Aim To explore the compatibility and po-tential mechanism of effective components of Biejia-Ezhu against triple negative breast cancer(TNBC)and verify it by experiments.Methods Effective compo-nents and targets of Biejia-Ezhu were obtained by TC-MSP and Swiss Target Prediction.Disease targets of TNBC were obtained from OMMI and GeneCards data-bases.The PPI network was constructed using STRING database.GO and KEGG path enrichment analysis was performed using DAVID database.Cytoscape3.9.1 software was used to construct the"drug-component-target-disease"network,screen key targets and compo-nents for molecular docking,and further verify the com-patibility of key components and targets in vitro.Re-sults ① A total of 71 effective components were iden-tified in the Biejia-Ezhu drug pair.There were 146 drug targets associated with the disease.A total of 113 signaling pathways were identified by KEGG analysis.The 71 potential active components of Biejia-Ezhu mainly acted on key targets such as mTORC1,ULK1,TNF,EGFR,ESR1,STAT3,HIF1A,and PTGS2.Mo-lecular docking results showed that glycine and curcu-min were the key active components of Biejia-Ezhu,and both had strong docking activity against key target proteins mTORC1 and ULK1.②The results of in vitro experiment showed that glycine combined with curcu-min significantly inhibited the proliferation and clonal formation ability of TNBC cells(P＜0.05),up-regula-ted the expression of autophagy marker LC3 Ⅱ/Ⅰ,down-regulated the expression of EGFR,down-regula-ted the expression of pathway protein mTORC1,p-mTOR,p-ULK1,and promoted the expression of path-way protein ULK1(P＜0.05).Conclusion The key component of Biejia-Ezhu against triple-negative breast cancer is glycine-curcumin,the mechanism of which may be related to the regulation of the mTORC1/ULK1 signaling pathway to promote autophagy.

Objective Under the operation background of Diagnosis-Intervention Packet(DIP),whether there is interaction between reducing medical cost and average length of stay combined with pre-hospitalization mode,and whether there is difference between different departments and diseases in interaction.Methods Based on real-world data from 71 453 patients admitted to Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital from July to December 2021,a two-way analysis of variance was employed.When the interaction effect was statistically significant,parameter estimation was used to determine the magnitude and direction of the interaction effect,followed by subgroup analyses by department and disease.Results Without adjustment,both total medical costs and average length of stay exhibited a negative interaction effect(P＜0.05).Subgroup analyses revealed that in terms of total medical costs,the effect size for the surgical system was 0.18％,lower than that for the internal medicine system(0.70％);for core diseases,it was 6.62％,lower than that for comprehensive diseases(7.71％).Regarding average length of stay,the effect size for the surgical system was 0.55％,better than that for the internal medicine system(0.22％);for core diseases,it was 8.70％,higher than that for comprehensive diseases(2.90％).Conclusion The combination of DIP payment reform and pre-admission management model demonstrates a synergistic effect,effectively reducing patients' medical costs and length of stay.This effect is influenced by disease complexity and the standardization of diagnostic and treatment processes.

Objective:To investigate the correlation between peri-coronary fat attenuation index (FAI) and plaque formation in patients with myocardial bridge (MB) of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) using coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and to develop an optimal predictive model to explore the potential application of FAI in the primary prevention of MB related atherosclerosis.Methods:In this retrospective study, prediction models associated with perivascular fat inflammation were developed and validated using both logistic regression and machine learning (ML) algorithm. A training dataset was collected from 253 patients who underwent ≥2 coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) with ≥3 months intervals from one tertiary hospital from January 2007 to April 2021 and had baseline CCTA showing no plaques in LAD MB. The median follow-up time was 3.2 years. According to the same criteria, a total of 75 LAD MB patients from four other hospitals were included to form an independent external validation dataset, with a median follow-up time of 1.8 years. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis with integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) and category net reclassification index (NRI) were used to compare the performance of the predictive models.Results:62 patients (24.5%) in the training dataset had proximal plaque formation in LAD MB, while 22 patients (29.3%) in the external validation dataset had plaque formation during the follow-up period. Baseline FAI within the longitudinal distance equal to 30 mm proximal to the MB entrance was an independent predictor ( OR=1.068, P=0.046). According to the model results, ROC curves were plotted. The AUC of Model 1 was 0.822, and the AUCs of Model 2 and 1 were 0.821 and 0.591 in the training dataset. After the DeLong test, the AUC of Model 1 was superior to that of Model 2 ( Z=2.839, P=0.005) and Model 1 ( Z=6.124, P<0.001). These findings were further validated in the external validation dataset, where ML-model 3 yielded the best predictive performance, outperforming the logistic regression-based Model 2 (categorical NRI=0.359, P=0.048; IDI=0.108, P=0.046). Conclusion:FAI measured within the 30 mm proximal to the entrance of MBs due to its prone to plaque development is an independent predictor for atherosclerotic plaque formation. The ML-prediction model based on a decision tree algorithm combines FAI, MB anatomical features, and patient risk factors, which is beneficial for patients undergoing routine CCTA examination to identify inflamed coronary arteries in advance and guide the clinical adoption of more targeted preventive treatment, including anti-inflammatory treatment.

