Objective:To observe the clinical efficacy and safety of Jianpi Bushen Jiedu Prescription combined with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy and targeted therapy for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer patients with liver and kidney yin deficiency combined with spleen deficiency pattern.Methods:A randomized controlled trial was conducted. A total of 72 hospitalized patients with advanced colorectal cancer treated at the Department of Oncology, Nanjing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine from October 2022 to January 2024 were enrolled as study subjects. Using a random number table method, they were allocated into two groups, with 36 patients in each group. The control group received the mFOLFOX6/FOLFIRI combined with bevacizumab regimen, while the treatment group was administered additional oral Jianpi Bushen Jiedu Prescription on the basis of the control group. Two weeks was a cycle in both groups, with a total of 6 cycles of treatment. Serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199), and carbohydrate antigen 724 (CA724) were detected using electrochemiluminescence; the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scale was utilized to evaluate patients' functional status; vital signs were continuously monitored, and adverse reactions were recorded. The short-term efficacy and TCM syndrome efficacy of patients were evaluated.Results:The treatment group demonstrated higher objective response rate (ORR) [31.25% (10/32) vs. 21.88% (7/32), χ2=0.72] and disease control rate (DCR) [84.38% (27/32) vs. 71.88% (23/32), χ2=1.46] compared to the control group, without statistical significance ( P>0.05). Post-treatment levels of CEA [4.09 (3.31,8.57) μg/L vs. 10.07 (4.55,22.35) μg/L, Z=-2.10] and CA72-4 [4.54 (2.04,10.99) mU/L vs. 9.48 (4.34,18.95) mU/L, Z=-2.52] in the treatment group were significantly lower than those in the control group ( P<0.05). The total effective rate of TCM syndrome was significantly higher in the treatment group [78.13% (25/32)] compared with the control group [50.00% (16/32)], with statistical significance ( χ2=5.50, P=0.019). Post-treatment KPS scores in the treatment group [80.0 (80.0, 80.0) vs. 70.0 (62.5, 80.0), Z=-2.76] were significantly higher compared with the control group ( P<0.01). During the treatment period, the treatment group showed statistical significance compared with the control group in the incidence of hemoglobin decrease ( χ2=4.66), leukopenia decrease ( χ2=4.27), and peripheral neuropathy ( χ2=3.93), with statistical significance ( P<0.05). Conclusion:The addition of Jianpi Bushen Jiedu Prescription to 5-FU-based chemotherapy combined with targeted therapy demonstrates significant clinical benefits in advanced colorectal cancer patients, including reducing tumor marker levels, alleviating clinical symptoms, improving quality of life, and mitigating treatment-related toxicities, with a good safety.

Objective:To explore the effect of family empowerment model on the improvement of swallowing care ability and care preparedness of primary caregivers of first-episode stroke dysphagia patients, further to explore its impact on patients′s wallowing function and life quality.Methods:This study was a randomized controlled study. From January 2021 to December 2022, 80 main caregivers of patients with dysphagia caused by manual stroke admitted to the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Shenzhen Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine were selected as the research objects, and 40 cases in the control group and 40 cases in the observation group were selected by random number table method. The control group were treated with conventional nursing care of first-episode stroke dysphagia patients in the acupuncture and moxibustion Department. On the basis of the conventional care in the control group, the observation group were treated with family empowerment model intervention for 14 days and was followed up for 28 days. Primary caregivers′ swallowing care ability, Caregiver Preparedness Scale (CPS), patients′ swallowing function rate, Swallowing Related Quality of Life (SWALQOL) were used to evaluate the effects before intervention and at the end of intervention.Results:There were 18 males and 19 females primary caregivers in the control group, aged (55.61 ± 7.43) years old. There were 18 males and 21 females primary caregivers in the observation group, aged (58.23 ± 8.22) years old. The swallowing care ability score showed a statistically significant difference between the observation group (143.47 ± 3.96) and the control group (107.74 ± 1.43) ( t=-26.76, P<0.05). After intervention, the caregiver preparedness scale was (26.11 ± 3.81) in the observation group, and (18.35 ± 4.54) in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant ( t=-4.11, P<0.05).The patients′ swallowing function rate and SWALQOL score were respectively 97.44% (38/39) and (91.41 ± 8.08) points in the observation group, and 72.97% (27/37) and (80.33 ± 4.21) points in the control group, and the difference was both statistically significant ( χ2=10.76, t=-2.54, both P<0.05). Conclusions:The implementation of family empowerment model could enhance the swallowing care ability and care preparedness of primary caregivers of the first-episode stroke dysphagia patients, which could further improve patients′ swallowing function and life quality.

