Research progress of traditional Chinese medicine regulating intestinal flora in the treatment of hypertension.

Hypertension is a common disease; however, it is more prevalent in older adults, and its prevalence is increasing in younger populations. Numerous studies have revealed that hypertension and the composition and functionality of the intestinal flora are closely correlated. The balance of the intestinal flora, intestinal barrier integrity, and metabolite content of the intestinal flora play significant roles in the occurrence and progression of hypertension.

Vitexin promotes the anti-senescence effect via inhibiting JAK2/STAT3 in D-Galactose-induced progeria mice and stress-induced premature senescence.

Vitexin is a natural flavonoid glycoside compound extracted from the leaves and seeds of Vitex negundo. It is widely distributed in the leaves and stems of numerous plants and exhibites remarkable anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, and anti-hypertensive properties. However, whether vitexin presents the anti-aging and senescence prevention effect has not been fully elucidated.

Unraveling the mechanism of malancao in treating ulcerative colitis: A multi-omics approach.

Background: Malancao (MLC) is a traditional Chinese medicine with a long history of utilization in treating ulcerative colitis (UC). Nevertheless, the precise molecular mechanisms underlying its efficacy remain elusive. This study leveraged ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with exactive mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QE-MS), network pharmacology, molecular docking (MD), and gene microarray analysis to discern the bioactive constituents and the potential mechanism of action of MLC in UC management.

Developing Deep LSTMs With Later Temporal Attention for Predicting COVID-19 Severity, Clinical Outcome, and Antibody Level by Screening Serological Indicators Over Time.

Objective: The clinical course of COVID-19, as well as the immunological reaction, is notable for its extreme variability. Identifying the main associated factors might help understand the disease progression and physiological status of COVID-19 patients. The dynamic changes of the antibody against Spike protein are crucial for understanding the immune response.

Circulating soluble CD30 is associated with renal tertiary lymphoid structures and the progression of IgA nephropathy.

Background: Renal tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) are involved in renal pathology and prognosis of IgA nephropathy (IgAN). CD30 and its ligands participate in the formation of renal TLSs. However, the relationship between circulating CD30 and renal prognosis is unclear.

Efficacy comparison between iliosacral screw fixation of the posterior pelvic ring fracture with the assistance of modified percutaneous three-dimensional printing guide template and conventional fluoroscopy.

Objectives: The effect of three-dimensional (3D) printed bone-attached guide plate assisted cannulated screw fixation of pelvic fracture is reliable, but extensive soft tissue dissection is still required when installing the guide plate. This study aims to compare the efficacy of posterior pelvic ring fracture fixation with iliosacral screw insertion between the assistance of modified percutaneous patient specific 3D printed guide template and conventional fluoroscopy.

Methods: From May, 2019 and September 2021, 28 patients sustained posterior pelvic ring fractures were randomized into 2 groups: A guide template group, in which the iliosacral screw was inserted for fixation of the posterior pelvic ring fracture with the assistance of modified percutaneous patient specific 3D printed guide template, and a fluoroscopy group, in which the iliosacral screw was inserted under the guidance of conventional fluoroscopy.

SerpinA3N Regulates the Secretory Phenotype of Mouse Senescent Astrocytes Contributing to Neurodegeneration.

Senescent astrocyte accumulation in the brain during normal aging is a driver of age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. However, the molecular events underlying astrocyte senescence in Alzheimer's disease are not fully understood. In this study, we demonstrated that senescent astrocytes display a secretory phenotype known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), which is associated with the upregulation of various proinflammatory factors and the downregulation of neurotrophic growth factors (eg, NGF and BDNF), resulting in a decrease in astrocyte-mediated neuroprotection and increased risk of neurodegeneration.

Effect of four chitinase genes on the female fecundity in Sogatella furcifera (Horváth).

Background: The white-backed planthopper (WPH), Sogatella furcifera (Horváth), is a destructive rice pest with strong reproductive capacity. To gain insights into the roles of chitinases in the reproductive process of this insect species, this study represents the first-ever endeavor to conduct an in-depth exploration into the reproductive functions of four chitinase genes.

Results: In this study, it was observed that four chitinase genes were expressed in female adults, with a relatively high expression level in the ovaries.

Point-Based Learnable Query Generator for Human-Object Interaction Detection.

Transformer-based and interaction point-based methods have demonstrated promising performance and potential in human-object interaction detection. However, due to differences in structure and properties, direct integration of these two types of models is not feasible. Recent Transformer-based methods divide the decoder into two branches: an instance decoder for human-object pair detection and a classification decoder for interaction recognition.

A Contrastive Learning Network for Performance Metric and Assessment of Physical Rehabilitation Exercises.

Human activity analysis in the legal monitoring environment plays an important role in the physical rehabilitation field, as it helps patients with physical injuries improve their postoperative conditions and reduce their medical costs. Recently, several deep learning-based action quality assessment (AQA) frameworks have been proposed to evaluate physical rehabilitation exercises. However, most of them treat this problem as a simple regression task, which requires both the action instance and its score label as input.

