Hydrophobic-action-driven removal of six organophosphorus pesticides from tea infusion by modified carbonized bacterial cellulose.

The abuse of organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) in tea planting makes it easy to transfer from tea into its infusion, bringing potential health risks to consumers. Thus, it is essential to adopt reliable techniques to remove OPPs from tea infusion. In this study, three treatment methods were used to modify carbonized bacterial cellulose (CBC) to improve its adsorption performance. Among them, CBC treated by hydrazine hydrate (N-CBC) had the best adsorption effect, whose removal rate for dicrotophos is 13 times that of CBC. The in-depth study of adsorption mechanism proved that hydrophobic interaction dominated the adsorption of OPPs onto N-CBC. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model were more suitable to describe the process. Additionally, there were no significant changes in tea infusion quality after N-CBC treatment. This work clarifies that N-CBC benefitted from simple preparation method, excellent adsorption performance and unique adsorption mechanism has potential applications in tea infusion.

Quickly and efficiently remove multiple pesticides in tea infusions by low-cost carbonized bacterial cellulose.

Soaking tea leaves make tea consumers exposure to pesticide residues more easily. However, there are few studies on the removal of pesticides in tea infusions. Therefore, a low-cost carbonized bacterial cellulose material was prepared by direct calcination method, and used to remove multiple pesticides in tea infusions quickly and efficiently. CBC-350 has the best removal efficiency for 9 pesticides and then screened the best adsorption conditions. The adsorption isotherm experiment was carried out and indicated that the adsorption process was in consist with the Freundlich model. The thermodynamic parameters are also calculated. Moreover, the adsorption mechanism was discussed, which suggests that π-π interaction and hydrophobic action are the driving force during the adsorption process. Exhilaratingly, the CBC-350 also has excellent adsorption capacity compared to other adsorbents and can be reused at least five times.

Development of a compound oral liquid containing herbal extracts and its effect on immunity and gastric mucosa.

Nowadays, consumers have an increasing demand for health products. In this study, an oral liquid was developed using a compound extract consisting of three herbal extracts (Dendrobium nobile Lindl., Lycium barbarum, and Puerariae lobatae Radix) because the compound extract (a combination of all three extracts) was superior to every single extract in promoting the phagocytic capacity of RAW264.7 macrophages and the proliferation ability of GES-1 cells. In this oral liquid, the dosage of the stabilizer and the sweetener was selected using a stability test and sensory quality evaluation. When 0.30% (m/v) xanthan gum and 0.20% (m/v) mogroside were added, the oral liquid had not only a good stability but also the highest sensory score for overall acceptability. The chemical composition analysis showed that the oral liquid had various functional ingredients including polysaccharides, phenols, alkaloids, and so forth. The immune-enhancing efficacy of the oral liquid was evaluated in BALB/c mice by measuring the levels of different immune indicators. The results indicated that the oral liquid obviously enhanced nonspecific and specific immunity. A rat model with ethanol-induced gastric ulcer was used to examine the protective effect of the oral liquid on the gastric mucosa and to explore the related mechanisms. The oral administration of the oral liquid for days significantly prevented the formation of gastric ulcer. This study provided an effective oral liquid that could enhance immunity and protect gastric mucosa.