Aim To explore the compatibility and po-tential mechanism of effective components of Biejia-Ezhu against triple negative breast cancer(TNBC)and verify it by experiments.Methods Effective compo-nents and targets of Biejia-Ezhu were obtained by TC-MSP and Swiss Target Prediction.Disease targets of TNBC were obtained from OMMI and GeneCards data-bases.The PPI network was constructed using STRING database.GO and KEGG path enrichment analysis was performed using DAVID database.Cytoscape3.9.1 software was used to construct the"drug-component-target-disease"network,screen key targets and compo-nents for molecular docking,and further verify the com-patibility of key components and targets in vitro.Re-sults ① A total of 71 effective components were iden-tified in the Biejia-Ezhu drug pair.There were 146 drug targets associated with the disease.A total of 113 signaling pathways were identified by KEGG analysis.The 71 potential active components of Biejia-Ezhu mainly acted on key targets such as mTORC1,ULK1,TNF,EGFR,ESR1,STAT3,HIF1A,and PTGS2.Mo-lecular docking results showed that glycine and curcu-min were the key active components of Biejia-Ezhu,and both had strong docking activity against key target proteins mTORC1 and ULK1.②The results of in vitro experiment showed that glycine combined with curcu-min significantly inhibited the proliferation and clonal formation ability of TNBC cells(P＜0.05),up-regula-ted the expression of autophagy marker LC3 Ⅱ/Ⅰ,down-regulated the expression of EGFR,down-regula-ted the expression of pathway protein mTORC1,p-mTOR,p-ULK1,and promoted the expression of path-way protein ULK1(P＜0.05).Conclusion The key component of Biejia-Ezhu against triple-negative breast cancer is glycine-curcumin,the mechanism of which may be related to the regulation of the mTORC1/ULK1 signaling pathway to promote autophagy.

Objective To explore the correlation between the expression of serum microRNA(miR)-1298-5p,miR-625-5p,and miR-155 with the degree of Helicobacter pylori(Hp)infection in elderly gastric cancer patients.Methods From January 2021 to November 2023,120 elderly patients with gastric cancer admitted to the hospital from January 2021 to November 2023 were selected as the gastric cancer group,and 130 non-gas-tric cancer patients who underwent gastroscopy were selected as the control group.The expression levels of miR-1298-5p,miR-625-5p and miR-155 in serum were detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR(qPCR).Car-bon 13 urea breath test was used to detect the positive rate of Hp infection in two groups,and the degree of Hp infection in elderly patients with gastric cancer were evaluated.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was applied to analyze the diagnostic value of serum miR-1298-5p,miR-625-5p,and miR-155 expression levels for Hp infection in elderly gastric cancer patients.Pearson method was applied to analyze the correlation between serum miR-1298-5p,miR-625-5p,miR-155 expression and positive rate of Hp infection in elderly gas-tric cancer patients.Results Compared with the control group,the expression levels of miR-1298-5p and miR-625-5p in serum of gastric cancer group decreased(P＜0.05),while the positive rate of Hp infection and the expression level of serum miR-155 increased(P＜0.05).The expression levels of serum miR-1298-5p and miR-625-5p in elderly gastric cancer patients with Hp grade Ⅰ,Ⅱ,and Ⅲ infection were lower than those without Hp infection,while the expression level of miR-155 was higher(P＜0.05).Patients with poor differ-entiation,lymph node metastasis,and TNM stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ had lower expressions of serum miR-1298-5p and miR-625-5p(P＜0.05),and higher expression of miR-155(P＜0.05)than those with moderate-high differen-tiation,no lymph node metastasis,and TNM stage Ⅰ-Ⅱ.The expression levels of serum miR-1298-5p and miR-625-5p were negatively correlated with the positive rate of Hp infection in elderly patients with gastric cancer(r=-0.443,-0.386,both P＜0.001),and the expression levels of serum miR-155 were positively correlated with the positive rate of Hp infection(r=0.525,P＜0.001).The area under the curve(AUC)of serum miR-1298-5p,miR-625-5p and miR-155 combined diagnosis of Hp infection in elderly gastric cancer pa-tients was higher than that of single diagnosis(P＜0.05).Conclusion The expression levels of miR-1298-5p and miR-625-5p in serum of elderly gastric cancer patients with Hp infection decrease,while the expression level of miR-155 increases.These three factors are related to the degree of Hp infection and have good diag-nostic value for the occurrence of Hp infection.

