Characterisation and evaluation of physical properties of AH-Plus sealer with and without the incorporation of petasin, pachymic acid, curcumin and shilajit-an invitro study

BACKGROUND

AH Plus, an epoxy resin-based sealer, is widely used in endodontic practice, owing to its good physical properties that confers longstanding dimensional stability and good adhesion to dentin. Nevertheless, its propensity to trigger inflammation, especially in its freshly mixed state, has been extensively documented. Phytochemicals such as Petasin, Pachymic acid, Curcumin, and Shilajit are known for their anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. This study aimed to analyze and determine the effect of these natural products on the physical properties of AH Plus sealer when incorporated with the sealer.

METHODS

AH Plus (AHR) sealer was mixed with 10% petasin, 0.75% pachymic, 0.5% and 6%shilajit to obtain AHP, AHA, AHC and AHS in the ratio of 10:1 and 5:1 respectively. Five samples of each material were assessed for setting time, solubility, flow, and dimensional stability in accordance with the ISO 6876:2012 standardization. Sealers were characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Statistical evaluation involved the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilks tests for normality and the one-way ANOVA test for analysis.

RESULTS

In this investigation, the characterisation analysis revealed a relatively similar microstructure in all the experimental root canal sealers. All experimental groups, excluding the control group, exhibited an increase in flow ranging from 11.9 to 31.4% at a 10:1 ratio. Similarly, for the 5:1 ratio, the increase ranged from 12.02 to 31.83%. In terms of dimensional stability, all groups at the 10:1 ratio showed a decrease compared to the control group. The addition of natural agents to AHR in 10:1 ratio led to a reduction in setting time by 8.9-31.6%, and at a 5:1 ratio, the reduction ranged from 8.1 to 31.5%. However, regarding solubility, the addition of natural agents did not induce any significant alterations.

CONCLUSION

Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that all tested root canal sealers exhibited properties that met the acceptable criteria outlined in the ISO 6876:2012 standardization.

Mechanism of pachymic acid in the treatment of gastric cancer based on network pharmacology and experimental verification

BACKGROUND

Pachymic acid (PA) is derived from Poria cocos. PA has a variety of pharmacological and inhibitory effects on various tumors. However, the mechanism of action of PA in gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear.

AIM

To investigate the mechanism of PA in treating GC via the combination of network pharmacology and experimental verification.

METHODS

The GeneCards and OMIM databases were used to derive the GC targets, while the Pharm Mapper database provided the PA targets. Utilizing the STRING database, a protein-protein interaction network was constructed and core targets were screened. The analyses of Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and gene set enrichment analysis were conducted, and molecular docking and clinical correlation analyses were performed on the core targets. Ultimately, the network pharmacology findings were validated through in vitro cell assays, encompassing assessments of cell viability, apoptosis, cell cycle, cloning, and western blot analysis.

RESULTS

According to network pharmacology analysis, the core targets were screened, and the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway is likely to be the mechanism by which PA effectively treats GC, according to KEGG enrichment analysis. The experimental findings showed that PA could control PI3K/AKT signaling to prevent GC cell proliferation, induce apoptosis, and pause the cell cycle.

CONCLUSION

Network pharmacology demonstrated that PA could treat GC by controlling a variety of signaling pathways and acting on a variety of targets. This has also been supported by in vitro cell studies, which serve as benchmarks for further research.

Pachymic Acid Protects Against Bleomycin-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis by Suppressing Fibrotic, Inflammatory, and Oxidative Stress Pathways in Mice

Pachymic acid (PA), a natural extract from Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf, possesses anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties. However, it is still unknown whether PA can protect against bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis (PF). In this study, we investigated the effects of PA in mice administered BLM. Our results showed that PA significantly improved lung damage and pathological manifestations. Additionally, PA reduced the levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, while increasing the level of IL-10. PA also decreased the levels of hydroxyproline and malondialdehyde, and increased the activities of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase in lung tissue. Furthermore, PA inhibited the increases in pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3), ASC, IL-1β, P20, and TXNIP induced by BLM. In conclusion, our study demonstrated the protective effects of PA against BLM-induced PF in mice by suppressing fibrotic, inflammatory, and oxidative stress pathways.

