Antiparasitic efficacy of flavonoids identified from Psoralea corylifolia against Tetrahymena piriformis in guppy (Poecilia reticulate).

Tetrahymena piriformis belongs to the ciliated protists (ciliates), causing severe economic losses in aquaculture. Chemical drugs currently used usually have toxic side effects, and there is no specific drug against Tetrahymena. Therefore, it is an urgent need to identify new antiparasitic lead compounds. In the present study, the in vitro parasiticidal activity of ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extracts and water extracts from 22 selected traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) were evaluated against T. piriformis. The EtOAc extract of P. corylifolia turned out to be the most active with the minimum parasiticidal concentration of 100 mg/L within 3 h. Thus, it was separated into 12 fractions by the first-dimensional (D1) normal phase liquid chromatography (NPLC), meanwhile combining with in vitro antiparasitic tests for activity tracking. Subsequently, 8 flavonoids were identified in the active fractions by the second-dimensional (D2) reverse phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) tandem high-resolution mass spectrometry. According to the results, 5 flavonoids were selected for in vitro antiparasitic test, of which isobavachalcone showed the minimum parasiticidal concentration of 3.125 mg/L in 2 h. Bathing treatment of infected guppies with isobavachalcone could significantly reduce the burden of T. piriformis, obtaining a 24-h median effective concentration (24-h EC50) value of 1.916 mg/L. And the concentration of isobavachalcone causing guppies to die within 24 h is 39 times than that of 24-h EC50. The results demonstrated that isobavachalcone has the potential to be developed into a novel commercial fish drug against T. piriformis.

Full-length transcriptome analysis provides new insights into the early bolting occurrence in medicinal Angelica sinensis.

Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels root part is an integral component of traditional Chinese medicine, widely prescribed to improve blood circulation and blood stasis. However, early bolting of A. sinensis compromises the quality of the roots and hence is a major limitation for yield of medicinal materials. To date, little information about the molecular mechanisms underlying bolting is available for this important medicinal plant. To identify genes putatively involved in early bolting, we have conducted the transcriptome analysis of the shoot tips of the early-bolting plants and non-bolting (normal) plants of A. sinensis, respectively, using a combination of third-generation sequencing and next-generation sequencing. A total of 43,438 non-redundant transcripts were collected and 475 unique differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Gene annotation and functional analyses revealed that DEGs were highly involved in plant hormone signaling and biosynthesis pathways, three main flowering pathways, pollen formation, and very-long-chain fatty acids biosynthesis pathways. The levels of endogenous hormones were also changed significantly in the early bolting stage of A. sinensis. This study provided new insights into the transcriptomic control of early bolting in A. sinensis, which could be further applied to enhance the yield of medicinally important raw materials.

Sodium Butyrate Supplementation Inhibits Hepatic Steatosis by Stimulating Liver Kinase B1 and Insulin-Induced Gene.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Butyric acid is an intestinal microbiota-produced short-chain fatty acid, which exerts salutary effects on alleviating nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the underlying mechanism of butyrate on regulating hepatic lipid metabolism is largely unexplored. METHODS: A mouse model of NAFLD was induced with high-fat diet feeding, and sodium butyrate (NaB) intervention was initiated at the eighth week and lasted for 8 weeks. Hepatic steatosis was evaluated and metabolic pathways concerning lipid homeostasis were analyzed. RESULTS: Here, we report that administration of NaB by gavage once daily for 8 weeks causes an augmentation of insulin-induced gene (Insig) activity and inhibition of lipogenic gene in mice fed with high-fat diet. Mechanistically, NaB is sufficient to enhance the interaction between Insig and its upstream kinase AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). The stimulatory effects of NaB on Insig-1 activity are abolished in AMPKα1/α2 double knockout (AMPK-/-) mouse primary hepatocytes. Moreover, AMPK activation by NaB is mediated by LKB1, as evidenced by the observations showing NaB-mediated induction of phosphorylation of AMPK, and its downstream target acetyl-CoA carboxylase is diminished in LKB1-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts. CONCLUSIONS: These studies indicate that NaB serves as a negative regulator of hepatic lipogenesis in NAFLD and that NaB attenuates hepatic steatosis and improves lipid profile and liver function largely through the activation of LKB1-AMPK-Insig signaling pathway. Therefore, NaB has therapeutic potential for treating NAFLD and related metabolic diseases.

Black Phosphorus-Loaded Separable Microneedles as Responsive Oxygen Delivery Carriers for Wound Healing.

