Aldehyde oxidase (AOX) is a molybdoenzyme that is primarily expressed in the liver and is involved in the metabolism of drugs and other xenobiotics. AOX-mediated metabolism can result in unexpected outcomes, such as the production of toxic metabolites and high metabolic clearance, which can lead to the clinical failure of novel therapeutic agents. Computational models can assist medicinal chemists in rapidly evaluating the AOX metabolic risk of compounds during the early phases of drug discovery and provide valuable clues for manipulating AOX-mediated metabolism liability. In this study, we developed a novel graph neural network called AOMP for predicting AOX-mediated metabolism. AOMP integrated the tasks of metabolic substrate/non-substrate classification and metabolic site prediction, while utilizing transfer learning from ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance data to enhance its performance on both tasks. AOMP significantly outperformed the benchmark methods in both cross-validation and external testing. Using AOMP, we systematically assessed the AOX-mediated metabolism of common fragments in kinase inhibitors and successfully identified four new scaffolds with AOX metabolism liability, which were validated through in vitro experiments. Furthermore, for the convenience of the community, we established the first online service for AOX metabolism prediction based on AOMP, which is freely available at https://aomp.alphama.com.cn.

Abstract: Upon monitoring cytoplasmic aberrant double-stranded DNA, cGAS-STING signaling pathway induces the expression of type I interferons and pro-inflammatory cytokines, which activates the host immune response and enhances anti-tumor immune response and resistance to pathogen infection. However, sustained activation of the cGAS-STING signaling pathway drives diseases such as autoimmune diseases, aging-associated inflammation, and neurodegenerative pathologies. Herein, we describe the mechanism by which cGAS-STING signaling pathway participates in regulating the development of various immune-related diseases, with a particular review of the research and development progress of STING agonists, cGAS inhibitors, and STING inhibitors, aiming to provide some theoretical reference for the future development of cGAS-STING modulators.

Since the 18^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China （CPC）， a continuous stream of scientific and technological innovations has unfolded in the realm of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）. With the aim of implementing the spirit of the 20^th National Congress of the CPC， and the Opinions on Promoting the Inheritance， Innovation and Development of TCM， and to underscore the exemplary role of significant scientific and technological achievements， the China Association of Chinese Medicine， in alignment with relevant requirements and under the guidance of authoritative experts， has organized a comprehensive review of the important scientific and technological achievements in the field of TCM since the 18^th National Congress of the CPC. Through rigorous procedures， including collecting and reviewing achievements， writing achievement reports， organizing expert reviews， and seeking public opinions， remarkable research achievements in TCM during 2012—2022 were compiled.

Epimedin B(EB)is one of the main flavonoid ingredients present in Epimedium brevicornum Maxim.,a traditional herb widely used in China.Our previous study showed that EB was a stronger inducer of melanogenesis and an activator of tyrosinase(TYR).However,the role of EB in melanogenesis and the mechanism underlying the regulation remain unclear.Herein,as an extension to our previous investi-gation,we provide comprehensive evidence of EB-induced pigmentation in vivo and in vitro and eluci-date the melanogenesis mechanism by assessing its effects on the TYR family of proteins(TYRs)in terms of expression,activity,and stability.The results showed that EB increased TYRs expression through microphthalmia-associated transcription factor-mediated p-Akt(referred to as protein kinase B(PKB))/glycogen synthase kinase 3β(GSK3β)/β-catenin,p-p70 S6 kinase cascades,and protein 38(p38)/mitogen-activated protein(MAP)kinase(MAPK)and extracellular regulated protein kinases(ERK)/MAPK pathways,after which EB increased the number of melanosomes and promoted their maturation for melanogenesis in melanoma cells and human primary melanocytes/skin tissues.Furthermore,EB exerted repigmentation by stimulating TYR activity in hydroquinone-and N-phenylthiourea-induced TYR inhibitive models,including melanoma cells,zebrafish,and mice.Finally,EB ameliorated monobenzone-induced depigmentation in vitro and in vivo through the enhancement of TYRs stability by inhibiting TYR misfolding,TYR-related protein 1 formation,and retention in the endoplasmic reticulum and then by downregulating the ubiquitination and proteolysis processes.These data conclude that EB can target TYRs and alter their expression,activity,and stability,thus stimulating their pigmentation function,which might provide a novel rational strategy for hypopigmentation treatment in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

