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This article reviews the major advances in acupuncture research in 2022, including clinical reports, basic research, and reviews. In terms of the type of literature, most of them are systematic reviews and clinical trials, while high-quality basic studies can also be found. The innovative inventions and researches in this field are of increasing quality and in a wide range of fields, acupuncture is attracting more and more attention in the international arena. In particular, some acupuncture combined sensors such as H2 -EC/SD co-therapy, precise positioning, and vivo monitoring of neurotransmitter has been used for oncological diseases and neuropathic pain. Acupuncture has been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of pain, stroke, psychiatric disorders, cancer, COVID-19 and others. Most of the studies show that acupuncture can play a positive role in various diseases and provide evidence for clinical applications and mechanism research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diabetic distal symmetric polyneuropathy (DSPN) is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus, and it has become a major public health problem worldwide because of its high and increasing prevalence, morbidity, and disability rate. The current medications for DSPN are not entirely satisfactory. Preliminary studies indicated that the Chinese herbal TangBi Formula may alleviate signs and symptoms and improve the velocity of nerve conduction in patients with DSPN. This study was designed to determine if Chinese herbal medicine used in combination with conventional treatment is more effective than conventional treatment alone.Methods/design: We are conducting a multicenter, placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial as a means of assessing the therapeutic effects of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment. A total of 188 patients will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to a treatment group (TangBi Formula plus mecobalamin) and a control group (placebo plus mecobalamin). The test period lasts 6 months, during which all of the patients will be given standard medical care as recommended by established guidelines. The primary outcome will be development of differences in changes in clinical symptoms and signs in patients and changes in Michigan Diabetic Neuropathy Score (MDNS) between the two groups before and after treatment. The secondary outcome will be changes in nerve conduction velocity and in single clinical signs and symptoms. Safety assessments and adverse events will also be evaluated.Discussion: We postulate that patients with DSPN will benefit from therapy that includes TCM. If successful, this work will provide an evidence-based complementary therapeutic approach for treatment of DSPN.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03010241 . Registered on 2 January 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural products from the genus Euphorbia show attention-attracting activities, such as anticancer activity. In this article, classical isolation and structure identification were used in a study on Caper Euphorbia Seed. Subsequently, MTT and wound healing assays, flow cytometry, western blotting, Hoechst 33258 staining and fluorescence microscopy examination were applied to investigate the anticancer activity of the obtained compounds. In a result, lathyrol-3-phenyl- acetate-5,15-diacetate (deoxy Euphorbia factor L1, DEFL1) was isolated from Caper Euphorbia Seed. Moreover, the NMR signals were totally assigned. DEFL1 showed potent inhibition against lung cancer A549 cells, with an IC50 value of 17.51 ± 0.85 μM. Furthermore, DEFL1 suppressed wound healing of A549 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Mechanically, DEFL1 induced apoptosis, with involvement of an increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS), decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), release of cytochrome c, activity raise of caspase-9 and 3. Characteristic features of apoptosis were observed by fluorescence microscopy. In summary, DEFL1 inhibited growth and induced apoptosis in lung cancer A549 cells via a mitochondrial pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating and complex disorder characterized by profound fatigue with uncertain pathologic mechanism. Neuroimage may be an important key to unveil the central nervous system (CNS) mechanism in CFS. Although most of the studies found gray matter (GM) volumes reduced in some brain regions in CFS, there are many factors that could affect GM volumes in CFS, including chronic pain, stress, psychiatric disorder, physical activity, and insomnia, which may bias the results. In this paper, through reviewing recent literatures, we discussed these interferential factors, which overlap with the symptoms of CFS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of antioxidants on the quality and genomic stability of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells were investigated with two human iPS cell lines (201B7 and 253G1). Cells used in this study were expanded from a single colony of each cell line with the addition of proprietary antioxidant supplement or homemade antioxidant cocktail in medium, and maintained in parallel for 2 months. The cells grew well in all culture conditions and kept ''stemness''. Although antioxidants modestly decreased the levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species, there were no differences in the expression of 53BP1 and pATM, two critical molecules related with DNA damage and repair, under various culture conditions. CGH analysis showed that the events of genetic aberrations were decreased only in the 253G1 iPS cells with the addition of homemade antioxidant cocktail. Long-term culture will be necessary to confirm whether low dose antioxidants improve the quality and genomic stability of iPS cells [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]