[Evidence mapping of Chinese patent medicines in treatment of premature ventricular contractions].

This study employed evidence mapping to systematically sort out the clinical studies about the treatment of premature ventricular contractions with Chinese patent medicines and to reveal the distribution of evidence in this field. The articles about the treatment of premature ventricular contractions with Chinese patent medicines were searched against PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP with the time interval from January 2016 to December 2022. Evidence was analyzed and presented by charts and graphs combined with text. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 164 papers were included, including 147 interventional studies, 4 observational studies, and 13 systematic reviews. A total of 27 Chinese patent medicines were involved, in which Shensong Yangxin Capsules and Wenxin Granules had high frequency. There were off-label uses in clinical practice. In recent years, the number of articles published in this field showed a decreasing trend. Eight types of outcome indicators were used in interventional studies. Ambulatory electrocardiography, clinical response rate, safety, and echocardiography had high frequency, while the rate of ß-blocker decompensation, major cardiovascular events, and pharmaceutical economic indicators were rarely reported. The evaluation was one-sided. The low quality of the included articles reduced the reliability of the findings. In the future, the clinical use of medicines should be standardized, and the quality of clinical studies should be improved. Comprehensive clinical evaluation should be carried out to provide a sound scientific basis for the treatment of premature ventricular contractions with Chinese patent medicines.

Paenibacillus puerhi sp. nov., isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Pu-erh tea plants (Camellia sinensis var. assamica).

An aerobic, Gram-staining-positive, rod-shaped, endospore-forming and motile bacterial strain, designated SJY2T, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of tea plants (Camellia sinensis var. assamica) collected in the organic tea garden of the Jingmai Pu-erh tea district in Pu'er city, Yunnan, southwest China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the isolate belonged to the genus Paenibacillus. The closest phylogenetic relative was Paenibacillus filicis DSM 23916T (98.1% similarity). The major fatty acids (> 10% of the total fatty acids) were anteiso-C15:0 and isoC16:0. The major respiratory quinone was MK-7 and the major polar lipid was diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine. The peptidoglycan contained glutamic acid, serine, alanine and meso-diaminopimelic acid. Genome sequencing revealed a genome size of 6.71 Mbp and a G + C content of 53.1%. Pairwise determined whole genome average nucleotide identity (gANI) values and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values suggested that strain SJY2T represents a new species, for which we propose the name Paenibacillus puerhi sp. nov. with the type strain SJY2T (= CGMCC 1.17156T = KCTC 43242T).

Comparison of volatile profiles and bioactive components of sun-dried Pu-erh tea leaves from ancient tea plants on Bulang Mountain measured by GC-MS and HPLC.

To explore the volatile profiles and the contents of ten bioactive components (polyphenols and caffeine) of sun-dried Pu-erh tea leaves from ancient tea plants on Bulang Mountain, 17 samples of three tea varieties were analyzed by headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A total of 75 volatile components were tentatively identified. Laomaner (LME), Laobanzhang (LBZ), and other teas on Bulang Mountain (BL) contained 70, 53, and 71 volatile compounds, respectively. Among the volatile compounds, alcohols (30.2%-45.8%), hydrocarbons (13.7%-17.5%), and ketones (12.4%-23.4%) were qualitatively the most dominant volatile compounds in the different tea varieties. The average content of polyphenol was highest in LME (102.1 mg/g), followed by BL (98.7 mg/g) and LBZ (88.0 mg/g), while caffeine showed the opposite trend, 27.3 mg/g in LME, 33.5 mg/g in BL, and 38.1 mg/g in LBZ. Principal component analysis applied to both the volatile compounds and ten bioactive components showed a poor separation of samples according to varieties, while partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) showed satisfactory discrimination. Thirty-four volatile components and five bioactive compounds were selected as major discriminators (variable importance in projection (VIP) >1) among the tea varieties. These results suggest that chromatographic data combined with multivariate analysis could provide a useful technique to characterize and distinguish the sun-dried Pu-erh tea leaves from ancient tea varieties on Bulang Mountain.

Correction to Three Novel Alkaloids from Portulaca oleracea L. and Their Anti-inflammatory Effects.

Oleracimine and oleracimine A were isolated from Portulaca oleracea L. and described in the J. Agric. Food Chem, but the alternative structures of the two compounds are proposed on the basis of NMR analyses.

Qualitation and quantification of specific polysaccharides from Panax species using GC-MS, saccharide mapping and HPSEC-RID-MALLS.

