The drug hepatotoxicity assessment method in vitro was established by 3D organoid model of HepaRG cell line in combination with high content imaging analysis. HepaRG cells were differentiated into hepatocyte-like morphology and bile canaliculus-like structures by treatment with hydrocortisone and dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO), inducing the expressions of drug-metabolizing enzymes, transporters, nuclear receptors and hepatocyte-specific protein albumin(ALB)genes, finally forming the stable organoids with closely resembling liver function in vitro. Through the high content imaging analysis and the specific, multi-targets fluorescent dye, the number of live/dead cells, mitochondrial membrane potential(MMP), intracellular reactive oxygen species(ROS)were analyzed for the drug hepatotoxicity evaluation. The results showed that the organoids evaluation model of HepaRG cells in vitro could be used to assess accurately the difference between hepatotoxicity positive control drugs of amiodarone(AMD), cyclosporin(CSP)and the negative control drug of aspirin(ASP): AMD and CSP concentration-dependently decreased the number of total and live organoid cells. The number of dead organoid cells was increased sharply when the concentration of AMD was more than 50 μmol·L^-1, while no significant changes was observed for ASP. AMD and CSP concentration-dependently caused the MMP declined and the ROS increased, with AMD showing a greater degree than CSP and ASP presenting no markedly effect. In conclusion, the organoid evaluation method of HepaRG cells in combination with high content imaging analysis can be used for the drug hepatotoxicity assessment in vitro. It displays the advantages of multi-target, high throughput, intuitive results as well as quantitatively.

By using the drug metabolizing enzyme inhibitors, the effects of metabolic factors on potential liver injury induced by the main component, trans-2, 3, 5, 4'-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside(trans-SG), in Polygonum multiflorum was investigated. The main metabolic enzyme isoforms involved in trans-SG metabolism were also screened. The results showed that trans-SG at the dosage 31 mg·kg^-1 did not cause liver injury; and the combination of trans-SG with the phase Ⅰ metabolic enzyme inhibitor, 1-benzylimidazole (10 mg·kg^-1), did not change the degree of liver injury(compared with LPS + trans-SG group, P > 0.05). However, the combination of trans-SG with phase Ⅱ metabolic enzyme inhibitor, ketoconazole(35 mg·kg^-1), significantly increased the degree of liver injury(compared with LPS + trans-SG group, P < 0.05). The phase Ⅰ metabolites of trans-SG were not detected in human liver microsomes phase Ⅰ metabolism system, while the phase Ⅱ trans-SG metabolites were detected in recombinant human UGT isozymes phase Ⅱ metabolism system. Six isoforms of uridine diphosphate glucuronate transferase(UGT)exhibited abilities to metabolize trans-SG and the order of metabolic ability was: UGT1A1 > UGT1A9 > UGT1A7 > UGT1A10 > UGT2B7 > UGT1A8. The results showed that trans-SG was mainly metabolized by UGT in phase Ⅱ metabolism. The inhibition of drug metabolizing enzymes of phase Ⅱ can increase the liver injury susceptibility of trans-SG, which provides a reference to the evaluation of susceptible factors and drug incompatibility research of Polygonum multiflorum.

Nanoparticles hold great potential in the improvement of the therapeutic activities of many drugs. Synthetic approaches are dominant in the conventional approach for nanoparticles design and engineering strategies. However, combination of synthetic nanoparticles with natural biomaterials have recently gained much attention. By taking inspiration from nature, cell-derived nanomedicine delivery system has been created, which is a biomimetic platform consisting of a nanoparticulate core coated with cell or cell membrane. Compared to the conventional drug delivery systems, this novel system combines the unique functionalities of cells and engineering versatility of synthetic nanomaterials for effective delivery of therapeutic agents. With existing of cell, nanomedicine has significantly improved the biocompatibility, accurate delivery and long half-life in circulation as well as reduced the toxicity and side effect of drugs. Moreover, the delivery system can interact with the incredibly complex biological systems that exist within the body, such as actively targeting the inflammatory sites and tumors. Hence, it can be applied to drug delivery, tumor radiotherapy, and vaccine preparation. The cell-derived nanomedicine delivery system emerging as a novel delivery strategy, have the potential to significantly advance the nanomedicine to improve the therapeutic efficacy. The recent research in characteristics, preparation and application of erythrocyte, mononuclear phagocyte, bacteria and tumor cell as nanomedicine delivery carrier are reviewed.

