Quality marker (Q-Marker) is an innovative concept and model for quality control of Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), which will navigate the new direction of quality development of TCMs. Yet, how to characterize the overall quality attributes of TCMs and their biological effects is still debating. In view of this key scientific issue, this paper proposes a research method based on mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) technology for the discovery and confirmation of TCMs Q-Marker. MSI is powerful in investigating the spatial distribution of molecules in a variety of samples, and visualizing the information obtained from MS. On this basis, combine with the five principles of TCMs Q-Marker validation, i.e., specificity, transmission and traceability, testability, prescription compatibility, and validity, were applied to confirm the finalized Q-Marker. It will lead the new direction of quality development of TCMs.

With the rapid development of radiotherapy technology, the therapeutic outcomes of tumor patients have improved significantly, enabling effective disease control. However, during radiotherapy, the skin as the first barrier of the human body is inevitably exposed to radiation, leading to superficial skin injury. This injury often manifests as blistering, cracking, bleeding, and ulceration, resulting in wounds that are difficult to heal and potentially affecting the effectiveness of the treatment. At present, the therapeutic effect of drugs on radiation-induced skin injury remains limited, and the development of new drugs depends on the elucidation of the mechanisms. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the mechanisms of radiation-induced skin injury. This article reviews these mechanisms, including DNA damage, oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and vascular damage and fibrosis, and summarizes the therapeutic drugs and targeted proteins in recent years, aiming to provide a reference for the further development and clinical application of drugs for radiation-induced skin injury.

With the rapid development of radiotherapy technology, the therapeutic outcomes of tumor patients have improved significantly, enabling effective disease control. However, during radiotherapy, the skin as the first barrier of the human body is inevitably exposed to radiation, leading to superficial skin injury. This injury often manifests as blistering, cracking, bleeding, and ulceration, resulting in wounds that are difficult to heal and potentially affecting the effectiveness of the treatment. At present, the therapeutic effect of drugs on radiation-induced skin injury remains limited, and the development of new drugs depends on the elucidation of the mechanisms. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the mechanisms of radiation-induced skin injury. This article reviews these mechanisms, including DNA damage, oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and vascular damage and fibrosis, and summarizes the therapeutic drugs and targeted proteins in recent years, aiming to provide a reference for the further development and clinical application of drugs for radiation-induced skin injury.

Cognitive impairment is a kind of senile disease that leads to the decline of personality and behavior ability of the elderly,which seriously affects the quality of daily life of patients.The prevalence rate of the disease increases year by year with the acceleration of the aging process of the society,and its incidence is affected by many risk factors.At this stage,the curative effect for middle and advanced patients is poor.So early identification and intervention to delay the progression of cognitive impairment have become the focus of relevant research.Blood pressure variability can lead to damage of target organs such as heart,brain tissue and kidney,which is closely related to cognitive impairment.In order to expand a new perspective of early intervention in cognitive impairment,this paper reviews the effects of blood pressure variability on different cognitive impairment and its possible pathogenic mechanism.

Radiation protection drugs are often accompanied by toxicity, even amifostine, which has been the dominant radio-protecting drug for nearly 30 years. Furthermore, there is no therapeutic drug for radiation-induced intestinal injury (RIII). This paper intends to find a safe and effective radio-protecting ingredient from natural sources. The radio-protecting effect of Ecliptae Herba (EHE) was discovered preliminarily by antioxidant experiments and the mouse survival rate after ¹³⁷Cs irradiation. EHE components and blood substances in vivo were identified through UPLC‒Q-TOF. The correlation network of "natural components in EHE-constituents migrating to blood-targets-pathways" was established to predict the active components and pathways. The binding force between potential active components and targets was studied by molecular docking, and the mechanism was further analyzed by Western blotting, cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA), and ChIP. Additionally, the expression levels of Lgr5, Axin2, Ki67, lysozyme, caspase-3, caspase-8,8-OHdG, and p53 in the small intestine of mice were detected. It was found for the first time that EHE is active in radiation protection and that luteolin is the material basis of this protection. Luteolin is a promising candidate for RⅢ. Luteolin can inhibit the p53 signaling pathway and regulate the BAX/BCL2 ratio in the process of apoptosis. Luteolin could also regulate the expression of multitarget proteins related to the same cell cycle.