Objective To evaluate the application value of four-dimensional CT(4D-CT)in the preoperative localization of primary hyperparathyroidism(PHPT). Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data and parathyroid 4D-CT images of 63 patients who underwent PHPT surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between April 2020 and April 2023.Based on the clinical experience of the hospital's surgeons,parathyroid lesions were categorized into six anatomical regions:around the upper pole of the thyroid,posterior to the mid-thyroid,posterior to the lower pole of the thyroid and the tracheoesophageal groove,below the lower pole of the thyroid and the suprasternal fossa,retrosternal anterior mediastinum,and other rare locations.All images were independently analyzed by two experienced radiologists,with discrepancies resolved through discussion led by a senior radiologist.Using pathological results as the gold standard,the accuracy,sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value(PPV),negative predictive value(NPV),Youden index,positive likelihood ratio(PLR),and negative likelihood ratio(NLR)of preoperative 4D-CT in diagnosing PHPT were calculated. Results There were no statistically significant differences between preoperative 4D-CT and surgical localization in the following regions:around the upper pole of the thyroid(χ²=0.500,P=0.480),posterior to the mid-thyroid(χ²<0.001,P>0.999),posterior to the lower pole of the thyroid and the tracheoesophageal groove(χ²=0.571,P=0.450),below the lower pole of the thyroid and the suprasternal fossa(χ²<0.001,P>0.999),retrosternal anterior mediastinum(χ²<0.001,P>0.999),and other rare locations(χ²<0.001,P>0.999).The preoperative 4D-CT diagnosis of PHPT lesions demonstrated a sensitivity of 82.09%,specificity of 97.43%,PPV of 87.30%,NPV of 96.19%,accuracy of 94.71%,Youden index of 79.52%,PLR of 31.94,and NLR of 0.18. Conclusion Parathyroid 4D-CT demonstrates good diagnostic efficacy in the preoperative localization of PHPT.
Humans ; Hyperparathyroidism, Primary/surgery* ; Retrospective Studies ; Four-Dimensional Computed Tomography ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Aged ; Parathyroid Glands/diagnostic imaging* ; Preoperative Period

Forensic medicine has been designated as a first-level discipline,presenting new opportunities and challenges for the development of forensic medicine.Since the 1980s,the establishment of foren-sic medicine discipline and the cultivation of high-level forensic talents have become hot topics in the development of forensic medicine in China.Since the 13th Five-Year Plan,the forensic team of Shanxi Medical University has been aiming at the forefront,proposing the development goals of"Five First-class"and the discipline development path"Six Major Achievements".It has selected benchmark disci-plines,identified gaps in disciplinary development,unified thoughts,formulated completion timelines,concentrated superior resources,assigned tasks to individuals,and created an"Organized Fill-in-the-Blank Format"forensic medicine discipline construction model with the characteristics of the new era.The construction model of forensic medicine has achieved good results in the goals,discipline frame-work,scientific research,talent cultivation,discipline team and platform construction,forming a rela-tively complete discipline construction and management system,and accumulating valuable experience for the construction of first-level discipline and high-level talent cultivation of forensic medicine.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the application value of genetic newborn screening (gNBS) in the Yunnan region. METHODS: A prospective study was conducted with a random selection of 3 001 newborns born in the Yunnan region from February to December 2021. Traditional newborn screening (tNBS) was used to test biochemical indicators, and targeted next-generation sequencing was employed to screen 159 genes related to 156 diseases. Positive-screened newborns underwent validation and confirmation tests, and confirmed cases received standardized treatment and long-term follow-up. RESULTS: Among the 3 001 newborns, 166 (5.53%) were initially positive for genetic screening, and 1 435 (47.82%) were genetic carriers. The top ten genes with the highest variation frequency were GJB2 (21.29%), DUOX2 (7.27%), HBA (6.14%), GALC (3.63%), SLC12A3 (3.33%), HBB (3.03%), G6PD (2.94%), SLC25A13 (2.90%), PAH (2.73%), and UNC13D (2.68%). Among the initially positive newborns from tNBS and gNBS, 33 (1.10%) and 47 (1.57%) cases were confirmed, respectively. A total of 48 (1.60%) cases were confirmed using gNBS+tNBS. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that the areas under the curve for tNBS, gNBS, and gNBS+tNBS in diagnosing diseases were 0.866, 0.982, and 0.968, respectively (P<0.05). DeLong's test showed that the area under the curve for gNBS and gNBS+tNBS was higher than that for tNBS (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS gNBS can expand the range of disease detection, and its combined use with tNBS can significantly shorten diagnosis time, enabling early intervention and treatment.
Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Neonatal Screening ; Genetic Testing ; Female ; Male ; Follow-Up Studies ; Prospective Studies ; China

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the dynamic changes of glucocorticoid (GC) dose and the feasibility of GC discontinuation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients under the background of Chinese medicine (CM). METHODS: This multicenter retrospective cohort study included 1,196 RA patients enrolled in the China Rheumatoid Arthritis Registry of Patients with Chinese Medicine (CERTAIN) from September 1, 2019 to December 4, 2023, who initiated GC therapy. Participants were divided into the Western medicine (WM) and integrative medicine (IM, combination of CM and WM) groups based on medication regimen. Follow-up was performed at least every 3 months to assess dynamic changes in GC dose. Changes in GC dose were analyzed by generalized estimator equation, the probability of GC discontinuation was assessed using Kaplan-Meier curve, and predictors of GC discontinuation were analyzed by Cox regression. Patients with <12 months of follow-up were excluded for the sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: Among 1,196 patients (85.4% female; median age 56.4 years), 880 (73.6%) received IM. Over a median 12-month follow-up, 34.3% (410 cases) discontinued GC, with significantly higher rates in the IM group (40.8% vs. 16.1% in WM; P<0.05). GC dose declined progressively, with IM patients demonstrating faster reductions (median 3.75 mg vs. 5.00 mg in WM at 12 months; P<0.05). Multivariate Cox analysis identified age <60 years [P<0.001, hazard ratios (HR)=2.142, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.523-3.012], IM therapy (P=0.001, HR=2.175, 95% CI: 1.369-3.456), baseline GC dose ⩽7.5 mg (P=0.003, HR=1.637, 95% CI: 1.177-2.275), and absence of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs use (P=0.001, HR=2.546, 95% CI: 1.432-4.527) as significant predictors of GC discontinuation. Sensitivity analysis (545 cases) confirmed these findings. CONCLUSIONS RA patients receiving CM face difficulties in following guideline-recommended GC discontinuation protocols. IM can promote GC discontinuation and is a promising strategy to reduce GC dependency in RA management. (Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, No. NCT05219214).
Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid/drug therapy* ; Glucocorticoids/therapeutic use* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Retrospective Studies

Homo- or heterodimeric compounds that affect dimeric protein function through interaction between monomeric moieties and protein subunits can serve as valuable sources of potent and selective drug candidates. Here, we screened an in-house dimeric natural product collection, and panepocyclinol A (PecA) emerged as a selective and potent STAT3 inhibitor with profound anti-tumor efficacy. Through cross-linking C712/C718 residues in separate STAT3 monomers with two distinct Michael receptors, PecA inhibits STAT3 DNA binding affinity and transcription activity. Molecular dynamics simulation reveals the key conformation changes of STAT3 dimers upon the di-covalent binding with PecA that abolishes its DNA interactions. Furthermore, PecA exhibits high efficacy against anaplastic large T cell lymphoma in vitro and in vivo, especially those with constitutively activated STAT3 or STAT3^Y640F. In summary, our study describes a distinct and effective di-covalent modification for the dimeric compound PecA to disrupt STAT3 function.