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Obesity, a growing health problem in the world, is related to a series of mental disorders, including anxiety and depression. XiaoYao San (XYS), a prescription of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been widely used in the clinical treatment of anxiety and depression in China. However, the efficacy of XYS on obesity-related neuropsychiatric dysfunction and the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, using a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese model, we found that XYS treatment significantly improves obesity-related anxiety- and depression-like behaviors and alters the gut microbiome, particularly by increasing the relative abundance of Faecalibaculum rodentium (F. rodentium), in mice. Interestingly, selective supplementation with F. rodentium or its metabolic products, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), is sufficient to rescue anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in HFD-fed mice. Next, we determined that the transcriptional level of dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2), which activation usually inhibits inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS), is significantly increased in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of XYS-treated mice when compared with that of vehicle-treated controls. Moreover, enriched pathways analysis with the differential expression genes (DEGs) showed that some of these DEGs are enriched in neuroinflammatory pathways. We further noticed that treatment with XYS contributes to controlling microglial activation and proinflammatory responses in the mPFC and hippocampus of HFD-fed mice. Overall, this study reveals that XYS rescues HFD-induced anxiety and depression via modulating gut microbiota-derived metabolites and that XYS is a potential therapeutic strategy for treating obesity-associated mental disorders. [Display omitted] • HFD-fed mice exhibit increased anxiety- and depression-like behaviors. • XYS treatment reverses anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in HFD-fed mice. • XYS alleviates obesity-related behavioral changes by increasing fecal SCFAs levels. • XYS treatment reduced microgliosis and neuroinflammation in HFD-fed mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic hepatitis B is often complicated with different degrees of hepatic fibrosis, which affects the quality of life. Nucleoside analogs are recommended by almost all guidelines in the world for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. At present, there is no specific and effective chemical and biological agents for hepatic fibrosis. In China, Chinese compound prescription combined with nucleoside analogs have been used to treat hepatic fibrosis of chronic hepatitis B patients in more and more cases, and good results have been achieved. Several Chinese compound prescriptions that have been made into proprietary Chinese medicine for the convenience of use. This article aims to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of Chinese medicine compounds assisting nucleoside analogs in the treatment of hepatic fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B patients., Method: The following databases will be searched from their inception to September 2019: PubMed, EMBASE, EBSCOhost, The Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biomedical literature Database (CBM), VIP Database, Wanfang Database. Languages are limited to Chinese and English. The study includes randomized controlled trials using Chinese compound prescription combined with entecavir and Chinese compound prescription combined with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate to treat hepatic fibrosis of chronic hepatitis B patients. The primary outcomes including effective rate and biochemical parameters (levels of hyaluronic acid, laminin, pre-type-III collagen and type IV collagen will be tested. Additional outcomes include liver function indexes (levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin) and levels of hepatitis B virus DNA. Stata14.0 software will be used for meta-analysis., Result: The efficacy and safety of Chinese compound prescriptions assisting nucleoside analogs for hepatic fibrosis of chronic hepatitis B patients will be assessed from the effective rate, biochemical parameters, liver function indexes, and levels of hepatitis B virus DNA., Conclusion: The conclusion of this study will be used to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Chinese compound prescriptions assisting nucleoside analogs in the treatment of hepatic fibrosis of chronic hepatitis B patients, as well as the adjuvant effectiveness of Chinese compound prescriptions in combined therapy., Prospero Registration Number: CRD42020156859.

Shandong Province is an area of China with a high incidence of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS); however, the general epidemic trend of HFRS in Shandong remains unclear. Therefore, we established a mathematical model to predict the incidence trend of HFRS and used Joinpoint regression analysis, a generalised additive model (GAM), and other methods to evaluate the data. Incidence data from the first half of 2018 were included in a range predicted by a modified sum autoregressive integrated moving average-support vector machine (ARIMA-SVM) combination model. The highest incidence of HFRS occurred in October and November, and the annual mortality rate decreased by 7.3% (p < 0.05) from 2004 to 2017. In cold months, the incidence of HFRS increased by 4%, -1%, and 0.8% for every unit increase in temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall, respectively; in warm months, this incidence changed by 2%, -3%, and 0% respectively. Overall, HFRS incidence and mortality in Shandong showed a downward trend over the past 10 years. In both cold and warm months, the effects of temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall on HFRS incidence varied. A modified ARIMA-SVM combination model could effectively predict the occurrence of HFRS.