Similarities and differences between the trigger point of myofascial pain and the traditional meridian points

In recent years,the treatment of myofascial pain trigger point is a relatively popular technology,many people regard it as"Ashi point"in meridian theory,but compared with the traditional meridian theory,the description of myofascial pain trigger point is more intuitive and easier to master.This paper expounds the similarities and differences between myofascial pain trigger point and traditional meridian theory from the aspects of theory,basic research and clinical application,in order to provide a specific idea for the scientific interpretation of meridian phenomenon in traditional Chinese medicine.

Research progress of miRNA and chronic nonbacterial prostatitis

Chronic nonbacterial prostatitis(CNP),also the typeⅢprostatitis account for more than 90%of all patients with prostatitis.It has a long course of disease,easy to repeat,unknown pathogenesis and poor clinical efficacy.At present,some scholars at home and abroad have found that there is differential expression of microRNA(miRNA)in prostatic fluid of CNP patients or prostate tissue of CNP rat model.Intervention of miRNA expression can alleviate the symptoms and pharmacodynamics of CNP to a certain extent,which opens up a new way and direction for the pathogenesis and diagnosis and treatment of CNP.Therefore,this paper reviews the research progress of miRNA and CNP in recent years.

Study on the protective mechanism of Yizhiren regulating lipid metabolism in mice with diabetic nephropathy

Objective:To study the protective mechanism of Yizhiren on the diabetic nephropathy(DN)mouse model based on network pharmacology and metabolomics.Methods:Urea nitrogen,urinary creatinine,urinary albumin were detected in each group of mice,and pathological sections of mice kidney were observed.TCMSP database was used to search for the components and targets of Yizhiren,GeneCards database was used to search for DN-related genes,and drug-component-target-disease network and KEGG signaling pathway were constructed.The fecal samples of mice in the Yizhiren group and the Saline group were collected,metabolomics techniques were used to screen different metabolites,and potential metabolic pathways were analyzed using KEGG database.Results:Compared with the model group,Yizhiren significantly reduced the levels of urea nitrogen,urinary creatinine and urinary albumin in DN mice(P<0.05 or P<0.01),and improved the renal pathology of mice.It was predicted that Yizhiren had 4 effective components and 28 potential targets for treating DN.The KEGG enriched 43 signal pathways,and the main metabolic pathway was lipid metabolism.A total of 584 different metabolites were screened from feces of the two groups(P<0.05).The main metabolic pathways were lipid metabolism,namely sphingolipid metabolism and glycerol phospholipid metabolism,among which the metabolites contained mainly sphingolipin,phosphatidylcholine,lysophosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine.Compared with the normal saline group,these four metabolites in Yizhiren decreased significantly(P<0.01 or P<0.001).Conclusion:The protective mechanism of Yizhiren in DN mice may be related to the regulation of sphingolipid metabolism,glycerol phospholipid metabolism and the disorder of its metabolites.

Effect and Safety of Herbal Medicine Foot Baths in Patients with Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy:A Multicenter Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective:To evaluate the effect and safety of foot baths with Tangbi Waixi Decoction(TW)in treating patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy(DPN).Methods:It is a multicenter double-blinded randomized controlled trial.Participants with DPN were recruited between November 18,2016 and May 30,2018 from 8 hospitals in China.All patients received basic treatments for glycemic management.Patients received foot baths with TW herbal granules either 66.9 g(intervention group)or 6.69 g(control group)for 30 min once a day for 2 weeks and followed by a 2-week rest,as a therapeutic course.If the Toronto Clinical Scoring System total score(TCSS-TS)6 points,the patients received a total of 3 therapeutic courses(for 12 weeks)and were followed up for 12 weeks.The primary outcome was change in TCSS-TS score at 12 and 24 weeks.Secondary outcomes included changes in bilateral motor nerve conduction velocity(MNCV)and sensory nerve conduction velocity(SNCV)of the median and common peroneal nerve.Safety was also assessed.Results:Totally 632 patients were enrolled,and 317 and 315 were randomized to the intervention and control groups,respectively.After the 12-week intervention,patients in both groups showed significant declines in TCSSTS scores,and significant increases in MNCV and SNCV of the median and common peroneal nerves compared with pre-treatment(P<0.05).The reduction of TCSS-TS score at 12 weeks and the increase of SNCV of median nerve at 24 weeks in the control group were greater than those in the intervention group(P<0.05).The number of adverse events did not differ significantly between groups(P>0.05),and no serious adverse event was related with treatment.Conclusion:Treatment of TW foot baths was safe and significantly benefitted patients with DPN.A low dose of TW appeared to be more effective than a high dose.(Registry No.Chi CTR-IOR-16009331)

Development of a random forest model for hypotension prediction after anesthesia induction for cardiac surgery

