Origin traceability of Cordyceps sinensis based on trace elements and stable isotope fingerprints.

Cordyceps sinensis is a kind of valuable Chinese herbal medicine, and its quality and price depend on the place of origin. Building a traceability system for Cordyceps sinensis products is an effective way to protect Cordyceps sinensis geographical indication products and consumers. In this study, concentrations of 45 trace elements and stable C, N, and Pb isotopes were used to distinguish Cordyceps sinensis samples from different habitats and different varieties (natural and artificial). The results showed that there were significant differences in the isotope compositions of N and Pb and trace elements contents in the Cordyceps sinensis samples from different sources. Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to select effective traceability indicators, and three discriminant models were successfully established. A combination of Co, Sr, Cu, Tl, and Zr indexes was selected to distinguish the naturally grown samples from the artificially cultivated ones, with an overall cross-validation correctness rate of 90.0 %; while a combination of As, Cu, Rb, Tl, W, and Zr indexes was adopted to distinguish the naturally grown samples from different regions, with a corresponding 100.0 % overall cross-validation correctness rate. To simultaneously distinguish samples between natural and artificial and between different regions, a combination of As, Cu, Rb, Tl, U, W, and δ15N indexes was employed, with an overall cross-validation correctness rate of 89.3 %.

Application of Pb Isotopes and REY Patterns in Tracing Heavy Metals in Farmland Soils from the Upper-Middle Area of Yangtze River.

Farmland heavy metal pollution-caused by both human activity and natural processes-is a major global issue. In the current study, principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA), rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) analysis, and isotope fingerprinting were combined to identify sources of heavy metal pollution in soil from different farmland types in the upper-middle area of the Yangtze River. The concentrations of Zn and Cu were found to be higher in the vegetable base and tea plantation soil compared with their concentrations in the orangery soil. On the other hand, greater accumulation of Cd and Pb was observed in the orangery soil versus the vegetable base and tea plantation soils. Influenced by the type of bedrock, REY was significantly enriched in the orangery soil and depleted in the vegetable base soil, as compared with the tea plantation soil. The Pb isotopic compositions of the tea plantation (1.173-1.193 for 206Pb/207Pb and 2.070-2.110 for 208Pb/206Pb) and vegetable base (1.181-1.217 for 206Pb/207Pb and 2.052-2.116 for 208Pb/206Pb) soils were comparable to those of coal combustion soil. The compositions of 206Pb/207Pb (1.149-1.170) and 208Pb/206Pb (2.121-2.143) in the orangery soil fell between those observed in soils obtained from coal combustion and ore smelting sites. Using the IsoSource model, the atmospheric Pb contributions of the vegetable base, tea plantation, and orangery soils were calculated to be 66.6%, 90.1%, and 82.0%, respectively, and the bedrock contributions of Pb were calculated to be 33.3%, 9.90%, and 18.1%, respectively. Based on the PCA, CA, and REY results, as well as the Pb isotope model, it appears that heavy metals in the orangery soil may be derived from atmospheric deposition and bedrock weathering, while heavy metals in the vegetable base and tea plantation soils may be derived from mining and the use of fertilizer.

Circular RNA circ-RCCD promotes cardiomyocyte differentiation in mouse embryo development via recruiting YY1 to the promoter of MyD88.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect, affecting approximately 1% of live births. Genetic and environmental factors are leading factors to CHD, but the mechanism of CHD pathogenesis remains unclear. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are kinds of endogenous non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes, especially in heart diseases. In this study, three significant differently expressed circRNA between maternal embryonic day (E) E13 and E17 was found by microarray assay. Among them, the content of circ-RCCD increases with the development of heart and was enriched in primary cardiomyocytes of different species, which arouses our attention. Functional experiments revealed that inhibition of circ-RCCD dramatically suppressed the formation of beating cell clusters, the fluorescence intensity of cardiac differentiation marker MF20, and the expression of the myocardial-specific markers CTnT, Mef2c, and GATA4. Next, we found that circ-RCCD was involved in cardiomyocyte differentiation through negative regulation of MyD88 expression. Further experiments proved that circ-RCCD inhibited MyD88 levels by recruiting YY1 to the promoter of MyD88; circ-RCCD inhibited nuclear translocation of YY1. These results reported that circ-RCCD promoted cardiomyocyte differentiation by recruiting YY1 to the promoter of MyD88. And, this study provided a potential role and molecular mechanism of circ-RCCD as a target for the treatment of CHD.

