Previously, we established a
1
H NMR metabolomics method using reversed-phase solid-phase extraction column (RP-SPEC), and succeeded in distinguishing wild from cultivated samples of Saposhnikoviae ...radix (SR), and between SR and its substitute,
Peucedanum ledebourielloides
root (PR). Herein, we performed LC-HR/MS metabolomics using fractions obtained via RP-SPEC to identify characteristic components of SR and PR. One and three characteristic components were respectively found for SR and PR; these components were isolated with their
m/z
values and retention times as a guide. The characteristic component of SR was identified as 4′-
O
-β-
d
-glucosyl-5-
O
-methylvisamminol (
1
), an indicator component used to identify SR in the Japanese Pharmacopoeia. In contrast, the characteristic components of PR were identified as xanthalin (
2
), 4′-
O
-β-
d
-apiosyl (1 → 6)-β-
d
-glucosyl-5-
O
-methylvisamminol (
3
), and 3′-
O
-β-
d
-apiosyl (1 → 6)-β-
d
-glucosylhamaudol (
4
) based on spectroscopic data such as 1D- and 2D-NMR, MS, and specific optical rotation. Among them,
4
is a novel compound. For the correlation between the NMR metabolomics results in the present and our previous report, only
1
and
2
were found to correlate with the chemical shifts, and the other compounds had no correlation. As the chemical shifts for compounds
1
,
3
, and
4
were similar to each other, especially for the aglycone moiety, they could not be distinguished because of the sensitivity and resolution of
1
H NMR. Accordingly, combining NMR and LC/MS metabolomics with their different advantages is considered useful for metabolomics of natural products. The series of methods used in our reports could aid in quality evaluations of natural products and surveying of marker components.
Graphic abstract
Numerous Foods with Function Claims that contain the extract of
flower (kudzu) isoflavones (PFI) are available in the Japanese market. These are labelled with function claims of reducing visceral ...fat. However, these foods have not undergone proper safety assessment such as the evaluation of their oestrogenic activity and effects on drug-metabolising enzymes (cytochrome P-450: CYP) in the liver. This study evaluated the estrogenic effect and the hepatic CYP activity and mRNA expression in normal female mice as a safety assessment of PFI (Experiment 1). In addition, the bone mineral density and visceral fat weight in ovariectomised mice (OVX) compared to soy isoflavones (SI) was evaluated to assess the efficacy of PFI (Experiment 2). OVX control fed a control diet, OVX fed a PFI diet (the recommended human intake of PFI), OVX fed a PFI20 diet (20- times the recommended PFI), OVX fed an SI diet (the recommended human intake of SI), and OVX fed an SI20 diet (20 -times the recommended intake of SI) for 28 days in Experiment 2. Body, liver, and visceral fat weights were not affected by the PFI, PFI20, SI, or SI20 diets. The hepatic CYP1A and CYP3A activities were elevated by the SI20 treatment. Ovariectomy-induced bone loss was inhibited by the SI20 treatment, but not by the PFI20 treatment. These results suggest that (1) PFI intake in human doses had no oestrogenic properties and did not affect CYP activity in the liver; (2) there was no evidence that PFI affects the amount of visceral fat in OVX mice.
To evaluate the safety and efficacy of
Glycyrrhiza uralensis
root extracts produced using artificial hydroponic and artificial hydroponic-field hybrid cultivation systems, we investigated ...anti-allergic action in mice using IgE-mediated immediate hypersensitivity. Hot water extracts obtained from the roots of
Glycyrrhiza uralensis
cultivated using two systems were orally administered at a dose of 100 mg/kg as glycyrrhizin (GL) and compared with the commercial crude drug, Glycyrrhizae Radix. Both the artificial hydroponic and artificial hydroponic-field hybrid cultivated root extracts showed anti-allergic effects on IgE-mediated immediate hypersensitivity in mice, as did the commercial crude drugs. These results highlight the potential for artificially cultivated roots of
Glycyrrhiza uralensis
to be used as an alternative medicinal source.
