Publications by authors named "Shu-Ning Sun"
Background: Myocardial fibrosis is a pivotal pathological mechanism underlying heart failure (HF) following myocardial infarction (MI). Natural herbal compounds exhibit great potential for anti-fibrotic applications, thereby warranting further in-depth investigation and development.
Objective: To find the critical gene characteristic of the early myocardial fibrosis following MI and identify the specifically targeted natural herbal compounds.
Epigenetic clocks as mediators of health behaviors and mortality in middle-aged and older adults.
J Nutr Health Aging
July 2025
Background: The impact of healthy lifestyles on epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) and mortality in middle-aged/ senior populations remains unclear. This study investigates associations between lifestyle factors, EAA biomarkers, and mortality risk.
Method: The 2532 adults of 50 years or older that registered in NHANES between 1999-2002.
Genetic predisposition has been increasingly reported in patients with high myopia. A previous study reported that a deleterious mutation in cathepsin H (CTSH) gene causes high myopia. However, the phenotypic and mechanistic characteristics of Ctsh-deficient mice remain unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While there are numerous benefits to tea consumption, its long-term impact on patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) remains unclear.
Method: Our analysis included 17,575 individuals with CKD from an initial 45,019 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (1999-2018). Individuals with extreme dietary habits, pregnancy, or non-CKD conditions were excluded.
Background: Intrinsic capacity (IC), as a comprehensive measure of an individual's functional ability, has gained prominence in the framework for healthy aging introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO). As internet usage continues to integrate into daily life, it is imperative to scrutinize the association between internet use and IC to effectively promote healthy aging among the middle-aged and older population.
Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether daily internet use in middle-aged and older adults delays or accelerates the decline in IC.
Article Synopsis
- This study investigates how intrinsic capacity (IC), which reflects mental and physical health, relates to sleep patterns in older adults in China.
- Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), researchers analyzed sleep duration and its effects on IC over four years.
- Results showed that both too much and too little sleep negatively affect IC, while moderate naps can help preserve it, with the best outcomes when nap time is about one-seventh of total sleep time.
Objective: We aimed to assess the secular trends in cardiovascular health (CVH) among U.S. adults with different glycemic statuses based on the Life's Essential 8 (LE8).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCharacterization of acute-on-chronic liver diseases: A multicenter prospective cohort study.
World J Hepatol
May 2024
Article Synopsis
- Acute-on-chronic liver disease (AoCLD) is a major cause of hospitalization in hepatology, prompting a study to better understand its characteristics for diagnosis and prognosis.
- A total of 3,375 patients were analyzed, highlighting that liver cirrhosis acute decompensation (LC-AD) is the most common type, with hepatitis B virus (HBV) being the leading cause of chronic liver disease.
- The study revealed high mortality rates associated with AoCLD subtypes, emphasizing that bacterial infections are significant precipitating factors and that timely medical intervention is crucial for improving patient outcomes.
Fluorescent proteins (FPs) have been widely used to investigate cellular and molecular interactions and trace biological events in many applications. Some of the FPs have been demonstrated to cause undesirable cellular damage by light-induced ROS production in vivo or in vitro. However, it remains unknown if one of the most popular FPs, tdTomato, has similar effects in neuronal cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRhodopsin-mediated autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (RHO-adRP) causes progressive vision loss and is potentially incurable, accounting for 25% of adRP cases. Studies on RHO-adRP mechanism were at large based on the biochemical and cellular properties, especially class-3. Nonetheless, the absence of an appropriate model for class-3 RHO-adRP has impeded comprehensive exploration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Heart failure (HF) is a complicated ongoing condition that involves issues with heart structure and function, with debates on how endothelial cells turn into myofibroblasts during cardiac fibrosis.
- Researchers used single-cell RNA sequencing to discover a subset of endothelial cells with a temporary fibrotic-like profile (EndoFP) following a pressure overload, which has significant implications for heart tissue remodeling.
- The study highlights that EndoFP influences cardiac dysfunction through mechanisms involving osteopontin and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 5, suggesting potential therapeutic avenues for preventing early heart failure.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to explore how Dietary Inflammation Index (DII) relates to overall and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in older adults in the U.S.
- Following a median follow-up of 6.7 years, they found that higher DII scores were linked to increased risks of all-cause and CVD deaths among older adults.
- The results showed statistically significant relationships, indicating that older adults with poorer diet-related inflammation have higher mortality rates.
Article Synopsis
- This study analyzed NHANES data from 1999-2018, focusing on the effects of carbohydrate sources on mortality in 11,302 chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients.
- It found that CKD patients who relied more on carbohydrates from whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, while minimizing intake from fruit juice or sauces, had lower mortality rates.
- The research suggests that replacing fats with these healthier carbohydrate sources can significantly reduce all-cause mortality, possibly due to their higher fiber content.
Background: While it is known that klotho has negative regulatory effects in a variety of diseases such as metabolic disorders and kidney disease, the specific role of klotho in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its effect on mortality are unclear. This study investigated the association between serum klotho levels and mortality in patients with RA.
