Liquiritigenin(LG)is a flavone of pharmacological importance,however,its application potential is severely limited due to its poor water solubility.LG could be disassociated slightly in water to form phenolate anion,therefore,better solubilization effect is expected by inclusion with cationic cyclodextrins(CCDs).In this work,four kinds of CCDs modified with amino groups at the primary face were synthesized,and their solid inclusion complexes with LG were successfully prepared by preparing their saturated solutions.The formation of the solid inclusion complexes was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM)and powder X-ray diffraction(PXRD),and their supramolecular binding behavior in solution was studied using multiple techniques.A 1∶1 inclusion stoichiometry of inclusion complexation was defined using Job plot by ultraviolet-visible(UV-vis)spectroscopy,and their binding stability constants(Ks)were determined as 2862.77,3494.70,6521.85 and 9599.48 L/mol using UV-vis spectroscopic titration,far more superior to that of nativeβ-CD(Ks=236.79 L/mol).This indicated that the amino side chains on CCDs could actively participate in the inclusion complexation through anion-cation interactions,significantly strengthening the host-guest binding between CCDs and LG.The inclusion modes were further elucidated based on proton and two-dimensional rotating-frame overhauser enhancement spectroscopy(2D-ROESY)nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)experiments and molecular docking.Water solubility of LG was dramatically promoted up to 4.9 mg/mL,which was 70-fold higher than that of native LG.This study could draw inspiration for the binding and solubilization of phenols such as flavones by design of cationic macrocyclic molecules.

The Guidelines for prevention and treatment of colorectal adenoma with integrated Chinese and western medicine are put forward by Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine and approved by China Association of Chinese Medicine. According to the formulation processes and methods of relevant clinical practice guidelines, the experts in clinical medicine and methodology were organized to discuss the key problems to be addressed in the clinical prevention and treatment of colorectal adenoma(CRA) and provided answers following the evidence-based medicine method, so as to provide guidance for clinical decision-making. CRA is the major precancerous disease of colorectal cancer. Although the prevention and treatment with integrated Chinese and western medicine have been applied to the clinical practice of CRA, there is still a lack of high-quality guidelines. Four basic questions, 15 clinical questions, and 10 outcome indicators were determined by literature research and Delphi questionnaire. The relevant randomized controlled trial(RCT) was retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and 2 clinical trial registries, and finally several RCTs meeting the inclusion criteria were included. The data extracted from the RCT was imported into RevMan 5.3 for evidence synthesis, and the evidence was evaluated based on the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations(GRADE). The final recommendations were formed by the nominal group method based on the evidence summary table. The guidelines involve the diagnosis, screening, treatment with integrated Chinese and western medicine, prevention, and follow-up of colorectal adenoma, providing options for the clinical prevention and treatment of CRA.
Humans ; Adenoma/prevention & control* ; Colorectal Neoplasms/prevention & control* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use* ; Evidence-Based Medicine ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

The present study explored the effect of co-amorphous technology in improving the dissolution rate and stability of silybin based on the puerarin-silybin co-amorphous system prepared by the spray-drying method. Solid-state characterization was carried out by powder X-ray diffraction(PXRD), polarizing microscopy(PLM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR), differential scanning calorimetry(DSC), etc. Saturated powder dissolution, intrinsic dissolution rate, moisture absorption, and stability were further investigated. The results showed that puerarin and silybin formed a co-amorphous system at a single glass transition temperature which was higher than that of any crude drug. The intrinsic dissolution rate and supersaturated powder dissolution of silybin in the co-amorphous system were higher than those of the crude drug and amorphous system. The co-amorphous system kept stable for as long as three months under the condition of 40 ℃, 75% relative humidity, which was longer than that of the single amorphous silybin. Therefore, the co-amorphous technology could significantly improve the dissolution and stability of silybin.
Calorimetry, Differential Scanning ; Desiccation ; Drug Compounding/methods* ; Drug Stability ; Silybin ; Solubility ; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared ; Technology ; X-Ray Diffraction