Efficacy of acupuncture for urinary incontinence in middle-aged and elderly women: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to generalize the available evidence and evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture for urinary incontinence in middle-aged and elderly women. METHODS: Six databases including VIP, CNKI, Wan Fang, Web of Science, PubMed and The Cochrane Library were systematically searched to retrieve similar studies updated to December 2019 to gather RCTs regarding the effectiveness of acupuncture for middle-aged and elderly women with urinary incontinence. Two researchers independently performed the whole process of retrieving the studies, extracting the data and assessing the risk of bias of the included studies. The current meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. RESULTS: A total of eight studies with 607 patients were included in the evaluation. The current meta-analysis showed that Compared with rehabilitation exercise or medication, acupuncture intervention significantly improved the clinical effectiveness (OR = 5.52, 95 % CI, 3.13-9.73), reduced the urine leakage in pad test (SMD = -2.67, 95 % CI, -4.05 to -1.29) and decrease the ICIQ-SF score (MD = -3.46, 95 % CI, -3.69 to -3.22). The results indicated that acupuncture intervention can help the patients alleviate the symptoms effectively. CONCLUSION: Based on this study, acupuncture intervention of stress urinary incontinence in middle-aged and elderly women can improve the clinical effectiveness, reduce the urine leakage in pad test and ICIQ-SF score. More high-quality studies with large sample size are required for further verification.

[Study on protective effect of water extract from Sabia parviflora on liver injury in mice induced by acetaminophen].

The aim of this study was to observe the protective effect of water extract from Sabia parviflora on mice with acute liver injury induced by acetaminophen, and investigate its possible mechanism. Fifty-eight Kunming mice were divided into 6 groups, 8 in the normal group, 10 in the model group, 10 in the biphenyl diester group, and 10 each in the low, medium and high dose groups. After adaptive feeding for one week, the mice in normal group were intragastrically administered with an equal volume of 0.5% sodium carboxymethylcellulose sodium(CMC-Na), and the mice in other groups were intragastrically administered with corresponding drugs at 20 mL·kg~(-1) once a day. Then acetaminophen(200 mg·kg~(-1)) was administered after the above drug administration except the normal group. The behavior and signs of the experimental animals were observed every day and the samples were taken for experiments on the next day of the final administration. The liver mass and mass index were calculated. The blood was collected from the abdominal aorta and centrifuged to obtain the serum for detecting aspartate aminotransferase(AST) activity and alanine aminotransferase(ALT) activity. The liver tissue homogenate was used to detect superoxide dismutase(SOD) activity, glutathione(glutathione, r-glutamyl cysteingl+glycine, GSH) activity and malondialdehyde(MDA) content. Liver tissue was analyzed for histological analysis. The results showed that S. parviflora could alleviate the lipid peroxidation damage in the liver caused by acetaminophen, reduce the ALT and AST activities in serum, increase the levels of SOD and GSH in liver tissue, decrease the content of MDA in liver tissue, and inhibit the apoptosis. S. parviflora could also improve the live histopathological profile, protect liver cells and restore liver function. Among them, the high dose had the most significant effect and showed dose-effect relationship. This study indicated that S. parviflora had a significant protective effect on acetaminophen-induced liver injury in mice, and its mechanism may be related to its anti-oxidation effect and inhi-bitory effect on apoptosis.