Nine compounds were isolated and purified from 90% ethanol extract of Alstonia mairei Lévl by using various chromatographic methods, including silica gel, SephadexLH-20, MCI Gel and ODS column chromatography, combined with semi-preparative liquid phase separation methods. Modern spectroscopic methods (1D and 2D NMR, UV, IR, MS, etc.) were used to identify the structures of the isolated compounds. They were identified as mairoside A (1), 3′,6-di-O-sinaloylsucrose (2), myristic acid (3), methyl myristate (4), ethyl myristate (5), 3,4,5-trimethoxycinnamic acid (6), 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoic acid (7), vinoline (8), kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside (9), among which compound 1 is a new glycoside, compounds 4 and 5 are new natural products, and the nuclear magnetic data of compound 4 were reported for the first time.

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of Danggui Shaoyaosan on ferroptosis in the rat model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease （NAFLD） and explore the underlying mechanism based on the nuclear factor E₂-related factor 2 （Nrf2）/solute carrier family 7 member 11 （SLC7A11）/glutathione peroxidase 4 （GPX4） signaling pathway. MethodsThe sixty SD rats were randomly grouped as follows： control， model， Yishanfu （0.144 g·kg^-1）， and low-， medium-， and high-dose （2.44， 4.88， and 9.76 g·kg^-1， respectively） Danggui Shaoyaosan. A high-fat diet was used to establish the rat model of NAFLD. After 12 weeks of modeling， rats were treated with corresponding agents for 4 weeks. Then， the body weight and liver weight were measured， and the liver index was calculated. At the same time， serum and liver samples were collected. The levels or activities of total cholesterol （TC）， triglycerides （TG）， alanine aminotransferase （ALT）， aspartate aminotransferase （AST）， and Fe²⁺ in the serum and TC， TG， free fatty acids （FFA）， malondialdehyde （MDA）， superoxide dismutase （SOD）， glutathione peroxidase （GPX）， and Fe²⁺ in the liver were measured. Hematoxylin-eosin staining and oil red O staining were employed to observe the pathological changes in the liver. Immunofluorescence was used to assess the reactive oxygen species （ROS） content in the liver. Mitochondrial morphology was observed by transmission electron microscopy. The protein levels of Nrf2， SLC7A11， GPX4， transferrin receptor 1 （TFR1）， and divalent metal transporter 1 （DMT1） in the liver were determined by Western blot. ResultsCompared with the control group， the model group showed increases in the body weight， liver weight， liver index， levels or activities of TC， TG， ALT， AST， and Fe²⁺ in the serum， levels of TC， TG， FFA， MDA， Fe²⁺， and ROS in the liver， and protein levels of TFR1 and DMT1 in the liver （P<0.01）， and decreases in the activities of SOD， GPX and the protein levels of Nrf2， SLC7A11， and GPX4 in the liver （P<0.05， P<0.01）. Meanwhile， the liver tissue in the model group presented steatosis， iron deposition， mitochondrial shrinkage， and blurred or swollen mitochondrial cristae. Compared with the model group， all doses of Danggui Shaoyaosan reduced the body weight， liver weight， liver index， levels or activities of TC， TG， ALT， AST， and Fe²⁺ in the serum， levels of TC， TG， FFA， MDA， Fe²⁺， and ROS in the liver， and protein levels of TFR1 and DMT1 in the liver （P<0.01）， while increasing the activities of SOD and GPX and the protein levels of Nrf2， SLC7A11， and GPX4 in the liver （P<0.01）. Furthermore， Danggui Shaoyaosan alleviated steatosis， iron deposition， and mitochondrial damage in the liver. ConclusionDanggui Shaoyaosan may inhibit lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis by activating the Nrf2/SLC7A11/GPX4 signaling pathway to treat NAFLD.

