1.Analytical research on processing techniques of Polygoni Multiflori Radix Praeparata based on chemical composition and color changes correlation
YAO Rui ; GUO Hong ; LI Zhe ; GUO Xiaohan ; ZHANG Xiaoshu ; DUAN Baozhong ; YANG Jianbo ; CHEN Jia ; JING Wenguang ; CHENG Xianlong ; WEI Feng
Drug Standards of China 2026;27(1):0100-0108
Objective: To investigate the correlation between the color parameters (L*, a*, b*, Eab* values) of Polygoni Multiflori Radix Praeparata powder prepared by different processing techniques and the contents of 2,3,5,4’-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, emodin, physcion, emodin-8-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, physcion-8-O-β-D-glucopyranoside.
Methods: The L*, a*, b* and Eab* values of Polygoni Multiflori Radix Praeparata powder prepared by different processing techniques were determined by spectrophotometer, and the contents of the five components were determined by high performance liquid chromatography. Secondly, SPSS 26.0 software and Simca 14.1 software were used to analyze the correlation.
Results: Through the hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), it was found that the steamed samples and black bean steamed samples could be obviously divided into two categories: raw products and processed products. The processed products could be further divided into 2-8 h and 12-48 h. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the content of stilbene glycoside was significantly positively correlated with L*, a* and b* values (P<0.01). The a* value was significantly positively correlated with the content of emodin and physcion (P<0.01). Emodin-8-O-β-D-glucoside was positively correlated with L* value and b* value, while physcion-8-O-β-D-glucoside was negatively correlated with a* value. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS) showed that 2,3,5,4’-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside (VIP=1.69) and emodin-8-O-β-D-glucoside (VIP=1.06) were the key variables affecting chromaticity characteristics (P<0.01).
Conclusion: The three processes of steaming, black bean steaming and black bean stewing are consistent in composition transformation and chromaticity variation, and stilbene glycoside can be used as a specific index component to characterize the processed color. Chromatic parameters can effectively reflect the processing progression and serve as quality monitoring indicators during production.
2.Thermogenic effect of withaferin A predicted via transcriptome profiling of cold-exposed tissues
Mingjie FENG ; Xiaochang ZHANG ; Jiangbo LI ; Chenhui WANG ; Wei HAN ; Xiaoen GENG ; Zhe ZHOU
Military Medical Sciences 2025;49(8):576-581
Objective To identify candidate compounds that activate thermogenesis during cold exposure by integrating the Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures(LINCS)with RNA expression profiles specific to cold-induced thermogenesis.Methods Gene expression profiles of interscapular brown adipose tissue(BAT)and inguinal white adipose tissue(iWAT)were generated from 8-week-old C57BL/6J mice which were housed at 5 ℃ or room temperature(23 ℃)for 7 days.The gene expression signatures of the cold-induced BAT and iWAT were compared to the LINCS dataset to predict potential candidates for testing in a cold challenge model that was intended to assess thermogenesis activation.The pharmacological potential of the identified compounds was evaluated in a cold-exposed mouse model.The core body temperature and infrared thermal imaging were collected to monitor physiological responses during cold exposure.Additionally,hematoxylin and eosin(HE)staining was used to assess morphological changes of fat cells of BAT,iWAT,and epididymal white adipose tissue(eWAT).Results The transcriptomic signatures related to cold-induced thermogenesis were obtained and the top 20 candidate compounds were identified by comparison with the LINCS dataset.Mice treated with withaferin A(WA)during the cold challenge exhibited elevated rectal temperatures and smaller adipocyte sizes compared to controls.Conclusion Our drug repurposing strategy,which connects transcriptional profiles with LINCS data,identifies potential compounds.WA enhances thermogenesis and metabolic activity in adipose tissue,which helps maintain body temperature,and improves cold tolerance during exposure to low temperatures.
3.Quantitative research on tongue diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine for obstructive coronary artery disease: a computational analysis based on multimodal feature fusion
Yanyun ZHANG ; Dongsheng WEI ; Yue ZHANG ; Yanshu LIU ; Zhe ZHANG
Digital Chinese Medicine 2025;8(4):443-454
Objective:
To investigate morphological differences between obstructive and non-obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) patients using computer-aided image analysis, and identify color and texture features for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome differentiation.
