Latest ArticlesUnder the guidance of Chinese Pharmacopoeia(2020 edition), the functionality-related characteristics of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose(HPMC) type 2208 from imported A manufacturer, domestic S manufacturer, domestic T manufacturer and different batches of the same manufacturer were characterized. The principal component analysis was used to comprehensively evaluate the functionality-related characteristics. The results were as follows: hydroxypropyl methylcellulose had no significant difference in viscosity and molecular weight distribution between different manufacturers, and there were significant differences in the cumulative particle size distribution of the sample reaches 50%(d50) and 90%(d90), bulk density, tap density and Carr's index. The HPMC from A manufacturer have the biggest inter-batch difference of particle size and their inter-batch difference of polydispersion coefficientis smaller than S manufacturer. Domestic manufactures have the largest inter-batch difference in other functionalityrelated characteristics. The three principal components were extracted by principal component analysis, and the variance contribution rate reached 89.44%, indicating that the extracted principal components can explain all the data well. By constructing a comprehensive evaluation model, the comprehensive score ranking of all HPMC samples is obtained: S manufacturer > A manufacturer > T manufacturer.
Central composite design(CCD) is one of the most commonly used design methods in response surface optimization and has been widely applied in the field of pharmaceutics to optimize preparations. On the 20 th anniversary of the introduction of CCD into China, the paper reviews its application in domestic pharmaceutical researches. Based on the brief introduction of basic principle and operation steps of CCD, the mistakes emerging in the application of CCD are summarized, including conceptual confusion with Box-Behnken design and facecentered CCD as well as wrong designs. Besides, the issues concerning the selection of factors and responses are discussed. The article is helpful for researchers to comprehensively understand the CCD and facilitates the rational application of this method.
Nanomedicine has great potential in cancer therapy, but the complex tumor microenvironment greatly prevents nanomedicine from being effectively delivered into tumor in vivo. It has been widely accepted that the encapsulated drugs in the nanoparticles have to go through five major cascading steps, including blood circulation, accumulation in tumor, penetration into the depth of tumor tissue, internalization by tumor cells and then intracellular drug release, before they can exert the anti-tumor efficacy. Among the five steps, drug accumulation in tumor and penetration in the depth of tumor have been the two major issues undermines the antitumor efficacy of nanomedicine. This paper summarizes the new major progress in improving the tumor accumulation and penetration of nanomedicine, especially the technologies that appeared or developed in the last five years.
Chronic kidney disease(CKD) is a serious chronic disease with high incidence, poor prognosis, and a variety of complications. Indoxyl-sulfate(IS) and p-cresol sulfate(PCS) are two typical gut-derived uremic toxins, which are produced by the co-metabolism of intestinal microbes and the host. With the progression of CKD, gutderived uremic toxins such as IS and PCS accumulate in patients with CKD and thereafter accelerate the progression of CKD. Gut microbiota is closely related with CKD, and targeting gut microbiota to regulate gut-derived uremic toxins synthesis and metabolic pathways may be a promising strategy to delay the progression of CKD. In this paper, the relationship between gut microbiota, gut-derived uremic toxins, and CKD was analyzed, and the strategy to delay the progression of CKD by targeting gut microbiota and uremic toxins metabolism pathway was proposed.
Research on the material basis of Chinese materia medica(CMM) is the basis for modernization of CMM. High-resolution mass spectrometry(HRMS) has become a powerful tool for the qualitative analysis of the components of CMM. Some data-mining strategies based on high-resolution mass spectrometry, such as full-information tandem mass spectrometry scanning acquisition strategy, sequential windowed acquisition of all theoretical fragment ions, mass detect filter, characteristic ion filter, mass spectral tree similarity filter, etc. have greatly promoted the elucidation of the qualitative basis of CMM. In order to provide methods for the rapid discovery and structural characterization of components and metabolites of CMM, this review summarized the advances in HRMS-based data-mining technologies for detecting and characterizing the compounds and metabolites of CMM, which includes class compounds, all compounds and metabolites.
Depression is a serious mental illness with a high incidence. At present, we do not fully understand the specific pathological mechanisms of depression, and the efficacy of drug treatments is very limited. Recent studies have shown that epigenetic changes that occur in specific brain regions may be a key mechanism by which environmental factors to interact with individuals to influence the risk of depression. Therefore, drugs that target epigenetic regulation may become a new direction for the development of antidepressants. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) are a class of compounds that inhibit histone deacetylase activity, which has been reported to be associated with depression; this article addresses the use of HDACi in preclinical studies, and their potential therapeutic role and limitations of use in depression.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma are complex inflammatory diseases with airway obstruction as the main characteristics, and have become common respiratory diseases that seriously affect human health. Compared with the clinical use of PDE3 or PDE4 inhibitors alone, dual PDE3/4 inhibitors have synergistic anti-inflammatory and bronchodilator effects, and have attracted widespread attention in recent years. This article reviews the representative research results of dual PDE3/4 inhibitors currently in the preclinical and clinical research stages, summarizing their latest progress and their potential for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.
Fibrosis is a pathological process of abnormal hyperplasia and excessive deposition of extracellular matrix during the process of repair after tissue and organ damage. Injury/inflammation caused by variously chronic diseases is a major trigger for fibrogenesis. Fibrosis of the liver and kidney is a common organ fibrosis. Recently, the intestinal microbiota has been shown to be extensively involved in the development of liver and kidney diseases, which may follow from changes in the intestinal microbial composition and intestinal integrity. This promotes the development of liver and/or kidney fibrosis through endocrine, cell signaling and other pathways. This paper reviews the research progress in understanding liver fibrosis and kidney fibrosis based on the gut-liver-kidney axis, which may be helpful for providing new strategies and theoretical basis for the diagnosis and treatment of hepatic and renal fibrosis.
The incidence of malignant melanoma, a highly fatal skin tumor, is on the rise worldwide. Melanomas are highly aggressive and have strong metastatic capability that leads to lethality. Recurrence occurs in patients with distant metastases, even with the latest treatments, and median survival is only a few months. At present, the prevention and treatment of melanoma includes surgical resection, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy. However, these strategies can lead to drug resistance and adverse effects. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have found that natural products have effective anti-melanoma activities, including inhibition of tumor growth, induction of cell apoptosis, inhibition of angiogenesis and metastasis and toxicity to tumor stem cells.In addition, several studies have reported that the combination of natural products and traditional anti-melanoma drugs can enhance the therapeutic efficacy. In this review we summarize the prevention and treatment of melanoma with natural products.
The α4β2-nicotinic acetylcholine receptor(nAChR) is a ligand-gated ion channel that is distributed throughout the nervous system. It is involved in the regulation of various neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, dopamine, γ-aminobutyric acid, and norepinephrine. α4β2-nAChR plays an important role in learning, memory, cognition, attention, inflammation, and pain. A large number of studies have shown that α4β2-nAChR is an important therapeutic target for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, depression, nicotine dependence, pain, etc. It is an important target in the early diagnosis and curative effect detection of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease. This review summarizes the role, mechanisms and related drug research advances on α4β2-nAChR ligand drugs in neurological diseases, as well as providing a theoretical basis for identifying and developing more suitable α4β2-nAChR-related compounds.
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