Machine-learning-based method for fiber-bending eavesdropping detection.

In this Letter, we present a scheme for detecting fiber-bending eavesdropping based on feature extraction and machine learning (ML). First, 5-dimensional features from the time-domain signal are extracted from the optical signal, and then a long short-term memory (LSTM) network is applied for eavesdropping and normal event classification. Experimental data are collected from a 60 km single-mode fiber transmission link with eavesdropping implemented by a clip-on coupler.

High Renal Mast Cell Density Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Patients with Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy.

Introduction: This observational cohort study evaluated the prognostic value of mast cells in the pathogenesis and progression of IgA nephropathy.

Methods: A total of 76 adult IgAN patients were enrolled into this study from Jan 2007 and June 2010. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were used to identify tryptase-positive mast cells in renal biopsy samples.

Clinical Outcomes Associated with Monotherapy and Combination Therapy of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors as First-Line Treatment for Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Real-World Practice: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs)-based therapy has recently been demonstrated to greatly ameliorate survival outcomes in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to evaluate clinical outcomes of ICIs-based monotherapy and combination therapy as first-line treatment of adults with advanced HCC in real-world practice by conducting a systematic literature review and meta-analysis.

Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase were searched up to 25 April 2022.

Age- and Severity-Associated Humoral Immunity Response in COVID-19 Patients: A Cohort Study from Wuhan, China.

Age has been found to be the single most significant factor in COVID-19 severity and outcome. However, the age-related severity factors of COVID-19 have not been definitively established. In this study, we detected SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses and infectious disease-related blood indicators in 2360 sera from 783 COVID-19 patients, with an age range of 1−92 years.

Efficacy and safety of monotherapy and combination therapy of immune checkpoint inhibitors as first-line treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review, meta-analysis and network meta-analysis.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the cancers with the highest morbidity and mortality. Sorafenib used to be the main treatment for unresectable HCC patients. However, regimens based on immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have attracted attention in recent years because of their reported benefits.

A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Comparative Efficacy and Safety of Risankizumab and Ustekinumab for Psoriasis Treatment.

Biological targeted therapy serves as a new alternative treatment for psoriasis due to its minimal side effects. This study is aimed at examining the drug effectiveness and safety of risankizumab and ustekinumab for psoriasis treatment, so as to provide a reference for clinical decision-making. Databases from Embase, Web of Science, PubMed, and Cochrane Library were gathered, starting from inception to March 1, 2022, for randomized controlled trials regarding risankizumab and ustekinumab for psoriasis treatment.

Label-reconstruction-based pseudo-subscore learning for action quality assessment in sporting events.

Most existing action quality assessment (AQA) methods provide only an overall quality score for the input video and lack an evaluation of each substage of the movement process; thus, these methods cannot provide detailed feedback for users. Moreover, the existing datasets do not provide labels for substage quality assessment. To address these problems, in this work, a new label-reconstruction-based pseudo-subscore learning (PSL) method is proposed for AQA in sporting events.

Economic Burden and Quality of Life of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Greater China: A Systematic Review.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for more than 85%-90% of primary liver cancer globally, and approximately 45% of deaths from HCC occur in greater China. This disease poses a significant economic burden for patients, payers and society and significantly affects patients' quality of life (QoL). However, such impact of HCC in greater China has not been well characterized.

Potential Regulators of the Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype During Senescence and Aging.

Senescent cells express and secrete a variety of extracellular modulators that include cytokines, chemokines, proteases, growth factors, and some enzymes associated with extracellular matrix remodeling, defined as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). SASP reinforces senescent cell cycle arrest, stimulates and recruits immune cells for immune-mediated clearance of potentially tumorigenic cells, limits or induces fibrosis, and promotes wound healing and tissue regeneration. On the other hand, SASP mediates chronic inflammation leading to the destruction of tissue structure and function and stimulating the growth and survival of tumor cells.

Pharmacoeconomic evaluation of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic literature review.

Introduction: Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i) are widely used oral antidiabetic agents that exert antihyperglycemic effects in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) without increased risk of weight gain or hypoglycemic events. The objective of this paper was to systematically review the latest evidence that was associated with the pharmacoeconomic evaluation of DPP-4i for the treatment of patients with T2DM.

Areas Covered: We conducted a systematic literature search of eligible articles published since inception up to March 2021 in Web of Science, MEDLINE (via PubMed), and ECONLIT.

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG responses are powerful predicting signatures for the outcome of COVID-19 patients.

Introduction: The COVID-19 global pandemic is far from ending. There is an urgent need to identify applicable biomarkers for early predicting the outcome of COVID-19. Growing evidences have revealed that SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies evolved with disease progression and severity in COIVD-19 patients.

Epidemiology and disease burden of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in greater China: a systematic review.

Background: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The increasing burden of NASH has become a major concern of public health in greater China. This study aimed to characterize the epidemiology, disease burden, and treatment of NASH in greater China to better inform national disease management and delivery of health services.