Atherosclerosis refers to vascular pathological changes in which vascular lumen was narrowed or blocked by cholesterol or fat existed in vascular endothelium, which could induce serious cardiovascular events. The pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is complicated extremely. Vascular endothelial dysfunction initiated the plague formation and deterioration, which determined the prognosis of atherosclerosis. Circular RNA (circRNA) is a special endogenous non-coding RNA, which has become a research hotpot in the field of non-coding RNA. This review aims to bring together the recent research on the pathogenesis and pathological process of endothelial dysfunction, and the regulative effect of circRNA on it. Our article will provide new targets and new ideas for the research and development of anti-atherosclerosis drugs.

In order to determine the differences in structure and optimum isolation conditions of Glycyrrhiza uralensis endophytes from different habitats, plate-separation method was used to identify endophytes in G. uralensis from Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Beijing. The isolation parameters were defined by investigating various concentrations and sterilization time of NaClO solution. The strains were identified by morphological and molecular biological methods. The results showed that 5% NaClO solution and sterilization time of 5 min were the optimal surface sterilization conditions. Among 129 strains of G. uralensis from 5 producing areas, 438 strains of endophytic fungi were isolated and belonged to 5 orders, 7 genera, and 11 species. Among them, 4 taxa were firstly isolated from the licorice in China. Fusarium was a common genus among the 5 regions. There were differences in the composition and structure of the endophytic fungi of G. uralensis from different habitats. Diversity analysis showed that the endophytic fungi diversity in Gansu was the highest and that of Beijing was the lowest. The comprehensive analyses indicated that the endophytic fungi of G. uralensis are diverse, and there were differences among the number, composition and population of endophytic fungi in five producing areas of Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Beijing.

Anti-tumor intervention using a combination of drugs shows unique advantages in research and clinical practice. Active ingredients of Chinese herbal medicines can offer many advantages, such as high efficiency, low toxicity, wide effect and multiple targets. At present, the combination active ingredients of Chinese herbal and chemotherapy drugs have attracted increased attention. Nano-drug delivery system provides a good carrier platform for anti-tumor drugs. Nano-carrier-mediated drug combination is a promising strategy. In this paper, we review the mechanisms of the anti-tumor effects of active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine combined with chemotherapeutic drugs and consider the advantages of drug-loaded nanoparticles, the types and characteristics of carriers. The aim is to provide a reference for the research of effective regimen for anti-tumor therapy.

To investigate the potential hypoglycemic effect of nanosuspensions of honokiol and explore the underlying mechanisms, a high fat diet (HFD) was studied in C57BL/6J mice divided into five groups:normal diet (ND), HFD, HFD/honokiol-sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na) (Hono-CMC, 100 mg·kg^-1), HFD/honokiol-Nano (Hono-Nano, 80 mg·kg^-1), HFD/metformin (HFD/Met, 200 mg·kg^-1). Fasting blood glucose (FBG) and body weights (BW) of mice were measured every seven days. After 30-day treatment, an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed, and blood and tissue samples were collected for analysis. All animal experiments were approved by the Research Animal Care Committee of Affiliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. The data showed Hono-Nano and metformin reduced FBG, BW, and markedly improved OGTT of mice compared to HFD group (P < 0.05). Hono-CMC produced nonsignificant impact on FBG, BW of mice, while OGTT of mice was improved by Hono-CMC (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, none of these treated groups showed significant effects on regulating serum insulin levels, but all of them exhibited decreased serum glucagon levels notably compared to the HFD group (P < 0.05). Western blot analysis revealed that honokiol up-regulated levels of p-AMPK and p-FOXO1 in liver tissue of HFD mice (P < 0.05), which resulted in activation of AMPK and inhibition of FOXO1. Moreover, the expression of PEPCK (a key enzyme of gluconeogenesis) was decreased by honokiol (P < 0.05). Taken together, our findings demonstrate that nanosuspension of honokiol is more effective than CMC-Na-suspension of honokiol on blood glucose controlling in HFD mice. The hypoglycemic effects of honokiol might rely on suppressing hepatic gluconeogenesis via activating AMPK and inhibiting FOXO1.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) not only maintains the stability of the environment within the central nervous system by controlling the transport of substances on both sides of the blood and brain, but also plays an important role in the R&D of new drugs for neurological disorders. The establishment of an in vitro high-fidelity model to study BBB function is imperative for assessing barrier permeability of drugs and xenobiotics. However, the complexity of the BBB structure makes it difficult to replicate with an in vitro model. Compared to the traditional in vitro BBB model, the BBB-on-chip provides certain advantages in miniaturizing the system, reducing the amount of cells and medium required, and allowing simultaneously induction of shear stress. We review here the BBB-on-chip models from their establishment and characterization to applications in research of neuroinflammation, brain tumor and drug evaluation.

