Chinese Medicine Regulates DNA Methylation to Treat Haematological Malignancies: A New Paradigm of "State-Target Medicine" / 中国结合医学杂志

Aberrant regulation of DNA methylation plays a crucial causative role in haematological malignancies (HMs). Targeted therapy, aiming for DNA methylation, is an effective mainstay of modern medicine; however, many issues remain to be addressed. The progress of epigenetic studies and the proposed theory of "state-target medicine" have provided conditions to form a new treatment paradigm that combines the "body state adjustment" of CM with targeted therapy. We discussed the correlation between Chinese medicine (CM) syndromes/states and DNA methylation in this paper. Additionally, the latest research findings on the intervention and regulation of DNA methylation in HMs, including the core targets, therapy status, CM compounds and active components of the Chinese materia medica were concisely summarized to establish a theoretical foundation of "state-target synchronous conditioning" pattern of integrative medicine for HMs, simultaneously leading a new perspective in clinical diagnosis and therapy.

Protective effect of β-asarone on AD rat model induced by intracerebroventricular injection of Aβ₁₋₄₂ combined 2-VO and its mechanism / 中国中药杂志

This study was aimed to investigate the protective effect and mechanism of β-asarone on the animal model of Alzheimer's disease(AD) which was induced by intracerebroventricular injection of Aβ₁₋₄₂ combined cerebral ischemia. One hundred and five rats were randomly divided into seven groups including sham-operated group, AD model group, β-asarone 10 mg•kg⁻¹ group, β-asarone 20 mg•kg⁻¹ group, β-asarone 30 mg•kg⁻¹ group, donepezil group(0.75 mg•kg⁻¹) and Ginkgo biloba extract group(24 mg•kg⁻¹). Rats' learning and memory abilities, cerebric regional blood flow, pathological changes in hippocampal CA1 region, the expression level of HIF-1α and serum CAT, SOD and MDA level were detected 4 weeks later. The results showed that the application of intracerebroventricular injection of Aβ₁₋₄₂ joint 2-VO could lead to rats' dysfunction of learning and memory, decrease in regional cerebral blood flow. Neurons in CA1 region were arranged in disorder, and amyloid deposition was increased. The number of cerebral cortical cells expressing HIF-1α was increased as well. The level of serum CAT and SOD decreased, while level of serum MDA increased. However these symptoms were improved by 20 mg•kg⁻¹ and 30 mg•kg⁻¹ β-asarone. The results indicated that β-asarone could effectively relieve the symptoms of the AD model induced by intracerebroventricular injection of Aβ₁₋₄₂ combined cerebral ischemia, and the potential mechanism might be that it could attenuate damage of MDA to the body by improving the level of CAT and SOD, meanwhile the level of HIF-1α decreased as the decline of hyperoxide which might attenuate its damage to neuron, so it finally achieved alleviating Alzheimer's disease.

Differences of fungal diversity and structure in rhizosphere of Fritillaria thunbergii from different provenances / 中国中药杂志

To explore the mechanism of soil microbial ecology, the differences of fungal diversities in rhizosphere of different provenances of Fritillaria thunbergii were analyzed. The diversities and compositions of rhizo-fungi of the samples were analyzed by using DGGE and 454 pyrosequencing. DGGE results showed the Shannon index of Ninbo provenance planted in Ninbo was the highest one. And its dominant fungi were Ascomycota, Deuteromycota and Zygomycota. Except the same fungi, every provenance planted in Ninbo had its own special ones. From the 454 pyrosequencing, the fungal diversity in Panan producing was the highest which was similar with DGGE result. Among the ten phylum detected in its rhizosoil, Fungi_incertae_sedis, Ascomycota, Mucoromycotina, Basidiomycota and Chytridiomycota almost amounted to 90% of the whole community. The fungal types and amounts in Panan were more than those in Ninbo indicating the differences between producing areas and the advantage of macro genome sequencing. There were 10 phyla, 29 families, 28 genus and 159 species of fungi in Panan provenance, 6 phyla, 20 families, 19 genus, 136 species in Ninbo provenance, 8 phyla, 37 families, 47 genus, 289 species in Nantong provenance and 7 phyla, 25 families, 24 genus, 102 species in the bulk soil. Some genus such as Dothidea, Capnobotryella and Conidiobolus were only existed in Nantong provenance, while Pyrenochae- ta, Glomus and Pseudonectria were only in Panan provenance, which implied these species could grew because F. thunbergii influenced the existence of fungi. Experiments of provenance and producing area of F. thunbergii showed that the fungal diversity of indigenous provenance was higher than that of exotic provenance and each provenance had unique fungal species in the rhizosphere, which indicated that the diversity and structure was shaped cooperatively by the species and soil type. These fungal species are interacted with the soil-rhizhosphere-microbe microecological system, which in turn influence the growth of F. thunbergii.

