Application of Acupuncture for Shoulder Pain Over the Past 22 Years: A Bibliometric Analysis.

Purpose: Acupuncture is widely used to relieve shoulder pain. A survey was conducted in order to recognize hotspots and frontiers of acupuncture for shoulder pain from the year 2000-2022. Methods: The Web of Science Core Collection was used to collect literature related to acupuncture therapy for shoulder pain, which spanned January 2000 to August 2022. The number of publications yearly, countries/institutions, journals, and keywords was analyzed and visualized in shoulder pain with acupuncture therapy by CiteSpace v.5.7.R5. Results: We totally analyzed 214 articles that met the inclusion criteria. The overall trend of publication volume continues to increase. The most productive authors in the field were César Fernández las Peñas and José L Arias-Buría, and the most influential author was Green S. Kyung Hee University and the People's Republic of China had the highest volume of publications, respectively. The most influential journal is Pain with high citation and impact factor. The hot keywords were "acupuncture", "shoulder pain", "dry needling", "randomized trial", and "injection". The research frontier in acupuncture for treating chronic shoulder pain was mainly "mechanism". Conclusion: Over the last 22 years, the findings of this bibliometric analysis have provided research trends and frontiers in clinical research on acupuncture therapy for patients with shoulder pain, which identifying hot topics and exploring new directions for the future may be helpful to researchers. Studying mechanisms underlying acupuncture therapy for shoulder pain remains a focus of future research.

Rapid development of SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain-conjugated nanoparticle vaccine candidate

The ongoing of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, resulting in economic losses and seriously threating the human health in worldwide, highlighting the urgent need of a stabilized, easily produced and effective preventive vaccine. The SARS-COV-2 spike protein receptor binding region (RBD) plays an important role in the process of viral binding receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and membrane fusion, making it an ideal target for vaccine development. In this study, we designed three different RBD-conjugated nanoparticles vaccine candidates, RBD-Ferritin (24-mer), RBD-mi3 (60-mer) and RBD-I53-50 (120-mer), with the application of covalent bond linking by SpyTag-SpyCatcher system. It was demonstrated that the neutralizing capability of sera from mice immunized with three RBD-conjugated nanoparticles adjuvanted with AddaVax or Sigma Systerm Adjuvant (SAS) after each immunization was ~8-to 120-fold greater than monomeric RBD group in SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus and authentic virus neutralization assay. Most importantly, sera from RBD-conjugated NPs groups more efficiently blocked the binding of RBD to ACE2 or neutralizing antibody in vitro, a further proof of promising immunization effect. Besides, high physical stability and flexibility in assembly consolidated the benefit for rapid scale-up production of vaccine. These results supported that our designed SARS-CoV-2 RBD-conjugated nanoparticle was competitive vaccine candidate and the carrier nanoparticles could be adopted as universal platform for future vaccine development.

[Change and significance of urinary smad3 in type 2 diabetic nephropathy].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the significance of urinary smad3(usmad3) protein level change in diabetic nephropathy (DN) in type 2 diabetes mellitus and examine its relationship with the progression of DN. METHODS: From May 2010 to August 2011, a total of 282 patients with type 2 diabetes were selected for the experimental group according to instant urine specimen albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR). Another 100 healthy subjects were taken as the control group. Then the diabetics were divided into 3 groups, including 110 with normal albuminuria (NA group), 114 with microalbuminuria (MA group) and 58 with macroalbuminuria (DN group). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the content of usmad3. The parameters of age, systolic blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), blood glucose, blood lipids, urinary albumin/creatinine (ACR), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and glycosylated hemoglobin were measured. And non-mydriatic fundus camera was used to evaluate retinopathy, the DN group (n = 58) was then divided into two groups of those without retinopathy (n = 25) and with retinopathy (n = 33). RESULTS: (1) The usmad3 level in type 2 diabetes group was significantly higher than that in the control group (489(273,1193) vs 311 (179, 497) ng/mmol Cr (P < 0.01). (2) According to UACR, type 2 diabetes group was divided into 3 different groups to compare the relative level differences of usmad3 in different groups: MA group versus NA group, 552 (316,1338) vs 317 (200,594), DN group versus NA group, 1035 (503,3035)vs 317 (200,594), DN group versus MA group, 1035(503,3035)vs 552(316,1338), all P < 0.01. (3) Pearson correlation test showed the level of usmad3 was significantly correlated with age, SBP, HbA1c, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein, eGFR and UACR (r = 0.57, P < 0.01). And multiple linear regression analysis showed that usmad3 and UACR were independently correlated (ß = 0.754, P < 0.01). (4) The usmad3 level in DN with retinopathy were significantly higher than that in DN without retinopathy (1905(806,4303) vs 595 (331,1183), P < 0.01). No significant difference existed in uACR level between DN with retinopathy and DN without retinopathy(P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Urinary level of smad3 is significantly elevated in type 2 diabetics and it is significantly associated with ACR. It suggests that usmad3 is a potential marker in the diagnosis of DN and may be used to predict the severity of DN.

Construction of a eukaryotic expression vector for alpha-1-antitrypsin and the localization of the expression product in NIH 3T3 cells / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To construct a eukaryotic expression vector for alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) and detect its expression and localization in NIH 3T3 cells.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The total RNA was extracted from the liver tissue of BALB/c mice, and the corresponding coding sequences for mouse AAT (GenBank accession No. NM_009243) were amplified by RT-PCR and cloned into hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged vector pcDNA3-HA. The construct was then transfected into NIH 3T3 cells, which were observed under fluorescence microscope.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The recombinant plasmid was verified by PCR, enzyme digestion and sequence analysis, and the fusion protein was highly expressed in NIH 3T3 cells. Under fluorescence microscope, the fusion protein was found to distribute mainly in the cytoplasm.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The expression vector for AAT-HA fusion protein has been successfully constructed and effectively expressed in mammalian cells to allow future functional study of AAT in mammalian cells.</p>