Ionic liquids are not limited to the traditional use of solvents because of their high permeability and excellent physicochemical and unique biological properties. Nowadays, with the deep understanding of their toxicity and biocompatibility, ionic liquids have been tailored as novel solutions to address potential problems of marketed drugs. Based on the research and development of modified new drugs, ionic liquids have been incorporated into drug synthesis and emerged as attractive environmental-friendly reaction media with milder reaction conditions, higher yields and easier reaction workups and drug delivery systems. In addition, they have been designed for effective drug carriers removing undesirable properties of solid drugs. Further, ionic liquids forming active pharmaceutical ingredients dedicated to the liquefaction of drugs for promising clinical applications.

Chemical constituents from the ethanol extract of Radix Angelicae Pubescentis was isolated and purified through Diaion HP-20 macroporous, silica gel column chromatography, gel filtration over Sephadex LH-20 and preparative HPLC. Two new sesquiterpenoid derivatives were identified as angesesquid A (1) and angesesquid B (2), and their structures were determined. In vitro degeneration model of primary rat disc chondrocytes was used to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of these two compounds. The results showed that compounds 1 and 2 had no anti-proliferation effect. Both compounds inhibited the release of NO, but had no inhibitory activity for the release of PGE₂. This finding implies that both of these two new sesquiterpenoids could moderately inhibit the inflammatory reaction to some extent.

Nifedipine, a calcium channel antagonist, is metabolized mainly by CYP3A4 to dehydronifedipine. A rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed to simultaneously determine nifedipine and dehydronifedipine in human plasma using d₆-nifedipine/d₆-dehydronifedipine as internal standards. After extraction from the plasma by protein precipitation, the analytes and internal standard were separated on a Hypersil Gold C₁₈ (50 mm×2.1 mm, 1.9 μm). The mobile phase consisted of methanol and 5 mmol·L^-1ammonium acetate aqueous solution (0.1% formic acid). Positive electrospray ionization was performed using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) with transitions of m/z 347.3→254.1 for nifedipine, m/z 345.2→283.9 for dehydronifedipine, m/z 353.3→257.1 for d₆-nifedipine, m/z 351.2→286.9 for d₆-dehydronifedipine. The method had a linear calibration curves over the concentrations of 0.10-80.0 ng·mL^-1 for nifedipine and 0.050-40.0 ng·mL^-1 for dehydronifedipine. The validated LC-MS/MS method has been successfully used study pharmacokinetic interactions of apatinib (CYP3A4 inhibitor) and nifedipine (CYP3A4 substrate) in human. This clinical trial was approved by the society of ethics and conducted in the first hospital of China medical university.

To investigate the effect of scutellarin (Scu) on diabetic cardiomyopathy in mice, type 2 diabetes mellitus was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 50 mg·kg^-1 streptozotocin (STZ) into a high-fat diet. Scu was injected intraperitoneally. After 8 weeks, fasting blood glucose and serum biochemical parameters were measured. Masson staining was performed on myocardial tissue. The expression levels of Nrf2, NFκB, AKT and p-AKT in myocardium of mice were observed by Western blot. All the procedures were approved by the Laboratory Animal Ethics Committee of the Peking Union Medical College. The results showed that Scu significantly decreased the heart-body ratio, increased myocardial contractile function, decreased the level of myocardial fibrosis and the expression of collagen I and collagen Ⅲ in myocardium of diabetic mice. Scu can effectively reduce the levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB), malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum of diabetic mice, increase the level of antioxidant enzymes in serum, and inhibit the release of inflammatory factors. Further studies showed that Scu significantly increased Nrf2 nuclear translocation, inhibited NFκB nuclear translocation and increased AKT phosphorylation. It indicates that Scu has significant effect on diabetic cardiomyopathy in mice.

BCS Ⅱ drugs are characterized by low solubility and high permeability. Improving their solubility is considered an important approach to improve its oral absorption. Recent strategies to increase the solubility of poorly-soluble drugs may unexpectedly result in greatly depressed permeability, ultimately leading to failure in improving oral absorption. Based on the mathematics of membrane permeability coefficient of a drug, the membrane/aqueous partition coefficient is dependent on the drug's solubility in the gastrointestinal milieu, suggesting a unique interplay between the solubility and permeability of the drug, and treating the one irrespectively of the other may be insufficient. When we focus on the increase of drug solubility and overlook the efficacy of drug permeability, the positive effect of increased solubility to drug oral absorption might be traded off by depressed permeability. To provide rational formulary designs, by optimizing excipients and evaluation, this review summarizes solubility-permeability interplay for different types of solubilizing techniques, such as cyclodextrin, surfactants-based vehicle, cosolvent, amorphous solid dispersions, other infectors such as P-gp transporters and new techniques for simultaneous evaluation of drug solubility and permeability.