Recent developments in the field of the determination of constituents of TCMs in body fluids of animals and human

Effect of baicalin on eradicating biofilms of bovine milk derived Acinetobacter lwoffii

BACKGROUND

Acinetobacter lwoffii (A.lwoffii) is a serious zoonotic pathogen that has been identified as a cause of infections such as meningitis, bacteremia and pneumonia. In recent years, the infection rate and detection rate of A.lwoffii is increasing, especially in the breeding industry. Due to the presence of biofilms, it is difficult to eradicate and has become a potential super drug-resistant bacteria. Therefore, eradication of preformed biofilm is an alternative therapeutic action to control A.lwoffii infection. The present study aimed to clarify that baicalin could eradicate A.lwoffii biofilm in dairy cows, and to explore the mechanism of baicalin eradicating A.lwoffii.

RESULTS

The results showed that compared to the control group, the 4 MIC of baicalin significantly eradicated the preformed biofilm, and the effect was stable at this concentration, the number of viable bacteria in the biofilm was decreased by 0.67 Log10CFU/mL. The total fluorescence intensity of biofilm bacteria decreased significantly, with a reduction rate of 67.0%. There were 833 differentially expressed genes (367 up-regulated and 466 down-regulated), whose functions mainly focused on oxidative phosphorylation, biofilm regulation system and trehalose synthesis. Molecular docking analysis predicted 11 groups of target proteins that were well combined with baicalin, and the content of trehalose decreased significantly after the biofilm of A.lwoffii was treated with baicalin.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study evaluated the antibiofilm potential of baicalin against A.lwoffii. Baicalin revealed strong antibiofilm potential against A.lwoffii. Baicalin induced biofilm eradication may be related to oxidative phosphorylation and TCSs. Moreover, the decrease of trehalose content may be related to biofilm eradication.

Screening and evaluation of quality markers of Radix Cudramiae for liver disease based on an integrated strategy of in vivo pharmacokinetics and in vitro HPLC fingerprint

Radix Cudramiae, the dried root of Cudrania cochinchinensis (Lour.) Kudo et Masam., is a valuable ethnomedicine with outstanding antihepatitis activity. However, the lack of reports on quality markers (Q-markers) hindered its quality evaluation and standardization, as a result restricted its clinical application. This paper aimed to discover the Q-markers of Radix Cudramiae with a comprehensive strategy based on in vivo pharmacokinetics and in vitro HPLC fingerprint. A rapid and sensitive ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) analytical method was firstly developed and validated for simultaneous determination of six potential active ingredients (eriodictyol, dihydrokaempferol, dihydromorin, kaempferol, naringenin and morin) of Radix Cudramiae in rat plasma and tissues, which was successfully applied to the holistic comparison of pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution between normal and acute liver injury rats. On the other hand, a representative HPLC fingerprint of Radix Cudramiae was also established to elucidate the chemical profile for overall quality evaluation. Dihydrokaempferol-7-O-β-D-glucoside (the naturally existed chemical formation of dihydrokaempferol) and kaempferol screened out with high exposure levels in vivo and high resolution in HPLC fingerprint were finally selected as Q-markers of Radix Cudramiae. To the best of our knowledge, it was the first time for people to discover in vivo properties and pharmacokinetic parameters of components in Radix Cudramiae, as well as the first report on its representative HPLC fingerprint. Also, the integrated strategy could offer an effective way for TCMs Q-markers screening.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Aorianigripes (Coleoptera, Eumolpidae, Eumolpinae) and its phylogenetic status

Aorianigripes (Baly, 1860) is one of the main pests of grapes, mainly damaging leaves, petioles and shoots and seriously affecting plant growth and development. Recently, this pest was found to damage the leaves of Ampelopsisgrossedentata, Ampelopsismegalophylla, Ampelopsischaffanjonii and Ampelopsiscantoniensis. However, the phylogenetic relationships of A.nigripes and other related family members are unclear. In this study, we sequenced and analysed the complete mitogenome of A.nigripes for the first time. The mitogenome of A.nigripes is circular and 17,306 bp in size, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs) and two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs). The base composition of the A.nigripes mitogenome is 41.70% A, 33.76% T, 9.01% G and 15.53% C. The phylogenetic analysis showed that A.nigripes was clustered together with Basileptafulvipes and Colasposomadauricum.

