Mechanism of Xuanfei Baidu Tang in treatment of COVID-19 based on network pharmacology / 中国中药杂志

The study aimed to investigate the multi-constituent, multi-target mechanism of Xuanfei Baidu Tang(XFBD) in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), through exploring the main ingredients and effective targets of XFBD, as well as analyzing the correlation between XFBD targets and COVID-19. The compounds of each herb in XFBD were collected from TCM-PTD, ETCM, TCMSP and SymMap database. Next, the information of meridian tropisms was collected from Chinese Pharmacopoeia(2015 edition), and the target information of the major constituents of XFBD were obtained from TCM-PTD, ETCM, TCMSP and TargetNet database. Subsequently, the target network model and the major modules were generated by Cytoscape, and the functional enrichment analysis of XFBD targets were completed by DAVID and STRING. As a result, ten of the 13 herbs in XFBD belonged to the lung meridian, and 326 of the 1 224 putative XFBD targets were associated with the disease target of COVID-19, among which 109 targets were enriched in the disease pathways of viral infection and lung injury. The main biological pathways regulated by the key XFBD targets included viral infection, energy metabolism, immunity and inflammation, parasites and bacterial infections. In conclusion, the therapeutic mechanism of XFBD in COVID-19 showed a multi-herb, multi-constituent, multi-target pattern, with lung as the chief targeted organ. By regulating a series of biological pathways closely related to the occurrence and development of diseases, XFBD plays a role in balancing immunity, eliminating inflammation, regulating hepatic and biliary metabolism and recovering energy metabolism balance.

A strategy of constructing the technological system for quality control of Chinese medicine based on process control and management / 中国中药杂志

The current situation, bottleneck problems and severe challenges in quality control technology of Chinese Medicine (CM) are briefly described. It is presented to change the phenomenon related to the post-test as the main means and contempt for process control in drug regulation, reverse the situation of neglecting the development of process control and management technology for pharmaceutical manufacture and reconstruct the technological system for quality control of CM products. The regulation and technology system based on process control and management for controlling CM quality should be established to solve weighty realistic problems of CM industry from the root causes, including backwardness of quality control technology, weakness of quality risk control measures, poor reputation of product quality and so on. By this way, the obstacles from poor controllability of CM product quality could be broken. Concentrating on those difficult problems and weak links in the technical field of CM quality control, it is proposed to build CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) regulation for CM products with Chinese characteristics and promote the regulation international recognition as soon as possible. The CMC technical framework, which is clinical efficacy-oriented, manufacturing manner-centered and process control-focused, was designed. To address the clinical characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and the production feature of CM manufacture, it is suggested to establish quality control engineering for CM manufacturing by integrating pharmaceutical analysis, TCM chemistry, TCM pharmacology, pharmaceutical engineering, control engineering, management engineering and other disciplines. Further, a theoretical model of quality control engineering for CM manufacturing and the methodology of digital pharmaceutical engineering are proposed. A technology pathway for promoting CM standard and realizing the strategic goal of CM internationalization is elaborated.

Chinese medicine industry 4.0：advancing digital pharmaceutical manufacture toward intelligent pharmaceutical manufacture / 中国中药杂志

A perspective analysis on the technological innovation in pharmaceutical engineering of Chinese medicine unveils a vision on "Future Factory" of Chinese medicine industry in mind. The strategy as well as the technical roadmap of "Chinese medicine industry 4.0" is proposed, with the projection of related core technology system. It is clarified that the technical development path of Chinese medicine industry from digital manufacture to intelligent manufacture. On the basis of precisely defining technical terms such as process control, on-line detection and process quality monitoring for Chinese medicine manufacture, the technical concepts and characteristics of intelligent pharmaceutical manufacture as well as digital pharmaceutical manufacture are elaborated. Promoting wide applications of digital manufacturing technology of Chinese medicine is strongly recommended. Through completely informationized manufacturing processes and multi-discipline cluster innovation, intelligent manufacturing technology of Chinese medicine should be developed, which would provide a new driving force for Chinese medicine industry in technology upgrade, product quality enhancement and efficiency improvement.

