Acupuncture for Lateral Epicondylitis: A Systematic Review

Objective. This systematic review aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for lateral epicondylitis (LE). Methods. Seven databases and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform Search Portal were searched to identify relevant studies. The data were extracted and assessed by two independent authors, and Review Manager Software (V.5.3) was used for data synthesis with effect estimate presented as standard mean difference (SMD) and mean difference (MD) with a 95% confidence interval. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to assess the level of evidence. Results. Four RCTs with 309 participants were included with poor methodological quality. Participants who received acupuncture and acupuncture plus moxibustion with material insulation were likely to have an improvement in elbow functional status and/or myodynamia. The overall quality rated by GRADE was from very low to low. Two studies reported that the needle pain would be the main reason for the dropout. Conclusion. For the small number of included studies with poor methodological quality, no firm conclusion can be drawn regarding the effect of acupuncture of elbow functional status and myodynamia for LE. This trial is registered with CRD42015016199

Advances in gut microbiome in metabonomics perspective: based on bibliometrics methods and visualization analysis

Background and aimsGastrointestinal microbial metabolomics is closely related to the state of the organism and has significant interaction with the pathogenesis of many diseases. Based on the publications in Web of Science Core Collection(WoSCC) from 2004 to 2022, this study conducted a bibliometric analysis of this field, aiming to understand its development trend and frontier, and provide basic information and potential points for in-depth exploration of this field.MethodsAll articles on gastrointestinal flora and metabolism published from 2004 to 2022 were collected and identified in WoCSS. CiteSpace v.6.1 and VOSviewer v.1.6.15.0 were used to calculate bibliometric indicators, including number of publications and citations, study categories, countries/institutions, authors/co-cited authors, journals/co-cited journals, co-cited references, and keywords. A map was drawn to visualize the data based on the analysis results for a more intuitive view.ResultsThere were 3811 articles in WoSCC that met our criteria. Analysis results show that the number of publications and citations in this field are increasing year by year. China is the country with the highest number of publications and USA owns the highest total link strength and citations. Chinese Acad Sci rank first for the number of institutional publications and total link strength. Journal of Proteome Research has the most publications. Nicholson, Jeremy K. is one of the most important scholars in this field. The most cited reference is “Gut flora metabolism of phosphatidylcholine promotes cardiovascular disease”. Burst detection indicates that Urine, spectroscopy, metabonomic and gut microflora are long-standing hot topics in this field, while autism spectrum disorder and omics are likely to be at the forefront of research. The study of related metabolic small molecules and the application of gastrointestinal microbiome metabolomics in various diseases are currently emerging research directions and frontier in this field.ConclusionThis study is the first to make a bibliometric analysis of the studies related to gastrointestinal microbial metabolomics and reveal the development trends and current research hotspots in this field. This can contribute to the development of the field by providing relevant scholars with valuable and effective information about the current state of the field

Acupuncture for Lateral Epicondylitis: A Systematic Review

Objective. This systematic review aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for lateral epicondylitis (LE). Methods. Seven databases and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform Search Portal were searched to identify relevant studies. The data were extracted and assessed by two independent authors, and Review Manager Software (V.5.3) was used for data synthesis with effect estimate presented as standard mean difference (SMD) and mean difference (MD) with a 95% confidence interval. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to assess the level of evidence. Results. Four RCTs with 309 participants were included with poor methodological quality. Participants who received acupuncture and acupuncture plus moxibustion with material insulation were likely to have an improvement in elbow functional status and/or myodynamia. The overall quality rated by GRADE was from very low to low. Two studies reported that the needle pain would be the main reason for the dropout. Conclusion. For the small number of included studies with poor methodological quality, no firm conclusion can be drawn regarding the effect of acupuncture of elbow functional status and myodynamia for LE. This trial is registered with CRD42015016199

Phytochemical composition of Tibetan tea fermented by Eurotium cristatum and its effects on type 1 diabetes mice and gut microbiota