Effect of different treatment on endophytic bacterial communities in continuous cropping of Chrysanthemum morifoliu / 中国中药杂志

To reveal the effect of rotation cropping and bacterial manure on the growth of Chrysanthemum morifolium and screen the beneficial endophytic, the diversity of endophytic and dominant genera of different treatment groups were analyzed. Four different treatments were continuous cropping, rotation, self-made organic fertilizer and commercially available fertilizer, respectively. Endophytic bacterial diversity and dominant genera in different organs were examined using Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP). The results showed that enzyme Hae III was more appropriate than enzyme Hinfl because the number of TRFs digested by enzyme Hae III was more than that of enzyme Hinfl. In comparison of diversity, the endophytic bacterial communities' diversity index in group of cropping rotation and fertilizer was higher than that of continuous cropping which indicated that the addition of exogenous microorganism in soil could increase the diversity of plant endophyte. 18 dominant species were selected, including 3 kinds of Firmicutes, 4 kinds of Actinomycetes and 11 kinds of Proteobacteria. The results of dominant species comparison showed that the number of dominant species in continuous cropping of Ch. morifolium was significantly less than that of the rotation group. Some dominant bacteria in rotation group and fertilizer group such as Arthrobacter, Streptomyces, Streptomyces, Flavobacterium and Mycobacterium were not found in the continuous cropping of Ch. mortfolium group. Dominant species of fertilizer treatment group was similar with the rotation group, and the continuous cropping group's dominant species was more abundant. It indicates that these bacteria may be able to mitigate hindrance in continuous cropping, especially the Flavobacterium which can decompose the pathogenic fungi is worthy of further attention. Compared with leaves, there are more dominant species in roots and stems. The diversity of edophytic bacterial communities in continuous cropping of Ch. morifolium stays below than that in the rotation of Ch. morifolium, and fertilizer treatment can increase the diversity of continuous cropping so that it could mitigate hindrance in continuous cropping.

Effects of growth years of Paeonia lactiflora on bacterial community in rhizosphere soil and paeoniflorin content / 中国中药杂志

To explore the relationship between microecological environment and Paeonia lactiflora the effects of growth years of P. lactillora on rhizosphere bacterial communities were studied by PCR-DGGE and the paeoniflorin content determined by HPLC. Results showed that the soil pH increased with growing years of P. lactillora. In the fourth year, soil pH and enzyme activity reached the highest level, while organic matter content was the lowest. The bacterial diversity had a positive correlation with growing years varied from 3.38 to 3.61. Sequencing results demonstrated that Gammaproteobacteria, llphaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacte- ria and Firmicutes were predominant bacteria kinds in the soil of P. lactillora. Gammaproteobacteria was only detected in the bulk soil, while llphaproteobacteria, Acidobacteria G1l, Actinobacteria were only in the rhizosphere soil and the bacterial community among different growing years were similar except few species. HLPC results showed that paeoniflorin content was 3.26%, 3.30%, 3.36%, 3.41% separately from one to four-year-old P. lactiflora with an upward trend. The correlation analysis indicated that the paeoniflorin content had a positive correlation with soil pH and bacterial diversity, conversely, had a negative correlation with organic matter con- tent. During the growth years the rhizosphere bacterial diversity increased without changes of predominant bacteria and the paeoniflorin content increased without significant differences while its production increased significantly, which was different from the plants showing replanting diseases. This is in line with the farming practice choosing 4-year-old P. lactllora, but not the 1-3 year old one. In addition, the accumulation of paeoniflorin is closely related to soil pH, organic matter content and bacteria diversity, confirming that the geoherblism of P. lactiflora is closely related with microbial environment in the soil.