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Background Postoperative sore throat (POST) is one of the common mild but unpleasant postoperative complications after general anaesthesia. There is evidence that Glycyrrhiza Radix can effectively reduce the incidence of POST, but its effective fraction remains unclear. Objective To screen the effective fraction of Glycyrrhiza Radix on preventing respiratory tract injury induced by endotracheal intubation. Methods From April 2021 to July 2022, 60 SPF-grade Wistar rats were randomized into the control group, endotracheal intubation group, lidocaine group, total polysaccharides group, total saponins group, total flavonoids group based on random number table method, with 10 rats in each group. The endotracheal intubation model was prepared for all groups except the control group. Before intubation, each treatment group was sprayed with a solution consisting of 1% lidocaine, total polysaccharides, total saponins, and total flavonoids at 1 mL/100 g (by body weight) to permeate the uvula and peri-soft palate tissue of rats, respectively. The control and endotracheal intubation groups were sprayed with an equal volume of 0.9% saline. After 2 hours of mechanical ventilation, the endotracheal tube was removed, and the pharyngeal mucosa tissues and blood samples of rats were collected under deep anesthesia. Pathological changes of rat pharyngeal mucosa and the expression levels of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) were observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining (HE staining) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) ; the expression levels of inflammatory cytokines including serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) , interleukin-2 (IL-2) , interleukin-4 (IL-4) , interleukin-10 (IL-10) , oxidative stress including superoxide dismutase (SOD) , malondialdehyde (MDA) , total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) , and stress hormones including cortisol (Cor) , epinephrine (E) , and norepinephrine (NE) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) . Results HE staining showed mucosal shedding and severe damage of submucosal structure accompanied by a large number of inflammatory cells infiltrated in the endotracheal intubation group; while milder damage of mucosal structure and less inflammatory cells were significantly reduced in the total saponins group. ELISA results showed that compared with the control group, the levels of TNF-α and IL-2 in the serum of rats increased significantly, and the levels of IL-4 and IL-10 decreased significantly in the endotracheal intubation group (P

As a common neurological disease, cognitive impairment is characterized by cognitive decline, memory and attention impairment, which seriously affects the patients' quality of life. The etiology and pathogenesis of cognitive impairment are complex and diverse. Studies have shown that chronic persistent neuroinflammation plays a key role in its development. Microglia and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome are closely related to neuroinflammation and cognitive impairment. Regulation of microglia and NLRP3 inflammasome can reduce inflammatory factors, reduce amyloid β-protein(Aβ) deposition, regulate autophagy, maintain synaptic homeostasis, thus reducing neuroinflammation and further preventing and treating cognitive impairment. Therefore, exploring the mechanism of microglia and NLRP3 inflammasome as well as their interaction in cognitive impairment can provide some reference and basis for the in-depth study of the mechanism and clinical prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment, and the subsequent development of more efficient drugs.

Postoperative sore throat （POST） is a common and easily overlooked complication after endotracheal intubation under general anesthesia. It seriously affects patients satisfaction and the quality of postoperative recovery. However, the consensus on the best drugs or interventions for POST management remains controversial. This study reviews the influencing factors and progress of prevention and treatment of POST intubation under general anesthesia, in order to provide a reference for reducing the incidence of POST after endotracheal intubation under general anesthesia.