The main pharmacological constituents of Chinese traditional medicine herb Cnidium monnieri are coumarin compounds and volatile oil. In addition, it contains monoterpene polyols, glucides, as well as recently discovered sesquiterpene components. In recent years, rather active investigations of its anti-tumor were performed at home and abroad. C. monnieri possesses multi-aspect and comprehensive anti-tumor functions, involving directly tumor-inhibitory activity, anti-mutagenicity, reversing multi-drug tolerance of tumor, as well as improving immune functions and so on. In this review, chemical constituents, anti-tumor activities and relevant investigations of Fructus Cnidii were summarized recent decade.
Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic ; pharmacology ; Cnidium ; chemistry ; Coumarins ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Furocoumarins ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Molecular Structure

In this article, the literatures concerning the mechanism of TCM in anti-tumor and tumor metastasis prevention in recent years were reviewed and summarized into categories of effective components, effective portion, extraction of single drug, and TCM compound.
Adjuvants, Immunologic ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Angiogenesis Inhibitors ; therapeutic use ; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic ; therapeutic use ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; prevention & control ; Neoplasms ; pathology ; prevention & control ; Phytotherapy ; methods ; trends

This article reviewed the updated methods and sophisticated technics used in research of traditional Chinese medicinal compound recipes, including mainly biochip technic, computer technic, metabonomics, ADME/Tox technic, fuzzy mathematics, molecular imprinting technic, biotransformation and metabolization in intestinal bacterium and so on.
Dosage Forms ; standards ; Drug Compounding ; methods ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Pharmaceutical Preparations ; standards

OBJECTIVETo observe the in vivo effects of oxysophoridine on hepatocellular carcinoma in mice and to study the related mechanisms.

METHODSC57BL mice were inoculated with mouse hepatoma H22 cells subcutaneously, then divided into 5 groups (14 per group), and treated with oxysophoridine (50, 100, or 150 mg/kg) or cisplatin (4 mg/kg) for 10 days. Inhibitory rate of tumor, body weight gain, and influence indices on internal organs (liver, spleen and thymus) were evaluated. The differentially expressed genes between the oxysophoridine-treated group, and the control group were analyzed using cDNA microarray and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) experiments.

RESULTSCompared with the tumor weight of the control group (2.75±0.66 g), oxysophoridine significantly suppressed hepatocellular carcinoma growth in mice (P <0.01), with 0.82±0.36 g, 0.57±0.22 g, and 1.22±0.67 g for the tumor weight in the low, moderate, and high dose treatment group, respectively. The moderate dose led to the highest inhibitory rate, 79.3%. Observation of body weight gain and influence on three organs showed that compared with cisplatin, oxysophoridine produced fewer side effects in vivo. cDNA microarray and qRT-PCR showed that the most significant differentially expressed genes in the tumor samples of oxysophoridine-treated mice were mostly involved in regulating apoptosis, with the Tnfrsf11b (osteoprotegerin) gene being the most significantly affected.

CONCLUSIONOxysophoridine was a promising compound for developing drugs against hepatocellular carcinoma, and its anti-hepatoma effect was probably related to osteoprotegerin activation.

Alkaloids ; pharmacology ; Animals ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; genetics ; pathology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; drug effects ; Liver Neoplasms, Experimental ; genetics ; pathology ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Organ Specificity ; drug effects ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Tumor Burden ; drug effects ; Weight Gain ; drug effects

