Human anatomy curriculum reform for undergraduate nursing students: An exploratory study.

This study aims to cultivate students' independent learning capacity, promote the interdisciplinary integration of "nursing + anatomy," and establish a curriculum system to enhance applied nursing abilities based on project-based teaching reform of everyday clinical nursing operations. A total of 151 second-year (class of 2021) undergraduate nursing students at a Chinese university were selected for this study. By adjusting the curriculum, reconstructing the teaching contents, employing the "hybrid + flip" teaching method based on BOPPPS (bridge-in, outcomes, preassessment, participatory learning, post-evaluation, summary), and implementing a teaching system based on the "three re-three linkage," a Human Anatomy curriculum with a focus on basic anatomical knowledge was developed and connected with nursing clinical operation practice. The restructuring of the course content received unanimous recognition from both the teaching staff and the students. Notably, students in the class of 2021 achieved significantly higher grades than did students in the class of 2020, who received traditional face-to-face instruction (p < 0.01). These results indicate enhanced clinical application skills among the former group of students. following the implementation of instructional reforms during one semester, students exhibited notable improvements in motivation, program implementation, self-management, and interpersonal communication. A statistically significant increase in overall scores for self-directed learning capacities over the preinstructional period was observed (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the findings of the student satisfaction surveys reflected highly favorable perceptions of the enriched instructional format, high levels of course engagement, frequent faculty-student interactions, and augmented overall competence. The practical implementation of the reform in the context of a Human Anatomy course for undergraduate nursing students led to significant positive outcomes, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of teaching and learning. Students' clinical application abilities and self-directed learning capacities notably improved, while overall satisfaction with the course remained high.

Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Ligustrazine-Flavonoid Derivatives as Potential Anti-Tumor Agents.

In the clinic some anti-tumor drugs have shown damage to normal blood vessels, which could lead to vascular diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the effects of anti-tumor drugs on normal blood vessels at the beginning of the drug design process. In this study, ligustrazine (TMP) and flavonoids were selected as raw materials. Sixteen novel TMP-flavonoid derivatives were designed and synthesized. Interestingly, compounds 14 and 16 were obtained by hydrolysis of a dihydroflavone to a chalcone under alkaline conditions. The cytotoxicity of the TMP-flavonoid derivatives was evaluated on five human tumor cell lines and one classical type of normal endothelial cell lines (HUVEC-12) by an MTT assay. Part of the derivatives showed better anti-tumor activities than the corresponding raw materials. Among them, compound 14 exhibited the closest activity to the positive control against the Bel-7402 cell line (IC50 = 10.74 ± 1.12 µM; DDP IC50 = 6.73 ± 0.37 µM) and had no toxicity on HUVEC-12 (IC50 > 40 µM). Subsequently, fluorescence staining and flow cytometry analysis indicated that compound 14 could induce apoptosis of Bel-7402 cell lines. Moreover, the structure-activity relationships of these derivatives were briefly discussed.

Quinone derivatives from the genus Rubia and their bioactivities.

The extracts and phytochemicals of the genus Rubia have drawn much attention due to their potent effects; among them, naphthoquinone and cyclopeptide derivatives, with significant biological activities, have great potential to be developed to new drugs. This review updates and compiles a total of 142 quinone derivatives including anthraquinone and naphthoquinone derivatives, occuring in twelve Rubia species. These compounds were listed together with their sources, melting points, bioactivities, as well as 112 corresponding references. Furthermore, the structureactivity relationships of these quinone derivatives were discussed.

Synthesis and protective effect of new ligustrazine-benzoic acid derivatives against CoCl2-induced neurotoxicity in differentiated PC12 cells.

A series of novel ligustrazine-benzoic acid derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their protective effect against cobalt chloride-induced neurotoxicity in differentiated PC12 cells. Combining hematoxylin and eosin staining, we found compound that (3,5,6-trimethylpyrazin-2-yl)methyl 3-methoxy-4-[(3,5,6-trimethylpyrazin-2-yl)methoxy]benzoate (4a) displayed promising protective effect on the proliferation of the injured PC12 cells (EC50 = 4.249 µM). Structure-activity relationships are briefly discussed.

A new ligustrazine derivative--pharmacokinetic evaluation and antitumor activity by suppression of NF-kappaB/p65 and COX-2 expression in S180 mice.

A new anticancer ligustrazine derivative, 3beta-hydroxyolea-12-en-28-oic acid-3,5,6-trimethylpyrazin-2-methyl ester (T-OA, C38H58O3N2), was previously reported. It was synthesized via conjugating the effective antitumor ingredients of a classic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulation. In the present study, anticancer efficacy of T-OA was evaluated in vivo using a murine sarcoma S180 model. Reduction of the tumor weight and tumor HE staining regions demonstrated that T-OA had promising inhibition effects and a 50% inhibitory rate in S180 mice. Combining the immunohistochemistry, we found T-OA exerted its antitumor activity by preventing the expression of nuclear transcription factor NF-kappaB/p65 and COX-2 in S180 mice. The acute toxic test showed that LD50 value of T-OA exceeded 6.0 g/kg via gavage in mice. In addition, a simple and rapid HPLC-UV method was developed and validated to study the pharmacokinetic characteristics of the compound. After single-dose oral administration, time to reach peak concentration of T-OA (3.97 microg/mL) was 8.33 h; the elimination half-life and area under the concentration-time curve from t = 0 to the last time of T-OA was 4.50 h and 48.01 microg x h/mL, respectively.

Structural and bioactive studies of terpenes and cyclopeptides from the Genus Rubia.

Genus Rubia fell into about 70 species distributed widely around the world, a total of 36 species and 2 varieties were reported from China. The extracts and phytochemicals of Rubia plants had drawn considerable attention due to their potent bioactivities. As the two major ingredients from these plants, pentacyclic triterpenes and cyclopeptides were becoming a hot topic over the past twenty years for their remarkable anticancer, antioxidant and other effects. This paper compiled all 65 terpenes and 44 cyclopeptides with their distributions, physiological activities and melting points (or optical rotations) as reported in 85 references; besides, structure-activity relationships of these derivatives were briefly discussed. The information involved in this paper was expected to be meaningful for the further studies of the Genus Rubia.