A high-throughput screening platform for discovering bacterial species and small molecules that modify animal physiology.

The gut microbiome has been proposed to influence many aspects of animal development and physiology. However, both the specific bacterial species and the molecular mechanisms by which bacteria exert these effects are unknown in most cases. Here, we established a high throughput screening platform using the model animal Caenorhabditis elegans for identifying bacterial species and mechanisms that influence animal development and physiology. From our initial screens we found that many Bacillus species can restore normal animal development to insulin signaling mutant animals that otherwise do not develop to adulthood. To determine how Bacilli influence animal development we screened a complete non-essential gene knockout library of Bacillus subtilis for mutants that no longer restored development to adulthood. We found the Bacillus gene speB is required for animal development. In the absence of speB , B. subtilis produces excess N1-aminopropylagmatine. This polyamine is taken up by animal intestinal cells via the polyamine transporter CATP-5. When this molecule is taken up in sufficient quantities it inhibits animal mitochondrial function and causes diverse species of animals to arrest their development. To our knowledge, these are the first observations that B. subtilis can produce N1-aminopropylagmatine and that polyamines produced by intestinal microbiome species can antagonize animal development and mitochondrial function. Given that Bacilli species are regularly isolated from animal intestinal microbiomes, including from humans, we propose that altered polyamine production from intestinal Bacilli is likely to also influence animal development and metabolism in other species and potentially even contribute developmental and metabolic pathologies in humans. In addition, our findings demonstrate that C. elegans can be used as a model animal to conduct high throughput screens for bacterial species and bioactive molecules that alter animal physiology.

Dynamic Regularized Adaptive Cluster Optimization (DRACO) for Quantitative Cardiac Cine MRI in Complex Arrhythmias.

BACKGROUND: Irregular cardiac motion can render conventional segmented cine MRI nondiagnostic. Clustering has been proposed for cardiac motion binning and may be optimized for complex arrhythmias. PURPOSE: To develop an adaptive cluster optimization method for irregular cardiac motion, and to generate the corresponding time-resolved cine images. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. SUBJECTS: Thirteen with atrial fibrillation, four with premature ventricular contractions, and one patient in sinus rhythm. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: Free-running balanced steady state free precession (bSSFP) with sorted golden-step, reference real-time sequence. ASSESSMENT: Each subject underwent both the sorted golden-step bSSFP and the reference Cartesian real-time imaging. Golden-step bSSFP images were reconstructed using the dynamic regularized adaptive cluster optimization (DRACO) method and k-means clustering. Image quality (4-point Likert scale), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), edge sharpness, and ventricular function were assessed. STATISTICAL TESTS: Paired t-tests, Friedman test, regression analysis, Fleiss' Kappa, Bland-Altman analysis. Significance level P < 0.05. RESULTS: The DRACO method had the highest percent of images with scores ≥3 (96% for diastolic frame, 93% for systolic frame, and 93% for multiphase cine) and the percentages were significantly higher compared with both the k-means and real-time methods. Image quality scores, SNR, and CNR were significantly different between DRACO vs. k-means and between DRACO vs. real-time. Cardiac function analysis showed no significant differences between DRACO vs. the reference real-time. CONCLUSION: DRACO with time-resolved reconstruction generated high quality images and has early promise for quantitative cine cardiac MRI in patients with complex arrhythmias including atrial fibrillation. TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.

Leg length discrepancies (LLD): An etiology to be considered in its proper measure. A critical and historical review.

INTRODUCTION: Studies of leg-length discrepancies (LLD) have been the subject of debate for almost 200 years. A large number of studies have emerged, most frequently using assessment criteria based on painful symptoms or joint damage. DEVELOPMENT: While many authors argue for a threshold of 10-20 mm to establish a link between pain and LLD, most publications based on radiography show lesion stigmata on lumbar, hip and knee joints as early as 6 mm. This would be linked to comorbidities. DISCUSSION: Some studies argue forcefully that leg-length correction below 20 mm is of no benefit. The authors of the present article, on the other hand, evoke the notion of lesion risks in the absence of correction, even for small deviations in the presence of certain associated factors and according to their importance. CONCLUSION: The authors argue for the need to define in the future a lesion significance score that would not be correlated to painful symptomatology, but rather to the presence of co-morbidities such as age, anatomical variability, sports practice and/or patients' professional activities. Other parameters, such as mobility, should also be taken into consideration, while gender, height and weight do not appear to be significantly related.

