1.Mahoniae Caulis Alkaloids Ameliorate Depression by Regulating Synaptic Plasticity via cAMP Pathway
Junhui HE ; Chunlian JIA ; Kedao LAI ; Guili ZHOU ; Rongfei ZHOU ; Yi LI ; Dongmei LI ; Jiaxiu XIE ; Guining WEI ; Juying ZHOU
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2025;31(13):132-140
ObjectiveTo explore the mechanisms associated with Mahoniae Caulis alkaloids (MA) in ameliorating depression by network pharmacology, molecular docking, and animal experiments. MethodsThe component targets of MA were obtained through Swiss Target Prediction and TCMIP database. The depression targets were collected through TCMIP, Genecards, HPO, DrugBank and OMIM database. The depression targets were collected through TCMIP, Genecards, HPO, DrugBank and OMIM database. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed by protein interaction analysis (STRING) database. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed through Bioinformatics (DAVID) database. The docking of components and targets was performed by AGFR. The mouse model of depression was established by intraperitoneal injection of corticosterone (CORT) once a day for 35 consecutive days. Sixty mice were randomly allocated into control (0.9% normal saline), model (CORT, 20 mg·kg-1), positive control (fluoxetine hydrochloride, 3.6 mg·kg-1), and MA (10, 5, and 2.5 mg·kg-1) groups. Each group was administrated with corresponding medicine or normal saline once a day for 28 consecutive days. The depression-like behavior of mice was observed. The pathological changes of prefrontal cortex in mice were observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl dUTP transferase nick end labeling (TUNEL) was employed to observe the apoptosis of neurons in the prefrontal cortex. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was employed to assess the serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), dopamine (DA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), and norepinephrine (NE) in mice. The mRNA levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) pathway-related factors and inflammatory factors were determined by Real-time PCR. Western blot was employed to determine the expression of cAMP pathway-related factors and connexin 43 (Cx43). ResultsA total of 434 component targets and 545 depression targets were obtained, including 84 common targets, among which 10 core targets were screened out. GO analysis predicted 34 biological processes, 15 cell components, and 11 molecular functions. The KEGG pathways were mainly related to gap junction and cAMP signaling pathway. The core components had good binding affinity with the core targets. The results of animal experiments showed that compared with the control group, CORT prolonged the immobility time of mice in forced swimming and tail suspension tests (P<0.01), lowered the serum levels of NE, BDNF, and 5-HT (P<0.05), up-regulated the mRNA levels of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the brain tissue (P<0.05), and down-regulated the mRNA levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate effector binding protein (CREB) and BDNF (P<0.05) and the protein levels of protein kinase (PRKACA), phosphorylation (p)-CREB/CREB, BDNF, and Cx43 (P<0.05) in the brain tissue. Compared with the model group, high-dose MA reduced the immobility time of mice in forced swimming (P<0.05) and tail suspension (P<0.01) tests, raised the serum levels of NE, BDNF, and 5-HT (P<0.01), down-regulated the mRNA level of NF-κB (P<0.01), and up-regulated the mRNA level of BDNF (P<0.01) and protein levels of PRKACA, p-CREB/CREB, BDNF, and Cx43 (P<0.05). ConclusionMA alleviates the CORT-induced depressive behavior of mice. It may play an antidepressant role by regulating cAMP signaling pathway and gap junction pathway, improving synaptic plasticity and gap junction function, and reducing neuroinflammation.
