The history, stereochemistry, ethnopharmacology and quality assessment of borneol.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Borneol (BO) represents a global trade-driven spreading of ethnic medicine traceable to the classical age, and won its name specific to its original habitat "Borneo". BO shows broad spectral pharmacological effects, such as anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, inducing resuscitation, and widely applied in the protection and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, used singly or mostly in compound formulae. AIM OF THE STUDY: Three stereoscopic configuration forms of BO, l-borneol (LB), d-borneol (DB), and dl-borneol (synthetic, SB), are formulated in broad spectral application, yet their diverse pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties caused by configurations, and accurate assay and quality assessment are often overlooked. A systematic review and analysis of lumped studies and applications is necessary to clarify the relationship between configuration and its original plant, analysis method, activity and side effect BO in order to guarantee the efficacy and safety during their application. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The public databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, China National Knowledge Infrastructure were referenced to summarize a comprehensive research and application data of BO published up to date. RESULTS: This review includes following sections: History and current status, Stereochemistry, Ethnopharmacology, and Quality assessment. In the section of history, the changes of the plant origins of the two isomeric forms of natural BO were described respectively, and the methods for synthetic racemate SB were also included. The section of stereochemistry deals with the stereoscopic structures, physical/chemical property, optical rotation of the three forms of BO, as well as the main related substances like isoborneol, obtained in SB via chemical transformation of camphor and turpentine oil. In the section of Ethnopharmacology, pharmacological activities and pharmacokinetics of different forms of BO were discussed. BO is usually used as an "adjuvant", by enhancing the permeability of the blood-brain barrier and intervene the ADME/T pathways of the other ingredients in the same formulation. In the section of quality assessment, the analytical methods, including chromatography, especially GC, and spectroscopy were addressed on the chiral separation of the coexisting enantiomers. CONCLUSIONS: This overview systematically summarized three forms of BO in terms of history, stereochemistry, ethnopharmacology, and quality assessment, which, hopefully, can provide valuable information and strategy for more reasonable application and development of the globally reputed ethnic medicine borneol with characteristics in stereochemistry.

Fumonisin B1 induces autophagic cell death via activation of ERN1-MAPK8/9/10 pathway in monkey kidney MARC-145 cells.

Mycotoxins are secondary fungal metabolites that are capable of inducing a variety of toxic effects in animals and humans resulting from the consumption of the contaminated food. Understanding the mechanisms of the toxicities behind these mycotoxins is required to develop mechanism-based approach to counteract their toxic potential. Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is the most prevalent member of fumonisins that are a group of mycotoxins produced primarily by Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium proliferatum. Kidney is one of the primary target organs for FB1 action. Using monkey kidney MARC-145 cells as an intro model, we found that FB1 induced caspase-independent programmed cell death accompanied with autophagy induction. Inhibition of autophagy by either chemical inhibitors or RNAi approach led to a significant reduction in cell death by FB1 exposure, indicating possible involvement of autophagy-mediated cell death in nephrotoxicity of FB1. Further mechanistic investigation revealed that activation of ERN1-MAPK8/9/10 axis played a critical role in autophagy induction and autophagy-mediated cell death by FB1 exposure. In addition, we demonstrated that disruption of sphingolipid metabolism was an apical event in FB1-induced ERN1-MAPK8/9/10-mediated autophagic cell death in MARC-145 cells. Lastly, we identified curcumin, a naturally occurring plant phenolic compound, as a possible anti-FB1 agent that can be used to protect kidney cells from FB1-induced cell death through inhibition of MAPK8/9/10 activation.

Natural and experimental infection of dogs with pandemic H1N1/2009 influenza virus.

Evidence of H1N1/2009 influenza virus infection was identified in two domestic dogs in China in November 2009. Virus isolation and sequence analysis of all eight genes of the two isolates showed that they were related closely to the H1N1/2009 influenza virus circulating in humans, indicating that they were probably acquired from humans. To determine the pathogenicity and transmissibility of H1N1/2009 influenza virus in dogs, experimental infection and transmission were performed. Inoculated dogs were able to shed virus in nasal secretions, but symptoms were very mild. Uninoculated dogs were co-mingled to determine the transmissibility of the isolate, and one of three exposed dogs was shown to develop infection. The present findings indicate that human H1N1/2009 can infect dogs, but is transmitted inefficiently between dogs.