Arctigenin Triggers Apoptosis and Autophagy via PI3K/Akt/mTOR Inhibition in PC-3M Cells.

Arctigenin (ARG), a natural lignans compound isolated from Arctium lappa L. In this study, the anti-tumor effect of ARG on prostate cancer cell PC-3M and the mechanism of apoptosis and autophagy induced by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway were discussed, and further confirmed by the joint treatment of ARG and PI3K inhibitor LY294002. Here, the effect of ARG on cell viability was evaluated in PC-3M cells by Cell Counting Kit-8 reagent (CCK-8) assay. After the treatment of ARG, colony formation assay was used to detect the anti-proliferation effect. Annexin V-fluoresceine isothiocyanate/propidium iodide (FITC/PI) kit and 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining were used to detect the apoptosis level, and cell cycle changes were analyzed by flow cytometry. The expression of autophagy was detected by acridine orange staining. In addition, the expression levels of apoptosis and autophagy-related proteins were analyzed by Western blot. The result showed that different concentrations of ARG inhibited the proliferation of PC-3M cells. DAPI staining and flow cytometry showed that ARG induced PC-3M cell apoptosis and arrested cell in G0/G1 phase. Acridine orange staining showed that ARG induced autophagy in PC-3M cells. Western blot experiments showed that ARG inhibited the expression of Bcl-2, promoted the expression of Bax and cleaved caspase-3. At the same time, the expression of autophagy-related proteins LC3B-II and Beclin-1 increased after ARG treatment, but P62 decreased. In addition, further studies have shown that treatment with LY294002 enhanced the effects of ARG on the expression of proteins associated with apoptosis and autophagy, indicating that ARG may induce apoptosis and autophagy through PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway.

[Estimation of the physical and mechanical properties of Neosinocalamus affinins using near infrared spectroscopy].

Near infrared spectroscopy was applied to rapidly predict density, modulus of rupture and tensile strength parallel to grain of neosinocalamus affinins. Backward interval partial least squares (BiPLS) was used to find the most informative spectrum ranges, and build models based on raw spectra and pretreated spectra, including first derivative spectra, second derivative spectra, Savitzky-Golay smoothing spectra and standard normalized variate spectra. And partial least squares (PLS) models were also developed in the whole wavelength range 350-2500 nm. The results show that compared with PLS models, BiPLS could effectively find the optimal spectrum regions and improve the predictive ability of models. The optimal models of density, modulus of rupture and tensile strength parallel to grain were obtained through BiPLS method that separated the whole spectra pretreated by standard normalized variate, second derivative and first derivative respectively into 20, 30 and 20 intervals. And the prediction models of density, modulus of rupture and tensile strength parallel to grain had correlation coefficient (r) 0.85, 0.88 and 0.88, as well as root mean standard error of prediction (RMSEP) 0.0524, 0.0185 and 0.0292, respectively. The relation between NIR predicted values and actual values was good in all cases. Therefore, the experimental results demonstrated that NIR spectroscopy was promising for predicting the physical and mechanical properties of neosinocalamus affinins.

[Determination of crystallinity in Neosinocalamus affinins based on near infrared spectroscopy and PLS methods].

Near infrared spectroscopy technique combined with chemometrics methods was applied to predict crystallinity of Neosinocalamus affinins. Three improved partial least squares (PLS) methods, including interval partial least squares (iPLS), synergy interval partial least squares (siPLS) and backward interval partial least squares (biPLS), were used to find the most informative ranges and build models with better predictive quality based on multiplicative scatter correction spectra. And then the models were compared with PLS model which was developed on the whole wavelength range 350-2 500 nm. The results showed that the models built by the three improved PLS methods had higher predictive ability than that of PLS model, and the optimal model was obtained by siPLS method that separated the whole spectra into 30 intervals and combined three intervals. The siPLS model had correlation coefficient (R) of 0.88 and root mean standard error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.011 7. Therefore, through selecting the effective wavelength range, siPLS method could accurately and rapidly predict crystallinity in Neosinocalamus affinins.

[Application of NIR spectroscopy to estimate of MFA and fiber length of Neosinocalamus a f finis].

Near infrared spectroscopy was applied to rapidly predict microfibril angle (MFA) and fiber length of Neosinocalamus a f finis Keng by using a fiber-optic probe in diffuse reflectance mode. The MFA and fiber length were measured by X-ray diffractometry and optical microscope, respectively. Partial least squares (PLS) was used to build models based on raw and pretreated spectra, including noise spectra and noise combined with orthogonal signal correction (OSC) spectra. The results showed that the PLS models of MFA and fiber length, based on noise combined with OSC spectra, gave the strongest correlations, with correlation coefficient (R) of 0.8936 and 0.9883 and root mean standard error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.2920 and 0.1460 in prediction set. The correlations between NIR predicted and MFA/fiber length actual values are very good. Therefore, it is concluded that MFA and fiber length of N. a f finis can be estimated by NIR spectroscopy with sufficient accuracy.