Andrographolide sulfonate (AS) is a sulfonated derivative of andrographolide extracted from Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Nees, and has been approved for several decades in China. The present study aimed to investigate the novel therapeutic application and possible mechanisms of AS in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Results indicated that administration of AS by injection or gavage significantly reduced the paw swelling, improved body weights, and attenuated pathological changes in joints of rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis. Additionally, the levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-1β in the serum and ankle joints were reduced. Bioinformatics analysis, along with the spleen index and measurements of IL-17 and IL-10 levels, suggested a potential relationship between AS and Th17 cells under arthritic conditions. In vitro, AS was shown to block Th17 cell differentiation, as evidenced by the reduced percentages of CD4⁺ IL-17A⁺ T cells and decreased expression levels of RORγt, IL-17A, IL-17F, IL-21, and IL-22, without affecting the cell viability and apoptosis. This effect was attributed to the limited glycolysis, as indicated by metabolomics analysis, reduced glucose uptake, and pH measurements. Further investigation revealed that AS might bind to hexokinase2 (HK2) to down-regulate the protein levels of HK2 but not glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) or pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), and overexpression of HK2 reversed the inhibition of AS on Th17 cell differentiation. Furthermore, AS impaired the activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) signals in vivo and in vitro, which was abolished by the addition of lactate. In conclusion, AS significantly improved adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) in rats by inhibiting glycolysis-mediated activation of PI3K/AKT to restrain Th17 cell differentiation.
Animals ; Th17 Cells/immunology* ; Diterpenes/pharmacology* ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid/metabolism* ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt/immunology* ; Glycolysis/drug effects* ; Cell Differentiation/drug effects* ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases/genetics* ; Rats ; Male ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Humans ; Andrographis paniculata/chemistry* ; Arthritis, Experimental/drug therapy* ; Interleukin-17/immunology* ; Signal Transduction/drug effects*

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of the comparison between pit and fissure sealants and fluoride varnishes, as well as various types of sealants, in preventing caries on the occlusal surface of children's first permanent molars (FPM). METHODS: Conduct a comprehensive search of literature published between January 1, 1988, and May 30, 2024, in the following databases: China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, China Science Periodical Database and China Biology Medicine database. Meta-analysis and subgroup analyses were performed on the literature that met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: A total of 5 618 pieces of literature were retrieved, resulting in the inclusion of 14 in the study. Meta-analysis showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the efficacy between varies pit and fissure sealants compared to fluoride varnishes, and between varies types of sealants in preventing caries on the occlusal surface of children's first permanent molars within 24 months post-surgery (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS Within 24 months, there was no significant difference in the effectiveness of using resin-based or glass iomomer pit and fissure sealants compared with fluoride varnishes in preventing occlusal caries in FPM in children; within 24 months, there was no significant difference in the effectiveness of using resin-based sealants compared with ART sealants in preventing occlusal caries in FPM in children. ART sealants are recommended over resin-based sealers for children who have no conditions for chair-side manipulation or who are poorly co-operative.
Humans ; Pit and Fissure Sealants/therapeutic use* ; Dental Caries/prevention & control* ; Molar ; Child ; Fluorides, Topical/therapeutic use* ; Dentition, Permanent

Objective:To analyze the role of learning engagement and learning burnout in the relationship between supervisors' guidance and the personal ability of postgraduates in the Professional Master's Program in Clinical Medicine.Methods:A total of 4 016 postgraduates in the Professional Master's Program in Clinical Medicine from 61 colleges were surveyed in 2020. Common method bias was assessed using the Harman's single factor test and total score was determined by the entropy weight method. Causality and mediation effect were analyzed by linear regression, and mediation effect was tested by Bootstrapping.Results:The average scores of supervisors' guidance, learning burnout, learning engagement and personal ability were (4.13±0.87), (2.49±1.11), (3.88±0.83), and (3.71±0.78), respectively. Supervisors' guidance significantly and positively impacted learning engagement ( β=0.689, P<0.001) and personal ability ( β=0.504, P<0.001). Learning engagement played a partial mediating role (89.30% of mediation effect) between supervisors' guidance and personal ability. Learning burnout (interaction term β=0.078, P<0.001) positively regulated the relationship between supervisors' guidance and learning engagement. Conclusions:Learning engagement can mediate the effect of supervisors' guidance on the personal ability of postgraduates in the Professional Master's Program in Clinical Medicine, and learning burnout positively regulates the effect of supervisors' guidance on learning engagement. Strengthened supervisors' guidance, increased attention to students' learning burnout, and enhanced learning engagement can further improve the personal abilities of postgraduates in the Professional Master's Program in Clinical Medicine.

