Bioactive constituents of animal-derived traditional Chinese medicinal materials for breast cancer: opportunities and challenges.

Breast cancer is globally the most common invasive cancer in women and remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and endocrine therapy are currently the main treatments for this cancer type. However, some breast cancer patients are prone to drug resistance related to chemotherapy or immunotherapy, resulting in limited treatment efficacy. Consequently, traditional Chinese medicinal materials (TCMMs) as natural products have become an attractive source of novel drugs. In this review, we summarized the current knowledge on the active components of animal-derived TCMMs, including Ophiocordycepssinensis-derived cordycepin, the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of O.sinensis, norcantharidin (NCTD), Chansu, bee venom, deer antlers, Ostreagigas, and scorpion venom, with reference to marked anti-breast cancer effects due to regulating cell cycle arrest, proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis, and drug resistance. In future studies, the underlying mechanisms for the antitumor effects of these components need to be further investigated by utilizing multi-omics technologies. Furthermore, large-scale clinical trials are necessary to validate the efficacy of bioactive constituents alone or in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs for breast cancer treatment.

[Functional traits of leaves with different ages of Taxus wallichiana var. chinensis saplings.] / çº¢è±†æ‰å¹¼æ ‘å¼‚é¾„å¶çš„åŠŸèƒ½æ€§çŠ¶.

Variations of functional traits with leaf age reflect plant life history strategy and indicate allocation pattern and trade-off characteristics in the limiting resource. In this study, leaves with different ages of Taxus wallichiana var. chinensis saplings were taken as experimental materials. Fourteen leaf functional traits of leaves at three differebt ages were measured in order to reveal changes of the saplings' ecological strategies with leaf aging. The results showed that one-year-old leaves had significantly higher specific leaf area than two- and three-year-old lea-ves, while three-year-old leaves had significantly greater leaf thickness, leaf area, volume, fresh weight and dry weight than leaves at other ages. In addition, one-year-old leaves had significantly greater nitrogen content (N), phosphorus content (P) and N:P than two- and three-year-old leaves, but lower C:N than three-old-year leaves. The slope of allometric relationship between leaf water content and dry weight, leaf thickness and leaf area of one-year-old leaves, leaf thickness and leaf area of three-year-old leaves were all significantly lower than 1.0. Two-year-old leaves showed significantly allometric relationships between many leaf traits, with slope being not equal to 1.0. In conclusion, one-year-old leaves of T. wallichiana var. chinensis saplings tended to have higher photosynthetic capacity, two-year-old leaves had stronger dry matter accumulation, and three-year-old leaves would construct defense system. The coordination and complementation of functional traits among leaves with different ages might have great significance for maintaining individual homeostasis and survival.

Probing the structure-antioxidant activity relationships of four cinnamic acids porous starch esters.

For investigation of antioxidant capacity relationship, four cinnamic acids (CNAs), including cinnamic (CA), ferulic (FA), p-coumaric (p-CA) and sinapic (SA) acids, were selected to modify porous starch (PS) with different degrees of substitution by esterification, respectively. The ester linkage of CNAs modified PS was confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C solid-state NMR and FT-IR. The porous structure was maintained after esterification. Three in vitro antioxidant assays were applied to measure antioxidant capacities. The order of antioxidant capacity was SA@PS > FA@PS > p-CA@PS > CA@PS, due to the presence of phenolic hydroxyl groups with hydrogen donating abilities. Besides electron-donating group on ortho or para positions the benzene ring further enhances the hydrogen donating ability and the stability of hydroxyl radical. This study not only investigated the antioxidant mechanism of CNA modified starch derivatives but probed the way for synthesis of biodegradable antioxidant materials for the food industries.