Research Themes and Trends of Hen of the Woods or Maitake Medicinal Mushroom Grifola frondosa (Agaricomycetes): A Bibliometric Analysis of the Knowledge Field.

This paper aims to characterize the knowledge field of Grifola frondosa and analyze its research themes and trends. CiteSpace, a powerful bibliometric analysis tool, was adopted to visualize the knowledge field of G. frondosa research for facilitating this current study. A total of 747 articles and reviews retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database between 1998 and 2022 were analyzed by CiteSpace. It was found that China and Japan are the most influential countries in G. frondosa research. Secondly, polysaccharide, bioactivity, structural characterization, and submerged culture are the main themes of G. frondosa research, among which bioactivity and structural characterization are the current research hotspots. Finally, selenium polysaccharide and gut microbiota may be the emerging trends in G. frondosa research in the future. This study could help researchers discern the evolution and future trends of G. frondosa research and provide a reference for related research work.

Acupuncture-related techniques for prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus in people with pre-diabetes: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: In modern society, the incidence of diabetes is increasing year by year. Most individuals pass through a phase of prediabetes before developing full blown diabetes. Acupuncture-related has been widely used in the treatment of diabetes, but there is no systematic review of acupuncture-related on the control of blood glucose in prediabetes. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a meta-analysis of the clinical efficacy of acupuncutre-related therapy in preventing the development of diabetes in patients with prediabetes. METHODS: We will search Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan-Fang Database, Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP Database) from their respective inception dates to September 1, 2022 to identify potentially eligible studies. We will use the Review Manager 5.4 software provided by the Cochrane Collaborative Network for statistical analysis. We then assessed the quality and risk of the included studies and observed the outcome measures. RESULTS: This meta-analysis further elucidates the protective effects of acupuncture-related techniques on patients with prediabetes. CONCLUSION: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to investigate the effect of acupuncture- related techniques on blood glucose in patients with prediabetes, and to provide more methods for clinical prevention of conversion from prediabetes to diabetes.

Inhibition activities of polysaccharide (RG4-1) from Gentiana rigescens against RSV.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most important cause of lower respiratory tract infection in infants and young children. With the emergence of drug-resistant strains of RSV, new antiviral agents are needed urgently. Gentiana rigescens is a kind of Chinese herb, belonging to Gentianaceae, which has long been used as a folk medicine for curing inflammation, bacterial infection, viral infection, and so on. In this research, polysaccharide designated RG4-1 was isolated from G. rigescens by hot water extraction, ethanol precipitation, and macroreticular adsorbing resin column chromatography, and its antiviral activity, cytotoxicity, and possible antiviral mechanisms were assayed by cytopathogenic effect inhibition assay, 3-(4,5-dimethythiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and plaque reduction assay. RG4-1 was a fructose-binding lectin. In host cell cultures, RG4-1 was found to be an effective antiviral component against RSV. It showed good inhibitory effect against RSV when it was added 2 h after virus infection with 50% effective concentration of 12.86 µg/ml. RG4-1 also displayed its direct inactivation, attachment inhibition effect, and penetration inhibition effect against RSV. A time-dependent experiment was set up to confirm that RG4-1 blocked RSV infection at early stages of the infection. But RG4-1 seemed to be ineffective against intracellular virus and viral biosynthesis.

[Effect of an active component from Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl against respiratory syncytial virus in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To study the extraction of an active component LC-4 from Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl and anti-respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) effect in vitro. METHODS: The extration from boiling water of Forsythia suspensa were extracted by hot water extraction and were precipitated by ethanol and were elicited by macroporous adsorptive resins column chromatography. Then the antiviral active component LC-4 was separated from the production by eluting. The cytotoxicities and antiviral effect of LC-4 were tested by the Neutral Red assay and the cytopathic effect (CPE) inhibition assay. Ribavirin was used as the positive drug in the study. The antiviral effect of prevention and treatment of maximum dose of non-cytotoxicity of LC-4 was tested in Hela cell line. RESULTS: LC-4 showed that the concentration were 25.4 microg/ml with the medium cytotoxicity and were 2.11 microg/ml with the medium effective concentration (EC50). The corresponding treatment index of LC-4 was 12.04. It also exhibited obviously inhibition effect on RSV replications when LC-4 was added at 2 h, 4 h, 6 h and 8 h after infection (P < 0.05). The CPE was significant difference in comparison with control group, when the concentration of LC-4 between 31.25 microg/ml and 3.91 microg/ml was added at 2 h before infection (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: LC-4 could significantly prevent and inhibit RSV replications in vitro.