Global trends and hotspots of treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A bibliometric and visualization analysis (2010-2023).

BACKGROUND: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is chronic, with its progression leading to liver fibrosis and end-stage cirrhosis. Although NAFLD is increasingly common, no treatment guideline has been established. Many mechanistic studies and drug trials have been conducted for new drug development to treat NAFLD. An up-to-date overview on the knowledge structure of NAFLD through bibliometrics, focusing on research hotspots, is necessary to reveal the rational and timely directions of development in this field. AIM: To research the latest literature and determine the current trends in treatment for NAFLD. METHODS: Publications related to treatment for NAFLD were searched on the Web of Science Core Collection database, from 2010 to 2023. VOSviewers, CiteSpace, and R package "bibliometrix" were used to conduct this bibliometric analysis. The key information was extracted, and the results of the cluster analysis were based on network data for generating and investigating maps for country, institution, journal, and author. Historiography analysis, bursts and cluster analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and trend topic revealed the knowledge structure and research hotspots in this field. GraphPad Prism 9.5.1.733 and Microsoft Office Excel 2019 were used for data analysis and visualization. RESULTS: In total, 10829 articles from 120 countries (led by China and the United States) and 8785 institutions were included. The number of publications related to treatment for NAFLD increased annually. While China produced the most publications, the United States was the most cited country, and the United Kingdom collaborated the most from an international standpoint. The University of California-San Diego, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine produced the most publications of all the research institutions. The International Journal of Molecular Sciences was the most frequent journal out of the 1523 total journals, and Hepatology was the most cited and co-cited journal. Sanyal AJ was the most cited author, the most co-cited author was Younossi ZM, and the most influential author was Loomba R. The most studied topics included the epidemiology and mechanism of NAFLD, the development of accurate diagnosis, the precise management of patients with NAFLD, and the associated metabolic comorbidities. The major cluster topics were "emerging drug," "glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist," "metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease," "gut microbiota," and "glucose metabolism." CONCLUSION: The bibliometric study identified recent research frontiers and hot directions, which can provide a valuable reference for scholars researching treatments for NAFLD.

Progress in the treatment of drug-induced liver injury with natural products.

There are numerous prescription drugs and non-prescription drugs that cause drug-induced liver injury (DILI), which is the main cause of liver disease in humans around the globe. Its mechanism becomes clearer as the disease is studied further. For an instance, when acetaminophen (APAP) is taken in excess, it produces N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine (NAPQI) that binds to biomacromolecules in the liver causing liver injury. Treatment of DILI with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has shown to be effective. For example, activation of the Nrf2 signaling pathway as well as regulation of glutathione (GSH) synthesis, coupling, and excretion are the mechanisms by which ginsenoside Rg1 (Rg1) treats APAP-induced acute liver injury. Nevertheless, reducing the toxicity of TCM in treating DILI is still a problem to be overcome at present and in the future. Accumulated evidences show that hydrogel-based nanocomposite may be an excellent carrier for TCM. Therefore, we reviewed TCM with potential anti-DILI, focusing on the signaling pathway of these drugs' anti-DILI effect, as well as the possibility and prospect of treating DILI by TCM based on hydrogel materials in the future. In conclusion, this review provides new insights to further explore TCM in the treatment of DILI.

Slow development allows redundant genes to restore the fertility of rpg1, a TGMS line in Arabidopsis.

Slow development has been shown to be a general mechanism to restore the fertility of thermo-sensitive and photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterile (TGMS and PGMS) lines in Arabidopsis. rpg1 is a TGMS line defective in primexine, which is essential for pollen wall pattern formation. Here, we showed that RPG1-GFP was highly expressed in microsporocytes, microspores, and pollen grains but not in the tapetum in the complemented transgenic line, suggesting that microsporocytes are the main sporophytic cells for primexine formation. Further cytological observations showed that primexine formation in rpg1 was partially restored under slow growth conditions, leading to its fertility restoration. RPG2 is the homolog of RPG1 in Arabidopsis. We revealed that the fertility recovery of rpg1 rpg2 was significantly reduced compared with that of rpg1 under low temperature. The RPG2-GFP protein was also expressed in microsporocytes in the RPG2-GFP (WT) transgenic line. These results suggest that RPG2 plays a redundant role in rpg1 fertility restoration. rpg1 plants were male sterile at the early growth stage, while their fertility was partially restored at the late developmental stage. The fertility of the rpg1 lateral branches was also partially restored. Further growth analysis showed that slow growth at the late reproductive stage or on the lateral branches led to fertility restoration. This work reveals the importance of gene redundancy in fertility restoration for TGMS lines and provides further insight into pollen wall pattern formation.

Slow Development Restores the Fertility of Photoperiod-Sensitive Male-Sterile Plant Lines.

Photoperiod- and thermosensitive genic male sterility (P/TGMS) lines are widely used in crop breeding. The fertility conversion of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) TGMS lines including cals5-2, which is defective in callose wall formation, relies on slow development under low temperatures. In this study, we discovered that cals5-2 also exhibits PGMS. Fertility of cals5-2 was restored when pollen development was slowed under short-day photoperiods or low light intensity, suggesting that slow development restores the fertility of cals5-2 under these conditions. We found that several other TGMS lines with defects in pollen wall formation also exhibited PGMS characteristics. This similarity indicates that slow development is a general mechanism of PGMS fertility restoration. Notably, slow development also underlies the fertility recovery of TGMS lines. Further analysis revealed the pollen wall features during the formation of functional pollens of these P/TGMS lines under permissive conditions. We conclude that slow development is a general mechanism for fertility restoration of P/TGMS lines and allows these plants to take different strategies to overcome pollen formation defects.

[Application of near-infrared spectroscopy technology in extraction and concentration process of Reduning injection].

OBJECTIVE: To establish a rapid quantitative analysis method for the content of chlorogenic acid and solid content in the extraction liquid concentration process during the production of Reduning injection by using the near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, in order to reflect the concentration state in a real-time manner and really realize the quality control of concentrating process of the extraction and concentration process. METHOD: The samples during the Jinqing extraction liquid concentration process were collected. After the removal of abnormal samples, the spectra pretreatment and the wave band selection, the quantitative calibration model between NIR spectra and chlorogenic acid HPLC analytical value and solid content was established by using PLS algorithm, and unknown samples were predicted. RESULT: The correlation coefficients between the chlorogenic acid content and the solid content were respectively 0.992 1 and 0.994 0, and the correlation coefficients of the verification model were respectively 0.994 4 and 0.998 4, with the root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) of 0.814 6 and 2.656 1 and the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.704 6 and 1.876 7 respectively, and the relative standard errors of predictions (RSEP) were 6.01% and 2.93% respectively. CONCLUSION: The method is simple, rapid, nondestructive, accurate and reliable, thus could be adopted for the fast monitoring of the chlorogenic acid content and the solid content during the concentration process of Reduning injection extraction liquid.