OBJECTIVE: To investigate the regulatory effect of electroacupuncture (EA) at "Neiguan" (PC6) on mitochondrial autophagy in rats with myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIRI) at different phases (ischemia and reperfusion phases), and to explore the bidirectional regulatory effects of EA at "Neiguan" (PC6) and its potential mechanism. METHODS: Forty-five male SD rats were randomly divided into 6 groups according to the random number table method, namely, sham-operation group (n=9), model-A group (n=6), model-B group (n=9), EA-A1 group (n=6), EA-B1 group (n=6), and EA-B2 group (n=9). Except the rats in the sham-operation group, the MIRI model was established in the other groups with the physical ligation and tube pushing method. In the model-A group, the samples were collected directly after ligation, and in the model-B group, the samples were collected after ligation and reperfusion. In the EA-A1 group, EA was delivered while the ligation was performed, and afterwards, the samples were collected. In the EA-B1 group, while the ligation was performed, EA was operated at the same time, and after reperfusion, the samples were collected. In the EA-B2 group, during ligation and the opening of the left anterior descending branch of the coronary artery, EA was delivered, and after reperfusion, the samples were collected. EA was performed at bilateral "Neiguan" (PC6), with a disperse-dense wave, a frequency of 2 Hz/100 Hz, a current of 1 mA, and a duration of 30 min. HE staining was employed to observe the morphology of cardiomyocytes, TUNEL was adopted to detect the apoptosis of cardiomyocytes, transcriptome sequencing was to detect the differentially expressed genes in the left ventricle, JC-1 flow cytometry was to detect the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) of cardiomyocytes, Western blot was to detect the protein expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog-induced kinase 1 (Pink1), Parkin and p62 in the left ventricle of rats, and ELISA was to detect the levels of serum creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB) and cardiac troponin I (cTn-I) in the rats. RESULTS: Compared with the sham-operation group, the cardiomyocytes of rats in the model-B group were severely damaged, with disordered arrangement, unclear boundaries, broken muscle fibers, edema and loose distribution; and the cardiomyocytes in the EA-B2 group were slightly damaged, the cell structure was partially unclear, the cells were arranged more regularly, and the intact cardiomyocytes were visible. Compared with the sham-operation group, the apoptosis of cardiomyocytes increased in the model-B group (P<0.001); and when compared with the model-B group, the apoptosis alleviated in the EA-B2 group (P<0.001). The differentially expressed genes among the EA-B2 group, the sham-operation group and the model-B group were closely related to cell autophagy and mitochondrial autophagy. Compared with the sham-operation group, MMP of cardiomyocytes was reduced (P<0.001), the protein expression of Pink1, Parkin, and p62 of the left ventricle and the levels of serum CK-MB and cTn-I were elevated in the model B group (P<0.001). In comparison with model-A group, the MMP of cardiomyocytes and the levels of serum CK-MB and cTn-I were reduced (P<0.001, P<0.05), and the protein expression of Pink1 in the left ventricle rose in the EA-A1 group (P<0.01). Compared with the model-B group, MMP of cardiomyocytes increased (P<0.001), the protein expression of Pink1, Parkin, and p62 of the left ventricle, and the levels of serum CK-MB and cTn-I decreased (P<0.001) in the EA-B1 group and the EA-B2 group. When compared with the EA-A1 group, MMP of cardiomyocytes increased (P<0.001), and the protein expression of Pink1, Parkin, and p62 of the left ventricle, and the levels of serum CK-MB and cTn-I decreased in the EA-B1 group (P<0.01). CONCLUSION EA at "Neiguan" (PC6) can ameliorate MIRI in rats, which may be achieved through the Pink1/Parkin-mediated mitochondrial autophagy pathway. EA can alleviate myocardial injury by enhancing mitochondrial autophagy at the ischemia phase, and it can reduce reperfusion injury by weakening mitochondrial autophagy at the reperfusion phase.
