Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common head and neck malignancy. Approximately 50% to 60% of patients with OSCC are diagnosed at a locally advanced stage (clinical staging III-IVa). Even with comprehensive and sequential treatment primarily based on surgery, the 5-year overall survival rate remains below 50%, and patients often suffer from postoperative functional impairments such as difficulties with speaking and swallowing. Programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) inhibitors are increasingly used in the neoadjuvant treatment of locally advanced OSCC and have shown encouraging efficacy. However, clinical practice still faces key challenges, including the definition of indications, optimization of combination regimens, and standards for efficacy evaluation. Based on the latest research advances worldwide and the clinical experience of the expert group, this expert consensus systematically evaluates the application of PD-1 inhibitors in the neoadjuvant treatment of locally advanced OSCC, covering combination strategies, treatment cycles and surgical timing, efficacy assessment, use of biomarkers, management of special populations and immune related adverse events, principles for immunotherapy rechallenge, and function preservation strategies. After multiple rounds of panel discussion and through anonymous voting using the Delphi method, the following consensus statements have been formulated: 1) Neoadjuvant therapy with PD-1 inhibitors can be used preoperatively in patients with locally advanced OSCC. The preferred regimen is a PD-1 inhibitor combined with platinum based chemotherapy, administered for 2-3 cycles. 2) During the efficacy evaluation of neoadjuvant therapy, radiographic assessment should follow the dual criteria of Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1 and immune RECIST (iRECIST). After surgery, systematic pathological evaluation of both the primary lesion and regional lymph nodes is required. For combination chemotherapy regimens, PD-L1 expression and combined positive score need not be used as mandatory inclusion or exclusion criteria. 3) For special populations such as the elderly (≥ 70 years), individuals with stable HIV viral load, and carriers of chronic HBV/HCV, PD-1 inhibitors may be used cautiously under the guidance of a multidisciplinary team (MDT), with close monitoring for adverse events. 4) For patients with a poor response to neoadjuvant therapy, continuation of the original treatment regimen is not recommended; the subsequent treatment plan should be adjusted promptly after MDT assessment. Organ transplant recipients and patients with active autoimmune diseases are not recommended to receive neoadjuvant PD-1 inhibitor therapy due to the high risk of immune related activation. Rechallenge is generally not advised for patients who have experienced high risk immune related adverse events such as immune mediated myocarditis, neurotoxicity, or pneumonitis. 5) For patients with a good pathological response, individualized de escalation surgery and function preservation strategies can be explored. This consensus aims to promote the standardized, safe, and precise application of neoadjuvant PD-1 inhibitor strategies in the management of locally advanced OSCC patients.

Objective To analyze the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) in Zibo City, to explore the key incidence areas, and to find a suitable prediction model, so as to provide reference for the prevention and control of HFMD. Methods The spatiotemporal clustering characteristics of HFMD in Zibo City from 2018 to 2023 were analyzed by using SaTScan 10.0.2 software and ArcGIS 10.7 software. A combination model of ARIMA and SVM was established, and the prediction results were verified and compared. Results Spatial clustering analysis showed that there was spatial clustering of the incidence of HFMD in various townships of Zibo City from 2020 to 2022. The high-high clustering areas and Getis-Ord hot spot areas were mainly concentrated in some main urban areas of Zhangdian District, Zichuan District, and Huantai County. A total of 2-5 aggregation areas were detected by spatiotemporal scanning analysis. The first-type aggregation areas were mainly concentrated in the towns of Zhangdian District, Huantai County, Linzi District, Zhoucun District and Gaoxin District. The aggregation months were July, August, September and November. The model prediction results showed that the ARIMA-SVM combined model was more accurate than the traditional ARIMA model. Conclusion There is a spatiotemporal clustering of hand-foot-mouth disease in Zibo City. The ARIMA-SVM combined model can be used to predict the incidence of hand-foot-mouth disease in Zibo City, and to strengthen health education and disease monitoring in high-risk areas and populations during the epidemic months.

