Selective activation of the hypothalamic orexinergic but not melanin-concentrating hormone neurons following pilocarpine-induced seizures in rats.

Introduction: Sleep disorders are common comorbidities in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Since the lateral hypothalamic (LH) and the perifornical orexinergic (ORX) and melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons are known to play opposing roles in the regulation of sleep and arousal, dysregulation of ORX and MCH neurons might contribute to the disturbance of sleep-wakefulness following epileptic seizures. Methods: To test this hypothesis, rats were treated with lithium chloride and pilocarpine to induce status epilepticus (SE). Electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyograph (EMG) were recorded for analysis of sleep-wake states before and 24 h after SE. Double-labeling immunohistochemistry of c-Fos and ORX or MCH was performed on brain sections from the epileptic and control rats. In addition, anterograde and retrograde tracers in combination with c-Fos immunohistochemistry were used to analyze the possible activation of the amygdala to ORX neural pathways following seizures. Results: It was found that epileptic rats displayed prolonged wake phase and decreased non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) phase compared to the control rats. Prominent neuronal activation was observed in the amygdala and the hypothalamus following seizures. Interestingly, in the LH and the perifornical nucleus, ORX but not MCH neurons were significantly activated (c-Fos+). Neural tracing showed that seizure-activated (c-Fos+) ORX neurons were closely contacted by axon terminals originating from neurons in the medial amygdala. Discussion: These findings suggest that the spread of epileptic activity from amygdala to the hypothalamus causes selective activation of the wake-promoting ORX neurons but not sleep-promoting MCH neurons, which might contribute to the disturbance of sleep-wakefulness in TLE.

Retrospect: The Outbreak Evaluation of COVID-19 in Wuhan District of China.

There were 27 novel coronavirus pneumonia cases found in Wuhan, China in December 2019, named as 2019-nCoV temporarily and COVID-19 formally by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the 11 February 2020. In December 2019 and January 2020, COVID-19 has spread on a large scale among the population, which brought terrible disaster to the life and property of the Chinese people. In this paper, we analyze the features and pattern of the virus transmission. Considering the influence of indirect transmission, a conscious-based Susceptible-Exposed-Infective-Recovered (SEIR) (C-SEIR) model is proposed, and the difference equation is used to establish the model. We simulated the C-SEIR model and key important parameters. The results show that (1) increasing people's awareness of the virus can effectively reduce the spread of the virus; (2) as the capability and possibility of indirect infection increases, the proportion of people being infected will also increase; (3) the increased cure rate can effectively reduce the number of infected people. Then, the virus transmission can be modelled and used for the inflexion and extinction period of pandemic development so as to provide theoretical support for the Chinese government in the decision-making of pandemic prevention and recovery of economic production. Further, this study has demonstrated the effectiveness of the prevention measures taken by the Chinese government such as multi-level administrative district isolation and public health awareness.

Development of 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTS)-modified bone marrow mononuclear cell membrane chromatography for screening anti-osteoporosis components from Scutellariae Radix.

Osteoporosis is a bone metabolic disease caused by the imbalance between osteoblasts and osteoclasts due to excess osteoclastogenesis, manifesting in the decrease of bone density and bone strength. Scutellariae Radix shows good anti-osteoporosis activity, but the effective component is still unclear. Cell membrane chromatography (CMC) is a biological affinity chromatography with membrane immobilized on a silica carrier as the stationary phase. It can realize a dynamical simulation of interactions between drugs and receptors on cell membrane, which is suitable for screening active compounds from complex systems. In this study, the components of Scutellariae Radix with potential anti-osteoporosis activity through inhibiting the differentiation from bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs) to osteoclast were screened by a BMMC/CMC analytical system. Firstly, a new 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTS)-modified BMMC/CMC stationary phase was developed to realize covalent binding with cell membrane fractions. By investigating the retention time (t R) of the positive drug, the life span of the MPTS-modified CMC columns was significantly improved from 3 to 12 days. Secondly, 6 components of Scutellariae Radix were screened to show affinity to membrane receptors on BMMCs by a two-dimensional BMMC/CMC-TOFMS analytical system. Among them, tectochrysin demonstrated the best anti-osteoporosis effect in vitro, which has never been reported. We found that tectochrysin could inhibit the differentiation of BMMCs into osteoclasts induced by receptor activator of nuclear factor-κΒ ligand (RANKL) and macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) in a concentration-dependent manner in vitro. In vivo, it significantly reduced the loss of bone trabeculae in ovariectomized mice, and decreased the level of C-terminal cross-linking telopeptides of type 1 collagen (CTX-1), tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRAP-5b), interleukin 6 (IL-6) in serum. In conclusion, tectochrysin serves as a potential candidate in the treatment of osteoporosis. The proposed two-dimensional MPTS-modified BMMC/CMC-TOFMS analytical system shows the advantages of long-life span and fast recognition ability, which is very suitable for infrequent cell lines.

Comparative two-dimensional HepG2 and L02/ cell membrane chromatography/ C18/ time-of-flight mass spectrometry for screening selective anti-hepatoma components from Scutellariae Radix.