Adipose progenitor cells(APCs) represent a prominent stromal cellular component of adipose tissue and are now identified as highly heterogenous populations. However, the role of APCs in regulating systemic metabolism remains unknown. Using single cell RNA-sequencing, we investigated the role of the APC subpopulations in regulating development of type 2 diabetes. CD9 + CD55 low APCs are the novel subset identified in this study, which is significantly increased in type 2 diabetic patients. Transplantation of these cells from type 2 diabetic patients into adipose tissue caused glycemic disturbance in mice. Depletion of pathogenic APCs improved obesity-related glycemic disturbance. Collectively, our data provide deeper insights into human APC functionality and highlights APCs as a potential therapeutic target to combat type 2 diabetes. This study has been published in Nature Communications, 2024, 15(1): 4827.

Ferrets offer an advantage in nonclinical studies of anti-infective drugs because of their ability to be infected with and spread pathogenic microorganisms,especially viral strains,without the need for host adaptation.Additionally,the clinical symptoms exhibited by infected ferrets are very similar to those of humans.Although ferrets play a very important role in the research and development of antiviral drugs,the scope of their application remains limited.This may be related to the lack of corresponding national standards for laboratory animal feeding and application of ferrets as well as the lack of specific diagnostic and detection reagents.This paper summarizes the characteristics of ferrets as infectious disease models with a summary and analysis of the application direction of ferrets in anti-infective drug research.Our aim is to promote further standardization of the use of ferrets.

AIM:To explore the mechanism of PX-12 induced apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells.METHODS:Human hepatoma cell line Huh7 was se-lected as the main research object.After the cells were treated with thioredoxin inhibitor PX-12,the cell viability was detected by CCK8 method,the cell mi-gration ability was detected by cell scratch test,the cell proliferation ability was detected by cell prolif-eration kit,the levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species and apoptosis were detected by flow cy-tometry,and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins were detected by Western blot.RESULTS:Compared with the control group,the cell viability,migration ability and proliferation ability of PX-12 treatment group were significantly decreased(P＜0.05),and the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species was increased(P＜0.05)in a concentration-dependent manner.Apoptosis inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK and antioxidant NAC could restore the cell viability,and NAC could reduce the accumulation of intracel-lular reactive oxygen species induced by PX-12 and restore the apoptosis induced by PX-12(P＜0.05).CONCLUSION:PX-12 induces apoptosis of hepato-cellular carcinoma cells through oxidative stress.

Objective:To construct a reliability management index system of cardiology medical equipment supply,to form a reliability evaluation strategy,and to improve the effectiveness of reliability management.Methods:13 supply management items were decomposed from the three links of spare parts before use,tracking during use and post-use processing of 126 medical equipment,and the probability of work error,probability of quality problems and risk expectation of diagnosis and treatment were evaluated in the whole process management,and the whole-process management countermeasures of grading and stratification,quality standardization and department cooperation was formed.2,000 pieces(sets)of medical equipment used in The People's Hospital of Longhua from 2021 to 2022 were selected by random sampling method,and the department cooperative management[referred to as collaborative management mode,1,000 pieces(sets)times]and reliability evaluation management[referred to as evaluation management mode,1,000 pieces(sets)times]were adopted respectively.The reliability and satisfaction of medical equipment under different management modes were compared.Results:The work error probabilities of pre-use spare parts,in-use tracking,post-use processing and supply of medical equipment adopting evaluation management mode were(4.74±2.19)%,(4.39±1.85)%,(5.75±1.88)%and(8.29±1.30)%,respectively,which were lower than the collaborative management mode,the difference was statistically significant(t=5.367,5.663,5.432,6.847;P<0.05);the probabilities of quality problems were(4.13±1.67)%,(3.89±1.25)%,(5.28±1.84)%and(7.64±1.18)%,respectively,which were lower than the collaborative management mode,the difference was statistically significant(t=6.504,6.229,5.123,6.166,P<0.05);the risk expectations of diagnosis and treatment were(2.74±0.89)%,(2.47±0.96)%,(3.42±0.95)%and(4.02±1.09)%,respectively,which were lower than the collaborative management mode,the difference was statistically significant(t=7.027,6.509,8.915,9.266,P<0.05).The satisfaction of the relevant staff on the performance quality,sterilization specifications,supply timeliness,level of collaboration and safety of the medical equipment adopting the evaluation management mode were(93.54±4.65)%,(91.67±4.11)%,(94.58±4.34)%,(92.39±3.82)%and(90.97±3.76)%,respectively,which were higher than the collaborative management mode,the difference was statistically significant(t=2.809,3.030,2.843,4.939,3.739,P<0.05).Conclusion:The reliability management model can reduce the work errors and security risks in medical equipment supply,improve the reliability of supply and improve the quality of supply service.