Network formulaology: a new strategy for modern research of traditional Chinese medicine formulae / 中国中药杂志

This paper briefly analyzed and discussed the current status and major scientific challenges of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulaology research. To promote formulaology research, a new strategy and corresponding technology, network formulaology, were proposed to reveal the complex interaction between functional chemome and biological responses network. The research framework and directions of network formulaology were also summarized and prospected.

The technological innovation strategy for quality control of Chinese medicine based on Big Data / 中国中药杂志

The evolution of the quality control concepts of medical products within the global context and the development of the quality control technology of Chinese medicine are briefly described. Aimed at the bottlenecks in the regulation and quality control of Chinese medicine, using Big Data technology to address the significant challenges in Chinese medicine industry is proposed. For quality standard refinements and internationalization of Chinese medicine, a technological innovation strategy encompassing its methodology, and the R&D direction of the subsequent core technology are also presented.

Dissecting functional chemome of Xiaoqinglong decoction analogous formulae using network formulaology approach / 中国中药杂志

Analogous formulae (AF) refer to a set of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulae sharing similar herbs and/or indications. Dissecting functional chemome of analogous formulae could enhance the understanding of the intrinsic nature of TCM. In this study, taking 5 Xiaoqinglong decoction analogous formulae (XQL AF) including Xiaoqinglong decoction, Mahuang Xingren Shigao Gancao decoction, Mahuang Fuzi decoction, Houpu Mahuang decoction and Daqinglong decoction as example, we systematically investigated the relationship between compounds and indications using network formulaology approach. The functional chemome of XQL AF were revealed by network analysis and molecular docking. This successful application in XQL AF suggests network formulaology could be a useful tool for AF-related research and therefore provide a new way to discover the scientific foundation of Zhang Zhongjing's herbal formulae.

Innovation guidelines and strategies for pharmaceutical engineering of Chinese medicine and their industrial translation / 中国中药杂志

This paper briefly analyzes the bottlenecks and major technical requirements for pharmaceutical industry of Chinese medicine, providing current status of pharmaceutical engineering of Chinese medicine. The innovation directions and strategies of the pharmaceutical engineering for manufacturing Chinese medicine are proposed along with the framework of their core technology. As a consequence, the development of the third-generation pharmaceutical technology for Chinese medicine, featured as "precision, digital and intelligent", is recommended. The prospects of the pharmaceutical technology are also forecasted.

Chemical constituents of Ardisia punctata / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study chemical constituents of Ardisia punctata,in order to find pioneering compounds.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>95% ethanol extracts of A. punctata was separated and purified by using normal phase silica gel column chromatographies, Sephadex LH-20 gel column chromatography and high-pressure preparative HPLC,and their structures were identified by such spectroscopic techniques as NMR and MS.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Eight compounds were separated from 95% ethanol extract of A. punctata and identified as 6-methoxy-8-hydroxy-benzoic acid butylester-5-O-beta-D-glucoside (1), aridisiacrispin B (2), ardisicrenoside A (3), dibutyl phthalate (4), bergenin (5), quercetin-3-O-alpha-L-rhamnoside (6),3-methoxy-4-acetoxy-6-tridecyl-phenol(7) and belamcandaquinone C(8).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Compound 1 was a new compound, and compounds 4 and 6 were separated from this plant for the first time.</p>

