Acute lung injury(ALI) is a critical clinical condition primarily characterized by refractory hypoxemia and infiltration of inflammatory cells in lung tissue, which can progress into a more severe form known as acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS). Immune cells and inflammatory cytokines play important roles in the progression of the disease. Due to its unclear pathogenesis and the lack of effective clinical treatments, ALI is associated with a high mortality rate and severely affects patients' quality of life, making the search for effective therapeutic agents particularly urgent. Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma, the dried root of the perennial herb Panax ginseng from the Araliaceae family, contains active ingredients such as saponins and polysaccharides, which possess various pharmacological effects including anti-tumor activity, immune regulation, and metabolic modulation. In recent years, studies have shown that ginsenosides exhibit notable effects in reducing inflammation, ameliorating epithelial and endothelial cell injury, and providing anticoagulant action, indicating their comprehensive role in alleviating lung injury. This review summarizes the pathogenesis of ALI and the molecular mechanisms through which ginsenosides act at different stages of ALI development. The aim is to provide a scientific reference for the development of ginsenoside-based drugs targeting ALI, as well as a theoretical basis for the clinical application of Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma in the treatment of ALI.
Ginsenosides/pharmacology* ; Humans ; Acute Lung Injury/immunology* ; Animals ; Panax/chemistry* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal

OBJECTIVE: To explore prevalence, incidence and possible factors of immediate herniated discs after posterior cervical expansive open-door laminoplasty (EODL). METHODS: Totally 29 patients with cervical spinal stenosis and intervertebral disc herniation who underwent EODL from October 2020 to December 2021 were collected, including 24 males and 5 females, aged from 43 to 81 years old with an average of (61.3±9.0) years old;the courses of disease ranged from 1 to 120 months with an average of (36.4±37.0) months. Three or more intervertebral discs on C₃-C₇ were observed. The clinical efficacy was evaluated according to Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score before operation, 3 days and 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after operation, respectively. The changes of herniated disc before and after operation were measured by multipoint area method and two-dimensional distance method, and incidence and percentage of herniated disc regression were further calculated. Cervical imaging parameters such as Cobb angle (C₃-C₇), intervertebral angle, T₁ slope (T₁S), spinal canal sagittal diameter, K-line angle, dural sac sagittal diameter were measured and compared before and after operation. Pearson correlation was used to analyze correlation between cervical sagittal imaging parameters and disc herniation changes before and after operation. RESULTS: All patients obtained grade A wound healing, and 14 of them were followed up for 3(1.00, 5.25) months. There were no immediate or long-term postoperative complications. Totally 101 herniated intervertebral discs were measured, of which 79 regression numbers were obtained by area measurement. The number of intervertebral disc regressions by distance measurement was 77. There was no statistically significant difference in Cobb angle, intervertebral angle, T₁S and K-line angle of C₃-C₇ (P>0.05), however, there were statistically significant differences in sagittal diameter of spinal canal, sagittal diameter of dural sac, and JOA score before and after operation(P<0.05). The regression ratio of disc herniation ranged from 5% to 50%, and regression ratio of disc herniation was greater than 25% in 45.57%(36/79). Disc herniation in C_4,5 was positively correlated with sagittal plane diameter in C₅(r=0.423, P=0.028). There was a negative correlation between changes of C_3,4 and C_3,4 intervertebral angle (r=-0.450, P=0.041). The improvement rate of cervical JOA score immediately after operation was (59.54±15.07) %, and postoperative follow-up improved to (76.57±14.66) %. CONCLUSION Herniated disc regression immediately after EODL is a common occurrence, and EODL should be selected as far as possible under the premise of satisfying surgical indications. The regression of disc herniation is positively correlated with spinal canal sagittal diameter, and spinal canal should be enlarged as far as possible in the appropriate scope during EODL, so as to create more opportunities and conditions for disc regression and achieve better clinical results.
Humans ; Female ; Male ; Intervertebral Disc Displacement/diagnostic imaging* ; Spinal Stenosis/diagnostic imaging* ; Laminoplasty/methods* ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Cervical Vertebrae/diagnostic imaging* ; Adult ; Aged, 80 and over ; Intervertebral Disc/surgery*