Objective:To investigate the "burnout-engagement continuum" status of postgraduate supervisors of the Professional Master's Program in Clinical Medicine and to identify key populations.Methods:From October to November 2023, an anonymous online questionnaire survey was conducted to determine the "burnout-engagement continuum" status of postgraduate supervisors of the Professional Master's Program in Clinical Medicine. The scores of different dimensions of job burnout are expressed as mean±standard deviation, and the distribution of supervisors of different status is presented in frequency and percentage. All data analyses were performed in R 4.3.1. Distribution of the five profiles among supervisors of different status was compared using the chi-square test and compared pairwise using the Bonferroni method.Results:A total of 2 664 valid questionnaires were collected. The scores of emotional exhaustion, cynicism and personal accomplishment were（2.46±0.95),（1.74±0.89), and（4.23±0.90), respectively. The prevalence of job engagement, inefficacy, overexertion, disengagement, and burnout among the supervisors were 42.76%（1 139/2 664), 43.54%（1 160/2 664), 33.03%（880/2 664), 14.71%（392/2 664), and 13.66%（364/2 664), respectively. In terms of demographics, the distribution of the "burnout-engagement continuum" was significantly different by age, sex, marital status, and highest education level（ P<0.05). In terms of work-related characteristics, the distribution of the "burnout-engagement continuum" was significantly different by income, professional title, administrative position, and working hours on weekdays and holidays（ P<0.05). The distribution of engagement, inefficacy, and overexertion was significantly different between the eastern and western regions（ P<0.05). Conclusions:There is a high percentage of individuals with burnout among postgraduate supervisors of the Professional Master's Program in Clinical Medicine, and inefficacy is a common negative state. Supervisors who work in the western regions, are under 45 years of age, are male, are married, have a doctorate degree, hold associate senior professional title, have lower relative income, are not holding administrative duties, and work more than 10 hours on workdays and more than 4 hours on holidays are key populations that require increased attention. The psychological state of supervisors can be improved by providing them with more resources, work benefits, and incentives.

Objective:To investigate the satisfaction with team construction and occupational burnout among postgraduate supervisors in clinical medicine in China, and to analyze the relationship of the above two factors with the willingness to hold a position again in the school.Methods:A survey covering 3 409 postgraduate supervisors in clinical medicine across 33 colleges and universities was conducted. Analysis of variance, multiple linear regression analysis, and logistic regression analysis were performed to explore the relationship of satisfaction with team construction and occupational burnout with the willingness to hold a position again in the school among supervisors.Results:In various dimensions of satisfaction with team construction among postgraduate supervisors in clinical medicine, the mechanism of selection scored the highest (4.74±0.53), followed by indicators for selection (4.71±0.56), supervisor training (4.66±0.58), supervisor assessment (4.64±0.65), incentives for teaching (4.61±0.65), and career development (4.56±0.74). Indicators for selection ( OR=2.121) and career development ( OR=2.461) were positively correlated with supervisors' willingness to hold a position again in the school. The degree of being cynical, one of the assessment dimensions of occupational burnout, played a partially mediating role between satisfaction with supervisor team construction and the willingness to hold a position again in the school. Conclusions:Postgraduate supervisors in clinical medicine in China are generally satisfied with supervisor team construction. The degree of their satisfaction and occupational burnout influence their willingness to hold a position again in the school. Therefore, colleges and universities should optimize indicators for selection and provide more diverse career development opportunities for supervisors to enhance supervisors' satisfaction and loyalty.

