The research and utilization of medicinal insects in China is introduced briefly in this paper. Medicinal insects have been used to treat human diseases from ancient times. There are approximately 300 medicinal insects species distributed in 70 genera, 63 families and 14 orders at present. An estimated 1700 traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions include medicinal insects or insect‐derived crude drugs. Many insect‐derived compounds have been studied and show efficient therapeutic functions. Techniques for mass rearing and cultivation of medicinal insects have been developed in order to have sufficient quantities of medicinal insects. Suggestions are made towards the uses of medicinal insects and it is proposed that insects will be a main resource for the future discovery of new drugs.

The custom and culture of entomophagy in China has been preserved since ancient times, with a history going back at least 3,000 years. Presently, more than 300 species of insects with edible value have been taxonomically classified in China. These insect species belong to the orders Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Isoptera, Odonata, Megaloptera, Ephemeroptera, Diptera and Blattaria, with a majority of these species belonging to Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. The most common include silkworm, tussah, Italian honeybee, oriental honeybee, mealworm, wasps, bamboo worm, locust, cicada, diving beetle and black ant. Since 2010, the number of patent applications for these edible insects has increased rapidly, indicating that the development and utilisation of edible insects in China is ongoing. The use of common edible insects primarily involves direct consumption of the insect body. In addition to fresh insects, frozen, canned and dried insects are also sold on the market. Derived extract products, such as protein, oil, chitin and insect health foods remain in the early research and experiment stages, and the current production scale is small. Bees, silkworm, mealworm and oriental migratory locust come from artificial farming, as farming techniques for these insects are well-developed. Although wasps, sand-crawling insects, bean hawkmoths and bamboo worms have been artificially cultured, the necessary technologies are underdeveloped. The majority of edible insects generally accepted by the public are still primarily collected from nature. In view of the current situation of utilisation, some suggestions have been put forward to strengthen the investigation and evaluation of edible insect resources, and research to focus on utilisation methods and artificial rearing technology in China.

Background: High relapse rates remain a clinical challenge in the management of breast cancer (BC), with distant recurrence being a major driver of patient deterioration. To optimize the surveillance regimen for distant recurrence after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), we conducted a comprehensive analysis using bioinformatics and machine learning approaches.Materials and methods: Microarray data were retrieved from the GEO database, and differential expression analysis was performed with the R package ‘Limma’. We used the Metascape tool for enrichment analyses, and ‘WGCNA’ was utilized to establish co-expression networks, selecting the soft threshold power with the ‘pickSoftThreshold’ algorithm. We integrated ten machine learning algorithms and 101 algorithm combinations to identify key genes associated with distant recurrence in BC. Unsupervised clustering was performed with the R package ‘ConsensusCluster Plus’. To further screen the key gene signature of residual cancer burden (RCB), multiple knockdown studies were analyzed with the Genetic Perturbation Similarity Analysis (GPSA) database. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis was conducted through the Tumour Immune Single-cell Hub (TISCH) database, and the XSum algorithm was used to screen candidate small molecule drugs based on the Connectivity Map (CMAP) database. Molecular docking processes were conducted using Schrodinger software. GMT files containing gene sets associated with metabolism and senescence were obtained from GSEA MutSigDB database. The GSVA score for each gene set across diverse samples was computed using the ssGSEA function implemented in the GSVA package.Results: Our analysis, which combined Limma, WGCNA, and machine learning approaches, identified 16 RCB-relevant gene signatures influencing distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS) in BC patients following NAC. We then screened GATA3 as the key gene signature of high RCB index using GPSA analysis. A novel molecular subtyping scheme was developed to divide patients into two clusters (C1 and C2) with different distant recurrence risks. This molecular subtyping scheme was found to be closely associated with tumor metabolism and cellular senescence. Patients in cluster C2 had a poorer DRFS than those in cluster C1 (HR: 4.04; 95% CI: 2.60–6.29; log-rank test p < 0.0001). High GATA3 expression, high levels of resting mast cell infiltration, and a high proportion of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive patients contributed to better DRFS in cluster C1. We established a nomogram based on the N stage, RCB class, and molecular subtyping. The ROC curve for 5-year DRFS showed excellent predictive value (AUC=0.91, 95% CI: 0.95–0.86), with a C-index of 0.85 (95% CI: 0.81–0.90). Entinostat was identified as a potential small molecule compound to reverse high RCB after NAC. We also provided a comprehensive review of the EDCs exposures that potentially impact the effectiveness of NAC among BC patients.Conclusion: This study established a molecular classification scheme associated with tumor metabolism and cancer cell senescence to predict RCB and DRFS in BC patients after NAC. Furthermore, GATA3 was identified and validated as a key gene associated with BC recurrence.

Edible insects have great potential to be human food; among them, aquatic insects have unique characteristics and deserve special attention. Before consuming these insects, the nutrition and food safety should always be considered. In this review, we summarized the species diversity, nutrition composition, and food safety of edible aquatic insects, and also compared their distinguished characteristics with those of terrestrial insects. Generally, in contrast with the role of plant feeders that most terrestrial edible insect species play, most aquatic edible insects are carnivorous animals. Besides the differences in physiology and metabolism, there are differences in fat, fatty acid, limiting/flavor amino acid, and mineral element contents between terrestrial and aquatic insects. Furthermore, heavy metal, pesticide residue, and uric acid composition, concerning food safety, are also discussed. Combined with the nutritional characteristics of aquatic insects, it is not recommended to eat the wild resources on a large scale. For the aquatic insects with large consumption, it is better to realize the standardized cultivation before they can be safely eaten.

Insects are the largest biological group on the earth, characterized by high biodiversity, easy rearing, and large populations. The utilization of insects in China has a long history and some insect species have contributed to the formation of characteristic industries. Insect products, such as silk and honey, are already familiar to the public; however, many beneficial insects and their products are not well known to most people, for example, lac insect and lac, gall aphid and Chinese gallnut, and insect wax. A new industry featuring the utilization and industrialization of insects has been rising in China. Chemically, insect products are used as raw materials; agriculturally, insects are utilized to pollinate crops for better yield; natural enemy insects have been reared to control pests; insect protein may be used for human food or animal feed; medicinally, chemical compounds may be extracted from insects as active ingredients for pharmaceutical usage; and ornamental butterfly has been applied in travel sightseeing. Insects' new purpose and function will be exploited as they gain recognition for their resources. This paper reviews insect industrialization in China and discusses the prospect of insect commerce in the future.