2.Mahoniae Caulis Alkaloids Ameliorate Depression by Regulating Synaptic Plasticity via cAMP Pathway
Junhui HE ; Chunlian JIA ; Kedao LAI ; Guili ZHOU ; Rongfei ZHOU ; Yi LI ; Dongmei LI ; Jiaxiu XIE ; Guining WEI ; Juying ZHOU
Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae 2025;31(13):132-140
ObjectiveTo explore the mechanisms associated with Mahoniae Caulis alkaloids (MA) in ameliorating depression by network pharmacology, molecular docking, and animal experiments. MethodsThe component targets of MA were obtained through Swiss Target Prediction and TCMIP database. The depression targets were collected through TCMIP, Genecards, HPO, DrugBank and OMIM database. The depression targets were collected through TCMIP, Genecards, HPO, DrugBank and OMIM database. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed by protein interaction analysis (STRING) database. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed through Bioinformatics (DAVID) database. The docking of components and targets was performed by AGFR. The mouse model of depression was established by intraperitoneal injection of corticosterone (CORT) once a day for 35 consecutive days. Sixty mice were randomly allocated into control (0.9% normal saline), model (CORT, 20 mg·kg-1), positive control (fluoxetine hydrochloride, 3.6 mg·kg-1), and MA (10, 5, and 2.5 mg·kg-1) groups. Each group was administrated with corresponding medicine or normal saline once a day for 28 consecutive days. The depression-like behavior of mice was observed. The pathological changes of prefrontal cortex in mice were observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl dUTP transferase nick end labeling (TUNEL) was employed to observe the apoptosis of neurons in the prefrontal cortex. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was employed to assess the serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), dopamine (DA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), and norepinephrine (NE) in mice. The mRNA levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) pathway-related factors and inflammatory factors were determined by Real-time PCR. Western blot was employed to determine the expression of cAMP pathway-related factors and connexin 43 (Cx43). ResultsA total of 434 component targets and 545 depression targets were obtained, including 84 common targets, among which 10 core targets were screened out. GO analysis predicted 34 biological processes, 15 cell components, and 11 molecular functions. The KEGG pathways were mainly related to gap junction and cAMP signaling pathway. The core components had good binding affinity with the core targets. The results of animal experiments showed that compared with the control group, CORT prolonged the immobility time of mice in forced swimming and tail suspension tests (P<0.01), lowered the serum levels of NE, BDNF, and 5-HT (P<0.05), up-regulated the mRNA levels of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the brain tissue (P<0.05), and down-regulated the mRNA levels of cyclic adenosine monophosphate effector binding protein (CREB) and BDNF (P<0.05) and the protein levels of protein kinase (PRKACA), phosphorylation (p)-CREB/CREB, BDNF, and Cx43 (P<0.05) in the brain tissue. Compared with the model group, high-dose MA reduced the immobility time of mice in forced swimming (P<0.05) and tail suspension (P<0.01) tests, raised the serum levels of NE, BDNF, and 5-HT (P<0.01), down-regulated the mRNA level of NF-κB (P<0.01), and up-regulated the mRNA level of BDNF (P<0.01) and protein levels of PRKACA, p-CREB/CREB, BDNF, and Cx43 (P<0.05). ConclusionMA alleviates the CORT-induced depressive behavior of mice. It may play an antidepressant role by regulating cAMP signaling pathway and gap junction pathway, improving synaptic plasticity and gap junction function, and reducing neuroinflammation.
3.Investigation and analysis of the current status of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt treatment for portal hypertension in China
Haozhuo GUO ; Meng NIU ; Haibo SHAO ; Xinwei HAN ; Jianbo ZHAO ; Junhui SUN ; Zhuting FANG ; Bin XIONG ; Xiaoli ZHU ; Weixin REN ; Min YUAN ; Shiping YU ; Weifu LYU ; Xueqiang ZHANG ; Chunqing ZHANG ; Lei LI ; Xuefeng LUO ; Yusheng SONG ; Yilong MA ; Tong DANG ; Hua XIANG ; Yun JIN ; Hui XUE ; Guiyun JIN ; Xiao LI ; Jiarui LI ; Shi ZHOU ; Changlu YU ; Song HE ; Lei YU ; Hongmei ZU ; Jun MA ; Yanming LEI ; Ke XU ; Xiaolong QI
Chinese Journal of Radiology 2024;58(4):437-443
Objective:To investigate the current situation of the use of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) for portal hypertension, which should aid the development of TIPS in China.Methods:The China Portal Hypertension Alliance (CHESS) initiated this study that comprehensively investigated the basic situation of TIPS for portal hypertension in China through network research. The survey included the following: the number of surgical cases, main indications, the development of Early-TIPS, TIPS for portal vein cavernous transformation, collateral circulation embolization, intraoperative portal pressure gradient measurement, commonly used stent types, conventional anticoagulation and time, postoperative follow-up, obstacles, and the application of domestic instruments.Results:According to the survey, a total of 13 527 TIPS operations were carried out in 545 hospitals participating in the survey in 2021, and 94.1% of the hospital had the habit of routine follow-up after TIPS. Most hospitals believed that the main indications of TIPS were the control of acute bleeding (42.6%) and the prevention of rebleeding (40.7%). 48.1% of the teams carried out early or priority TIPS, 53.0% of the teams carried out TIPS for the cavernous transformation of the portal vein, and 81.0% chose routine embolization of collateral circulation during operation. Most of them used coils and biological glue as embolic materials, and 78.5% of the team routinely performed intraoperative portal pressure gradient measurements. In selecting TIPS stents, 57.1% of the hospitals woulel choose Viator-specific stents, 57.2% woulel choose conventional anticoagulation after TIPS, and the duration of anticoagulation was between 3-6 months (55.4%). The limitation of TIPS surgery was mainly due to cost (72.3%) and insufficient understanding of doctors in related departments (77.4%). Most teams accepted the domestic instruments used in TIPS (92.7%).Conclusions:This survey shows that TIPS treatment is an essential part of treating portal hypertension in China. The total number of TIPS cases is far from that of patients with portal hypertension. In the future, it is still necessary to popularize TIPS technology and further standardize surgical indications, routine operations, and instrument application.
