Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is a nucleoside analogue that has been widely used for clinical treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The aim of this study was to investigate whether TDF has anti-Zika virus (ZIKV) activity in vitro. The inhibitory effect of TDF on ZIKV was detected by plaque reduction assay. Then, the anti-ZIKV activity of TDF at RNA level and protein level was verified by real time quantitative PCR and Western blot. Finally, MTT assay was used to determine the cytotoxicity of TDF. Our results showed that TDF not only reduced the formation of plaque after ZIKV infection, but also inhibited the replication of ZIKV RNA or expression of ZIKV NS2B protein. The 50% effective concentration (EC₅₀) of TDF in inhibition of ZIKV replication were 14.96-27.47 μmol·L^-1, while that of ribavirin was 56.01 ±12.16 μmol·L^-1, which served as the positive control. The cytotoxicity of TDF and ribavirin in Vero cells were very low, with their 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC₅₀) values being greater than 500 μmol·L^-1. The therapeutic index of TDF calculated by CC₅₀/EC₅₀ was greater than 18.20, which was significantly higher than that of ribavirin. The results suggest that TDF has good anti-ZIKV activity in vitro and is expected to become a candidate drug for anti-ZIKV therapy.

As a widely existing natural nanoparticle in living organisms, ferritin nanocage was proven to be a potential nanomaterial in the biomedical field, due to its excellent biocompatibility, specific active targeting properties, ease for preparation or modification, and unique self-assembly properties. This review presents an overview of ferritin nanocage in structural characteristics, surface modifications, and outlines its practical applications for drug delivery, medical imaging, as well as disease diagnosis or treatment. The researches of ferritin nanocage as drug carriers are classified and summarized in carrying different kinds of chemical components of drugs or nucleic acid according to different characteristics. Finally, the prospects in the development of ferritin nanocage are also outlined.

Mengla virus (MLAV), isolated from the bats in China, was identified as a new genus of filovirus in 2019, i.e. Dianlovirus genus of Filoviridae family. Among filoviruses, Ebola virus (EBOV) and Marburg virus (MARV) are the most contagious viruses with mortality rates of 24%-90%. Phylogenetic analysis showed that MLAV was closely related to MARV among the members of filovirus family. MLAV enters into host cells via viral glycoprotein (GP). The recombinant virus study indicated that MLAV has a potential for bat-to-human cross-species transmission. In this study, a GP-mediated MLAV entry evaluating model was established, and by using this model, we investigated the susceptibility of MLAV to the human cell lines sourced from different tissues and the African green monkey kidney cell lines. Four compounds, chloroquine, tetrandrine, clomiphene, and toremifene, which were known as EBOV and MARV entry blockers, were tested for HIV/MLAV-GP infection. It was found that chloroquine effectively blocked the entry of MLAV with the half maximal effective concentration (EC₅₀) of 1.56 μmol·L^-1, resembling its anti-EBOV and -MARV activities. To the best of our acknowledge, there is no anti-MLAV drug reported by far, and the identification of chloroquine as an MLAV entry inhibitor may provide an insight for developing anti-filovirus agents.

Antiretroviral therapy has been used for treating AIDS with 31 single-target anti-HIV drugs currently on market. Searching for safe and effective of novel anti-HIV drugs remains a challenge worldwide. Multi-targets single-structure compounds referred to as designed multiple ligands (DMLs) have become a hot topic of producing anti-HIV drugs recently due to reduction in the likelihood of drug resistance, simplified dosing and improved patient adherence. Integrase (IN) and ribonuclease H (RNase H) are two indispensable enzymes in HIV republication, therefore are two important targets for developing anti-HIV drugs. Recently, diverse dual inhibitors of HIV IN and RNase H (IN/RNase H) have been developed via rational drug design and screening. This review summarizes the advances in chemically synthesized dual inhibitors of HIV IN/RNase H to provide the information for developing multi-targets anti-HIV drugs.

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) infection remains a major public health problem of global concern, largely due to antibiotics resistance, persistence and immune evasion. Sphingolipid bioactive molecules are involved in several important pathophysiological processes. Sphingosine-1-phosphate is a key product of sphingolipid metabolism, and can play a role in two manners:autocrine and/or paracrine. Sphingosine-1-phosphate regulates T cells and a variety of antigen-presenting cells during M. tuberculosis infection, promotes antigen processing and expression in monocytes, is involved in the maturation of phagolysosome, regulates Ca²⁺ homeostasis, participates in the autophagy of macrophages, inhibits the survival and proliferation of M. tuberculosis within host cells, and effectively reduces the necrosis of the mouse lungs infected by M. tuberculosis. Injection of 20 nmol per mouse sphingosine-1-phosphate inhibited up to 47% of mycobacterial growth in the lung and spleen of mice infected by M. tuberculosis. In this paper, sphingosine-1-phosphate, its receptors and regulatory network were reviewed, and the specific mechanism of sphingosine-1-phosphate inhibiting the survival of M. tuberculosis-infected host cells was elaborated. This will provide novel insights into the new targets for tuberculosis prevention and treatment.

