Coronavirus is an important pathogen of humans and animals. Among them, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) breaking out in 2019 has brought a fatal threat to human health. The host"s innate immune response is the host"s first line of defense against pathogen invasion, but an excessive immune response can also aggravate viral infection and pathological damage. The immune escape of coronavirus is a critical pathogenic mechanism causing death. This work mainly reviews the pathogenic mechanism of coronavirus immune escape from several aspects such as host immunosensor, interferon, cytokine and coronavirus antagonizing host immune response, which provide a theoretical reference for the development of anti-coronavirus drugs.

The progress of molecular biology and tumor biology has greatly changed the mode of cancer treatment. A large number of scientific studies have revealed the mechanism of tumor immune evasion, and a variety of new types of tumor immunotherapy have emerged, which has become another effective treatment of cancer after surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and targeted therapy. This paper introduces the mechanism of tumor cell immune evasion, and focuses on the design principle, biological drugs and the latest research progress of immunotherapy, such as cytokine immunotherapies, therapeutic monoclonal antibody immunotherapy, PD-1/PD-L1 therapy, CAR-T therapy, tumor vaccine, oncolytic virus and so on. At the same time, the advantages and disadvantages of various immunotherapies are compared to provide reference for drug research and development in tumor immunotherapy.

Dendrimers, a special class of synthetic polymers known for their well-defined ramified structures and unique multivalent cooperativity, hold great promise for various biomedical applications. However, preparation of defect-free dendrimers of high-generation on a large scale remains challenging because of the tedious and time-consuming synthesis as well as difficult purification. To overcome these limitations, an alternative strategy based on self-assembling approach has been developed to construct supramolecular dendrimers using small amphiphilic dendrimer-building units. By virtue of the amphiphilic nature, these small dendrimer-building units self-assemble and form large non-covalent supramolecular dendritic structures that mimic high-generation covalent dendrimers. Here, we present a brief overview of the supramolecular dendrimers developed in our group for the delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics, anticancer drug and imaging agents.

The changes of metabolic profile are closely related to external stimulus, and the concentration of the metabolite can directly reflect the physiological or pathological states of organisms. Therefore, the quantitative detection of metabolites is necessary. However, traditional targeted metabolomic methods have such drawbacks as narrow coverage and low sensitivity. In recent years, derivatization techniques have developed rapidly in the field of metabolomics. Derivatization reagents for amine, hydroxyl, carboxyl, carbonyl, hydrosulphonyl and other groups have been used in metabolomics research. This paper introduces various derivatization reactions and their applications according to group classification and reviewes the characteristics of multi-group derivatization techniques, with a propect of their research directions and challenges.

Seven target compounds coupled by rhein and furoxan were synthesized and their chemical structures were confirmed by 1H NMR, IR, and MS. All target compounds were evaluated for anti-proliferative activity against human hepatoma cells HepG2 and Bel-7402, human colon cancer cells HCT116, human osteosarcoma cells U2OS, drug-resistant cells Bel-7402/5-FU and normal hepatocytes cells LO2 in vitro by thiazolyl blue(MTT) colorimetry. The results indicated that all target compounds had more potent anti-proliferative activity than their parent compound rhein. Additionally, compound 4g had stronger proliferation inhibitory activity on HepG2, Bel-7402, U2OS and Bel-7402/5-FU,with little effect on the proliferation of normal cells, exhibiting selective inhibitory activity. Griess assay was used to measure the release of nitric oxide in vitro. Results showed that compound 4g could increase the releases NO in HepG2 cells, which may be associated with its antitumor effects. Furthermore, the antitumor activity of compound 4g was attenuated by NO scavenger (hemoglobin), which indicates that the antitumor activity of compound 4g may be partly related to the release of NO.

Lenvatinib mesylate (LF), a multi-target tyrosinase inhibitor mainly used in the treatment of a variety of cancers, has low oral bioavailability mainly due to its gelation during the dissolution process. In the current study, in order to enhance dissolution and eliminate gelation of LF, a supramolecular coamorphous system of LF-baicalein (BAI) (molar ratio, 1∶1) was prepared by rotary evaporation and characterized by PLM, PXRD, DSC and FTIR. Results indicated the formation of coamorphous system with a single Tg of 118 °C. Different from original LF crystal, no gelation phenomenon was observed during the dissolution of coamorphous LF-BAI. In addition, the dissolution rate of LF was increased by 2.2-fold after coamorphization. Meanwhile, the dissolution rate of the co-former BAI was also enhanced by more than 25.4-fold. Stability test showed that the prepared coamorphous system had a good physical stability for at least 90 days under 25 °C/ 60%RH and 40 °C /75%RH conditions.

