ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of solute carrier family 7 member 5 (SLC7A5) inhibitor JPH203 on renal fibrosis induced by unilateral ureteral obstruction in mice. MethodsSixteen SPF male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group, with 8 mice in each group. The mouse model of renal fibrosis was established by unilateral ureteral obstruction. From the third day after surgery, the mice in the control group were intraperitoneally injected with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for 11 consecutive days, and the injection dose was 200 μL/d. Mice in the experimental group received intraperitoneal injection of JPH203 (50 mg/kg) every day for 11 days. On day 14, the mice were euthanized, then the kidney tissues were obtained. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining was used to assess renal tissue damage, Masson staining was used to evaluate collagen fiber deposition in the extracellular matrix, and immunohistochemistry was used to detect the levels of fibroblast activation markers α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and collagen type Ⅰ (COL-Ⅰ) in kidney tissues. Western blotting was further performed to measure the expression levels of SLC7A5 and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), as well as the phosphorylation levels of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling pathway-related molecules. Real-time quantitative PCR was used to verify changes in the mRNA levels of SLC7A5, α-SMA, and COL-Ⅰ in kidney tissues. ResultsCompared with the control group, the experimental group showed reduced destruction of renal tissue structure and a significantly lower pathological injury score (P<0.05). Additionally, collagen deposition in the extracellular matrix was decreased, and the percentage of collagen fiber area was significantly reduced (P<0.001) in the experimental group. The levels of fibroblast activation markers α-SMA and COL-Ⅰ were significantly lower in the experimental group (both P<0.001). The expression levels of SLC7A5 and TGF-β1 were also significantly decreased (P<0.001), and the phosphorylation levels of mTORC1 signaling pathway-related proteins 4E-BP1 and mTORC1 were significantly reduced (P<0.001). Real-time quantitative PCR confirmed that the mRNA levels of SLC7A5, α- SMA, and COL-Ⅰ in kidney tissues were significantly lower in the experimental group (P<0.001). ConclusionJPH203 may inhibit the progression of renal fibrosis in mice by suppressing SLC7A5 expression, regulating the mTORC1 signaling pathway, and altering fibroblast activation status.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of molecular targeted agents in children with progressive pediatric low-grade gliomas (pLGG). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on pLGG patients treated with oral targeted therapies at the Department of Pediatrics, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, from July 2021. Treatment responses and safety profiles were assessed. RESULTS: Among the 20 enrolled patients, the trametinib group (n=12, including 11 cases with BRAF fusions and 1 case with BRAF V600E mutation) demonstrated 4 partial responses (33%) and 2 minor responses (17%), with a median time to response of 3.0 months. In the vemurafenib group (n=6, all with BRAF V600E mutation), 5 patients achieved partial responses (83%), showing a median time to response of 1.0 month. Comparative analysis revealed no statistically significant difference in progression-free survival rates between the two treatment groups (P>0.05). The median duration of clinical benefit (defined as partial response + minor response + stable disease) was 11.0 months for vemurafenib and 18.0 months for trametinib. Two additional cases, one with ATM mutation treated with olaparib for 24 months and one with NF1 mutation receiving everolimus for 21 months, discontinued treatment due to sustained disease stability. No severe adverse events were observed in any treatment group. CONCLUSIONS Molecular targeted therapy demonstrates clinical efficacy with favorable tolerability in pLGG. Vemurafenib achieves high response rates and induces early tumor shrinkage in patients with BRAF V600E mutations, supporting its utility as a first-line therapy.
Humans ; Glioma/genetics* ; Male ; Female ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Retrospective Studies ; Brain Neoplasms/genetics* ; Molecular Targeted Therapy/adverse effects* ; Adolescent ; Infant ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf/genetics* ; Pyrimidinones/therapeutic use* ; Mutation

