BACKGROUND:Scholars at home and abroad consider New Zealand rabbits to be an ideal model animal because of the similar anatomical morphology of the lumbar spine to that of the human lumbar spine.There is a lack of systematic comparison of different ways to establish rabbit intervertebral disc degeneration models under X-ray guidance. OBJECTIVE:To establish a rabbit model of lumbar disc degeneration using X-ray guided acupuncture,end-plate injection and combined method,and to compare the modeling effects of these three methods. METHODS:Eighteen 6-month-old New Zealand white rabbits were randomly selected and divided into four groups:acupuncture group,endplate injection group,combined group and blank control group.In the acupuncture group,three consecutive segments of the intervertebral discs(L2/3,L3/4,L4/5)were needled and modeled;in the endplate injection group,50 μL of anhydrous ethanol was injected at a single point on the endplates of the three consecutive segmental discs;in the combined group,three consecutive segmental intervertebral discs were needled and injected with 50 μL of anhydrous ethanol at four azimuthal points on the endplates of the corresponding segmental discs;and the blank control group received no interventions.X-ray examination was performed to measure the disc height index at 2,4,and 8 weeks after surgery.The intervertebral disc tissues were then taken for anatomical observation and pathological examination. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Anatomical examination showed that fibrous annulus rupture,nucleus pulposus degeneration,and total disc structure disorder were the main manifestation in the acupuncture group,endplate injection group,and combined group,respectively.(2)X-ray examination showed that the disc height index showed the most obvious reduction in the acupuncture group at 2 weeks after operation,significant reductions in the endplate injection group at 2 and 4 weeks after operation,and significant reductions in the combined group at 2,4,and 8 weeks after operation.(3)Pathological examination showed that the fibrous ring structure was damaged and the inner annulus fibrosus protruded inward in the acupuncture group;endplate fissure,disordered arrangement and nucleus loss were observed in the endplate injection group;total disc structure disorder with the nucleus pulposus losing water and shrinking and no obvious border with the broken annulus fibrosus was found in the combined group.To conclude,acupuncture,endplate injection and the modified endplate injection method can establish the rabbit intervertebral disc degeneration model.Compared with the single method,the modified endplate injection method can greatly accelerate and aggravate the degeneration of the intervertebral disc,and can effectively shorten the experiment period.

OBJECTIVE To identify, synthesize and analyze the structure of unknown impurities unique to bromhexine hydrochloride injection and set the impurities as known impurity to control. METHODS The structure of unknown impurities was derived through two-dimensional liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry(2DLC-HRMS/MS), and the source of impurities was derived based on the product's prescription process. The mechanism of impurities generation was analyzed, and impurity monomers were obtained through directional synthesis. The structure of impurities was confirmed using techniques such as 2DLC-HRMS/MS and nuclear magnetic resonance. Finally, HPLC was used to verify the analysis method of impurities. RESULTS It was confirmed that such impurities were produced in a reaction between bromhexine and the excipient glucose. The correction factor of the two impurities were 2.2 and 2.4, the analytical method was specific and reproducible. CONCLUSION Name the two injection specific impurities as impurity 1 and impurity 2 respectively, and use them as known impurities to be included in the standard, calculate the impurity content using the self control and correction factor method. This study is of great significance in guiding the impurity control of bromhexine hydrochloride injection and the screening of excipient glucose.

Objective Explore a non-contact physiological and psychological detection model based on facial video in simulations of weightlessness effects,research new methods for non-contact heart rate and negative mood state detection in long-term simulations of weightlessness effect analysis.Methods Construct a non-contact physiological and psychological data collection system for fusion analysis of visible light and thermal infrared videos.Collect physiological and psychological data of volunteers in the"Earth Star-Ⅱ"90-day head-down bed rest experiment.A non-contact heart rate detection model based on GCN facial multi-region feature fusion and a non-contact negative mood state detection model considering data reliability were constructed,and the effectiveness of the models were validated with finger clip heart rate and POMS-SF scale as labels.Results The experimental results show that the average difference in the Bland-Altman plot of the non-contact heart rate detection model is-1.26 bpm,and 96.3%of value error detection data falls within the 95%confidence interval,indicating a high consistency between the model detected heart rate and the finger clip heart rate.The non-contact negative mood state detection model achieves an accuracy of>0.85 for detecting tension,depression,anger,and fatigue.Features such as heart rate,AU06,eye gaze,and head pose were observed to be important to mood state detection.Conclusion Non-contact physiological and psychological detection methods not only can be utilized for long-term physiological analysis in simulations of weightlessness effects,but also provide a novel technical approach for on-orbit astronauts health assurance during long-term space flight in the future.

