The gut microbiota is regarded as the "eighth organ" of the human body and plays a critical regulatory role in the occurrence and progression of various diseases. Ulcerative colitis （UC） is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease with a complex etiology and a tendency toward recurrent episodes. In recent years， studies have shown that gut microbiota dysbiosis plays a key role in its pathological processes. Meanwhile， an increasing number of studies have demonstrated that imbalances in the gut microbiota and abnormalities in its metabolites are closely associated with the development of atrial fibrillation （AF）. Although UC and AF belong to diseases of the digestive system and cardiovascular system， respectively， both exhibit systemic inflammatory characteristics and are often accompanied by gut microbiota dysregulation and abnormal metabolic products. However， systematic investigations into the mechanisms by which gut microbiota-derived metabolites act in these two diseases remain limited. Based on this， the present study adopts literature review and theoretical analysis methods， taking the "gut microbiota-gut-heart" axis as the entry point， to systematically summarize the signaling networks of three key classes of metabolites， i.e.， short-chain fatty acids （SCFAs）， bile acids （BAs）， and trimethylamine N-oxide （TMAO）， in the comorbidity mechanism of UC and AF. The findings indicate that these metabolites may activate key inflammatory pathways， such as NF-κB and NLRP3， thereby synergistically mediating intestinal barrier dysfunction and systemic inflammation and constructing a potential comorbidity network. On this basis， potential intervention strategies for the treatment of UC-AF comorbidity， including probiotic intervention and fecal microbiota transplantation， are further discussed. This study aims to provide new theoretical evidence and research perspectives for prevention and treatment strategies of cross-system diseases.

Prescription optimization is a crucial aspect in the study of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） compounds. In recent years， the introduction of mathematical methods， data mining techniques， and artificial neural networks has provided new tools for elucidating the compatibility rules of TCM compounds. The study of TCM compounds involves numerous variables， including the proportions of different herbs， the specific extraction parts of each ingredient， and the interactions among multiple components. These factors together create a complex nonlinear dose-effect relationship. In this context， it is essential to identify methods that suit the characteristics of TCM compounds and can leverage their advantages for effective application in new drug development. This paper provided a comprehensive review of the cutting-edge optimization experimental design methods applied in recent studies of TCM compound compatibilities. The key technical issues， such as the optimization of source material selection， dosage optimization of compatible herbs， and multi-objective optimization indicators， were discussed. Furthermore， the evaluation methods for component effects were summarized during the optimization process， so as to provide scientific and practical foundations for innovative research in TCM and the development of new drugs based on TCM compounds.

BACKGROUND: G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) could participate in the regulation of diverse cells via interacting with non-G-protein-coupled receptors. In the present work, we explored how paroxetine, a GRK2 inhibitor, modulates the differentiation and activation of immune cells in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: The blood samples of healthy individuals and RA patients were collected between July 2021 and March 2022 from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. C57BL/6 mice were used to induce the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) model. Flow cytometry analysis was used to characterize the differentiation and function of dendritic cells (DCs)/T cells. Co-immunoprecipitation was used to explore the specific molecular mechanism. RESULTS: In patients with RA, high expression of GRK2 in peripheral blood lymphocytes, accompanied by the increases of phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (AKT), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). In animal model, a decrease in regulatory T cells (T regs ), an increase in the cluster of differentiation 8 positive (CD8 + ) T cells, and maturation of DCs were observed. Paroxetine, when used in vitro and in CIA mice, restrained the maturation of DCs and the differentiation of CD8 + T cells, and induced the proportion of T regs . Paroxetine inhibited the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, the expression of C-C motif chemokine receptor 7 in DCs and T cells. Simultaneously, paroxetine upregulated the expression of programmed death ligand 1, and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Additionally, paroxetine inhibited the PI3K-AKT-mTOR metabolic pathway in both DCs and T cells. This was associated with a reduction in mitochondrial membrane potential and changes in the utilization of glucose and lipids, particularly in DCs. Paroxetine reversed PI3K-AKT pathway activation induced by 740 Y-P (a PI3K agonist) through inhibiting the interaction between GRK2 and PI3K in DCs and T cells. CONCLUSION Paroxetine exerts an immunosuppressive effect by targeting GRK2, which subsequently inhibits the metabolism-related PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway of DCs and T cells in RA.
G-Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 2/metabolism* ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid/immunology* ; Animals ; Dendritic Cells/metabolism* ; Paroxetine/therapeutic use* ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/metabolism* ; Mice ; Humans ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Signal Transduction/drug effects* ; Male ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases/metabolism* ; Lymphocyte Activation/drug effects* ; Female ; T-Lymphocytes/metabolism* ; Middle Aged

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are crucial for facilitating intercellular communication, promoting cell migration, and orchestrating the immune response. Recently, EVs can diagnose and treat tumors. EVs can be measured as biomarkers to provide information about the type of disease and therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, EVs with lower immunogenicity and better biocompatibility are natural carriers of chemicals and gene drugs. Herein, we review the molecular composition, biogenesis, and separation methods of EVs. We also highlight the important role of EVs from different origins as biomarkers and drug delivery systems in tumor therapy. Finally, we provide deep insights into how EVs play a role in reversing the immunosuppressive microenvironment.

