A method was developed for the rapid and systematic identification of alkaloids in Chelidonium majus L. by HPLC-Q-TOF/MS. The separation was performed on an XCharge C18 column (5 μm, 4.6 mm×250 mm) with acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid in water by gradient elution. The flow rate was 0.7 mL·min^-1. The primary mass spectrometer molecular ion and the secondary mass spectrometry fragment ion were determined. The mass spectrometric cleavage of alkaloids was determined and the structures were used to systematically identify the alkaloids in Chelidonium majus L. To verify the accuracy of the qualitative results, three alkaloids were purified and identified by NMR. Twenty-one alkaloids were identified from Chelidonium majus L., including one aporphine-type alkaloid, three protopine-type alkaloids, 11 benzophenanthrine-type alkaloids and six protoberberine-type alkaloids. (S)-N-methylstylopine (8) was first reported in Chelidonium majus L. and dihydrocoptisine (11) and norchelidonine (12) were identified for the first time in Chelidonium majus L. using this technique. The chemical structures of the purified compounds are consistent with the qualitative results of the mass spectrometric analysis. The method is fast and accurate and can provide a basis for the identification and extraction of the chemical constituents of Chelidonium majus L.

Fc region of a monoclonal antibody usually contains two N-glycosylation, which have a profound influence on its structure and function. Here, we review the relationship between various glycoforms and their impact on structure and function of monoclonal antibodies, along with the technologies for glycosylation analysis. In addition, some related Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) regulatory considerations are also discussed, such as specification improvement, biosimilarity assessment as well as comparability of pre- and post-process changes in glycosylation.

The benzaimides chidamide and entinostat are inhibitors of histone deacetylase and have been approved for clinic use. As drug resistance readily occurs in cancer chemotherapy, the characteristics of these drugs were studied in doxorubicin-sensitive and resistant human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Using a CCK-8 assay for measuring cell proliferation, doxorubicin-resistant cells showed some resistance to chidamide and entinostat, with greater resistance to chidamide. Potentiation of cis-diamine-dichloroplatinum action by entinostat was observed in resistant cells. The accumulation of rhodomine 123, an indirect indicator of ATP-binding cassette B1 (ABCB1)-mediated resistance, was not affected by incubation with chidamide or entinostat, suggesting that neither drug is a substrate for ABCB1. However, ABCB1 expression was significantly increased in resistance cells incubated with a fixed concentration of entinostat. Slowing of the cell cycle at G1 phase and slightly increased cell numbers at G2/M phase was detected by flow cytometry when the cell lines were treated with chidamide or entinostat. Both drugs could induce spherical morphological changes and cleavage of PARP1, an indicater of apoptosis in doxorubicin-sensitive MCF-7 cells, whereas no apoptotic features were observed in resistant cells. These findings show that there is some resistance to chidamide and entinostat in doxorubicin-resistant MCF-7 cells and that this resistance may further oppose apoptosis.

Chloroquine is a quinine derivative which is synthesized by German scholars in 1934. In addition to its anti-malaria, treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and immunomodulatory effects, chloroquine is also found valuable in broad-spectrum antiviral treatment. Clinical trials have confirmed that chloroquine has a good effect on acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. In 2019, there were many patients infected with novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2). Preliminary clinical trials showed that chloroquine had obvious curative effect on patients with SARS-CoV-2. We summarize the effects of chloroquine to different viruses, explain its mechanism, and compare the results of its experiments in vitro and in vivo. The antiviral effect of chloroquine in vivo and in vitro are not consistent, which may be related to the model of animal, dosage and distribution of chloroquine in vivo, and the design of clinical research.

Intestinal Peyer's patches (PPs) are important sites to induce mucosal immunity response. As a kind of specialized epithelial cells in PPs, microfold cells (M cells) have a unique ability to take up antigens and can promote systemic immune response by transferring antigens to dendritic cells (DCs) in PPs. Selecting a suitable drug delivery vehicle and modifying the vehicle with a specific ligand can target drugs and bioactive substances to M cells to exert a therapeutic effect on intestinal immune-related diseases. This paper reviews the relevant literatures in the past 20 years, and summarizes and analyzes the ligands, types of vehicles, material properties that target M cells and main factors affecting the uptake of M cells, in order to provide construction ideas and experimental methods that can be worthy of reference for the study of PPs M cells-targeting drug delivery strategies.

An LC-MS/MS method was developed for the simultaneous determination prednisone acetate, prednisone and active metabolite prednisolone in dog plasma, and applied to a bioavailability and pharmacokinetics study of oral dose of prednisone acetate (2.0 mg·kg^-1) and prednisone (1.8 mg·kg^-1) given to Beagle dogs in a randomized, two-way crossover study. This experiment scheme was approved by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of Shanghai Institute of Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dexamethason was used as internal standard. After extraction from the plasma by protein precipitation, the analytes and internal standard were separated on an HSS T₃ (50 mm×2.1 mm, 1.8 μm) column using a gradient elution procedure. The mobile phase consisted of methanol and 5 mmol·L^-1 ammonium acetate aqueous solution (0.1% formic acid). Positive electrospray ionization was performed using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) with transitions of m/z 401.2→295.2 for prednisone acetate, m/z 359.2→313.2 for prednisone, m/z 361.2→325.1 for prednisolone, m/z 393.2→373.0 for dexamethason. After prednisone acetate was administered, the C_max of prednisone was (25.1 ±3.61) ng·mL^-1 and AUC_0-t was (115 ±27.2) h·ng·mL^-1, while the C_max of prednisolone was (207 ±38.5) ng·mL^-1 and AUC_0-t was (760 ±218) h·ng·mL^-1. After prednisone was administered, the C_max of prednisone was (67.9 ±22.6) ng·mL^-1 and AUC_0-t was (160 ±19.3) h·ng·mL^-1, while the C_max of prednisolone was (582 ±81.4) ng·mL^-1 and AUC_0-t was (1 310 ±140) h·ng·mL^-1. The relative bioavailability of prednisone acetate to prednisone was only 57.1%.