Methods: This study included 841 adults with RA from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2007 to 2016 to extract the concentrations of serum klotho.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the relationship between dietary total antioxidant capacity (DTAC) and mortality risk in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, focusing on two cohorts analyzed from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
- Results indicated that higher dietary antioxidant intake is associated with lower all-cause mortality in early-stage CKD (stages 1-2), but no such benefits were found for patients in more advanced stages (3-5).
- The findings suggest that moderate antioxidant intake may be beneficial for early-stage CKD patients, but more research is needed to determine its long-term effects on those with severe CKD.
Article Synopsis
- Muscle wasting linked to chronic kidney disease (CKD) and dialysis can lead to increased health risks, but the role of ferroptosis (a type of cell death) in this process is still being researched as a potential treatment target.
- The study involved analyzing the skeletal muscle of mice with CKD to check for signs of ferroptosis and to screen traditional Chinese herbs for their ability to prevent muscle wasting and ferroptosis.
- Results showed that a compound called Lobetyolin (LBT) significantly reduced muscle injury by inhibiting ferroptosis in both mice and lab cells, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic agent against muscle wasting related to CKD.
Article Synopsis
- Acacetin, a compound found in traditional Chinese medicine, shows significant biological activity, but its potential effects are not fully explored due to limitations in conventional drug discovery methods, which focus primarily on chemical structure.
- This study aims to develop a more suitable prediction method for traditional medicine using graph representation learning and transcriptome data, specifically to predict the properties of acacetin.
- The results show that the predictions align well with existing research, and experimental verification confirmed acacetin's effectiveness in improving insulin resistance, indicating the predictive method's reliability.
Article Synopsis
- Cardiovascular diseases are highly prevalent in advanced chronic kidney disease patients, often leading to cardiac dysfunction due to issues like hypertrophy and fibrosis, highlighting the need for new therapies aimed at preserving heart function.
- The study aimed to identify potential treatments for cardiorenal syndrome type 4 (CRS) through a combination of molecular phenotyping and various experimentation methods, including gene expression analysis and different staining techniques.
- The findings revealed that Lobetyolin (LBT) improved cardiac dysfunction in animal models and that its mechanism involves the suppression of Osteopontin (OPN) through JNK signaling, indicating a potential therapeutic pathway for CRS.
Article Synopsis
- Cardiorenal syndrome type 4 (CRS type 4) poses significant health risks globally, and Zhen-Wu decoction has been traditionally used in East Asia for treating related cardiovascular and kidney diseases, though its mechanisms are not well-studied.
- This study aimed to explore how Zhen-Wu decoction can affect uremic cardiomyopathy, providing insights for potential clinical treatments for CRS type 4.
- Results showed that Zhen-Wu decoction improved heart function in mice and suggested that the Nrf2 signaling pathway is crucial for its protective effects against oxidative stress and inflammation in kidney-related conditions.
Aging is one of the most prominent risk factors for heart failure. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) accumulate in aged tissue and have been confirmed to be associated with various aging-related diseases. However, the role of MDSCs in the aging heart remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The goal of our study was to investigate the heterogeneity of cardiac macrophages (CMφs) in mice with transverse aortic constriction (TAC) via single-cell sequencing and identify a subset of macrophages associated with heart injury.
Methods And Results: We selected all CMφs from CD45+ cells using single-cell mRNA sequencing data. Through dimension reduction, clustering, and enrichment analyses, CD72hi CMφs were identified as a subset of pro-inflammatory macrophages.
Prevalence and Clinical Significance of Portal Vein Thrombosis in Patients With Cirrhosis and Acute Decompensation.
Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol
October 2020
Article Synopsis
- Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is a serious issue in cirrhosis patients and is more common in those experiencing acute decompensation (AD), with a prevalence of 9.36% compared to 5.24% in those without AD.
- Recent PVT was found in 63.37% of patients with cirrhosis and AD, and these patients also had higher rates of variceal bleeding and elevated D-dimer levels.
- Despite the higher incidence of bleeding and complications, the one-year mortality rate was similar between patients with and without PVT, highlighting the need for preventive measures and regular screenings in vulnerable cirrhosis patients.
In this study, we screened potential natural compounds for the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI) and explored the underlying mechanisms. We built three machine learning models to screen the potential compounds. qPCR, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence analyses were applied to analyze the pharmacological effects of the compounds on macrophages/monocytes in vivo and in vitro.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe examined the precise association between IL-10 levels and cardiovascular disease (CVD) prognosis and explored the pleiotropic role of IL-10 in different cardiac pathologies. We performed a meta-analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies investigating IL-10 levels. Meta-regression analyses were used to determine the cause of the discrepancies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To systematically review the effectiveness and safety of heat-sensitive moxibustion (HSM) therapy in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH).
Methods: Papers of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) concerning the effectiveness and safety of HSM therapy for LDH published in both Chinese and English before November 17, 2015 were collected from PubMed, EMBase, Cochrane library, CNKI, CBM, WanFang Data and VIP databases according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and by using key words of "thermal moxibustion" "heat-sensitive acupoint" "lumbar intervertebral disc herniation (LIDH)" "lumbar disc herniation (LDH)" and "lumbago backache", followed by screening, data extracting and methodological quality assessing. Then, the Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.