The study aimed to investigate the effect of the CD200R1 gene deletion on microglia activation and nigrostriatal dopamine neuron loss in the Parkinson's disease (PD) process. The CRISPR-Cas9 technology was applied to construct the CD200R1^-/- mice. The primary microglia cells of wild-type and CD200R1^-/- mice were cultured and treated with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Microglia phagocytosis level was assessed by a fluorescent microsphere phagocytosis assay. PD mouse model was prepared by nigral stereotaxic injection of recombinant adeno-associated virus vector carrying human α-synuclein (α-syn). The changes in the motor behavior of the mice with both genotypes were evaluated by cylinder test, open field test, and rotarod test. Immunohistochemical staining was used to assess the loss of dopamine neurons in substantia nigra. Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the expression level of CD68 (a key molecule involved in phagocytosis) in microglia. The results showed that CD200R1 deletion markedly enhanced LPS-induced phagocytosis in vitro by the microglial cells. In the mouse model of PD, CD200R1 deletion exacerbated motor behavior impairment and dopamine neuron loss in substantia nigra. Fluorescence intensity analysis results revealed a significant increase in CD68 expression in microglia located in the substantia nigra of CD200R1^-/- mice. The above results suggest that CD200R1 deletion may further activates microglia by promoting microglial phagocytosis, leading to increased loss of the nigrostriatal dopamine neurons in the PD model mice. Therefore, targeting CD200R1 could potentially serve as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of early-stage PD.
Animals ; Microglia/physiology* ; Mice ; Phagocytosis ; Parkinson Disease/genetics* ; Disease Models, Animal ; Receptors, Cell Surface/physiology* ; Dopaminergic Neurons/pathology* ; Antigens, CD/metabolism* ; Gene Deletion ; Substantia Nigra ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Mice, Knockout ; Cells, Cultured ; Male ; alpha-Synuclein ; CD68 Molecule ; Orexin Receptors

Diterpenoid ferruginol is a key intermediate in biosynthesis of active ingredients such as tanshinone and carnosic acid.However, the traditional process of obtaining ferruginol from plants is often cumbersome and inefficient. In recent years, the increasingly developing gene editing technology has been gradually applied to the heterologous production of natural products, but the production of ferruginol in microbe is still very low, which has become an obstacle to the efficient biosynthesis of downstream chemicals, such as tanshinone. In this study, miltiradiene was produced by integrating the shortened diterpene synthase fusion protein,and the key genes in the MVA pathway were overexpressed to improve the yield of miltiradiene. Under the shake flask fermentation condition, the yield of miltiradiene reached about(113. 12±17. 4)mg·L~(-1). Subsequently, this study integrated the ferruginol synthase Sm CYP76AH1 and Sm CPR1 to reconstruct the ferruginol pathway and thereby realized the heterologous synthesis of ferruginol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The study selected the best ferruginol synthase(Il CYP76AH46) from different plants and optimized the expression of pathway genes through redox partner engineering to increase the yield of ferruginol. By increasing the copy number of diterpene synthase, CYP450, and CPR, the yield of ferruginol reached(370. 39± 21. 65) mg·L~(-1) in the shake flask, which was increased by 21. 57-fold compared with that when the initial ferruginol strain JMLT05 was used. Finally, 1 083. 51 mg·L~(-1) ferruginol was obtained by fed-batch fermentation, which is the highest yield of ferruginol from biosynthesis so far. This study provides not only research ideas for other metabolic engineering but also a platform for the construction of cell factories for downstream products.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae/genetics* ; Diterpenes/metabolism* ; Metabolic Engineering ; Fermentation ; Abietanes

Jiuwei Xifeng Granules have become a Chinese patent medicine in the market. Because the formula contains Os Draconis, a top-level protected fossil of ancient organisms, the formula was to be improved by replacing Os Draconis with Ostreae Concha. To evaluate whether the improved formula has the same effectiveness and safety as the original formula, a randomized, double-blind, parallel-controlled, equivalence clinical trial was conducted. This study enrolled 288 tic disorder(TD) of children and assigned them into two groups in 1∶1. The treatment group and control group took the modified formula and original formula, respectively. The treatment lasted for 6 weeks, and follow-up visits were conducted at weeks 2, 4, and 6. The primary efficacy endpoint was the difference in Yale global tic severity scale(YGTSS)-total tic severity(TTS) score from baseline after 6 weeks of treatment. The results showed that after 6 weeks of treatment, the declines in YGTSS-TSS score showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups. The difference in YGTSS-TSS score(treatment group-control group) and the 95%CI of the full analysis set(FAS) were-0.17[-1.42, 1.08] and those of per-protocol set(PPS) were 0.29[-0.97, 1.56], which were within the equivalence boundary [-3, 3]. The equivalence test was therefore concluded. The two groups showed no significant differences in the secondary efficacy endpoints of effective rate for TD, total score and factor scores of YGTSS, clinical global impressions-severity(CGI-S) score, traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) response rate, or symptom disappearance rate, and thus a complete evidence chain with the primary outcome was formed. A total of 6 adverse reactions were reported, including 4(2.82%) cases in the treatment group and 2(1.41%) cases in the control group, which showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups. No serious suspected unexpected adverse reactions were reported, and no laboratory test results indicated serious clinically significant abnormalities. The results support the replacement of Os Draconis by Ostreae Concha in the original formula, and the efficacy and safety of the modified formula are consistent with those of the original formula.
Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Double-Blind Method ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use* ; Tic Disorders/drug therapy* ; Treatment Outcome

