Curcumin derived from medicinal homologous foods: its main signals in immunoregulation of oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis.

It has been for thousands of years in China known medicinal homologous foods that can be employed both as foods and medicines to benefit human and animal health. These edible herbal materials perform divert roles in the regulation of metabolic disorders, cancers, and immune-related diseases. Curcumin, the primary component derived from medicinal homologous foods like curcuma longa rhizome, is reported to play vital actions in organic activities, such as the numerous pharmacological functions including anti-oxidative stress, anti-inflammation and anti/pro-apoptosis in treating various diseases. However, the potential mechanisms of curcumin-derived modulation still need to be developed and attract more attention worldwide. Given that these signal pathways are enrolled in important bioactive reactions, we collected curcumin's last achievements predominantly on the immune-regulation signals with the underlying targetable strategies in the last 10 years. This mini-review will be helpful to accelerate curcumin and other extracts from medicinal homologous foods use in future human clinical applications.

Berberine a traditional Chinese drug repurposing: Its actions in inflammation-associated ulcerative colitis and cancer therapy.

Berberine (BBR), an isoquinoline alkaloid extracted from Coptidis Rhizoma, has a long history of treating dysentery in the clinic. Over the past two decades, the polytrophic, pharmacological, and biochemical properties of BBR have been intensively studied. The key functions of BBR, including anti-inflammation, antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-obesity, and even antitumor, have been discovered. However, the underlying mechanisms of BBR-mediated regulation still need to be explored. Given that BBR is also a natural nutrition supplement, the modulatory effects of BBR on nutritional immune responses have attracted more attention from investigators. In this mini-review, we summarized the latest achievements of BBR on inflammation, gut microbes, macrophage polarization, and immune responses associated with their possible tools in the pathogenesis and therapy of ulcerative colitis and cancer in recent 5 years. We also discuss the therapeutic efficacy and anti-inflammatory actions of BBR to benefit future clinical applications.

Modified dragonfly algorithm based multilevel thresholding method for color images segmentation.

Accurate image segmentation is the preprocessing step of image processing. Multi-level threshold segmentation has important research value in image segmentation, which can effectively solve the problem of region analysis of complex images, but the computational complexity increases accordingly. In order to overcome this problem, an modified Dragonfly algorithm (MDA) is proposed to determine the optimal combination of different levels of thresholds for color images. Chaotic mapping and elite opposition-based learning strategies (EOBL) are used to improve the randomness of the initial population. The hybrid algorithm of Dragonfly Algorithms (DA) and Differential Evolution (DE) is used to balance the two basic stages of optimization: exploration and development. Kapur entropy, minimum cross-entropy and Otsu method are used as fitness functions of image segmentation. The performance of 10 test color images is evaluated and compared with 9 different meta-heuristic algorithms. The results show that the color image segmentation method based on MDA is more effective and accurate than other competitors in average fitness value (AF), standard deviation (STD), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM) and feature similarity index (FSIM). Friedman test and Wilcoxon's rank sum test are also performed to assess the significant difference between the algorithms.

Modified salp swarm algorithm based multilevel thresholding for color image segmentation.

This paper proposes a multi-threshold image segmentation method based on modified salp swarm algorithm (SSA). Multi-threshold image segmentation method has good segmentation effect, but the segmentation precision will be affected with the increase of threshold number. To avoid the above problem, the slap swarm optimization algorithm (SSA) is presented to choose the optimal parameters of the fitting function and we use levy flight to improve the SSA. The solutions are assessed using the Kapur's entropy, Otsu and Renyi entropy fitness function during the optimization operation. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated with several reference images and compared with different group algorithms. The results have been analyzed based on the best fitness values, peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), and feature similarity index measures (FSIM). The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperformed other swarm algorithms.

Panax Notoginseng flower saponins (PNFS) inhibit LPS-stimulated NO overproduction and iNOS gene overexpression via the suppression of TLR4-mediated MAPK/NF-kappa B signaling pathways in RAW264.7 macrophages.

BACKGROUND: Panax Notoginseng flower saponins (PNFS) are the main active component of Panax notoginseng (Burk) F. H. Chen flower bud (PNF) and possess significant anti-inflammatory efficacy. This study aims to explore the mechanisms underlying PNFS' antiflammatory action in RAW264.7 macrophages. METHODS: A cell counting kit-8 assay was used to determine the viability of RAW264.7 macrophages. Anti-inflammation effects of PNFS in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages were measured based on the detection of nitric oxide (NO) overproduction (Griess method, DAF-FM DA fluorescence assay and NO2 (-) scavenging assay), and interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha gene overexpression (real-time PCR and ELISA). Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene overexpression was determined by real-time PCR and western blotting. iNOS enzyme activity was also assayed. The mechanisms underlying the suppression of iNOS gene overexpression by PNFS were explored using real-time PCR and western blotting to assess mRNA and protein levels of components of the Toll-like receptor 4 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt, and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B) signaling pathways. RESULTS: PNFS (50, 100, 200 µg/mL) significantly reduced LPS-induced overproduction of NO (P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001) and IL-6 (P = 0.103, P < 0.001, P < 0.001), but did not affect TNF-alpha overproduction. PNFS (50, 100, 200 µg/mL) also markedly decreased LPS-activated iNOS (P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001) and TLR4 gene overexpression (P = 0.858, P = 0.046, P = 0.005). Furthermore, treatment with PNFS (200 µg/mL) suppressed the phosphorylation of MAPKs including P38 (P = 0.001), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) (P = 0.036) and extracellular-signal regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 (P = 0.021). PNFS (200 µg/mL) inhibited the activation of the NF-kappa B signaling pathway by preventing the phosphorylation of inhibitor of NF-kappa B alpha (I-kappa B alpha) (P = 0.004) and P65 (P = 0.023), but PNFS (200 µg/mL) could not activate the LPS-induced PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. CONCLUSIONS: PNFS significantly down-regulated iNOS gene overexpression and thereby decreased NO overproduction via the inhibition of TLR4-mediated MAPK/NF-kappa B signaling pathways, but not the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.