Objective:To explore the clinical and genetic characteristics of asparagine synthase deficiency.Methods:Case series studies. Retrospective analysis and summary of the clinical data of 6 cases with asparagine synthase deficiency who were diagnosed by genetic testing and admitted to the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from May 2017 to April 2023 were analyzed retrospectively. The main clinical features, laboratory and imaging examination characteristics of the 6 cases were summarized, and the gene variation sites of them were analyzed.Results:All of the 6 cases were male, with onset ages ranging from 1 month to 1 year and 4 months. All of the 6 cases had cognitive and motor developmental delay, with 3 cases starting with developmental delay, 3 cases starting with convulsions and later experiencing developmental arrest or even regression. All of 6 cases had epilepsy, in whom 2 cases with severe microcephaly developed epileptic encephalopathy in the early stages of infancy with spasms as the main form of convulsions, 4 cases with mild or no microcephaly gradually evolved into convulsions with no fever after multiple febrile convulsions with focal seizures, tonic clonic seizures and tonic seizure as the main forms of convulsions. Three cases of 4 gradually developed into stagnation or even regression of development and ataxia after multiple convulsions with no fever. There were normal cranial imaging in 2 cases, dysplasia of the brains in 1 cases, frontal lobe apex accompanied by abnormal white matter signal in the frontal lobe and thin corpus callosum in 1 case, thin corpus callosum and abnormal lateral ventricular morphology in 1 case, and normal in early stage, but gradually developing into cerebellar atrophy at the age of 5 years and 9 months in 1 case. Two cases underwent visual evoked potential tests, the results of which were both abnormal. Three cases underwent auditory evoked potential examination, with 1 being normal and 2 being abnormal. All of 6 cases had variations in the asparagine synthase gene, with 2 deletion variations and 7 missense variations. The variations of 2 cases had not been reported so far, including c.1341_1343del and c.1283A>G, c.1165_1167del and c.1075G>A. The follow-up time ranged from 3 months to 53 months. Two cases who had severe microcephaly died in infancy, while the other 4 cases with mild or no microcephaly were in survival states until the follow-up days but the control of epilepsy was poor.Conclusions:Asparagine synthase deficiency has a certain degree of heterogeneity in clinical phenotype. Children with obvious microcephaly often present as severe cases, while children with mild or no microcephaly have relatively mild clinical manifestations. The variation of asparagine synthetase gene is mainly missense variation.

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and prognostic factors of 125I seeds implantation for primary hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods:From December 2011 to January 2021, 102 primary hepatocellular carcinoma patients (86 males, 16 females; median age 61 years) who underwent 125I seeds implantation from 5 hospitals in China were enrolled in this retrospective study. Local progression-free survival (LPFS), overall survival (OS) and the prognostic factors were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier method was used to draw the distribution curve of survival time, and LPFS rate and OS rate were calculated. Log-rank test and Cox regression were used to analyze the influencing factors of survival. Results:The median follow-up time was 38 months until April 2021. The local control rate was 96.1%(98/102). The 1-, 3- and 5-year LPFS rate were 61.3%, 25.5% and 12.7%, and the 1-, 3- and 5-year OS rate were 73.9%, 39.1% and 22.6%, respectively. There were 75 patients with progressive disease, including 42 patients with intrahepatic recurrence and metastasis after seed implantation, and 55 patients died. Multivariate analyses showed that short-term efficacy complete response (CR) (hazard ratio ( HR)=0.34, 95% CI: 0.20-0.58) was protective factor related to LPFS; short-term efficacy CR ( HR=0.25, 95% CI: 0.13-0.47) was the protective factors related to OS; Barcelona clinic liver cancer (BCLC) C stage ( HR=2.33, 95% CI: 1.27-4.27), intrahepatic progression and extrahepatic metastasis ( HR=3.18, 95% CI: 1.28-7.86; HR=3.23, 95% CI: 1.27-8.21) were independent risk factors related to OS. No sever adverse effects were observed. Conclusions:125I seeds implantation is safe and effective for the treatment of primary hepatocellular carcinoma. BCLC stage, short-term efficacy and post-implantation progression are independent factors related to survival time.