BACKGROUND Hypotension after the induction of anesthesia is known to be associated with various adverse events.The involvement of a series of factors makes the prediction of hypotension during anesthesia quite challenging.AIM To explore the ability and effectiveness of a random forest(RF)model in the prediction of post-induction hypotension(PIH)in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.METHODS Patient information was obtained from the electronic health records of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University.The study included patients,≥18 years of age,who underwent cardiac surgery from December 2007 to January 2018.An RF algorithm,which is a supervised machine learning technique,was employed to predict PIH.Model performance was assessed by the area under the curve(AUC)of the receiver operating characteristic.Mean decrease in the Gini index was used to rank various features based on their importance.RESULTS Of the 3030 patients included in the study,1578(52.1%)experienced hypotension after the induction of anesthesia.The RF model performed effectively,with an AUC of 0.843(0.808-0.877)and identified mean blood pressure as the most important predictor of PIH after anesthesia.Age and body mass index also had a significant impact.CONCLUSION The generated RF model had high discrimination ability for the identification of individuals at high risk for a hypotensive event during cardiac surgery.The study results highlighted that machine learning tools confer unique advantages for the prediction of adverse post-anesthesia events.

Downregulation of hsa_circ_0002198 inhibits keloid fibroblast activities in vitro by reducing NLRP3 inflammasome activity

The levels of hsa circular RNA_0002198(hsa_circ_0002198)have been found to be significantly upregulated in keloid dermal fibroblasts.However,the functional role of hsa_circ_0002198 in keloid fibroblasts and the underlying molecular mechanism for its effects have not been reported.In this study,the levels of hsa_circ_0002198 and nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain,leucine rich repeat and pyrin domain containing 3(NLRP3)expression in keloid scar tissues and adjacent normal skin tissues were determined by quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting,respectively.In vitro models of keloid tissue were created by culturing primary keloid fibroblasts obtained from patients.A series of functional experiments,including CCK-8 assays,Transwell assays,and ELISA assays were performed to analyze the functional role of hsa_circ_0002198/NLRP3.Our data showed that hsa_circ_0002198 and NLRP3 were upregulated in keloid scar tissues when compared with adjacent normal tissues.Knockdown of hsa_circ_0002198 expression significantly suppressed cell proliferation,migration,and invasion,and those effects could be partially reversed by forced NLRP3 overexpression in keloid fibroblasts.At the molecular level,knockdown of hsa_circ_0002198 downregulated the levels of Col I,α-SMA,and NLRP3 proteins,as well as the levels of TGF-β,IL-1ß,and IL-33,but upregulated caspase 3 expression in keloid fibroblasts.All those effects were partially reversed after NLRP3 overexpression.In conclusion,our results suggest hsa_circ_0002198 as a potential target for treating keloid lesions.

Treatment of Male Infertility

Following is authors’ experience in treating male infertility, such as oligospermia, poor sperm motility, failure of seminal fluid to liquefy or autoimmunity. Oligospermia Oligospermia falls into the category of jing shao (精少scant semen), jing qing (精清thin semen) or xu lao (虚劳 consumption) in TCM. This condition is caused by insufficiency of the kidney-essence due to constitutional insufficiency or excessive sexual activity exhausting the kidney-essence, or due to lack of source of generation and transformation of kidney-essence resulting from depletion and/or deficiency of qi and blood. Decrease in the

Clinical Experience in TCM Differential Treatment of Fatty Liver

In recent years, with improvement of living standard, changes in dietary structure and technical progress in medical tests, the rate of detecting fatty liver has been rising, hence constant increase in its incidence. Based on the TCM principle for differentiating syndromes, the authors have achieved remarkable curative effects in treating fatty liver. TCM Conception on Fatty Liver There is no fatty liver in the terms of TCM. However, according to its clinical manifestations, the disease may belong to the categories of “abdominal mass”, “mass at hypochondria”, “hypochondriac pain”, “accumulation of phlegm with stasis”. Its etiology and pathogenesis mainly lie in uncontrolled diet

Study on the difference of effect of Sou-quan-yi-shen prescription and Yizhiren on the efficacy and gut microbiome of DKD mice

Objective:To compare the effects of sou-quan-yi-shen prescription and Yizhiren on the efficacy and gut microbiome of DKD mice.Methods:Taking spontaneous diabetic kidney disease(db-/db-)mice as the animal model,the mice were randomly divided into Yizhiren group,ou-quan-yi-shen prescriptione group,saline group,each with 8 mice.Three groups of mice were given 1.5mg·g-1 Yizhiren,0.01mg·kg-1 sou-quan-yi-shen prescriptione and saline,continuous gavage for 8 weeks.Blood glucose,blood lipids and oxidative stress were measured.The fecal gut microbiome,richness and expression difference were determined by collecting mouse feces,and the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes,as well as the richness of Firmicutes,Akkermansia and Bacteroidetes in the three groups of mice were compared.Results:The blood glucose,TG,CAT,H2O2 and O2-of the mice in the sou-quan-yi-shen prescription group were 18.11±0.51,4.01±0.87,126.23±15.33,60.70±20.12 and 41.56±19.54,respectively.The blood glucose,TG,CAT,H2O2 and O2-of the mice in the yizhiren group were 21.42±0.45,5.02±0.32,137.88±10.90,79.07±18.31 and 55.26±14.11,respectively.Compared with the normal saline group of blood glucose 33.73±0.96,TG 9.67±1.02,CAT 75.04±17.23,H2O2109.77±19.21 and O2-95.43±29.08,the sou-quan-yi-shen prescription group and the Yizhiren group were significantly lower(p<0.05),and the effect of Shuoquan Yishen Recipe Better than Yizhiren.sou-quan-yi-shen prescription and yizhiren can regulate the abundance ratio of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes,as well as the abundance of Firmicutes,Bacteroidetes and Akkermansia,and the effect of sou-quan-yi-shen prescription is stronger than that of yizhiren.Conclusion:The effect of sou-quan-yi-shen prescription and yizhiren on regulating DKD may be related to the regulation of blood sugar,blood lipids,oxidative stress and gut microbiome,and the effect of sou-quan-yi-shen prescription is stronger than that of yizhiren.