【Objective】 To investigate the expression of optineurin (OPTN) in multiple myeloma (MM) and explore the mechanism and clinical value of OPTN gene in the occurrence and development of MM. 【Methods】 In this study, three gene expression omnibus (GEO) data sets were used to analyze the expression level of OPTN in MM. Clinical bone marrow samples of MM patients were collected. qRT-PCR was used to further verify the expression of OPTN in MM patients. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were used to analyze the value of OPTN in the prognosis and diagnosis of MM. At the same time, MM transcriptome data were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. According to the median boundary of OPTN mRNA expression level, the MM patients were divided into OPTN high- and low-expression groups. In order to investigate the possible molecular mechanisms of OPTN in MM, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was made after the differentially expressed genes were filtered using the limma package of the R language. 【Results】 The expression level of OPTN was significantly lower in MM tissues than in normal tissues (P<0.05). OPTN expression level was significantly correlated with International Staging System (ISS) in MM patients (P<0.05). ROC results showed that the expression level of OPTN could distinguish between normal and MM patients. Survival analysis showed that the overall survival (OS) of patients with low OPTN expression was significantly lower than that of patients with high OPTN expression (P<0.05). GO, KEGG and GSEA enrichment analyses indicated that OPTN might affect apoptosis and autophagy, and regulate cellular immune response by regulating Nod-like receptors, NF-κB, TNF and RAS/MAPK pathways. 【Conclusion】 Low expression of OPTN in MM is associated with poor prognosis of patients, and thus may be an important potential biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of MM.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2021.04.013.].

Objective:To investigate the correlation between serum lipoprotein (a) [LP(a)] and the severity of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) in the middle-aged and elderly people in the community.Methods:Consecutive middle-aged and elderly residents residing in the community underwent physical examinations in the Affiliated Jiangning Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from June 2016 to August 2021 were retrospectively collected. Fasting venous blood was collected on the next day of admission to detect the level of Lp(a). During hospitalization, cranial MRI examination was performed and the severity of WMHs was graded using the Fazekas visual scoring method. Ordinal multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine independent related factors for the severity of WMHs.Results:A total of 1 752 patients were included in the analysis. There were 969 males (55.31%) and 783 females (44.69%). Their age was 66.18±10.32 years old. There were 1 167 patients (66.61%) in the mild WMHs group, 407 (23.23%) in the moderate WMHs group, and 178 (10.16%) in the severe WMHs group. Ordinal multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that after adjusting for confounding factors, a higher serum Lp(a) level was independently related to the severity of WMHs (with the first quartile as a reference, the third quartile: odds ratio 1.441, 95% confidence interval 1.050-1.976, P=0.023; the fourth quartile: odds ratio 1.717, 95% confidence interval 1.252-2.354, P=0.001). Conclusion:Serum Lp(a) is independently correlated with the severity of WMHs.

Objective To explore the relationship between frailty and osteoporosis in elderly hospitalized patients.Methods A total of 163 elderly patients hospitalized in Wuhan Fourth Hospital from August 2022 to January 2023 were selected as the study objects.The Edmonton frail scale(EFS)was used to evaluated frailty,and they were divided into non-frailty group(n=21)and frailty group(n=142)based on the results.General data of the subjects were collected,bone mineral density was measured,Pearson correlation analysis was used to understand the correlation between bone mineral density and EFS score,and Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the influencing factors of frailty.Results The prevalence of osteoporosis in frailty group was significantly higher than that in non-frailty group(P<0.05).The EFS scores of patients with different bone mineral density were significantly different(F=24.010,P<0.001).Bone mineral density of vertebra,right femur and left femur were negatively correlated with EFS score(r=-0.426,-0.353,-0.424,P<0.05).Logistic regression analysis showed that old age,multiple complications and osteoporosis were independent risk factors for frailty in the elderly(P<0.05).Conclusion There is a significant correlation between frailty and osteoporosis,which is one of the risk factors of frailty.