High-throughput screening of ancient forest plant extracts shows cytotoxicity towards triple-negative breast cancer.

According to the World Health Organization, women's breast cancer is among the most common cancers with 7.8 million diagnosed cases during 2016-2020 and encompasses 15 % of all female cancer-related mortalities. These mortality events from triple-negative breast cancer are a significant health issue worldwide calling for a continuous search of bioactive compounds for better cancer treatments. Historically, plants are important sources for identifying such new bioactive chemicals for treatments. Here we use high-throughput screening and mass spectrometry analyses of extracts from 100 plant species collected in Chinese ancient forests to detect novel bioactive breast cancer phytochemicals. First, to study the effects on viability of the plant extracts, we used a MTT and CCK-8 cytotoxicity assay employing triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) MDA-MB-231 and normal epithelial MCF-10A cell lines and cell cycle arrest to estimate apoptosis using flow cytometry for the most potent three speices. Based on these analyses, the final most potent extracts were from the Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) wood/root bark and Nigaki (Picrasma quassioides) wood/root bark. Then, 5 × 106 MDA-MB-231 cells were injected subcutaneously into the right hind leg of nude mice and a tumour was allowed to grow before treatment for seven days. Subsequently, the four exposed groups received gavage extracts from Amur honeysuckle and Nigaki (Amur honeysuckle wood distilled water, Amur honeysuckle root bark ethanol, Nigaki wood ethanol or Nigaki root bark distilled water/ethanol (1:1) extracts) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), while the control group received only PBS. The tumour weight of treated nude mice was reduced significantly by 60.5 % within 2 weeks, while on average killing 70 % of the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells after 48 h treatment (MTT test). In addition, screening of target genes using the Swiss Target Prediction, STITCH, STRING and NCBI-gene database showed that the four plant extracts possess desirable activity towards several known breast cancer genes. This reflects that the extracts may kill MBD-MB-231 breast cancer cells. This is the first screening of plant extracts with high efficiency in 2 decades, showing promising results for future development of novel cancer treatments.

Impact of multicomponent integrated care on mortality and hospitalization after acute coronary syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIMS: Multicomponent integrated care is associated with sustained control of multiple cardiometabolic risk factors among patients with type 2 diabetes. There is a lack of data in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). We aimed to examine its efficacy on mortality and hospitalization outcomes among patients with ACS in outpatient settings. METHODS AND RESULTS: A literature search was conducted on PubMed, EMBASE, Ovid, and Cochrane library databases for randomized controlled trials, published in English language between January 1980 and November 2020. Multicomponent integrated care defined as two or more quality improvement strategies targeting different domains (the healthcare system, healthcare providers, and patients) for one month or more. The study outcomes were all-cause and cardiovascular-related mortality, hospitalization, and emergency department visits. We pooled the risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for the association between multicomponent integrated care and study outcomes using the Mantel-Haenszel test. 74 trials (n = 93 278 patients with ACS) were eligible. The most common quality improvement strategies were team change (83.8%), patient education (62.2%), and facilitated patient-provider relay (54.1%). Compared with usual care, multicomponent integrated care was associated with reduced risks for all-cause mortality (RR 0.83, 95% CI 0.77-0.90; P < 0.001; I2 = 0%), cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.73-0.89; P < 0.001; I2 = 24%) and all-cause hospitalization (RR 0.88, 95 % CI, 0.78-0.99; P = 0.040; I2 = 58%). The associations of multicomponent integrated care with cardiovascular-related hospitalization, emergency department visits and unplanned outpatient visits were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: In outpatient settings, multicomponent integrated care can reduce risks for mortality and hospitalization in patients with ACS.

Multicomponent integrated care for patients with chronic heart failure: systematic review and meta-analysis.

