Publications by authors named "Chuan-jian Lu"

The biology and diversity of glomerular parietal epithelial cells (PECs) are important for understanding podocyte regeneration and crescent formation. Although protein markers have revealed the morphological heterogeneity of PECs, the molecular characteristics of PEC subpopulations remain largely unknown. Here, we performed a comprehensive analysis of PECs using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study highlights the role of the cellular environment alongside genetic factors in the onset and progression of diseases, emphasizing that different cell types have unique extracellular needs that influence disease outcomes.
  • - It focuses on hsa-microRNA-31-5p (miR-31), which is overexpressed in keratinocytes in psoriatic skin, revealing that its expression increases under low glucose conditions and enhances cell survival by promoting glutamine metabolism.
  • - The research demonstrates that miR-31 causes the secretion of specific metabolites and immunomodulatory factors that stimulate Th17 cell differentiation, crucial for psoriasis; targeting this metabolic pathway offers potential treatment strategies as shown in a mouse model.
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Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease affecting 1% to 3% of the world population. Psoriasis vulgaris (PV) is the most common form of psoriasis. PV patients suffer from inflamed, pruritic and painful lesions for years (even a lifetime).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to review the safety and occurrence of adverse events (AEs) associated with acupoint catgut embedding therapy used to treat psoriasis vulgaris (PV).
  • A total of 16 studies with 1,158 patients were analyzed, revealing 79 cases of mild to moderate AEs linked to the therapy, with no serious adverse effects reported.
  • The most common AEs included local redness, swelling, and pain, suggesting the need for caution and standardized guidelines in clinical practice to minimize risks.
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Macrophages, a major subset of innate immune cells, are main infiltrating cells in the kidney in lupus nephritis. Macrophages with different phenotypes exert diverse or even opposite effects on the development of lupus nephritis. Substantial evidence has shown that macrophage M2 polarization is beneficial to individuals with chronic kidney disease.

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Emerging evidence has linked the gut microbiota dysbiosis to transplant rejection while memory T-cells pose a threat to long-term transplant survival. However, it's unclear if the gut microbiome alters the formation and function of alloreactive memory T-cells. Here we studied the effects of berberine, a narrow-spectrum antibiotic that is barely absorbed when orally administered, on the gut microbiota, memory T-cells, and allograft survival.

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Background: To compare the efficacy and safety of PSORI-CM01 granules with Yinxieling tablets in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis (CPP), we plan to conduct a multicentre, randomized, double-blinded, double-dummy, controlled trial. This pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility and the potential of the protocol for the full-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Methods: This pilot study was conducted in three centers, and compared PSORI-CM01 granules with Yinxieling tablets in patients with CPP during a 12-week treatment and 3-month follow-up period.

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Psoriasis is a chronic, refractory, systemic inflammatory skin disease. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shows unique advantage in the treatment of psoriasis based on syndrome differentiation. An untargeted high-throughput metabonomics method based on liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry was applied to study the serum metabolic characteristics in different TCM syndrome types in patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PV), and to discover potential serum biomarkers for its pathogenesis on the endogenous metabolite differentiation basis.

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The Th17/Treg axis plays a crucial role in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID) and might represent an interesting drug target of treatment strategy for these diseases. Accumulating evidence suggests a role for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the modulation of Th17/Treg axis, but a comprehensive overview which summarizes this field hitherto is lacked. This paper performs a systematic literature review of the regulatory effects of TCM on the imbalance of Th17/Treg axis and its potential mechanisms.

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Background: Circulating exosomal microRNAs modulate not only cancer cell metabolism but also the immune response, and therefore plasma exosomal microRNAs might have the potential to be the biomarkers for a number of immune disorders.

Objective: This study was conducted to identify the common mechanisms among psoriatic arthritis (PsA), psoriasis vulgaris (PV), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and gouty arthritis (GA). The common expressed plasma exosomal microRNAs in these diseases were determined.

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Introduction: Although acupuncture has been recommended for alleviating cancer pain by clinical guidelines, the level of the supporting evidence needs to be improved. A pragmatic randomised controlled trial (pRCT) in a hospital setting would provide real-world assessments of the overall clinical effects of acupuncture. This pilot trial aims to explore the feasibility and provide data for sample size calculations for a pRCT evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy to routine medical care for cancer pain.

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The IL-17-producing CD4+ T cell and γδT cells play critical roles in the pathogenesis of psoriasis (PS). PSORI-CM02 is a representative herbal formula for the treatment for PS in South China. It was confirmed to improve PS without obvious side effects in the clinic.

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Introduction: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for adult cancer pain indicate that acupuncture and related therapies may be valuable additions to pharmacological interventions for pain management. Of the systematic reviews related to this topic, some concluded that acupuncture was promising for alleviating cancer pain, while others argued that the evidence was insufficient to support its effectiveness.

