Natural Plant-derived Polysaccharides Against Cervical Cancer： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Cervical cancer is a gynecological malignant tumor with a high incidence in the world. With the insidious onset and lack of obvious symptoms and signs in the early stage， 13% of cervical cancer patients are diagnosed in the advanced stage of the disease， and the 5-year survival rate of metastatic cervical cancer is only 16.5%. So far， surgery and radiotherapy/chemotherapy are still the basic means for the treatment of cervical cancer. However， with the emergence of toxicity， drug resistance， and other side effects， there are still some limitations in the clinical application of these therapies. In recent years， natural compounds represented by polysaccharides have been found to have a significant anti-cervical cancer effect， which has attracted extensive attention from researchers in China and abroad. Widely distributed in the roots， stems， leaves， flowers， and fruits of higher plants， plant-based polysaccharides are important components of natural polysaccharides， as well as multimers with a complex structure and biological response regulators， which have been widely studied in the fields of cancer， cardiovascular， endocrine， and other diseases. This study reviewed the research on the anti-cervical cancer effect and mechanism of natural plant-derived polysaccharides by consulting the literature in the past 20 years to bring breakthroughs in the research and development of anti-cervical cancer new drugs. Through the literature review， the results indicated that natural plant-derived polysaccharides could exert anti-tumor effects by inhibiting cell proliferation， promoting apoptosis， inhibiting invasion and migration， promoting autophagy， arresting cell cycle of cervical cancer cells， regulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition （EMT）， resisting oxidative stress， inhibiting tumor angiogenesis， improving immunomodulatory activity， and regulating signaling pathways. It should be noted that in the current research on natural plant-derived polysaccharides against cervical cancer， the bioavailability of some natural polysaccharides is low and a considerable proportion of the research is limited to the in vitro experiment. Therefore， it is urgent to carry out more clinical experimental studies on the anti-cervical cancer of natural plant-based polysaccharides to obtain a more reliable theoretical and practical basis.

Advances on the microbial synthesis of plant-derived diterpenoids / 生物工程学报

Natural plant-derived diterpenoids are a class of compounds with diverse structures and functions. These compounds are widely used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food additives industries because of their pharmacological properties such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activities. In recent years, with the gradual discovery of functional genes in the biosynthetic pathway of plant-derived diterpenoids and the development of synthetic biotechnology, great efforts have been made to construct a variety of diterpenoid microbial cell factories through metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, resulting in gram-level production of many compounds. This article summarizes the construction of plant-derived diterpenoid microbial cell factories through synthetic biotechnology, followed by introducing the metabolic engineering strategies applied to improve plant-derived diterpenoids production, with the aim to provide a reference for the construction of high-yield plant-derived diterpenoid microbial cell factories and the industrial production of diterpenoids.

An Artificial Neural Network Model Combined with Dietary Retinol Intake from Different Sources to Predict the Risk of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

OBJECTIVE@#This study aimed to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) model combined with dietary retinol intake from different sources to predict the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in American adults.@*METHODS@#Data from the 2007 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-2014 were analyzed. Eligible subjects ( n = 6,613) were randomly divided into a training set ( n 1 = 4,609) and a validation set ( n 2 = 2,004) at a ratio of 7:3. The training set was used to identify predictors of NAFLD risk using logistic regression analysis. An ANN was established to predict the NAFLD risk using a training set. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the accuracy of the model using the training and validation sets.@*RESULTS@#Our study found that the odds ratios ( ORs) and 95% confidence intervals ( CIs) of NAFLD for the highest quartile of plant-derived dietary retinol intake (i.e., provitamin A carotenoids, such as β-carotene) ( OR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.57 to 0.99) were inversely associated with NAFLD risk, compared to the lowest quartile of intake, after adjusting for potential confounders. The areas under the ROC curves were 0.874 and 0.883 for the training and validation sets, respectively. NAFLD occurs when its incidence probability is greater than 0.388.@*CONCLUSION@#The ANN model combined with plant-derived dietary retinol intake showed a significant effect on NAFLD. This could be applied to predict NAFLD risk in the American adult population when government departments formulate future health plans.

