A method for simultaneously identifying antioxidative compounds was developed using time-based LC-MS coupled with DPPH assay regardless of the time consuming process. The methanolic extract of Polygonum aviculare (Polygonaceae) showed significant DPPH radical scavenging activity. Time-based DPPH assay for simultaneous identification of active compounds from the extracts of P. aviculare was used. Major peaks of ethyl acetate fraction of P. aviculare showed high DPPH radical scavenging activity. A simple phenolic compound (1) and six flavonoids (2-7) were isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of P. aviculare by silica gel and sephadex LH-20 column chromatography. The structures of seven compounds were determined to be protocatechuic acid (1), catechin (2), myricitrin (3), epicatechin-3-O-gallate (4), avicularin (5), quercitrin (6), and juglanin (7) based on the analysis of the 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and ESI-MS data. All compounds exhibited significant antioxidant activity on DPPH assay and active compounds were well correlated with predicted one.
Catechin ; Chromatography ; Flavonoids ; Methanol ; Phenol ; Polygonum* ; Silica Gel

The ethyl acetate fractions prepared from the leaves of Thuja orientalis significantly inhibited nitric oxide (NO) production in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated BV2 microglial cells. According to bioassay-coupled LC-QTOF MS/MS, the components near 22 and 25 mins in the mass chromatogram highly inhibited NO production and were expected to be labdane diterpenes, and the active components were characterized via further isolation. The results of the NO production inhibitory assay of the isolated compounds correlated well with the results of bioassay-coupled LC-QTOF MS/MS. Among the identified constituents, NO production inhibitory activities of 16-hydroxy-labda-8(17),13-diene-15,19-dioic acid butenolide (2) and 15-hydroxypinusolidic acid (3) were newly reported. Taken together, these results demonstrated that LC-QTOF MS/MS coupled with NO production inhibition assay was a powerful tool for accurately predicting new anti-inflammatory constituents in the extracts from natural products. Moreover, it provided a potential basis for broadening the application of bioassay-coupled LC-QTOF MS/MS in natural product research.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to clarify the relevance of breastfeeding and its preventive effect on maternal hypertension as well as to evaluate the theoretical mechanism behind of it through systematic evaluation of existing articles. METHODS: For systematic evaluation of literatures in recent 5 years, 5 most suitable articles were selected with the key words, (breastfeeding or breastfeed or lactation) AND (hypertension or high blood pressure or hypertensive disorders) from PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochran Library, and carefully reviewed by 2 researchers. RESULTS: Breastfeeding women have less frequently developed hypertension in their later life. Depending on the duration of breastfeeding, compared to nonbreastfeeding women, breastfeeding women's odds ratio for developing hypertension are 0.87 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76–0.99), 0.83 (95% CI, 0.68–1.00), and 0.79 (95% CI, 0.65–0.97) each for 0–6 months, 6–12 months, and greater than 12 months of breastfeeding. As the number of breastfeeding children increases, the incidence of maternal hypertension decreases. In addition, both partial and exclusive breastfeeding lower the risk of developing maternal hypertension. Though the mechanism of prophylactic effect of breastfeeding on hypertension is not conclusive, reset hypothesis, oxytocin release, the increase of ghrelin and protein peptide YY, as well as epigenetic programming are considered to be relevant to the etiology of the condition. CONCLUSION: Breastfeeding prevents maternal hypertension later in life. Studies show dose-response relationship of breastfeeding as the duration matters. In addition, both partial and exclusive breastfeeding have preventive effect on maternal hypertension. Numerous mechanisms are continuously being reported and further studies are needed for clarification.
Breast Feeding ; Child ; Epigenomics ; Female ; Ghrelin ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Incidence ; Odds Ratio ; Oxytocin ; Peptide YY

This study investigated the cytotoxic effects and mechanism of action of asiatic acid in pancreatic cancer cell lines. First, we confirmed the cell viability of MIA PaCa-2 and PANC-1 cells after asiatic acid administration for 48 and 72 h. The viability of MIA PaCa-2 and PANC-1 cells decreased in a dose-dependent manner following asiatic acid administration. To investigate the underlying mechanism, we performed a terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, annexin V assay, and western blotting. Asiatic acid induced apoptosis and autophagy through activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in MIA PaCa-2 cells. Finally, the expression of miR-17 and miR-21, known as oncogenes in pancreatic cancer, was decreased by asiatic acid. These results indicate that asiatic acid has potential as a new therapeutic agent against pancreatic cancer.
AMP-Activated Protein Kinases ; Annexin A5 ; Apoptosis ; Autophagy ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Line ; Cell Survival ; DNA Nucleotidylexotransferase ; MicroRNAs ; Oncogenes ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; Sirolimus