Synthesis and bioactivity evaluation of pachymic acid derivatives as potential cytotoxic agents

Pachymic acid, a well-known natural lanostane-type triterpenoid, exhibits various pharmacological properties. In this study, 18 derivatives of pachymic acid were synthesized by modifying their molecular structures and evaluated for their anticancer activity against two human cancer cell lines using the CCK-8 assay. Structure-activity relationship studies according to the in vitro cytotoxicity unexpectedly found one promising derivative A17 (namely tumulosic acid, also found in Poria cocos), which had stronger anti-proliferative activity than the positive drug cisplatin against HepG2 and HSC-2 cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 7.36 ± 0.98 and 2.50 ± 0.15 μM, respectively. Further pharmacological analysis demonstrated that A17 induced HSC-2 cell cycle arrest at the S phase, cell apoptosis, and autophagy. Western blotting confirmed the regulatory effects of A17 on cell cycle arrest-, apoptosis-, and autophagy-related proteins expression. In addition, A17 regulated the AKT and AMPK pathways in HSC-2 cells. These results demonstrated that A17 possesses great potential as an anticancer agent.

Graphical Abstract

An UPLC - Q - Orbitrap method for pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of four triterpenoids in rats after oral administration of Poria cocos ethanol extracts

Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf, is a fungus that is widely used as medicine and dietary supplement in China. But its action mechanism is still not very clear. In this paper, a rapid, specific and sensitive high performace liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid quadrupole - orbitrap mass sepctrometry (UPLC - Q - Orbitrap MS) method has been developed and validated to simultaneously determine of four triterpenoids including Dehydrotumulosic acid (DTA), Dehydropachymic acid (DPA), Pachymic acid (PA), Dehydrotrametenolic acid (DMA) from Poria cocos in rat plasma and tissues. The analyte was extracted from rat plasma and tissue homogenates by protein precipitation with acetonitrile using glibenclamide as the internal standard (IS). Chromatographic separation was carried out on ACQUITY UPLC BEH - C₁₈ column (2.1 mm × 50 mm, 1.7 μm) with a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile - water (containing 1.0 mmol/L ammonium acetate) using gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Electrospray ionization (ESI ^-) under negative ion mode was used, and its quantization was performed with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The method was fully validated and successfully applied to pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution study in rats after oral administration of ethanol extracts of Poria cocos. Compared with that of plasma exporsure, triterpenoids could be detected in various tissues with a relatively high degree of tissue distribution. After oral administration, the concentration orders in seven different tissues were ranked as DTA > PA > DPA > DMA in intestine and stomach, wheras DTA > DMA > PA > DPA in heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney tissues, which is speculated that DPA, PA may be converted into DMA in vivo. In conclusion, this results may provide a material basis for study of the pharmacological actions of triterpenoids in Poria cocos.

Evaluation of anticancer activities of Poria cocos ethanol extract in breast cancer: In vivo and in vitro, identification and mechanism

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Poria cocos Wolf (P. cocos), a well-known traditional East-Asian medicinal and edible fungus, is one of the most important components in Chinese medicine formulas like "Guizhi fuling wan" to treat hyperplasia of mammary glands and breast cancer.

AIMING OF STUDY

In this study, we attempted to verify the anticancer efficacy of the ethanol extract of P. cocos (PC) on the breast cancer as well as to investigate its most active compound and its underlying molecular mechanism in vivo and in vitro.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The key anti-cancer components were separated and purified through chromatography and identified by spectral analyses. The in vivo anti-breast cancer efficacy and side effects of PC were evaluated in BALB/c nude mice that have been subcutaneously injected with breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231. Cytotoxicity, apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of PC were evaluated in vitro by cell viability assays and flow cytometry. The protein levels were examined via western blotting.

RESULTS

Pachymic acid (PA), separated and identified as the most active compound, induced the significant cytotoxicity on breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231(IC₅₀ value, 2.13 ± 0.24 μg/mL) and was not active against the normal breast epithelium cells MCF-10A. The in vivo experiment revealed that PC could significantly inhibit the tumor development and the final mean tumor weight of the mice in the PC group (0.51 ± 0.12g) was significantly lower than that in the model group (1.22 ± 0.45g). Notably, compared to the first-line anticancer drug cisplatin, PC showed less side effects on the function of the vital organs and the muscle strength of the mice. Among in vitro study, PC significantly inhibited the cell growth of MDA-MB-231 by inducing cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrested at G₀/G₁ phase in a dose-dependent manner. The expression of cell cycle-associated cyclin D1, cyclin E, CDK2, and CDK4 were downregulated, while p53 and p21 expression were upregulated following the PA treatment. In addition, PA downregulated the apoptotic regulator Bcl-2, increased the expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax, and promoted the release of cytochrome c and the activation of cleaved caspase-3, -9 and caspase -8 via mitochondria-mediated and death receptor-mediated signaling pathways.

CONCLUSION

This study verified the anticancer efficacy of PC on breast cancer in vivo and in vitro through induction of cell apoptosis and G₀/G₁ cell cycle arrest. The data also suggested that PA could be developed as an efficacious agent for breast cancer treatment with less side effects.

