Although noninvasive trachea cannula is a common technique in clinic, this technique is hard to be applied in mice. It is even more difficult to perform the repeated noninvasive trachea cannula on the same mouse due to the throat injury. Here we report an effective, rapid and easy method to perform the noninvasive intubation on mice. This method can effectively be applied to many pharmacological and other related studies. In addition, this strategy can protect the mouse from physical injury caused by operative procedure. All procedures involving animal treatment were approved according to the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. In alliance with lung function measurement system, we detected the normal lung function values and presented the lung function development curves of mice of different age. We found that the lung function of mice was matured at 8 weeks old or at the body weight of 18-20 g. In addition, we constructed the mouse model of multiple bleomycin induced pulmonary fibrosis by using this method and illustrated that the trachea cannula is more efficiency than nasal inhalation. Using this method, we have confirmed that the immune microenvironment in lung tissue of multiple bleomycin model is distinct from that of single bleomycin induced pulmonary fibrosis model. Thus, this method is a reliable and safe strategy for the pharmacology study.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding single-stranded RNAs involved in the regulation of gene expression found in a wide variety of eukaryotic cells and viruses. Recent studies have shown that some plant-derived miRNAs, which can stably exist in blood, tissues, and organs of animals, play a role in regulating the expression of different target proteins. In this review, we intend to sort out the mechanism of plant miRNA regulation based on the current research, and discuss its application prospects in the mining of miRNA active components of traditional Chinese medicine, small nucleic acid drug development, and drug development using plants as carriers. This can be beneficial to deepen the understanding of plant miRNA regulation, as well as the pharmacological mechanism and biological function of medicinal plants, thus providing new ideas for the prevention or treatment therapies towards human diseases.

Cyclophosphamide (CPA) is the first-line chemotherapy for many tumors, but its overdose will lead to hepatotoxicity. This study aims to investigate whether the combined administration of oxymatrine (OMT) with CPA will aggravate the hepatotoxicity induced by CPA and its engaged mechanism. The expression of hepatic Cyp2b10 mRNA and CYP2B10 protein was detected by qPCR and Western blot in mice at different times after OMT (100 mg·kg^-1) administration. Mice were given with different doses of OMT (intragastric administration, ig) every day. At the same time, CPA (200 mg·kg^-1) was also intraperitoneally injected into mice every other day. After 10 days, serum alanine/aspartate aminotransferase (ALT/AST) activity, the mortality of mice and hepatic mRNA expression of Cyp2b10 were detected. Furthermore, the correlation among ALT/AST activity, the mortality and Cyp2b10 mRNA expression was analyzed. All animals were received humane care according to the institutional animal care guidelines approved by the Experimental Animal Ethical Committee of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The results showed that OMT itself enhanced hepatic mRNA and protein expression of Cyp2b10 (P < 0.05), and increased liver enzymatic activity of CYP2B10 in mice (P < 0.05). In mice treated with CPA plus OMT, OMT obviously enhanced the mortality of mice induced by CPA (from 33.3% to 58.3%). The results of serum biochemical analysis and hepatic mRNA expression of Cyp2b10 showed that OMT further enhanced the increased serum ALT/AST activity and hepatic Cyp2b10 mRNA expression in mice (P < 0.05). There was a good correlation between serum ALT/AST activity and mortality or hepatic Cyp2b10 mRNA expression. These results showed that OMT could enhance hepatic Cyp2b10 mRNA expression and increase liver CYP2B10 enzymatic activity, and then promoted the metabolism of CPA, and thus aggravated CPA-induced hepatotoxicity in mice.

