ObjectiveTo investigate the optimal termination time for acupuncture in treating patients with acute peripheral facial paralysis and its cost-effectiveness. MethodsA total of 120 eligible patients with acute-stage peri-pheral facial paralysis were randomly assigned to either the mild dysfunction termination group and the complete recovery termination group， with 60 patients in each group. Both groups received the standard acupuncture treatment protocol. Treatment in the mild dysfunction termination group was terminated when the Sunnybrook facial grade scale （SFGS） score first reached or exceeded 83 points， while that in the complete recovery termination group was terminated when the SFGS score first reached or exceeded 95 points. Assessments were conducted before treatment， 6 and 12 months after onset. SFGS， facial disability index （FDI） including physical function （FDIp） and social function （FDIs）， self-rating anxiety scale （SAS）， and self-rating depression scale （SDS） scores were assessed before treatment， and 6 and 12 months after onset. Any acupuncture-related adverse events during treatment were recorded for safety evaluation. Treatment sessions and medical costs including direct costs， indirect costs， insurance coverage， total societal costs， and patient out-of-pocket expenses were also recorded， and an economic evaluation was conducted including cost-effectiveness ratio （CER） and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio （ICER）. ResultsUltimately， 56 patients in the mild dysfunction termination group and 55 in the complete recovery termination group completed the follow-up. At 6 and 12 months after onset， SFGS and FDIp scores in both groups improved significantly while FDIs， SAS and SDS scores decreased （P＜0.05）. Comparison of scores between groups 6 months and 12 months after onset showed no statistically significant differences （P＞0.05）. During the trial， the incidence of adverse events was 13.3% （8/60） in the mild dysfunction termination group and 18.3% （11/60） in the complete recovery termination group， with no statistically significant difference （P＞0.05）. The number of treatment sessions， total social costs， and out-of-pocket expenses in the mild dysfunction termination group were significantly lower than those in the complete recovery termination group （P＜0.05）. The CER of the mild dysfunction termination group in SFGS， FDIp， FDIs， SAS， and SDS scores was lower than that of the complete recovery termination group. The ICER analysis showed that continuing treatment until full recovery incurred an additional cost of 573.30 CNY/point in SFGS improvement， whereas 1-point improvement in FDIp， FDIs， SAS， and SDS required 21,355.25 CNY， 1779.60 CNY， 3713.96 CNY， and 2755.52 CNY， respectively. ConclusionFor acupuncture in treating acute peripheral facial palsy， terminating treatment when mild dysfunction is achieved yields long-term efficacy comparable to that of continuing treatment until complete recovery， while significantly reducing medical costs and socioeconomic burden.

Due to its synergistic effects and reduced side effects, combination therapy has become an important strategy for treating complex diseases. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the "monarch, minister, assistant, envoy" compatibilities theory provides a systematic framework for drug compatibility and has guided the formation of a large number of classic formulas. However, due to the complex compositions and diverse mechanisms of action of TCM, it is difficult to comprehensively reveal its potential synergistic patterns using traditional methods. Synergistic prediction based on molecular compatibility theory provides new ideas for identifying combinations of active compounds in TCM. Compared to resource-intensive traditional experimental methods, artificial intelligence possesses the ability to mine synergistic patterns from multi-omics and structural data, providing an efficient means for modeling and optimizing TCM combinations. This paper systematically reviews the application progress of AI in the synergistic prediction of TCM active compounds and explores the challenges and prospects of its application in modeling combination relationships, thereby contributing to the modernization of TCM theory and methodological innovation.
Artificial Intelligence ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional/methods* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology* ; Humans ; Drug Synergism

Debates persist regarding the efficacy and safety of azvudine, particularly its real-world outcomes. This study involved patients aged ≥60 years who were admitted to 25 hospitals in mainland China with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between December 1, 2022, and February 28, 2023. Efficacy outcomes were all-cause mortality during hospitalization, the proportion of patients discharged with recovery, time to nucleic acid-negative conversion (T _NANC), time to symptom improvement (T _SI), and time of hospital stay (T _HS). Safety was also assessed. Among the 5884 participants identified, 1999 received azvudine, and 1999 matched controls were included after exclusion and propensity score matching. Azvudine recipients exhibited lower all-cause mortality compared with controls in the overall population (13.3% vs. 17.1%, RR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.67-0.90; P = 0.001) and in the severe subgroup (25.7% vs. 33.7%; RR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.66-0.88; P < 0.001). A higher proportion of patients discharged with recovery, and a shorter T _NANC were associated with azvudine recipients, especially in the severe subgroup. The incidence of adverse events in azvudine recipients was comparable to that in the control group (2.3% vs. 1.7%, P = 0.170). In conclusion, azvudine showed efficacy and safety in older patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the SARS-CoV-2 omicron wave in China.

