Chemical profiling of Sanjin tablets and exploration of their effective substances and mechanism in the treatment of urinary tract infections.

Introduction: Sanjin tablets (SJT) are a well-known Chinese patent drug that have been used to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) for the last 40 years. The drug consists of five herbs, but only 32 compounds have been identified, which hinders the clarification of its effective substances and mechanism. Methods: The chemical constituents of SJT and their effective substances and functional mechanism involved in the treatment of UTIs were investigated by using high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-ion trap-time of flight-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-IT-TOF-MSn), network pharmacology, and molecular docking. Results: A total of 196 compounds of SJT (SJT-MS) were identified, and 44 of them were unequivocally identified by comparison with the reference compounds. Among 196 compounds, 13 were potential new compounds and 183 were known compounds. Among the 183 known compounds, 169 were newly discovered constituents of SJT, and 93 compounds were not reported in the five constituent herbs. Through the network pharmacology method, 119 targets related to UTIs of 183 known compounds were predicted, and 20 core targets were screened out. Based on the "compound-target" relationship analysis, 94 compounds were found to act on the 20 core targets and were therefore regarded as potential effective compounds. According to the literature, 27 of the 183 known compounds were found to possess antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities and were verified as effective substances, of which 20 were first discovered in SJT. Twelve of the 27 effective substances overlapped with the 94 potential effective compounds and were determined as key effective substances of SJT. The molecular docking results showed that the 12 key effective substances and 10 selected targets of the core targets have good affinity for each other. Discussion: These results provide a solid foundation for understanding the effective substances and mechanism of SJT.

Metabolism of Paeoniae Radix Rubra and its 14 constituents in mice.

Objective: Paeoniae Radix Rubra (PRR) is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine with the effects of clearing away heat, cooling the blood, and relieving blood stasis. To 1) elucidate the metabolites and metabolic pathways of PRR and its 14 main constituents in mice and 2) reveal the possible origins of the known effective forms of PRR and their isomers, the metabolism of PRR in mice was systematically studied for the first time. Methods: PRR and its 14 constituents were administered to mice by gavage once a day for seven consecutive days, respectively. All urine and feces were collected during the 7 days of dosing, and blood was collected at 1 h after the last dose. Metabolites were detected and identified using high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector and combined with electrospray ionization ion trap time-of-flight multistage mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-ESI-IT-TOF-MSn). Results: In total, 23, 16, 24, 17, 18, 30, 27, 17, 22, 17, 33, 3, 8, 24, and 31 metabolites of paeoniflorin, albiflorin, oxypaeoniflorin, benzoylpaeoniflorin, hydroxybenzoylpaeoniflorin, benzoyloxypaeoniflorin, galloylpaeoniflorin, lactiflorin, epicatechin gallate, catechin gallate, catechin, ellagic acid, 3,3'-di-O-methylellagic acid, methylgallate, and PRR were respectively identified in mice; after eliminating identical metabolites, a total of 195 metabolites remained, including 8, 11, 25, 17, 18, 30, 27, 17, 21, 17, 1, 2, 8, 20, and 20 newly identified metabolites, respectively. The metabolic reactions of PRR and its 14 main constituents in mice were primarily methylation, hydrogenation, hydrolysis, hydroxylation, glucuronidation, and sulfation. Conclusion: We elucidated the metabolites and metabolic pathways of PRR and its 14 constituents (e.g., paeoniflorin, catechin, ellagic acid, and gallic acid) in mice and revealed the possible origins of the 10 known effective forms of PRR and their isomers. The findings are of great significance to studying the mechanism of action and quality control of PRR.

ROS-Responsive Blended Nanoparticles: Cascade-Amplifying Synergistic Effects of Sonochemotherapy with On-demand Boosted Drug Release During SDT Process.

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) not only has greater tissue-penetrating depth compared to photo-stimulated therapies, but also can also trigger rapid drug release to achieve synergistic sonochemotherapy. Here, reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive IR780/PTL- nanoparticles (NPs) are designed by self-assembly, which contain ROS-cleavable thioketal linkers (TL) to promote paclitaxel (PTX) release during SDT. Under ultrasound (US) stimulation, IR780/PTL-NPs produce high amounts of ROS, which not only induces apoptosis in human glioma (U87) cells but also boosts PTX released by decomposing the ROS-sensitive TL. In the U87 tumor-bearing mouse model, the IR780/PTL-NPs releases the drug at the target sites in a controlled manner upon US irradiation, which significantly inhibits tumor growth and induces apoptosis in the tumor tissues with no obvious toxicity. Taken together, the IR780/PTL-NPs are a novel platform for sonochemotherapy, and can control the spatio-temporal release of chemotherapeutic drugs during SDT.

Reduced clot debris size in sonothrombolysis assisted with phase-change nanodroplets.

