Application of network pharmacology and molecular docking approach to explore active compounds and potential pharmacological mechanisms of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata and Lepidii Semen Descurainiae Semen for treatment of heart failure.

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is the end stage of the development of heart disease, whose prognosis is poor. The previous research of our team indicated that the formulae containing Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata and Lepidii Semen Descurainiae Semen (ALRP-LSDS) could inhibit myocardial hypertrophy, inhibit cardiomyocyte apoptosis, delay myocardial remodeling (REM), and improve the prognosis of patients with HF effectively. In order to explore the mechanism of ALRP-LSDS for the treatment of HF, a combined approach of network pharmacology and molecular docking was conducted. METHODS: Public database TCMSP was used to screen the active compounds of ALRP-LSDS. The targets of screened active compounds were obtained from the TCMSP database and predicted using the online analysis tool PharmMapper. The targets of HF were obtained from 6 databases including GeneCards, OMIM, DrugBank, TTD, PharmGKB, and DisGeNET. Protein-protein interaction and enrichment analysis were performed, respectively, by STRING and Metascape online tools after merging the targets of active compounds and HF. Cytoscape software was used to conduct networks. Finally, molecular docking was performed by Vina to verify the correlation between key targets and active compounds. RESULTS: Final results indicated that the active compounds including ß-sitosterol, isorhamnetin, quercetin, kaempferol, and (R)-norcoclaurine, the targets including AKT1, CASP3, and MAPK1 might be the main active compounds and key targets of ALRP-LSDS for the treatment of HF separately. The binding ability of AKT1 to the main active compounds was better compared with the other 2 key targets, which means it might be more critical. The pathways including AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, Pathways in cancer, and Fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis might play important roles in the treatment of HF with ALRP-LSDS. In general, ALRP-LSDS could inhibit cardiomyocyte apoptosis, delay REM, and improve cardiac function through multicompound, multitarget, and multipathway, which contributes to the treatment of HF. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the combined approach of network pharmacology and molecular docking, this study screened out the main active compounds, key targets, and main pathways of ALRP-LSDS for the treatment of HF, and revealed its potential mechanisms, providing a theoretical basis for further research.

[Discussion on the theory of he-sea point in Neijing (Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor) and Nanjing (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Eighty-one Difficult Issues )].

By collecting and analyzing the explanation/conception, acupoint name, acupoint location, indications, acupuncture and moxibustion techniques and contraindications of he-sea point recorded in Neijing (Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor) and Nanjing (Yellow Emperor 's Classic of Eighty-one Difficult Issues), it is found that conception of he-sea point of five-shu points has been specifically formed, the names of he-sea points of eleven meridians, the locations and the ways to locate them were recorded. But, the summaries relevant to the indications of the many he-sea points have not been included in teaching materials, thus, it needs to be further analyzed. The acupuncture-moxibustion techniques at he-sea point are flexible and the attention should be paid to distinguish "needling he-sea point in autumn" from "needling he-sea point in winter". Besides, the consideration should be given on coma/fainting induced by arterial bleeding when needling he-sea point, as well as the joint motor impairment caused by over deep insertion in acupuncture.

Efficacy and Safety of Banxia Formulae for Insomnia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of High-Quality Randomized Controlled Trials.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of Banxia (Pinellia Tuber) formulae in the treatment of insomnia compared with those of conventional western medicines. METHODS: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the efficacy and safety of Banxia formulae in the treatment of insomnia were searched from the following databases: PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journals Database (VIP), and Wanfang database. The literature collected was from the time when the databases were established to April 2020. Quality assessment and meta-analysis were conducted by using Cochrane bias risk assessment tool and RevMan 5.2, respectively. Publication bias was assessed by Egger's test. RESULTS: Fourteen RCTs with 910 participants were identified. A total of 46 traditional Chinese medicines involving 2 different dosage forms were used in the included studies. Meta-analysis indicated that Banxia formulae had more significant effects on improving the total effective rate (RR = 1.23, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.31), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI, MD = -1.05, 95% CI -1.63 to -0.47), and the TCM syndrome score (SMD = -0.78, 95% CI -1.18 to -0.39). Meanwhile, on reducing adverse events, Banxia formulae also showed an advantage (RR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.93). CONCLUSION: According to the current studies, the efficacy of Banxia formulae in the treatment of insomnia is better than that of the conventional western medicines, and its safety is relatively stable. However, due to the limitations of this study, further research and evaluation are needed.

Stable, high-performance sodium-based plasmonic devices in the near infrared.

Plasmonics enables the manipulation of light beyond the optical diffraction limit1-4 and may therefore confer advantages in applications such as photonic devices5-7, optical cloaking8,9, biochemical sensing10,11 and super-resolution imaging12,13. However, the essential field-confinement capability of plasmonic devices is always accompanied by a parasitic Ohmic loss, which severely reduces their performance. Therefore, plasmonic materials (those with collective oscillations of electrons) with a lower loss than noble metals have long been sought14-16. Here we present stable sodium-based plasmonic devices with state-of-the-art performance at near-infrared wavelengths. We fabricated high-quality sodium films with electron relaxation times as long as 0.42 picoseconds using a thermo-assisted spin-coating process. A direct-waveguide experiment shows that the propagation length of surface plasmon polaritons supported at the sodium-quartz interface can reach 200 micrometres at near-infrared wavelengths. We further demonstrate a room-temperature sodium-based plasmonic nanolaser with a lasing threshold of 140 kilowatts per square centimetre, lower than values previously reported for plasmonic nanolasers at near-infrared wavelengths. These sodium-based plasmonic devices show stable performance under ambient conditions over a period of several months after packaging with epoxy. These results indicate that the performance of plasmonic devices can be greatly improved beyond that of devices using noble metals, with implications for applications in plasmonics, nanophotonics and metamaterials.