Testicular histology based on testicular biopsy is an important factor for determining appropriate testicular sperm extraction surgery and predicting sperm retrieval outcomes in patients with azoospermia. Therefore, we developed a deep learning (DL) model to establish the associations between testicular grayscale ultrasound images and testicular histology. We retrospectively included two-dimensional testicular grayscale ultrasound from patients with azoospermia (353 men with 4357 images between July 2017 and December 2021 in The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China) to develop a DL model. We obtained testicular histology during conventional testicular sperm extraction. Our DL model was trained based on ultrasound images or fusion data (ultrasound images fused with the corresponding testicular volume) to distinguish spermatozoa presence in pathology (SPP) and spermatozoa absence in pathology (SAP) and to classify maturation arrest (MA) and Sertoli cell-only syndrome (SCOS) in patients with SAP. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs), accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were used to analyze model performance. DL based on images achieved an AUC of 0.922 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.908-0.935), a sensitivity of 80.9%, a specificity of 84.6%, and an accuracy of 83.5% in predicting SPP (including normal spermatogenesis and hypospermatogenesis) and SAP (including MA and SCOS). In the identification of SCOS and MA, DL on fusion data yielded better diagnostic performance with an AUC of 0.979 (95% CI: 0.969-0.989), a sensitivity of 89.7%, a specificity of 97.1%, and an accuracy of 92.1%. Our study provides a noninvasive method to predict testicular histology for patients with azoospermia, which would avoid unnecessary testicular biopsy.
Humans ; Male ; Azoospermia/diagnostic imaging* ; Deep Learning ; Testis/pathology* ; Retrospective Studies ; Adult ; Ultrasonography/methods* ; Sperm Retrieval ; Sertoli Cell-Only Syndrome/diagnostic imaging*

Children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) often exhibit severe respiratory problems and significant pulmonary dysfunction during school age and adulthood. Exercise tests show a decline in cardiopulmonary function and physical performance in children with BPD, who also have a higher incidence of pulmonary hypertension. These children generally perform poorly in terms of intelligence, language, and motor development. As they age, the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders increases, and health-related quality of life is also affected. This article reviews the prognosis of the respiratory system, physical capacity, cardiovascular system, nervous system, and health-related quality of life in children with BPD, aiming to improve the management of these patients and enhance their subsequent quality of life.
Humans ; Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia/complications* ; Prognosis ; Quality of Life ; Child

OBJECTIVES: To identify risk factors for recurrent plastic bronchitis (PB) among children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP). METHODS: The clinical data of children with MPP complicated by PB who underwent bronchoscopy at Gansu Province Maternity and Child Health Hospital between July 2023 and January 2025 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were grouped into a single-episode PB group and a recurrent PB group according to the number of PB episodes. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for recurrent PB. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to assess the diagnostic performance of individual and combined predictors. RESULTS: A total of 264 children were included; 188 (71.2%) had a single episode of PB and 76 (28.8%) had recurrent PB. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that decreased serum albumin, atelectasis, and fever persisting beyond 72 hours after the initial bronchoscopy were significantly associated with recurrent PB (all P<0.05). The combination of these predictors yielded a sensitivity of 82.9%, specificity of 61.7%, and an area under the ROC curve of 0.777 (95%CI: 0.714-0.839), outperforming any single predictor (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS In children with MPP complicated by PB, decreased serum albumin, the presence of atelectasis, and fever persisting beyond 72 hours after the initial bronchoscopy are associated with an increased risk of PB recurrence. In such cases, early repeat or multiple bronchoscopic interventions should be considered.
Humans ; Pneumonia, Mycoplasma/complications* ; Male ; Female ; Risk Factors ; Recurrence ; Child, Preschool ; Bronchitis/etiology* ; Child ; Retrospective Studies ; Logistic Models ; Infant ; ROC Curve ; Adolescent

