Zhaohuan Lou

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is established as a key minimally invasive, function-preserving technique for early-stage esophageal cancer, valued for its high rate of en bloc resection. This study aims to provide a comprehensive bibliometric and visual analysis of research on ESD in esophageal cancer from 2006 to 2025. A systematic literature search was performed in the Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric analysis and visualization were conducted using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the R package “bibliometrix”. A total of 512 original research articles were included in the analysis. Japan and China collectively contributed over 82% of the total output, with Japanese institutions and authors dominating in productivity and citation impact. Keyword co-occurrence analysis identified 5 thematic clusters: (1) post-ESD complication management; (2) early diagnosis and risk lesion detection; (3) survival analysis and prognostic indicators; (4) adjunctive and supportive therapies; and (5) endoscopic technique and visualization. Recent keyword bursts since 2020 highlighted emerging priorities including “risk factors”, “early esophageal cancer”, and “prevention”. This bibliometric analysis reveals a clear research trajectory in ESD for esophageal cancer, shifting from foundational technique refinement toward multimodal and personalized management strategies. These findings provide a structured reference for identifying research priorities, fostering international collaboration, and guiding future investigations in this field.

Aim: Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), a precancerous lesion of gastric cancer. Current therapies face challenges including drug resistance and incomplete efficacy. Tanshinones exhibit anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties, yet their role in CAG remains unexplored. The present study aimed to explore the therapeutic effect and underlying mechanism of tanshinones on N-methyl-N’-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG)-induced CAG in vitro. Methods: The active tanshinones were screened from CNKI, PubMed and TCMSP databases. The CAG-related targets were collected from GeneCards database. Cytoscape 3.9.0 software was used to construct a compound-target network. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using a string database. The potential mechanism was analyzed by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment. Molecular docking was completed by Autodock software. An in vitro CAG model was established using the human gastric epithelial cell line GES-1, induced by MNNG. Cell viability of GES-1 was measured by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. TUNEL assay was used to evaluate cell apoptosis and protein expression of Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) etc was determined by Western blot. Results: The compound-target network analysis found 12 active tanshinones and 42 common targets. The key targets were Cysteinyl Aspartate-specific Proteinase-3 (Caspase-3 (CASP3)), EGFR, STAT3, PTGS2, MMP2, ERBB2, and PPARG. Through enrichment analysis, 656 GO terms were enriched, whereas the top 15 pathways, including proteoglycans in cancer and apoptosis, were identified. Through molecular docking, cryptotanshinone, tanshinone IIA, dihydrotanshinone I, and tanshinone I were found to be stably bound to EGFR and STAT3. In vitro experiments indicated that tanshinones could significantly inhibit MNNG-induced GES-1 cell apoptosis, and markedly lower the protein expression of EGFR, STAT3, and Caspase-3. Conclusion: Tanshinones combination exhibited a positive effect on anti-CAG induced by MNNG in vitro, and this function is correlated with the suppression of EGFR-STAT3 signaling pathway and cell apoptosis.

Tissue identification can be instrumental in reconstructing a crime scene but remains a challenging task in forensic investigations. Conventionally, identifying the presence of certain tissue from tissue mixture by predefined cell type markers in bulk fashion is challenging due to limitations in sensitivity and accuracy. In contrast, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) is a promising technology that has the potential to enhance or even revolutionize tissue and cell type identification. In this study, we developed a high sensitive general purpose single cell annotation pipeline, scTissueID, to accurately evaluate the single cell profile quality and precisely determine the cell and tissue types based on scRNA profiles. By incorporating a crucial and unique reference cell quality differentiation phase of targeting only high confident cells as reference, scTissueID achieved better and consistent performance in determining cell and tissue types compared to 8 state-of-art single cell annotation pipelines and 6 widely adopted machine learning algorithms, as demonstrated through a large-scale and comprehensive comparison study using both forensic-relevant and Human Cell Atlas (HCA) data. We highlighted the significance of cell quality differentiation, a previously undervalued factor. Thus, this study offers a tool capable of accurately and efficiently identifying cell and tissue types, with broad applicability to forensic investigations and other biomedical research endeavors.

Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease. Jinhuahecha (JHHC)-a fermented green tea is obtained by micro-fermentation of Anji white tea (AJWT) inoculated with high-purity "E. cristatum". Purpose: This study is aimed to unravel the protective effect of JHHC to UC in mice. Methods: High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was applied to determine the effective components and their contents in JHHC and AJWT. UC mouse model was constructed by ingestion of 2.5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) aqueous solution for 9 days. Disease activity index (DAI) was evaluated with the daily weight, fecal characters, and bloody stool condition, the length of colon and the spleen coefficients in mice was measured. Hematoxylin and eosin and Alcian blue-periodic acid Schiff staining was performed to observe the histopathological changes of the colon tissue. The positive expression of MyD88 and TNF-α were observed by immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry. The possible mechanism was speculated by via transcriptomics. Results: HPLC results indicated that compared with AJWT, in JHHC, the content of gallic acid was significantly increased, the caffeine content was slightly decreased, and the polyphenolic components were notably declined. Compared to normal control group, in model control group, DAI score and spleen coefficient were elevated, the length of colon was shortened, and the colon tissue was severely damaged. In contrast to model control group, the above indexes were improved in treatment group, especially in JHHC group, which was possibly associated with regulation of inflammatory response. Conclusions: JHHC, as a natural plant product, has anti-inflammatory effects that can alleviate UC in mice.