This study aims to explore the effects of Buzhong Yiqi Decoction(BYD) on the cyclic guanosine monophosphate-adenosine monophosphate synthase(cGAS)-stimulator of interferon genes(STING) signaling pathway in the mouse model of autoimmune thyroiditis(AIT) and the mechanism of BYD in alleviating the immune injury. Forty-eight NOD.H-2~(h4) mice were assigned into normal, model, low-, medium-, and high-dose BYD, and selenium yeast tablets groups(n=8). Mice of 8 weeks old were treated with 0.05% sodium iodide solution for 8 weeks for the modeling of AIT and then administrated with corresponding drugs by gavage for 8 weeks before sampling. High performance liquid chromatography was employed to measure the astragaloside Ⅳ content in BYD. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was employed to observe the pathological changes in the mouse thyroid tissue. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was employed to measure the serum levels of thyroid peroxidase antibody(TPO-Ab), thyroglobulin antibody(TgAb), and interferon-γ(IFN-γ). Flow cytometry was employed to detect the distribution of T cell subsets in the spleen. The immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of cGAS, STING, TANK-binding kinase 1(TBK1), and interferon regulatory factor 3(IRF3). Real-time PCR and Western blot were employed to determine the mRNA and protein levels, respectively, of markers related to the cGAS-STING signaling pathway in the thyroid tissue. The results showed that the content of astragaloside Ⅳ in BYD was(7.06±0.08) mg·mL~(-1). Compared with the normal group, the model group showed disrupted structures of thyroid follicular epithelial cells, massive infiltration of lymphocytes, and elevated levels of TgAb and TPO-Ab. Compared with the model group, the four treatment groups showed intact epithelial cells, reduced lymphocyte infiltration, and lowered levels of TgAb and TPO-Ab. Compared with the normal group, the model group showed increases in the proportions of Th1 and Th17 cells, a decrease in the proportion of Th2 cells, and an increase in the IFN-γ level. Compared with the model group, the four treatment groups presented decreased proportions of Th1 and Th17 cells and lowered levels of IFN-γ, and the medium-dose BYD group showed an increase in the proportion of Th2 cells. Compared with the normal group, the modeling up-regulated the mRNA levels of cGAS, STING, TBK1, and IRF3 and the protein levels of cGAS, p-STING, p-TBK1, and p-IRF3. Compared with the model group, the four treatment groups showed reduced levels of cGAS, STING, TBK1, and IRF3-positive products, down-regulated mRNA levels of cGAS, STING, and TBK1, and down-regulated protein levels of cGAS and p-STING. The high-dose BYD group showed down-regulations in the mRNA level of IRF3 and the protein levels of p-TBK1 and p-IRF3. The above results indicate that BYD can repair the imbalance of T cell subsets, alleviate immune injury, and reduce thyroid lymphocyte infiltration in AIT mice by inhibiting the cGAS-STING signaling pathway.
Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/administration & dosage* ; Signal Transduction/drug effects* ; Thyroiditis, Autoimmune/metabolism* ; Mice ; Membrane Proteins/metabolism* ; Mice, Inbred NOD ; Humans ; Female ; Nucleotidyltransferases/metabolism* ; Male ; Disease Models, Animal

