The role of plant WRKY transcription factors against salt stress: a review / 生物工程学报

High salt content in soils severely hampers plant growth and crop yields. Many transcription factors in plants play important roles in responding to various stresses, but their molecular mechanisms remain unclear. WRKY transcription factors are one of the largest families of transcription factors in higher plants that are involved in and influence many aspects of plant growth and development. They play important roles in responding to salt stress. The regulation of gene expression by WRKY proteins is mainly achieved by binding to the DNA's specific cis-regulatory elements, the W-box elements (TTGACC). In recent years, there have been many studies revealing the roles and mechanisms of WRKY family members, from model plant Arabidopsis to agricultural crops. This paper reviews the latest research progress on WRKY transcription factors in response to salt stress and discusses the current challenges and future perspectives of WRKY transcription factor research.

Improving the solubility of fraxinellone to increase its oral bioavailability and hepatoprotective action against acute liver injury in mice / 药学学报

Fraxinellone, the major component of Cortex Dictamni, is naturally degraded limonids compound. Fraxinellone has significant anti-inflammatory activity in acute liver injury model. However, the low solubility and permeability of fraxinellone limited its potential application and even therapeutic effects. The aim of the paper is to increase oral bioavailability of fraxinellone, thus improving its hepatoprotection effect in vivo. We evaluated the effects of different pH values and different solubilizer (PEG 6000, PVP K30, HP-beta-CD, F68 and SDS) on the solubility of fraxinellone. The results showed that HP-beta-CD increased solubility of fraxinellone up to 155 times compared to that of water. More than 2. 1 mg mL1 fraxinellone can be resolved when adding 20% HP-beta-CD. Mouse acute liver injury model induced hy CCl4 was used to evaluate in vivo activity of fraxinellone with or without HP-beta-CD. The result shows that the hepatoprotective activity of fraxinellone in 20% HP-beta-CD solution has been significantly improved compared with that of fraxinellone solution without HP-beta-CD: the former inhibited 59 percent the increase of enzyme activity of ALT in liver, while the latter only inhibited 20 percent. A LC-MS/MS method was also developed to determine the oral bioavailability of fraxinellone. Fraxinellone solution with or without HP-betaCD were administered intra-gastrically to rats, and it was found that the bioavailahility of fraxinellone with HP-beta-CD was 23%, while only 5% without HP-beta-CD. The result showed that HP-beta-CD can significantly increase the solubility and permeability of fraxinellone, and improve bioavailability 3. 5 fold in vivo acute liver injury model as well as administration.