Objective:To understand the evaluation of graduate education quality by medical graduate supervisors in China, to identify the shortcomings of graduate education quality, and to put forward corresponding suggestions.Methods:From October to November 2023, a self-designed questionnaire was used to investigate the evaluation of school management, supervisor team construction, graduate training process, and graduate training results by 6 025 medical graduate supervisors from 37 universities in China. SPSS 26.0 was used to conduct t-test and analysis of variance to explore the differences in scores given by different supervisor groups for various aspects. Results:The scores given by medical graduate supervisors for school management, supervisor team construction, graduate training process, and graduate training results were (4.63±0.60), (4.59±0.62), (4.58±0.59), and (4.54±0.62), respectively. Supervisors who work in clinical medicine, aged 46-55 years, with 5 or fewer years of teaching experience, supervising master's students, instructing only professional degree students, instructing three or fewer students, holding a bachelor's degree as their highest degree, with the title of professor, holding an administrative position, and working an average of 8-9 hours per day on weekdays and 4 or fewer hours per day on holidays, gave higher scores on all aspects of graduate education quality ( P<0.05). Conclusions:The supervisors gave high scores on the quality of medical graduate education. It is suggested that the quality of graduate education should be continuously improved by optimizing school management systems, strengthening the construction of supervisory teams, and focusing on the process and results of graduate education.

Objective:To analyze the scores and differences of various aspects of public health graduate education management in China, and to provide suggestions for universities to enhance graduate education management.Methods:Based on the data from the 2021 National Survey on Education Satisfaction and Job Evaluation of Medical Graduate Supervisors, we described the public health graduate education management in China from the five perspectives of student enrollment, curriculum, practice, research, and school management. The t-test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the differences in individual characteristics. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze factors influencing the scores of public health graduate education management. Results:Supervisors gave the highest score to curriculum and teaching (mean score, 4.00±0.77), followed by management system and input (mean score, 3.97±0.87), research conditions and achievements (mean score, 3.93±0.80), practical education conditions and effects (mean score, 3.80±0.91), and discipline attractiveness and enrollment quality (mean score, 3.70±0.84). Supervisors who supervised professional degrees, doctoral students, and located in the eastern region gave relatively high scores to public health graduate education, and those with associate professor titles gave relatively low scores.Conclusions:The quality of students recruited for public health graduate education needs to be improved, curriculum design and teaching method need to be adjusted, practice conditions need to be improved, research funding is insufficient, and the construction of academic communication platforms needs to be improved. The relevant universities/colleges need to strengthen the management and increase the investment to promote the high-quality development of public health graduate education.

【Objective】 To investigate the resource allocation status of blood testing laboratories in 14 blood stations in Gansu Province, explore the impact of differences in basic conditions on the comprehensive testing ability of laboratories, so as to promote the homogenization and standardization of blood screening capacity in blood stations in Gansu and improve blood safety and effectivenes. 【Methods】 An evaluation index system of laboratory resource allocation was constructed and a question-naire was designed. The data of human resources, infrastructure and key equipment of 14 blood stations were collected. The entropy weight -TOPSIS method was used to evaluate and rank the resource allocation of 14 blood stations. 【Results】 In the comprehensive evaluation of blood testing laboratory resource allocation in 14 blood stations in Gansu, the top three were laboratories A, B and I, and the last three were laboratories G, M and J. On the whole, the main issue was unreasonable structure of human resources: most laboratories had unreasonable age structure; except for Laboratory A, there was no personnel with bachelor's degree or above in laboratories; most laboratories had not established a team with intermediate professional titles. In terms of infrastructure, the size of seven laboratories could not meet the needs of modern laboratory testing, and all eight blood stations had no spare nucleic acid laboratories nor a mutual spare laboratory with other blood stations As for the key equipment, 5 laboratories had no automatic blood grouping diagnostic instrument, 5 laboratories only had one set of enzyme immunoassay detection system, 3 laboratories had no spare equipment for the key equipment, which means if the equipment failure could not be repaired in time, the release of results would be affected. 【Conclusion】 There were significant differences in human resources, infrastructure and key equipment of blood testing laboratories in 14 blood stations in Gansu, which had a great impact on laboratory testing capacity and subsequent development. It is suggested that governments at all levels and health administrative departments optimize the input of laboratory resource allocation according to the blood collection volume of blood stations to gradually narrow the differences in resource distribution between different regions, improve the degree of laboratory automation and optimize the personnel structure, so as to build high-quality and efficient blood testing laboratories and ensure the safety of clinical blood use.

