[Integrated evidence chain: a new strategy and methodology for effectiveness e valuation of traditional Chinese medicines].

The evaluation of the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) has long been a "bottleneck" issue that restricts the healthy development and internationalization of TCM. This article systematically analyzes the differences in diagnostic and treatment principles, material composition, new drug development pathways, efficacy cognition, and evaluation methodology between Chinese and Western medicine from the underlying logic of medical perspective. On this basis, it integrates the evidence elements of clinical experience, experimental research, and clinical trials, and for the first time proposes and establishes a new strategy and methodology for the evaluation of the effectiveness of TCM: the integrated evidence chain-based effectiveness evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine(iEC-Eff), forming an integrated evaluation and confirmation model of "clinical experience-experimental research-clinical trial" for the effectiveness of TCM.

Metabolomics based early warning model for acute kidney injury risk in patients exposed to diquat.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the most important indications of severe clinical symptoms in patients with diquat poisoning and is closely related to poor prognosis. However, current studies have rarely focused on early warnings of diquat-related AKI, which is not conducive to the treatment of patients with early clinical diquat poisoning. In this study, untargeted plasma metabolomics was employed to reveal the differences between diquat-poisoned patients with and without AKI, as well as between patients and healthy volunteers.

Mitochondrial-targeting strategies with homoharringtonine: A novel approach for chemoresistant rectal cancer.

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) resistance poses a significant challenge in the treatment of rectal cancer, driving the need for novel therapeutic strategies. In this study, we established 5-FU-resistant rectal cancer cell lines (SW837-r, SNU-C1-r) and identified homoharringtonine (HHT) as a potent and selective anticancer agent through high-throughput drug screening of 291 compounds. HHT displayed the highest selective drug sensitivity score (sDSS), showing strong activity against resistant cells while sparing normal rectal epithelial cells.

Comparing Outcomes of Moyamoya Disease and Moyamoya Syndrome in a Real-World Scenario: A Cohort Study.

Background: Moyamoya disease (MMD) and moyamoya syndrome (MMS) are rare cerebrovascular conditions with unclear distinctions in clinical presentation and prognosis.

Aim: This study assessed potential differences between MMD and MMS patients using real-world data on clinical manifestations, surgical outcomes, and stroke risk factors.

Methods: This multicenter, retrospective cohort study examined patients with MMD or MMS treated at three tertiary academic hospitals in China, with a mean follow-up of 11.

Clinical applications of circulating tumor cell detection: challenges and strategies.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are pivotal in the distant metastasis of tumors, serving as one of the primary materials for liquid biopsy. They hold significant clinical importance in assessing prognosis, predicting efficacy, evaluating therapeutic outcomes, and studying recurrence, metastasis, and resistance mechanisms in cancer patients. Nevertheless, the rareness and heterogeneity of CTC and the complexity of metastasis make the clinical application of CTC detection confront many challenges, which may need to be settled by some practical strategies.

Safety of local thermal ablation in hepatocellular carcinoma patients with cirrhosis and severe thrombocytopenia.

Generally, invasive treatment is contraindication for patients with severe thrombocytopenia, because it may increase risk of bleeding. However, many early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with cirrhosis have platelet counts (PC) less than 50 × 10/L due to hypersplenism. These patients are often accompanied by hepatic insufficiency, which makes hepatectomy impossible, and local thermal ablation (LTA) has become a major treatment.

Non-invasive lipid panel of MASLD fibrosis transition underscores the role of lipoprotein sulfatides in hepatic immunomodulation.

There exists a pressing need for a non-invasive panel that differentiates mild fibrosis from non-fibrosis in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). In this work, we applied quantitative lipidomics and sterolomics on sera from the PERSONS cohort with biopsy-based histological assessment of liver pathology. We trained a lasso regression model using quantitative omics data and clinical variables, deriving a combinatorial panel of lipids and clinical indices that differentiates mild fibrosis (>F1, n = 324) from non-fibrosis (F0, n = 195), with an area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) at 0.

Targeting NQO1 induces ferroptosis and triggers anti-tumor immunity in immunotherapy-resistant KEAP1-deficient cancers.

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, yet the efficacy of immunotherapeutic approaches remains limited. Resistance to ferroptosis is one of the reasons for the poor therapeutic outcomes in tumors with Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (KEAP1) mutations. However, the specific mechanisms by which KEAP1-mutant tumors resist immunotherapy are not fully understood.

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization plus Sorafenib versus transcatheter arterial chemoembolization plus Lenvatinib for intermediate hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Recent studies have highlighted that TACE in conjunction with Lenvatinib (TACE-L) offers a promising adjunct therapy for advanced HCC patients, outperforming TACE plus Sorafenib (TACE-S). However, there has been a lack of research comparing these two regimens for intermediate HCC.

Aims: This study aims to address the research gap by evaluating the efficacy of TACE-L versus TACE-S in intermediate HCC patients.

Inhibition of hepatitis B virus through PPAR-JAK/STAT pathway modulation by electroacupuncture and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate combination therapy.

Background: Acupuncture combined with nucleos(t)ide analogues (NAs) has shown promise in treating chronic hepatitis B (CHB), though mechanisms remain unclear. This study evaluates the antiviral effects of combining acupuncture with NAs against hepatitis B virus (HBV) and explores underlying mechanisms.

Methods: The HBV-infected mouse model, established using the high-pressure hydrodynamic method, was divided into three groups: normal saline (NS), tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TF), and electroacupuncture combined with TF (E_T), n = 6.

The Relationship between Smoking and Susceptibility to HIV Infection: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Analysis.

Smoking is prevalent among people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and it increases morbidity and mortality in this population. However, due to ethical constraints, there is limited information on the effects of smoking on susceptibility to HIV infection. To investigate whether smoking is associated with an increased susceptibility to HIV infection, we conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study using summary statistics from genome-wide association studies of individuals of European ancestry who have ever smoked (n = 99,996) and have HIV (n = 412,130).

Pentagalloylglucose alleviates acetaminophen-induced acute liver injury by modulating inflammation via cGAS-STING pathway.

Background: The cGAS-STING pathway is an important component of the innate immune system and plays significant role in acetaminophen-induced liver injury (AILI). Pentagalloylglucose (PGG) is a natural polyphenolic compound with various beneficial effects, including anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and liver-protective properties; however, whether it can be used for the treatment of AILI and the specific mechanism remain unclear.

Materials And Methods: A cell culture model was created to study the effect of PGG on cGAS-STING pathway activation using various techniques including western blotting (WB), real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), immunofluorescence (IF), and immunoprecipitation (IP).