Publications by authors named "Zhongkun Zhou"

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the most prevalent malignant tumors of the digestive system, yet the availability of safe and effective chemotherapeutic agents for clinical use remains limited. Camptothecin (CPT) and its derivatives, though approved for cancer treatment, have encountered significant challenges in clinical application due to their low bioavailability and high systemic toxicity. Strategic modification at the 7-position of CPT enables the development of novel CPT derivatives with high activity.

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Developing novel drugs from natural products has proven to be a very effective strategy. Neocryptolepine was isolated from , a traditional endemic African herb, which exerts a wide range of biological activities such as antimalaria, antibacterial, and antitumor. 2-Chloro-8-methoxy-5-methyl-5-indolo [2,3-] quinoline (compound ) was synthesized, and its cytotoxicity was assessed on pancreatic cancer PANC-1 cells, colorectal cancer HCT116 cells, liver cancer SMMC-7721 cells, and gastric cancer AGS cells .

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Article Synopsis
  • Chemotherapy is a standard treatment for colorectal cancer but often faces issues with drug resistance, prompting the need for new drug developments.
  • Recent studies show that neocryptolepine derivatives, particularly MMNC, have significant cytotoxic effects on colorectal cancer cells such as HCT116 and Caco-2.
  • MMNC inhibits cell proliferation, induces apoptosis, and affects the cell cycle while targeting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, marking it as a promising candidate for colorectal cancer treatment.
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Gastric cancer is highly heterogeneous and there is still a lack of efficient, low-toxicity small molecule compounds for the treatment of gastric cancer. Natural products are important sources for the development of antitumor compounds. Therefore, it is promising strategy to find the lead compound of anti-gastric cancer agents by structural modification of natural products.

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Natural products play an important role in drug development and lead compound synthesis. Neocryptolepine is a polycyclic quinoline compound isolated from . The cytotoxicity of neocryptolepine to gastric cancer cells AGS, MKN45, HGC27, and SGC7901 was not very strong, and it also had certain toxicity to gastric mucosa cells GES-1.

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Gastrodiae Rhizoma and its active constituents are known to exhibit neuroprotective effects in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the effect of Rhizoma Gastrodiae water extract (WERG) on AD and the detailed mechanism of action remain unclear. In this study, the mechanism of action of WERG was investigated by the microbiome-gut-brain axis using a D-galactose (D-gal)/AlCl-induced AD mouse model.

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Isaindigotone is an alkaloid containing a pyrrolo-[]quinazoline moiety conjugated with a benzylidene group and isolated from the root of Fort. However, further anticancer activities of this alkaloid and its derivatives have not been fully explored. In this work, a novel isaindigotone derivative was synthesized and three different gastric cell lines and one human epithelial gastric cell line were used to study the anti-proliferation effects of the novel isaindigotone derivative BLG26.

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Serofluid dish is a traditional fermented food that contains rich microbial populations. To gain insight into the environmental variables shaping the microbial diversity patterns, serofluid dish samples were collected from different areas, and 16S rRNA sequencing was performed. Analyses revealed both species and community diversity, including phylotype richness, Shannon index and phylogenetic diversity, were mostly influenced by pH.

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Article Synopsis
  • A novel compound called IPM714, derived from 1H-imidazole [4,5-f][1,10] phenanthroline, has shown potential as an effective treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC) by selectively inhibiting CRC cell growth.
  • The research demonstrated that IPM714 had a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC) of 1.74 μM and 2 μM against HCT116 and SW480 cells, respectively, and induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in these cancer cells.
  • Analysis revealed that IPM714 likely targets the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, which plays a key role in regulating cell proliferation and survival, making it a promising candidate for CRC therapy.
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Cancer is second only to heart disease as a cause of death, despite improvements in its early diagnosis and precision medicine. Due to the limitations of commonly used anticancer methods such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, biological therapy, especially probiotics such as lactic acid bacteria, has received widespread attention. has been proven to inhibit the proliferation of a variety of cancer cells.

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A series of novel derivatives of isaindigotone, which comes from the root of Fort, were synthesised (Compound -). Four human gastrointestinal cancer cells (HCT116, PANC-1, SMMC-7721, and AGS) were employed to evaluate the anti-proliferative activity. Among them, Compound displayed the most effective inhibitory activity on AGS cells with an IC (50% inhibitory concentration) value of 2.

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common clinical malignant tumor and closely related to intestinal microbiome disorders. Especially, () is one of the most prevalent pathogens in CRC. However, its change in CRC patients of Northwest China, an area with a high incidence of gastrointestinal tumors, is unclear, and therapeutic strategies targeting remain unresolved.

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Article Synopsis
  • Neocryptolepine derivatives, especially 8-Fluoroneocryptolepine (8FNC), have shown promising cytotoxic effects against gastric cancer, demonstrating greater potency than traditional treatments like cisplatin and fluorouracil.
  • 8FNC's effectiveness was enhanced through structural modifications, allowing it to selectively target AGS gastric cancer cells while reducing harm to healthy gastric mucosa cells (GES-1).
  • The compound induces apoptosis in AGS cells by disrupting the cell cycle and influencing the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, indicating its potential as a lead candidate for gastric cancer treatment.
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Article Synopsis
  • - 1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (IPM713) has shown promising anticancer effects, particularly against the colorectal cancer cell line HCT116, with an IC of 1.7 μM.
  • - The study found that IPM713 works by blocking the cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase and inducing cell death (apoptosis) through the inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.
  • - An acute toxicity test revealed that IPM713 has a high safety profile, with a median lethal dose (LD) above 5000 mg/kg, indicating its potential as a therapeutic agent for colorectal cancer. *
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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common clinical malignancy globally ranked as the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality. Some microbes are known to contribute to adenoma-carcinoma transition and possess diagnostic potential. Advances in high-throughput sequencing technology and functional studies have provided significant insights into the landscape of the gut microbiome and the fundamental roles of its components in carcinogenesis.

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Colorectal cancer (CRC), a major health threat in the world, ranks third in incidence and second in mortality among cancers. Chemotherapy, an important treatment for colorectal cancer, have be limited in the clinic due to the resistance and side effect. Studies have shown that PI3K-related regulatory pathways play a colossal role in colorectal cancer.

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A prototype chemical sensor named Wasp hound® that utilizes five classically conditioned parasitoid wasps, Microplitis croceipes (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), to detect volatile odors was successfully implemented in a previous study. To improve the odor-detecting ability of Wasp Hound®, searching behaviors of an individual wasp in a confined area are studied and modeled through stochastic differential equations in this paper. The wasps are conditioned to 20 mg of coffee when associated with food and subsequently, tested to 5, 10, 20, and 40 mg of coffee.

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Insects have extremely sensitive systems of olfaction. These systems have been explored as potential sensors for odourants associated with forensics, medicine, security, and agriculture application. Most sensors based on insect olfaction utilize associative learning to "program" the insects to exhibit some form of behavioural response to a target odourant.

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