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Objective:To explore the expression of chemokine ligand 1(CCL1)in oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC)and its effect on the proliferation,migration and invasion of human oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma cells(HSC-4).Methods:28 OSCC tissue samples and clinical characteristic data of patients were collected at the Affiliated Stomatological Hospital of Southwest Medical University between January 2018 and June 2020,as well as 10 normal gingival tissue samples removed during the extraction of impacted teeth.OSCC cells HSC-4 were cultured routinely and divided into the control group(without virus),the NC group(transfected with control lentiviral vector),the shCCL1 group(transfected with knockdown CCL1 lentiviral vector),and the CCL1 group(culture medium containing 60 ng/mL CCL1 recombinant protein).Immunohistochemistry and WB were used to detect the expression of CCL1 in OSCC tissues and cells,and analyze the correlation between its expression level and the clinical features of patients.qPCR,CCK-8 assay,plate cloning assay,cell scratch test,Transwell assay and flow cytometry were used to detect the expression of CCL1 mRNA,the proliferation,migration and invasion abilities and the apoptosis of HSC-4 cells respectively.Results:CCL1 protein was highly expressed in OSCC tissues and HSC-4 cells(all P<0.01)and its expression was related to the clinical stage of tumors(P<0.05).The expression of CCL1 in HSC-4 cells was successfully knocked down(P<0.000 5).Knocking down the expression of CCL1 could inhibit the proliferation(P<0.05 or P<0.01),migration and invasion(all P<0.05)of HSC-4 cells,and promote its apoptosis(all P<0.05).CCL1 recombinant protein treatment resulted in the opposite effects(P<0.05,P<0.01,P<0.000 1).Conclusion:CCL1 is highly expressed in OSCC and its expression is correlated with the clinical stage of OSCC.CCL1 may take part in regulating the proliferation,migration,invasion and apoptosis of HSC-4 cells.

Galectin-9 (Gal-9), a member of the β-galactoside-binding lectin family, is widely expressed in various tissues and cells. It can specifically bind to multiple glycoprotein receptors, including the receptors of Tim-3, CD44, 4-1BB/CD137, and Dectin-1, thereby regulating the activity of immune cells and participating in crucial physiological and pathological processes such as immune regulation and tumor development. Given its role in immunomodulation, Gal-9 is considered a potential target for immunotherapy, showing promising prospects in the treatment of various diseases, including autoimmune disorders, transplantation rejection, pregnancy complications, inflammation, infection, and cancer. This review summarizes the biological effects mediated by Gal-9 upon binding to its receptors, which may help to explore the potential application value of Gal-9 in clinical diagnosis and therapy.

HR-positive HER2-low breast cancer is a new hotspot therapeutic subtype, accounting for approximately 53.7% of all breast cancers. Patients with this type of cancer tend to have a high rate of lymph node metastasis and poor sensitivity to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and conventional anti-HER2 therapy, and exploring therapeutic strategies for this subtype of patient is a current clinical challenge. Therapeutic strategies for HR-positive HER2-low breast cancer are constantly being updated, including CDK4/6 inhibitors across the lines of therapy, and next-generation antibody-drug conjugates such as T-DXd. With the accumulation of high-level evidence-based evidence for HR-positive HER2-low breast cancer in the future, the research data will provide more practical support for precise diagnosis and treatment, thereby improving the prognosis of patients with HR-positive HER2-low breast cancer.