In vitro effect of pachymic acid on the activity of Cytochrome P450 enzymes

Pachymic acid is a wildly used traditional Chinese medicine with various pharmacological features. It also exists in many drugs which are wildly used in pediatric.The effect of pachymic acid on the activity of eight major CYP isoforms was investigated in human liver microsomes.The effects of pachymic acid on eight human liver CYP isoforms (i.e. 1A2, 3A4, 2A6, 2E1, 2D6, 2C9, 2C19 and 2C8) were investigated in vitro using human liver microsomes (HLMs), and the enzyme kinetic parameters were calculated.The activity of CP3A4, 2E1, and 2C9 was inhibited by pachymic acid in a concentration-dependent manner with IC₅₀ values of 15.04, 27.95, and 24.22 μM, respectively. Pachymic acid is a non-competitive inhibitor of CYP3A4, with the Ki value of 6.47 μM. While the inhibition of CYP2E1 and 2C9 was performed in a competitive manner, with the Ki value of 11.96 and 10.94 μM, respectively. Moreover, the inhibition of CYP3A4 was in a time-dependent manner with the K_I/K_inact value of 7.77/0.048 min^-1μM^-1.The in vitro inhibitory effect of pachymic acid on the activity of CYP3A4, 2E1, and 2C9 indicated the potential drug-drug interaction with the drugs that metabolized by CYP3A4, 2E1, and 2C9. Further clinical and in vivo studies are needed to evaluate the significance of this interaction.

Comparison of the effects of pachymic acid, moronic acid and hydrocortisone on the polysome loading of RNAs in lipopolysaccharide-treated THP-1 macrophages

We have proposed that analysis of ribosome-loaded mRNAs (i.e., the translatome) is useful for elucidation of pharmacological effects of phytocompounds in immune cells, regarding the involvement of post-transcriptional regulation mechanisms. In the present study, we compared the effects of pachymic acid from Poria cocos fungus and moronic acid from propolis with those of hydrocortisone on the translatomes of THP-1 macrophages exposed to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to find clues to their biological effects. Polysome-associated RNAs collected from cells treated for 3 h with LPS plus each of the compounds were analyzed by DNA microarray followed by analyses of pathways/gene ontologies (GO). Upregulated mRNAs in enriched pathways that were found to contain AUUUA (AU)-rich motifs were checked by real-time PCR, and expression of candidate RNA-binding proteins stabilizing/destabilizing such AU-rich mRNAs was checked by Western blotting. The numbers of upregulated and downregulated genes (fold-changes ± 2.0 versus vehicle-control) were, respectively, 209 and 125 for moronic acid, 23 and 2 for pachymic acid, and 214 and 59 for hydrocortisone treatment. Overlapping with hydrocortisone treatment for upregulation were 158 genes in moronic acid and 17 in pachymic acid treatment; of these, 16 overlapped within all treatments (C-X-C motif chemokine ligands, interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats, etc.). Pathway analyses showed GO enrichments such as 'immune response', 'receptor binding', 'extracellular space' etc. The pachymic acid-upregulated mRNAs (highly overlapped with the other 2 treatments) showed the presence of signal peptides and AU-rich motifs, suggesting regulation by AU-rich element (ARE)-binding proteins. The expression of ARE-binding protein HuR/ELAV-1 was increased by the 3 compounds, and AUF1/hnRNP D was decreased by pachymic acid. These results suggested that pachymic acid and moronic acid effects may involve as yet unknown post-transcriptional modulation via ARE-binding proteins resembling that of glucocorticoids.

1H NMR based metabolite profiling for optimizing the ethanol extraction of Wolfiporia cocos

Metabolite profiling of Wolfiporia cocos (family: Polyporaceae) had been much advancement in recent days, and its analysis by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has become well established. However, the highly important trait of W. cocos still needs advanced protocols despite some standardization. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used as the multivariate statistical analysis of the ¹H NMR data set. The PLS-DA model was validated, and the key metabolites contributing to the separation in the score plots of different ethanol W. cocos extract. ¹H NMR spectroscopy of W. cocos identified 33 chemically diverse metabolites in D₂O, consisting of 13 amino acids, 11 organic acids 2 sugars, 3 sugar alcohols, 1 nucleoside, and 3 others. Among these metabolites, the levels of tyrosine, proline, methionine, sarcosine, choline, acetoacetate, citrate, 4-aminobutyrate, aspartate, maltose, malate, lysine, xylitol, lactate threonine, leucine, valine, isoleucine, uridine, guanidoacetate, arabitol, mannitol, glucose, and betaine were increased in the 95% ethanol extraction sample compared with the levels in other samples, whereas level of acetate, phenylalanine, alanine, succinate, and fumarate were significantly increased in the 0% ethanol extraction sample. A biological triterpenoid, namely pachymic acid, was detected from different ethanol P. cocos extract using ¹H-NMR spectra were found in CDCl₃. This is the first report to perform the metabolomics profiling of different ethanol W. cocos extract. These researches suggest that W. cocos can be used to obtain substantial amounts of bioactive ingredients for use as potential pharmacological and nutraceuticals agents.

