OBJECTIVE: To identify the blood type of specimens from pregnant patients with difficult-to-type ABO status, and to guide clinical safe blood transfusion. METHODS: The specimens from 36 pregnant patients with suspicious ABO blood group were collected. These specimens were submitted by clinical institutions from various regions to our center's genetic testing platform from January 2021 to December 2022. The blood group phenotypes and genotypes of these specimens were identified by serological method and genetic sequencing. RESULTS: A total of 20 ABO subtypes were detected in the 36 samples, including 10 cases of BA/O, 3 cases of cisAB/O, 2 cases of A/Bw, 1 case of A2/B, 1 case of Aw/B, 1 case of BA/B, 1 case of BA/A, and 1 case of Bw/O. Additionally, 4 cases were identified as para-Bombay blood type, and no specific variations associated with abnormal phenotypes were found in the remaining 12 cases. CONCLUSION ABO subtypes interfere with ABO blood group identification in pregnant patients, and pregnancy status also affects blood group phenotype. Accurate determination of blood group genotype by genetic sequencing technology can guide clinical blood transfusion for pregnant patients, and ensure maternal and infant safety.
Humans ; Female ; Pregnancy ; ABO Blood-Group System/genetics* ; Blood Grouping and Crossmatching ; Blood Transfusion ; Genotype ; Phenotype

BACKGROUND: The association between uric acid-albumin ratio (UAR) with different diseases has been evaluated before. However, the association between UAR with spontaneous reperfusion (SR) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has not been explored. METHODS: STEMI patients admitted to our department and underwent primary coronary angiography between 1^st November 2018 and 31^st December 2020 were retrospectively enrolled. The patients were divided into the SR group and the non-SR group according to the index coronary angiography results. The association between UAR and SR was evaluated by uni-variable and multi-variable logistic analysis. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine the optimum cut-off level of UAR in predicting SR. RESULTS: Three hundred and fifty-seven patients were finally enrolled in our study, 55 patients were divided into the SR group and 302 patients were divided into the non-SR group. In uni-variable analysis, patients with SR were older (P = 0.032), with higher red blood cell distribution width (P < 0.001) and red blood cell distribution width-to-platelet ratio (P < 0.001), higher level of C-reactive protein (P = 0.046), higher level of uric acid (P < 0.001) compared with patients without SR. Patients with SR had a lower level of platelets (P = 0.008), lower level of on-admission B-type natriuretic peptide (P < 0.001). As for the level of UAR, STEMI patients with SR had significantly higher levels of UAR compared with STEMI patients without SR [11.1 (8.9-13.4) vs. 8.3 (6.6-10.0), P < 0.001]. Further multi-variable logistic analysis reveals that UAR was the independent risk factor of SR in different models after adjusting different variables. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that UAR had good predictive value in SR (AUC = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.702-0.794, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Our study shows that UAR is an independent risk factor for predicting SR in STEMI patients.

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

Aim To explore the effect of serum contai-ning Duhuo Jisheng Decoction on the proliferation,ap-optosis and inflammation of fibroblast-like synoviocytes(FLS)induced by tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)in rheumatoid arthritis(RA)and to reveal the under-lying mechanism.Methods The MH7A cells were divided into five groups:normal group(10％blank se-rum),model group(10 μg·L-1 TNF-α+10％blank serum),Duhuo Jisheng Decoction low(10 μg·L-1 TNF-α+2.5％drug-containing serum+7.5％blank serum),medium(10 pg·L-1 TNF-α+5％drug-con-taining serum+5％blank serum),high(10 μg·L-1 TNF-α+10％drug-containing serum)dose group.The concentration of serum containing Duhuo Jisheng Decoction was screened by MTT method.Cell prolifer-ation was detected using EdU staining.The expression of proliferation marker Ki67 was detected using immu-nofluorescence staining.The apoptosis rate was meas-ured by flow cytometry.The contents of IFN-γ,IL-4,IL-6 and IL-10 in each group were detected by ELISA.The mRNA and protein expression of Bax,Bcl-2,caspase-3 and TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway were detected by RT-qPCR and Western blot.Results Compared with the normal group,the cell prolifera-tion activity of the model group significantly increased,and the level of apoptosis decreased.The content of IFN-γ and IL-6 increased,and the content of IL-4 and IL-10 decreased.The TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway was activated.After the intervention of low,medium and high dose groups of serum containing Du-huo Jisheng Decoction,it could effectively improve the abnormal proliferation of cells and enhance apoptosis.At the same time,it inhibited the inflammatory re-sponse and the activation of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB sig-naling pathway.Conclusions The serum containing Duhuo Jisheng Decoction can inhibit the abnormal pro-liferation of RA-FLS induced by TNF-α and the secre-tion of pro-inflammatory factors,and enhance apoptosis and anti-inflammatory levels.The mechanism may be related to the regulation of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB sig-naling pathway.

