Network pharmacological analysis and experimental study of Pulsatilla chinensis against inflammatory injury caused by pneumonia in mice infected with influenza virus FM_1 / 中国中药杂志

Network pharmacology and the mouse model of viral pneumonia caused by influenza virus FM_1 were employed to explore the main active components and the mechanism of Pulsatilla chinensis against the inflammatory injury of influenza virus-induced pneumonia. The components and targets of P. chinensis were searched from TCMSP, and the targets associated with influenza virus-induced pneumonia were searched from GeneCards. The common targets between P. chinensis and influenza virus-induced pneumonia were identified with Venn diagram established in Venny 2.1. The herb-component-disease-target(H-C-D-T) network was constructed by Cytoscape 3.7.2. The above data were imported into STRING for PPI network analysis. Gene Ontology(GO) enrichment and KEGG pathway enrichment were performed with DAVID. BALB/cAnN mice were infected with the influenza virus FM_1 by nasal drip to gene-rate the mouse model of pneumonia. Immunohistochemistry was adopted to the expression profiling of inflammatory cytokines in the lung tissues of mice in the blank group, model group, and P. chinensis group 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after infection. The pathological changes of lung and trachea of mice in blank group, model group, and P. chinensis group were observed with light microscope and scanning electron microscope at all the time points. The network pharmacological analysis indicated that 9 compounds of P. chinensis were screened out, with a total of 57 targets, 22 of which were overlapped with those of influenza virus-induced pneumonia. A total of 112 GO terms(P<0.05) were enriched, including 81 terms of biological processes, 11 terms of cell components, and 20 terms of molecular functions. A total of 53 KEGG signaling pathways(P<0.05) were enriched, including TNF signaling pathway, influenza A signaling pathway, NF-κB signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway and other signaling pathways related to influenza/inflammation. In the P. chinensis group, the expression of TNF-α and IL-1 in the lung tissue was down-regulated on the 3 rd day after infection, and that of IL-6 in the lung tissue was down-regulated on the 5 th day after infection. Light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy showed that P. chinensis significantly alleviated the pathological damage of lung and trachea compared with the model group. This study reflects the multi-components, multi-targets, and multi-pathways of P. chinensis against influenza virus-induced pneumonia. P. chinensis may reduce the production of proinflammatory cytokines and mediators and block the pro-inflammatory signaling pathways to alleviate viral pneumonia, which provides reference for future research.

Cloning and sequence analysis of codeine-O-demethylase gene from Papaver somniferum and Papaver rhoeas / 药学学报

Codeine-O-demethylase (CODM) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of codeine and morphine. In this study, CODM gene sequences were cloned from Papaver somniferum and Papaver rhoeas, and were compared with each other by sequence alignment and bioinformatics analysis. The results showed that there were three genotypes of CODM in Papaver somniferum and five genotypes of CODM in Papaver rhoeas. Bioinformatics analysis showed that all CODM proteins had no signal peptide sequence, and these proteins were predicted to be non-secretory proteins, belonging to the Pcbc supergene family. Although the amino acid sequences of CODM in poppies are the same, the expression levels of CODM in different poppy resources are significantly different. It is speculated that the variation of transcription level of CODM may be related to its non-coding region sequence, which lays a foundation for further research on the synthesis and regulation mechanism of alkaloids in poppies.

Application of numerical taxonomy in study of Dao-di herbs and their producing areas / 中国中药杂志

As a treasure of traditional Chinese medicine culture,Dao-di herbs are famous for their high quality and good effect.However,traditional characteristics of Dao-di herbs and their producing areas are mostly confined to qualitative description,lacking objective evaluation indicators. Numerical taxonomy,which uses mathematical methods to improve the research of taxonomy from qualitative description to quantitative comprehensive analysis,is objective and accurate,so is widely used in the field of biology and medicine.This paper reviews the concept and main research fields of numerical taxonomy,and summarizes its application status and development prospects in the study of Dao-di herbs and characteristics of production areas,in order to lay the foundation for the objectification and standardization of Dao-di herbs.

Inhibitory effect of hydrogen sulfide on cardiac fibroblast proliferation / 生理学报

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) in the proliferation of neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts (NRCFs). Proliferation of NRCFs was induced by the presence of fetal bovine serum (FBS) or angiotensin II (Ang II) at various concentrations. The concentration-dependent effect of NaHS (donor of H(2)S) on NRCFs proliferation was examined. NRCFs proliferation was assessed by 5'-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation method. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) level was measured using the dye probe, 2', 7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA). The results showed that FBS- or Ang II-induced NRCFs proliferations were inhibited with the treatment of relatively high concentrations of NaHS (5 × 10(-5) mol/L, 1 × 10(-4) mol/L), but FBS-induced proliferation was increased by low concentration of NaHS (1 × 10(-5) mol/L). Two or 6 h of Ang II (1 × 10(-7) mol/L) treatment caused an increase of ROS level in NRCFs, while this increase was inhibited with NaHS (1 × 10(-4) mol/L) treatment. These results suggest that H(2)S is an inhibitor of cardiac fibroblast at a certain concentration range. This inhibitory effect may be mediated by a reduction in intracellular ROS production.