The serum lipidomics reveal the action mechanism of Danggui-Yimucao herbal pair in abortion mice.

Medical abortion is a common medical procedure that women choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, but it often brings post-abortion complications. Danggui (Angelica sinensis Radix)-Yimucao (Leonuri Herba), as a herbal pair (DY) in clinical prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine, is often used in the treatment of gynecological diseases and has the traditional functions of tonifying the blood, promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis and regulating menstruation. In this study, serum lipidomics were adopted to dissect the mechanism of DY in promoting recovery after medical abortion. A total of 152 differential metabolites were screened by lipidomics. All metabolites were imported into MetaboAnalyst for analysis, and finally key metabolic pathways such as glycerophospholipid metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism and pentose and glucuronate interconversions were enriched. Our results indicated that metabolic disorders in abortion mice were alleviated by DY through glycerophospholipid metabolism, while prostaglandin and leukotriene metabolites might be the key targets of DY to promote post-abortion recovery.

An immunogenic cell death-related classification predicts response to immunotherapy and prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Immunogenic cell death (ICD) of tumor cells is characterized by the induction of adaptive and innate immune responses, which in turn activates the immune surveillance and improves the efficacy of immunotherapy. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of ICD on the prognosis and the efficacy of immunotherapy in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). METHODS: TNBC samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas-Breast Cancer (TCGA-BRCA) dataset were divided into two subtypes (ICD-high and ICD-low) based on the ICD status by using the consensus clustering method, and their genomic landscape and immune landscape were delineated. Furthermore, we established an ICD-related prognostic model to predict the efficacy of immunotherapy and the survival of TNBC. RESULTS: Our study showed that a poor prognosis of TNBC was associated with ICD-high subtype, while a favorable outcome was associated with ICD-low subtype. The immune landscape profiling results revealed that ICD-high subtype presented an immune-hot phenotype, whereas ICD-low subtype was associated with an immune-cold phenotype. Furthermore, our prognostic model predicted that the high-risk score group had a poor overall survival (OS), which was consistent with the actual data in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset. We also used tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) to determine the predictive significance of our ICD risk signature in immunotherapy efficacy, and found that ICD high-risk group had the highest response rate to immunotherapy in the immunotherapy response group. CONCLUSION: Our results reveal a correlation between ICD status and alterations in the tumor immune microenvironment in patients with TNBC. This finding might help guide clinicians in immunotherapy application for TNBC patients.

Efficacy and Safety of Lianhua Qingwen for Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread around the world since its outbreak, and there is no ascertained effective drug up to now. Lianhua Qingwen (LHQW) has been widely used in China and overseas Chinese, which had some advantages in the treatment of COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of LHQW for COVID-19 by conducting a systematic review with meta-analysis. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was conducted in 12 electronic databases from their establishment to October 30, 2021. Note Express 3.2.0 was used for screening of trials, and the data was independently extracted in duplicate by 2 researchers. The risk of bias of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and retrospective studies were assessed by using the Cochrane collaboration tool and Newcastle Ottawa Scale, respectively, followed by data analysis using RevMan 5.3. The RCTs or retrospective studies to treat COVID-19 using LHQW were included. The intervention measures in the experimental group were LHQW alone or combined with chemical drugs (LCWC), and that in the control group were chemical drugs (CDs). Outcome measures included computed tomography (CT) recovery rate, disappearance rates of primary (fever, cough, fatigue), respiratory, gastrointestinal and other symptoms, exacerbation rate and adverse reaction. Subgroup analysis was conducted according to whether LHQW was combined with CDs and the different treatment methods in the control group. RESULTS: Nine trials with 1,152 participants with COVID-19 were included. The CT recovery rates of LHQW and LCWC were 1.36 and 1.32 times of CDs, respectively (P<0.05). Compared with CDs, LCWC remarkably increased the disappearance rates of fever, cough, fatigue, expectoration, shortness of breath, and muscle soreness (P<0.05). LHQW also obviously decreased the exacerbation rate, which was 0.45 times of CDs alone (P<0.05). There was no obvious difference between LCWC and CDs in adverse reaction (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: LHQW was more suitable for treating COVID-19 patients with obvious expectoration, shortness of breath and muscle soreness. LHQW had advantages in treating COVID-19 with no obvious exacerbation. (PROSPERO No. CRD42021235937).

miR-142-3p inhibits cancer cell proliferation by targeting CDC25C.

OBJECTIVES: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) contribute to control of cell cycle progression and are frequently deregulated in cancer. The focus of this study was to determine effects of miR-142-3p on the cell cycle progression and cancer cell proliferation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: RT-qPCR was performed to determine expression of miR-142-3p in a range of cancer cell lines and in clinical cancer specimens. To further understand its role, we restored its expression in cancer cell lines by transfection with miR-142-3p mimics or inhibitors. Effects of miR-142-3p on cell cycle progression and cell proliferation were also determined. RESULTS: miR-142-3p was down-regulated in both cancer cell lines and cancer specimens. Its overexpression suppressed proliferation, whereas its depletion promoted it. In addition, miR-142-3p lead to cell cycle arrest in G2/M. Moreover, CDC25C was identified as being a target of miR-142-3p, ectopic expression of which reversed suppression of cell proliferation. CONCLUSIONS: Our observations suggest that miR-142-3p functioned as a tumor suppressor by targeting CDC25C.

Down-regulation of miR-129-5p via the Twist1-Snail feedback loop stimulates the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and is associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer.

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a pivotal role in breast cancer progression. We found that overexpression of miR-129-5p reversed EMT, whereas depletion of miR-129-5p induced EMT in breast cancer cells. We demonstrated that Twist1 is a direct target of miR-129-5p. Both Twist1 and Snail transcriptionally suppressed miR-129-5p expression. Levels of miR-129-5p were low in breast cancer tissues. miR-129-5p down-regulation correlated with advanced clinical stage and poor prognosis in patients with breast cancer. miR-129-5p expression negatively correlated with Twist1 and Snail expression. Thus, miR-129-5p down-regulation fosters EMT in breast cancer by increasing Twist1-Snail and activating a negative feedback loop.