Epigenetic pathways play a critical role in the initiation, progression, and metastasis of cancer. Over the past few decades, significant progress has been made in the development of targeted epigenetic modulators (e.g., inhibitors). However, epigenetic inhibitors have faced multiple challenges, including limited clinical efficacy, toxicities, lack of subtype selectivity, and drug resistance. As a result, the design of new epigenetic modulators (e.g., degraders) such as PROTACs, molecular glue, and hydrophobic tagging (HyT) degraders has garnered significant attention from both academia and pharmaceutical industry, and numerous epigenetic degraders have been discovered in the past decade. In this review, we aim to provide an in-depth illustration of new degrading strategies (2017-2023) targeting epigenetic proteins for cancer therapy, focusing on the rational design, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, clinical status, and crystal structure information of these degraders. Importantly, we also provide deep insights into the potential challenges and corresponding remedies of this approach to drug design and development. Overall, we hope this review will offer a better mechanistic understanding and serve as a useful guide for the development of emerging epigenetic-targeting degraders.

MethodIn the experiment， 46% vol Red Star Erguotou （10 mL·kg·d^-1） was used to establish the AONFH rat model， and the intervention effect of JPHGP at different doses （2.5， 5.0， 10.0 g·kg^-1） was observed. Jiangusheng pill （JGS， 1.53 g·kg^-1） was selected as the positive control. After 8 weeks of administration， the bone histomorphometry of the femoral head was analyzed by Micro-CT imaging， and the area of medullary microvessels in the femoral head was detected by ink perfusion. The pathological change was observed by hematoxylin and eosin （HE） staining. The protein expressions of Platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 （CD31）， VEGF， VEGFR2， PI3K， phosphor-Akt （p-Akt） and phosphatase and Tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 （PTEN） in the femoral head were determined by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. ResultCompared with normal group， the model group presented the fracture and thinning of trabeculae in the femoral head， increased empty bone lacunae， and elevated number and diameter of adipocytes （P<0.01）. Micro-CT imaging revealed a decrease in bone mineral density （BMD）， bone volume fraction （BV/TV）， trabecular thickness （Tb.Th） and trabecular number （Tb.N） （P<0.05， P<0.01） while an increase in bone surface-to-volume ratio （BS/BV） and trabecular separation （Tb.Sp） （P<0.01）. The results of ink perfusion showed that the area of medullary microvessels in the femoral head was reduced （P<0.01）. Compared with model group， JPHGP lowered the empty bone lacunae rate as well as the number and diameter of adipocytes in the femoral head of AONFH rats. Micro-CT imaging indicated that JPHGP low-dose group had elevated BV/TV， Tb.Th and Tb.N （P<0.05， P<0.01） while decreased BS/BV （P<0.01）， and there was an upward trend in BMD while a downward trend in Tb.Sp， but without statistical difference. In addition， JPHGP medium- and high-dose groups had a rise in BMD， BV/TV， Tb.Th and Tb.N （P<0.05， P<0.01）， a decrease in BS/BV and Tb.Sp （P<0.05， P<0.01） and enlarged area of medullary microvessels in the femoral head （P<0.05， P<0.01）. The expressions of CD31， VEGF， VEGFR2， PI3K， p-Akt in the model group were lower than those in the normal group （P<0.01）， and after medium and high doses of JPHGP treatment， the expressions of CD31， PI3K and p-Akt in the femoral head of rats were up-regulated （P<0.01） while the protein expression of PTEN was down-regulated （P<0.01）. Moreover， JPHGP up-regulated the expressions of VEGF and VEGFR2 （P<0.05， P<0.01）. ConclusionJPHGP can repair the vascular injury in AONFH， and its mechanism may be related to the activation of VEGF/VEGFR2/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. This study provides certain scientific basis and reference for the clinical application of JPHGP. ObjecctiveTo observe the repair effect of Jianpi Huogu prescription （JPHGP） on vascular injury in experimental alcohol-induced osteonecrosis of femoral head （AONFH）， and to explore its mechanism based on vascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF）/VEGFR2/phosphoinositide 3-kinase （PI3K）/protein kinase B （Akt） signaling pathway.