Screening active components from Chinese traditional medicine is an effective approach to discover new drugs or active structures. Cell membrane chromatography (CMC), developed rapidly because of its high sensitivity and effectiveness, has achieved a wide application in screening active components on pathological cells or tissues. However, it is hard to clarify the selectivity between pathological and normal tissues through simply using pathological cells. In this study, a novel comparative two-dimensional (2D) cell membrane chromatography system was established. Briefly, hepatic carcinoma HepG2 CMC columns and normal hepatic L02 CMC columns were simultaneously loaded to screen potential selective antitumor components from Scutellariae Radix by comparing the retention behaviors on two kinds of cells. Totally 13 components in Scutellariae Radix retained on both HepG2/ CMC and L02/ CMC columns. Among them, three components, oroxylin A, wogonin and chrysin, were screened out to perform stronger affinity on HepG2 columns, and in further cell proliferation assay, IC50 of these three compounds of HepG2 cells were 9.66 µM, 66.77 µM and 36.26 µM respectively, while of L02 cells, IC50 of chrysin was 59.10 µM and over 200 µM of the other two components. On the whole, the toxity of these three compounds to hepatoma cells was stronger than to normal cells. It can be supposed that oroxylin A, wogonin, and chrysin own the potential to be developed as selective anti-hepatoma active components, which expects further research to validate.

Combination of comprehensive two-dimensional prostate cancer cell membrane chromatographic system and network pharmacology for characterizing membrane binding active components from Radix et Rhizoma Rhei and their targets.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a common and fatal cancer for men and effective treatment options are still not enough for patients. Radix et Rhizoma Rhei had been applied to treat PCa long-termly and effectively when combined with surgical treatment and chemotherapy. However, its active components and target proteins are still not quite clear. As membrane receptors play a vital role in PCa, in this study, a novel strategy that combines comprehensive 2D 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane-decorated prostate cancer cell (DU145) membrane chromatographic (CMC) system with network pharmacology approach was developed to characterize membrane binding active components proteins from Radix et Rhizoma Rhei and their targets. Thirteen active components were screened out by CMC system, among which emodin and rhapontigrnin with good membrane binding behaviors were validated to show ideal inhibitory effects on DU145 cells by cell viability and cell apoptosis assays. Five membrane proteins were predicted as the potential targets by the a specific network pharmacology approach, among which mast/stem cell growth factor receptor Kit (KIT) was identified as the most possible target by network data mining. Surface plasmon resonance analysis verified that the dissociation constant (KD) of rhapontigrnin and emodin with KIT was 6.06 × 10-5 M and 8.82 × 10-5 M, respectively. Our results showed that the combination of comprehensive 2D CMC system and network pharmacology based target identification could not only rapidly identify the membrane binding components but also find the potential membrane protein targets with high confidence, which could broaden the range of application scope of CMC, especially for the screening of active compounds from complex chemical samples using primary pathologic cell lines.

Comprehensive two-dimensional APTES-decorated MCF7-cell membrane chromatographic system for characterizing potential anti-breast-cancer components from Yuanhu-Baizhi herbal medicine pair.

Rhizoma corydalis and Radix Angelicae Dahurica (Yuanhu-Baizhi) herbal medicine pair has been used for thousands of years and has been reported to be potentially active in recent cancer therapy. But the exact active components or fractions remain unclear. In this study, a new comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES)-decorated MCF7-cell membrane chromatography (CMC)/capcell-C18 column/time-of-flight mass spectrometry system was established for screening potential active components and clarifying the active fraction of Yuanhu-Baizhi pair. APTES was modified on the surface of silica, which can provide an amino group to covalently link cell membrane fragments with the help of glutaraldehyde in order to improve the stability and column life span of the MCF7 CMC column. The comprehensive 2D MCF7-CMC system showed good separation and identification abilities. Our screen results showed that the retention components are mainly from the alkaloids in Yuanhu (12 compounds) and the coumarins (10 compounds) in Baizhi, revealing the active fractions of Yuanhu-Baizhi herbal medicine pair. Oxoglaucine, protopine, berberine, osthole, isopimpinellin and palmitic acid were selected as typical components to test the effects on cell proliferation and their IC50 were calculated as 38.17 µM, 29.45 µM, 45.42 µM, 132.7 µM, 156.8 µM and 90.5 µM respectively. Cell apoptosis assay showed that the drug efficacy was obtained mainly through inducing cell apoptosis. Furthermore, a synergistic assay results demonstrated that oxoglaucine (representative of alkaloids from Yuanhu) and isopimpinellin (representative of coumarins from Baizhi) showed significant synergistic efficacy with GFT, indicating that these components may act on other membrane receptors. The proposed 2D CMC system could also be equipped with other cells for further applications. Besides, the follow-up in-vitro experimental strategy using cell proliferation assay, cell apoptosis assay and synergistic assay proved to be a practical way to confirm the active fractions of herbal medicine.

Target Identification of Kinase Inhibitor Alisertib (MLN8237) by Using DNA-Programmed Affinity Labeling.

