1.Mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway regulates the development of osteoarthritis:guiding targeted therapy with traditional Chinese medicine
Hao LI ; Hongcheng TAO ; Ping ZENG ; Jinfu LIU ; Qiang DING ; Chicheng NIU ; Kai HUANG ; Hongyu KANG
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2026;30(6):1476-1485
BACKGROUND:Osteoarthritis is pathologically characterized by progressive degeneration of the articular cartilage and abnormal deformation of the subchondral bone.In recent years,with the deepening of medical research,it has been found that the mitogen-activated protein kinases(MAPK)signaling pathway has a regulatory role in inflammatory cell infiltration,inflammatory factor release,and chondrocyte proliferation,which is particularly important for the treatment of osteoarthritis.OBJECTIVE:To briefly review the main research progress in the mechanism of MAPK signaling pathway regulating osteoarthritis in recent years,aiming to provide new ideas for the treatment of osteoarthritis.METHODS:CNKI,WanFang and PubMed databases were searched for relevant literature using the search terms of"mitogen-activated protein kinases,osteoarthritis,extracellular signal-regulated MAP kinases,p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases,JNK mitogen-activated protein kinase"in Chinese and English.Relevant literature published from January 2019 to November 2024 was searched,and 108 articles were finally included for summary analysis.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Various stimuli inside and outside the cells activate the MAPK signaling pathway,regulate gene transcription and protein synthesis,and promote the release of inflammatory factors,such as tumor necrosis factor-α,interleukin-1β,and interleukin-6.The release of these inflammatory factors aggravates the progression of osteoarthritis.(2)The active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine,mainly saponins and flavonoids,as well as Chinese herbal formulas and preparations with the main effects of activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis,tonifying the liver and kidney,can play a therapeutic role in osteoarthritis by inhibiting the MAPK signaling pathway,regulating the release of matrix metalloproteinases,balancing the homeostatic state of osteogenesis and osteoblastogenesis,attenuating the synovial inflammation,decreasing the release of inflammatory factors and inflammatory vesicles,decreasing cellular pyroptosis,promoting autophagy,and ameliorating oxidative stress.(3)Although traditional Chinese medicine has become popular in the treatment of osteoarthritis by virtue of its own advantages of multi-components,multi-targets,multi-pathways,and low side effects,the use of MAPK signaling pathway to guide the treatment of individual osteoarthritis is the difficulty of the technology,which needs to be continuously researched and explored.(4)Therefore,further development of relevant herbal inhibitors that can modulate the MAPK signaling pathway may be a potential drug strategy for the treatment of osteoarthritis in the future.
2.Mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway regulates the development of osteoarthritis:guiding targeted therapy with traditional Chinese medicine
Hao LI ; Hongcheng TAO ; Ping ZENG ; Jinfu LIU ; Qiang DING ; Chicheng NIU ; Kai HUANG ; Hongyu KANG
Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research 2026;30(6):1476-1485
BACKGROUND:Osteoarthritis is pathologically characterized by progressive degeneration of the articular cartilage and abnormal deformation of the subchondral bone.In recent years,with the deepening of medical research,it has been found that the mitogen-activated protein kinases(MAPK)signaling pathway has a regulatory role in inflammatory cell infiltration,inflammatory factor release,and chondrocyte proliferation,which is particularly important for the treatment of osteoarthritis.OBJECTIVE:To briefly review the main research progress in the mechanism of MAPK signaling pathway regulating osteoarthritis in recent years,aiming to provide new ideas for the treatment of osteoarthritis.METHODS:CNKI,WanFang and PubMed databases were searched for relevant literature using the search terms of"mitogen-activated protein kinases,osteoarthritis,extracellular signal-regulated MAP kinases,p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases,JNK mitogen-activated protein kinase"in Chinese and English.Relevant literature published from January 2019 to November 2024 was searched,and 108 articles were finally included for summary analysis.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Various stimuli inside and outside the cells activate the MAPK signaling pathway,regulate gene transcription and protein synthesis,and promote the release of inflammatory factors,such as tumor necrosis factor-α,interleukin-1β,and interleukin-6.The release of these inflammatory factors aggravates the progression of osteoarthritis.(2)The active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine,mainly saponins and flavonoids,as well as Chinese herbal formulas and preparations with the main effects of activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis,tonifying the liver and kidney,can play a therapeutic role in osteoarthritis by inhibiting the MAPK signaling pathway,regulating the release of matrix metalloproteinases,balancing the homeostatic state of osteogenesis and osteoblastogenesis,attenuating the synovial inflammation,decreasing the release of inflammatory factors and inflammatory vesicles,decreasing cellular pyroptosis,promoting autophagy,and ameliorating oxidative stress.(3)Although traditional Chinese medicine has become popular in the treatment of osteoarthritis by virtue of its own advantages of multi-components,multi-targets,multi-pathways,and low side effects,the use of MAPK signaling pathway to guide the treatment of individual osteoarthritis is the difficulty of the technology,which needs to be continuously researched and explored.(4)Therefore,further development of relevant herbal inhibitors that can modulate the MAPK signaling pathway may be a potential drug strategy for the treatment of osteoarthritis in the future.
