China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica, the 1st in the field of TCM, is supervised by China Association for Science and Technology and sponsored by Institute of Chinese Pharmaceutical Association. The journal is China's earliest comprehensive core journal of traditional Chinese medicine, and always maintains the circulation top in the professional areas. The journal publishes the latest research and progress of traditional Chinese medicine and takes a leading position in numbers of articles published, downloads and citations among all journals in this discipline.
Its scope covers new achievements, technologies, methods, experiences and concepts resulting from the research on Chinese materia medica pursuant to Chinese medical and pharmaceutical theories, traditional experiences, and modern science and technology, including medicinal resources and identification, cultivation, processing, preparation, chemistry, pharmacology, theory of Chinese pharmacy and clinical practice, bencaological study.
The journal is included in CA, JST and CSCD.
Honorary Editor-in-Chief Xiao Peigen Editor-in-Chief Wang Yongyan
Associate Editors Zhang Boli, Hu Zhibi, Yao Xinsheng, Li Lianda, Li Dapeng, Yang Baofeng, Zhou Chaofan, Huang Luqi, Chen Shilin, Li He.
Executive Editorial Board Cai Shaoqing, Chen Shilin
To explore the effect of leech on proliferation and apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in early atherosclerosis rats via p38MAPK signaling pathway and investigate its possible mechanism. Biochemical analyzer was used to examine the regulation of leech on levels of triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C) in blood lipid of rats. The expression of transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1) in serum was detected by ELISA. Immunological histological chemistry (IHC) was taken to measure the expression levels of proliferating cell nucleus antigen (PCNA) and cell apoptosis proteinase-3 (Caspase-3), while the protein expression levels of MKK3, p38 and C-myc were detected by Western blot. In addition, hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the morphological change of thoracic aortas. The results showed that leech decreased the levels of TC, LDL-C obviously and increased HDL-C, suppressed the expression levels of TGF-β1 and PCNA, up-regulated Caspase-3, down-regulated the expression levels of MKK3, p38, and C-myc protein. The HE staining indicated that it could inhibit intimal thickening and reduce plaque formation. The above results indicated that leech may affect the protein expression of the p38MAPK signaling pathway to inhibit proliferation and promote the apoptosis of VSMCs via reducing blood lipid levels and suppressing TGF-β1, aiming at inhibiting intimal thickening and reducing plaque formation, and then slowing down the process of early atherosclerosis.
To study the inhibitory effect of butyl alcohol extract of Baitouweng decoction (BAEB) on the cell membrane of Candida albicans, the effects of BAEB on the activity of C. albicans were determined by Spot assay. The changes of intracellular osmotic pressure of C. albicans after BAEB intervention were detected by microtiter plate reader. The effect of BAEB on the cell membrane permeability of C. albicans was observed by fluorescence microscopy. The content of ergosterol in the cell membrane of C. albicans was detected by high performance liquid chromatography, and the expression of ergosterol biosynthesis related genes in cell membrane was detected by qRT-PCR. The results showed that the activity of C. albicans significantly decreased in 256, 512, and 1 024 mg·L−1 BAEB groups. The intracellular glycerol content of C. albicans significantly increased in 512 and 1 024 mg·L−1 BAEB groups (P < 0.05). The gene HOG1 associated with intracellular osmotic pressure of C. albicans was down-regulated by 9.1, 9.3 and 5.5 folds, respectively. The C. albicans with red fluorescence increased significantly in 512 and 1 024 mg·L−1 BAEB groups. The peak area of ergosterol in the 1 024 mg·L−1 BAEB group was 35.884 95, with a significant difference (P < 0.05); ERG1, ERG2, ERG3, ERG4, ERG5, ERG6, ERG10, ERG11, ERG13, ERG24, ERG25, ERG251, ERG26, and UPC2 were down-regulated by 6.58, 4.89, 4.15, 9.24, 3.41, 9.84, 3.08, 7.50, 5.53, 5.90, 2.45, 3.25, 1.98, and 10.07 folds, respectively, in the 1 024 mg·L−1 BAEB group. The study indicated that BAEB could inhibit ergosterol and expression of its biosynthesis related genes in the cell membrane and inhibit the activity of C. albicans.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) products are the finished products by adopting certain preparation processes according to the profile of the herbs, with Chinese herbs or decoction pieces as the raw materials. Among their adverse reactions to the organs, hepatotoxicity cannot be ignored. As a new stage of quality control in TCM, the dynamic quality control system of the multidimensional structure process emphasized on the research of the effectiveness and safety, focused on the pretreatment, preparation process, dosage forms and drug delivery methods to control the quality of TCM preparation products and reduce the generation of hepatotoxicity. In this paper, we start from these factors to discuss the causes of hepatotoxicity underlying drug products and hope to provide the reference for developing low toxicity and high quality modern Chinese medicine products.
