Safety evaluation of fermented Platycodon grandiflorus (Jacq.) A.DC. extract: Genotoxicity, acute toxicity, and 13-week subchronic toxicity study in rats.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Platycodon grandiflorus (Jacq.) A.DC. is a well-known traditional herbal medicine administered for bronchitis and inflammatory diseases. Especially, anti-inflammatory effect of fermented P. grandiflorus (Jacq.) A.DC. extract (FPGE) was higher than that of P. grandiflorus (Jacq.) A.DC. extract. However, toxicological information for FPGE is lacking. AIM OF THE STUDY: In this study, we establish a toxicological profile for FPGE by testing genotoxicity, acute and 13-week subchronic toxicity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: FPGE was evaluated with bacterial reverse mutation, chromosome aberration, and micronucleus test. For the acute- and 13-week subchronic toxicity tests, FPGE was administered orally at doses of 0, 750, 1500, and 3000 mg/kg in SD rats. RESULTS: The results of the genotoxic assays indicated that FPGE induced neither mutagenicity nor clastogenicity. The acute toxicity test showed that FPGE did not affect animal mortality, clinical signs, body weight changes, or microscopic findings at ≤ 3000 mg/kg. The approximate lethal dose (ALD) of FPGE in SD rats was >3000 mg/kg. For the 13-week subchronic toxicity assay, no FPGE dose induced any significant change in mortality, clinical signs, body or organ weight, food consumption, ophthalmology, urinalysis, hematology, serum chemistry, gross findings and histopathologic examination in either SD rat sex. The rat no observed adverse effects level (NOAEL) for FPGE was set to 3000 mg/kg. CONCLUSIONS: The present study empirically demonstrated that FPGE has a safe preclinical profile and indicated that it could be safely integrated into health products for atopic dermatitis treatment.

Anti-influenza effect of Cordyceps militaris through immunomodulation in a DBA/2 mouse model.

The immune-modulatory as well as anti-influenza effects of Cordyceps extract were investigated using a DBA/2 mouse model. Three different concentrations of Cordyceps extract, red ginseng extract, or drinking water were orally administered to mice for seven days, and then the mice were intranasally infected with 2009 pandemic influenza H1N1 virus. Body weight changes and survival rate were measured daily post-infection. Plasma IL-12, TNF-α, and the frequency of natural killer (NK) cells were measured on day 4 post-infection. The DBA/2 strain was highly susceptible to H1N1 virus infection. We also found that Cordyceps extract had an anti-influenza effect that was associated with stable body weight and reduced mortality. The anti-viral effect of Cordyceps extract on influenza infection was mediated presumably by increased IL-12 expression and greater number of NK cells. However, high TNF-α expression after infection of H1N1 virus in mice not receiving treatment with Cordyceps extract suggested a two-sided effect of the extract on host immune regulation.

Real-time detection of DNA cleavage induced by [M(2,2'-bipyridine)2(NO3)](NO3) (M=Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II)) complexes using linear dichroism technique.

The catalytic effect of [M(2,2'-bipyridine)2(NO3)](NO3) (M(bpy)2, M=Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II)) on the super-coiled and double stranded DNA (scDNA and dsDNA) was examined by electrophoresis and a real-time detection linear dichroism (LD) technique. Although the Cu(bpy)2 complex effectively cleaved both types of DNA, the other two complexes were inactive. This was explained by the electrochemical properties of the metal complexes. The Cu(bpy)2 complex exhibited a redox potential at -0.222V with a peak to peak separation of 0.201V, whereas the other two metal complexes did not undergo any redox reaction. Both electrophoresis and LD measurements revealed the superoxide radical, ·O2(-), to be responsible for DNA cleavage. A kinetic study using the LD technique showed that the cleavage of dsDNA consisted of two first order reactions. The fast reaction is believed to reflect the cleavage of one strand, whereas the slow reaction involves the cleavage of the complementary strand at or near the first cleaved site.

Multisite phosphorylation of Arabidopsis HFR1 by casein kinase II and a plausible role in regulating its degradation rate.

Arabidopsis Long Hypocotyl in Far-Red Light 1 (HFR1), a bHLH transcription factor, plays a critical role in promoting seedling photomorphogenesis and in balancing the shade-avoidance response under canopy shade conditions. Previous studies have established that HFR1 protein is degraded in darkness and is stabilized under light conditions to promote light signaling. How light regulates HFR1 stability is not well understood. In this study, we show that Arabidopsis HFR1 can be phosphorylated by recombinant casein kinase II (CKII) and plant extract in vitro and that phosphorylation of HFR1 can be effectively reduced by treatments with two CKII-specific inhibitors, 5,6-dichloro-1-beta-d-ribofuranosyl-benzimidazole (DRB) and heparin. We demonstrate that HFR1 physically interacts with the CKB1 and CKB2 regulatory subunits of CKII. Mutagenesis studies indicate that HFR1 is phosphorylated at multiple serine (Ser) residues in the N-terminal regulatory domain of HFR1. We also show that phosphorylation of HFR1 is promoted by light and that a predicted CKII site, Ser(122), represents a major phosphorylation site of HFR1 under both dark and light conditions. Comparison of wild-type, phosphorylation-deficient, and phosphorylation-mimic mutant proteins suggests that phosphorylation acts to reduce the degradation rate of HFR1. Together, our results suggest that CKII-mediated phosphorylation represents an important post-translational modification influencing the stability and signaling activity of Arabidopsis HFR1.