Objective:To validate five-year risk prediction models for atherosclerotic cardiovascular di-sease (ASCVD) in a contemporary rural Northern Chinese population.Methods: Totally 6 489 rural adults aged 40 to 79 years without clinical ASCVD were enrolled at baseline between June and August 2010, and followed up through January 2017.Expected prediction risk using the China-PAR (prediction for ASCVD risk in China) model was compared with the pooled cohort equations (PCE) reported in the American College of Cardiology / American Heart Association guideline.Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to obtain the observed ASCVD event (including nonfatal myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease death, nonfatal or fatal stroke) rate at 5 years, and the expected-observed ratios were calculated to eva-luate overestimation or underestimation in the cohort.The participants in the cohort were divided into 4 categories (<5.0%, 5.0%-7.4%, 7.5%-9.9%, and ≥10.0%) for comparisons based on ASCVD prediction risk.The models were assessed by discrimination C statistic, calibration χ2, and calibration charts and plots for illustration as well.Results: Over an average 5.82 years of follow-up in this validation cohort with 6 489 rural Chinese participants, 955 subjects developed a first ASCVD event.Recalibrated China-PAR model overestimated ASCVD events by 22.2% in men and 33.1% in women, while the overestimations were much higher for recalibrated PCE as 67.3% in men and 53.1% in women.Gender-specific China-PAR model had C statistics of 0.696 (95%CI, 0.669-0.723) for men and 0.709 (95%CI, 0.690-0.728) for women, which were similar to those of 0.702 (95%CI, 0.675-0.730) for men and 0.714 (95%CI, 0.695-0.733) for women in the PCE.Calibration χ2 values in China-PAR were 17.2 and 54.2 for men and women, respectively;however, the PCE showed poorer ca-libration (χ2=192.0 for men and χ2=181.2 for women).In addition, the calibration charts and plots illustrated good agreement between the observations and the predictions only in the China-PAR model, especially for men.Conclusion: In this validation cohort of rural Northern Chinese adults, the China-PAR model had better performance of five-year ASCVD risk prediction than the PCE, indicating that recalibrated China-PAR model might be an appropriate tool for risk assessment and primary prevention of ASCVD in China.

OBJECTIVETo investigate the role and significance of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway regulating GSK-3beta, STAT3, Smad3 and TERT in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

METHODSThe HCC cell line HepG2 was transfected with small interfering RNA (siRNA) directed against beta-catenin. Proteins were extracted and the expressions of beta-catenin, GSK-3beta, p-GSK-3beta, STAT3, Smad3 and TERT were detected by Western blot at 72 h and 96 h respectively after transfection.

RESULTSbeta-catenin expression was inhibited at both time points and the expression at 96 h was higher than that at 72 h (t = 4.43, P < 0.05). Interestingly, GSK-3beta and p-GSK-3beta expressions increased gradually at 72 and 96 h (tGSK-3beta= 4.98, tp-GSK-3beta= 29.83, P < 0.05) respectively, and STAT3 expression showed no alteration after transfection (F = 0.49, P > 0.05). Smad3 expression was increased at 72 h (t = 10.67, P < 0.05) and decreased to normal at 96 h (t = 1.26, P < 0.05), while TERT expression decreased at 72 h (t = 4.18, P is less than 0.05) and increased to normal at 96 h (t = 1.26, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONSWnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway is related to the expressions of GSK-3beta, Smad3 and TERT, but perhaps not related to STAT3 protein expression in HCC. It suggested that Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway might participate in HCC genesis and development through regulating the above three factors.

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; metabolism ; pathology ; Hep G2 Cells ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; RNA, Small Interfering ; Signal Transduction ; Wnt Proteins ; metabolism ; beta Catenin ; metabolism

With the imformation technology getting a great progress in recent years, the modem imformation technology is extensively employed in the study of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescriptions. In this article a summary is given, which includes applications of modern imformation technology in the study of TCM presciptions. It focus on the introduction of the databse technology, data-mining technology and chemometrics, and brief virtual screening technology, experimental design, innovation design, study of complexity and bioinformatics technology, all of which deployed in the study of TCM presciptions, so as to enligten researchers on modernized study of TCM prescription and its development in the future.
Databases as Topic ; statistics & numerical data ; Drug Combinations ; Drug Information Services ; statistics & numerical data ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; Prescriptions ; statistics & numerical data ; Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship ; Software

Theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) properties, the essence of TCM theories, is the treasure for the Chinese nation, even for the world. It's an emergency to illustrate this theory in modernizing meaning so as to share it, one of the achievements in the Chinese civilization, for all the people in this world. TCM property-matteromics, the new concept in this article, is reported at the first time. Defined as the science of studying composition of the basic materials expressing TCM properties, correlation and interact between these materials, TCM property-matteromics was presented here in expounding the basic concept, the object, content and method of study, in order to apply a new thinking and new methodology for the TCM modernization by elucidating the essence of the theory of the TCM property.
Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods

OBJECTIVETo investigate the in vitro effect of HSV-tk/GCV using a hTERT promoter-driven vector system on Skov3 ovarian cancer cells.