Congenital disorder of glycosylation (CDG) is a group of genetic metabolic diseases involving multiple organs. A case of CDG caused by SLC35A2 gene mutation was diagnosed. The clinical characteristics included spasms, developmental retardation and multiple malformations. Video-electroencephalogram showed dysrhythmia. A de novo heterozygous missense mutation of SLC35A2 gene was detected by whole exome sequencing: c.844G>A (p.Gly282Arg). It was predicted to be likely pathogenic according to American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics guidelines which had not been reported in China.

A fundamental challenge that arises in biomedicine is the need to characterize compounds in a relevant cellular context in order to reveal potential on-target or off-target effects. Recently, the fast accumulation of gene transcriptional profiling data provides us an unprecedented opportunity to explore the protein targets of chemical compounds from the perspective of cell transcriptomics and RNA biology. Here, we propose a novel Siamese spectral-based graph convolutional network (SSGCN) model for inferring the protein targets of chemical compounds from gene transcriptional profiles. Although the gene signature of a compound perturbation only provides indirect clues of the interacting targets, and the biological networks under different experiment conditions further complicate the situation, the SSGCN model was successfully trained to learn from known compound-target pairs by uncovering the hidden correlations between compound perturbation profiles and gene knockdown profiles. On a benchmark set and a large time-split validation dataset, the model achieved higher target inference accuracy as compared to previous methods such as Connectivity Map. Further experimental validations of prediction results highlight the practical usefulness of SSGCN in either inferring the interacting targets of compound, or reversely, in finding novel inhibitors of a given target of interest.
Drug Delivery Systems ; Proteins ; Transcriptome

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ObjectiveTo investigate the protective effect of Zhizi prescription （ZZP） on carbon tetrachloride （CCl₄）-induced acute and subacute liver injury and its mechanism. MethodAcute and subacute liver injury animal models were induced. C57 mice were randomly divided into a normal group， model group， obeccholic acid group， ZZP high-dose （0.5 g·kg^-1） group， and ZZP low-dose （0.25 g·kg^-1） group. According to the experiment design， the serum and liver tissue of mice were collected after the last administration. Hematoxylin-eosin （HE） and Sirius staining was used to observe the liver pathological changes. Serum alanine aminotransferase （ALT）， aspartate aminotransferase （AST）， total bilirubin （TBIL）， liver homogenate hydroxyproline （Hyp）， malondialdehyde （MDA）， and superoxide dismutase （SOD） levels were determined by kit. The levels of tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α） and interleukin-6 （IL-6） in the liver tissue were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction （Real-time PCR） was used to detect the mRNA expressions of collagen 1A1 （Col1a1）， collagen 3A1 （Col3a1）， fibronectin （FN）， transforming growth factor β receptor Ⅱ （Tgfbr2） and α-smooth muscle actin （α-SMA） in the liver tissue. ResultIn terms of the acute liver injury， as compared with the normal group， the levels of ALT， AST， TBIL and MDA in the model group were significantly increased （P<0.01）， while the activity of liver SOD was significantly decreased （P<0.01）. Compared with model group， the ZZP high-dose and low-dose groups both significantly reduced the degree of liver cell injury， and protected the acute liver injury induced by CCl₄. The ZZP high-dose group had a better effect than the ZZP low-dose group. In terms of the subacute liver injury， the levels of ALT， AST， MDA，TNF-α and IL-6 in the model group were significantly increased （P<0.01）， while the activity of liver SOD was significantly decreased （P<0.01）. As compared with the model group， liver Hyp content in the ZZP high-dose and low-dose groups was significantly decreased （P<0.01）， and the collagen deposition in liver of both groups was significantly reduced. The ZZP high-dose group also significantly down-regulated the mRNA expressions of α-SMA， Col1a1， Col3a1， FN， and Tgfbr2 in the liver of mice （P<0.05， P<0.01）. ConclusionZZP effectively protects the acute and subacute liver injury induced by CCl₄， and the protective effect is proportional to its concentration. The mechanism may be related to the increase of the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the liver tissue， the decrease of the level of lipid peroxidation， and the inhibition of inflammatory response， thus reducing collagen deposition and improving early liver fibrosis.