Pharmacogenomics is defined as research into the relationship between inherited genetic variations in drug metabolizing enzymes, transporters and targets and individual variations in person's response to drugs (fate of drug in human body, safety and efficacy). Personalized dosing is pharmacogenomics-based therapeutic regimen tailored to other individual characteristics. This article summarizes the progress in clinical application of personalized dosing from the perspective of pharmacogenomics of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters, and proposes to draw attention to key scientific issues (e.g., the effect of multi-genes and non-genetic factors on drug effects, the integration of therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacogenomics); meanwhile, bottle necks in the clinical application and corresponding strategies are proposed.

The major non-P450 enzymes involved in the oxidative metabolism of drugs are:the flavincontaining monooxygenase (FMO), the monoamine oxidase (MAO), the aldehyde oxidase (AO), the xanthine oxidase (XO), the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and the aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH). In recent years, the role of non-P450 enzymes in drug oxidative metabolism has garnered increasing attention. However, the contribution of non-P450 enzymes to the drug oxidative metabolism is possibly underestimated in many cases, as most metabolism studies in drug discovery and lead optimization are conducted using in vitro test systems related to P450 enzymes. In this article, these non-P450 enzymes in terms of catalyzed reaction types, common substrates, gene polymorphism and drug interaction are reviewed, and the in vitro models and factors for non-P450-mediated oxidative metabolism are summarized. Similar to P450 enzymes, non-P450 enzymes can directly catalyze the oxidation of drugs, yielding therapeutically active metabolites or toxic metabolites. These enzymes can also oxidize the toxic metabolites, generated from P450-catalyzed reaction, to nontoxic metabolites. In general, most non-P450 enzymes (such as FMO and MAO) appear to be much less inducible than P450 enzymes.

Traditional anti-depressant therapy based on the regulation of monoamine neurotransmitters has shown certain limitations. Recently, accumulating clinical and preclinical studies have reported the tantalizing link between immune dysregulation, inflammatory process and the initiation and exacerbation of major depressive disorder (MDD). With a deepening understanding of neural-immune-metabolic interactions, an immunometabolism driven disease network has attracted huge interests in understanding neuronal inflammation and dysfunction underlying MDD pathogenesis and intervention. This review describes recent data uncovering immunometabolic dysregulation as a key factor in MDD network, with a focus on the recent appreciation of immune-metabolic actions of several anti-depressant compounds. The implications for the discovery of novel antidepressant drugs and clinical management of MDD are discussed.

Cytochrome P4502J2 (CYP2J2) is widely distributed in various human tissues and takes a part in the metabolism of endogenous compounds and drugs. CYP2J2 can convert arachidonic acid (AA) to expoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), which have various biological effects, implying the important role of CYP2J2 in the regulation of cardiovascular system and promotion of tumor progression and metastasis. Additionally, CYP2J2 plays an indispensable role in the intestinal metabolism of various drugs, such as astemizole, terfenadine and ebastine. In this review, the metabolic function, characteristic of catalysis and tissue distribution of CYP2J2 are discussed with the latest literatures both in China and abroad. The state-of-the-art methods for characterization of CYP2J2 and current trend of substrate discovery as well as its relationship with disease are highlighted. This review gives in-depth understanding of the function of CYP2J2 and its role in disease advance. The information of ligand (substrate and inhibitor) will provide the theoretical guidance and reference to the development of novel drugs for CYP2J2.