“Golden-flower” Tibetan tea (GTT) is an innovative dark tea fermented via fungus Eurotium cristatum. To study GTT effects on alleviating the symptoms of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), GTT's extract (GTTE) was prepared. GTTE chemical compositions were analyzed via HPLC, pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass (Py-GC-MS) spectrometry analysis, and chemistry analyses. GTTE effects on T1DM were explored on T1DM mice model induced by streptozotocin (STZ). GTTE was composed mainly of tea pigment theabrownin (TB) (49.18%), with high percentages of polysaccharide (16.93%), protein (10.15%), polyphenols (13.90%), amino acids (5.89%), caffeine (1.83%), and flavonoids (0.67%). Py-GC-MS results exhibited that GTTE constituted of phenols, lipids, sugars, and proteins. GTTE attenuated T1DM conditions of mice, relieved their liver and pancreatic injury, restored damaged islet cells, decreased oxidative stress by increasing superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) levels, modulated cytokine expression leading to the decreasing pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6, increased anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 to improve inflammatory responses, and optimized gut microbiota composition and structure based on high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing, suggesting multi-channel anti-diabetes mechanisms

From rational design of a new bimetallic MOF family with tunable linkers to OER catalysts

© 2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Innovative bimetallic MOFs offer more possibilities to further tailor the properties of MOFs, which have attracted great attention for wide applications. However, it is still a great challenge to rationally design bimetallic MOFs due to the lack of a tunable and reasonable hybrid structure architecture. Herein, a new series of bimetallic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with tunable pillar linkers were prepared by a one-step synthesis method. These bimetallic MOFs retain the same crystal structure when the mole fraction (based on metal) of the two metals changes from 0 to 1 and both metal ions occupy random nodal positions. The incorporation of a second metal cation has a large influence on the intrinsic properties (e.g. thermal stabilities and band gaps) of the MOFs. Furthermore, these bimetallic MOFs were used as self-sacrificial templates to prepare bimetal oxide catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). After pyrolysis, a porous and hierarchical honeycomb-like structure with carbon network covered (bi)metal oxides is formed. Among all the bimetallic MOF-derived catalysts, CoNi1@C showed the best performance for the OER with the lowest Tafel slopes (55.6 mV dec -1 ) and overpotentials (335 mV on a glassy carbon electrode and 276 mV on Ni foam) at a current density of 10 mA cm -2 , which is higher than those of state-of-the-art Co-Ni mixed oxide catalysts derived from MOFs for the OER. Our results indicate that the incorporation of a second metal ion is a promising strategy to tailor the properties of MOFs. More importantly, this new bimetallic MOF family with tunable linkers is expected to serve as a flexible assembly platform to offer broad possibilities for practical applications of MOFs.status: publishe

From rational design of a new bimetallic MOF family with tunable linkers to OER catalysts

Innovative bimetallic MOFs offer more possibilities to further tailor the properties of MOFs, which have attracted great attention for wide applications. However, it is still a great challenge to rationally design bimetallic MOFs due to the lack of a tunable and reasonable hybrid structure architecture. Herein, a new series of bimetallic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with tunable pillar linkers were prepared by a one-step synthesis method. These bimetallic MOFs retain the same crystal structure when the mole fraction (based on metal) of the two metals changes from 0 to 1 and both metal ions occupy random nodal positions. The incorporation of a second metal cation has a large influence on the intrinsic properties (e.g. thermal stabilities and band gaps) of the MOFs. Furthermore, these bimetallic MOFs were used as self-sacrificial templates to prepare bimetal oxide catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). After pyrolysis, a porous and hierarchical honeycomb-like structure with carbon network covered (bi)metal oxides is formed. Among all the bimetallic MOF-derived catalysts, CoNi1@C showed the best performance for the OER with the lowest Tafel slopes (55.6 mV dec ) and overpotentials (335 mV on a glassy carbon electrode and 276 mV on Ni foam) at a current density of 10 mA cm , which is higher than those of state-of-the-art Co-Ni mixed oxide catalysts derived from MOFs for the OER. Our results indicate that the incorporation of a second metal ion is a promising strategy to tailor the properties of MOFs. More importantly, this new bimetallic MOF family with tunable linkers is expected to serve as a flexible assembly platform to offer broad possibilities for practical applications of MOFs