[Pharmacokinetics Study on Curcumin Hydroxypropyl-ß-Cyclodextrin Phospholipid Complex in Rats].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the in vivo pharmacokinetics of curcumin hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin phospholipid complex, curcumin hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin and curcumin phospholipid complex, and to discuss the advantage of hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin phospholipid complex as carrier. METHODS: Drawing blood after SD rats were oral administered with the above preparations and free drug at 50 mg/kg( corresponding to curcumin) , and the blood concentration were determined by HPLC. RESULTS: The AUC0-∞ of curcumin hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin phospholipid complex was(1 126. 20 ± 323. 24) g/(L . h), which was 5. 89, 1. 49 and 1. 17 times as curcumin (191. 08 ± 43. 27) µg/( L . h), curcumin phospholipid complex(754. 93 ± 55. 33) µg/(L . h), curcumin hydroxypropyl-ß- cyclodextrin(961. 21 ± 253. 65) µg/(L . h). CONCLUSION: The curcumin hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin phospholipid complex has a better absorption property than curcumin phospholipid complex and curcumin hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin, which is more beneficial to improve the bioavailability.

A correlation between altered O-GlcNAcylation, migration and with changes in E-cadherin levels in ovarian cancer cells.

O-GlcNAcylation is a dynamic and reversible posttranslational modification of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. In recent years, the roles of O-GlcNAcylation in several human malignant tumors have been investigated, and O-GlcNAcylation was found to be linked to cellular features relevant to metastasis. In this study, we modeled four diverse ovarian cancer cells and investigated the effects of O-GlcNAcylation on ovarian cancer cell migration. We found that total O-GlcNAcylation level was elevated in HO-8910PM cells compared to OVCAR3 cells. Additionally, through altering the total O-GlcNAcylation level by OGT silencing or OGA inhibition, we found that the migration of OVCAR3 cells was dramatically enhanced by PUGNAc and Thiamet G treatment, and the migration ability of HO-8910PM cells was significantly inhibited by OGT silencing. Furthermore, we also found that the expression of E-cadherin, an O-GlcNAcylated protein in ovarian cancer cells, was reduced by OGA inhibition in OVCAR3 cells and elevated by OGT silencing in HO-8910PM cells. These results indicate that O-GlcNAcylation could enhance ovarian cancer cell migration and decrease the expression of E-cadherin. Our studies also suggest that O-GlcNAcylation might become another potential target for the therapy of ovarian cancer.

An Evaluation of Different Digestion Methods for the Quantitation of Inorganic Elements in Human Hair Using ICP-MS.

The inorganic elements have unique properties in biochemical processes in humans. An increasing number of pathologies have been associated with essential element ions, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. Hair has become an attractive clinical specimen for studying the longitudinal exposure to elements from the external environment. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) coupled with nitric acid (HNO3) digestion is the most common approach for determining inorganic elements from human hair. This study aims to optimize the digestion method for the absolute quantitation of 52 elements using ICP-MS, for a large cohort study in human hair. Five different HNO3 (65%) digestion methods were investigated and evaluated for their internal standard solution stability, reproducibility, element coverage, and standard solution recovery efficiency, namely, room temperature for 24 h (RT), 90°C for 4 h (T90), ultrasonic-assisted digestion (UltraS), programmed digestion of microwave digestion (MicroD), and ordinary microwave oven digestion (O-MicroD). Our results demonstrated that O-MicroD, MicroD, and RT were the best performing digestion methods for coefficient of variation (CV) scores, coverage, and recovery efficiency, respectively. In particular, the O-MicroD method detected multiple elements in a small quantity of hair (3 mg), with minimum nitric acid usage (200 µl) and a short digestion time (30 min). The O-MicroD method had excellent reproducibility, as demonstrated by a continuous thousand injections of hair samples with three internal standards (CV: 103Rh = 3.59%, 115In = 3.61%, and 209Bi = 6.31%). Future studies of the elemental content of hair should carefully select their digestion method to meet the primary purpose of their study.

[Investigation of Amanitaceae mushrooms by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy].

In the present paper, FTIR was used for obtaining vibrational spectra of untreated Amanitaceae mushrooms harvested in the mountains of Yunnan province, Southwest of China. The results show that the spectra of fruiting body and spore exhibit obvious differences. In the spectra of fruiting body, the strongest absorption band appears at about 1 655 cm(-1), which is described as amide I. There are two strong absorption bands at 1 077 and 1 042 cm(-1) which are assigned to C-O stretching in carbohydrate. The vibrational spectra indicate that the main compositions of the Amanitaceae mushrooms are protein and carbohydrate. The spectrum of spore of Amanita fritillaria shows strong bands at 2 926, 2 855 and 1 747 cm(-1), which can be assigned to the absorption of lipids. The spectra of fruiting body exhibit complicated patterns in the interval between 1 800 and 750 cm(-1), which may be used to discriminate different species of Amanitaceae mushrooms. In addition, FTIR spectral differences were observed between different parts of Amanita manginiana. The result suggests that the chemical constituents are various in different parts of fruiting bodies. It is showed that FTIR spectroscopic method is a valuable tool for rapid and nondestructive identification of Amanita mushrooms.

[Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic study of truffles].

Truffles, which belong to ascomycetes, are rare wild growing edible mushrooms; their fruit body contains high nutritive value composition, and their polysaccharide constituents have potential medical applications. In the present paper, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used for obtaining vibrational spectra of mushrooms of truffles growing in mountains of Yunnan province, southwest China. The results show that the mushrooms exhibit characteristic spectra. The two strongest absorption bands appear at about 1 077 and 1 042 cm(-1), respectively. The spectra exhibit complicated patterns between 1200 and 750 cm(-1), which may be used as fingerprints to discriminate different species of truffles. Great changes were also found between mold and healthy truffles, showing major differences observed in the bands of protein. In addition, some vibrational-spectrum differences were observed among the same species of truffles from different growing areas. It is showed that FTIR can provide valuable information about the chemical constituents of intact truffles prior to any extraction method is used.