Objective To explore the effective induction scheme for differentiation of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell (ADMSC) to insulin producing cell (IPC). Methods Different schemes of small molecule compound were used to induce the differentiation of ADMSC. The purity of cells was analyzed by flow cytometry and the morphological changes of cells were observed under the microscope. The quality, performance and insulin related indicators of cells were detected by hematoxylin-eosin and immunohistochemical staining. The maturity and activity of cells were detected by dithizone (DTZ) and diacetylfluorescein/propidium iodide staining. The induction effect of ADMSC differentiated into IPC was analyzed. Results The purity of ADMSC reached more than 99%, and the sphere forming properties of schemes Ⅰ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ were good. Cell induction mass, the expression effects of pancreatic and duodenal homeobox 1 (PDX1), musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene homolog A (MAFA) and insulin and C peptide of schemes Ⅰ were both better than those of other schemes. The DTZ staining depth may be related to IPC maturity, among which the number of apoptotic cells in scheme Ⅰ was significantly less than that of scheme Ⅱ and Ⅲ. Conclusions Induction scheme Ⅰ may improve the differentiation efficiency of ADMSC to IPC and lay a certain foundation for future clinical IPC transplantation applications.

Objective:To analyze the prognostic factors of patients with liver cirrhosis and portal vein thrombosis (PVT), and to construct a prognostic prediction model based on machine learning methods.Methods:The clinical data of 388 patients with liver cirrhosis and PVT admitted to the Fifth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital from January 2022 to April 2024 were retrospectively collected and analyzed, including 243 males and 145 females, aged (56.9±10.9) years. A total of 388 patients were randomly divided into the training set ( n=310) and the testing set ( n=78) in a 4∶1 ratio. The Boruta algorithm was used to screen the key features in the training set, and then four machine learning algorithms, including random forest, support vector machine, generalized linear model and Bayesian, were used to establish a survival prediction model. Model performance was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of the test set and the training set. The patients were followed up for 1 year for survival. Sort the importance of features based on the SHAP value. Results:There were 250 patients (80.6%) who survived and 60 (19.4%) who died. The model for end-stage liver disease score, total bilirubin, serum creatinine, prothrombin time, international normalized ratio, D-dimer, white blood cell count, severe ascites ratio, and Child-Pugh grade C ratio of liver function in the death group were higher than those in the survival group, and the red blood cell count and hematocrit were lower than those in the survival group, and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). The areas under the ROC curve for predicting survival by random forest, support vector machine, generalized linear model and Bayesian model were 0.92, 0.78, 0.81 and 0.71 in the training set, and the area under the ROC curve in the testing set were 0.81, 0.72, 0.67 and 0.68, respectively. Random forest had the best prediction performance, with an accuracy of 81.7%, a sensitivity of 84.6%, and a specificity of 76.9% in the testing set. In the analysis of the importance of characteristic parameters of the random forest model, total bilirubin, red blood cells, hematocrit, serum creatinine, ascites classification, etc. had a relatively high contribution to the model. Conclusion:In the survival prediction model of patients with liver cirrhosis and PVT based on machine learning algorithm, the random forest model had high prediction performance, and total bilirubin may be the most important factor affecting the survival prognosis of patients.

Objective:To explore the changes of brain excitation/inhibition balance and gray matter volume (GMV) and their correlations with clinical features in benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS).Methods:A cross-sectional study was performed; 83 BECTS children enrolled from Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Jinling Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University from January 2015 to January 2024 were selected as BECTS group. During the same period, 101 age- and gender-matched healthy children were recruited as healthy control group through advertisements in local primary schools. Data of conventional MRI and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) of the two groups were collected. Whole brain GMV was analyzed by voxel-based morphometry (VBM), and Hurst index was calculated based on time series data of blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal of rs-fMRI. Correlations of GMV and Hurst index with disease duration and onset age in children with BECTS were explored by Pearson correlation analysis.Results:Compared with the healthy control group, the BECTS group had significantly increased GMV and decreased Hurst index in the bilateral Rolandic region ( P<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that in the BECTS group, GMV in bilateral Rolandic region was negatively correlated with onset age ( r=-0.267, P=0.015) and positively correlated with disease course ( r=0.267, P=0.015); Hurst index in bilateral Rolandic region was positively correlated with onset age ( r=0.323, P=0.003) and negatively correlated with disease course ( r=-0.240, P=0.029); Hurst index was negatively correlated with GMV in bilateral Rolandic region ( r=-0.328, P=0.003). Conclusion:BECTS children have excitation/inhibition imbalance in epilepsy-related regions and cortical structural delay, and both of them are related to onset age and disease course.