Radioactivity in marine organisms around Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant / 中国辐射卫生

@#<b>Objective</b> To determine the radioactive enrichment level in marine biological media around Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant and to evaluate the impact of effluent on marine biological media in the surrounding sea area based on the discharge of effluent from the nuclear power plant over the years and the monitoring level of surrounding marine media. <b>Methods</b> The monitoring data of ³H, ¹⁴C, ⁹⁰Sr, ¹³⁷Cs, and ^110mAg in the environmental media monitored in Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant from 2008 to 2017 were collected, and the data were processed and analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics 26. <b>Results</b> The activity concentrations of tritium in mullet and oyster in the sea area around Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant were 0.5-2.9 Bq/kg and 0.55-8.2 Bq/kg, respectively, and the activity concentrations of tritium in both increased generally under the influence of effluent from the nuclear power plant. The activity concentrations of ¹⁴C, ¹³⁷Cs, and ⁹⁰Sr in the monitored organisms were lower than the background values. The results of correlation analysis showed that the effluent from the nuclear power plant had almost no effect on ¹⁴C. The activity level of ^110mAg decreased significantly year by year in oyster, and remained below the background level in mullet. <b>Conclusion</b> Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant is the longest operating nuclear power plant in mainland China. Most of the nuclides in biological media in the surrounding sea area are lower than the background levels, and the effluents from the nuclear power plant have little influence on marine biological media in the surrounding sea area.

Advances in β-carboline alkaloids from natural products and their biological activities / 中草药

β-carboline alkaloids are widely distributed in nature. Their structures are usually simple and thus are easy to synthesized or modified. β-carboline alkaloids exhibit a wide range of biological activities, such as antitumor, antimalarial, cure impotence, treatment for type 2 diabetes, antiviral, antifungal, etc. Since its structural features and good biological activities, pharmaceutical corporations and research institutes have focused on it in a long time, which results in β-carboline alkaloids become a research hotspot in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry areas, especially some pharmaceutical corporations designed and synthesized many β-carboline alkaloids derivatives with excellent biological activities by high throughput screening and computer aided drug design technologies. This review summarizes the recent progress on β-carboline alkaloids extracted from marine organism, terrestrial plant, and fungi together with their biological activities over the past 20 years.

Progress of marine anticancer agents targeting cellular proapoptotic molecules / 药学学报

Apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, is a critical defense mechanism against the formation and progression of cancer. In vivo, apoptosis functions to eliminate potentially deleterious cells without causing such adverse effects as inflammatory response, and to ensue scar formation. Therefore, activation of the apoptotic pathways becomes an intriguing strategy in the development of chemotherapeutic agents. Marine natural products have become an important source in the discovery of antitumor drugs now since it is more and more feasible to collect organisms from seas. Hundreds of marine compounds have been found to induce apoptosis in tumor cells in recent years and many of them have good antitumor activity. This review summarizes several such compounds, based on their effects on the apoptotic signaling pathways, and highlights the problems in the development of anti-cancer drugs from the natural products.

Antipyretic and anti-inflammatory activities of Thais luteostoma extracts and underlying mechanisms / 中国天然药物

Thais luteostoma has been utilized as a crude drug whose shell and soft tissue have been widely used for the treatment of heat syndrome in China for thousands of years. The present study was designed to investigate the antipyretic and anti-inflammatory activities of T. luteostoma. T. luteostoma was divided into shell (TLSH) and soft tissue (TLST) samples in the present study. The rat model of yeast-induced fever was used to investigate their antipyretic effects; and the rat model of hind paw edema induced by carrageenan was utilized to study their anti-inflammatory activities, and at the same time, the concentration variations of the central neurotransmitter [prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)], inflammatory mediators [tumor necrosis factor (TNFα), interleukin-1β (IL-1), interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-6 (IL-6)] and ion (Na(+) and Ca(2+)) were also tested. The results showed that TLSH and TLST extracts significantly inhibited yeast-induced pyrexia in rats (P < 0.05), and exhibited more lasting effects as compared to aspirin, and TLSH had the better antipyretic activity than TLST, and that TLSH and TLST could significantly prevent against carrageenan induced paw edema in rats (P < 0.05); and markedly reduced levels of PGE2, cAMP, TNFα, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, and Na(+)/Ca(2+). In fever model, TLST could significantly reduce the levels of PGE2 (P < 0.01) in rats' homogenate and TNFα (P < 0.05), IL-1β (P < 0.01) in the plasma than TLSH, whereas TLSH could reduce the content of IL-2 (P < 0.01) and IL-6 (P < 0.01) in plasma and increase the content of Ca(2+) (P < 0.01) in plasma and homogenate more significantly than TLST. In conclusion, T. luteostoma extract has antipyretic and anti-inflammatory activities, which may be mediated through the suppression of production of PGE2, cAMP, Na(+)/Ca(2+), TNFα, IL-1β, IL-2, and IL-6.

Isolation and identification of marine symbiotic and epiphyte microorganisms with antimicrobial activity / 中国海洋药物

125 strains of the symbiotic and epiphyte microorganisms were isolated from marine organisms (sea cucumber, sea urchin,anemone, sea actinia, Ulra, Sargassum, Undaria). Among them,21 strains of bacteria,8 strains of actinomycetes and 2 strains of fungi showed antagonistic activity on bacterial or fungal growth. In the 21 strains of bacteria, 7 strains belong to Bacillus sp., 11 strains Vibrio sp., and 3 strains Pseudomonas sp.. In the 8 strains of actinomycetes, 5 strains belong to Streptomyces sp., 3 strains Micromonospora sp., 2 strains fungi Penicillum sp..

Progress in the Study of Marine Steroids / 中国海洋药物

Many marine steroids with novel structures have been isolated, some of which possess various bioactivities. The new compounds reported through 1996~2000 were reviewed in this article.

Progress in the study of marine malabaricane triterpenes / 中国海洋药物

The developments in the study of marine malabaricane triterpenes were reviewed in this paper. The relationships between chemical structures and biological activities of marine malabaricane triterpenes were also described.