To evaluate the safety and efficacy of
Glycyrrhiza uralensis
root produced using artificial hydroponic and artificial hydroponic-field hybrid cultivation systems, we investigated the pharmacokinetics ...of a major metabolite of glycyrrhizin (GL), glycyrrhetinic acid (GA). Hot water extracts obtained from the roots of the artificial hydroponic-field hybrid cultivated
Glycyrrhiza uralensis
were orally administered at a dose of 100 mg/kg as GL in mice and, compared with a commercial crude drug, Glycyrrhizae Radix. The temporal changes in serum GA concentration was found to depend on the GL concentration of the hot-water extracts. When hot-water extracts containing relatively high GL were administered, bimodal peaks appeared. In contrast, a broad single peak was detected when a hot-water extract containing relatively low GL content was administered. These tendencies in the serum GA concentration time course were observed for all samples, regardless of their derivation. Moreover, we compared the pharmacokinetic parameters and found that the
C
max
and AUC
0–48
values after oral administration of the extracts from
Glycyrrhiza uralensis
roots produced by the artificial cultivation system are within the range of variation for the commercial crude drugs. These results suggest the possibility that roots of
Glycyrrhiza uralensis
cultivated by the artificial hydroponic-field hybrid cultivation system can be used in addition to currently available commercial crude drugs produced from wild plant resources.
Primary bone lymphomas comprise <1 % of all malignant lymphomas, and there have been only a limited number of reports on primary adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) of bone. Here, we report two ...cases of primary ATLL of bone. The first case was a 41-year-old woman with multiple bone tumors. She was diagnosed with ATLL of the skull through biopsy and treated with chemotherapy. Although the bone lesions showed transient improvement, the subsequent central nervous system (CNS) invasion of ATLL occurred and she died 7 months after diagnosis. The second case was a 65-year-old man with right coxodynia. He was diagnosed with ATLL through right femoral biopsy, and the lesion improved with chemotherapy. However, CNS invasion of ATLL developed during chemotherapy, and he died 10 months after diagnosis. Both the patients with primary ATLL of the bone reported here experienced CNS invasion. Thus, ATLL treatment should aim to prevent CNS invasion at an early stage.
Abstract
Background
Although atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) is a life-threatening clinical entity that was characterized by thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) with the activation of the ...complement system and the efficient treatment of eculizumab, the clinical features of aHUS have been unclear because of the rare incidence.
Case presentation
We retrospectively analyzed 4 aHUS cases at a single institution during 2015–2019. Here, we presented 4 aHUS cases with renal transplantation (one case), influenza/acute interstitial pneumonia/disseminated intravascular coagulation (two cases), and severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (one case), respectively. Initial clinical symptoms were microangiopathic hemolytic anemia (four cases), renal dysfunction (four cases), thrombocytopenia (four cases), and pulmonary hemorrhage (three cases) consisted with TMA features. Subsequent further examinations ruled out thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, Shiga toxin-producing E.coli-induced hemolytic uremic syndrome, and secondary TMA. Taken these findings together, we made the clinical diagnosis of aHUS. Furthermore, all cases also presented the high levels of plasma soluble C5b-9 (871.1 ng/ml, 1144.3 ng/ml, 929.2 ng/ml, and 337.5 ng/ml), suggesting persistent activation of complementary system. Regarding the treatment, plasma exchange (PE) (four cases) and eculizumab (two cases) therapy were administered for aHUS cases. Consequently, case 2 and case 4 were still alive with 768 days and 235 days, respectively. The other two cases were dead at 34 days and 13 days, respectively. Finally, although the previous reported genetic pathogenetic mutations were not detected in our cases, multiple genetic variants of complement factors were detected as CFH (H402Y, E936D), and THBD (A473V) in case 1, CFH (V62I, H402Y, V837I) in case 2, and CFH (H402Y, E 936D) and THBD (A473V) in case 3, CFH (V62I, H402Y, E936D) and THBD (473V) in case 4, respectively.
Conclusions
Because of still high mortality in our study, an urgent diagnosis of aHUS and subsequent immediate treatment including PE and eculizumab should be essential in clinical practice. Furthermore, the multiple genetic variants and the triggers may be related to one of the pathogenesis of aHUS. Thus, we assume that such a case-oriented study would be highly useful to the physicians who directly care for aHUS cases in clinical practice.
The frequency of severe antithrombin deficiency (SAD) was examined in the hematopoietic disorder-, infectious-, and basic-types of the disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). A posthoc analysis ...of 3008 DIC patients (infectious-type, 1794; hematological disorder-type, 813; and basic-type, 401) from post-marketing surveillance data of thrombomodulin alfa was performed. The clinical features of patients and outcomes were compared between patients with and without SAD, using an antithrombin cutoff value of 50%. Patients with SAD accounted for 40.4% of infectious-type DIC, 8.0% of hematopoietic disorder-type DIC, and 26.7% of basic-type DIC. There was no significant difference in thrombin–antithrombin complex levels between patients with and without SAD. The decreased fibrinogen level and differences in clinical features were significantly greater but the increases in fibrinolytic markers were significantly lower in patients with SAD than in those without. The 28-day survival rate was significantly lower in patients with SAD than in those without. Severe antithrombin deficiency was observed in all types of DIC, including hematopoietic disorders. Both hypofibrinolysis and hypercoagulability in patients with SAD may cause multiple organ failure and poor outcomes.
