ABSTRACT
Gout and hyperuricemia can seriously affect the quality of life; at present, however, existing medicines are unable to meet all clinical needs. In the current study, a novel peptide (i.e., rice-derived-peptide-3 (RDP3), AAAAMAGPK-NH2, 785.97 Da) in water extract obtained from shelled Oryza sativa fruits was identified. Testing revealed that RDP3 (minimum effective concentration 100 µg/kg) did not show both hemolytic and acute toxicity, and reduced uric acid levels in the serum of hyperuricemic mice by inhibiting xanthine oxidase activity and decreasing urate transporter 1 expression. RDP3 also alleviated renal injury in hyperuricemic mice by decreasing NLRP3 inflammasome expression. Furthermore, RDP3 alleviated formalin-induced paw pain and reduced monosodium urate crystal-induced paw swelling and inflammatory factors in mice. Thus, this newly identified peptide reduced uric acid levels and renal damage in hyperuricemic mice and showed anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities, indicating the potential of RDP3 as an antigout medicine candidate.
Subject(s)
Oryza/chemistry , Peptides/chemistry , Plant Extracts/chemistry , Animals , Anti-Inflammatory Agents/administration & dosage , Anti-Inflammatory Agents/chemistry , Anti-Inflammatory Agents/isolation & purification , Edema/drug therapy , Edema/metabolism , Gout/drug therapy , Gout/metabolism , Gout Suppressants/administration & dosage , Gout Suppressants/chemistry , Gout Suppressants/isolation & purification , Humans , Hyperuricemia/drug therapy , Hyperuricemia/metabolism , Mice , Mice, Nude , Peptides/administration & dosage , Peptides/isolation & purification , Plant Extracts/administration & dosage , Plant Extracts/isolation & purification , Uric Acid/metabolism , Xanthine Oxidase/metabolismABSTRACT
Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of combining cinobufotalin and chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer (GC). Patients and methods: Literature retrieval was performed in Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biological Medicine Database (CBM), Wanfang database and Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP) before September 2018. The primary reported outcomes including therapeutic efficacy, quality of life (QoL), and adverse events were systematically evaluated. Results: Data from 27 trials including 1,939 advanced GC patients were included. The results indicated that, compared with chemotherapy alone, the combination of chemotherapy and cinobufotalin significantly improved patients' overall response rate (odds ratio [OR] =1.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.54-2.31, P<0.00001) and disease control rate (OR =2.05, 95% CI =1.63-2.58, P<0.00001). The QoL of patients also evidently improved after chemotherapy and cinobufotalin combined treatment, as indicated by increased QoL improved rate (OR =2.39, 95% CI =1.81-3.15, P<0.00001), Karnofsky Performance Score (OR =7.00, 95% CI =2.25-11.75, P=0.004) and pain relief rate (OR =7.00, 95% CI =2.25-11.75, P=0.004). Adverse events including nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, leukopenia, hand-foot syndrome, anemia, gastrointestinal side effects and peripheral neurotoxicity caused by chemotherapy were evidently alleviated (P<0.05) when cinobufotalin was administered to GC patients. Conclusion: Evidence from the meta-analysis suggested that the combination of chemotherapy and cinobufotalin is more effective in treating GC than chemotherapy alone. It alleviates the adverse effects associated with chemotherapy and improves the QoL of GC patients.
ABSTRACT
Five strains of bacteria, namely, Exiguobacterium sp. ASW-1, Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain ASW-2, Alcaligenes sp. ASW-3, Alcaligenes sp. ASS-1, and Bacillus sp. ASS-2, were isolated from the Zhejiang coast in China. The mixed flora of the five strains performed well with degrading 75.1% crude oil (1%, w/v) in 7 days. The calcium alginate-activated carbon embedding carrier was used to immobilize bacterial consortium. Immobilized cells performed better than free ones in variations of environmental factors containing incubated temperature, initial pH, salinity of the medium and crude oil concentration. The degradation process of crude oil by immobilized bacteria was accelerated compared with that of the free ones. Bacterial consortium showed better performance on biodegradation of normal alkanes than that of PAHs. Improvement of immobilization on the biodegradation efficiency of normal alkanes (31.9%) was apparently high than that of PAHs (1.9%).