1.Therapeutic Mechanisms of Active Components and Compound Formulas of Astragali Radix for Ischemic Stroke: A Review
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2026;32(22):318-330
Ischemic stroke (IS) is characterized by a high incidence, a high disability rate, and a high mortality rate. Its pathological mechanism is complex, involving oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, glutamate excitotoxicity, blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, abnormal autophagy and apoptosis, energy metabolism disorder, ferroptosis, and cuproptosis. Long-term use of conventional clinical drugs is associated with certain adverse reactions. As a classic Chinese herbal medicine for replenishing Qi, Astragali Radix is widely used in the prevention and treatment of IS. Modern research has confirmed that it contains various active components, including total astragalosides, total polysaccharides, and total flavonoids, which exert cerebroprotective effects by regulating signaling pathways such as nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2/heme oxygenase-1 (Nrf2/HO-1), nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt), adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin (AMPK/mTOR). These effects include anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, inhibition of excitotoxicity, protection of BBB, regulation of autophagy and apoptosis, suppression of ferroptosis, and improvement of energy metabolism. This article systematically reviews the core pathological links of IS, summarizes the cerebroprotective effects of the main active components, classic herb pairs, and representative compound formulas of Astragali Radix, and analyzes their synergistic intervention patterns against the above pathological mechanisms. Furthermore, this paper discusses the current research limitations in clinical translation, material basis, and emerging cell death modalities, along with future perspectives, aiming to provide a theoretical reference for the clinical application of Astragali Radix and its combinations in treating IS and for the development of new drugs.
2.Enhancer trapping nearby rps26 gene in zebrafish mediated by the Tol2 transposon and it's annotation.
Yatong SANG ; Dan SHEN ; Wei CHEN ; Shuheng CHAN ; Hao GU ; Bo GAO ; Chengyi SONG
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2018;34(3):449-458
With the completion of large-scale genome sequencing of human beings and other organisms, understanding the expression of control elements on the genome has become an important research task in the post-genome era. The enhancer trapping technology is an effective method for identifying enhancer elements in the genome and understanding its mechanism for gene expression regulation. In this study, we selected the stable enhancer trapping line TK4 (head and trunk specific GFP expression), which is generated with the mediation of Tol2 transposon system, and analyzed the trapped enhancers with the techniques of Splinkerette PCR (sp-PCR), in situ hybridization and comparative genomics. We crossed F1 individuals of TK4 line with wild-type zebrafish, collected fertilized eggs, and then detected the expression pattern of green fluorescent protein reporter gene by fluorescence microscopy at six different developmental stages, 6 hpf (hour post fertilization), 24 hpf, 48 hpf, 3 dpf (day post fertilization), 4 dpf and 5 dpf . The zebrafish genome flank sequence near the insertion site of Tol2 transposon was cloned by sp-PCR, and the results revealed that the insertion located at the position 27749253 of chromosome 23, and the transgene inserted reversely inside the intron 1 of rps26 gene. Within the 100 kb region of the insertion site, totally, seven genes including arf3a, wnt10b, wnt1, rps26, IKZF4, dnajc22 and lmbr1l were identified. Comparative genomic analysis by VISTA program revealed that there were two potential enhancer elements in the downstream of rps26 gene, which were conserved non-coding sequence (CNS) 1 and CNS2. The results of in situ hybridization showed that two transcripts of rps26 gene were maternal expression, the expression of rps26-201 in zygote was earlier than that of rps26-001, and the GFP signal of TK4 line zebrafish was not detectable before 6hpf, the expression patterns of rps26 and GFP at the late stages display similarity, and also represent differences, which suggested that the expression of rps26 and GFP may be controlled by the same enhancer, and also by the different enhancer, and two potential enhancers (CNS1 and CNS2) may play a differential regulation roles on the spatial and temporal expression of nearby genes (including rps26). In this study, we successfully obtained two potential enhancers near rps26 gene for the first time, which laid a foundation for further study of the regulation mechanism between these two enhancers and nearby genes in the genome, and the combination technique used in this study also provides a reference for enhancer analysis.
3.Diagnostic value of reflectance confocal microscopy combined with dermoscopy for melanocytic nevus
Yajie ZHENG ; Xue SHEN ; Yan JING ; Yatong WU ; Ruixing YU ; Lei WANG ; Ke XUE ; Yong CUI
Chinese Journal of Dermatology 2017;50(7):517-520
Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) alone or in combination for melanocytic nevus.Methods A total of 37 patients with clinically diagnosed melanocytic nevus were collected.Skin lesions were firstly examined by dermoscopy and RCM,then were resected to be subjected to histopathological examination for final diagnosis.The imaging features of melanocytic nevus were summarized.The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value and accuracy of different skin imaging techniques were calculated,and the consistency was analyzed between skin imaging techniques and histopathological examination.Results Based on the dermoscopic and RCM findings,2 kinds of nevus cells with different morphological features were observed in the dermis of intradermal nevus.One kind of nevus cells was characterized by a nonfusional,highly-refractive round structure in the papillary dermis under RCM,and by a brown or light brown homogenous pattern under dermoscopy,which was observed in 5 skin lesions.The other kind of nevus cells appeared as irregular,highly-refractive cell clumps in the papillary dermis under RCM,and by a cobblestone or globular pattern under dermoscopy,which was observed in 31 skin lesions.For the diagnosis of melanocytic nevus,the sensitivity,specificity,accuracy,positive predictive value and negative predictive value of RCM combined with dermoscopy were 91.7%,87.5%,90.9%,97.1% and 70% respectively,those of RCM were 86.1%,75%,84%,93.9% and 54.5% respectively,and those of dermoscopy were 77.8%,87.5%,75%,96.3% and 41.2% respectively.All the diagnostic indices of RCM combined with dermoscopy were higher than those of RCM or dermoscopy alone,except that the specificity was equal to that of dermoscopy alone.RCM showed higher sensitivity,accuracy and negative predictive value,but lower specificity and positive predictive value compared with dermoscopy.There were no significant differences in the diagnostic yield in melanocytic nevus between RCM combined with dermoscopy or RCM alone and histopathological examination (x2 =0.25,0.57,P =0.63,0.45,Kappa value =0.72,0.53,respectively).However,a significant difference in the diagnostic yield in melanocytic nevus was observed between dermoscopy and histopathological examination (x2 =5.81,P =0.012).Conclusion RCM combined with dermoscopy shows higher diagnostic accuracy for melanocytic nevus compared with RCM or dermoscopy alone.

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