[Application of "major scientific issues and engineering technology difficulties in traditional Chinese medicine(2019-2021)" in national science and t echnology layout].

In order to judge the future development trend of science and technology, plan ahead and lay out the frontier technology fields and directions, China Association of Chinese Medicine(CACM) has launched consultation projects for collecting "major scienti-fic issues and engineering technology difficulties in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)" for the industry for three consecutive years since 2019. Up to now, 18 projects have been selected as major issues for research, and some experience and achievements have been made. These projects have been applied in important scientific and technological work such as scientific and technological planning and deployment at all levels of national, local, and scientific research institutions, the selection and cultivation of major national scientific and technological projects, and the construction of innovation bases, giving full play to the role of the think tank advisory committee of CACM. This study reviewed the selection of major issues for the first time, systematically combed its application in the national layout of science and technology, and put forward the existing problems and improvement suggestions, aiming to provide new ideas for further improving the selection of major issues and research direction, providing a theoretical basis and decision support for the national scientific and technological layout in the field of TCM, and promoting scientific and technological innovation to facilitate the high quality development of TCM.

A non-destructive testing method for early detection of ginseng root diseases using machine learning technologies based on leaf hyperspectral reflectance.

Ginseng is an important medicinal plant benefiting human health for thousands of years. Root disease is the main cause of ginseng yield loss. It is difficult to detect ginseng root disease by manual observation on the changes of leaves, as it takes a long time until symptoms appear on leaves after the infection on roots. In order to detect root diseases at early stages and limit their further spread, an efficient and non-destructive testing (NDT) method is urgently needed. Hyperspectral remote sensing technology was performed in this study to discern whether ginseng roots were diseased. Hyperspectral reflectance of leaves at 325-1,075 nm were collected from the ginsengs with no symptoms on leaves at visual. These spectra were divided into healthy and diseased groups according to the symptoms on roots after harvest. The hyperspectral data were used to construct machine learning classification models including random forest, extreme random tree (ET), adaptive boosting and gradient boosting decision tree respectively to identify diseased ginsengs, while calculating the vegetation indices and analyzing the region of specific spectral bands. The precision rates of the ET model preprocessed by savitzky golay method for the identification of healthy and diseased ginsengs reached 99% and 98%, respectively. Combined with the preliminary analysis of band importance, vegetation indices and physiological characteristics, 690-726 nm was screened out as a specific band for early detection of ginseng root diseases. Therefore, underground root diseases can be effectively detected at an early stage by leaf hyperspectral reflectance. The NDT method for early detection of ginsengs root diseases is proposed in this study. The method is helpful in the prevention and control of root diseases of ginsengs to prevent the reduction of ginseng yield.

Bushen Kangshuai tablet inhibits progression of atherosclerosis by intervening in macrophage autophagy and polarization.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of Bushen Kangshuai (BS-KS) tablet on autophagy and polarization in mouse macrophage RAW 264.7. MEYHODS: Macrophage autophagy was induced by oxidized low-density lipoprotein (100 µg/mL). To detect the levels of autophagy, macrophage were transfected with double fluorescence LC3 autophagy adenovirus, then the numbers of autophagosomes and autophagic lysosomes were asessed by confocal microscopy. The autophagy related proteins expression of PI3K, Akt, phospho-mAkt (p-Akt) and mTOR, phospho-mTOR ([p-TOR), p62, microtubule-associated protein 1 (LC3-Ⅱ)were determined by western blotting. The macrophage polarization model was induced by lipopolysaccharide (1 µg/mL). The mRNA levels of iNOS, CD86 (M1 macrophages marker molecules), and CD206, Arg-1 (M2 macrophages marker molecules) were detected by real-time quantitative PCR. The concentration of cytokines TNF-α and IL-10 was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The protein expression of nuclear proteins PPAR-γ, NF-κB, and cytoplasmic protein IKB α was determined by western blotting. RESULTS: The expression of the autophagy-related protein LC3-Ⅱ was increased and the expression of p62 was decreased in the BS-KS intervention group. The protein expression of PI3K, p-Akt, and p-mTOR was also reduced. BS-KS also inhibited the mRNA expression of iNOS and CD86 on M2 macrophage, but promoted the expression of CD206 and Arg-1 on M2 macrophage. With respect to the regulation of inflammatory factors, BS-KS could inhibit the secretion of pro-inflammatory TNF-α and promote the secretion of anti-inflammatory IL-10. It also inhibited the protein expression of IKB-α and NF-κB, and promoted the expression of nuclear protein PPAR-γ. CONCLUSION: We believe that BS-KS promotes macrophage autophagy by increasing the level of autophagy protein and inhibiting the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. Furthermore, BS-KS seems to inhibit macrophage M1 polarization and promote M2 polarization via the PPAR gamma /NF-κB signaling pathway, thus playing an inhibitory role in atherosclerosis.