Textual Research on Trionycis Carapax / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Trionycis Carapax is a commonly used Chinese medicine in clinical practice. Modern research on Trionycis Carapax mainly focuses on experimental research and clinical observation， which has been rarely reported in the literature. Based on the literature on medicinal herbs， medical books， prescriptions of all dynasties， this study carried out systematic textual research on the historical evolution and changes of the name， origin， producing areas， quality， efficacy， indications， processing methods， and contraindications of the Trionycis Carapax. As revealed by the textual analysis， the origin of Trionycis Carapax is Trionyx sinensis， and the carapace of T. steindachneri is not suitable for the preparation of Trionycis Carapax. The genuine producing areas of Trionycis Carapax include Yueyang， Jingzhou， southeast Anhui， and western Jiangsu in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze river. Regarding the quality， the number of ribs of Trionycis Carapax， such as seven ribs and nine ribs， is often used as the quality evaluation standard in ancient Chinese herbal books. However， through literature research and field inspections on the medicinal material markets， it is not advisable to take rib number as a quality evaluation criterion in modern times. With the change of the times， the efficacy and indications of Trionycis Carapax have gradually expanded on the basis of Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica （Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing）， and later generations widely apply it in internal medicine， surgery， gynecology， pediatrics， etc. It should be noted that the treatment of labor heat and bone steaming by Trionycis Carapax is derived from Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica， not Treatise on the Nature of Medicinal Herbs （Yao Xing Lun） mentioned in ancient books such as Amplification on Materia Medica （Ben Cao Yan Yi）. The processing methods of Trionycis Carapax are diverse， which are dominated by traditional vinegar processing. In terms of contraindications， Trionycis Carapax should not be compatible with bauxite and marble and is contraindicated in pregnant women. Those with spleen deficiency， weak stomach， and liver deficiency without heat should use it with caution. This study is expected to provide the basis for radical reform and further development and clinical utilization of Trionycis Carapax.

Biopolymer films based on chitosan/potato protein/linseed oil/ZnO NPs to maintain the storage quality of raw meat.

Biopolymer films based on chitosan/potato protein/linseed oil/ZnO NPs were developed to maintain the storage quality of raw meat. Results indicated that the incorporation of ZnO NPs could effectively improve the transparency and tensile strength of the films, while addition of linseed oil could make the composite film maintain good elastic property. Films blended with chitosan/potato protein/linseed oil/ZnO NPs (Fcpzl) exhibited an excellent moisture barrier capability. SEM showed that ZnO NPs could harmoniously exist in various polymers matrix. FTIR analysis demonstrated that different components were bound together by intramolecular and intermolecular interactions, among which hydrogen bonds were the main force. Raw meat samples were wrapped with different films to evaluate the preservative effect during 4 °C storage. Results indicated that Fcpzl possessed best protective effect of raw meat with excellent acceptable sensory properties during 7 days storage, which could reduce the speed of increasing pH and total bacterial counts.

Preparation and characterization of potato protein-based microcapsules with an emphasis on the mechanism of interaction among the main components.

BACKGROUND: Potato protein (PP) has promising potential for utilization in food applications due to its high nutritive value and functional properties. Grapeseed oil (GO) is rich in unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidant active ingredients. However, its application is limited because of low stability and high volatility. In order to overcome such problems, PP-based microcapsules encapsulating GO were produced by complex coacervation, and characterized using optical, thermodynamic and spectroscopic analyses. RESULTS: Results indicated that a ratio of GO/PP of 1:2 led to the best encapsulation effect with the maximum microencapsulation efficiency and yield. Intact and nearly spherical microcapsules were observed from scanning electron microscopy images. Results of thermogravimetry demonstrated that thermal resistance was increased in the microencapsulated GO, indicating that PP-based microcapsules could be a good way to protect the thermal stability of GO. Fourier transform infrared spectra indicated that hydrogen bonding and covalent crosslinking might occur among wall materials, but a physical interaction between GO and wall materials. CONCLUSIONS: PP can be successfully used to encapsulate GO when combined with chitosan, indicating that PP-based microcapsules have potential for application in encapsulating liquid oils with functional properties. A schematic diagram of possible interactions was constructed to better understand the mechanism of formation of the microcapsules. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.