Light-induced Extracellular Vesicle Adsorption.

The role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in human health and disease has garnered considerable attention over the past two decades. However, while several types of EVs are known to interact dynamically with the extracellular matrix and there is great potential value in producing high-fidelity EV micropatterns, there are currently no label-free, high-resolution, and tunable platform technologies with this capability. We introduce Light-induced Extracellular Vesicle Adsorption (LEVA) as a powerful solution to rapidly advance the study of matrix- and surface-bound EVs and other particles. The versatility of LEVA is demonstrated using commercial GFP-EV standards, EVs from glioblastoma bioreactors, and E. coli outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), with the resulting patterns used for single EV characterization, single cell migration on migrasome-mimetic trails, and OMV-mediated neutrophil swarming. LEVA will enable rapid advancements in the study of matrix- and surface-bound EVs and other particles, and should encourage researchers from many disciplines to create novel diagnostic, biomimetic, immunoengineering, and therapeutic screening assays.

Three-Dimensional Laparoscopic Nephrectomy for Benign Nonfunctioning Kidneys: A Single-Center Initial Experience.

BACKGROUND: There are several types of benign renal diseases, such as urological stones, ureteropelvic junction obstruction, renal vascular disease, and inflammation, which are responsible for nonfunctioning kidneys. Laparoscopic nephrectomy (LN) is the gold standard for treating nonfunctioning kidneys with complications. This study presents the results of our initial experiences with 3D laparoscopic nephrectomy (3D-LN) for benign, nonfunctioning kidneys. METHODS: From July 2021 to July 2023, 40 consecutive patients who underwent 3D transperitoneal laparoscopic nephrectomy were retrospectively evaluated at the Department of Urology and Department of General Surgery, Hue Central Hospital, Hue, Vietnam. Patient demographics, intraoperative and early postoperative results, postoperative recovery, complications, and three-month follow-up results were recorded. RESULTS: The mean age was 58.35 ± 14.9 years. There were 13 (32.5%) male and 27 (67.5%) female patients. Flank pain was the main reason for hospitalization in 33 cases (82.5%); the common cause of a nonfunctioning kidney was urological stones (62.5%). Twenty-three out of 40 patients underwent a left nephrectomy. The average operative time was 92.57 ± 28.69 minutes. A statistically significant difference in surgery time was found between the group with no adhesion and the group with mild adhesion, as well as between the first 19 patients and the last 18 patients (p <0.05). The mean blood loss was 51.62 ± 24.35 ml. Three cases were converted to open surgery due to severe adhesions. The postoperative complications rate was 8.1%. The average length of the postoperative hospital stay was 7.89 ± 3.59 days. CONCLUSIONS: Three-dimensional laparoscopic nephrectomy is a safe and effective method that increases depth perception and spatial orientation for surgeons and can compensate for the remaining shortcomings of traditional 2D systems.

Bio-guided Isolation of Alpha-glucosidase Inhibitory Compounds from Vietnamese Lichen Roccella montagnei.

A bio-guided isolation was applied to the Vietnamese lichen Roccella montagnei based on alpha-glucosidase inhibition. Six compounds were isolated and structurally elucidated, including a new ortho depside, montagneside A (1), together with five known compounds, sekikaic acid (2), lanost-7-en-3ß-ol (3), ethyl orsellinate (4), D-montagnetol (5), and D-erythrin (6). Their chemical structures were identified by extensive 1D and 2D NMR analysis, high-resolution mass spectroscopy, and comparisons with those reported in the literature. D-Erythrin (6), a major component, was selected for further modification using Smiles rearrangement. Three erythritol derivatives 6a-6c were synthesized. Compounds 1-3, 6, and 6a-6c were evaluated for alpha-glucosidase inhibition. Compounds 2 and 6a-6c showed significant alpha-glucosidase inhibition with IC50 values ranging from 7.9 to 149 µM, respectively. Molecular docking was applied to the most active compound 6a to clarify the inhibitory mechanism.