This study aims to observe the effects of different doses of Astragali Radix on the expression of glucagon(GLP-1) in se-rum and glucagon receptor(GLP-1R) in cartilage tissue in rats with knee osteoarthritis(KOA), explore the effect of Astragali Radix on the inflammation and apoptosis of KOA by regulating GLP-1/GLP-1R signaling axis, and investigate the mechanism of its action in alleviating KOA. Forty-eight male SD rats were randomly divided into six groups: blank group, model group, low-, medium-, and high-dose Astragali Radix groups(3.125, 6.25, and 12.5 g·kg~(-1)), and glucosamine sulfate group(0.1 g·kg~(-1)). Except for the blank group, rats in other groups were injected with sodium iodoacetate(MIA) into the knee joint to establish KOA models. After successful modeling, the rats were continuously treated for five weeks. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) was used to detect the levels of GLP-1, tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-α), and interleukin-1β(IL-1β) in rat serum. Pathological examination was utilized to observe the pathological changes in knee joint cartilage. The mRNA levels of TNF-α and MMP13 in knee joint cartilage were detected by qRT-PCR, and the protein expression levels of GLP-1R, MMP13, and caspase-8 in knee joint cartilage were detected by Western blot. The expression of GLP-1R and MMP13 in the knee joint was detected by immunohistochemistry. Tunel staining was used to observe the apoptosis of chondrocytes in the knee joint. The above experimental results showed that Astragali Radix may raise the serum levels of GLP-1, reduce serum levels of TNF-α and IL-1, and decrease the relative mRNA expression of TNF-α and MMP13 through the GLP-1/GLP-1R axis. It thus activated GLP-1R, reduced the protein expression of MMP13 and caspase-8 in cartilage, and regulated their related signaling pathways to improve inflammation and apoptosis, so as to protect cartilage and improve KOA.
Animals ; Male ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Osteoarthritis, Knee/genetics* ; Rats ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Glucagon-Like Peptide 1/metabolism* ; Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor/metabolism* ; Astragalus propinquus/chemistry* ; Humans ; Matrix Metalloproteinase 13/metabolism* ; Signal Transduction/drug effects* ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/metabolism* ; Astragalus Plant/chemistry* ; Apoptosis/drug effects*

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the expression and significance of jumonji domain-containing protein 2B (JMJD2B) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) tissues in children. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of JMJD2B and HIF-1α in lymph node tissue specimens from 46 children with NHL (observation group) and 24 children with reactive hyperplasia (control group). The relationship between JMJD2B and HIF-1α expression with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis in children with NHL, as well as the correlation between JMJD2B and HIF-1α expression in NHL tissues, were analyzed. RESULTS: The positive expression rates of JMJD2B (87% vs 21%) and HIF-1α (83% vs 42%) in the observation group were higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). The expression of JMJD2B and HIF-1α was correlated with serum lactate dehydrogenase levels and the risk of international prognostic index in children with NHL (P<0.05). The expression of JMJD2B was positively correlated with the HIF-1α expression in children with NHL (r_s=0.333, P=0.024). CONCLUSIONS JMJD2B and HIF-1α are upregulated in children with NHL, and they may play a synergistic role in the development of pediatric NHL. JMJD2B can serve as a novel indicator for auxiliary diagnosis, evaluation of the severity, treatment guidance, and prognosis assessment in pediatric NHL.
Humans ; Child ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit ; Prognosis ; Hypoxia ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin