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the changes in coagulation during the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and explore the influencing factors of coagulation in patients with APL. METHODS: Data of 166 APL patients admitted to our hospital from November 2018 to May 2023 were retrospectively analyzed, and the changes of various clinical indicators before and during treatment were compared. 166 APL patients were divided into abnormal coagulation group (n =115) and normal coagulation group (n =51) according to whether they experienced coagulation dysfunction. The basic information, clinical data and laboratory indicators of the two groups were compared. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to screen risk factors for coagulation dysfunction and established logistic regression model. Then we developed a neural network model and ranked the importance of the influencing factors, and used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to evaluate the predictive performance of the two models. RESULTS: The comparative results of various clinical indicators in 166 APL patients before and during treatment showed that systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), platelet (PLT) and fibrinogen (FIB) were significantly increased during the treatment (P < 0.05), while glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (SCr), high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP), IL-6, TNF-α, TGF-β, white blood cells (WBC), absolute neutrophil count (ANC), prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), D-dimer (D-D), fibrinogen degradation products (FDP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were significantly decreased during the treatment (P < 0.05). The proportion of patients with hemorrhage and high-risk APL in the abnormal coagulation group was significantly higher than that in the normal coagulation group (P < 0.05). The levels of IL-6, TNF-α, WBC, ANC, D-D, FDP and LDH in the abnormal coagulation group were significantly higher than those in the normal coagulation group (P < 0.05). The influencing factors selected by univariate analysis were incorporated into logistic regression analysis and neural network model to predict the risk of coagulation dysfunction in APL patients. ROC curves showed that the AUC of the two models were 096 and 0.908, the sensitivity were 0.824 and 0.892, the specificity were 0.940 and 0.904, the Youden index were 064 and 0.796, and the accuracy were 0.882 and 0.898, respectively. CONCLUSION High risk stratification, hemorrhage, elevated WBC, LDH, ANC and FDP levels are independent risk factors for coagulation dysfunction in APL patients. The logistic regression model and neural network model based on these risk factors demonstrate good predictive performance for coagulation dysfunction in APL patients.
Humans ; Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute/therapy* ; Blood Coagulation ; Retrospective Studies ; Male ; Female ; Risk Factors ; Logistic Models ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; ROC Curve

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the molecular alterations of splenocytes associated with anti-factor Ⅷ (FⅧ) immune response and the underlying mechanisms based on hemophilia A (HA) murine model via RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technology. METHODS: Severe HA mice were immunized with recombinant human factor Ⅷ (rhF8) weekly for 4 weeks to establish an FⅧ inhibitor model. High quality raw data were obtained by using bulk RNA-seq and CASAVA base identification technology, and the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. The DEGs were statistically classified by gene ontology (GO) annotation to obtain information on the major signaling pathways and biological processes involved in anti-FⅧ immune response in HA mouse splenocytes. The cell clusters, genes, and signaling pathway datasets were comprehensively analyzed by GO, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis and single cell RNA-seq (ScRNA-seq) analysis, respectively. Flow cytometry analysis was used to verify the changes in T follicular helper cells (Tfh) and regulatory T cells (Treg). RESULTS: A total of 3731 DEGs was identified, including 2275 genes with up-regulated expression and 1456 genes with down-regulated expression. The DEGs were enriched in helper T cell differentiation, cytokine receptor, T cell receptor signaling pathway, ferroptosis, etc. Uniform Manifold Approximation and Project (UMAP) downscaling and visualization analysis yielded a total number of 11 T/NK cell subsets, visualizing the overall expression distribution of C-X-C chemokine-specific receptor gene cxcr5 among these T/NK cell subsets. Higher expression of cxcr5 was found in activated Tfh from FⅧ inhibitor mice, in comparison to the control group. The visualization using Upset plot R language showed a close interaction between Tfh and Treg. Moreover, the increased frequencies of Tfh and the decreased frequencies of Treg in inhibitor mouse splenocytes were further verified by flow cytometry analysis. CONCLUSION Multiple immune cell subsets, signaling pathways, and characteristic genes may be involved in the process of anti-FⅧ immune response in HA mouse splenocytes. The molecules involved in the regulation of Tfh/Treg may play key roles, which provide potential biological targets and therapeutic strategies for HA patients with inhibitors in the future.
Animals ; Hemophilia A/genetics* ; Mice ; Sequence Analysis, RNA ; Disease Models, Animal ; Spleen/cytology* ; T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory/immunology* ; Humans ; Signal Transduction ; Factor VIII/immunology* ; T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer/immunology*