The study evaluates the lipolysis rate and extent of type Ⅲ lipid formulations using testosterone undecanoate as a model drug after digestion with in vitro lipolysis model, and studies the digestive regularity with optical microscope and electrical conductivity. The results showed that for testosterone undecanoate type Ⅲ lipid formulations with castor oil as oil phase and Transcutol HP as latent solvent, the lipolysis rate and extent were increased with the increase of oil phase proportion and were decreased with excessive proportion of surfactant, in which can see liquid crystal phase during lipolysis process. The lipolysis rate of type ⅢB lipid preparations with different surfactant were ordered as Labrasol > Tween 80 > Cremophor EL, but the rate of type ⅢA is different in quick digestion phase and slow digestion phase. The lipolysis extent of type Ⅲ lipid formulations with different surfactant were ordered as Cremophor EL > Tween 80 > Labrasol. These may be related to the digestive effect of pancreatic lipase on different surfactants. This study implied that the lipolysis rate and extent of type Ⅲ lipid formulations are greatly influenced by the proportion of oil phase and surfactant, and the surfactant structure. These factors will affect the in vivo digestion and should be taken into account when screening type Ⅲ lipid formulations.

Ferulate 5-hydroxylase (F5H) is a key enzyme involved in the phenylpropane metabolism pathway. Based on our previous transcriptome sequencing study, F5H played a negative regulatory role in glycyrrhizic acid (GA) biosynthesis. Therefore, in this study we cloned the F5H gene and investigated its regulatory effect on GA accumulation through gene overexpression and knockout. F5H was cloned from Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (GenBank Accession No. MK882511). A plant binary expression vector pCA-F5H was constructed by inserting F5H into pCAMBIA1305.1 at Spe Ⅰ and Bgl Ⅱ sites. The sgRNA sequences were designed based on the first exon of F5H. The CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing vector pHSE-F5H was constructed by inserting F5H sgRNA into pHSE401 at two Bsa Ⅰ sites. PCA-F5H and pHSE-F5H were transfected into Agrobacterium tumefaciens ATCC15834, which was used to induce hairy root overexpressing or knocking out F5H with licorice hypocotyl as explants. At the same time, wild type and negative control hairy roots were also generated. UPLC was used to assay the GA content in different hairy root lines, and results showed that the GA content in hairy root lines knocking out F5H was significantly higher, whereas in hairy root lines overexpressing F5H GA content was lower than that in the wild-type and negative control. In this work, through a reverse genetics strategy, the negative regulatory effect of F5H on GA biosynthesis was confirmed through gene overexpression and knockout. This work will lay a foundation for further elucidation of the molecular regulatory network of GA biosynthesis.

In the research and development of new drugs, it is very important to investigate the in vitro metabolism of candidate drugs. Traditional models such as liver microsomes have many limitations, while the in vitro model of recombinant human drug metabolizing enzymes is considered as an important and useful approach because of its convenient access, stable activity and low cost. In this study, six major human UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) genes (UGT1A1, 1A3, 1A4, 1A6, 1A9 and 2B7) were cloned from human liver cDNA and heterologously expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and baculovirus-infected insect cell. UGT1A1, 1A3, 1A6 and 1A9 were successfully expressed in yeast and showed glucuronidation activity against a variety of different structural types of substrates, but their activities were low. All six UGTs were successfully expressed and exhibited significantly improved glucuronidation activity when Trichopolusia ni cells BTI-TN5B1-4 (High Five) were used as the host. The recombinant human UGTs expressed in insect cells can catalyze the glucuronidation of their specific substrates, and the glucuronidation products were synthesized at milligram-scale with yields of 13%-66% for the first time, of which the structures were identified via MS, ¹H NMR, and ¹³C NMR spectroscopic analysis. Above all, the recombinant human UGTs yeast and insect cell expression systems constructed in this study can be used for in vitro metabolism evaluation in the early stage of new drugs research and development, and also provide a new tool for the synthesis of glucuronide metabolites.

To explore the effect and mechanisms of demethylation drug zebularine on esophageal cancer cells apoptosis, ECA109 cells and KYSE170 cells were treated with zebularine at different concentrations (25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 μmol·L^-1). The cell viability was measured by CCK-8. Flow cytometry was used to detect the cell apoptosis rate, Western blot was performed to determine the expression of apoptosis protein (Bcl-2, Bax, cleaved-caspase-3, and cleaved-PARP) and Wnt signal pathway molecules (β-catenin, cyclin D1, and c-Myc), real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect the expression level of negative regulatory genes of Wnt signaling pathway, methylation specific PCR (MSP) was used to detect the methylation status of secreted frizzled related protein 2 (SFRP2) and dickkopf 3 (Dkk3) genes. After knockdown of SFRP2 and Dkk3, the effect of zebularine on apoptosis was detected. The studies showed that zebularine could inhibit the activity of ECA109 and KYSE170 cells in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner; zebularine could induce cell apoptosis, down-regulate the expression of Bcl-2 protein, up-regulate the expression of Bax, cleaved-caspase-3, and cleaved-PARP protein, and inhibit the expression of β-catenin, cyclin D1, and c-Myc protein (P < 0.05); the mRNA expression levels of Dkk3 and SFRP2 were significantly up-regulated by zebularine, while the methylation levels of SFRP2 and Dkk3 promoters were decreased; knockdown of SFRP2 and Dkk3 could reduce the apoptosis induced by zebularine. In summary, zebularine could reduce the methylation level of SFRP2 and Dkk3 gene promoter, promote the expression of SFRP2 and Dkk3 gene, and then induce the apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells by inhibiting Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Pregnane X receptor (PXR), a member of nuclear receptor superfamily, plays an important role in xenobiotic and endogenous metabolism, endocrine balance, and cell proliferation, etc. Previous study has shown that pregnenolone 16α-carbonitrile (PCN), a mouse PXR agonist, could induce liver enlargement. And we found that the change in hepatocytes exhibits regional distribution characteristics: hepatocyte enlargement occurs around the central vein (CV) area, while hepatocyte proliferation occurs around the portal vein (PV) area. In this study, the dynamic changes of hepatocytes during PXR-induced liver enlargement were determined. Serum and liver samples from male C57BL/6 mice were collected for biochemical and pathological analysis after PCN treatment for 1, 2, 3, 5 days, respectively. The animal experiment was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Sun Yat-Sen University. The results showed that with the increase in the PCN treatment days, the feature of this regional change of hepatocyte around the CV and PV areas became more and more obvious. At the same time, the factors related to hepatocyte enlargement, such as the expression of PXR downstream genes and the hepatic content of triglyceride (TG), has gradually increased. The upregulation of proliferation-related proteins and downregulation of cyclin-dependent kinases inhibitor proteins were observed in the early stage of PCN treatment, suggesting that hepatocyte proliferation occurs earlier than hepatocyte enlargement during PXR-induced liver enlargement. This study reveals the dynamic change of hepatocytes during PXR-induced liver enlargement and provides a new insight in liver enlargement promoted via PXR activation.