Sustained inflammatory responses are closely related to various severe diseases, and inhibiting the excessive activation of inflammasomes and pyroptosis has significant implications for clinical treatment. Natural products have garnered considerable concern for the treatment of inflammation. Huanglian-Wumei decoction (HLWMD) is a classic prescription used for treating inflammatory diseases, but the necessity of their combination and the exact underlying anti-inflammatory mechanism have not yet been elucidated. Inspired by the supramolecular self-assembly strategy and natural drug compatibility theory, we successfully obtained berberine (BBR)-chlorogenic acid (CGA) supramolecular (BCS), which is an herbal pair from HLWMD. Using a series of characterization methods, we confirmed the self-assembly mechanism of BCS. BBR and CGA were self-assembled and stacked into amphiphilic spherical supramolecules in a 2:1 molar ratio, driven by electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic interactions, and π-π stacking; the hydrophilic fragments of CGA were outside, and the hydrophobic fragments of BBR were inside. This stacking pattern significantly improved the anti-inflammatory performance of BCS compared with that of single free molecules. Compared with free molecules, BCS significantly attenuated the release of multiple inflammatory mediators and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced pyroptosis. Its anti-inflammatory mechanism is closely related to the inhibition of intracellular nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) p65 phosphorylation and the noncanonical pyroptosis signalling pathway mediated by caspase-11.

OBJECTIVE: The analgesic effect of acupuncture has been widely accepted. Nevertheless, the mechanism behind its analgesic effect remains elusive, thus impeding the progress of research geared toward enhancing the analgesic effect of acupuncture. This paper investigated the role of acupuncture needle surface textures on acupuncture's analgesic effect by creating four experimental acupuncture needles with different patterns of surface augmentation. METHODS: Four types of acupuncture needles with different surface textures (the lined needle, circle needle, sandpaper needle, and threaded needle) were designed. Additionally, the force/torque measurement system used a robot arm and mechanical sensor to measure the force on the needle during insertion and manipulation. To perform acupuncture analgesia experiments, four experimental acupuncture needles and a normal needle were inserted into the Zusanli (ST36) acupoint of rats with inflammatory pain. By comparing the force and torque and the analgesic efficacy of the different acupuncture needles, these experiments tested the role of acupuncture needle body texture on acupuncture analgesia. RESULTS: The analgesic effects of different acupuncture needle body textures varied. Specifically, the force required to penetrate the skin with the lined needle was not greater than that for the normal needle; however, the needle with inscribed circles and the sandpaper-roughened needle both required greater force for insertion. Additionally, the torque of the lined needle reached 2 × 10^-4 N·m under twisting manipulation, which was four times greater the torque of a normal needle (5 × 10^-5 N·m). Furthermore, the lined needle improved pain threshold and mast cell degranulation rate compared to the normal needle. CONCLUSION Optimizing the texture of acupuncture needles can enhance acupuncture analgesia. The texture of our experimental acupuncture needles had a significant impact on the force needed to penetrate the skin and the torque needed to manipulate the needle; it was also linked to variable analgesic effects. This study provides a theoretical basis for enhancing the analgesic efficacy of acupuncture through the modification of needles and promoting the development of acupuncture therapy. Please cite this article as: Sun MZ, Wang X, Li YC, Liu YH, Yu Y, Ren LJ, Gu W, Yao W. Effects of acupuncture needle modification on acupuncture analgesia. J Integr Med. 2025; 23(1): 66-78.
Needles ; Acupuncture Analgesia/methods* ; Animals ; Rats ; Male ; Acupuncture Points ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVE: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies seen in clinic and requires novel treatment options. Morin is a natural flavonoid extracted from the flower stalk of a highly valuable medicinal plant Prunella vulgaris L., which exhibits an anti-cancer effect in multiple types of tumors. However, the therapeutic effect and underlying mechanism of morin in treating GC remains elusive. The study aims to explore the therapeutic effect and underlying molecular mechanisms of morin in GC. METHODS: For in vitro experiments, the proliferation inhibition of morin was measured by cell counting kit-8 assay and colony formation assay in human GC cell line MKN45, human gastric adenocarcinoma cell line AGS, and human gastric epithelial cell line GES-1; for apoptosis analysis, microscopic photography, Western blotting, ubiquitination analysis, quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis, flow cytometry, and RNA interference technology were employed. For in vivo studies, immunohistochemistry, biomedical analysis, and Western blotting were used to assess the efficacy and safety of morin in a xenograft mouse model of GC. RESULTS: Morin significantly inhibited the proliferation of GC cells MKN45 and AGS in a dose- and time-dependent manner, but did not inhibit human gastric epithelial cells GES-1. Only the caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK was able to significantly reverse the inhibition of proliferation by morin in both GC cells, suggesting that apoptosis was the main type of cell death during the treatment. Morin induced intrinsic apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner in GC cells, which mainly relied on B cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) associated agonist of cell death (BAD) but not phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate-induced protein 1. The upregulation of BAD by morin was due to blocking the ubiquitination degradation of BAD, rather than the transcription regulation and the phosphorylation of BAD. Furthermore, the combination of morin and BCL-2 inhibitor navitoclax (also known as ABT-737) produced a synergistic inhibitory effect in GC cells through amplifying apoptotic signals. In addition, morin treatment significantly suppressed the growth of GC in vivo by upregulating BAD and the subsequent activation of its downstream apoptosis pathway. CONCLUSION Morin suppressed GC by inducing apoptosis, which was mainly due to blocking the ubiquitination-based degradation of the pro-apoptotic protein BAD. The combination of morin and the BCL-2 inhibitor ABT-737 synergistically amplified apoptotic signals in GC cells, which may overcome the drug resistance of the BCL-2 inhibitor. These findings indicated that morin was a potent and promising agent for GC treatment. Please cite this article as: Wang Y, Sun XY, Ma FQ, Ren MM, Zhao RH, Qin MM, Zhu XH, Xu Y, Cao ND, Chen YY, Dong TG, Pan YF, Zhao AG. Morin inhibits ubiquitination degradation of BCL-2 associated agonist of cell death and synergizes with BCL-2 inhibitor in gastric cancer cells. J Integr Med. 2025; 23(3): 320-332.
Humans ; Flavonoids/therapeutic use* ; Stomach Neoplasms/pathology* ; Animals ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2/metabolism* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Apoptosis/drug effects* ; Cell Proliferation/drug effects* ; Ubiquitination/drug effects* ; Mice ; Drug Synergism ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice, Nude ; Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays ; Flavones