Content of indole alkaloids and bufadienolides contained in toad medicines / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To kinds of establish a HPLC method for determining contents of indole alkaloids and bufadienolides contained in toad medicines, and analyze two kinds of components contained in toad venom, toad skin and toad periostracum.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>As for alkaloids, Nucleosil C18 column was adopted with acetonitrile and water containing 0.5% potassium dihydrogen phosphate (6: 94, adjust pH to 3.2 with phosphate acid) as the mobile phase. The flow rate was 0.8 mL x min(-1), the detection wavelength was 275 nm, and the column temperature was 30 degrees C. As for bufadienolides, Alltima C18 column was adopted with acetonitrile and water containing 0.3% acetic acid (B) as the mobile phase. The gradient process was as follows: a linear gradient from 28% to 54% acetonitrile in the first 15 min, then kept at 54% for additional 20 min. The flow rate was 0.6 mL x min(-1), the detection wavelength was 296 nm, and the column temperature was 30 degrees C.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The linear ranges were 0.079 6-0.796 microg for serotonin, 0.097 2-1.945 microg for N-methylserotonin, 0.074 4-0.744 microg for N,N-dimethylserotonin, 0.103-2.05 microg for N,N,N-trimethylserotonin, and 0.067 2-0.672 microg for bufothionine, respectively. The average recoveries of serotonin and N-methylserotonin were 98.6% and 91.3%, respectively. The linear ranges of gamabufotalin, bufotalin, bufalin, cinobufagin and resibufogenin were 0.004 83-0.614, 0.007 9-1.006, 0.007 95-1.016, 0.009 7-1.24 and 0.009 6-1.22 microg, respectively, and their average recoveries were 101.6%, 102.5%, 101.0%, 99.1% and 98.9%, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Toad venom has the highest contents of indole alkaloids and bufadienolides, followed by toad skin, and toad periostracum showed the lowest contents and even no detection result.</p>

Simultaneous determination of water-soluble components and nerolidol in xiangdan injection by high performance liquid chromatography with column switching / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Integrating column switching for on-line concentration and programmed injection, a novel HPLC method is developed for simultaneous determination of high-content water-soluble components (danshensu, protocatechualdehyde, salvianolic acid B) and trace nerolidol in Xiangdan injection. The concentrations of water-soluble components in Xiangdan injection are roughly 1000 times of that of nerolidol.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The on-line concentration was performed on a Zorbax SB-C18 guard column. The separation was carried out on Lichrospher C18 column (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm). The mobile phase of guard column was mixtures of acetonitrile and 1.0% acetic acid water, and the flow rate was 0.5 mL x min(-1). The mobile phase of the analytical column was mixtures of acetonitrile and 0.05% acetic acid water, and the flow rate was set at 1.0 mL x min(-1). The column temperature was maintained at 40 degrees C, and the detection wavelength was 280 nm at 0-40 min, 210 nm at 40-55 min. The program injection was 10 microL of sample solution 1 at 0 min, 200 microL of sample solution 2 at 15.3 min.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The calibration curves of danshensu, protocatechualdehyde, salvianolic acid B and nerolidol showed good linear regression (R2 > 0.9990) within investigated concentration ranges. The average recoveries of the four analytes were between l00% and 102%, and the RSD values were less than 3.0%. For danshensu, protocatechualdehyde, salvianolic acid B and nerolidol, the limits of detection at a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of 3 were 17.1, 0.473, 60.2, 50.6 microg x L(-1), respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The method is a simple, sensitive and repeatable approach. More importantly, results indicate that the present method shows promising prospect for quality control of Xiangdan injection.</p>

Optimization for vacuum belt drying process of Panax notoginseng extract / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To optimize the conditions of the vacuum belt drying process (VBD) for drying Panax notoginseng extract and compare with methods of vacuum freezing drying and spray drying.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The optimum conditions of VBD were obtained by orthogonal design and validated by determinations of moisture content of the dried product and recovery of active ingredients. Experiments on different drying methods were also conducted.</p><p><b>RESULT AND CONCLUSION</b>The optimum conditions are as follows, the feeding speed was 15 mL x min(-1), the belt speed was 4 mm x min(-1), and the heating temperature was (105, 100 degrees C). Comparing with the drying methods of vacuum freezing drying and spray drying, vacuum belt drying possesses some advantages, such as higher recovery of active ingredients, less moisture content of dried product and better overall yield.</p>