As important constituents of the first-line of host defense barrier, intestinal cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) play important roles in disease pathogenesis as well as drug absorption and exposure. Clinical reports and experimental data revealed diminished intestinal CYP3A and P-gp expression accompanying with gut dysbiosis in inflammatory bowel disease. Yet whether gut dysbiosis is associated with the down-regulation of CYP3A and P-gp and the underlying mechanisms are unclear. In this study, daily administration of fresh feces from normal rats and rats with ulcerative colitis (UC) induced by dextran sulfate sodium to normal rats resulted in alterations of gut bacterial compositions. Intestinal CYP3A2 and P-gp were significantly down-regulated in rats receiving UC feces. Outer-membrane vesicles (OMVs) are nano-scale special buds of the outer membrane which are produced by Gram-negative bacteria and mediate diverse functions including interactions within bacterial communities and communications with host. Expressions of CYP3A4 and P-gp mRNA were diminished in human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma cells (Caco-2) treated by OMVs from all different groups with OMVs from UC rats or rats receiving UC feces showing more significant effects.Moreover, the OMVs fractions within 30 000-50 000 Daltons from both normal and UC rats elicited more effects than fractions of other molecular weights. Treatment of Caco-2 cells with toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) inhibitor resatorvid (TAK-242) or TLR4 silence RNA (siRNA) blocked CYP3A4 and P-gp down-regulation induced by bacterial OMVs. Taken together, we proved in this study that gut microbiota can down-regulate intestinal CYP3A and P-gp partially through producing OMVs to activate the TLR4 signaling pathway.

In our preliminary studies, we observed zolmitriptan (ZOL) treatment led to induction of CYP3A2 in male not female rats. To figure out the reason is of great significance for drug-drug interactions and personalized administration. Since growth hormone (GH) is known as the major mechanistic determinant of sexually-dimorphic gene expression like CYP3A2 in rat liver, the impacts of ZOL on both plasma GH levels in non monosodium glutamate (MSG)-treated rats and CYP3A2 expression in GH depleted MSG-treated rats were studied. ZOL was shown to partially suppress GH levels in both genders. Furthermore, CYP3A2 protein and mRNA level declined in male not female MSG-treated rats. In order to study the possible molecular events involved in the depression of GH and gender-selective induction on rat CYP3A2 by ZOL, the mRNA and protein level (whole protein and nuclear protein) of hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) was investigated. Nuclear accumulation of HNF4α was observed in the normal male not female rat liver tissue following ZOL treatment. However, this kind of nuclear translocation did not occur in rat hepatocytes and MSG-treated rats. These findings demonstrated CYP3A2 inducibility by ZOL was gender-selective. GH and HNF4α may play an important role in CYP3A2 induction.

P-glycoprotein (P-gp), an ATP binding cassette protein, plays a major role in efflux transport of drugs and xenobiotics due to its abundant expression on several barriers. This study aimed to investigate the potential role of PKC/NF-κB-PXR signaling pathway in modulation of P-gp gene expression in human colon adenocarcinoma LS174T. The effect of PMA on MDR1 luciferase activity was investigated by PXR-MDR1 dual luciferase reporter gene assay. Real-time qPCR assay and Western blot analysis were used to study the gene expression of P-gp and NF-κB, respectively. Compared to the vehicle-treated group, PMA statistically decreased P-gp luciferase activity, mRNA expression and protein expression. Moreover, PMA treatment yielded a significant and dose-dependent increase in RelA/p65 translocation to nucleus. Meanwhile, a remarkable increase of the pho-IκBα status was observed in LS174T cells after treatment with PMA (1-100 nmol·L^-1). In addition, knockdown of PKCα, NF-κB or PXR can significantly attenuate PMA-induced P-gp suppression.These results suggested that PKC/NF-κB-PXR signaling pathway might play crucial roles in modulation of P-gp gene expression.

Carboxylesterase 1 (CE1) is an important serine hydrolase in mammals, which involved in the hydrolysis of a variety of compounds (endogenous substrates like cholesterol and xenobiotic compounds like ester-contain drugs and pesticides). This study aimed to design and develop the fluorescent probe substrates for human carboxylesterase 1 (hCE1), on the basis of the structural features of hCE1 preferred substrates. Four carboxylic esters deriving from BODIPY-8-carboxylic acid were designed and synthesized. After then, reaction phenotyping assays and chemical inhibition assays were used to evaluate the selectivity of these four ester derivatives towards hCE1. Our results clearly demonstrated that the substrate specificity of these ester substrates towards hCE1 would be improved with the decrease of the alcohol group on BODIPY-8-carboxylesters, while BODIPY-8-carboxylesters with small alcohol groups including methyl (BCM) and ethyl (BCE) esters could serve as the ideal probe substrates for hCE1. Given that BCM exhibit rapid hydrolytic rate in hCE1, we further investigate the enzymatic kinetics of this fluorescent probe substrate in both human liver microsomes (HLM) and recombinant hCE1, as well as to explore its potential application in high-throughput screening of hCE1 inhibitors by using HLM as enzyme source. The results showed that the kinetic behaviors and the affinity of BCM in HLM is much closed to those in recombinant hCE1, implying that hCE1 played the key roles in BCM hydrolysis in HLM. Furthermore, the inhibition study demonstrated that BCM could be used for rapid screening and characterization of hCE1 inhibitors, by using HLM to replace recombinant hCE1 as enzyme source.