Electroacupuncture Stimulation of Language-Implicated Acupoint Tongli (HT 5) in Healthy Subjects: An fMRI Evaluation Study / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore brain activations associated with electroacupuncture simulation at Tongli (HT 5) and its comparison with brain activations during picture-naming task.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twenty healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. Half of them received electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5 (ACUP group) and the other half of them received stimulation at a nonmeridian sham acupoint (SHAM group). All subjects performed picture-naming task. Each subject finished two runs of functional magnetic resonance imaging examinations in one session and picture-naming task was performed before electroacupuncture stimulation. Subjective brain activations were obtained using generalized linear model and inter-group analyses were performed after that.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The electroacupuncture stimulation at HT 5 induced significant brain activations in both the anterior and posterior language regions, including the left inferior frontal gyrus, which was in consistent with activations induced during picture-naming task. Group analysis showed a tendency of increased activation of ACUP group in left inferior frontal gyrus compared with SHAM group (P<0.05 FDR corrected).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Electroacupuncture treatment at the acupoint HT 5 has modulation effect on typical language-implicated brain regions in healthy subjects, which provides supporting evidence for beneficial effects of needling at HT 5 for recovery of language function in aphasia.</p>

Glycine increases preimplantation development of mouse oocytes following vitrification at the germinal vesicle stage.

Ice-free cryopreservation, referred to as vitrification, is receiving increased attention in the human and animal assisted reproduction. However, it introduces the detrimental osmotic stress by adding and removing high contents of cryoprotectants. In this study, we evaluated the effects of normalizing cell volume regulation by adding glycine, an organic osmolyte, during vitrification of mouse germinal vesicle stage oocyte and/or subsequent maturation on its development. The data showed that glycine supplementation in either vitrification/thawing or maturation medium significantly improved the cytoplasmic maturation of MII oocytes manifested by spindle assembly, chromosomal alignment, mitochondrial distribution, euploidy rate, and blastocyst development following fertilization in vitro, compared to the control without glycine treatment. Furthermore, glycine addition during both vitrification/thawing and maturation further enhanced the oocyte quality demonstrated by various markers, including ATP contents and embryo development. Lastly, the effect of anti-apoptosis was also observed when glycine was added during vitrification. Our result suggests that reducing osmotic stress induced by vitrification could improve the development of vitrified mouse oocyte.

Effects of salts on physicochemical, microstructural and thermal properties of potato starch.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of salts on the physicochemical, microstructural and thermal properties of potato starch. The salting-out ions were able to decrease the solubility, swelling power, transparency and particle size of potato starch significantly (p<0.05), while the salting-in ions increased these properties significantly (p<0.05). The microstructure of potato starch granules, observed by a light microscopy at 50°C and 70°C, was consistent with the above results. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis demonstrated an increase in gelatinization temperature and enthalpy with the addition of salting-out ions, whereas there was a reverse trend for the addition of salting-in ions. The effects of anions on these properties of potato starch follow the order of SCN(-)>I(-)>NO3(-)>Br(-)>Cl(-)>SO4(2-)>F(-), while effects of the cations follow the order of Li(+)>Na(+)>K(+), matching to the order of the Hofmeister series.

An intravascular MRI contrast agent based on Gd(DO3A-Lys) for tumor angiography.

An intravascular MRI contrast agent Gd(DO3A-Lys), Gadolinium(III) (2,2',2″-(10-(3-(5-benzamido-6-methoxy-6-oxohexylamino)-3-oxopropyl)-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7-triyl)triacetate), has been studied for tumor angiography based on its high relaxivity and long blood half-life. The preparation procedures of the contrast agent have been modified in order to achieve higher yield and improve the synthetic reproducibility. High relaxivity of Gd(DO3A-Lys) has been confirmed by measurements at 3 T, 7 T and 9.4 T magnetic fields. The relaxivity-dependent albumin binding study indicated that Gd(DO3A-Lys) partially bound to albumin protein. In vitro cell viability in HK2 cell indicated low cytotoxicity of Gd(DO3A-Lys) up to 1.2 mM [Gd] concentration. In vivo toxicity studies demonstrated no toxicity of Gd(DO3A-Lys) on kidney tissues up to 0.2 mM [Gd]. While the toxicity on liver tissue was not observed at low dosage (1.0 mM [Gd]), Gd(DO3A-Lys) cause certain damage on hepatic tissue at high dosage (2.0 mM [Gd]). The DO3A-Lys has been labeled with (68)Ga radioisotope for biodistribution studies. (68)Ga(DO3A-Lys) has high uptake in both HT1080 and U87MG xenograft tumors, and has high accumulation in blood. Contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) in mice bearing U87MG xenograft tumor demonstrated that Gd(DO3A-Lys) could enhance vascular microenvironment around the tumor, and displays promising characteristics of an MRI contrast agent for tumor angiography.