Clinicians need to focus on various points in the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia.This article prescribed the treatment protocol based on the unique features,such as insomnia in the elderly,women experiencing specific physiologi-cal periods,children insomnia,insomnia in sleep-breathing disorder patients,insomnia in patients with chronic liver and kidney dysfunction.It pro-vides some reference for clinicians while they make decision on diagnosis,differentiation and treat-ment methods.

Increasing evidences suggest the important role of calcium homeostasis in hallmarks of cancer, but its function and regulatory network in metastasis remain unclear. A comprehensive investigation of key regulators in cancer metastasis is urgently needed. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) of primary esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and matched metastatic tissues and a series of gain/loss-of-function experiments identified potassium channel tetramerization domain containing 4 (KCTD4) as a driver of cancer metastasis. KCTD4 expression was found upregulated in metastatic ESCC. High KCTD4 expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with ESCC and contributes to cancer metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, KCTD4 binds to CLIC1 and disrupts its dimerization, thus increasing intracellular Ca²⁺ level to enhance NFATc1-dependent fibronectin transcription. KCTD4-induced fibronectin secretion activates fibroblasts in a paracrine manner, which in turn promotes cancer cell invasion via MMP24 signaling as positive feedback. Furthermore, a lead compound K279-0738 significantly suppresses cancer metastasis by targeting the KCTD4‒CLIC1 interaction, providing a potential therapeutic strategy. Taken together, our study not only uncovers KCTD4 as a regulator of calcium homeostasis, but also reveals KCTD4/CLIC1-Ca²⁺-NFATc1-fibronectin signaling as a novel mechanism of cancer metastasis. These findings validate KCTD4 as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for ESCC.

Objective:To study the correlation between the acute-phase characteristics of motor evoked potential (MEP) and severities of spinal cord injury in patients with acute cervical hyperextension injury and central cord syndrome (CCS).Methods:Retrospectively analyzed were the data of 45 patients with acute cervical hyperextension injury and CCS (observation group) who had been admitted to Department of Orthopedics, Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University from December 2018 to July 2021 and 20 healthy controls. Examination of transcranial magnetic stimulation-induced MEP was performed in patients with CCS and healthy controls using a magpro x100 magnetic stimulator, and recording was conducted in bilateral abductor pollicis brevis (APB). The characteristics of MEP waveform latency, amplitude and motor threshold were described and compared between the healthy control and observation groups; the correlations were analyzed between the MEP latency and the severity of spinal cord injury [American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) total score and motor function of Upper Extremity Motor Subscores (UEMS)] in the observation group. According to different MEP-induced states, the patients in the observation group were divided into a resting group ( n=19), a facilitation group ( n=18), and a no-waveform group ( n=8). The severity of spinal cord injury (ASIA total score) and the functional independence of the spinal cord (SCIM-Ⅲ score) were compared among the 3 groups to analyze the correlation between the MEP-induced state and the severity of spinal cord injury (ASIA total score). Results:The observation group had a significantly longer MEP latency [(30.16±6.32) ms], a significantly smaller amplitude [(0.54±0.30) mV] and a significantly higher motor threshold [(65%±11%)] than the healthy control group (all P<0.05). The MEP latency in the observation group was significantly correlated with ASIA total score ( r=-0.730, P<0.001) and UEMS ( r=-0.740, P<0.001). The ASIA total score and SCIM-Ⅲ score were significantly different among the 3 groups ( P<0.05), and the MEP-induced state was significantly correlated with the severity of spinal cord injury (ASIA total score) ( r=0.668, P<0.001). Conclusions:In patients with acute cervical hyperextension injury and CCS, the MEP latency is prolonged, the amplitude lowered, and the motor threshold enhanced. The MEP latency is strongly correlated with the severity of spinal cord injury and upper limb motor function. The MEP-induced state is also closely related to the severity of spinal cord injury.