Organophosphate Pesticide Exposure: Effect on Farmers' Sperm Quality in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

OBJECTIVES: Using pesticides in the An Giang province is widespread. However, studies on the health effect of organophosphate pesticide have not been updated within the past 12 years. This study aimed to assess exposure to organophosphate pesticides and their effects on sperm quality among farmers in the An Giang Province, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. METHODS: During the winter - spring crop season of December 2021 to February 2022, a cross-sectional study was conducted on farmers aged 18 to 60 years-old based on seven communes' health checkup programs. The pesticide spray group included farmers who had sprayed pesticides in the previous week and had a history of working in agriculture for more than 2 years. The control group was defined as those who lived in the same community, had not worked in agriculture, and had never sprayed pesticides. Demographic characteristics and blood, urine, and semen samples were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: Data for 184 eligible participants were analyzed, including 116 farmers in the pesticide spray group and 68 non-farmers in the control group. Pesticide spray contributed to a decrease in the sperm quality index of 6.253 units (95% CI, 4.472-8.749). Increasing each pseudocholinesterase (PChE) unit (kIU/L) was associated with an increase of 1.181 units in the sperm quality index (95% CI, 0.757-0.947). CONCLUSIONS: Preventive methods for organophosphate pesticide exposure, such as administrative controls, engineering controls, substitution, and personal protective equipment should be applied to control health risks. In the An Giang setting, personal protective equipment is feasible, but most types of equipment are not used. The immediate priority is to determine the cause of personal protective equipment not being used and to find solutions to encourage people to use them.

Systematic Review of Intralesional Therapies for Cutaneous Warts.

Intralesional therapies are used for recalcitrant warts, but no Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment exists nor is there consensus regarding the most efficacious therapy. Therefore, this systematic review aims to summarize efficacy and adverse events reported in 62 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of intralesional therapies for cutaneous warts. The most studied intralesional therapies included measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine (n = 24 studies), purified protein derivative (PPD) (n = 19 studies), vitamin D3 (n = 15 studies), and Candida antigen (n = 14 studies). Most studies included adult and pediatric patients or adults alone, with only 4 studies on pediatric patients alone. MMR vaccine was the most studied treatment (n = 853 patients). MMR had a complete response rate of 27-90%. The next most common treatment, PPD, had a complete response rate of 45-87%. Other treatments included Candida antigen and vitamin D3, with complete response rates of 25-84% and 40-96%, respectively. The most frequent side effects were injection-site reactions and flu-like symptoms. This systematic review represents a useful summary of intralesional therapy RCTs for clinician reference. This study also highlights the lack of large multi-institutional RCTs, despite many patients being treated for this widespread problem.

Oocyte mitochondria link maternal environment to offspring phenotype.

During maturation oocytes undergo a recently discovered mitochondrial proteome remodeling event in flies1, frogs1, and humans2. This oocyte mitochondrial remodeling, which includes substantial changes in electron transport chain (ETC) subunit abundance1,2, is regulated by maternal insulin signaling1. Why oocytes undergo mitochondrial remodeling is unknown, with some speculating that it might be an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to protect oocytes from genotoxic damage by reactive oxygen species (ROS)2. In Caenorhabditis elegans, we previously found that maternal exposure to osmotic stress drives a 50-fold increase in offspring survival in response to future osmotic stress3. Like mitochondrial remodeling, we found that this intergenerational adaptation is also regulated by insulin signaling to oocytes3. Here, we used proteomics and genetic manipulations to show that insulin signaling to oocytes regulates offspring's ability to adapt to future stress via a mechanism that depends on ETC composition in maternal oocytes. Specifically, we found that maternally expressed mutant alleles of nduf-7 (complex I subunit) or isp-1 (complex III subunit) altered offspring's response to osmotic stress at hatching independently of offspring genotype. Furthermore, we found that expressing wild-type isp-1 in germ cells (oocytes) was sufficient to restore offspring's normal response to osmotic stress. Chemical mutagenesis screens revealed that maternal ETC composition regulates offspring's response to stress by altering AMP kinase function in offspring which in turn regulates both ATP and glycerol metabolism in response to continued osmotic stress. To our knowledge, these data are the first to show that proper oocyte ETC composition is required to link a mother's environment to adaptive changes in offspring metabolism. The data also raise the possibility that the reason diverse animals exhibit insulin regulated remodeling of oocyte mitochondria is to tailor offspring metabolism to best match the environment of their mother.

