Antrodia cinnamomea exerts an anti-hepatoma effect by targeting PI3K/AKT-mediated cell cycle progression in vitro and in vivo.

Antrodia cinnamomea is extensively used as a traditional medicine to prevention and treatment of liver cancer. However, its comprehensive chemical fingerprint is uncertain, and the mechanisms, especially the potential therapeutic target for anti-hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are still unclear. Using UPLC‒Q-TOF/MS, 139 chemical components were identified in A. cinnamomea dropping pills (ACDPs). Based on these chemical components, network pharmacology demonstrated that the targets of active components were significantly enriched in the pathways in cancer, which were closely related with cell proliferation regulation. Next, HCC data was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO). The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and DisGeNET were analyzed by bioinformatics, and 79 biomarkers were obtained. Furtherly, nine targets of ACDP active components were revealed, and they were significantly enriched in PI3K/AKT and cell cycle signaling pathways. The affinity between these targets and their corresponding active ingredients was predicted by molecular docking. Finally, in vivo and in vitro experiments showed that ACDPs could reduce the activity of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and downregulate the expression of cell cycle-related proteins, contributing to the decreased growth of liver cancer. Altogether, PI3K/AKT-cell cycle appears as the significant central node in anti-liver cancer of A. Cinnamomea.

Determination of 4 psychoactive substances in tea using ultra high performance liquid chromatography combined with the quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

In this study, a method for the qualification and quantification of 4 psychoactive substances in tea using ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with the quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS) has been developed. Tea samples were extracted by a 50% (v/v) methanol-water solution, and then separated by an ACQUITY UPLC BEH Shield RP18 column using a binary solvent system by gradient elution. The analytes were determined by Q-TOF/MS in TOFMS and information-dependent acquisition (IDA)-MS/MS mode. The results showed that the mass accuracy error of the 4 psychoactive substances were lower than 5.0 × 10-6, and a good linear relationship was observed in the range of 0.5-500 µg L-1 and correlation coefficient was higher than 0.9990. The LOD was in the range of 0.005-0.020 mg kg-1 and the LOQ was in the range of 0.010-0.040 mg kg-1. The recovery of the method was in range of 80.14-93.25% with spike levels of 0.010-0.400 mg kg-1, and relative standard deviations were lower than 10%. The method was simple, specific and reliable. It has been successfully used for the detection of 4 psychoactive substances in tea samples.

Postoperative intussusceptions in children and infants: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative intussusception (POI) is an unusual complication in children and infants who underwent various kinds of surgery. The early recognition was difficult for its rarity and atypical presentations. This study evaluates the clinical features of POI through a literature review. METHODS: MEDLINE database was searched for relevant articles that reported the children and infants with POI since 1990 in English-language using the key word "postoperative intussusception". All published studies containing clinical data for POI in children and infants were included. Reference lists of retrieved articles were reviewed for additional cases. Detailed data of the included cases were extracted and analyzed. RESULTS: Twenty-six studies with total 127 cases of POI were included. According to the extracted data, the median age was 19 months with the male-to-female ratio 1.5:1. There were 65 operations (51.2 %) that involved gastrointestinal system, 26 cases (20.5 %) of retroperitoneal tumor resection, 12 operations (9.4 %) involved diaphragm, 8 operations (6.3 %) involved urinary system, 5 cases (3.9 %) of partial pancreatectomy, 11 cases (8.7 %) of non-abdominal operations. 75.5 % presented symptoms in the first 7 days after surgery. The prominent symptom was bilious vomiting or increased nasogastric output (87.1 % of 101 patients), following abdominal distention (74.3 %), abdominal pain (35.6 %). Six cases (5.0 %) of ileocolic POI were reduced successfully by air enema. The small bowel intussusception attributed 85.6 % of POI (95 patients). Laparotomy and manual reduction were performed in 104 cases (86.0 %). Nine patients (7.4 %) underwent intestinal resection and anastomosis. CONCLUSIONS: POI should be suspected in pediatric surgical patients who showed signs of intestinal obstruction in the early postoperative period. Early recognition and prompt management are important.