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Suppression of the STAT3/MYC/MCL-1 pathway by the fixed Jianpi Huoxue Formula relieves early biochemical abnormalities in liver fibrosis
Long Huang, Teng-Fei Zhu, Qing-Sheng Yu, Qi Zhang, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei 230031, Anhui Province, China
Cheng-Gui Wu, Qing-Lin Li, Research Center, Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei 230038, Anhui Province, China
Yi Shen, Department of No. 1 Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei 230031, Anhui Province, China
Author contributions: Huang L was responsible for funding acquisition, project administration, and writing original draft preparation; Li QL was responsible for conceptualization and methodology; Yu QS was responsible for investigation and data curation; Zhu TF was responsible for reviewing and editing; Wu CG was responsible for formal analysis; Zhang Q was responsible for validation; and Shen Y was responsible for software operation. All authors have reviewed the manuscript.
AI contribution statement: The portions of this manuscript were edited using AI tools (DeepSeek) for language refinement. The authors carefully reviewed and verified all AIassisted outputs and took full responsibility for the scientific content of this manuscript.
Supported by Projects of the Anhui Provincial Health Commission, No. AHWJ2023A30146; Scientific Research Projects in Anhui Provincial Colleges and Universities, No. 2024AH050959; and Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation, No. 2408085MH222.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, No. 2024AH-30.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Anhui University of Chinese Medicine (No. 20240030).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no competing interests.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: Data from single-cell RNA sequencing are provided at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/PRJNA1304907.
Corresponding author: Long Huang, MD, Professor, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, No. 117 Meishan Road, Hefei 230031, Anhui Province, China. huanglong658@163.com
Received: April 20, 2026
Revised: June 10, 2026
Accepted: July 1, 2026
Published online: August 27, 2026
Processing time: 126 Days and 14.2 Hours
Revised: June 10, 2026
Accepted: July 1, 2026
Published online: August 27, 2026
Processing time: 126 Days and 14.2 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study comprehensively explored the pharmacological mechanism of a fixed Jianpi Huoxue Formula (FJHF). We integrated single-cell transcriptomics, clinical observations, and in vitro experiments to confirm that FJHF inhibits the STAT3/MYC/MCL-1 pathway, suppresses hepatic stellate cell activation, and ameliorates early biochemical abnormalities in liver fibrosis.