The systematic characterization of multiple components and metabolic profiling of bioactive constituents in Yaobitong capsule by UHPLC/Q-TOF-MS/MS

Yaobitong capsule is a valuable traditional Chinese medicine prescription (TCMP), which can effectively treat lumbar disc herniation clinically. However, the effective substances in Yaobitong capsule are still unclear due to a lack of metabolic studies. This poses a huge obstacle preventing the clinical safety assessment and quality control of Yaobitong capsule. In order to explore the metabolic landscape of the multiple components of Yaobitong capsule, this paper proposed a rapid and high-throughput UHPLC/Q-TOF-MS/MS method for carrying out a systematic study, including analyzing the chemical ingredients in vitro and studying the metabolic processes in rat urine, feces, and bile after the oral administration of Yaobitong capsule. A total of 90 Yaobitong-capsule-related chemical components were characterized or tentatively identified in extract solution based on the retention behaviors, measured mass values, and fragmentation patterns. Furthermore, 49 related metabolites were detected in urine, feces, and bile samples. All metabolites were also identified with the help of the Sciex OS tool from these biological samples. The results revealed that triterpenoid saponins, alkaloids, monoterpene glycosides, and phthalides were the main chemical components of Yaobitong capsule. In addition, glucuronidation, hydroxylation, sulfation, and N-acetylcysteine conjugation were the main metabolic reactions in rats after the oral administration of Yaobitong capsule. The results indicated that the established method for multicomponent metabolism identification was appropriate, and the metabolic profiling of Yaobitong capsule provides abundant material for a wide range of further research; this is of significance for carrying out studies of pharmacodynamic mechanisms.

A Novel Research Technology to Explore the Mystery of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Optogenetics

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is gaining increasing popularity worldwide for the function of health promotion and adjuvant therapy. However, the world's understanding of TCM is far from enough, which seriously limits the modernization and internationalization of TCM. Therefore, modern and efficient analytical methods are urgently needed to understand the mechanism of TCM. Optogenetics is one of the most prevalent technologies in the 21st century and has been used to explore life science, especially neuroscience. It already has had great influences in the study of neural circuits and animal models of mental diseases and was named “Method of the Year” by the Nature Methods journal in 2010. Increased interests occurred in the applications of optogenetics to explore a myriad of medical and mental health disorders. However, it has not so far been noticed by TCM researchers. We elaborated on an idea that introducing this technique into the field of TCM research to improve diagnosis, treatments, and evaluating the therapeutic effects. In this review, we made a systematic prospect in the theory, feasibility, and application of TCM optogenetics. We mainly focused on applying optogenetic methodologies to make a more comprehensive understanding of TCM.

Ecofriendly microwave-assisted reaction and extraction of bioactive compounds from hawthorn leaf

INTRODUCTION

The main active components in hawthorn leaves possess various biological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and hypolipidemic effects. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an effective and reliable extraction method to extract these active compounds from hawthorn leaves.

OBJECTIVE

To establish a simple, rapid, and sensitive method for extraction and determination of polyphenolic compounds from hawthorn leaves.

METHODS

In this study, a microwave-assisted reaction and extraction (MARE) combined with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detector method was established to extract and determine the polyphenolic compounds in hawthorn leaves. The solid reagent aqueous solutions were applied as extraction solvents, preventing the use of organic solvents. The target analytes were identified by quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry. Several experimental parameters that can significantly affect the extraction efficiency were evaluated and optimised.

RESULTS

The optimal conditions were as follows: 0.1 g of sodium carbonate was used as solid reagent, the amount of sodium borate was set at 0.01 g, extraction time was 10 min, extraction temperature was set at 50°C, pH value was adjusted to 7. The validation experiments demonstrated that the method had high sensitivity with the limits of detection in the range 26.5-37.7 ng/mL. The average recoveries ranged from 80.22% to 93.27%.

CONCLUSION

In this work, the proposed MARE method was successfully applied to extract and determine polyphenolic compounds in hawthorn leaf samples. Compared with other reported methods, the present method was faster, greener, and more sensitive.

Network pharmacology-based analysis of Chinese herbal Naodesheng formula for application to Alzheimer's disease

Naodesheng (NDS) formula, which consists of Rhizoma Chuanxiong, Lobed Kudzuvine, Carthamus tinctorius, Radix Notoginseng, and Crataegus pinnatifida, is widely applied for the treatment of cardio/cerebrovascular ischemic diseases, ischemic stroke, and sequelae of cerebral hemorrhage, etc. At present, the studies on NDS formula for Alzheimer's disease (AD) only focus on single component of this prescription, and there is no report about the synergistic mechanism of the constituents in NDS formula for the potential treatment of dementia. Therefore, the present study aimed to predict the potential targets and uncover the mechanisms of NDS formula for the treatment of AD. Firstly, we collected the constituents in NDS formula and key targets toward AD. Then, drug-likeness, oral bioavailability, and blood-brain barrier permeability were evaluated to find drug-like and lead-like constituents for treatment of central nervous system diseases. By combining the advantages of machine learning, molecular docking, and pharmacophore mapping, we attempted to predict the targets of constituents and find potential multi-target compounds from NDS formula. Finally, we built constituent-target network, constituent-target-target network and target-biological pathway network to study the network pharmacology of the constituents in NDS formula. To the best of our knowledge, this represented the first to study the mechanism of NDS formula for potential efficacy for AD treatment by means of the virtual screening and network pharmacology methods.

