1.Cost-effectiveness analysis of cefiderocol for the treatment of confirmed or suspected carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria serious infections
Yuan GONG ; Shuo KANG ; Yibing HOU ; Xiaohui WANG ; Ying NIE ; Jing WANG ; Zhenhua PAN
China Pharmacy 2026;37(2):192-197
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of cefiderocol versus best available therapy (BAT) or standard-of- care (SOC) for the treatment of confirmed or suspected carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacterial (CRGNB) serious infections from the perspective of the Chinese healthcare system, and to explore its reasonable pricing. METHODS A decision tree model was constructed based on data from two phase Ⅲ clinical trials (CREDIBLE-CR and GAME CHANGER) to simulate the cost- effectiveness of cefiderocol in two scenarios: salvage therapy for confirmed CRGNB infection (scenario 1) and empirical therapy for suspected CRGNB infection (scenario 2). The primary outcome measure was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). The willingness-to-pay (WTP) was set at 1 to 3 times China’s per capita GDP in 2024. To verify the robustness of the results, one- way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted, and based on these, a reasonable price range for cefiderocol in the Chinese market was explored. RESULTS The results for scenario 1 showed that the clinical cure rate in the cefiderocol group was higher than that in the BAT group (47.50% vs. 34.21%), but its ICER was 415 065.03 yuan per cured case, exceeding three times China’s GDP per capita. Scenario 2 revealed that the ICER for cefiderocol relative to SOC was as high as 1 362 446.16 yuan per cured case, far exceeding the WTP. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the treatment duration and price of cefiderocol were key factors affecting its cost-effectiveness. In the two scenarios described above, the unit price of cefiderocol must fall below 683.47 and 242.00 yuan/g, respectively, to be considered cost-effective. CONCLUSIONS Based on the current market price, cefiderocol lacks sufficient cost-effectiveness for treating confirmed or suspected CRGNB serious infections within China’s healthcare system. To improve its accessibility, price negotiations or a tiered medical insurance payment strategy are required.
2.Application of frontal electroencephalogram in assessment of anxiety, depression,and sleep quality in adolescents with emotional disorders
Ying YANG ; Haiting XU ; Weigang PAN ; Xinpeng XU ; Siyuan LIU ; Xiaohong LI
Sichuan Mental Health 2026;39(2):112-118
BackgroundEmotional disorders in adolescents have emerged as a prominent issue in recent years. Current mainstream clinical assessment approaches for such conditions predominantly rely on interviews and rating scales, which are limited by inherent drawbacks such as high subjectivity and recall bias. Accordingly, there exists an urgent clinical need for the development of objective, quantifiable auxiliary diagnostic tools.In previous studies, frontal electroencephalography (EEG) has demonstrated significant value in assessing depressive and anxiety. However, the lack of standardized quantitative metrics and intuitive visual analytical approaches has severely restricted clinical interpretability of EEG data and diminished patient engagement. To address these key limitations, the present study proposes an innovative analytical framework that converts frontal EEG signals into quantifiable visual metrics to enhance clinical comprehension and acceptance. ObjectiveTo explore the value of frontal EEG in assessing anxiety, depression, and sleep quality in adolescents with emotional disorders, with the aim of providing objective auxiliary tools for clinical diagnosis and assessment of adolescents with emotional disorders. MethodsThis cross-sectional study recruited 105 adolescents aged 12-18 years who visited the outpatient department of a specialized mental hospital in Beijing from April 2023 to April 2024. All participants met the diagnostic criteria for mood (affective) disorders or anxiety disorders in the International Classification of Diseases, tenth edition (ICD-10). Frontal EEG signals were collected within a big data analytics-driven framework and further processed by EEG system to generate six quantitative cerebral function indices, namely brain load, tension and excitement, emotional stress, sleepiness index, cerebral vitality, and cerebral fatigue. In addition, validated standardized scales, including