The anticancer effect of extract of medicinal mushroom Sanghuangprous vaninii against human cervical cancer cell via endoplasmic reticulum stress-mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Sanghuangprous vaninii (Ljub.) L.W. Zhou & Y.C. Dai, known as "Sanghuang" in China, is mainly distributed in the northeast of China. As a traditional medicinal mushroom, "Sanghuang" is medicinally used for resolving the symptoms of gynecological tumors including vaginal bleeding, leucorrhea, abdominal pain and abdominal mass. This mushroom is potential for gynecological cancers therapy. However, there is a lack of scientific evidence on its anti-tumor activity against human cervical cancer, the most common gynecological cancer. AIM OF THE STUDY: To identify the anti-tumor potential of the extract of Sanghuangprous vaninii (ESV) on human cervical cancer SiHa cells, and explore detailed mechanisms of ESV inducing cancer cell death. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The anti-proliferation effects were evaluated by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8) assay. Transmission electron microscope was applied to determined the cellular ultrastructure changes. The cell cycle distribution, quantification of apoptotic cells, mitochondrial transmembrane potential, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, and cytosolic calcium level were determined by flow cytometer. Western blot analysis was used to explore the alterations in the expression levels of endoplasmic reticulum stress-marked and apoptosis-related proteins. The in-vivo anti-tumor effect was identified by mouse xenograft model. RESULTS: ESV significantly inhibited the proliferation of SiHa cells in vivo and vitro. Blocking cell cycle and causing cell apoptosis contributed to cell death induced by ESV. Mechanistically, ESV induced endoplasmic reticulum stress evidenced by the elevated expressions of GRP78 and CHOP, which accompanied by the release of calcium (Ca2+). The Ca2+ overload and oxidative stress facilitated the collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential and subsequently activated caspase-3 and -9, which eventually lead to cell apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our results revealed that Sanghuangprous vaninii was effective against human cervical cancer SiHa cells in vitro and vivo. There is a promising potential that Sanghuangprous vaninii might be a candidate for cervical cancer therapy.

Natural Products Targeting the Mitochondria in Cancers.

There are abundant sources of anticancer drugs in nature that have a broad prospect in anticancer drug discovery. Natural compounds, with biological activities extracted from plants and marine and microbial metabolites, have significant antitumor effects, but their mechanisms are various. In addition to providing energy to cells, mitochondria are involved in processes, such as cell differentiation, cell signaling, and cell apoptosis, and they have the ability to regulate cell growth and cell cycle. Summing up recent data on how natural products regulate mitochondria is valuable for the development of anticancer drugs. This review focuses on natural products that have shown antitumor effects via regulating mitochondria. The search was done in PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases, over a 5-year period, between 2015 and 2020, with a keyword search that focused on natural products, natural compounds, phytomedicine, Chinese medicine, antitumor, and mitochondria. Many natural products have been studied to have antitumor effects on different cells and can be further processed into useful drugs to treat cancer. In the process of searching for valuable new drugs, natural products such as terpenoids, flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids, coumarins, and quinones cover the broad space.

Epidemiology of Hemoglobinopathies in the Huzhou Region, Zhejiang Province, Southeast China.

The aim of the present study was to report the frequency of thalassemia traits and other hemoglobinopathies in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China (PRC), and for the future management of hemoglobinopathies. A total of 8578 pregnant women in the Huzhou region was analyzed for thalassemia traits and other hemoglobinopathies from July 1 2012 to November 30 2015. Complete blood count (CBC), and hemoglobin (Hb) variant analyses were performed with automatic counters and capillary electrophoresis (CE). High resolution melting (HRM) analysis was applied for genetic diagnosis of thalassemia. The prevalence of patients with the α-thalassemia (α-thal) trait was 1.01% (87/8578). ß-Thalassemia (ß-thal) was carried by 112 women with a frequency of 1.3%. The carrier rate of thalassemia genes in the studied samples was nearly 2.32%. We excluded those without iron studies, with 159 cases as our sample, a total of 63/159 cases (39.6%) also had iron deficiencies. Moreover, Hb E (HBB: c.79G > A), and Hb D-Punjab (HBB: c.364G > C) were the most common Hb variants after thalassemia trait with frequencies of 0.16 and 0.06%, respectively. Only two Hb S (HBB: c.20A > T) carriers were detected in 20 months of screening time. Hb A1c results could be confidently reported on all cases except the Hb D-Punjab and Hb E variants. This study provided a detailed prevalence and molecular characterization of thalassemia in the Huzhou region, and will contribute toward the development of prevention strategies and reducing excessive health care costs in this area, allowing better management of hemoglobinopathies.

[Application of gene array chip in diagnosis of cytogenetics of recurrent spontaneous abortion].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate clinical value of single nucleotide polymorphism array (SNP-array) gene chip technique in diagnosis of genetics of recurrent spontaneous abortion(RSA). METHODS: From January to October 2012, the 26 patients with more than twice of spontaneous abortion in Huzhou Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital were enrolled in this study(RSA group). Meanwhile 20 cases with induced abortion were taken as control group. All aborted tissues were analyzed with conventional cytogenetic karyotyping and SNP-array, respectively. RESULTS: Chorionic villus chromosomal examination was successfully done in 19 cases (73%, 19/26) , which 10 cases were found with chromosomal anomaly, the overall detection rate is 10/19. However, SNP-array analysis was successfully performed in all 26 cases. The overall rate of detection was 100%, and abnormalities were found in 15 cases, which reached the detection rate was 58% (15/26). Chorionic villus chromosomal examination was successfully done in 16 cases (16/20) in control group, and none of the resluts was chomosomal anomaly; SNP-array analysis was successfully performed in all 20 cases (20/20), and none was found abnormalities. CONCLUSION: SNP-array gene chip technique showed highly accurate feature, which could be used in cytogenetic diagnosis of recurrent spontaneous abortion.