Animals ; Electroacupuncture ; Male ; Myocardial Reperfusion Injury/metabolism* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Rats ; Acupuncture Points ; Autophagy ; Humans ; Mitochondria/genetics*

OBJECTIVE: To explore the therapeutic effects and underlying mechanisms of Dendrobium officinale (Tiepi Shihu) extract (DOE) on insomnia. METHODS: Forty-two male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 6 groups (n=7 per group): normal control, model control, melatonin (MT, 40 mg/kg), and 3-dose DOE (0.25, 0.50, and 1.00 g/kg) groups. Rats were raised in a strong-light (10,000 LUX) and -noise (>80 db) environment (12 h/d) for 16 weeks to induce insomnia, and from week 10 to week 16, MT and DOE were correspondingly administered to rats. The behavior tests including sodium pentobarbital-induced sleep experiment, sucrose preference test, and autonomous activity test were used to evaluate changes in sleep and emotions of rats. The metabolic-related indicators such as blood pressure, blood viscosity, blood glucose, and uric acid in rats were measured. The pathological changes in the cornu ammonis 1 (CA1) region of rat brain were evaluated using hematoxylin and eosin staining and Nissl staining. Additionally, the sleep-related factors gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glutamate (GA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Finally, we screened potential sleep-improving receptors of DOE using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) array and validated the results with quantitative PCR and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: DOE significantly improved rats' sleep and mood, increased the sodium pentobarbital-induced sleep time and sucrose preference index, and reduced autonomic activity times (P<0.05 or P<0.01). DOE also had a good effect on metabolic abnormalities, significantly reducing triglyceride, blood glucose, blood pressure, and blood viscosity indicators (P<0.05 or P<0.01). DOE significantly increased the GABA content in hippocampus and reduced the GA/GABA ratio and IL-6 level (P<0.05 or P<0.01). In addition, DOE improved the pathological changes such as the disorder of cell arrangement in the hippocampus and the decrease of Nissel bodies. Seven differential genes were screened by PCR array, and the GABA_A receptors (Gabra5, Gabra6, Gabrq) were selected for verification. The results showed that DOE could up-regulate their expressions (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION DOE demonstrated remarkable potential for improving insomnia, which may be through regulating GABA_A receptors expressions and GA/GABA ratio.
Animals ; Dendrobium/chemistry* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Male ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders/blood* ; Plant Extracts/therapeutic use* ; Receptors, GABA-A/metabolism* ; Noise/adverse effects* ; Light/adverse effects* ; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid/metabolism* ; Sleep/drug effects* ; Rats ; Receptors, GABA/metabolism*

Computational analysis can accurately detect drug-gene interactions (DGIs) cost-effectively. However, transductive learning models are the hotspot to reveal the promising performance for unknown DGIs (both drugs and genes are present in the training model), without special attention to the unseen DGIs (both drugs and genes are absent in the training model). In view of this, this study, for the first time, proposed an inductive learning-based model for the precise identification of unseen DGIs. In our study, by integrating disease nodes to avoid data sparsity, a multi-relational drug-disease-gene (DDG) graph was constructed to achieve effective fusion of data on DDG intro-relationships and inter-actions. Following the extraction of graph features by utilizing graph embedding algorithms, our next step was the retrieval of the attributes of individual gene and drug nodes. In this way, a hybrid feature characterization was represented by integrating graph features and node attributes. Machine learning (ML) models were built, enabling the fulfillment of transductive predictions of unknown DGIs. To realize inductive learning, this study generated an innovative idea of transforming known node vectors derived from the DDG graph into representations of unseen nodes using node similarities as weights, enabling inductive predictions for the unseen DGIs. Consequently, the final model was superior to existing models, with significant improvement in predicting both external unknown and unseen DGIs. The practical feasibility of our model was further confirmed through case study and molecular docking. In summary, this study establishes an efficient data-driven approach through the proposed modeling, suggesting its value as a promising tool for accelerating drug discovery and repurposing.