4.Fabrication and evaluation of composite hydroxyapatite coating on ordered micro-/nanotextured titanium surface
Zhiqiang XU ; Yuqi HE ; Junhui HUANG ; Zhuwen QIU ; Xiuxia ZENG
Chinese Journal of Stomatology 2024;59(2):165-172
Objective:To develope a titanium specimen with good osteogenic activity through fabrication of a composite hydroxyapatite coating on ordered micro-/nanotextured titanium surface.Methods:An ordered micro-/nanotextured structure was prepared on the surface of titanium (the control), and then hydroxyapatite was deposited on the as-prepared ordered micro-/nanotextured structure by alternative loop immersion method. The ordered micro-/nanotextured structures before and after hydroxyapatite deposition were denoted as HA and MN, respectively. Surface morphology was observed using a scanning electron microscope. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSC) were seeded on the surface of three different materials. Cell morphology was observed with a scanning electron microscope. Cell adhesion and cell proliferation were evaluated using 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining and cell counting kit-8 assay, respectively. Extracellular matrix mineralization and the expression levels of osteogenesis-related genes were evaluated by alizarin red staining and real-time quantitative PCR, respectively. Each group has three samples in every experiment.Results:After alternative loop immersing, the MN's original microholes (20 μm in diameter) were retained, and the uniform petal-like hydroxyapatite was deposited on the MN's original titania nanotubes (70 nm in diameter). Compared with the control, BMMSC on MN and HA elongated further and intersected along the micron structure with noticeable pseudopodia and pseudoplates, and the trend was more pronounced especially on HA. The number of early adherent cells on HA was remarkably larger than that on the control and MN at each time point ( P<0.05). On day 1, the A value of cell proliferation on HA was significantly higher than that on the control and MN ( P<0.05). The A value of cell proliferation on HA was significantly lower than that on the control and MN on day 3 ( P<0.05). On day 7, the A value of cell proliferation on HA was significantly lower than that on MN ( P<0.05), but there was no statistically significant difference in the A value of cell proliferation between HA and the control on day 7 ( P>0.05). The Avalue of extracellular matrix mineralization on HA (0.607±0.011) was significantly higher than that on the control and MN (0.268±0.025 and 0.522±0.022, respectively) ( t=-0.25, P<0.001; t=-0.34, P<0.001). The expression levels of bone related genes on HA were significantly higher than those on the control and MN ( P<0.05). Conclusions:HA could promote the BMMSC adhesion and osteogenic differentiation, support BMMSC proliferation, and demonstrate good osteogenic activity.
5.Material compatibility of human albumin
Yali WANG ; Junhui WEI ; Meichun YANG ; Xiaojuan ZHOU ; He REN ; Sha LI ; Nan XIE
Chinese Journal of Blood Transfusion 2023;36(8):681-686
【Objective】 To investigate the compatibility of human albumin and its internal packaging materials of Sinopharm Lanzhou Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. 【Methods】 One batch of inner packaging materials (medium borosilicate glass-molded injection bottle and halogenated butyl rubber plug for injection) was extracted with 4 extraction solvents to conduct the toxicological evaluation of potential inner packaging extracts. Through the simulated acceleration test, the trend analysis of the elements in the sample and the inner surface of the glass bottle were observed, and the routine drug inspection items during the long-term stability test process were determined. 【Results】 The detection results of the leaching elements of the internal packaging materials did not exceed the limit of 50%, and the organic matter safety threshold (margin of safety, MOS) was greater than 1.0, indicating that both the leaching elements and the organic matter had no safety risk to the user under the current exposure. The results of the simulated acceleration test show that the drug will not have the risk of peeling tablets after the long-term stability condition was placed for a period of time, and the routine inspection items of the long-term stability test drugs all meet the requirements of the pharmacopoeia. 【Conclusion】 The inner packaging material has no significant impact on the quality of drugs and has good overall compatibility, making it suitable for packaging human albumin.
