Hepatic encephalopathy （HE） is a common severe liver disease syndrome in clinical practice and is one of the critical and severe diseases in internal medicine， and more than half of liver failure patients diagnosed with overt HE have a survival time of less than 1 year. A comprehensive analysis of the complex pathogenesis of HE and the development of diagnosis and treatment regimens based on evidence-based medicine are of great importance for alleviating high medical resource consumption， high medical expenses， and high incidence and mortality rates in clinical practice. The latest studies have shown that the intestinal tract and the central nervous system can perform bidirectional continuous interaction and signal transmission and regulate the function of inflammation signals， molecules， cells， and organs， which is known as neuroimmune communication and is highly consistent with the main pathological features of HE. With a focus on the mechanism of neuroimmune communication in HE， this article reviews the association between inflammation signal transduction via the gut-brain axis and neurotransmitter regulation and its role in neuroimmune communication in HE， which provides new ideas for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of HE and the research and development of related drugs.

Liver failure is a common end-stage liver disease syndrome in clinical practice characterized by massive necrosis of hepatocytes leading to rapid liver failure, and it is currently believed that excessive inflammation and immune response are the core mechanisms of this disease. Endogenous lipid mediators are involved in the regulation of a variety of inflammatory processes, including initiation, maintenance, and regression, and eicosanoids and pro-decomposition lipid mediators, as well as their complex metabolic pathways and transduction signals, play a key role in the regulation of these processes. This article reviews the key role of endogenous lipid mediators in the pathophysiological mechanism of inflammation and immune dysfunction in liver failure and the potential significance and new therapeutic opportunities of lipid immune pathway in liver failure, in order to provide new ideas for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of liver failure.

Inflammation is closely associated with the development of cancer. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) actively participate in tumor-related inflammation and promote tumor growth and metastasis, while under certain conditions, TAM also show cytotoxicity and tumor killing activity and thus inhibit the progression of cancer. Crosstalk between TAM and neighboring cells is closely associated with the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and drug resistance during treatment. This article summarizes the role of macrophages in HCC and the crosstalk between macrophages and other cells, so as to provide new strategies for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of HCC.

Liver failure is a common severe liver disease syndrome in clinical practice and is one of the critical medical conditions in internal medicine. Massive hepatocyte death is the main pathological feature of liver failure, and its core mechanisms include endotoxin, immune response, and inflammatory cascade reaction. Effective regeneration of hepatocytes to compensate liver function is the physiological basis for promoting the good prognosis of liver failure, which directly affects the prognosis and quality of life of patients with liver failure. It has been found in clinical practice that liver failure patients with a low serum level of cholesterol tend to have an extremely high mortality rate, but as an index of hepatocyte anabolism, the association between cholesterol and hepatocyte regeneration has not been taken seriously. Based on the association between cholesterol and liver regeneration, this article reviews its significance and potential value in the clinical treatment of liver failure, in order to understand the pathogenesis of liver failure from another perspective and provide new ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of liver failure and the development of drugs.

Glycolysis plays an important role in the development and progression of liver diseases and shows varying degrees of enhancement in different liver diseases, and it is closely associated with mitochondrial dysfunction (oxidative phosphorylation deficiency and reactive oxygen species production), which helps to fill energy production deficiency caused by impaired oxidative phosphorylation. Therefore, it might be possible to search for potential new therapies for liver diseases through targeted regulation of the key factors in aerobic glycolysis, such as hexokinase 2, pyruvate kinase M2, and other regulatory pathways. From the perspective of the association between glycolysis and liver diseases, this article elaborates on the therapeutic significance and potential value of glycolysis in liver diseases, in order to provide new ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases.

Acute liver failure is a serious and complex liver disease with a high short-term mortality rate. Its pathogenesis remains unknown and there is still a lack of effective drugs. Animal models play an important role in further revealing the pathogenesis of acute liver failure and the therapeutic mechanism of drugs, and the selection of experimental animals and preparation methods is the key to the effective implementation of research. This article summarizes the commonly used and new animal models of acute liver failure in recent years and the corresponding preparation methods and divides the animal models of acute liver failure into following four categories: chemical drug model, surgical model, infection model, and other models. Meanwhile, the above models are evaluated based on Terblanche and Hickman evaluation criteria for liver failure models, hoping to provide a reference for model selection and evaluation in basic research on this disease.