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of miR-203/CREB1 signaling regulation mediated by DNA methylation on the proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of multiple myeloma (MM) cells. METHODS: The methylation level of miR-203 in the RPMI 8226 cells was detected by bisulfite sequcucing polymerase chain reaction (BSP). The mRNA expression of miR-203 was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. RPMI 8226 cells were treated with DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-Aza-CdR). The miR-203 mimic in MM cell line RPMI 8226 was transfected to establish overexpressed miR-203 cell. The proliferation, invasion ability and apoptosis of RPMI 8226 cell was detected by CCK-8 assay, Transwell, and flow cytometry, respectively. The targeting relationship between miR-203 and CREB1 was verified by double luciferase report assay. Western blot was used to detect the expression of CREB1 protein. RESULTS: Hypermethylation of miR-203 promoter region and low expression level of miR-203 mRNA were detected in the RPMI 8226 cells, which showed that demethylation could induce the expression of miR-203. The proliferation and invasion ability of RPMI 8226 cells after treated by 5-Aza-CdR were inhibited, and showed statistical significance as compared with blank control group (both P<0.05)，while the apoptosis rate was promoted (P<0.05). The proliferation, invasion ability and apoptosis of overexpressed miR-203 were the same as the demethylation group. Double luciferase report assay confirmed that CREB1 was the direct target of miR-203. The protein level of CREB1 was inhibited by demethylation and showed statistical significance as compared with control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION MiR-203 targeting CREB1 mediated by DNA methylation leads to maintain the malignant biological behaviors of MM cells.
Apoptosis ; Azacitidine/pharmacology* ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein/pharmacology* ; DNA Methylation ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; MicroRNAs/metabolism* ; Multiple Myeloma/genetics* ; RNA, Messenger/metabolism*

Objective:To investigate the bacterial composition and antimicrobial resistance profile of clinical isolates from bloodstream infections in China.Methods:The clinical bacterial strains isolated from blood culture were collected during January 2020 to December 2020 in member hospitals of Blood Bacterial Resistant Investigation Collaborative System (BRICS). Antibiotic susceptibility tests were conducted by agar dilution or broth dilution methods recommended by Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute(CLSI, USA). WHONET 5.6 was used to analyze data.Results:During the study period, 10 043 bacterial strains were collected from 54 hospitals, of which 2 664 (26.5%) were Gram-positive bacteria and 7 379 (73.5%) were Gram-negative bacteria. The top 10 bacterial species were Escherichia coli (38.6%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (18.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (9.9%), coagulase-negative Staphylococci (7.5%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (3.9%), Enterococcus faecium (3.3%), Enterobacter cloacae (2.8%), Enterococcus faecalis (2.6%), Acinetobacter baumannii (2.4%) and Klebsiella spp (1.8%). The prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococcus aureus were 27.6% and 74.4%, respectively. No glycopeptide- and daptomycin-resistant Staphylococci were detected. More than 95% of Staphylococcus aureus were sensitive to rifampicin and SMZco. No vancomycin-resistant Enterococci strains were detected. Extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producing Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis were 48.4%, 23.6% and 36.1%, respectively. The prevalence rates of carbapenem-resistance in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were 2.3% and 16.1%, respectively; 9.6% of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strains were resistant to ceftazidime/avibactam combination. The prevalence rate of carbapenem-resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii was 60.0%, while polymyxin and tigecycline showed good activity against Acinetobacter baumannii. The prevalence rate of carbapenem-resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was 23.2%. Conclusions:The surveillance results in 2020 showed that the main pathogens of bloodstream infection in China were gram-negative bacteria, while Escherichia coli was the most common pathogen, and ESBL-producing strains declined while carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae kept on high level. The proportion and the prevalence of carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa were on the rise slowly. On the other side, the MRSA incidence got lower in China, while the overall prevalence of vancomycin-resistant Enterococci was low.