3.Optimization of drug dispensing and pickup process in traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy based on data-intelligence-driven
Qi WANG ; Panke ZENG ; Haoxin SONG ; Yonggang FENG ; Lili SUN ; Jingting FENG ; Weiqing NIU ; Haiyan DONG ; Feng WANG
China Pharmacy 2026;37(5):660-664
OBJECTIVE To explore the transformation of the dispensing and drug pickup process in traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy (TCM Pharmacy) in our hospital based on data-intelligence-driven, aiming to improve pharmacists’ work efficiency and patients’ drug pickup experience. METHODS Value stream mapping and journey mapping were used to systematically identify non-value-added links in pharmacists’ dispensing process and key pain points in patients’ drug pickup under the traditional process. An intelligent dispensing and drug pickup system for the TCM Pharmacy was developed based on the C# and Android television platforms, and a machine-learning model was adopted to predict patients’ drug pickup waiting time. A comprehensive evaluation was performed from three perspectives: system performance, prediction accuracy, and satisfaction of pharmacists and patients. RESULTS The system successfully streamlined non-value-added links such as “waiting for writing on the board” and “searching for drugs”, and realized multimodal dynamic prompts of dispensing status through auditory (number calling) and visual (television terminal) channels. The constructed model for predicting drug pickup waiting time exhibited good fitting degree and generalization ability (mean absolute error=4.28 min, R 2 =0.882). The comprehensive satisfaction scores of pharmacists and patients in the traditional mode were significantly increased from (70.99±1.74) and (73.58±1.98) to (90.02±1.30) and (88.61±2.08) in the new system, respectively ( P <0.01). CONCLUSIONS The transformation of the intelligent drug dispensing and pickup system for TCM pharmacy based on data-intelligence-driven effectively improves the efficiency of pharmacists’ dispensing work, realizes process transparency and waiting time predictability, and significantly enhances patients’ drug pickup experience.
4.COLEC12high tumor-associated macrophages orchestrate lenvatinib resistance and cancer stemness in hepatocellular carcinoma via paracrine NRG1-HER2/HER3 signaling
Jianxing ZHANG ; Liang QIAO ; Zongfeng WU ; Dinglan ZUO ; Shanshan HUANG ; Shaoru LIU ; Zhenkun HUANG ; Yi ZENG ; Yu LI ; Yichuan YUAN ; Chenwei WANG ; Wei HE ; Jiliang QIU ; Yunfei YUAN ; Yi NIU ; Binkui LI
Clinical and Molecular Hepatology 2026;32(2):772-786
Background/Aims:
Lenvatinib resistance remains a critical barrier in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) therapy. However, the underlying mechanisms and strategies for reversing resistance remain incompletely understood.
Methods:
Integrated transcriptomics of lenvatinib-resistant patient tumors and an acquired-resistance murine model identified a novel macrophage subpopulation. Functional validation employed CRISPR-SAM screening, conditioned medium (CM) assays, subcutaneous/orthotopic xenografts, patient-derived organoids (PDOs), and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). Mechanistic studies included ChIP-qPCR, co-immunoprecipitation, and pharmacologic targeting. Clinical relevance was assessed in a retrospective cohort.
Results:
Resistant HCC exhibited significant enrichment of a COLEC12high TAM subset , which correlated with poor survival and treatment response. These TAMs secreted neuregulin-1 (NRG1) , activating HER2/HER3-AKT signaling in tumor cells to drive cancer stemness and lenvatinib resistance. Mechanistically, in TAMs COLEC12 sequestered STAT1 in the cytoplasm, preventing its phosphorylation, and thereby derepressing STAT3-mediated NRG1 transcription. Depletion of NRG1 reversed the stemness phenotypes and resensitized tumors to lenvatinib both in vitro and in vivo. Clinically, high NRG1 expression predicted an inferior lenvatinib response and shorter survival. Crucially, the bispecific anti-HER2/HER3 antibody zenocutuzumab restored lenvatinib efficacy in PDOs, PDXs, and murine models.
