This study aims to explore the pharmacodynamic material basis of Jinbei Oral Liquid(JBOL) against idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis(IPF) based on serum pharmacochemistry and network pharmacology. The ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry(UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) technology was employed to analyze and identify the components absorbed into rat blood after oral administration of JBOL. Combined with network pharmacology, the study explored the pharmacodynamic material basis and potential mechanism of JBOL against IPF through protein-protein interaction(PPI) network construction, "component-target-pathway" analysis, Gene Ontology(GO) functional enrichment, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. First, a total of 114 compounds were rapidly identified in JBOL extract according to the exact relative molecular mass, fragment ions, and other information of the compounds with the use of reference substances and a self-built compound database. Second, on this basis, 70 prototype components in blood were recognized by comparing blank serum with drug-containing serum samples, including 28 flavonoids, 25 organic acids, 4 saponins, 4 alkaloids, and 9 others. Finally, using these components absorbed into blood as candidates, the study obtained 212 potential targets of JBOL against IPF. The anti-IPF mechanism might involve the action of active ingredients such as glycyrrhetinic acid, cryptotanshinone, salvianolic acid B, and forsythoside A on core targets like AKT1, TNF, and ALB and thereby the regulation of multiple signaling pathways including PI3K/AKT, HIF-1, and TNF. In conclusion, JBOL exerts the anti-IPF effect through multiple components, targets, and pathways. The results would provide a reference for further study on pharmacodynamic material basis and pharmacological mechanism of JBOL.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacokinetics* ; Animals ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry ; Network Pharmacology ; Rats ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Male ; Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis/metabolism* ; Humans ; Administration, Oral ; Protein Interaction Maps/drug effects* ; Signal Transduction/drug effects*

Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU) is one of the most commonly occurring pathogens associated with genital tract infections in infertile males, but the impact of seminal UU infection in semen on intrauterine insemination (IUI) outcomes is poorly understood. We collected data from 245 infertile couples who underwent IUI at The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC (Hefei, China) between January 2021 and January 2023. The subjects were classified into two groups according to their UU infection status: the UU-positive group and the UU-negative group. We compared semen parameters, pregnancy outcomes, and neonatal birth outcomes to investigate the impact of UU infection on IUI outcomes. There were no significantly statistical differences in various semen parameters, including semen volume, sperm concentration, total and progressive motility, sperm morphology, leukocyte count, the presence of anti-sperm antibody, and sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI), between the UU-positive and UU-negative groups of male infertile patients (all P > 0.05). However, the high DNA stainability (HDS) status of sperm differed between the UU-positive and UU-negative groups, suggesting that seminal UU infection may affect sperm nuclear maturation ( P = 0.04). Additionally, there were no significant differences in pregnancy or neonatal birth outcomes between the two groups (all P > 0.05). These results suggest that IUI remains a viable and cost-effective option for infertile couples with UU infection who are facing infertility issues.
Humans ; Male ; Ureaplasma Infections/complications* ; Female ; Infertility, Male/therapy* ; Ureaplasma urealyticum/isolation & purification* ; Pregnancy ; Adult ; Pregnancy Outcome ; Semen Analysis ; Insemination, Artificial ; Semen/microbiology* ; China

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role and mechanism of copper overload-mediated endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) in vascular endothelial injury in Kawasaki disease (KD). METHODS: Four-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four groups: control, KD, KD plus copper chelator tetrathiomolybdate (TTM), and KD plus ERS inhibitor AMG PERK 44 (AMG) (n=20 per group). A KD mouse model was established using Candida albicans extract. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were divided into control (intervention with healthy children's serum), KD (intervention with KD patients' serum), and KD+TTM (intervention with KD patients' serum plus 20 µmol/L TTM). Copper deposition in mouse heart tissue was assessed using rubeanic acid staining. Vascular pathological changes were observed using hematoxylin-eosin staining and measurement of abdominal aortic diameter and area. ERS activation was detected by transmission electron microscopy and immunofluorescence. HUVEC viability, apoptosis, and functional changes were evaluated using CCK8, flow cytometry, cell scratch assay, and angiogenesis experiments. ERS marker protein expression levels were measured by Western blot. RESULTS: Compared to the KD group, the KD+TTM and KD+AMG groups showed reduced copper deposition in the vascular wall, decreased swelling of coronary endothelial cells and endoplasmic reticulum, reduced inflammatory cell infiltration, and less abdominal aortic lesion expansion. The abdominal aortic diameter and area, and the fluorescence intensity of ERS marker proteins (GRP78 and CHOP) were significantly lower (P<0.05). Compared to the KD group, the KD+TTM group exhibited increased cell viability, tube number, and scratch healing rate, along with decreased apoptosis rate and expression of ERS marker proteins (GRP78, CHOP, ATF6, and p-PERK) (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Copper overload aggravates vascular endothelial injury in KD by activating the ERS pathway. TTM can exert protective effects on the endothelium by regulating copper metabolism and inhibiting the ERS pathway.
Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress ; Copper/toxicity* ; Male ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome/metabolism* ; Animals ; Humans ; Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone BiP ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Mice ; Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells ; Apoptosis ; Endothelium, Vascular/injuries*