Effects of starches on the textural, rheological, and color properties of surimi-beef gels with microbial tranglutaminase.

In order to evaluate effects of starches (corn starch, potato starch, and tapioca starch) on the characteristics of surimi-beef gels with microbial transglutaminase, the cooking loss, gel strength, color and rheological properties of samples were investigated. Results demonstrated that starches gave negative effects on the cooking loss of surimi-beef gels. The gel with corn starch had the highest cooking loss while that with tapioca starch showed the lowest value. The gel with potato starch obtained the highest gel strength. During the sol-gel transitions, surimi-beef complexes with 3% corn starch exhibited the highest storage modulus value, while that with 3% tapioca starch had the lowest one. The addition of starch caused the increase of L* values of surimi-beef gels. Results showed that the excessive amount of starch resulted in the decrease in gel strength of surimi-beef gels.

Facile synthesis of water-stable magnetite nanoparticles for clinical MRI and magnetic hyperthermia applications.

AIMS: Superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles have been under intensive investigation in nanomedicine. However, it is still a challenge to synthesize high-quality water-stable magnetite nanoparticles for better magnetic performance and less side effects in medical MRI and nanothermotherapy. MATERIALS & METHODS: We successfully synthesized hydrophilic magnetite nanoparticles through thermal decomposition of Fe(acac)(3) in triethylene glycol, which were coated with a triethylene glycol layer and thus demonstrated excellent water stability. RESULTS: The optimized deposition temperature has been found to be 250°C (IO-250 NPs). The magnetic and thermal properties as well as the cytotoxicity of IO-250 NPs were investigated. In vitro experiments have demonstrated high cellular uptake and low cytotoxicity. The hyperthermia experiments showed effectiveness in temperature rise and cancer cell death. IO-250 NPs showed promising MRI with relaxivity r(2)* as high as 617.5 s(-1) mM(-1) Fe. In vivo MRI showed excellent tumor imaging. CONCLUSION: The IO-250 NPs have great potential to be applied for clinical MRI and magnetic thermotherapy.

Characterization of mammalian sulfiredoxin and its reactivation of hyperoxidized peroxiredoxin through reduction of cysteine sulfinic acid in the active site to cysteine.

Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are a family of peroxidases that reduce hydroperoxides. The cysteine residue in the active site of certain eukaryotic Prx enzymes undergoes reversible oxidation to sulfinic acid (Cys-SO2H) during catalysis, and sulfiredoxin (Srx) has been identified as responsible for reversal of the resulting enzyme inactivation in yeast. We have now characterized mammalian orthologs of yeast Srx with an assay based on monitoring of the reduction of sulfinic Prx by immunoblot analysis with antibodies specific for the sulfinic state. Sulfinic reduction by mammalian Srx was found to be a slow process (kcat = 0.18/min) that requires ATP hydrolysis. ATP could be efficiently replaced by GTP, dATP, or dGTP but not by CTP, UTP, dCTP, or dTTP. Both glutathione and thioredoxin are potential physiological electron donors for the Srx reaction, given that their Km values (1.8 mM and 1.2 microM, respectively) are in the range of their intracellular concentrations, and the Vmax values obtained with the two reductants were similar. Although its pKa is relatively low (approximately 7.3), the active site cysteine of Srx remained reduced even when the active site cysteine of most Prx molecules became oxidized. Finally, depletion of human Srx by RNA interference suggested that Srx is largely responsible for reduction of the Cys-SO2H of Prx in A549 human cells.