Data mining technology was adopted to analyze the rules of acupoint selection in treatment of erectile dysfunction with acupuncture and moxibustion. All of the articles for acupuncture and moxibustion in treatment of erectile dysfunction were searched from the databases, i.e. Chinese national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang database, VIP, Chinese biomedical literature database (SinoMed) and PubMed, and the clinical trials on erectile dysfunction treated with acupuncture and moxibustion were screened. The database was set up by using Excel 2019 and input into R 4.0.3, and then, the therapeutic method, use frequency of acupoint, meridian tropism, collection visualization analysis, cluster analysis and association rule analysis were summarized. A total of 240 articles were included, with 516 prescriptions and 145 acupoints involved. The methods for treatment of erectile dysfunction included acupuncture and moxibustion therapy, acupuncture, acupoint injection, electroacupuncture, etc. The acupoints with high use frequency were Guanyuan (CV 4), Shenshu (BL 23), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Mingmen (GV 4), Zusanli (ST 36), Zhongji (CV 3), Ciliao (BL 32), Qihai (CV 6), Taixi (KI 3) and Taichong (LR 3). The meridians involved with high frequency were the bladder meridian of foot-taiyang, the conception vessel, the spleen meridian of foot-taiyin, etc. The common acupoint combination was Shangliao (BL 31), Zhongliao (BL 33), Ciliao (BL 32), Xialiao (BL 34) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Shenshu (BL 23), Guanyuan (CV 4). In association rule analysis (confidence ≥ 90%, support ≥ 20%), there were 27 association rules in total. The acupoint combination with the highest support referred to "Shenshu (BL 23), Sanyinjiao (SP 6)→Guanyuan (CV 4)" (support 46.7%) and the acupoint combination with the highest confidence was "Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Qihai (CV 6)→Guanyuan (CV 4)" (confidence 98.0%). The acupoints could be divided into 5 effective clusters. Acupuncture and moxibustion therapy has a certain of rules of acupoint selection in treatment of erectile dysfunction, which provides the evidences for modern clinical trial and treatment.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Data Mining ; Erectile Dysfunction/therapy* ; Humans ; Male ; Meridians ; Moxibustion ; Technology

Domestic and foreign literatures related to the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 and the re-positive cases infected with SARS-CoV-2 were reviewed, and the characteristics and infectivity of the re-positive cases were analyzed to provide scientific evidence for the improvement of case management and the development of measures to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Existing studies have shown that re-positive rate of SARS-CoV-2 ranged from 2.4% to 19.8%, the median of interval between re-positive detection and discharge was 4-15 days. Following the second course of the disease, the anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM, IgG and IgA positive rates of the cases were 11.11%-86.08%, 52.00%-100.00% and 61.54%-100.00% respectively, the total antibody and neutralizing antibody positive rates were 98.72% and 88.46%. The viral load of the re-positive cases was lower than that in the initial infection. At least 3 380 re-positive cases have been reported globally. SARS-CoV-2 strains were isolated from the samples of 3 re-positive cases (1 immunodeficiency case and 2 cases with abnormal pulmonary imaging). There were close contacts that were infected by an asymptomatic case taking immunosuppressive agents. In conclusion, the infectivity of re-positive cases infected with SARS-CoV-2 is generally very low. Rare re-positive cases infected with SARS-CoV-2 might cause further transmission. The management approach for the re-positive cases can be based on the assessment of the individual transmission risk according to the pathogen detection results.
Antibodies, Neutralizing ; Antibodies, Viral ; COVID-19 ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin M ; SARS-CoV-2

COVID-19 is an emerging infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. After the infection of the virus, the host immune system is stimulated to produce multifarious specific antibodies to decrease or eliminate effects of the pathogen. Study of the specific antibodies dynamic characteristics in patients with COVID-19 is very important for the understanding and diagnosis of the disease, research and development of vaccine, and planning of prevention and control strategy. This paper reviews and summarizes the domestic and oversea research on dynamic characteristics of specific antibodies of COVID-19 patients, including the antibody producing, duration and level, and its possible influencing factors in order to improve the understanding of the immunological characteristics of COVID-19.