Aim To determine the plasma protein binding rate of five components of Eucommia ulmoides extract. Methods The equilibrium dialysis method was used to study the plasma protein binding rate. The plasma samples were extracted by protein precipitation with methanol. With the use of puerarin as the internal standard, UPLC-MS/MS was carried out to determine the concentration of the five compounds in and out of the dialysis membrane. Results The average plasma protein binding rates of five compounds on the area of the concentration which was determinate were as fol-lows, respectively: geniposidic acid was ( 25. 77 ± 2. 68 )%, protocatechuic acid was ( 57. 54 ± 3. 79)%, chlorogenic acid was (53. 91 ± 3. 00)%, pinoresinol diglucoside was (24. 15 ± 4. 92)%, and pinoresinol singleglucoside was (49. 78 ± 3. 61)%. Conclusions The results show that the binding percentage of geniposidic acid and pinoresinol diglucoside is relatively low, but the binding rate of the others with rat plasma protein is moderate.

Atherosclerosis (As) is an important pathological basis of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The pathogenesis studies of As have been a hot topic in the field of vascular biology research. The inflammation is known as a major participant in the development process of As. And monocyte-macrophage plays a central role in inflam-mation. In recent years, with the deepening research on inflammatory mechanisms, the As macrophage polarization is attracting researchers' attention. Under different environmental inductions, macrophages develop into M1 and M2 phenotypes. M1 macrophages (classical type), which can stimulate the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, is generally considered as pro-inflammatory subtypes and can facilitate the progress of As. Whereas, M2 macrophages (alternative type), which can inhibit pro-inflammatory factor production, function as anti-inflammatory subtypes and likely to inhibit the progression of As. The mechanisms of As, macrophage polarization in As, and opportunities for herbal medicines will be summarized in this review.

Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics and diagnosis and treatment experiences of Langerhans cell histocytosis (LCH) in skull.Methods:Sixteen patients with cranial LCH admitted to our hospital from January 2015 to December 2019 were chosen in our study. Their clinical data, diagnosis and treatment procedures and prognoses were retrospectively analyzed.Results:Among the 16 patients, there were 13 males and 3 females, aged from 1 to 31 years. The clinical manifestations included space-occupying lesions of the skull; and imaging showed bone destruction of the skull, with or without involvement of other bones or organs. All patients were pathologically confirmed to have LCH after surgical total resection of the lesions. Routine whole-body bone scanning was performed after surgery: one was found to have local abnormal metabolic activity and received local radiotherapy; 8 were combined with other bone or organ involvement, and received chemotherapy. All the patients were followed up for 1-5 years, and no recurrence was found, and no one died.Conclusion:Good prognosis can be achieved in cranial LCH patients accepted resection by giving additional treatment according to the results of postoperative reexamination and combination use of standardized radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Pancreatic diseases is a kind of complex, high-risk gastrointestinal diseases. Pancreatic cancer is highly malignant and seriously endangers people′s health. Developing multi-center, large-scale real world research can better understand the incidence patterns and treatment outcomes of pancreatic diseases. Based on the multi-center and heterogeneous data, the authors for-mulate data standards for real world studies of pancreatic diseases, and build a database of pancreatic cancer, integrating and sharing data from multi-center sources, in order to fully explore the scientific research value of pancreatic cancer clinical information, and provide experience and reference for the construction of other real world research specific disease databases in the future.

In order to explore the mechanisms underlying the calcium alleviating fluorosis at protein level, we made an attempt to establish fluorosis and calcium supplementation rat models to isolate and identify bone differential proteins. The bone proteins of different groups were compared by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), and analyzed by gene ontology annotation, pathway enrichment and interaction networks. The 17 proteins were identified in the fluorosis group (F) and the fluorosis calcium supplement group (F+Ca), including type I collagen (Col1a1), actin (Actb), protein glutamine transferase 2 (Tgm2), compared with the control group (C). These differential proteins are enriched in 38 bone metabolic pathways such as focal adhesion, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and AMPK signaling pathway. And the functions of these proteins are mainly related to cytoskeleton, energy metabolism, substance transport, ion channel, and apoptosis. Therefore, it is speculated that calcium may alleviate the fluoride-induced bone damage by regulating the focal adhesion, PI3K-Akt, AMPK and other signaling pathway, but the specific mechanism needs further research.
Animals ; Calcium ; Dietary Supplements ; Fluoride Poisoning ; Fluorosis, Dental ; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases ; Rats

