Four sulfur-containing compounds with anti-colon cancer effect from marine-derived fungus Aspergillus terreus.

Sulfur-containing natural products possess a variety of biological functions including antitumor, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antiviral activities. In this study, four previously undescribed sulfur-containing compounds asperteretals L and M, terreins A and B, together with 17 known compounds were obtained from a culture of marine fungus A. terreus supplemented with inorganic sulfur source Na2SO4. Their planar structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by NMR, HRESIMS, and ECD experiments. The in vitro cytotoxicities of compounds 1-21 against HCT-116 and Caco-2 were evaluated by SRB assay. Asperteretal M (2) exhibited activity against HCT-116 with the IC50 value at 30µM. The antiproliferative effect of asperteretal M was confirmed by colony formation assay and cell death staining. Furthermore, the preliminary study on the anti-colon cancer mechanism of asperteretal M was performed by RNA-seq analysis. Western blotting validated that asperteretal M significantly decreased the expression of cell-cycle regulatory proteins CDK1, CDK4, and PCNA in a concentration-dependent manner.

Sanghuangporus vaninii fruit body polysaccharide alleviates hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia via modulating intestinal microflora in type 2 diabetic mice.

The disease of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is principally induced by insufficient insulin secretion and insulin resistance. In the current study, Sanghuangporus vaninii fruit body polysaccharide (SVP) was prepared and structurally characterized. It was shown that the yield of SVP was 1.91%, and SVP mainly contains small molecular weight polysaccharides. Afterward, the hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects and the potential mechanism of SVP in T2DM mice were investigated. The results exhibited oral SVP could reverse the body weight loss, high levels of blood glucose, insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, and inflammation in T2DM mice. Oral SVP increased fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) concentrations of T2DM mice. Additionally, 16S rRNA sequencing analysis illustrated that SVP can modulate the structure and function of intestinal microflora in T2DM mice, indicating as decreasing the levels of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes, Flavonifractor, Odoribacter, and increasing the levels of Weissella, Alloprevotella, and Dubosiella. Additionally, the levels of predicted metabolic functions of Citrate cycle, GABAergic synapse, Insulin signaling pathway were increased, and those of Purine metabolism, Taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, and Starch and sucrose metabolism were decreased in intestinal microflora after SVP treatment. These findings demonstrate that SVP could potentially play hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects by regulating gut microflora and be a promising nutraceutical for ameliorating T2DM.

Tephrosin induces apoptosis of human pancreatic cancer cells through the generation of reactive oxygen species.

Tephrosin is a natural rotenoid isoflavonoid that has been shown to have potent anticancer activities. In this study, we reported the anticancer activity of tephrosin against pancreatic cancer cells. Tephrosin potently suppressed cell viability in various cancer cell lines and promoted apoptosis of PANC-1 and SW1990 pancreatic cancer cells evidenced by enhanced cleavage of caspase-3/-9 and PARP. Further studies showed that tephrosin increased the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and led to mitochondrial membrane potential depolarization, and subsequent cytochrome c release. DNA damage was also identified by increased tail DNA and phosphorylation of H2AX. Intracellular ROS production seems to be essential for the anticancer activity of tephrosin, alleviation of ROS production by ROS scavengers weakened the apoptotic effects of tephrosin. Importantly, in PANC-1 xenografted nude mice, potent antitumor activity and low toxicity of tephrosin were observed. In conclusion, these results indicated that tephrosin could be developed as a potential chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of human pancreatic cancer.

