Proteins and peptides are important active components of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) widely found in plants, animals, and fungi. Modern research indicates that the protein constituents of TCM possess various pharmacological activities, including antitumor effect, immunomodulation, antioxidation, antihypertension, anti-inflammation, cardiovascular and nervous system protection, blood sugar regulation, and bacteriostasis effects. Despite significant progress in recent years regarding the pharmacological activities and mechanisms of TCM components, research on protein components of TCM has lagged. Many TCM protein components have yet to be effectively developed, and their pharmacological activities and mechanisms remain insufficiently elucidated. This article provides a comprehensive review of the pharmacological activities and mechanisms of TCM proteins and peptides. Additionally, the current shortcomings in research are discussed to offer some insights, aiming to promote further investigation of TCM proteins and peptides and facilitate their application in new drug development and clinical treatment.

Objective:To investigate the value of the ultrasonography in the diagnosis of the white matter injury of premature infants based on gray-scale ultrasonography radiomics.Methods:A total of 256 premature infants in Huazhong University of Science and Technology Union Shenzhen Hospital and Shenzhen Hospital of Southern Medical University from August 2018 to April 2022 were analyzed retrospectively. The computer-generated random numbers were assigned to the training set and the verification set according to 6∶4 ratio. On the basis of standardized collection of craniocerebral ultrasound images, the radiomics features were extracted from imaging by Pyradiomics 3.0.1 software package, the Mann-Whitney U test and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and stepwise regression were used to select the optimal features. Then the Logistic regression was used to build radiomics model. According to MRI, ROC curve was utilized to evaluate the performance of the model. The craniocerebral ultrasound images in the validation set were independently diagnosed by a senior physician and a junior physician, and then the above two physicians diagnosed again with the help of the radiomics, and the diagnostic abilities of this model were compared with those of the junior and senior physicians with and without radiomics assist. Results:A total of 5 optimal features were selected to develop radiomics model. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) in the training and validation sets were 0.861, 0.775, 0.799, 0.818; 0.929, 0.824, 0.853, 0.876, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and AUC in the senior sonographer, the junior sonographer, and both of them with radiomics assist for the dagnosis in the validation set were 0.929, 0.892, 0.902, 0.910; 0.714, 0.743, 0.735, 0.729; 0.929, 0.919, 0.922, 0.924; 0.857, 0.824, 0.833, 0.841, respectively. Performance of radiomics model reached the level of the senior sonographer (AUC: 0.876 vs 0.910, P=0.284), which was significantly better than the performance of the junior sonographer(AUC: 0.876 vs 0.729, P=0.001). Performance of the junior sonographer with radiomics assist was significantly better than the performance of the junior sonographer(AUC: 0.841 vs 0.729, P=0.003). Performance of the senior sonographer with radiomics assist was comparable to that of the senior sonographer(AUC: 0.924 vs 0.910, P=0.156). Conclusions:The ultrasound diagnosis method based on radiomics technology shows good diagnostic performance for the white matter injury of premature infants. It is helpful to improve the diagnostic ability of junior sonographer. It is expected to assist the sonographers in diagnosis and provide objective, consistent and accurate results for clinical practice.

BACKGROUND: Plasma epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation tests are less invasive than tissue EGFR mutation tests. We determined which of two kits is more efficient: cobas EGFR Mutation test v2 (cobasv2; Roche Molecular Systems, Pleasanton, CA, USA) or PANAMutyper-R-EGFR (Mutyper; Panagene, Daejeon, Korea). We also evaluated whether pleural effusion supernatant (PE-SUP) samples are assayable, similar to plasma samples, using these two kits. METHODS: We analyzed 156 plasma and PE-SUP samples (31 paired samples) from 116 individuals. We compared the kits in terms of accuracy, assessed genotype concordance (weighted κ with 95% confidence intervals), and calculated Spearman's rho between semi-quantitatively measured EGFR-mutant levels (SQIs) measured by each kit. We also compared sensitivity using 47 EGFR-mutant harboring samples divided into more-dilute and less-dilute samples (dilution ratio: ≥ or <1:1,000). RESULTS: cobasv2 tended to have higher accuracy than Mutyper (73% vs 69%, P=0.53), and PE-SUP samples had significantly higher accuracy than plasma samples (97% vs 55–71%) for both kits. Genotype concordance was 98% (κ=0.92, 0.88–0.96). SQIs showed strong positive correlations (P<0.0001). In less-dilute samples, accuracy and sensitivity did not differ significantly between kits. In more-dilute samples, cobasv2 tended to have higher sensitivity than Mutyper (43% vs 20%, P=0.07). CONCLUSIONS: The kits have similar performance in terms of EGFR mutation detection and semi-quantification in plasma and PE-SUP samples. cobasv2 tends to outperform Mutyper in detecting less-abundant EGFR-mutants. PE-SUP samples are assayable using either kit.
Epidermal Growth Factor ; Genotype ; Plasma ; Pleural Effusion ; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor