SARS-CoV-2: Structure, Biology, and Structure-Based Therapeutics Development.

The pandemic of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been posing great threats to the world in many aspects. Effective therapeutic and preventive approaches including drugs and vaccines are still unavailable although they are in development. Comprehensive understandings on the life logic of SARS-CoV-2 and the interaction of the virus with hosts are fundamentally important in the fight against SARS-CoV-2. In this review, we briefly summarized the current advances in SARS-CoV-2 research, including the epidemic situation and epidemiological characteristics of the caused disease COVID-19. We further discussed the biology of SARS-CoV-2, including the origin, evolution, and receptor recognition mechanism of SARS-CoV-2. And particularly, we introduced the protein structures of SARS-CoV-2 and structure-based therapeutics development including antibodies, antiviral compounds, and vaccines, and indicated the limitations and perspectives of SARS-CoV-2 research. We wish the information provided by this review may be helpful to the global battle against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

A Novel Strategy for Decoding and Validating the Combination Principles of Huanglian Jiedu Decoction From Multi-Scale Perspective.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulas treat complex diseases through combined botanical drugs which follow specific compatibility rules to reduce toxicity and increase efficiency. "Jun, Chen, Zuo and Shi" is one of most used compatibility rules in the combination of botanical drugs. However, due to the deficiency of traditional research methods, the quantified theoretical basis of herbal compatibility including principles of "Jun, Chen, Zuo and Shi" are still unclear. Network pharmacology is a new strategy based on system biology and multi-disciplines, which can systematically and comprehensively observe the intervention of drugs on disease networks, and is especially suitable for the research of TCM in the treatment of complex diseases. In this study, we systematically decoded the "Jun, Chen, Zuo and Shi" rules of Huanglian Jiedu Decoction (HJD) in the treatment of diseases for the first time. This interpretation method considered three levels of data. The data in the first level mainly depicts the characteristics of each component in single botanical drug of HJD, include the physical and chemical properties of component, ADME properties and functional enrichment analysis of component targets. The second level data is the characterization of component-target-protein (C-T-P) network in the whole protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, mainly include the characterization of degree and key communities in C-T-P network. The third level data is the characterization of intervention propagation properties of HJD in the treatment of different complex diseases, mainly include target coverage of pathogenic genes and propagation coefficient of intervention effect between target proteins and pathogenic genes. Finally, our method was validated by metabolic data, which could be used to detect the components absorbed into blood. This research shows the scientific basis of "Jun-Chen-Zuo-Shi" from a multi-dimensional perspective, and provides a good methodological reference for the subsequent interpretation of key components and speculation mechanism of the formula.

[Influence of Marine Aquaculture Around Coal Power Plant on Mercury Species Change in Auuatic Ecological Environment].

To investigate the influence of marine aquaculture around coal power plant on Hg species change in aquatic ecological environment, the fish farming area in Xiangshan Harbor, Zhejiang province, was studied. The concentrations of different Hg species in sea water collected from marine aquaculture sites (MS) and references sites (RS) were measured. The result showed that the total mercury (THg) concentration in the surface water reached 83.0 pmol x L(-1) +/- 97.1 pmol x L(-1). Dissolved Hg (DHg) in pore water of core sediment decreased with the increasing depth. Meanwhile, the DHg content in pore water above 10 cm was significantly higher (P < 0.001) than that below 10 cm, which confirmed the influence of coal-fired power plants on the surrounding areas. THg concentration in MS (96.5 pmol x L(-1) +/- 133 pmol x L(-1)) was higher than that in RS (69.5 pmol x L(-1) +/- 39.4 pmol x L(-1)), which was mainly resulted from the accumulation of sewage discharge by the employees and fish feed material in sediments during breeding that were further released to the overlying water. Methylmercury concentration in pore water of MS (24.0 pmol x L(-1) +/- 16.7 pmol x L(-1)) was also significantly higher than that in RS (6.60 pmol x L(-1) +/- 5.11 pmol x L(-1)), which demonstrated that marine aquaculture activities promoted the methylmercury production by increasing the accumulation of organic matter in sediment.