This study aimed to investigate halofuginone's inhibitory effect and mechanism on the activity of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. HepG2 cells were used to detect the effects of halofuginone. After treatment, cell activity, cell migration, cell cycle, and cell apoptosis were detected by CCK-8, transwell, and flow cytometry, respectively. The expression levels of growth and metabolism-related factors such as citrate synthase (CS), ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH), and isocitrate deoxygenase (IDH) were detected by real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot. Compared with the control group, the activity of HepG2 cells was significantly inhibited by halofuginone (P < 0.01), the migration rate of HepG2 cells was decreased (P < 0.01), the apoptosis of HepG2 cells was induced (P < 0.01), and the cell cycle was arrested in S phase (P < 0.01). The expression levels of tricarboxylic acid key enzymes CS, IDH3, and OGDH were up-regulated, the expression level of isocitrate dehydrogenase isoenzymes IDH1 and IDH2 were down-regulation. In conclusion, halofuginone can inhibit the proliferation and migration of HepG2 cells and promote apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner, which may be due to the promotion of the aerobic metabolism of cells.

Objective·To explore the correlation between body compositions and cardiovascular fitness(CRF)in patients with coronary heart disease(CHD).Methods·The CHD patients(CHD group)who underwent elective percutaneous coronary intervention treatment at Renji Hospital,Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from October 2022 to June 2023 as well as healthy people(control group)were selected.All the participants completed cardiopulmonary exercise testing(CPET)to determine CRF and bioelectrical impedance analysis(BIA)to determine body compositions on the same day.Results·A total of 191 patients with coronary heart disease and 188 healthy individuals were included.There was no statistically significant difference in baseline characteristics between the two groups.Compared with the control group,the CRF indicators of the CHD group were significantly reduced(all P<0.05).In terms of body composition indicators,the trunk muscle mass(TMM)of the CHD group was significantly lower than that of the control group(P<0.01),and the trunk fat mass(TFM)was significantly higher than that of the control group(P<0.01).Correlation analysis showed that TMM(R=0.538),lower limbs muscle mass(LMM)(R=0.754),and lower limbs fat mass(LFM)(R=0.593)were positively correlated with peak oxygen uptake per kilogram of bodyweight(VO2peak/kg)in the CHD group(all P<0.01),while TFM(R=-0.563)was negatively correlated with VO2peak/kg(P<0.01).There was no statistically significant correlation between other body composition indicators and VO2peak/kg.According to VO2peak/kg,the CHD patients were divided into low CRF group,medium CRF group,and high CRF group.The results showed that there were statistically significant differences in LMM,TMM,LFM,and TFM among the three groups of patients(all P<0.05).Multiple linear regression analysis suggested that age,gender,TMM,TFM,LMM,and LFM were related factors of VO2peak/kg in the patients with CHD.The VO2peak/kg of CHD patients increased with the increase of TMM,LMM,and LFM and the decrease of age and TFM;the female patients had lower VO2peak/kg compared to the males.Conclusion·The CRF of CHD patients is significantly lower than that of the healthy population,with higher TFM and lower TMM;in the CHD patients,CRF is negatively correlated with TFM and positively correlated with TMM,LMM,and LFM.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women,but there is currently a lack of accurate prognos-tic assessment systems.The Naples Prognostic Score(NPS)is a prognostic prediction system that incorporates inflammatory and nutritional indicators.It has been proven to have important clinical utility in predicting the prognosis of patients with malignancies such as colon cancer,gallbladder cancer,endometrial cancer,and lung cancer.In recent years,research has found that NPS may be superior to TNMstaging in predicting the prognosis of breast cancer patients.It is an independent predictor of overall sur-vival(OS)and progression-free survival(PFS)in breast cancer patients.This suggests that NPS has great potential for applica-tion in predicting the prognosis of breast cancer.

