L. (
), a member of the
family, is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It has been used in folk medicine for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, and its fruit has ...been used as a vegetable for thousands of years. Phytochemicals including proteins, polysaccharides, flavonoids, triterpenes, saponins, ascorbic acid and steroids have been found in this plant. Various biological activities of
have been reported, such as antihyperglycemic, antibacterial, antiviral, antitumor, immunomodulation, antioxidant, antidiabetic, anthelmintic, antimutagenic, antiulcer, antilipolytic, antifertility, hepatoprotective, anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities. However, both in vitro and in vivo studies have also demonstrated that
may also exert toxic or adverse effects under different conditions. This review addresses the chemical constituents of
and discusses their pharmacological activities as well as their adverse effects, aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of the phytochemistry and biological activities of
.
Natural polysaccharides and their modified derivatives are crucial supplements to the prevention of inflammation. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of sulfated modification on the ...anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activities of Cyclocarya paliurus polysaccharides (CP). A sulfated CP, S-CP
was obtained using chlorosulfonic acid-pyridine method. The chemical components and FT-IR spectrum confirmed that sulfated group was synthesized to the polysaccharide chains successfully. S-CP
was found to inhibit nitric oxide production, phagocytic activity and the release of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1β in lipopolysaccharide-treated macrophage cells, RAW 264.7. S-CP
significantly decreased the secretion of IL-6 and TNF-α and the thymus and spleen indexes, and increased the production of IL-10 in lipopolysaccharide-treated mice. S-CP
could better protect the liver by inhibiting the activities of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, and malondialdehyde level while increasing the superoxide dismutase activity and total anti-oxidative capacity. These results suggested that S-CP
may be an effective anti-inflammatory agent, and sulfated modification may be a reliable method for the development of food supplements.
Fatty acids, tocopherols, sterols and squalene were analyzed by chromatographic-based techniques and were selected as variables to build a variety of classification models for the accurate ...characterization and authentication of olive, camellia oil and six other vegetable oils (soybean, corn, rapeseed, peanut, palm and sunflower). Different unsupervised and supervised chemometrics techniques, such as principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), have been applied. In addition, the Kennard–Stone algorithm was used to select the training samples for the construction of supervised models. The discriminating power of different components was compared, and the results suggested that fatty acids are the most powerful in distinguishing vegetable oils, followed by tocopherols and sterols, and squalene contributed to the discrimination between olive and camellia oils despite their apparent similarities. This proposed method was straightforward and can be easily implemented to identify unknown oil samples.
Amphiphilic galactose modified PEG-poly(amine-co-ester) copolymers was synthesized via enzymatic catalysis for co-delivery of microRNA-122 and sorafenib to treat hepatocellular carcinoma.
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Nanomaterials as drug carriers hold promise for the treatment of carcinomas, but integrating multiple functions into a single vector is difficult. In this study, we aim to develop efficient materials as vectors for co-delivery of microRNA-122 (miR-122) and sorafenib (SRF). We successfully synthesized amphiphilic galactose-modified PEGylated poly(amino-co-ester) (Gal-PEG-PPMS) copolymers consisted of hydrophilic Gal-PEG5k chain segments and hydrophobic poly(ω-pentadecalactone-co-N-methyldiethyleneamine-co-sebacic acid) chain segments, which self-assembled to form cationic micelles at pH 5.2. The results showed that the micelles could encapsulate SRF and bind miR122 simultaneously, increase cellular uptake efficiency. Furthermore, the micelles showed favorable transfection efficiency in enhancing miR122 expression level, the migration and invasion ability of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells were significantly inhibited after being transfected with miR122-loaded micelles. Most importantly, the co-delivery micelles decreased cell activities of HepG2 cells, which was more effective than miR122 or SRF loaded micelles alone. Collectively, Gal-PEG-PPMS nanoparticles are promising multifunctional carriers for miR122 and SRF co-delivery system to treat HCC.