the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), were administered for anxiety, depressive symptoms, and sleep quality, respectively. ResultsIn adolescent patients with emotional disorders, the SAS score exhibited significant positive correlations with brain load (rs=0.328, P<0.01), emotional stress (rs=0.341, P<0.01), and cerebral fatigue (rs=0.286, P<0.01). The SDS score was positively correlated with brain load (rs=0.275, P<0.01), emotional stress (rs=0.241, P<0.05), and cerebral fatigue (rs=0.311, P<0.01), while showing a significant negative correlation with cerebral vitality (rs=-0.212, P<0.05). Additionally, the PSQI total score demonstrated positive correlations with brain load (rs=0.340, P<0.01), emotional stress (rs=0.322, P<0.01), and cerebral fatigue (rs=0.229, P<0.05). ConclusionFrontal EEG-derived indices, including brain load, emotional stress, cerebral fatigue and cerebral vitality, may serve as objective markers for reflecting anxiety, depression, and sleep quality in adolescents with emotional disorders. [Funded by Beijing High level Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talent Support Program (number, 202504841041); Horizontal Joint Project]
3.Pathogenesis Reasoning Chain-of-thought Supervision for Large Language Models: Syndrome Manifestation Recognition and Multidimensional Evaluation in Spleen-stomach Disorders
Shu-Han YANG ; Yu-Xin HU ; Xin-Yu YU ; Yu-Ying TU ; Yi-Chang ZANG ; Pan-Fei LI
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2026;53(5):1240-1263
ObjectiveThe essence of syndrome manifestation recognition in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is to infer the body’s latent pathogenesis state from clinical observational information, rather than to perform simple label matching. However, previous studies have largely modeled this task as syndrome pattern classification within a fixed label space, which does not adequately reflect the cognition process of TCM syndrome differentiation centered on pathogenesis reasoning, and is also insufficient to capture the openness, semantic variability, and cross-disease reusability of syndrome manifestation expression. This study aimed to investigate whether introducing pathogenesis reasoning chain-of-thought (PR-CoT) supervision into large language models (LLMs) could improve the quality and cognitive consistency of syndrome manifestation recognition and support cross-disease transfer. MethodsSyndrome manifestation recognition was formulated as a conditional generation task under the framework of clinical observational information (X)→pathogenesis structure (Z)→syndrome pattern output (Y), where Z serves as an explicit intermediate structural variable linking the clinical evidence and syndrome judgment. Within this framework, a PR-CoT-supervised dataset for syndrome manifestation recognition was constructed based on medical case records of spleen-stomach disorders. After preprocessing, information extraction, manual proofreading, and data cleaning, the dataset comprised 4 800 training cases, 400 development cases, and 400 test cases. Each sample was annotated with a structured PR-CoT consisting of three progressive levels: clinical information summarization, comprehensive pathogenesis analysis, and syndrome pattern output. Supervised fine-tuning was conducted on open-source LLMs, with an end-to-end model serving as the baseline. Qwen3-32B was used as the primary experimental model, and Qwen3-14B as the scale comparison model. A progressive multidimensional evaluation framework was further established, comprising a structural parsing level, a semantic similarity level, and an expert blind review level. At the structural parsing level, syndrome pattern expressions were decomposed into structural elements and evaluated using Precision, Recall, F1 score, and Jaccard similarity. At the semantic similarity level, independent LLMs scored the theoretical proximity between predicted and reference syndrome patterns. At the expert blind review level, three TCM experts independently evaluated model outputs on two dimensions: syndrome differentiation consistency and terminology standardization of syndrome patterns. In addition, zero-shot cross-disease transfer evaluation was conducted on gynecological and heart-system disorder test sets. ResultsAt the structural parsing level, PR-CoT supervision did not lead to a stable improvement in the element-wise overlap of syndrome pattern structural components. Compared with the corresponding