To investigate the effectiveness of multicomponent integrated care on clinical outcomes among patients with chronic heart failure. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials, published in English language from inception to 20 April 2022, with at least 3-month implementation of multicomponent integrated care (defined as two or more quality improvement strategies from different domains, viz. the healthcare system, healthcare providers, and patients). The study outcomes were mortality (all-cause or cardiovascular) and healthcare utilization (hospital readmission or emergency department visits). We pooled the risk ratio (RR) using Mantel-Haenszel test. A total of 105 trials (n = 37 607 patients with chronic heart failure; mean age 67.9 ± 7.3 years; median duration of intervention 12 months [interquartile range 6-12 months]) were analysed. Compared with usual care, multicomponent integrated care was associated with reduced risk for all-cause mortality [RR 0.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.86-0.95], cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.73, 95% CI 0.60-0.88), all-cause hospital readmission (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.91-1.00), heart failure-related hospital readmission (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.79-0.89), and all-cause emergency department visits (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.84-0.98). Heart failure-related mortality (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.74-1.18) and cardiovascular-related hospital readmission (RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.79-1.03) were not significant. The top three quality improvement strategies for all-cause mortality were promotion of self-management (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.79-0.93), facilitated patient-provider communication (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.81-0.93), and e-health (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.81-0.96). Multicomponent integrated care reduced risks for mortality (all-cause and cardiovascular related), hospital readmission (all-cause and heart failure related), and all-cause emergency department visits among patients with chronic heart failure.

Potential of Staphylea holocarpa Wood for Renewable Bioenergy.

Energy is indispensable in human life and social development, but this has led to an overconsumption of non-renewable energy. Sustainable energy is needed to maintain the global energy balance. Lignocellulose from agriculture or forestry is often discarded or directly incinerated. It is abundantly available to be discovered and studied as a biomass energy source. Therefore, this research uses Staphylea holocarpa wood as feedstock to evaluate its potential as energy source. We characterized Staphylea holocarpa wood by utilizing FT-IR, GC-MS, TGA, Py/GC-MS and NMR. The results showed that Staphylea holocarpa wood contained a large amount of oxygenated volatiles, indicating that it has the ability to act as biomass energy sources which can achieve green chemistry and sustainable development.

[Acupoint thread-embedding as adjuvant therapy for bronchial asthma in children and its effect on pulmonary function, serum IgA and IgE levels].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the efficacy of acupoint thread-embedding combined with fluticasone propionate aerosol for chronic persistent bronchial asthma of lung-spleen qi deficiency and spleen-kidney yang deficiency in children and its effect on pulmonary function and serum levels of IgA and IgE. METHODS: A total of 120 children with chronic persistent bronchial asthma were randomly divided into an observation group (60 cases, 9 cases dropped off) and a control group (60 cases, 7 cases dropped off). The control group was treated with fluticasone propionate aerosol (125 µg per inhalation), twice a day; based on the control group treatment, the observation group was treated with acupoint thread-embedding at Dingchuan (EX-B 1), Feishu (BL 13), Zusanli (ST 36) and Danzhong (CV 17), once half a month. Both groups were treated for 3 months. The pulmonary function, serum IgA, IgE levels and TCM symptom score were compared between the two groups before and after treatment, and the clinical efficacy was evaluated. RESULTS: After treatment, the large airway function (peak expiratory flow [PEF], forced expiratory volume at the first second [FEV1]) and small airway function (maximal expiratory flow at 25% of the forced capacity [MEF25%], maximal expiratory flow at 50% of the forced capacity [MEF50%], maximal expiratory flow at 75% of the forced capacity [MEF75%] and midexpiratory flow 25%-75% [MEF25%-75%]) were higher than those before treatment (P<0.05), and the pulmonary function in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (P<0.05). After treatment, the serum IgA levels in the two groups were higher than those before treatment (P<0.05), and the serum IgE levels and TCM symptom scores were lower than those before treatment (P<0.05); the serum IgA level in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (P<0.05), and the serum IgE level and TCM symptom score in the observation group were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). The total effective rate was 94.1% (48/51) in the observation group, which was higher than 88.7% (47/53) in the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Acupoint thread-embedding combined with fluticasone propionate aerosol could improve the pulmonary function, TCM symptoms and serum IgA and IgE levels in children with chronic persistent bronchial asthma of lung-spleen qi deficiency and spleen-kidney yang deficiency. The curative effect is better than fluticasone propionate aerosol alone.

Pyrolysis of Aesculus chinensis Bunge Seed with Fe2O3/NiO as nanocatalysts for the production of bio-oil material.