Objective To investigate the risk factors for bronchopulmonary dysplasia(BPD)in twin preterm infants with a gestational age of<34 weeks,and to provide a basis for early identification of BPD in twin preterm infants in clinical practice.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the twin preterm infants with a gestational age of<34 weeks who were admitted to 22 hospitals nationwide from January 2018 to December 2020.According to their conditions,they were divided into group A(both twins had BPD),group B(only one twin had BPD),and group C(neither twin had BPD).The risk factors for BPD in twin preterm infants were analyzed.Further analysis was conducted on group B to investigate the postnatal risk factors for BPD within twins.Results A total of 904 pairs of twins with a gestational age of<34 weeks were included in this study.The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that compared with group C,birth weight discordance of>25%between the twins was an independent risk factor for BPD in one of the twins(OR=3.370,95%CI:1.500-7.568,P<0.05),and high gestational age at birth was a protective factor against BPD(P<0.05).The conditional logistic regression analysis of group B showed that small-for-gestational-age(SGA)birth was an independent risk factor for BPD in individual twins(OR=5.017,95%CI:1.040-24.190,P<0.05).Conclusions The development of BPD in twin preterm infants is associated with gestational age,birth weight discordance between the twins,and SGA birth.

Objective To investigate the cumulative incidence of recurrence(CIR)in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL)after treatment with the Chinese Children's Cancer Group ALL-2015(CCCG-ALL-2015)protocol and the risk factors for recurrence.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 852 children who were treated with the CCCG-ALL-2015 protocol from January 2015 to December 2019.CIR was calculated,and the risk factors for the recurrence of B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia(B-ALL)were analyzed.Results Among the 852 children with ALL,146(17.1%)experienced recurrence,with an 8-year CIR of 19.8%±1.6%.There was no significant difference in 8-year CIR between the B-ALL group and the acute T lymphocyte leukemia group(P>0.05).For the 146 children with recurrence,recurrence was mainly observed in the very early stage(n=62,42.5%)and the early stage(n=46,31.5%),and there were 42 children with bone marrow recurrence alone(28.8%)in the very early stage and 27 children with bone marrow recurrence alone(18.5%)in the early stage.The Cox proportional-hazards regression model analysis showed that positive MLLr fusion gene(HR=4.177,95%CI:2.086-8.364,P<0.001)and minimal residual disease≥0.01%on day 46(HR=2.013,95%CI:1.163-3.483,P=0.012)were independent risk factors for recurrence in children with B-ALL after treatment with the CCCG-ALL-2015 protocol.Conclusions There is still a relatively high recurrence rate in children with ALL after treatment with the CCCG-ALL-2015 protocol,mainly bone marrow recurrence alone in the very early stage and the early stage,and minimal residual disease≥0.01%on day 46 and positive MLLr fusion gene are closely associated with the recurrence of B-ALL.

Thyroglobulin(Tg)is a glycoprotein with large molecular weight,which is synthesized and secreted into the bloodstream by thyroid follicular cells.The concentration level of Tg in blood is one of the important biomarkers for diagnosis of thyroid diseases such as differentiated thyroid cancer(DTC),subacute thyroiditis,etc..Radioimmunoassay(RIA),immunoradiometric assay(IRMA),and immunochemiluminescence assay(ICMA)are the main clinical methods for detecting Tg.Recently,for meeting the requirement of detecting low concentration of Tg in blood after thyroid clearance surgery,researchers have developed various high-performance analysis methods for detecting Tg concentration in blood samples,providing new assays for thyroid disease screening and efficacy evaluation.This review summarized the analysis methods of Tg,especially the new progresses in the biosensors for monitoring low concentration of Tg in blood during the past five years.The current technical challenges of these methods in clinical applications were briefly discussed,which might provide useful information for developing new liquid biopsy methods of DTC.

Objective To construct a measurement tool for atrial fibrillation(AF)patients'experience of catheter ablation,in order to provide quantifiable basis for improving the patients'perioperative experience.Methods From Jun 2022 to Apr 2023,literature analysis,qualitative research,Delphi expert consultation,and analytic hierarchy process were used to determine the content and weight of various indicators of the measurement tool.Results The enthusiasm of experts in 3 rounds was 100%.The authority coefficient of experts was 0.946,0.961 and 0.976.The Kendal harmony coefficients of the 2 and 3 rounds of expert consultation was 0.130 and 0.370(P＜0.001).The final measurement tool included 46 items and 5 dimensions,including operational and technical quality experience,comfort management experience,information and communication experience,emotional support experience,service process and response experience.Conclusion The preliminary construction of measurement tool for AF patients'experience of catheter ablation,which were based on the features of specialty,could not only evaluate the patients'experience accurately,but also provide a basis for targeted improvement of medical and nursing service quality.