Metabonomic analysis of hepatitis B virus-induced liver failure: identification of potential diagnostic biomarkers by fuzzy support vector machine / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-induced liver failure is an emergent liver disease leading to high mortality. The severity of liver failure may be reflected by the profile of some metabolites. This study assessed the potential of using metabolites as biomarkers for liver failure by identifying metabolites with good discriminative performance for its phenotype. The serum samples from 24 HBV-induced liver failure patients and 23 healthy volunteers were collected and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to generate metabolite profiles. The 24 patients were further grouped into two classes according to the severity of liver failure. Twenty-five commensal peaks in all metabolite profiles were extracted, and the relative area values of these peaks were used as features for each sample. Three algorithms, F-test, k-nearest neighbor (KNN) and fuzzy support vector machine (FSVM) combined with exhaustive search (ES), were employed to identify a subset of metabolites (biomarkers) that best predict liver failure. Based on the achieved experimental dataset, 93.62% predictive accuracy by 6 features was selected with FSVM-ES and three key metabolites, glyceric acid, cis-aconitic acid and citric acid, are identified as potential diagnostic biomarkers.

Simultaneous detection of seven phenolic acids in Danshen injection using HPLC with ultraviolet detector / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with ultraviolet (UV) detector had been developed for simultaneous quantification of danshensu, protocatechuic aldehyde, caffeic acid, salvianolic acid D, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid B and salvianolic acid A in Danshen injection. According to the UV spectra of these components, three detection wavelengths have been selected as follows: 280 nm for danshensu and protocatechuic aldehyde, 326 nm for caffeic acid, salvianolic acid D and rosmarinic acid, 286 nm for salvianolic acid B and salvianolic acid A. The limit of detection (LOD) was improved to be in the range of 0.008-0.160 microg/ml. Moreover, excellent linear behavior over the investigated concentration range was observed, with R>0.999 for all the analytes.

Effects of Radix Ginseng and Radix Ophiopogonis extract (SMF) on protein S-nitrosylation in ischemic myocardial tissue / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effect of Radix Ginseng and Radix Ophiopogonis extract (SMF) on protein S-nitrosylation in rats myocardial with ischemia/reperfusion injury (MI/RI).</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion in rats were produced by occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. To study the cardioprotective effects of SMF on the acute MI/RI rats, the serum levels of creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and nitric oxide (NO) were determined. The change of the expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) was detected by Western blot. The content of related S-nitrosylation proteins in myocardial tissue was measured by Biotin-Switch method.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>SMF significantly decreased the serum levels of CK and LDH as well as increased the serum levels of NO and the expression of eNOS in myocardial tissue. The contents of S-nitrosylation proteins were significantly increased from (4.42 +/- 0.60) micromol x g(-1) to (8.78 +/- 1.37) micromol x g(-1). The molecular weight of the majority S-nitrosylation proteins were in the range of 90 x 10(3)-117 x 10(3).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Increased expression of eNOS and NO induced by SMF may activate S-nitrosylation of many proteins in rat hearts. The change of the activities or functions of those proteins by S-nitrosylation may be an important mechanism for myocardial protective effects of SMF.</p>

Advances in studies on multi-stage countercurrent extraction technology in traditional Chinese medicine / 中国中药杂志

Multi-stage countercurrent extraction technology, integrating solvent extraction, repercolation with dynamic and countercurrent extraction, is a novel extraction technology for the traditional Chinese medicine. This solvent-saving, energy-saving and high-extraction-efficiency technology can at the most drive active compounds to diffuse from the herbal materials into the solvent stage by stage by creating concentration differences between the herbal materials and the solvents. This paper reviewed the basic principle, the influence factors and the research progress and trends of the equipments and the application of the multi-stage countercurrent extraction.

Study on protective effects of Panax notoginseng saponins on doxorubicin-induced myocardial damage / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the effects of Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) on acute doxorubicin-induced myocardial injury in mice and the anti-tumor efficiency of doxorubicin.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Mice were given a dose of 15 mg x kg(-1) doxorubicin ip alone or in combination with 25, 50, 100 mg x kg(-1) PNS ig, 5 days before doxorubicin administration and following 3 days. Cardiotoxic effects were measured by serum levels of dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase (CK) and creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB) and activities of antioxidant enzymes in heart tissue. In vitro experiments were performed using embryonic rat heart cell H9C2 to assess the protective effect of PNS (6.25-100 mg x L(-1)) against doxorubicin on cell viability. Anti-tumor efficiency of doxorubicin was evaluated by cytotoxic experiments using three cancer cell lines.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Pretreatment with PNS significantly lowered the levels of serum LDH, CK and CK-MB, and normalized myocardial superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase activities. PNS also attenuated the inhibitory effect of doxorubicin on the viability of H9C2 cells, but did not compromise its inhibitory effect on proliferation of cancer cells.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>PNS was demonstrated to attenuate doxorubicin-induced myocardial damage without compromising its anti-tumor activity.</p>

