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Abstract Sepsis-induced acute lung injury (SALI) poses a significant threat with high incidence and mortality rates. Ginsenoside Rg1 (GRg1), derived from Ginseng in traditional Chinese medicine, has been found to reduce inflammation and protect lung epithelial cells against tissue damage. However, the specific roles and mechanisms by which GRg1 mitigates SALI have yet to be fully elucidated. In this context, we employed a relevant SALI mouse model, alongside network pharmacology, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulation to pinpoint GRg1's action targets, complemented by in vitro assays to explore the underlying mechanisms. Our research shows that GRg1 alleviates CLP-induced SALI, decreasing lung tissue damage and levels of serum proinflammatory factor IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β, also enhancing the survival rate of CLP mice. A total of 116 common targets between GRg1 and ALI, with specific core targets including AKT1, VEGFA, SRC, IGF1, ESR1, STAT3, and ALB. Further in vitro experiments assessed GRg1's intervention effects on MLE-12 cells exposed to LPS, with qRT-PCR analysis and molecular dynamics simulations confirming AKT1 as the key target with the favorable binding activity for GRg1. Western blot results indicated that GRg1 increased the Bcl-2/Bax protein expression ratio to reduce apoptosis and decreased the high expression of cleaved caspase-3 in LPS-induced MLE-12 cells. More results showed significant increases in the phosphorylation of PI3K and AKT1. Flow cytometric analysis using PI and Annexin-V assays further verified that GRg1 decreased the apoptosis rate in LPS-stimulated MLE-12 cells (from 14.85 to 6.54%, p

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most common psychiatric sequelae among novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of PTSD symptoms, PTSD-related factors, and its relationship with quality of life at long-term follow-up in hospitalized COVID-19 survivors.Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken to evaluate the health consequences of hospitalized COVID-19 survivors. All participants were interviewed face-to-face through a series of questionnaires: a researcher-developed symptom questionnaire, the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist–Civilian Version, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item, and the 36-item Short Form.Results: A total of 574 participants were enrolled with an average age of 57 years. The median follow-up time post-discharge was 193.9 days (SD = 15.32). Among the participants, 77.9% of survivors presented with at least one symptom, where fatigue or muscle weakness (47.9%) was reported the most frequently, followed by chest distress (29.4%) and sleep difficulty (29.4%). The prevalence of PTSD was 11.15% [95% confidence interval (CI): 8.56, 13.73] with a cut-off score of 44. Factors such as respiratory symptoms [odds ratio (OR): 3.53; 95% CI: 1.68–7.42], anxiety (OR: 14.64; 95% CI: 7.09–30.21), and sleep difficulty (OR: 2.17; 95% CI: 1.14–4.16) were positively related to PTSD. Those COVID-19 survivors with potential PTSD had significantly lower quality of life than those without (P < 0.05).Conclusion: Our study illustrated that a significant number of COVID-19 survivors were suffering from physical or mental distress to varying degrees at 6 months post-discharge. People with PTSD were more likely to experience persistent respiratory symptoms and sleep difficulty, as well as anxiety and a decreased quality of life. Such survivors require greater attention to their mental health, particularly the PTSD symptoms at the early phase, which may play an important role in the recovery of both the physical and psychological health of COVID-19 survivors.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine in treating sepsis patients with bloodstream infection., Methods: A 6-year retrospective study was carried out at a university hospital in China. Adult sepsis patients with bloodstream infection were included. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality after admission. Propensity score method was used to adjust for possible confounding. 28-day mortality was estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and compared using the log-rank test. Cox regression analysis was carried out to identify factors impacting in-hospital mortality outcomes., Results: Following the application of the propensity score method, a total of 176 patients were included. The all-cause 28-day mortality in the control group and Chinese herbal medicine group was 21.6% and 14.8%, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that Chinese herbal medicine was associated with a lower hazard ratio ( HR ) in all-cause 28-day death compared with the control group [ HR = 0.44, 95% CI (0.22, 0.90), P < 0.05]. The complications were similar between the two groups ( P > 0.05). Blood-activating and stasis-eliminating herb administration was associated with reduced in-hospital mortality among sepsis patients with bloodstream infection [ HR = 0.54, 95% CI (0.34, 0.94), P < 0.05]., Conclusions: Chinese herbal medicine, especially the blood-activating and stasis-eliminating herb, might have certain efficacy and safety in treating sepsis patients with bloodstream infection. Clinicians should prescribe blood-activating and stasis-eliminating herb in treating these two coalescent critical diseases as long as no contraindications exist. However, further studies are needed to validate our results.