Chicoric Acid Effectively Mitigated Dextran Sulfate Sodium (DSS)-Induced Colitis in BALB/c Mice by Modulating the Gut Microbiota and Fecal Metabolites.

Chicoric acid (CA) has been reported to exhibit biological activities; it remains unclear, however, whether CA could regulate colitis via modulation of the gut microbiota and metabolites. This study aimed to assess CA's impact on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis, the gut microbiota, and metabolites. Mice were induced with 2.5% DSS to develop colitis over a 7-day period. CA was administered intragastrically one week prior to DSS treatment and continued for 14 days. The microbial composition in the stool was determined using 16S rRNA sequencing, while non-targeted metabolomics was employed to analyze the metabolic profiles of each mouse group. The results show that CA effectively alleviated colitis, as evidenced by an increased colon length, lowered disease activity index (DAI) and histological scores, and decreased tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) expression levels. CA intervention restored the structure of gut microbiota. Specifically, it decreased the abundance of Bacteroidetes and Cyanobacteria at the phylum level and Bacteroides, Rosiarcus, and unclassified Xanthobacteraceae at the genus level, and increased the abundance of unclassified Lachnospiraceae at the genus level. Metabolomic analysis revealed that CA supplementation reversed the up-regulation of asymmetric dimethylarginine, N-glycolylneuraminic acid, and N-acetylneuraminic acid, as well as the down-regulation of phloroglucinol, thiamine, 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol, lithocholic acid, and oxymatrine induced by DSS. Our current research provides scientific evidence for developing CA into an anti-colitis functional food ingredient. Further clinical trials are warranted to elucidate the efficacy and mechanism of CA in treating human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Beyond traditional light: NIR-II light-activated photosensitizers for cancer therapy.

With increasing demand for the accurate and safe treatment of cancer, non-invasive photodynamic therapy (PDT) has received widespread attention. However, most conventional photosensitizers are typically excited by short-wavelength visible light (400-700 nm), thus substantially hindering the penetration of light and the therapeutic effectiveness of the PDT procedure. Fortunately, near-infrared (NIR) light (>700 nm), in particular, light in the second near-infrared region (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) has a higher upper radiation limit, greater tissue tolerance, and deeper tissue penetration compared with traditional short-wavelength light excitation, and shows considerable potential in the clinical treatment of cancer. Therefore, it is of paramount importance and clinical value to develop photosensitizers that are excited by NIR-II light. In this review, for the first time we focus completely on recent progress made with various NIR-II photosensitizers for cancer treatment via PDT, and we briefly present the ongoing challenges and prospects of currently developed NIR-II photosensitizers for clinical practice in the near future. We believe that the above topics will inspire broad interest in researchers from interdisciplinary fields that include chemistry, materials science, pharmaceuticals, and clinical medicine, and provide insightful perspectives for exploiting new NIR-II photosensitizers for biomedical applications.

A Network Pharmacology Technique to Investigate the Synergistic Mechanisms of Salvia miltiorrhiza and Radix puerariae in Treatment of Cardio-Cerebral Vascular Diseases.

OBJECTIVE: This study is aimed to analyze the active ingredients, drug targets, and related pathways in the combination of Salvia miltiorrhiza (SM) and Radix puerariae (RP) in the treatment of cardio-cerebral vascular diseases (CCVDs). METHOD: The ingredients and targets of SM and RP were obtained from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), and the disease targets were obtained from Therapeutic Target Database (TTD), National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) Database. The synergistic mechanisms of the SM and RP were evaluated by gene ontology (GO) enrichment analyses and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) path enrichment analyses. RESULT: A total of 61 active ingredients and 58 common targets were identified in this study. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis results showed that SM- and RP-regulated pathways were mainly inflammatory processes, immunosuppression, and cardiovascular systems. The component-target-pathway network indicated that SM and RP exert a synergistic mechanism for CCVDs through PTGS2 target in PI3k-Akt, TNF, and Jak-STAT signaling pathways. CONCLUSION: In summary, this study clarified the synergistic mechanisms of SM and RP, which can provide a better understanding of effect in the treatment of CCVDs.

Efficacy of traditional Chinese Medicine combined with chemotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: This meta-analysis systematically evaluated the efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) combined with chemotherapy and provided evidence-based evidence for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS: Biomedical databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, Wanfang Database, PubMed, and Cochrane Library were searched from January 2005 to October 2019 for the clinical literature on Chinese medicine for treating non-small cell lung cancer. All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) concerning the TCM combined with chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer were selected. The total effective rate of clinical efficacy, quality of life (QOL), Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) score, adverse drug reactions (ADRs) were extracted and analyzed. Review Manager 5.3 software was used for heterogeneity testing and combined statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 20 RCTs were included, with a total sample of 1669 cases, including 845 in the experimental group (TCM combined with chemotherapy) and 824 in the control group (chemotherapy alone). Compared with the control group, the experimental group significantly improved patients' QOL [OR = 2.79, 95% CI (1.87, 4.16), P < 0.00001], improved clinical efficacy [OR = 2.88, 95% CI (2.32, 3.58), P < 0.00001], increased KPS score [OR = 2.88, 95% CI (1.79, 4.62), P < 0.00001], and reduced the incidence of leukopenia [OR = 0.21, 95% CI (0.12, 0.37), P < 0.0001], thrombocytopenia [OR = 0.23, 95% CI (0.13, 0.40), P < 0.00001], hemoglobin reduction [OR = 0.17, 95% CI (0.10, 0.30), P < 0.00001], myelosuppression [OR = 0.24, 95% CI (0.10, 0.58), P < 0.001], nausea and vomiting [OR = 0.16, 95% CI (0.11, 0.22), P < 0.00001], diarrhea [OR = 0.21, 95% CI (0.12, 0.37), P < 0.00001], liver damage [OR = 0.17, 95% CI (0.10, 0.27), P < 0.00001], and kidney damage [OR = 0.30, 95% CI (0.10, 0.90), P = 0.03]. CONCLUSION: TCM combined with chemotherapy can improve clinical efficacy and KPS score, as well as improve patients' QOL and reduce ADRs caused by chemotherapy drugs.