Effect and Mechanism of Rhein-praseodymium Complex on Intestinal Uric Acid Excretion in Rats with Renal Injury and Hyperuricemia.

Background: Hyperuricemia (HUA) is a disease characterized by excessive uric acid production and/or insufficient uric acid excretion caused by abnormal purine metabolism in the human body. Uric acid deposition caused by hyperuricemia can cause complications, such as kidney damage. The current therapeutic drugs for HUA are not very targeted and usually have specific toxic side effects.

p16 flow cytometry of exfoliated cervical cells: Its role in quantitative pathology and clinical diagnosis of squamous intraepithelial lesions.

Background: P16 is a surrogate signature compensating for the specificity and/or sensitivity deficiencies of the human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA and Papanicolaou smear (Pap) co-test for detecting high-grade cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions or worse (HSIL+). However, traditional p16INK4A immunostaining is labour intensive and skill demanding, and subjective biases cannot be avoided. Herein, we created a high-throughput, quantitative diagnostic device, p16INK4A flow cytometry (FCM) and assessed its performances in cervical cancer screening and prevention.

Managing prior approval for site-of-service referrals: an algorithmic approach.

Objectives: Many payers and health care providers are either currently using or considering use of prior authorization schemes to redirect patient care away from hospital outpatient departments toward free-standing ambulatory surgical centers owing to the payment differential between these facilities. In this work we work with a medium size payer to develop and lay out a process for analysis of claims data that allows payers to conservatively estimate potential savings from such policies based on their specific case mix and provider network.

Study Design: We analyzed payment information for a medium-sized managed care organization to identify movable cases that can reduce costs, estimate potential savings, and recommend implementation policy alternatives.

Alternative Causal Link between Peptide Fibrillization and β-Strand Conformation.

In the prevailing phenomenon of peptide fibrillization, β-strand conformation has long been believed to be an important structural basis for peptide assembly. According to a widely accepted theory, in most peptide fibrillization processes, peptide monomers need to intrinsically take or transform to β-strand conformation before they can undergo ordered packing to form nanofibers. In this study, we reported our findings on an alternative peptide fibrillization pathway starting from a disordered secondary structure, which could then transform to β-strand after fibrillization.

Facile design of gemini surfactant-like peptide for hydrophobic drug delivery and antimicrobial activity.

Recently, many kinds of gemini-type amphiphilic peptides have been designed and shown their advantage as self-assembling nanomaterials. In this study, we proposed a simple strategy to design gemini surfactant-like peptides, which are only composed of natural amino acids and can be easily obtained by conventional peptide sythnesis. Taking two prolines as the turn-forming units, a peptide named APK was designed.

Integrated metabolomics and network pharmacology to reveal the mechanisms of hydroxysafflor yellow A against acute traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has become a leading cause of mortality, morbidity and disability worldwide. Hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) is effective in treating TBI, but the potential mechanisms require further exploration. We aimed to reveal the mechanisms of HSYA against acute TBI by an integrated strategy combining metabolomics with network pharmacology.

Controllable self-patterning behaviours of flexible self-assembling peptide nanofibers.

In recent years, fabricating flexible one-dimensional nanofibers with a high aspect ratio and controlling their two-dimensional patterns on a certain surface have attracted more and more attention. Although molecular self-assembly as a useful strategy has been widely used to obtain nanofibers from soft materials such as peptides and polymers, extremely long nanofibers with high flexibility were rarely reported, and it's even more challenging to organize these organic nanofibers into ordered patterns in a controllable manner. In this study, we designed a flat-wedge-shaped bolaamphiphilic peptide which could self-assemble into ultra-flexible long nanofibers.

A pH-Sensitive Prodrug Nanocarrier Based on Diosgenin for Doxorubicin Delivery to Efficiently Inhibit Tumor Metastasis.

Background: The metastasis, one of the biggest barriers in cancer therapy, is the leading cause of tumor deterioration and recurrence. The anti.-metastasis has been considered as a feasible strategy for clinical cancer management.

Entecavir as a P2X7R antagonist ameliorates platelet activation and thrombus formation.

Platelet activation is the primary cause of thrombosis. The P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) is a therapeutic target of thrombosis. However, it is still unknown whether P2X7R activation affects platelet thrombus.

Dehydrocholic Acid Ameliorates Sodium Taurocholate-Induced Acute Biliary Pancreatitis in Mice.

Acute biliary pancreatitis (ABP) with a high mortality rate is an incurable digestive system disease induced by abnormal bile acid regurgitation due to the biliary obstruction. Dehydrocholic acid (DA) alleviates the severity of cholestatic hepatitis related to biliary inflammation, suggesting DA is potential to develop for the incurable ABP management. Here we identified DA potency and explored the underlying mechanism in ABP.

Novel potent antiplatelet thrombotic agent derived from biguanide for ischemic stroke.

Platelet thrombosis is the main pathogeny resulting in the low curability of ischemic stroke, a leading cause of mortality and disability worldwide. Metformin, a biguanide derivative that is the first-line oral medicine for type 2 diabetes, alleviates the severity of ischemic stroke in diabetic patients and suppresses platelet activation in experimental animal model. However, the clinical implementation of commercial biguanide analogs for stroke related to platelet thrombosis remains challenging due to its weak potency, poor pharmacokinetic characteristics and possible hypoglycemia.

Okra polysaccharides/gelatin complex coacervate as pH-responsive and intestine-targeting delivery protects isoquercitin bioactivity.

Okra polysaccharides (OPs) belong to RG I pectin branched with neutral saccharide side chains, which possesses distinctive structure and physicochemical properties from the commonly used HG pectin. Until now, the application of RG I pectin as wall material of microcapsule remains unclear. Here, we obtained OPs/gelatin complex coacervate at the maximum yield of 86.