Praeruptorin C (PC), D (PD) and E (PE) are important compounds extracted from Peucedanum praeruptorum DUNN and have been reported to exert multiple pharmacological activities. The present study is purposed to determine the inhibition of PC, PD and PE on the activity of important phase I metabolic enzymes-carboxylesterases (CES). In vitro human liver microsomes (HLM) incubation system was used to determine the inhibition potential of PC, PD and PE on the activity of CES1 and CES2. Inhibition behaviour was determined, and in vitro-in vivo extrapolation was performed by using the combination of in vitro inhibition kinetic parameter (K_i) and in vivo exposure level of PD. PD exhibited the strongest inhibition on the activity of CES1, with 81.7% activity inhibited by 100 μmol·L^-1 of PD. PD noncompetitively inhibited the activity of CES1 with the K_i to be 122.2 μmol·L^-1, indicating inhibition potential of PD towards CES1 in vivo. Therefore, closely monitoring the endogenous metabolic disorders caused by PD and interaction between PD and drugs mainly undergoing CES1-catalyzed metabolism is very necessary.

Precision medicine (PM) involves the application of "omics" analysis and system biology to analyze the cause of disease at the molecular level for targeted treatments of individual patient. Based on the targeted treatment PM is closely related to pharmaceuticals, which, as a therapeutic means and supply front, mainly embody the two aspects:drug discovery/development, and clinical administration. Innovation of new molecular entities with safety and specific efficacy is the prerequisite and guarantee for the PM practice; on the other hand, the outcome and clues in clinical PM feedback to new drug research. PM and drug research/application are interdependent and promote each other. Aimed at precision medicine, drug discovery and development involve well-known contents:the discovery and validation of targets, the association between target functions and indications (proof of concept), lead discovery and optimization, the association between preclinical investigations and clinical trials, the lean of industrialization and pharmacoeconomics. At the molecular level the therapeutic efficacy originates from the interactive binding between specific atoms or groups of the drug molecule and the complementary atoms or groups of the macromolecular target in three-dimensional space. The strict arrangement of such critical atoms, groups, or fragments reflect specific features for a precise binding to the corresponding target. An alteration of amino acid residues in mutational targets leads to the change in conformation of the target protein, and an accurate structure of drug is necessary for binding to the mutant species and avoiding off-targeting effect. For the tailoring of clinical treatment to the individual patient design and development of various new molecular entities are critical for treatment choice according to the molecular features of biological markers of patients. This article provides some examples and methods of drug design and development in the new period.

This study was conducted to investigate the inhibitory effect and the molecular mechanism of deoxyschizandrin on the activity of NLRP3 (NOD-like receptor family, pyrin domain containing 3) inflammasome. Bone marrow-derived macrophages were used to study the effects of deoxyschizandrin on inflammasome activation using inflammasome inducers (ATP and nigericin). Cytotoxic effect was evaluated with CCK-8. The expression of IL-1β, caspase-1 in the supernatant and the expression of pro-caspase-1, pro-IL-1 β, ASC, NLRP3 in cell was detected by Western blot for the inhibitory effect of deoxyschizandrin (25, 50, 100 and 200 μmol·L^-1) on the activity of NLRP3 inflammasome. Immunofluorescence was applied to investigate NF-κB (p65) transportation to the nucleus. The results of CCK-8 showed that the optimum concentration of deoxyschizandrin was 6.25-400 μmol·L^-1. Deoxyschizandrin (25, 50, 100, and 200 μmol·L^-1) could inhibit the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome caused by nigericin and ATP, and inhibit the secretion of IL-1 β, which was associated with inhibiting the cleavage of pro-caspase-1. The results of immunofluorescence and Western blot also suggest that the inhibitory activity of deoxyschizandrin on NLRP3 inflammasome was not dependent on NF-κB pathway and protein expression of NLRP3, ASC, pro-caspase-1 and pro-IL-1 β mediated by NF-κB. Our results confirmed that deoxyschizandrin could suppress the cleavage of pro-caspase-1 and inhibit the activity of NLRP3 inflammasome at 25-200 μmol·L^-1 to reduce the inflammation response.

