Rapid Characterization of Undeclared Pharmaceuticals in Herbal Preparations by Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Emergency Care.

In Asia, some herbal preparations have been found to be adulterated with undeclared synthetic medicines to increase their therapeutic efficiency. Many of these adulterants were found to be toxic when overdosed and have been documented to bring about severe, even life-threatening acute poisoning events. The objective of this study is to develop a rapid and sensitive ambient ionization mass spectrometric platform to characterize the undeclared toxic adulterated ingredients in herbal preparations. Several common adulterants were spiked into different herbal preparations and human sera to simulate the clinical conditions of acute poisoning. They were then sampled with a metallic probe and analyzed by the thermal desorption-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The experimental parameters including sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and turnaround time were prudently optimized in this study. Since tedious and time-consuming pretreatment of the sample is unnecessary, the toxic adulterants could be characterized within 60 s. The results can help emergency physicians to make clinical judgments and prescribe appropriate antidotes or supportive treatment in a time-sensitive manner.

Rapid identification of mushroom toxins by direct electrospray probe mass spectrometry for emergency care.

Mushroom poisoning occurs frequently after the ingestion of toxic wild mushrooms misidentified as edible species. The goal of this study is to develop a mass spectrometric platform to bypass the need for morphological recognition of poisonous mushrooms by experts and rapidly identify the toxins in the mushrooms for emergency care. Trace mushroom toxins were collected by penetrating and removing the mushrooms surface for 3 mm with a direct electrospray probe (DEP). The analytes on the DEP were then dissolved in the solution (70% isopropanol containing 0.1% acetic acid) flowing out of a solvent reservoir on the DEP. Electrospray ionization was induced from the sample solution as a high electric field was generated between the DEP and MS inlet. The obtaining mass spectrometric results were further analyzed with principal component analysis (PCA) to classify mushroom toxins. The mass spectrometric platform for detecting mushroom toxins was assessed for its sensitivity, precision, and efficiency by determining its limit-of-detection (LOD), repeatability, and turnaround time, respectively. As a result, the LODs of the mushroom toxins in pure methanol and spiked in human vomitus by DEP/MS were within 0.001-0.5 ng/µL and 0.01-1 ng/µL, respectively. Linear responses of the mushroom toxins in pure methanol with concentrations between 0.01 and 5 ng/µL (R2 between 0.9922 and 0.998) were obtained. The repeatability of the approach (n = 10) was shown in the low relative standard deviation value (<15%) from ten repeat analysis of mushroom toxins standard solution. The corresponding toxic compounds were identified through matching of the obtained mass spectrometric data with those provided by its companion database library of mushroom toxins. Since no time-consuming pretreatment of the samples is required, identification of mushroom toxins with DEP/MS was complete within 1 min. This will be helpful for the emergency physicians to make correct clinical judgment and prescribe appropriate medical treatment in a timely manner.

The effects of isoliquiritigenin on endometriosis in vivo and in vitro study.

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a common gynaecological disease characterized by growth of uterine endometrial tissue, outside the uterine cavity, on the ovaries, oviduct and pelvic peritoneum. Isoliquiritigenin (ISL) is a natural flavonoid isolated from the root of licorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis) and shallot (Allium cepa). ISL has previously shown antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferation and anti-tumor activities. PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the effects of ISL on endometriosis in vivo and in vitro. METHODS: End1/E6E7 endometriosis cells were treated with ISL and ß-estradiol. The MTT assay was used to detect cell viability. Cell migration was evaluated by the wound-healing assay. The expression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related proteins were detected by western blot. Female Balb/c mice, surgically induced to have endometriosis by transplanting uterine tissue into the abdominal cavity, were treated with ISL or vehicle for 4 weeks. Lesion growth was subsequently analyzed by high-resolution ultrasound imaging. Serum and lesion inflammatory cytokines were measured by ELISA. EMT-related proteins and apoptosis-related proteins of endometriotic lesions were detected by western blot. RESULTS: It was observed that ISL treatment inhibited the viability and migration of End1/E6E7. ISL treatment increased the expression of E-cadherin, and decreased the expression of N-cadherin, Slug and Snail. In the animal model, ISL treatment reduced the volume and weight of endometriotic lesions, decreased serum and lesion inflammatory cytokines, inhibited EMT, and induced apoptosis of the lesions. CONCLUSION: ISL inhibited the viability, migration and EMT-related proteins of End1/E6E7 cells, reduced the volume and weight of endometriotic lesions, inhibited inflammatory cytokines and EMT, and induced apoptosis of the lesions to improve endometriosis.