It is investigated that the hepatotoxicity of Polygonum multiflorum (PM)was attenuated by its processed products of nine times steaming and nine times sunning(RPM)based on immunological stress-mediated animal model by using metabolomics method. Sprague-Dawley(SD)rats were intragastrically administered with(5.4 g crude drug per kg body weight)of 50% alcohol extracts of PM and its processed products of nine times steaming and nine times sunning respectively or co-treated with non-toxic dose of lipopolysaccharide(LPS, 2.8 mg·kg^-1)via tail vein injection. The plasma alanine aminotransferase(ALT)and aspartate aminotransferase(AST)activities were assayed and the isolated livers were evaluated for histopathological changes. Global metabolomics profiling, multivariate analysis and data base searching were performed to discover common differential metabolites for idiosyncratic liver injury. The results showed that co-treatment with non-toxic dose of LPS and PM could result in significant liver injury, indicated by the elevation of plasma ALT and AST activities, as well as obvious liver histologic damage; whereas RPM failed to induce detectable liver injury. Furthermore, 10 potential metabolomics biomarkers that differentially expressed in LPS/PM group compared with LPS/RPM without liver injury were identified by untargeted metabolomics, mainly involved ten pathways: sphingolipid metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis, galactose metabolism, steroid biosynthesis, metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450, pyrimidine metabolism, biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, primary bile acid biosynthesis. This work illustrated the idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity of heshouwu and provided a metabolomic insight into diosyncratic liver injury of PM and RPM.

Panax quinquefolium and Panax ginseng were investigated using non-linear chemical fingerprint technology, and a novel method to identify two ginsengs and different producing areas of P. quinquefolium was put forward. The non-linear chemical fingerprints of P. quinquefolium(collected from Canada, Jilin and Shaanxi)and P. ginseng (collected from Jilin)were obtained by reactions took place in the system of "H₂SO₄-MnSO₄-CH₃COCH₃-NaBrO₃" and their system similarities were evaluated. In the meantime, the quality difference in P. quinquefolium from different producing areas was evaluated using HPLC to determine the contents of main 7 ginsenosides. As a result, the non-linear chemical fingerprints exhibited a good reproducibility and characteristic when dosage of detection was 0.4 g and the reaction temperature was 37 ℃. The fingerprint characteristics of P. quinquefolium were obviously different from P. ginseng. The two species of ginsengs could be distinguished by the visual fingerprint characteristics, and P. quinquefolium from different producing areas were identified by the system similarities. Furthermore, HPLC analysis showed that the quality P. quinquefolium from different producing areas was varied, which indicated that rapid identification and quality evaluation of P. quinquefolium become very important and necessary. Compared with HPLC technology, non-linear chemical fingerprint is a more convenient, rapid and economic technology. This study provides a novel strategy to distinguish and evaluate P. quinquefolium and P. ginseng, which will provide a reference for the quality evaluation and control of Chinese medicine.

A series of novel xanthones with terminal amine substituents at xanthone's C3 and C6 positions were designed and synthesized as potential ligands for telomeric G-quadruplex DNA. All the compounds in this series were bound to telomeric G-quadruplex in a "thread intercalation" manner that illustrated both in molecular docking and spectrometric studies. Among them, 10c and 10d showed better binding abilities and specific affinity toward G-quadruplex DNA HTG21 over ctDNA in the fluorescence assay. The antiproliferative activities of four screened compounds were examined in three cancer cells by MTT in vitro, and their inhibitory effects were observed at low micromolar ranges. In addition, the PCR stop assay demonstrated that 10c and 10d effectively inhibited the amplification ability of telomerase.

The objective of this study was to examine the antimetastatic effects of cordycepin and elucidate its molecular mechanism using MHCC97H cells in vitro and in vivo. Cellular proliferation was detected with MTT assay. The migration and metastatic potential were measured with scratch wound healing as well as transwell migration assays in vitro. Protein expression was detected by Western blotting. Antitumor and antimetastatic effects of cordycepin were evaluated by subcutaneous xenograft and lung metastatic model in vivo. The results demonstrated that cordycepin significantly inhibited MHCC97H cells proliferation and metastasis which was due to the down-regulation of AKT, p-AKT, p-GSK-3β, β-catenin, N-cadherin, MMP-7, MMP-9 and up-regulation the expression of E-cadherin. Furthermore, cordycepin inhibited tumor growth and metastasis in a dose-dependent manner in vivo. Cordycepin(40 and 20 mg·kg^-1)and 5-fluorouracil group significantly inhibited the tumor weights to 0.38 ± 0.04, 0.61 ± 0.08 and 0.65 ± 0.07 g, respectively, comparing with the control group(1.52 ± 0.46 g)(P < 0.01), but not 10 mg·kg^-1 cordycepin group(1.13 ± 0.36 g)(P > 0.05); the lung metastasis nodus numbers showed the same results, which in all group above(48.9 ± 7.2, 67.2 ± 9.4, 73.6 ± 8.6, respectively)were fewer than the control group(123.5 ± 14.5)(P < 0.01), except 10 mg·kg^-1 cordycepin(106.4 ± 11.3)(P > 0.05). Collectively, cordycepin inhibited MHCC97H cell proliferation and metastasis in vivo and in vitro.

An ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry(UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS)method has been established to analyze the bioactive components of the aqueous extract of Euodiae Fructusand detect the metabolites in rats after oral administration of the aqueous extract. Compounds were detected by analyzing their retention times, high resolution mass data, mass spectra and comparing with the reference substances. As a result, 27 compounds were characterized from the aqueous extract of Euodiae Fructus, and 25 compounds were identified on the basis of the reference substances. 16 parent compounds and 35 metabolites were detected in rats' plasma, urine and feces samples, and all of the parent compounds were determined unambiguously through comparison with the reference substances. Four classes of compounds were identified from the aqueous extract of Euodiae Fructus, including phenolic acids, limonins, flavonoid glycosides and alkaloids. Phenolic acids, flavonoid glycosides and alkaloids were detected in rats' plasma, urine and feces, while limonins were detected in the urine and feces. The main metabolism pathways of these compounds in rats might include hydroxyl, hydrogenation, methylation, sulfating, glucuronidation, and so on. The results of this study provide references in the material basis of Euodiae Fructus in vivo.

The methylation of histone lysine plays a pivotal role in epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Histone lysine methylation modifications have 5 sites within histone H3(K4, K9, K27, K36, K79) and 1 site within histone H4(K20). Methylation at various sites has been shown to lead to transcriptional activation or silencing. Histone lysine methyltransferases(HKMTs)and histone lysine demethylases(HKDMs)collectively regulate the methylation modification state of histone lysine. It was reported that the mis-regulation of HKDMs is associated with the occurring and resistance of numerous malignant tumors, so more and more attention are received to HKDMs. Therefore, it is great significant in the study and development of HKDMs inhibitors. The inhibitors could be served not only as a tool in the investigation of the biological function, but also could be used as novel anti-cancer agents in the anticancer therapy. In this review, we provide a short summary of the HKDMs inhibitors recently reported and their potential in the treatment of diseases.

In this study, the three dimensional(3D)organoid culture system was established by liquid overlay method, and applied as an effective model to evaluate the hepatic injury of susceptible compounds in Polygonum multiflorum Thunb. Compared with the ordinary two dimensional(2D)culture of liver cells, the albumin expression of L02 cells and HepG2 cells were increased by 2.5 and 6.7 times in the 3D organoid culture system, respectively. After the cultivation of 21 days, urea generation levels of 3D culture were increased by 8.3 and 15.5 times. More importantly, HepG2 cells were more suitable to development of organoids than L02 cells. The gene expressions of phase Ⅰ and Ⅱ drug metabolism enzymes of HepG2 cells cultured as 3D organoids were significantly increased than that in 2D culture, such as the fold changes of CYP2C9 was up to 381.9, CYP3A4 to 87.0, CYP2D6 to 312.6. In addition, drug transporter relative genes were also up-regulated. The results demonstrated that the liver synthesis and metabolic function of the 3D model were better than that of the 2D cultured hepatocytes. The results of hepatotoxicity evaluation showed this developed model can be used to assess the hepatotoxicity of acetaminophen and other positive control drugs, which were considered with defined hepatotoxicity. On the 3D culture model, the IC₅₀ value of repeated drug dose administration was significantly lower than that of single dose administration. However, the IC₅₀ of 2, 3, 5, 4'-tetrahydroxy-cis-stilbene-2-O-β-glucoside(cis-SG), which is the susceptible compound in Polygonum multiflorum Thunb., could not be detected in 2D cultured model. With the treatment of a single dose administration in organ 3D culture model, the IC₅₀ of cis-SG was 1.9 times than that of cyclosporine A, and the IC₅₀ of 2, 3, 5, 4'-tetrahydroxy-trans-stilbene-2-O-β-glucoside(trans-SG)was 4.1 times than cis-SG. The hepatotoxicity results of cis-SG and trans-SG on the 3D cultures were similar to in vivo toxicity results obtained in previous work. On organ 3D culture model, the IC₅₀ of cis-SG with repeat of administration decreased compared with that with single dose administration, suggesting that long-term medication may increase the risk of liver injury. In summary, the 3D organoid culture system can be used for a long period to preserve the capacity of liver synthesis and metabolism. The organoids were a model suitable for evaluation of mechanism of the drugs with low toxicity.