To ensure the quality and safety of Panax notoginseng, a method for the simultaneous determination of 10 mycotoxins in Panax notoginseng was developed using ultra performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The sample was extracted with acetonitrile and purified by HLB multifunction cleanup column. The separation was performed on a Phenomenex Kinetex XB-C18 column by gradient elution using methanol and 5 mmol·L(-1) ammonium acetate as mobile phase. The targeted compounds were detected in MRM mode by mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization (ESI) source operated in both positive and negative ionization modes. The linear relationships of the 10 mycotoxins were good in their respective linear ranges. The correlation coefficients (r) ranged from 0.9981 to 1.0000. The LOQs of the 10 mycotoxins were between 0.15 and 8.6 μg·kg(-1). The average recoveries ranged from 73.8% to 107.0% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.10%-10.9%. The results demonstrated that the proposed method was sensitive and accurate, and suitable for the mycotoxins quantification in Panax notoginseng.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Drug Contamination ; Mycotoxins ; analysis ; Panax notoginseng ; chemistry ; Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Animals ; Apoptosis ; physiology ; Brain Ischemia ; enzymology ; physiopathology ; Caspase 3 ; metabolism ; Ischemic Postconditioning ; methods ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reperfusion Injury ; enzymology ; pathology ; prevention & control

Objective To investigate the mastery degree of GCP (Good Clinical Practice) in Guang’anmen Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (hereinafter referred to as“Guang’anmen Hospital”). Methods Totally 338 clinical researchers, covering 18 clinical professional sections and medical clinical trial institutions, in Guang’anmen Hospital with both qualification of clinical trials and GCP certificate were investigated in 23th-27th June 2014. The investigation was in the written answer sheet form, including four noun explanations and 36 multiple choice questions, which were related to GCP. Results 338 researchers could accurately explain the concepts of 4 nouns, and 57 (16.86%) researchers could do all multiple choice questions correctly. 141 (41.72%) researchers chose 1 wrong answer and 89 (26.33%) researchers chose 2 wrong answers. 39 (11.54%) researchers failed to answer 3-4 questions. Only 12 (3.55%) researchers failed to answer 5 or more questions. Conclusion The mastery degree of clinical researchers with qualification of clinical trials and GCP certificate in Guang’anmen Hospital is satisfied. In the future, pertinence and diverse training should be strengthened, in order to improve the overall level of the mastery degree of GCP.

The quality control of new drug cilnical trial is the effective guaranty for the pharmaceutical safety and effective after available on market. Enhancing the inspection and quality control of new drug clinical trials provide the crucial importance to achieve a persistent profitable standard. This paper mainly discussed the problems of current clinical trials based on annual check of drug clinical trial institution.
Clinical Trials as Topic ; Drug Evaluation ; Health Facilities ; Humans ; Quality Assurance, Health Care ; Quality Control

Animals ; Apoptosis ; physiology ; Brain Ischemia ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; Down-Regulation ; drug effects ; Ischemic Postconditioning ; methods ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reperfusion Injury ; metabolism ; prevention & control ; p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases ; metabolism

To study the anticancer activity of griffithin from Streptocaulon griffithii Hook. f. and its effect on apoptosis of cancer cells in vitro, the inhibitory effect of griffithin on cell proliferation was studied by MTT assay, the cell apoptosis was observed by AO/EB double decoration assay and flow cytometry. Griffithin exhibited high anticancer activity on four human cancer cell lines, with IC50 ranged from 0.17 - 0.43 microg x mL(-1). Griffithin also induced apoptosis of PC-3 cells. Griffithin had anticancer activity and induced apoptosis of cancer cells.
Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Apocynaceae ; chemistry ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Cardenolides ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Cell Cycle ; drug effects ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Cell Survival ; drug effects ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Flow Cytometry ; HL-60 Cells ; Humans ; Inhibitory Concentration 50 ; Microscopy, Fluorescence ; Molecular Structure ; Plant Roots ; chemistry ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry

OBJECTIVETo establish a HPLC method for simultaneous determination of 4 effective components from total flavonoids of Scutellaria barbata (FSB).