baselines, neither Qwen3-32B nor Qwen3-14B showed consistent advantages in structural matching metrics after the introduction of PR-CoT supervision. In contrast, at the semantic similarity level, PR-CoT supervision produced stable positive gains across different model scales and evaluation systems. The average semantic score of Qwen3-32B increased from 6.425 8 in the baseline model to 6.585 0 after PR-CoT supervision, and that of Qwen3-14B increased from 5.870 0 to 5.964 2. At the expert blind review level, the overall score of Qwen3-32B (PR-CoT) was 7.026 0±0.107 7, higher than 6.416 3±0.288 9 for its baseline. In zero-shot cross-disease testing, the PR-CoT model still showed advantages in semantic evaluation and expert evaluation on both gynecological and heart-system disorder test sets, indicating a certain degree of transferability. ConclusionThe benefits of PR-CoT supervision are mainly reflected in TCM semantic consistency and clinical plausibility, rather than in improved hard matching of structural elements. These findings support understanding syndrome manifestation recognition as a process of generating and expressing latent pathogenesis structures, rather than as a classification task within a traditional fixed label space. By introducing pathogenesis reasoning as an explicit intermediate structure into the modeling process and combining it with a progressive multidimensional evaluation framework, this study provides a methodological pathway for intelligent TCM syndrome differentiation that integrates theoretical alignment, interpretability, and multi-level evaluation.
4.Pathogenesis Reasoning Chain-of-thought Supervision for Large Language Models: Syndrome Manifestation Recognition and Multidimensional Evaluation in Spleen-stomach Disorders
Shu-Han YANG ; Yu-Xin HU ; Xin-Yu YU ; Yu-Ying TU ; Yi-Chang ZANG ; Pan-Fei LI
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2026;53(5):1240-1263
ObjectiveThe essence of syndrome manifestation recognition in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is to infer the body’s latent pathogenesis state from clinical observational information, rather than to perform simple label matching. However, previous studies have largely modeled this task as syndrome pattern classification within a fixed label space, which does not adequately reflect the cognition process of TCM syndrome differentiation centered on pathogenesis reasoning, and is also insufficient to capture the openness, semantic variability, and cross-disease reusability of syndrome manifestation expression. This study aimed to investigate whether introducing pathogenesis reasoning chain-of-thought (PR-CoT) supervision into large language models (LLMs) could improve the quality and cognitive consistency of syndrome manifestation recognition and support cross-disease transfer. MethodsSyndrome manifestation recognition was formulated as a conditional generation task under the framework of clinical observational information (X)→pathogenesis structure (Z)→syndrome pattern output (Y), where Z serves as an explicit intermediate structural variable linking the clinical evidence and syndrome judgment. Within this framework, a PR-CoT-supervised dataset for syndrome manifestation recognition was constructed based on medical case records of spleen-stomach disorders. After preprocessing, information extraction, manual proofreading, and data cleaning, the dataset comprised 4 800 training cases, 400 development cases, and 400 test cases. Each sample was annotated with a structured PR-CoT consisting of three progressive levels: clinical information summarization, comprehensive pathogenesis analysis, and syndrome pattern output. Supervised fine-tuning was conducted on open-source LLMs, with an end-to-end model serving as the baseline. Qwen3-32B was used as the primary experimental model, and Qwen3-14B as the scale comparison model. A progressive multidimensional evaluation framework was further established, comprising a structural parsing level, a semantic similarity level, and an expert blind review level. At the structural parsing level, syndrome pattern expressions were decomposed into structural elements and evaluated using Precision, Recall, F1 score, and Jaccard similarity. At the semantic similarity level, independent LLMs scored the theoretical proximity between predicted and reference syndrome patterns. At the expert blind review level, three TCM experts independently evaluated model outputs on two dimensions: syndrome differentiation