Integrated metabolomic and lipidomic profiling,utilizing liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry(LC-HRMS),has emerged as a pivotal strategy for biomarker discovery.However,the inherent polarity disparity between metabolites and lipids complicates simultaneous analysis.To address this,a dual-stationary phase polarity-extended liquid chromatography(PELC)system was developed,which surpassed conventional one-dimensional LC(1D-LC)by enabling comprehensive coverage of both polar and non-polar compounds within a single injection.This system enhanced chromatographic resolution,peak capacity,and throughput while minimizing analytical variability.Extracellular vesicles(EVs),lipid bilayer-enclosed nanoparticles ubiquitously present in biofluids,had gained prominence as reservoirs of cancer biomarkers due to their cargo stability and pathophysiological relevance.Herein,the application of PELC-HRMS for concurrent metabolome-lipidome profiling in EVs was pioneered.A total of 193 metabolites were identified using this technique coupled with MS-DIAL software and Human Metabolome Database.Subsequently,this technique was employed to explore potential biomarkers for prostate cancer(PCa).Multivariate analysis identified 17 differentially abundant metabolites in PCa,implicating dysregulated pathways including purine metabolism,starch and sucrose metabolism,galactose metabolism,cysteine and methionine metabolism,and biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids.Notably,creatine(AUC=0.92)and DG 42:5(AUC=0.80)demonstrated robust diagnostic efficacy,attributable to their broad polarity ranges and EV-specific enrichment.This study established PELC as a high-fidelity platform for multi-omics integration in complex biospecimens,advancing mechanistic insights into metabolic rewiring and disease pathophysiology.

Objective To develop a predictive model for postoperative mortality risk in patients with acute aortic dissection(AAD)using the Extreme Gradient Boosting(XGBoost)algorithm combined with Shapley Additive Explanation(SHAP),and to establish a prediction website to serve as a diagnostic and therapeutic support platform for clinicians and patients.Methods A retrospective cohort study design was adopted.Data from 782 AAD patients who underwent surgical treatment at the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2013 to December 2023 were collected,including basic information and initial serum biomarker test results.Patients were randomly divided into training and test sets at a 7:3 ratio.An external validation set consisting of 313 AAD patients admitted to the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2020 to December 2023 was also established for further model validation.Variables were screened using LASSO regression,and an XGBoost machine learning model was constructed and interpreted using SHAP.The predictive performance of the model was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis.Using the Shiny package,the XGBoost model was deployed to shinyapps.io to create a prediction website for postoperative mortality risk in AAD patients.One patient was selected by simple random sampling from the test set and the external validation set respectively for the prediction example on the Shiny webpage.Results The XGBoost model demonstrated high predictive performance for postoperative mortality in AAD patients,with area under the ROC curve(AUC)values of 0.928(95%CI 0.901-0.956)in the training set,0.919(95%CI 0.891-0.949)in the test set,and 0.941(95%CI 0.915-0.967)in the external validation set.SHAP values indicated the following order of variable importance in the model(from highest to lowest):"lactate dehydrogenase""blood chlorine""multiple organ injury""carbon dioxide combining power""prothrombin time""α-hydroxybutyric acid""creatine kinase isoenzyme""Stanford classification""combined use of bedside blood purification""gender""acute kidney injury""gastrointestinal bleeding""brain injury"and"shock".A risk prediction website for adverse postoperative outcomes in AAD patients was developed using XGBoost-SHAP method(https://dun-dunxiaolu.shinyapps.io/document/)and validated with examples.One randomly selected patient from each of the test and external validation sets was applied:the predicted mortality risk value for patient 1(who died postoperatively)was 0.9539,and that for patient 2(who survived postoperatively)was 0.0206.Conclusions The XGBoost-SHAP model demonstrates high accuracy in predicting postoperative mortality risk for AAD patients.The online prediction tool established based on this model enhances the identification efficiency of high-risk postoperative mortality patients.