Heart failure is the end stage of many cardiovascular diseases. It seriously affects the safety and quality of life of nearly 40 million people worldwide. At present, the clinical and pathophysiological characteristics of some types of heart failure are unknown, and there is no effective diagnosis and treatment. In recent years, genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics and other omics technologies have been widely used in disease research, providing new opportunities for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. These strategies have also brought hope for the reduction in heart failure mortality. Based on the current status of clinical treatment of heart failure, this article reviews the roles and potential applications of these various omics technologies and their opportunities in the study of the pathogenesis of heart failure, clinical diagnosis and treatment, and related drug pharmacodynamics and mechanism of action.

This study investigated the effect of a novel adenosine derivative YZG-331 on the glutamate (Glu) content and its receptor N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) in mouse frontal cortex. All procedures in this research were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect the Glu contents in the mouse frontal cortex tissue homogenate and extracellular fluid which were collected by brain microdialysis method. Western blot and co-immunoprecipitation methods were used to detect the expressions of NMDAR in cell membranes and endosomes, as well as the expression levels of endocytosis-related proteins and their interaction. The results showed that there was no significant change in Glu content in the dialysates from mouse frontal cortex within 0-0.5 h period and 0.5-1 h period after intragastric administration of YZG-331 (40 mg·kg^-1). Compare to the control group, the Glu content in mouse frontal cortex homogenates has no significant statistical differences after 15 minutes of administration of compound YZG-331. YZG-331 significantly decreased the expressions of NMDAR subunits NR1 and NR2B in the mouse frontal cortex cell membrane, meanwhile significantly increased the expressions of NR1 and NR2B proteins in the frontal cortex endosomes. It also increased the phosphorylation levels of NMDAR subunit NR2B in the frontal cortex. In addition, the result of co-immunoprecipitation which used NR2B as bait protein showed that the expression of postsynaptic density-95 (PSD95) in NR2B and PSD95 immunoprecipitation complexes in mouse frontal cortex tissues was significantly reduced. These results indicate that YZG-331 does not affect the Glu content in mouse frontal cortex, but it weakens the interaction between NR2B and PSD95 by increasing the phosphorylation level of NR2B in the mouse frontal cortex. Therefore, it reduces the membrane stability of NMDAR and promotes NMDAR's endocytosis, which leading to the decrease of excitotary transmission. It may be one of the mechanisms of YZG-331 to exert sedative and hypnotic effects.

To identify major bioactive components and metabolites of Gandou decoction (GDD) in urine of normal and copper-laden rats, an integrative approach that ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS^E) coupled with xenometabolomics analytical platform was established. Mass spectral data information about retention time, accurate m/z and ionic strength of rat urine samples was performed under positive and negative ion modes. Unsupervised principal components analysis (PCA) and supervised orthogonal partial least-squared discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to reveal the differential ions. As a result, a total of 77 compounds including 45 prototypes and 32 metabolites in urine were detected. Results indicated that anthraquinones, alkaloids and tetracyclic triterpenoids and flavonoids were the main chemical components of GDD in rat urine; the main metabolic pathways of these compounds in rat urine mainly include hydroxyl, methylation, sulfating, glucuronidation, and so on. UPLC-QTOF-MS^E coupled with xenometabolomics analytical platform is fast and efficient so that facilitates authentication of the material basis of Chinese herb compound in vivo, can also be used as an effective tool for ascertaining trace bioactive components in vivo. The animal experiments were approved by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine (No. 2019025).

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease that causes dementia among elderly people. The pathogenesis of AD is still unclear, and currently approved drugs only provide symptomatic benefits and do not prevent or delay progressive neurodegeneration. Meanwhile, potential drugs in development are facing great challenges in clinical translation. Therefore, finding effective treatment for the unmet clinical needs of AD is of great economic value and social significance. In this review, we will summarize the current models and pharmacodynamics evaluation methods of anti-AD drug based on the recent studies at home and abroad, and provide reference for drug development in AD at nonclinical stage.