The study was designed to explore the effects of HS060098 on activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARα, γ and δ) and in the down-regulation of hyperlipidemia in golden hamster. Luciferase gene reporters of PPARα, PPARγ and PPARδ were constructed in HepG2 cells and the green fluorescent protein (GFP) was used as an internal reference. Transfected cells were then cultured with various concentrations of HS060098 for 24 h. The peroxisome proliferator-response element luciferase activity was determined by the dual-luciferase reporter gene assay system. To investigate the lipid-lowering effect of HS060098, hyperlipidemic golden hamsters fed by high-diet were administered orally with HS060098 through prophylactic and therapeutic approaches respectively. The levels of blood lipids such as total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and fat index in hamsters were evaluated. The results showed that HS060098 was a potent activator of PPAR δ with a good selectivity and the median effective concentration (EC 50) is 0.01 μmol·L^-1, while no obvious PPARα and PPARγ activation was observed. In the golden hamster, oral administration of HS060098 (5, 10, 20 mg·kg^-1·d^-1) for 2 weeks, led to a significant decrease the concentrations of plasma TC, TG, LDL-C and fat index (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01), whereas the contents of plasma HDL-C were increased significantly (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01). The data suggest that HS060098 is a novel PPAR δ agonist with a significant activity in the prevention and therapy of hyperlipemia in golden hamster.

This study was designed to investigate effects of pargyline on histone methylation in the promoter and enhancer regions and transcription of cytochrome P450 3A4/3A7 (CYP3A4/3A7) gene. Human primary fetal liver cells were isolated, cultured and randomly divided into several groups including control, solvent, pargyline low, middle, high dose (treated with 0.6, 1.2, 2.4 mmol·L^-1). HepG2 cells were cultured and treated with 0.03, 0.3, 3 mmol·L^-1 pargyline. After 48 hours, total RNAs were prepared from the cells to determine the expression of CYP3A mRNA in primary fetal cells and HepG2 cells with real-time quantative PCR (qPCR). HepG2 cells were cultured and then treated with 3 mmol·L^-1 pargyline for 48 hours. The chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay was performed with dimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4me2), and IgG antibodies respectively. The precipitated DNA was resuspended and used for qPCR. Primers were used to detect different regions of CYP3A4/3A7 promoter and enhancer. Occupancy of H3K4me2 was shown as percent of input DNA relative to control cells. The results suggested that pargyline has an effect on primary fetal liver cells and HepG2 cells proliferation. The level of CYP3A7 was markedly enhanced in human primary fetal liver cells by treatment with 1.2, 2.4 mmol·L^-1 of pargyline (P＜0.05, P ＜0.01) and the levels of CYP3A4/3A7 were remarkably enhanced by treatment with 3 mmol·L^-1 of pargyline in HepG2 cells (P＜0.001) compared with solvent control. Occupancy of H3K4me2 on human CYP3A4 promoter (-362 to +53) and enhancer segment (-7 836 to -6 093) harbored the overlapping hepatocyte nuclear factors 4A (HNF4A) binding site compared with a negative control. Occupancy of H3K4me2 on human CYP3A7 promoter (-163 to +103) and enhancer segment (-4 054 to -3 421, -6 265 to -6 247) overlapped with glucocorticoid receptor (GR) binding site. In conclusion, the enriched H3K4me2 in the promoter and enhancer regions was induced by pargyline with HNF4A or GR binding site in CYP3A4/3A7 gene to activate the corresponding genes.