Optimizing process of four-effect countercurrent extraction of danshensu from Salvia miltiorrhiza / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the process factors and characteristic of four-effect countercurrent extracting process of Danshensu from Salvia miltiorrhiza. Optimizing the parameters by using regression analysis and principal components analysis (PCA).</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Applying the orthogonal design method to optimize the extracting process. The factors of extraction time, solvent volume, extraction temperature and the degree of grinding were considered. And also, the new process was compared with the refluence process.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The optimal condition of four-effect countercurrent extraction of Danshensu from S. miltiorrhiza was 1 h extraction time, solvent to sample ratio of 12 mL x g(-1), 80 degrees C , 20 - 40 mesh of particle size. Compared with the refluence process, the countercurrent extracting process has the advantages of higher recovery, less solvent consumption and shorter extraction time.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The four-effect countercurrent extraction process has great advantages and is good for Chinese medicinal materials.</p>

Transport mechanism of danshensu across Caco-2 monolayer model / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the absorption mechanism of Danshensu by using Caco-2 monolayer model .</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Caco-2 cell monolayer model was used to study the bi-direction transport of Danshensu. An LC-MS method was developed to measure the concentration of Danshensu in cell culture medium and calculate the apparent permeability coefficients (P(app)). The effects of time, drug concentration and inhibitor on the absorption of Danshensu were studied.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Transport of Danshensu was time and concentration dependent, and it was also effected by P-glycoprotein inhibitor. P(app) increased with time increase and tended to become saturated at some point. It, however,decreased while concentration of Danshensu increased. P(ratio) is larger than 1.5 . Verapamil can cause significantly effect on transport of Danshensu: P(app,A-B) increased and P(app,B-A) decreased .</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The absorption of Danshensu in Caco-2 cell model may be an active transportation mediated by P-glycoprotein transporter.</p>

Simultaneous determination of three active constituents in cortex moutan by RP-HPLC / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a RP-HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of gallic acid, paeoniflorin and paeonol in Cortex Moutan.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The analysis was carried out on a column of YMC-C18 (4. 6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm), and gradient elution was used for the baseline separation of these three constituents with the different detection wavelength.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The linear ranges for gallic acid, paeoniflorin and paeonol were 0.0130-0.267, 0.0880-1.76 and 0.164-3.28 microg, respectively. Their average recoveries were 104.3%, 101.7% and 99.5%, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The method was successfully applied to the determination of gallic acid, paeoniflorin and paeonol in Cortex Moutan from the different drugstores. It was shown in this study that the proposed method could be used to evaluate the quality of the medicinal plants or herbal preparations containing gallic acid, paeoniflorin and paeonol.</p>

A chromatographic fingerprinting-based approach to evaluating the stability of production process of traditional Chinese medicine / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study a new method for the evaluation of the stability of production process of Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) based on chromatographic fingerprinting.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Taking the extraction process of Red Ginseng for example, the fingerprints of extracts produced with fluctuating processing factors, i.e. ratio of solvent to liquid, solvent concentration, extraction durations and extraction times, were acquired. Meanwhile, the similarity of fingerprinting based on Euclidean distance was calculated and each fingerprint was fitwith cubic spline.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Similarities of fingerprints of the extracts responded to the fluctuation of processing factors, and it showed that taking similarity as index, quantitative relation between chromatographic fingerprints and processing factors could be established.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The method proposed in the paper was able to describe the quality of products resulting from fluctuating conditions in extracting process, and therefore, can be developed as a practicable strategy to evaluate the stability Traditional Chinese Medicines in production process.</p>