The demographic characteristics, drug use, clinical symptoms and other data of the patients treated with Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid were collected. The latent class analysis(LCA) was performed to reveal the distribution of primary symptoms, and then the doubly robust estimation was employed to analyze the efficacy of different doses of Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid in different populations. A total of 11 273 patients were enrolled in this study, including 4 347 males and 6 926 females. A total of 15 primary symptoms were included, with the top 3 being dizziness(53.9%), head heaviness(39.6%), and nausea(39.4%). According to the LCA, the population was divided into 3 groups of spleen deficiency and dampness exuberance(5 604 cases, 49.71%), upward harassing of wind-phlegm(4 955 cases, 43.96%), and spleen Qi deficiency(714 cases, 6.33%). Double robust estimation showed that the time to recovery of the patients with spleen Qi deficiency had no significant difference regarding the daily dose. Compared with the daily dose of 20 mL, the daily doses of 40, and 60 mL shortened the time to recovery by 16.67(95%CI[5.23, 28.12]) and 15.94 h(95%C1[7.45, 24.43]) in the patients with upward harassingof wind-phlegm, the daily doses of 30, 40, and 60 mL shortened the time to recovery by 4.42(95%CI[1.06, 7.77]), 13.07(95%CI[1.61, 24.54]), 13.92 h(95%CI[5.14, 22.70]) in the patients with spleen deficiency and dampness exuberance, respectively. The patients with cold due to wind-cold and dampness stagnation had more primary syndromes, and the disease locations were mainly in the head, stomach, and spleen. In clinical practice, the daily dose of Huoxiang Zhengqi Oral Liquid can be increased according to the symptoms of patients, which can shorten the time to recovery.
Humans ; Male ; Female ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use* ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Young Adult ; Aged ; Adolescent ; Administration, Oral ; Wind ; Child ; Spleen/drug effects* ; Cold Temperature ; Aged, 80 and over

Objective: To evaluate the incidence, treatment, and survival outcomes of Swyer syndrome with gonadal non-dysgerminoma malignant germ cell tumor (MGCT-NDG). Methods: A retrospective study was performed on Swyer syndrome patients with MGCT-NDG between January 2011 and December 2022 in Peking Union Medical College Hospital to investigate their characteristics and outcomes. Results: A total of 15 patients (4.9%, 15/307) with Swyer syndrome were identified in 307 MGCT-NDG patients. The average age at diagnosis of MGCT-NDG and Swyer syndrome were (16.8±6.7) and (16.7±6.6) years, respectively. Six cases were preoperatively diagnosed as Swyer syndrome, of which 4 cases received bilateral gonadectomy with or without hysterectomy, while the other 2 cases underwent removal of gonadal tumor and unilateral gonadectomy with hysterectomy, respectively. Of the 9 patients postoperatively diagnosed as Swyer syndrome, unilateral gonadectomy, removal of gonadal tumor, and unilateral gonadectomy with hysterectomy were performed in 6 patients, 2 patients, and 1 patient, respectively. Mixed malignant germ cell tumor (MGCT;10 cases), yolk sac tumor (4 cases), and immature teratoma (1 case) were the pathological subtypes, in the descending order. There were International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage Ⅰ in 6 cases, stage Ⅱ in 3 cases, stage Ⅲ in 5 cases, and stage Ⅳ in 1 case, respectively. Eleven patients received reoperation for residual gonadectomy after a average delay of (7.9±6.2) months, including 8 MGCT-NDG patients and 1 gonadoblastoma patient, no tumor involved was seen in the remaining gonads in the other 2 cases. Ten patients experienced at least one recurrence, with a median event free survival of 9 months (5, 30 months), of which 2 patients received surgery only at the time of initial treatment. All patients with recurrence received surgery and combined with postoperative chemotherapy. After a median follow-up of 25 months (15, 42 months), 10 patients were disease-free, 3 patients died of the tumor, 1 died of side effects of leukemia chemotherapy, and 1 survived with disease. Conclusion: The incidence rate of Swyer syndrome in patients with MGCT-NDG is about 4.9%; timely diagnosis and bilateral gonadectomy should be emphasized to reduce the risk of reoperation and second carcinogenesis in this population.
Female ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Gonadal Dysgenesis, 46,XY/surgery* ; Gonadoblastoma/surgery* ; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal/surgery* ; Ovarian Neoplasms/pathology*