The objective of this study was to qualify and quantify the specific polysaccharides in Panax spp. The analyses of specific polysaccharides were performed by using GC-MS, saccharide mapping and high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) coupled with multi angle laser light scattering (MALLS) and refractive index detector (RID). Results showed that compositional monosaccharides were the same in different species of Panax and composed of rhamnose, arabinose, galacturonic acid, mannose, glucose, and galactose. Saccharide mapping results showed that glycosides linkages, which existed in specific polysaccharides from Panax spp., were similar. Additionally, the content of specific polysaccharides of P. ginseng, P. notoginseng and P. quinquefolium were 17.9-20.5mg/g, 11.9-15.0mg/g, and 9.9-13.3mg/g, respectively. P. ginseng, P. notoginseng, and P. quinquefolium could be clustered into three groups using both hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis. The results possessed great potential in characterization and content determination of specific polysaccharides in Panax spp.

Three Novel Alkaloids from Portulaca oleracea L. and Their Anti-inflammatory Effects.

Three novel carbon skeleton alkaloids, named oleracimine (1), oleracimine A (2), and oleracone A (3), with one novel azulene carbon skeleton compound, oleracone B (4), and one known compound, ß-carboline (5), were first isolated from Portulaca oleracea L. The structures were determined using spectroscopic methods, including one- and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance and high-resolution electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry techniques. In addition, oleracimine (1) was used to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects on lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophages. The results of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, western blot, and real-time polymerase chain reaction showed that oleracimine (1) remarkably inhibited nitric oxide production and could dose-dependently decrease the secretions of interleukin 6, tumor necrosis factor α, nitric oxide, and prostaglandin E2 in cell culture supernatants as well as the mRNA of cyclooxygenase-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase.

[Chemical constituents from seeds of Ziziphus mauritiana].

OBJECTIVE: To study the chemical constituents in the seeds of Ziziphus mauritiana. METHODS: The constituents were isolated by silica column chromatography and their structures were elucidated by physico-chemical properties and spectroscopic analysis. RESULTS: Twelve compounds were isolated from the seeds of Ziziphus mauritiana and identified as betulinic aldehyde (1), betulinic acid (2), ceanothic acid (3), frangufoline (4), spinosin (5), beta-sitosterol (6), daucosterol (7), daucosterol-6'-octadecanoate (8), sucrose (9), docosanoic acid (10), stearic acid (11), palmitoleic acid (12). CONCLUSION: All the compounds are obtained from Ziziphus mauritiana seeds for the first time and compounds 4,5 and 8 are isolated from this plant for the first time.

Hepatic, gastric, and intestinal first-pass effects of vitexin in rats.

CONTEXT: Recent research has demonstrated that vitexin exhibits a prominent first-pass effect. In this light, it is necessary to investigate the causes of this distinct first-pass effect. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate hepatic, gastric, and intestinal first-pass effects of vitexin in rats and, furthermore, to investigate the role of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) in the absorption and secretion of vitexin in the duodenum. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Vitexin was infused into rats intravenously, intraportally, intraduodenally, and intragastrically (30 mg/kg). In addition, verapamil (50 mg/kg), a common substrate/inhibitor of P-gp and CYP3A, was also instilled with vitexin into the duodenum to investigate the regulatory action of P-gp and CYP3A. The plasma concentrations of vitexin were measured by the HPLC method using hesperidin as an internal standard. RESULTS: The hepatic, gastric, and intestinal first-pass effects of vitexin in rats were 5.2%, 31.3%, and 94.1%, respectively. In addition, the total area under the plasma concentration-time curve from zero to infinity (AUC) of the vitexin plus verapamil group and of the normal saline group was 44.9 and 39.8 µgc min/mL, respectively. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The intestinal first-pass effect of vitexin was considerable, and gastric and hepatic first-pass effects also contribute to the low absolute oral bioavailability of vitexin. The AUC of the vitexin plus verapamil group was slightly higher than that of the vitexin plus normal saline group (by approximately 1.13-fold), suggesting that verapamil does not play an important role in the absorption and secretion of vitexin.

HPLC determination of five polyphenols in rat plasma after intravenous administration of hawthorn leaves extract and its application to pharmacokinetic study.

