Differences in chemical components in processing of dried ginger-steamed, sand-fried, and rice swill water-bleached Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata pieces in "Jianchang" faction based on UPLC-MS/MS / 中国中药杂志

This study compared the changes in chemical components during the processing of different types of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata(ALRP) in "Jianchang" faction, i.e., dried ginger-steamed ALRP pieces(Yin-FP), sand-fried ALRP pieces(Yang-FP), and rice swill water-bleached ALRP pieces(DFP), and provided a scientific basis for the mechanism in toxicity reduction and efficacy enhancement from a compositional perspective. Samples were collected during the processing of the three types of ALRP pieces, yielding raw ALRP pieces, water-bleached Yin-FP, ginger juice-moistened Yin-FP, steamed Yin-FP, water-bleached Yang-FP, sand-fried Yang-FP, water-bleached DFP, rice swill water-bleached DFP, and roasted DFP. Aconitine, mesaconitine, hypaconitine, benzoylaconine, benzoylmesaconine, benzoylhypaconine, aconine, mesaconine, hypaconine, salsolinol, fuziline, and higenamine in the extracts were determined by UPLC-MS/MS, and then content analysis and cluster heatmap analysis were performed on 11 sets of samples. During the processing of the three types of ALRP pieces, bleaching significantly reduced the content of 12 alkaloids; steaming, stir-frying, and roasting significantly reduced the content of diester-type alkaloids(aconitine, mesaconitine, and hypaconitine) and significantly increased the content of monoester-type alkaloids(benzoylaconine, benzoylmesaconine, and benzoylhypaconine) and aminoalcohol-type alkaloids(aconine, mesaconine, and hypaconine). During the processing of Yin-FP, the diester-type alkaloids continuously decreased, while the monoester-type and aminoalcohol-type alkaloids showed an initial decrease followed by an increase. During the processing of Yin-FP, Yang-FP, and DFP, the diester-type alkaloids continuously decreased, while the monoester-type and aminoalcohol-type alkaloids showed an initial decrease followed by an increase. Steamed Yin-FP showed a higher increase in content than fried Yang-FP and roasted DFP. Comprehensive analysis of content differences in toxic and therapeutic components in three ALRP pieces suggests that the distinctive processing methods in "Jianchang" faction can indeed achieve detoxification and efficacy enhancement on ALRP. This study provides references for understanding the mechanisms of action of the three processing methods.

Content Determination of Multiple Indexes in Zhengxin Jiangzhi Tablets and Cluster Heatmap Analysis / 中国药房

OBJECTIVE：To establish the method for the content determination of 7 components，such as puerarin ， 3′-methoxypuerarin，daidzein，rutin，hesperidin，salvianolic acid A and quercetin ，in Zhengxin jiangzhi tablets ，and conduct cluster heatmap analysis. METHODS ：HPLC method was adopted. The separation was performed on Kromasil C 18 column with mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile- 0.1％ formic acid solution （gradient elution ）at the flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The detection wavelength was set at 280 nm，and the column temperature was 25 ℃. The sample size was 10 μL. Taking the content data as the object，the cluster heatmap was drawn by Hiplot scientific research mapping platform. RESULTS ：The linear range of puerarin ， 3′-methoxypuerarin，daidzein，rutin，hesperidin，salvianolic acid A and quercetin were 17.00-170.00（r＝0.999 9），5.14-51.40（r＝ 0.999 8），3.00-30.00（r＝0.999 8），153.00-1 530.00（r＝0.999 9），7.88-78.75（r＝0.999 8），2.85-28.50（r＝0.999 9）and 11.34-113.40 μg/mL（r＝0.999 8），respectively. RSDs of precision ，stability（24 h）and repeatability tests were all less than 2％； the average recoveries were 99.58％（RSD＝0.83％，n＝6），100.31％（RSD＝1.17％，n＝6），100.61％（RSD＝1.08％，n＝6）， 100.05％（RSD＝0.82％，n＝6），100.31％（RSD＝1.38％，n＝6），100.31％（RSD＝0.85％，n＝6），99.85％（RSD＝1.01％， n＝6），respectively. The contents of above components in 10 batches of samples were 7.262 5-8.941 5，2.464 9-3.068 9，1.478 9- 1.883 4，58.632 8-79.408 3，3.569 4-4.500 6，1.077 6-1.341 5，1.139 7-5.957 0 mg/g，respectively. Results of cluster heatmap analysis showed that 10 batches of samples could be divided into 4 categories，including S 1-S3 as one category ，S4 as one category，S5-S6 as one category and S 7-S10 as one category. CONCLUSIONS ：The established method is simple ，accurate and specific，which can be used for the quality control of Zhengxin jiangzhi tablets ，combined with cluster heatmap analysis. There are some differences in the quality of different batches of samples.