Objective:To investigate the normal range of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in 6-18-year-old children in China, so as to provide a data base for the establishment of FeNO standards for Chinese children.Methods:A multi-center study was conducted on 5 949 children aged 6-18 (3 101 males and 2 848 females) in 16 pro-vinces of 7 administrative districts in China.According to the technical standard recommended by American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Association, FeNO was measured, and the relationship of FeNO with the sex, age, height, weight, body mass index and region was discussed.Results:The geometric mean FeNO value of Chinese children aged 6-18 was 14.1 ppb, and its 95% confidence interval (skewness distribution) was 1.0-38.2 ppb.The geometric mean FeNO values of children aged 6-11 and 12-18 were 13.1 ppb and 15.7 ppb, respectively, and their 95% confidence intervals (skewness distribution) were 1.0-38.1 ppb and 2.0-38.2 ppb.For children at and under 11 years old, FeNO decreased with age, with a mean decline of 1 ppb per year.The multiple linear regression results suggested that there was a significant correlation between FeNO and age for children aged 6-11, and FeNO of children aged 12-18 was significantly correlated with the gender, height, and region(all P<0.01). Conclusions:FeNO values of Chinese children and adolescents in this study are higher than those obtained by the previous study conducted from 2010 to 2012.For children aged 12-18, 16 ppb is recommended as the clinical cut-off point.For children at or under 11 years old, the influence of age on FeNO should be considered, and the cut-off point of FeNO decreases by 1 ppb as the age is reduced by one year.

ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of norepinephrine combined with albumin versus terlipressin combined with albumin in the treatment of type 1 hepatorenal syndrome (HRS1). MethodsPubMed, EMBASE, Medline, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and VIP were searched for comparative studies on norepinephrine combined with albumin versus terlipressin combined with albumin in the treatment of HRS1. Quality assessment was performed for articles. Related indicators were extracted, including hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) reversal rate, mortality rate, incidence of adverse events, mean arterial pressure, and renal function, and Review Manager 5.3 was used for data analysis. The chi-square test was used to determine the heterogeneity between studies. Odds ratio (OR) was used for the analysis of dichotomous variables, weighted mean difference (WMD) was used for the analysis of continuous variables, and 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated for these two types of variables. ResultsA total of 6 randomized controlled trials which met the inclusion criteria were included, with a total sample size of 298 patients (149 patients in the norepinephrine+albumin group and 149 in the terlipressin+albumin group). The meta-analysis showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups in HRS reversal rate (OR=0.95, 95%CI: 0.6-1.49, P=0.81), mortality rate (OR=0.84, 95%CI: 0.51-1.41, P=0.51), incidence rate of adverse events (OR=042, 95%CI: 0.16-1.07, P=0.07), mean arterial pressure (standardized mean difference=0.05, 95%CI: -0.92 to 1.03, P=092), and renal function. ConclusionNorepinephrine combined with albumin has similar efficacy and safety as terlipressin combined with albumin in the treatment of HRS1, and terlipressin can be replaced by norepinephrine in clinical practice when necessary.

In order to provide reference for treatment of liver tumors using traditional Chinese medicine, we analyzed the research status of liver tumor treatment with traditional Chinese Medicine based on PubMed. By the bibliography information concurrence mining system (BICOMB 2013), the literature were collected and analyzed from PubMed database from the day of establishment to 31 October 2017. CytoScape3.6.1 software was used to draw the Co-occurrence analysis chart of high-frequency subject headings and the subheadings, and SPSS17 statistical software was used to cluster the high frequency subject headings. 365 literatures were collected in total. The amount of published articles is increasing year by year. The literatures were mainly in English. From the literature indicating the author's country, we found that 70％ of the top 10 countries and regions which published the most papers were from Asia. Among them, Chinese scholars ranked first. The top 5 of the high-frequency subject headings and the subheadings were Humans, Male, Animals, Liver Neoplasms/drug therapy and Carcinoma, and Hepatocellular/drug therapy. The research focused on the following 9 aspects: metabolism of liver cells, neoplasms, liver cancer pathology, pharmacological efficacy of liver cancer, relationship between cell proliferation and apoptosis and efficacy; xenograft model antitumor assays in mice, pharmacology of antitumor Chinese herbal medicine or phytogenic drugs, the effects of dose-response relationship, cellular activity and signal transduction on drug efficacy, therapeutic uses of traditional and phytotherapy and the outcome and mortality of liver tumor. By the bibliometric analysis in the field of traditional medicine for liver tumor, we can understand the research direction and development status of this field, which can be reference for prevention and treatment of liver cancer with TCM.

Objective To conduct mutation screening of SCN1A 3′ untranslated region (UTR) on Dravet syndrome (DS) patients without mutations in the SCN1A coding region and promoter region, and functional analysis of the variant from DS patients.Methods Twenty-eight DS patients without mutations in the SCN1A coding region and promoter region were screened for SCN1A 3′ UTR mutations using PCR and direct sequencing.Functional analysis of the detected mutation was done via luciferase assay, mRNA stability analysis and RNA electrophoretic mobility shift assay (RNA-EMSA).Results A novo variant (c.*20A>G) in SCN1A 3′ UTR was found in one DS patient.The variant (c.*20A>G) reduced the luciferase gene xpression by 30% through increasing the affinity of pluripotent embryonal carcinoma cell line NT2/cytoplasmic protein binding and reducing luciferase gene mRNA stability (t=8.5,P<0.01).Conclusions A functional variant was detected from one patient with DS.This variant negatively regulated the gene expression by increasing the affinity of pluripotent embryonal carcinoma cell line NT2/cytoplasmic protein binding and reducing mRNA stability.