Objective To propose a deep learning-based method for removing Gaussian and pepper noises of the surgical instrument visual images so as to recover the detailed features of the images.Methods A lightweight multi-task progressive network was constructed involving in a multi-feature fusion encoder-decoder network,an attention-guided network and a detail-recovery progressive network,which used the multi-feature fusion encoder-decoder network to predict and eliminate the noise information in the visual images,the attention-guided network to remove the residual noise and the detail-recovery progressive network to restore the underlying detail features of the denoised images.Some of the regular convolutions in the detail recovery progressive network were replaced with depth separable convolutions to realize lightweight design of the network constructed.Denoising experiments were conducted on the publicly available CBSD68 and Kodak24 datasets and the self-constructed surgical instrument noise dataset so as to compare the denoising effects of the network constructed and the traditional methods and the classification accuracies of ResNet-18 model and ResNet-34 model for the denosied images by the network and to analyze computing power and memory usage before and after the lightweight design.Results The network constructed gained better denoising effect than the classical methods for publicly available datasets,and ResNet-18 model and ResNet-34 model had higher accuracies when used to classify the images denoised by the network for the self-constructed surgical instrument noise dataset.Lightweight design had the parameter number and floating point operations(FLOPs)decreased by approximately 27.27％and 29.81％,respectively.Conclusion The proposed lightweight multi-task progressive network behaves well in denoising surgical instrument visual images with reduced computating power consump-tion and memory usage.[Chinese Medical Equipment Journal,2024,45(2):1-7]

Post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis(PEP)is one of the most common complications after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography(ERCP).Numerous PEP prediction models have been established based on different statistical methods at home and abroad.The PEP prediction model,as a tool for evaluating and screening high-risk populations,can provide a basis for medical staff to find high-risk PEP patients early and take effective preventive measures.In recent years,new PEP prediction models have appeared one after another,but there is still a lack of recognized reliable prediction models in clinic.This article reviews the research status of PEP risk prediction models,aim to provide a direction for establishing a more reliable,accurate,and practical PEP risk prediction model in the later period.

AIM To explore the ameliorative effects of Zigui Yichong Formula on mitochondrial energy metabolism in in vitro model of premature ovarian insufficiency (POI).METHODS A POI model in vitro was established in human ovarian granulosa cell KGN with acrolein ( ACR ) for the further intervention of serum containing Zigui Yichong Formula.The control group,the ACR group,the Zigui Yichong Formula group,the EX527 ( SIRT1 inhibitor) group and the EX527+Zigui Yichong Formula group were set up.The cells had their apoptosis rate detected by flow cytometry;their ROS level detected by DCFH-DA method;their mitochondria number detected by Mito-Trakine fluorescence labeling method;their oxidative phosphorylation level of mitochondria detected by Seahorse method;their ATP level detected by colorimetry;their copy number of mtDNA and mRNA expressions of SIRT1,PGC-1α,Nrf1 and TFAM detected by RT-qPCR;and their protein expressions of SIRT1,PGC-1α,Ac-PGC-1α,Nrf1 and TFAM detected by Western blot.RESULTS Compared with the control group,the ACR group displayed increased apoptosis rate and ROS level of KGN cells ( P<0.05,P<0.01 );decreased number of mitochondria and mtDNA copy number ( P<0.01 );decreased basic value of mitochondrial aerobic respiration,maximum respiration,reserve value and ATP level (P<0.05,P<0.01),decreased mRNA and protein expressions of SIRT1,PGC-1α,Nrf1 and TFAM ( P<0.05,P<0.01 );and increased protein expression of Ac-PGC-1α( P<0.01 ).Compared with the ACR group,the Zigui Yichong Formula group demonstrated improvement in terms of the aforementioned indices levels ( P<0.05,P<0.01).The combination use of Zigui Yichong Formula and EX527 reversed the effects of single use of Zigui Yichong Formula on KGN cells ( P<0.05,P<0.01).CONCLUSION Zigui Yichong Formula may improve the mitochondrial energy metabolism disorder induced by ACR in KGN cells by increasing mitochondrial biosynthesis via SIRT1/PGC-1α signaling pathway.