Oxygen carriers are attracting extensive interest in biomedical research and clinical applications such as wound healing, alternative blood transfusion, and acute trauma treatment. Great efforts have been devoted to the generation of oxygen carriers with special functions and properties to meet specific demands. Here, we present black phosphorus (BP)-loaded separable responsive microneedles (MNs) with oxygen carrying and controllable oxygen delivering ability for wound healing. Such MNs are composed of a polyvinyl acetate (PVA) backing layer and gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) tips that are loaded with BP quantum dots (BP QDs) and hemoglobin (Hb). Taking advantage of the fast dissolvability of PVA, the backing layer soon disappears after the MNs are applied to skin and the noncytotoxic, biocompatible GelMA tips are left inside the skin. Due to the excellent photothermal effect of BP QDs and the reversible oxygen binding property of Hb, the local temperature of the skin will increase after near-infrared ray irradiation, resulting in the responsive oxygen release. Notably, the practical performance of such MNs has been demonstrated by treating the full-thickness cutaneous wounds of a type I diabetes rat model, indicating their potential value in wound healing and other related biomedical fields.

Microneedles combined with a sticky and heatable hydrogel for local painless anesthesia.

In view of the inherent defects of traditional syringe anesthesia (pain, inaccurate anesthesia area, swelling after injection, slow recovery etc.), this article proposed a new anesthesia system based on microneedles and a hydrogel. After loading with AuNPs, a sticky PDA-PAM-AuNP hydrogel with near-infrared (NIR) light response properties was prepared here. After using microneedles (to open the skin of the target anesthesia area), a hydrogel patch embedded with a medical anesthetic soaked sponge was pasted to realize local painless anesthesia. The effects of anesthesia can also be modulated by external NIR. Compared to traditional syringe anesthesia, this hydrogel + microneedle method resulted in reduced pain, higher anesthetic accuracy and faster recovery, making it a promising local anesthesia alternative in clinical applications.

INDUCER OF CBF EXPRESSION 1 is a male fertility regulator impacting anther dehydration in Arabidopsis.

INDUCER OF CBF EXPRESSION 1 (ICE1) encodes a MYC-like basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor playing a critical role in plant responses to chilling and freezing stresses and leaf stomata development. However, no information connecting ICE1 and reproductive development has been reported. In this study, we show that ICE1 controls plant male fertility via impacting anther dehydration. The loss-of-function mutation in ICE1 gene in Arabidopsis caused anther indehiscence and decreased pollen viability as well as germination rate. Further analysis revealed that the anthers in the mutant of ICE1 (ice1-2) had the structure of stomium, though the epidermis did not shrink to dehisce. The anther indehiscence and influenced pollen viability as well as germination in ice1-2 were due to abnormal anther dehydration, for most of anthers dehisced with drought treatment and pollen grains from those dehydrated anthers had similar viability and germination rates compared with wild type. Accordingly, the sterility of ice1-2 could be rescued by ambient dehydration treatments. Likewise, the stomatal differentiation of ice1-2 anther epidermis was disrupted in a different manner compared with that in leaves. ICE1 specifically bound to MYC-recognition elements in the promoter of FAMA, a key regulator of guard cell differentiation, to activate FAMA expression. Transcriptome profiling in the anther tissues further exhibited ICE1-modulated genes associated with water transport and ion exchange in the anther. Together, this work reveals the key role of ICE1 in male fertility control and establishes a regulatory network mediated by ICE1 for stomata development and water movement in the anther.

Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide enhances radiosensitivity of hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 through Akt signaling pathway.

Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide (GLP) is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine, known for its anti-cancer and immunomodulatory properties. The present study aims to investigate whether GLP has a therapeutic effect on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells exposed to radiation. Immunofluorescence was used to detect the nuclei, the protein expression was measured by western blot analysis and flow cytometry was used to detect the rate of cell apoptosis. GLP treatment was demonstrated to enhance radiation-induced growth inhibition and apoptotic death of HCC cells. At a molecular level, GLP suppressed the activities of DNA repair-associated proteins including ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and DNA dependent-protein kinase (DNA-PK) in liver cancer cells under radiation conditions. Furthermore, the addition of an Akt inhibitor elevated the activities of DNA-PK and ATM and attenuated the GLP-induced HepG2 cell injury under the radiation condition. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that GLP enhances the radiosensitivity of HCC cells via the regulation of Akt signaling pathways, implying a potential therapeutic effect of GLP as a radiation sensitizer in HCC treatment.