A simple and specific HPLC-UV method was developed to simultaneously determine five active compounds including vitexin-4"-O-glucoside (VG), vitexin-2"-O-rhamnoside (VR), vitexin (VIT), rutin (RUT) and hyperoside (HP) in rat plasma after intravenous administrating the hawthorn leaves extract (HLE). With baicalin as internal standard (I.S.), sample pretreatment involved a one-step extraction with methanol of 0.2 ml plasma. The HPLC assay was carried out using a Phenomsil C18 analytical column with UV detection at 332 nm. The mobile phase consisted of methanol-acetonitrile-tetrahydrofuran-1% glacial acetic acid (6:1.5:18.5:74, v/v/v/v). The calibration curves were liner over the range of 2.030-500.5, 0.1513-75.64, 0.2507-12.54, 0.5128-25.64 and 0.4032-20.16 µg/ml for VG, VR, VIT, RUT and HP, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSD) of the intra- and inter-day precisions for the analysis of the five analytes were between 1.0 and 8.9% with accuracies (relative error) below 8.2% for the analysis of the five analytes. The average extraction recoveries of five analytes were more than 82.67 ± 4.74%. The HPLC method herein described was fully validated and successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic studies after intravenous administration of HLE solution to rats over three doses.

[Protection of Angelica sinensis against radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the Angelica Sinensis as a protecting agent affecting the radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis in an animal model, METHODS: The thoraces of C57BL/6 mice were exposed to either sham irradiation or single fraction of 12 Gy. Four groups were defined: that received neither irradiation nor Angelica Sinensis (N group), that received Angelica Sinensis but no irradiation (A group), that underwent irradiation without Angelica Sinensis (NX group) and that received both Angelica Sinensis and irradiation (AX group). Mice were sacrificed at 1, 24, 72 hours and 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24 weeks post-irradiation. The lungs tissue were removed and processed for definitive analysis, including hydroxyproline content, HE and Masson staining, and the TGF-beta1, (Transforming Growth Factor beta1, TGF-beta1) mRNA expressions. RESULTS: Compared with N and A group, there was some differences in the AX group, but a significant histological and pathologic changes in NX group. Non-irradiated groups (N and A group) exhibited low levels of hydroxyproline (0.775 +/- 0.024) microg/mg and (0.751 +/- 0.034) microg/mg, and there was a significantly elevated level of hydroxyproline in NX group (0.875 +/- 0.009) microg/mg (P < 0.05). AX group (0.782 +/- 0.010) microg/mg was in between the non-irradiated groups (N and A group) and the radiation-only group (NX group), and the difference between AX group and NX group was significant (P < 0.01). The results of real-time quantitative RT-PCR showed that the relative mRNA expressions of cytokine TGF-beta1 in NX group(249.655 +/- 16.320) was significantly higher than that in group A (1.254 +/- 0.061) and N (1.324 +/- 0.057) (P < 0.01), and that in AX group (108.076 +/- 9.870) decreased than that of NX group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: An animal model of mice with radiation-induced lung injure was established successfully. This study has demonstrated that Angelica sinensis in Hibits the progress of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis, Possibly by down-regulating the expression of the proinflammatory cytokine Tgfb1. These data suggest that Angelica sinensis maybe useful in preventing and/or treating radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis in the clinic.

Effects of long-term high-saturated and unsaturated fatty acid diets on relaxation and contraction of renal arteries in insulin resistant rats.