Plant-derived extracellular vesicles (PDEVs), describe a group of nanoparticles released by plants. These particles are characterized by a lipid bilayer structure containing various proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and unique metabolites. Although the study on PDEVs is relatively new, having only been around for ten years, they have shown promising development prospects in both basic research and clinical transformation areas. Evidence suggests that PDEVs have excellent application prospects in regulating inflammation and treating tumors. Their distinctive, vesicle-mimicking architecture and stellar biocompatibility render them prime candidates for ferrying various anti-cancer agents, including RNA, proteins, and conventional chemotherapy drugs. Increasingly, studies have shown that PDEVs can be engineered as an innovative platform for combination cancer immunotherapy. Consequently, this paper provides an extensive summary of current developments in engineering methods and strategies for PDEVs in cancer treatment and combined cancer immune therapeutics. The essential characteristics of PDEVs, including the biogenesis process and components, as well as their anti-tumor activity and mechanism, are summarized. Finally, the in vivo safety of PDEVs as delivery vectors and the challenges of scale-up production and clinical transformation are discussed.

Objective:To assess the efficacy of different fusion strategies involving the convolutional block attention module (CBAM) and Unet for automatic pancreas segmentation in enhanced CT images of patients with acute pancreatitis.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on 1 158 patients with acute pancreatitis admitted to the Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College between January 1st, 2016 and July 30th, 2021. Among them, 141 patients with first-episode acute pancreatitis were randomly categorized into mild, moderate, and severe cases. The test set comprised 5 mild and 15 severe cases, while the remaining 126 cases were used for training. Within the training set, 20% of the data was randomly allocated as the validation set. Different fusion paths of the CBAM and Unet networks were trained, utilizing the Dice similarity coefficient, Hausdorff distance (HD), and pixel accuracy (PA) as evaluation metrics. The model demonstrating the best performance on the validation set was selected and evaluated on the test set. Additionally, the Unet model was combined with the attention gate attention mechanism (AttentionUnet) in the skip connection, and the ResBlock replaced the original convolution module (ResUnet) in the Unet network. Moreover, the skip connection branch module of feature extraction was integrated with CBAM (ResUnet_CBAM) for comparison.Results:Unet_CBAM achieved better results on the test set with a Dice value of 80.06%, a HD value of 3.765 9 and a PA value of 0.992 3, all surpassing other fusion strategies. The segmentation accuracy of the pancreatic region in CT images of acute pancreatitis patients was notably enhanced compared to Unet and its related variant networks.Conclusions:The Unet network integrated into CBAM after skip connection can better perform pancreatic segmentation on enhanced CT images of patients with acute pancreatitis and can effectively improve the efficiency of relevant personnel in pancreatic segmentation on enhanced CT images of patients with acute pancreatitis.

Objective:To retrieve, screen, evaluate and synthesize evidence related to the management of pregnant women during pregnancy after cervical cerclage to provide a basis for clinical practice.Methods:According to the "6S" evidence resource pyramid model, the system searched of all evidence on the management of pregnant women after cervical cerclage in databases suchas UpTo Date, BMJ Best Clinical Practice, International Guidelines Network, American Guidelines Network, World Health Organization website, Yimaitong, Metz Medical website, Clinical Guidelines website, American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of the United Kingdom, Canadian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, French College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, European Association of Perinatal Medicine, Cochrane Library, the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), the Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care Database, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang Database, VIP Database, and China Biomedical Literature Database, including best dicision practices, guidelines, expert consensus, evidence summary, systematic reviews, Meta-analysis. The search time limit was the establishment of the database to March 1, 2023, and the evidence was extracted and summarized according to the theme after the two researchers independently evaluate the quality of the literature.Results:A total of 8 studies were selected, including 2 expert consensuses, 2 systematic reviews and 4 guidelines. Through literature reading, evidence extraction and classification, 23 pieces of best evidence were summarized from seven aspects: systematic management, activity management, medication management, health behavior management, pregnancy supervision, supervision of the timing of cerclage removal and supervision of psychological state.Conclusions:The best evidence quality and autuority of pregnancy management for pregnamt women after cervical cerclage surgery summarized in the study are high. It was recommended to strengthen the management of pregnant women during pregnancy after cervical cerclage, dynamically and continuously assess the pregnancy status of pregnant women, and prudently selected evidence to improve the prenatal examination process, ensure the safety of mothers and babies, and reduce the occurrence of complications. Overall, effective management of pregnant women during pregnancy after cervical cerclage required a combination of many factors to ensure the health and safety of the mother and baby.