Conclusions
Our work establishes the COLEC12high TAM/NRG1 axis as a master regulator of therapeutic resistance and identifies NRG1 as a predictive biomarker, providing a clinically actionable strategy to overcome lenvatinib resistance in HCC.
5.Research progress on the role of dendritic cells in the immunity of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
Jiaxin NIU ; Ju ZENG ; Cong ZHANG ; Xinxin YANG ; Hongxue MENG
Chinese Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology 2025;41(1):81-85,92
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma(HNSCC)is the sixth most common malignant tumor in the world.Due to its high incidence,poor prognosis,relapse-prone characteristics,and the existence of treatment resist-ance,HNSCC has a serious impact on patients'daily lives.As a bridge between innate immunity and adaptive immu-nity,dendritic cell(DC)plays a crucial role in tumor progression.In recent years,numerous studies have found that DC has complex and diverse functions in the tumor microenvironment(TME),and has a significant impact on the oc-currence and development of HNSCC.In this article,we provide a review of the mechanism of DC in HNSCC TME.
6.Genome sequencing and biological characteristics analysis of a Streptococcus dys-galactiae from yak
Wenjing CHENG ; Tian NIU ; Shuai YANG ; Tingting LIU ; Hongcai MA ; Jiangyong ZENG ; Lihong ZHANG ; Junjie HU
Chinese Journal of Veterinary Science 2025;45(7):1426-1436
This study aims to understand the biological characteristics of Streptococcus dysgalacti-ae of yak origin.Bacterial isolation and identification,drug susceptibility test,virulence gene test and pathogenicity test were carried out on milk samples of yaks from Naqu City to evaluate the bi-ological characteristics of the isolated strains.Meanwhile,molecular biological information such as virulence factors and drug resistance genes were analyzed by whole genome sequencing,and viru-lence genes were verified by PCR.The results showed that a strain of Streptococcus dysgalactiae was isolated from the milk of yak,and its colony morphology was pinpoint size,smooth edge and milky white.This strain is sensitive to many antibiotics(penicillin G,cephalosporin,ciprofloxacin,tetracycline,erythromycin,etc.).Virulence gene test results showed that the strain carries six key virulence genes(cyl,eno,scpB,bca,bac and napr),which may be closely related to its pathoge-nicity.In the pathogenicity test,the mice were listless and less active after infection,but no death occurred during the observation period.The pathological changes of spleen,kidney,liver and lung tissue were found,suggesting that the strain had certain pathogenic potential but not high lethali-ty.Whole genome sequencing data showed that the gene length of this strain was 4 079 280 bp,the GC content was 39.41%,3 964 coding genes were predicted,604 of which were annotated as viru-lence factors,and another 28 gene mutations may enhance its pathogenic ability.Through annota-tion of CARD database,two Pat A resistance genes and two lmrp resistance genes were found,re-vealing their potential resistance mechanism.Through whole genome sequencing technology and bioinformatics analysis method,this study revealed the genomic characteristics,drug resistance and pathogenicity mechanism of Streptococcus dysgalactiae of yak origin.The findings provide impor-tant scientific evidence for further exploration of the pathogenicity,drug resistance mechanisms,and molecular evolution of yak-derived Streptococcus agalactiae.
7.Intelligent and Data-Driven Allocation of Storage Locations and Optimization of Picking Paths for Traditional Chinese Medicine Decoction Pieces
Feng WANG ; Weiqing NIU ; Panke ZENG ; Yonggang FENG ; Hao XIN ; Jianling ZHENG ; Haiyan DONG
Herald of Medicine 2025;44(12):2051-2057
Objective To explore how digital and intelligent technologies can optimize the storage allocation and picking paths for Traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces.Methods Based on prescription information and medicine data from the hospital information system(HIS),this study employs MATLAB programming to use an integer linear programming(ILP)algorithm for optimizing the storage allocation of Traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces.Additionally,a greedy algorithm is applied to optimize the picking paths to reduce the picking distance for pharmacists.Finally,an independent samples paired t-test is used to analyze the experimental data to verify the significance of the optimizations.Results A total of 7 734 prescriptions were collected from the HIS.The results of storage optimization showed that the total distance before optimization was(87.58±0.29)m,which was reduced to(85.35±0.28)m after optimization(P﹤0.000 1).The picking path optimization results showed that the picking path was(85.35±0.28)m before optimization and(40.06±0.11)m after optimization(P﹤0.000 1).The results of the independent samples paired t-test indicate that the path was significantly reduced after both storage and picking path optimizations,with statistical significance.Conclusion By using digital and intelligent methods,informatics pharmacists can effectively shorten the picking paths for Traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces,improve dispensing efficiency,and reduce patient waiting times.