consistency and terminology standardization of syndrome patterns. In addition, zero-shot cross-disease transfer evaluation was conducted on gynecological and heart-system disorder test sets. ResultsAt the structural parsing level, PR-CoT supervision did not lead to a stable improvement in the element-wise overlap of syndrome pattern structural components. Compared with the corresponding baselines, neither Qwen3-32B nor Qwen3-14B showed consistent advantages in structural matching metrics after the introduction of PR-CoT supervision. In contrast, at the semantic similarity level, PR-CoT supervision produced stable positive gains across different model scales and evaluation systems. The average semantic score of Qwen3-32B increased from 6.425 8 in the baseline model to 6.585 0 after PR-CoT supervision, and that of Qwen3-14B increased from 5.870 0 to 5.964 2. At the expert blind review level, the overall score of Qwen3-32B (PR-CoT) was 7.026 0±0.107 7, higher than 6.416 3±0.288 9 for its baseline. In zero-shot cross-disease testing, the PR-CoT model still showed advantages in semantic evaluation and expert evaluation on both gynecological and heart-system disorder test sets, indicating a certain degree of transferability. ConclusionThe benefits of PR-CoT supervision are mainly reflected in TCM semantic consistency and clinical plausibility, rather than in improved hard matching of structural elements. These findings support understanding syndrome manifestation recognition as a process of generating and expressing latent pathogenesis structures, rather than as a classification task within a traditional fixed label space. By introducing pathogenesis reasoning as an explicit intermediate structure into the modeling process and combining it with a progressive multidimensional evaluation framework, this study provides a methodological pathway for intelligent TCM syndrome differentiation that integrates theoretical alignment, interpretability, and multi-level evaluation.
6.Engineered Bacteriophages for The Treatment of Multidrug-resistant Bacterial Infections
Yu-Ying CHEN ; Chun-Mei HUANG ; Jin-Zhi PAN ; De-Liang LIU ; Yang ZHOU ; Gui-Qin DAI ; Peng-Fei ZHAO ; Hong-Zhou LU ; Ming-Bin ZHENG
Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics 2026;53(6):1581-1596
Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infections have emerged as a serious challenge of global public health crisis. The overuse and misuse of conventional antibiotics have dramatically accelerated the emergence, evolution and worldwide spread of drug-resistant bacterial strains, necessitating urgent exploration of novel antibacterial strategies. Bacteriophages serve as natural bacterial predators offering distinct advantages including high host specificity, autonomous self-replication capabilities and cost-effective large-scale production. However, wild-type phages present significant clinical limitations due to their narrow host ranges, susceptibility to rapid immune clearance and poor penetration of bacterial biofilms, which severely restrict their therapeutic applications. The convergence of synthetic biology, nanotechnology and advanced gene editing technologies has accelerated the development of engineered bacteriophage platforms, providing programmable, scalable and clinically translatable pathways to overcome these inherent biological constraints. Here, we systematically delineate four fundamental strategies for engineered bacteriophage development. Chemical modification utilizes reactive functional groups such as amino, carboxyl and thiol moieties on capsid proteins through esterification, amidation or click chemistry reactions to achieve precise drug conjugation and surface functionalization. In vivo editing encompasses ultraviolet or chemical mutagenesis for random mutation induction, homologous recombination for targeted genetic alterations, recombineering methodologies including electroporation-mediated bacteriophage recombination engineering, and CRISPR-Cas systems for precise genome editing to enable exact genetic reconstruction and host range reprogramming. In vitro synthesis leverages genome engineering platforms where intact phage genomes are transferred into yeast or host bacteria to facilitate highly efficient homologous recombination, enabling large DNA fragment assembly and cross-gene host range expansion without bacterial toxicity constraints. Directed evolution combines artificial selection through mutation library screening with rational design approaches