Sixteen compounds were isolated from the ethanol extract of Illigera rhodantha by silica gel, ODS, and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatographies. These compounds were identified as (2R, 3R)-2, 3-dihydroxy-2-methylbutane-1, 4-diyldibenzoate (1), p-hydroxyphenethyl trans-ferulate (2), 4-O-benzoyl-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol (3), N-trans feruloyl-3-methyldopamine (4), tribulusamide A (5), cryptomeridiol (6), teuclatriol (7), oleanolic acid (8), icario A₂ (9), vanillic acid (10), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (11), gallic acid (12), ethyl gallate (13), chrysophanol (14), D-1-O-methyl-inositol (15), and hexadecanoic acid (16) based on their spectral data and physico-chemical properties. Compound 1 is an undescribed compound, of which its absolute configurations were determined by Mosher and ROESY methods; all the compounds except 10, 11 and 14 were isolated from Illigera genus for the first time. Compared with the positive control indomethacin, compounds 4-6, 8 and 9 inhibited significantly against the NO production in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells.

In this study, chronic emotional stress-induced H1N1 influenza susceptibility model was employed to simulate the states of "emotional stagnation" and "liver fire invading lung", and the protective effect of Qinggan Xiefei Fang on viral pneumonia was investigated. Survival rate and morbidity rate of mice were observed within 21 days after H1N1 infection, the symptoms of viral pneumonia and the level of phospholipid peroxidation were detected in lungs of mice after 6-day infection. The experimental results showed that Qinggan Xiefei Fang could alleviate the decline of survival rate and morbidity rate of mice caused by chronic constraint stress loaded with H1N1, inhibit the replication of H1N1 and the production of inflammatory factors, reduce the level of phospholipid peroxidation, and improve the symptoms of pneumonia in mice. The results also showed that compound-target network of Qinggan Xiefei Fang contained 171 compounds and 260 corresponding targets involved in the signaling pathway of oxidative stress, inflammation and immunity. All the above results indicate that Qinggan Xiefei Fang protecting influenza virus pneumonia was related to the regulation of oxidative stress. The animal experimental protocol has been reviewed and approved by Laboratory Animal Ethics Committee of Jinan University, in compliance with the Institutional Animal Care Guidelines.

This study was designed to obtain recombinant human thioredoxin (rhTXN) by gene cloning and prokaryotic expression, and evaluated its therapeutic effect in the mouse ulcerative colitis (UC) model induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS). The human thioredoxin gene TXN was cloned from the cDNA of Jurkat cells. The recombinant expression plasmid pCold TF-rhTXN was constructed by restriction enzyme digestion. After expression in E. coli BL21 (DE3), recombinant human thioredoxin was purified by a nickel column. Intact rhTXN recombinant protein was obtained after removal of the fusion partner-tag by enzyme digestion and the activity of disulfide reductase was detected by the insulin reduction method. The animal experiments in this study were performed in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the Laboratory Animal Welfare Ethical Review Committee of Nanjing University. Experiment ulcerative colitis was induced by providing mice with sterilized drinking water which contained 3% DSS. rhTXN was injected intraperitoneally. The therapeutic effect was studied by weight change, colon length and HE (hematoxylin and eosin) stained sections. In vivo imaging was used to study the targeting of rhTXN to DSS mice. The GSE107499 data set of GEO database was used to screen the hub genes at the lesional sites of UC and study the correlation with TXN. The experimental results showed that rhTXN was successfully expressed and purified with disulfide reductase activity. rhTXN (100 μg·kg^-1) had a significant therapeutic effect on maintaining the weight change of mice (P = 0.000 5) and reducing intestinal injury (P < 0.000 1), and had a colon targeting effect on DSS mice. In GSE107499 data set, TXN in inflammatory sites of UC patients was significantly down regulated (P < 0.01) and negatively correlated with hub gene CD40 (P < 0.01) and positively correlated with hub gene fibronectin 1 (FN1) (P < 0.01). In this study, biologically active rhTXN was successfully prepared and proved to have a promising therapeutic effect on the DSS mouse model, and TXN gene was significantly correlated with the UC hub genes CD40 and FN1.

The MYC gene, one of the most common dysregulated driver genes in human cancers, is composed of three paralogous genes C-MYC, N-MYC and L-MYC. It is abnormally activated in more than half of cancer types. Since MYC plays an important role in the formation, maintenance and progression of cancer, targeting MYC is an effective strategy for cancer treatment. As a potential anti-cancer target, MYC is considered "undruggable" because it lacks a suitable pocket for accommodating small molecule inhibitors. Recently, under the guidance of protein structure information and many computational tools, many indirect strategies to inhibit MYC have emerged and shown favorable anti-cancer effects in tumor models. In this paper, the recent small molecules that indirectly target MYC are divided into inhibitors acting on the protein-protein interaction (PPI) among MYC and other proteins, and targeting inhibitors regulating MYC action. Additionally, the introduction and assessment towards compounds with different mechanisms are summarized to provide reference for the further research of MYC inhibitors.