8.Research progress on the role of dendritic cells in the immunity of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
Jiaxin NIU ; Ju ZENG ; Cong ZHANG ; Xinxin YANG ; Hongxue MENG
Chinese Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology 2025;41(1):81-85,92
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma(HNSCC)is the sixth most common malignant tumor in the world.Due to its high incidence,poor prognosis,relapse-prone characteristics,and the existence of treatment resist-ance,HNSCC has a serious impact on patients'daily lives.As a bridge between innate immunity and adaptive immu-nity,dendritic cell(DC)plays a crucial role in tumor progression.In recent years,numerous studies have found that DC has complex and diverse functions in the tumor microenvironment(TME),and has a significant impact on the oc-currence and development of HNSCC.In this article,we provide a review of the mechanism of DC in HNSCC TME.
9.Intelligent and Data-Driven Allocation of Storage Locations and Optimization of Picking Paths for Traditional Chinese Medicine Decoction Pieces
Feng WANG ; Weiqing NIU ; Panke ZENG ; Yonggang FENG ; Hao XIN ; Jianling ZHENG ; Haiyan DONG
Herald of Medicine 2025;44(12):2051-2057
Objective To explore how digital and intelligent technologies can optimize the storage allocation and picking paths for Traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces.Methods Based on prescription information and medicine data from the hospital information system(HIS),this study employs MATLAB programming to use an integer linear programming(ILP)algorithm for optimizing the storage allocation of Traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces.Additionally,a greedy algorithm is applied to optimize the picking paths to reduce the picking distance for pharmacists.Finally,an independent samples paired t-test is used to analyze the experimental data to verify the significance of the optimizations.Results A total of 7 734 prescriptions were collected from the HIS.The results of storage optimization showed that the total distance before optimization was(87.58±0.29)m,which was reduced to(85.35±0.28)m after optimization(P﹤0.000 1).The picking path optimization results showed that the picking path was(85.35±0.28)m before optimization and(40.06±0.11)m after optimization(P﹤0.000 1).The results of the independent samples paired t-test indicate that the path was significantly reduced after both storage and picking path optimizations,with statistical significance.Conclusion By using digital and intelligent methods,informatics pharmacists can effectively shorten the picking paths for Traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces,improve dispensing efficiency,and reduce patient waiting times.
10.An Epithelial Senescence Model Induced by Doxorubicin in MCF 10A Cells
Zeng-Sheng WANG ; Zu-Biao NIU ; Bo ZHANG ; Jia-Hui HAO ; Yi-Chao ZHU ; Rui-Gang YANG ; He REN ; Chen-Yu LIU ; Qiang SUN ; Li-Cheng REN
Chinese Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2025;41(1):147-155
This research aims to construct a stable epithelial cell senescence model for screening and e-valuation of senolytics.We explored the optimal conditions for doxorubicin-induced senescence of non-transformed epithelial cells MCF 10A,including the optimal induction concentration,the optimal inter-vention time,and the optimal senescence duration,and confirmed the feasibility of MCF 10A as an epi-thelial senescence model by multiple ways.The optimal condition for Doxorubicin-induced senescence of MCF 10A cells was treatment with 0.6 μmol/L Doxorubicin for 16 h to achieve the best senescence state on the 8th day.Under the optimal induction conditions,the positive rate of senescence-associated β-gal-actosidase(SA-β-gal)staining in the treated group reached 97%.At the same time,biochemical results of detecting the expression of mRNA,proteins,and immunofluorescence demonstrated that the expression levels of senescence-associated secretory phenotype(SASP),p16,p21 and p53 in the treated group were significantly higher than those in the control cells,and Lamin B1 was significantly decreased(P<0.001),which were consistent with the specific characteristics of senescence.In summary,an epithelial senescence model was successfully induced in MCF 10A cells by Doxorubicin in this study,which will promote the screening of senolytics for senescent epithelial cells.

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