VISSA-PLS-DA-Based Metabolomics Reveals a Multitargeted Mechanism of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Traumatic Brain Injury.

Metabolomics is an emerging tool to uncover the complex pathogenesis of disease, as well as the multitargets of traditional Chinese medicines, with chemometric analysis being a key step. However, conventional algorithms are not suitable for directly analyzing data at all times. The variable iterative space shrinkage approach-partial least squares-discriminant analysis, a novel algorithm for data mining, was first explored to screen metabolic varieties to reveal the multitargets of Xuefu Zhuyu decoction (XFZY) against traumatic brain injury (TBI) by the 7th day.

Dihydrodiosgenin inhibits endothelial cell-derived factor VIII and platelet-mediated hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis.

Our previous studies have demonstrated that diosgenin and diosgenin derivatives exhibit excellent antithrombotic activity via regulating platelet function and coagulation factor level. Platelets and blood coagulation system are highly associated with tumor hematogenous metastasis. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate whether dihydrodiosgenin (dydio) mediated-platelet inhibition or coagulation factor level modulation is involved in hepatocellular carcinoma cell (HCC) metastasis.

A Network Pharmacology Analysis to Explore the Effect of on Traumatic Brain Injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a critical public health and socioeconomic problem worldwide. The herb pair (AR)- (RAS) is a common prescribed herbal formula or is added to other Chinese medicine prescriptions for traumatic brain injury (TBI) treatment. However, the underlying mechanisms are unclear.

Neglected Hydrophobicity of Dimethanediyl Group in Peptide Self-Assembly: A Hint from Amyloid-like Peptide GNNQQNY and Its Derivatives.

Besides typical hydrophobic amino acids providing hydrophobic interactions, glutamine as a hydrophilic amino acid has also been known to be an important element in many self-assembling peptides, but it is still not clear how this particular amino acid contributes to the self-assembling process. We supposed that the dimethanediyl group in the side chain of glutamine could provide hydrophobic interaction for peptide self-assembly. To prove this hypothesis, we used the GNNQQNY peptide and its derivatives as examples to show the importance of the dimethanediyl group for peptide self-assembly.

Oxidative stress mediated by lipid metabolism contributes to high glucose-induced senescence in retinal pigment epithelium.

Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) dysfunction is thought to increase the risk of the development and progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR), the leading cause of blindness. However, the molecular mechanism behind high glucose-induced RPE cell damage is still blurred. We reported that ARPE-19 exposed to 25 mM glucose for 48 h did not induce apoptosis, but senescence validated by SA-β-Gal staining, p21 expression and cell cycle distribution.

The Effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine Zhike-Houpu Herbal Pair on Depressive Behaviors and Hippocampal Serotonin 1A Receptors in Rats After Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress.

Objective: Zhike-Houpu herbal pair (ZKHPHP) is a well-known Chinese medicine to treat gastrointestinal motility dysfunction. Recently, many researchers have found that some of the compounds of ZKHPHP such as meranzin hydrate and magnolol have antidepressant effects. However, little is known about the antidepressant mechanism of ZKHPHP.

Protective effects of flavonoids from Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt. on experimental acute pancreatitis via Nrf-2/ARE-mediated antioxidant pathways.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Oxidative stress is a prominent feature of clinical acute pancreatitis (AP). Coreopsis tinctoria has been used traditionally to treat pancreas disorders like diabetes mellitus in China and Portugal and its flavonoid-rich fraction contain the main phytochemicals that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.

Aim Of The Study: To investigate the effects of flavonoids isolated from C.

Synovial tissue quantitative proteomics analysis reveals paeoniflorin decreases LIFR and ASPN proteins in experimental rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common worldwide public health problem, which causes a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder of synovial joints. Paeoniflorin (PA) has achieved positive results to some extent for the treatment of RA.

Purpose: This study aimed to reveal the potential druggable targets of PA in an experimental RA model using quantitative proteomics analysis.

Dihydrodiosgenin protects against experimental acute pancreatitis and associated lung injury through mitochondrial protection and PI3Kγ/Akt inhibition.

Background And Purpose: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a painful and distressing disorder of the exocrine pancreas with no specific treatment. Diosgenyl saponins extracted from from Dioscorea zingiberensis C. H.

d-galactose induces premature senescence of lens epithelial cells by disturbing autophagy flux and mitochondrial functions.

Cataract is the leading cause of blindness with an estimated 16 million people affected worldwide. d-galactose (d-gal) is a reducing sugar that widely distributed in foodstuffs, and studies show that d-gal could promote cataract formation by damaging nature lens epithelial cells (LECs). However, the underlying mechanism is unclear.

The diosgenin prodrug nanoparticles with pH-responsive as a drug delivery system uniquely prevents thrombosis without increased bleeding risk.

Thrombosis is the leading cause of death in patients with cardiovascular disease in the world. Current antithrombotic agent aspirin has serious side effects such as higher bleeding risk and serious gastrointestinal ulcers. Diosgenin reported in clinical research could prevent thrombosis without side effects.

[Research progress of puerarin and its derivatives on anti-inflammatory and anti-gout activities].

The research progress of puerarin and its derivatives in anti-inflammatory and anti-gout activities was reviewed in this paper. Puerarin possesses anti-inflammatory activity by affecting immunocyte, inflammation cytokines and signaling pathway. Puerarin also has anti-gout activity through inhibition of xanthine oxidase, promoting the excretion of uric acid to reduce serum uric acid level.

pH-Responsive nanoparticles based on ibuprofen prodrug as drug carriers for inhibition of primary tumor growth and metastasis.

Cancer metastases represent a major determinant of mortality in patients with cancer. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and its metabolites play important roles in tumor growth and metastasis. Overexpression of COX-2 have been found in various types of cancers including melanoma.