Coriolus versicolor and its bioactive molecule are potential immunomodulators against cancer cell metastasis via inactivation of MAPK pathway.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Coriolus versicolor (CV) has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 2000 years as a premium medicine for enhancing good health and longevity. The immunomodulatory and anti-cancer effects of polysaccharopeptides (PSP) from cultured CV have been extensively studied; however, the effect and the mechanism of action of other small molecules from CV remain unknown.

Aim Of The Study: we aim to examine the immunomodulatory and anti-cancer effects of the small molecules from CV (SMCV) and identify the active compounds that are responsible for the biological effects against glioblastoma multiforme cells.

Antiviral effect of forsythoside A from Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl fruit against influenza A virus through reduction of viral M1 protein.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Yinqiaosan is a classical traditional Chinese medicine formula, which has been used to treat respiratory diseases since ancient China. It consists of nine herbs and among them, Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl fruit is one of the major herbal components.

Differential effects of Radix Paeoniae Rubra (Chishao) on cytokine and chemokine expression inducible by mycobacteria.

Background: Upon initial infection with mycobacteria, macrophages secrete multiple cytokines and chemokines, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), to mediate host immune responses against the pathogen. Mycobacteria also induce the production of IL-10 via PKR activation in primary human monocytes and macrophages. As an anti-inflammatory cytokine, over-expression of IL-10 may contribute to mycobacterial evasion of the host immunity.

Cellular response to influenza virus infection: a potential role for autophagy in CXCL10 and interferon-alpha induction.

Historically, influenza pandemics have arisen from avian influenza viruses. Avian influenza viruses H5N1 and H9N2 are potential pandemic candidates. Infection of humans with the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus is associated with a mortality in excess of 60%, which has been attributed to dysregulation of the cytokine system.

Proteomic characterization of the cellular response to chemopreventive triterpenoid astragaloside IV in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2.

Triterpenoids are implicated in the chemoprevention of various cancers. Current challenge is to define the molecular mechanism underlying the chemopreventive activity of triterpenoids. This study was designed to characterize the intracellular proteins regulated by astragaloside IV, the major active triterpenoid in Radix Astragali.

MHC expression kinetics and immunogenicity of mesenchymal stromal cells after short-term IFN-gamma challenge.

Objective: Under the influence of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are conditional antigen-presenting cells, which have immunosuppressive potential. Apart from IFN-gamma upregulation of major histocompatibility complexes class I and II (MHC-I and MHC-II) expression, the underlying kinetics and mechanisms have not been described previously. This information is helpful to delineate how human MSCs can be modulated by IFN-gamma in different clinical scenarios.

Induction of heme oxygenase-1 by traditional Chinese medicine formulation ISF-1 and its ingredients as a cytoprotective mechanism against oxidative stress.

Traditional medicines are clinically used to treat post-stroke disorders in China. In search of alternative medicines for post-stroke rehabilitation, we recently identified the heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) pathway as a key mechanism underlying the biological activities of the ischemic stroke formulation ISF-1. This study was designed to further investigate ISF-1 for HO-1 induction in cultured human cells and corresponding cytoprotective effects against oxidative injury.

Genome-wide biological response fingerprinting (BioReF) of the Chinese botanical formulation ISF-1 enables the selection of multiple marker genes as a potential metric for quality control.

Quality control plays a critical role in the process of translating the traditional/alternative medicines into modern evidence-based therapies. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is widely applied to assess the chemical composition of botanical drug products. The chromatographic fingerprints or chemical profiles are currently used as the de facto quality control metric.

Analytical application of acetate anion in negative electrospray ionization mass spectrometry for the analysis of triterpenoid saponins--ginsenosides.

Ginsenosides containing different numbers of glycosyl groups can be easily differentiated based on the formation of characteristic ginsenoside-acetate adduct anions and deprotonated ginsenosides generated by electrospray ionization (ESI) of methanolic solutions of ginsenosides (M) and ammonium acetate (NH4OAc). Ginsenosides containing two glycosyl groups gave a characteristic mass spectral pattern consisting of [M+2OAc]2-, [M-H+OAc]2- and [M-2H]2- ions with m/z values differing by 30 Th, while this mass spectral pattern was not observed for ginsenosides containing one glycosyl group. Formation of [M+2OAc]2- was influenced by the chain length of glycosyl groups and was used to differentiate the ginsenosides containing different combinations of monosaccharide and disaccharide units in the glycosyl groups.

Ganoderma lucidum mycelium and spore extracts as natural adjuvants for immunotherapy.

Objectives: Ganoderma lucidum (GL) is one of the most commonly used Chinese herbs in the oriental community, with more than 30% of pediatric cancer patients taking GL. The immunomodulating and anticancer effects exerted by GL extracts have been demonstrated by in vitro and in vivo studies. There was, however, no comparison between the immunomodulating effects of GL mycelium extract (GL-M) and spore extracts on human immune cells.

Epstein-Barr virus-associated infectious mononucleosis in Chinese children.

Background: According to seroprevalence studies the majority of children in Hong Kong are infected by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) before 10 years of age, but the characteristics of EBV-associated infectious mononucleosis (IM) in Chinese children are largely unreported. This study aims at defining the clinical presentation and complications of Chinese childhood IM in relation to age of the children.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed on 77 consecutive Chinese childhood IM patients who fulfilled the serologic criteria for the diagnosis of primary EBV infection (viral capsid antigen IgM+ viral capsid antigen IgG+ Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen-).