Supercritical-Carbon Dioxide Fluid Extract from Chrysanthemum indicum Enhances Anti-Tumor Effect and Reduces Toxicity of Bleomycin in Tumor-Bearing Mice.

Bleomycin (BLM), a family of anti-tumor drugs, was reported to exhibit severe side effects limiting its usage in clinical treatment. Therefore, finding adjuvants that enhance the anti-tumor effect and reduce the detrimental effect of BLM is a prerequisite. Chrysanthemum indicum, an edible flower, possesses abundant bioactivities; the supercritical-carbon dioxide fluid extract from flowers and buds of C. indicum (CISCFE) have strong anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and lung protective effects. However, the role of CISCFE combined with BLM treatment on tumor-bearing mice remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the potential synergistic effect and the underlying mechanism of CISCFE combined with BLM in the treatment of hepatoma 22 (H22) tumor-bearing mice. The results suggested that the oral administration of CISCFE combined with BLM could markedly prolong the life span, attenuate the BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis, suppress the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6), tumor necrosis factor-α, activities of myeloperoxidase, and malondiadehyde. Moreover, CISCFE combined with BLM promoted the ascites cell apoptosis, the activities of caspases 3 and 8, and up-regulated the protein expression of p53 and down-regulated the transforming growth factor-ß1 by activating the gene expression of miR-29b. Taken together, these results indicated that CISCFE could enhance the anti-cancer activity of BLM and reduce the BLM-induced pulmonary injury in H22 tumor-bearing mice, rendering it as a potential adjuvant drug with chemotherapy after further investigation in the future.

Protective effects of pogostone against LPS-induced acute lung injury in mice via regulation of Keap1-Nrf2/NF-κB signaling pathways.

Pogostone, a major component of Pogostemon cablin, has been demonstrated to possess antibacterial, anti-fungal, immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory properties. To investigate the potential therapeutic effect of pogostone on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute lung injury (ALI), mice were pretreated with pogostone prior to LPS exposure. After LPS challenge, the lungs were excised and the histological changes, wet to dry weight ratios, MPO activity reflecting neutrophil infiltration, and MDA activity reflecting oxidative stress were examined. The inflammatory cytokines in the BALF were determined by ELISA assay. Moreover, the expressions of p65 and phosphorylated p65 subunit of NF-κB, and Nrf2 in the nucleus in lung tissues were measured by Western blot analysis, and meanwhile the dependent genes of NF-κB and Nrf2 were assessed by RT-qPCR. The results showed that pretreatment with pogostone markedly improved survival rate, attenuated the histological alterations in the lung, reduced the MPO and MDA levels, decreased the wet/dry weight ratio of lungs, down-regulated the level of pro-inflammatory mediators including TNF-a, IL-1ß and IL-6. Furthermore, pretreatment with pogostone enhanced the Nrf2 dependent genes including NQO-1, GCLC and HO-1 but suppressed NF-κB regulated genes including TNF-α, IL-1ß and IL-6. The mechanism behind the protective effect was correlated with its regulation on the balance between Keap1-Nrf2 and NF-κB signaling pathways. Therefore, pogostone may be considered as a potential therapeutic agent for preventing and treating ALI.

[The influence of laser plasma effects on the characteristics of silicon surface damage].

Silicon is the basic material for electro-photonic detectors, so the studies of the laser induced damage of silicon are of great significance in laser detecting and military applications. The damage characters of silicon under high intensity nanosecond laser pulses were investigated in the present paper. The results show that laser plasma has thermal effect, shock effect and spectral radiation effect, etc. These comprehensive effects combined together determinate the damage characters. By thermal effects and shock effects of laser plasma, the material is being melt, vaporized, ionized and pushed out at the laser irradiated area. In this way, the pit can be formed and the cooled ejected effluents are radially distributed. The silicon was melt at the bottom of the pit and the temperature was modulated by the intensity of the incident laser, which interfered with scattering laser simultaneously. The periodic heat distribution generates the period stripes. N, O and Si characteristic spectrum in the laser plasma prove that the colored film is the mixture of SiOx:SiNy which were sprayed out from laser plasma under repetitive laser pulses.