[Characteristics of Stable Isotopes and Moisture Sources of Two Typical Precipitation Events in Lanzhou City].

To better understand the isotope variations on a short time scale, this study focused on a long-term rainfall event with light precipitation (June 26-27) and a short-term one with heavy precipitation (July 28) in Lanzhou City in the summer of 2019. Combined with HYSPLIT model, samples collected during a continuous precipitation event every 10 min and 30 min were analyzed to explore the characteristics and mechanism of stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in precipitation. The results indicate that the effect of sub-cloud secondary evaporation makes the slope of the sequential meteoric water line (SMWL) smaller at the beginning of the rainfall event. Most of the continuous sampling points are distributed above the global meteoric water line (GMWL) and local meteoric water line (LMWL). Moreover, the deuterium excess is larger than the local average annual deuterium (8.13), indicating that the samples have experienced moisture recycling to a certain extent. During two consecutive days (June 26-27) of rainfall, the variations in oxygen isotope δ18O did not follow the effect of precipitation amount; the precipitation δ18O of the first day was "L" shaped, and it fluctuated the next day. On July 28, δ18O steadily decreased, and the range of δ18O exceeded 9‰. On June 26, the moisture transport path was short at the height of 500 m and on June 27 local evaporation was the main pathway. On July 28, with a relatively stable air mass, the moisture source of the entire precipitation event did not change significantly, neither did the isotope value. Therefore, for a single precipitation event on a short time scale, the difference in moisture sources is one of the reasons for isotope variations.

Danshen: a phytochemical and pharmacological overview.

Danshen, the dried root or rhizome of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge., is a traditional and folk medicine in Asian countries, especially in China and Japan. In this review, we summarized the recent researches of Danshen in traditional uses and preparations, chemical constituents, pharmacological activities and side effects. A total of 201 compounds from Danshen have been reported, including lipophilic diterpenoids, water-soluble phenolic acids, and other constituents, which have showed various pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-tumor, anti-atherogenesis, and anti-diabetes. This article intends to provide novel insight information for further development of Danshen, which could be of great value to its improvement of utilization.

The anticancer mechanism investigation of Tanshinone IIA by pharmacological clustering in protein network.

BACKGROUND: Cancer is the second most common cause of death globally. The anticancer effects of Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) has been confirmed by numerous researches. However, the underlying mechanism remained to be integrated in systematic format. Systems biology embraced the complexity of cancer; therefore, a system study approach was proposed in the present study to explore the anticancer mechanism of Tan IIA based on network pharmacology. METHOD: Agilent Literature Search (ALS), a text-mining tool, was used to pull protein targets of Tan IIA. Then, pharmacological clustering was applied to classify obtained hits, the anticancer module was analysed further. The top ten essential nodes in the anticancer module were obtained by ClusterONE. Functional units in the anticancer module were catalogued and validated by Gene Ontology (GO) analysis. Meanwhile, KEGG and Cell Signalling Technology Pathway were employed to provide pathway data for potential anticancer pathways construction. Finally, the pathways were plotted using Cytoscape 3.5.1. Furthermore, in vitro experiments with five carcinoma cell lines were conducted. RESULTS: A total of 258 proteins regulated by Tan IIA were identified through ALS and were visualized by protein network. Pharmacological clustering further sorted 68 proteins that intimately involved in cancer pathogenesis based on Gene Ontology. Subsequently, pathways on anticancer effect of Tan IIA were delineated. Five functional units were clarified according to literature: including regulation on apoptosis, proliferation, sustained angiogenesis, autophagic cell death, and cell cycle. The GO analysis confirmed the classification was statistically significant. The inhibiting influence of Tan IIA on p70 S6K/mTOR pathway was revealed for the first time. The in vitro experiments displayed the selectivity of Tan IIA on HeLa, MDA-MB-231, HepG2, A549, and ACHN cell lines, the IC50 values were 0.54 µM, 4.63 µM, 1.42 µM, 17.30 µM and 204.00 µM, respectively. This result further reinforced the anticancer effect of Tan IIA treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The current study provides a systematic methodology for discovering the coordination of the anticancer pathways regulated by Tan IIA via protein network. And it also offers a valuable guidance for systematic study on the therapeutic values of other herbs and their active compounds.

Effects of nitrogen addition on soil microbes and their implications for soil C emission in the Gurbantunggut Desert, center of the Eurasian Continent.

Nitrogen (N) deposition can influence carbon cycling of terrestrial ecosystems. However, a general recognition of how soil microorganisms respond to increasing N deposition is not yet reached. We explored soil microbial responses to two levels of N addition (2.5 and 5 gN m(-2) yr(-1)) in interplant soil and beneath shrubs of Haloxylon ammodendron and their consequences to soil respiration in the Gurbantunggut Desert, northwestern China from 2011 to 2013. Microbial biomass and respiration were significantly higher beneath H. ammodendron than in interplant soil. The responses of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial respiration (MR) showed opposite responses to N addition in interplant and beneath H. ammodendron. N addition slightly increased MBC and MR in interplant soil and decreased them beneath H. ammodendron, with a significant inhibition only in 2012. N addition had no impacts on the total microbial physiological activity, but N addition decreased the labile carbon substrate utilization beneath H. ammodendron when N addition level was high. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis showed that N addition did not alter the soil microbial community structure as evidenced by the similar ratios of fungal to bacterial PLFAs and gram-negative to gram-positive bacterial PLFAs. Microbial biomass and respiration showed close correlations with soil water content and dissolved carbon, and they were independent of soil inorganic nitrogen across three years. Our study suggests that N addition effects on soil microorganisms and carbon emission are dependent on the respiratory substrates and water availability in the desert ecosystem.

The effect of stroke and other components in Xing-Nao-Jing on the pharmacokinetics of geniposide.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Geniposide is a bioactive substance derived from gardenia, which has been used in traditional Chinese preparation, such as "Xing-Nao-Jing" (XNJ) for stroke treatment. Stroke and the ingredients of herbal preparation affect the pharmacokinetics of geniposide. A comparative pharmacokinetic study of geniposide in stroke and sham-operated rats after administration of XNJ and geniposide was proceeded to evaluate the effect of stroke on pharmacokinetics of geniposide, while the influence of other components in XNJ was determined by using gardenia extract and geniposide-borneol compounds in rats with stroke to compare. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Stroke was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion followed by reperfusion 2h later. Plasma concentration of geniposide was determined by HPLC. Various pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated from the plasma concentration versus time data using non-compartmental methods. RESULTS: The maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) and area under the curve (AUC0-t) in stroke after administration of XNJ were 5.97±3.82 µg/mL, and 570.06±274.32 µg·min/mL, respectively, which were 5 times compared with sham-operated rats or the stroke-afflicted rats given geniposide. In stroke, the Cmax and AUC(0-t) of geniposide-borneol group and gardenia extraction group were close to XNJ group and geniposide group, respectively. The geniposide-borneol group had a higher value. CONCLUSION: Stroke improved the absorption of geniposide in XNJ. Borneol may be the key ingredient in XNJ improving the absorption of geniposide.