Integrating network pharmacology and experimental models to identify notoginsenoside R1 ameliorates atherosclerosis by inhibiting macrophage NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

Atherosclerosis is a cardiovascular disease, accounting for the most common mortality cause worldwide. Notoginsenoside R1 (NGR1) is a characteristic saponin of Radix notoginseng that exhibits anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects while modulating lipid metabolism. Evidence suggests that NGR1 exerts cardioprotective, neuroprotective, and anti-atherosclerosis effects. However, underlying NGR1 mechanisms alleviating atherosclerosis (AS) have not been examined. This study used a network pharmacology approach to construct the drug-target-disease correlation and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of NGR1 and AS. Moreover, functional annotation and pathway enrichment analyses deciphered the critical biological processes and signaling pathways potentially regulated by NGR1. The protective effect of NGR1 against AS and the underlying mechanism(s) was assessed in an atherogenic apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE-/-) mice in vivo and an oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)-induced macrophage model in vitro. The network pharmacology and molecular docking analyses revealed that NGR1 protects against AS by targeting the NLRP3/caspase-1/IL-1ß pathway. NGR1 reduced foam cell formation in ox-LDL-induced macrophages and decreased atherosclerotic lesion formation, serum lipid metabolism, and inflammatory cytokines in AS mice in vivo. Therefore, NGR1 downregulates the NLRP3 inflammasome complex gene expression of NLRP3, caspase-1, ASC, IL-1ß, and IL-18, in vivo and in vitro.

Exploring the Mechanism of Buyang Huanwu Decoction Alleviating Restenosis by Regulating VSMC Phenotype Switching and Proliferation by Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking.

BACKGROUND: Buyang Huanwu Decoction (BHD) is used to regulate blood circulation and clear collaterals and is widely used in coronary heart disease. However, the active compounds and the mechanism of BHD used to treat restenosis are less understood. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore the potential mechanism of Buyang Huanwu decoction BHD for the treatment of restenosis using network pharmacology and molecular docking experiments. METHODS: The bioactive components of BHD and their corresponding targets were retrieved from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) and Encyclopaedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ETCM) databases as well as literature. Restenosisassociated therapeutic genes were identified from the OMIM, Drugbank, GEO, and Dis- GeNET databases. Genes related to the vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotype were obtained from the gene ontology (GO) database and literature. The core target genes for the drug-disease-VSMC phenotype were identified using the Venn tool and Cytoscape software. Moreover, the "drug-component-target-pathway" network was constructed and analyzed, and pathway enrichment analysis was performed. The connection between the main active components and core targets was analyzed using the AutoDock tool, and PyMOL was used to visualize the results. RESULTS: The "compound-target-disease" network included 80 active ingredients and 599 overlapping targets. Among the bioactive components, quercetin, ligustrazine, ligustilide, hydroxysafflor yellow A, and dihydrocapsaicin had high degree values, and the core targets included TP53, MYC, APP, UBC, JUN, EP300, TGFB1, UBB, SP1, MAPK1, SMAD2, CTNNB1, FOXO3, PIN1, EGR1, TCF4, FOS, SMAD3, and CREBBP. A total of 365 items were obtained from the GO functional enrichment analysis (p < 0.05), whereas the enrichment analysis of the KEGG pathway identified 30 signaling pathways (p < 0.05), which involved the TGF-ß signaling pathway, Wnt signaling pathway, TRAF6-mediated induction of NF-κB and MAPK pathway, TLR7/8 cascade, and others. The molecular docking results revealed quercetin, luteolin, and ligustilide to have good affinity with the core targets MYC and TP53. CONCLUSION: The active ingredients in BHD might act on TP53, MYC, APP, UBC, JUN, and other targets through its active components (such as quercetin, ligustrazine, ligustilide, hydroxysafflor yellow A, and dihydrocapsaicin). This action of BHD may be transmitted via the involvement of multiple signaling pathways, including the TGF-ß signaling pathway, Wnt signaling pathway, TRAF6-mediated induction of NF-κB and MAPK pathway, and TLR7/8 cascade, to treat restenosis by inhibiting the phenotype switching and proliferation of VSMC.