Tongmai formula (TMF) is a combination of three components including Puerariae Lobatae Radix, roots of
Pueraria lobata, Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix, roots of
Salvia miltiorrhiza, and Chuanxiong Rhizoma, rhizomes of
Ligusticum chuanxiong in a mass ratio of 1:1:1. In this study, the absorption and transport of isoflavonoid compounds from Tongmai formula across human intestinal epithelial (Caco-2) cells in vitro were studied. The isoflavonoid compounds tested include daidzein, formononetin, 5-hydroxylononin, ononin, daidzin, 3'-methoxypuerarin, genistin, puerarin, formononetin-8-
C-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside, formononetin-7-
O-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside, lanceolarin, kakkanin, daidzein-7,4'-di-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside, mirificin, 3'-hydroxypuerarin, 3'-methoxydaidzin, formononetin-8-
C-β-D-xylopyranosyl-(1→6)-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside, genistein-8-
C-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside, genistein-7-
O-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside (ambocin), 3'-hydroxymirificin, 6″-
O-β-D-xylosylpuerarin, biochanin A-8-
C-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside, 3'-methoxydaidzein-7, 4'-di-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside, daidzein-7-
O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside, and daidzein-7-
O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside. With human Caco-2 monolayer as an intestinal epithelial cell model in vitro, the permeabilities of the 25 isoflavonoids mentioned above in TMF were studied from the apical (AP) side to basolateral (BL) side or from the BL side to AP side of a transwell. The assay compounds were determined by reversed phased high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with UV detector. Transport parameters and apparent permeability coefficients (
Papp) were then calculated and and compared with those of propranolol and atenolol, which were the transcellular transport marker and control substances for high and poor permeabilities, respectively. The
Papp values of daidzein and formononetin were (2.55 ± 0.03) × 10
−5 cm·s
−1 and (3.06 ± 0.01) × 10
−5 cm·s
−1 from AP side to BL side, respectively, and (2.62 ± 0.00) × 10
−5 cm·s
−1 and (2.65 ± 0.11) × 10
−5 cm·s
−1 from BL side to AP side, respectively. Under the condition of this experiment, the P
app value was (2.66 ± 0.32) ×10
−5 cm·s
−1 for propranolol and (2.34 ± 0.10) ×10
−7 cm·s
−1 for atenolol. The
Papp values of daidzein and formononetin were within the same order of magnitude with that of propranolol. The
Papp values of the other 23 isoflavonoid compounds were at the same order of magnitude with that of atenolol. On the other hand, the ratios of
Papp AP→BL/
Papp BL→AP of daidzein and formononetin on the influx transport were 0.97 and 1.15, respectively. It can be predicted that daidzein and formononetin can be absorbed across intestinal epithelial cells into the circulation by passive diffusion and the compounds were categorized as well-absorbed compounds. The other 23 isoflavonoid compounds were categorized as the poorly absorbed compounds. The ratios of
Papp AP→BL/
Papp BL→AP of 5-hydroxylononin, genistin, lanceolarin, kakkanin, and genistein-7-
O-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-
O-β-D-glucopyranoside were 0.18, 0.28, 0.45, 0.38, 0.49, respectively. Therefore, we infer that the compounds might be involved in the efflux mechanism in Caco-2 cells monolayer model from the BL side to the AP side.
