Evaluate the clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese Medicine as the neoadjuvant treatment in reducing the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with hepatitis B-related cirrhosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), has been used for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at every therapeutic stage, even before tumor formation. However, the efficacy of TCM in reducing the incidence of HCC in patients with chronic hepatitis B-related cirrhosis remains unclear. This study aims to address this gap. Methods: Publications were collected from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, Sino Med, VIP, and Wan Fang Databases. Relative risk (RR) was calculated with a 95 % confidence interval (CI). Heterogeneity was assessed. The Cochrane Collaboration's tool was used to assess the risk of bias. Results: 10 studies with 2702 patients showed that the combination therapy significantly reduced the incidence of HCC in patients with post-hepatitis B cirrhosis at 1, 3, and 5 years. However, the preventive effects of TCM were in compensated cirrhosis, but not the decompensated cirrhosis. Furthermore, TCM correlated with improved liver function and enhanced virological response. Conclusion: Combination therapy with TCM demonstrated the certain potential in reducing the incidence of HCC in patients with hepatitis B cirrhosis. This is attrinuted to the improvement of liver function and enhancement of the viral response. However, the efficacy of TCM in the field still needs more high-quality RCTs to provide stronger evidence in the future.

Integration of single-cell and bulk RNA-sequencing to analyze the heterogeneity of hepatocellular carcinoma and establish a prognostic model.

BACKGROUND: The highly heterogeneous nature of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) results in different responses and prognoses to the same treatment in patients with similar clinical stages. AIMS: Thus, it is imperative to investigate the association between HCC tumor heterogeneity and treatment response and prognosis. METHODS AND RESULTS: At first, we downloaded scRNA-seq, bulk RNA-seq, and clinical data from TCGA and GEO databases. We conducted quality control, normalization using SCTransform, dimensionality reduction using PCA, batch effect removal using Harmony, dimensionality reduction using UMAP, and cell annotation-based marker genes on the scRNA-seq data. We recognized tumor cells, identified tumor-related genes (TRGs), and performed cell communication analysis. Next, we developed a prognostic model using univariable Cox, LASSO, and multivariate Cox analyses. The signature was evaluated using survival analysis, ROC curves, C-index, and nomogram. Last, we studied the predictability of the signature in terms of prognosis and immunotherapeutic response for HCC, assessed a variety of drugs for clinical treatment, and used the qRT-PCR analysis to validate the mRNA expression levels of prognostic TRGs. CONCLUSION: To conclude, this study expounded upon the influence of tumor cell heterogeneity on the prediction of treatment outcomes and prognosis in HCC. This, in turn, enhances the predictive ability of the TNM staging system and furnishes novel perspectives on the prognostic assessment and therapy of HCC.

A Wet Gas Metering System Based on the Extended-Throat Venturi Tube.

Although the use of a classical Venturi tube for wet gas metering has been extensively studied in the literature, the use of an extended-throat Venturi (ETV) tube has rarely been reported since its first proposal by J. R. Fincke in 1999. The structure of an ETV is very simple, but due to the complexity of multiphase flow, its theoretical model has not been fully established yet. Therefore, in this paper theoretical models have been developed for the convergent and throat sections of an ETV, and the gradients of front and rear differential pressures are derived analytically. Several flowrate algorithms have been proposed and compared with the existing ones. Among them, the iteration algorithm is found to be the best. A reasonable explanation is provided for its performance. The relationship between the differential pressure gradient and the flowrate relative error is also studied, such that the relative error distributions varying with ETV measured flowrates can be derived. The gas flowrate error of ETV increases with the liquid content whilst the liquid flowrate error of ETV decreases with the liquid content, and the relative errors of liquid flowrate are generally 2 to 3 times larger than that of the gas flowrate. Finally, the ETV tends to be more accurate than the classical Venturi tube. The ETV can be designed more compact under the same signal intensity due to its significantly higher velocity in the throat section.

[Cluster analysis on TCM syndrome characteristics of chronic hepatitis B].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the characteristics of Chinese medicine (CM) syndromes of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in Sichuan area, thus providing referential evidence for objective research of CHB. METHODS: According to the CRF chart, 1 064 CHB patients' four diagnostic information from 8 clinical units were recorded in Sichuan region using cross-sectional method. The laws of CHB syndrome characteristics were explored using the K-means clustering analysis method. RESULTS: Based on the K-means cluster analysis, we found 8 categories that fulfill the clinical practice combined professional knowledge with experts' opinions. They were Pi-Wei dampness heat (326 cases, 30.6%), Gan and gallbladder dampness heat (193 cases, 18.1%), Gan and Pi dampness heat (158 cases, 14.8%), Gan depression and Pi deficiency (92 cases, 8.6%), Gan depression transforming into heat (89 cases, 8.4%), Pi deficiency with dampness encumbrance (74 cases, 7.0%), dampness-heat combined with yin deficiency of Gan and Shen (73 cases, 6.9%), yang deficiency mingled with blood stasis (59 cases, 5.5%). CONCLUSION: The results of cluster analysis showed Pi-Wei dampness heat, Gan and gallbladder dampness heat, Gan and Pi dampness heat, Gan depression and Pi deficiency, Gan depression transforming into heat, Pi deficiency with dampness encumbrance, dampness-heat combined with yin deficiency of Gan and Shen, yang deficiency mingled with blood stasis were mainly syndromes of CHB patients in Sichuan area.

[Differential expression of microRNA in chronic hepatitis B patients of pi-wei dampness-heat syndrome and of gan depression Pi deficiency syndrome: a primary research].

OBJECTIVE: To explore different microRNA expression profiles between chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients of Pi-Wei dampness-heat syndrome (PWDHS) and Gan depression Pi deficiency syndrome (GDPDS). METHODS: By applying gene chip technology, blood samples from CHB patients of PWDHS (3 cases), GDPDS (3 cases), and healthy volunteers (3 cases) were withdrawn and microRNA detected. The microRNA was screened and functional analyses performed by using SAS system. RESULTS: Totally 77 microRNAs with differential expression were screened from CHB patients of PWDHS and healthy volunteers, including 60 up-regulated microRNAs and 17 down-regulated microRNAs. Functions of target genes were mainly associated with transcription factors, gas exchange, adverse stimulating, regulation of enzyme activities, developing of the immune system, and the process of actin filaments. Totally 41 microRNAs with differential expression were screened from CHB patients of GDPDS and healthy volunteers, including 32 up-regulated microRNAs and 9 down-regulated microRNAs. Functions of target genes were mainly associated with binding to nucleotide or chromatin, inhibition and activation of transcription, biosynthesis, regulation of metabolic process, regulation of enzyme activities, developing of the immune system, the process of actin filaments, and IL-12. Totally 6 microRNAs with differential expression were screened from CHB patients of PWDHS and CHB patients of GDPDS, including 1 up-regulated microRNA and 5 down-regulated microRNAs. Functions of target genes were mainly associated with transmembrane transport, regulation of transcription factors, metabolism of hormones, developing of the immune system, the process of actin filaments, regulation of metabolic process, response to exterior stimulation, and so on. CONCLUSION: There existed differentially expressed microRNAs (spectrum) between CHB patients of PWDHS and CHB patients of GDPDS.