Emerging Molecular Receptors for the Specific-Target Delivery of Ruthenium and Gold Complexes into Cancer Cells

Cisplatin and derivatives are highly effective in the treatment of a wide range of cancer types; however, these metallodrugs display low selectivity, leading to severe side effects. Additionally, their administration often results in the development of chemoresistance, which ultimately results in therapeutic failure. This scenario triggered the study of other transition metals with innovative pharmacological profiles as alternatives to platinum, ruthenium- (e.g., KP1339 and NAMI-A) and gold-based (e.g., Auranofin) complexes being among the most advanced in terms of clinical evaluation. Concerning the importance of improving the in vivo selectivity of metal complexes and the current relevance of ruthenium and gold metals, this review article aims to survey the main research efforts made in the past few years toward the design and biological evaluation of target-specific ruthenium and gold complexes. Herein, we give an overview of the inorganic and organometallic molecules conjugated to different biomolecules for targeting membrane proteins, namely cell adhesion molecules, G-protein coupled receptors, and growth factor receptors. Complexes that recognize the progesterone receptors or other targets involved in metabolic pathways such as glucose transporters are discussed as well. Finally, we describe some complexes aimed at recognizing cell organelles or compartments, mitochondria being the most explored. The few complexes addressing targeted gene therapy are also presented and discussed.     

D-Sorbitol Physical Properties Effects on Filaments Used by 3D Printing Process for Personalized Medicine

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a process used to manufacture oral forms adapted to the needs of patients. Polyethylene oxide (PEO) filaments were produced by hot melt extrusion (HME) to obtain a filament suitable for the production of amiodarone hydrochloride oral forms by FFF 3D printing. In order to produce personalized oral forms adapted to the patient characteristics, filaments used by FFF must be controlled in terms of mass homogeneity along filament. This work highlights the relation between filament mass homogeneity and its diameter. This is why the impact of filler excipients physical properties was studied. It has been showed that the particle’s size distribution of the filler can modify the filament diameter variability which has had an impact on the mass of oral forms produced by FFF. Through this work it was shown that D-Sorbitol from Carlo Erba allows to obtain a diameter variability of less than 2% due to its unique particle’s size distribution. Using the filament produced by HME and an innovating calibration method based on the filament length, it has been possible to carry out three dosages of 125 mg, 750 mg and 1000 mg by 3D printing with acceptable mass uniformity.     

质谱技术在中药研究中的应用进展

中药是中华传统医学的瑰宝,在我国已广泛应用于疾病预防和治疗中,但其存在化学成分复杂、作用机制不明确等问题,制约了中药现代化及国际化的发展进程。质谱技术具有高灵敏度、高选择性、高稳定性及高通量的特点,特别适合于中药复杂成分及其代谢物的定性定量分析。该文综述了近年来质谱技术在中药成分鉴定及质量控制、中药代谢组学及中药药代动力学研究方面的典型应用,并对存在的问题及改进方法进行了展望。     

煎煮对几种特色南药中重金属元素含量和形态影响

考察了几种特色南药中重金属(Cd,Cr,Cu,Fe,Mn,Ni,Pb,Sr,Zn)的含量状况,并采用形态连续萃取法分析重金属在药材中的形态分布,研究了药材煎煮时药材中重金属的释放及煎煮过程对药材中重金属形态分布的影响。结果表明,几种南药中Cr,Pb,Zn的含量较高,且巴戟天中的重金属总量高于限量标准;原药材中Cr,Cu,Mn,Ni,Pb和Zn主要存在于有机态和残留态,Fe和Sr主要存在于残留态。煎煮使南药中大量重金属迁移到药汤中;药汤中Cu,Mn,Cr,Pb和Zn主要来自于其在药材中的可交换态、碳酸盐结合态和有机态,而药汤中Sr,Ni和Fe不仅包含其非残留态,更多来自于它们的残留态。为减少药汤中重金属,对于Cu,Mn,Cr,Pb和Zn既要控制在药材中的总量,且需降低它们在药材中的非残留态含量;对于Fe,Ni和Sr则主要是控制其在药材中的总量。     

中药当归芍药散治疗慢性肝炎的临床研究

目的 探讨中药当归芍药散治疗慢性乙型肝炎的临床疗效及作用机制。方法 用中药当归芍药散以疏肝健脾,活血化瘀,健脾利湿为法治疗慢性乙型肝炎肝郁脾虚证患者30例,并以健脾益肝汤为对照组进行比较。结果 治疗组显效率为43.33%,有效率为43.33%,总有效率为86.67%,对照组显效率为30.00%,有效率为46.67%,总有效率为76.67%,经统计学处理,两组显效率及总有效率均差异有显著性(P0.05),说明治疗组疗效优于对照组。此外,治疗组在减轻症状、体征,改善肝功能、肝脾B型超声等方面均明显优于对照组。结论 中药当归芍药散是《金匮要略论注》经验方,经临床观察及实验研究,有明显的疏肝健脾,活血化瘀,健脾利湿功效,临床用以治疗慢性乙型肝炎肝郁脾虚证收到很好的疗效。中药当归芍药散具有明显的保肝降酶、改善临床症状、体征的作用,临床观察疗效确切,无毒副作用,治疗慢性乙型肝炎极具研究价值及开发前景。     