Objective:To explore the role of eosinophil associated ribonuclease A family member 2 (Ear2) in the pathogenesis of lupus and its possible mechanisms involved in renal damage by conditional knockout of myeloid cells in mice.Methods:An Ear2 myeloid conditional knockout mouse model was constructed using CRISP/Cas9 technology, and PCR was applied to identify mice genotype. The experiment was divided into 3 groups: CKO+R848 group, control+R848 group, and control group. R848 (Resiquimod) was used to treat the knockout mice and homozygous control mice to evaluate the occurrence of lupus-like features. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to detect the expression of Toll-like receptor 7/8 (TLR7/8) and its related inflammatory factors in the kidneys of mice. Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to detect the proportion of patrolling monocytes in the kidneys, and immunofluorescence was used to analyze the spatial distribution of Ear2 and PMOs in renal tissues. In addition, R848 was used to stimulate myeloid cells of conditional knockout (CKO) and control mice in vitro, with changes in the proportion of PMOs detected by flow cytometry. Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the differences between groups, t-test was used for two-by-two comparisons, and one-way analysis of ANOVA was used for comparisons between multiple groupscant. Results:PCR of myeloid conditioned knockout Ear2 mice showed a genotype of Lyz2 ki/wtEar2 fl/fl and significant down-regulation of Ear2 mRNA levels in bone marrow cells of the knockout mice [(1.03±0.26) vs. (0.22±0.15), t=6.65, P<0.001]. Compared with the control+R848 group, lupus related phenotype presentations of mice was improved and the survival rate tended to increase in the CKO+R848 group (6/10 vs. 7/8, χ2=1.51, P=0.220). The pathological results examination suggested that renal lesions of mice in the CKO+R848 group were also attenuated. The expression level of TLR7 was reduced in the renal tissues of CKO+R848 mice [(1.02±0.09) vs. (0.53±0.04), t=5.13, P=0.003], accompanied by a decrease in PMOs infiltration [(62.00±3.37)% vs. (52.36±0.68)%, t=2.80, P=0.023], and immunofluorescence results showed that Ear2 and PMOs were co-localized in renal tissues. In vitro, R848 stimulation caused an increase in the proportion of PMOs in the control group [(3.99±0.59)% vs. (33.48±1.38)%, t=-33.84, P<0.0001], yet had no effect on CKO mice [(14.33±1.72)% vs. (16.10±1.44)%, t=-1.37, P=0.220]. Conclusion:Conditional knockdown of Ear2 attenuates the development of lupus in mice, especially renal impairments, which is related to the inhibition of TLR7 pathway and reduction of local infiltration of PMOs.

Objective:To study the localization value of stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) in refractory epilepsy associated with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), and to analyze the prognosis related factors.Methods:A case control study.Data of 66 patients with TSC-related refractory epilepsy who underwent SEEG placement at the Epilepsy Center of Tsinghua University Yu-Quan Hospital from January 2014 to March 2023 were retrospectively analyzed, including medical history, seizure semiology, scalp electroencephalogram (EEG), imaging, and SEEG findings.Patients were divided into a seizure-free group and a seizure group according to the seizures after surgery. t/ χ2 test was used to compare the relationship between age of onset, age of surgery, duration of epilepsy, genetic findings, seizure symptoms, scalp EEG characteristics, SEEG placement protocol and prognosis. Results:A total of 66 patients met the enrollment criteria, of whom 55 patients were seizure-free after surgery (seizure-free group), and 11 patients still had seizures (seizure group).Among the 66 patients, there were 46 males and 20 females; the age of onset was (21.72±30.01) months; the age of SEEG surgery was (6.79±5.12) years; the duration of epilepsy was (4.98±4.11) years.SEEG results showed that seizures started with a single tuber in 43 patients (64.4%), seizures started with 2 or more tubers in one hemisphere in 16 patients, and 7 patients had bilateral multi-tubers or the pathogenic tuber(s) could not be identified.The following factors were found to be associated with prognosis: early age of surgery ( t=-3.463, P<0.01), ictal scalp EEG with a definite lateralization ( χ2=7.876, P<0.05), and the concordance of interictal and ictal EEG ( χ2=6.821, P<0.05).The age of onset, duration of epilepsy, seizure type and symptom, genetic findings, and SEEG placement protocol were not significantly correlated with prognosis.The results of SEEG identified that onset with a single tuber revealed a better postoperative outcome. Conclusions:This study confirms the safety and efficacy of SEEG in TSC-related refractory epilepsy, and also finds that ictal EEG is uniquely valuable in guiding SEEG placement for TSC-related refractory epilepsy, which can help us better select patients with TSC-related refractory epilepsy who are suitable for SEEG placement.

The construction of a medication safety culture is important for medication safety management and rational drug use.The construction of medication safety culture standards is formulated based on relevant national policies and regulations,accreditation standards for hospitals,expert opinions,the current situation,and the development trend of the healthcare industry.With scientificity,general applicability,instructive guidance,and practicality,they standardized basic requirements,management processes,and improvement of the construction of medication safety culture.To facilitate understanding and the implementation of the standards,we describe the process of standards formulation and explain the key points of the standards.