Effectiveness Analysis of Percutaneous Kyphoplasty Combined with Zoledronic Acid in Treatment of Primary Osteoporotic Vertebral Compression Fractures.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the therapeutic effectiveness of percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) combined with zoledronic acid in treatment of primary osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. STUDY DESIGN: A perspective cohort study was conducted at a single institution for patients, who received PKP operation due to primary osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture between January 2014 and January 2015. SETTING: According to whether they received postoperative zoledronic acid or not, patients were divided into treatment or control groups, with 30 randomly-selected cases per group. METHODS: The visual analogue scale (VAS), which was used to assess the degree of pain, and the bone mineral density, was analyzed at 1-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. RESULTS: In general, patients experienced marked pain relief after surgery. No significant difference in pain relief was observed in the control group between the 6 and 12-month follow-up. In contrast, the VAS score of the treatment group at 12-month follow-up was significantly lower than that at 6-month (P value = 0.03). Moreover, it was also significantly lower than the VAS score in the control group at the 12-month follow-up (P value = 0.0018). The bone mineral density of patients from the treatment group increased significantly and progressively after the surgery (pre-operation versus 6-month follow-up: P value = 0.01; 6-month versus 12-month follow-up: P value < 0.001), and it was also remarkably higher than that of the control group at the 12-month follow-up (P value < 0.0001). LIMITATIONS: Patients were collected from a single hospital. The maximum postoperative follow-up time was 12 months. The sample size was relatively small. Thus, bias could occur in the selection of cases if they are not representative of the population. CONCLUSION: The combined treatment of zoledronic acid with PKP for primary osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures safely and effectively relieved low back pain, significantly increased bone density, and improved the quality of life. The clinical effectiveness is promising and worthy of further study. KEY WORDS: Kyphoplasty, zoledronic acid, primary osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.

Percutaneous kyphoplasty combined with zoledronic acid infusion in the treatment of osteoporotic thoracolumbar fractures in the elderly.

OBJECTIVE: We studied the efficacy of zoledronic acid (ZOL) infusion on radiographic and clinical outcomes after percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) for elderly patients with osteoporotic thoracolumbar fractures (osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures [OVCFs]). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 95 elderly patients (age >65 years) with OVCF. All patients were followed up for 2 years. Thirty-two patients were treated with only once-yearly 5 mg ZOL infusion (ZOL group), 34 patients with only PKP (PKP group) and 29 patients received ZOL infusion 3 days after PKP (PKP+ZOL group). RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the patients' age, gender, body mass index, lumbar spine bone mineral density T-scores, baseline of Visual Analog Scale scores and Oswestry Disability Index scores (P>0.05). The postoperative vertebral heights of patients with OVCF after PKP and PKP+ZOL were 23.70±3.03 and 24.30±3.13 mm, respectively, which were significantly higher than that of patients in ZOL group (P<0.05). The reduction in degrees of kyphotic deformity in the PKP and PKP+ZOL groups were corrected to 8.4° and 8.7°. The bone mineral density T-scores of patients with OVCF in the ZOL group and PKP+ZOL group were significantly higher than that in the PKP group (P<0.05). The Visual Analog Scale and the Oswestry Disability Index scores of the PKP+ZOL and PKP groups were significantly lower than those of the ZOL group (P<0.05). The incidence of recompression vertebral fracture (RVF) in the PKP group was 14.7%, but there was no patient with RVF in the PKP+ZOL group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Once-yearly 5 mg ZOL infusion combined with PKP could provide beneficial effects in elderly osteoporotic patients with OVCF.

Some new traveling wave exact solutions of the (2+1)-dimensional Boiti-Leon-Pempinelli equations.

We employ the complex method to obtain all meromorphic exact solutions of complex (2+1)-dimensional Boiti-Leon-Pempinelli equations (BLP system of equations). The idea introduced in this paper can be applied to other nonlinear evolution equations. Our results show that all rational and simply periodic traveling wave exact solutions of the equations (BLP) are solitary wave solutions, the complex method is simpler than other methods, and there exist some rational solutions ur,2 (z) and simply periodic solutions us,2-6(z) which are not only new but also not degenerated successively by the elliptic function solutions. We believe that this method should play an important role for finding exact solutions in the mathematical physics. For these new traveling wave solutions, we give some computer simulations to illustrate our main results.