involving chimeric receptor binding protein construction or site-specific mutagenesis, effectively balancing the discovery of unknown adaptive pathways with targeted host specificity modification. Moreover, we comprehensively discuss therapeutic applications across diverse clinical scenarios. Engineered bacteriophage effectively disrupt bacterial biofilms through sophisticated functionalized delivery platforms including nanozyme-conjugated phages, phage-liposome nanoconjugates and bio-responsive hydrogels, demonstrating significantly enhanced bactericidal efficiency compared to unmodified free phages. These bioengineered vectors attenuate bacterial virulence and resensitize pathogens to antibiotics by delivering CRISPR-Cas systems or base editors to disrupt critical virulence factors such as pili, capsule synthesis machineries and quorum sensing systems, or by inactivating antibiotic resistance determinants including beta-lactamase genes. As an intelligent nanomedicine delivery platform, engineered bacteriophage enable precise pathogen elimination an through photocatalytic reactive oxygen species generation, immunomodulatory interventions, or controlled release of antibacterial drugs. Furthermore, oral administration of engineered bacteriophage facilitates microbiota modulation, which selectively eliminate intestinal pathogens while preserve beneficial commensal microbiota, thereby restoring microbial community balance and preventing complications associated with dysbiosis. Finally, we critically analyze persistent challenges including host strain matching complexity, evolution of bacterial resistance mechanisms, pharmacokinetic optimization requirements, optimal administration route selection, large-scale production quality control standards and clinical dosing determination protocols. Through multidisciplinary integration of synthetic biology, infectious disease medicine and immunology, future translational medicine studies of bacteriophage should establish comprehensive technical platforms encompassing rapid phage screening, intelligent rational design, rigorous in vivo evaluation and standardized clinical validation processes, ultimately advancing engineered bacteriophage from laboratory innovations to clinically approved therapeutics for effectively combating MDR bacterial infections.
7.Exploration of ethical issues in the multiple disciplinary team model for children with 46, XY disorders of sex development
Lili PAN ; Zhe SU ; Wei SU ; Ying ZU ; Chenxi LI ; Huiping SU ; Jingyu YOU ; Kexin JIN ; Rongfei ZHENG
Chinese Medical Ethics 2026;39(6):718-723
ObjectiveTo explore the ethical issues and coping strategies in the diagnosis and treatment of 46, XY disorders of sex development (46, XY DSD) under a multidisciplinary team (MDT) model, and to deepen the understanding of relevant ethical issues while accumulating experience. MethodsA retrospective collection was conducted on the data of children with 46, XY disorders of sex development under a single-center MDT model from January 2017 to December 2024, and the ethical issues involved in the diagnosis and treatment process were analyzed. ResultsA total of 24 MDT discussion documents involving 20 children were collected, including 17 with female social gender and 3 with male social gender. The age ranged from 0.5 to 15.8 years, with children under 8 years accounting for 75%. The ethical issues primarily involved how to ensure adequate informed consent, whether surgery was necessary and its timing, and whether gender selection is reasonable and its timing. Among the 10 children raised as females who completed the gender role psychological scale assessment, 5 demonstrated masculine tendencies, all of whom had pathogenic genetic variants. Furthermore, only 1 patient changed the social gender to male. ConclusionThe diagnosis and treatment of 46, XY DSD is relatively complex, requiring multidisciplinary collaboration. This process involves numerous ethical issues and necessitates adhering to medical ethical principles. Ensuring adequate informed consent is crucial, especially for younger children. The surgery and its timing selection must adhere to the principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, and leaving room for the future. Gender selection constitutes a focus and challenge in diagnosis and treatment. Psychological scales and genetic etiologies are conducive to judgments regarding gender selection, yet multiple factors in the real world may interfere with the gender selection.