Nucleocytoplasmic transport is the basic cellular activity of eukaryotic cells, which plays a role in cell physiological and pathological processes. A large amount of evidences indicate that impaired nucleocytoplasmic trafficking has emerged as a mechanism contributing to the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases. The regulation of nucleocytoplasmic transport is crucial to elucidate the pathogenesis and intervention in the neurodegenerative diseases. This article summarizes the evidences in disturbed nucleocytoplasmic transport of neurodegenerative diseases in the past two decades, further explores the directions and provides a theoretical basis for the pathogenesis and drug targets in neurodegenerative diseases.

In recent years, the overexpression dopamine (DA) due to the use of addictive drugs has caused concern and urgently needs to be addressed. The method used in our study is known as biomimetic sol-gel synthesis. We undertook the experiment to develop molecularly imprinted xerogel polymers (MIXPs) through template molecules dopamine polymerized with polyethyleneimine (PEI), then self-assembled and crosslinked with tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) in the form of non-covalent hydrogen bonds by using biomimetic sol-gel process, and then eluted template DA will leave a blotting site. Monoamine oxidase immobilized MIXPs (MAO-MIXPs) was obtained by coating monoamine oxidase onto MIXPs. The synthesis optimization of MAO-MIXPs was finally set as the ratio of DA template, PEI and MAO coating (DA 40 mg, PEI 0.6 mL, MAO 2.5 mg·g^-1) to achieve highly selective adsorption toward DA in artificial cerebrospinal fluid based on the adsorption performance and degradation performance. The micromorphologies and physical-chemical properties of MAO-MIXPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimeter and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and then amount of adsorption was calculated with adsorption equation. Simultaneously, the Brunner-Emmet-Teller (BET) and Langmuir model were simulated. It was found that the adsorption behavior tended to be monolayer adsorption. This new molecularly imprinted polymer demonstrated potential dopamine expression regulation for highly selective recognition, adsorption and degradation of dopamine.

Seven compounds were isolated from the alcohol extract of Edgeworthia gardneri by various technologies, including silica gel, Sephadex LH-20 and high performance liquid chromatography, and were identified as edgeworthiaside A (1), 2, 4, 6-trichlorol-3-methyl-5-methoxy-phenol 1-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-6)-β-D-glucopyranoside (2), 2, 6-dimethoxy-4-(2-propen-1-yl)phenyl 6-O-(6-deoxy-α-L-mannopyranosyl)-β-D-glucopyranoside (3), eugenol rutinoside (4), tiliroside (5), edgeworoside C (6), and salicylic acid (7). Compound 1 is a new chlorophenyl glycoside and 2-4 were isolated for the first time from Edgeworthia gardneri. The in vitro inhibition of α-glucosidase showed that the inhibition rate of compounds 1 and 2 were similar to acarbose.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), also named as a cancer of cardiovascular disease, is a rare disease and has complicated pathogenesis. Recently, there are more understandings of PAH pathogeneses. According to the pathogenesis and active pathways, the clinically used drugs are classified into several groups incluidng prostacyclin analogues and prostacyclin receptor agonists, endothelin receptor antagonists, phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, soluble guanylate cyclase inhibitors, etc. To elevate the efficacy of the drugs, numerous drug delivery systems are developed. This review mainly summarized the pathological mechanism of PAH, drugs and drug delivery approaches in the treatment of PAH.

Compound houttuynia mixture belongs to OTC class A medicine, which is made from Houttuynia cordata, Scutellaria baicalensis, Radix Isatidis, Forsythia, and Lonicera. As a kind of compound preparation of traditional Chinese medicine, houttuynia cordata mixture has extensive pharmacological effects, for example, clearing away heat and detoxifying, thus it is used for the sore throat, acute pharyngitis, and tonsillitis with wind-heat syndrome. In this study, the antiviral activity against influenza viruses and the primary mechanism of compound houttuynia mixture was evaluated. The antiviral effect of compound houttuynia mixture was determined by cytopathic effects (CPE), Western blot, quantitive reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR), and virus titer assays. The effect of houttuynia mixture on the replication cycle of influenza virus was evaluated by time-of-addition assay. In conclusion, the results showed that the compound houttuynia mixture had a broad-spectrum effect against influenza virus, including the international common influenza virus strains, the drug-resistant strains and the highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses H5N1 and H7N9. It mainly impairs the early stage of the viral replication.