Plant-derived nanovesicles: Further exploration of biomedical function and application potential

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are phospholipid bilayer vesicles actively secreted by cells, that contain a variety of functional nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids, and are important mediums of intercellular communication. Based on their natural properties, EVs can not only retain the pharmacological effects of their source cells but also serve as natural delivery carriers. Among them, plant-derived nanovesicles (PNVs) are characterized as natural disease therapeutics with many advantages such as simplicity, safety, eco-friendliness, low cost, and low toxicity due to their abundant resources, large yield, and low risk of immunogenicity in vivo. This review systematically introduces the biogenesis, isolation methods, physical characterization, and components of PNVs, and describes their administration and cellular uptake as therapeutic agents. We highlight the therapeutic potential of PNVs as therapeutic agents and drug delivery carriers, including anti-inflammatory, anticancer, wound healing, regeneration, and antiaging properties as well as their potential use in the treatment of liver disease and COVID-19. Finally, the toxicity and immunogenicity, the current clinical application, and the possible challenges in the future development of PNVs were analyzed. We expect the functions of PNVs to be further explored to promote clinical translation, thereby facilitating the development of a new framework for the treatment of human diseases.

Research progress on plant-derived exosome-like nanoparticles and their applications / 中国中药杂志

Plant-derived exosome-like nanoparticles(PELNs) are a class of membranous vesicles with diameters approximately ranging from 30 to 300 nm, isolated from plant tissues. They contain components such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. PELNs play an important role in the metabolism of plant substances and immune defense, and can also cross-regulate the physiological activities of fungi and animal cells, showing significant potential applications. In recent years, research on PELNs has significantly increased, highlighting three main issues:(1) the mixed sources of plant materials for PELNs;(2) the lack of a unified system for isolating and characterizing PELNs;(3) the urgent need to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the cross-regulation of biological functions by PELNs. This article focused on these concerns. It began by summarizing the biological origin and composition of PELNs, discussing the techniques for isolating and characterizing PELNs, and analyzing their biomedical applications and potential future research directions., aiming to promote the establishment of standardized research protocols for PELNs and provide theoretical references for in-depth exploration of the mechanisms underlying PELNs' cross-regulatory effects.

Synthetic biology of plants-derived medicinal natural products / 生物工程学报

Medicinal natural products derived from plants are usually of low content and difficult to extract and isolate. Moreover, these compounds are structurally complex, making it difficult to obtain them by environmental unfriendly chemical synthesis. Biosynthesis of medicinal natural products through synthetic biology is a novel, environment-friendly and sustainable approach. Taking terpenoids (ginsenosides, paclitaxel, artemisinin, tanshinones), alkaloids (vincristine and morphine), and flavonoids (breviscapine) as examples, this review summarizes the advances of the biosynthetic pathways and synthetic biology strategies of plant-derived medicinal natural products. Moreover, we introduce the key technologies and methods of synthetic biology used in the research of medicinal natural products, and provide future prospects in this area.

Hop-derived Xanthohumol Induces HL-60 Leukemia Cells Death

Background : Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) affects both kids and adults, however it is more prevalent in younger population. Although APL has a favorable prognostic, patients that relapse often do not respond positively to additional chemotherapy. Therefore, there is a need to further identify ways to overcome these challenges. Hypothesis: In this study, we examined antileukemic effects of xanthohumol (XN), a prenylated flav onoid derived from hops ( Humulus lupulus L ), on human promyelocytic HL - 60 cells. Materials and Methods : HL - 60 cells were exposed to different concentrations of XN (?M) for 24 h. Cell viability, cell morphology, chromatin condensation, cPARP - 1 level, and caspase - 3 activation, and the expression of p21 WAF1/Cip1 were analyzed. Results : XN reduced HL - 60 cell viability in a dose - dependent manner. XN induced a dose - dependent morphological changes including cell shrinkage and b lebbing , and significantly increased the number of cells with condensed chromatin. XN significantly increased the level of cPARP - 1, active caspase - 3, and the expression of p21WAF/CIP mRNA. Conclusion : These data indicate that XN induces HL - 60 cell death by regula ting cell cycle progression and apoptosis. This study suggests that XN may have antileukemic preventive effects.