Methods:
This prospective study enrolled patients undergoing coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) at the Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine between May 1, 2024 and August 7, 2025. Based on CTA results, patients were categorized into obstructive CAD and non-obstructive CAD groups. Standardized tongue images were acquired using a dedicated mobile application (Traditional Chinese Medicine Tongue Image-Assisted Diagnosis System) and analyzed for the overall tongue surface and three macroscopic features (tooth marks, fissures, and red dots) from which high-dimensional color and texture parameters were extracted. Multi-scale texture features were derived using spatial-domain Laplacian pyramid and frequency-domain wavelet transform methods. Dimensionality reduction and feature selection were performed using principal component analysis (PCA) and random forest with 5-fold cross-validation. Feature stability was assessed using Hodges-Lehmann estimator and Cliff’s δ. A multi-view XGBoost model was developed to differentiate the two groups and evaluated on a temporally independent validation set using accuracy and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis was applied to interpret model decisions.
Results:
This study analyzed 373 CAD patients, including 167 with obstructive CAD and 206 with non-obstructive CAD according to CTA results. The whole cohort was divided into training set (n = 316, obstructive : non-obstructive = 142 : 174 ) and validation set (n = 57, obstructive : non-obstructive = 25 : 32), with balanced baseline characteristics (P > 0.05). Macroscopic tongue analysis revealed that patients with obstructive CAD had fewer tooth marks [odds ratio (OR) = 0.43, P < 0.05] and red dots (OR = 0.46, P < 0.05). High-dimensional color analysis identified pronounced intergroup differences, most notably a reduction in hue values in the hue-saturation-intensity (HSI) color space among obstructive CAD patients (Cliff’s δ = – 0.31, P = 2.72 × 10–6; Hodges-Lehmann estimator: – 0.31). PCA results suggested that tongue surface features explained the highest proportion of variance (48.2%). Random forest screening identified 77 stable features across all tongue regions, with wavelet-transformed texture features demonstrating the highest importance. The multi-view XGBoost fusion model achieved an accuracy of 75% and an AUC of 0.779 in the independent validation set. SHAP analysis identified the wavelet-based feature—left-handed lower-level gray-level size zone matrix zone variance (LHL_glszm_ZoneVariance) as the top predictor, accounting for 40.6% of the model's decision variance, and indicated that 85.3% of the predictive power came from wavelet-based texture features.
Conclusion
This study has provided objective evidence for the TCM concept that “the tongue reflects the heart” by identifying distinct morphological and colorimetric tongue patterns in patients with obstructive CAD through artificial intelligence (AI)-driven image analysis, and the promising performance of the computational model suggests its potential as a non-invasive adjunctive tool for CAD assessment.
4.Creation and Exploration of the"Organized Fill-in-the-Blank Format"Disci-pline Construction Model for Forensic Medicine in the New Era
Zhi-Wen WEI ; Hong-Xing WANG ; Jun-Hong SUN ; Hao-Liang FAN ; Hong-Liang SU ; Le-Le WANG ; Wen-Ting HE ; Zhe CHEN ; Jie ZHANG ; Xiang-Jie GUO ; Ji LI ; Geng-Qian ZHANG ; Xin-Hua LIANG ; Jiang-Wei YAN ; Qiang-Qiang ZHANG ; Cai-Rong GAO ; Ying-Yuan WANG ; Hong-Wei WANG ; Jun XIE ; Bo-Feng ZHU ; Ke-Ming YUN
Journal of Forensic Medicine 2025;41(1):25-29
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.