Simultaneous determination of α-asarone and β-asarone in Acorus tatarinowii using excitation-emission matrix fluorescence coupled with chemometrics methods

A chemometrics-assisted excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence method was proposed for simultaneous determination of α-asarone and β-asarone in Acorus tatarinowii. Using the strategy of combining EEM data with chemometrics methods, the simultaneous determination of α-asarone and β-asarone in the complex Traditional Chinese medicine system was achieved successfully, even in the presence of unexpected interferents. The physical or chemical separation step was avoided due to the use of "mathematical separation". Six second-order calibration methods were used including parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD), alternating penalty trilinear decomposition (APTLD), self-weighted alternating trilinear decomposition (SWATLD), the unfolded partial least-squares (U-PLS) and multidimensional partial least-squares (N-PLS) with residual bilinearization (RBL). In addition, HPLC method was developed to further validate the presented strategy. Consequently, for the validation samples, the analytical results obtained by six second-order calibration methods were almost accurate. But for the Acorus tatarinowii samples, the results indicated a slightly better predictive ability of N-PLS/RBL procedure over other methods.

The Multi-Template Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Based on SBA-15 for Selective Separation and Determination of Panax notoginseng Saponins Simultaneously in Biological Samples

The feasible, reliable and selective multi-template molecularly imprinted polymers (MT-MIPs) based on SBA-15 (SBA-15@MT-MIPs) for the selective separation and determination of the trace level of ginsenoside Rb₁ (Rb₁), ginsenoside Rg₁ (Rg₁) and notoginsenoside R₁ (R₁) simultaneously from biological samples were developed. The polymers were constructed by SBA-15 as support, Rb₁, Rg₁, R₁ as multi-template, acrylamide (AM) as functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as cross-linker. The new synthetic SBA-15@MT-MIPs were satisfactorily applied to solid-phase extraction (SPE) coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the separation and determination of trace Rb₁, Rg₁ and R₁ in plasma samples. Under the optimized conditions, the limits of detection (LODs) and quantitation (LOQs) of the proposed method for Rb₁, Rg₁ and R₁ were in the range of 0.63⁻0.75 ng·mL-1 and 2.1⁻2.5 ng·mL-1, respectively. The recoveries of R₁, Rb₁ and Rg₁ were obtained between 93.4% and 104.3% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) in the range of 3.3⁻4.2%. All results show that the obtained SBA-15@MT-MIPs could be a promising prospect for the practical application in the selective separation and enrichment of trace Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) in the biological samples.

Recent pharmaceutical evidence on the compatibility rationality of traditional Chinese medicine

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Chinese herbs have been used in China for thousands of years and are also becoming popular in Western medicine. Formulae of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which contain two or more herbs, can often obtain better curative efficacies and fewer side effects than single herbs. Though there are many reports on pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of TCM, there remains a serious lack of summarization and systemic analyses of these reported data to help uncover the compatibility rationale of TCM. This review therefore aims to provide such an overview mainly based on the reports published in the last decade. It could be served as an informative reference for researchers interested in compound prescriptions and holistic therapies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Relevant information was collected from various resources, including books on Chinese herbs, China Knowledge Resource Integrated (CNKI), and international databases, such as Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed.

RESULTS

Thirty-six relevant TCM formulae were collected to illustrate the compatibility rationality of TCM from the perspective of pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, and/or pharmacodynamics.

CONCLUSIONS

Compatibility is a key characteristic of multi-herb prescriptions. It often results in the change of the therapeutic material basis and, thus, produces the effect of reducing toxicity and/or increasing curative efficacy.

Screening for the bioactive constituents of traditional Chinese medicines—progress and challenges

The search for lead compounds from traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) may be promising for new drug development.

