Dendrobium huoshanense Polysaccharide Improves High-Fat Diet Induced Liver Injury by Regulating the Gut-Liver Axis.

Dendrobium huoshanense is an important Traditional Chinese medicine that thickens the stomach and intestines. Its active ingredient Dendrobium huoshanense polysaccharide (DHP), was revealed to relieve the symptoms of liver injury. However, its mechanism of action remains poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of DHP in protecting the liver. The effects of DHP on lipid levels, liver function, and intestinal barrier function were investigated in mice with high-fat diet-induced liver damage. Changes in the gut flora and their metabolites were analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing and metabolomics. The results showed that DHP reduced lipid levels, liver injury, and intestinal permeability. DHP altered the intestinal flora structure and increased the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium animalis and Clostridium disporicum. Furthermore, fecal metabolomics revealed that DHP altered fecal metabolites and significantly increased levels of gut-derived metabolites, spermidine, and indole, which have been reported to inhibit liver injury and improve lipid metabolism and the intestinal barrier. Correlation analysis showed that spermidine and indole levels were significantly negatively correlated with liver injury-related parameters and positively correlated with the intestinal species B. animalis enriched by DHP. Overall, this study confirmed that DHP prevented liver injury by regulating intestinal microbiota dysbiosis and fecal metabolites.

Development of an Escherichia coli whole cell biocatalyst for the production of hyperoside.

OBJECTIVE: To produce high concentrations of hyperoside from quercetin using recombinant Escherichia coli with in situ regeneration of UDP-galactose. RESULTS: Sucrose synthase from Glycine max (GmSUS) was co-expressed with UDP-glucose epimerase from E. coli (GalE) in E. coli for regenerating UDP-galactose from UDP and sucrose. Glycosyltransferase from Petunia hybrida (PhUGT) was introduced to synthesize hyperoside from quercetin through the regeneration system of UDP-galactose. Co-expressing with molecular chaperones GroEL/ES successfully enhanced the catalytic efficiency of the recombinant strain, which assisted the soluble expression of PhUGT. By using a fed-batch approach, the production of hyperoside reached 863.7 mg L-1 with a corresponding molar conversion of 93.6% and a specific productivity of 72.5 mg L-1 h-1. CONCLUSION: The method described herein for hyperoside production can be widely applied for the synthesis of isorhamnetin-3-O-galactoside, kaempferol-3-O-galactoside and other flavonoids.

A comparative study of microbial community and functions of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with obesity and healthy people.

The gut microbiota is crucial in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the metabolism of T2DM patients is not well-understood. We aimed to identify the differences on composition and function of gut microbiota between T2DM patients with obesity and healthy people. In this study, 6 T2DM patients with obesity and 6 healthy volunteers were recruited, and metagenomic approach and bioinformatics analysis methods were used to understand the composition of the gut microbiota and the metabolic network. We found a decrease in the abundance of Firmicutes, Oribacterium, and Paenibacillus; this may be attributed to a possible mechanism and biological basis of T2DM; moreover, we identified three critical bacterial taxa, Bacteroides plebeius, Phascolarctobacterium sp. CAG207, and the order Acidaminococcales that can potentially be used for T2DM treatment. We also revealed the composition of the microbiota through functional annotation based on multiple databases and found that carbohydrate metabolism contributed greatly to the pathogenesis of T2DM. This study helps in elucidating the different metabolic roles of microbes in T2DM patients with obesity.

Betaine alleviates spermatogenic cells apoptosis of oligoasthenozoospermia rat model by up-regulating methyltransferases and affecting DNA methylation.