Ultrasonic mapping of midpalatal suture - An ex-vivo study.

OBJECTIVE: Rapid maxillary expansion is a common orthodontic procedure to correct maxillary constriction. Assessing the midpalatal suture (MPS) expansion plays a crucial role in treatment planning to determine its effectiveness. The objectives of this preliminary investigation are to demonstrate a proof of concept that the palatal bone underlying the rugae can be clearly imaged by ultrasound (US) and the reconstructed axial view of the US image accurately maps the MPS patency. METHODS: An ex-vivo US scanning was conducted on the upper jawbones of two piglet's carcasses before and after the creation of bone defects, which simulated the suture opening. The planar images were processed to enhance bone intensity distribution before being orderly stacked to fuse into a volume. Graph-cut segmentation was applied to delineate the palatal bone to generate a bone volume. The accuracy of the reconstructed bone volume and the suture opening was validated by the micro-computed tomography (µCT) data used as the ground truth and compared with cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) data as the clinical standard. Also included in the comparison is the rugae thickness. Correlation and Bland-Altman plots were used to test the agreement between the two methods: US versus µCT/CBCT. RESULTS: The reconstruction of the US palatal bone volumes was accurate based on surface topography comparison with a mean error of 0.19 mm for pre-defect and 0.15 mm and 0.09 mm for post-defect models of the two samples, respectively when compared with µCT volumes. A strong correlation (R2 ≥ 0.99) in measuring MPS expansion was found between US and µCT/CBCT with MADs of less than 0.05 mm, 0.11 mm and 0.23 mm for US, µCT and CBCT, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: It was possible to axially image the MPS opening and rugae thickness accurately using high-frequency ultrasound. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This study introduces an ionizing radiation-free, low-cost, and portable technique to accurately image a difficult part of oral cavity anatomy. The advantages of conceivable visualization could promise a successful clinical examination of MPS to support the predictable treatment outcome of maxillary transverse deficiency.

Novel multiparametric bulk and single EV pipeline for adipose cell-specific biomarker discovery in paired human biospecimens.

Obesity is a global health crisis that contributes to morbidity and mortality worldwide. Obesity's comorbid association with a variety of diseases, from metabolic syndrome to neurodegenerative disease, underscores the critical need to better understand the pathobiology of obesity. Adipose tissue, once seen as an inert storage depot, is now recognized as an active endocrine organ, regulating metabolic and systemic homeostasis. Recent studies spotlight the theranostic utility of extracellular vesicles (EVs) as novel biomarkers and drivers of disease, including obesity-related complications. Adipose-derived EVs (ADEVs) have garnered increased interest for their roles in diverse diseases, however robust isolation and characterization protocols for human, cell-specific EV subsets are limited. Herein, we directly address this technical challenge by establishing a multiparametric analysis framework that leverages bulk and single EV characterization, mRNA phenotyping and proteomics of human ADEVs directly from paired visceral adipose tissue, cultured mature adipocyte conditioned media, and plasma from obese subjects undergoing bariatric surgery. Importantly, rigorous EV phenotyping at the tissue and cell-specific level identified top 'adipose liquid biopsy' candidates that were validated in circulating plasma EVs from the same patient. In summary, our study paves the way toward a tissue and cell-specific, multiparametric framework for studying tissue and circulating adipose EVs in obesity-driven disease.

Prevalence of frailty and pain in hospitalised cancer patients: implications for older adult care.

A hospital-wide point prevalence study investigated frailty and pain in patients with a cancer-related admission. Modifiable factors associated with frailty in people with cancer were determined through logistic regression. Forty-eight patients (19%) with cancer-related admissions were 2.65 times more likely to be frail and 2.12 more likely to have moderate pain. Frailty and pain were highly prevalent among cancer-related admissions, reinforcing the need for frailty screening and importance of pain assessment for patients with cancer.

Two New Benzoquinone Derivatives from Vietnamese Knema globularia Stems.