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have extensively investigated traditional predictors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) development, progression, and prognosis. However, the influence of novel indicators such as Klotho, on CVD prevalence and prognosis in the general population remains unclear. METHOD: This was an observational study that utilized cross-sectional and longitudinal methods to examine the general population in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-2016. The participants were divided into four groups according to the Klotho quartiles. Primary outcome was CVD [coronary artery disease (CAD), congestive heart failure, and stroke], secondary outcomes were all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality. Survey-weighted binary logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the association between Klotho and the prevalence of primary outcome, and the restricted cubic spline (RCS) curve was used to further analyze the nonlinear relationship. Subgroup analyses were conducted to investigate the association between Klotho values and CVD prevalence using survey-weighted binary logistic regression. The incidence of the secondary outcomes among four groups was assessed through Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Additionally, the relationship between Klotho values and secondary endpoints was explored using survey-weighted Cox proportional hazards regression across various patient subpopulations. RESULTS: A total of 12,146 participants (56.8 ± 10.7 years, 48.5% male) were included in our study. The total incidence of CVD was 9.9% (n = 1201), of which 4.7% (n = 574) were CAD, 3.7% (n = 454) were congestive heart failure, and 4.1% (n = 497) were stroke. Binary logistics regression analysis showed that higher Klotho quartiles were associated with the decreased prevalence of CVD [Quartile 4 vs. Quartile 1: odds ratio (OR) (95% CI): 0.77 (0.64-0.93), P = 0.006] and congestive heart failure [Quartile 4 vs. Quartile 1: 0.75 (0.56-0.99), P = 0.048], However, no significant associations were found between Klotho levels and the outcomes of CAD or stroke. RCS curve illustrated a high Klotho value was negatively correlated with the prevalence of CVD (nonlinear P = 0.838), congestive heart failure (nonlinear P = 0.110) and stroke (nonlinear P = 0.972). No significant interactions were observed in any subgroups regarding the associations between Klotho and prevalence of CVD. After a median follow-up period of 93 months (range: from 1 to 160 months), there were 1228 cases (10.1%) of all-cause mortality in the general population, including 296 cases (2.4%) of cardiovascular mortality. The Kaplan-Meier curves indicated that lower Klotho levels were associated with a significant increase in all-cause mortality across the general population, CVD population, and non-CVD population. As Klotho levels decreased, there was also a notable rise in cardiovascular mortality in both the general population and the CVD population. In the overall population, Cox regression analyses demonstrated that higher Klotho values were associated with a decreased risk of both all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. And no significant interaction was observed in the CVD subgroup regarding the association between Klotho and mortality. CONCLUSION High Klotho level was associated with low prevalence of CVD and low risk of mortality in general population.

The odor fingerprint of Pollygonati Rhizoma samples with different mildewing degrees was analyzed and the relationship between the odor variation and the mildewing degree was explored. A fast discriminant model was established according to the response intensity of electronic nose. The α-FOX3000 electronic nose was applied to analyze the odor fingerprint of Pollygonati Rhizoma samples with different mildewing degrees and the radar map was used to analyze the main contributors among the volatile organic compounds. The feature data were processed and analyzed by partial least squares discriminant analysis(PLS-DA), K-nearest neighbor(KNN), sequential minimal optimization(SMO), random forest(RF) and naive Bayes(NB), respectively. According to the radar map of the electronic nose, the response values of three sensors, namely T70/2, T30/1, and P10/2, increased with the mildewing, indicating that the Pollygonati Rhizoma produced alkanes and aromatic compounds after the mildewing. According to PLS-DA model, Pollygonati Rhizoma samples of three mildewing degrees could be well distinguished in three areas. Afterwards, the variable importance analysis of the sensors was carried out and then five sensors that contributed a lot to the classification were screened out: T70/2, T30/1, PA/2, P10/1 and P40/1. The classification accuracy of all the four models(KNN, SMO, RF, and NB) was above 90%, and KNN was most accurate(accuracy: 97.2%). Different volatile organic compounds were produced after the mildewing of Pollygonati Rhizoma, and they could be detected by electronic nose, which laid a foundation for the establishment of a rapid discrimination model for mildewed Pollygonati Rhizoma. This paper shed lights on further research on change pattern and quick detection of volatile organic compounds in moldy Chinese herbal medicines.
Electronic Nose ; Odorants/analysis* ; Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis* ; Bayes Theorem ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/analysis* ; Discriminant Analysis

Objective: To investigate the current situation of cell phone use and sleep quality among college students, establish a sleep quality trajectory model and explore the influence of cell phone use on the sleep quality trajectory. Methods: Based on data from the College Student Behavior and Health Cohort Study 2019-2020, a latent class growth modeling was used to establish a sleep quality trajectory model among college students. The baseline influencing factors of sleep quality trajectories among college students were analyzed by χ² test, and the effects of cell phone use on sleep quality trajectories were analyzed by binary logistic regression. Results: A total of 1 092 college students were included in the analysis. The detection rates of cell phone use and poor sleep quality were 24.5% and 13.3%. Latent class growth model identified two groups of sleep quality trend trajactories: an improved sleep quality group (86.0%) and a decreased sleep quality group (14.0%). The result of binary logistic regression showed that the cell phone use was a risk factor of sleep quality trajectories. Conclusion: The cell phone use during college period could increase the risk of poor sleep quality. Targeted intervention measures about cell phone use should be adopted to improve the sleep quality among college students.
Humans ; Sleep Quality ; Cohort Studies ; Cell Phone Use ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Students ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders ; Cell Phone ; Sleep