Pachymic acid promotes induction of autophagy related to IGF-1 signaling pathway in WI-38 cells

BACKGROUND

The insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) signaling pathway has spotlighted as a mechanism to elucidate aging associated with autophagy in recent years. Therefore, we have tried to screen an effective compound capable of inducing autophagy to delay aging process.

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to investigate whether pachymic acid, a main compound in Poria cocos, induces autophagy in the aged cells.

METHODS

The aging of young cells was induced by treatment with IGF-1 at 50 ng/ml three times every two days. The effect of pachymic acid on cell viability was evaluated in human lung fibroblasts, WI-38 cells, using MTT assay. The induction of autophagy was detected using autophagy detection kit. The expression of proteins related to autophagy and IGF-1 signaling pathway was examined by western blot analysis and immunofluorescence assay.

RESULTS

In this study, pachymic acid showed cytotoxic effect in a dose dependent manner and remarkably induced autophagy at the same time. Moreover, pachymic acid increased the expression of proteins related to autophagy such as LC3-II and Beclin1 and decreased the levels of mTor phosphorylation and p70S6K in the aged cells. In particular, pachymic acid increased the expression of p-PI3K, p-FoxO and Catalase. In addition, pachymic acid remarkably increased the expression of IGFBP-3.

CONCLUSION

Above results suggest that pachymic acid could induce autophagy related to IGF-1 signaling pathway in the aged cells.

Pachymic acid inhibits tumorigenesis in gallbladder carcinoma cells

BACKGROUND

Gallbladder cancer, with high aggressivity and extremely poor prognosis, is the most common malignancy of the bile duct. Thus, seeking targets gallbladder tumor cells is an attractive goal towards improving clinical treatment.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In this study, we investigated the effects of pachymic acid (PA) on the tumorigenesis of human gallbladder cancer cells.

RESULTS

We found that PA significantly reduced cell growth in a dose- and time-dependent fashion. Meanwhile, cell cycle arrest at G0 phase was induced by PA. PA also significantly inhibited cancer cell migration, invasion in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, we demonstrated that cancer cell adhesion ability was suppressed dose-dependently, which may contribute to the inhibition of cell invasion. Finally, we showed that PA inhibited AKT and ERK signaling pathways. And oncoproteins, such as PCNA, ICAM-1 and RhoA which are involved intumorigenesis, were also downregulated by PA.

CONCLUSION

Our study reveals that PA is able to inhibit gallbladder cancer tumorigenesis involving affection of AKT and ERK signaling pathways. Together, these results encourage further studies of PA as a promising candidate for gallbladder cancer therapy.

Pachymic acid induces apoptosis via activating ROS-dependent JNK and ER stress pathways in lung cancer cells

BACKGROUND

Pachymic acid (PA), a lanostane-type triterpenoid from Poria cocos, has been reported to possess anti-emetic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties. Nonetheless, the anti-tumor effect of PA in lung cancer cells remains unclear. Herein, we report the chemotherapeutic effects and underlying mechanisms of PA against human lung cancer.

METHODS

The anti-proliferative ability of PA on lung cancer cells was assessed by MTT, colony formation and EdU proliferation assays. Flow cytometric analysis was used to detect cell cycle changes. Apoptosis was determined by annexin V/PI double-staining and the DNA ladder formation assays. The expressions of the apoptosis-related proteins were analysed by western blot. The in vivo efficacy of PA was measured using a NCI-H23 xenograft model in nude mice.

RESULTS

PA exhibited anti-tumor effects in vitro accompanied by induction of G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis in NCI-H23 and NCI-H460 lung cancer cells. Mechanistically, our data showed that PA induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, resulting in the activation of both c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress apoptotic pathways in lung cancer cells. Moreover, blockage of ROS production reversed PA-induced JNK and ER stress activation. Finally, PA inhibited the growth of NCI-H23 xenograft tumors without causing any host toxicity, and inhibited cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis of tumor cells in tumor xenograft tissues.

CONCLUSIONS

In summary, our study demonstrates that PA induces apoptosis through activation of the JNK and ER stress pathways in human lung cancer cells. Our findings provide a rationale for the potential application of PA in lung cancer therapy.