Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common chronic respiratory disease that greatly threatens human health. Studies have found that compared with the healthy population, the mucosal barrier function and immune homeostasis in COPD patients are impaired due to significantly changed composition and structure of both lung and gut microbiota, which further aggravate the disease progression. Taking measures to actively improve the microbial balance in lung and gut microbiota is very important for the prevention and delaying of the development of COPD. However, the summary and understanding of the role of lung and gut microbiota and their cross-talk mechanism in COPD still have much room for development. We reviewed the latest developments in the composition characteristics of lung and gut microbiota and the possible cross-talk mechanism between them in healthy people and COPD patients, as well as the prevention and treatment of COPD based on lung and gut microbiota and their cross-talk, providing new ideas for pathogenesis exploration, early diagnosis, prevention and treatment of COPD.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep-disordered breathing in pregnant population, which is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes, and may have long-term health consequences on both mothers and children. Currently, the vast majority of pregnant women are underdiagnosed due to the difficulties in extensively performing polysomnography, a gold standard in OSA diagnosis. So it is essential to seek other screening strategies and tools to accurately identify pregnant women with high risk of OSA to improve their perinatal outcomes. We reviewed the prevalence of OSA in pregnancy, screening status, screening timing, target population and recent advances in screening tools, to providing a theoretical basis for implementing the screening in this group.
As an important part of the internal environment of human, intestinal flora participates in and regulates the immune inflammatory response and metabolic process of the body. It is closely related to the occurrence and development of hypertension, and has become the focus of research on hypertension. The thesis summarizes the relationship between intestinal flora and hypertension, then clarifies their effects and possible mechanisms on hypertension in terms of inflammation and immune response, brain-intestine-bone marrow axis and metabolites, focusing on the new auxiliary antihypertensive pathways that dietary intervention affects intestinal flora to improve blood pressure from salt, probiotics and polyphenols. It is hoped that more in-depth research will come out on improving hypertension through dietary intervention and Chinese herbal medicine prevention and treatment with intestinal flora as the target.
The "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Optimizing the Fertility Policy to Promote the Long-term Balanced Development of the Population" issued in June 2021made a major decision to implement the three-child policy, and the number of pregnant women will increase significantly. As one of the common complications during pregnancy, gestational diabetes seriously affects the health of pregnant women and fetuses. Continuous blood glucose monitoring has been called "the road map for effective self-management" and is critical in the management of blood glucose in people with gestational diabetes. This article reviews the development of continuous blood glucose monitoring and its application and impact in patients with gestational diabetes, in order to promote the clinical application of continuous blood glucose monitoring, encourage patients with gestational diabetes to participate in diabetes response and improve accurate blood glucose management.
Advances in Mechanism of Coexistence and Pharmaceutical Treatment of Chronic Heart Failure and Depression
The coprevalence of chronic heart failure (CHF) and depression is 10%-79%, the pathogenesis of these two diseases is related to the activation of immune inflammatory system, insulin resistance and intestinal flora imbalance, and relevant regulation is bidirectional and complex. There is a lack of efficient drugs for both CHF and depression recommended by available diagnosis and treatment guidelines and present clinical practice. But it has recently been reported that some drugs (sacubitril/valsartan, new antidepressants, shensongyangxin and qiliqiangxin capsules, regulators of the intestinal flora) may be partially effective for CHF with depression.We reviewed the mechanism of coexistence and pharmaceutical treatment of CHF and depression, providing new ideas and evidence for clinical diagnosis and treatment of CHF and depression.
Latest Research Development in Histone Acetylation in the Pathogenesis of Asthma
Asthma is primarily marked by airway hyperresponsiveness, inflammation, and remodeling. Histone acetylation is one of the most common epigenetic modifications that regulates histone acetyltransferase and histone deacetylase, and imbalanced regulation may lead to pathological changes. We reviewed the advances in histone acetylation in the pathogenesis of asthma in recent five years, revealing the direction of systematic and in-depth research, in order to provide evidence for clinical treatment.
Molecular Mechanism of Oxidative Stress Mediated Androgen Receptor Signal Reactivation in Prostatic Cancer Progression
After androgen-deprivation therapy, a large amount of reactive oxygen species are produced in patients with advanced prostate cancer (PCa) to aggravate oxidative stress. This article explains the different molecular mechanisms by which oxidative stress regulates the androgenreceptor and its signaling pathways, such as oxidative stress mediated transcription factors induce AR expression, leading to increased local androgen levels in tumors; increased AR sensitivity leads to decreased level of testosterone and induce the bypass via AR activation, in order to explore the molecular mechanism of PCa evolution to castration-resistant prostate cancer, providing new ideas for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer.
Developments in the Role of Iron Imbalance in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease
Iron load is closely associated with the initiation and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) . Although age-dependent deposition of β-amyloid (A β) in senile plaques (SPs) , and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) formed by accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau proteins are two major pathological features of AD, there are still many different views on the inducing factors of SPs and NFTs. We reviewed the new developments in the relationship between imbalance of brain iron homeostasis and the pathogenesis of AD, with a summary presented as follows: (1) Age-related iron deposits in different brain regions may damage normal cognitive function and behavior. (2) Iron imbalance and oxidative stress may together or independently promote Aβ overproduction by activating β- or γ-secretases and inhibiting α-secretase, and also cause tau hyperphosphorylation by activating protein kinases, such as glycogen synthase kinase-3β, cyclin-dependent protein kinase-5, and inhibiting protein phosphatase 2A. Iron imbalance-induced changes will in turn aggravate brain iron deposition and distribution. The vicious circle between iron imbalance and Aβ/tau anomalies may eventually lead to AD. (3) Iron overload may also directly or indirectly injure organelles, causing endoplasmic reticulum stress, mitochondrial and autophagy dysfunction, and damaging synaptic function via inducing or aggravating the aggregation or accumulation of A βand tau. At the same time, hydroxyl radicals produced via the Fenton reaction associated with abnormal iron metabolism, may trigger oxidative stress, destroy the structure and function of cell lipids, protein and DNA, eventually leading to cell death. (4) Given the limitations and side effects of long-term application of traditional iron chelators, alpha-lipoic acid and lactoferrin as self-synthesized naturally small molecules, are expected to be applied to clinical practice, for they have shown very intriguing biological activities in blocking Aβ-aggregation, tau hyperphosphorylation and neuronal damage. We believe that iron-targeted therapies are a promising direction for the treatment of AD.
Latest Research on the Neuroprotective Mechanism of Short-chain Fatty Acids in Stroke and Its Relation with Post-stroke Cognitive Impairment
Post-stroke cognitive impairment is one of the common complications of stroke, seriously affecting patients' ability to perform activities of daily living. Recent studies about microbiota-gut-brain axis have found that gut microbiota and their metabolites play an important role in the development of neurological diseases. Short-chain fatty acids, the main metabolites of gut microbiota, are key transmitters of gut-brain communication, which have a neuroprotective effect in stroke, yet the mechanism of action is not fully clear. This paper presents a review of the neuroprotective mechanism of short-chain fatty acids in stroke, and its relation with post-stroke cognitive impairment, providing evidence for studying the pathogenesis and treatment of stroke.
