[Research on protection mode of Dao-di herbs-taking the protection mode of geographical indications as an example].

Dao-di herbs have been synonymous with quality medicinal herbs in our mind hearts since ancient times and are the essence of Chinese medicine culture. The development of genuine regional herbs faces problems such as insufficient supply of local resources and lack of competitive advantages. It is necessary to seek a suitable model to protect and develop authentic medicinal materials. The protection mode of geographical indication products has become more mature. Geographical indication(GI) products and authentic medicinal materials are all related to the origin. There is certain commonality between them. However, there are also differences between authentic Chinese herbal medicines and geographical indications, and it is unsuitable to simply equate the authentic Chinese medicinal materials with GI products. This article comprehensively combs and compares the development of the authentic Chinese herbal medicines and geographical indication products, and believes that it is necessary to fully learn from the experience of GI products and combine the characteristics of authentic medicinal materials to establish a set of protection systems that meet the characteristics of authentic medicinal materials. Through this research, it has positive significance to promote the protection and management of authentic medicinal materials.

[Species diversity of ex-situ cultivated Chinese medicinal plants].

Ex-situ conservation is an important means to protect biological genetic resources. Resource protection has received more and more attention with the continuous improvement of the comprehensive utilization of traditional Chinese medicine resources. In this paper, the research and compilation of the species list of ex-situ cultivated medicinal plants in 12 Chinese Academy of Sciences botanic gardens and 19 specialized medicinal botanic gardens in China were carried out. Based on the Species 2000(2017) and other classification databases, species diversity of medicinal plants ex-situ cultivated in these botanical gardens were analyzed. The study found that there were 16 351 higher plant species in our country, belonging to 276 families and 1 936 genera. Of these, 6 949 specieswere medicinal plants, accounting for 50.4% of the total medicinal plants. There were 1 280 medicinal plants were in threatened status, accounting for 19.6% of all threatened species in the Chinese Biodiversity Red List, with ex-situ cultivated proportion of 59.5%. And 3 988 medicinal plants were Chinese endemic species, accounting for 22.5% of all Chinese endemic species, with ex-situ cultivated proportion of 53.3%. This article has reference significance for the management and protection of medicinal plant resources.

[Analysis of characteristics and problems of international trade of Poria cocos in China].

Poria cocos is one of medical materials frequently used in China and well marketed at home and abroad. Based on the analysis of exports and imports data of P. cocos, we found that large proportions of P. cocos were exported, while only a small proportions of those were imported in China between 2011 and 2016. During periods of these six years, the annual exporting trade of P. cocos in quantity significantly decreased, but that in dollars tend to increase slightly and the unit-prices of P. cocos significantly increased. Statistically, the average annual export trade of P. cocos from 2011 to 2016 in quantity and dollars were 9 279.73 tons and 35.454 million dollars, respectively. And the average annual export in unit-price was 4.14 dollars per kilogram. In total, P. cocos came from 29 provinces and exported to 44 countries through 21 ports. More than 98% of total exports of P. cocos were flew to the markets of countries in Asia, of which Hong Kong was the major partner in import trade of P. cocos. Large amount of P. cocos came from Guangdong province and exported mainly through Shenzhen port. Except the exports, China also imports P. cocos from other countries, among which Korea was the major country exports largest amount of P. cocos to China. And most of P. cocos were imported by Jilin province and mainly through Changchun port. To improve the export kinetic, quality and profits of P. cocos, and thus enhance the international competitiveness of the industry of P. cocos, Chinese governments should emphasize the researches on the products of P. cocos, broaden the demand space of the high-end customers, stimulate the high-end market grow in high speed and accelerate the process of standardization in future.

[Influence of Nagoya Protocol on traditional Chinese medicine].

The three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of benefit sarising from the utilization of genetic resources.The Nagoya Protocol significantly advances the CBD's third objective by providing a strong basis for greater legal certainty and transparency for both providers and users of genetic resources.In June 2016, the Chinese government approved the accession to the Nagoya Protocol. The implementation of the Nagoya Protocol is bound to greatly influence the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as its development relies on medical biological genetic resources.Both the protection and access of medical biological genetic resources and its related traditional knowledge and the introduction, breeding, biosynthesis and the extraction and modification of effective components of medicinal organism are with the prescribed scope of the Nagoya Protocol. In this study, we simply introduce the background and main contents of the Nagoya Protocol in first. We then explore the relationship between the Nagoya Protocol and the TCM.We also analyze the positive effects on the TCM for China to be one of the parties of the Nagoya Protocol and finally make some proposals for better implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.This study has certain reference significance to the resource economy and management of TCM.

[Import and export of licorice and its products in China].