Objective:To construct a multi-sequence MRI radiomics combined with KRAS mutation nomogram model to predict the efficacy of pathological complete response (pCR) in patients with rectal cancer after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.Methods:This study was a case-control study. A total of 126 patients with rectal cancer who were treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University from June 2020 to December 2023 were retrospectively collected. The pathological response of the postoperative specimens was graded, with 64 cases of pCR and 62 cases of non-pCR. KRAS gene detection was performed on the pathological tissues before neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Among the patients, 34 cases had KRAS mutants and 92 cases had KRAS wild-types. The 126 patients were randomly divided into a training set and a validation set at a ratio of 8∶2 by the random number method, with 101 and 25 cases, respectively. The difference in KRAS mutation status between the pCR group and the non-pCR group was compared by the χ2 test. The radiomic features were extracted from the baseline T 2WI, diffusion-weighted imaging, and apparent diffusion coefficient images of the patients. The optimal radiomic features were screened out to establish the radiomics model. The radiomics-KRAS joint model was constructed by logistic regression, and a nomogram was drawn. The application efficiency of the model was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic curve and calibration curve. Results:There was a statistically significant difference in KRAS mutation between the pCR group and the non-pCR group in the training set ( χ2=4.69, P=0.032). Ten radiomics features were screened out in MRI images to establish the radiomics model. In the training set and validation set, the areas under the curve (AUC) of KRAS mutation, radiomics model and radiomics-KRAS nomogram model for evaluating pCR after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy were 0.665 (95% CI 0.592-0.757), 0.746 (95% CI 0.651-0.895) and 0.818 (95% CI 0.742-0.934), respectively, and the AUCs of the validation set were 0.613 (95% CI 0.582-0.755), 0.738 (95% CI 0.627-0.839) and 0.833 (95% CI 0.768-0.961), respectively. The results of DeLong test showed that the AUC of radiomics-KRAS nomogram model was higher than that of KRAS mutation and radiomics model, and the difference was statistically significant ( Z=0.58, 0.63, P=0.024, 0.022 in the training set; Z=0.54, 0.61, P=0.018, 0.035 in the validation set). The calibration curve showed that the predicted probability of the radiomics-KRAS nomogram model was consistent with the actual probability. Conclusions:The multi-sequence MRI radiomics combined with the KRAS mutation nomogram model has the best efficacy in predicting pCR in patients with rectal cancer after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and has good practical application value.

ObjectiveHuman Ku70 protein mainly involves the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) repair of double-stranded DNA breaks (DSB) through its DNA-binding properties, and it is recently reported having an RNA-binding ability. This paper is to explore whether Ku70 has RNA helicase activity and affects miRNA maturation. MethodsRNAs bound to Ku protein were analyzed by RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (RIP-seq) and bioinfomatic anaylsis. The expression relationship between Ku protein and miRNAs was verified by Western blot (WB) and quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assays. Binding ability of Ku protein to the RNAs was tested by biolayer interferometry (BLI) assay. RNA helicase activity of Ku protein was identified with EMSA assay. The effect of Ku70 regulated miR-124 on neuronal differentiation was performed by morphology analysis, WB and immunofluorescence assays with or without Zika virus (ZIKV) infection. ResultsWe revealed that the Ku70 protein had RNA helicase activity and affected miRNA maturation. Deficiency of Ku70 led to the up-regulation of a large number of mature miRNAs, especially neuronal specific miRNAs like miR-124. The knockdown of Ku70 promoted neuronal differentiation in human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) and SH-SY5Y cells by boosting miR-124 maturation. Importantly, ZIKV infection reduced the expression of Ku70 whereas increased expression of miR-124 in hNPCs, and led to morphologically neuronal differentiation. ConclusionOur study revealed a novel function of Ku70 as an RNA helicase and regulating miRNA maturation. The reduced expression of Ku70 with ZIKV infection increased the expression of miR-124 and led to the premature differentiation of embryonic neural progenitor cells, which might be one of the causes of microcephaly.

Aim To determine whether the micro kinetic chro-mogenic method can meet the requirements of Chinese Pharma-copoeia,as a supplement to the existing bacterial endotoxin test method.Methods Using micro kinetic chromogenic horseshoe crab reagent,the sample volume per well was 25 μL,the detec-tion wavelength was 405 nm,the preset OD value was 0.05,and the detection was carried out by half-well enzyme plate.In accordance with the provisions of"9101 Guiding Principles for Validation of Drug Quality Analysis Methods"in the fourth part of the 2020 edition of the People's Republic of China Pharmaco-poeia,the methodological verification of 7 items of specificity,accuracy,precision,limit of quantification,linearity,range and durability was carried out according to the specific requirements of the"quantitative"item in the"Determination of Impurities".The variety suitability study was conducted on 74 batches of samples from 48 drug varieties,and 143 batches of samples from 76 drug varieties(including 133 batches of negative samples and 10 batches of positive samples)were tested daily,and the re-sults were compared with the results of traditional color rendering method.Results The method of microdynamic color develop-ment met the requirements of the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China for quantitative methods.The results of varie-tal applicability and consistency comparison showed that the mi-crodynamic color development method had better equivalence compared with the traditional color development method.Con-clusion The micro kinetic chromogenic method can be promo-ted as a supplementary alternative to the existing bacterial endo-toxin methods.