This study aimed to investigate the effect and possible mechanism of carnosic acid (CA) on delaying aging. The effects of CA on senescence-related β-galactosidase (SA-β-Gal) activity and expressions of p53, p21 and p16 were evaluated by an oxidative challenge induced premature 2BS cell senescence model. Meanwhile, the animal experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee of Zhejiang Hospital. Male C57 BL/6J mice were injected with 100 mg·kg^-1·d^-1 D-galactose (D-gal) for 8 weeks to establish an aging model in vivo, and CA at 5 and 10 mg·kg^-1·d^-1 were given ig administration at the same time. Morris water maze test was used to test the spatial memory ability. Then the serum and tissue samples were collected for the detections of malondialdehyde (MDA), total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and advanced glycation end products (AGEs) as well as the protein expression of p53, p21 and p16 in hippocampus of brain. The results showed that H₂O₂ induced increment of SA-β-Gal activity (95%) was prevented by CA treatment (35%) and the enhanced protein expressions of p53, p21 and p16 in H₂O₂ exposed 2BS cells were alleviated by CA treatment, suggesting a potent protective role of CA against premature senescence induced by oxidative challenge. For in vivo study, D-gal induced declined spatial memory ability was partly reversed by CA administration. Besides, the serum and cerebral levels of MDA, IL-6, TNFα and AGEs were attenuated by CA treatment when compared to those in model mice. And the protein expressions of p53, p21 and p16 in mice hippocampus were suppressed by CA in D-gal treated mice. Taken together, our results showed that CA protects premature senescence induced by oxidative stress and D-gal, which is related to its antioxidative, antiinflammatory roles and inhibition on non-enzymatic glycosylation.

Bexarotene is a synthetic analogue of retinoic acid and exerts protective effects on the nervous system. However, low bioavailability and poor solubility of the crystal type I form severely limits the application of bexarotene in the clinic. A co-amorphous sample of bexarotene-PVP-K30 was prepared and the structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. To determine the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of bexarotene, an LC-MS method was established to profile and quantify bexarotene in plasma and tissues of SD rats. In vitro dissolution indicated that the co-amorphous form improved the dissolution of bexarotene in pure water 4.17-fold. After rats were orally administered bexarotene or bexarotene-PVP-K30 co-amorphous (equivalent to 30 mg·kg^-1 bexarotene) the AUC of bexarotene was 7 034.89 and 10 174.03 μg·L^-1·h respectively, the peak time was advanced from 7.33 h to 0.9 h with the amorphous form, and C_max was enhanced from 627.76 to 3 011.88 μg·L^-1. The co-amorphous form yielded higher concentrations of bexarotene in various tissues, especially brain, liver and kidney. Animal welfare and experimental procedures complied with the rules of the Animal Ethics Committee of the Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. The results indicate that bexarotene-PVP-K30 co-amorphous improves the pharmacokinetic characteristics of bexarotene and provides preclinical data in support of bexarotene-PVP-K30 for the treatment of brain diseases.

To investigate the antitumor activity of shikonin against human colorectal cancer, the IC₅₀ value towards four different human colon cancer cells was detected by MTT assay. In addition, a SW620 xenograft model was established and both the tumor volume and tumor inhibitory rate were calculated to evaluate the antitumor activity of shikonin in vivo. To further explore the mechanism of shikonin, metabolomics combined with multivariate statistical analysis was performed to analyse the profile of metabolites in mouse serum. The results show that shikonin can significantly inhibit the proliferation of four different colon cancer cell lines and exerted a high antitumor activity in vivo. The tumor inhibitory rate at low dose and high dose were 38.35% and 42.16%, respectively. In addition, a total of 38 potential biomarkers related to the antitumor effects of shikonin were identified through metabolomics analysis, including tryptophan, proline and methionine. The study revealed that the mechanism was related to disordered amino acid metabolism in colon cancer, especially in tryptophan metabolism. Our study suggests that shikonin could exert an antitumor effect by regulating amino acid metabolism in colon cancer and provides a theoretical foundation for further exploration and the eventual clinical application of shikonin.