Zedoary turmeric oil dry powder inhalers (ZDPIs) and curcumol dry powder inhalers (CDPIs) were prepared and intratracheally (i.t.) administered to the rats that suffered from acute lung injury (ALI) induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and their therapeutic efficiencies were compared. Zedoary turmeric oil nanoemulsions and curcumol nanoemulsions were separately prepared and ZDPIs and CDPIs were obtained after the emulsions were added with 5% mannitol and lyophilized. ZDPIs and CDPIs are loose white powders with the aerodynamic diameters (D_a) of 3.02 and 2.67 µm, respectively. Both ZDPIs and CDPIs were suitable for pulmonary delivery. Animal experiments were approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the experiments were conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. ALI rat models were established by i.t. administration of 0.2 mL of 5 mg·mL^-1 LPS solution and ZDPIs (with zedoary turmeric oil 0.5 mg) or CDPIs (with curcumol 0.5 mg) were i.t. administered. Both of them remarkably alleviated bleeding of injured lung tissues, and great reduced the levels of inflammatory factors tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, total proteins in the lung tissues (P < 0.001). They showed similar high effect against ALI. The non-curcumol components in zedoary turmeric oils could also have anti-inflammatory effect. ZDPIs and CDPIs are promising medications for the treatment of ALI and this comparative study is a paradigm of the research on active ingredients and effective compounds in natural products.

Degradation of dexamethasone (DXM) is inevitable in the release test of dexamethasone implants (DI). In the release test conducted with flow-through cell method, the measured release curves of DI started to fall when cumulative release reached 70%-80%. Studies have shown that DI demonstrates a zero-order release rate of drug within every sampling interval, and a zero-order rate degradation in water (containing 0.05 mg·mL^-1 benzalkonium chloride). Hence, this study establishes a double zero-order model (DZOM) to calculate the release during sampling intervals with the formula R_i = [R_im-R_(i-1)m×(C_in/C_i0)]×2/(1+C_in/C_i0). At each sampling interval, we measure the initial and final drug contents in the release medium, and the concentrations of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in the release medium obtained at the same condition of release test, to calculate the total released DXM from the implants including the degraded drug. This paper has also analyzed the reasons for the fluctuations in the drug release curve and the errors in the DZOM and provided solutions. Experimental results show that the DZOM has effectively solved the problems encountered in the normal release method (NRM). The DZOM can be a potential solution to drug degradation problems in the release tests of long-acting injections.

In this study, we used molecular docking technology and validation experiments in vitro to screen the active ingredients of Erzhi pill for treating osteoporosis. Firstly, the compound in Erzhi pill was docked with ten osteoporosis-related targets by molecular docking technology, and the five active compounds, salidroside, specnuezhenide, tyrosol, quercetin, and wedelolactone, were initially selected. Then, MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts were cultured in α-Mem medium containing different concentrations of compounds, and the cell proliferation rate and mineralized nodules were tested. The verification results showed that the proliferation of MC3T3-E1 cells with salidroside, specnuezhenide and quercetin were more obvious, and salidroside has a better effect on the mineralization of MC3T3-E1 cells than those of specnuezhenide and tyrosol. The molecular docking technology coupled with validation experiment in vitro can be used for the screening of anti-osteoporotic active ingredients of Erzhi pill, and it can also provide a method for the study of effective ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine.

The quality of the same herbal medicines in different daodi-origins in China is significantly different. Our research team previously found that using protocatechuic acid as a chemical marker can divide the Cynomorium songaricum into outside-the Great Wall (Inner Mongolia) and inside-the Great Wall (Gansu). However, the ecological mechanism that causes the quality variation of C. songaricum is unclear. Based on the microbiome-ecological strategy, 16s amplicon sequencing was performed on rhizosphere soils of C. songaricum in two origins (Inner Mongolia and Gansu), and the composition of soil microbial communities was analyzed. Tax4Fun was used to predict the metabolic function of soil microbial communities. Correlation analysis by combing with the abundance of key microbial community and ecological climate factors was performed. Microbiome sequencing results revealed that the diversity of soil microbial communities in Inner Mongolia was significantly higher than that in Gansu. Five core microbiomes (Arthrobacter, Streptomyces, Bacillus, etc.) and six specific biomarkers of soil microbial communities (Microbulbifer, Methyloceanibacter, Cynomorium_coccineum, etc.) which could be distinguished from two origins were identified. For the first time, metabolic function prediction showed the metabolic function profile of soil microbiome of C. songaricum in two origins. Redundancy analysis and correlation analysis results showed that the annual sunshine hours was the main ecological factor affecting the composition of the soil microbial community of C. songaricum, and it was extremely significantly negatively related to Streptomyces and Bacillus. This article provides a new idea for explaining the formation mechanism of quality variation in the daodi-origins of C. songaricum, and also provides a scientific basis for theoretical research on the quality ecology of herbal medicines.