METHODSThe HPLC method was developed on an Agilent Zorbax C₁₈ column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm). The mobile phase was composed of 1% HAc and CH₃OH:CH₃CN (80:20) with a linear gradient elution. The flow rate was 1.0 ml/min, and UV detection wave length was set at 280 nm. The column temperature was maintained at 30°C.

RESULTThe linear range of 4 effective components (scutellarin, isoscutellarein-8-O-glucuronide, isoscutellarein and luteolin) was 0.14-11.20 μg, 0.03-2.40 μg, 0.007-0.560 μg and 0.027-2.160 μg, respectively. The average recovery for 4 effective components was (101.9 ± 1.4)%, (103.5 ± 0.6)%, (98.1 ± 2.9)% and (100.5 ± 2.3)%, respectively. The contents of 4 flavonoids were determined, with scutellarin 7.3%-14.3%, isoscutellarein-8-O-glucuronide 2.4%-9.3%, isoscutellarein 0.3%-0.5%, and luteolin 0.2%-0.6%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONThe method can be used effectively to evaluate the quality of FSB.

Apigenin ; analysis ; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; methods ; Flavones ; analysis ; Flavonoids ; analysis ; Glucuronates ; analysis ; Luteolin ; analysis ; Scutellaria ; chemistry

To investigate the effects of gambognic acid (GA) on TRAIL-induced apoptosis of cancer cells, human colon HT-29 cancer cells were treated with GA to promote apoptosis. Inhibition of the cell proliferation was measured with MTT assay and cell apoptosis was detected with formation of DNA ladders in agarose gel electrophoresis, and activation of caspase activity. The content of cytosolic reactive oxygen species (ROS) was measured with flow cytometry. The activities of Caspase-3, -8, -9 were detected using spectrophotometric assay. The levels of c-FLIP, CHOP, DR4 and DR5 in cells were tested by Western blot. Combination of GA (1 µg · mL(-1)) and TRAIL (40 ng · mL(-1)) significantly reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis of HT-29 cells over those induced by each agent alone. Percentage of apoptotic cells was increased to 45.5%. GA markedly enhanced the intracellular ROS generation. Expression of CHOP, DR4 and DR5 was up-regulated to 7.38, 5.41, and 4.85 times of the control group, respectively. GA promoted activation of Caspase-3, -8, and -9 by TRAIL (P<0.05). Furthermore, the expression of anti-apoptotic protein c-FLIP was down-regulated to 0.22 ± 0.08 times of the control group. In conclusion, GA sensitizes HT-29 cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis by promoting ROS-activated ERS pathways, up-regulating of DR4 and DR5, and inhibiting c-FLIP expression.
Apoptosis ; Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins ; metabolism ; Caspases ; metabolism ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Colonic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Down-Regulation ; HT29 Cells ; Humans ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; metabolism ; TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand ; pharmacology ; Up-Regulation ; Xanthones ; pharmacology

BACKGROUNDInterleukin 10 (IL-10) is an important cytokine with anti-inflammatory, anti-immune and anti-fibrotic functions. This study aimed at evaluating the relationship between allele polymorphisms in the IL-10 promoter region and hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

METHODSThe odds ratios (ORs) of IL-10 allele distributions in patients with HBV or HCV infection were analyzed against healthy controls. All the relevant studies in PubMed were identified, and poor qualified studies were excluded. The meta-analysis software REVMAN 4.2 was applied for investigating heterogeneity among individual studies and summarizing all the studies. The publication bias was also evaluated.

RESULTSThis study demonstrated a significant association between the IL-10-592 A/C polymorphism and HBV infection in the Asian population under the overall effect size of allele A versus C. In our subgroup meta-analysis, we found a significant association of IL-10-592 A/C polymorphism to HCV infection susceptibility in Asian populations, although sensitivity analysis showed that the combined result was not associated with the worldwide population. Other IL-10 allele polymorphisms were not associated with HBV or HCV infection.

CONCLUSIONIL-10-592 A/C allele might be a risk factor for HBV or HCV in Asians but not in Europeans.

Alleles ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; genetics ; Hepatitis B ; epidemiology ; genetics ; Hepatitis C ; epidemiology ; genetics ; Humans ; Interleukin-10 ; genetics ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; genetics ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; genetics