Publications by authors named "Yu-ru Tong"

Background: Sanqi, the root of Panax notoginseng, has long been recognized for its therapeutic effects on cardiovascular diseases. Saponins, including ginsenosides and notoginsenosides, are the main bioactive components of P. notoginseng.

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Corydalis yanhusuo W. T. Wang, also known as yanhusuo, yuanhu, yanhu and xuanhu, is one of the herb components of many Chinese Traditional Medicine prescriptions such as Jin Ling Zi San and Yuanhu-Zhitong priscription.

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Mecicinal plants boast abundant natural compounds with significant pharmacological activity, and such compounds, featuring diversified and complex structures, can be used for research and development of drugs. At present, these natural compounds are directly extracted from herbs which, however, suffer from damaged wild resources and shortage of planting resources attributing to the increasing demand. Moreover, the low content in medicinal plants and complex structures are another challenge to the research and development of drugs.

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Patients with malignant glioma often suffered from depression, which leads to an increased risk of detrimental outcomes. Imipramine, an FDA-approved tricyclic antidepressant, has been commonly used to relieve depressive symptoms in the clinic. Recently, imipramine has been reported to participate in the suppression of tumour progression in several human cancers, including prostate cancer, colon cancer and lymphomas.

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3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA synthase (HMGS) is the first committed enzyme in the MVA pathway and involved in the biosynthesis of terpenes in Tripterygium wilfordii. The full-length cDNA and a 515 bp RNAi target fragment of TwHMGS were ligated into the pH7WG2D and pK7GWIWG2D vectors to respectively overexpress and silence, TwHMGS was overexpressed and silenced in T. wilfordii suspension cells using biolistic-gun mediated transformation, which resulted in 2-fold increase and a drop to 70% in the expression level compared to cells with empty vector controls.

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Increasing evidence emphasizes the protective role of Eph receptors in synaptic function in the pathological development of Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, their roles in the regulation of hippocampal astrocytes remain largely unknown. Here, we directly investigated the function of astroglial EphB2 on synaptic plasticity in APP/PS1 mice. Using cell isolation and transgene technologies, we first isolated hippocampal astrocytes and evaluated the expression levels of ephrinB ligands and EphB receptors.

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A combination of different chemotherapy approaches can obtain the best response for many cancers. However, the greatest challenge is the development of a nanoparticle formulation that can encapsulate different chemotherapeutic agents to achieve the proper synergetic chemotherapy for the tumor. Here, amphiphilic ferrocenium-tetradecyl (Fe-C) was constructed to form cationic micelles in an aqueous solution via self-assembly.

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Ubiquitin-specific protease 22 (USP22), as one of the 11 death-from-cancer signature genes, presented high expression in a variety of tumors. Previous studies showed that USP22 played a significant role in cell-cycle, oncogenesis, clinicopathology and survival. Our studies have presented USP22 was over-expressed in glioma tissue and the patients with high expression of USP22 had a poor survival than that with low expression of USP22.

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Cryptomeridiol, a typical eudesmane diol, is the active principle component of the antispasmodic Proximol. Although it has been used for many years, the biosynthesis pathway of cryptomeridiol has remained blur. Among terpenoid natural products, terpenoid cyclases are responsible for cyclization and generation of hydrocarbon backbones.

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Unlabelled: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has increasingly become an efficient and attractive cancer treatment modality based on reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can induce tumor death after irradiation with ultraviolet or visible light. Herein, to overcome the limited tissue penetration in traditional PDT, a novel near-infrared (NIR) light-activated NaScF: 40% Yb, 2% Er@CaF upconversion nanoparticle (rUCNP) is successfully designed and synthesized. Chlorin e6, a photosensitizer and a chelating agent for Mn, is loaded into human serum albumin (HSA) that further conjugates onto rUCNPs.

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By overcoming drug resistance and subsequently enhancing the treatment, the combination therapy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and chemotherapy has promising potential for cancer treatment. However, the major challenge is how to establish an advanced nanoplatform that can be efficiently guided to tumor sites and can then stably release both chemotherapy drugs and a photosensitizer simultaneously and precisely. In this study, which considered the possibility and targeting efficiency of a magnetic targeting strategy, a novel FeO@mSiO(DOX)@HSA(Ce6) nanoplatform was successfully built; this platform could be employed as an efficient synergistic antitumor nanoplatform with magnetic guidance for highly specific targeting and retention.

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Objective: WW domain-containing protein 2 (WWP2) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase, which belongs to the NEDD4-like protein family. Recently, it is reported to play a key role in tumorigenesis and development of tumors such as prostate and lung cancer. However, there has been not related report on glioma until now.

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In this study, we cloned a monoterpene synthases, TwMS from Tripterygium wilfordii suspension cells. TwMS gene contained a 1 797 bp open reading frame (ORF), encoding a polypeptide of 579 amino acids, which deduced isoelectric point (pI) was 6.10 and the calculated molecular weight was 69.