Accurate identification of the molecular targets of bioactive small molecules is a highly important yet challenging task in biomedical research. Previously, a method named DPAL (DNA-programmed affinity labeling) for labeling and identifying the cellular targets of small molecules and nucleic acids was developed. Herein, DPAL is applied for the target identification of Alisertib (MLN8237), which is a highly specific aurora kinase A (AKA) inhibitor and a drug candidate being tested in clinical trials for cancer treatment. Apart from the well-established target of AKA, several potential new targets of MLN8237 were identified. Among them, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38) and laminin receptor (LAMR) were validated to be implicated in the anticancer activities of MLN8237. Interestingly, these new targets were not identified with non-DNA-based affinity probes. This work may facilitate an understanding of the molecular basis of the efficacy and side effects of MLN8237 as a clinical drug candidate. On the other hand, this work has also demonstrated that the method of DPAL could be a useful tool for target identification of bioactive small molecules.

Identification of Annexin A2 as a target protein for plant alkaloid matrine.

Matrine is a plant alkaloid and a major active component in the Chinese medical herb Sophora flavescens. Matrine has shown potent anti-cancer activities but its molecular target(s) and mechanism are still unknown. Using the photo-affinity labeling approach, for the first time, Annexin A2 was identified as a direct-binding target of matrine in cancer cells.

Enantiospecific determination of arotinolol in rat plasma by LC-MS/MS: application to a stereoselective pharmacokinetic study.

A highly sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and fully validated for quantification of arotinolol enantiomers in rat plasma using haloperidol as the internal standard. After solid phase extraction of 50.0 µL rat plasma in 96 well plate, a baseline resolution of arotinolol enantiomers was achieved on a CHIRALPAK AD-H column using the mobile phase of n-hexane and ethanol in 0.02% diethylamine (20:80, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.550 mL/min within 11.0 min. Acquisition of mass spectrometric data was performed on a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer in multiple-reaction-monitoring (MRM) mode with an ESI source using the transition m/z 372.1 → 316.1 for (±)-arotinolol and m/z 376.1 → 165.1 for haloperidol. The calibration curves of both enantiomers were linear over the range of 1.00-200.0 ng/mL (r(2)>0.992) and the lower limit of quantification was 1.00 ng/mL. Intra- and inter-day precision ranged from 5.6% to 8.9% for R-(-)-arotinolol and 4.6-7.4% for S-(+)-arotinolol. Accuracy varied from 0.0% to 7.0% for R-(-)-arotinolol and 5.0-10.0% for S-(+)-arotinolol. For R-(-)-arotinolol, the recovery ranged from 87.2% to 99.2% and the matrix factor was 1.03-1.09; for S-(+)-arotinolol, the recovery ranged from 88.0% to 92.4% and the matrix factor was 0.84-0.95, both were not concentration dependent. The method was demonstrated with acceptable accuracy, precision and specificity for the determination of arotinolol enantiomers and has been successfully applied to a stereoselective pharmacokinetic study.

18S rRNA hyper-elongation and the phylogeny of Euhemiptera (Insecta: Hemiptera).

The small subunit of nuclear ribosomal RNA (SSU nrRNA), whose sedimentation is mostly 18S in eukaryotes, is considered a relatively conservative marker for resolving phylogenetic relationship at the order level or higher. Length variation in SSU nrDNA is common, and can be rather large in some groups. In studies of Hexapoda phylogeny, the SSU nrDNA has been repeatedly used as a marker. Sternorrhyncha has been rarely included. The lengths of SSU nrDNAs of sternorrhynchids, the basal group of Hemiptera identified in the previous study are 0.3-0.6 kb longer than the usual ones in Hexapoda (1.8-1.9 kb). To use the entire SSU nrDNA sequences or the length-variable parts could cause alignment trouble and therefore affect phylogenetic results, as shown in this study of Euhemiptera phylogeny. Two problems are particularly noticeable. One is that two hyper-variable regions flanking a short length-conservative region could become overlapped in the alignment. This will destroy the positional homology over a larger range. The other is that, when a base pair in a stem of the secondary structure is located near the length-variable regions (LVRs), the simultaneous positional homology of these two bases in the pair is always lost in the alignment results. In this study, the secondary structure model of Hexapoda SSU nrRNA was slightly adjusted and the LVR distributions in it were finely positioned. The noise caused by the hyper LVRs was eliminated and the simultaneous homology for the paired bases was recovered based on the secondary structure model. These corrections improved the quality of the data matrix and hence improved the resolving behavior of the algorithm used. This study provided more convincing evidence for resolving the Euhemiptera suborders phylogeny as (Archaeorrhyncha+(Clypeorrhyncha+(Coleorrhyncha+Heteroptera))). This result provided a more solid background for outgroup determination according to the phylogenetic studies inside each suborder. The problems caused by LVRs have seldom been well addressed. As phylogenetic reconstruction depends more on the data matrix itself than on the algorithm, and length variation of SSU/LSU rRNA exists more or less in any group, it is necessary to closely investigate the effect of rRNA length variation on alignment and phylogenetic reconstruction in more groups.