuclear morphology,uneven chromatin distribution,nuclear pyknosis,and increased glial cell density.KEGG enrichment analysis identified key pathways:calcium signaling pathway,neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction,p53 signaling pathway,ECM-receptor interaction,and TGF-β signaling pathway.miR-125a-3p,miR-106-3p,and miR-760-3p were identified as pivotal miRNAs.Potential TCM candidates included Ajuga decumbens,Acanthopanax bark,Codonopsis pilosula,Stephania japonica,Os Draconis,Notopterygium root,Siraitia grosvenorii,Zanthoxylum nitidum root,Morinda officinalis,and Corydalis yanhusuo.Conclusion:The miRNAs miR-106-3p,miR-125a-3p,and miR-760-3p may mediate TS pathogenesis by altering critical signaling networks,including the calcium signaling pathway,neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction,and ECM-receptor interaction pathways,leading to neuroimmune inflammation and dopaminergic system dysregulation.TCM compounds such as Corydalis yanhusuo and Ajuga decumbens may exert therapeutic effects through multi-component synergistic regulation of these miRNAs and downstream pathways.

AIM To compare total sugar,total protein,total phenol,total flavonoid,calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside,liquiritin,lobetyolin,quercetin,isoferulic acid,hesperidin,glycyrrhizic acid contents and their antioxidant activities,hypoglycemic activities of big honey pill,small honey pill,water pill,concentrated pill,granule,mixture and decoction of Buzhong Yiqi Recipe.METHODS Anthraquinone-sulfuric acid method,Coomassie brilliant blue method,Folin-phenol colorimetry method,sodium nitrite-aluminum nitrate method and HPLC were adopted in the content determination of total sugar,total protein,total phenol,total flavonoid and seven constituents,respectively,after which the scavenging capacities,reducing powers on DPPH·free radical,ABTS+free radical,hydroxyl free radical,and inhibition capacity on α-glucosidase activity were detected.Subsequently,correlation analysis was performed.RESULTS Total sugar,total protein,total phenol and total flavonoid contents demonstrated significant differences among different dosage forms(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).Calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside,glycyrrhizin,codonoside and quercetin displayed the highest contents in the decoction,while those of isoferulic acid,hesperidin and glycyrrhizin were observable in the mixture.The water pill exhibited the strongest antioxidant activity,while those of the concentrated pill and mixture were weak;the big honey pill exhibited the strongest hypoglycemic activity,while that of the decoction was the weakest.Total protein,total phenol,total flavonoid and liquiritin contents displayed significant positive correlations between antioxidant activity(P＜0.05,P＜0.01),while hesperidin content displayed significant negative correlation between the latter(P＜0.05);total protein,calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside,codonoside and quercetin contents displayed significant negative correlations between hypoglycemic activity(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).CONCLUSION Active constituent contents and their biological activities of Buzhong Yiqi Recipe with different dosage forms exist differences,total sugar,total protein,total flavonoids,calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside,licorice glycoside,hesperidin,codonoside and quercetin can be taken as quality control indices for this prescription.