This study was designed to screen the targets of bioactive ingredients of Baihe Dihuang Tang, and investigate the "multi-components, multi-targets and multi-pathways" intervention mechanism of Baihe Dihuang Tang on psychological sub-health. The ADME/T calculation method was used to screen the active ingredient of Baihe Dihuang Tang, and then using ADME/T calculation method to filtrate the active components of Baihe Dihuang Tang, then Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), PharmMapper database and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were combined to forecast and filtrate the targets of the main active ingredients. In addition, the predicted targets were verified by the Surflex-dock in Sybyl. The Cytoscape software was used to construct the Baihe Dihuang Tang ingredients-targets-disease network, while ClueGO software was used to analyze the molecular function and biological process of the targets. There are total 11 active ingredients and 21 targets in Baihe Dihuang Tang. A good interaction between them was supported by the score. The 21 targets were mainly involved in gamma-aminobutyric acid signaling pathway, cAMP metabolic process and monoamine transport relevant biological processes. Thus, Baihe Dihuang Tang may play a role in the intervention of psychological sub-health by regulating the activity of G-protein coupled amine receptor and the expression of monoamine neurotransmitter, which reflects the features of traditional Chinese medicine multi-components, multi-targets and multi-pathways. This research provides evidences on the pharmacological mechanism of Baihe Dihuang Tang effect on psychological sub-health.

This study is designed to investigate the protective effect and mechanism of cordycepin on nonalcoholic fatty liver in ob/ob mice. Twelve-week-old male ob/ob mice were divided into 5 groups according to their body weight and blood glucose, and C57BL/6J mice were used in the control group. The animals were orally administered with cordycepin for 7 weeks. Body weight and food intake were measured once a week. Blood were collected from ophthalmic venous and biochemical indexes were determined at the 2nd and 4th week. Insulin tolerance test was performed at the 5th week. After 7 weeks of administration, liver tissues were collected to determine the contents of triglycerides and total cholesterol, and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Liver histology was performed by hematoxylin-eosin and oil-red O staining. Total RNA were extracted from liver tissues and the levels of lipid metabolism-related and inflammation-related genes were detected by real time PCR. Cordycepin effectively reduced the blood lipids level and improved liver function. Nevertheless, it did not improve insulin resistance in ob/ob mice. Cordycepin significantly reduced the contents of triglycerides and cholesterol, and the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in liver tissues. Moreover, cordycepin remarkably suppressed the expression of genes related to lipids synthesis and inflammation. These results indicate that cordycepin may improve non-alcoholic fatty liver in ob/ob mice, and the underlying mechanism may be associated with decreased expression of genes related to lipids synthesis and inflammation.

Thiochromanones and 1,3,4-thiadazoles as heterocyclic compounds have broad biological activities. In order to find novel compounds with antifungal bioactivity, substituted thiophenol and maleic anhydride were used to synthesize the intermediate 4-oxothiochromane-2-carboxylic acid. It was reacted with 2-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazol to get fourteen target compounds containing 1,3,4-thiadazole moiety. The structures of the obtained compounds were confirmed by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and HR-MS. All compounds were investigated for antifungal activity via microdilution broth method. The results showed that the target compounds 3a and 3c to Epidermophyton floccosum and Mucor racemosus exhibited better antifungal activity than the positive control fluconazole, in which the minimum inhibition concentration can reach 8 μg·mL^-1 and 16 μg·mL^-1. Compound 3e showed significant inhibitory activity to Helminthosporium maydis, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea compared with that of the positive control carbendazim. Compound 3b exhibited inhibitory activity to Helminthosporium maydis better than the positive control carbendazim.