italic>Fusarium oxysporum widely exists in farmland soil and is one of the main pathogenic fungi of root rot, which seriously affects the growth and development of plants and often causes serious losses of cash crops. In order to screen out natural compounds that inhibit the activity of Fusarium oxysporum more economically and efficiently, random forest, support vector machine and artificial neural network based on machine learning algorithms were constructed using the information of known inhibitory compounds in ChEMBL database in this study. And the antibacterial activity of the screened drugs was verified thereafter. The results showed that the prediction accuracy of the three models reached 77.58%, 83.03% and 81.21%, respectively. Based on the inhibition experiment, the best inhibition effect (MIC = 0.312 5 mg·mL^-1) of ononin was verified. The virtual screening method proposed in this study provides ideas for the development and creation of new pesticides derived from natural products, and the screened ononin is expected to be a potential lead compound for the development of novel inhibitors of Fusarium oxysporum.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the association between the use of metformin and the risk of ischemic stroke in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was designed from the Fangshan family cohort in Beijing. According to metformin use at baseline, 2 625 patients with type 2 diabetes in Fangshan, Beijing were divided into metformin group or non-metformin group and the incidence of ischemic stroke between the different groups during follow-up was estimated and compared by Cox proportional hazard regression model. The participants with metformin were first compared with all the parti-cipants who did not use metformin, and then were further compared with those who did not use hypoglycemic agents and those who used other hypoglycemic agents. RESULTS: The patients with type 2 diabetes were with an average age of (59.5±8.7) years, and 41.9% of them were male. The median follow-up time was 4.5 years. A total of 84 patients developed ischemic stroke during follow-up, with a crude incidence of 6.4 (95%CI: 5.0-7.7) per 1 000 person-years. Among all the participants, 1 149 (43.8%) took metformin, 1 476 (56.2%) were metformin non-users, including 593 (22.6%) used other hypoglycemic agents, and 883 (33.6%) did not use any hypoglycemic agents. Compared with metformin non-users, the Hazard ratio (HR) for ischemic stroke in metformin users was 0.58 (95%CI: 0.36-0.93; P = 0.024). Compared with other hypoglycemic agents, HR was 0.48 (95%CI: 0.28-0.84; P < 0.01); Compared with the group without hypoglycemic agents, HR was 0.65 (95%CI: 0.37-1.13; P=0.13). The association between metformin and ischemic stroke was statistically significant in the patients ≥ 60 years old compared with all the metformin non-users and those who used other hypoglycemic agents (HR: 0.48, 95%CI: 0.25-0.92; P < 0.05). Metformin use was associated with a lower incidence of ischemic stroke in the patients with good glycemic control (0.32, 95%CI: 0.13-0.77; P < 0.05). In the patients with poor glycemic control, and the association was not statistically significant (HR: 0.97, 95%CI: 0.53-1.79; P>0.05). There was an interaction between glycemic control and metformin use on incidence of ischemic stroke (P_interaction < 0.05). The results of the sensitivity analysis were consistent with the results in the main analysis. CONCLUSION Among patients with type 2 diabetic in rural areas of northern China, metformin use was associated with lower incidence of ischemic stroke, especially in patients older than 60 years. There was an interaction between glycemic control and metformin use in the incidence of ischemic stroke.
Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Female ; Metformin/adverse effects* ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/drug therapy* ; Cohort Studies ; Ischemic Stroke/complications* ; Prospective Studies ; Hypoglycemic Agents/adverse effects* ; Stroke/prevention & control* ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVE: Arsenic (As) and fluoride (F) are two of the most common elements contaminating groundwater resources. A growing number of studies have found that As and F can cause neurotoxicity in infants and children, leading to cognitive, learning, and memory impairments. However, early biomarkers of learning and memory impairment induced by As and/or F remain unclear. In the present study, the mechanisms by which As and/or F cause learning memory impairment are explored at the multi-omics level (microbiome and metabolome). METHODS: We stablished an SD rats model exposed to arsenic and/or fluoride from intrauterine to adult period. RESULTS: Arsenic and/fluoride exposed groups showed reduced neurobehavioral performance and lesions in the hippocampal CA1 region. 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that As and/or F exposure significantly altered the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome，featuring the Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Ruminococcus_1, Prevotellaceae_NK3B31_group, [Eubacterium]_xylanophilum_group. Metabolome analysis showed that As and/or F-induced learning and memory impairment may be related to tryptophan, lipoic acid, glutamate, gamma-aminobutyric acidergic (GABAergic) synapse, and arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism. The gut microbiota, metabolites, and learning memory indicators were significantly correlated. CONCLUSION Learning memory impairment triggered by As and/or F exposure may be mediated by different gut microbes and their associated metabolites.
Rats ; Animals ; Arsenic/toxicity* ; Fluorides ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Metabolome ; Microbiota

The present article was aimed to compare the effectiveness of different induction methods for depression models. Kunming mice were randomly divided into chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) group, corticosterone (CORT) group, and CUMS+CORT (CC) group. The CUMS group received CUMS stimulation for 4 weeks, and the CORT group received subcutaneous injection of 20 mg/kg CORT into the groin every day for 3 weeks. The CC group received both CUMS stimulation and CORT administration. Each group was assigned a control group. After modeling, forced swimming test (FST), tail suspension test (TST) and sucrose preference test (SPT) were used to detect the behavioral changes of mice, and the serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and CORT were detected with ELISA kits. Attenuated total refraction (ATR) spectra of mouse serum were collected and analyzed. HE staining was used to detect morphological changes in mouse brain tissue. The results showed that the weight of model mice from the CUMS and CC groups decreased significantly. There was no significant change in immobility time of model mice from the three groups in FST and TST, while the glucose preference of model mice from the CUMS and CC groups was significantly reduced (P < 0.05). The serum 5-HT levels of model mice from the CORT and CC groups were significantly reduced, while the serum BDNF and CORT levels of model mice from the CUMS, CORT, and CC groups showed no significant changes. Compared with their respective control groups, the three groups showed no significant difference in the one-dimensional spectrum of serum ATR. The difference spectrum analysis results of the first derivative of the spectrogram showed that the CORT group had the greatest difference from its respective control group, followed by the CUMS group. The structures of hippocampus in the model mice from the three groups were all destroyed. These results suggest that both CORT and CC treatments can successfully construct a depression model, and the CORT model is more effective than the CC model. Therefore, CORT induction can be used to establish a depression model in Kunming mice.
Mice ; Animals ; Depression/etiology* ; Antidepressive Agents/pharmacology* ; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor ; Serotonin