Needle knife in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: The aim of this meta-analysis was to examine the effectiveness and safety ofneedle knives for primary dysmenorrhea. Methods: We searched the electronicdatabases from their inception to May 25, 2022, comprising Cochrane Library, PubMed,Embase, SinoMed, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang databases. Randomized controlled trials(RCTs) investigating the effectiveness of needle knives for people with primarydysmenorrhea were eligible. The risk of bias and the quality of the included literaturewere evaluated. RevMan5.3 software was used for this study. Results: Five articles with313 participants were involved in the review. The cure rate (2.82 (2.01, 3.95), I^(2) = 25%)and total effective rate (1.32 (1.10, 1.57), I^(2) = 65%) of the experimental group werehigher than those of the control group. The dysmenorrhea symptom scores (–1.81(–2.61, –1.01), I^(2) = 69%), TCM symptom scores (–4.19 (–6.06, –2.31), I2 = 0%) andadverse reactions (0.16 (0.05, 0.51), I^(2) = 0%) of the experimental group were lowerthan those of the control group. Conclusions: Needle knives may provide advantages inthe treatment of primary dysmenorrhea. RCTs, including the larger sample, multi-center,high-quality and double-blind research, were required to further verify the efficacy ofneedle knives for primary dysmenorrhea.

iORbase:A database for the prediction of the structures andfunctions of insect olfactory receptors

Insect olfactory receptors(iORs)with atypical 7-transmembrane domains,unlike Chordata olfactory receptors,are not in the GPCR protein family.iORs selectively bind to volatile ligands in the environment and affect essential insect behaviors.In this study,we constructed a new platform(iORbase,https://www.iorbase.com)for the structural and functional analysis of iORs based on a combined algorithm for gene annotation and protein structure prediction.Moreover,it provides the option to calculate the binding affinities and binding residues between iORs and pheromone molecules by virtual screening of docking.Furthermore,iORbase supports the automatic structural and functional prediction of user-submitted iORs or pheromones.iORbase contains the well-analyzed results of approximately 6000 iORs and their 3D protein structures identified from 59 insect species and 2077 insect pheromones from the literature,as well as approximately 12 million pairs of simulated interactions between functional iORs and pheromones.We also built 4 online modules,iORPDB,iInteraction,iModelTM,and iOdorTool to easily retrieve and visualize the 3D structures and interactions.iORbase can help greatly improve the experimental efficiency and success rate,identify new insecticide targets,or develop electronic nose technology.This study will shed light on the olfactory recognition mechanism and evolutionary characteristics from the perspectives of omics and macroevolution.