Anticancer Activity of Diosgenin and Its Molecular Mechanism / 中国结合医学杂志

Diosgenin, a steroidal sapogenin, obtained from Trigonella foenum-graecum, Dioscorea, and Rhizoma polgonati, has shown high potential and interest in the treatment of various cancers such as oral squamous cell carcinoma, laryngeal cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cancer, gastric cancer, lung cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, glioma, and leukemia. This article aims to provide an overview of the in vivo, in vitro, and clinical studies reporting the diosgenin's anticancer effects. Preclinical studies have shown promising effects of diosgenin on inhibiting tumor cell proliferation and growth, promoting apoptosis, inducing differentiation and autophagy, inhibiting tumor cell metastasis and invasion, blocking cell cycle, regulating immunity and improving gut microbiome. Clinical investigations have revealed clinical dosage and safety property of diosgenin. Furthermore, in order to improve the biological activity and bioavailability of diosgenin, this review focuses on the development of diosgenin nano drug carriers, combined drugs and the diosgenin derivatives. However, further designed trials are needed to unravel the diosgenin's deficiencies in clinical application.

Acupoint selection rules of post-stroke cognitive impairment treated with acupuncture based on ancient and modern medical record cloud platform / 中国针灸

OBJECTIVE@#To analyze the acupoint selection rules of post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) treated with acupuncture by ancient and modern medical record cloud platform (V1.5).@*METHODS@#The published randomized controlled trial (RCT) literature of PSCI treated with acupuncture was retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science, and the data was extracted to establish prescription database. The ancient and modern medical record cloud platform (V1.5) was used to analyze the data.@*RESULTS@#A total of 185 articles was included, involving 91 acupoints, the total using frequency was 1174 times. The top 5 acupoints in frequency of PSCI treated with acupuncture were Baihui (GV 20, 151 times), Shenting (GV 24, 97 times), Sishencong (EX-HN 1, 83 times), Neiguan (PC 6, 69 times) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6, 64 times); the most involved meridian was the governor vessel, and the generally used acupoints were mainly distributed in the head, face and neck. The top 5 acupoint combinations in frequency were Baihui (GV 20)-Shenting (GV 24, 89 times), Baihui (GV 20)-Sishencong (EX-HN 1, 79 times), Baihui (GV 20)-Neiguan (PC 6, 59 times), Baihui (GV 20)-Sanyinjiao (SP 6, 56 times) and Baihui (GV 20)-Zusanli (ST 36, 51 times). The acupoint combination with the strongest association was Shenting (GV 24)→Baihui (GV 20). There were 6 acupoint cluster groups according to the cluster analysis, and the main core prescription was Baihui (GV 20), Shenting (GV 24), Sishencong (EX-HN 1), Zusanli (ST 36), Neiguan (PC 6) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6).@*CONCLUSION@#Acupoints on the governor vessel, and distributed in head, face and neck are the main acupoints for PSCI treated with acupuncture, Baihui (GV 20), Shenting (GV 24), Sishencong (EX-HN 1), Zusanli (ST 36), Neiguan (PC 6) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6) can be used as the main acupoints, but it is still necessary to combine with syndrome differentiation.

Effects and mechanisms of mesenteric arterial rings vasodilation induced by protocatechuic aldehyde / 西安交通大学学报(医学版)

Objective To investigate the vasodilating effects of protocatechuic aldehyde (PCA ) on rat superior mesenteric arterial rings as well as its mechanism .Methods The tension of rat superior mesenteric arterial rings was recorded by a sensitive myograph system in vitro . We measured isometric tension changes in preconstricted rat superior mesenteric artery rings induced by potassium chloride (KCl ,60 mmol/L) ,serotomin (5-HT ,10-5 mol/L ) , and phenylephrine (PE , 10-5 mol/L ) after PCA treatment at different concentrations , respectively .We also observed vasodilating effects of PCA on KCl (60 mmol/L ) preconstricted rat superior mesenteric arterial rings after incubation with different inhibitors ,i .e .,L-NAME ,Indo ,ODQ ,4-AP (KV channel blocker) ,TEA (KCa channel blocker) ,BaCl2 (Kir channel blocker) ,and Glib (KATP channel blocker) ,respectively . Results PCA (10-6 -10-3 mol/L ) could relax KCl (60 mmol/L ) and 5-HT (10-5 mol/L ) preconstricted rat superior mesenteric arterial rings in a concentration-dependent manner . Indo of endothelial mechanism inhibitor blocked the vasodilating effect of PCA . 4-AP and BaCl2 of potassium ion channel inhibitors affected the vasodilatation induced by PCA in KCl (60 mmol/L)-preconstricted rat mesenteric artery .Conclusion PCA can relax KCl (60 mmol/L) ,or 5-HT preconstricted rat superior mesenteric arterial rings .This effect is associated with the inhibition of potassium channels and endothelial mechanism .