Application of SAA1 in the diagnosis of gastric cancer

Objective:To explore the value of serum amyloid A content in the diagnosis of gastric cancer in patients with gastric cancer.Methods:The serum of 120 gastric cancer patients and 30 healthy physical examination patients admitted to Hainan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from September 2015 to December 2017 were selected as experimental subjects.Results:The expression of SAA1 in serum of patients with gastric cancer was significantly higher than healthy subjects(42.38±10.12)μg/mL vs.(22.70±8.98)μg/mL,and the difference was statistically significant(t=-9.725,P<0.001).ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of SAA1 diagnosis of gastric cancer was 0.907(95%CI:0.838-0.976),the detection threshold was 29.02μg/mL,and the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 93.3%and 86.7%,respectively.The expression level of serum SAA1 was not correlated with gender(r=0.056,P>0.05),age(r=-0.032,P>0.05)and tumor metastasis(r=-0.173,P>0.05)of gastric cancer patients,and correlated with tumor size(r=-0.228,P<0.05)and invasion degree(r=-0.409,P<0.05),and increased with the increase of tumor invasion degree.Conclusion:The expression level of serum SAA1 in gastric cancer patients is significantly increased,which may be a new potential marker for the diagnosis of gastric cancer.

The functional components and mechanism of Linderae Radix in treating diabetic nephropathy based on the network pharmacology

Objective:To analyze the components and mechanisms of Wuyao(Linderae Radix)in treating diabetic nephropathy(DN)based on network pharmacology.Methods:Multiple online databases were used to search and screen out the active ingredients from Linderae Radix,the related targets of active components of Linderae Radix and the genes related to DN.Search the corresponding genes name of target through UniProt database.Cytoscape 3.2.1 was used to construct the corresponding target gene network of Linderae Radix compounds.Venn diagram was used to screen the intersection genes of the active components corresponding to the target and disease-related genes,and the intersection genes were constructed into the protein interaction relationship network.Finally,DAVID database was used to do GO function enrichment analysis and KEGG signaling pathway enrichment analysis for the intersection genes,and the results of GO and KEGG were visualized.Results:1.A total of 7 potential active ingredients and 100 target proteins were screened.2.There are a total of 34 intersection genes between the potential active ingredient target in Linderae Radix in DN.3.The top 10 of the interaction correlation between intersection proteins include:AR and NCOA2,NCOA2 and NR3C1,NCOA2 and PPARG,etc.4.There were 16 entries of molecular function,9 entries of cell component,47 entries of biological process and 18 entries of signaling pathway(P<0.05).Conclusion:DN was treated by Linderae Radix from multi-component,multi-target and multi-link synergies.

Phytochemistry,bioactivities,and future prospects of Callicarpa nudiflora:A review

This work was supported by Hainan Province Science and Technology Special Fund of China(No.ZDKJ2021034)and the Hainan Province Natural Science Foundation of China(No.822RC697).

Luo Lingjie's Experience in Treating Chronic Nephropathy

In treating chronic nephropathy, Luo Lingjie, a chief physician, pays attention to regulating the balance between yin and yang, treating infection if present, and removing pathogenic factors. He prescribes gentle drugs and uses carefully strongly warming-tonifying ones, emphasizes the importance of persuading the patient to persist in treatment with medication and nurse one’s health for recuperation, and is good at combined use of TCM and western medicine therapy and brings the merits of various therapies into full play, with obvious therapeutic effects.

Research Progress in Arecoline-induced Oral Submucous Fibrosis

Areca nut is a popular fruit, but is among the most common addictions following tobacco, alcohol and caffeine globally. Areca nut chewing is the major risk factor for OSF, which is a chronic, occult, and premalignant fibrotic disease. OSF is characterized by submucosal collagen accumulation and microvascular diseases, the primary microscopic manifestations of which include damaged vascular endothelial cells, increased vascular permeability, and decreased number of microvessels. As the basic structure of microvessels, endothelial cells paly an important role in the pathogenesis and progression of OSF. Arecoline is the main component of areca nut. This review summarized the machenism of arecoline-inducing OSF by acting on endothelial cells, mainly including that arecoline can promote endothelial cells inducing tissue fibrosis by acting on the vascular endothelial cells and is accomplished via multiple aspects such as inhibiting the proliferation and facilitating the apoptosis of endothelial cells, affecting their secretion of cytokines, or promoting the transformation process of EMT.