ObjectiveTo study the plasma pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of five representative components in Wujiwan， and to illustrate the difference of metabolism and tissue distribution before and after compatibility. MethodHealthy male SD rats were divided into four groups， including Wujiwan group（A group， 62.96 g·L^-1）， Coptidis Rhizoma group（B group， 38.4 g·L^-1）， processed Euodiae Fructus group（C group， 5.88 g·L^-1） and fried Paeoniae Radix Alba group（D group， 18.68 g·L^-1）， with 65 rats in each group， and were administered the drugs according to the clinical dose of decoction pieces converted into the dose of the extracts. Then plasma， liver， small intestine and brain were taken at pharmacokinetic set time in each group after administration. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry was developed for the quantitative analysis of five representative components［berberine（Ber）， palmatine（Pal）， evodiamine（Evo）， rutecarpine（Rut） and paeoniflorin（Pae）］ in Wujiwan， their concentrations in plasma， liver， small intestine and brain were detected at different time， plasma samples were processed by protein precipitation， and tissue samples were pretreated by protein precipitation plus liquid-liquid extraction. Non-atrioventricular model was used to calculate the pharmacokinetic parameters of each component， and the parameters of each group were compared. ResultPharmacokinetic results of A group showed that area under the curve（AUC_0-t） of the five representative components were ranked as follows：Ber and Pal were small intestine>liver>blood， Evo and Rut were liver>small intestine>plasma， Pae was small intestine>plasma， which was not detected in the liver， no other components were detected in brain except for Ber. In comparison with plasma and other tissues， peak concentration（C_max） of Ber， Pal， Evo， and Rut were the highest and time to peak（t_max） were the lowest in the liver of A group. In plasma， the AUC_0-t and C_max of Evo and Rut were increased in A group compared with C group， t_max of Pea was elevated and its C_max was decreased in A group compared with D group. In the liver， compared with B-D groups， C_max values of 5 representative components except Pae were elevated， AUC_0-t of Pae was decreased and AUC_0-t of Evo and Rut were increased in the A group. In the small intestine， half-life（t_1/2） of each representative components in A group was elevated and t_max was decreased， and C_max of each representative ingredient except Pal was decreased， AUC_0-t values of Ber and Pal were increased， whereas the AUC_0-t values of Evo and Rut were decreased. ConclusionThe small intestine， as the effector organ， is the most distributed， followed by the liver. The pharmacokinetic parameters of the representative components in Wujiwan are changed before and after compatibility， which is more favorable to the exertion of its pharmacodynamic effects.

Existing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)-related databases are still insufficient in data standardization, integrity and precision, and need to be updated urgently. Herein, an Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine version 2.0 (ETCM v2.0, http://www.tcmip.cn/ETCM2/front/#/) was constructed as the latest curated database hosting 48,442 TCM formulas recorded by ancient Chinese medical books, 9872 Chinese patent drugs, 2079 Chinese medicinal materials and 38,298 ingredients. To facilitate the mechanistic research and new drug discovery, we improved the target identification method based on a two-dimensional ligand similarity search module, which provides the confirmed and/or potential targets of each ingredient, as well as their binding activities. Importantly, five TCM formulas/Chinese patent drugs/herbs/ingredients with the highest Jaccard similarity scores to the submitted drugs are offered in ETCM v2.0, which may be of significance to identify prescriptions/herbs/ingredients with similar clinical efficacy, to summarize the rules of prescription use, and to find alternative drugs for endangered Chinese medicinal materials. Moreover, ETCM v2.0 provides an enhanced JavaScript-based network visualization tool for creating, modifying and exploring multi-scale biological networks. ETCM v2.0 may be a major data warehouse for the quality marker identification of TCMs, the TCM-derived drug discovery and repurposing, and the pharmacological mechanism investigation of TCMs against various human diseases.