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of high-saturated and high-unsaturated fatty acid diets on relaxation and contraction of the renal arteries in insulin resistance (IR) rats. Wistar rats were fed normal chow diet (control), high-saturated fatty acid diet or high-unsaturated fatty acid diet for 6 months (n=14 in each group). IR was evaluated by glucose infusion rate (GIR) of hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp. Blood pressure was measured via the tail-cuff method. Body weight (BW), plasma total triglyceride (TG), free fatty acid (FFA), insulin, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and nitric oxide metabolite (NO2(-)/NO3(-)) were compared among the three groups. The rats were sacrificed and the renal arterial rings were placed in the physiological tissue baths for measurement of vascular response to various agents. After the arterial rings were constricted with 3 mmol/L noradrenaline (NA), endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation to acetylcholine (ACh) and endothelium-independent vasorelaxation to sodium nitroprusside (NTP) were measured. Endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation to ACh was also observed in renal arterial rings incubated with L-arginine (L-Arg), N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA) and methylene blue (MB), respectively. Arterial contractility was evaluated from concentration-response curves to 10 nmol/L-100 micromol/L NA. Saturated or unsaturated fatty acids led to moderate rises in blood pressure (P<0.05). It was associated with higher levels of plasma lipids and lower whole body insulin sensitivity (P<0.01). There were no significant differences in BW, FBG, TG, insulin and FFA between saturated and unsaturated fatty acid-fed rats. A decrease in endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation of the renal arteries in saturated and unsaturated fatty acid-fed rats was observed (P<0.01), but there was no marked difference between the two high-fatty acid diet groups. Endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation was increased when the arteries were incubated with L-Arg and decreased when incubated with L-NNA and MB in both high-fatty acid diet groups (P<0.05, P<0.01). But no difference was found before and after incubation with L-Arg, L-NNA and MB in the control rats. In the mean time, endothelium-independent maximal vasorelaxation response of renal arteries to NTP and renal arterial contractile responses to cumulative dose of NA were assayed, and there was no difference among the three groups (P>0.05). Endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation was negatively correlated with systolic blood pressure and TG, and positively correlated with NO2(-)/NO3(-) and GIR. There was a significantly negative correlation between FFA and NO2(-)/NO3(-). The present study suggests that both high-saturated and unsaturated fatty acid diets result in hypertension associated with significantly decreased endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation, dyslipidemia and IR, and that decreased endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation induced by high fatty acid diets is associated with impaired L-Arg-NO-cGMP pathways.

Chinese medicine Angelica sinensis suppresses radiation-induced expression of TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1 in mice.

Radiotherapy of thoracic cancer often causes pulmonary inflammation leading to pneumonitis and fibrosis. We favor the hypothesis that cytokine-mediated multicellular interactions may result in the overexpression of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1, which promotes progressive radiation-induced lung injury. The root of Angelica sinensis, known as 'Danggui' in Chinese medicine, is widely used to treat radiation-induced pneumonitis in humans and shows clinical efficacy and low/no toxicity with an unclear mechanism. Using quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC) methods, we investigated radiation-induced lung injury in a mouse model. C57BL/6 mice were assigned to 4 groups: no treatment (NT), Angelica Sinensis treatment only (AS), X-ray irradiation only (XRT, single fraction of 12 Gy irradiation to the thoraces) and AS treatment plus XRT (AS/XRT). Mice in NT and AS groups exhibited low TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1 mRNA levels and few positive cell counts for TNF-alpha (8-17 cells per field, x400 magnification) and TGF-beta1 (9-31 cells per field), respectively. In XRT mice, there were increased inflammatory cells positive for TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1 in lung tissue compared with NT mice (P<0.01). However, when XRT mice received AS treatment (AS/XRT), the number of inflammatory cells in lung tissue positive for both TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1 was decreased compared with XRT-only mice (P<0.01) accompanied by moderately decreased mRNA levels of TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1. We conclude that radiation induces expression of TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1 in the inflammatory cells of irradiated lung tissue during the pneumonic phase. The predominant localization of TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1 in inflammatory cell infiltrates suggests these cytokines' involvement in the process of radiation-induced pneumonitis. Moreover, effective down-regulation of TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1 in irradiated lung tissue by Angelica Sinensis is, at least in part, indicative of its clinical efficacy in treating radiation-induced pneumonitis.

Angelica sinensis down-regulates hydroxyproline and Tgfb1 and provides protection in mice with radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a common delayed side effect of radiation therapy, and it has a poor prognosis. Tgfb1 is a potent chemoattractant for fibroblasts and stimulates the production of collagen, the protein that contains hydroxyproline. Since collagen is by far the most abundant protein in the lung, comprising 60-70% of the tissue mass, analysis of the hydroxyproline content in lung tissues provides a reliable quantitative index for pulmonary fibrosis. Thus hydroxyproline and Tgfb1 may be involved in the development of fibrosis. In this study, we investigated radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis in a mouse model. C57BL/6 mice were assigned into four groups: no treatment, treated with Angelica sinensis treated only, X-irradiated only (a single fraction of 12 Gy to the thorax), and Angelica sinensis treatment plus radiation. We assayed expression of hydroxyproline and the mRNA and protein of Tgfb1 in the four groups. We found that Angelica sinensis down-regulated the production of Tgfb1 and hydroxyproline in mice with radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis. This study has demonstrated for the first time that Angelica sinensis inhibits the progress of radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis, possibly by down-regulating the expression of the proinflammatory cytokine Tgfb1. These data suggest that Angelica sinensis may be useful in preventing and/or treating radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis in the clinic.