OBJECTIVE: Recombination events are common and serve as the primary driving force of diverse human adenovirus (HAdV), particularly in children with acute respiratory tract infections (ARIs). Therefore, continual monitoring of these events is essential for effective viral surveillance and control. METHODS: Respiratory specimens were collected from children with ARIs between January 2022 and December 2023. The penton base, hexon, and fiber genes were amplified from HAdV-positive specimens and sequenced to determine the virus type. In cases with inconsistent typing results, genes were cloned into the pGEM-T vector to detect recombination events. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) was performed to characterize the recombinant HAdV genomes. RESULTS: Among 6,771 specimens, 277 (4.09%, 277/6,771) were positvie for HAdV, of which 157 (56.68%, 157/277) were successfully typed, with HAdV-B3 being the dominant type (91.08%, 143/157), and 14 (5.05%, 14/277) exhibited inconsistent typing results, six of which belonged to species B. The penton base genes of these six specimens were classified as HAdV-B7, whereas their hexon and fiber genes were classified as HAdV-B3, resulting in a recombinant genotype designated P7H3F3, which closely resembled HAdV-B114. Additionally, a partial gene encoding L1 52/55 kD was identified, which originated from HAdV-B16. CONCLUSION A novel recombinant, P7H3F3, was identified, containing sequences derived from HAdV-B3 and HAdV-B7, which is similar to HAdV-B114, along with additional sequences from HAdV-B16.
Humans ; Adenoviruses, Human/isolation & purification* ; Respiratory Tract Infections/epidemiology* ; Child, Preschool ; Child ; Recombination, Genetic ; Male ; Beijing/epidemiology* ; Infant ; Female ; Phylogeny ; Adenovirus Infections, Human/epidemiology* ; Acute Disease ; Genome, Viral