Twenty phenylpropenamide analogs with structural novelty were designed and synthesized upon pharmacophore-combination strategy. The structures of target compounds were elucidated by IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and MS, and all the target compounds were biologically evaluated for the inhibitory activities of platelet aggregation induced by adenosine diphoshate (ADP) and (AA) arachidonic acid via Bron method. As a result, compounds 6b, 9b, 9d and 9h demonstrated potent inhibitory activity against platelet aggregation induced by AA. Meanwhile, compounds 6b, 6d, 6j, 9b and 9g exhibited significant suppression of platelet aggregation induced by ADP.

This study was designed to elucidate the chemical composition and anti-cancer effects of Schizonepeta tenuifolia's ethanol extracts. Microfluidic technology was used in the study of Schizonepeta tenuifolia from 9 different geographic regions. The ethanol extracts were examined with HPLC to establish their Fingerprints in order to analyze the relationship between the spectrum and efficacy index through Grey Correlation software, and a rapid HPLC-Q-TOF/MS method was established. The result shows that chromatographic peaks of the 19, 6, 11, 16, 18th are the representative diosmetin, luteoloside, hesperidin, luteolin, and apigenin. The 10, 12, 20th peaks may be naringenin-7-O-glucuronide or quercitrin, rosmarinate or acetylcorynoline, and 5,7-dihydroxy-6,4-dimethoxy flavone. The major chemical composition of Schizonepeta tenuifolia was found to have the anti-lung-tumor effects. A new method was established for the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine.

This study was designed to clarify the chemical constituents in Yuanhu Zhitong prescription (YHZT), a rapid high performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF/MS) method was established. Based on the high resolution MS spectra data, fragmentation ion information, reference standards data and literature reports, 51 peaks including 28 alkaloid compounds and 23 coumarin compounds were identified. The chemical constituents in YHZT were rapidly, accurately, systematically analyzed. The results lay a foundation for the quality control of effective compounds of YHZT.

Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers as synthetic gene vectors are efficient gene delivery systems. In this study, a kind of α-cyclodextrin-PAMAM conjugates polymer (CyD-G1) was synthesized as a gene delivery vector. Based on ¹H NMR detectation, about 6.4 PAMAM-G1 molecules was grafted onto an α-CD core. Agarose gel electrophoresis revealed that CyD-G1 could efficiently bind with DNA to condense them into nano-scale particles, which showed a similar binding capacity of PEI-25K. Besides, it could protect DNA from DNase I degradation in a low N/P ratio. When N/P ratio in the CyD-G1/DNA polyplex was 40, the average particle size of CyD-G1/DNA polyplex was about 120 nm, and zeta potential was +21 mV. This polyplex could maintain its particle size in serum-containing solution within 360 min. In comparison with PEI-25K carrier, CyD-G1 showed low cytotoxicity in various cell lines. Cell transfection results showed that CyD-G1 efficiently delivered DNA into cells at N/P=80 compared with Lipofectamine 2000 and PEI-25K.Unlike Lipofectamine 2000 and PEI-25K, in serum-containing test condition, CyD-G1/DNA polyplex could maintain the transgene activities. The results of confocal laser scanning microscopy indicated that most DNA entered into cell nuclei within 4 h, and this phenomenon was consistent with the results calculated by flow cytometry. Taken together, CyD-G1 showed good transgene activities and the gene delivery vector could be used not only in vitro but also in vivo.

This study is prepared to provide the basis of rheological parameters for the additional quality standard of ophthalmic gels, the rheological properties of the ophthalmic gels and the other three types of ophthalmic preparations. The medicines were compared through the study of the rheological properties for four types of ophthalmic preparations. The cone-plate rheometer was used to determine the dynamic and steady rheological parameters of four types of ophthalmic preparations. The similarities and differences of the measured results were analyzed to summarize the rheological indexes and parameters which are applied to distinguish the ophthalmic gels and the other types of ophthalmic preparations. ① The elastic modulus should be greater than the viscous modulus for the ophthalmic gels in the range of the linear viscoelastic region. ② The ophthalmic gels should be shear thinning non-Newtonian fluid with a certain yield stress and thixotropy. ③ The dynamic viscosity of the ophthalmic gels should be greater than 0.5 Pa·S at the temperature of 25℃ with the 50 s^-1 shear rate. The typical rheological indexes and parameters of the ophthalmic gels were proposed in this article. The determination methods are simple and feasible. The rheological indexes and parameters have an important significance in the prescription design, production technology and quality control of the ophthalmic gels.