Antimicrobial mechanism of antimicrobial peptide and research progress / 中国组织工程研究

BACKGROUND: As a potential candidate that can be extracted from natural sources and used to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria, antimicrobial peptides have attracted extensive attention of scientists. Familiarity with the antimicrobial mechanism of antimicrobial peptides is conducive to the clinical application of antimicrobial peptides. OBJECTIVE: To review the advance in research of antimicrobial mechanism of antimicrobial peptides. METHODS: The first author conducted a computer-based retrieval of PubMed, Springeriink, Web of Science. ScienceDirect databases for articles regarding the antimicrobial mechanism and research advance published from January 2013 to March 2019. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Antimicrobial peptides are a class of special molecules with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. In some organisms, antimicrobial peptides arc considered lo bo an important part of innate immune system. The antimicrobial mechanism of antimicrobial peptides can be divided into two main modes: direct killing and immune regulation, and direct killing mechanism can be further divided into membrane targeting and non-membrane targeting. At the same time, based on the extensive application of antimicrobial peptides, it is expected that many resistance strategies have been developed in microbial environments such as staphylococcus, oral bacteria (including streptococcus) and intestinal bacteria (including salmonella). These resistance strategies mainly include passive resistance and induction or adaptive resistance mechanisms. In the future research and application, cationic peptide is an effective choice to solve the increasing multidrug resistance. In addition to the obligation to design new methods to combat the resistance of antimicrobial peptides in bacteria, general preventive measures against the resistance of conventional antibiotics should also be paid attention to.

Activities of polysaccharides in combination with aluminum adjuvant in varicella-zoster subunit vaccines / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

Objective To evaluate the immunostimulatory effects of polysaccharides, including Lycium barbarum polysaccharides ( LBP) , Angelica polysaccharides ( AP) , Licorice polysaccharides ( LP) and Inulin polysaccharides ( IP) , used alone or in combination with aluminum adjuvant on the recombinant protein of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) glycoprotein (gE) as an immunogen in mice. Methods BALB/c mice were randomly divided into 11 groups with five in each group. Intramuscular injection was given at Days 0 and 14. Serum samples were collected at weeks 0, 2, 3, 4 and detected for total anti-gE IgG titers and an-tibody subtypes by indirect ELISA. The mice were sacrificed at week 4 to collect spleen lymphocytes aseptic-ally. CCK-8 method was used to evaluate the proliferation of spleen lymphocytes. The levels of IFN-γ and IL-4 were measured by ELISA. The percentages of CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ T cell subsets were deter-mined by flow cytometry. Results The four plant-derived polysaccharides in combination with aluminum adjuvant showed good adjuvant activities. LP combined with aluminum adjuvant effectively increased the titer of IgG2, promote the proliferation of splenocytes and enhanced the secretion of IFN-γ and IL-4. Further-more, it also induced CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ T cell proliferation in vivo. Conclusions The four plant-derived polysaccharides in combination with aluminum adjuvant could all enhance antibody production. LP combined with aluminum adjuvant could induce cell-mediated immune responses, suggesting that it might be a promising adjuvant for varicella-zoster subunit vaccines.

Histopathological Evaluation of the Efficacy for Plant-produced E2 Protein Vaccine against Classical Swine Fever Virus (CSFV) in Piglets

Classical swine fever (CSF), previously known as hog cholera, remains one of the most important swine-related contagious diseases worldwide. In order to eradicate classical swine fever virus (CSFV), it is commonly used in LOM-850 strain as a live attenuated CSF vaccine. However, there are symptoms of vaccination, such as the depression of feed intake, and difficulty of differentiation between infected and vaccinated hosts is impossible based on the antibodies induced. Nicotiana benthamiana were considered as an alternative to the production of recombinant vaccines on account of higher yields and levels of soluble protein than other models and crops in protein recombinant products. This study was conducted to evaluate histopathological validation of the plant-produced E2 fusion protein (ppE2) in piglets. The piglets were challenged by an injection of YC11WB strain in 7 days, 11 days and 14 days after one shot of the vaccination. The histopathological examination indicated that ppE2 can protect against lethal CSFV challenge at least 11 days of vaccination in piglets. These data suggest that the ppE2 can be an effective vaccine against CSFV in piglets.