Organizational support and task performance: a multiple mediation model.

Objective: Organizational support has been identified as one of the causes for task performance, while previous studies have not adequately explored the underlying mechanisms. Thus, this study aims to reveal the potential mechanisms that linked organizational support to task performance. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted among the 720 participants from 12 audit firms in Beijing in December 2020. Participants completed anonymous questionnaires assessing their organizational support, task performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Data analysis was conducted with SPSS 26.0. Results: (1) Organizational support was positively associated with task performance, (2) job satisfaction and organizational commitment both mediated the relationship between organizational support and task performance respectively, and (3) the relationship between organizational support and task performance was also serially mediated by job satisfaction and then organizational commitment. Conclusion: Job satisfaction and organizational commitment played a serial multiple mediating role in the association between organizational support and task performance, which provides a potential path for improving task performance.

Green finance, technological progress, and ecological performance-evidence from 30 Provinces in China.

The interaction between green finance and other factors, such as ecological environment, has been a research hotspot nowadays. Especially, the reasonable guiding of capital into energy conservation and environmental protection industries would greatly affect those factors, so as to the relation between them. This paper aimed to analyze the relationships between green finance, technological progress, and ecological performance quantitatively. The entropy method was used to respectively construct the system of index for green finance and technological progress, and index for ecological performance was measured by the super-SBM model. The panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model was selected to empirically analyze dynamic relationships based on datasets from 30 provinces in China during 2008-2019 period. The results told that (1) from 2008 to 2019, China's overall level of green finance, technological progress and ecological performance increased to varying degrees. Spatially, the areas with high-developed green finance greatly coincided with those such as large cities or the eastern coast that had good financial development. The distribution of technological progress index were similar, except some underdeveloped areas with relatively advanced scientific research institutes. The ecological performance, however, was high in the South and low in the north. (2) In the lag for 3 years, the influence of green finance on ecological performance in different regions was all positive for that all the coefficient symbols that passed the significance test were above 0, while that on technological progress was negative first and then positive. And the effects of technological progress on ecological performance were positive in ecological regions and negative in low ecological regions (0.0893 and -0.1211 in the case of three-stage lag respectively). (3) The contribution of green finance to ecological performance was high according to the results of variance decomposition, maintained at about 30%, and that of technological progress increased year by year (from 0.000 to 0.039). Therefore, we proposed to strengthen the development of green finance in underdeveloped regions. The emphasis should be laid on the researches and applications of green technology, the formulation of financing policies in innovation compensation and the establishment of a dynamic monitoring system for the ecological environment.

Peer Phubbing and Social Networking Site Addiction: The Mediating Role of Social Anxiety and the Moderating Role of Family Financial Difficulty.

A growing body of research has pinpointed the consequences as well as mechanisms of phubbing. However, few studies have explored the relationship between peer phubbing and social networking site addiction. Based on the self-determination theory, the exclusion theory of anxiety, the social compensation model, and the reserve capacity model, the present study examined whether peer phubbing was positively related to social networking site addiction among undergraduates, whether social anxiety mediated the relationship, and whether this mediating process was moderated by family financial difficulty. Our theoretical model was tested using the data collected from 1,401 Chinese undergraduates (M age = 18.83 years, standard deviation = 0.93). The participants completed anonymous questionnaires that assessed their peer phubbing, social anxiety, social networking site addiction, and family financial difficulty. The correlation analysis indicated that peer phubbing was positively associated with social networking site addiction. The testing for moderated mediation further revealed that social anxiety partially mediated the association between peer phubbing and social networking site addiction, with family financial difficulty moderating the first stage. To be specific, the indirect association between peer phubbing and social networking site addiction via social anxiety was stronger for undergraduates in high family financial difficulty. The results from this study extend research on the potential consequences of phubbing as well as highlight the significance of uncovering the underlying mechanisms.