Objective This study reports on the obligatory parasitism of water mites Arrenurus sp. on Anopheles messeae at the Manzhouli Port, Inner Mongolia, China. Methods Duing July 2024, a survey on the mosquito diversity was conducted at the Manzhouli Port. Captured mosquitoes and their ectoparasites were identified to species level. Results A total of 1840 adult mosquitoes were collected, representing species from three genera: Culex(Cx. modestus, Cx. pipiens pallens), Aedes(Ae. dorsalis, Ae. flavidorsalis, Ae. flavescens), and Anopheles (An. messeae). Among all the mosqutioes specimens,3 out of 150 captured An. messeae were found to carry ectoparasitic mites, with number of 2,4,27 mites separately. Morphological and molecular identification reached the same result as water mites(Hydrachnidiae, Hydracrina). COI gene sequence showed 94% similarity with the closest species Arrenurus truncatellus. Conlusions Literature review suggests water mites are host-specific parasitism of mosquito species and herein with the first record of Arrenurus sp. parasiting on An. Messeae in the most high-latitude region globally.

Background and aims The mechanism of cholestatic liver injury (CLI) is unclear, and effective therapies are lacking. While peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) agonists show potential hepatoprotective effect and pyroptosis is implicated in hepatocellular damage, how PPARα activation mitigates lithocholic acid (LCA)-induced pyroptosis remains unknown. Methods The hepatoprotective effect of PPARα agonists was evaluated in a mouse model of intrahepatic cholestasis induced by LCA. Liver injury was assessed via serum biochemistry, hematoxylin and eosin and TUNEL staining, and electron microscopy. Pyroptosis pathways were analyzed using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and co-immunoprecipitation. Results Combined morphological, histopathological, and biochemical analyses confirmed that PPARα activation protects against CLI. Compared with LCA treatment alone, PPARα activation significantly attenuated the elevation of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), the increased TUNEL-positive cells, and the formation of hepatocyte membrane pores. Mechanistically, PPARα activation suppressed both NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome-mediated pyroptosis and apoptosis protease-activating factor-1 (APAF-1)/CASPASE-3/GSDME-mediated pyroptosis. Furthermore, PPARα agonist pretreatment inhibited activation of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) and forkhead box O1 (FOXO1) signaling pathways. Conclusions PPARα protects against LCA-induced CLI by inhibiting both NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated pyroptosis associated with NF-κB and APAF-1/CASPASE-3/GSDME-mediated pyroptosis associated with the FOXO1 signaling pathway.

Objective We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Shengxuebao Mixture in the treatment of cancer-related anemia(CRA)presenting with syndrome of deficiency of liver and kidney combined with syndrome of deficiency of both qi and blood.Methods A randomized,double-blind,placebo-controlled,multicenter clinical trial was conducted.Eligible patients with malignant tumors meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled from 26 hospitals,including Dongzhimen Hospital,Beijing University of Chinese Medicine,Xiaogan Central Hospital,and Yangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine,from June 1,2022,to September 30,2024.Patients were allocated 1:1 to either the experimental group receiving Shengxuebao Mixture or the control group receiving its simulator(placebo)using a block randomization method under double-blind conditions.Both groups received 15 mL orally three times daily for 28 consecutive days.The primary efficacy indicators included the hemoglobin(Hb)improvement rate(RHb)and the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)syndrome improvement rate(RTCM)at week 4 of treatment.The secondary efficacy indicators encompassed Hb and red blood cell(RBC)count,Karnofsky Performance Status(KPS)score,TCM syndrome score,individual TCM symptom scores,and changes in each of these indicators compared to the baseline period at weeks 2,4,and 6 of treatment.Safety evaluations were conducted at week 4 of treatment.Results A total of 239 patients were enrolled,with 225 cases included in the Full Analysis Set(FAS)(109 in the experimental group vs.116 control group),163 in the Per Protocol Set(PPS)(77 vs.86),and 225 in the Safety Set(SS)(109 vs.116).Baseline characteristics between groups showed no significant differences.Significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups in RHb at week 4(FAS:49.51%vs.35.24%,P<0.05;PPS:53.25%vs.36.05%,P<0.05)and RTCM at week 4(FAS:61.54%vs.39.62%,P<0.01;PPS:64.94%vs.40.70%,P<0.01).At weeks 2,4,and 6,the experimental group showed greater improvements in Hb and RBC counts than the control group.Additionally,the TCM syndrome scores were lower in the experimental group than in the control group at these time points.Except for week 2 in PPS,the KPS improvement was better in the experimental group than in the control group(P<0.05).The experimental group also demonstrated a greater reduction in scores for individual TCM symptoms such as spiritlessness and weakness,poor appetite and reduced food intake at weeks 4 and 6 compared to the control group(P<0.05,P<0.01).Furthermore,the reduction in vertigo score was more pronounced in the experimental group at week 6(P<0.01).For the score of pale and lusterless complexion,only in the PPS was the reduction from baseline more significant in the experimental group than in the control group at weeks 4 and 6(P<0.05).No significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups in the incidence of all adverse events or drug-related adverse reactions.Conclusion Shengxuebao Mixture demonstrates significant efficacy in patients with CRA presenting syndrome of deficiency of liver and kidney combined with syndrome of deficiency of both qi and blood,effectively increasing Hb levels,ameliorating TCM syndromes,alleviating clinical symptoms,and enhancing functional status,with no significant difference in adverse drug reactions compared to the placebo.