Objective: To summarize the management and short-term outcomes of neonates delivered by mothers infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. Methods: A retrospective study was performed on 158 neonates born to mothers infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant admitted to the isolation ward of Children's Hospital of Fudan University from March 15^th, 2022 to May 30^th, 2022. The postnatal infection control measures for these neonates, and their clinical characteristics and short-term outcomes were analyzed. They were divided into maternal symptomatic group and maternal asymptomatic group according to whether their mothers had SARS-CoV-2 symptoms. The clinical outcomes were compared between the 2 groups using Rank sum test and Chi-square test. Results: All neonates were under strict infection control measures at birth and after birth. Of the 158 neonates, 75 (47.5%) were male. The gestational age was (38⁺³±1⁺³) weeks and the birth weight was (3 201±463)g. Of the neonates included, ten were preterm (6.3%) and the minimum gestational age was 30⁺¹ weeks. Six neonates (3.8%) had respiratory difficulty and 4 of them were premature and required mechanical ventilation. All 158 neonates were tested negative for SARS-COV-2 nucleic acid by daily nasal swabs for the first 7 days. A total of 156 mothers (2 cases of twin pregnancy) infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, the time from confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection to delivery was 7 (3, 12) days. Among them, 88 cases (56.4%) showed clinical symptoms, but none needed intensive care treatment. The peripheral white blood cell count of the neonates in maternal symptomatic group was significantly higher than that in maternal symptomatic group (23.0 (18.7, 28.0) × 10⁹ vs. 19.6 (15.4, 36.6) × 10⁹/L, Z=2.44, P<0.05). Conclusions: Neonates of mothers infected with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant during third trimester have benign short-term outcomes, without intrauterine infection through vertical transmission. Strict infection control measures at birth and after birth can effectively protect these neonates from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Pregnancy ; COVID-19 ; Mothers ; Pregnancy Complications, Infectious/prevention & control* ; Retrospective Studies ; SARS-CoV-2

Objective::To predict the action targets of anti-lung cancer active ingredients of Xiao Chaihutang, in order to explore the " multi-components, multi-targets and multi-pathways" mechanism using network pharmacology. Method::The active ingredients of Xiao Chaihutang that obtained through Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform(TCMSP), traditional Chinese medicine integrative database for herb molecular mechanism analysis(TCMID) and literature were used to predict the targets by the reversed pharmacophore matching method.To screen out optimization targets, we chose elbow point analysis by using self-developed software TCMKD1.0, and screened out lung cancer-related targets by searching databases, such as Therapeutic Target Database (TTD), Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man(OMIM) and GeneCards, and reviewing literatures.Then components-target network, protein-protein interaction network and targets-pathways network were constructed.The pathway information was acquired with STRING.The Cytoscape 3.6 software was used to construct the ingredients-targets-pathways network of Xiao Chaihutang. Result::The 162 active components in Xiao Chaihutang were obtained, involving 71 anti-lung cancer targets and 11 related pathways.Through topological network analysis, 96 important components, such as quercetin, ginsenosideRh₂, formononetin and β-sitosterol were obtained, 28 key targets, such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), vascular endothelial growth factor (KDR), cysteine protease-3 (Caspase-3), mitogen-activated protein kinase1(MAPK1), hepatocyte growth factor (MET) were received, and 61 core pathways, such as non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, ErbB signaling pathway, VEGF signaling pathway were acquired. Conclusion::The result suggests that the active components of Xiao Chaihutang against lung cancer may include quercetin, ginsenoside Rh₂, 6-shogaol, formononetin, β-sitosterol.And the mechanism may be related to ErbB signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway and VEGF signaling pathway.This research provides a scientific basis for further elucidation of the anti-lung cancer pharmacological mechanism of Xiao Chaihutang.