Sucrose synthase plays a crucial role in the plant sugar metabolism pathway by catalyzing the production of uridine diphosphate (UDP)-glucose, which serves as a bioactive glycosyl donor for various metabolic processes. In this study, a sucrose synthase gene named CtSus was cloned from Cistanche tubulosa, a traditional Chinese medicine known for its rich content of diverse glycosides, based on transcriptome analysis results. The open reading frame of CtSus was 2 418 bp long encoding 805 amino acids. Sequence analysis revealed conserved domains associated with the plant sucrose synthase family at both the N-terminal and C-terminal regions of CtSus protein. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that CtSus shares a close evolutionary relationship with sucrose synthases from other plants within the same order. Functional identification of CtSus was performed through whole-cell catalysis coupling with UGT71BD1, a characterized glycosyltransferase enzyme. The results showed that the introduction of CtSus significantly enhanced the conversion rate of glycosylation catalyzed by UGT71BD1. The soluble expression of CtSus in Escherichia coli was further achieved using the pCold^TM TF expression vector. In vitro enzymatic assay indicated the activity of CtSus to catalyze the formation of UDP-glucose in the presence of sucrose and UDP. Real-time quantitative-polymerase chain reaction results showed that the expression patterns of CtSus gene in different parts of C. tubulosa and the suspension cell cultures of C. tubulosa under drought stress correlated with the accumulation patterns observed for phenylethanol glycosides, respectively. Furthermore, key amino acids and their interactions between enzyme and substrate were explored based on protein structure prediction and molecular docking results. Overall, our findings identify a sucrose synthase CtSus responsible for the supply of the active glycosyl donor UDP-glucose during the biosynthesis of glycoside products in C. tubulosa and have also provided a gene element that can be utilized in engineering strain construction for glycoside products production.

Strong cation exchange mediums have been widely applied in protein purification.In this work,the strong cation exchange chromatography medium was prepared by coupling small molecular ligands through allyl activation commonly used in agarose-based media.The matrix based on the macroporous microspheres was a copolymer of glycidyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate.The effects of reaction factors on the ligand density were detailedly investigated.The ligand density in the prepared medium was controlled in the range of 0.126-0.370 mol/L(wet gel).Its adsorption performance was evaluated with lysozyme as a model protein.The static binding capacity was in the range of 37.0-81.0 g/L.The maxium dynamic binding capacity reached 37.7 g/L and the maximum lysozyme recovery was 98.97%.The strong cation exchange medium obtained here showed low non-specific adsorption and high separation efficiency on lysozyme.This strong cation exchange medium showed a great potential in rapid protein purification.

Krüppel-like transcription factor 2 (KLF2) plays a key regulatory role in endothelial inflammation, thrombosis, angiogenesis and macrophage inflammation and polarization, and up-regulation of KLF2 expression has the potential to prevent and treatment atherosclerosis. In this study, trichostatin C (TSC) was obtained from the secondary metabolites of rice fermentation of Streptomyces sp. CPCC 203909 as a KLF2 up-regulator by using a high throughput screening model based on a KLF2 promoter luciferase reporter assay. TSC significantly inhibited the adhesion of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) induced monocytes (THP-1) to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Western blot results showed that TSC decreased TNFα induced the protein expression increase of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), and thereby inhibited endothelial inflammation. The results of histone deacetylase (HDAC) overexpression and molecular docking experiments showed that TSC upregulated the expression of KLF2 by inhibiting subtypes of HDAC 4/5/7. In conclusion, this study suggests that TSC up-regulates the expression of KLF2 through inhibiting HDAC 4/5/7 and thus inhibits TNFα induced endothelial inflammation, and it has the potential to prevent and treat atherosclerosis.