With the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence(GAI)technologies,their widespread application in academic research and writing is continuously expanding the boundaries of sci-entific inquiry.However,this trend has also raised a series of ethical and regulatory challenges,inclu-ding issues related to authorship,content authenticity,citation accuracy,and accountability.In light of the growing involvement of AI in generating academic content,establishing an open,controllable,and trustworthy ethical governance framework has become a key task for safeguarding research integrity and maintaining trust within the academic community.This expert consensus outlines ethical requirements across key stages of AI-assisted academic writing-including topic selection,data management,citation practices,and authorship attribution.It aims to clarify the boundaries and ethical obligations surrounding AI use in academic writing,ensuring that technological tools enhance efficiency without compromising in-tegrity.The goal is to provide guidance and institutional support for building a responsible and sustainable research ecosystem.

As the first defense of respiratory system,airway epi-thelial cells(AECs)play an important role in separating the re-spiratory internal and external environment.They are essential for the natural immune function.Small airway lesions are an im-portant early pathology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD),when AECs are exposed to harmful particles or gases for a long time,the epithelial barrier is damaged,and the signa-ling pathways which involved in differentiation,repair,and in-flammatory are disordered,resulting in epithelial cell cycle stag-nation and accelerated aging.A number of studies have sugges-ted that AECs of COPD patients express high levels of aging markers,suggesting that senescence of AECs is closely related to COPD.This review discusses the potential mechanisms of AECs senescence in COPD,the impact of AECs senescence on the de-velopment and severity of the disease,and highlights potential targets for modulating cellular senescence in airway epithelium as a therapeutic approach in COPD.

Objective To explore the objective facial appearance characteristics of patients with coronary heart disease(CHD).Methods From April 7,2019 to December 1,2022,313 patients with CHD were recruited from Dongzhimen Hospital,Beijing University of Chinese Medicine,Dongfang Hospital,Beijing University of Chinese Medicine,and the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine,together with 293 healthy controls.Standardized facial images were obtained using the tongue-face diagnostic instrument.The face was divided into six regions:the forehead,left cheek,right cheek,nose,lips,and chin.Nine color parameters were extracted from each region,including red(R),green(G),blue(B),hue(H),saturation(S),value(V),lightness(L),red-green axis(a),and yellow-blue axis(b).Comparisons between groups were performed.Results Compared with the healthy group,in the forehead region,values of R,S,V,a,and b were higher in the coronary heart disease group,whereas B was lower(P<0.05);in the left cheek,nose,and chin regions,R,G,B,V,and L decreased,whereas S,a,and b increased(P<0.05);in the right cheek region,R,G,B,H,V,and L decreased,while S,a,and b increased(P<0.05);in the lips region,R,G,B,H,V,L,and a decreased,whereas S and b increased(P<0.05).Conclusion Compared with healthy individuals,patients with CHD present with a darker,more saturated facial complexion with reduced brightness,overall manifesting as"dark red complexion"and"dense but not bright color,"suggesting the pathogenesis of qi and blood circulation stagnation and internal blood stasis retention.The objective expression of facial features may have greater application value in syndrome differentiation and auxiliary diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine.

