Glyphosate hormesis stimulates tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plant growth and enhances tolerance against environmental abiotic stress by triggering nonphotochemical quenching.

Background: Glyphosate is the most widely applied herbicide in the world. Hormesis caused by low glyphosate doses has been widely documented in many plant species. However, the specific adaptative mechanism of plants responding to glyphosate hormesis stimulation remains unclear.

Hormesis effects in tomato plant growth and photosynthesis due to acephate exposure based on physiology and transcriptomic analysis.

Background: Hormesis is a common phenomenon in toxicology described as low-dose stimulation due to a toxin which causes inhibition at a high dose. Pesticide hormesis in plants has attracted considerable research interest in recent years; however, the specific mechanism has not yet been clarified. Acephate is an organophosphorus insecticide that is used worldwide.

AMFormulaS: an intelligent retrieval system for traditional Chinese medicine formulas.

Background: Formula is an important means of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat diseases and has great research significance. There are many formula databases, but accessing rich information efficiently is difficult due to the small-scale data and lack of intelligent search engine.

Methods: We selected 38,000 formulas from a semi-structured database, and then segmented text, extracted information, and standardized terms.

Biological mechanisms of glycan- and glycosaminoglycan-based nutraceuticals.

A nutraceutical is defined as a standardized pharmaceutical-grade nutrient. Among hundreds of nutraceuticals, polysaccharide or glycan-based products such as those containing chondroitin sulfate glycosaminoglycan isolated from animal cartilage have been on the top nutraceutical selling list for many years. It is expected that the nutraceutical market will reach $250 billion dollars worldwide by 2018.

The sensitivity and specificity of serum glycan-based biomarkers for cancer detection.

Most of clinically used serum biomarkers for cancer detection were established in early 1980s when the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded for the "discovery of the principle for the production of monoclonal antibodies." Using this "Nobel" technology, various monoclonal antibodies were obtained when different types of cancer cells were injected into mice and the ligands on the cancer cell surface were characterized. Both aberrant glycan structures and aberrant glycan-associated glycoproteins were revealed as a common feature of cancer cell surfaces through the specific interactions with the monoclonal antibodies.

Norcantharidin Inhibits cell growth by suppressing the expression and phosphorylation of both EGFR and c-Met in human colon cancer cells.

Background: Norcantharidin (NCTD) is a Chinese FDA approved, chemically synthesized drug for cancer treatment. The effect of NCTD on signaling proteins of EGFR and c-Met was systematically elucidated in current study.

Methods: Two human colon cancer cell lines, HCT116 and HT29, were used as model systems to investigate the anti-cancer molecular mechanism of NCTD.

An efficient synthesis method targeted to marine alkaloids marinacarbolines A-D and their antitumor activities.

Marinacarbolines A-D are a series of marine β-carboline alkaloids isolated from actinomycete Marinactinospora thermotolerans of the deep South China Sea with antiplasmodial activities. In inhibition assays of in vitro growth of Plasmodium falciparum, marinacarbolines exhibited antiplasmodial activity against drug-sensitive line 3D7 and drug-resistant line Dd2 of P. falciparum.

Efficacy of Heparinoid PSS in Treating Cardiovascular Diseases and Beyond-A Review of 27 Years Clinical Experiences in China.

Propylene glycol alginate sodium sulfate (PSS) is the world's first oral heparinoid approved by Chinese Food and Drug Administration in 1987. Propylene glycol alginate sodium sulfate is produced by modifying partially hydrolyzed alginate, one of the most abundant marine polysaccharides isolated from brown algae, by epoxypropane esterification and by chemical sulfation. It is used for treating and preventing cardiovascular-related diseases.