DUS testing guidelines for new varieties of Chinese medicinal plants / 中国中药杂志

A rich diversity of wild medicinal plant resources is distributed in China, but the breeding of new plant varieties of Chinese medicinal plants started late and the breeding level is relatively weak. Chinese medicinal plant resources are the foundation for new varieties breeding, and the plant variety rights(PVP) are of great significance for the protection and development of germplasm resources. However, most Chinese medicinal plants do not have a distinctness, uniformity, and stability(DUS) testing guideline. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has put 191 plant species(genera) on protection lists, of which only 30 are medicinal species(genera). At the same time, only 29 of 293 species(genera) plants in the Protection List of New Plant Varieties of the People's Republic of China(Forest and Grass) belong to Chinese medicinal plants. The number of PVP applications and authorization of Chinese medicinal plants is rare, and the composition of variety is unreasonable. Up to now, 29 species(genera) of DUS test guidelines for Chinese medicinal plants have been developed. Some basic problems in the breeding of new varieties of Chinese medicinal plants have appeared, such as the small number of new varieties and insufficient utilization of Chinese medicinal plant resources. This paper reviewed the current situation of breeding of new varieties of Chinese medicinal plants and the research progress of DUS test guidelines in China and discussed the application of biotechnology in the field of Chinese medicinal plant breeding and the existing problems in DUS testing. This paper guides the further application of DUS to protect and utilize the germplasm resources of Chinese medicinal plants.

Application of tissue culture technology of medicinal plants in sustainable development of Chinese medicinal resources / 中国中药杂志

Chinese medicinal resources are the cornerstone of the sustainable development of traditional Chinese medicine industry. However, due to the fecundity of species, over-exploitation, and limitations of artificial cultivation, some medicinal plants are depleted and even endangered. Tissue culture, a breakthrough technology in the breeding of traditional Chinese medicinal materials, is not limited by time and space, and can allow the production on an annual basis, which plays an important role in the protection of Chinese medicinal resources. The present study reviewed the applications of tissue culture of medicinal plants in the field of Chinese medicinal resources, including rapid propagation of medicinal plant seedlings, breeding of novel high-yield and high-quality cultivars, construction of a genetic transformation system, and production of secondary metabolites. Meanwhile, the current challenges and suggestions for the future development of this field were also proposed.

Advances in research and application of Trichoderma for inducing resistance against root rot diseases in root and rhizome of Chinese medicinal materials / 中国中药杂志

Root rot is a microbial disease that is difficult to control and can result in serious losses in the planting of most Chinese medicinal materials. As high as 87.6% of roots or rhizomes of Chinese medicinal materials are susceptible to root rot, which seriously affects the cultivation development of Chinese medicinal materials. Trichoderma fungi, possessing biological control functions, can induce plants to improve their resistance to microbial diseases, promote plant growth, and effectively reduce the losses caused by various microbial diseases on cultivation. At present, Trichoderma is rarely used in the cultivation of Chinese medicinal materials, so it has great application potential for the prevention and control of root rot diseases in farmed Chinese medicinal materials. Based on the above situation, after comparison and discussion, it is believed that compared with chemical control and physical control, biological control of root rot diseases of Chinese medicinal materials is more efficient and meets the development needs of Chinese medicinal materials ecological planting in China. This paper reviewed the progress in the research and application of Trichoderma in the control of root rot diseases in the root and rhizome of farmed Chinese medicinal materials in the past 10 years and found that most of the current research on the biological control of root rot diseases in Chinese medicinal materials was mostly limited to the verification of the inhibitory effect of Trichoderma strains on the growth of the pathogenic microbes. Studies on the induction effect of Trichoderma on Chinese medicinal materials are not in depth. Studies on the responding mechanisms of most Chinese medicinal materials to Trichoderma are highly absent. Moreover, there are few reports on field experiments, which indicates that there is a long way to go before Trichoderma is widely applied in the farming practice of Chinese medicinal materials. To sum up, this paper aimed to link the present and the future and advocated further relevant research and more experiments on the application of Trichoderma in the farming of Chinese medicinal materials.