Objective:To investigate the current status of satisfaction with training program and loyalty to the university among professional postgraduate students majoring in clinical medicine, as well as the association between satisfaction with training program and loyalty to the university.Methods:The 2017 National Medical Student Satisfaction Survey Database was used. A total of 1 944 professional postgraduate students in the second or third year, as well as those with delayed graduation, from 59 postgraduate training colleges and universities who participated in clinical internship were selected. SPSS 20.0 software was used for analysis; descriptive analysis was used to describe satisfaction with training program and loyalty to the university; factor analysis was adopted to calculate comprehensive satisfaction score to reduce the number of variables; logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate the association of general information and satisfaction with training program with loyalty to the university.Results:The professional postgraduate students majoring in clinical medicine had a degree of 60.44% of loyalty to the university. Satisfaction with training program reflected low satisfaction at each link of the training program. For every 1-point increase in the comprehensive satisfaction scores of the four links of courses, research training, college support, and practice, the loyalty to the university was increased to 2.11, 1.83, 1.77, and 1.75 times as the original, respectively, of the baseline scores.Conclusion:There is still room for further improvement in the satisfaction with training program and the loyalty to the university among professional postgraduate students majoring in clinical medicine, and the satisfaction with training program is closely associated with the loyalty to the university. Colleges and universities need to take measures for courses, practice, research training, and college support, so as to improve satisfaction and thus enhance loyalty to the university.

Objective:To investigate the occurrence of carotid artery abnormalities in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients and the related risk factors affecting the occurrence of carotid artery abnormalities.Methods:A total of 169 regular follow-up outpatients with HIV/AIDS from April 2003 to December 2019 in Peking Union Medical College Hospital, whose carotid artery ultrasound examination were performed from July 2015 to December 2019 were included. The patients were divided into young (≤44 years old), middle-aged and elderly (≥45 years old) according to their ages, and the physical examination data of the included patients were collected.The statistical methods were logistic regression analysis and single sample t test. Results:Among the 169 HIV/AIDS patients, 40(23.7%) had abnormal carotid artery and 129(76.3%) had no abnormal carotid artery. Middle-aged and elderly people (odds ratio ( OR)=3.85, 95%confidence interval (95% CI) 1.54-9.65, P<0.01), hypertension ( OR=6.24, 95% CI 1.95-20.00, P<0.01), hyperlipidemia ( OR=2.44, 95% CI 1.00-5.93, P<0.05), and elevated human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-DR + CD8 + /CD8 + ( OR=1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.06, P<0.05) were the risk factors for carotid artery abnormality. The common carotid artery inner medium film thickness (IMT) of patients in HIV/AIDS group Ⅰ (20 to 30 years old), group Ⅱ (31 to 40 years old), group Ⅲ (41 to 50 years old) were (0.061 0±0.001 2), (0.062 9±0.001 4) and (0.065 6±0.002 6) cm, respectively, which were thicker than the control groups ((0.051±0.003), (0.056±0.004) and (0.063±0.002) cm, respectively). The differences were all statistically significant ( t=5.119, 4.775 and 1.739, respectively, all P<0.05). The common carotid artery IMT of patients in HIV/AIDS group A (30 to 44 years old) and group B (45 to 59 years old) were (0.062 6±0.001 1) and (0.072 3±0.003 4) cm, respectively, which were thicker than the control groups ((0.052±0.011) and (0.064±0.015) cm, respectively), the differences were both statistically significant ( t=9.520 and 3.012, respectively, both P<0.01). Conclusion:Younger HIV-positive people have a higher probability of abnormal carotid arteries and may be at greater risk of cardiovascular disease than HIV-negative people of the same age, suggesting that HIV-positive people, especially young people, should be examined early with ultrasound of the neck arteries to detect abnormalities and intervene as soon as possible.