Effects of boiling duration in processing of White Paeony Root on its overall quality evaluated by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry based metabolomics analysis and high performance liquid chromatography quantification / 中国天然药物

Boiling processing is commonly used in post-harvest handling of White Paeony Root (WPR), in order to whiten the herbal materials and preserve the bright color, since such WPR is empirically considered to possess a higher quality. The present study was designed to investigate whether and how the boiling processing affects overall quality of WPR. First, an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approach coupled with multivariate statistical analysis was developed to compare the holistic quality of boiled and un-boiled WPR samples. Second, ten major components in WPR samples boiled for different durations were quantitatively determined using high performance liquid chromatography to further explore the effects of boiling time on the holistic quality of WPR, meanwhile the appearance of the processed herbal materials was observed. The results suggested that the boiling processing conspicuously affected the holistic quality of WPR by simultaneously and inconsistently altering the chemical compositions and that short-time boiling processing between 2 and 10 min could both make the WPR bright-colored and improve the contents of major bioactive components, which were not achieved either without boiling or with prolonged boiling. In conclusion, short-term boiling (2-10 min) is recommended for post-harvest handling of WPR.

Sulfur-containing derivatives as characteristic chemical markers in control of sulfur-fumigated Moutan Cortex / 药学学报

The amount of sulfur dioxide residue is currently employed by Chinese Pharmacopoeia (CP) as an index to screen sulfur-fumigated herbs, but it is unclear if this index can objectively reflect the quality of sulfur-fumigated herbs. In the present study, sulfur-containing derivatives were confirmed in sulfur-fumigated Moutan Cortex (MC) by UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS analysis, and the contents of sulfur-containing derivatives and sulfur dioxide residues were statistically analyzed both in self-made and commercially available sulfur-fumigated and non-fumigated MC as well as the samples thereof before and after eight-month storage. The amount of sulfur dioxide was significantly decreased, but that of the newly-generated sulfur-containing markers was not, after eight-month storage of the sulfur-fumigated MC samples, indicating that the amount of sulfur dioxide residue may not be positively correlated with the quality of sulfur-fumigated MC. Therefore, sulfur dioxide residue index alone may not objectively reflect the sulfur-fumigation extent (quality change extent) of MC, more specific method using characteristic sulfur-containing derivatives as chemical markers should be developed to supplement the sulfur dioxide residue determination in the quality control of sulfur-fumigated MC.

Development of UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS combined with reference herb approach to rapidly screen commercial sulfur-fumigated ginseng / 中国中药杂志

An ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/time of flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) combined with reference herb method was developed to rapidly screen commercial sulfur-fumigated ginseng. Sufur-fumigated ginseng reference herb was prepared using genuine ginseng by conventional procedure. Then the reference sulfur-fumigated ginseng sample was analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS to identify characteristic marker components. 25-hydroxyl-Re sulfate with higher abundance was se- lected as marker compound from 8 characteristic components identified in sulfur-fumigated ginseng reference herb. The fragmentation of 25-hydroxyl-Re sulfate was extensively investigated, fragment ion m/z 879.44 with higher intensity was chosen as the characteristic ion of sulfur-fumigated ginseng. The response of ion m/z 879. 44 was improved by optimizing the MS conditions so that this ion could be used as the characteristic marker ion for screening purpose in ion extracting screening mode. The established approach was successfully applied to inspect 21 commercial ginseng samples collected from different cities in China It was found that the chemical profiles of 9 samples were similar to that of sulfur-fumigated ginseng reference herb, and the characteristic ion m/z 879. 44 of 25-hydroxyl-Re sulfate was also detected in these samples, suggesting that there were nearly 43% ginseng samples analyzed being sulfur-fumigated. This findng agreed well with the results of sulfur dioxide residues of these 21 commercial ginseng samples determined with the method documented in Chinese Pharmacopeia Compared with the method documented in Chinese Pharmacopeia, the proposed approach is more rapid and specific for screening sulfur-fumigated ginseng. SFDA of China should strengthen the enforcement to prohibit ginseng being sulfur-fumigated, so that ginseng and it preparations could be effectively and safely benefit to the health of human beings.

Reliability of sulfur dioxide determination method documented in Chinese pharmacopoeia for evaluating Paeoniae Radix Alba / 中国中药杂志

The content of SO2 in Paeoniae Radix Alba (RPA) was determined by the method documented in Chinese Pharmacopoeia (CP) 2010 edition to validate the repeatability of the method for evaluating RPA, and the contents of paeoniflorin sulfonate in both the residual material and distilled solution of RPA were determined by HPLC to study the transformation of paeoniflorin sulfonate to SO2 by HCl. It was found that the repeatability of the method in CP for evaluating RPA is unacceptable, and paeoniflorin sulfonate was detectable in both the residual material and distilled solution of RPA even at "the end point" of SO2 determination, merely about 50% of paeoniflorin sulfonate was transformed to SO2 by HCl, indicating that the current SO2 determination method in CP is not able to accurately quantify SO2 in RPA. It is recommended that more special method for determining SO2 content in RPA should be developed regarding the chemical characteristics of sulfur-fumigated RPA.