METHODSAn expression vector (pBTdel-279-tk) containing tk gene under the hTERT promoter was constructed by molecular biological methods, and then was transfected into Skov3 ovarian cancer cells, normal ovarian epithelial cells (NOEC) and human embryonic lung fibroblast by cationic liposome. Following the transfection with tk, GCV was added, and MTT and flow cytometry methods were applied to investigate its antitumor effect. RT-PCR was used to detect the tk gene in ovarian cancer cells and normal cells after the transfection of pcDNA3-tk or pBTdel-279-tk.

RESULTSpBTdel-279-tk/GCV system induced apoptosis in hTERT-positive ovarian cancer cells, but not in hTERT-negative normal ovarian epithelial cells and fibroblasts. The hTERT promoter system was almost as efficient in inducing cancer cell death as the CMV promoter. tk gene was expressed in Skov3 cells and NOEC after pcDNA3-tk transfection, while positive was only in ovarian cancer cells after pBTdel-279-tk transfection.

CONCLUSIONThe telomerasespecific transfer of the tk gene under the hTERT promoter is a novel targeting approach for the treatment of ovarian cancer and may lead to an effective and specific gene therapy.

Apoptosis ; genetics ; Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous ; genetics ; pathology ; DNA-Binding Proteins ; Female ; Ganciclovir ; pharmacology ; Genetic Therapy ; Humans ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; genetics ; pathology ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; genetics ; Simplexvirus ; genetics ; Telomerase ; genetics ; Thymidine Kinase ; genetics ; Transfection ; Tumor Cells, Cultured

ObjectiveTo investigate the predictive effect of high density lipoprotein （HDL） to C-reactive protein （CRP） ratio （HDL/CRP） on the progression of chronic kidney disease （CKD） in non-dialysis patients. MethodsNon-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients with at least two sets of follow-up data from the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University （Tian-he and Ling-nan districts）from 2015 to 2019 were enrolled. The baseline demographic characteristics and biochemical examination results were collected from the electronic medical record system. The patients were grouped according to the quantile of Ln（HDL/CRP）. The demographic and biochemical data were compared among groups by one-way ANOVA for normal distribution continuous variables， Kruskal-Wallis rank-sum test for non-normal distribution continuous variables， and Chi-square analysis for categorical variables. The relationship between HDL/CRP and baseline eGFR was investigated by correlation analysis， univariate and multivariate linear regression analysis. The Cox survival analysis were used to investigate the predictive effect of Ln（HDL/CRP） on renal deterioration events. ResultsTotally 9 142 patients with CKD were enrolled， and 439 patients were included in the end. There were 100 patients （22.8%） with chronic glomerulonephritis， 145 patients （33%） with diabetic nephropathy， 40 patients （9.1%） with hypertensive nephropathy， and 154 patients （35.1%） with other causes. According to Ln（HDL/CRP） quartile， group Quartile4 had a lower incidence of renal deterioration than the other three groups （11% vs. 21.1% to 21.8%） and had the highest baseline eGFR level. From Quartile1 to quartile 4 groups， age， Hba1c and APOA1 levels decreased gradually. The prevalence of chronic heart failure， BMI， hemoglobin， albumin， TC， LDL， TG， APOB100 levels were different among groups. Through correlation analysis， Ln （HDL/CRP） were positively correlated with baseline eGFR（r=0.162， P=0.001）. After adjusting for a variety of factors by Cox regression analysis， Ln （HDL/CRP） could be included in the final equation when defined deterioration of renal function as end point ［HR=0.79， 95%CI （0.69， 0.91）， P=0.001］. ConclusionHDL/CRP can reflect the severity of chronic kidney disease， and the ratio of HDL and CRP can predict the progression of chronic kidney disease in non-dialysis patient.