Stimulus-responsive transdermal drug delivery systems can achieve specific drug release and improve drug utilization. According to the different stimulation modes， these preparations can be divided into endogenous stimulus-responsive， exogenous stimulus-responsive and combined stimulus-responsive transdermal drug delivery systems. The endogenous stimulation- responsive transdermal drug delivery system can respond specifically to changes in temperature and pH of the lesion site through carrier materials， so as to deliver drugs to the target site. Exogenous stimulus-responsive transdermal drug delivery system can use light， heat， magnetic， electric and other external stimulation to make the carrier material phase change， so as to achieve drug delivery. The combined stimulus-responsive transdermal drug delivery system is a combination of two or more stimulus-responsive percutaneous drug delivery systems， such as temperature-pH dual-responsive drug delivery system. At present， the relevant studies of stimulus-responsive transdermal drug delivery systems are mostly in the experimental stage， and further evaluation of stability， toxicity and skin irritation is needed in the future to lay a theoretical foundation for clinical application.

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia is an age-related progressive skeletal muscle disorder involving the loss of muscle mass or strength and physiological function. Efficient and precise AI algorithms may play a significant role in the diagnosis of sarcopenia. In this study, we aimed to develop a machine learning model for sarcopenia diagnosis using clinical characteristics and laboratory indicators of aging cohorts. METHODS: We developed models of sarcopenia using the baseline data from the West China Health and Aging Trend (WCHAT) study. For external validation, we used the Xiamen Aging Trend (XMAT) cohort. We compared the support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), and Wide and Deep (W&D) models. The area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) and accuracy (ACC) were used to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the models. RESULTS: The WCHAT cohort, which included a total of 4057 participants for the training and testing datasets, and the XMAT cohort, which consisted of 553 participants for the external validation dataset, were enrolled in this study. Among the four models, W&D had the best performance (AUC = 0.916 ± 0.006, ACC = 0.882 ± 0.006), followed by SVM (AUC =0.907 ± 0.004, ACC = 0.877 ± 0.006), XGB (AUC = 0.877 ± 0.005, ACC = 0.868 ± 0.005), and RF (AUC = 0.843 ± 0.031, ACC = 0.836 ± 0.024) in the training dataset. Meanwhile, in the testing dataset, the diagnostic efficiency of the models from large to small was W&D (AUC = 0.881, ACC = 0.862), XGB (AUC = 0.858, ACC = 0.861), RF (AUC = 0.843, ACC = 0.836), and SVM (AUC = 0.829, ACC = 0.857). In the external validation dataset, the performance of W&D (AUC = 0.970, ACC = 0.911) was the best among the four models, followed by RF (AUC = 0.830, ACC = 0.769), SVM (AUC = 0.766, ACC = 0.738), and XGB (AUC = 0.722, ACC = 0.749). CONCLUSIONS: The W&D model not only had excellent diagnostic performance for sarcopenia but also showed good economic efficiency and timeliness. It could be widely used in primary health care institutions or developing areas with an aging population. TRIAL REGISTRATION Chictr.org, ChiCTR 1800018895.
Humans ; Aged ; Sarcopenia/diagnosis* ; Deep Learning ; Aging ; Algorithms ; Biomarkers

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2022.09.003.].

In recent years, the research on boron-containing drugs, especially boric acid drugs, has been increasing gradually.Boron-containing drugs, which have been a new area of research for pharmaceutical chemists in the development of new drugs, play an increasingly important anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and anti-tumor role.At present, five boron-containing drugs have been approved, many are under clinical trials, and more are under investigation around the world, which has greatly expanded the application of boron in the research of new drugs.This paper introduces the characteristics of boron, and reviews the indications of representative boron-containing drugs in various research stages, their binding mechanisms with targets, and their progress after entering clinical trials, aiming to provide reference for further research on boron-containing drugs.