Objective:To investigate the prognosis and risk factors of IgA vasculitis nephritis (IgAVN) in children.Methods:A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Clinical data were collected from 264 children who were pathologically diagnosed with IgAVN at Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Tongji Hospital, affiliated with Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, between January 2011 and December 2017. All patients had a follow-up period of more than 3 years. Clinical characteristics, renal pathology, 3-year and 5-year prognosis were analyzed. The patients were grouped based on gender, age of onset (≤6 years, >6-9 years, and >9 years), pathological classification (≤Ⅲ and>Ⅲ),whether the prognosis was complete remission at 3 and 5 years. Independent sample t-tests, ANOVA or chi-squared test were used for intergroup comparisons. Spearman correlation analysis was applied for ordinal data, and multivariate Logistic regression was used to analyze factors affecting the prognosis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was utilized to evaluate the predictive value of these factors. Results:Of the 264 children with IgAVN, 153 were male and 111 were female, the age of onset was 8.3 (6.7, 10.3) years, 118 patients (45%) with onset age >6-9 years accounted for the highest proportion. All patients presented with skin purpura and renal involvement, primarily manifesting as hematuria and/or proteinuria. Microscopic hematuria was observed in 253 patients (95.8%), while 246 patients (93.2%) showed proteinuria. In 256 patients (97.0%), hematuria or proteinuria urinalysis was detected within 6 months of skin purpura onset, and 243 patients (92.0%) underwent renal biopsy within 6 months of renal involvement. The most common clinical subtype in 264 IgAVN children was hematuria and proteinuria (204 cases, 77.3%), with grade Ⅲ being the predominant pathological classification (181 cases, 68.6%). Among children ≤6 years old, the 3-year complete remission rate was higher in males than in females (83.9% (26/31) vs. 7/16, χ2=8.12, P=0.012). Factors independently associated with poor 5-year prognosis included time from hematuria or proteinuria urinalysis to renal biopsy >6 months, elevated serum cholesterol levels, and incomplete remission 3 years post-biopsy ( OR=5.41, 1.39, 6.02, 95% CI 1.40-20.86, 1.04-1.84, 2.61-13.88, all P<0.05). The serum cholesterol has a predictive value for 5-year prognosis ( P=0.020, AUC=0.62, 95% CI 0.52-0.71, Youden index=0.27, cutoff=4.37). Conclusions:For children with IgAVN aged≤6 years, the 3-year prognosis is better in males than in females. Time from hematuria or proteinuria urinalysis to renal biopsy >6 months, elevated serum cholesterol levels, and incomplete remission at 3 years post-biopsy may be independent risk factors for poor 5-year prognosis in children with IgAVN.

Objective:Exploring the efficacy and safety of bridging blinatumomab (BiTE) in combination with chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy for the treatment of adult patients with acute B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) .Methods:Clinical data from 36 adult B-ALL patients treated at the First Affiliated Hospital of Suzhou University from August 2018 to May 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. A total of 36 cases were included: 18 men and 18 women. The median age was 43.5 years (21-72 years). Moreover, 21 cases of Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia were reported, and 16 of these cases were relapsed or refractory. Eighteen patients underwent blinatumomab bridging followed by CAR-T cell therapy, and 18 patients received CAR-T cell therapy. This study analyzed the efficacy and safety of treatment in two groups of patients.Results:In the BiTE bridge-to-CAR-T group, 16 patients achieved complete remission (CR) after BiTE immunotherapy, with a CR rate of 88.9%. One month after bridging CAR-T therapy, bone marrow examination showed a CR rate of 100.0%, and the minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity rate was higher than the nonbridging therapy group (94.4% vs. 61.1%, Fisher, P=0.041). The incidence of cytokine release syndrome and other adverse reactions in the BiTE bridge-to-CAR-T group was lower than that in the nonbridging therapy group (11.1% vs. 50.0%, Fisher, P=0.027). The follow-up reveals that 13 patients continued to maintain MRD negativity, and five patients experienced relapse 8.40 months (2.57-10.20 months) after treatment. Two of five patients with relapse achieved CR after receiving the second CAR-T cell therapy. In the nonbridging therapy group, 10 patients maintained continuous MRD negativity, 7 experienced relapse, and 6 died. The 1 year overall survival rate in the BiTE bridge-to-CAR-T group was higher than that in the nonbridging therapy group, with a statistically significant difference at the 0.1 level (88.9%±10.5% vs. 66.7%±10.9%, P=0.091) . Conclusion:BiTE bridging CAR-T cell therapy demonstrates excellent efficacy in adult B-ALL treatment, with a low recent recurrence rate and ongoing assessment of long-term efficacy during follow-up.