Objective:To summarize the clinical and genetic characteristics of Potocki-Shaffer syndrome (PSS).Methods:A retrospective study was conducted to analyze the clinical data of 1 patient diagnosed with PSS in the Department of Pediatrics of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University at February 2021.The data analyzed included clinical manifestations, biochemical tests and gene tests.Meanwhile, studies were retrieved from the China National Knowledge Internet database, Wanfang database, and PubMed database from the establishment of the database to December 2021 by taking " Potocki-Shaffer syndrome" " EXT2 gene" " AlX4 gene" and " PHF21A gene" as key words.Besides, genes were searched from the Online Frontal Analysis Mendelian Inheritance in Man.The clinical and genetic features of PSS patients were summarized. Results:The patient was 5 months and 21 days old, male, who was admitted to the hospital due to excessive growth in body mass for the past 3 months.The patient showed mental and motor retardation, overgrowth, concealed penis, hearing loss, and hypotonia.Whole exon sequencing of this patient revealed heterozygous deletions in the Chr11: 44069455-48188946 region, including the deletions of 3 autosomal dominant genes: EXT2, ALX4, and PHF21A.The patient was diagnosed with PSS.A total of 14 articles published in English were collected, involving this boy and other 35 patients.In these patients, 14 cases had point mutations, and 22 cases had large deletions. PHF21A gene variation was detected in 23 cases (dysgnosia in 22 cases, dyskinesia in 21 cases, language development delay in 18 cases). EXT2 gene variation was observed in 22 cases (exostoses in 13 cases). ALX4 gene variation was found in 19 cases (bilateral parietal foramina in 15 cases). Of 36 cases, 27 cases had craniofacial anomalies. Conclusions:The main clinical symptoms of PSS are language and motor developmental delay, intellectual disability, exostoses, bilateral parietal foramina, and craniofacial anomalies, which are closely related to 3 autosomal dominant genes ALX4, EXT2 and PHF21A.Genetic testing facilitates the clinical diagnosis of PSS, and the mutation types are dominated by point mutations and large deletions.

OBJECTIVE: To carry out genetic testing for a child featuring global developmental delay, abnormal liver function, congenital heart disease, and brain malformation. METHODS: Peripheral blood samples of the child and his parents were collected for the extraction of genomic DNA and trio-whole exome sequencing. Candidate variant was verified by Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: Genetic testing revealed that the child has harbored a heterozygous c.2002G>T (p.Glu668Ter) variant of the SMARCA2 gene, which was predicted to be likely pathogenic by bioinformatic analysis. His mother was found to be a low-percentage mosaic for the same variant, with a ratio of 0.054 (246/4549). CONCLUSION The child was diagnosed with Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome resulting from maternal mosaicism for the SMARCA2 gene variant.
Child ; Female ; Humans ; Mosaicism ; Parents ; Developmental Disabilities ; Mothers

Objective:Evaluate the application of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in the identification of homology of carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli(CREC). Methods:A total of 26 carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli strains were isolated from 9 provinces in China in 2018. The 900-1 200 cm -1 was selected as a spectral region for the Euclidean distance calculating and average linkage clustering between all isolates.The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was analyzed by whole genome sequencing (WGS). Results:Twenty-six CREC strains were divided into 14 infrared spectros copy(IR) types by FTIR. The same IR type belonged to the same sequence type type.Compared with cluster analysis based on WGS, the consistency of FTIR cluster analysis was 92.3% (24/26).Conclusions:FTIR presented excellent performance in identification of homology of CREC.Besides, with the advantages of simple operation and rapid acquisition of results, FTIR may be a useful tool in clinical labs.