[Effect of injecting mouse nerve growth factor in different ways on motor development, cerebral hemodynamics and biochemical metabolism in children with cerebral palsy].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of acupoint injection and intramuscular injection with mouse nerve growth factor (mNGF) on gross motor function development of children with cerebral palsy (CP), and explore the treatment mechanism. METHODS: A total of 63 children with CP were randomly divided into an observation group (32 cases, 4 cases dropped off ) and a control group (31 cases, 3 cases dropped off). Based on the routine rehabilitation therapy, the control group received intramuscular injection of mNGF(18 µg/2 mL), and the observation group received acupoint injection of mNGF at Xinshu (BL 15), Ganshu (BL 18), Pishu (BL 20), Shenshu (BL 23), Sanjiaoshu (BL 22), Shenting (GV 24), Baihui (GV 20), Fengfu (GV 16), Dazhui (GV 14), etc. Of them, 5-6 acupoints alternately were selected each time, and each acupoint was given 0.3-0.5 mL, totally 18 µg/2 mL. Both treatment were carried out once every other day for six months. Before and after treatment, the children's development of brain function was assessed using gross motor function classification system (GMFCS). Before treatment (T0), after 2 (T2), 4 (T4) and 6 (T6) months of treatment, the motor function was evaluated by gross motor function measure (GMFM-88). The systolic peak velocity (Vs), mean velocity (Vm) and vascular resistance index (RI) of anterior cerebral artery (ACA) and middle cerebral artery (MCA) were measured, and the level of N-acetyl aspartate acid (NAA), choline (Cho), lactate (Lac) and creatine (Cr) from the basal ganglia, thalamus and periventricular white mater were detected by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) technology with MAGNETOM Skyra3.0T magnetic resonance imaging system before and after treatment. RESULTS: Compared with before treatment, the GMFCS classification of the observation group after treatment was significantly improved (P<0.05); after treatment, the difference of GMFCS classification between the two groups was not significant (P>0.05), however, the observation group had a 3.142 times of feasibility for good gross motor function development by more than level 1 compared to the control group (P<0.05). After 2, 4, and 6 months of treatment, the GMFM-88 scores of the two groups showed an upward trend (P<0.01), and the increase of the observation group was greater than that of the control group (P<0.05). Compared with before treatment, in the ACA and MCA, the Vs and Vm increased, RI decreased in both groups after treatment (P<0.01), and in the brain, NAA/Cr increased, Cho/Cr and Lac/Cr decreased (P<0.01), and after treatment, the Vs, Vm of ACA and MCA and NAA/Cr of brain in the observation group were higher than those in the control group (P<0.05), and the RI of ACA and MCA and Cho/Cr and Lac/Cr of brain in the observation group were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The mNGF acupoint injection has a better effect on the gross motor function in the children with cerebral palsy compared with the intramuscular injection, and the mechanism may be associated with exhibiting the double effects of acupoint effect and the targeting therapy of drug, which can effectively improve the cerebral hemodynamics and the metabolism of cerebral nervous substances.

Correction to "A Novel G Protein-Biased and Subtype-Selective Agonist for a G Protein-Coupled Receptor Discovered from Screening Herbal Extracts".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.9b01125.].

A Novel G Protein-Biased and Subtype-Selective Agonist for a G Protein-Coupled Receptor Discovered from Screening Herbal Extracts.

Subtype selectivity and functional bias are vital in current drug discovery for G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) as selective and biased ligands are expected to yield drug leads with optimal on-target benefits and minimal side-effects. However, structure-based design and medicinal chemistry exploration remain challenging in part because of highly conserved binding pockets within subfamilies. Herein, we present an affinity mass spectrometry approach for screening herbal extracts to identify active ligands of a GPCR, the 5-HT2C receptor. Using this method, we discovered a naturally occurring aporphine 1857 that displayed strong selectivity for activating 5-HT2C without activating the 5-HT2A or 5-HT2B receptors. Remarkably, this novel ligand exhibited exclusive bias toward G protein signaling for which key residues were identified, and it showed comparable in vivo efficacy for food intake suppression and weight loss as the antiobesity drug, lorcaserin. Our study establishes an efficient approach to discovering novel GPCR ligands by exploring the largely untapped chemical space of natural products.

Efficient ligand discovery from natural herbs by integrating virtual screening, affinity mass spectrometry and targeted metabolomics.

Although natural herbs have been a rich source of compounds for drug discovery, identification of bioactive components from natural herbs suffers from low efficiency and prohibitive cost of the conventional bioassay-based screening platforms. Here we develop a new strategy that integrates virtual screening, affinity mass spectrometry (MS) and targeted metabolomics for efficient discovery of herb-derived ligands towards a specific protein target site. Herb-based virtual screening conveniently selects herbs of potential bioactivity whereas affinity MS combined with targeted metabolomics readily screens candidate compounds in a high-throughput manner. This new integrated approach was benchmarked on screening chemical ligands that target the hydrophobic pocket of the nucleoprotein (NP) of Ebola viruses for which no small molecule ligands have been reported. Seven compounds identified by this approach from the crude extracts of three natural herbs were all validated to bind to the NP target in pure ligand binding assays. Among them, three compounds isolated from Piper nigrum (HJ-1, HJ-4 and HJ-6) strongly promoted the formation of large NP oligomers and reduced the protein thermal stability. In addition, cooperative binding between these chemical ligands and an endogenous peptide ligand was observed, and molecular docking was employed to propose a possible mechanism. Taken together, we established a platform integrating in silico and experimental screening approaches for efficient discovery of herb-derived bioactive ligands especially towards non-enzyme protein targets.