BACKGROUND:The cryopreservation technology enables tissues/cells to be stored for a long time in a low-temperature environment while maintaining the integrity of their activity and function,which is of great significance for the construction of cell therapy,tissue engineering and biological sample banks.Cryoprotective agents often contain dimethyl sulfoxide and serum.To avoid the toxic side effects of dimethyl sulfoxide,the complexity of serum components and immune responses,although some finished cryoprotective agents have been marketed,they are faced with many difficulties such as high cost and limited application.Therefore,there is an urgent need to develop a cryoprotective agent with clear components and the ability to solve the above problems.OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the effects of a novel cryoprotectant on cryopreservation efficiency of different tissue and cell sources.METHODS:By applying the novel cryoprotectant as an experimental group with the commercially available and widely used cryoprotectant(control group)to umbilical cord Wharton's jelly tissue,umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells,umbilical cord blood/peripheral blood mononuclear cells,NK and CIK cells,comparative analyses were conducted in terms of cell morphology,number,viability,surface markers,differentiation potential,and cell-killing toxicity assay before cryopreservation and after resuscitation thawing.We confirmed the cryopreservation effect of the new cryoprotectant and its potential application value.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)The novel cryoprotectant facilitated the normal growth of cryopreserved Wharton's jelly tissue upon recovery,exhibiting mesenchymal stem cell morphology.No significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups in terms of cell recovery rate,surface markers,and differentiation potential.(2)There was no significant difference in the number and viability of cells between the experimental group and the control group after cryopreservation of cord blood/peripheral blood mononuclear cells,and the cryo-resuscitated cell numbers and viability of derived NK cells/CIK cells did not show significant difference between the experimental and control groups.(3)For NK cells derived and differentiated from cord blood/peripheral blood mononuclear cells,there was no significant difference in the proportion of CD56+CD16+cell subpopulations between the experimental group and the control group.For CIK cells derived and differentiated from cord blood/peripheral blood mononuclear cells,there was no significant difference in the proportions of CD3+CD8+and CD3+CD56+cell subpopulations between the experimental group and the control group.(4)In terms of cytotoxicity testing,when the effective-target ratio of immune cells and melanoma cell line Mel624 was 20:1,whether it was NK cells/CIK cells derived from cord blood or peripheral blood mononuclear cells,there was no significant difference in the tumoricidal activity of cells between the experimental group and the control group.These findings suggest that the novel cryoprotectant can replace existing commercially available and widely used cryoprotectants,and is applicable to Wharton's jelly tissue,umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells,umbilical cord blood/peripheral blood mononuclear cells,as well as NK and CIK cells,providing a solid technical foundation for the scaling,standardization,and commercialization of universal cryoprotectants.