Objective:To detect the genes of common genetic diseases in newborns with the high-throughput sequencing technology based on target gene capture, to study the incidence rate of such diseases, the carrying rate and variant types of pathogenic mutations related to such diseases, and to explore the application value of the high-throughput sequencing technology in screening genetic diseases of newborns.Methods:The heel blood of 1 793 newborns born in Guangdong province from June 2019 to April 2020 were collected, and the exon regions of 138 common genetic disease-related genes in neonates were detected using the high-throughput sequencing technology based on target gene capture.The pathogenicity of the mutations was interpreted according to the " Classification Criteria and Guidelines for Genetic Variation(2017)" , in which known disease and probable disease were considered as positive mutations.The positive mutations were verified by Sanger sequencing technology, and the test results were analyzed with statistical methods.Results:Among the 1 793 newborns, 978 were male and 815 were female.A total of 158 positive cases were screened(8.81%), and 11 positive diseases were detected.Among the positive diseases, there were 41 cases(2.29%)of autosomal recessive deafness type 1A, 40 cases(2.23%)of Gilbert syndrome or Crigler-Najjar syndrome, and 33 cases(1.84%)of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency(1.84%), 19 cases(1.06%)of familial hypercho-lesterolemia, 18 cases(1.00%) of sodium taurocholate cotransporter peptide deficiency disease, 2 cases(0.11%)of mitochondrial non-syndromic deafness, 2 cases(0.11%)of Citrin deficiency, 1 case(0.06%)of holocarboxylase synthase deficiency, 1 case(0.06%)of β-thalassemia and 1 case(0.06%)of metachromatic leukodystrophies.Of all studied cases, 972 carried one or more positive mutations, involving 85 kinds of diseases in total.The diseases with a high carrying rate were Gilbert syndrome or Crigler-Najjar syndrome(359 cases, 20.02%), autosomal recessive deafness type 1A(302 cases, 16.84%), and sodium taurocholate cotransport peptide deficiency disease(291 cases, 16.22%). The high-frequency mutation sites were UGT1A1 gene c. 211G> A, GJB2 gene c .109G> A and SLC10A1 gene c. 800C> T. Conclusions:The common genetic diseases detected in neonates from Guangdong province are autosomal recessive deafness type 1A, Gilbert syndrome or Crigler-Najjar syndrome, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, familial hypercholesterolemia, and sodium taurocholate cotransport peptide deficiency.There are high-frequency carrying mutation sites in the population.Preliminary genetic screening of common neonatal genetic diseases can accumulate data and experience for the development of newborn genetic screening.

Objective:To investigate the changes of expressions of NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells and downstream factors interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) in serum in the children with asthma, and to explore their significances on assessing the condition of the children.Methods:A total of 176cases of children with asthma were divided into acute exacerbation group (n=91) , chronic persistent group (n=49) and clinical remission group (n=36) according to the clinical manifestation.During the same period, 60healthy children were selected from the outpatient physical examination center as control group.The pulmonary function of children was checked with lung function instrument.The expression levels of NLRP3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD (ASC) and cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinase-1 (Caspase-1) mRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of the subjects in various groups were detected by using real-time quantitative PCR.The serum levels of IL-1βand IL-18of the subjects in various groups were detected by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) .Results:Compared with control group, the forced expiratory volume in 1second percentage of predicted value (FEV1％) and fixed ratio of forced expiratory volume in the first second/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) of the children in acute exacerbation, chronic persistent and clinical remission groups were decreased (P＜0.05) ;acute exacerbation group＜chronic persistent group＜clinical remission group, and there were significant differences between various groups (P＜0.05) .The levels of NLRP3, ASC and Caspase-1mRNA in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells and serum levels of IL-1βand IL-18in the children with asthma were higher than those in control group (P＜0.01) .The expression levels of NLRP3, ASC and Caspase-1mRNA in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of the children in acute exacerbation group were higher than those in chronic persistent and clinical remission groups (P＜0.05) , and the expression levels of NLRP3, ASC and Caspase-1mRNA in chronic persistent group were higher than those in clinical remission group (P＜0.05) .Pearson correlation analysis showed that the expression level of NLRP3mRNA in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of asthmatic children was positively correlated with the expression levels of ASC, Caspase-1 mRNA and the serum levels of IL-1βand IL-18 (P＜0.05) , while it was negatively correlated with FEV1％and FEV1/FVC;the expression level of ASC mRNA was positively correlated with the expression level of Caspase-1mRNA and the serum levels of IL-1βand IL-18 (P＜0.05) , while it was negatively correlated with FEV1％and FEV1/FVC (P＜0.05) ;the expression level of Caspase-1 mRNA was positively correlated with the expression level of Caspase-1mRNA and the serum levels of IL-1βand IL-18 (P＜0.05) , while it was negatively correlated with FEV1％and FEV1/FVC (P＜0.05) ;the serum level of IL-1βwas negatively correlated with FEV1％and FEV1/FVC (P＜0.05) , and the serum level of IL-18was negatively correlated with FEV1％and FEV1/FVC (P＜0.05) .Conclusion:The expression levels of NLRP3inflammasome and the downstream factor IL-1βand IL-18in peripheral blood of the children with asthma are increased, and they are related to the clinical stage of the children with asthma.NLRP3inflammasome pathway might promote the pathogenesis of asthma in the children.

