The chemical complexity of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) makes the active and functional annotation of natural compounds challenging. Herein, we developed the TCMs-Compounds Functional Annotation platform (TCMs-CFA) for large-scale predicting active compounds with potential mechanisms from TCM complex system, without isolating and activity testing every single compound one by one. The platform was established based on the integration of TCMs knowledge base, chemome profiling, and high-content imaging. It mainly included: (1) selection of herbal drugs of target based on TCMs knowledge base; (2) chemome profiling of TCMs extract library by LC‒MS; (3) cytological profiling of TCMs extract library by high-content cell-based imaging; (4) active compounds discovery by combining each mass signal and multi-parametric cell phenotypes; (5) construction of functional annotation map for predicting the potential mechanisms of lead compounds. In this stud TCMs with myocardial protection were applied as a case study, and validated for the feasibility and utility of the platform. Seven frequently used herbal drugs (Ginseng, etc.) were screened from 100,000 TCMs formulas for myocardial protection and subsequently prepared as a library of 700 extracts. By using TCMs-CFA platform, 81 lead compounds, including 10 novel bioactive ones, were quickly identified by correlating 8089 mass signals with 170,100 cytological parameters from an extract library. The TCMs-CFA platform described a new evidence-led tool for the rapid discovery process by data mining strategies, which is valuable for novel lead compounds from TCMs. All computations are done through Python and are publicly available on GitHub.

Objective:To investigate the value of quantitative parameters derived from dual-layer spectral detector CT (SDCT) in characterizing regional lymph node (LN) status of colorectal cancer.Methods:From August 2019 to May 2020, 101 patients with colorectal cancer confirmed by pathology in the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University were retrospectively collected. The largest regional LNs were matched with surgical pathology one by one and divided into metastatic LNs group (42 cases) and nonmetastatic LNs group (59 cases) according to pathological results. Based on preoperative venous phase contrast enhanced SDCT images he short-axis diameter (S) and the of the largest regional LN was measured, then its border and enhancement homogeneity were evaluated. Outlining the ROI along the edge of the LN on its widest cross section, the iodine density (ID) and effective atomic number (Z eff) were measured, then the normalized ID (nID) and normalized Z eff (nZ eff) were calculated. The χ 2 test, Fisher′s exact test, independent samples t-test or Mann-Whitney U test were used to compare the differences of each parameter between pathologically metastatic and nonmetastatic LNs and a logistic regression model was constructed. The ROC curves and area under the curve (AUC) were performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of each parameter. DeLong test was used to compare the differences of each AUC. Results:The S, border, enhancement homogeneity, ID, Z eff, nID and nZ eff of LNs all showed significant differences between metastatic and nonmetastatic LNs (all P<0.001). The regression model constructed by S and Z eff of LNs had the highest value in differentiating metastatic and nonmetastatic LNs, with an AUC of 0.935, sensitivity and specificity of 85.7% and 89.8%, respectively. Its diagnostic value was higher than that of S, border, enhancement homogeneity (AUC 0.674-0.832, all P<0.05) and SDCT quantitative parameters (AUC 0.863-0.906, all P<0.05) of LNs. Conclusion:SDCT quantitative parameters facilitate the accurate diagnosis of regional metastatic LNs in patients with colorectal cancer, among which the multi-parameter regression model has the highest diagnostic value.

Objective To detect the serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interferengamma (IFN-γ) in brucellosis patients and to study the Th1 immune response in acute and chronic patients.Method Serum levels of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma of 110 brucellosis patients,including 58 acute brucellosis patients and 52 chronic brucellosis patients,were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) from 2014 to 2015 in Zhangjiakou Infectious Disease Hospital.Results The serum levels of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma of 58 acute brucellosis patients were (38.2± 3.6) pg/L and (31.3 ± 3.7) ng/L,respectively;the serum levels of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma of 52 chronic brucellosis patients were (12.4 ± 2.6) pg/L and (8.8 ± 3.4) ng/L,respectively.The differences were statistically significant between acute and chronic patients (t =43.216,33.809,all P ＜ 0.05).The early cure rate,early base cure rate,improvement rate and inefficiency rate were 36.2％ (21/58),32.7％ (19/58),25.9％ (15/58)and 5.2％ (3/58),respectively in acute patients.Inversely,they were 17.3％ (9/52),13.5％ (7/52),15.4％ (8/52)and 53.8％ (28/52),respectively in chronic patients.The therapeutic effect was better in acutepatients than chronic patients (x2 =4.937,5.657,all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion It seems that acute brucellosis patients have a higher serum levels of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma and a better prognosis due to effective Th1 immune response,and chronic brucellosis patients are associated with poor outcome due to deficiency of Th1 immune response.

ObjectiveTo investigate the unfavorable factors of intestinal mucosa repair after the intestinal epithelial injury in vivo in a mouse model of sepsis. MethodsThe method of cecal ligature and puncture (CLP) was used to induce sepsis and then the intestinal mucosa damage, epithelial cell apoptosis and the number of transformed goblet cells were observed, and the concentrations of serum TNF-αt, IL-1 and TGF-β1 and TFF3 ( trefoil factor 3) in small intestinal mucosa were determined. All above various laboratory examinations were made by different assays including H-E staining, western blot, ELISA and immunohistochemistry respectively. The experimental mice were divided into sepsis group and sham operation control group. The mice with sepsis were separately sacrificed 6 hours ( n = 7 ), 24 hours ( n = 7) and 48 hours ( n = 7) after CLP. Results In septic mice group, the injured intestinal mucosa was found 6 hours after CLP. The damage scores in mice 24 h and 48 h after CLP were higher than those 6 h after CLP, but there was no significant difference between those 24 h and 48 h after CLP. Moreover, a few goblet cells or other epithelial cells adjacent to the injured surface migrated onto the wound to cover the denuded area. The number of goblet cells was substantially decreased in mice of sepsis group 6 hours after CLP compared with sham operation control group. Compared with sham operation control group, levels of IL-1 and TNF-α significantly increased 3-4 times in mice of sepsis group at all intervals, and the phosphorylated caspase-3 increased 4 times. Although TFF3 assayed by using Western blot showed modest increase 6 h after CLP and it declined 24 h and 48 h later. A similar change was found in TGF-β1, it modestly increased 6h after CLP, but it didn't elevate 24 h and 48 h later. ConclusionsSevere sepsis keeps on the inflammatory reaction and epithelial cell apoptosis, preventing the repair of intestinal mucosa from injury.