BACKGROUND: Oligoasthenozoospermia is the most common type of semen abnormality in male infertile patients. Betaine (BET) has been proved to have pharmacological effects on improving semen quality. BET also belongs to endogenous physiological active substances in the testis. However, the physiological function of BET in rat testis and its pharmacological mechanism against oligoasthenozoospermia remain unclear. PURPOSE: This research aims to prove the therapeutic effect and potential mechanism of BET on oligoasthenozoospermia rat model induced by Tripterygium wilfordii glycosides (TWGs). METHODS: The oligoasthenozoospermia rat model was established by a continuous gavage of TWGs (60 mg/kg) for 28 days. Negative control group, oligoasthenozoospermia group, positive drug group (levocarnitine, 300 mg/kg), and 200 mg/kg, 400 mg/kg, and 800 mg/kg BET groups were created for exploring the therapeutic effect of BET on the oligoasthenozoospermia rat model. The therapeutic effect was evaluated by HE and TUNEL staining. Immunofluorescence assay of DNMT3A, PIWIL1, PRMT5, SETDB1, BHMT2, and METTL3, methylation capture sequencing, Pi-RNA sequencing, and molecular docking were used to elucidate potential pharmacological mechanisms. RESULTS: It is proved that BET can significantly restore testicular pathological damage induced by TWGs, which also can significantly reverse the apoptosis of spermatogenic cells. The spermatogenic cell protein expression levels of DNMT3A, PIWIL1, PRMT5, SETDB1, BHMT2, and METTL3 significantly decreased in oligoasthenozoospermia group. 400 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg BET groups can significantly increase expression level of the above-mentioned proteins. Methylation capture sequencing showed that BET can significantly increase the 5mC methylation level of Spata, Spag, and Specc spermatogenesis-related genes. Pi-RNA sequencing proved that the above-mentioned genes produce a large number of Pi-RNA under BET intervention. Pi-RNA can form complexes with PIWI proteins to participate in DNA methylation of target genes. Molecular docking indicated that BET may not directly act as substrate for methyltransferase and instead participates in DNA methylation by promoting the methionine cycle and increasing S-adenosylmethionine synthesis. CONCLUSION: BET has a significant therapeutic effect on oligoasthenozoospermia rat model induced by TWPs. The mechanism mainly involves that BET can increase the methylation level of Spata, Specc, and Spag target genes through the PIWI/Pi-RNA pathway and up-regulation of methyltransferases (including DNA methyltransferases and histone methyltransferases).

Efficient and selective removal of mercury ions from aqueous solution by 2,5-dimercaptothiadiazole covalently grafted chitosan derivative.

The increasingly serious problem of mercury pollution has caused wide concern, and exploring the adsorbent materials with high adsorption capacity is a simple and effective approach to address this concern. In this study, chitosan (CS), 2,5-dimercaptothiadiazole (DMTD) and formaldehyde solution are used as raw materials to prepare the modified CS material (DMTD-CS) by one-pot method. Adequate characterizations suggest that DMTD-CS is highly cross-linked, and the specific surface area and pore volume are 126.91 m2/g and 0.6702 cm3/g, respectively. By investigating the Hg(II) adsorption properties of DMTD-CS, the maximum adsorption capacity at 318 K reaches 628.09 mg/g, this value is higher than that of CS and most of the reported CS derivatives. Adsorption kinetics and isotherms indicate that the adsorption behaviors of DMTD-CS conform to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model, and in the coexistence of various metal ions, DMTD-CS shows very good selectivity for Hg(II). Additionally, the removal of DMTD-CS to Hg(II) is still at 80.06 % after six adsorption-desorption cycles, demonstrating outstanding recyclability. The further FT-IR and XPS analysis suggest that the synergistic complexation of O, N and S atoms on DMTD-CS with Hg(II) is an important factor leading to the high adsorption capacity.

Rational engineering of a metalloprotease to enhance thermostability and activity.

The rational design of enzymes with enhanced thermostability is efficient. Solvent-tolerant metalloprotease from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PT121 presents high Z-aspartame (Z-APM) synthesis activity, but insufficient thermostability. In this study, we enhanced enzyme thermostability using a rational strategy. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was applied to rapidly identify that the D28 and D116 mutations are likely to exhibit increased thermostability, and experimentation verified that the D28N and D116N mutants were more stable than the wild-type (WT) enzyme. In particular, the Tm of the D28N and D116N mutants increased by 6.1 °C and 9.2 °C, respectively, compared with that of the WT enzyme. The half-lives of D28N and D116N at 60 °C were 1.07- and 1.8-fold higher than that of the WT, respectively. Z-APM synthetic activities of the mutants were also improved. The potential mechanism of thermostability enhancement rationalized using MD simulation indicated that increased hydrogen bond interactions and a regional hydration shell were mostly responsible for the thermostability enhancement. Our strategy could be a reference for enzyme engineering, and our mutants offer considerable value in industrial applications.

The gut microbiota during the progression of atherosclerosis in the perimenopausal period shows specific compositional changes and significant correlations with circulating lipid metabolites.