5.Detection of Ketamine and Norketamine Using an Aptamer-Functionalized Gra-phene Oxide Fluorescent Sensor
Li-Xia WEI ; Bo LIU ; Xiao-Yuan YANG ; Xi ZHANG ; Yi-Feng LAN ; Chao ZHANG ; Juan JIA ; Dan ZHANG ; Zhi-Wen WEI ; Ke-Ming YUN ; Zhe CHEN
Journal of Forensic Medicine 2025;41(4):326-339
Objective To construct an aptamer-functionalized carboxylated graphene oxide(CGO)fluo-rescent sensor to achieve highly sensitive and specific detection of ketamine(KET)and its metabolite norketamine(NK)using an aptamer capable of simultaneously recognizing KET and NK.Methods A specific aptamer for simultaneous recognition of KET and NK was screened using graphene oxide-sys-tematic evolution of ligand by exponential enrichment(GO-SELEX)and molecular docking tech-niques.The aptamer,labeled with Cy5 fluorescence,was chemically conjugated to CGO to construct an aptamer-functionalized CGO fluorescent sensor.By optimizing detection conditions,including the mass concentration of CGO,aptamer concentration,reaction temperature,and incubation time,quantita-tive analysis of the target analytes was achieved using the ratio of fluorescence intensity changes be-fore and after target addition.The stability of the sensor in biological matrices was evaluated by moni-toring fluorescence intensity changes over incubation time in blank blood and urine,in comparison with the traditional physical adsorption-based CGO fluorescent sensor.Spiked recovery experiments in blank blood and urine were conducted to compare performance with that of HPLC-MS/MS.Results A specific aptamer A5 was selected and chemically conjugated with CGO to construct the aptamer-functionalized CGO fluorescent sensor.Under optimized conditions,the proposed fluorescent sensor ex-hibited a linear detection range of 1.0-5.0 ng/mL for KET,with a limit of detection(LOD)of 0.86 ng/mL;while for NK,the linear detection range was 1.0-5.0 ng/mL,with an LOD of 0.70 ng/mL.Com-pared with the CGO fluorescent sensor constructed via physical adsorption,this sensor demonstrated greater stability in blood and urine.The spiked recovery rates of KET and NK in blank blood and urine ranged from 81.50%to 110.03%,exhibiting detection performance comparable to that of HPLC-MS/MS.Conclusion The aptamer screening method offers a novel approach for selecting aptamers tar-geting drugs and their metabolites.The constructed aptamer-functionalized CGO fluorescent sensor pro-vides an efficient and reliable strategy for the high-performance detection of KET and NK.
6.Risk factors associated with non-radiographic bone erosion in patients with gout
Wei LIU ; Wen GUO ; Zhe GUO ; Chunyan LI ; Yunlong LI ; Siqi LIU ; Liang ZHANG ; Hui SONG
Journal of Peking University(Health Sciences) 2025;57(4):735-739
Objective:To analyze the factors associated with non-radiographic bone erosion in gout pa-tients,to improve the understanding of bone erosion in gout,and to promote the early detection of bone erosion.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the medical records of gout patients treated at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital from January 2018 to January 2022.Bone erosion was detectable by ultra-sound but not detected by X-ray as non-radiographic bone erosion;no bone erosion was detected by both ultrasound and joint X-ray as undetected bone erosion.A case-control study was used,and the two groups were matched 1∶2 according to age and sex.The differences between the two groups were com-pared in terms of general information,joint involvement characteristics,laboratory indicators and compli-cations.In the univariate analysis,P<0.1 was included in the multivariate analysis,and the conditional Logistic regression was used for the multivariate analysis.P<0.05 was considered to have statistically significant differences.Results:Among the 41 patients with non-radiographic bone erosion,the top three joints with bone erosion before its occurrence were metatarsophalangeal joint(12 cases),ankle(10 ca-ses),and knee(7 cases).There were 82 patients undetected with bone erosion.There were no signifi-cant differences in general information between the two groups(P>0.05),including age,gender,body mass index,and alcohol consumption history.The characteristics of affected joints in the non-radio-graphic bone erosion group were compared with those in the no bone erosion detected,and the former had more affected joints(P=0.02),and a higher proportion of patients with at least 3 attacks of gout per year(P<0.001).There were no significant differences in serum uric acid,fasting blood glucose,cholesterol,triglycerides,low-density lipoprotein,high-density lipoprotein,creatinine,homocysteine,white blood cell count,and urine pH between the two groups(P>0.05).The results of multivariate analysis showed that at least 3 flares of gout per year was an independent risk factor for radiologically negative bone erosion in patients with gout,with an OR(95%CI)of 5.139(1.529-17.271).Conclusion:At least 3 flares of gout per year predicts the occurrence of radiologically negative bone erosion,and these patients should be given more attention to achieving treatment targets.
