To investigate the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of taurochenodeoxycholic acid (TCDCA), the molecule structure file of TCDCA was downloaded from PubChem database, PharmMapper and GeneCards were used to predict and screen the targets of TCDCA. STRING database and Cytoscape software were used to construct protein interactions network. GO and KEGG analysis was preformed through STRING database. The key targets were validated by molecular docking and the targets type was attributed by DisGeNET database. The network showed that 89 targets were involved in 68 biological processes including response to stimulus, multicellular organismal process, single-multicellular organism process, response to chemical, response to organic substance, by adjusting 51 signaling pathways, such as pathways in cancer, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation, MAPK signaling pathway, proteoglycans in cancer. These findings provide an overview of anti-inflammation of TCDCA, which reflects the characteristic of multi-targets and multi-pathways of TCDCA. It pointed out the direction for further research on anti-inflammatory mechanism of TCDCA.

Curcumin, a polyphenolic compound from the plant Curcuma longa L., has shown a wide-spectrum of anti-inflammatory and antitumor activities. Despite the promising biological effects of curcumin, its poor solubility has restricted its use in the management of human ailments. To improve its water-solubility, curcumin succinate prodrugs were designed and synthesized and their aqueous solubility, stability, metabolism in rats and anti-inflammatory activity were evaluated (experiments had been approved by the ethics committee and carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations; rats were provided by Beijing courtyard experimental animal center of Academy of Military Medical Sciences). The results showed that curcumin succinate prodrugs are very soluble in water and more stable than curcumin in water and in phosphate buffer solution. They released curcumin rapidly and quantitatively after intravenous administration. In phlogogen-induced paw edema in rats, curcumin succinate prodrugs showed anti-inflammatory activity as potent as dexamethasone.

The computer-aided design was used to simulate the docking of PDGF receptor with known active compounds, and the active groups that can bind to key sites were identified by analyzing the key amino acid residue fragments that exerted active effects on the target proteins. The natural product oleanolic acid was used as the parent, and the active group was introduced into the 2-position, and the C-28 carboxyl group was esterified and amidated. A series of oleanolic acid analogues targeting PDGF receptor inhibitors were designed and synthesized. Their structures were confirmed by MS and NMR. Through MTT assay, SGC-7901 and A549 cells were selected for preliminary in vitro anti-tumor activity screening. PDGF receptor protein inhibition test was performed on Ⅰ₃ and Ⅱ₅ by FPIA. The activity tests showed that Ⅰ₃ and Ⅱ₅, compared with the positive control drug, had stronger inhibition. FPIA test showed that Ⅱ₅ and PDGF receptor protein had good binding ability. The newly synthesized oleanolic acid analogues have significantly higher antitumor activity than the parent compound and deserve further study.

The multiple drug delivery system of components of traditional Chinese medicine is a system composed of multiple components and multiple units. According to the characteristics of each component, different drug delivery units are designed and combined to achieve the purpose of improving bioavailability and enhancing drug efficacy. In this study, supercritical extracts, phenolic acids, and polysaccharides derived from Angelica sinensis were examined as research objects, and a pellet-based vehicle was applied to construct a multiple drug delivery system for the treatment and chemoprevention of colitis and colorectal cancer. The extrusion-spheronization method was used to prepare pellets of Angelica polysaccharides which should be released in the stomach. The yield in 18-24 mesh and plane critical angle served as the index. The Box-Behnken design and the orthogonal design were used to optimize the formulation and parameters of pellets. According to a previous study, the colon specific pellets loading supercritical extracts and phenolic acid extracts were prepared by the optimized process. These two units of pellets were combined into the multiple drug delivery system of effective components of Angelica sinensis, and the quality evaluation and in vitro release study were conducted. The dynamic observation of pellets in mice was evaluated using small animal in vivo imaging system. The prescription of the Angelica polysaccharides gastric releasing pellets was:microcrystalline cellulose 6.5 g, polysaccharide 3.3 g, silica 0.2 g and 7 mL of 60% ethanol as wetting agent. The process parameters were as follows:extrusion rate at 75 r·min^-1, rounding rate at 1 800 r·min^-1, and rounding time for 3 min. Both in vivo and in vitro studies indicate that the prepared multiple drug delivery system of effective components of Angelica sinensis produced good release properties. The polysaccharide pellets could be rapidly released in the artificial gastric fluid and in the stomach. The colon specific pellets showed good targeting. They released little in the artificial gastric fluid within 2 hours, released less than 20% in the artificial intestinal fluid for 4 hours, and released more than 90% in artificial colon fluid for 6 hours.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula is one of the unique cultural treasures of Chinese. However, only a few studies have been carried out to deliver TCM formula with utilization of nanocarriers. The purpose of this study was to prepare the hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin complex-over-a-poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticle (HP-β-CD-PLGA NP) for co-delivery and sequential release of five main effective ingredients of Danshen and Sanqi to a specific target, which can provide strategies for design of intelligent drug delivery system of TCM formula. PLGA can be employed as scaffolds for sustained release of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs. HP-β-CD could encapsulate the hydrophobic drugs by forming inclusion complexes. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) embedded inside PLGA nanoparticles that allow a spatio-specific targeting. HP-β-CD inclusion complex was prepared by an unsaturated alcohol solution method. PLGA NP loaded with SPION was obtained through double emulsion-organic solvents evaporation. Then core-shell PLGA nanosystem was formed by co-incubation of the above two materials. The nanoparticulate system was characterized by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), laser particle size instrument and transmission electron microscope. Magnetic property was determined by magnet adsorption and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Targeted distribution was investigated by cell uptake and sequential release of multiple components was observed by intracellular distribution of fluorescent probes. Release difference of five components between core and shell of HP-β-CD-PLGA NP was measured by high performance liquid chromatography. The results demonstrated that NP had a unique core-shell structure and possessed superpara-magnetism. Magnetic NP could be ingested site-specifically by L929 cells with the aid of magnetic field, and coumarin-6 and rhodamine B were released from NP sequentially in the L929 cells. In vitro release of multiple components of Danshen and Sanqi from NP exhibited double phase time-controlled release kinetics of quick-release shell and sustained-release core. Therefore, the spatio-temporal nanoplatform has a great capacity for unlocking the full therapeutic potential of displaying synergistic efficacy of TCM formula in the formulation design.