Objective: To report on clinical characteristics and genetic findings in 15 Chinese patients with methylmalonic acidemia (MMA). Methods: For the 15 MMA patients detected by tandem mass spectrometry, genetic analysis was carried out in twelve pedigrees. Clinical characteristics, genetic finding, treatment and outcomes were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The main features of the patients included poor feeding, recurrent vomiting, lethargy, seizure and development retardation. Blood propionylcarnitine (except for 3 patients), its ratio with acetylcarnitine, and urine methylmalonic acid were increased in all patients. Twelve patients were diagnosed genetically, which included 7 with MUT variants, 4 with MMACHC variants, and 1 with MMAB variant. Nine MUT variants were detected, among which c. 1159A>C, 753+ 1delGinsTGGTTATTA and c. 504del were novel. Six known pathogenic MMACHC variants and two novel MMAB variants (c.289_290delGG, c. 566G>A) were also detected. Seven patients died of metabolic crises within a year, others had improved effectively following the treatment, but had mild to severe growth delay and/or developmental retardation. Conclusion The clinical manifestation of MMA are complex. Most patients have variants of the MUT and MMACHC genes. High mortality may occur before one year of age.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the time delay between in-hospital stroke and out-of-hospital stroke patients, and to explore the influence factors for the prognosis of in-hospital stroke patients treated by intravenous thrombolysis. METHODS: Clinical data of 3050 patients with ischemic stroke who received intravenous thrombolysis in 71 hospitals in Zhejiang province from June 2017 to September 2018 were analyzed. Differences of time delay including door to imaging time (DIT), imaging to needle time (INT) and door to needle time (DNT) between in-hospital stroke (=101) and out-of-hospital stroke (=2949) were observed. The influencing factors for the outcome at 3 month after intravenous thrombolysis in patients with in-hospital stroke were analyzed using binary logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Patients with in-hospital stroke had longer DIT[53.5 (32.0-79.8) min vs. 20.0 (14.0-28.0) min, <0.01], longer IDT[47.5(27.3-64.0)min vs. 36.0(24.0-53.0)min, <0.01], and longer DNT[99.0 (70.5-140.5) min vs. 55.0 (41.0-74.0) min, <0.01], compared with patients with out-of-hospital stroke; patients in comprehensive stroke center had longer DIT[59.5(44.5-83.3) min vs. 37.5(16.5-63.5) min, <0.01], longer DNT[110.0(77.0-145.0) min vs. 88.0 (53.8-124.3) min, <0.05], but shorter INT[36.5(23.8-60.3)min vs. 53.5 (34.3-64.8) min, <0.05], compared with patients in primary stroke center. Age (=0.934, 95% 0.882-0.989, <0.05) and baseline National Institute of Health Stroke Scale score (=0.912, 95% 0.855-0.973, <0.01) were independent risk factors for prognosis of in-hospital stroke patients. CONCLUSIONS In-hospital stroke had longer DIT and DNT than out-of-hospital stroke, which suggests that a more smooth thrombolysis process of in-hospital stroke should be established.
Administration, Intravenous ; Brain Ischemia ; drug therapy ; Fibrinolytic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Hospitals ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Prognosis ; Stroke ; drug therapy ; Thrombolytic Therapy ; statistics & numerical data ; Time Factors ; Treatment Outcome

Objective To evaluate the accuracy of color Doppler in predicting acute kidney injury ( AKI) . Methods Patients of both sexes with AKI risk factors not diagnosed with AKI, aged ≥18 yr, were enrolled in this study. Within 1 h after inclusion, the renal blood flow ( RBF) grade was monitored u-sing color Doppler, and renal resistive index ( RRI) value of renal interlobar artery was monitored at the level of renal interlobar or arcuate arteries, and corrected RRI value was calculated. The development of AKI was recorded within 24 h through measuring serum creatinine and urine volume, and the receiver oper-ating characteristic curve was plotted. Results Thirty-eight patients were included in non-AKI group and 40 ones in AKI group. Compared with non-AKI group, RBF grade was significantly decreased, RRI value was increased ( P<0. 05) , and no significant change was found in the corrected RRI value in AKI group ( P>0. 05) . The area under the curve of RBF grade and RRI value in predicting AKI occurred within 24 h and 95％ confidence interval were 0. 659 ( 0. 561-0. 747) and 0. 669 ( 0. 572-0. 756) , respectively. Con-clusion Color Doppler has a certain value in predicting AKI within 24 h.