Research progress of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer (GC) is a malignant tumor originating from the gastric epithelium, and its incidence and mortality rates rank third among all malignant tumors worldwide. It is also one of the most common cancers in China and is treated predominantly by Western medicine in clinical practice. However, with the advancements in medical technology and informatics, the values of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in preventing and treating GC and improving prognosis have increasingly been recognized. According to TCM, clinical manifestations of GC can be divided into Yege (dysphagia), regurgitation, stomach pain, and Zhengxia (abdominal mass). Due to the unbalanced distribution of health care resources in China, most GC patients already have progressive or advanced-stage disease at the first diagnosis. As a result, most GC patients have poor physical function, and surgery or chemotherapy alone will aggravate the impairment to the immune function and seriously affect the quality of life. In contrast, TCM therapies have shown promising efficacy in the management of these patients. Here we review the role of the integrated TCM and Western medicine in treating advanced GC.

Emodin Prevented Depression in Chronic Unpredicted Mild Stress-Exposed Rats by Targeting miR-139-5p/5-Lipoxygenase.

BACKGROUND: The use of medicinal plant ingredients is one of the goals of developing potential drugs for treating depression. Compelling evidence suggests that anti-inflammatory medicines may block the occurrence of depression. We studied the effect of a natural compound, emodin, on the development of psychosocial stress-induced depression and the underlying mechanisms. METHODS: Chronic unpredicted mild stress (CUMS) for 7 weeks was performed to replicate psychosocial stress in rats. The sucrose preference test, force swimming test, and open field test were used to evaluate their behaviors. The differentially expressed proteins in the hippocampus were analyzed using proteomics. Nissl staining and Golgi staining were used to detect the loss of neurons and synapses, immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the activation of microglia, and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Western blotting, immunofluorescence, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction were also performed. RESULTS: Hippocampal inflammation with up-regulated 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) was observed in the depressed rats after CUMS exposure. The upregulation of 5-LO was caused by decreased miR-139-5p. To observe the effect of emodin, we screened out depression-susceptible (DeS) rats during CUMS and treated them with emodin (80 mg/kg/day). Two weeks later, emodin prevented the depression behaviors in DeS rats along with a series of pathological changes in their hippocampi, such as loss of neurons and spines, microglial activation, increased interleukin-1ß and tumor necrosis factor-α, and the activation of 5-LO. Furthermore, we demonstrated that emodin inhibited its excess inflammatory response, possibly by targeting miR-139-5p/5-LO and modulating glycogen synthase kinase 3ß and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2. CONCLUSION: These results provide important evidence that emodin may be a candidate agent for the treatment of depression and established a key role of miR-139-5p/5-LO in the inflammation of depression.

The complete chloroplast genome of Cuscuta australis R. Br. (Convolvulaceae) and its phylogenetic implication.

The genus Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae) is an annual parasitic twining herb. There are about 200 species in this genus, which are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical areas. Cuscuta is mainly parasitic on crops bringing significant losses to the production of agriculture. Furthermore, dried seeds of C. chinensis and C. australis are used as a Chinese traditional herbal medicine. Despite the importance of Cuscuta species, it is difficult to distinguish these plants by the naked eye. Moreover, plastid sequence information available for Cuscuta species is limited. In this study, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of C. australis was determined using next-generation sequencing. The entire cp genome was determined to be 85,263 bp in length. It contained large single-copy (LSC) and small single-copy (SSC) regions of 50,384 and 6727 bp, respectively, which were separated by a pair of 14,076 bp inverted repeat (IR) regions. The genome contained 98 genes, including 61 protein-coding genes, 29 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. The overall GC content of the genome is 37.8%. A phylogenetic tree reconstructed by 26 chloroplast genomes reveals that C. australis is most related with Cuscuta pentagona in Convolvulaceae, with bootstrap support values of 100%.

Non-target screening of (semi-)volatiles in food-grade polymers by comparison of atmospheric pressure gas chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight and electron ionization mass spectrometry.

Atmospheric pressure gas chromatography (APGC) coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) and electron ionization mass spectrometry together with commercial library search are two complementary techniques for non-target screening of volatile and semi-volatile compounds. Optimization was first conducted to achieve easier search of correspondent peaks between the two systems. Analytical strategy for the determination of volatile and semi-volatile compound with different identification confidence levels was then proposed and applied to food contact grade polypropylene (PP) samples. Identification was found to be much easier and less time-consuming especially when correspondent peak was found in the two systems with the help of library search, exact mass of precursor and fragment ions as well as Kovats Index (KI). The behavior of APGC-QTOF-MS was also further investigated. Apart from the M+. ion and the well-known adduct [M+H]+ others such as [M-3H + O]+, [M-3H+2O]+ and [M-H+3O]+ were also observed for n-alkanes. Besides, new reaction products were found, formed by diol compounds (1-Monostearoylglycerol, 2-Monostearoylglycerol and NX 8000K) and silanediol dimethyl, which would be a transformation product of the silicone base septum or the methyl 5% phenyl polysiloxane based column. These new compounds were only detected in APGC-MS-QTOF as EI-GC-MS was not enough sensitive for this purpose.

In vitro antifungal activity of sanguinarine and chelerythrine derivatives against phytopathogenic fungi.

In order to understand the antifungal activity of some derivatives of sanguinarine (S) and chelerythrine (C) and their structure-activity relationships, sixteen derivatives of S and C were prepared and evaluated for in vitro antifungal activity against seven phytopathogenic fungi by the mycelial growth rate method. The results showed that S, C and their 6-alkoxy dihydro derivatives S1-S4, C1-C4 and 6-cyanodihydro derivatives S5, C5 showed significant antifungal activity at 100 µg/mL against all the tested fungi. For most tested fungi, the median effective concentrations of S, S1, C and C1 were in a range of 14-50 µg/mL. The structure-activity relationship showed that the C=N+ moiety was the determinant for the antifungal activity of S and C. S1-S5 and C1-C5 could be considered as the precursors of S and C, respectively. Thus, the present results strongly suggested that S and C or their derivatives S1-S5 and C1-C5 should be considered as good lead compounds or model molecules to develop new anti-phytopathogenic fungal agents. can't login to work station for 2hrs--took 2 hrs vacation

[Naphtha analysis of different processed products of Rhizoma Curcumae from Guangxi by GC-MS].

OBJECTIVE: To approach the naphtha analysis of different processed products of Rhizoma Curcumae from Guangxi. METHODS: The naphtha was extracted by steam distillation. The relative content of every compound was determined with area normalization method and the structures were elucidated by GC-MS technique. RESULTS: 33 kinds of chemical compositions were identified in the naphtha of the six samples,the main contents were Cyclohexane, 1-ethenyl-1-methyl-2,4-bis (1-methylethenyl)-, 5-Benzofuranacetic acid, 6-ethenyl-4,5,6,7-terahydro-3, 6-dimethyl-alpha. -methylene-,methyl ester, and so on. CONCLUSIONS: Six samples of Rhizoma Curcumae are significantly different in quality,and the naphtha's content of the sample processing with vinegar is the highest.