The therapeutic effects of traditional Chinese medicine on insulin resistance in obese mice by modulating intestinal functions.

Introduction: Obesity, mainly caused by excessive accumulation of visceral fat, excessive fat metabolism will cause hormone secretion imbalance and inflammation and other diseases. is extremely detrimental to human health. Although many treatments are available for obesity, most treatments fail to exert a radical effect or are associated with several side effects. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for regulating the intestinal flora, lipid content and inflammation is considered effective. Based on previous studies, Artemisia capillaris, Astragalus propinquus, Phellodendron amurense, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Poria cocos, and Anemarrhena asphodeloides were selected to prepare an innovative herbal formula. Methods: TCM was characterized by UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS. The anti-inflammatory and lipid-lowering effects of the TCM formula prepared were evaluated in a high-fat diet-fed obese mouse model. The effects of the TCM formula on the intestinal flora were also investigated. Results: Weights and insulin resistance, as well as inflammation, decreased in the mice after treatment. At the same time, lipid metabolism increased after the mice were gavaged with the TCM formula for 2 weeks. The intestinal motility of the drug administration group was enhanced, with partial restoration of the intestinal flora. Conclusion: In summary, our innovative Chinese herbal formula significantly reduced weight, reduced intestinal inflammation, improved intestinal motility, and improved lipid metabolism in obese mice. Furthermore, the innovative formula effectively prevented relevant obesity-induced metastatic diseases in the mice.

Size Switchable Self-Assembled Iron Oxide Aggregations Loaded with Doxorubicin for Deep Penetration and Enhanced Chemotherapy of Cancer.

Iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) have been reported to be a promising agent for cancer therapy due to their outstanding ability in catalyzing the Fenton reaction and causing peroxidation. Generally, particles with size of hundreds of nanometers exhibit enhanced accumulation in tumor due to the enhanced permeation and retention effect. However, the large size hinders penetration within the dense collagen matrix. Here, we propose a multistage system to realize pH-responsive size switch for efficient drug delivery. In this system, ultrasmall Fe3O4 (∼4 nm) NPs are simultaneously modified with hydrophilic mPEG and hydrophobic N,N-dibutylethylenediamine (DBE) to form pH-responsive self-assembled iron oxide aggregations (SIOA). In the acidic tumor microenvironment, the protonation of DBE makes it transit from the hydrophobic to hydrophilic state, causing the disassembly of the SIOA and the release of loaded doxorubicin. The multistage Fe3O4 NPs demonstrate enhanced accumulation and efficient diffusion within the tumor, holding a promise for drug delivery and cancer therapy.

[A novel method for fast determination of components in Guizhi Fuling capsule by near infrared spectroscopy].

OBJECTIVE: To develop a new method to rapidly determine and identify Guizhi Fuling capsule by portable acousto-optic tunable filter-near infrared spectroscopy. METHOD: The qualitative model was set up using principal component analysis. The correlation models between the NIR spectra and the reference values of five major constituents were obtained with partial least squares method. RESULT: The identifying model accurately identified Guizhi Fuling capsule, and quantitative analytical models could precisely predicted the content of ellagic acid, baicalin, benzoylpaenoniflorin, cinnamaldehyde, and paeonol. The correlation coefficients of the calibration models were 0.924 2, 0.938 4, 0.924 2, 0.933 6, 0.934 7, the validation set coefficients of the calibration were 0.924 2, 0.938 4, 0.924 2, 0.933 6, 0.934 7, and the RMSEP were 1.138%, 3.014%, 0.751%, 0.625%, 3.455%, 1.363%, respectively. The results of external validation showed no significant difference between the predictive and the determining values by t-test. CONCLUSION: The method is accurate, rapid and non-destructive, and can be used for determining and identifying Guizhi Fuling capsule.