Study on intervention of DCP on MAPK signaling pathway to inhibit inflammatory response and alleviate progression of liver fibrosis in rats / 中国药理学通报

Aim To investigate whether DCP has pro- teetive effeet on 2 ,4-dimethylnitrosamine ( DMN) -induced liver fibrosis rat model and its effect on MAPK signaling pathway.Methods Hats were intraperitoneal ly injected with DMN to establish HF model,and then were randomly divided into five groups, namely model group, colchicine group, DCP low-dose, medium-dose and high-dose groups,and control group.The rats were given DMN continuously for six weeks.Serum was col-lected afterwards to detect biochemical indexes of liver function.HE and Masson staining and immunohisto- chemical experiments were performed on liver tissues.RT-PCR was applied to detect the expression of inflammatory factors.Western blot was used to detect the ex pression of proteins related to MAPK pathway,the preventive effect of DCP on HF was observed, and its in-tervention effect on MAPK pathway was explored.Results The liver function of rats in model group was severely impaired, with obvious hepatocyte damage, inflammatory cell infiltration and increased interstitial fibrosis , suggesting that the preparation of HF model was successful.Conclusions DCP can interfere with MAPK signaling pathway to inhibit the inflammatory response and alleviate the progression of HF in rats.

Protective Effect of Gentiopicroside Against Liver Injury in Mice via TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB Signaling Pathway / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective:To explore the mechanism of gentiopicroside （GPS） in preventing acute liver injury induced by carbon tetrachloride （CCl₄） in mice and its effect on the Toll-like receptor 4 （TLR4）/myeloid differentiation factor 88 （MyD88）/nuclear factor-<italic>κ</italic>B （NF-<italic>κ</italic>B） signaling pathway. Method:Sixty mice were randomly divided into a normal control group， a model group， a silymarin group （150 mg·kg^-1）， and high- （200 mg·kg^-1）， medium- （100 mg·kg^-1）， and low-dose （50 mg·kg^-1） GPS groups， with 10 in each group. The mice in the groups with drug intervention were administered correspondingly by gavage at 10 mL·kg^-1， and those in the normal control group and the model group receive an equal volume of distilled water， once per day. Ten days after administration， mice in the normal control group were subjected to the intraperitoneal injection of peanut oil （10 mL·kg^-1） and those in other groups were injected with peanut oil （10 mL·kg^-1） containing 0.12% CCl₄for the induction of acute liver injury model. After fasting for 16 hours， blood was collected from eyeballs and liver tissues were collected. Hematoxylin-eosin （HE） staining was used to observe the pathological changes of liver tissues. The content or activities of alanine aminotransferase （ALT）， aspartate aminotransferase （AST）， total bilirubin （TBIL）， alkaline phosphatase （ALP）， total superoxide dismutase （T-SOD）， and <italic>γ</italic>-glutamyl transpeptidase （<italic>γ</italic>-GT） in the serum， malondialdehyde （MDA） and glutathione peroxidase （GSH-Px） in liver tissues were determined by biochemistry techniques. The levels of tumor necrosis factor-<italic>α</italic> （TNF-<italic>α</italic>）， interleukin-1<italic>β</italic> （IL-1<italic>β</italic>）， and interleukin-6 （IL-6） in liver tissues were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of TLR4， MyD88， and NF-<italic>κ</italic>B in liver tissues. The expression of phosphorylated NF-<italic>κ</italic>B （p-NF-<italic>κ</italic>B） was detected by immunohistochemistry. Result:Compared with the normal control group， the model group showed increased levels of ALT， AST， ALP， TBIL， <italic>γ</italic>-GT， and MDA （<italic>P</italic><0.01）， and blunted activities of T-SOD and GSH-Px （<italic>P</italic><0.01）. Compared with the model group， the high- and medium-dose GPS groups exhibited declining levels of ALT， AST， ALP， TBIL， <italic>γ</italic>-GT， and MDA （<italic>P</italic><0.05， <italic>P</italic><0.01） and potentiated T-SOD and GSH-Px activities （<italic>P</italic><0.05， <italic>P</italic><0.01）. Compared with the normal control group， the model group displayed elevated levels of TNF-<italic>α</italic>， IL-1<italic>β</italic>， and IL-6 in liver tissues （<italic>P</italic><0.01） and increased protein expression of TLR4， MyD88， and p-NF-<italic>κ</italic>B （<italic>P</italic><0.01）. Compared with the model group， the high- and medium-dose GPS groups showed decreased TNF-<italic>α</italic>， IL-1<italic>β</italic>， and IL-6 content in liver tissues （<italic>P</italic><0.05， <italic>P</italic><0.01） and dwindled TLR4， MyD88， and p-NF-<italic>κ</italic>B protein expression （<italic>P</italic><0.05， <italic>P</italic><0.01）. Conclusion:GPS possesses a protective effect on mice with acute liver injury induced by CCl₄， and its mechanism of action may be related to the regulation of TLR4/MyD88/NF-<italic>κ</italic>B signaling pathway and inhibition of oxidative stress.