Objective To investigate the value of fractional-order calculus(FROC)and continuous-time random-walk(CTRW)diffusion models based on readout segmentation of long variable echo-trains(RESOLVE)in identifying benign and malignant lesions in the head and neck.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 61 patients pathologically confirmed head and neck lesions,including 19 benign lesions(BL)and 42 malignant lesions(ML).The ML were further divided into a lymphoma subgroup(LS)with 9 cases(14 lesions)and a non-lymphoma malignant lesion subgroup(MLS)with 33 cases.The parameters of DFROC,βFROC,μFROC,DCTRW,αCTRW and βCTRW were obtained from the two diffusion models;Independent sample t-tests or U tests were used to compare the differences in each parameter between benign and malignant groups and among various subgroups,and the receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was used to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of each parameter.Area under the curve(AUC)was compared by DeLong test.Results DFROC,μFROC,DCTRW and αCTRW showed significant differences between benign and malignant,BL and LS,BL and MLS and LS and MLS,with αCTRW showed the highest diagnostic efficacy;βFROC showed differences between BL and LS,BL and MLS,whileβCTRW did not show differences between benign and malignant groups,and among subgroups.Conclusion FROC and CTRW diffusion models based on RESOLVE can distinguish between benign and malignant head and neck lesions with multiple parameters,and provide metrics reflecting tissue heterogeneity.

As a non-invasive physiological indicator,electroencephalography signal provides an objective assessment of psychological stress levels among nursing staff in major public health emergencies,offering a scientific basis for targeted psychological interventions while overcoming the limitations of subjective bias inherent in traditional questionnaire-based methods.A psychological stress classification model based on bidirectional long short-term memory and attention mechanism is proposed to classify the psychological stress of clinical nurses more effectively by analyzing their electroencephalography signals.Experimental results show that the proposed model exhibits better classification performance than the traditional long short-term memory model on the DREAMER dataset,the Feeling Emotions dataset and the self-built dataset.This study provides a novel approach for assessing psychological stress,which is helpful to improve the pertinence and effectiveness of clinical nursing work.

Objective To investigate the correlation between adiponectin/leptin(Adpn/Lep)ratio and risk of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction(HFpEF).Methods A total of 84 hospi-talized HFpEF patients(HFpEF group)and 84 age-and sex-matched non-heart failure patients(control group)admitted in Xiangyang Central Hospital between October 2023 and April 2024 were recruited in this study.Serum Adpn and Lep levels were measured using ELISA.Spearman correlation analysis was applied to assess the relationship between the Adpn/Lep ratio and other HFpEF-related parameters.Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were per-formed to identify risk factors for HFpEF.ROC curve was plotted to evaluate the auxiliary diag-nostic value of the Adpn/Lep ratio for HFpEF.Results The HFpEF group exhibited significantly higher leptin level,but lower Adpn level and Adpn/Lep ratio when compared with the control group(P＜0.01).Spearman correlation analysis revealed that Adpn/Lep ratio was negatively cor-related with N-terminal fragment of brain natriuretic peptide prohormone and left atrial diameter(r=-0.476,r=-0.328,P＜0.01)in HFpEF patients.Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified the Adpn/Lep ratio as an independent risk factor for HFpEF(P＜0.01).ROC curve analysis demonstrated that the AUC value of Adpn/Lep ratio,Adpn,and Lep in predicting HFpEF was 0.818(95％CI:0.747-0.888),0.639(95％CI:0.544-0.734)and 0.638(95％CI:0.550-0.726),respectively,and the ratio obtained better predictive performance than the two indicators(P＜0.01).Conclusion Adpn/Lep ratio is associated with HFpEF.Lower Adpn/Lep ratio has good auxiliary diagnostic value for HFpEF.The ratio can better predict the occurrence of HFpEF than Adpn and Lep alone.