SNP Panel Analysis of Ancestry Inference in East Asian Populations / 法医学杂志

Objective To develop an SNP Panel for East Asian population, which has a high individual identification rate and the capability of ancestry analysis. Methods The 55 SNP Panel by Professor KIDD of Yale University and the 128 SNP Panel by Professor SELDIN of Davis School of California University, 170 SNP Panel in total was used as the basis and its test data in the East Asian population was collected. The genetic parameters of SNP loci were calculated and combined with the results of heatmap analysis to screen SNP loci suitable for East Asian population. Some Tibetan and Han samples were tested. The possibility of using the SNP loci in ancestry inference was analyzed by means of STRUCTURE analysis, principal component analysis and heatmap analysis. Results A Panel with 45 SNPs （45 SNP Panel） was screened out, and the average genetic parameters of each SNP were better than 170 SNP Panel, with the same ancestry analysis and inference ability. Conclusion In terms of ancestry inference information, the 45 SNP Panel can completely replace the 170 SNP Panel and achieve the same ancestry analysis and inference ability. In genetic parameters, 45 SNP Panel is better than 170 SNP Panel in the East Asian population, which shows its important potential forensic application value.

Elucidating the interaction of kansui and licorice by comparative plasma/tissue metabolomics and a heatmap with relative fold change / 药物分析学报

Although compatibility is highly advocated in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), inappropriate com-bination of some herbs may reduce the therapeutic action and even produce toxic effects. Kansui and licorice, one of TCM"Eighteen Incompatible Medicaments", are the most representative cases of improper herbal combination, which may still be applied simultaneously under given conditions. However, the potential mechanism of their compatibility and incompatibility is unclear. In the present study, two different ratios of kansui and licorice, representing their compatibility and incompatibility respectively, were designed to elucidate their interaction by comparative plasma/tissue metabolomics and a heatmap with relative fold change. As a result, glycocholic acid, prostaglandin F2a, dihydroceramide and sphin-ganine were screened out as the principal alternative biomarkers of compatibility group; sphinganine, dihydroceramide, arachidonic acid, leukotriene B4, acetoacetic acid and linoleic acid were those of in-compatibility group. Based on the values of biomarkers in each tissue, the liver was identified as the compatible target organ, while the heart, liver, and kidney were the incompatible target organs. Furthermore, important pathways for compatibility and incompatibility were also constructed. These results help us to better understand and utilize the two herbs, and the study was the first to reveal some innate characters of herbs related to TCM"Eighteen Incompatible Medicaments".

QCanvas: An Advanced Tool for Data Clustering and Visualization of Genomics Data

We developed a user-friendly, interactive program to simultaneously cluster and visualize omics data, such as DNA and protein array profiles. This program provides diverse algorithms for the hierarchical clustering of two-dimensional data. The clustering results can be interactively visualized and optimized on a heatmap. The present tool does not require any prior knowledge of scripting languages to carry out the data clustering and visualization. Furthermore, the heatmaps allow the selective display of data points satisfying user-defined criteria. For example, a clustered heatmap of experimental values can be differentially visualized based on statistical values, such as p-values. Including diverse menu-based display options, QCanvas provides a convenient graphical user interface for pattern analysis and visualization with high-quality graphics.