The mitochondrial enzyme glutaminase C (GAC) is highly expressed in a variety of cancer cells, resulting in increased glutamine metabolism and cancer development. Therefore, GAC has become a potential target for anti-tumor drug development. However, current GAC inhibitors shared similar structural characteristics, few new scaffolds were reported. By conducting a prokaryotic Escherichia coli expression system, human GAC protein of high-purity was obtained through lysozyme digestion combined with ultrasound dissociation, and cobalt magnetic beads purification, Moreover, we performed studies to validate interaction between small molecules and GAC protein through thermal shift assay, drug affinity responsive target stability assay, protein crosslinking and GAC enzyme activity detection. Meanwhile, a comprehensive small molecule-protein interaction confirmation and systematic pharmacodynamic study in vitro were carried out on compound C19, which was a reported GAC inhibitor screened from the Enamine database. Results showed that C19 directly bind to GAC protein, disturbed GAC tetramers formation, and inhibited its enzyme catalytic activity. By interfering GAC function, C19 dose-dependently suppressed GAC-mediated glutamine metabolism, reduced glutamate in cancer cells, and thus alleviated A549 and NCI-H1299 non-small cell lung cancer cell growth. Together, C19 was identified as a lead compound, providing a new strategy for the structural design of drugs targeting GAC.

Leech bites usually lead to more bleeding, and dermal tissue is damaged to form lifelong scars. If leeches enter the body cavity, it will be more dangerous. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop effective repellents. In this study, oil in water (O/W) emulsion of tea tree oil was prepared with tea tree oil as the main ingredient, and konjac glucomannan (KGM), ethyl cellulose (EC) as the main excipients. The filter-paper ring method and repellent test in water were used to evaluate the repellent effects on leeches. The animal experiments were approved by the Ethics Committee of Academy of Military Medical Sciences and were conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The activities of acetylcholinesterase (AchE), glutathione S-transferase (GST) and carboxylesterase (CarE) in vivo were measured to clarify the repellent mechanisms. The results showed that a uniform and stable tea tree oil emulsion was successfully prepared, which has excellent hydrophilicity and can effectively repel leeches. The tea tree oil emulsion has a good repellent effect on leeches, which can avoid the volatilization of tea tree oil and prolong the effective repelling time. The novel formulation of tea tree oil provides a new idea for repelling effects with long time and high efficiency based on similar essential oil.

Particle design, based on the concept of "quality by design", combines the elements of microbiology, formulation science, heat and mass transfer, solid state physics, powder science, and nanotechnology. It is widely used to develop particles with excellent functional properties. Without affecting the active ingredients, the modification technology of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) powder based on particle design theory, could improve the flowability, tabletability, disintegration and dissolution behavior, hygroscopicity, wettability, and other functional properties at the physical structure level. This greatly promotes the development of solid preparations of TCM. The present review aims to summarize and discuss the research progress of powder modification of TCM from the perspective of the theory of particle design, powder modification technology, equipment used for powder modification, application in TCM and modification mechanism mainly based on researches published in recent ten years. This review could provide ideas and theory basis for the development of particle design.

Cystine/glutamate antiporter [system Xc(-)] is a sodium independent amino acid transporter, which is a heterodimer composed of light chain subunit xCT and heavy chain subunit 4F2hc (CD98) through covalent disulfide bond. System Xc(-) typically mediates cystine uptake and glutamate output, helps to maintain the balance of glutamate, cystine and cysteine inside and outside the cell, regulates the level of glutamate inside and outside the membrane and the synthesis of intracellular glutathione, thus affecting oxidative stress and glutamate neurotoxicity. This review expounds the structure and function of system Xc(-), analyzes the role of the transporter in physiology and pathology, discusses the role and mechanism in different diseases, and discusses the specific research progress of system Xc(-) as a drug target. This review summarizes the research status of system Xc(-) and provides theoretical guidance for further research on system Xc(-) and drug discovery.

In recent years, the use of the body's immune system for anti-tumor immunotherapy has received extensive attention. However, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) limits the effect of immunotherapy. Therefore, overcoming the limitations of TME and immunosuppressive cells plays an important role in tumor immunotherapy. Nano agents have great potential to reprogram the immunosuppressive microenvironment and provide an effective strategy for immunotherapy. With the continuous development of active targeting nano carrier technology and the deepening of the research on drug action sites, subcellular organ targeting nano carrier materials with more accurate active targeting function have also attracted more and more attention. This review will briefly introduce the relationship between subcellular organelles and tumor, summarize the design strategy and research progress of targeted nano drug delivery system based on the characteristics of acidity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) activity, immunogenicity, and TME of immunosuppressive cells, to provide reference for the construction of subcellular pathway targeted drug delivery system in tumor immunotherapy.

Ferroptosis is a novel type of cell death, which is distinguished from the traditional cell death pathways such as apoptosis, proptosis, necrosis and autophagy in terms of morphology, biochemistry and genetics. The main features of ferroptosis are the iron accumulation and lipid peroxidation. The regulation mechanism of ferroptosis involves glutathione metabolism, lipid peroxidation reactions and iron metabolism, which are closely related to the pathological process of tumor, aging, neurodegenerative diseases, ischemia reperfusion injury, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, kidney injury, hepatic fibrosis and so on. How to effectively study the role of ferroptosis regulation mechanism in the treatment of diseases becomes the hot spot and focus of the ferroptosis research. In recent years, with the in-depth study of ferroptosis, the identification, confirmation and the mechanism of ferroptosis have been developed significantly and have come forth continuously, in the meantime, techniques based on the morphology, biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics have been widely applied in the detection of ferroptosis. In order to deepen readers' understanding of ferroptosis and its detection methods, this paper will mainly review the current research progress on the detection methods and their application in ferroptosis, summarize and discuss their advantages and disadvantages in the detection of ferroptosis, this knowledge are crucial for better understanding and studying the biological function of ferroptosis.