The protective effect of natural medicines in rheumatoid arthritis via inhibit angiogenesis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic immunological disease leading to the progressive bone and joint destruction. Angiogenesis, accompanied by synovial hyperplasia and inflammation underlies joint destruction. Delaying or even blocking synovial angiogenesis has emerged as an important target of RA treatment.

Inhibition of catechol--methyltransferase by natural pentacyclic triterpenes: structure-activity relationships and kinetic mechanism.

Inhibitors of COMT are clinically used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Here, we report the first natural pentacyclic triterpenoid-type COMT inhibitors and their structure-activity relationships and inhibition mechanism. The most potent compounds were found to be oleanic acid, betulinic acid and celastrol with IC values of 3.

The comparison analysis of polyphyllin I and its analogues induced apoptosis of colon and lung cancer cells via mitochondrial dysfunction.

Polyphyllin I (PPI) and its analogues, including polyphyllin II (PPII), polyphyllin VI (PPVI) and polyphyllin VII (PPVII), are major bioactive compounds isolated from the Chinese herb Chonglou. However, the susceptibilities of PPI and its analogues towards the different cell lines are diversified and the mechanisms are not fully clarified. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the cytotoxicity of PPI and its analogues on two different cell lines, as well as to explore the underlying mechanisms of these agents via inducing mitochondrial dysfunction.

Endotoxin removal in some medicines and human serum albumin solution by affinity membranes.

Three kinds of affinity membranes utilized for endotoxin removal, namely, chitosan affinity membrane (KFCC517), hydrophobic and cationic charged membrane (KFCG316) and metal chelate affinity membrane (KFCM402) were prepared by using cellulose membrane as support. The adsorbability and applications of the membranes in endotoxin removal were investigated. The results showed that all of these affinity membranes could be utilized for endotoxin removal in several kinds of solutions.