Thrombosis-related diseases such as stroke, deep vein thrombosis, and others represent leading causes of mortality and morbidity around the globe. Current clinical thrombolytic treatments are limited by either slow reperfusion (drugs) or invasiveness (catheters) and carry significant risks of bleeding. High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has been demonstrated to be a non-pharmacological, non-invasive but yet efficient thrombolytic approach. However, clinical concerns still remain related to the clot debris produced via fragmentation of the original clot potentially being too large and hence occluding downstream vessels, causing hazardous emboli. In this study, we introduced phase-change nanodroplets into pulse HIFU-mediated thrombolysis. The size distribution of the clot debris generated in sonothrombolysis with and without nanodroplets was compared. The effects of nanodroplet concentration, acoustic power and pulse repetition frequency on the clot debris size were further evaluated. It was found that the volume percentage of the large clot debris particles (above 10 µm in diameter) was smaller and the average diameter of the clot debris reduced significantly in nanodroplets-assisted sonothrombolysis. The stable cavitation dose was higher in sonothrombolysis without nanodroplets but the inertial cavitation dose showed no significant differences under two conditions. Besides, the average diameter decreased with increasing nanodroplet concentration and acoustic power when calculated by number percentage, but was found to be similar when calculated by volume percentage. In addition, the number percentage of the clot debris above 30 µm was demonstrated to be larger upon applying a higher pulse repetition frequency. Taken in concert, this study demonstrated that the introduction of phase-change nanodroplets could provide a safer sonothrombolysis method by reducing the overall clot debris size.

mir-218-2 promotes glioblastomas growth, invasion and drug resistance by targeting CDC27.

Glioma has become a significant global health problem with substantial morbidity and mortality, underscoring the importance of elucidating its underlying molecular mechanisms. Recent studies have identified mir-218 as an anti-oncogene; however, the specific functions of mir-218-1 and mir-218-2 remain unknown, especially the latter. The objective of this study was to further investigate the role of mir-218-2 in glioma. Our results indicated that mir-218-2 is highly overexpressed in glioma. Furthermore, we showed that mir-218-2 is positively correlated with the growth, invasion, migration, and drug susceptibility (to ß-lapachone) of glioma cells. In vitro, the overexpression of mir-218-2 promoted glioma cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. In addition, the overexpression of mir-218-2 in vivo was found to increase glioma tumor growth. Accordingly, the inhibition of mir-218-2 resulted in the opposite effects. Cell division cycle 27 (CDC27), the downstream target of mir-218-2, is involved in the regulation of glioma cells. Our results indicate that the overexpression of CDC27 counteracted the function of mir-218-2 in glioma cells. These novel findings provide new insight in the application of mir-218-2 as a potential glioma treatment.

Plexin-B1 indirectly affects glioma invasiveness and angiogenesis by regulating the RhoA/αvß3 signaling pathway and SRPK1.

Gliomas are one of the most common primary brain tumors in adults. They display aggressive invasiveness, are highly vascular, and have a poor prognosis. Plexin-B1 is involved in numerous cellular processes, especially cellular migration and angiogenesis. However, the role and regulatory mechanisms of Plexin-B1 in gliomas are not understood and were thus investigated in this study. By using multiple and diverse experimental techniques, we investigated cell apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane potential, cell migration and invasion, angiogenesis, PI3K and Akt phosphorylation, and also the levels of SRPK1 and αvß3 in glioma cells and animal glioma tissues. The results indicated that Plexin-B1 expression in glioma cell lines is increased compared to normal human astrocytes. Plexin-B1 mediates RhoA/integrin αvß3 involved in the PI3K/Akt pathway and SRPK1 to influence the growth of glioma cell, angiogenesis, and motility in vitro and in vivo. Thus, Plexin-B1 signaling regulates the Rho/αvß3/PI3K/Akt pathway and SRPK1, which are involved in glioma invasiveness and angiogenesis. Therefore, the new drug research should focus on Plexin-B1 as a target for the treatment of glioma invasion and angiogenesis.

The influence of SRPK1 on glioma apoptosis, metastasis, and angiogenesis through the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway under normoxia.

Gliomas, the most common primary brain tumors, have low survival rates and poorly defined molecular mechanisms to target for treatment. Serine/arginine SR protein kinases 1 (SRPK1) can highly and specifically phosphorylate the SR protein found in many tumors, which can influence cell proliferation and angiogenesis. However, the roles and regulatory mechanisms of SRPK1 in gliomas are not understood. The aim of this study was to determine the functions and regulation of SRPK1 in gliomas. We found that SRPK1 inhibition induces early apoptosis and significantly inhibits xenograft tumor growth. Our results indicate that SRPK1 affects Akt and eIF4E phosphorylation, Bax and Bcl-2 activation, and HIF-1 and VEGF production in glioma cells. Moreover, transfection of SRPK1 siRNA strongly reduced cell invasion and migration by regulating the expression of MMP2 and MMP9 and significantly decreased the volume of tumors and angiogenesis. We show here that a strong link exists among SRPK1, Akt, eIF4E, HIF-1, and VEGF activity that is functionally involved in apoptosis, metastasis, and angiogenesis of gliomas under normoxic conditions. Thus, SRPK1 may be a potential anticancer target to inhibit glioma progression.