This study aims to develop multifunctional drug delivery system based on hollow mesoporous copper sulfide (HMCuS) nanoparticles. This type of nanoparticles is expected to achieve the synergistic treatment of tumor by targeted phototherapy and chemotherapy. The carrier was synthesized by a substitution method, and the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) was loaded and then modified by hyaluronic acid (HA) to prepare the anticancer drug system DOX/HMCuS-HA. The results suggested that DOX/HMCuS-HA presented uniform spherical structure, with the drug loading efficiency of 33.6%, the particle size and zeta potential being 113.8±6.9 nm and 18.4±2.8 mV, respectively. When 100 μg·mL^-1 HMCuS was irradiated under 808 nm laser (2 W·cm^-2) for 8 min, the temperature can heat up 51℃, demonstrating high photothermal conversion efficacy. Electron spin resonance (ESR) tests and methylene blue degradation experiments showed that HMCuS nanoparticles could simultaneously produce hydroxyl radical (·OH) mediated photodynamic therapy. In addition, HA was responsible for minimizing premature drug release and increasing tumor targeting efficiency by acting as a smart gatekeeper with tumor specific targeting moiety. In vitro drug release experiments showed that the coated HA could be degraded by intracellular lysosomal enzyme hyaluronidase, which facilitated DOX release. The acidic microenvironment of tumor cell and external near infrared (NIR) stimulus could trigger further release of DOX from the nanoparticles. These results point to a new strategy for timely and effective anti-tumor treatment.

6-Bromo-3-n-butylphthalide was obtained by nitration, reduction and diazotization from carboxybenzaldehyde. Twenty hybrids from substituted styrene and 6-bromo-3-n-butylphthalide were synthesized and the structure was confirmed by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and ESI-MS. All compounds were evaluated for neuroprotective activity against OGD/R-induced neurotoxicity in rat cortical neurons by MTT assay. The mechanism of neuroprotection was investigated by Western blot analyses. The results indicated that most of these compounds had a potent neuroprotective activity (All animal experiments were approved by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine), especially 10h and 10i showed significant effects, which may play a neuroprotective role by activating the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

The aim of this study is to solidify the volatile oil (VO) of Bupleuri radix and forsythiae fructus by using mesoporous silica Sylysia 350FCP (Sylysia 350FCP) as carrier, and to investigate the changes of micromeritic properties before and after drug loading. The volatile oil drug-loading powder (VO-DLP) was prepared by blending process. The micromeritic properties were evaluated by angle of repose, particle size, bulk density, true density and porosity. The compressibility and compactibility of the powder were evaluated by plastic strain energy, ejection force, friction energy and tensile strength. The powder was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction and synchronous thermal analysis. In addition, the thermal stability, mechanical stability and other key properties of VO-DLP were investigated. We found that mesoporous silica as a carrier of solidifying volatile oil has the advantages for large drug load, high thermal stability, and high mechanical stability. In addition, the excellent properties of mesoporous silica as solid lubricant and glidant are not affected after loading VO, and has no effect on the compression process and compactibility of materials. What's more, it can meet the demand of continuous production.

Cellular energy metabolism disorder caused by dysfunction of nutrient utilization and mitochondrial damage contributes to a variety of diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, metabolic diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. Understanding the effects of energy metabolism on diseases will help to improve our knowledge about disease etiology and may serve to develop strategies to delay disease progress. There are many compounds developed for targeting energy metabolism disorders, such as small molecules targeting the 18 kDa transporter (TSPO) for treatment of Alzheimer's disease, glucagon-like peptide-1 analogues for treatment of Parkinson's disease, inhibitors of glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) and lactate dehydrogenase A for treatment of tumors, the fibroblast growth factors based treatment for type 2 diabetes (T2D), selective ligands of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-β/δ for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. We review here the abnormal energy metabolism of common energy metabolism disorder-related diseases, summarize the potential targets that may be used for new drug discovery, and the strategies for alleviating the disease process by improving energy metabolism.

We studied the effect of aqueous extract from Huang qi on gene expression profile of doxorubicin induced nephropathy in rats, and explored the molecular mechanism of the intervention. The gene expression profiles of control group, model group and aqueous extract from Huang qi group were detected by using transcriptome sequencing technique. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened by STEM trend analysis software. GO function enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis were performed for DEGs, and the gene expression level was verified by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). The results showed that, compared with the control group, 432 DEGs were obtained in doxorubicin nephropathy model group; compared with the model group, 811 DEGs were obtained due to aqueous extract of Huang qi. The results of GO function enrichment and KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that PI3K-AKT pathway (Col6a6, Nr4a1, Sgk1, Gng7) and lipid metabolism-related genes (Cpt1b, Pcsk9, Abca1, Ascm5) were the key pathways and genes in the treatment of doxorubicin induced nephropathy by aqueous extract from Huang qi, which played a protective role in kidney. In conclusion, the molecular mechanism of aqueous extract from Huang qi in protection against doxorubicin induced nephropathy rats is closely related to apoptosis-related genes and lipid metabolism-related genes, suggesting for the need of follow-up study for key gene validation and mechanism of action of aqueous extract from Huang qi for prevention of doxorubicin induced nephropathy.