Aim To study the effect of anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody on high-fat diet-induced athero-sclerosis in ApoE-/-mice.Methods Twenty-four ApoE-/-mice were randomly divided into the normal group,high-fat group,and high-fat+anti-PD-L1 mAb group.After 70 days,the blood samples were harves-ted.Blood vessels(aortic root to abdominal aorta)and liver from each groups were stained with Oil Red O.Hematoxylin-eosin staining(HE)was employed to vis-ualize structural changes in liver.Enzyme-linked im-munosorbent assay(ELISA)was applied to detect the serum levels of total cholesterol(CHO),triglyceride(TG),high-density lipoprotein(HDL-c),low-density lipoprotein(LDL-c)and inflammatory factors(IFN-γ,TNF-α,IL-1 β).Flow cytometry was used to detect the proportion of lymphocytes(CD4 and CD8).RT-PCR was utilized to assess the expressions of IFN-γ,TNF-α,IL-1 β,CD4 and CD8 in liver.Results Compared with the high-fat group,the treatment with anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody promoted vascular wall and liver lipid accumulation,and also up-regulated serum and liver content of cholesterol(CHO),triglyceride(TG)and high-density lipoprotein(HDL-c).Treatment with anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody up-regulated the con-tent of alanine aminotransferase(GPT)and aspartate aminotransferase(GOT)in serum and liver,but not al-kaline phosphatase(AKP).ELISA test indicated that treatment with anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody stimu-lated the serum level of IFN-γ,TNF-α and IL-1 β.Fur-thermore,the mRNA level of IFN-γ,TNF-α and IL-1 βin liver was also up-regulated after treatment with anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody.With flow cytometry,we observed that treatment with anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody promoted hepatic CD8+T and CD8+IFN-γ+T cell activation,but had no effect on CD4+IFN-γ+T cell activation under high-fat feeding conditions.Con-clusions Anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody adminis-tered under high-fat feeding conditions can damage liv-er function and aggravate atherosclerosis by activating liver CD8+IFN-γ+T cells.

As the first defense of respiratory system,airway epi-thelial cells(AECs)play an important role in separating the re-spiratory internal and external environment.They are essential for the natural immune function.Small airway lesions are an im-portant early pathology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD),when AECs are exposed to harmful particles or gases for a long time,the epithelial barrier is damaged,and the signa-ling pathways which involved in differentiation,repair,and in-flammatory are disordered,resulting in epithelial cell cycle stag-nation and accelerated aging.A number of studies have sugges-ted that AECs of COPD patients express high levels of aging markers,suggesting that senescence of AECs is closely related to COPD.This review discusses the potential mechanisms of AECs senescence in COPD,the impact of AECs senescence on the de-velopment and severity of the disease,and highlights potential targets for modulating cellular senescence in airway epithelium as a therapeutic approach in COPD.

Objective:To evaluate the value of ultrasound radiomics combined with machine learning for early diagnosis of seronegative Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (SN-HT) .Methods:This retrospective study included 164 patients from Liaoning Provincial People’s Hospital , Lixin County People’s Hospital, Linghai Dalinghe Hospital, Fengcheng Phoenix Hospital, who underwent thyroidectomy for solitary nodules with normal thyroid function between Nov. 2016 and Jan. 2024. Postoperative pathology confirmed Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) in some cases, who were further categorized into antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups based on serum antibody status. Patients without Hashimoto’s thyroiditis served as the control group. A total of 298 ultrasound images were analyzed. Radiomics features were extracted from hypoechoic non-nodular areas within 0.5 cm surrounding the tumor. Two senior pathologists and two senior ultrasound physicians independently assessed lymphocytic infiltration, eosinophilic changes of follicular epithelium, and the proportion of hypoechoic areas in pathology and ultrasound images, respectively. A machine learning model, CCH-NET, was developed using linear regression and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) techniques. The dataset was divided into a training set (80%) and a validation set (20%) to compare the diagnostic accuracy of CCH-NET with that of senior ultrasound physicians. Results:In internal validation, CCH-NET achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 88.89% for both antibody-positive and antibody-negative groups, significantly higher than the 66.67% accuracy of senior ultrasound physicians ( P<0.01). In external validation, CCH-NET achieved 75.00% and 66.67% accuracy for the two groups, compared to 50.00% by senior ultrasound physicians. For the control group, both methods achieved 93.33% accuracy. The AUC of CCH-NET was 0.848, outperforming senior ultrasound physicians (0.681) ,demonstrating superior diagnostic performance. Conclusion:The radiomics-based CCH-NET model, using non-nodular hypoechoic areas as a specific indicator, can accurately identify early SN-HT in euthyroid patients. It significantly outperforms senior ultrasound physicians, improving diagnostic accuracy and reducing missed diagnoses.