LC-MS/MS analysis and pharmacokinetic study on five bioactive constituents of Tanreqing injection in rats

Tanreqing injection (TRQ), a well-known traditional Chinese medicine formula, is commonly used to treat respiratory diseases. In the present study, a rapid, selective, and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to simultaneously determinate the plasma contents of 5 major constituents of TRQ, including chlorogenic acid (CHA), caffeic acid (CFA), baicalin (BA), ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) in rats after intravenous administration of TRQ. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent Zorbax SB-C₁₈ column (3.5 μm, 100 mm × 2.1 mm), with acetonitrile and 0.1% aqueous formic acid as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.3 mL·min^-1. The calibration curves were linear over the ranges of 27.0-13 333.0 ng·mL^-1 for CFA, 30.0-14 933.0 ng·mL^-1 for CHA, 50.0-50 333.0 ng·mL^-1 for BA, 550.0-55 000.0 ng·mL^-1 for UDCA, and 480.0-48 000.0 ng·mL^-1 for CDCA, respectively. Intra- and inter-day precisions (relative standard deviations, RSDs) were from 3.11% to 14.08%. The extraction recoveries were greater than 71% and accuracy (relative recovery) was from 89% to 137% for all analytes, except endogenous bile acids. This validated method was successfully applied to the first pharmacokinetic study of CFA, CHA, BA, UDCA and CDCA in rat plasma after intravenous administration of TRQ.

Nanocarriers for the delivery of active ingredients and fractions extracted from natural products used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been practiced for thousands of years with a recent increase in popularity. Despite promising biological activities of active ingredients and fractions from TCM, their poor solubility, poor stability, short biological half-life, ease of metabolism and rapid elimination hinder their clinical application. Therefore, overcoming these problems to improve the therapeutic efficacy of TCM preparations is a major focus of pharmaceutical sciences. Recently, nanocarriers have drawn increasing attention for their excellent and efficient delivery of active TCM ingredients or fractions. This review discusses problems in the delivery of active TCM ingredients or fractions; focuses on recent advances in nanocarriers that represent potential solutions to these problems, including lipid-based nanoparticles and polymeric, inorganic, and hybrid nanocarriers; and discusses unanswered questions in the field and criteria for the development of better nanocarriers for the delivery of active TCM ingredients or fractions to be focused on in future studies.

Liver Injury from Herbal, Dietary, and Weight Loss Supplements: a Review

Herbal and dietary supplement usage has increased steadily over the past several years in the United States. Among the non-bodybuilding herbal and dietary supplements, weight loss supplements were among the most common type of HDS implicated in liver injury. While drug induced liver injury is rare, its consequences are significant and on the rise. The purpose of this review is to highlight case reports of weight loss products such as Hydroxycut and OxyElite Pro as one form of HDS that have hepatotoxic potential and to characterize its clinical effects as well as pattern of liver injury. We also propose future strategies in the identification and study of potentially hepatotoxic compounds in an effort to outline a diagnostic approach for identifying any drug induced liver injury.

Molecular and phytochemical investigation of Angelica dahurica and Angelica pubescentis essential oils and their biological activity against Aedes aegypti, Stephanitis pyrioides, and Colletotrichum species

In this study, Angelica dahurica and Angelica pubescentis root essential oils were investigated as pest management perspectives, and root samples were also analyzed genetically using the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region as a DNA barcode marker. A. pubescentis root essential oil demonstrated weak antifungal activity against Colletotrichum acutatum, Colletotrichum fragariae, and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, whereas A. dahurica root essential oil did not show antifungal activity. Conversely, A. dahurica root essential oil demonstrated better biting deterrent and insecticidal activity against yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, and azalea lace bugs, Stephanitis pyrioides, than A. pubescentis root oil. The major compounds in the A. dahurica oil were found as α-pinene (46.3%), sabinene (9.3%), myrcene (5.5%), 1-dodecanol (5.2%), and terpinen-4-ol (4.9%). α-Pinene (37.6%), p-cymene (11.6%), limonene (8.7%), and cryptone (6.7%) were the major compounds found in the A. pubescentis oil. In mosquito bioassays, 1-dodecanol and 1-tridecanol showed antibiting deterrent activity similar to the positive control DEET (N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide) at 25 nmol/cm(2) against Ae. aegypti, whereas only 1-tridecanol showed repellent activity in human-based cloth patch bioassay with minimum effective dosages (MED) of 0.086 ± 0.089 mg/cm(2) (DEET = 0.007 ± 0.003 mg/cm(2)). In larval bioassays, 1-tridecanol was more toxic with an LC50 value of 2.1 ppm than 1-dodecanol having an LC50 value of 5.2 ppm against 1-day-old Ae. aegypti larvae. 1-Dodecanol and 1-tridecanol could be useful for the natural mosquito control agents.