The purpose of this article was to study the pharmacokinetic characteristics of YZG-331, plasma protein binding and metabolic stability in vivo and in vitro. Plasma and tissue concentrations of YZG-331 were determined in mice and rats after administration by LC-MS/MS analysis orally or intravenously. The plasma protein binding of YZG-331 with human, dog, monkey, rat and mouse were measured by ultrafiltration method. The stability of YZG-331 in animal and human plasma, liver microsomes, intestinal bacteria and artificial gastrointestinal fluid was also investigated in vitro. The results show that YZG-331 was absorbed rapidly in both mice and rats after oral administration, while the absorption and elimination saturation YZG-331 were also observed. The bioavailability of YZG-331 was much higher in male mice (51.2%) than that in female mice (27.7%), however, the bioavailability in male rats (27.1%) was lower than that in female rats (78.7%). YZG-331 was widely distributed in different tissues of mice, especially in certain regains of brain, including thalamus, hippocampi, cortical and striatal. YZG-331 was found to bind to human, dog, monkey, rat and mouse plasma protein in vitro (93.3%-98.9%) without significant concentration dependences and species differences. YZG-331 was stable in animal and human plasma, simulated gastric/intestinal fluid and liver microsomal incubations, except rat liver microsomes and intestinal flora. Therefore, we concluded that:the pharmacokinetics of YZG-331 in mice and rats have gender and species differences; YZG-331 was widely distributed in vivo including brain, the targets of the agent; YZG-331 had a high affinity to plasma protein and was metabolized by rat liver microsomes and intestinal flora.

Depression is a complex heterogeneous psychiatric disorder with a potential to cause patient disability worldwide. In the past decades, a number of the first-line drugs (tricyclics, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors, noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, etc.) had been discovered for the treatment of depression. CYP450 superfamily is involved in the biotransformation of antidepressants mainly through the CYP2D6, CYP2C19, CYP3A4 isoenzymes. Their genetic polymorphisms are closely related to clinical use and the interactions have been already identified between enzymes and antidepressants. This review focuses on drug metabolism and the interaction for CYP450 enzymes. The content may contribute to the development of antidepressant, improvement of the safety of antidepressants and the efficacy of treatment.

Proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are small-molecule protein degraders based on the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Recently, the development of specific small-molecule ligands for several E3 ligases (CRL4^CRBN, CRL2^VHL and cIAP) have significantly advanced the PROTACs technology. Several PROTACs against various oncogenic proteins including bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4), estrogen receptor (ER) and androgen receptor (AR) have been developed and considered a novel approach for therapy of cancers. There are advantages of the new technology over the traditional small-molecule strategies. This review article provides a summary on the recent progress in the small-molecule-based PROTACs as antitumor drugs, and the challenges of this technology.

Traditional Chinese medicinal materials (TCMMs) are the material basis of the traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) in the treatment of disease, and the inherent quality of the TCMMs are of crucial importance for the efficacy and safety of TCM. Most of the TCMMs are originated from the plants with complex chemical compositions, and the chemical diversity is inevitable. How to clarify the relationship between the chemical identity and the biological activity is the key point for quality control of TCMMs in the establishment of the quality standards. The components with great impact on the biological activities should be used as index compounds in the quality evaluation. In this study, based on the results in our previous studies, a research idea on the evaluation of quality difference of TCMMs is proposed. Its application and existing problems are also discussed.

Calcium signaling plays a critical role in response to various abiotic and biotic stresses in plants. Preliminarily evidence showed that calcium signaling perceived and transduced the harmful signaling generated from continuous cropping stress in R. glutinosa. To investigate the roles of calcium signaling in continuous cropping injury formation, the key genes involved in calcium signaling transduction were identified in R. glutinosa transcriptome through bioinformatic methods. Furthermore, the calcium ion concentration in both normal and continuous cropping R. glutinosa root cells were measured by potassium pyroantimonate precipitation and calcium fluorescence method. As a result, a set of 84 calcium signaling-related genes, including 5 CaMs, 12 CBLs, 21 CDPKs, 21 CIPKs, 16 CMLs, and 9 CRKs were captured in R. glutinosa transcriptome. The analysis of expression profile in continuous cropping compared to normal growth R. glutinosa indicated that continuous cropping stress significantly increased the expression of calcium signaling-related genes in continuous cropping R. glutinosa. At the same time, the abundance levels of 12 calcium signaling-related genes quantified by qPCR further validated the high expression of calcium signaling-related genes presented in continous cropping R. glutinosa. In addition, the continuous cropping condition significantly promoted the accumulation of intracellular calcium ions in R. glutinosa based on two methods of potassium pyroantimonate precipitation and calcium fluorescence. This study verified the possible roles of calcium signaling in the formation of continuous cropping injury on molecular and cellular level, which lays a solid foundation for illuminating formation mechanism of continuous cropping injury on molecular level.