8.Characteristic Expression of Multiple Neurotransmitters Oscillation Imbabance in Brains of 1 028 Patients with Depression
Anqi WANG ; Xuemei QING ; Yanshu PAN ; Pingfa ZHANG ; Ying ZHANG ; Jian LI ; Cheng ZHANG
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2025;31(11):278-286
ObjectiveTo analyze the characteristic expression patterns of six neurotransmitters including 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), dopamine (DA), acetylcholine (ACh), norepinephrine (NE), inhibitory neurotransmitter (INH), and excitatory neurotransmitter (EXC) in the whole brain and different brain regions of depression patients by Search of Encephalo Telex (SET), providing new ideas for the study of heterogeneous etiology of depression. Methods(1) A retrospective study was conducted on supra-slow signals of EEG fluctuations in 1 028 patients with depression. The SET system was used to obtain the expression information of six neurotransmitters in the whole brain and 12 brain regions: left frontal region (F3), right frontal region (F4), left central region (C3), right central region (C4), left parietal region (P3), right parietal region (P4), left occipital region (O1), right occipital region (O2), left anterior temporal region (F7), right anterior temporal region (F8), left posterior temporal region (T5), and right posterior temporal region (T6). The expression information of each neurotransmitter was compared with the normal model, and it was found that single neurotransmitter was in one of three states: increased, decreased, or normal expression. The simultaneous expression states of six neurotransmitters in the brain space were referred to as the expression pattern of multiple neurotransmitters. (2) A MySQL database was established to analyze the actual expression patterns of different neurotransmitters in the whole brain of patients with depression. (3) Factor analysis was conducted to further analyze the characteristic rules of 78 variables of neurotransmitters in the whole brain and 12 brain regions in depression patients. Results(1) The expression of single neurotransmitters in the whole brain and different brain regions of the total depression population showed one of three expression states (increased/decreased/normal), being normal in the majority. The decreased and increased expression of 5-HT, ACh, DA, INH, EXC, and NE in the whole brain occurred in 6% and 25%, 31% and 17%, 36% and 9%, 15% and 31%, 32% and 14%, and 22% and 22%, respectively. (2) The antagonizing pairs of neurotransmitters (EXC/INH, DA/5-HT, and ACh/NE) showed significant antagonistic relationships in the whole brain and different brain regions, with a strong negative correlation between EXC and INH (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.69 to 0.76), a strong negative correlation between DA and 5-HT (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.83 to 0.90), and a moderate negative correlation between ACh and NE (P<0.01, with |r| values ranging from 0.56 to 0.66). Meanwhile, non-antagonizing pairs of neurotransmitters in the whole brain and different brain regions also showed correlations, with DA/NE (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.38 to 0.46) and NE/EXC (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.56 to 0.61) showing weak and moderate negative correlations, respectively, and DA/EXC showing a weak positive correlation (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.38 to 0.47). (3) The six neurotransmitters in the 1 028 patients with depression presented a total of 170 expression patterns in the whole brain. The top 30 expression patterns were reported in this paper, with a cumulative rate of 60.60%, including patterns ① INH+/5-HT-/ACh+/DA+/NE-/EXC- (9.05%), ② INH+/5-HT-/ACh↓/DA+/NE-/EXC- (4.57%), and ③ INH+/5-HT-/ACh+/DA+/NE↓/EXC- (3.31%). That is, the proportion of depression patients with normal levels of all the six neurotransmitters was 9.05%, and the patients with at least one neurotransmitter abnormality accounted for 91.95%. (4) The factor analysis extracted 22 common factors from 78 variables in the whole brain and different brain regions. These common factors showed the absolute values of loadings ranging from 0.32 to 0.86 and the eigenvalues (F) ranging from 1.03 to 13.43, with a cumulative contribution rate of 76.82%. The characteristic expression patterns included ① AChP3↓/AChW↓/AChC3↓/AChF3↓/AChO1↓/AChT5↓/AChF7↓/NEP3↑/NEW↑/NEC3↑/NEF3↑/NEO1↑/NET5↑/NEF7↑ (F=13.43, whole brain), ② 5-HTO2↑/DAO2↓/5-HTP4↑/DAP4↓/5-HTW↑/DAW↓/5-HTC4↑/DAC4↓ (F=5.94), and ③ EXCF4↓/DAF4↓/NEF4↑/INHF4↑/5-HTF4↑/AChF4↓ (F=5.33). ConclusionThe actual 170 expression patterns of 6 neurotransmitters in the whole brain of 1 028 depression patients indicate that depression is a heterogeneous disease with individualized characteristics. The 22 characteristic expression patterns in the whole brain and 12 brain regions verify the pathogenesis hypothesis of multi-neurotransmitters oscillation imbalance in brains of depression patients. In summary, this study provides new guidance for the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of depression and establishes a methodological foundation for the effectiveness evaluation of individualized treatment of depression by traditional Chinese medicine based on the objective biological markers.