We conducted a multicenter study on anti-programmed cell death-1 monoclonal antibodies (anti-PD-1 mAbs) before/after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) for Hodgkin lymphoma. ...Anti-PD-1 mAbs were administered to 25 patients before allo-HCT and to 20 after allo-HCT. In pre-allo-HCT setting, the median interval from the last administration to allo-HCT was 59 days. After allo-HCT, 12 patients developed non-infectious febrile syndrome requiring high-dose corticosteroid. The cumulative incidences of grade II–IV acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) were 47.1%. Eight patients who had GvHD prophylaxis with post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) had less frequent aGvHD (grade II–IV, 14.6% versus 58.8%;
P
= 0.086). The 1 year overall survival (OS), relapse/progression, and non-relapse mortality rates were 81.3%, 27.9%, and 8.4%. In post-allo-HCT setting, the median interval from allo-HCT to the first administration was 589 days. The overall and complete response rates were 75% and 40%. At 100 days after anti-PD-1 therapy, the cumulative incidences of grade II–IV aGvHD, moderate-to-severe chronic GvHD, and grade 3–4 immune-related toxicity were 15.0%, 30.0%, and 30.0%. While the 1 year relapse/progression rate was 47.4%, the 1 year OS probability was 89.7%. In conclusion, immune-related complications were frequent despite modifications of GvHD prophylaxis or anti-PD-1 mAb dosing. In anti-PD-1-mAb-pretreated patients, PTCy-based GvHD prophylaxis may be effective.
A new entity, namely early/prefibrotic primary myelofibrosis (PMF), was introduced as a subtype of PMF in the 2016 revised World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for myeloproliferative neoplasms ...(MPN). It was diagnosed based on histopathological features of bone marrow (BM) biopsy specimens together with clinical parameters leukocytosis, anemia, elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) values, and splenomegaly. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of early/prefibrotic PMF in patients who were previously diagnosed with ET, and to compare clinical features at diagnosis and outcomes between early/prefibrotic PMF and essential thrombocythemia (ET) patients. BM biopsy samples obtained at the time of ET diagnosis were available in 42 patients. Sample reevaluation according to the 2016 revised WHO criteria revealed that early/prefibrotic PMF accounted for 14% of patients who were previously diagnosed with ET, which was comparable to the rates in previous reports. Compared to patients with ET, patients with early/prefibrotic PMF had higher LDH values and higher frequencies of splenomegaly. Overall, myelofibrosis-free and acute myeloid leukemia-free survivals were comparable between the 2 groups. Accurate diagnosis is required to clarify the clinical features of Japanese ET patients.
The three
Forsythia
species,
F. suspensa
,
F. viridissima
and
F. koreana,
have been used as herbal medicines in China, Japan and Korea for centuries and they are known to be rich sources of numerous ...pharmaceutical metabolites, forsythin, forsythoside A, arctigenin, rutin and other phenolic compounds. In this study, de novo transcriptome sequencing and assembly was performed on these species. Using leaf and flower tissues of
F. suspensa, F. viridissima
and
F. koreana,
1.28–2.45-Gbp sequences of Illumina based pair-end reads were obtained and assembled into 81,913, 88,491 and 69,458 unigenes, respectively. Classification of the annotated unigenes in gene ontology terms and KEGG pathways was used to compare the transcriptome of three
Forsythia
species. The expression analysis of orthologous genes across all three species showed the expression in leaf tissues being highly correlated. The candidate genes presumably involved in the biosynthetic pathway of lignans and phenylethanoid glycosides were screened as co-expressed genes. They express highly in the leaves of
F. viridissima
and
F. koreana
. Furthermore, the three unigenes annotated as acyltransferase were predicted to be associated with the biosynthesis of acteoside and forsythoside A from the expression pattern and phylogenetic analysis. This study is the first report on comparative transcriptome analyses of medicinally important
Forsythia
genus and will serve as an important resource to facilitate further studies on biosynthesis and regulation of therapeutic compounds in
Forsythia
species.
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