Abstract To address the current problems of low accuracy and poor reliability of the discrete element model of cotton stalks, as well as the difficulty of guiding the design and optimization of the ...equipment through simulations, the discrete element modeling and physical-mechanical tests of cotton stalks in machine harvested film-stalk mixtures are carried out. The peak tensile force $$F_{\rm j}^{\max }$$ F j max , the peak pressure $$F_{\rm y}^{\max }$$ F y max , the peak bending force $$F_{\rm w}^{\max }$$ F w max , the peak shear force $$F_{\rm j}^{\max }$$ F j max , and the force-displacement ( F – x ) curves of cotton stalks are obtained from the physical tests. The discrete element model of double-layer cotton stalks based on the flat-joint model is established with the PFC $$^{\rm 3D}$$ 3 D software. The $$F_{\rm y}^{\max }$$ F y max is taken as the response value, and the microscopic parameters of the cotton stalk model are used as the test factors, then the Plackett–Burman test, the steepest climb test, and the Box–Behnken test are sequentially designed using Design-Expert software. The second-order regression model describing the relationship between the $$F_{\rm y}^{\max }$$ F y max and the microscopic parameters is established. The optimal parameter combinations of the microscopic parameters are obtained, and then they are utilized to construct the compression, bending, and shear models of cotton stalks and to carry out the validation tests. The results confirm that the established discrete element model could accurately characterize the biomechanical properties of cotton stalks and that the parameter calibration method is reasonable, which could provide a reference for the discrete element modeling of cotton stalks and other stalks, and also offer a theoretical basis for the research of the crushing and separation mechanism of the film-stalk mixtures and the development of the equipment.
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•Phytosterols showed cholesterol-lowering effects in Caco-2 cells.•Phytosterols mediating transporter – NPC1L1, ABCG5 and ABCG8.•Phytosterols inhibit the synthesis by reducing HMGCS1 ...level.•Phytosterols interrupt the conversion to cholesterol esters by lowering ACAT2 level.•Structural differences have effects on cholesterol-lowering activity of phytosterols.
Phytosterols have been shown to be effective in reducing blood cholesterol by suppressing intestinal cholesterol absorption in both humans and animals. In present study, the inhibition of cholesterol absorption in Caco-2 cells by ergosterol, ergosterol acetate, β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol and stellasterol were systematically assessed. Results showed that the phytosterols produced cholesterol-lowering effect in Caco-2 cells. This effect was largely mediated via reducing the biosynthesis of cholesterol (HMGCS1); meditating the key proteins in cholesterol transportation and metabolism (NPC1L1, ABCG5/ABCG8); interrupting the conversion of cholesterol to cholesterol esters (ACAT2). Results indicated that their cholesterol-lowering activity may be correlated with the functional group (hydroxyl or ester) on C-3 position (ergosterol < ergosterol acetate) and the functional groups on C-5 position of phytosterols (ergosterol > stellasterol). Further researches are needed to confirm the cholesterol-lowering effects of phytosterols with functional group (methyl or ethyl) on C-24 and the functional groups on C-22 position.
Lung cancer is the most frequently life-threatening disease and the prominent cause of cancer-related mortality among human beings worldwide, where poor early diagnosis and expensive detection costs ...are considered as significant reasons. Here, we try to tackle this issue by proposing a novel label-free and low-cost strategy for rapid detection and distinction of lung cancer cells relying on plasmonic toroidal metasurfaces at terahertz frequencies. Three disjoint regions are displayed in identifiable intensity-frequency diagram, which could directly help doctors determine the type of lung cancer cells for clinical treatment. The metasurface is generated by two mirrored gold split ring resonators with subwavelength sizes. When placing analytes on the metasurface, apparent shifts of both the resonance frequency and the resonance depth can be observed in the terahertz transmission spectra. The theoretical sensitivity of the biosensor over the reflective index reaches as high as 485.3 GHz/RIU. Moreover, the proposed metasurface shows high angular stability for oblique incident angle from 0 to 30°, where the maximum resonance frequency shift is less than 0.66% and the maximum transmittance variation keeps below 1.33%. To experimentally verify the sensing strategy, three types of non-small cell lung cancer cells (Calu-1, A427, and 95D) are cultured with different concentrations and their terahertz transmission spectra are measured with the proposed metasurface biosensor. The two-dimensional fingerprint diagram considering both the frequency and transmittance variations of the toroidal resonance dip is obtained, where the curves for different cells are completely separated with each other. This implies that we can directly distinguish the type of the analyte cells and its concentration by only single spectral measurement. We envisage that the proposed strategy has potential for clinical diagnosis and significantly expands the capabilities of plasmonic metamaterials in biological detection.
Phytosterols, found in many commonly consumed foods, exhibit a broad range of physiological activities including anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, the anti-inflammatory effects of ergosterol, ...β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, and ergosterol acetate were investigated in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 macrophages. Results showed that all phytosterol compounds alleviated the inflammatory reaction in LPS-induced macrophage models; cell phagocytosis, nitric oxide (NO) production, release of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and expression and activity of pro-inflammatory mediator cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (p-ERK) were all inhibited. The anti-inflammatory activity of β-sitosterol was higher than stigmasterol and campesterol, which suggests that phytosterols without a double bond on C-22 and with ethyl on C-24 were more effective. However, inconsistent results were observed upon comparison of ergosterol and ergosterol acetate (hydroxy or ester group on C-3), which suggest that additional research is still needed to ascertain the contribution of structure to their anti-inflammatory effects.
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