Atherosclerosis (AS) is exacerbated in the perimenopausal period, which significantly increases the incidence rate of cardiovascular disease. The disruption of the gut microbiota has been associated with AS or menopause, but the specific changes of AS-associated gut microbiota in the perimenopausal period remain largely unknown. As lipid abnormalities are mainly responsible for AS, the relationship between lipid metabolism abnormalities and gut microbiota disruptions during menopause is rarely reported hitherto. In the present study, ApoE-/- mice fed with a high-fat diet (HFD) were subjected to ovariectomy and supplemented with estrogen. The ovariectomized HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice underwent significant AS damage, hepatic lipid damage, hyperlipidemia, and changes of lipid metabolism- and transport-related enzymes. There was significantly higher abundance of some lipid metabolites in the plasma of ovariectomized HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice than in non-ovariectomized ones, including cholesterol esters, triglycerides, phospholipids, and other types of lipids (free fatty acids, acylcarnitine, sphingomyelins, and ceramides). The administration of estrogen significantly reduced the contents of most lipid metabolites. The diversity and composition of gut microbiota evidently changed in ovariectomized HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice, compared to HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice without ovariectomy. In contrast, with estrogen supplementation, the diversity and composition of gut microbiota were restored to approach that of non-ovariectomized HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice, and the relative abundances of some bacteria were even like those of C57BL/6 mice fed with a normal diet. On the other hand, the transplantation of feces from C57BL/6 mice fed with normal diet to ovariectomized HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice was sufficient to correct the hyperlipidemia and AS damage, and to reverse the characteristics changing of lipid metabolomics in ovariectomized HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice. These phenomena were also been observed after transplantation of feces from estrogen-treated ovariectomized HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice to ovariectomized HFD-fed ApoE-/- mice. Moreover, the gut microbiota and lipid metabolites were significantly correlated, demonstrating that the changes of serum lipids may be associated with the gut microbiota disruptions in the perimenopausal period. In conclusion, the gut microbiota during the progression of AS in the perimenopausal period showed specific compositional changes and significant correlations with circulating lipid metabolites. Estrogen supplementation may exert beneficial effects on gut bacteria and lipid metabolism.

Alisol B 23-acetate activates ABCG5/G8 in the jejunum via the LXRα/ACAT2 pathway to relieve atherosclerosis in ovariectomized ApoE-/- mice.

Phytosterols have been shown to improve blood lipid levels and treat atherosclerosis. This research investigated the effects of phytosterol Alisol B 23-acetate (AB23A) on jejunum lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis. The results show that intragastric administration of AB23A can significantly reduce atherosclerotic plaque area and lipid accumulation in the jejunum of ovariectomized ApoE-/- mice fed a high-fat diet and can also improve the lipid mass spectra of the plasma and jejunum. In vitro studies have shown that AB23A can increase cholesterol outflow in Caco-2 cells exposed to high fat concentrations and increase the expression of ATP-binding cassette transfer proteins G5/G8 (ABCG5/G8), the liver X receptor α (LXRα). Furthermore, inhibition of LXRα can significantly eliminate the active effect of AB23A on decreasing intracellular lipid accumulation. We also confirmed that AB23A has a negative effect on Acyl-CoA cholesterol acyltransferase 2 (ACAT2) in Caco-2 cells cultured in the high concentrations of fat, and we found that AB23A further reduces ACAT2 expression in cells treated with the ACAT2 inhibitor pyripyropene or transfected with ACAT2 siRNA. In conclusion, we confirmed that AB23A can reduce the absorption of dietary lipids in the jejunum by affecting the LXRα-ACAT2-ABCG5/G8 pathway and ultimately exert an anti-atherosclerotic effect.

Microarray analysis of aberrant microRNA expression patterns in spinal cord gliomas of different grades.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the development of several types of tumor; however, their role in spinal gliomas remains unknown. The present study aimed to identify potentially novel spinal cord gliomas (SCG)-associated miRNAs and to characterize their roles in the development and progression of SCG. miRNA expression levels in low-grade SCG (classed as stage I-II SCG based on the World Health Organization grading system), high-grade SCG (classed as stage IV SCG based on the World Health Organization grading system) and 5 control cases were measured using a miRNA expression microarray. Subsequently, blood samples from the spinal cord of patients with differing grades of SCG were screened for differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs). Compared with the control group, 7 upregulated and 36 downregulated miRNAs were identified in the low-grade SCG group and a total of 70 upregulated and 20 downregulated miRNAs were identified in the high-grade SCG group (P≤0.05, fold change >2). Gene Ontology analysis revealed that the regulation of cellular metabolic processes, negative regulation of biological processes and axon guidance were primarily involved. Moreover, pathway analysis showed that the target genes of DEmiRNAs were enriched in tumor-related signaling pathways, such as the MAPK and Wnt signaling pathway. The results suggest that DEmiRNAs in peripheral blood may serve as novel target markers with high specificity and sensitivity for the diagnosis of SCG.

Influence analysis of different design conditions on urban runoff and nonpoint source pollution.