This study was conducted to determine the effects of biophoton treatment during in vitro maturation (IVM) and/or in vitro culture (IVC) on oocyte maturation and embryonic development in pigs. An apparatus capable of generating homogeneous biophoton energy emissions was placed in an incubator. Initially, immature pig oocytes were matured in the biophoton-equipped incubator in medium 199 supplemented with cysteine, epidermal growth factor, insulin, and gonadotrophic hormones for 22 h, after which they were matured in hormone-free medium for an additional 22 hr. Next, IVM oocytes were induced for parthenogenesis (PA) or provided as cytoplasts for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Treatment of oocytes with biophoton energy during IVM did not improve cumulus cell expansion, nuclear maturation, intraoocyte glutathione content, or mitochondrial distribution of oocytes. However, biophoton-treated oocytes showed higher (p < 0.05) blastocyst formation after PA than that in untreated oocytes (50.7% vs. 42.7%). In an additional experiment, SCNT embryos produced from biophoton-treated oocytes showed a greater (p < 0.05) number of cells in blastocysts (52.6 vs. 43.9) than that in untreated oocytes. Taken together, our results demonstrate that biophoton treatment during IVM improves developmental competence of PA- and SCNT-derived embryos.
Blastocyst ; Cumulus Cells ; Cysteine ; Embryonic Development ; Embryonic Structures* ; Epidermal Growth Factor ; Female ; Glutathione ; Gonadotrophs ; In Vitro Techniques ; Incubators ; Insulin ; Mental Competency ; Oocytes* ; Parthenogenesis* ; Pregnancy ; Swine

Obesity has increased continuously in western countries during the last several decades and recently become a problem in developing countries. Currently, anti-obesity drugs originating from natural products are being investigated for their potential to overcome adverse effects associated with chemical drugs. Artemisinic acid, which was isolated from the well-known anti-malaria herb Artemisia annua (AA) L., was recently shown to possess anti-adipogenic effects in vitro. However, the anti-adipogenic effects of AA in animal models have not yet been investigated. Therefore, we conducted daily oral administration with AA water extract in a diet-induced obesity animal model and treated 3T3-L1 cells with AA to confirm the anti-adipogenic effects in the related protein expressions. We then evaluated the physiology, adipose tissue histology and mRNA expressions of many related genes. Inhibition of adipogenesis by the AA water extract was observed in vitro. In the animal model, weight gain was significantly lower in the AA treated group, but there were no changes in food intake volume or calories. Reductions in lipid droplet size and mRNA expression associated with adipogenesis were also observed in animal epididymal fat. This study is the first to report that AA has an anti-obese effects in vivo.
3T3-L1 Cells ; Adipogenesis ; Adipose Tissue ; Administration, Oral ; Animals ; Anti-Obesity Agents ; Artemisia annua* ; Artemisia* ; Biological Products ; Developing Countries ; Eating ; Mice* ; Models, Animal ; Obesity ; Physiology ; RNA, Messenger ; Water ; Weight Gain

Purpose: Microbiota manipulation through selected probiotics may be a promising tool to prevent cancer development as well as onset, to improve clinical efficacy for cancer treatments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate change in microbiota composition after-probiotics supplementation and assessed the efficacy of probiotics in improving quality of life (QOL) in postoperative cancer patients. Methods: Stool samples were collected from 30 cancer patients from February to October 2020 before (group I) and after (group II) 8 weeks of probiotics supplementation. We performed 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to evaluate differences in gut microbiota between groups by comparing gut microbiota diversity, overall composition, and taxonomic signature abundance. The health-related QOL was evaluated through the EORTC Quality of life Questionnaire Core 30 questionnaire. Results: Statistically significant differences were noted in group II; increase of Shannon and Simpson index (P = 0.004 and P = 0.001), decrease of Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria at the phylum level (P = 0.032 and P = 0.014, retrospectively), increased of beneficial bacteria such as Weissella (0.096% vs. 0.361%, P < 0.004), Lactococcus (0.023% vs. 0.16%, P < 0.001), and Catenibacterium (0.0% vs. 0.005%, P < 0.042) at the genus level. There was a significant improvement in sleep disturbance (P = 0.039) in group II. Conclusion Gut microbiota in cancer patients can be manipulated by specific probiotic strains, result in an altered microbiota. Microbiota modulation by probiotics can be considered as part of a supplement that helps to increase gut microbiota diversity and improve QOL in cancer patients after surgery.

This paper describes a community effort to improve earlier versions of the full-text corpus of Genomics & Informatics by semi-automatically detecting and correcting PDF-to-text conversion errors and optical character recognition errors during the first hackathon of Genomics & Informatics Annotation Hackathon (GIAH) event. Extracting text from multi-column biomedical documents such as Genomics & Informatics is known to be notoriously difficult. The hackathon was piloted as part of a coding competition of the ELTEC College of Engineering at Ewha Womans University in order to enable researchers and students to create or annotate their own versions of the Genomics & Informatics corpus, to gain and create knowledge about corpus linguistics, and simultaneously to acquire tangible and transferable skills. The proposed projects during the hackathon harness an internal database containing different versions of the corpus and annotations.

This paper describes a community effort to improve earlier versions of the full-text corpus of Genomics & Informatics by semi-automatically detecting and correcting PDF-to-text conversion errors and optical character recognition errors during the first hackathon of Genomics & Informatics Annotation Hackathon (GIAH) event. Extracting text from multi-column biomedical documents such as Genomics & Informatics is known to be notoriously difficult. The hackathon was piloted as part of a coding competition of the ELTEC College of Engineering at Ewha Womans University in order to enable researchers and students to create or annotate their own versions of the Genomics & Informatics corpus, to gain and create knowledge about corpus linguistics, and simultaneously to acquire tangible and transferable skills. The proposed projects during the hackathon harness an internal database containing different versions of the corpus and annotations.