Histopathological Diagnosis System for Gastritis Using Deep Learning Algorithm / 中国医学科学杂志(英文版)

Objective To develope a deep learning algorithm for pathological classification of chronic gastritis and assess its performance using whole-slide images (WSIs). Methods We retrospectively collected 1,250 gastric biopsy specimens (1,128 gastritis, 122 normal mucosa) from PLA General Hospital. The deep learning algorithm based on DeepLab v3 (ResNet-50) architecture was trained and validated using 1,008 WSIs and 100 WSIs, respectively. The diagnostic performance of the algorithm was tested on an independent test set of 142 WSIs, with the pathologists' consensus diagnosis as the gold standard. Results The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated for chronic superficial gastritis (CSuG), chronic active gastritis (CAcG), and chronic atrophic gastritis (CAtG) in the test set, respectively.The areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) of the algorithm for CSuG, CAcG, and CAtG were 0.882, 0.905 and 0.910, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the deep learning algorithm for the classification of CSuG, CAcG, and CAtG were 0.790 and 1.000 (accuracy 0.880), 0.985 and 0.829 (accuracy 0.901), 0.952 and 0.992 (accuracy 0.986), respectively. The overall predicted accuracy for three different types of gastritis was 0.867. By flagging the suspicious regions identified by the algorithm in WSI, a more transparent and interpretable diagnosis can be generated. Conclusion The deep learning algorithm achieved high accuracy for chronic gastritis classification using WSIs. By pre-highlighting the different gastritis regions, it might be used as an auxiliary diagnostic tool to improve the work efficiency of pathologists.

Effect of Isaria felina on immune function of immunosuppressed mice / 中草药

Objective: To investigate the effects of Isaria felina (IF) on immune function in mice with immunosuppression induced by cyclophosphamide. Methods: The kunming mice were randomly divided into control group, model group, positive group (lentinan, 200 mg/kg), high, medium, and low dose groups of IF (400, 200, 100 mg/kg). Except for the control group, the other five groups were intraperitoneally injected with cyclophosphamide to establish an immunosuppression mouse model. The drug was administered once a day for a total of 10 d. Then the body mass growth, liver index, thymus index, spleen index and blood routine indexes were examined; The carbon profile method and the delayed immune response (DTH) was used to determine the non-specific immune function and the cellular immune function in mice; The content of TNF-α in serum of mice was determined by double antibody sandwich ELISA. Results: Compared with the control group, the growth value of body mass, spleen index, white blood cells, red blood cells and other blood routine indexes, phagocytic index, plantar thickness difference and TNF-α content of model group were significantly reduced (P < 0.05), which suggested that the establishmeng of immunocompromised mouse models induced by cyclophosphamide was successful. Compared with the model group, spleen index, white blood cells, red blood cells and other blood routine indexes, phagocytic index, plantar thickness difference and TNF-α content in each dose group of IF were significantly increased (P < 0.05). Conclusion: I. felina has immunoprotective effects on mice with immunodeficiency induced by cyclophosphamide.

Diagnostic use of D2-40 and annexin-1 in ependymal tumors / 中华病理学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the diagnostic significance of D2-40 and annexin-1 in the ependymal tumors.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>To analyses the expression of D2-40, annexin-1, EMA and Ki-67 by immunohistochemistry in 52 cases of ependymal tumors (48 cases of ependymomas, 4 cases of choroid plexus papilloma) from Xuanwu Hospital from 2005 to 2009. Ten cases of corresponding normal brain tissue were also obtained as control.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Thirty-two of forty-eight (66.7%) cases of ependymomas were positive for D2-40. "Dot-like" and "ring-like" structures were commonly observed in ependymomas (55.3%, 21 of 38 cases) and anaplastic ependymomas (5 of 6 cases) with D2-40 staining. There was no difference in the expression between D2-40 and Ki-67 (r(s) = -0.013, P = 0.931). For annexin-1, 87.5% (42 of 48 cases) of the ependymomas were positive. The specific "granular structures" and cilium were observed in ependymomas (1 of 4 cases of myxopapillary ependymomas and 11 of 38 cases of ependymomas respectively) for annexin-1. The difference in expression between annexin-1 and Ki-67 was statistically significant (r(s) = -0.405, P = 0.005). D2-40 in combination of EMA and annexin-1 increased the positive rate to 100% in ependymomas. Choroid plexus papillomas were all positive for D2-40 and annexin-1. The control tissue was negative for D2-40 but positive for annexin-1 in the capillaries.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The specific structures are valuable in diagnosing of ependymal-genetic tumors, and are highlighted by D2-40 and annexin-1. D2-40 in combination of EMA and annexin-1 is a useful diagnostic marker for ependymal tumors.</p>