The rapid thermal cracking technology of biomass can convert biomass into bio-oil and is beneficial for industrial applications. Agricultural and forestry wastes are important parts of China's energy, and their high-grade utilization is useful to solve the problem of energy shortages and environmental pollution. To the best of our knowledge, the impact of nanocatalysts on converting biowastes for bio-oil has not been studied. Consequently, we examined the production of bio-oil by pyrolysis of Aesculus chinensis Bunge Seed (ACBS) using nanocatalysts (Fe2O3 and NiO catalysts) for the first time. The pyrolysis products of ACBS include 1-hydroxy-2-propanone (3.97%), acetic acid (5.42%), and furfural (0.66%). These chemical components can be recovered for use as chemical feedstock in the form of bio-oil, thus indicating the potential of ACBS as a feedstock to be converted by pyrolysis to produce value-added bio-oil. The Fe2O3 and NiO catalysts enhanced the pyrolysis process, which accelerated the precipitation of gaseous products. The pyrolysis rates of the samples gradually increased at DTGmax, effectively promoting the catalytic cracking of ACBS, which is beneficial to the development and utilization of ACBS to produce high valorization products. Combining ACBS and nanocatalysts can change the development direction of high valorization agricultural and forestry wastes in the future.

Multifunctional mesoporous black phosphorus-based nanosheet for enhanced tumor-targeted combined therapy with biodegradation-mediated metastasis inhibition.

Functionalizing black phosphorus nanosheet (BP) with efficient drug loading and endowing mesoporous silica nanomaterials with appropriate biodegradation for controllable tumor-targeted chemo-photothermal therapy are still urgent challenges. Herein, an ordered mesoporous silica-sandwiched black phosphorus nanosheet (BP@MS) with the vertical pore coating was prepared. The strategy could not only enhance the BP's dispersity and improve its doxorubicin (DOX)-loading efficiency, but also facilitate post-modification such as PEGylation and conjugation of targeting ligand, TKD peptide, yielding BSPT. A DOX-loaded BSPT-based system (BSPTD) showed heat-stimulative, pH-responsive, and sustained release manners. In vitro and in vivo results demonstrated that BSPTD had a delayed but finally complete degradation in physiological medium, contributing to an optimal therapeutic window and good biosafety. As a result, BSPTD can achieve an effective chemo-photothermal synergistic targeted therapy of tumor. Moreover, treating by BSPTD was found to be capable of remarkably inhibiting the lung metastasis of tumor, attributing to the photothermal degradation-facilitated secondary drug delivery. Our study provided a robust strategy to functionalize BP nanosheet and biodegrade the mesoporous silica for extended biomedical applications.

Biodegradable Mesoporous Silica Achieved via Carbon Nanodots-Incorporated Framework Swelling for Debris-Mediated Photothermal Synergistic Immunotherapy.

Incorporating carbon nanodots (CDs) into mesoporous silica framework for extensive biomedicine, especially for the desirable cancer immunotherapy, is considered to be an unexplored challenge. Herein, a hydrogen bond/electrostatic-assisted co-assembly strategy was smartly exploited to uniformly incorporate polymer-coated CDs into ordered framework of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (CD@MSNs). The obtained CD@MSN was not only biodegradable via the framework-incorporated CD-induced swelling but also capable of gathering dispersive CDs with enhanced photothermal effect and elevated targeting accumulation, which therefore can achieve photothermal imaging-guided photothermal therapy (PTT) in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly, benefiting from the biodegraded debris, it was found that CD@MSN-mediated PTT can synergistically achieve immune-mediated inhibition of tumor metastasis via stimulating the proliferation and activation of natural killer cells and macrophages with simultaneously up-regulating the secretion of corresponding cytokines (IFN-γ and Granzyme B). This work proposed an unusual synthesis of biodegradable mesoporous silica and provided an innovative insight into the biodegradable nanoparticles-associated anticancer immunity.

Circadian Rhythm Influences the Promoting Role of Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields on Sciatic Nerve Regeneration in Rats.

Circadian rhythm (CR) plays a critical role in the treatment of several diseases. However, the role of CR in the treatment of peripheral nerve defects has not been studied. It is also known that the pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) can provide a beneficial microenvironment to quicken the process of nerve regeneration and to enhance the quality of reconstruction. In this study, we evaluate the impact of CR on the promoting effect of PEMF on peripheral nerve regeneration in rats. We used the self-made "collagen-chitosan" nerve conduits to bridge the 15-mm nerve gaps in Sprague-Dawley rats. Our results show that PEMF stimulation at daytime (DPEMF) has most effective outcome on nerve regeneration and rats with DPEMF treatment achieve quickly functional recovery after 12 weeks. These findings indicate that CR is an important factor that determines the promoting effect of PEMF on peripheral nerve regeneration. PEMF exposure in the daytime enhances the functional recovery of rats. Our study provides a helpful guideline for the effective use of PEMF mediations experimentally and clinically.