Objective:To explore the accuracy of array comparative genomic hybridization(aCGH) in the unexpected detection of Duchenne muscular dystrophy ( DMD) gene duplication/deletion in prenatal diagnosis. Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on 31 cases with DMD gene duplication/deletion detected by aCGH among 5 025 prenatal diagnosis samples without family history of DMD in Henan Provincial People's Hospital from July 2018 to December 2019. The multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) method was used to verify the above results. The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) guideline was referred for pathogenicity analysis of the detected duplicates/deletions. Descriptive analysis was adopted in analysis. Results:The total unexpected DMD gene duplication/deletion rate was 0.62% (31/5 025), among which 25 cases were with microduplication/microdeletion ≤ 200 kb and six were >200 kb; there were 24 cases of deletion, seven cases of duplication; exon or intron duplication/deletion were accounted for 19 and 12 cases, respectively. According to the five classification standards of ACMG guideline, there were 17 cases with pathogenic variants and 14 cases with uncertain pathogenicity/likely benign variants. Of the 19 with exon mutations, 17 cases were DMD intragenic variants, and two cases involved variants in and outside DMD gene, which were verified by MLPA whose results were all positive. Conclusions:The duplication/deletion of exon region of DMD gene detected by aCGH technique is accurate and reliable, which plays an important role in the diagnosis of DMD. For these cases involved both internal and external regions of DMD gene, aCGH can identify the upstream and downstream breaking points of DMD gene, thus providing the basis for ACMG grading.

To verify the appropriate preparation process of extracts for the solid substance benchmark of Linggui Zhugan Decoction. The extracts were prepared by different preparation processes, namely the traditional process(process 1), the extract combined with volatile oil separated from traditional process extract liquid(process 2), the modern secondary reflux extraction process(process 3) and the process that volatile oil was extracted first, then prepared according to the traditional process, and combined with extract(process 4); based on the characteristic spectrum, index components of cinnamaldehyde, glycyrrhizin, ammonium glycyrrhizinate, cinnamic acid, and the dry extract rate of process 1, the differences and similarities of four extracts were compared. The results showed that the similarity of the characteristic spectrum of process 2, process 4 and process 1 were all greater than 0.97, while there was no significant difference for the content of 4 quality control components and dry extract rate; the similarity of the characteristic spectrum of process 3 and process 1 was 0.91, the absolute peak area of 13 out of 21 peaks and the relative peak area of 7 peaks increased significantly, and the content of 3 out of 4 quality control components and dry extract rate also significantly increased. In conclusion, the material standards of extracts by the process 2 and 4 are consistent with that of the traditional process, so the two processes are suitable.
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Glycyrrhizic Acid ; Oils, Volatile ; Quality Control ; Reference Standards

To evaluate the effects of Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose acetate succinate(HPMCAS MF) on absorption of silybin(SLB) from supersaturable self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system which was pre-prepared at the early stage experiment. The cell toxicity of self-emulsifying preparation was evaluated by the MTT method, and the in vitro membrane permeability and absorption promoting effect of the self-emulsifying preparation were evaluated by establishing a Caco-2 cell monolayer model. The in vivo and in vitro supersaturation correlation was evaluated via the blood concentration of SLB. The results of MTT showed that the concentration of the preparation below 2 mg·mL~(-1)(C_(SLB) 100 μg·mL~(-1)) was not toxic to Caco-2 cells, and the addition of polymer had no significant effect on Caco-2 cells viability. As compared with the solution group, the transport results showed that the P_(app)(AP→BL) of the self-emulsifying preparation had a very significant increase; the transport rate of silybin can be reduced by polymer in 0-30 min; however, there was no difference in supersaturated transport between supersaturated SLB self-nanoemulsion drug delivery system(SLB-SSNEDDS) and SLB self-nanoemulsion drug delivery system(SLB-SNEDDS) within 2 hours. As compared with SLB suspension, pharmacokinetic parameters showed that the blood concentration of both SLB-SNEDDS and SLB-SSNEDDS groups were significantly increased, and C_(max) was 5.25 times and 9.69 times respectively of that in SLB suspension group, with a relative bioavailability of 578.45% and 1 139.44% respectively. C_(max) and relative bioavailability of SLB-SSNEDDS were 1.85 times and 197% of those of SLB-SNEDDS, respectively. Therefore, on the one hand, SSNEDDS can increase the solubility of SLB in gastrointestinal tract by maintaining stability of SLB supersaturation state; on the other hand, the osmotic transport process of SLB was regulated through the composition of its preparations, and both of them could jointly promote the transport and absorption of SLB to improve the oral bioavailability of SLB.
Administration, Oral ; Biological Availability ; Caco-2 Cells ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Emulsions ; Humans ; Methylcellulose/analogs & derivatives* ; Nanoparticles ; Particle Size ; Silybin ; Solubility