Urban waterlogging and nonpoint source (NPS) pollution caused by urbanization have considerably increased, and their control effects are affected by many factors. This study established a distribution model to analyze the influences of different rainfall conditions and rain garden layouts on runoff output and NPS pollution. Simulation results showed that (a) the reduction rates of the runoff and pollution load decreased from 45% to 23% and from 57% to 23% with increasing rainfall duration (1-24 hr). The flow and concentration peaks, total discharge amount and load increased, and the reduction rates of the runoff and pollution load decreased from 47% to 32% and from 60% to 21%, respectively, with increasing recurrence period (1-50 annual). The changes in the rain peak coefficient had minimal reduction effect on water quantity and quality. (b) Under different rain garden layouts, the reduction rates of the runoff and pollution load were 37%-52% and 13%-57%, respectively. The reduction effects of the runoff and pollution load improved, whereas amplitudes decreased with increasing rain garden layouts (0%-4%). (c) Rainfall duration and rain garden proportion greatly influenced the runoff and load reductions, respectively. PRACTITIONER POINTS: The reduction effects of runoff and pollution load under different rainfall conditions were simulated and analyzed. The reduction effects of runoff and pollution load under different setting proportions of rain garden were simulated and analyzed. The influence degrees of different design conditions on water quantity and quality reduction rates were evaluated.

Relationships of Non-coding RNA with diabetes and depression.

In order to study the molecular differences between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and T2DM with depression (DD), we aimed to screen the differential expression of lncRNA, mRNA, and circRNA in the blood of patients with T2DM and DD. Based on the self-rating depression scale (SDS), patient health questionnaire 9 (PHQ9), blood glucose and HbA1c, we divided the patients into T2DM and DD group. Peripheral blood was collected from the two groups of patients to perform lncRNA, mRNA, and circRNA expression profiling and screening DD-related specific molecules. Subsequently, bioinformatics analysis was performed to investigate the functions of differentially expressed genes (DEgenes). Finally, RT-PCR and lncRNA-mRNA regulatory network was performed to verify the expressions of lncRNAs and mRNAs related to the occurrence and development of DD. 28 lncRNAs, 107 circRNAs, and 89 mRNAs were identified in DD differential expression profiles. GO and pathway analysis found that 20 biological process (BP) related entities and 20 pathways associated with DD. The analysis shows that the genes that are differentially expressed in the DD group involved in the development of the neuropsychiatric system, immunity, and inflammation. Then, we screening for the important DElncRNA and mRNA associated with DD were verified by RT-PCR experiments and the results of RT-PCR were consistent with the sequencing results. LncRNA, circRNA, and mRNA differential expression profiles exist in DD patients compared with T2DM. The lncRNA-mRNA regulatory network analysis confirmed the crosslinking and complex regulation patterns of lncRNA and mRNA expression and verified the authenticity of the regulatory network.

Comparison of the Chemical Composition and Bioactive Components of Fruiting Bodies and Submerged Cultured Mycelia of the Willow Bracket Medicinal Mushroom, Phellinus igniarius (Agaricomycetes).

Chemical compositions and bioactive ingredients of dried fruiting bodies from Phellinus igniarius (CGMCC no. 50095) (P1) and submerged culture of Ph. igniarius dried mycelia (P2) were investigated in this study. It was found that glutamic acid was regarded as a major amino acid in P1 (1.20%) and was approximately 2.55-fold higher than that in P2 (0.47%). Total amino acids in P1 (5.36%) were slightly higher than in P2 (4.09%). The amounts of iron, zinc, copper, and manganese in P1 were 1.96-3.42 times as high as those in P2, whereas potassium, sodium, and magnesium in P2 were almost 2.94-6.88 times lower than in P1. Lead, mercury, and cadmium in P1 were significantly lower than in P2. The levels of polysaccharides and total triterpenoids in PI amounted to 0.29% and 2.3%, respectively, which are considerably higher values than those in P1 (7.72% and 6.88%, respectively). Galactosamine was only detected in the crude polysaccharide of P2. Other monosaccharides, except for galactose, were significantly different between the 2 samples. Crude polysaccharide of P2 was separated into 4 polysaccharides with different molecular weights, but crude polysaccharide in P1 was distributed between 2 different molecular weights. Major polysaccharides in P1 (93.78%) were distributed at about 205,212 Da, whereas the main polysaccharides of P2 (65.98%) were found at about 33,064 Da. The results indicated that submerged cultured mycelia from Ph. igniarius supplemented by its fruiting bodies can be used in medicinal applications.

[Study on the superfine comminution of traditional Chinese medicine].

This paper has introduced the terms, concept and characteristics of superfine comminution of traditional Chinese medicine. The progress in the study on the superfine comminution of the single drug and compound prescription was analyzed, and work principles of equipment in common use for superfine comminution were outlined. The future application of superfine comminution technique in traditional Chinese medicine was forecast and the problems that should be solved during the future research work were also pointed out in the paper.