7.Application value of gracilis muscle flap in repairing urethral perineal fistula after Miles operation
Ji ZHU ; Ying-long SA ; Zhe-wei ZHANG ; Hui-feng WU
National Journal of Andrology 2025;31(7):625-629
Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of transposition of gracilis muscle flap in repairing urethral perineal fis-tula after Miles operation.Methods:The clinical data of 3 patients with urethral perineal fistula treated in the Second Affiliated Hos-pital of Zhejiang University from September 2023 to November 2024 were analyzed retrospectively.All patients were male,aged from 59 to 68 years(mean 63 years).All patients underwent Miles operation because of low rectal cancer.Urethral perineal fistula occurred after 2 months to 13 years of the operation.The underlying comorbidities included diabetes(2/3),preoperative chemoradiotherapy(1/3),and chemotherapy alone(1/3).The endourethral fistula was located in the apical and membranous part of the prostate,with a diameter of 1.5-2.0 cm and a mean of 1.7 cm.Suprapubic cystostomy was performed one month before operation.In all 3 cases,perineal inverted"Y"incision was taken under general anesthesia to expose urethral fistula,cut off necrotic tissue and suture urethral fistula.The gracilis muscle of the right thigh was taken and turned through the perineal subcutaneous tunnel.and 6 stitches were suture at the urethral fistula.Results:The operations of all 3 patients were completed successfully.The follow-up period ranged from 2 months to 12 months,with an average of 8 months.There was no case of urinary incontinence after removal of catheter 3 weeks after operation.In two patients,urethrography was reviewed 1 month after surgery to show no fistula residue and urethral stenosis,and the fistula was removed.In one patient with a history of radiotherapy,urethrography was reviewed 1 month after surgery to show a small amount of contrast overflow around the urethra,and urethrography was reviewed again 3 months after surgery to show no contrast over-flow around the urethra.All the 3 patients had no disturbance of movement of the right lower limb,and the pain of different degrees of thigh incision was acceptable and basically relieved half a month after operation.Conclusion:Gracilis muscle flap is one of the ef-fective methods for repairing urethral perineal fistula after Miles operation,which has a precise surgical result and few complications.
8.Clinicopathological features and prognostic analysis of 67 cases of marginal zone lymphoma derived from T-bet positive memory B cell
Chuanshu GAO ; Zhouyi XU ; Jiayi LIANG ; Liang ZHANG ; Longfei SHAO ; Wei WANG ; Zhe WANG
Chinese Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology 2025;41(2):179-185,190
Purpose To explore the clinicopathological features and potential clinical value of marginal zone lym-phoma(MZL)derived from T-bet positive memory B cell.Methods Clinical data of 67 cases of MZL were collected.Hematoxylin-eosin,immunohistochemistry,and multiple immunofluorescence stains,B cell receptor high throughput sequencing technology were used to study the histology,immunophenotype,and immunoglobulin heavy chain variable gene(IGHV)repertoire.Results T-bet was expressed in some MZL patients(34/67,50.75%),which was correla-ted with clinicopathological characteristics such as gender,clinical stage,and Ki67 proliferation index(P<0.05),and also the progression-free survival was poor(P=0.012 2).T-bet positivity was a risk factor affecting the progres-sion of MZL.Microscopically,T-bet positive MZL frequently presented T-bet positive tumor B cells surrounded follicu-lar germinal center,"MALT ball"-type lymphoepithelial lesions,and IgG positive neoplastic plasma cells(P<0.05).T-bet had no biased influence on the VH gene usage(P>0.05).The common VH families were IGHV4 and IGHV3,and the segments were IGHV4-34 and IGHV3-30.The positivity of T-bet was associated with somatic hypermutation(SHM)state(P=0.014 9).The SHM was mainly in the range of 2%-4.9%in T-bet positive MZL,while in T-bet negative MZL the SHM was mostly greater than 5%.The VH gene usage was not correlated with the clinicopathological features of patients(P>0.05).IGHV4 was correlated with progression-free survival in T-bet positive MZL(P=0.038 2).Conclusion The expression of T-bet in MZL is closely related to the clinicopathological features such as histology,plasma cell immunophenotype and IGHV gene repertoire,and the prognosis of patients is poor,which may be a potential molecular marker affecting the progression of MZL.