9.Characteristic Expression of Multiple Neurotransmitters Oscillation Imbabance in Brains of 1 028 Patients with Depression
Anqi WANG ; Xuemei QING ; Yanshu PAN ; Pingfa ZHANG ; Ying ZHANG ; Jian LI ; Cheng ZHANG
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2025;31(11):278-286
ObjectiveTo analyze the characteristic expression patterns of six neurotransmitters including 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), dopamine (DA), acetylcholine (ACh), norepinephrine (NE), inhibitory neurotransmitter (INH), and excitatory neurotransmitter (EXC) in the whole brain and different brain regions of depression patients by Search of Encephalo Telex (SET), providing new ideas for the study of heterogeneous etiology of depression. Methods(1) A retrospective study was conducted on supra-slow signals of EEG fluctuations in 1 028 patients with depression. The SET system was used to obtain the expression information of six neurotransmitters in the whole brain and 12 brain regions: left frontal region (F3), right frontal region (F4), left central region (C3), right central region (C4), left parietal region (P3), right parietal region (P4), left occipital region (O1), right occipital region (O2), left anterior temporal region (F7), right anterior temporal region (F8), left posterior temporal region (T5), and right posterior temporal region (T6). The expression information of each neurotransmitter was compared with the normal model, and it was found that single neurotransmitter was in one of three states: increased, decreased, or normal expression. The simultaneous expression states of six neurotransmitters in the brain space were referred to as the expression pattern of multiple neurotransmitters. (2) A MySQL database was established to analyze the actual expression patterns of different neurotransmitters in the whole brain of patients with depression. (3) Factor analysis was conducted to further analyze the characteristic rules of 78 variables of neurotransmitters in the whole brain and 12 brain regions in depression patients. Results(1) The expression of single neurotransmitters in the whole brain and different brain regions of the total depression population showed one of three expression states (increased/decreased/normal), being normal in the majority. The decreased and increased expression of 5-HT, ACh, DA, INH, EXC, and NE in the whole brain occurred in 6% and 25%, 31% and 17%, 36% and 9%, 15% and 31%, 32% and 14%, and 22% and 22%, respectively. (2) The antagonizing pairs of neurotransmitters (EXC/INH, DA/5-HT, and ACh/NE) showed significant antagonistic relationships in the whole brain and different brain regions, with a strong negative correlation between EXC and INH (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.69 to 0.76), a strong negative correlation between DA and 5-HT (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.83 to 0.90), and a moderate negative correlation between ACh and NE (P<0.01, with |r| values ranging from 0.56 to 0.66). Meanwhile, non-antagonizing pairs of neurotransmitters in the whole brain and different brain regions also showed correlations, with DA/NE (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.38 to 0.46) and NE/EXC (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.56 to 0.61) showing weak and moderate negative correlations, respectively, and DA/EXC showing a weak positive correlation (P<0.01, |r| values ranging from 0.38 to 0.47). (3) The six neurotransmitters in the 1 028 patients with depression presented a total of 170 expression patterns in the whole brain. The top 30 expression patterns were reported in this paper, with a cumulative rate of 60.60%, including patterns ① INH+/5-HT-/ACh+/DA+/NE-/EXC- (9.05%), ② INH+/5-HT-/ACh↓/DA+/NE-/EXC- (4.57%), and ③ INH+/5-HT-/ACh+/DA+/NE↓/EXC- (3.31%). That is, the proportion of depression patients with normal levels of all the six neurotransmitters was 9.05%, and the patients with at least one neurotransmitter abnormality accounted for 91.95%. (4) The factor analysis extracted 22 common factors from 78 variables in the whole brain and different brain regions. These common factors showed the absolute values of loadings ranging from 0.32 to 0.86 and the eigenvalues (F) ranging from 1.03 to 13.43, with a cumulative contribution rate of 76.82%. The characteristic expression patterns included ① AChP3↓/AChW↓/AChC3↓/AChF3↓/AChO1↓/AChT5↓/AChF7↓/NEP3↑/NEW↑/NEC3↑/NEF3↑/NEO1↑/NET5↑/NEF7↑ (F=13.43, whole brain), ② 5-HTO2↑/DAO2↓/5-HTP4↑/DAP4↓/5-HTW↑/DAW↓/5-HTC4↑/DAC4↓ (F=5.94), and ③ EXCF4↓/DAF4↓/NEF4↑/INHF4↑/5-HTF4↑/AChF4↓ (F=5.33). ConclusionThe actual 170 expression patterns of 6 neurotransmitters in the whole brain of 1 028 depression patients indicate that depression is a heterogeneous disease with individualized characteristics. The 22 characteristic expression patterns in the whole brain and 12 brain regions verify the pathogenesis hypothesis of multi-neurotransmitters oscillation imbalance in brains of depression patients. In summary, this study provides new guidance for the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of depression and establishes a methodological foundation for the effectiveness evaluation of individualized treatment of depression by traditional Chinese medicine based on the objective biological markers.
10.Residual Inflammatory Risk and Intracranial Atherosclerosis Plaque Vulnerability: Insights From High-Resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Ying YU ; Rongrong CUI ; Xin HE ; Xinxin SHI ; Zhikai HOU ; Yuesong PAN ; Mingyao LI ; Jiabao YANG ; Zhongrong MIAO ; Yongjun WANG ; Rong WANG ; Xin LOU ; Long YAN ; Ning MA
Journal of Stroke 2025;27(2):207-216
Background:
and Purpose This study aimed to investigate the association between residual inflammatory risk (RIR) and vulnerable plaques using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HRMRI) in symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS).
Methods:
This retrospective study included 70%–99% symptomatic ICAS patients hospitalized from January 2016 to December 2022. Patients were classified into four groups based on high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C): residual cholesterol inflammatory risk (RCIR, hs-CRP ≥3 mg/L and LDL-C ≥2.6 mmol/L), RIR (hs-CRP ≥3 mg/L and LDL-C <2.6 mmol/L), residual cholesterol risk (RCR, hs-CRP <3 mg/L and LDL-C ≥2.6 mmol/L), and no residual risk (NRR, hs-CRP <3 mg/L and LDL-C <2.6 mmol/L). Vulnerable plaque features on HRMRI included positive remodeling, diffuse distribution, intraplaque hemorrhage, and strong enhancement.
Results:
Among 336 included patients, 21, 60, 58, and 197 were assigned to the RCIR, RIR, RCR, and NRR groups, respectively. Patients with RCIR (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 3.606; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.346–9.662; P=0.011) and RIR (aOR, 3.361; 95% CI, 1.774–6.368, P<0.001) had higher risks of strong enhancement than those with NRR. Additionally, patients with RCIR (aOR, 2.965; 95% CI, 1.060–8.297; P=0.038) were more likely to have intraplaque hemorrhage compared with those with NRR. In the sensitivity analysis, RCR (aOR, 2.595; 95% CI, 1.201–5.608; P=0.015) exhibited an additional correlation with an increased risk of intraplaque hemorrhage.
Conclusion
In patients with symptomatic ICAS, RIR is associated with a higher risk of intraplaque hemorrhage and strong enhancement, indicating an increased vulnerability to atherosclerotic plaques.

Result Analysis
Print
Save
E-mail