Structure-based modelling,scoring, screening,and in vitro kinase assay of anesthetic pkc inhibitors against a natural medicine library

Protein kinase C (PKC) is an intracellular effector of the inositol phosphate-mediated signal transduction pathway. Evidence is emerging that certain general anaesthetics can influence the activity of PKC by interacting with the regulatory domain of the enzyme, and targeting PKC kinase domain is considered as a strategy to modulate the anaesthetic effects. Here, an integrated method was used to perform virtual screening against a large library of natural compounds for the discovery of new and potent PKC modulators. A number of hits were identified and their inhibitory activity against PKC kinase domain was measured by using a standard kinase assay protocol. Three and five compounds were determined to have high and moderate activities with IC₅₀ values at nanomolar and micromolar levels, respectively. These compounds can be considered as promising lead molecular entities to develop efficacious anaesthetic modulators. Structural examination revealed a variety of nonbonded interactions such as hydrogen bonds, cation-π contacts, and hydrophobic forces across the complex interface of PKC with the identified compounds. This study helps to establish an integrative approach to rational kinase inhibitor discovery by efficiently exploiting various existing natural products.     

Analysis of Tea for Metals by Flame and Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry with Multivariate Analysis

The concentrations of iron, zinc, manganese, copper, chromium, nickel, lead, arsenic, and cadmium were determined using flame and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry in nine herbal tea samples. Hawthorn, yarrow, elderflower, and bearberry are herbal teas for which the metal content has been rarely determined. The concentration of cadmium in St John’s wort exceeded the maximum permissible limit of 0.3?mg/kg. The metals were also determined in aqueous extracts following 5, 10, and 20?min of boiling and using different preparations, including acidification with lemon juice. The influence of these factors on metal release was demonstrated using multivariate analyses by redundancy analysis and principal component analysis. The metal release was not considerably affected by the boiling time, while the acidity of the medium was generally positively correlated. For the infusions, arsenic was detected only in acidified mint tea. The extraction efficiencies of metals were determined and classified as highly, moderately, and poorly extractable, with chromium showing largest variations.     

Separation and purification of four flavonol diglucosides from the flower of Meconopsis integrifolia by high‐speed counter‐current chromatography

Flavonoids are the main components of Meconopsis integrifolia (Maxim.) Franch, which is a traditional Tibetan medicine. However, traditional chromatography separation requires a large quantity of raw M. integrifolia and is very time consuming. Herein, we applied high‐speed counter‐current chromatography in the separation and purification of flavonoids from the ethanol extracts of M. integrifolia flower. Ethyl acetate/n‐butanol/water (2:3:5, v/v/v) was selected as the optimum solvent system to purify the four components, namely quercetin‐3‐O‐β‐d‐ glucopyrannosy‐(1→6)‐β‐d‐ glucopyranoside (compound 1 , 60 mg), quercetin 3‐O‐[2’’’‐O‐acetyl‐β‐d‐ glucopyranosyl‐(1→6)‐β‐d‐ glucopyranoside (compound 2 , 40 mg), quercetin 3‐O‐[3’’’‐O‐acetyl‐β‐d‐ glucopyranosyl‐(1→6)‐β‐d‐ glucopyranoside (compound 3 , 11 mg), and quercetin 3‐O‐[6’’’‐O‐acetyl‐β‐d‐ glucopyranosyl‐(1→6)‐β‐d‐ glucopyranoside (compound 4 , 16 mg). Among the four compounds, 3 and 4 were new acetylated flavonol diglucosides. After the high‐speed counter‐current chromatography separation, the purities of the four flavonol diglucosides were 98, 95, 90, and 92%, respectively. The structures of these compounds were identified by mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy.     

CRISPR‐Cas: From the Bacterial Adaptive Immune System to a Versatile Tool for Genome Engineering

The field of biology has been revolutionized by the recent advancement of an adaptive bacterial immune system as a universal genome engineering tool. Bacteria and archaea use repetitive genomic elements termed clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) in combination with an RNA‐guided nuclease (CRISPR‐associated nuclease: Cas) to target and destroy invading DNA. By choosing the appropriate sequence of the guide RNA, this two‐component system can be used to efficiently modify, target, and edit genomic loci of interest in plants, insects, fungi, mammalian cells, and whole organisms. This has opened up new frontiers in genome engineering, including the potential to treat or cure human genetic disorders. Now the potential risks as well as the ethical, social, and legal implications of this powerful new technique move into the limelight.