9.Presence and clinical significance of tumor cells with macrophage phenotype in dif-fuse large B-cell lymphoma
Huihui LI ; Liang ZHANG ; Zhouyi XU ; Wei WANG ; Zhe WANG
Chinese Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology 2025;41(2):162-170
Purpose To investigate the presence,proportion,clinical significance and origin of tumor cells with a macrophage phenotype in tumor tissues of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma(DLBCL),and to explore wheth-er CD68 positive tumor cells can be induced in DLBCL cell lines in vitro.Methods The presence of CD68+CD163+CD20+PAX5-cells in the samples of DLBCL patients was first qualitatively detected by multiplex immunofluorescence staining,and then the proportion of CD79a+B lymphocytes,CD68+macrophages,and CD68+CD79a+double-positive cells were quantified.Patients were grouped according to the proportion of double-positive cells,and the differences in prognosis and clinicopathological features of DLBCL patients between subgroups were investigated.For cases with posi-tive BCL6 gene locus breaks,co-localization of CD68 with BCL6 gene breakapart was performed using combined immu-nofluorescence and immunological in situ hybridization to ascertain the tumor nature of B cell with a macrophage pheno-type.DLBCL cell lines(OCI-LY3,SU-DHL2)were treated with phorbol myristate acetate(PMA),and changes in the proteins levels of CD68 and PAX5 proteins were detected by flow cytometry.Quantitative real-time PCR(qRT-PCR)was used to detect mRNA levels of PAX5,an important transcription factor for B cell differentiation and develop-ment,and macrophage-related genes(CD68,ARG1,CD163,CD206,Dectin-1,PU.1,C/EBPα,C/EBPβ).In ad-dition,PMA-treated DLBCL cell lines(OCI-LY3,SU-DHL2)were co-incubated with pH-sensitive fluorescent dye pHrodo to detect the phagocytosis ability of PMA-treated DLBCL cells.Results The percentage of CD68+B lympho-cytes in 50 patients with DLBCL varied from 0 to 9.3%,and the overall survival(OS)ranged from 0.008 2 to 4.2 years.Patients with the low CD68+B lymphocytes group exhibited a significantly lower OS compared to those in the high CD68+B lymphocytes group(P=0.039).There was a significant difference in the molecular typing of DLBCL patients(P=0.009 5)between different subgroups for the proportion of CD68+B lymphocytes.CD68+B lymphocytes were derived from tumor cells in DLBCL patients.The proportion of CD68+cells and CD68+PAX5-cells significantly increased in DLBCL after treatment with PMA(P<0.05).The other macrophage markers CD68,ARG1,CD 163,CD206,Dectin-1,PU.1,C/EBPα,C/EBPβ,and the important B-cell transcription factor PAX5 were significantly different from the control group in terms of relative mRNA expression(P<0.05).Cellular phagocytosis was enhanced after PMA treatment of DLBCL cells.Conclusion Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma tumor tissue contains a certain per-centage of CD68+neoplastic B lymphocytes.The proportion of CD68+B lymphocytes is correlated with patient progno-sis and molecular typing.DLBCL cell lines can be induced to differentiate into CD68+tumor cells in vitro.
10.Quantitative analysis of motion of cardiac substructures in deep inspiratory breath holding radiotherapy for left breast cancer
Zhao-hui TANG ; Zhe ZHANG ; Wei-bin MAO ; Bo HUANG ; Jun-feng AI ; Chao-fan ZHU ; Zhi-chao XIE ; Ya-jie LIU
Chinese Medical Equipment Journal 2025;46(3):54-58
Objective To quantify the volume and movement of cardiac substructures by using coronary computed tomography angiography(CCTA)to provide guidance for the design of deep inspiratory breath-holding radiation therapy for left breast cancer and the protection of organs at risk.Methods Totally 18 female patients who received conventional chest plain scan and CCTA were selected to simulate the design process of radiotherapy plan for left breast cancer patients with internal mammary lymph nodes.Retrospective reconstruction of CCTA data was performed for each patient,with 10 phase images(with an interval of 10%)within a R-R cardiac cycle(10%-100%)to simulate the true range of motion of the heart.The heart,left atrium(LA),left ventricle(LV),right atrium(RA),right ventricle(RV),left anterior descending artery(LAD),left circumflex coronary artery(LCX)and right coronary artery(RCA)were contoured at each phase.The distances from the centroid position to the average position of LAD,LCX and RCA were measured at each phase in the superior-inferior(SI),anterior-posterior(AP)and left-right(LR).The average volume and range of volume changes of LA,LV,RA,RV and heart were analyzed within a cardiac cycle.The expansion margins of planning organs at risk volume(PRV)were calculated.SPSS 19.0 software was used for statistical analysis.Results The following average absolute displacements were found in SI,AP and LR coordinates:(1.8±0.7)mm,(1.2±0.5)mm and(1.5±0.5)mm for LAD,respectively;(2.1±0.7)mm,(1.5±0.6)mm and(1.9±0.7)mm for LCX,respectively;(1.6±0.5)mm,(2.2±0.9)mm and(2.2±0.8)mm for RCA,respectively.The volume changes of LA,LV,RA,RV and heart within a cardiac cycle ranged from 34.3 to 63.9 cm3,122.1 to 154.3 cm3,29.3 to 53.6 cm3,57.2 to 94.3 cm3 and 480.1 to 515.4 cm3,respectively.The theoretical expansion margins of LAD,LCX and RCA in all the three directions were within 2 mm.Conclusion The ranges of movement and volume changes of cardiac substructure are quantitati-vely displayed,and references are provided for the planning of deep inspiratory breath-holding radiation therapy for left breast cancer and the protection of organs at risk.[Chinese Medical Equipment Journal,2025,46(3):54-58]

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