A higher efficiency removal of neonicotinoid insecticides by modified cellulose-based complex particle.

Cellulose as an eco-friendly material is extensive in the nature. In this study, modified cellulose-based complex particle (MCCP) was produced through hydrothermal carbonization with methacrylic acid in the stirring and sand bath circumstance. The activated modified carbon-based porous particle (AMCCP) was prepared by treating with potassium hydroxide at high temperature, showing higher efficiency in removing neonicotinoids than MCCP. The AMCCP was fully characterized via scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis showed the prepared AMCCP has smaller aggregated particles with higher surface area than MCCP. The adsorption kinetic and the adsorption isotherm of AMCCP were studied, revealing that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir model correlated with the experimental data better. The maximum adsorption capacity of AMCCP is 142.36 mg/g for acetamiprid. The adsorption process is spontaneous, favorable, and endothermic in nature. After five regeneration time, the adsorption efficiency of the AMCCP is still over 95%.

A new erythrinan N-oxide alkaloid from Erythrina stricta.

This phytochemical study of stems and leaves of Erythrina stricta led to the isolation of twenty-three alkaloids, one of them previously unreported, 11ß-hydroxyerythratidine N-oxide. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic analyses including HSQC, HMBC, 1H-1H COSY, NOESY, as well as HRESIMS data in addition to comparison with reports in the literature.

Effect of exogenous calcium on growth, nutrients uptake and plasma membrane H+-ATPase and Ca2+-ATPase activities in soybean (Glycine max) seedlings under simulated acid rain stress.

Calcium (Ca) is one of essential elements for plant growth and development, and also plays a role in regulating plant cell physiology and cellular response to the environment. Here, we studied whether calcium played a role in enhancing tolerance of plants to acid rain stress by hydroponics and simulating acid rain stress. Our results show that acid rain (pH 4.5/pH 3.0) caused decreases in dry weight biomass, chlorophyll content and uptake of nutrients elements (NO3-, P, K, Mg, Zn and Mo) and an increase in membrane permeability of root. However, all parameters in soybean treated with exogenous calcium (5 mM) and acid rain at pH 4.5 were closed to the control levels. In addition, exogenous calcium (5 mM) alleviated the inhibition induced by pH 3.0 acid rain on the activity of plasma membranes H+-ATPase and the expression of GmPHA1 at transcriptional level, being benefiting to maintaining uptake of nutrients (NO3-, P, K, Mg, and Zn), and then lower the decrease in dry weight biomass and chlorophyll content. After a 5-day recovery (without acid rain stress), all parameters in soybean treated with acid rain at pH 3.0 and exogenous calcium were still worse than those of the control, but obviously better than those treated with acid rain at pH 3.0. Higher activity of plasma membrane H+-ATPase in soybean treated with acid rain at pH 3.0 and exogenous calcium was good to uptake of nutrients and promoted the recovery of soybean growth, compared with soybean treated with acid rain at pH 3.0. In conclusion, exogenous calcium could alleviate the inhibition caused by acid rain on soybean growth by increasing the activity of plasma membrane H+-ATPase for providing driving force to nutrient absorption, and its regulating effect was limited by intensity of acid rain. Furthermore, the application of exogenous calcium can be one of ways to alleviate the damage caused by acid rain to plants.

Indole Alkaloids from Hunteria zeylanica.

Six new bisindole alkaloids, hunterizeylines A-F (1-6), three new monomers, hunterizeylines G-I (7-9), and 13 known alkaloids were isolated from an aqueous MeOH extract of the twigs and leaves of Hunteria zeylanica. Hunterizeyline H, geissoschizol, and dihydrocorynantheol displayed weak insecticidal activity against the aphid Rhodobium porosum, with IC50 values of 168.2, 360.5, and 290.6 µM, respectively.