AIM To explore the ameliorative effects of Zigui Yichong Formula on mitochondrial energy metabolism in in vitro model of premature ovarian insufficiency (POI).METHODS A POI model in vitro was established in human ovarian granulosa cell KGN with acrolein ( ACR ) for the further intervention of serum containing Zigui Yichong Formula.The control group,the ACR group,the Zigui Yichong Formula group,the EX527 ( SIRT1 inhibitor) group and the EX527+Zigui Yichong Formula group were set up.The cells had their apoptosis rate detected by flow cytometry;their ROS level detected by DCFH-DA method;their mitochondria number detected by Mito-Trakine fluorescence labeling method;their oxidative phosphorylation level of mitochondria detected by Seahorse method;their ATP level detected by colorimetry;their copy number of mtDNA and mRNA expressions of SIRT1,PGC-1α,Nrf1 and TFAM detected by RT-qPCR;and their protein expressions of SIRT1,PGC-1α,Ac-PGC-1α,Nrf1 and TFAM detected by Western blot.RESULTS Compared with the control group,the ACR group displayed increased apoptosis rate and ROS level of KGN cells ( P<0.05,P<0.01 );decreased number of mitochondria and mtDNA copy number ( P<0.01 );decreased basic value of mitochondrial aerobic respiration,maximum respiration,reserve value and ATP level (P<0.05,P<0.01),decreased mRNA and protein expressions of SIRT1,PGC-1α,Nrf1 and TFAM ( P<0.05,P<0.01 );and increased protein expression of Ac-PGC-1α( P<0.01 ).Compared with the ACR group,the Zigui Yichong Formula group demonstrated improvement in terms of the aforementioned indices levels ( P<0.05,P<0.01).The combination use of Zigui Yichong Formula and EX527 reversed the effects of single use of Zigui Yichong Formula on KGN cells ( P<0.05,P<0.01).CONCLUSION Zigui Yichong Formula may improve the mitochondrial energy metabolism disorder induced by ACR in KGN cells by increasing mitochondrial biosynthesis via SIRT1/PGC-1α signaling pathway.

Targeted therapeutic drugs for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are showing immense development, thereby laying a solid foundation for the precise treatment of AML patients. The paper reviews four types of targeted drugs that have progressed rapidly for AML treatment (by targeting genes or signaling-pathway alterations, targeting apoptosis-related pathways, targeting cell-surface antigens, and targeting immune-related substances). We look forward to the future development directions of targeted drugs, providing references for hematologists and developers of new drugs for AML.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of Shugan Tiaoshen acupuncture (acupuncture for soothing the liver and regulating the mentality) combined with western medication on depression and sleep quality in the patients with depression-insomnia comorbidity due to COVID-19 quarantine, and investigate the potential mechanism from the perspective of cortical excitability. METHODS: Sixty patients with depression-insomnia comorbidity due to COVID-19 quarantine were randomly divided into an acupuncture group and a sham-acupuncture group, 30 cases in each one. The patients of both groups were treated with oral administration of sertraline hydrochloride tablets. In the acupuncture group, Shugan Tiaoshen acupuncture was supplemented. Body acupuncture was applied to Yintang (GV 24⁺), Baihui (GV 20), Hegu (LI 4), Zhaohai (KI 6), Qihai (CV 6), etc. The intradermal needling was used at Xin (CO₁₅), Gan (CO₁₂) and Shen (CO₁₀). In the sham-acupuncture group, the sham-acupuncture was given at the same points as the acupuncture group. The compensatory treatment was provided at the end of follow-up for the patients in the sham-acupuncture group. In both groups, the treatment was given once every two days, 3 times a week, for consecutive 8 weeks. The self-rating depression scale (SDS) and insomnia severity index (ISI) scores were compared between the two groups before and after treatment and 1 month after the end of treatment (follow-up) separately. The cortical excitability indexes (resting motor threshold [rMT], motor evoked potential amplitude [MEP-A], cortical resting period [CSP]) and the level of serum 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) were measured before and after treatment in the two groups. RESULTS: After treatment and in follow-up, SDS and ISI scores were decreased in both groups compared with those before treatment (P<0.05), and the scores in the acupuncture group were lower than those in the sham-acupuncture group (P<0.05), and the decrease range in the acupuncture group after treatment was larger than that in the sham-acupuncture group (P<0.05). After treatment, rMT was reduced (P<0.05), while MEP-A and CSP were increased (P<0.05) in the acupuncture group compared with that before treatment. The levels of serum 5-HT in both groups were increased compared with those before treatment (P<0.05). The rMT in the acupuncture group was lower than that in the sham-acupuncture group, while MEP-A and CSP, as well as the level of serum 5-HT were higher in the acupuncture group in comparison with the sham-acupuncture group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Shugan Tiaoshen acupuncture combined with western medication can relieve depression and improve sleep quality in the patients with depression-insomnia comorbidity due to COVID-19 quarantine, which is probably related to rectifying the imbalanced excitatory and inhibitory neuronal functions.
Humans ; Depression ; Quarantine ; Serotonin ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders ; COVID-19 ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Comorbidity