Bioactive components and potential mechanisms of Biqi Capsule in the treatment of osteoarthritis: based on chondroprotective and anti-inflammatory activity.

Cartilage damage and synovial inflammation are vital pathological changes in osteoarthritis (OA). Biqi Capsule, a traditional Chinese medicine formula used for the clinical treatment of arthritis in China, yields advantages in attenuating OA progression. The drawback here is that the bioactive components and pharmacological mechanisms by which Biqi Capsule exerts its anti-inflammatory and chondroprotective effects have yet to be fully clarified. For in vivo studies, a papain-induced OA rat model was established to explore the pharmacological effects and potential mechanisms of Biqi Capsule against OA. Biqi Capsule alleviated articular cartilage degeneration and chondrocyte damage in OA rats and inhibited the phosphorylation of NF-κB and the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in synovial tissue. Network pharmacology analysis suggested that the primary biological processes regulated by Biqi Capsule are inflammation and oxidative stress, and the critical pathway regulated is the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. The result of this analysis was later verified on SW1353 cells. The in vitro studies demonstrated that Glycyrrhizic Acid and Liquiritin in Biqi Capsule attenuated H2O2-stimulated SW1353 chondrocyte damage via activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Moreover, Biqi Capsule alleviated inflammatory responses in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages via the NF-κB/IL-6 pathway. These observations were suggested to have been facilitated by Brucine, Liquiritin, Salvianolic Acid B, Glycyrrhizic Acid, Cryptotanshinone, and Tanshinone ⅡA. Put together, this study partially clarifies the pharmacological mechanisms and the bioactive components of Biqi capsules against OA and suggests that it is a promising therapeutic option for the treatment of OA. Chemical compounds studied in this article. Strychnine (Pubchem CID:441071); Brucine (Pubchem CID:442021); Liquiritin (Pubchem CID:503737); Salvianolic Acid B (Pubchem CID:6451084); Glycyrrhizic Acid (Pubchem CID:14982); Cryptotanshinone (Pubchem CID:160254); Tanshinone ⅡA (Pubchem CID:164676).

Pharmacokinetic study of borneol and menthol in rats after oral administration of qingyan drop pills.

Both borneol and menthol are bioactive substances derived from Chinese herbal medicines. In order to understand the pharmacokinetics of borneol and menthol in Qingyan drop pills, a rapid, sensitive, and simple gas chromatographic (GC) method with flame ionization detection (FID) was developed for the simultaneous determination of borneol and menthol in rat plasma. Sample preparations were carried out by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) with an internal standard solution of naphthalene. The analytes and internal standard (IS, naphthalene) were separated well on an HP-1 capillary column. The pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated by a compartmental method using the Phoenix WinNonlin software program (Version 6.0). The standard curves were linear over a wide concentration range of 2.5-50.0 ng/µL ( R = 0.9963), 8.7-62.2 ng/µL ( R = 0.9994) for both borneol and menthol in plasma, respectively. The limits of quantification (LOQ) of borneol and menthol in plasma were 2.4 ng/µL and 5.0 ng/µL, respectively. The intra-day precisions for borneol and menthol were < or = 10.0 % R. S. D. at the LOQ and < or = 6.0 % at higher concentrations. The average value of CMAX was 18.97 ± 2.71 ng/µL with a TMAX at 20.00 ± 0.00 min for borneol after oral administration of the drop pills; for menthol, the average value of CMAX was 79.02 ± 11.40 ng/µL with a TMAX at 25.00 ± 4.40 min. This validated assay method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of borneol and menthol after oral administration of Qingyan drop pills in rat. The results showed that the kinetics of borneol and menthol can be described by an open one-compartment model. The pharmacokinetic parameters provide some information for clinical administration of Qingyan drop pills.

[Analysis on the trend of severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region].

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemics in Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region and to provide scientific basis for prevention and control strategies against it. METHODS: Data from legal communicable diseases surveillance reporting system was analyzed epidemiologically. RESULTS: The first SARS case was reported in Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region on March 27, 2003. Up to May 20, there were 446 cumulative SARS cases in the whole region (with 287 confirmed cases and 159 suspected cases) and 61 cumulative recovered cases had been discharged from the hospitals (56 confirmed cases and 5 suspected cases). Another 131 cases were excluded the original diagnoses of SARS including 10 confirmed cases and 121 suspected cases. 25 confirmed cases died with a mortality rate of 8.7%. Cumulatively, the number of reported cases were distributed in 30 counties in 9 prefectures. Statistical analysis on time sequence of the occurrence of cases showed that majority (67.7% of the total) of the cases concentrated in between April 13 and April 29. The number of cases had started to decrease since April 24 with an average of 5.3 cases per day between May 3 and May 8 and an average of 0.3 cases per day between May 9 and today. CONCLUSIONS: SARS epidemics in our region could be divided into three phases. The first phase fell in between March 18 and April 15 with the first case being imported, the number of cases rose sharply, covering 14 counties in 6 prefectures, having a feature of family clustering. The second phase was from April 16 to April 28, with the appearance of secondary infection, having sharp rise of the cases and spreading to 24 counties in 10 prefectures. One of the major features was that hospitals had become the important sources of secondary infection. Finally, the third phase was between April 29 and May 20, with small wave crests of cases, spreading to 38 counties in 10 prefectures with a high proportion of cases with no history of direct contact with diagnosed SARS patients. Thus, no obvious transmission chain was noticed at this phase.