The genus Tripterygium is an immune suppressor in the Chinese traditional medicines. Due to the habitat destruction and anthropogenic over-exploitation, the wild genus Tripterygium plants have decreased dramatically in recent years or even been endangered. It is critical to evaluate and protect genus Tripterygium wild resource. In this research, simple sequence repeat (SSR) molecular markers were applied to the investigation of the genetic diversity and genetic structure of 28 populations for genus Tripterygium (396 samples from 9 provinces in China). We found a high level of genetic diversity (percentage of polymorphic loci PPL=77.29%, Shannon's information index I=0.639 4; Nei's expected heterozygosity H=0.359 9) and high genetic differentiation among the populations (gene flow N_m=0.228 7). Based on Nei's genetic distance, the phylogenic tree of populations was constructed and 28 populations were divided into 6 clusters according to STRUCTURE clustering analysis. T. hypoglaucumwas was mainly divided into 3 clusters, including Sichuan, Yunnan and GuizhouChongqing. T. regelii was separated to cluster 4, while T. wilfordii was divided into two clusters:the transition type LQ and NY were divided into cluster 5, and the others were in cluster 6. These results provide a theory basis for the conservation of wild resource, research of genetic polymorphism and molecular marker for assisted breeding of genus Tripterygium.

Bupleuri Radix is one of the most frequently used herbal medicines in China with a 2000-year medicinal history. However, the use of Bupleuri Radix is very confused. Twenty-five species and eight varieties of Bupleurum have been used as Bupleuri Radix in different regions of China. It is very difficult to identify these Bupleurum species using traditional morphological method. In order to establish a fast and effective method to identify these Bupleurum species, we collected 168 Bupleurum medicinal plants from 14 populations of 9 provinces, and amplified their ITS sequences. 168 ITS sequences with a full length of 600-606 bp were obtained. DNAMAN analyzing results showed that 86 variable sites were present in these sequences and 19 haplotypes (TH1-TH19) were determined. After calculating K2P distance and analyzing an NJ tree, we established a molecular identification method based on ITS sequence. Using this method,52 samples of Bupleuri Radix were identified successfully. Furthermore, we tested saikosaponin a, c, d contents in these Bupleuri Radix by HPLC and analyzed the results by ANOVA and LSD T test to evaluate the quality of Bupleuri Radix. This method is significant for effective identification of Bupleurum medicinal plants, and quality control of Bupleuri Radix in the market.

Tropane alkaloids are anticholinergic drugs widely used clinically. Biosynthesis of tropane alkaloids in planta involves a step of transamination of phenylalanine. Based on the sequenced transcriptomes of lateral roots and leaves of Hyoscyamus niger, we found three annotated aromatic amino acid aminotransferases, which were respectively named HnArAT1, HnArAT2 and HnArAT3. Sequence analysis showed that HnArAT3 had highest similarity with the reported Atropa belladonna AbArAT4, which was involved in tropane alkaloid (TA) to provide the precursor of the phenyllactic acid moiety. Tissue expression pattern analysis indicated that HnArAT3 was specifically expressed in lateral roots, where is the organ synthesizing tropane alkaloids. Then, method of virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) was used to characterize the function of HnArAT3 in H. niger. Gene expression analysis given by real-time quantitative PCR showed that all the transgenic lines had lower expression levels of HnArAT3 than the non-transgenic control, and HPLC analysis of alkaloids demonstrated significant decrease in the contents of hyoscyamine, anisodamine and scopolamine in planta. These results suggested that HnArAT3 was involved in the phenyllactic acid branch of TA biosynthetic pathway. Molecular cloning and functional identification of HnArAT3 laid the foundation for further understanding of TA biosynthesis and metabolic regulation, and also provided a new candidate gene for engineering biosynthetic pathway of tropane alkaloids.