Status quo of and challenges for research on rust disease in medicinal plants / 中国中药杂志

Medicinal plants are beneficial to human health. However,most of the major producing regions of medicinal plants suffer from rust disease,which threatens the yield and quality of Chinese medicinal materials,thus causes huge economic loss,and hinders the sustainable development of the Chinese medicine industry. By the end of 2020,rust disease had been reported in medicinal plants of 76 species and 33 families. In the 76 species,79 rust pathogens were detected. The majority of these pathogens belonged to Puccinia( 33,39. 24%),Coleosporium( 14,15. 19%),and Aecidium( 11,13. 92%). Of these 79 rust pathogens,10 were autoecious and 13 were heteroecious. Through literature research,this study reviewed the symptoms,pathogen species,severity and distribution,prevalence and occurrence conditions,and control measures of rust disease in medicinal plants,and thereby summarized the research status of rust disease in medicinal plants and the gap with other plants,which is expected to serve as a reference for further research on rust disease in medicinal plants.

Lovastatin inhibited the growth of gastric cancer cells.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Gastric cancer cells required large amount of cholesterol to grow and proliferate. The objective of this study was to examine whether the growth of gastric cancer cells was inhibited in vivo by using lovastatin, an effective cholesterol-lowing drug. METHODOLOGY: The mice models for gastric cancer cells MKN45 were divided into two groups, the control and experimental group. Lovastatin was administered orally to the experimental group, while saline given to the control group. We measured the volume and weight of tumors, and calculated RTV (relative tumor volume), T/C (relative added value of tumor) and the inhibition rate. Then the expression levels of PCNA in gastric cancer tissues were examined immunohistochemically. RESULTS: The volume of tumors in the control and experimental groups was 3.801 +/- 1.078 and 3.325 +/- 0.745, respectively (p > 0.05), while RTV was 49.684 +/- 12.250 and 42.506 +/- 10.515, respectively (p > 0.05). T/C, an indication of antitumor, was 85.55%. The weight of tumors of the mice in control and experimental group was 3.23 +/- 0.43 and 2.65 +/- 0.58, respectively (p < 0.05). The inhibition rate was 20.48%. The PCNA index in the lovastatin group was 32.35 +/- 6.43%, while in the control group was 91.24 +/- 6.59%. The PCNA index of lovastatin group was much lower (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Lovastatin inhibited the growth of gastric cancer cells.