6.Prediction of EGFR mutant subtypes in patients with non-small cell lung cancer by pre-treatment CT radiomics and machine learning
Jiang HU ; Ruimin HE ; Pinjing CHENG ; Xiaomin LIU ; Haibiao WU ; Linfei LIU ; Baiqi WANG ; Hao CHENG ; Junhui YANG
Chinese Journal of Radiological Medicine and Protection 2023;43(5):386-392
Objective:To evaluate the feasibility and clinical value of pre-treatment non-enhanced chest CT radiomics features and machine learning algorithm to predict the mutation status and subtype (19Del/21L858R) of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods:This retrospective study enrolled 280 NSCLC patients from first and second affiliated hospital of University of South China who were confirmed by biopsy pathology, gene examination, and have pre-treatment non-enhanced CT scans. There are 136 patients were confirmed EGFR mutation. Primary lung gross tumor volume was contoured by two experienced radiologists and oncologists, and 851 radiomics features were subsequently extracted. Then, spearman correlation analysis and RELIEFF algorithm were used to screen predictive features. The two hospitals were training and validation cohort, respectively. Clinical-radiomics model was constructed using selected radiomics and clinical features, and compared with models built by radiomics features or clinical features respectively. In this study, machine learning models were established using support vector machine (SVM) and a sequential modeling procedure to predict the mutation status and subtype of EGFR. The area under receiver operating curve (AUC-ROC) was employed to evaluate the performances of established models.Results:After feature selection, 21 radiomics features were found to be efffective in predicting EGFR mutation status and subtype and were used to establish radiomics models. Three types models were established, including clinical model, radiomics model, and clinical-radiomics model. The clinical-radiomics model showed the best predictive efficacy, AUCs of predicting EGFR mutation status for training dataset and validation dataset were 0.956 (95% CI: 0.952-1.000) and 0.961 (95% CI: 0.924-0.998), respectively. The AUCs of predicting 19Del/L858R mutation subtype for training dataset and validation dataset were 0.926 (95% CI: 0.893-0.959), 0.938 (95% CI: 0.876-1.000), respectively. Conclusions:The constructed sequential models based on integration of CT radiomics, clinical features and machine learning can accurately predict the mutation status and subtype of EGFR.
7.Study on the strategy of medical security for rare diseases in China from the perspective of public concern and emotion:taking nosinasine as an example
Yangfang TAI ; Ying GUO ; Ziqiong WANG ; Junhui WANG ; Guomin HUA ; Huili YANG ; Xiaojie WANG ; Peifeng HE
China Pharmacy 2023;34(7):774-779
OBJECTIVE To mine the focus and emotional attitude of the public on rare diseases, and to provide decision- making reference for relevant departments to formulate and implement relevant policies, systems and strategies for medical security of rare diseases. METHODS Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic model and sentiment analysis method were used to analyze the comment text of short videos related to the “nosinasine” medical insurance admission event on the Bilibili video website, mine the theme and sentiment tendency of the text, and put forward relevant strategy suggestions. RESULTS A total of 8 videos with tens of thousands of playback and 7 109 text data were obtained. According to the LDA analysis, online public paid attention to 9 topics related to rare diseases (the price of rare disease drugs, the inclusion of rare disease drugs in medical insurance, the status quo of research and development of rare disease drugs, the scope of medical insurance and the medical security system, the plight of rare disease patients, the prevention and screening of rare diseases, the value of rare disease drugs in medical insurance, the Chinese and western medical methods of rare diseases, and the supply and demand status of rare disease drugs), which could be summarized into 4 categories according to the objects of concern (rare disease drugs, rare disease medical insurance, rare disease medical and health services and rare disease patient groups). On the whole, the emotional tendency of the Internet public towards each topic showed a low positive and high negative tendency. CONCLUSIONS The public paid more attention to the price, research and development, supply and demand of rare disease drugs, and was deeply worried about the current medical status of rare diseases in China. To strengthen and improve the medical security for patients with rare diseases, such as actively carrying out public health services for rare diseases, strengthening cooperation in the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases, and researching rare disease drugs, etc. Chinese medical and health departments can make concerted efforts in medical and health services, drug supply security, medical security and other social security.