Methods And Analysis: This review will consist of three components: (1) synthesis of findings from existing systematic reviews; (2) updated meta-analyses of randomised clinical trials and (3) analyses of results of other types of clinical studies.

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Psoriasis is a common, chronic, systemic inflammatory skin disease, the etiology and pathogenesis is unclear. An untargeted high-throughput metabonomics method based on liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry was applied to study the serum metabolic changes in psoriasis vulgaris patients, and to discover serum potential biomarkers for identification, diagnosis and exploring pathogenesis of psoriasis. The serum metabolic profiles from 150 subjects (75 psoriasis patients and 75 healthy controls) were acquired, the raw spectrometric data were processed by multivariate statistical analysis, and 44 potential biomarkers were screened out and identified.

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Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory disease in which T-helper 1(Th1) and T-helper 17(Th17) cells play an important role in its pathology. Formula PSORI-CM01 was a novel formulated Chinese medicine used for psoriasis therapy. It had been demonstrated previously that PSORI-CM01 and serum contained Formula PSORI-CM01 (PCM01CS) could improve psoriasis by inhibiting the epithelial hyperplasia, how PSORI-CM01 affects inflammatory cytokine and chemokine in dermis is still unknown.

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Article Synopsis
  • A novel polysaccharide (SGRP1) was extracted from the root of Smilax glabra Roxb. using hot water, showing significant immunomodulatory activity.
  • It has an average molecular weight of 1.26×10^6 Da and consists mainly of mannose, fucose, and glucose in a specific molar ratio.
  • SGRP1 enhances macrophage functions and promotes the secretion of important biological factors, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic option for immunological diseases or as a functional food.
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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules, which function in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin disease characterized by the dysfunction of keratinocytes, with the immune dysregulation. We reviewed the recent studies on the roles of miRNAs in psoriasis and showed that miRNAs play key roles in psoriasis, including the regulation of hyperproliferation, cytokine and chemokine production in keratinocyte, as well as mediating immune dysfunction in psoriasis.

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Background: Specific profile of microRNAs (miRNAs, miR) expressed in psoriasis has been identified in the past few years, while the studies on roles and molecular mechanisms of these miRNAs are still on the way. In our previous study, four specific miRNAs (miR-31, miR-203, hsa-miR-99a and miR-125b) were found to be specifically altered in psoriatic lesions.We therefore conducted a systematic literature review in this study to reveal the role of these miRNAs in the pathogenesis of psoriasis in order to inform future research.

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Background: Psoriasis is a chronically recurrent inflammatory skin disease, modern medicine could achieve good therapeutic effect, but these treatments led to recurrence of the psoriasis, more severe symptoms due to damaging skin barrier. Traditional Chinese medicine is a useful alternative therapies. The purpose of this study was to explore the mechanism of PSORI-CM01, a Chinese medicine formula for psoriasis therapy, in eliminating psoriasis by studying its effects on inhibiting epidermal hyperplasia.

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Objectives: To identify and analyze records of the treatment of dementia and memory disorders in the classical Chinese medical literature that were consistent with the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD), with the aim of determining which traditional medicines have histories of use for these disorders.

Methods: Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Zhong Hua Yi Dian), a database of more than 1000 classical and premodern Chinese medical books, was systematically searched. Search terms were identified from dictionaries, medical nomenclatures, guidelines, and specialist clinical manuals on aging, neurology, or brain disorders.

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Article Synopsis
  • A pilot study was conducted to assess the feasibility of a larger trial that investigates the effects of the Chinese herbal medicine PSORI-CM01 combined with Western medicine on reducing relapse rates in patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PV).
  • In this study, participants received either PSORI-CM01 or a placebo along with topical therapy for 12 weeks, measuring various outcome metrics like relapse rate, severity, and quality of life.
  • Results indicated that while both groups had similar improvements, the CHM group showed a much lower relapse rate (17%) compared to the placebo group (67%), suggesting PSORI-CM01 may be effective in reducing recurrences of PV.
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Psoriasis is an immune-mediated skin disease which affects 2-4% of the worldwide population. Approximately 20-30% of patients with psoriasis develop psoriatic arthritis (PsA), a frequently destructive and disabling condition. As skin manifestations precede joint symptoms in nearly all patients with PsA, identification of biomarkers for early prediction of joint damage is an important clinical need.

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Psoriasis is recently characterized by a specific microRNAs (miRNAs) expression profile, which guides the researchers' efforts to explore the therapeutic targets and objective biomarkers that reflect the diagnosis and disease activity in clinical use for psoriasis.The paper presents a state-of-the-art review of expression and function of miRNAs in psoriasis along with its clinical implications.We analyzed all literature searched by keywords "microRNA" and "psoriasis" in PubMed (Medline) from inception up to July 2015, and the references in the literature searched were also considered.

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