Objective:To investigate the feasibility of a three-dimensional no new U-Net (3D nnU-Net) deep learning (DL) network for the automatic segmentation of colorectal cancer (CRC) based on abdominal CT images.Methods:This was a cross-sectional study. From January 2018 to May 2023, a total of 2180 primary CRC patients, confirmed by pathology at the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (center 1, n=777), Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University (center 2, n=732), and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital (center 3, n=671), were enrolled in this retrospective study. The baseline abdominal CT examination of each patient was conducted using CT equipment from 7 different models across 4 vendors, at the 3 centers, encompassing both the arterial phase (AP) and venous phase (VP). Two radiologists manually delineated the volume of interest to circumscribe the entire tumors in dual-enhanced phase CT images. The CT data of CRC patients from center 1 and center 3 were merged and divided into a training set ( n=1 159) and a validation set ( n=289) using a weighted random method with a ratio of 4∶1. The patients from center 2 were used as an independent external test set ( n=732). The 3D nnU-Net segmentation model was trained and tested. Using manually annotated label data as the benchmark, segmentation performance of the model was evaluated based on different phases and tumor locations. The segmentation coverage rate (SCR), Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), recall (REC), precision (PRE), F1-score, and 95% Hausdorff distance (HD 95) were calculated. The mean manual segmentation time and the mean automatic time were compared using independent samples t-test. Results:In the independent external test set, the performance of the 3D nnU-Net model based on the AP CT images was superior to that based on the VP CT images. On the AP images, the SCR, DSC, REC, PRE, F1-score, and HD 95 were 0.865, 0.714, 0.716, 0.736, 0.714, and 27.228, respectively; on the VP images, they were 0.834, 0.679, 0.710, 0.675, 0.679, and 29.358, respectively. The model achieved the best performance on right-sided colon cancer, with SCR, DSC, REC, PRE, F1-score, and HD95 on the AP CT images at 0.901, 0.775, 0.780, 0.787, 0.775, and 21.793, respectively. Next were left-sided colon cancer and rectal cancer, while the segmentation performance for transverse colon cancer was the worst (SCR, DSC, REC, PRE, F1-score, and HD 95 were 0.731, 0.631, 0.641, 0.630, 0.631 and 38.721, respectively). The automatic segmentation time on a single phase was (1.0±0.3) min, while the manual segmentation time was (17.5±6.0) min ( t=128.24, P<0.001). Conclusions:After training and validating on a dataset from multiple centers with various CT scanner vendors, the 3D nnU-Net DL model demonstrates the capability to automatically segment CRC based on abdominal CT images, while also showcasing commendable robustness and generalization ability.

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of mucin 1 (MUC1) on the proliferation and apoptosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its regulatory mechanism. MethodsThe 60 NPC and paired para-cancer normal tissues were collected from October 2020 to July 2021 in Quanzhou First Hospital. The expression of MUC1 was measured by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) in the patients with PNC. The 5-8F and HNE1 cells were transfected with siRNA control (si-control) or siRNA targeting MUC1 (si-MUC1). Cell proliferation was analyzed by cell counting kit-8 and colony formation assay, and apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry analysis in the 5-8F and HNE1 cells. The qPCR and ELISA were executed to analyze the levels of TNF-α and IL-6. Western blot was performed to measure the expression of MUC1, NF-кB and apoptosis-related proteins (Bax and Bcl-2). ResultsThe expression of MUC1 was up-regulated in the NPC tissues, and NPC patients with the high MUC1 expression were inclined to EBV infection, growth and metastasis of NPC. Loss of MUC1 restrained malignant features, including the proliferation and apoptosis, downregulated the expression of p-IкB、p-P65 and Bcl-2 and upregulated the expression of Bax in the NPC cells. ConclusionDownregulation of MUC1 restrained biological characteristics of malignancy, including cell proliferation and apoptosis, by inactivating NF-κB signaling pathway in NPC.

To explore the application of humanistic care in children's fever clinics,the children's fever clinics of Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center conducted relevant research using narrative medicine as a guiding concept.This paper elaborated on the medical humanistic dilemmas and narrative care needs in children's fever clinics,and focused on exploring the practice paths of narrative medicine in pediatric with Chinese characteristics from five dimensions,including the cultivation of nursing staff's abilities of professional narrative and humanistic care,the establishment of health lectures featuring narrative patient education,the alleviation of medical anxiety for children and their families,related support of narrative nursing,and caring services.The aim was to improve the narrative care ability of nurses in children's fever clinics,develop methods for pediatric patients that can eliminate the fear of seeking medical treatment,and protect children's physical and mental health.A carrier of care,support,and emotional expression can be provided for parents.The foundation for nursing staff to achieve professional growth through narrative reflection can be laid.Thus,it can assist in establishing a life narrative community relationship between doctors and patients,and jointly explore the meaning of life.