Tanshinones suppress AURKA through up-regulation of miR-32 expression in non-small cell lung cancer.

Tanshinone is the liposoluble constituent of Salia miltiorrhiza, a root used in traditional herbal medicine which is known to possess certain health benefits. Although it is known that tanshinones, including tanshinone I (T1), tanshinone IIA (T2A), and cryptotanshinone (CT), can inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells in vitro, the mechanism under which they act is still unclear. AURKA, an oncogene, encodes a serine-threonine kinase which regulates mitotic processes in mammalian cells. Here, we reported that tanshinones mediate AURKA suppression partly through up-regulating the expression of miR-32. We found that tanshinones could inhibit cell proliferation, promote apoptosis, and impede cell-cycle progression, thus performing an antineoplastic function in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Additionally, we demonstrated that tanshinones attained these effects in part by down-regulating AURKA, corroborating previous reports. Our results showed that in NSCLC, similar effects were obtained with knock-down of the AURKA gene by siRNA. We also verified that AURKA was the direct target of miR-32. Collectively, our results demonstrated that tanshinones could inhibit NSCLC by suppressing AURKA via up-regulating the expressions of miR-32 and other related miRNAs.

Facile synthesis of biocompatible cysteine-coated CuS nanoparticles with high photothermal conversion efficiency for cancer therapy.

The semiconductor compounds have been proven to be promising candidates as a new type of photothermal therapy agent, but unsatisfactory photothermal conversion efficiencies limit their widespread application in photothermal therapy (PTT). Herein, we synthesized cysteine-coated CuS nanoparticles (Cys-CuS NPs) as highly efficient PTT agents by a simple aqueous solution method. The Cys-CuS NPs have a good biocompatibility owing to their biocompatible cysteine coating and exhibit a strong absorption in the near-infrared region due to the localized surface plasma resonances of valence-band free carriers. The photothermal conversion efficiency of Cys-CuS NPs reaches 38.0%, which is much higher than that of the recently reported Cu9S5 and Cu(2-x)Se nanocrystals. More importantly, tumor growth can be efficiently inhibited in vivo by the fatal heat arising from the excellent photothermal effect of Cys-CuS NPs at a low concentration under the irradiation of a 980 nm laser with a safe power density of 0.72 W cm(-2). Therefore, the Cys-CuS NPs have great potential as ideal photothermal agents for cancer therapy.

Self-assembled WO3-x hierarchical nanostructures for photothermal therapy with a 915 nm laser rather than the common 980 nm laser.

Photothermal therapy (PTT) is limited by unsuitable photothermal agents and near-infrared (NIR) light. Herein, self-assembled PEGylated WO3-x hierarchical nanostructures, which could serve as excellent laser-cavity mirrors, were successfully prepared via a simple one-pot solvothermal route. The as-prepared WO3-x hierarchical nanostructures displayed strong near-infrared absorption. The absorption of pure water at 980 nm is 30 times higher than that at 915 nm, and the temperature of water only increased by 3.4 °C under the irradiation of a 915 nm laser with a power density of 1.0 W cm(-2) for 10 min, while the temperature of water increased as much as 15.1 °C for the 980 nm laser. With continuous excitation by 915 nm light, the photothermal conversion efficiency of these WO3-x hierarchical nanostructures was evaluated to be 28.1%. Thus, the WO3-x hierarchical nanostructures could serve as excellent laser-cavity mirrors of a 915 nm laser. The PTT study on cancer cells in vivo demonstrated that the WO3-x hierarchical nanostructures can generate enough heat for efficient photothermal therapy of cancer cells under the irradiation of a 915 nm laser with a power density of 1.2 W cm(-2) over a short period (5-10 min).

Indole alkaloids from leaves and twigs of Rauvolfia verticillata.

Seven new indole alkaloids, rauverines A-G (1-7), and 19 known indole alkaloids were isolated from the leaves and twigs of Rauvolfia verticillata. All compounds showed no cytotoxicity against five human cancer cell lines, human myeloid leukemia (HL-60), hepatocellular carcinoma (SMMC-7721), lung cancer (A-549), breast cancer (MCF-7), and colon cancer (SW480) cells.