The chemical investigation of the stems of Knema globularia led to the isolation of two new benzoquinones derivatives, embenones A and B (1 and 2), along with three known compounds (3-5). The structures of the isolated compounds were determined using spectroscopic techniques, including HRESIMS, 1D and 2D NMR, in conjunction with comparison to existing literature data. Compounds 1 and 2 represent new carbon skeletons in nature. Furthermore, all isolated compounds were evaluated for their α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, with compounds 1-3 exhibiting superior potency relative to the positive control (acarbose, IC50 331 µM). Their IC50 values ranged from 1.40 to 96.1 µM.

Prevalence, multidrug resistance, and biofilm formation of Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolated from fish mariculture environments in Cat Ba Island, Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a major foodborne pathogen in aquatic animals and a threat to human health worldwide. This study investigated the prevalence, antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), and biofilm formation of V. parahaemolyticus strains isolated from fish mariculture environments in Cat Ba Island, Vietnam. METHODS: In total, 150 rearing water samples were collected from 10 fish mariculture farms in winter and summer. A polymerase chain reaction assay was used to identify V. parahaemolyticus, its virulence factors, and ARGs. The antimicrobial resistance patterns and biofilm formation ability of V. parahaemolyticus strains were investigated using the disk diffusion test and a microtiter plate-based crystal violet method, respectively. RESULTS: Thirty-seven V. parahaemolyticus isolates were recovered from 150 samples. The frequencies of the tdh and trh genes among V. parahaemolyticus isolates were 8.1% and 21.6%, respectively. More than 90% of isolates were susceptible to ceftazidime, cefotaxime, and chloramphenicol, but over 72% were resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, and erythromycin. Furthermore, 67.57% of isolates exhibited multidrug resistance. The presence of ARGs related to gentamicin (aac(3)-IV), tetracycline (tetA) and ciprofloxacin (qnrA) in V. parahaemolyticus isolates was identified. Conversely, no ARGs related to ampicillin or erythromycin resistance were detected. Biofilm formation capacity was detected in significantly more multidrug-resistant isolates (64.9%) than non-multidrug-resistant isolates (18.9%). CONCLUSION: Mariculture environments are a potential source of antibiotic-resistant V. parahaemolyticus and a hotspot for virulence genes and ARGs diffusing to aquatic environments. Thus, the prevention of antibiotic-resistant foodborne vibriosis in aquatic animals and humans requires continuous monitoring.

Ferumoxytol-Enhanced Cardiac Cine MRI Reconstruction Using a Variable-Splitting Spatiotemporal Network.

BACKGROUND: Balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) imaging is commonly used in cardiac cine MRI but prone to image artifacts. Ferumoxytol-enhanced (FE) gradient echo (GRE) has been proposed as an alternative. Utilizing the abundance of bSSFP images to develop a computationally efficient network that is applicable to FE GRE cine would benefit future network development. PURPOSE: To develop a variable-splitting spatiotemporal network (VSNet) for image reconstruction, trained on bSSFP cine images and applicable to FE GRE cine images. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective and prospective. SUBJECTS: 41 patients (26 female, 53 ± 19 y/o) for network training, 31 patients (19 female, 49 ± 17 y/o) and 5 healthy subjects (5 female, 30 ± 7 y/o) for testing. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 1.5T and 3T, bSSFP and GRE. ASSESSMENT: VSNet was compared to VSNet with total variation loss, compressed sensing and low rank methods for 14× accelerated data. The GRAPPA×2/×3 images served as the reference. Peak signal-to-noise-ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM), left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), and ejection fraction (EF) were measured. Qualitative image ranking and scoring were independently performed by three readers. Latent scores were calculated based on scores of each method relative to the reference. STATISTICS: Linear mixed-effects regression, Tukey method, Fleiss' Kappa, Bland-Altman analysis, and Bayesian categorical cumulative probit model. A P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: VSNet achieved significantly higher PSNR (32.7 ± 0.2), SSIM (0.880 ± 0.004), rank (2.14 ± 0.06), and latent scores (-1.72 ± 0.22) compared to other methods (rank >2.90, latent score < -2.63). Fleiss' Kappa was 0.52 for scoring and 0.61 for ranking. VSNet showed no significantly different LV and RV ESV (P = 0.938) and EF (P = 0.143) measurements, but statistically significant different (2.62 mL) EDV measurements compared to the reference. CONCLUSION: VSNet produced the highest image quality and the most accurate functional measurements for FE GRE cine images among the tested 14× accelerated reconstruction methods. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.