Licorice is an important harmonic drug which has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine since ancient times. However, with the increasing demand of industrial production, the licorice resources in our country have been reduced rapidly and we have to import licorice resources from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan consequently. In order to find out the trade flow of licorice resources and evaluate the status of Chinese licorice in the world trade, the trade situation of licorice and its products from 2011 to 2015 May in Chinese customs was investigated and analyzed in this paper. The import and export volumes of licorice were declining; the import and export volumes of licorice were relatively concentrated in international trade, with greater risks of trade; and export quota management was not well executed. As one of the strategic resources of medicine, licorice resources must be based on domestic development, and we should adjust the export quota management from passive quota to active quota management and improve the intrinsic value of licorice resources to establish the international market position of our licorice and control the pricing power in international market.

[Current status and prospects of traditional Chinese medicine resource ex-situ conservation].

Protection of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) resources is the foundation of sustainable development of TCM industry, which includes the in-situ and ex-situ conservation. The development of TCM resource ex-situ conservation was reviewed, and hotpots in the conservation and its development practices were analyzed. Therefore national TCM resource ex-situ conservation systems were proposed, including the establishment of TCM resources introduction gardens, TCM resource in vitro conservation library and TCM resource bio-information sharing platform, rational distribution of TCM resources ex-situ conservation agencies, along with the advancement of TCM varieties breeding, and the perfection of Chinese herbal medicines seed and seedlings market, which are of significant importance on the guidance of TCM resource ex-situ conservation development.

3-cinnamoyl-4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2H-pyran-2-one (CHP) inhibits human ovarian cell proliferation by inducing apoptosis.

Coumarins induce apoptosis by activating mitochondrial pathway and caspase-3-dependent apoptotic pathway. In the present study, we first time investigated the effect of 3-cinnamoyl-4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2H-pyran-2-one (CHP) on induction of apoptosis in human ovarian carcinoma cells. The data from MTT assay revealed a significant inhibitory effect on cell viability at 30 (87%) and 50 µM (74%) concentration of CHP in OVCAR-3 and OVCAR-420 cells, respectively after 72 h. Apoptosis analysis using annexin V/PI double staining followed by flow cytometry showed 59 and 52% binding to annexin V-FITC in OVCAR-3 and OVCAR-420 cells respectively. propidium iodide (PI) staining and flow cytometry examination indicated a significant increase in percentage of cells in G2/M phase after treatment with CHP compared to DMSO control group. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) assay kit showed increase in levels of ROS. We used rhodamine-123 (Rh-123) staining and flow cytometry assay to determine changes in mitochondrial membrane potential (ΛΨm). The results revealed that CHP significantly decreased MMP to 85.65 ± 1.2443% & 49.78 ± 1.6554% at 10 and 30 µM respectively in OVCAR-3 compared to 95.97 ± 2.1243% in control group. Western blot analysis clearly indicated a significant increase in the expression of Caspase-3, Bax, and release of Cytochrome c and decrease in Bcl-2, CDK1 and Cyclin B1 expression on treatment with CHP. Therefore, CHP may become a potential candidate for the treatment of human ovarian cancers.

X-ray irradiation promotes apoptosis of hippocampal neurons through up-regulation of Cdk5 and p25.

BACKGROUND: Cranial radiation therapy has been used for the treatment of primary and metastatic brain tumors. A prominent feature of brain injury induced by the radiation therapy is hippocampal dysfunction, characterized by a decline in memory. Cdk5 plays an important role in memory formation. Abnormal Cdk5 activity is associated with neuronal apoptosis induced by neurotoxic stimuli. However, the roles of Cdk5 in hippocampal apoptosis in response to X-ray irradiation have not been explored. METHODS: The expression of Cdk5 activators, p35 and p25, in hippocampal neurons was tested in both in vivo animal and in vitro couture after X-ray irradiation. RESULTS: After X-ray irradiation at 20 Gy and 30 Gy in rats, the number of hippocampal neuronal pyknosis was increased, but the number of hippocampal neuron was decreased, in the hippocampal CA1 region of rats. In these animals undergone with X-ray irradiation, the expression of p35 was significantly down-regulated, but it was up-regulated in p25. These opposite expressions were also shown in the primary cultured hippocampal neurons with 30 Gy irradiation. The apoptosis induced by X-ray irradiation were significantly prevented by the pretreatment of Cdk5 inhibitor, roscovitine, in both in vivo and in vitro settings. CONCLUSIONS: X-ray irradiation resulted in a hippocampal neuronal apoptosis through up-regulation of p25, the Cdk5 activator. Hyperactivity of Cdk5 was involved in the pathogenesis of X-ray irradiation-induced hippocampal neuronal apoptosis. Blockade of Cdk5 signal pathway effectively protected neurons from the irradiation-induced brain injury.

[Discussion on strengthening yin of chinese herbs with bitter-flavor clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology noun terminology standardization research].

Clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology is the subject that study of basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, property of Chinese materia medica and clinical application. The study on the standardization research of the terminology of clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology is an important premise and foundation to standardization, modernization and internationalization, informationization construction of clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology and is also the important content of the subject construction. To provide some exploring ideas for clinical traditional Chinese pharmacology noun terminology standardization, this article elaborates the concept of strengthening Yin with bitter-flavor herbs in several aspects, such as connotation and the historical origin, the clinical application in the traditional, modern clinic application, and the modern basic research and so on.

Tolerance of neurite outgrowth to Rho kinase inhibitors decreased by cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor.

In this study, PC12 Adh cells and Neuro-2a cells were treated with Rho-associated kinase inhibitors (Y27632 and Fasudil), a cyclooxygenase-1 selective inhibitor (SC560), and a cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor (NS398). We found that these cells became tolerant to Rho-associated kinase inhibitors, as neurite outgrowth induced by these inhibitors diminished following more than 3 days of exposure in either cell line. The proteins cyclooxygenase-2 and cytosolic prostaglandin E synthetase were upregulated at day 3. NS398 decreased the tolerance to neurite outgrowth induction in both cell lines, whereas SC560 had almost no effect. These findings indicate that cells become tolerant to neurite outgrowth induced by Rho-associated kinase inhibitors, this is at least partly associated with upregulation of proteins involved in the cyclooxygenase-2 pathway, and cyclooxygenases-2 inhibition prevents this tolerance.

[p35 and p25 expressions and Cdk5 kinase activity in primary cultured rat hippocampal neurons with X-ray exposure].

OBJECTIVE: To study the expressions of p35 and p25 and Cdk5 kinase activity in cultured rats hippocampal neurons following X-ray exposure to provide experimental evidence for prevention and treatment of radiation encephalopathy. METHODS: The hippocampal neurons cultured for 12 days were subjected to a single-dose X-ray exposure of 30 Gy. Western blotting was used to detect the p35 and p25 protein levels, and the effect of pretreatment with roscovitine, a Cdk5 inhibitor, on the apoptosis of the hippocampal neurons following the exposure was examined with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining. RESULTS: The protein level of p35 increased significantly 3.5 and 4 h after the irradiation by 1.51-/+0.13 and 1.45-/+0.14 folds in comparison with the control level, respectively (P<0.01), and the p25 level increased significantly 6 h after irradiation by 1.62-/+0.28 folds (P<0.05). Nuclear condensation occurred in (24.8-/+3.97)% of the neurons 24 h after 30 Gy X-ray exposure, a rate significantly higher than that in the nonexposed cells [(1.82-/+1.08)%, P<0.01) and that in roscovitine-pretreated neurons [(7.74-/+2.27)%, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: X-ray exposure activates Cdk5 by increasing the p35 and p25 expressions in rat hippocampal neurons, and inhibition of Cdk5 activity with roscovitine can significantly protect the neurons from apoptosis.

Chronic ethanol intake-induced changes in open-field behavior and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV expression in nucleus accumbens of rats: naloxone reversal.

AIM: To investigate the effects of chronic ethanol intake on the locomotor activity and the levels of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV (CaM kinase IV) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of rats. Simultaneously, the effects of nonselective opioid antagonist (naloxone) on the CaM kinase IV expression in the NAc and ethanol consumption of rats were also observed. METHODS: Ethanol was administered in drinking water at the concentrations of 6% (v/v), for 28 d. The locomotor activity of rats was investigated in the open-field apparatus. CaM kinase IV levels in the NAc were analyzed using Western blotting. RESULTS: Rats consuming ethanol solution exhibited a significant decrease of ambulation activity, accompanied by a reduced frequency of explorative rearing in an open-field task on d 7 and d 14 of chronic ethanol ingestion, whereas presumed adaptation to the neurological effects of ethanol was observed on d 28. Chronic ethanol intake elicited a significant decrease of the CaM kinase IV expression in the nuclei, but not in the cytoplasm of the NAc on d 28. Naloxone treatment significantly attenuated ethanol intake of rats and antagonized the decrease of CaM kinase IV in the nuclei of NAc neurons. The cytosolic CaM kinase IV protein levels of the NAc also increased in rats exposed to ethanol plus naloxone. CONCLUSION: Chronic ethanol intake-induced changes in explorative behavior is mediated at least partly by changes in CaM kinase IV signaling in the nuclei of the NAc, and naloxone attenuates ethanol consumption through antagonizing the downregulation of CaM kinase IV in the NAc.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of helicid analogues as novel acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.

A series of helicid analogues were prepared and evaluated in vitro for the cholinesterase (AChE and BuChE) inhibitory activities via UV spectroscopy. The results indicated that compounds 5, 6d and 8 exhibited potent AChE inhibitory activities with IC(50) values of 0.45+/-0.02microM, 0.49+/-0.02microM, and 0.20+/-0.01microM, respectively. High selectivity for AChE over BuChE was also observed. Kinetic study showed that the mechanism of AChE inhibition of compounds 5, 6d and 8 was all mixed-type.