The Killing Effects and Preliminary Mechanism of Natural Plant-derived Antimicrobial Solution(PAMs)to Human Liver Cancer HEPG-2 Cells / 现代生物医学进展

Objective:In this study,a series of experiments were conducted to research the mechanism of anticancer and preliminary molecular effects of PAMs on the HEPG-2 cancer cells.Methods:Morphological observation and MTT assay were used to explore the inhibition and killing effect of PAMs acting on HEPG-2.AO/EB staining and Annexin V-FITC/PI staining were employed to observe the apoptosis of HEPG-2 treated with PAMs.The expression level of Foxm1,bcl-2 and others genes in HEPG-2 cells were detected by using qRT-PCR and western blot.Wound healing and transwell experiments determined if PAMs can inhibit the migration of HEPG-2.Results:PAMs can inhibit and kill HEPG-2 cells in time and dose-dependent manners,and the cytotoxic effects were closely related to the cell apoptosis.The mRNA expression of foxm1,bcl-2 and surviving gene were remarkably decreased in HEPG-2 cells after the treatment of PAMs.PAMs decreased the FoXM1 protein expression in HEPG-2 cells,while up-regulating thep53 protein expression.,and it could also inhibit the migration of cancer cells.Conclusions:The possible molecular mechanism for the killing of HEPG-2 cancer cells by PAMs was proposed.By down-regulating the expression of foxm1 and up-regulating the expression of p53,the transcriptional expression of their downstream target genes survivin and bcl-2 was inhibited or reduced,hence enhancing the cancer cell apoptosis.This study provides an important foundation for the development of anti-cancer Chinese folk medicine based on PAMs.

Advances in researches of biogenic molluscicides / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

Biogenic molluscicides refer to the use of plants,animals and micro?organisms or their metabolites,and synthesis biomimetic molluscicides to kill Oncomelania hupensis snails. With the rapid development of science and technology,new bio?genic molluscicides are continuously emerging and the category also continues to expand. According to the molluscicidal active ingredient and sources,at present,the biogenic molluscicides with in?depth studies include plant?derived molluscicides,micro?organism molluscicides,microbial metabolite molluscicides and animal molluscicides. This paper reviews the advances in the re?searches of biogenic molluscicides in recent years.

Pancreatic Lipase Inhibitor from Food Plant: Potential Molecule for Development of Safe Anti-obesity Drug.

Obesity is a global health concern, widely recognized as the largest and fastest growing public health problem in the developed and developing countries associated with high morbidity and mortality. It is a multifactorial disease resulting in significant impairment of health. The strategies used for the treatment of obesity generally comprise of prescription of drugs and surgery. Number of basic mechanisms has been considered for obesity management but these entail serious complexities. In recent year’s pancreatic lipase, a principal lipolytic enzyme secreted by the pancreas has gained importance as -obesity target. As the PL acts in the duodenum it has least involvement with the blood or brain, avoiding a lot of drug related side effects. Although PL has been considered as good target for obesity management, the drug discovery and development in this section is not abundantly explored. Numerous natural molecules have been established for pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity but only orlistat (tetrahydrolipstatin), a saturated derivative of lipstatin designed to inhibit the action of gastrointestinal lipase approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for longterm usage. However, it has severe side effects. Therefore, the possible treatment of obesity using natural products is an extensive field to be explored. Several plant derived molecules including medicinal plants have been reported for their pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity. In particular pancreatic lipase inhibitor from food plants can be considered as a good source for the discovery of a safe anti-obesity agent due to possible active principle as edible component. Present review mainly focuses on the pancreatic lipase inhibitor from food plants and its potential in the development of safe anti-obesity drug.

Physiological Effects of Plant-derived Smoke Water and Its Application in Medicinal Plants / 世界科学技术-中医药现代化

Some documents had reported that plant-derived smoke water showed prominent effects of promoting seed germination, seedling growth and fruit quality of crops and horticultural plants. Recently, researches had also focused on the significant activity of smoke water in improving the yield and quality of medicinal plants, which provided new ideas for increasing the medicinal plants yield and quality. In this paper, physiological effects, active component, and mechanism of smoke water and its application in medicinal plants were summarized, which can be used as references of more value for the further development of medicinal plants.

Phytomedicines as potential inhibitors of β amyloid aggregation: significance to Alzheimer's disease / 中国天然药物

Throughout the history of drug development, plants have been an important source for the discovery of novel therapeutically active compounds for many diseases. The ethnopharmacological approach has provided several leads to identify potential new drugs from plant sources, including those for memory disorders. For the treatment of Alzheimer's disease the drug discovery focus shifted from cholinesterase inhibitors, to other targets primarily based on two key neuropathological hallmarks, namely the hyperphosphorylation of the tau protein resulting in the formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), and the increased formation and aggregation of amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ) derived from amyloid precursor protein (APP). The present article aims to provide a comprehensive literature survey of plants and their constituents that have been tested for Aβ aggregation, thus possibly relieving several features of Alzheimer's disease (AD).