An Oral Carbon Monoxide-Releasing Molecule Protects against Acute Hyper-hemolysis in Sickle Cell Disease.

Acute hyper-hemolysis is a severe life-threatening complication in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) that may occur during delayed hemolytic transfusion reaction (DHTR), or vaso-occlusive crises associated with multi-organ failure. Here, we developed in vitro and in vivo animal models to mimic endothelial damage during the early phase of hyper-hemolysis in SCD. We then used the carbon monoxide (CO)-releasing molecule CORM-401 and examined its effects against endothelial activation, damage, and inflammation inflicted by hemolysates containing red blood cell membrane-derived particles. The in vitro results revealed that CORM-401: 1) prevented the up-regulation of relevant pro-inflammatory, and pro-adhesion controlled by the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), and 2) abolished the expression of the nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) that regulates the inducible antioxidant cell machinery. We also show in SCD mice that CORM-401 protects against hemolysate-induced acute damage of target organs such as the lung, liver, and kidney through modulation of NF-kB pro-inflammatory and Nrf2 antioxidant pathways. Our data demonstrate the efficacy of CORM-401 as a novel therapeutic agent to counteract hemolysate-induced organ damage during hyper-hemolysis in SCD. This approach might be considered as possible preventive treatment in high-risk situations such as SCD patients with history of DHTR.

A new cucurbitane - type triterpenoid from the bark of Elaeocarpus hygrophilus Kurz.

A new cucurbitacin, 3ß-(ß-D-glucopyranosyloxy)-5ß,6ß:16α,23α-diepoxycucurbit-24-en-11-one or hygrocucurbin A (1), along with two known compounds, including 3ß-(ß-D-glucopyranosyloxy)-16α,23α-epoxycucurbita-5,24-dien-11-one (2) and (+)-lyoniresinol (3), were isolated from the bark of Elaeocarpus hygrophilus. Their chemical structures were elucidated by spectroscopic NMR, HR-IDA- TOF-MS analysis, and by comparison with the spectral data of corresponding compounds in the literature. Two cucurbitacins (1) and (2) were evaluated for their α-glucosidase inhibitory activity and cytotoxic against KB, MCF-7, Hep G2, and A549 cancer cell lines. For the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, compound 1 showed an equivalent effect (IC50 197.4 ± 4.1 µM) compared to the acarbose, a positive control (IC50 208.5 ± 4.7 µM). And for the cytotoxicity, 2 was inactive while 1 was slightly sensitive against KB cells (IC50 233.3 ± 2.5 µM).

Spermacosides a and B, two new triterpenoid saponins from Spermacoce ocymoides burm.f.

Two new triterpenoid saponins, named spermacosides A-B (1 - 2), together with two known oleanane-type triterpenoid saponins, 3-O-ß-D-xylopyranosyl-(1→3)-ß-D-glucopyranosylbayogenin (3) and 3-O-ß-D-glucopyranosylbayogenin (4), were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of Spermacoce ocymoides Burm.f. in a phytochemical investigation. Their chemical structures were elucidated by spectroscopic data analysis (1D and 2D NMR, and HR-ESI-MS), as well as comparison with reported data. All these compounds were evaluated for inhibiting nitric oxide production in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. Among them, 1 showed a slight effect with an IC50 value of 108.65 ± 7.91 µM, and compounds 2-4 were inactive.

Comtrifosides A and B, two new triterpenoid saponins from the leaves of Combretum trifoliatum.

The phytochemical composition of the Combretum trifoliatum leaves was studied for the first time. Two new triterpenoid saponins, named comtrifoside A (1) and comtrifoside B (2), together with two other saponins (3-4) were purified by variously chromatographic techniques. For the first time, compound 3 was informed from the Combretum genus, as well as all of the isolated compounds (1-4) were reported from C. trifoliatum. The chemical structures of them were clearly characterised using extensive UV-VIS, IR, HRMS-ESI, and NMR experimental data. The in vitro anti-inflammatory activities of 1 & 2 were examined against NO overproduction in LPS activation of RAW264.7.