Anxiety, depression, psychological stress and coping style in medical postgraduates in southeastern China when restricted to commuting between the campus and hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundAs the COVID-19 epidemic was gradually brought under control, a new autumn semester began in 2020. How was the mental health of postgraduates as they experienced quarantine at home, only commuting between the school and hospital?MethodsThe research was conducted in a cross-sectional online survey in October 2020. The data were collected from 1,645 medical postgraduates (master’s and doctoral students) by using the demographic information questionnaire, the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Questionnaire on Psychological Stressors of Postgraduates (QPSP), the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) and the Social Support Rate Scale (SSRS). One-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to explore the relationships among anxiety, depression, psychological stressors, social support and coping style. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to assess the mediation model.ResultsAmong the total of 1,645 medical postgraduates, 21.6% (n = 356) had self-rated depression symptoms, and 9.4% (n = 155) had self-rated anxiety symptoms. The main disturbances they experienced were employment, academic and interpersonal pressure. The master of third grade students had the highest employment pressure, and the master of second grade students had the highest academic and interpersonal pressure. Negative coping played a negative mediating role and social support played a positive mediating role in the relationships between perceived stress and anxiety (β = 0.027, P < 0.01; β = 0.124, P < 0.01) and depression (β = 0.016, P < 0.01; β = 0.193, P < 0.01).ConclusionMedical postgraduates in China restricted to studies on campus and in the hospital experienced psychological distress. Our results suggest that providing employment and learning guidance, while strengthening social support and guiding positive coping may be effective at improving the mental health of the medical graduate students, mediating their perceived stress and negative emotions

Antiproliferative and Proapoptotic Effects of a Protein Component Purified from Aspongopus chinensis Dallas on Cancer Cells In Vitro and In Vivo

Aspongopus chinensis Dallas is used as a traditional Chinese medicine. In China, clinical evidence suggests that it has anticancer activity. However, the anticancer active components are not fully elucidated. In the present study, we purified an anticancer active component (named CHP) from A. chinensis. To gain a comprehensive insight into the protein components, shotgun proteomic analysis was conducted. The anticancer active protein band was cut from the sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gel and digested with trypsin to generate peptide mixture. The peptide fragments were then analysed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry; 18 proteins were identified. In addition, we evaluated the effects of CHP on the proliferation and apoptosis of two human gastric cancer cell lines (SGC-7901 and BGC-823). The cultured cells were treated with CHP at concentrations of 20, 30, and 40 μg/mL. Inhibition of cell growth was determined by the MTT assay. Hoechst 33258 staining was adopted to detect apoptosis morphologically. Apoptotic cells were quantified by Annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide staining and flow cytometry. Tumour growth was assessed by subcutaneous inoculation of 4T1 cells into BALB/c mice. There was a concentration- and time-dependent decrease in the proliferation of both cell lines at CHP concentrations of 20–40 μg/mL. Apoptotic characteristics, such as karyopyknotic pyknic hyperfluorescence bolus and nuclear fragmentation, were observed in both the cell lines by Hoechst 33258 staining. Flow cytometry showed that CHP induced significant (P < 0.01) concentration-dependent apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells. In vivo assay showed that CHP can partially inhibit tumour growth derived from 4T1 cells in vivo. The present study is the first to report that CHP in A. chinensis inhibits the proliferation of cancer cell lines via the suppression of cancer cell proliferation and acceleration of apoptosis