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Based on the transcriptome data, the study cloned full-length cDNA of TwGPPS1 and TwGPPS2 genes from Tripterygium wilfordii suspension cells and then analyzed the bioinformation of the sequence and protein expression. The cloned TwGPPS1 has a 1 278 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polypeptide of 425 amino acids. The deduced isoelectric point (pI) was 6.

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β-transducin repeat-containing E3 ubiquitin protein ligase (β-TrCP) serves as the substrate recognition subunit for the Skp1-Cullin1-F-box protein E3 ubiquitin ligase, which recognizes the double phosphorylated DSG (X)S destruction motif in various substrates that are essential for numerous aspects of tumorigenesis and regulates several important signaling pathways. However, the biological significance of β-TrCP in glioma progression remains largely unknown. A previous study by the authors demonstrated that the levels of β-TrCP protein expression in brain glioma tissues were significantly lower compared with non-tumorous tissues and that higher grades of gliomas exhibited lower levels of β-TrCP expression in comparison with lower glioma grades.

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Astrocytes and apolipoprotein E (apoE) play critical roles in cognitive function, not only under physiological conditions but also in some pathological situations, particularly in the pathological progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The regulatory mechanisms underlying the effect of apoE, derived from astrocytes, on cognitive deficits during AD pathology development are unclear. In this study, we generated amyloid precursor protein/apoE knockout (APP/apoE) and APP/glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-apoE mice (the AD mice model used in this study was based on the APP-familial Alzheimer disease overexpression) to investigate the role of apoE, derived from astrocytes, in AD pathology and cognitive function.

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The biosynthetic pathways of phytosterols and steroidal saponins are located in two adjacent branches which share cycloartenol as substrate. The rate-limiting enzyme S-adenosyl-L-methionine-sterol-C24-methyltransferase 1 (SMT1) facilitates the metabolic flux toward phytosterols. It catalyzes the methylation of the cycloartenol in the side chain of the C24-alkyl group, to generate 24(28)-methylene cycloartenol.

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Here, we report the hypoxia-responsive ionizable liposomes to deliver small interference RNA (siRNA) anticancer drugs, which can selectively enhance cellular uptake of the siRNA under hypoxic and low-pH conditions to cure glioma. For this purpose, malate dehydrogenase lipid molecules were synthesized, which contain nitroimidazole groups that impart hypoxia sensitivity and specificity as hydrophobic tails, and tertiary amines as hydrophilic head groups. These malate dehydrogenase molecules, together with DSPE-PEG2000 and cholesterol, were self-assembled into O',O-(3-(dimethylamino)propane-1,2-diyl) 16-bis(2-(2-methyl-5-nitro-1-imidazol-1-yl)ethyl) di(hexadecanedioate) liposomes (MLP) to encapsulate siRNA through electrostatic interaction.

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24-Alkyl sterols are the major players in the control of membrane component and plant growth. In this paper, we cloned an important rate-limiting enzyme: sterol-C-24-methyl transferase (SMT) in the sterol biosynthetic pathway according to the transcriptome data of Tripterygium wilfordii. suspension cells, whose full-length c DNA was 1 631 bp with an open reading frame of 1 080 bp, encoding a protein of 359 amino acids.

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24-Alkyl sterols are the major players in the control of membrane component and plant growth. In this paper, we cloned an important rate-limiting enzyme: sterol-C-24-methyl transferase (SMT) in the sterol biosynthetic pathway according to the transcriptome data of Tripterygium wilfordii. suspension cells, whose full-length cDNA was 1 631 bp with an open reading frame of 1 080 bp, encoding a protein of 359 amino acids.

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To clone the 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate cytidylyltransferase (TwMCT) full length cDNA from Tripterygium wilfordii, the specific primers were designed according to the transcriptome data and the LCPCR were carried out. After a series of bioinformatics analysis on the TwMCT, the MeJA induced expression content were investigated by real-time fluorescence quantification polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The result showed that the full of TwMCTcDNA was 1 318 bp nucleotides encoding 311 amino acids.

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4-(Cytidine-5-diphospho) -2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis pathway of terpenoids. According to the transcriptome database, the specific primers were designed and used in PCR. The bioinformatic analysis of the sequenced TwCMK gene was performed in several bioinformatics software.

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In this paper, we cloned the full-length cDNA of TwSQS from Tripterygium wilfordii suspension cells(Gen Bank: KR401220) and performed the bioinformation and m RNA expression analysis. The expression after methyl jasmonate(MJ) treatment of the gene was detected by RT-PCR. The full-length cDNA of TwSQS was 1 800 bp containing a 1 242 bp open reading frame(ORF) encoding a polypeptide of 413 amino acids.

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Celastrol is an important bioactive triterpenoid in traditional Chinese medicinal plant, Tripterygium wilfordii. Methyl Jasmonate (MJ) is a common plant hormone which can regulate the secondary metabolism in higher plants. In this study, the mevalonate (MVA) pathway genes in T.

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Background: Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is a common disease that is more prevalent in older people. Surgical intervention is a safe treatment of choice. However, the recurrence rate is relatively high and the outcome is not always satisfactory among surgically treated patients.

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