PURPOSE: Plasma cells and immunoglobulins (Igs) play a pivotal role in the induction and maintenance of chronic inflammation in nasal polyps. During secondary immune responses, plasma cell survival and Ig production are regulated by the local environment. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the presence of long-lived plasma cells (LLPCs) and specific survival niches for LLPCs in human nasal polyps.METHODS: Nasal mucosal samples were cultured with an air-liquid interface system and the Ig levels in culture supernatants were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The characteristics of LLPCs in nasal polyps were determined by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. The expression of neurotrophins as well as their receptors was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and Western blotting.RESULTS: The numbers of CD138⁺ total plasma cells and BCL2⁺ plasma cells were increased in both eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic nasal polyps compared with those in normal tissues. The production of IgG, IgA, and IgE was detected in culture supernatants even after a 32-day culture of nasal polyps. Although the total numbers of plasma cells were decreased in nasal polyps after culture, the numbers of BCL2⁺ plasma cells remained stable. The expression of nerve growth factor (NGF) as well as tropomyosin receptor kinase (Trk) A, a high-affinity receptor for NGF, was upregulated in both eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic nasal polyps. In addition, BCL2⁺ plasma cell numbers were positively correlated with NGF and TrkA mRNA expression in nasal mucosal tissues. Polyp plasma cells had the expression of TrkA.CONCLUSIONS: Human nasal polyps harbor a population of LLPCs and NGF may be involved in their prolonged survival. LLPCs may be a novel therapeutic target for suppressing the local Ig production in nasal polyps.
Blotting, Western ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Eosinophils ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin A ; Immunoglobulin E ; Immunoglobulin G ; Immunoglobulins ; Immunohistochemistry ; Inflammation ; Mucous Membrane ; Nasal Polyps ; Nerve Growth Factor ; Nerve Growth Factors ; Phosphotransferases ; Plasma Cells ; Plasma ; Polyps ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Messenger ; Tropomyosin

In order to improve the supersaturation and maintenance time of drug dispersion in curcumin self-nanoemulsion(CUR-SNEDDS), precipitation inhibitors(PPIs) were introduced to prepare curcumin supersaturated self-emulsion(CUR-SSNEDDS). The composition of CUR-SNEDDS prescriptions was selected through the solubility test, the compatibility of oil phase and surfactant, the investigation of the emulsifying ability of the surfactant and the drawing of the pseudo-ternary phase diagram. Analytic hierarchy process was used in combination with central composite design-response surface method to optimize the prescription. The type and dosage of precipitation inhibitors(PPIs) were selected to maintain the supersaturated concentration and duration of CUR in artificial gastrointestinal fluids. At the same time, polarizing microscope was used to evaluate the crystallization inhibition effect and the quality and in vitro release behavior of CUR-SSNEDDS. The prepared CUR-SSNEDDS prescription was capryol 90-kolliphor RH40-transcutol HP-Soluplus(7.93∶66.71∶25.36∶5), with the drug loading of(65.12±1.25) mg·g~(-1). CUR-SSNEDDS was transparent yellow, and the nanoemulsion droplets were spherical with uniform distribution. The emulsification time was(21.02±0.13) s, the average particle size was(57.03±0.35) nm, the polydispersity index(PDI) was(0.23 ± 0.01), and the Zeta potential was(-18.10±1.30) mV. CUR-SSNEDDS significantly inhibited the generation and growth of crystals after in vitro dilution. The supersaturation could be maintained above 10 within 2 h, and the dissolution rate and degree of CUR in artificial gastrointestinal fluid were significantly increased. Soluplus could effectively maintain the supersaturated state of CUR and enhance CUR dissolution in vitro.
Biological Availability ; Curcumin ; Emulsions ; Nanoparticles ; Particle Size ; Solubility ; Surface-Active Agents