To prepare a minocycline hydrochloride microsphere depot and evaluate its release performance and physicochemical properties, poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) was used as raw material, the minocycline hydrochloride microspheres were prepared by electrospray, and the morphology and size distribution of the microspheres were characterized by polarizing microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The microspheres were then mixed with sucrose acetate isobutyrate (SAIB) depot at a ratio of 1:10 to form a minocycline hydrochloride microsphere depot, and its release performance and porosity changes were evaluated. The results showed that the microspheres had smooth surface and the diameter was (5.294 ± 1.222) μm. After the microspheres were added into SAIB depot, the burst release of minocycline hydrochloride significantly decreased from 60% to 3.27% at the first day, and then the release lasted for 42 days . Additionally, the porosity of the depot increased rapidly from (12.53 ± 0.43)% to (32.53 ± 0.43)% during days 0-15, and increased slowly from (32.53 ± 0.43)% to (33.81 ± 0.54)% during days 15-45. The minocycline hydrochloride microsphere depot prepared in this study is expected to be an effective way for the application of minocycline hydrochloride for its good release performance and simple preparation process.

To improve the standard of quality control of tazobactam and its preparations in China, national reference standard of tazobactam impurity A was developed. After tazobactam impurity A was synthesized, its structure was validated by infrared (IR), mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and its content uniformity and short-term stability were measured and investigated. Then, water content and residue on ignition of impurity A were determined, and its purity was determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with 10 mmol/L ammonium acetate solution-acetonitrile (98∶2) as the mobile phase. Mass balance method was used to determine the content of the first batch of tazobactam impurity A national standard substance. Meanwhile, nuclear magnetic quantitative method was used to calculate the content, which was mutually verified with the mass balance method. The developed reference material of tazobactam impurity A is consistent with the maximum degradation impurity in tazobactam system applicability solution and the reference material of tazobactam related substance A contained in USP41. Within the 95% confidence range, the ratio of inter- and intra-bottle variance of impurity A after separation was 0.61 (< F0.05(11,12)), proving that the uniformity was satisfying. The contents of organic impurity, water content and inorganic impurity in impurity A were 0.90%, 1.24% and 0.25%, respectively. The content of impurity A was determined to be 97.6% by mass balance method, which was basically consistent with the result of nuclear magnetic quantitative method (97.1%). Under the condition of 25 °C, the area normalized purity of impurity A was 99.1% at 0, 3, 5 and 10 days, proving that the sample was stable at room temperature for 10 days. Finally the first batch of national standard substance of tazobactam impurity A was established successfully.

An analytical method was developed for the determination of five carbohydrate impurities in amino acid drug substances by high performance liquid chromatography-evaporative light scattering detection (HPLC-ELSD). Sugar impurities in the amino acid sample were separated and enriched by cation exchange resin. A Lichropher NH2 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) was used for chromatographic separation, and a gradient elution was performed using acetonitrile-water as mobile phase. The drift tube temperature was 40 oC, the gain value was 8, and nitrogen (350 kPa) was auxiliary gas. Method validation results showed that the limits of detection for fructose, glucose, sucrose, maltose and lactose were in the range of 20.8-75.0 mg/kg and that the limits of quantitation were in the range of 96.2-238.8 mg/kg. Good linear relationship (r ≥ 0.999) were in the linear range for the five sugars, and the recoveries ranged from 84.9%-107.8%. With easy operation, high sensitivity, good precision and reliable accuracy, the method can be used for analysis of residual sugar impurities in amino acid drug bulk drug.

To investigate the effect of ethanolic extract from Artemisia Argyi Folium on blood glucose and blood lipids in diabetic mice, ICR mice were induced by intraperitoneal injection of 35 mg/kg streptozotocin (STZ) and a high-carbohydrate/high-fat diet to construct type 2 diabetes mellitus model. Diabetic mice were randomly divided into three groups: the model group (5 mL/kg 0.5% CMC-Na), the Artemisia Argyi Folium ethanolic extract low-dose group (100 mg/kg ) and high-dose group (400 mg/kg ). During the treatment for 6 weeks, the amount of drinking water and food intake of mice were recorded every day. Blood glucose and body weight were recorded every week. After treatment for 6 weeks, serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C),and oral glucose tolerance (OGTT) were measured. The results showed that the amount of drinking water and food intake of mice significantly decreased (P < 0.01) in the Artemisia Argyi Folium ethanolic extract high-dose group; oral glucose tolerance was significantly improved (P < 0.01) and the contents of TC, TG and LDL-C were significantly decreased in the Artemisia Argyi Folium ethanolic extract low-dose group (P < 0.01). The ethanolic extract from Artemisia Argyi Folium could significantly improve the glucose and lipid metabolic disorder in T2DM mice in a dose-dependent manner.