8.Research on classification of Korotkoff sounds phases based on deep learning
Junhui CHEN ; Peiyu HE ; Ancheng FANG ; Zhengjie WANG ; Qi TONG ; Qijun ZHAO ; Fan PAN ; Yongjun QIAN
Chinese Journal of Clinical Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2023;30(01):25-31
Objective To recognize the different phases of Korotkoff sounds through deep learning technology, so as to improve the accuracy of blood pressure measurement in different populations. Methods A classification model of the Korotkoff sounds phases was designed, which fused attention mechanism (Attention), residual network (ResNet) and bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM). First, a single Korotkoff sound signal was extracted from the whole Korotkoff sounds signals beat by beat, and each Korotkoff sound signal was converted into a Mel spectrogram. Then, the local feature extraction of Mel spectrogram was processed by using the Attention mechanism and ResNet network, and BiLSTM network was used to deal with the temporal relations between features, and full-connection layer network was applied in reducing the dimension of features. Finally, the classification was completed by SoftMax function. The dataset used in this study was collected from 44 volunteers (24 females, 20 males with an average age of 36 years), and the model performance was verified using 10-fold cross-validation. Results The classification accuracy of the established model for the 5 types of Korotkoff sounds phases was 93.4%, which was higher than that of other models. Conclusion This study proves that the deep learning method can accurately classify Korotkoff sounds phases, which lays a strong technical foundation for the subsequent design of automatic blood pressure measurement methods based on the classification of the Korotkoff sounds phases.
9.Application of three-dimensional image reconstruction combined with problem-based learning in the teaching of physicians receiving continuing education in thoracic surgery
Changjun HE ; Yingbin LI ; Boxiong NI ; Jianlong BU ; Fucheng ZHOU ; Bicheng FU ; Junhui CHEN ; Nianyu GAO
Chinese Journal of Medical Education Research 2023;22(11):1716-1719
Objective:To investigate the application of three-dimensional image reconstruction combined with problem-based learning (PBL) in the teaching of physicians receiving continuing education in thoracic surgery.Methods:A total of 68 physicians who received continuing education in Department of Thoracic Surgery in our hospital were selected as research subjects, and they were divided into control group and observation group using a random number table, with 34 physicians in each group. The physicians in the control group received traditional teaching, while those in the observation group received three-dimensional image reconstruction combined with PBL teaching. A questionnaire survey, theoretical assessment, and assessment of practical skills were performed to evaluate the effect of teaching. SPSS 22.0 was used to perform the t-test. Results:Compared with the control group, the observation group had significantly higher degrees of satisfaction with each item of the questionnaire survey ( P<0.05). Compared with the control group, the observation group had significantly higher scores of theoretical assessment [(94.07±6.03) vs. (86.34±5.46), P<0.001] and the assessment of practical skills [(95.20±5.48) vs. (84.71±6.14), P<0.001]. Conclusion:The application of three-dimensional image reconstruction combined with PBL teaching can help to improve the comprehensive ability of physicians receiving continuing education.
10.Androgenic granulosa cell tumor of ovary: a case report and literature review
Xiaoyu HE ; Xi CHEN ; Tianming XIE ; Junhui XIE
Chinese Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism 2023;39(12):1080-1082
This article reports a case of oligomenorrhea accompanied by acne over several years. The patient presented with hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance. The initial diagnosis considered polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS) and was treated with oral medication for 2 months, with no significant improvement. Further ultrasound examination revealed a right ovarian heterogeneous mass (3.2 cm×3.0 cm). The patient underwent laparoscopic resection of the right ovarian lesion. Postoperative pathology revealed ovarian sex cord-stromal cell tumor, adult granulosa cell tumor(diffuse type). Testosterone levels decreased to the normal 3 days after the surgery, and menstruation resumed within 2 months. This article summarizes the presented case and reviews the relevant literature. For women with severe hyperandrogenism and masculinization, it is recommended to thoroughly assess the possibility of androgen-secreting tumors.

Result Analysis
Print
Save
E-mail