The success rate of mechanism-based drug discovery depends on the drug targets. With the rapid development of genomics and proteomics, a lot of nonenzymic proteins have been identified as potential drug targets. However, these nonenzymic proteins cannot be regulated by occupying the active site, which were recognized as undruggable targets. Direct regulation of the concentration of these proteins in cells by the innate ubiquitin-proteasome is a potential approach to target these proteins. The ubiquitination of target protein by E3 ligase is the key step for ubiquitin-proteasome mediated protein degradation. Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) can facilitate the assembly of complex that consists of the target protein and E3 ligase. The target protein will be ubiquitinated, leading to the degradation by proteasome. This type of regulation mechanism can expand the scope of potential drug targets, and the development of PROTACs may be an innovative strategy in drug discovery.

This study was conducted to establish an in vitro 3D liver model and apply it to the drug liver toxicity evaluation. The 3D multicellular sphere model of HepaRG cells was established by hanging-drop technique for evaluation of liver function. The 3D liver model was used to test the hepatotoxicity of isoniazid and amiodarone hydrochloride compared to the 2D cell culture model. Our results showed that HepaRG cells formed a compact spheriod, and the level of cell albumin, urea and the CYP3A4 activity were significantly higher than that of 2D model. With the treatment of amiodarone hydrochloride in 2D and 3D model, the IC₅₀ were 50 and 100 μmol·L^-1, respectively. When the dose was less than 1 000 μmol·L^-1, isoniazid had no hepatocyte toxicity in 2D model, while the IC₅₀ in 3D model was 700 μmol·L^-1. The LDH activities of both drugs in 3D model showed time-and dose-dependent correlation. The results suggest that this in vitro 3D hanging-drop liver model is good for testing liver functions with a high hepatic drug-metabolizing enzyme activity. Compared with the 2D model, the 3D liver model can accurately evaluate the liver toxicity of drugs. Our results demonstrated the importance of in vitro cell culture models for detection of in vivo-relevant adverse effects of drugs.

A series of ursolic acid derivatives were synthesized by the introduction of 4-chloroindole compounds at A ring and esterification and amidation at C-28 position, which structures were characterized by ¹H NMR, MS and etc. The cytotoxic activity of derivatives was evaluated against HepG2 and SGC7901 cells in vitro by MTT assay, in which paclitaxel and adriamycin were used as a positive control. The results indicated that all of derivatives can inhibit cell proliferation in HepG2 and SGC7901 cells with a better activity than ursolic acid. Especially, the compounds 6 and 12 showed significant antitumor activity comparable to the paclitaxel. The compounds are worthy to be studied further.

This study aims to establish a novel gene-activated matrix that mimics the structure and function of extracellular matrix (ECM-m-GAM). The structure, mechanical property and release profile were also characterized. Firstly, the liposome/DNA lipoplex (LPD) was modified with cell penetrating peptide TAT. The obtained TAT-LPD was then mixed with RGD grafting hyaluronic acid solution. After addition of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) sensitive crosslinker (HS-MMP-SH), hyaluronic acid was crosslinked and TAT-LPD was encapsulated in the subsequently formed hydrogel. As a result, the cell adhesion factor RGD, MMPs sensitive substrate and the efficient gene transfer vector TAT-LPD were all integrated in the hyaluronic acid hydrogel, which was named as ECM-m-GAM. The release profile of DNA from ECM-m-GAM in different release medium was evaluated with PicoGreen kits. The results suggested that the mean diameter of the spherical TAT-LPD was (263.0 ±4.30) nm. TAT-LPD was successfully encapsulated in ECM-m-GAM, which had the typical porous network structure of hydrogels. The mechanical strength of GAM was enhanced with the increasing of hyaluronic acid content. When the content was 4%, the elastic modulus of GAM reached 1 600 Pa. The highly elastic GAM may be suitable for implantation and tissue regeneration. The DNA release showed significant MMPs sensitive property. Especially, the released DNA still existed in form of nanoparticles. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were successfully transfected with GAM and the green fluorescent protein was expressed. The results have laid a solid foundation for future study of the cell transfection and tissue regeneration.

Using ligustrazine as the leading compound, we designed and synthesized ten novel ligustrazine derivatives, whose structures were determined by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and MS. Inhibitory effects of the new compounds on the proliferation of A549, A549/DDP and HBE cells were detected by MTT assay. The inhibi-tory activity of the synthesized compounds on migration and invasion of A549 cells were evaluated through scratch assay and transwell assay. Mechanism of the inhibition on migration and invasion was investigated by Western blotting. In addition, the cell cycle was analyzed with flow cytometry. The results showed that, both compounds Z8 and Z10 have an anti-proliferative activity, and the potencies of inhibition of tumor-cell migration and invasion were attributed to the down-regulation of MMP-2 and MMP-9. The compounds Z8 and Z10 could also enhance G2/M arrest in A549 cell as revealed by cell cycle analysis.