Tribbles homologous protein 3 (TRB3) has a wide range of biological functions, such as involvement in tumor regulation, the occurrence of insulin resistance, endoplasmic reticulum stress response, inflammation regulation and the regulation of cell growth and differentiation. TRB3, as a key "pressure regulating switch", is involved in the regulation of numerous diseases and serves as a biomarker and potential therapeutic target for many diseases. This paper gives an overview of the research on the biological function of TRB3 in recent years, in order to provide a theoretical basis for further research on TRB3 function.

Chemical investigation on the rice culture of an endophytic fungus Colletotrichum fioriniae F18, inhabiting in the stems of the medicinal plant Mahonia fortunei, led to the isolation of nine compounds. They included a new indole alkaloid, makomotindoline B (1), and two known indole derivatives, 3-indoleacetic acid methyl ester (2) and N-acetyltryptamine (3), together with six known aromatic compounds, 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl) acetic acid (4), 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)phenol (5), 2-(4-methoxyphenyl)acetic acid (6), 4-hydroxyphenethyl 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)acetate (7), regiolone (8) and N-phenethylacetamide (9). The structures of these compounds were elucidated based on the analysis of spectroscopic data including MS and NMR. The absolute configuretion of compound 1 was determined by electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculation. Antibacterial activity assay indicated that compounds 1-9 had no antibacterial activities against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as well as no quorum sensing inhibitory (QSI) activity for Chromobacterium violaceum.

In this study, twenty containing ethylenediamine groups derivatives of oleanolic acid (OA) were synthesized, their structures were determined by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and HR-MS. The anti-tumor activities in HepG2 and SGC7901 cells were evaluated by MTT assay. The results showed that all compounds exhibited anti-tumor activity, compounds Ⅰ₆, Ⅰ₈ and Ⅰ₉ exhibited significant anti-tumor activities with IC₅₀ values of 16.7, 9.8 and 6.3 μmol·L^-1, respectively. Molecular docking studies showed that compounds Ⅰ₆-Ⅰ₉ produce higher combining ability with VEGFR. Compound Ⅰ₆-Ⅰ₉ were further evaluated for the inhibitory activity against VEGFR-2, the result showed Ⅰ₉ had a strong inhibitory effect on VEGFR with IC₅₀ values of 0.56 μmol·L^-1.

Forsythia suspensa is a herbal medicine that widely used for heat-clearing and detoxification in clinical practice. However, the molecular mechanism of its heat-clearing and detoxifying effect is still unclear. Based on the theory and methods of network pharmacology, the efficacy of the heat-clearing and detoxification of Forsythia suspensa was analyzed in this study. A total of 114 of compounds in Forsythia suspensa were collected, and 15 of effective compounds were obtained by analyzing the bioavailability (OB) and drug-like properties (DL). Then 26 corresponding targets were obtained using reverse pharmacophore-docking method. Using the BioGPS database, the organ location of the target initially was revealed. The compound-targetdisease network model of Forsythia suspensa was constructed by using the Cytoscape, which showed that the material basis of the heat-clearing and detoxification of Forsythia suspensa was to synthesize and synergize the effects by combining various active ingredients of multiple targets, simultaneously. This study explains the scientific mechanism of the heat-clearing and detoxification of Forsythia suspensa, and provides a theoretical foundation for clinical rational usage of Forsythia suspensa.

Chinese material medica (CMM) is the foundation for treating disease using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is not only guided by the basic theory of TCM but also follows the general rules of drug action. There are both toxicity and efficacy in TCM. For TCM the integrated regularities of its toxicity and efficacy were demonstrated in their prescription, which were qualitatively characterized by compatible experiences such as "seven emotions", "Yin" and "Yang" compatibility, etc. When the toxicity is still produced by oral administration according to the prescription of TCM theory or administration is not abided by original requirement, the integral regularities of toxicity and efficacy that depends on experience appears to be at a loss what to do. Especially in recent years, with the modernization of TCM and the continuous advantages in new medicinal innovation, the CMM safety incidents occurred frequently. It is very urgent for us how to establish a set of integrated methods that are adequately situated to multiple components for TCM. With the combination of the biological supramolecular chemistry and the basic theory of TCM, an integrated model of toxicity and efficacy based on TCM supramolecular "imprinting template" has begun to take shape. The CMM and the human body are both biological supramolecular bodies that follow the autonomic action rules of their "imprinting template". The integrated trends of toxicity and efficacy are able to build on systematical results of single components in CMM based on the theory of TCM to treat diseases by prescription on syndromes. It is also the systematic actions resulting from single effective components in CMM by the supramolecular "imprinting template" self-acted regularities. Through the qualitative and quantitative analysis of supramolecular "imprinting templates" characteristics and actions and their network chromatotoxicometrology (chromatopharmacometrology), a toxic and effective integrated analysis methods will be established on an integrated "therapeutic window" for components in the CMM. This effort will finally permit the description of the components of the pharmacokinetic overlaid law of "therapeutic window", plotted to lower-overflow, entering and higher-overflow profiles.